Upset, Upset and Near Upset

Upset, Upset and Near Upset

by Andrew Schweitzer

I sometimes feel a bit bad for all the up and coming fighters out there today. Especially if we start paying attention to them when they're still contenders, in the infancy of their careers. They're put under so much scrutiny and examined so thoroughly that it must make TSA screenings at the airport seem like a hug from an old friend.

At what point do you stop having to prove yourself and tell people, "I'm legit."

For three fighters, they're going to have to wait a while for the questions to stop.

Let's start with my fellow countryman, David Lemieux. You saw the knockouts, you saw that one guy was lucky to go the distance with him, you saw the potential and be honest, you saw Marco Rubio being the next knockout victim.

And then you saw Rubio knock Lemieux out. Didn't see that one coming did you?

There's no doubt that he was winning the fight until Rubio caught him and opened up. Lemieux's trainer, Russ Anber later admitted that David wasn't following the fight plan of breaking down Rubio. Instead David went for the knockout in every round and we all know the end result.

Of course we all see the talk in the forums, people saying that he's a hype-job, no stamina, no punch resistance etc. etc..

If people spoke like this in public, I think I'd be tempted to see how much strength my punches have after almost two years of not being in a boxing gym. When did we become so pissy about having a perfect record before winning a title? Do people forget that Sergio Martinez lost by knockout to Antonio Margarito ten years ago? That Glen Johnson had almost ten losses before winning the light-heavyweight title? Honestly, it seems like one loss and people are already writing his boxing obituary.

David Lemieux will be back. He's probably going to work on pacing himself and not constantly going for the knockout. It's easy to understand why he went for it in every round, it's what he's known for! He's a hard hitting Canadian who makes the punches that hockey players throw against each other look like a pillow fight, you can understand why he'd want to make a good impression in his own backyard, especially with talk of an upcoming match against a real hypejob in Julio Ceasar Chavez Jr..

Plus, let's not forget that Rubio is a tough guy and probably was going to go for every opportunity he got. He didn't let Lemieux's punches get to him, he did what he needed to do. It's not like Rubio is a light punching Asian who no one heard of until now.

Which brings us to James Kirkland losing in the first round to Nobuhiro Ishida. I know, usually you'd expect that to be the other way around. But it seems that we've got the front runner for upset of the year and Ishida, a former titleholder himself, has the biggest win in his career.

And of course we didn't expect it to be like that. This was supposed to be the "James Kirkland Beats Someones Ass" show that took a brief hiatus after the aforementioned Kirkland did a stint in prison for parole violation.

Kirkland started out in his usual aggressive manner and Ishida was handling himself well and shocked the hell out of me when he dropped Kirkland with what looked like a very light punch. Max Kellerman said then and there that Kirkland was in trouble and I personally thought that Max was being over dramatic. Kirkland didn't look wobbly, just like he was thinking, "Come on, why'd I let that happen?"

But then it came back to me. Ishida, in only twenty-two victories, had just seven knockouts on his record. And from there on Ishida put on the pressure. Maybe knowing that he could bring a little hope to Japan, a country that could use a lot right now, or maybe just from reading Hajime no Ippo (That's a boxing manga), he went after Kirkland like James had dishonoured his family.

There's always talk of ring rust when a fighter makes a comeback after a long layoff, but is it possible for your chin to rust? Or turn to glass?

As tough as James Kirkland is, he really should have clinched and held onto Ishida like he was a flotation device. Instead he got knocked down again and had Joe Cortez's crotch shoved in his face in an attempt to keep him down as the fight was waved off. I was kinda surprised that Cortez stopped it considering that Marquez was down three times in the first round against Pacquiao and we know Manny hits a lot harder than Ishida, but I'm not going to question his judgment.

This loss is going to be harder to recover from than Lemieux's loss to Rubio will be. You were making a comeback, this was the best opponent, who no one thought could hurt you and then you get dropped three times in the first round? I'm not saying James Kirkland's career is over, but he's going to have a harder time now. Maybe he'll start working with Ann Wolfe again...

My favourite part was just before Ishida's interview with Max Kellerman. During the introductions you could have heard a gnat fart when Ishida was introduced. After the fight, he got the recognition from the crowd he deserved. Awesome.

And now we finish on the near upset of Erik Morales over Marcos Maidana. Nobody wanted to see this fight. Morales didn't really deserve to fight such a lucrative opponent, nor did he deserve to take the beating we all thought he would.

We all thought he would end the fight broken, bloody, collecting teeth across the ring. But he didn't, he stood his ground, fought back and in the eyes of some, won the fight. In my eyes, he didn't, but he kept it competitive and won the event, to steal a phrase from the great Larry Merchant.

It may have raised some questions about Maidana, who now wants to fight Floyd Mayweather, but he got a victory over a game opponent. Morales will continue to fight for as long as he believes he can. I know he won't get a fight with Pacquiao and I really hope he won't get a fourth fight with Barrera. But, if he can still put on a good show like he did last week and not hurt himself in the long run, let him do what he wants.