This is why boxing is a dying sport… Not because the sport is full of 40+ year old boxers 10-15 years past their primes, but because of the obvious lack of control by boxers and referees.
Not too long ago we had Floyd Mayweather, Jr. knock out an unsuspecting Victor Ortiz during their welterweight championship fight. A knockout that happened as the ref had his head turned talking to the time keeper. He only turned around in enough time to see the final shot and of course count Ortiz out. Following that fight all Mayweather could say is as a fighter you have to protect yourself at all times.
Meanwhile the referee who’s didn’t have his head in the fight had no comment…
This past Saturday was no different. We didn’t see any Tyson-like knockouts, what we say was more like a move out of WWE or MMA. During the 2nd round of the fight challenger Chad Dawson clearly picked B-Hop up by the legs before slamming him to the mat.
A body slam isn’t a part of the sweet science and referee Pat Russell should have penalized Dawson for the move but instead he said there was no foul and awarded the match & titles to Dawson before a crowd already in disbelief from what that had just witnessed.
As a long time follower of professional boxing I felt as if I had just witnessed Ric Flair cheat Hulk Hogan for the WWE Championship.
For a sport that has names attached to it like Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, Larry Holmes, Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler, Mike Tyson, Oscar De La Hoya, Roberto Duran, and many more, it’s just a disgrace that the 2nd straight boxing PPV event ended with a bunch of bull….
Dawson made it clear during his post fight interview that he has no plans on granting Hopkins a rematch for his titles leaving me to wonder if there is some validity to the 46 year old Hopkins comments regarding an effort to run him out of the sport.
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