Was it a hype job or just a lucky punch?

By Boxing News - 08/28/2013 - Comments

By Gerardo Granados: Promotion might not be an easy job after all. Last weekend I got the chance to see a young lion lose a fight; this fighter is a talented one who I consider to have the full package. He is not the next Manny Pacquiao or Floyd Mayweather Jr., but he is certainly entertaining to watch and has good overall boxing skills that have allow him to achieve organizations championships in more than one weight division. For me, it was not a big surprise to see him lose against a former champion but it was a real shock to see him lost the way he did.

A friend of mine believes it was like if he wasn’t that good to begin with and thought that the result of the fight was due either he was a hype job or a lucky punch. There are a lot of boxing fans that know and understand that a loss can be as important as the way it happens.

When Roberto Duran lost via brutal knockout against Tommy Hearns some fans might have thought that he was done as a fighter and others might have saw it as a mismatch, but for me it was a great fight that ended when the Hitman connected a clean hard punch right on the chin.

It is a different story when you can clearly see that a fighter has diminished boxing skills compared to when he was still in his prime; for instance when a prime Kostya Tszyu knocked out an aging Julio Cesar Chavez Sr.

Nowadays if a high prized boxer lost a fight there is a tendency to believe that either he might be shot or even damage goods or some would state on their comments that he was only a hype job. Could a defeat be the result of a lucky punch or more likely due a good punch. Does the reader remember when Hasim Rahman knocked out Lennox Lewis? It was a shocking surprise but logic prevailed when the rematch took place.

My friend is a casual fan so he will only believe what he sees and he often gets influenced by a good promotion job; and to be honest all fighters need a little of hype to achieve better ratings. Last Saturday night the promoter´s face showed he wasn´t pleased with the result of the main event.

The reader must recall other promoters who had that very same face expression when one of their major projects got upset. As pro boxing is a business the boxing promoters are businessman who risks their money; sure it is not a gamble but sometimes they get to loss their investment. I am not referring exclusively to the big boxing industry names that lead the main events and have big television contracts, but to all of those promoters that work all around the world.

The young lion made no excuses for his defeat and also showed maturity as a professional fighter; he stated that he has learned a lot out of his defeat and that he was planning to come back stronger. Time will tell if he is able to regain his belt and to be honest the promoter will not have a hard time finding him another shot at an organization champion but I doubt he will be match against an exquisite boxer who already has defeated another multiple division champion that was regarded as one of the best in his weight division.

Of course the reader already knows who I am referring to so I will not say the name. Not the less the reader could have a different opinion. So was it a hype job or just a lucky punch?



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