Tweet
By Jake Donovan - It’s already been a crazy month for upsets, which of course makes for great storylines in a sport whose survival is dependent upon finding new ways to reinvent the wheel.
Shocking results have been posted on every conceivable level in the past couple of weeks – HBO, Showtime, ESPN2, Telefutura and the most recently on the other side of the world when 39-year old Muhammad Rachman because a two-time strawweight titlist after upsetting Kwanthai Sithmorseng.
The bad news is that the likelihood of an upset occurring in the final leg of the bantamweight tournament this weekend is not that great. The good news is the reason behind it – every matchup within the tournament is competitive enough on paper to where no outcome is truly surprising.
This much has already been proven in the opening round of the bantamweight foursome late last year.
Joseph King Kong Agbeko hadn’t fought since suffering a loss to Yonnhy Perez on Halloween ’09, but enjoyed a much better go of things in reversing the outcome when they met nearly 14 months later.
Abner Mares’ night against Vic Darchinyan was far more problematic. The 2004 Mexican Olympian survived a near disastrous first four rounds – including a knockdown and point deduction – to rally back and take hard-fought split decision over the former two division champ.
Even if neither fight turned out as expected, the results still weren’t shocking.
There was reason to believe that Perez – the only titlist in the tournament at the time – would be able to duplicate what he did against Agbeko more than a year prior, even though that very result was considered a bit of a shocker at the time.
It was also plausible that Mares – who came dangerously close to dethroning his close friend Perez earlier last year – would succumb to Darchinyan’s punching power at some point, even if youth and skill level were on the Mexican’s side. [Click Here To Read More]
Shocking results have been posted on every conceivable level in the past couple of weeks – HBO, Showtime, ESPN2, Telefutura and the most recently on the other side of the world when 39-year old Muhammad Rachman because a two-time strawweight titlist after upsetting Kwanthai Sithmorseng.
The bad news is that the likelihood of an upset occurring in the final leg of the bantamweight tournament this weekend is not that great. The good news is the reason behind it – every matchup within the tournament is competitive enough on paper to where no outcome is truly surprising.
This much has already been proven in the opening round of the bantamweight foursome late last year.
Joseph King Kong Agbeko hadn’t fought since suffering a loss to Yonnhy Perez on Halloween ’09, but enjoyed a much better go of things in reversing the outcome when they met nearly 14 months later.
Abner Mares’ night against Vic Darchinyan was far more problematic. The 2004 Mexican Olympian survived a near disastrous first four rounds – including a knockdown and point deduction – to rally back and take hard-fought split decision over the former two division champ.
Even if neither fight turned out as expected, the results still weren’t shocking.
There was reason to believe that Perez – the only titlist in the tournament at the time – would be able to duplicate what he did against Agbeko more than a year prior, even though that very result was considered a bit of a shocker at the time.
It was also plausible that Mares – who came dangerously close to dethroning his close friend Perez earlier last year – would succumb to Darchinyan’s punching power at some point, even if youth and skill level were on the Mexican’s side. [Click Here To Read More]
Comment