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by Cliff Rold - Top ten Super Middleweight contender Allan Green pulling out of his proposed bout with the 36-year old Antwun Echols (31-7-4, 27 KO) may have been the best thing that ever happened to the old veteran. Yes, he lost, but he did so in a way that reminded fans why he has once been so much fun to watch. [details]
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Echols should retire. He would fight a cage full of tigers, but he's not up to it now. I believe that he was unfairly robbed of the Middleweight C'ship in one of his Hopkins fights. Hopkins spun him around and smashed him right on the back of his neck. Echold dropped like a stone. Hopkins shoul;d have been DQ immediately, Don't know what he wasn't. It was a rough fight all through, but this was well beyond roughness. I see that William Joppy has also retired. That's gfood news too, he's a gentleman born,-if not raised. And i wish them both success.Comment
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To be fair it was Echols who turned his back on Hopkins so it wasn't an intentional foul. The punch didn't seem to hit Echols that hard.
Echols slamming Hopkins on the canvas was definitely intentional but he wasn't DQ'd either. It was just a rough fight and the referee let it go on.
Briggs KO'd Ray Mercer with a similar punch.Last edited by TheGreatA; 03-01-2008, 03:47 PM.Comment
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it was a decent scrap but you could see that echols is a shell of his former self, there is something wrong with the way he responds to punches now and it took a slapping around for him get his wits together.
walker really surprised me, i think that he will make a bit of noise, i'm not saying that he's champion quality but i think he could make a decent run at it. he can take a punch and give a few too. more fights on this level and higher and who knows, he might make some fighters very uncomfortable.
echols should hang them up, his legs looked bad, his response to punches, and his focus coupled with his defense didn't seem to be there, not that he was a defensive fighter, but there were some moments in the fight that it looked like he wish he was at the bar having a couple of banana cognacs.....Comment
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Hopkins should have been DQ'd.Comment
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If you have watched the fight, there was lots of stuff like this that went unpenalized.
Echols hit Hopkins after the bell intentionally, hit him after a break intentionally, Hopkins hit & hold several times, Hopkins rabbit punched Echols, Echols then slammed Hopkins right on his shoulder which dislocated.
Hopkins chose to fight on and knocked Echols down with the injured arm. Great fight but it was a foulfestComment
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He may have turned his back, but was being manoeuvred into it by Hopkins all through the fight, and THIS time Hopkins deliberately measured him up, and smashed him., plain for all to see. Enough to drop him flat. He should have been DQ'd.That was a bad habit Echols had of letting himself go with a missed punch, so that he could be almost imperceptibly spun. And since there was bad blood between them, Hopkins wanted to take advantage of the turned back and kill him, couldn't, because of the ref. The ref spoke to Echols about it too, for leaving himself undefended and interrupting the fight flow. I've seen Echols doesn't do it any more, maybe since then??
As for the body slam, this was Echols answer to repeated fouls and grabbing, they just happened to come into body contact allowing Echols the hold this time. It wasn't serious. The ring is very well padded. HEADS smash down on the canvas, all the time, with no after-problem. AND, there was nothing wrong with Hopkins' shoulder,Remember?? He didn't use it for a couple of rounds, going with the ref's and commentators not-so-subtle- suggestions which he could plainly hear. He moved it pretty well, even though not punching with it, all a scam, then since Echols wasn't "falling", threw it as usual, expecting to take Echols by surprise. Playing "the old soldier" is what that's called. Refusing the ref's "time-out" etc and showing his bravery and iron-man calibre. He knew he had Echols "going". Hopkins is a clever guy. If the ref thought that his shoulder was dislocated, as the "analysts" tried so hard to suggest, he'd have stopped the fight, and DQ'd Echols, since it was due to Echols action, not from a punch or his own doing. There's NO WAY
anyone can use a dislocated shoulder, nevermind KO someone, and it's quite painful for a while after being "snapped back in", which certainly wasn't done here.Comment
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I have to admit.....I only watched the first round of this fight and figured Walker had no chance. His punches looked slow and weak and Echols looked fairly sharp for his age and crisp. I changed the channel.....Only to find out it bacame a very close fight. Oh well.....neither guy is going anywhere fast, oh except Echols, he has to be near the end of the road.Comment
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