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By Lyle Fitzsimmons - OK, folks, raise a virtual hand if you’ve been there.
After months of breathless anticipation, the big night finally arrives.
The venue is secured. The atmosphere is constructed. The mood is perfected.
In some cases, the money has even changed hands.
But on the morning after, you’re left to re-live pedestrian loops of missionary in place of the riotous soft-core highlights you’d planned for.
In the end, it makes for an unsatisfying walk of shame, without even the tawdry taste of conquest.
And in terms of boxing, it’s the same feeling many gleaned from a ho-hum Saturday in Michigan.
There in the Silverdome-pocked city of Pontiac, a fight prematurely branded as “classic in the making” wound up far too similar to the run-of-the-mill dreck available every weekend in a local ballroom.
Over nine-plus rounds of inglorious combat between America’s two best 140-pounders, few things were proven more certainly than 1) TV’s ability to make an empty lot look full; 2) Don King’s unchallenged status as the game’s most egregious promoter; and 3) Amir Khan’s emergence as the genuine man to beat in the division between Pacquiao and Marquez.
Regardless of who attempted more punches and landed more shots – or whether Devon Alexander could have actually continued after the last of Tim Bradley’s patented “left-right-skull” combos in the 10th – none of what else transpired in the ring approached what the once-beaten 24-year-old U.K. native would surely deliver if matched with either pretender.
Toward that end, British-based color man Jim Watt – whose Scottish brogue was among the few things that made Saturday’s Sky Sports ****** worth enduring on a balky Internet connection – was quick to question the reluctant Alexander’s real motive for not enduring until the final bell. [Click Here To Read More]
After months of breathless anticipation, the big night finally arrives.
The venue is secured. The atmosphere is constructed. The mood is perfected.
In some cases, the money has even changed hands.
But on the morning after, you’re left to re-live pedestrian loops of missionary in place of the riotous soft-core highlights you’d planned for.
In the end, it makes for an unsatisfying walk of shame, without even the tawdry taste of conquest.
And in terms of boxing, it’s the same feeling many gleaned from a ho-hum Saturday in Michigan.
There in the Silverdome-pocked city of Pontiac, a fight prematurely branded as “classic in the making” wound up far too similar to the run-of-the-mill dreck available every weekend in a local ballroom.
Over nine-plus rounds of inglorious combat between America’s two best 140-pounders, few things were proven more certainly than 1) TV’s ability to make an empty lot look full; 2) Don King’s unchallenged status as the game’s most egregious promoter; and 3) Amir Khan’s emergence as the genuine man to beat in the division between Pacquiao and Marquez.
Regardless of who attempted more punches and landed more shots – or whether Devon Alexander could have actually continued after the last of Tim Bradley’s patented “left-right-skull” combos in the 10th – none of what else transpired in the ring approached what the once-beaten 24-year-old U.K. native would surely deliver if matched with either pretender.
Toward that end, British-based color man Jim Watt – whose Scottish brogue was among the few things that made Saturday’s Sky Sports ****** worth enduring on a balky Internet connection – was quick to question the reluctant Alexander’s real motive for not enduring until the final bell. [Click Here To Read More]
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