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By Thomas Gerbasi - A lot of people get nightmares at 3am. Mauricio Herrera gets them after he wakes up in the middle of the night.
“Sometimes I wake up and it’s the first thing I’ll put on,” he says, referring to his two highly controversial 2014 losses to Danny Garcia and Jose Benavidez. “I watch it, and I don’t see how they could have me losing. Then I get angry, turn it off, but then I watch it again, over and over.”
He laughs, only because he knows how that might come off to some people. If you’ve gone through two fights you know you won but didn’t get the decision, the first reaction would likely be to never look at those fights again. Herrera can’t help but watch.
“You go back and watch them and the more I watch them the more I see myself winning even more rounds and I give them less rounds,” he said. “I watch both those fights over and over and it comes to the point where it just gets me angry every time I watch them. And I still keep watching them, but it gets mad. My wife’s like ‘why do you watch it, if you’re getting angry?’”
He doesn’t have an answer. And why would he? How can he explain something that doesn’t have a reasonable explanation that would make sense to anyone? In baseball, if you score more runs than the opposing team, your team wins. Same for points in football and basketball and goals for hockey and soccer.
In boxing, if you don’t stop your opponent, three judges decide your fate using very subjective criteria. You don’t get five points for defense, five points for effective aggression, five points for clean punching, or five points for ring generalship. You get what you’re given, based on the whims of that judge on that particular night. If he or she puts more stock in power punches, a combination puncher like Herrera might be out of luck. If a fighter marches forward aimlessly and is clearly outboxed for 12 rounds, a judge might still give the aggressor the nod. [Click Here To Read More]
“Sometimes I wake up and it’s the first thing I’ll put on,” he says, referring to his two highly controversial 2014 losses to Danny Garcia and Jose Benavidez. “I watch it, and I don’t see how they could have me losing. Then I get angry, turn it off, but then I watch it again, over and over.”
He laughs, only because he knows how that might come off to some people. If you’ve gone through two fights you know you won but didn’t get the decision, the first reaction would likely be to never look at those fights again. Herrera can’t help but watch.
“You go back and watch them and the more I watch them the more I see myself winning even more rounds and I give them less rounds,” he said. “I watch both those fights over and over and it comes to the point where it just gets me angry every time I watch them. And I still keep watching them, but it gets mad. My wife’s like ‘why do you watch it, if you’re getting angry?’”
He doesn’t have an answer. And why would he? How can he explain something that doesn’t have a reasonable explanation that would make sense to anyone? In baseball, if you score more runs than the opposing team, your team wins. Same for points in football and basketball and goals for hockey and soccer.
In boxing, if you don’t stop your opponent, three judges decide your fate using very subjective criteria. You don’t get five points for defense, five points for effective aggression, five points for clean punching, or five points for ring generalship. You get what you’re given, based on the whims of that judge on that particular night. If he or she puts more stock in power punches, a combination puncher like Herrera might be out of luck. If a fighter marches forward aimlessly and is clearly outboxed for 12 rounds, a judge might still give the aggressor the nod. [Click Here To Read More]
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