Antoine Douglas demise: bad match making or wasn't ready?

[Deeznuts]

Watching Antoine Douglas get rocked and ultimately stopped by Khursidze had me thinking what was the cause of his demise. Was it bad match making or was the kid not ready to step up? I guess they thought Douglas would easily outbox him but the pressure and power proved too much for the kid. Its a shame cuz that beat down could permanently affect a fighter.

[mlac]

bad matchmaking but even worse gameplan.

[Beercules]

Revenge for cornflake

[Deeznuts]

bad matchmaking but even worse gameplan.

You right about the game plan. No plan to outbox him at all.

[deanrw]

So many young fighters out there are matched too carefully early in their careers. When they do have to step up they do not know how to deal with adversity. Many of them become better fighters after they take a step too big and lose.

Time will tell with Douglas. He has some good skills but he has to find that hunger.

[-Kev-]

He has the amateur background, he has the work ethic (in shape).

He's a young 6' guy who lost to a 5'4" veteran who's close to 40, that's not a good look. It's just one of those fights early in your career I guess. Maybe he sucks and has no future as a top fighter, maybe he just overlooked the guy, was overconfident. On the positive side for Douglas, he was TKO'ed standing, he did not get put out cold or in an embarrassing highlight reel manner. Now he knows a weakness he has, he has no defense for a short guy fighting inside. All he did was cover up and did not attempt to do anything, hold, uppercut, nothing, just lay on the ropes and the ref came to his aide.

[Eastcoast]

His trainers let him down, bad game plan and then didn't stop it when he was taking too much.

[Cuban Linx]

He actually drew with Michel Soro, who is much better than Khurtsidze, in a close fight.

So he can box and he has talent. I just don't think he was prepared for this type of style. Khurtsidze was relentless and he dragged Douglas into a dog fight. Douglas abandoned his jab and spent most of the fight on the ropes. It's a tough way to learn. He took quite a bit of damage so I hope he's ok.

[-PBP-]

Nah. That was a damn good fight. He just fought the wrong fight and his corner didn't step on early enough.

[deanrw]

He opponent is so damn short, that Douglas must have found it very hard to not only prepare for, but also hit someone that low. It also presented punches coming at him from low. That stuff can throw a fighter off.