As we bring it to a close, I wonder whether America’s Bookie patrons should think of this as the “Year of the Excuse” in boxing. Deontay Wilder came out of a lousy effort against Tyson Fury, where he looked to be sleepwalking much of the time, and days later complained that a 40-pound suit of armour that he wore on the way to the ring made him – I don’t know – fatigued?
There were other excuses as well – that his water was spiked, that Fury had a “foreign object” in his glove, etc. It was tired and desperate and not a good look for a heavyweight champion – even one who had just been dethroned.
And recently we have heard from Vasyl Lomachenko, who has fashioned a yarn about judges who were “bribed” to score his fight against Teofimo Lopez in favor of his opponent.
Loma broke down the scoring, admitting that he lost most of the early rounds, but felt he came on like a freight train in the second half. But there may have been something wrong with the math, in the sense that he came out with a result of six rounds apiece, yet still thought he won.
Go figure.
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A quote: “What does it say? It’s not about bias, it’s about being bribed. There was nothing about honest judging. I don’t know whose game it was. I do think it was somebody’s game.”
Who’s game?
I thought the Russians were supposed to be the ones who influenced the 2016 election. They couldn’t exert enough influence to make sure he got a fair shake?
Oh I’m sorry. He’s Ukranian. My mistake.
He then came back and “clarified” his statement. “I didn’t say that the judges were bribed, I said that they were not being objective, and they were being biased.”
And then he said, “How can I say the judges were bribed when I never saw that or heard about it? I never thought the judges were bribed. No, the judges were not bribed.”
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Well, something must have gotten lost in the translation. One way or another.
The reality is that Loma should have gotten started a lot sooner. And Wilder needed to get started, period.
All too often, what comes with an excuse is a change in trainers. That has become a common practice in boxing. In Wilder’s case it was getting rid of Mark Breland, the former world champion who was guilty of nothing more than caring enough to wave the white flag when things looked decidedly hopeless against Fury.
Promoter Bob Arum (Top Rank) is more quotable than Don King, if for no other reason than that he is much more of a loose cannon.
While being interviewed on a TV show, Arum, who put the Loma-Lopez on, scoffed at Lomachenko’s claims, and took a shot at Wilder, who opposed one of his promotional charges (Fury).
“They are stupid as the comments (Deontay) Wilder about how he lost to Tyson Fury,” he said. “That somehow Fury loaded the gloves, that his own corner out stuff in his water, ridiculous.”
Finally, let’s recognize a guy who DIDN’T make an excuse, despite an impression that might have been left to the contrary. Callum Smith is said to have taken a mild bicep injury into his fight against Canelo Alvarez. And, well, it was mild no more after the 12-round hammering it took. It was reported as “detached” in post-right stories. And yeah, it looked a bit bizarre (although if you truly want to see “grotesque,” go check out pictures of Hasim Rahman’s forehead after fighting Evander Holyfield).
There were some newspaper headlines stating that Smith “accused” Canelo of deliberately going after the bicep. The truth is that Smith was not making an “accusation” at all; he was merely pointing out that Alvarez was doing it, and that it accomplished its purpose, which was to make his left arm much less effective.
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And besides that, this isn’t exactly a game of croquet they’re playing in there; one of the objects is to exploit the weaknesses of an opponent, with extreme prejudice, if necessary.
Smith’s quote: “It’s not an excuse. If I would’ve had two hands the whole fight, would I have won the fight? Probably not. He was just a little bit too good for me on the night.”
After Wilder and Lomachenko, that was kind of refreshing to hear.
Have you heard about the upcoming Mayweather vs. Paul fight?
