I love Boxing.
Maybe because it is something that I know I could never do. I am not ashamed to admit getting beat in the face, is not a profession that I want to partake in.
Upsets happen in sports all the time, but what makes boxing different is how quickly a fight can change at any time.
In most sports the upset is a slow progression. It is a long played out in drama. In boxing it is like a good scary movie, you never know when the killer is going to pop up.
We had two big upsets in boxing last night and if you study the sweet science you know why it happened.
Andre Berto was suppose to be the next Mayweather or Pacquiao. All he had to do was beat Victor Ortiz and he would be staring at a big money fight with the one of the Giants of the sports.
I have been watching Berto for years, tons of raw talent, lot of explosive power and very fast hands. With that being said his fundamentals are awful. He was like the Jay Cutler of boxers.
With that being said I didn’t think Ortiz would give him a problem mainly because Ortiz heart had been question in past, he hadn’t fought well lately and there was nothing suggesting that he could hang with Berto.
But from round 1 you can see there was something different about Ortiz, something in his eyes saying if he was going to lose he was going out guns blazing.
You also saw something in Berto’s eyes. It was the realization that he didn’t train hard enough or take Ortiz seriously. In a fight of the year candidate Ortiz beat Berto down because of heart not necessarily skill.
Being lazy and getting a huge ego is one way to get upset and Berto found that out the hard way.
Juan Manuel Lopez was the NEXT BIG THING. His fight against a journeyman Orlando Salido was suppose to be a tuneup before his mega-fight against Yuriorkis Gamboa.
The problem with Lopez, he forgot he was a boxer and started to read the press clippings about how he was a great knockout artist. If you are going to be a brawler you better have a sturdy chin and while Lopez is a true warrior, Salido even early on in their fight was clocking him with right hands and I knew it was just a matter of time before he caught him.
When he finally did it was game over. Lopez put up a good fight and the stoppage was premature but it was just a matter of time and it was a well deserve victory for Salido.
In Boxing and all sports really you always have a chance, nothing is guaranteed.
Shane Mosley and his S-Curl is reading this and nodding his head.