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When you’ve been watching the sport as long as I have, you think you’ve got it pretty well figured out; you think you have a pretty good idea of what’s going to happen when the bell rings. Well, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Shannon Briggs and Sergei Liakhovich for taking me and so many others to “Never-in-my-wildest-dreamsville.” That non-fight on Saturday night took the sport down a couple of notches, just when our hopes were on the rebound.
There I was, Saturday afternoon, positively glowing with anticipation of a fight that guaranteed excitement and then Saturday night came and both men had a bad case of performance anxiety.
Thank God this borefest wasn’t on pay-per-view, or I would have been arrested for picketing my local cable office. What happened? Liakhovich had taken all of our breaths away with his stirring, gutsy performance in winning the WBO trinket from Lamon Brewster and you just knew Briggs was going to go all-out to win his “rightful” place in the spotlight after all the years of fighting in relative obscurity against obscure opponents and harsh criticism. WRONG!!!
I repeat, “WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?!”
I was asking myself that question into the wee hours of Sunday morning, racking my brain, trying to figure out how what should have been the heavyweight Hagler-Hearns turned into the best cure for insomnia since ribbon-dancing became an Olympic sport. I finally came to one conclusion: fear. One man was scared of running out of gas and one man was afraid of getting knocked on his ass.
If not for the expert advice of Kenny Weldon, Sergei probably never would have seen the end of round 3….provided, of course, that Shannon decided to do what he was getting paid for and fight.
It’s a cliché; but it’s true: “It’s easier to win the World Championship than it is to keep it.” When Sergei was slated to face off against Brewster on April Fool’s Day this year, everyone and their grandmother knew that he was just another easy fight for Lamon; no one gave him much of a chance at all. He was the proverbial guy with nothing to lose; and there is no more dangerous creature on the planet. He had no expectations to live up to, so he had no expectations to fail. [details]
There I was, Saturday afternoon, positively glowing with anticipation of a fight that guaranteed excitement and then Saturday night came and both men had a bad case of performance anxiety.
Thank God this borefest wasn’t on pay-per-view, or I would have been arrested for picketing my local cable office. What happened? Liakhovich had taken all of our breaths away with his stirring, gutsy performance in winning the WBO trinket from Lamon Brewster and you just knew Briggs was going to go all-out to win his “rightful” place in the spotlight after all the years of fighting in relative obscurity against obscure opponents and harsh criticism. WRONG!!!
I repeat, “WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?!”
I was asking myself that question into the wee hours of Sunday morning, racking my brain, trying to figure out how what should have been the heavyweight Hagler-Hearns turned into the best cure for insomnia since ribbon-dancing became an Olympic sport. I finally came to one conclusion: fear. One man was scared of running out of gas and one man was afraid of getting knocked on his ass.
If not for the expert advice of Kenny Weldon, Sergei probably never would have seen the end of round 3….provided, of course, that Shannon decided to do what he was getting paid for and fight.
It’s a cliché; but it’s true: “It’s easier to win the World Championship than it is to keep it.” When Sergei was slated to face off against Brewster on April Fool’s Day this year, everyone and their grandmother knew that he was just another easy fight for Lamon; no one gave him much of a chance at all. He was the proverbial guy with nothing to lose; and there is no more dangerous creature on the planet. He had no expectations to live up to, so he had no expectations to fail. [details]