Last year without a doubt was the year of the upsets in boxing. If I took the time to list them all, that in itself could be a whole other article. Taking a look at the schedule, for the beginning of the year so far, I see the potential for even more upsets to start off the year in 2012. Here are two fights that come to mind:
Let?s start with the WBC title fight that will take place on Feb. 4 between champion, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and rugged contender, Marco Antonio Rubio. Rubio was one of the many fighters who scored an upset victory in 2011. Last April he shocked the unbeaten, hard hitting Canadian prospect, David Lemieux by stopping him in the seventh round. Although Rubio has been stopped in the past (most notably against former middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik), he showed great resiliency in his fight against Lemieux before knocking him out. Chavez Jr. is a decent puncher, but he?s no Kelly Pavlik or maybe not even a Lemieux, when it comes to the punching power department. And, although he has shown improvements in the boxing skills department since working with Freddie Roach, he still has a tendency to want to slug it out with his opponents, as was evidenced in the fourth round of his fight against Peter Manfredo last November. Because Rubio is somewhat durable and can crack a little, and given Chavez Junior?s desire to want to slug it out at times, this fight could get interesting. An upset is not out of the question here.
Next up is the fight on Feb. 18 when Paul Williams takes on Nobuhiro Ishida. Ishida was another 2011 upset victor. Who would have thought, that the thirty to one underdog would have been able to knockout top junior middleweight contender James Kirkland in one round? Ishida shocked us all last April with the huge upset victory. But now he will move on to the former WBO Welterweight Champion, Paul Williams.
