It was fitting that an event marketed behind the Ripley?s ?Believe It or Not!? slogan would end not with an astonishing accomplishment or amazing action, but on an odd sequence of actions and decisions ? and a bizarre conclusion that could only leave a person shaking his head in, well, disbelief.
One couldn?t be begrudged for expressing more than a little disgust as well.
The fight between Bernard Hopkins and Chad Dawson ended on a technical knockout that wasn?t.
It ended because of a foul that wasn?t called.
It ended on an injury in the second round that either prevented an already ugly fight from being ugly for a disastrous 12 rounds, or prevented an ugly fight early from becoming better later.
It ended toward the end of the round, shortly after Hopkins missed Dawson with a right hand. Dawson ducked down, and Hopkins moved forward to tie the fighters up, as had happened a few times before. This time, Hopkins leaned his weight over Dawson?s back, and Dawson stood up, lifting Hopkins from the canvas, cradling Hopkins? right leg with his left hand and then using his right shoulder to shove Hopkins away.
Hopkins fell backward, his head brushing against the ropes and his left elbow crashing on the mat. He remained there, rolling on his back in pain and telling the referee, Pat Russell, that he had injured his shoulder. The fight was soon waved off. Russell said that no foul had been called, and because of that the result would be a technical knockout victory for Dawson.
Believe it or not, this was a fight for the true light heavyweight championship, a fight that thousands had paid to see live, a fight that others had paid to watch at home. But even those who had spent nothing and watched an illegal stream still would have been unhappy with the ending.
Sometimes big boxing matches will be ugly or boring ? see Timothy Bradley?s junior-welterweight unification bout against Devon Alexander or Wladimir Klitschko?s heavyweight unification bout against David Haye. Or, rather, don?t watch them again.
Sometimes fights that were expected to be entertaining end before they can become so ? Arturo Gatti stopped Leonard Dorin on a body shot before the two warriors could wind up in their usual war.
Boxing fans don?t always know what they?re going to see. But they do know what they see once it happens. And what they saw this past Saturday was a fight that ended on an injury, an injury that was caused by a foul, and a referee who disregarded that foul and decided to call it a technical knockout.
