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 © Mike Cleary |
Well, add another upset to the books. Ricky “The Hitman” Hatton defeated Kostya Tszyu by technical knockout after the end of the eleventh round. Tszyu didn’t come out for the twelfth and final round; he had had enough and told his corner-men to call the fight. After the battle, Tszyu said in his interview that he |
has always been fair to himself and that he knew he was behind on the scorecards by three or four rounds, and that’s why he decided not to come out for the final round. Well to me, that’s being a coward. A real champion, no matter how bad he was loosing on the scorecards, would NEVER quit, especially on the last round of a mega-fight!
A prime example of what a true champion would do in a situation like Tszyu’s is the Trinidad-Wright fight. That was a mega-fight I might add, maybe even a bigger one, and look how Trinidad fought until the last round, as everyone witnessed, “Tito” did not win a single round in that fight. Now that is what I call a true champion, even though Tito lost.
Kostya Tszyu really disappointed me as a fan because never in my wildest dreams would I imagine Tszyu quitting the way he did. He wasn’t even behind that much; it was a good, close battle. A true champion like I said before would at the least come out to try to knock his opponent out since that would be his only chance at a victory. Whether Tszyu cares if he has fans or not, he definitely lost this fan.
Congratulations to Ricky Hatton for putting on a hell of a fight and I hope he fights Zab Judah next so that he can knock all that bling off his mouth and shut it once and for all. If that fight was to happen, I predict that “The Hitman” knocking Judah out until the middle of 2006!
Rich Saavedra can be reached at RASBoxing@aol.com
