Boxing suffers and has always suffered from this syndrome. It's annoying, exasperating, and one of those things for which the boxing gurus of the world should put their minds together and find a viable solution. It's as bad for boxing as shitty decisions and lousy refereeing.

I'm talking about the "all-too-frequent" habit some fighters have of coasting or sleepwalking through an entire fight, only to come out like gangbusters in the final round and try for the KO or somehow turn around a fight that's already a lost cause. Some fighters, clearly losing a fight, do little or nothing in the middle rounds to turn the tide. Then magically, the 12th round bell sounds and it's a new fighter out there. If only he'd have more than 3 minutes, surely he can get that miraculous KO or somehow turn the tide. They might even dominate the final 3 minutes, which is all the more exasperating because the fan is left thinking: "Where the hell was THAT during the previous 11 rounds?!?!?" And when the decision favors the fighter that had dominated the entire fight, the clueless loser complains. He thinks his "too little too late" heroics should earn him the decision he so methodically threw away in all the previous rounds. This happens WAY too often.

I don't pretend to have a solution here. I'm just voicing something I'm sure crosses the minds of a LOT of fans, who have been just as frustrated as I've been at this syndrome. And hey... I'm sure the counter-arguments will run something like: "It's easier said than done... you have to be in the shoes of the fighter to know what's going on... it's easy to criticize from the safety and comfort of your living room... etc, etc." But the fact remains: If you had it in you for the last round, you should have brought it out BEFORE then. Three minutes is hardly time to turn around a lost cause of a fight.

Meanwhile, I'll just start watching 12th rounds.