Re: Did Marquez Duck Provodnikov?
For his sake, I hope he did. I know he's a masterful boxer and a proud fighter. Still we're not talking about another blown up feather/lightweight. This is like when jones went up to heavyweight. There are the guys you can challenge yourself to compensate for the physical disparities with skill and other there are other guys, that aren't a challenge, they're a death wish if you get the wrong ref, the wrong night, the wrong crowd. That's why bradley was a good match, close in size, not overly powerful, has some flaws that could be exploited. You get it wrong and you get slapped/ butted for the rest of the fight. Not that marquez couldn't outbox provo... but the bigger the disparity between fighters, the more success relies on fighting the perfect fight. Slip just once and you could walk away with a permanent injury.
Obviously for someone like jones, every heavyweight packs a punch, but at least ruiz wasnt known for his knockout wins as much as his knockout loss and his rather boring style. In that respect, it was a reasonable jump in weight. Haye vs. Valuev was an unusual case and side show that sold based on just size, but Haye knew valuev wasn't a huge puncher and he was beyond slow. Good thing for haye, holding and punching is illegal in boxing.
They want your @$$ beat because upsets make news. News brings about excitement, excitement brings about ratings. The objective is to bring you up to the tower and tear your @$$ down. And if you don't believe that, you're crazy.
Roy Jones, Jr. "What I've Learned," Esquire 2003
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