An October to Forget

One fight went the distance and one fight ended before it ever started, yet both the Hopkins-Dawson and Donaire-Narvaez bouts were both surprisingly disappointing in their own way.

The Hopkins-Dawson fight had a little momentum going into the fight as Bernard Hopkins has consistently turned back time at the advanced age of 40 plus by beating guys 15-20 years younger than him the last few years. Dawson who has all the physical tools to be a great fighter seems to be a little more content with just “getting by” his opponents as his last couple fight have been a little underwhelming.

However Dawson claimed to have a re-engerized mind set and stated that he would beat Hopkins. Unfortunately for the fans that attended the fight live and the few that bought the PPV, the fight was short lived as Hopkins was injured in the end of the 2nd by Dawson, who basically slammed Hopkins to the ground in order to get Hopkins off of him as Dawson would later say.

No matter if the move by Dawson was fair or foul it ended what many hoped to be a interesting bout of a legend and a fighter who many feel could be a great fighter in this era. However it wasn’t meant to be and fans were left feeling angry and ripped off by the ending of the bout as you can hear their displeasure here ( See video below).

A week later on the East coast Flyweight champion Nonito Donaire fought ??? Narvaez
to a decisive and easy 12 round unanimous decision. While the tough Narvaez stayed on his feet until the final bell it was far from a good or even an exciting fight to watch as over the 12 rounds Donaire dominated the over matched Narvaez. As in the Hopkins bout many fans at the end of the Donaire fight were chanting “bulls#$t” during the final round.

In what seems to be coincidence and irony both fights had similarities.

Both Hopkins and Dawson hail from the East coast yet fought in Los Angeles, Donaire who fights out of northern Cali fought in New York city. Hopkins is one the greats of this era and yet his fight with Dawson was not popular with the fans. Donaire considered the best flyweight in the game today faced an even lesser known opponent in Narvaez and didn’t get much enthusiasm from the fans. Both Goldenboy Promotions, Hopkins promoter and Top Rank, Donaire’s promoter seemed uninterested in how the fans felt about either fight ,they will each do what they feel is best for their company and the fighter.

A rematch with Dawson and boxing fans may see their first free live gate event staged for a title bout. Donaire has some options as Showtime staged a 4 man tournament with some of the best Flyweights in the division yet Donaire and his team were not apart of it. The winner of the tournament Joseph Agbeko or Abner Mares would be the most logical and given that the Shobox tourney has shined light on the division and made the fighters a little more recognizable a title showdown could garner some good ratings.

As for Hopkins, if not a Dawson rematch then who? Hopkins has a knack for making fights boring and eventhough he himself stated he wanted to give the boxing fans “entertaining fights” its also easier said then done and Hopkins is not an aggressive fighter by nature but methodical and calculated; That is what makes Hopkins great.

In the end Donaire seems to have the more options within his own weight class as well as moving up in weight, as for Hopkins…maybe he would consider moving back to 160lbs and take on Sergio Martinez?

And then…

I had the opportunity to go to Los Angeles and watch the Hopkins-Dawson fight live, I was not covering the event for myboxingfans.com but as a fan. I purchased my tickets online and paid FULL price for the tickets and within 2 hours of purchasing my tickets I received a 20% off code for tickets through Goldenboy Promotions, had I purchased the tickets with the discount it would have saved my taxes more so than anything, however what really surprised and disappointed me was online and on many social websites sites I saw free tickets to the fight. As a paying fan, I felt cheated. The promoters for the fight could have acknowledged the paying customer if the only reason they were giving free tickets away was because ticket sales were lagging and they were just trying to fill the arena; They could have upgraded the seats section or perhaps offered an upgrade seat charge for 10 more dollars or something similar. Oh well just had to voice my disappointment.

October had some potential to be a great month of boxing but with back to back weekend fights being lackluster and the Andre Ward-Carl Froch fight being rescheduled to December, October is shaping up to be a very forgettable month of boxing…here’s to November.