Anything Can Happen at Heavyweight

In boxing or any combat sport, literally anything can happen.  Mismatches occur in all sports but they are magnified in combat sports.

In a team sport one player, even a key player can have a terrible game but if his team is exponentially more talented, they will normally win.

In combat sports you own your off night completely.  So, let’s say a world champion is fighting a fairly unknown, possibly underrated but fringe contender.

That world champion is normally expected by nearly all the viewing public to win in dominant fashion.  But these gladiators are human beings just like you and I.

They have psyches, personal lives, strong courageous moments and dark moments of weakness and self doubt just like us.

What makes them special is they generally have a way of accepting these feelings and dealing with/controlling them better than the average human being.  However, that doesn’t mean those emotions have no effect on their performance; they do, just in more subtle ways.

Now add to the mix that both men are well over 200 lbs. and the unexpected becomes even more possible as anytime a man of that size is proficient in any form of hand-to-hand combat, danger lurks.

The clear favorite usually wins, but upsets happen at a far greater rate at heavyweight.  This is especially true today when top fighters rarely ply their trade more than twice per year making them far less sharp fundamentally even if some look like Mr. Universe.

We had a major upset this past weekend when Unified Heavyweight Champ Anthony Joshua was blitzed by Andy Ruiz Jr.  And this was not just one big punch landed.

Ruiz put the former champ down 4 times over 7 rounds before the stoppage.  In doing so, he got up off the canvas himself.

I did not see the fight live because I had better things to do than go hunting for it on some pay internet channel, but you can view the fight in it’s entirety here.  This is an upset that sniffs the level of James “Buster” Douglas dethroning Mike Tyson  in 1990.

But just to put into perspective where boxing is in society today:  Tyson-Douglas took place in Tokyo.  Joshua-Ruiz took place at Madison Square Garden (the world’s most famous arena).

I remember the Sunday after Tokyo.  Tyson losing was not just the biggest sports story; it was the biggest story period.  Go ask your aunt if she ever heard of Ruiz or Joshua, let alone that there was a fight.

But back to the fight itself.  Ruiz was actually a replacement opponent for Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller who failed PED testing.  Boxing media and fans were making fun of Ruiz’ physique.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a bad physique but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t in fighting shape; he was.  He had just fought April 20th.

I don’t know that anything was off with Joshua’s personal life but he may have lacked focus.  He was also fighting in the United States for the first time.

Throw in the change in opponents and maybe, just maybe his focus was down a bit.  It shouldn’t happen but it does.

Ruiz on the other hand took all the “fat boy” cracks in stride, showed up, executed his game plan and now sits atop boxing’s glamor division (at least belt-wise).

For most major upsets the stars have to align properly.  Whether you’re talking about Tyson-Douglas, Lewis-Rahman, Moorer-Foreman or whatever-the champion has a physical and/or mental weakness exposed.

But there is another ingredient:  the self belief of the underdog.  He has to truly believe in himself.  And the beauty is that he doesn’t have to be great for a season or even a month or a week.

He just has to be great for a night.  That self belief doesn’t guarantee victory, but the lack thereof sure does guarantee defeat.

As Teddy Atlas often points out, sometimes when a fighter believes, behaves like a fighter and executes a game plan, the world can become fair for just one moment.  He gets rewarded for all his sacrifice and pain.

Now maybe Ruiz is a one night champ like Douglas, but maybe he becomes an unexpected factor in the division for the next 5 years the way Glen Johnson was at light heavyweight last decade.

Whatever happens, we have another big man in the mix of Josua, Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder.  And whichever direction Ruiz’ career goes from here his name is forever etched in heavyweight history and nobody can EVER take that away from him.

So yeah, go ahead and call him a fluke.  You may not be wrong.

Go ahead and call him fat.  You’re definitely not wrong.

Just don’t forget to call him CHAMP! Talk soon.

-Marksman

PS:  Upsets like this also put into perspective the greatness of some former heavyweight champions.  Though Rocky Marciano was the only one to retire undefeated, Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier and Larry Holmes (just to name a few) never suffered an upset in their prime at the hands of a fighter not quite on their level.

See TSS’ Top 10 All Time Heavyweights here.