Paul’s on vacation, so I’m going to vent my frustration and burn some bridges as he takes a chill pill.
Rant #1: Herman Caicedo, Shannon Briggs’ trainer, and Ian John-Lewis, the referee, must have been watching a completely different fight to what I was watching.
Briggs was brave, sure, but the amount of power punches he took in the latter third of the fight just confirms that the fight should have been stopped. Vitali landed at will, and Briggs was battered, bruised, and injured. But a torn left bicep, two eye fractures and a pizza face was not enough to stop the contest. Add the fact that Briggs had no chance of winning the fight from the eighth onwards, it makes the situation even worse for Caicedo and Lewis to defend their actions. Briggs is now reported to be responsive, which is good to hear, and everyone at The Boxing Tribune wishes him the speediest of recoveries.
Rant #2: BJ Flores, for his analysis on the heavyweight division midway through the Vitali Klitschko vs. Shannon Briggs slaughter.
Commentating for ESPN, Flores said that “Vitali has been dominating the divison for four years since his return.” That’s kind of hard, since he returned to the ring in 2008 to beat Sam Peter, which excuse my math makes it two years ago. BJ isn’t a bad commentator (I mean, look at Gus), but his out of nowhere comments are puzzling and make him an easy target for a rant nominee.
Rant #3: Nagy Aguilera, for throwing away a perfectly winnable fight.
For some reason, Aguilera decided to run around the ring and not do anything offensively after getting an ordianary start. When he did, which was early on in the fight, he got some success, catching a rusty Tarver who seemed to struggle to find his groove. When Tarver found his range, he landed every power punch he wanted, and Aguilera decided to do his best Brian Minto impression and take every shot flush on the chin.
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