By: Sean Crose
Saturday is a great night for boxing, one of those nights that makes you happy because you’re a sweet science lover despite all the trash that tends to be thrown around the sport. For Australia’s George Kambosos and America’s Stephen Fulton have defied the odds, fought hard, surprised so many, and won battles they were supposed to lose before. The Kambosos took New York City by storm, becoming the light-heavy king of the hill by knocking out young gun Teofimo Lopez in bold and dramatic fashion at the theater in Madison Square Garden.
A short time later, across the vast United States, Fulton won in a razor-sharp decision over Brandon Figueroa after 12 brilliant innings at Las Vegas’s Park Theater. Fulton also left with the WBC super bantamweight belt along with his own WBO title. Figueroa, like Lopez, is no longer a champion. At least for the time being. Either way, these are two talented men who clearly fought a long and hard fight that evening. Mistakes have been made, yes (especially, it seems to have been on Lopez’s side), but boxing has told thousands of stories of comebacks after failed performances.
However, neither Lopez nor Figueroa see things in a mirror way. In fact, each man thought he had won his respective match. Fair enough. Emerging fighters often feel they have been short-changed by the judges. What made Saturday night’s events complicated on both sides, though, was the fact that both Lopez and Figueroa made it a point like poor losers. Instead of showing bitterness when the microphone hits their face, as Marvin Hagler did after a controversial loss to Ray Leonard, the men who lost Saturday’s main event essentially stole the microphone and the moment. these, from those who have officially acquired them.
Both Lopez and Figueroa vehemently declared that they had indeed won their duel… in a way that made it seem like their words should be on display. They also treated the post-war interviews with the winners as if they were just a sham procedure. In short, these men didn’t respect their partners enough for them to have their standout moments. Called obsolete, but such behavior should be considered unacceptable. So Lopez and Figueroa felt they were robbed. Guess what? Kambosos and Fulton are not. And they had the right to speak at the time, especially since the powers that be and the considerable number of online viewers happened to agree with them. It has been suggested that Lopez may have been a little emotional going into the match against the Kambosos. That may be true and deserves sympathy – but we all need to be reminded when we’ve had a bad look. Hopefully those closest to Lopez and Figueroa will remind both men of how fighters must act – in victory as well as in defeat.
