DE LA VEGA: TWO ERRORS LED TO AN UNNECESSARY BRUTAL KNOCKOUT
By Ed de la Vega, DDS
PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 11 Mar 2017
LOS ANGELES -- As we waited near the bar of the Belasco Theater for the TV crew to give us the signal to start walking towards the ring for the Gonzalez vs. Duno bout for the vacant WBC Youth Intercontinental Lightweight title, Team Duno was incessantly yelled at by a fan who obviously had one Tecate too many.
?You gonna lose man! Chimpa?s gonna kick your ass,? he yelled loudly and repeatedly. Of course we ignored him. Even the boxing commissioner who was tending Team Duno told us to ignore him.
In less than 4 minutes, the guy proved himself right? well partially at least.
Someone got his ass kicked, but it was his boy, Christian ?Chimpa? Gonzalez! (16-1-0, 14 KO) In the process, Gonzalez had to be taken out of the ring in a gurney by the paramedics and taken to ER of a nearby hospital.
From our perspective, the brutal knockout should not have happened.
Two errors were committed, I hope inadvertently, and it landed Chimpa at a hospital!
First error: Referee Thomas Taylor should have recognized that when Chimpa ate a huge right hand from Romero Duno (13-1-0, 12KO) shortly before the first round ended, the game was over. Gonzalez?s legs were obviously gone and his senses had been scrambled. In fact, he appeared to be really dazed and he went to the wrong corner after the bell rung.
The way Taylor did the ?count? was woefully slow. Fans standing behind us thought that he was giving Chimpa time to recover.
Taylor?s assessment method to determine if Chimpa is still okay to continue after he got up from the first knockdown was chided by the fans that thought it was unusual. ?What was he doing?? said one.
In our opinion, Taylor should have stopped the fight after the first knockdown. Many of the fans we spoke to after the fight agreed with our opinion. Even the guy that sells hotdogs at the parking lot agreed.
There was no need for Chimpa to get hurt. Take the loss and fight another day!
In fairness, Taylor must have been conscious that the 8-round fight was for a title, albeit minor, and he wanted to be sure that Chimpa was totally unable to continue before he stops the fight. Indeed, Chimpa came out for round two. That is when the second error occurred.
Second Error: No one knows Chimpa better than his corner. But that knowledge could have potentially been deadly. Thanks God it wasn?t!
Chimpa?s corner should have recognized that their boy is done. But obviously they must have felt that the first round knockdown as just a flash knockdown and he would be able to recover and maybe turn the table.
Yes, we have seen many fights happen that way.
But this one is different. Chimpa is done and they allowed him to continue perhaps unaware that Duno?s punches are deadly. The records show that!
Why they didn?t throw the towel beats me! What are they thinking?
Perhaps Chimpa?s handlers were thinking about the other fighters that Chimpa had previously fought. But, those 16 guys are light years from Duno?s power level. Just check their records!
When Chimpa came out for round two, the kid was just fighting by instinct. He did not have it anymore. He was slow in raising his hands to protect himself and his punches are almost telegraphic that Duno easily evaded them and countered them. And, they appeared to have no more steam in them.
Then the fateful second right hand punch landed squarely knocking Chimpa down as if he was hit by a baseball bat. As Marvin Somodio commented:- ?It reminded me of the Marquez punch that toppled our idol, Manny Pacquiao.?
But it was only then that Taylor decided to stop the fight. But by that time, it was too late and Chimpa stayed flat on his back in his corner for a few minutes and paramedics were needed to be called to help out and take him to the hospital for better assessment of his condition and treatment if needed.
I am one of Chimpa?s fans as I enjoyed his fights at the Belasco. There was absolutely no reason for Chimpa to suffer that brutal knockout. I only hope it does not affect his psyche and he can continue to fight. But first losses particularly those that come via a brutal knockouts are hard to forget.
Hopefully after taking the mandatory post-knockout rest, Chimpa will come roaring back and bowl over his opponents the way Duno did to him.
Incidentally, we never saw or hear from that loudmouth at the bar again.
I am betting he is crying in some corner somewhere banging his head against the wall as he counted his losses. Hey Se?or borracho, who is the loser now, huh?
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ed de la Vega, DDS.
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