Oscar did take a dive, but there was no fix in. That was just his own version of ear biting. He did some good work early, then starting getting beat up and saw the inevitable beatdown coming if he didn't get his ass outta there somehow.
And who can forget this one... [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9X2wPWMURJ4"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9X2wPWMURJ4[/ame]
Dont know if it was fixed or not but it sure looks like he took a dive in this one. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-sQ_xN8-Ro"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-sQ_xN8-Ro[/ame]
Agree with that. But Oscar is such a bad actor, i mean when did you ever seen a guy getting dropped by a bodyshot start punching the canvas. usually when you're hurt by a shot to the body you cant even move.
Not true. I've actually seen several legitimate body shot KO's lately watching Friday Night Fights and other shows where someone bangs the canvas.
I suspect not too many of us on this board want a real answer to this question. When I was boxing at the Indy PAL as a teenager, I once asked Champ Chaney after watching Tom Prater absolutely school an undefeated local heavyweight in sparring how he had recently lost several fights in a row. He pointed to a giant poster from the Mercado-Prater fight in Columbia that was hanging up behind us and then proceeded to "educate" me on the boxing business. The gist of what he said is that Prater tanked the Mercado fight because Prater knew he couldn't beat Cooney or Holmes and would never get a second shot at either and could make a helluva lot more money losing to top-10 guys regularly than if he beat one and then couldn't cash in and get any fights afterwards. He said Prater outboxed Mercado for "6 or 7" rounds and then "made it look good" by going down and out in the last round. Is this a "fixed" fight if the account is true? Technically not, but it may be an example of a prearranged result that is way more common than any of us would like to admit even if it is an unspoken/subtle "fix" based on understood economics of future fights rather than a direct envelope full of payola from someone named Blinky.
I agree that "fixed" to some degree can be in the eye of the beholder. I think there can be a difference between a fight being fixed and someone taking a dive -- a fix could involve buying judges or the ref, or paying/persuading a fighter to take a dive. But a guy can take a dive for his own reasons: I don't think Bruce Seldon took a dive against Mike Tyson, I think he had an anxiety attack and went down from the fear of punches rather than the effect of them, same as he did against Bowe. The Prater example, if true, wouldn't meet my definition of a fix. And if true, Prater wasn't too smart -- regardless of if he thought he could beat Cooney or Holmes, the next payday after beating Mercardo, whether against a champ or a contender, would be a lot bigger than the next payday after a loss. Interestingly, I don't see a lot of people mentioning fights with bad decisions as being ones they thought were fixed. So maybe the knowing coves of ESB don't believe judges are bought. But I sometimes have my doubts.
As I recall there was a report that Eugena Williams (Lewis-Holyfield judge who gave the fight to Holyfield by an absurd margin) had a family member who had $30,000 deposited in their bank account. Like a sister or something. The story floated around for about a week and then never heard another word about it. Saw her judging a fight fairly recently too. Despicable. :verysad
I believe the Valuev Vs. Haye fight was rigged to 'spice' up the HW division albeit for a short amount of time.
If Emanuel Burton took a dive five seconds before the end of the 12th and last round, he is too stupid to enter a boxing ring. Woller
Good post. :good Professional boxing is full of guys who deliberately lose matches, make a career out of it, or end up going that way. Being a struggling "finge contender" who can't get fights is the most soul-destroying position in boxing's pecking order, so they end up losing the ambition and tanking fights. It's always gone on in boxing.