Saturday in Castlebar, airing live on Ireland TG4. 8 rounds @ middleweight scheduled. ...now, I'm trying really hard to keep in perspective that Spike is coming off a brutal KO loss and this opponent was found on 4 days' notice (literally as of this same time yesterday Spike hadn't a clue for whom to be prepping) ...but yeeesh, a Hungarian? Granted, with a 26-13 (16) record and only five of those losses by stoppage - and with having gone the distance against some international competition with some modicum of name recognition (such as Daniyar Yeleussinov, Ahmed El Mousaoui, Radzhab Butaev, and Mark DeLuca) ...Görbics is effectively a legendary ATG in Hungarian boxing, and would be first ballot if they had a national hall of fame. Still, this is Spike's worst opponent in over three years, since David Toribio. For a one-off confidence builder stooping this low is fine but O'Sullivan has to swerve back into the fast lane soon if he wants to be taken seriously making one last run at contention in his prime. Görbics is as much below his level as he is below Lemieux's (never mind GGG or Canelo), possibly more.
I voted Spike, then went down to hit Cast Vote, but double clicked and made a mistake and voted for Görbics.
If he does somehow make your flub a prophetic one and spring that upset, is that automatically the greatest achievement in Hungarian boxing since (and second GOAT behind) Firebird Erdei's lineal title reign?
The nominal main event of the show - which features several unbeaten Irish prospects (and randomly one Cuban, the New York based cruiser Luis "El León" Enrique Garcia Campoalegre ) is Ray Moylette vs. Christian Fermin Uruzquieta Fragoso scheduled for 10 rounds for the vacant WBC International Silver title ...but the only reason anybody outside the Eire is likely to be tuning in will be to see how Spike looks in the first leg of his comeback.
In typical Spike fashion he'll probably win by first round KO and proceed to bad mouth Lemieux or Eubank and call for a rematch that he doesn't deserve.
I view O'Sullivan like a gatekeeper/domestic level guy, and his record shows that. He surprised a lot of people by beating Douglas, but Antoine's actual level is clearly up for debate. So I see this as a typical "get back on the horse" type of fight, for someone at O'Sullivan's level.
The Lemmy icing was beautiful. He's an entertaining chap but his fans - and he himself - are incredibly delusional about the level at which he is at. He's fortunate he got the Lemmy fight and not the GGG one a few years back. Lemmy at least made it quick
This content is protected Damn, the Squirrel is hairier than I am! (now if only he represented as much a test for Spike as I'd be )
Hi guys, Quick note on Gorbics, he has had a good deal of notice, was just added BoxRec late. Had already known for 'weeks' when I spoke to Spike on November 21st. http://www.irish-boxing.com/gary-spike-osullivan-interview/ Also, there is a free, legal, stream of the card here: https://www.tg4.ie/en/live/home/
