Darmani "Tight" Rock

Any believers in this American heavyweight, still yet to be parsed into the "contenders" or "pretenders" bin? He is 13-0 with eight kayos professionally. Standing at 6'5" and tipping scales over a very elastic spectrum (from 241 all the way up to a whopping 275½lbs in his last outing), many have drawn comparisons between him and Riddick Bowe. I think being the "poor man's Bowe" of this current era is probably the highest ceiling for which he can hope, but even to achieve that he would need to distinguish himself from Dominic Breazeale, and that's no sure thing.

He fought a couple of months ago in Philly's 2300 Arena on FaceBook FightNight Live, crushing Pedro Julio Rodríguez in four rounds. He returns to the venue on February 8th in a six-rounder, with his opponent still TBA. Here's the fight with Rodríguez:

https://www.boxingforum24.com/threa...ani-rock-vs-pedro-julio-rodríguez-rbr.616582/

Darmani, whose lifelong nickname is "Tight" (after the way he clung to his father's neck when he was a baby) and not the gimmicky & clunky "Rock Solid" tag promoters Roc Nation contrived to hang on him, is someone that heavyweight division aficionados have long discussed...but nearly as long been frustrated and disillusioned with. The natural gifts and the know-how are there - what has seemed to be missing so far, perhaps irremediably, has been the mental discipline to put it all together. For a man his size he can shoulder roll when he puts his mind to it, and has pop in both hands. In the amateurs, he was the United States' top rated super heavy as of his pro debut, and had been a national GG winner, a Youth Olympics silver medalist, a Briscoe Award (best Philadelphia boxer) winner, and had a dominant victory over Cam F. Awesome in 2015. His official, complete record has been hard to dig up, but he was 19-5 on the international tourney stage, which is nothing to sneeze at.

Fluctuating weight and the possible onset gradually of "sparring partner mentality" (having been passed around in that capacity by top American heavies since his teens) have led to a very slow crawl in the pros. I honestly don't expect the February opponent to be anyone rated even top 400 in the world - at best maybe a lateral move from Rodríguez - and for his 14th pro bout, a few months shy of his pro debut's three-year anniversary - that ain't too good.

 

I think he could be a lot better than Dominic Breazeale. If you asked me to make a gun-to-my-head prediction, though, I'd say that he probably won't go down as having as good a career as Breazeale. Neither is a pimple on prime Bowe's ass cheek, and I don't even really stan Bowe.

 

Ironically he would match up favorably against Wilder, if he were to make that colossally abrupt leap up in class. I'd give him a very high chance of scoring a fluke KO and snatching the green belt.

Snowball's chance in hell that Wilder ever takes such a fight, though - and there are dozens of guys between them in the rankings that Wilder probably would flatten, that Rock might currently struggle with. Styles make fights.

 

I mean, that's okay, Oscar De La Hoya is still widely respected (as a fighter, if not as a promoter) and he shat himself in front of the whole world.

 

I did qualify as a fighter...