We were on the verge of getting a complete HBO Tshabalala hype machine barrage when he got knocked out by Brian Scott — who had previously been fed to Jorge Luis Gonzalez and Tommy Morrison as a quick-KO victim. They strategically placed Tshabalala on some HBO undercard where they’d work in the highlight-reel KO and talk about him a bit and I think he was a win or two away from being featured on the network as the ‘next big thing.’ He kinda got exposed with a split decision win over 7-9 Tim Noble on the Lewis-Mercer undercard but I think they kind of swept that under the rug. But Courage was nothing but a crude puncher so it was just a matter of time.
I think he even got a Ring magazine cover at one point (I might be wrong there). He sure got a lot of hype for someone who never even reached championship level in his entire career.
Yeah, Kellerman calling him Pernell Whitaker with a punch is obscene hype. I noticed that a lot of New York-based commentators had a tendency to overhype guys from their neck of the woods. I remember Larry Merchant saying that he thought Bronx-borne Jeffrey Resto was going to be the best 140-pounder when he was coming up alongside Cotto, Hatton, Abdullaev, Harris, etc. Speaking of Harris, he is another New Yorker who acquired a fair bit of hype.
McVey, I almost hate to use 'hype job' about Matthews career as much as I would say he was simply steered wrong by his carnival-barker manager. I think there was talent there but he should never have been fighting at heavy. He was just too damn small. He was almost always at a deficit, but Jack Hurley knew this was where the money was. We'll clearly never know how good he could have been at light heavy. I'll agree on 'hype-job at heavy'.
I predict that Garcia wins like three or four rounds and then folds once Tank times him and closes the distance. In the aftermath, the Boxing24 dialogue will continue to claim that Tank is protected and completely discredit Garcia.
