Hype and Schadenfreude

People who pick the outsider every time, then dine out on it when they get it right for the first time in 20 attempts. They'd rather be right twice a day than try to understand why they enjoy being a broken clock.

 

It’s kinda funny how the previous 19 faceplants get ignored when they finally get their parade.
I expect this same jackassery should Bam lose to Inoue, since he should have lost his last 5 fights according to their expertise leading up to the fights. Inoue is going to expose him.

 

This is kind of different though because the odds were stupid and Itauma was completely unproven at world level. But I get your point and that kind of attitude is grating.

 

You offer an opinion on anything and you're metaphorically inviting one on the chin - if you're not willing to take the punches, you stay out of the ring... And there's plenty of "lurkers" on any given forum.

Hype is ultimately the desire to get ahead of the curve - it's an emotional investment in being "right" before the proofs in... And sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you don't.

 

An inexperienced 21 year old prospect losing to a former Olympian athlete in his professional prime is no shame, regardless of the hype surrounding the kid. Won every round, showed he could take a good shot and that there was no quit in him.. that’ll do for me in a losing effort. All about the rebuild and second phase now..

 

Not so much that, IMHO...

It's more that lots of boxing fans have an unshakeable belief that a fighter is world level, unbeatable, a future champion, etc - long, long before there's any evidence that they can perform at anything like that level...

A lot of boxing fans hype fighters HARD based on "the eye test" against lower level and/or shot fighters, and project certainty that the level of opponent is irrelevant...
Hyped fighter steps up slightly and wins? SEE, HE REALLY IS IT!!!
And how dare anyone point out that stopping a durable journeyman doesn't guarantee anything at gatekeeper level, let alone contender level.

Ultimately, very few are willing to just follow the fighters they like without jumping the gun on how good they might be - a minority will wait for the evidence and/or encourage caution about premature hype... And be roundly accused of not knowing boxing because they can't SEE what's not evidenced enough to know.

And the biggest hype trains getting stopped at completely unexpected moments can certainly provoke schadenfreude in those of us who take that more measured approach... And yeah, we're going to take a bit of pleasure in seeing a narrative fall apart when we take so much **** from true believers right up until that moment.

But it's fine, they'll find the next hype train to hitch their wagon to (and the IMHO OTT takes on Hrgovic right now might not last long), and we'll start all over again.

No harm, no foul.