The long-contending Palestinian-American may have reached the end of the road. In a rematch with the 10-4-1 Garrett Wilson - who he knocked out in the 4th round a year ago, after having been outboxed early - he lost a very wide (near-shutout) unanimous decision. His losing effort against Adrian Diaconu back in October had the look of a last gasp, as he was able to hurt and drop the Shark early but went on to get severely outclassed by someone who isn't exactly a master boxer. That pretty much nutshells these latter stages of Sheika's career: still powerful and determined (at first) but can't put it together and lacks the speed, skill or volume to make his power really matter against anyone with a pulse. This loss to Wilson has to be the nail in the coffin. It seems very strange for a fighter to be so washed up at only 34, but two decades in the game will do that to you - especially when you were never a technician or defensive artist to begin with. Thanks for all the punches, thrown and taken. :good Enjoy your hopefully impending retirement.
Good Luck. Too bad. He had nice talent but he only fought half of every round. I like watching him fight
Yep , he is done . He dropped Diaconu but Adrian wasn't really hurt , came back right away , it was possible the only round he lost too . Losing such a wide UD yesterday against a nobody whom he knocked out just a year ago is a sign to hang em up .
My fondest memory of him is the Scott Pemberton fights. Went to Hooters only twice with some college buddies and each time there was the Sheika/Pemberton on ESPN. Buffalo wings, exciting boxing and a chunky Filipino girl with huge knockers flirting with ya. Good times.
I don't get the thread. Seems premature if Sheika himself hasn't announced his retirment yet... I had no idea he was still fighting though. Prety sad really.
I remember watching this guy on USA Tuesday night fights at the very beginning of his career. He was an exciting fighter.
What don't you get? The sentiment is that he should retire, if he's now losing shutouts to guys like Wilson. It will be very sad to read about him fighting again (and reading about it will be the only way we find out...he is done on TV). If ever there was a symbol of "the ship has sailed", it's this loss. It isn't like Wilson is some undiscovered diamond in the rough whose record doesn't reflect his ability, either. If you watch their first meeting from last year, Wilson was hustling him and using minimal boxing skill to frustrate him before getting caught with that big power. Maybe he'll even stumble across the thread if he Googles himself and see that fans are grateful for his efforts over the years but don't want to see him get abused any more like so many others.
