Maybe the title sponsor should have been a tipoff for boxing fans.
"Ripley's Believe It Or Not" is all about freak shows, about trickeration and about disappearing acts.
So why is anyone surprised that the Chadwick Dawson-Bernard Hopkins light heavyweight title fright was just that Saturday night in Los Angeles, a carnival act which ended when Hopkins looked like he was trying to have jailhouse sex, practically mounting the taller Dawson.
Distrubed by the 46 year old BHop trying to ride his back like he was a 175 pound donkey, the 17 years younger man slammed the elderly fellow from Philadelphia to the ring mat.
BHop may or may not have banged his 46 year old shoulder on the canvas.
But then referee Pat Russell added his own malfeasance, quickly ruling that Dawson was the winner by TKO in the second round of a fight that never should have been put on pay per view (pay per phew?) in the first place.
Instead of giving the grimacing, hoping for an Academy Award nomination BHop five minutes to recover, as a referee normally does in the event of a low blow, the fomer San Diego Police detective called a halt.
On second thought, maybe no one should be mad at Russell. It would have been criminal to make us suckers watch 10 more rounds of this dismal matchup.
Had Russell given BHop five minutes to recover and, if then Hopsack decided not to continue, no one could blame the referee for calling a halt to the bout.
What figures to happen now is a big legal to do with a commission hearing and maybe a lawsuit or two.
What should happen is the declaration of a no contest unless boxing now allows a fighter to win a world title with a football tackle.
Give Ripley's full credit. They know freak shows, they paid for a freak show and they got one.
That's smart sponsorship, I would say.
(mlcmarley@aol.com)
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