One Hit Can Be Wonderful

By:  | Posted: Saturday, June 7th, 2008 at 12:44 am.

One Hit Can Be Wonderful

ONE punch is sometimes all it takes for an outsider to upset the odds.

Iran Barkley, one of the meanest fighters in the history of the sport, would be the first to confirm that. 

The Bronx warrior was a big underdog when he landed a right hand out of the blue to shock the legendary Thomas Hearns in Las Vegas 20 years ago this weekend.

The punch earned Barkley the WBC middleweight title, one of two championships that little-known Welshman Gary Lockett will be trying to tear away from Kelly Pavlik in Atlantic City in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Although he has failed to deliver on his early promise, Lockett is one of the biggest single hitters in British boxing. That gives him a chance even though Pavlik is the first genuine world-class fighter he has faced.

Lockett is dead right when he says he is in a no-lose situation. If he gets outclassed by Pavlik, it’s the result everyone expects. If he wins or even goes down fighting, his stock rises immeasurably.

For any underdog to stand a chance, it helps if the favourite underestimates him. From what I’ve been hearing, Pavlik is taking the fight as seriously as all the rest. But, at the back of his mind, the champion must be thinking that Lockett is not in his class.

That could just give Lockett the glimmer of hope he needs.

Barkley was certainly not in Hearns’ class when they met at the Las Vegas Hilton Hotel on June 6, 1988. But that didn’t matter. Barkley, cut badly and behind on the scorecards, unleashed a right-hander in the third round that toppled Hearns back into the ropes, almost in slow motion. Hearns got up but was glassy-eyed and Barkley, sensing he was on the brink of a huge upset, moved in to finish the fight.

If that sort of thing can happen to Hearns, it can happen to anybody.

Pavlik has gone down in the past but nobody has managed to keep him there. That’s because Pavlik is a fighter of great resolve and always comes back to win.

But if Lockett lands his big left hook, a punch that has accounted for many of his 21 KOs, it will be interesting to watch Pavlik’s reaction.

Barkley, who is now 48, has another British link. Two years after crunching Hearns, he got bombed himself by WBO champ Nigel Benn in an explosive one-rounder at Bally’s casino in Vegas.

But as another UK fighter tries to make his name in America, the 20th anniversary of Barkley’s victory over Hearns reminds us that in boxing, absolutely anything can happen.

CATEGORIES:Editorial