It's a well known tale in many sports that if you lapse in concentration or 'take your eye off the ball,' it could make all the difference between victory and defeat. The same rule applies to boxing and no matter how great or small you are, your world could come crashing down around you because of that one bad day at the office.

On Saturday evening I sat and watched WBA Light welterweight Champion Junior Witter get dropped en route to an unexpected decision loss to overlooked Californian challenger Timothy Bradley. Bradley's overhand right was the insult added to an overconfident and unfocussed Witter, who now has to digest the facts that the illustrious Hatton match is about as far away as his senses were once Bradley landed a lip buttoner on him. After the fight, Bradley praised Jesus along with the deposed ex-champ  himself for his victory stating that every time Witter was in a press conference or conference call he was talking about Hatton this and Hatton that, looking completely beyond the undervalued new champ.

"Once they talk like that, you are in a very dangerous place, completely disregarding all around you like they don't exist," said Bradley.

Timothy came in incredible shape and made it known that he had trained with Witter in mind for as long as he could  remember; understanding that at some point if he kept winning, he would inevitably face the now ex-champion.

This is not a solitary tale though, I remember in the mid-eighties, while waiting for the TV networks and 'alphabet boys'  to iron out cash issues, WBC heavyweight champion Larry Holmes was looking too far ahead towards the dollars a Gerry Cooney fight might generate, that his time filler against NY hitter Renaldo Snipes was a mere pimple on his horizon, and the fight billed as 'Imminent Danger,' was exactly as it suggested...

Snipes almost pulled the rug from under Holmes' rose tinted path to glory by dropping an unfocussed and off the ball champ and grabbing his title and Cooney fight himself, It was only due to a late wake up call and reality check from Ritchie Giachetti that Holmes rallied and stopped a game Snipes in the closing sessions in what was deemed by many as a very political premature call, to "save the multi-million dollar Cooney episode."

In 1990 there was only one thing on Mike Tyson's mind, Evander Holyfield. So much so that on a routine trip to Tokyo,  Iron Mike looked through James Douglas as if he were a pane of glass, but when the pane of glass smashed his mythical ass, he too learned the same valuable lesson.

Lennox Lewis also proved how even the best of us can be guilty, especially when you are fast becoming bored, without stimulus. In 1994, a too relaxed Lewis announced his mandatory WBC defence against Oliver McCall to be his last UK appearance before he would mount his ego-fuelled assault on the United States. Oops... Desperate and dangerous Oliver didn't quite like the script and laid it to rest in less time than it takes to say 'I told you so,' spoiling the going away party royally with a scorn fuelled fist.

It is an age old tale, you allow yourself to look past your next hurdle and you'll find yourself on a very unstable passage. Be warned, take your eye off the ball and you are destined for an extremely heavy fall.  I rest my case.
 

Questions? Comments? Write Stephen Jones

5-14-2008