(credit: Esther Lin, Showtime)

Boxing makes fools of us, again and again. Like most everyone, I was convinced that Erislandy Lara-Alfredo Angulo would be a sad, one-sided beatdown by the crafty Lara of the paleolithic and shopworn Angulo. Like most everyone, I thought the sublimely talented Chad Dawson would have too much sublime talent for the power-punching but untested Adonis Stevenson, although I wasn't quite as convinced as most. Then Angulo, despite a loss resulting from his already excessively prominent brow swelling to grotesque proportions, went and made it a surprisingly even fight for 10 rounds. And Stevenson only needed a little more than a minute to finish off Dawson.

It's OK. If the price of feeling stupid is getting drama like we got this past weekend, I'll take the trade. Hell, it's downright necessary sometimes. A back-and-forth fight like Lara-Angulo would be enjoyable even in a vacuum, but the surprise of it was half the thrill.

Patrick Connor already hit you with live weekend coverage of the card in Carson, Calif., and I hit you with some of the rest. Here are some Weekend Afterthoughts on some of that and a few things besides.

(Marcos Maidana, left, Josesito Lopez, right; credit: Esther Lin, Showtime)

CARSON, Calif. -- Onlookers seeking to study the art of warfare with a keen eye should have paid close attention to what Marcos Maidana and Josesito Lopez pulled off at the Home Depot Center.

Apparently there's just something about the venue -- newly christened the StubHub Center -- that rouses the inner demon in your average pugilist, though you may not want to regard neither Maidana nor Lopez as "your average pugilist."

Six rounds were required to tell us who these men are, but only Marcos Maidana hovered atop the blood stains by way of 6th round technical knockout.

The co-feature between Erislandy Lara and Alfredo Angulo offered thrills and spills of its own, though with a semi-controversial outcome as Angulo bowed out due to what looked to be a severe eye injury.

(Jun 8, 2013; Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Adonis Stevenson [gold/yellow] celebrates after knocking out Chad Dawson [not pictured] during the first round of their light heavyweight championship bout at the Bell Centre. Mandatory Credit: Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports)

Whoa. That happened. Adonis Stevenson scored a massive upset on HBO Saturday night, and did it in a jaw-dropping fashion, when he stopped light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson with one shotgun left hand in the very 1st round.

There were some who thought Stevenson had a chance. There were more who thought Dawson, one of the best talents of the past five years or so, would have no trouble at all. Nobody thought Stevenson would put his lights out in the 1st round. And maybe that's not entirely accurate, because Dawson somehow rose for the count. But he didn't have his wits about him, and the ref could see he was in no shape to continue*, and the stoppage was justified, despite the complaints from the Dawson camp afterward.

You do have to ask if Dawson was damaged goods coming in after a failed experiment at 168 against Andre Ward, a la the Roy Jones weight-shifting that probably helped set up his knockout loss to Antonio Tarver in their rematch. Dawson took some heavy punishment from Ward at the lighter weight. On the other hand, it just might be that Stevenson, a huge puncher at 168, carried some of his power up and then some when he arrived at 175. But Dawson's future is very much in doubt; many were already clamoring for his exile from HBO, and if he's not winning, I'm not sure what point is left to airing his bouts.

I wouldn't go so far as ring announcer Michael Buffer in heralding Stevenson as a "superstar," but he's definitely a player at 168 and 175 now, as HBO's Ward suggested. I like the idea of him taking on the winner of Jean Pascal-Lucian Bute in a kind of Canadian tournament. Stevenson said he'd want Ward or Bernard Hopkins. I know I can watch any guy who only needs three punches to become the lineal light heavyweight champion of the world.

On the undercard, Yuriorkis Gamboa did himself no favors with a unanimous decision win over Darley Perez. HBO's team was convinced that Gamboa was a confused fighter, but that's not how I see it. He's a fighter who, at 126 and somewhat at 130, could knock out people or at least drop them with spectacular ease. He's the same guy, but in a new neighborhood now. At 135, he had to cuff Perez around the back of the head in the 1st to score a feeble semi-knockdown. He dominated the early part of the fight with his unorthodox movement and speed, aided by Perez barely throwing any punches. But late in the fight, Perez ratcheted up the volume and began to time Gamboa, who no longer could hurt Perez and in fact had trouble finding him. Gamboa, who apparently told HBO that he took some substance or the other from Biogenesis but didn't know if was illegal or not, has, between that incident and his long layoff and promoter switcheroo and now an increasing tendency toward lackluster fights, has left fans with no reason to care about him anymore.

For a while, it looked like top cruiserweight Marco Huck was finally going to win an easy one Saturday against his two-time rival Ola Afolabi. This being a Huck-Afolabi fight, though, it was fated to end up close, so it did. But there is no drama after their rubber match, nobody wondering whether Huck got a hometown gift unanimous decision or draw in Germany. The majority decision was fair in a bout where one man controlled the action early and the other couldn't catch up late.

Huck was the one who started so solidly. It was an outstanding performance through eight rounds -- he was beating Afolabi to the punch, firing combinations down the middle and around Afolabi's gloves and landing flush, none of that ragged stuff. I had it 7-1 through eight. Afolabi was working the body better than he was doing anything else, and maybe that set up Huck's late fade, but overall he looked sluggish or cautious, like he was not as fresh as his younger opponent after their two wars or was hoping to avoid being gassed late like last time.

Eventually, Huck began to tire, and Afolabi, who fought in a fairly conventional style by his usual herky-jerky standard, began showing some of his improvisational, hands-down, punch-slipping flair. He actually swept the final rounds on my card, including the brawling 10th, the one round that most resembled the kind of action we'd come to expect from these two, not that this one sucked. It was enough to get Afolabi the draw on one card, but the other two judges saw it 115-113 and 117-111. With a lot of rounds on the table, all of those were viable scorecards. But this time, there was no real dispute about who won, and it was Huck, who was terrific early and bad late.

That ought to settle it for this pairing, then. As it happens, there are some very good fights for both men in the cruiserweight division, still. It's too bad that one of them isn't likely to happen, though, because Huck and #2-rated Yoan Pablo Hernandez share the same trainer, Ulli Wegner. As a result, the Germans' wonderful word for "world champion," weltmeister, isn't likely to apply to Huck in the undisputed, lineal sense until Hernandez slips, one guy leaves Wegner's stable or Krzysztof Wlodarczyk otherwise leapfrogs Hernandez. For now, we'll have to settle for Huck in more frustratingly close but fun bouts against the likes of Guillermo Jones or Troy Ross or someone like that. It doesn't sound like a bad consolation. Huck is only 28. He's still got something left in the tank, we can now conclude, after questions about that coming into this trilogy bout.

(An emotional Nick Brinson responds to the announcement of his big win; credit: Tom Casino, Showtime)

Nick Brinson, a late substitute who had to lose around 17 pounds in 10 days to get on ShoBox Friday night, fought anything like the prototypical late substitute in a revelatory performance against big punching junior middleweight prospect Jorge Melendez. And he overcame massive adversity to do it: He was nearly knocked out in the 4th round, a Round of the Year candidate, and was badly hurt by some rabbit punches in the late rounds. But he got the big unanimous decision with an eye-opening showing.

Melendez is a knockout-or-get-knocked-out sort, so maybe it shouldn't have been too shocking that he got outboxed. But Brinson did serious damage right from the start, aided in part by being a little naturally bigger; Melendez weighed 157, Brinson 158. Melendez's face showed how worried he was right away. He couldn't find the target, and he was getting hit super-hard when he missed. He finally closed some distance and got himself in the fight in the 3rd, but even then Brinson was tagging him. Then came the epic 4th: Brinson dropped Melendez with a left/right combo, and though he was not badly hurt, it wouldn't be too much longer before Brinson was stiffening Melendez with big shots after he got up. Then, with just about 15 second left in the round, Melendez threw a beautiful short left that nearly had Brinson out on his feet, hit him flush a few more times and forced the ref to call a knockdown because the ropes were holding him up. It's amazing Brinson wasn't stopped right there, but he survived the round.

And he got right back to business. The remaining rounds, Brinson kept the fight in the center of the ring to outbox Melendez, outwork him and do more damage. The pattern was disrupted in a wild 9th, when Brinson endured some big punches behind the head. At first, it looked like he was leaning into Melendez just as he was throwing punches, but they clearly took their toll. The ring doctor examined Brinson, who didn't appear to want to continue until the ref told him that he would suffer a technical knockout as a result of not being able to continue due to an accidental foul if he couldn't. That rule strikes me as a bad one, if it's true -- it seems to occupy a netherzone in the rules, state or otherwise. And I'm not sure why the ref deducted a point from Melendez if he thought it was accidental. Either way, Brinson vowed to fight on and things got heated by the end of the round. Brinson appeared to head butt Melendez, and the two exchanged words after the bell, prompting both corners to run in and grab their men, with one Brinson cornerman briefly going after Melendez and inspiring Melendez to nearly get into a fight with that dude. The 10th was also wild and frisky.

In the end Brinson held on for the unanimous decision: 96-92, 98-91, 99-90. I gave Melendez three rounds, and the 4th was one of them, a 10-9 round because of the harder knockdown. It was an upset win for Brinson, who looked very good for a fighter with an undistinguished 14-1-2 record. Melendez looked like who he is: a puncher, but not a lot more.

Another Miguel Cotto-promoted fighter also struggled on the undercard, but got the decision anyway. I thought lightweight Jeffrey Fontanez deserved to lose by one point on the scorecards, but he got a split decision, with one judge seeing it my way for Jose Rodriguez and the other judges seeing it 77-74 and 78-73 for Fontanez. Fontanez definitely won the early rounds, but over the back half of the fight, Rodriguez began finding Fontanez as he tired (for his second consecutive bout). He even dropped Fontanez in the 7th with a right hand. Fontanez might only be 20 years old but I'm ready to move him from "prospect" to "pretender." At least Melendez has his uses -- he'll make exciting fights, win or lose. Fontanez is immensely unlikable, doing annoying things like throwing wild left uppercuts from range no matter how often he misses, or running the whole 8th and making shrugging motions every time Rodriguez did anything. It was a lackluster fight, and Fontanez was the only reason why.

I tried to record ESPN2's Friday Night Fights, but they moved it around from channel to channel so many times I don't know how much of the fights I recorded. Just know that former lightweight contender John Molina lost a decision to undefeated Andrey Klimov and super middleweight Farah Ennis won a decision over Anthony Hanshaw.

What to do with Chad Dawson? The light heavyweight champion is among the most athletic boxers in the world,  a troublesome southpaw who isn't afraid to fight anyone and also happens to be adroit when it comes to the finer technical points of the sport. He also is a flake who sheds trainers like a chicken molting twice a year, can't make up his mind whether HBO screwed him over on a 168-pound limit for his his last bout against Andre Ward, fails to enthuse a great many fans and sometimes fights like he isn't even enthused about himself.

HBO's answer to the question of what to do with Dawson Saturday is to throw him in with Adonis Stevenson, one of the sport's purest punchers. It's a pretty good answer. It's hard for boxing's power players to turn their backs on a talent like Dawson, no matter how baffling that talent is; yes, HBO owed Dawson this fight contractually, but if he wins I expect him back on one of the big networks in no time. And if he loses? America gets a big-stage introduction to Stevenson (and his disturbing past) on his home soil in Canada, where Montreal is known to be electric for any big fights, even already once before for a Dawson fight.

I'm somewhat inclined to think HBO is semi-punting here with Dawson as a headliner in a contractually owed bout since it's going head-to-head with a very good Showtime card. The appearance on the undercard of lightweight Yuriorkis Gamboa, another sensationally talented boxer who has had his share of flaky moments, could on one level herald that punting, or it could show that HBO is trying to bolster the card -- so confused are fans about what to think of Gamboa these days, a boxer who is 50 Cent promoted and therefore doesn't neatly fit into the network's allegiance with Top Rank. Gamboa, too, still wears the scarlet letter of being affiliated with Biogenesis, the "anti-aging clinic" that has Major League Baseball players in hot water for suspected performance enhancing drug usage.

(An aside about Gamboa: This week I contacted his manager, Tony Gonzalez, via e-mail to inquire about how Gamboa ended up in the infamous Biogenesis notebook with a prescription for a PED regimen, the extent of the Gamboa connections to Biogenesis, etc., citing the fact that Gamboa's team has not apparently commented on this matter since January, and even then only very passingly -- and that the silence is being taken in some quarters for guilt. Gonzalez answered: "Please refer to all the interviews that Mr. Gamboa has given this week in which he addresses the matter. He has been anything but silent." He did not respond to my follow-up questions about where those interviews appeared. I consume boxing news voraciously and have seen nothing, and I've asked everyone I can if they've seen these interviews, and no one has. As dissembling goes, avoiding answering questions by citing interviews that do not seem to exist is ballsy, and, by the way, does nothing to assuage the image of impropriety.)

Ultimately, HBO has ended up with a pretty good card as far as the in-ring product goes. Now it's just a question of which Dawson shows up, and what Stevenson can do with him.

(September 8, 2012; Oakland, CA, USA; Andre Ward [red gloves] fights Chad Dawson [blue gloves] during the super middleweight championship at ORACLE Arena. Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports)

Underachievement is an emotive word in boxing, perhaps more so than in any other sport. After all, how exactly do you tell a guy he hasn’t tried hard enough when he’s just spent 48 minutes trapped in the ring opposite someone schooled since childhood in the art of punching others in the face? It is a pastime that, on many occasions, demands more of from its participants than is either reasonable, realistic, or even within the realms of possibility. There is, for example, no other sport where an athlete would be expected to soldier on with a broken hand or shattered jaw, let alone criticised for failing to do so. 

Accordingly, things quite often boil down to a battle of wills when inside the ropes, with two opposing warriors almost transported outside their bodies, so entirely submerged in pain are they, and onto another plain entirely. It’s a brutal, lonely occupation -- despite the modern fighters proclivity for bombast and an entourage the size of a private army -- one with no room for ducking behind teammates or shirking responsibility. There’s nowhere to hide in the ring, so the tired cliche goes, but there’s really no finer way of putting it.

I suppose throughout history it has always boiled down to the fact that the whole spectacle is underpinned by a subconscious demand. A demand buried deep inside the audience. One that many don’t like to acknowledge, yet one that states its truth unequivocally. When we frequently trumpet the fighters who show no quit in the ring, who never give up and instinctively seek to fire back when hurt, all we are really doing is putting an acceptable face on the eternal unwritten demand posited by all spectators whenever two athletes do battle. The dictum is as old as the game itself -- the one which states that, should it come to it, each and every boxer must be willing to die in the ring. 

Now, some subsections of the boxing public are more vocal about this than others. In parts of Latin America, for example, willingness to sacrifice oneself is a trait lionised to the extent that those in which it is found to be lacking become pariahs virtually overnight. Think Roberto Duran after his infamous “no mas” outburst, or more recently the way Miguel Cotto has been demonised within certain circles for explicitly stating that he is not willing to risk his health for the sport. I believe in Britain we approach this troublesome point it in a quintessentially English way, with spectators paying lip service to the notion of protecting the fighters and avoiding any unnecessary barbarity, while simultaneously peeping through their fingers and relishing every second.

With that bloodthirsty caveat in mind, perceived underachievement in boxing can take many forms -- from extracurricular activities leaving fighters distracted and lacking dedication, to promotional disputes and financial difficulties derailing career-making fights from ever getting made. Eventually, history has a way of tarring those who could have achieved more in their careers with the same brush, whether or not it was in or out of their hands.  Accordingly, I’ve selected five fighters below who, for reasons almost completely distinct from one another, never quite hit the heights they should have. Two of them fight this weekend. The last one no longer fights at all.

[UPDATE: CONTEST CLOSED. WE HAVE A WINNER, WHOSE NAME WE'LL ANNOUNCE ONCE WE RECEIVE PERMISSION TO DO SO. THANKS, ALL, FOR ENTERING!]

 

It's been a while since we've had a giveaway to our readers, and our friends over at Ringside have stepped up to the plate in a big way to help us correct that.
 

On the table: a snazzy pair of Invicto boxing gloves valued at $139.99.
 

Ringside tells us that "the glove we are giving away is part of a new line of equipment we are introducing -- Invicto. It's a line made in Mexico and is highly coveted within the competitive athlete segment of our market (professionals and amateurs with Olympic aspirations).  It will compete in quality and price with other well known Mexican made brands such as Reyes and Grant."
 

So what do you have to do to get them? Easy. Just sign up for a newsletter via Ringside. The winner will be announced one week from today.

Like miniature chocolates laced with chili powder, Marcos Maidana and Josesito Lopez are recognizably one thing and don't need to be anything other than what they are -- because who doesn't like chocolates and brawlers? -- but they have added a touch of something else to make themselves all the zestier. In their purest brawling forms, Maidana and Lopez, fighting one another Saturday on Showtime, made exciting fights. In their slightly more evolved forms, they have made exciting fights that added a drop of something more sophisticated, and all the better.

Both Maidana and Lopez have been quite blunt about their intentions for this weekend: They are going to try to punch the living shit out of each other. Lopez, smarter against Victor Ortiz a couple fights ago than in any previous fight of his career en route to the best win of his life, says he knows he needs to be smarter than Maidana too, but explicitly has acknowledged that there's no chance he's going to turn into a fancy Dan overnight. Maidana, under the tutelage of trainer Robert Garcia, has added a jab into his arsenal (gasp!) but has also been clear about how he intends to win the fight -- pressure, unrelenting pressure.

That mixture of almost entirely pure action fighters, each spiced with just a touch of nuance, is more than enough to make Lopez-Maidana one of the best match-ups of 2013.

The most talked about issue in elite sport right now is head trauma. There’s no question. Sports the world over are struggling to deal with research that shows the dramatic long term effects of even minor brain injuries.

In the US, American football and ice hockey have implemented rule changes to try and minimise concussions. In the rest of the world, rugby league, rugby union, Australian rules and even soccer are grappling with the same problem. All fear a flight of children from sports with negative long term health effects.

Then there’s boxing – a sport in which the target is your opponent’s brain. The short- and long-term ill effects are well known.

I find myself wondering, would I let a child of mine box? Would I encourage them? If not, does that make me a hypocrite if boxing is my favourite sport?