IN the States, they have an expression for it: Front runner. A fighter who starts fast, then fades.
We’ve seen this in a number of fights over the years, fights where a boxer has it all his own way early but can’t maintain the momentum.
There was a classic front-runner fight in Nigeria last week when Marcus Browne dominated with slick moves and hand speed for three rounds against Brandon Glanton, only to wilt and eventually retire in his corner after six rounds.
Glanton didn’t have Browne’s talent, but he was stronger and more tenacious. Browne couldn’t keep Glanton off him and seemed broken mentally as much as physically.
A few years ago, it seemed that Willy Hutchinson might fall into the front-runner category.
I’m thinking of Hutchinson’s fight with the more seasoned Lennox Clarke for the British and Commonwealth super-middle titles in 2021, when an early onslaught didn’t pay off.
Hutchinson was dynamic in the first few rounds. He seemed to have Clarke in real trouble in the second round. But Clarke survived and came on strongly. By the fifth round, Hutchinson was running on empty and the referee rescued him.
However, Hutchinson learned from that fight. It taught him the value of pacing himself and not trying to do too much, too soon. We saw the improvement in Hutchinson’s 12-round decision win over Craig Richards and again when he stopped Mark Jeffers in the seventh round last week. These were mature, disciplined performances.
It would be a reach to say that running out of gas against Clarke was the best thing that could have happened to Hutchinson, but it was a learning experience for sure and it’s made him a better fighter.
Josh Kelly is another fighter who learned the folly of emptying the clip when shooting for an early ending.
Kelly looked like a million dollars in the first few rounds against David Avanesyan, but it all went wrong when the tough Armenian stayed with him and rallied. By the sixth round, Kelly had nothing left.
It was a demoralising defeat, but Kelly, like Hutchinson, went back to the drawing board and returned a better fighter.
There were no problems with staying power when Kelly later outboxed physically imposing fighters Troy Williamson and Ishmael Davis over the 12-round distance.
David Haye, too, needed to make adjustments after a fast start, fade-to-black type of setback.
Haye was explosive early against Carl Thompson in 2004, which was televised on BBC One.
Indeed, the ‘Hayemaker’ was landing so heavily, so easily, that commentator Jim Neilly remarked after the opening round that Thompson’s corner “must be desperately concerned”.
But by the end of round two, Haye was starting to slow down perceptibly.
“Haye is blowing a little bit, I’m amazed to say,” ringside analyst Duke McKenzie noted as the second round drew to a close.
By the fifth, it was Thompson who was putting on the pressure and handing out the heavy hits. Haye suffered a knockdown and was virtually defenceless when the fight was stopped.
Looking back on my notes from that fight, I had jotted down: “Haye looks the classic ‘great when he’s on top’ fighter.”
But Haye picked himself up, dusted himself off and, of course, came back better than ever.
I believe Haye and his team made the conscious decision to put aggression on hold in his 12-rounder against Ismail Abdoul, a boxer from Belgium noted for durability.
Haye didn’t go looking for a KO that night. He boxed within himself and won comfortably, although the Sky Sports commentators found the performance disappointing.
“Too one-paced from start to finish,” as Jim Watt put it.
But, psychologically, going 12 rounds easily was probably good for Haye, who subsequently showed no problems in the staying-power department in his gruelling European title TKO win over rugged Giacobbe Fragomeni and in world title successes at cruiser and heavy.
Other fights that fall into the front-runner category would include Fres Oquendo against David Tua and Acelino Freitas’ bout with Diego Corrales.
Oquendo moved nicely and picked up points with nifty boxing skills against the dangerous but slower Tua. But I remember thinking, as I watched that heavyweight fight, that it would be very difficult for Oquendo to keep boxing a perfect fight for all 12 rounds.
It was a mental thing for Oquendo as much as it was physical.
Even though Oquendo was winning the rounds, one could sense that Tua was getting closer.
My notes at the time: “Whenever Tua throws a shot it has ‘goodnight’ written all over it.”
And finally, in the ninth round, Tua landed the payoff punches.
A big overhand right, almost from out of the blue, had Oquendo hurt, and a follow-up left hook had him out on his feet. Another right hand, and the referee waved it off as Oquendo went limp.
I later discussed the fight with Kevin Barry, who was Tua’s trainer at the time.
Barry said he was frustrated that Tua was waiting and waiting and the fight was slipping away. He felt that Tua was too wound up and just needed to relax and let the shots flow.
So, Barry told Tua: “David, forget about the knockout, just go out there and win one round for me, OK?” And Tua not only won the ninth round — he won the fight.
Acelino Freitas was boxing superbly in his lightweight title fight against Diego Corrales in 2004, but this was another of those fights where one would had the feeling that at some point it would all go wrong.
Freitas used the ring, moving this way and that, and he peppered Corrales with quick punches. But “Chico” was relentless in his pursuit.
One judge gave Freitas the first six rounds, the other two judges had him winning five of them. But Freitas’ punches weren’t having any effect on the bigger, stronger Corrales.
By the seventh, it seemed Freitas was beginning to tire from his constant motion. Corrales dropped him with a right hand in the eighth and, although Freitas survived the round, it was clear the end was near. Freitas had simply burned himself out; it was all over in the 10th.
Thomas Hearns against Sugar Ray Leonard was, I think, more a matter of Leonard mounting a come-from-behind charge rather than Hearns deteriorating down the stretch. Perhaps a combination of both.
Hearns needed a 12-round fight that night in 1981; Sugar Ray was all over him in the 13th, and in the 14th Hearns was a worn-out warrior in need of rescue.
And some boxers, sadly, simply aren’t cut out for long, tough fights. I’d have to put Edinburgh’s former British featherweight champion Vernon Sollas in that category.
Sollas could look brilliant early on, but the later rounds were a problem.
I was ringside for a number of Sollas’ fights back in the 1970s. He had some big wins, but tended to struggle as fights went deeper.
Ayrshire’s Evan Armstrong, a gritty, highly capable and battle-tested British champion, caught up with Sollas in the eighth of a scheduled 10-round non-title bout in 1974.
Two years later, Sollas went into an early lead against Italy’s Elio Cotena in a European title challenge at York Hall, but fell apart in the 14th round.
“He seems to have sort of mental block about those last five rounds,” Sollas’ manager and trainer Bobby Neill, the former British featherweight champion, told me afterwards.
“Maybe he’s one of those fighters who does not have stamina. I can’t honestly say what went wrong.”
It was a televised bout and Sollas said afterwards that the heat from the ring lights might have been the problem. But, as I noted in my Boxing News report, the lights were just as hot for Cotena.
And in 1977, it was the same story: Sollas started off wonderfully against Wales’ gritty Les Pickett in a non-title 10-rounder, even scoring a first-round knockdown. But Sollas’ resistance ebbed when Pickett refused to go away.
Pickett, outclassed for the first three rounds, simply wanted it more. The fight was stopped in the last round with Sollas being overwhelmed.
“It must be said that Sollas fought without the determination and resolve to be expected of a champion,” Harry Mullan reported in Boxing News.
Poor Vernon Sollas. On his best night, he had the skills to beat the best — if only the fights were six rounds instead of 10, 12 or 15.
