Fight night at Barclays center in Brooklyn, New York

The much anticipated bout between Gervanta Davis and Rolando Romero went as expected, with Davis capsizing Romero in the 6th round . As knockouts go this was a fortunate one for the defeated fighter. When the lights went out he hit canvas Victorian style. But for the location of the knockout it would have been a violent face plant. For three rounds or so more than a few people in the arena doubted that this would be the outcome. They might have thought that Davis looked tentative, unsure of himself. But those who thought this way don’t quite understand the subtleties of the sweet science. Davis was probing the defense of his opponent. He noticed that Romero was lunging and dropping his hands as he punched. He noticed his untutored footwork. The next thing he needed to do was to perfect his timing and establish his range, and that would take several rounds to do. Once he accomplished this he eliminated any chance of Romero winning the fight. Neither Romero nor anybody in his corner realize as much. The post fight interview with Romero was both bizarre and disheartening. He repeatedly claimed that he was winning the fight, and suggested that it was stopped prematurely. He was asked who he would like to fight next, to which he answered: “Gervanta Davis”. “I was winning that f——king fight.” It is easy to pin this mind-numbing stupidity on a fighter who has just gotten his clock cleaned. But in this case the blame has to be put on his trainer and the people advising him. Instead of deceiving him into thinking that he is a great fighter, which he is not, they should be urging him to view his defeat as part of learning experience that he can build upon. His refusal to acknowledge that he had been beaten not only made his stock drop precipitously; it may well have destroyed his career.