24-Year-Old Boxing Prodigy Wins Match After Opponent Inexplicably Gets DQ'd
In the history of the sport of boxing, there have been plenty of dubious disqualifications, as the unwritten rule of the sport holds that you have to really do something pretty far out there for the ref to stop a fight on those grounds.
You could be Mike Tyson, engaging in a little impromptu cannibalism, fava beans and nice Chianti not included, against the ear of Evander Holyfield.
You could be Andrew Golota, disqualified against Riddick Bowe for, in the words of Rich Eisen describing the incident at the time on ESPN, “punching the forbidden speedbag.”
You could have Vic “Count” Drakulich as your referee, as he has built a reputation for himself on a pair of controversial disqualifications.
Or you could see your opponent across the ring, hear the opening bell, realize you’re going to have to fight the guy, and make like Brave Sir Robin in “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” who, when danger reared its ugly head, bravely turned his tail and fled.
Curtis Harper (13-6, 9 KOs) did exactly that Friday night at the Armory in Minneapolis after he finally got a good look at Efe Ajagba (6-0, five KOs) — the Nigerian nightmare who fought in the 2016 Olympics and has been tearing up the heavyweight division in the pros — and stepped right out of the ring.
This has to be seen to be believed, and even then you can be forgiven for not believing it.
https://twitter.com/ryansongalia/status/1033168271963561985
Ringside reporter Jordan Hardy spoke to Harper after the fight, and his reasoning for the walkout had more in common with the guy who walks out on his minimum-wage job in anger than a professional boxer who 19 times had given his all in the ring.
Said Hardy of Harper, “He’s not getting paid enough to fight and that he wants respect.”
Well, hate to break it to you, Curt, but you don’t get respect in boxing by chickening out of a fight. Take a dive, sell a glancing blow as if you’d just been hit by a glove full of horseshoes and the whole horse, fight one round and quit on the stool. You can even come back from that last one; it happens.
But, to steal a line from “The Simpsons,” “You couldn’t even give me one lousy round?”
Promoter Richard Schaefer did his best to spin it as one of those “my guy’s so scary that other fighters run away,” an almost WWE-like commitment to storyline.
“This was legendary,” Schaefer said. “We waited a long time to have another heavyweight who instills fear in his opponents by just being in the ring and looking at them. The last time a fighter instilled that kind of fear in an opponent was Mike Tyson. The heavyweight division has a new star, and his name is Efe. No doubt that he is the biggest puncher in the sport. He won the knockout award at the Rio Olympics for the most spectacular knockout. He is must-see TV, and all of us are excited to follow his journey in the heavyweight division, which undoubtedly will lead him to the heavyweight championship of the world.”
Because of course Deontay Wilder is going to run away from the Nigerian and not fight back with the true “most feared” title in the sport right now, earned through 39 knockouts in 40 pro fights, the lone exception a wide unanimous decision in his favor as he dominated Bermane Stiverne.
As for Harper, if he thought he wasn’t being paid enough to just stand in there and take his medicine, it’s very likely that the Minnesota commission will deny him his payment for the fight, more than likely he’ll be suspended, and it’s probably better than a 50/50 shot that no promoter will sign him to a card again.
His career, for all intents and purposes, is over. Hope it was worth it.
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