Watch: Boxer stretchered out after falling out of ring, opponent doesn't buy it
One of the greatest shows in boxing is the fighter who knocks his opponent clean out of the ring.
And for Adrian Granados, that’s exactly the result he got against Javier Fortuna Saturday night.
In the fourth round of their junior welterweight bout at The Star in Frisco, Texas, Granados had Fortuna on the ropes, and the ring appeared to be a shoddy build job as Fortuna fell through the ropes, hit his head on a camera box, and got thrown for such a loop by the impact that he had to be carried out of the arena on a stretcher.
.@AbejonFortuna falls through the ropes and suffers an unintentional injury resulting in a no contest against @ELTigreAG #FortunaGranados pic.twitter.com/vYK8yaQWLN
— SHOWTIME Boxing (@ShowtimeBoxing) June 17, 2018
Under the Unified Rules of the Association of Boxing Commissions, if the fight is stopped via accidental foul before the end of the fourth round, it’s ruled a no-contest, so Granados did not get a victory credited to his name. It’s similar to what happens in baseball if a game is called due to rain before the fifth inning.
Granados, for his part, cried foul, saying that Fortuna faked the injury so he wouldn’t have to suffer a loss and therefore the result of the fight should be changed to a TKO, as would be the result had Fortuna simply pulled a Roberto Duran and told the referee “No mas.”
Fortuna had been in dire straits in this match, getting dominated more or less from the opening bell, and he had already been docked two points, first for excessive holding and then for intentional head butts.
The rule of thumb in boxing is that a third such infraction results in a disqualification; consider Andrew Golota’s fight against Riddick Bowe in 1996 in which Golota got his DQ after, in the words of then-ESPN anchor Rich Eisen, “punching the forbidden speedbag” often enough that the referee had to stop the fight for repeated low blows.
Fortuna, for his part, “complained of head pain” and “could not move his neck,” according to Showtime sideline reporter Jim Gray.
Referee Robert Chapa explained his decision to stop the fight.
“From my vantage point, both fighters were pushing and holding each other,” Chapa said. “The momentum took him over. I didn’t see him hit his head, but I could tell that he did when I came over to him. When I saw the stretcher coming in, I knew [the fight was over] and he was going to be taken out.”
The fight was stopped with 10 seconds left in the fourth round. Had Chapa decided to delay his call, the fight would have gone to the scorecards rather than been ruled a no-contest and Granados would have won.
Granados stuck to his story that he thought Fortuna’s pro wrestling-esque sell of his injuries was a dirty play.
“I think he was looking for an excuse and a way out of the fight,” Granados said. “We were battling and he knew that I was just getting more physical and stronger. I just hope he’s alright.”
Fortuna has had a rough go of things since he was a young prospect on the rise.
He started his career with 29 wins and a draw in his first 30 fights, first on the club circuit in his native Dominican Republic and then as a fixture on ESPN’s old “Friday Night Fights,” where his one-punch knockout power wowed audiences.
After capturing the WBA belt at 130 pounds, he took his first pro loss in 2016 to Jason Sosa. That precipitatted Fortuna moving up the scale where it became easier for him to make weight.
But as he has moved up, he has not had the same success. After four tuneup fights, three of which were back on that Dominican club circuit, this year he has this no-contest along with a January loss, the second of his career, to Robert Easter Jr. for the IBF title at lightweight.
And Saturday, Fortuna showed that at 140 and against a guy who’s fought as high as welterweight, he simply doesn’t have the strength advantage he had at junior lightweight.
Where Fortuna goes from here is unclear. If Granados is right and Fortuna was looking for an out, he may have just plain lost the eye of the tiger.
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