Last weekend saw two underdogs overcome pound-for-pound rated opposition to shock and surprise viewers and commentators, and upset the natural order of odds-making and star grooming. Except, in 2011, it seems that plucky underdogs upsetting stars––and stars in the making––was the natural order of the sport.

Despite the accusations of “home cooking,” Washington D.C’s Lamont Peterson turned in the best performance of his career to take two alphabet titles from Bolton, UK’s Amir Khan. On the same night, in a different hemisphere, “Hawaiian Punch” Brian Viloria knocked out the rangy Giovanni Segura in the Philippines to continue a remarkable career rejuvenation.

Both Viloria and Peterson seemed to be destined to act as stepping-stones for elite fighters. There are several fighters like this in today’s boxing landscape, talented slicksters like Paulie Malignaggi, and Carlos Quintana and rugged pugs like Glen Johnson and Edison Miranda. These men act as the test that elite fighters need to pass in order to be considered elite. Call them lie detectors, when you need to prove that your prospect is the truth, put him in there with a Demarcus Corley, or a Juan Urango, if he loses, he was overrated.

Jr. Welterweight Peterson (30-1-1 15KO’s) had previously played this role opposite Tim Bradley and Victor Ortiz. He lost a one-sided fight, which solidified Bradley’s pound-for-pound rating and held Ortiz to a draw to prove that his new-found edge might not have been as sharp as victories over lesser opponents might have suggested.

Against Khan (26-2 18KO’s), he was once again tasked with proving the value of a budding star, and with a variable game plan, constant pressure and underrated bodywork, he exposed vital holes in Khan’s skill set en route to a split decision victory in front of a hometown crowd.

Similarly, WBO Flyweight titlist Brian Viloria (30-3, 17KO’s) was perceived as cannon fodder when he entered the ring against Bell, California’s Giovanni Segura (28-2-1 24KO’s) who was fighting at the 112lb division for the first time since claiming the lineal championship at 108lbs. Having seen Segura breakdown boxing wizard Ivan Calderon twice, most ringside observers and experts were surprised to see Viloria pound the right side of Segura’s face with a steady stream of left hooks before referee Luis Viruet stepped in to save the Mexican warrior 30 seconds into the eighth round.

Those two victories cap off a year that has been riddled with surprising performances from seemingly overmatched fighters. Just taking a cursory look at this year’s results we have Victor Ortiz’s gritty showing against Andre Berto, Orlando Salido battering JuanMa Lopez into his first defeat, Carlos Molina outclassing Kermit Cintron, and Antonio DeMarco pounding on Jorge “The Golden Child” Linares in a bloody brawl on the Bernard Hopkins-Chad Dawson undercard in October.

Being promoted as a prodigy didn’t help Linares any more than it helped Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. or David Lemieux when they faced Jorge Arce and Marco Antonio Rubio respectively, giving up their unbeaten records to grizzled veterans in what were supposed to be walkover bouts. Similarly, the untested but highly touted Maryland prospect Fernando Guerrero and raging Panamanian Luis Concepcion were expected to roll through Grady Brewer and Hernan Marquez before being KO’d unexpectedly.

The crown jewel of the year’s upsets would have to be the double-upset set in motion by Japan’s Nobuhiro Ishida in April. Fighting in the United States for the first time, Ishida found himself standing across the ring from one of the brightest and most brutal young fighters on Golden Boy’s promotional roster. James Kirkland was on an 8-fight knockout streak over marginal opposition, and the light-punching Ishida seemed handpicked to represent KO number nine. Within a single round, Kirkland’s defensive lapses and ring rust were on full display. The feather-fisted Ishida dropped him three times with a right hand that couldn’t miss the mark before referee Joe Cortez stopped the fight 1:52 into the first round.

Having been blown out by such meagre opposition, Kirkland looked like a fighter who had been coddled by his promoters and finally exposed. Kirkland’s stock had fallen so low that when a bout with Mexico’s Alfredo Angulo was proposed, HBO’s Max Kellerman quipped that Kirkland was “being fed” to “El Perro” and many speculated that Golden Boy were cashing out on their investment in him.

All of those analyses seemed on point when Angulo floored “The Mandingo Warrior” in the first round of their fight in Cancun, Mexico with a straight right that railed through the gaps in Kirkland’s guard. How surprising it was then, to see Kirkland pull himself off the floor, and send Angulo to the canvas badly hurt in the same round. For the next five rounds, Kirkland would deliver a frightening beating that surely shaved years off of Angulo’s career if not his life.

It was like Ishida had made Kirkland unbeatable by passing on the mantle of the B-Side. Through some transitive property, by losing to Ishida, Kirkland was able to beat the dents out of a heavily favoured fighter much better than the one who had beat him.

This was the year of the underdog, the opponent. This was the year that stepping stones everywhere seemed to reach out and trip the shooting stars they were supposed to be elevating.

Hopefully, this is the start of a new era where fighters are allowed to lose. Over the course of the last ten years, the undefeated record has become a bargaining chip and a seal of approval, but it appears that in the coming decade, character and experience will rule the day. We don’t have many undefeated champions left, and many of the fighters at the top of the sport––Sergio Martinez, Manny Pacquiao, Nonito Donaire, Juan Manuel Marquez and Wladimir Klitschko among them––have overcome setbacks on their ascension to pound-for-pound ratings and future Hall-of-Fame consideration.

Save Angulo and Cintron, none of the young fighters upset this year have truly been ruined by their losses, and hopefully in the coming year we will see them blossom in the wake of their defeats, forced to prove themselves against stiffer opposition, and fighting not like petulant, entitled children, but like men who understand what defeat means.

That said, this year wasn’t about them, it was about the little guys, the professional opponents, the gatekeepers. When we look back at 2011, let’s remember this as the year they defied expectations and made this sport unpredictable and exciting.

For that, they deserve their moment.

- Follow Mutaurwa Mapondera on Twitter @fortyfourfores or visit his blog -

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