Quijano: A hard lesson for Nate

IN the undercard of that seminal donnybrook last week featuring two ring legends in Roy Jones Jr. and Mike Tyson was a fight that ordinarily would not merit space in this column.

After all, these protagonists only had three fights between them. But times have changed and even meritocracy now has new metrics.

Social media has changed the fistic horizon considerably and has become currency by itself because nowadays almost everyone cares about it.

The pay-per-view event generated more than a million buys and I certainly in all honesty cannot give all the credit to the 50-something legends (not everyone is into watching two uncles at a barbeque fighting).

Some of the interest generated had to be on the fight between Jake Paul and Nate Robinson.

JAKE VS. NATE. For those uninformed, Paul is a YouTube star who has taken up boxing apparently quite seriously now. He started with a grudge match against fellow YouTuber Gib whom he defeated in the first round.

Apparently, he liked it so much he began earnestly training under ring legend Shane Mosley.

Nate got into the picture when he challenged Paul, claiming he wanted to show the world he was a world-class athlete.

Now we all know who Nate is. One of the greatest dunkers in NBA history, he only stands at 5’ 9” yet is the league’s first three-time slam dunk champion. He played his last NBA game back in 2015.

We all saw how the fight turned out. Nate looked way in over his head from the get-go. He couldn’t even decide if he was a lefty or a righty. He threw clumsy bombs.

While nobody will mistake Paul for Willie Pep, he was the more poised fighter between the two, having had just a little more experience than Nate.

Midway through the first round, Nate got bludgeoned by a right hand which looked like it partially landed at the back of his head and down he went. It was all downhill from there. In the second round, a flailing Nate got hit by another monster right hand and was knocked unconscious.

LESSON. Let this be a lesson for all those who think they can just take up boxing and fight anyone. And that includes professional athletes from other sports.

Even if you are strong or fast or built like a Greek God, boxing is a fight sport. It requires a different skill set and that’s because this is the hurt business. Your goal is not to outshine your opponent, it is to hurt him and hurt him bad.

You also use a totally different set of muscles and this requires practice to get good at. Just like you would in any other sport.

My heart goes out to Nate who is one of my favorite players and I was actually pulling for him to show us a decent performance.

That’s why we have an adage that says you can play basketball, golf, tennis, etc.. but you don’t play boxing.

LAST ROUND. It’s on Pureza “Ampog” Mangubat who celebrates her birthday this week. Cheers!

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