“And yet this much remains true: Garcia-Davis happened because both fighters wanted it. Garcia was not ready for Davis and might never be, but he was willing to find out. Garcia was not daring to be great: that phrase is too often a flattering defense for matchmaking miscalculation—he was thankfully, however, daring to not waste our time.”

Read The Abyss: Gervonta Davis KO7 Ryan Garcia on Hannibla Boxing.

“According to more than a few, this was always in the offing: Sebastian Fundora, that six-foot-six, 154-pound impossibility, would one day lay stretched like a late-day shadow across the canvas. With only enough exceptions to firmly establish the rule, this is the fate of every fighter, in case you were unsure of how to esteem such predictions. And yet there was at least the expectation that Fundora would meet his reckoning when the stakes were higher, the caliber of opponent calibrated to them. For Fundora, there was this fight, and then the next, and if need be, the next after that: whatever was required to secure him a territory changing hands even under the lion’s lengthy rule.”

Read The Arborist: Brian Mendoza Stuns Sebastian Fundora on Hannibal Boxing.

“At least early, this grudge match was a fight only when Plant was willing, and so surely, the logic at ringside went, that fight must be his. How then, to explain the eighth round, when fortunes changed suddenly and permanently in Benavidez’s favor? In truth, the eighth was the product of what preceded it: Benavidez’s ability to take a little bit out of Plant in even the rounds he appeared to be losing. His first punch of the night, a jab thrown directly at Plant’s left glove, a little “fuck you!” signaling the sincerity of all those evil proclamations, was followed by a protracted beating, an exercise in delayed gratification.”

Read Plant-based Diet: David Benavidez UD12 Caleb Plant on Hannibal Boxing.