If so, then Edgar Berlanga did so against Canelo Alvarez as he lost every round on my scorecard and a unanimous decision as Alvarez retained his WBA, WBC, and WBO super middleweight titles in Las Vegas.
Berlanga won a few rounds on the official cards (118-109 x2 and 117-110, my score was 120-107). He did exchange some with Canelo but like so many Canelo opponents that talked about attacking Alvarez, Berlanga mostly fought off the back foot and after his knockdown in the third round, the question wasn't about competitiveness, it was if Berlanga would make it to the final bell.
Berlanga never threatened Canelo but fought with courage and showed some skills that might have served him better had he been more experienced against decent opposition.
Still, the name of the game is prizefighting, and earning millions of dollars without taking a risk to reach that stage is excellent management if not proper preparation for the actual fight.
Berlanga could use a fight or two against a contender to prepare for his next challenge and should he face Jaime Munguia, Christian Mbilli, or Diego Pacheco, all would be entertaining affairs that would establish him as a title contender at most and a fun fighter to watch at least.
As for Canelo Alvarez, who really knows where he stands.
I don't see him trying low reward (Although 30 million plus a piece of the pay-per-view for Canelo isn't really low reward) and high-risk mandatory challengers such as Christian Mbilli (WBC) and Diego Pacheco (WBO).
He's refused to fight David Benavidez, David Morrell has moved to light heavyweight, and there is no one of name-value available to move from 160 pounds to face him.
That means it's the winner of next month's light heavyweight unification between Artur Beterbiev (WBC, IBF, and WBO) and Dmitry Bivol (WBA) as the last fighter standing.
Bivol decisioned Alvarez in 2022 and Canelo has stated a desire to avenge that loss.
Bivol might beat you but he's not going to beat you up, while Beterbiev would be an unlikely choice with a victory as he would meet Alvarez in the middle of the ring and fight him as the bigger stronger fighter, placing Canelo in the situation of preferring to face a boxer who has already defeated him
The co-feature was as dreadful as predicted as Erislandy Lara retained his WBA middleweight title when the corner of former junior welterweight and welterweight champion Danny Garcia stopped the fight at the end of round nine.
A fight between two faded fighters who threw few punches and landed fewer with Lara winning the first seven rounds, and Garcia winning the eighth when he stunned Lara before Lara sent Garcia wobbling to the mat similar to King Hippo in the ninth.
Garcia's corner was smart in ending the fight and Garcia should consider ending a fine career.
Lara continues a title reign filled with journeymen and has-beens and I would imagine he'll be back sometime in 2015 against someone else of that ilk.
Caleb Plant recovered from a slow start and a fourth-round knockdown to stop Trevor McCumby in the ninth round in a surprisingly raucous fight to win a minor super middleweight title.
McCumby won the first four rounds on my card and scored a knockdown with a right hand to the shoulder that knocked an off-balance Plant to the floor.
Plant picked up the pace after the knockdown and trailed by only one point (due to the knockdown) after eight rounds.
Plant finished McCumby late in round nine and I was pleasantly surprised with the quality and competitiveness of a fight that I expected to be one-sided.
McCumby showed more than I expected and I would like to see him again against a similar level as for Plant, I was very critical of him during his IBF title reign for his pitiful opponents but I've gained respect for him since his first loss to Canelo Alvarez and his hard-fought defeat to David Benavidez.
I'd like to see Plant against some of these promising young contenders in the division such as Berlanga, Munguia, Pacheco, or Mbilli.
I think he'd be the logical next step in opposition for any of them, and if they aren't up to snuff, Plant just might upset them.
Former WBC and WBO junior featherweight champion Stephen Fulton's move to the featherweight division almost ended in disaster as Fulton escaped with a razor-close split decision victory over Carlos Castro.
Castro knocked Fulton down in the fifth round and hurt him again in the eighth but Fulton managed to do enough early in the fight to build a lead on the cards and win the narrow decision.
Fulton won on two cards 96-93 and 95-94 with the Castro score at 95-94, I scored 95-94 for Castro and the fight was close enough to not complain about either fighter as the winner.
The fight was the first for Fulton since his July 2023 knockout loss to Naoya Inoue, where he lost both of his junior featherweight titles and it'll be interesting to see how Fulton looks in his next fight.
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