The Billiken's Bluff

On Saturday night, Bernard Hopkins beat Oscar De La Hoya in a Middle Weight pay-per-view title fight. Earlier in the night, I had the opportunity to witness the under-undercard fight which pitted Kofi Jantuah of Ghana against Marco Antonio Rubio of Mexico.

Jantuah knocked out Rubio in just 33 seconds. The Jantuah’s final punch was definitely highlight-reel material. Rubio tried to throw a feeble right hook, but was a bit to slow. Jantuah unloaded a devastating left hook that dropped Rubio to the canvas. Rubio’s head bounced off the floor. The fight was over.



However, the fight was unfair from the start. Jantuah entered the ring in traditional boxing attire; robe, shorts, boots laced up. He strutted and bounced his way into the ring like a boxer should. Rubio decided to go a different route in regards to his wardrobe and entrance. He came into the ring wearing a sombrero and dancing to some mariachi music, hardly the tools of intimidation. Jantuah must have been chomping at the bit, ready to destroy Rubio.



When Mike Tyson was still striking fear into the hearts of opponents and biting people’s ears off, he would enter the ring wearing all-black and blasting the ominous barking of DMX. Now to be fair, I don’t speak Spanish. Rubio’s Mariachi accompaniment may have been crooning:

"Stop, drop, shut’em down, open up shop. Oh, no, that’s how Ruff Ryder’s roll."

And even with the Mariachi music, you can’t always judge a book by its cover. The unwitting thugs in Desperado misjudged Antonio Banderas’ guitar cases, never suspecting they contained more guns than Wayne Wright's garage.



But 99 out of 100 times if you aren’t in Hollywood and you dance your way into a boxing ring wearing a sombrero (unless you have some brass knuckles hidden inside the hat) you are going to get knocked the funk out.

As I said the fight was on pay-per-view, so they are closely guarding the screen shots from the fight. But, after much internet surfing I finally found a picture of Jantuah’s knockout of Rubio-



I’m not saying that if you’re a boxer you can’t wear a sombrero… actually, wait a second, that’s exactly what I’m saying.