Steven \u201cThe Savage\u201d Sumpter has 11 wins, a draw, and apparently one hell of a lucky horseshoe lodged somewhere uncomfortable. Because in no sane timeline should a guy from Pittsfield, Massachusetts be warming up the Las Vegas crowd for Canelo vs Crawford week. Yet here we are, Fontainebleau Vegas, Wednesday night, and Sumpter\u2019s marching into the meat grinder against Kazakhstan\u2019s Bek Nurmaganbet.<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t Rocky. This isn\u2019t a Cinderella story. This is more like throwing a deer in front of a semi-truck and calling it \u201cunderdog spirit.\u201d Nurmaganbet is 14-0, crushes people like soda cans, and has an amateur r\u00e9sum\u00e9 that makes you wonder if he boxed in the womb.<\/p>\n
\u201cI Sparred With Jean Pascal\u201d \u2013 Congrats, So Did Half of Canada<\/p>\n
Sumpter is out here selling the classic underdog pitch. \u201cI sparred with Jean Pascal.\u201d Cool. Everyone has sparred Jean Pascal. The guy has logged more gym hours as a human heavy bag than most trainers. Sumpter also name-dropped Rohan Polanco and Carlos Gongora like that makes him the second coming of James Toney. Spoiler: it doesn\u2019t. Sparring partners don\u2019t get their names etched in history. They get their lunch money taken in sparring.<\/p>\n
And his plan? Pressure Nurmaganbet, make him uncomfortable, \u201cexpose his European style.\u201d That\u2019s a fancy way of saying, \u201cI\u2019m going to run at him and hope he doesn\u2019t punch me unconscious.\u201d Bold strategy, Cotton.<\/p>\n
The Southpaw vs Southpaw Excuse Preloaded Already<\/p>\n
We already got the built-in excuse teed up. \u201cOh, there\u2019s always headbutts when two southpaws fight.\u201d Translation: when his face looks like a pizza afterward, he\u2019s got a ready-made line for the press. Nurmaganbet, meanwhile, is six foot one, accurate, disciplined, and punches like he\u2019s trying to demolish drywall for a living. But hey, Sumpter isn\u2019t worried. Totally calm. Definitely not walking into a buzzsaw.<\/p>\n
My Take: Savage Or Sacrificial Lamb?<\/p>\n
This is Zuffa Boxing\u2019s \u201cUnderdog\u201d card, and Sumpter\u2019s the sacrificial lamb dressed up as a Cinderella man.<\/p>\n
Sumpter is about to get treated like a speed bag with legs. Bek Nurmaganbet is going to rearrange his dental records so bad his dentist will need Google Maps to find them. This isn\u2019t \u201ccareer-defining,\u201d it\u2019s \u201ccareer-shortening.\u201d<\/p>\n
You know those fights where the underdog shocks the world? This ain\u2019t it. This is the fight where the underdog gets shocked awake by smelling salts. If Sumpter lasts past round 4, I\u2019ll eat my notes.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s confident, sure. Every lamb is confident until it hears the wolf sharpening its teeth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steven \u201cThe Savage\u201d Sumpter has 11 wins, a draw, and apparently one hell of a lucky horseshoe lodged…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":123868,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[58865,2560,58131,58866,6573,1735,20582,58867,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-123867","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-bek-nurmaganbet","9":"tag-boxing","10":"tag-ed-mulholland","11":"tag-luciano-chaparro","12":"tag-matchroom-boxing","13":"tag-mexico","14":"tag-mexico-city","15":"tag-plaza-de-toros-arroyo","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom","19":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}