Marco Luis is still trying to process and analyse why Roarke “Razor” Knapp allegedly struggled to breathe in the later stages of his fight against Brandon “Fast Guns” Thysse, which he lost in a ninth-round stoppage on Saturday night.
“I have not seen something like that in my life,” said Knapp’s manager on Sunday.
“In round eight, he said he can’t breathe. I don’t know if he gassed out; he was winning on the judge’s scorecards.
“I don’t want to make excuses, but from round seven there was one winner, and that was Roarke.”
Knapp — who defeated Thysse in 2022 — dropped Thysse in round seven.
But Thysse — who stopped Knapp in round seven in 2019 — came back strong and piled up pressure in the eighth round.
Ushered to war by trainers Damien Durandt and Andson Kazembe, Thysse mounted his final attack in round nine and pummelled Knapp, who went down and was counted out by the referee.
“Maybe he did not train hard enough; I can’t give you more; it’s a very sad situation for me,” said Luis.
“Maybe it was the altitude.”
Luis said it was not the body blow that ended Knapp’s hopes of winning the final of the Golden Gloves “Survival” series, which saw Thysse pocket 60% of the R1.2m purse money.
“Yes, he took punishment in round eight after telling me that he could not breathe,” said Luis.
“He said he did not feel sick; he got hurt because he was not well. Something happened to Roarke which turned the direction of the fight. I believe Roarke was winning.”
Luis added that if the third meeting between the two fighters was scheduled for eight rounds, everybody would be praising Knapp for a beautiful performance.
“But now people are saying Roarke is finished,” he said.
“He took punishment only after he said he could not breathe. I commend Brandon for winning the fight.”
Sowetan
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