Who Are You Calling an Underdog? My Mom Thinks I'll Win

How often do betting lines and pre-fight predictions sway your view of how a fight will go down?  If certain folks think that Joseph Benavidez will have a hard time getting inside a Torres jab, do you begin to share that view?  I was listening to the Dominic Cruz post fight interview, and found it fascinating when he talked about how being an underdog might just be someone's assumption about you.

When a fight is first announced, I generally (without even thinking about it) play a mental video of it in my head.  I think I'm guilty of allowing pundits/betting lines to make the video for me. 

For example, despite being a huge Griffin fan, the mental video for Forrest vs. Shogun consisted of Mauricio kicking his head into the front row with a spectacular flying dragon crescent kick in 18 seconds.  I had bought into so much of the hype, previous highlights, and pundit opinions that I completely believed that it was almost impossible for Forrest to even give him a close fight.  That night, I lost my voice cheering.

Is that not what makes all of this so fun?  In every second of a fight, pundits, all of us at home, and the fighters themselves really have no idea what will happen.  We can look at past successes or dominations, but we can't know.

Maybe that's what makes big upsets so thrilling.  When we are so convinced that something will happen, when it doesn't, we love the unpredictability.  After having bought so much into our own ideas, is it not wonderful when they are shattered (literally) by a right hand? 

What do you think?

via www.rankopedia.com