An elaborate ring entrance disastrously backfired when it was followed by an extremely swift knockout.
In 1990, a ring entrance led to a fighter’s humiliation when instead of a victory or even a hard-fought contest, an embarrassing defeat came right after.
The victim was a former US Olympic team captain, until turning up late for his first fight and being removed from the position at the Seoul Olympics, where Lennox Lewis won gold in the heavyweight division.
The man was 31-8-2 light heavyweight, Anthony Hembrick.
Olympic captain stopped seconds after elaborate dance routine in the ring
Hembrick, then 14-0, was set to face Booker T. Word who was 16-1-1 in North Carolina for the vacant iBF USBA title.
Hembrick entered the ring in unique fashion, engaging in a somewhat elaborately choreographed routine with his team ahead of the opening bell.
However, this did not set him up for greatness, and Hembrick was dropped three times in the first round in his hometown before the referee had seen enough and waved off the fight.
This was Hembrick’s first-ever loss.
At least it was not the quickest loss ever, with Mike Tyson scoring an 8-second knockout of Joe Cortez when he was only 15.
Adrien Broner’s showboating also came back to haunt him against Marcos Maidana
In 2013, 27-0 Adrien Broner, who inspired Gervonta Davis to the point of tears, faced 34-3 Marcos Maidana, the man who wears Floyd Mayweather’s tooth on a necklace.
Broner, who was coming off a win over Paulie Malignaggi in which he took his belt and his girlfriend, was his usual cocky self, mocking Maidana with lewd showboating at the end of the first round.
This would come back to bite him, though, as the very next round saw Broner touch the canvas for the first time in his career, and, in the eighth round, he touched down again.
Maidana beat Broner on a unanimous decision, handed the showboating American his first ever loss.