The sport of heavyweight boxing has always had its fair share of crazy characters and moments over the years. In the early throws of his career, the self-styled Gypsy King, Tyson Fury managed to somehow punch himself in the face during his 4th professional clash with Lee Swaby.His namesake and legendary boxer Mike Tyson also provided fight fans with one of the most controversial moments in the sport's history, when he bit Evander Holyfield’s ear off during their heavyweight clash in June 1997.However, possibly boxing’s most bizarre moment occurred on Friday evening in Minnesota during the Premier Boxing Champions FS1 card.Curtis Harper stepped into the ring for his 20th professional fight versus unbeaten Nigerian Efe Ajagba.However, literally as soon as the first bell sounded, Harper proceeded to walk out of the ring and trundled off through the crowd backstage, leaving commentators baffled and disgruntled fans watching on in bemusement at what just happened.In the aftermath, Harper’s trainer and former lightweight champion Nate Campbell expressed his disgust at what happened on his Facebook page, stating, “I was so embarrassed! This man disrespect himself his wife the fan and me!”Putting your head above the parapet and stepping into a ring to be punched takes a hell of lot of guts and mental toughness, but Harper displayed showed none of these attributes on this occasion with this cowardly walk out.
Clearly something rankled with Harper to make this career-threatening decision. One of the reporters at the fight, PBC reporter Jordan Hardy stated that he believed that it was a ‘protest gesture’ over a contract dispute as he felt he wasn’t getting paid enough money to fight Ajagba.
It remains to be seen what the full ramifications of the decision will be for Harper. It appears extremely unlikely that he will be paid for this short night’s work.
After his trainer’s comments it would be surprising were they to link up again and you would question whether any promoter would be willing to take the chance on him next time.