fans criticize Johnny Fisher’s Zuffa debut

Johnny Fisher will face Michael Pirotton in his Zuffa debut.

Fans are making a fuss on social media about Johnny Fisher’s first Zuffa Boxing fight after the company selected the little-known Michael Pirotton as his next opponent. The two are set to face off on September 26 in a 10-round main event.

The fans’ reaction reflects, to some extent, the expectations Zuffa raised when it signed Johnny Fisher last month. Fans had actually expected him to face a tough opponent. Instead, Zuffa decided to choose a relatively smaller fighter, which many find hard to understand.

Perhaps Zuffa wanted to give Johnny Fisher a relatively easy start. However, it’s a bit odd to make that a main event, and that’s exactly what invites criticism. He did win his last fight, but that opponent was also chosen to be relatively easy for him after he faced Dave Allen twice in a row. In those fights, Johnny Fisher revealed some weaknesses that he absolutely needs to improve upon. He was easy to hit and remained vulnerable under pressure. It makes perfect sense to have a rebuilding fight after that, but why another one now? Johnny Fisher himself defended the matchmaking in an interview with Sky Sports.

“It’s a golden ticket for Michael Pirotton, but it’s also my golden ticket because if I win, I get to go on to bigger and better things. I’ve got ambitions in this game”

he said there.

Maybe that’s true, and he wants to face bigger opponents after that. The question, though, is just how big they’ll be. Zuffa will eventually demand more from him because that was a major commitment and they spent a lot of money. Johnny Fisher’s last few fights, however, haven’t really shown that he can keep up with the top 15. The question then is simply how much Zuffa will demand, and how much he can deliver. For now, we can only wait and see. It will be interesting to see whether he can improve on his performance against Michael Pirotton or not.

I can understand why Zuffa is doing this, but I'm not sure if Johnny Fisher can still live up to expectations in general. I'm really curious to see how his next fight goes, and I think we'll have a better idea of that by then.