In one of the rare sights in the world of boxing, boxer Austin DeAnda was forced to have a mid-way haircut during his win over DeAundre Pettus on Friday night. After an exhausting eight-round fight at Norfolk Scope in Virginia, DeAnda was declared the winner, although the main topic of discussion occurred between the third and fourth rounds. DeAnda’s braids became loose during a barrage of hooks and jabs with middleweight opponent Pettus.
The 21-year-old was having trouble since his damp hair kept getting in his face and obstructing his vision. While getting treated during the corner, he could be heard urging his teammates, “Cut it.” However, “The Native Nightmare’s” cutman was surprised and said, “I’m a cutman, not a barber!” before reaching for his scissors. The last-minute makeover was successful because DeAnda defeated Pettus with several risky combinations in the closing rounds. However, it seemed that DeDanda was not impressed by his new trim and was forced to wear a black cap to hide his new look as he celebrated his victory. DeAnda’s victory extended his winning streak to 16-0 and left him undefeated in his career.
Not the first incident of trimming hair mid-match
While Austin DeAnda had to let go of his long locks, he isn’t the first one to do something like this during a match. In 2008, former Italian American boxer Paulie Malignaggi defeated Lovemore N’dou in a split decision, forcing him to do the same. Throughout the rounds, Malignaggi, who had already defeated Ricky Hatton, was hindered by his braided hair and decided to cut it off before he edged his opponent.
Malignaggi, while talking about this incident, he had earlier said, “‘I didn’t want to cut it at first, because it took six hours to do that hair. I wanted to rock it for a little bit, man,’ Malignaggi later explained. He added, ” Besides the braids, which could have cost me the fight, there’s never been a look where I’ve said, ‘That was too ridiculous’, that was the whole point. What’s the point in doing stuff like that if you’re not going to gain attention? And you can’t always expect it to be positive attention–matter of fact, it’s probably negative a lot of times,” he further stated.