A puncher’s chance.
It is the veiled promise of an instant or near-instant reversal of fortune that sets boxing apart from all other sports. In football and basketball, a team trailing by 25 points with a minute to play has no chance of staging a miracle rally. Even in baseball, which has no time limit, the odds against a team coming back from 10 runs down with two outs in the ninth inning are Powerball Lottery-long. But in boxing, a fighter can have lost every second of every round, yet still harbor the hope of landing that one big shot that can snatch victory from the swollen jaw of defeat.