The Finito

Friday Q & A

2011-04-15T22:58:00.000-04:00

The new Finito will be here soon!

The Finito Five 9/30/11

2011-03-30T21:18:00.003-04:00

And you wonder how the WBC could strip a belt from someone the caliber of Sergio Martinez? Wonder no longer.

My top five thoughts about the boxing world for hump day:

1. You have to be wondering at this point what’s going through Juan Manuel Lopez’ featherweight brain (and I DON’T mean that as an insult, so be quiet, all of San Juan) when he says he wants a piece of Yuriorkis Gamboa. While I believe that Juanma is afraid of no man, he probably had to think about it twice in the face of the Cuban’s absolute destruction of Jorge Solis. Solis is no chump, and he could do nothing with Gamboa’s speed or power. You got the feeling that Solis knew what was coming, but could do zero to stop it. As great as Lopez is, Gamboa looks like he could even take Manny Pacquiao’s head off right now; the longer Top Rank takes to make this fight happen (anytime now, Arum), the more I feel like Juanma may get his first loss.

2. Jeeze, Jorge Solis sure doesn’t look anything like his 108-pound brother Ulises, does he? I always have to do a double take when one brother accompanies the other to the ring just to make sure I’m watching the right fight. Come to think of it, maybe they should have done something with their names like the boxing Simms brothers, Travis and Tarvis. How about Jorge and Gorje? Or maybe Ulises and Twolises? Just a thought.

3. How great was it to hear and see Nick Charles doing the Mikey Garcia-Matt Remillard fight on the Gamboa-Solis undercard? After reading that recent Sports Illustrated article, I didn’t think Charles was ever going to be healthy enough to do anything on TV again. But there he was on HBO, still fighting cancer with Arturo Gatti-like heart, giving all of us boxing fans an unexpected treat. As great as Nick has been for boxing (and sports in general), we sadly may not have him much longer. Big props to HBO and regular Boxing After Dark blow-by-blow man Bob Papa for letting us hear Slick Nick once again.

4. As much as Gamboa upped his stock Saturday, that’s how much fellow Cuban Erislandy Lara’s dropped the night before. What was with that stinkbomb against Carlos Molina on Friday Night Fights? Lara was coming off of four straight first-round knockouts, for heaven’s sake! I don’t know if Lara thought he’d just be able to smoke the capable Molina with one punch, but that’s sure as heck what it looked like he was trying to do. You barely saw a combination from him the first six rounds. In fact, Lara didn’t get serious until the last four rounds or so, and he was damn lucky to get a draw. Since Molina was easily the best opponent Lara’s faced, he better get serious and start listening to trainer Ronnie Shields, who he repeatedly ignored the entire fight. He’ll never beat any serious fighter at 154 looking like that.

5. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Just look at the above photo of WBC President Jose Sulaiman and WBC Executive Director Mauricio Sulaiman. If this doesn’t answer the question about how Julio Ceasar Chavez, Jr. got ranked #1 at middleweight, I don’t know what will.

One Knee Equals Two Rushed Judgements

2011-03-26T13:44:00.004-04:00

While Odlanier Solis hit the deck against Vitali Klitschko, it was a freak knee injury that took him out. Although a couple of talking heads said the Cuban came into the fight with a bad knee, the only bad thing was Klitschko's uncharacteristic lack of sportsmanship when he barked at Solis for dogging it when the man had, in fact, torn his ACL.

As a sports fan having watched a variety of injuries in a variety of sports, I can tell you that one of the trickiest of them all is the good ‘ol ACL tear. Just in the NFL alone, I’ve seen Napoleon McCallum get spun 90 degrees on his knee until it practically exploded; I’ve also seen Arizona Cardinals kicker Bill Gramatica tear his ACL celebrating a field goal. The latter example just goes to show that no how good of an athlete you are (and with NFL kickers, I guess that’s debatable anyway), strange injuries can happen at just about any time.

That’s one reason why I just don’t buy all the talk about Odlanier Solis having some kind of significant prior knee injury going into his fight with Vitali Klitschko Saturday. No sooner had Solis legitimately torn up his knee at the end of the first round (which resulted in a loss for the Cuban, by the way), you had Lennox Lewis of the Epix broadcast team insinuating that Solis must have had a prior knee injury even though he had absolutely no inside knowledge to support such a claim. When a report came out Sunday that a Cologne Arena spokesman had backed up Lewis’ claims by saying they did know of a preexisting knee injury (which was later refuted by Solis’ promoter), it was then just generally assumed that Solis and his team had screwed the fans and the promoters by stepping into the ring that night as damaged goods. Even Dan Rafael of ESPN, who is usually smarter than this, suggested that there should be some kind of punishment for Team Solis.

Look, I’m not a doctor or a professional journalist, but if Solis had a knee injury so significant that he couldn’t last a round in the ring, how in the world did he get through sparring and his pre-fight physical? It’s not like this was some prelim bout in Haysticks, Kansas; there was a cavalcade of media present around both fighters leading up to a heavyweight championship fight. Solis probably had more people watching him work out for this fight than he’d had in all his previous fights as a pro combined. Not one of them noticed that he had a bad wheel? Seems at least one or two of them might have commented about a knee brace, a limp, something that hadn’t been there before. Also, from what I understand, the physical they put the fighters through is pretty exhaustive. Do you mean to tell me they can catch Ruslan Chagaev’s Hepatitis B in a prefight physical, but a damaged knee wouldn’t be detected? It seems like people are looking to find someone to blame for an incredibly disappointing fight rather than looking at it as just an unfortunate accident.

And let’s also not forget one of the bigger problems in boxing, which is that you’re only guaranteed a fight as long as you can make into the ring in the first place. If Solis was to cancel due to injury, Klitschko probably would just go ahead and fight Tomasz Adamek, and there would be nothing that mandated Solis would ever get another chance at the fight. Ask Derek Chisora what it’s like to have a Klitschko carrot dangled in front of someone, just to have it taken away. If Solis did have some kind of previous injury, what incentive would he have had to report it in the first place?

We all know how disappointing the night was for the fans and promoter, but let’s not forget that it was probably the most disappointing for Solis. Solis had a freak injury on the biggest night of his career that killed things before they ever got started. A bad situation doesn’t need to be made any worse by media types we look to for intelligent analysis (yes, even from Lennox) jumping to spurious conclusions.

Friday Q & A

2011-03-18T23:15:00.003-04:00

Miguel Cotto did a lot of this against Ricardo Mayorga Saturday, and kept his poise when the Nicaraguan tried to goad Cotto into doing something stupid. Cotto wisely left the stupidity to Mayorga.

A take or two on some naggingly unanswered questions plaguing the boxing world:

Q: Assuming by now you’ve gotten off your duff and watched the Miguel Cotto-Ricardo Mayorga fight, did Cotto do enough to impress in not stopping Mayorga until the twelfth round?

A: Yes, I think so. It wasn’t the most impressive performance Cotto has ever had, but Mayorga is such a weird, awkward brawler that a lot of standard boxing technique goes out the window against him. The most impressive thing about Cotto was his discipline while the Nicaraguan was doing his usual crazy antics, most of which Mayorga does in lieu of actual effective boxing. If you remember, Shane Mosley needed the twelfth round before stopping Mayorga, too; if you haven’t fought Mayorga before, it usually takes several rounds to figure out what the hell he’s actually doing. Once that happens, most top level fighters can begin to do some damage in the later rounds, which is what happened Saturday.

Q: But it looked like Mayorga essentially quit from an elbow injury. Does that make this any kind of real knockout?

A: Look, Mayorga might have been complaining of the elbow, which was probably legitimately hurt, but it was Cotto that was taking the heart out of him. Jean Pascal dislocated his shoulder THREE TIMES against Adrian Diaconu and still finished the fight. So don’t tell me that Mayorga couldn’t have one-handed it for two minutes and finished the fight. It looked more to me that Mayorga had just had enough of Cotto’s pounding on him, especially after that wicked left hook.

Q: Who hurt himself more in a loss: Yuri Foreman to Pavel Wolak (TKO-6) or Lenny Zappavigna to Miguel Vazquez (UD-12)?

A: Foreman for sure. Lenny Z. is a young fighter who got in the ring against a boxing technician light years ahead of anyone he’s previously faced, and got taught a lesson. He was lucky to get a smelly victory against Fernando Angulo last year that he didn’t deserve, anyway; Zappavigna needs to improve, but is young enough at 23 to do so. Foreman, on the other hand, had been making inroads into major TV exposure with his fight at Yankee Stadium against Cotto last year; he needed this awful performance like a hole in the head. Foreman is a great story, but has less power than an electric can opener and a style that is not all that crowd-pleasing. When you have those things against you, especially at 30, you had better win. Letting a straight-ahead brawler like Wolak box circles around you means that HBO or Showtime won’t come calling again anytime soon.

Q: So with the Odlanier Solis-Vitali Kitschko fight on the Epix network, what do you think has the greater odds of happening: Solis winning or anyone actually getting the Epix network to watch it?

A: Probably Solis, but not by much. I get the huge DirecTV package at my house with a million channels, and Epix is one of the three channels they don’t carry. When you have a link at the bottom of your website that says, “What is Epix?”, you can’t bet not too many people actually know. It looks like they are available in the U.S. on Charter and Cox cable, plus Dish Network, but not the two biggies, Comcast cable and DirecTV. Hopefully, someone will have this available for download, because there won’t be a whole lot of us fans watching it live. I understand the Epix website will stream it for this fight, so that’s good news. However, if Epix continues to broadcast fights like they say they are, it will be a big inconvenience to many a fan.

Monday Night Quarterback

2011-03-14T23:47:00.002-04:00

Even though the WBC decided to strip middleweight champion Sergio Martinez of his belt, that's apparently not going to stop "El Maravilla" from flaunting it, along with his Ring Magazine belt. Sergio, you better be careful - I'm sure a sanctioning fee will still somehow be charged by the green-belt bandits.

Some quick thoughts about the fistic weekend that was:

## Anyone else think that there’s no way Floyd Mayweather or Manny Pacquiao won’t be fighting Sergio Martinez anytime soon? He can say all he wants about fighting either guy next, but Martinez is more likely to sprout wings and fly before he sees himself in the ring with either man. His fantastic KO of the previously unbeaten Sergiy Dzinziruk has seen to that. Much like Nonito Donaire’s awesome starching of Fernando Montiel last month, “El Maravilla” showed that rare quality of making excellent fighters look like they don’t belong in the ring with him. Only the true greats of the sport are typically able to do that. Believe me, Dzinziruk will beat a lot of people and win more titles before he’s done, and he probably will not look this bad again for a long time. That fact that he did speaks to where Martinez is at right now. If Floyd or Manny fought him right now, I think they’d be in real trouble.

## While I haven’t watched the Miguel Cotto-Ricardo Mayorga fight (which I’m sure is filled with Mayorga talking junk and getting hit A LOT), I did see a clip of the post fight press conference, which may just have been more interesting. While no one should be really surprised that Bob Arum’s going to line his pockets by putting the Plaster Caster himself, Antonio Margarito, back in the ring with Cotto, he better be aware of just how this dynamic might play out. If you check out this clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dL1cQ-V8f at about the eight minute mark, you will see Cotto giving Margs a reception so frosty you’d have been able to keep your beer cold just by putting it in the space between the two. Cotto has obviously serious disdain for Margarito, beyond the usual trash talk between fighters jockeying for a fight. Cotto likely believes that he was beaten by a guy with loaded gloves, and probably wants not just to beat Margarito, but beat him up. Arum had better be prepared for a situation where Margarito, between the Pacquiao fight and the potential one against Cotto, might be finished after two brutal beatings.

## I’m sorry, but I’m just not going to get all that excited over Andy Lee’s thrilling, come-from-behind KO of Scot Craig McEwan on the opener of Martinez-Dzinziruk. Yeah, it was a great fight, but all I’ve been hearing about is how great a comeback it was, and how he saved his career, blah, blah, blah. The truth is, while McEwan is a solid fighter, he’s no top ten guy at middleweight, and he tagged Lee at will for about six rounds in that fight. All credit to Lee’s persistence, but does ANYONE see him beating Kelly Pavlik or Paul Williams, let alone Martinez, who is rumored to be his next opponent? Lee gets hit far too much, and the top guys in the division would take him apart. He’s been with Emanuel Steward too long to think that he’ll suddenly become a better defensive fighter at some point soon; if he was ever going to, Manny would have already got him there. All it looks like Lee has earned with his win is a chance to earn a nice payday while getting beaten down by Martinez.

Reinventing the Finito

2011-03-13T20:14:00.000-04:00

Well, if you’ve noticed, it’s been a few months since anything appeared in this space. My apologies for that; I certainly hadn’t intended for the Finito to suddenly fade into the sunset after a year and a half a la David Reid! Truth is, I’ve always called this blog a labor of love; while the love is there, watching all the fights, putting together the research and getting all my thoughts together was very much the labor. I was always able to do that because my job was much like a nurse’s shift, and I’d have three or four days off at a time. Around the first part of October, I took an 8 to 5 job like most regular American folks. I figured I would have all the time in the world to continue my weekly ramblings, now that I wouldn’t be a night-working vampire anymore and be alive with the rest of the world. Alas, soon enough, I found that I almost never had any time during the week to WATCH the fights, let alone write anything about them. Most of the time in the past, one of my posts would take me one or more nights to put together. With my current job, I just don’t have that kind of time. Why didn’t you 8 to 5’ers tell me about any of this stuff?

So now that I’ve bored you with all the details of my life you could care less about (Finito Lopez would have found time to write, you might be thinking), here’s the point. Since the previous posts took as much time to put together as they did, why not just make more frequent, but shorter, posts? I still watch the fights and keep up with everything in the Sweet Science; instead of a two or three-page article, a short and sweet post might just do the trick. So from here on out, the Finito will continue, just in more frequent and smaller bursts. I have no idea how this will eventually flesh itself out, but why not give it a try?

For those of you that have read my crazy ramblings the last couple of years, I thank you. For those of you who would rather read the wit and wisdom of Floyd Mayweather than anything I might have to say, I have bad news. Here begins the relaunch of the Finito – I hope you’ll be along for the ride!

The Finito Q & A – September edition

2010-09-24T08:20:00.002-04:00

Now that the Scorpions are the WBC's “honorary ambassadors for peace”, maybe we can finally figure out if all the band members collectively weigh as much as James Toney did for his MMA fight last month.

This pressing questions in the fight game, from Mora’s running to the Scorpions’ rocking:

Q: After all the negative press the fight has received, was Sergio Mora-Shane Mosley really that bad?

A: It depends on how you look at it. In terms of the fight itself, it was pretty terrible until about round ten when Mora finally decided he actually wanted to make a determined effort to win. The last three rounds did have some good action back and forth, so it wasn’t as bad as Manny Paquiao-Joshua Clottey, for instance. In that fight, Clottey didn’t show up for any round at all, and ran constantly just to make it to round twelve. With Mora, his feinting and clinching style was a definite game plan, he just had no offense to go with it. But all in all, it was a lot of Mosley trying to make the fight and Mora trying not to, so it was pretty hard on the eyes.

Q: If it was so one-sided, how did it end up a draw?

A: Because the judges (well, at least two of them) were absolutely awful. I have not yet seen anyone score this fight towards Mora more than 116-112 Mosley except for Kermit Bayless (115-113 Mora) and Lou Moret (114-114), and unfortunately, their scores counted. I had the fight scored 118-110, and there were only two other rounds I thought were close enough to possibly give to Mora. Other than that, there was no way you could give Mora any more than five rounds (4, 7 & 10-12), because he was not competitive in the others. This was not a fight with a lot of close rounds; Mosley clearly did enough to win and got shafted. HBO’s Jim Lampley called the decision atrocious, and he was right.

Q: With all that said, what does this mean for each fighter’s career at this point?

A: For Mosley, everyone will probably consider this fight a victory, if not on the scorecards. Sugar Shane clearly isn’t what he was ten years ago, but he still has world-class skills and a willingness to get in there and fight. For Mora, the thing he now has in common with Clottey is that he won’t see a big stage ever again. You would think with millions at stake if he had won the fight, the “Latin Snake” would have fought like his life depended on it; instead, he fought like his afternoon nap depended on it. Not only did he show up three pounds heavy at the weigh-in, he used none of his natural size and reach advantages to press the action during the bout. I’m not even sure he even threw a meaningful body shot until the second half of the fight. In the post-fight interview, Mora said he respected Mosley too much. Respect for your opponent should never get in the way of being a professional, and now Mora will have plenty of time to think about that on those Solo Boxeo and Friday Night Fights cards to which he’ll now be banished.

Q: Does this fight take any luster off of Floyd Mayweather’s victory over Shane?

A: It shouldn’t. Like I said before, Mosley has seen his best days, but he still fights at the top level and is a Hall-Of-Famer. The fight with Mora was one of those bad stylistic matchups, so you can’t kill Mosley too much for it; besides, Mosley did his best to bring the action and did win for all intents and purposes. Until someone dominates Mosley like that again, you have to consider Mayweather’s victory a significant one.

Q: Speaking of Mayweather, do you think he’s going to fight again now that three felony counts have been brought against him?

A: Apparently you didn’t read last week’s Finito Five. Floyd is not going to be mentioned here unless it’s for some actual in-ring action. Until that happens, I couldn’t care less if he ends up in jail or not.

Q: OK, then back to the PPV. Maybe the main event was terrible, but didn’t the undercard fights (all KO’s) take away some of the stench?

A: Yes! For all the bad the feature fight gave boxing fans, the three fights before it were absolutely thrilling. You’d have thought the French Revolution was in full swing the way the heads were rolling. Daniel Ponce De Leon showed that he’s becoming a real boxer in addition to his awesome power by wiping out fellow featherweight Antonio Escalante in three rounds (back to FNF with Mora, Antonio!). “Vicious” Victor Ortiz won the battle of the “Vicious” nickname by knocking down Vivian Harris four times on the way to a third-round knockout. Ortiz really looks like he’s getting some of that swagger back he lost against Marcos Maidana. And as for 154-pound Mexican redhead Saul Alvarez smoking iron-chinned Carlos Baldomir in round six, what more needs to be said? Baldomir is long in the tooth, sure, but he hasn’t hit the deck in more than ten years, and has certainly never taken a ten-count. With the buzz generated by those fights, fans were chanting Alvarez’ name while Mora was doing all his running during the main event. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen that before.

Q: The Top Rank Live card this last Saturday had two fights with world title implications, but the Jorge Arce-Lorenzo Parra jr. feather clash was only in round three by the supposed end of the show at midnight. Many a DVR owner must have been frustrated. What happened?

A: First off, it’s a live sporting event, so DVR users, get used to extending your recording times an hour (or start it an hour early if it happens to be on ESPN!). Secondly, this was just par for the course with Top Rank Live these days. While boxing fans are eternally grateful to Bob Arum for putting these shows on, the production often resembles cable-access programming. If you look at any ESPN or Telefutura show, there are absolutely no more than 22 scheduled rounds of boxing for any given show. Why? Because the fights themselves (barring knockouts, of course) take about 90 minutes, leaving 30 minutes for ring introductions, fight analysis, ads, et cetera. The card Saturday, between Omar Chavez and Humberto Soto’s fights before the main event, totaled a ridiculous 30 scheduled rounds, which would run at exactly two hours for just in-ring fight time. If Chavez hadn’t ended his fight in round four, the show would have lasted almost three hours. Not very good planning by the Top Rank folks.

Q: So the Arce-Parra fight was a draw then wasn’t a draw afterwards, so what did fans miss?

A: What was missed was a complete mishandling of scorecards, which again is indicative of just how messy some of the Top Rank Live shows are. It was bad enough that rounds three and ten didn’t come back from commercial break until a minute into their respective rounds; but when the fight was over, and seemingly in a rush to end the show, an obviously confused ring announcer Lupe’ Contreras just said the fight was a draw and the show ended. No scores, no explanation, nothing. After the fight was over, officials at the fight said the scorecards were added up incorrectly and Arce was the winner. A day or so later, the Culiacan Boxing & Wrestling Commission said the original draw would stand for now, and there’s to be a hearing. So in other words, no one knows who won right now. And given that Arce dominated the fight from pillar to post, I’m not really sure how there can be that much confusion with the result.

Q: Cruiserweight Enzo Maccarinelli got knocked out once again against Alexander Frenkel this last weekend. Why is he still being allowed to fight?

A: He shouldn’t be, at least not for a while. The British Boxing Board Of Control really needs to get on this before something really bad happens to Maccarinelli. Frenkel absolutely crushed him with a left that eventually ended up with doctors giving the Welshman oxygen on the canvas. This is the fourth time in eight fights that he’s been brutally knocked out, so much so it should give his team (Joe Calzaghe’s father, also named Enzo, is his trainer) some pause about putting him back in there. It’s one thing to have a run of getting stopped in fights, but it’s another when those knockouts end with you sleeping on the canvas. The only reason he’s allowed back in the ring every time speaks to how celebrated Maccarinelli was for years in Britian prior to his facing David Haye. Perhaps Maccarinelli should find another line of work before he starts sounding like Tommy Hearns or worse.

Q: Did you see the WBC gave rock band the Scorpions an honorary championship belt? The Scorpions?

A: Yes, I did see that. As if the WBC doesn’t do enough strange things already with their belts and rankings, now apparently Klaus Meine and friends are “honorary WBC ambassadors for peace”, which garners some sort of belt. What in the world the Scorps have to do with boxing (yes, I know they have played at Klitschko fights in the past) or what the WBC has to do with world unity seems is comparable to what Oscar De La Hoya has to do with Antarctic exploration. I suppose, though, when you have four champions in one division and have been known to rank dead fighters, giving rock bands their own belts is not such a stretch. I just hope this doesn't mean that if I ever need to replace my "Love At First Sting" CD, there isn't an extra sanctioning fee that goes along with it!

The Finito Five 8/17/10

2010-09-17T08:26:00.006-04:00

Wladimir Klitschko's not making Bernard Hopkins' executioner sign, although he did nearly behead Sam Peter in their rematch Saturday. No matter how much body the Ukranian exposed, Peter just felt like getting a hug instead of throwing a body shot.

More coherent than any video rant, it’s the Finito Five!

1. Open mouth, insert Mayweather

OK, I try to be objective in this space every time out, but there comes a time when I have to cut the cord. That’s it. Until he steps into the ring again, I’m officially done with Floyd Mayweather. It’s bad enough he wouldn’t sign to fight Manny Pacquiao earlier this year, but then he throws out a YouTube video so stupid it makes the Flat Earth Society look legit. Never mind his ridiculous, semi-racist rants directed towards the Filipino superstar in which he’s not even smart enough to insult his intended target correctly (uhh, Sushi is Japanese, not Filipino, dummy). Never mind his pathetic yes men agreeing with everything Floyd said to the point that if he told one of them they were owls, they’d probably start hooting. This stupidity we expect from Mayweather. The most galling thing, however, is that he’s calling out the pound-for-pound best boxer in the world (and, believe me, it’s not you, “Money”) as if Pacquiao won’t fight him, when it’s clearly the other way around. At least if you’re going to call someone a chicken, you should at least make sure you’re not the one with the beak. The only reason this video probably even happened in the first place was that Pretty Boy just couldn’t take that Pac-Man was in the news again for an actual, honest-to-God fight and he wasn’t. It’s getting positively tiring to constantly hear news about Mayweather without it having to do with a signed contract for his next bout.

The difference this time is that Mayweather’s now really stepped in it. Up until now, the Mouth from Grand Rapids could just about say anything he wanted with no repercussions. However, as soon as that video came out, instead of everyone just shrugging off his comments as they usually do, an outcry from fans and Filipino groups alike actually made Floyd issue a weak apology the next day. And make, no mistake, his “I was only playin’ around” excuse was just that. He crossed a line that was beyond just trash talk. If that wasn’t enough, now we find Mayweather back in jail again on charges he stole cell phones from the mother of three of his kids and a possible charge of domestic battery. To be sure, no one knows the facts of this case just yet, but Floyd’s ex-girlfriend did go to the hospital, so something happened. With Las Vegas police saying that Mayweather actually threatened to beat HIS OWN KIDS if any of them called the police, this could get much more ugly before it’s all done. And you know what? As much B.S. as I’ve had to constantly put up with from Mayweather (and as much of a creep as he is, anyway), until he steps into the ring, I couldn’t care less what he says or does. Like I said before, I’m done.

2. The Montiel/Margarito World Tour

With most boxers who dedicate their blood, sweat and tears to the fight game, it can usually be said that their lives are boxing. But you would think that even the most dedicated of fighters would like a weekend or two off with their families, like the rest of us working Joes do from our own jobs. Apparently, this doesn’t work for bantamweight Fernando Montiel and welterweight Antonio Margarito, who have seen fit to show up at damn near every fight in North America over the past six months. Just about every Top Rank show that is on TV these days, there’s Margarito in the ring with his smiling Mexican face, while Montiel is in the first couple of rows rocking sunglasses with some hottie at his side. At Giovani Segura-Ivan Calderon, there they were again, and I’m pretty sure they were at Tomasz Adamek-Michael Grant as well, selling cotton candy and popcorn for all we know. Guys, you can have interests outside of boxing; get a hobby! But, alas, there Margs was again Saturday night behind Brandon Rios prior to his fight with Anthony Peterson. Maybe he's just saving up his frequent flyer miles so he can fly somewhere that never heard of Plaster of Paris! As a matter of fact, I’m pretty sure I saw Montiel at the bread isle in my local supermarket yesterday. I’m half expecting that when I open up my closet tomorrow, Margarito will be standing there asking me for advice on beating Pacquiao. And whatever advice I would give him, I certainly won’t tell him to go out and plaster Pac-Man…

3. Still Petered out

Well, so much for being excited at the Wladamir Klitschko-Sam Peter rematch, huh? There were more than a few fans and scribes alike that thought that perhaps a slimmed down, focused and streaking Peter may give the Ukranian his best test since, well, the last time they fought. If you remember, that was also the last time big Wlad hit the deck and actually was in some serious difficulty. The only difficulty (at least until the tenth round) was remaining interested in the fight itself while watching it. Look, it’s obvious that Klitschko has gotten markedly better since the first time he fought Peter, and wasn’t going to let the Nigerian get in any position that was dangerous. The disappointing thing was that Peter wasn’t doing much to BE dangerous. Unlike his brother, Wladamir is only a few clinches per fight away from John Ruiz territory, and Peter was willing to let the bigger man tie him up and not attempt any work on the inside. For the millionth time, heavweights of the world, YOU WON’T EVER BEAT A KLITSCHKO FROM THE OUTSIDE! You would think that since Wlad has fought every bout essentially the same way for the last ten years, someone would figure out that maybe they need to get inside his reach and work to the body? Peter and his team didn’t seem to have that figured out. Don’t they say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing each time and expecting a different result? In that case, maybe Wlad’s next title defense ought to be in an asylum.

4. Rios makes a statement, Peterson makes a mistake

With all apologies to Yuriorkis Gamboa’s excellent featherweight title defense against Orlando Salido, the undercard of HBO’s Boxing After Dark Saturday was the fight with all the intrigue. Undefeated lightweights Brandon Rios and Anthony Peterson were going to tangle, and the winner might be the Next Big Think at 135 pounds. Honestly (including this space here), many thought it would be Peterson, the D.C. phenom who had been kicking butt and taking names along with his brother, Lamont. I guess that’s why they fight the fights, right? Because I’m now a huge fan of Rios, who just laid a beating on Peterson from seemingly out of nowhere. He had Peterson so frustrated, Rios was in danger of not being able to procreate due to Peterson’s 20 or so low blows. “Bam Bam” obviously had a stronger will and mental game than his opponent, and while Rios’ career has shot to the stratosphere, now the questions will start mounting for Peterson. Peterson obviously had more boxing ability, but when it came time to demonstrate it, he quit using his jab and started to get tagged. Despite repeated and easy to follow directions from his trainer Barry Hunter to use that jab, Peterson just wouldn’t do it. Finally, one too many blows south of the border caused referee Russell Mora to disqualify him. While his brother Lamont may have lost to a pound-for-pound world-beater like Timothy Bradley, this was Rios’ first big win of note. The question is whether Anthony Peterson will have another one of his own. He needs to get right before that can happen.

5. I wouldn’t want to be in this Hatton Wonderland

When Ricky Hatton more or less stopped fighting after his loss to Manny Pacquiao, there were a handful of boxing people that wondered whether he would be able to resume a normal life. This is a guy that would blow up to damn near 200 pounds when he fought at 140, and it was well-known that Hatton liked the pubs and the good life. It wasn’t so much of a surprise then, that Hatton had been seen over the winter looking more and more like “Hands of Food” Roberto Duran. Many athletes put on weight after their playing days are over. Sadly, it looks like Hatton may have slipped into Johnny Tapia territory. A British newspaper recently published a sobering photo of Hatton snorting cocaine on their front page, a photo that can’t be denied or claimed to have been altered into something it wasn’t. And before everyone cracks any jokes about whether the picture was taken at Joe Calzaghe’s house (c’mon, you know you were thinking about it!), it’s time to realize just how bad it’s gotten for the English “Hit Man”. According to reports, Hatton is now in rehab, as the drugs were only a minor sidelight to a serious drinking and depression problem. So, in other words, the good time, hanging-out-with-his-mates and having a Guinness Hatton is no longer funny, it’s ruining a once-great champion’s life. Here’s hoping Hatton gets it together and comes out of this a better man. Beating addiction will probably a lot tougher than Pac-Man.

Off The Cuff II

2010-09-03T08:25:00.004-04:00

The sweat was up and flying several times during the Giovani Segura-Ivan Calderon clash, but "Iron Boy" should have been flying around the ring and not trading with an awesome puncher like Segura.

Now that Labor Day is fast approaching here in the States, it’s time to labor through another round of rapid-fire thoughts about our beloved Sweet Science:

## Watching the recent Tomasz Adamek-Michael Grant fight, I have to say that there was nothing there that made me think the Polish heavyweight could beat either Kitschko brother. Sure, it was a gutty, gritty performance against Grant, who looks like he should be playing linebacker in the NFL rather then boxing, but it sure wasn’t a cakewalk. Grant had Adamek hurt a couple of times during the fight, and may have won had Adamek not swept the first six rounds. Grant is nowhere near as busy or accurate at Wlad or Vitali, and if Grant can do that kind of damage, Ukranian’s Finest might end the night early for Adamek. Then again, it’s not like the Klitscko’s have been ending much of anything early lately except my interest level.

## I had to laugh during the fight when Integrated Sports PPV play-by-play nutcase Col. Bob Sheridan kept repeating that Adamek was “just not going to be intimidated by the imposing Michael Grant!” All I could think of was the fact that no one else in the heavyweight division has been intimidated by Grant since about 1999, either. But give Sheridan credit for trying.

## Seriously, I could write a whole column about Col. Bob’s constant trips to Bonkersville every time he does a fight, and we’ve had two of them to pour over in consecutive weeks. For those not properly trained in Sheridan-Speak, here’s what you need to know:

1. Every fight is the greatest of all time (remember Jacqui Frazier-Laila Ali?).

2. Every fighter is a true warrior, and this is the best division in boxing.

3. The Integrated Sports PPV (or whomever he’s working for at the time) team is just amazing, and it’s simply amazing they haven’t yet cured cancer.

4. If there’s an inconclusive or controversial ending to a fight, every theory from the shooter in the grassy knoll to Machiavellian scheming by Don King’s barber will be put forth until we learn that, yeah, it was just a close fight.

So we need to forget the fact that the good Colonel had Adamek out on his feet in the twelfth round when he wasn’t even close, or the fact that Adamek was putting American heavyweights back on the map (uh, Adamek is POLISH!). He’s just a roller coaster ride, so you just have to go with it at times.

## Just as any Col. Bob Batman needs his Robin, Benny Ricardo fills the bill nicely as the chief second on the Integrated announce team. His best highlight was in the sixth round of the Giovani Segura-Ivan Calderon flyweight championship fight Saturday, when he said, “These guys don’t even know how to hold!” just as they were, you guessed it, holding. Still, he had one of the funniest lines I’ve ever heard during the same fight, as they panned to bantamweight Fernando Montiel sitting in the crowd with two attractive women on either side of him: “He is the WBO & WBC bantamweight champion. I guess when you’re a champion of two divisions, you get two women like that!” Now that was funny…

## Speaking of that fight, I can’t for the life of me figure out why in the world Calderon stopped moving in the fourth round and started trading with Segura. Maybe it had something to do with “Iron Boy” fighting in front of his native Puerto Rican crowd, but Calderon had been dominating the fight up until that point. While Segura’s attack was relentless, he wasn’t really connecting until Calderon inexplicably quit moving and, worst of all things he could have done, started to back up instead of going side to side. I’ve heard all the chatter about Calderon being 36 and slowing down, but I still think it came to some bad decision making in the ring that cost him in this one. We’ll see if he does the same in a rematch.

## It was really refreshing to hear Ring magazine flyweight champion Ponsaklek Wonjongkam show some honesty from a fighter for once when talking about his surprise loss to Diasuke Naito in their third fight. “I had become complacent,” he said, “and I took Naito for granted. Never again.” Maybe that’s what spurred him on to turn a surprise of his own when he shocked undefeated Koki Kemada earlier this year, likely putting him in Canestota. Contrast that with motormouth 140-pounder Hank Lundy on Friday Night Fights last week trying to make every excuse in the book for his loss to John Molina on that same show last month. He was sick that night, the ref messed up, the lights were too bright, the dog ate his homework, whatever. As a fan, you just get sick of it after a while.

## As for Friday Night Fights, it wrapped up another season Saturday. Even though Teddy Atlas can grate on me and sometimes the matchups aren’t stellar, it really is the best boxing show around. I miss the heck out of Atlas, Brian Kenney and Joe Tessitore, and it makes me actually want freezing January to get here so they can start up again.

## Yeah, so James Toney got killed in his MMA fight with Randy Couture. Anyone surprised? Yeah, me neither. And for those MMA idiots (just the idiots, not the fans who truly respect ring sports) who say that this proves MMA’s dominance, just keep in mind that Couture beat a guy who hasn’t been a boxing factor in years, didn’t bother to train himself into shape and didn’t train in any of the other fighting disciplines needed to become a good cage fighter. Toney is no more a legit MMA fighter than Kimbo Slice is going to be as a boxer. This was a sideshow, nothing more, and I bet Couture knows that, too.

## And just to show you MMA isn’t the only place to find complete idiots, I can sure do without stodgy boxing writers denigrating MMA every time they forget to take their Prozac. Jeff Ryan’s constant assertions in the pages of Ring magazine that MMA fighters can’t take a punch is just stupid and petty. I wonder how many of today’s boxers would have great chins if boxing switched to four-ounce gloves like MMA? I bet a six round fight would be considered long. Both disciplines are incredibly challenging, and great athletes and fighters abound in each, and neither is going away. Just deal with it.

## So Texas gave Antonio Margarito a license to fight Manny Pacquiao. Color me shocked. When there’s promotional greenbacks involved, Jack the Ripper would probably get a license. From the same commission that gave us the first Juan Diaz-Paulie Malignaggi screwjob, I’m not surprised.

## Anyone else hoping that Pac-Man lays a massive beatdown on Margacheato?

## So, now that Pacquiao has a dinner date for later this year, any surprise that Floyd Mayweather has climbed out of his cave and seems interested in another fight all of the sudden? I thought “Money” was busy enjoying his summer, but I guess when your rival that you ought to be fighting one-ups you and actually fights, insecurity just won’t let you continue to relax by the pool. It’s almost hilarious if it wasn’t so sad.

## Oh, and just for the record, the Sam Peter fight with Wlad actually does have me interested. Keep in mind that whenever Peter has been in shape, he’s been pretty dangerous, and he’s been in shape recently. We’ll see what kind of shape the younger Klitschko brother is in after that fight is over.

The Finito Flash – Margarito’s impossible choice, Kessler’s obvious choice

2010-08-27T08:06:00.007-04:00

Antonio Margarito may be in shape, but does he have anywhere to fight? California told him to take a walk, but Texas may decide that loaded gloves are only important if they prevent the Cowboys from playing.

Some quick thoughts about current goings-on in the Sweet Science:

By now, most everyone has heard that the California State Athletic Commision (CSAC) has denied welterweight Antonio Margarito a license to continue fighting after his plaster-in-the-hand-wraps debacle prior to his fight with Shane Mosley a year and a half ago. That was definitely the right thing to do, and I believe that Margarito probably should be on the shelf for longer than just a year. In fact, I’m still torn as to whether he even belongs back in the ring period. I simply don’t (and won’t ever) believe that Margarito had no idea his gloves were being loaded when he’s been around thousands of wrapped hands, his own or otherwise. Cement in your gloves is about as heinous a transgression as can be done in the Sweet Science, and it should never be taken lightly. Ever.

Having said all that, however, the dog-and-pony show that was put forth by the CSAC in denying Margarito his license defied all logic. From all accounts, Margarito (and his lawyer, Daniel Petrocelli of Ron Goldman fame) had no chance coming into the hearing simply because the CSAC was determined to give Margarito two impossible options. He could admit his guilt (which is what the CSAC had said they essentially wanted him to do), which would probably result in his becoming so radioactive that not even Lady Gaga would touch him with a ten-foot pole. It’s not like you can walk around saying, “Yeah, I knowingly let my trainer put cement in my gloves, my bad. So when’s my next fight?” His second option (which he chose) was to deny any wrongdoing, but in doing so, meant that he would never get the CSAC to reinstate his license. Couple that with the CSAC’s citing some obscure “sparring license” rule that Margarito failed to follow as some further example of his general negligence (yes, because not getting a license that half of California boxers don’t even know about and loading your gloves are in the same place on the egregiousness meter!), and the Mexican was as good as done.

Now, this is not to say I have any sympathy for Margarito, because I don’t. His fighting in Mexico while suspended in the U.S. coupled with his continued association with trainer Javier Capetillo for months afterward was among the stupider things in boxing history. Margarito has made his own bed so many times, he should be working at Howard Johnson. He’s applied for a license in Texas, and if that commission has any decency, they will deny him once again. Still, the CSAC made their case less legitimate by making the proceedings look more like a Boston Legal episode than an actual hearing. Let’s hope it’s the only time this happens.

Bummer of bummers, it looks like Mikkel Kessler has pulled out of the Super Six super middleweight tournament. Apparently, it had to do with a muscle around Kessler’s eye that sustained repeated damage during sparring, and it has been an issue with the Dane for quite a while. Eye injuries are always a serious thing, whether you’re a boxer on not. Luckily for fight fans, after about a year, he should be back to normal, and can resume a career that excites boxing fans around the world.

Still, what are they going to do with the rest of the tournament? Kessler had a genuinely good shot of making the semi-finals of the tournament if he had beaten Allan Green; with Green’s no-show against Andre Ward, that may have been a good Vegas bet. Adding someone new at this point virtually guarantees that fighter no chance of advancing if Kessler’s points aren’t carried over to them, but is it also fair to give credit for Kessler’s accomplishments to someone just coming in? Probably the only fair way to finish up the tournament is to scrap the third round and just have Andre Dirrell, Ward, Carl Froch and Arthur Abraham start the semi-finals right now. Of course, Green would be left out in the cold, but he was pretty fortunate to be asked in the first place. Besides, why not just make Green-Kessler after Kessler’s eye heals? We wouldn’t have to miss the fight at all then, but obviously the Super Six is making for some strange promotional bedfellows we wouldn’t normally see. That fight being made under normal circumstances may be more of a reach than Floyd Mayweather actually answering a question about Manny Pacquiao this year.

From what it sounds like, Showtime is discussing skipping round three of the tournament, so there’s encouraging news on that front. Even though we may have lost a round of great fights, it’s hard to argue that the Super Six has been anything other than an excellent idea, one which will be remembered for years to come.

This Chad was just plain “bad”

2010-08-19T08:09:00.005-04:00

Chad Dawson got in the face of fellow light heavyweight Jean Pascal more often at the weigh-in than he did for most of their fight Saturday. Maybe Pascal's breath was bad enough to scare Dawson from engaging him closely during the bout.

As an observer of boxing for over 20 years now, I can say that there are three things that I firmly believe go into making a boxer who he or she is (and you could probably apply them to any sport, really). Setting aside for a minute any other intangibles that could come into play, these are the three variables:

1. Skill – Whether this is God-given talent or acquired by training, the actually boxing ability of a fighter in the ring.

2. Intelligence – Otherwise known as wisdom or ring smarts, this covers the mental side of the game, from the ability to adapt to getting your opponent to fight your fight.

3. Heart – This is what most fans call the warrior’s mentality, from the journeyman who keeps fighting after being knocked down five times to the champion who summons the will to grind out the last two rounds of a title defense.

Every fighter has varying degrees of each one of these attributes, but here’s one thing that’s for sure: If you’re severely lacking in any one of these areas, but are great in the other two, it will eventually catch up to you.

Want an example or two?

Ricky Hatton has tons of fighting heart and dictated his all-attacking style to just about every opponent he ever faced. However, when it came down to matching skill on skill with the Pacquiao’s & Mayweather’s of the world, he just couldn’t hang and eventually lost. Does that mean he was without skill? Of course not. But as a fighter attempts to ascend the highest rungs of boxing’s ladder, not having one of the attributes at the same high level of the other two will make life difficult, and that’s what happened to Hatton. Too bad there can’t be more than one Ricky Hatton, eh?

A different example would be welterweight Kendall Holt. While “Rated R” has skill beyond compare and a willingness to bring the fight each and every time, he is also very capable of melting down mentally at a moment’s notice. Anyone remember his awesome first couple of rounds against Timothy Bradley last year? Holt could have been in control of the fight and possibly won, but he inexplicably decided to quit throwing punches and using his jab, so Bradley took over. How about the rematch against Ricardo Torres, where Holt wasn’t ready for Torres to start brawling at the opening bell (which is all Torres ever does), and got knocked down twice in the first round before eventually coming back to win by knockout in the same round? Great heart, but Holt could save himself a lot of pain and suffering by keeping his wits about him sometimes.

Which now brings us to the third example, that of light heavyweight Chad Dawson. We know Dawson’s skill is among the very best in boxing, period. We know he is cagey enough to keep world-class fighters like Glen Johnson and Thomasz Adamek off their games and frustrated. But never has Dawson’s heart been truly tested. Never has he had to prove that he wanted it more than the other guy. Never has he had to overcome that adversity that makes so many fighters great.

Against Jean Pascal last Saturday, Dawson showed that he might not have what it takes to bring it at the highest level. And what a disappointment that is.

When it became apparent during the first few rounds that Pascal was going to use his familiar Montreal crowd to bring the fight and wrest the title of best 175-pounder from Dawson, “Bad” Chad was just plain bad. Make no mistake, Dawson is the better fighter by miles, both in terms of skill and ring smarts. But it was apparent early on that Pascal just wanted it way more than Dawson did, to the extent that Pascal was going to keep throwing punches until something good happened. Here’s a guy that suffered three shoulder separations (ouch!) in his second fight with Adrian Diaconu, and still found a way to win.

Dawson, when faced with this situation and opponent, apparently forgot to bring the gasoline with him. Pascal totally dictated the fight, but it was obvious that during the infrequent times that Dawson decided he wasn’t going to fight safety-first, he could really do some damage. Still, there was no energy, no passion to win and really no significant punch output coming at all from Dawson. It wasn’t until the later rounds when he decided to get on his horse that he had Pascal hurt in the ninth and nearly out in the eleventh before an accidental headbutt cut Dawson and caused the fight to go to the cards. At that point, it was too late. Dawson was toast.

The worst part was that it was inexcusable for a guy that was fighting in the challenger’s hometown because he can’t sell tickets in the United States not to lay everything on the line. What did he figure would happen? With the vocal Montreal crowd ooohing and aaahing with every Pascal punch, they would give the decision to the guy from Connecticut? Dawson, unlike crowd-pleasing fighters like Arturo Gatti, has to find a way to keep winning so that HBO and the boxing public will remain interested. With this lousy performance and the lack of any guts, who’s going to flock to see Dawson now? Pascal’s the man at 175, not him. And, although Dawson’s calling for a rematch, a bazillion-dollar fight with Lucien Bute’ is next for Pascal, because the Bute’ matchup is much more interesting, from Canada to Bhutan.

At this moment, Dawson is at a crossroads. He needs to decide whether he has the passion to take some risk and get his crown back, or if he’s going to join the Derrick Gainer’s of the world as just a skilled fighter who plays it too safe to ever be a real factor again.

It may be time for some real heart surgery.

The Finito Five 7/29/10

2010-07-29T15:46:00.002-04:00

Welterweight Timothy Bradley says he's ready for everyone from Amir Khan to Manny Pacquiao himself. The difference is, unlike many fighters who call others out, Bradley will actually fight them. He might just give these guys more then they bargained for, as well.

Able to take the shots better than Paul Briggs (imagine how short a column this would be otherwise), it’s the Finito Five!

1. The megafight that’s turning into the megajoke

After a while, one has to wonder just how much blog space need be devoted to a Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather fight that continues not to happen. It was said in this space that no news was good news (and it probably was), but when Top Rank’s Bob Arum started to open up his trap earlier this month and set a deadline of July 17 for Mayweather to agree to the fight, you knew it wasn’t going to happen. With a nice dog-and-pony show disguised as a 3am (EST) press conference that morning, Arum told everyone what we knew already: The fight was off, and Pac-Man was exploring other options. That next option is either “Fists of Plaster” Antonio Margarito or a rematch with Miguel Cotto. Anyone else want to see any of those fights? Yeah, me neither. Margarito really shouldn’t be rewarded with a big payday for his transgressions, and he’s not even licensed in the United States to begin with. Where would their fight need to be in that case? Margarito’s home country of Mexico? That would be stupid. The Philippines? Maybe, but it’s not easy to put on a big PPV event there (not as easy as Las Vegas, at least). With Cotto, that’s already been done, and I haven’t met one boxing fan who thinks the outcome would be any different.

The worst part about these negotiations is that no one can seem to agree on whether the negotiations actually happened in the first place. You have Top Rank saying that they did negotiate with HBO’s Ross Greenburg and Mayweather’s adviser, Al Haymon, while you have Mayweather’s other adviser, Leonard Ellerbe, saying no negotiations ever took place. So everyone’s running around saying this and that, so what does Mayweather have to say? Oh, yeah - nothing. Whenever “Money” has been interviewed about the subject, he deflects the question, saying he’s just enjoying his summer. Thanks, Floyd, but that’s a big slap in the face to your fans and boxing fans in general. It’s pretty obvious at this point that Mayweather has no respect for either. One thing is for certain: If Floyd doesn’t get off his duff and take the Pacquiao fight in the next year, it will forever tarnish that legacy that Mayweather holds so dear. No matter what he accomplished in the ring, 30 years from now it will be the fight he didn't take that will define Mayweather’s legacy.

2. Col. Bob and the new math

Ahh, you’ve got to love an Integrated Sports PPV. Why put up with all the boring professionalism and accuracy of Jim Lampley at HBO or Nick Charles of Showtime (get well, my man) when you can have crazy Uncle Bob and Benny “and the Jets” Ricardo making each fight a two-drink minimum? Well, the titanic heavyweight tilt that was David Tua-Monte Barrett gave Col. Bob a chance to impart his vast boxing knowledge to the masses (when he wasn’t calling Barrett a great warrior enough times that you thought Tua must have been in the ring with Spartacus, anyway). Among the wit and wisdom put forth during the fight:

1. Round 10 is apparently the start of the championship rounds (I guess title eliminators must be nine rounds now).

2. There were millions on the line in the fight (what, did someone have some seven-figure action on Tua at the betting window?)

3. 40 percent of judges disagree on close rounds. (? – I mean, really – ?)

If you didn’t understand that last one, neither did I. He said it at least three times during the main event, and it made about as much sense as Ray Mancini discussing the Crimean War each time. If you take at face value that each close round is 10-9 either way, how can only 40 percent of judges disagree when there are only two ways to vote? Are these 40 percent disagreeing with the other 60 percent or with each other? If he means those 40 percent disagree with each other, then it’s 20 percent voting for fighter X and 20 percent voting for fighter Y, while the other 60 percent must be voting for the ring card girl or something, because otherwise it would be 80-20. Makes the head spin, huh?

3. Timothy Bradley is a bad, bad man

With the aforementioned blather about Pac-Man and Mayweather not fighting and looking for other dance partners, here’s betting that jr. welterweight Timothy Bradley’s phone will not be ringing off the hook. Why, you ask? Well if you saw Bradley’s dismantling of tough Luis Carlos Abregu ten days ago at 147 pounds (he’s a 140-pound titlist), this is a guy who could be giving either of those two big problems. Even though Bradley was unheralded until he went to England and beat Junior Witter a few years ago, he’s showing with each fight that he’s a buzzsaw that won’t easily be beaten. He’s got quite a good package: Fast hands, great work rate, honest power, ring generalship and solid defense. In other words, he’s the most complete fighter at 140 or 147 not named Pacquiao or Mayweather. And most important of all is the fact that Bradley wants it. Bad. He looks like a guy fighting to put food on his table every time he steps into the ring. When you consider the posturing that has taken place over the last year between Manny and Floyd, it’s nice to see someone running around saying “bring ‘em on!” finally. If the megafight can’t be made, let’s hope that Bradley gets a crack at making one of those guys regret not taking the millions.

4. Does the main event or undercard make a PPV worthy?

When I first heard about the rematch between lightweights Juan Diaz and Juan Manuel Marquez, it seemed like a fun action-packed fight that would do HBO proud. Diaz wasn’t going to come out a winner any more than he did the first time, but that’s all right; that’s why I have my HBO subscription. When I found out the fight was on PPV, it suddenly became less attractive. Was this fight really PPV-worthy for $50? While both are really good fighters, Diaz has been coming up short of a big win for about two years now, while Marquez is starting to look a little long in the tooth. The Kelly Pavlik-Sergio Martinez fight deserved to be on PPV more than this fight does. So about the time I became convinced that no one would buy it, HBO then goes and put some excellent fights on the undercard. Daniel Jacobs and Dmitry Pirog at 160 pounds (both undefeated), jr. welterweights Joel Casamayor and Robert Guerrero (a must win for both guys) plus Jorge Linares-Rocky Martinez at lightweight (Linares’ first big fight in the U.S.) all round out a fabulous card before we even get to the main event. HBO’s Greenberg has promised fans card like this for a while now, and it looks like he’s finally delivered. Chances are this PPV might be worth the money far more than any other show in recent years for that reason. Although after seeing such undercard fare as Julio Ceasar Chavez, Jr. and Troy Rowland recently, maybe HBO is figuring that boxing fans have lowered their standards enough to jump at it. Either way, it’s good to have a show where each fight is worth watching.

5. That Danny Green sure throws a mean jab…

Thanks, Paul Briggs, the Sweet Science hadn’t seen an honest-to-God dive in a while, but that void has now been filled. Most boxing fans probably didn’t figure it would be Briggs, he of two actual competitive performances against Tomasz Adamek, that would fold up like a deck chair after one glancing shot to the forehead. For those who haven’t seen it, a mere 30 seconds into the fight, Briggs was (sort of) jabbed in the forehead by Green after partially blocking the punch. It was literally the first punch that Green landed, and Briggs went to his knees like he had a reservation for dinner across town, not even attempting to beat the ten count. While Green went ballistic after the fight (he said his dog had bigger stones than Briggs!), he was seen begging off those comments the next day saying that Briggs did indeed get hit with a punch. And, yeah, Briggs did get hit, but only one of two things are possible: Either Briggs should never have been licensed to fight if he couldn’t take that kind of punch, or he took a first class, Olympic-style dive (I give him a 9.5, by the way). Seems strange that Briggs could survive all that sparring in training, but couldn’t take a punch on fight night, huh? It also doesn’t help Briggs that some big money reportedly came in on Green by first round KO, either. Something smells rotten, and Briggs has forever besmirched himself with this pathetic performance. Way to destroy your name and legacy forever, dummy.

The Finito Q & A – July edition

2010-07-15T08:32:00.002-04:00

If this guy (Shannon "punch me harder" Briggs) can get a title shot against Vitali Klitschko, does that mean that Razor Ruddock will face Wladamir next? We can only hope.

This month’s burning fistic questions, from the slow summer to the quick MMA death of James Toney:

Q: So what gives with the slow boxing schedule this summer? It seems there’s been a lack of big fights lately.

A: Welcome to boxing, which while it has no off-season, does tend to take a couple of months off from time to time. It’s true, since the beginning of May, there hasn’t been much except the Andre Ward-Allan Green Super Six fight, and that wasn’t much of a fight. I don’t think it’s anything intentional by promoters, really, it’s just scheduling, and all the big names are in the middle of their next big fight. Also, I wouldn’t be surprised if the soccer (oh, excuse me, football) World Cup has something to do with it, especially outside the U.S. With countries practically shutting down for days at a time while their country marches through the tournament, it’s not the best time to be promoting fights. It’s the same reason you don’t see a lot of U.S. boxing shows during the NCAA basketball tournament in March.

Q: What about the big names of Pacquiao and Mayweather? Is all the silence from both camps good or bad for the fight actually happening?

A: At this point, it’s a very good thing. One of the biggest issues during the last set of negotiations was all the carping about blood testing, lawsuits, event sites, you name it. When you’re putting together a megafight like this, with so many variables that each side has to agree on, doing it through the media is not the best way to go. All it did was tick both sides off at various times, so there was too much rancor built up when they actually had to head to the negotiating table privately. Frankly I’m amazed that Golden Boy and Top Rank can even keep it civil after the bad blood the last time around. Still, if everyone (including the fighters) can act like grown-ups here, this can get done and everyone can make a boatload of money.

Q: OK, on to some fights that actually happened this past weekend. Juan Manuel Lopez blew out Bernabe Concepcion in two rounds Saturday too keep his 126-pound belt. Does that mean that his near stumble against Rogers Mtagwa was just a bad night?

A: It was either a bad night or a bad stylistic matchup for Juanma, but if he keeps wiping out really good fighters like Concepcion, that Mtagwa fight gets farther and farther in the rear-view mirror. Much like Lopez’ countryman, Felix Trinidad, he sometimes gets lax and can be hit, which would explain how Concepcion was able to send Juanma to the canvas in the first round after he seemingly had the Filipino just about out on his feet. The flaws in Lopez’ game makes for some high drama, while the dynamite in his fists make for some outstanding finishes. It’s a great combination.

Q: So what happens when Juanma steps in the ring with Rafael Marquez in a few months?

A: You’ve got to like the Puerto Rican in this one. Although Marquez is one of my personally favorite fighters, I’m not sure the Mexican has enough left any more to overcome the offensive onslaught that Lopez is going to bring. If it was 2004, I think Rafa wins, but in 2010, Juanma has too much. I will say, however, that as long as this fight lasts, Marquez will get his licks in, and it won’t be an easy night for either guy.

Q: During the opening fight on Saturday, Showtime shockingly revealed that Nonito Donaire was using Victor Conte, former president of BALCO, as his nutritionist. Is that a smart move?

A: Only if you think that announcing Lindsay Lohan is your AA sponsor is smart. Seriously, there are no other nutritionists in the world better than a guy who plead guilty to conspiracy to distribute steroids? Not only did this Conte’s company nearly take down Sugar Shane Mosley, it’s been linked to some nefarious dealings with Barry Bonds as well as disgraced Olympic athletes Kelli White and Marion Jones. Now granted, Donaire is not as big a name as Mosley or any of those other athletes, but why take the risk? This guy has smeared more reputations than a Kitty Kelly tell-all biography, and he wasn’t even trying! It’s always good to have someone on retainer to help you achieve your best athletic performance possible, but there has to be a more hassle-free option out there than Conte.

Q: Let’s go back to Shobox on Friday night, where the possible rising star matchup of welterweights Mike Jones and Atwone Smith was nuked after Smith lost to Lanardo Tyner. Any chance Jones fights Tyner now? And what does this do to Smith’s career?

A: Well, if you believe Smith’s promoter, Lou Dibella, Smith was very sick leading up to the fight. From the eye test, it did look like Smith uncharacteristically ran out of gas around round six, so it’s probably likely that he wasn’t 100 percent. Tyner showed that he’s the kind of guy you’d better be at 100 percent to fight, because he’ll beat you if you’re not. Still, I don’t think that this will either ruin Smith’s career or get Tyner an automatic shot at Jones. Most likely what will happen is a rematch between the two, while Jones gets a shot at Andre Berto. Either way, we all win, because I’d certainly like to see both of those fights on the same card. Are you listening, Showtime?

Q: German promotional company Universum has decided to make their own YouTube page, posting the company’s recent fights as well as those from years back. Why aren’t more promoters doing this?

A: Honestly, I think it has more to do with how some promoters are organized than anything else. If you have ever seen Universum-Box work, they are very much like a true multinational corporation in how they are run, and they obviously have seen the benefit in giving fans around the world the ability to see their fighters (especially those who can’t get the German telecasts). They have fights with the Klitschkos, Jurgen Braehmer, Sebastian Zbik and Vitali Tajbert, just to name a few. Other promoters, by contrast, seem to think that once a show has aired, nothing more needs to be done with it. This is especially troublesome with large PPV events. With those, we normally get to see a replay of the main event on HBO or Showtime, but the undercard fights tend to disappear into the ether, never to be seen again. Before the Internet, fans rarely got to see those fights unless you knew someone who taped it. You can’t tell me that Top Rank, Golden Boy, and Goossen-Tutor couldn’t do the same thing Universum has done. It’s time for them to get it together. If I can upload my own videos to YouTube, it can’t be too much of a problem for them to do the same.

Q: In a blockbuster announcement on Friday Night Fights, Teddy Atlas said that Vitali Klitschko’s next opponent will likely be Shannon Briggs. Any interest in that?

A: Let’s put it this way – I’d rather walk out to my deck, pull up a chair, grab a soda and wait for the gray aliens to land on my lawn than see any fight with Shannon Briggs. It’s bad enough that the Klitschkos have no one to fight (see Albert Sosnowski), but what the hell has Briggs done since he fought George Foreman back in the 90’s? Grow longer dreadlocks? Even in this horrid collection of sad sacks that pass for heavyweight contenders these days, Briggs isn’t even high up on[I] that[/I] list. What a joke.

Q: So James Toney is going to try his hand at MMA, taking on legend Randy Couture next month. What’s the chance he survives the fight without serious bodily harm?

A: About the same chance that Toney has of passing a Dunkin’ Donuts without snacking on an apple fritter! Seriously, I’m not an MMA fan at all, and I know that Toney’s going to get killed inside of a minute. Bravado is all fine and good, and “Lights Out” has plenty of that, but does anyone seriously think Couture is not out to prove MMA’s dominance by ripping Toney’s head off? It would practically be a disgrace for a decorated MMA guy like Couture to lose to an out of shape rookie like Toney, whose best boxing days have been behind him for about five years now. The people making money on this fight are the two fighters and whatever hospital Toney ends up in afterwards. Humpty Dumpty has a better chance of getting reassembled before Toney does.

The Finito Flash – Green looks green and Superstar, Jr. finally doesn’t

2010-07-01T16:31:00.003-04:00

Allan Green's trainer John David Jackson can lift his fighter high in the air after a win, but Green's Super Six no-show against Andre Ward and subsequent excuses of overtraining will make it harder for Jackson to lift Green and the bus Green threw him under.

A couple of thoughts about current goings-on in the Sweet Science:

It been about ten days since Andre Ward’s pasting of the apparently overhyped Allan Green, and I’m still amazed at just how uncompetitive that fight was. Yes, Green has been roundly criticized in this space before about running his mouth too much, telling all who would listen that Ward’s a chump and that the Super Six organizers had the intelligence of a snail for lacking the foresight to put Green in the tournament in the first place. Still, given that Green’s only loss was to dangerous (if limited in the boxing department) Edison Miranda when Green was truly sick during the fight, you had to figure all the talk was backing something up. It’s one thing to be dominated by a fighter the class of Ward (Mikkel Kessler was, and no one’s throwing him on the scrap heap, to my knowledge), but it was Green’s utter inability to do any sort of damage to the Oakland native that now has people asking some hard questions.

It’s also didn’t help that the excuse train was already leaving the station by the time the fight was over. Green told Showtime’s Jim Gray that his poor performance was likely due to his overtraining (the fight had been postponed due to a Ward knee injury) since late last year and coming in light at 166. Now I don’t know about you, but doesn’t that sound a little bit like he’s throwing his trainer John David Jackson under the bus? Jackson is a former world titleist and first-class trainer, so one would think he would know if his fighter was getting spent and dial it back a little in the weeks leading up to the fight. If you’ve trained for this fight three times essentially, which is what Green claims, why would you need the same strenuous camp? Hasn’t most everything been covered at that point?

Also, does this mean that Green is nothing but a knock out artist with little else, a la Randall Bailey? Bailey has howitzers in both fists, but he never has achieved greatness simply because he can’t win without landing the big punch. It still remains to be seen whether this is Green’s fate, but he certainly looked like a rank amateur when faced with the versatility of Ward’s attack. No adjustments were made, and all Green did was get more and more frustrated (and less competitive) as the fight wore on. Comparatively, Kessler did make adjustments during his bout with Ward, but the Dane was just unable to pull the trigger and execute his game plan. Green looked like he hadn’t even brought the gun with him.

What does this mean for the Super Six going forward? If this is all Green is capable of doing, you have to believe that Kessler is licking his chops and liking his chances of getting to the semifinals. If you’re Andre Dirrell, Carl Froch, or Arthur Abraham, you have to be thinking that with Kessler and Ward in, one of the three is going to be left out. It’s just too bad that the Super Six became the Super Five because of Jermain Taylor and Allan Green. Maybe boxing fans will get lucky and Green will find the juice to be competitive. If not, Green risks being downgraded from main-event status permanently.

There maybe be no fighter who has taken more shots at Julio Caesar Chavez, Jr. than the media, including this space right here. To this point, JC Superstar’s oldest kid has treated us to a bunch of PPV megafights against the likes of Jason LeHoullier, Matt Vanda (twice!) and Jose Celaya, all of which had most boxing fans interested in the real fighters on his undercards than any of “main events” that Chavez was in. Throw that in with his sleep-inducing fight against Troy Rowland on the Pacquiao-Cotto undercard, where the most exciting thing about it was Jr. testing positive for a banned diuretic and getting a seven-month suspension, and there hasn’t been any real compelling reason to see one of his fights. As a matter of fact, he’s been more of a Butterbean-type attraction than a real fighter climbing the rankings.

So when uber-trainer Freddie Roach proclaimed that he’d seen a lot in the kid after deciding to train him some weeks back, it was with met with more than a little skepticism by boxing fans and media alike. But give the kid (and Freddie) credit, he actually resembled a decent fighter last Saturday against Irish John Duddy, as Jr. busted him up pretty good en route to a unanimous decision. Chavez actually sported an effective jab, one he employed nearly the whole fight and he looked to be in real shape for the first time anyone can remember. This performance was not joke-worthy, but rather an actual display of boxing and punching that produced a fun and exciting fight for once. This might be the one of the few times in his career that Chavez displayed some things that would make anyone want to see more of him.

Now does this mean that Jr.’s arrived? Not really, because while Duddy was a credible opponent, he’s looking more and more like a B-level fighter, and hasn’t met a punch that he couldn’t get hit with. Still, this is a step in the right direction, and with some more tutelage from Roach, you could conceivably step Chavez up into a fight with someone in the top 15 at middleweight to see how he would do. Even if Chavez is not the level of a Paul Williams or Sergio Martinez, seeing him fight credible fights against credible opponents is a breath of fresh air.

Off The Cuff

2010-06-18T02:47:00.004-04:00

Not only does Rafael Marquez carries a mean right hand, but apparently a mean right leg to score goals in the World Cup. Are those three fingers for your last hat trick?

Because absolutely NOBODY asked, it’s time for the Finito to go off the cuff with some musings on the Sweet Science:

## Just to give you an idea of how any fight with the Klitschko brothers excites me these days, I just now got around to watching Vitali’s tenth-round TKO of Albert Sosnowki, and the fight was over three weeks ago. Did you know that between the two brothers, they have stopped exactly one guy (Wlad over Ray Austin in ‘07) inside of six rounds since 2005? Yes, I know Vitali didn’t come out of retirement until 2008, but it still underscores a major point: While the heavyweight division has a complete dearth of viable challengers, the Klitschkos just don’t press the issue enough to make exciting fights. Mike Tyson may not have beaten the best era of heavyweight contenders, but his passion for wiping people out made us all tune in whenever he fought.

## And if you still don’t think that the heavyweight challenger pool isn’t as bad as I’m saying, watch Vitali keep his left hand at his hip constantly when he’s not throwing a jab for an entire fight. You think he’d get away with that against someone like Lennox Lewis or Riddick Bowe without getting decapitated with an overhand right? Sadly, though, there’s not anyone good enough to do it these days.

## Since Miguel Cotto took down the game Yuri Foreman ten days ago, there’s been about a million opinions thrown out here and there regarding Arthur Mercante, Jr.’s decision to continue the fight after a towel was thrown in the ring. Look, according to the rules in New York, Mercante was well within his rights to continue the fight. However, if the corner wants to stop the fight (and yes, I know there was some confusion about that), the referee should stop it barring any real reason not to. It was obvious that Foreman blew his knee out and couldn’t effectively move out of the way of Cotto’s punches, and I’m sure that was the corner’s thinking. They know their fighter better than anyone, and they might have seen something that Mercante had no way of knowing. A referee should respect the corner’s wishes in that matter.

## Speaking of Cotto, good performance by him. You can really tell the difference a top-notch trainer like Emanuel Steward can make. But for a guy from Detroit, wearing some almost-Yankee looking pinstripes as your ring attire when you’re a Detroit Tiger fan is pretty weak.

## How funny was it hearing the crowd yell “Ole’!” after every huge swing and miss by Jesus Iribe against Ivan Calderon Saturday? “Iron Boy” really should have been a matador, because that guy knows how to make ‘em whiff at some air, even against a very competent fighter like Iribe.

## Who at Top Rank fell asleep at the switch by putting rising 115-pound uber-prospect McWilliams Arroyo in with the equally adept Takashi Okada? Normally, fighters like Arroyo are fed guys with 4-10 records that fight when they’re not driving a semi to Phoenix, not another prospect with some actual ability. Okada looked like the guy on the rise, and Arroyo looked like the Iced Road Trucker. Whoops!

## You know, I am really glad that ESPN3 (ESPN’s online streaming component) gives us replays of Friday Night Fights whenever we want, but wouldn’t you think they would at least stream the whole show? I was streaming the show from a couple of weeks back, and it started right at the Brad Soloman-Kenny Galarza fight, lopping off the first fifteen minutes of the show! All the Cotto-Foreman prefight talk, Teddy Atlas’ predictions plus an interview with Dan Rafael were all cut out. I had to watch the rest on my DVR when I got back home. Kinda defeats the point, doesn’t it, ESPN?
## So let me get this right: Carl Froch thinks he can’t get a fair shake if they have his next Super Six fight with Arthur Abraham in Abraham’s home country of Germany, so the only fair thing to do is have the fight in Froch’s native England? Myopic much, Carl?

## Just to get it out of the way, Andre Ward over Allan Green by decision.

## I’m still not sure what to think about either guy after Vanes Martirosyan took apart Joe Green on the Cotto-Foreman undercard. While I think Martirosyan looked about a hundred times better than in his last (questionable) win against Kassim Ouma, Green was just terrible. I was just stunned to see Green, who’s normally an aggressive fighter, just look lost and ineffective nearly the entire fight. Whether that means Martirosyan is that good or Green is not anything close to what we thought remains to be seen. This might be one of those fights we’re going to have to wait and see to figure out whether this bout was an anomaly or a sign of things to come.

## Well, in case anyone was wondering whether junior fly Carlos Tamara’s title-winning victory against Brian Viloria was the start of something big, please turn in Tamara’s performance against Luis Lazarte as State’s evidence. All credit to Lazarte for finally winning a title after his 30th attempt, but there’s a reason Lazarte hasn’t won an alphabelt before now. Lazarte mostly bull rushes his opponents while swinging too widely, so the top of the division can handle him. The fact that Tamara couldn’t deal with that (use a jab already!) tells probably tells us all we need to know.

## Nice to hear that Steve “U.S.S.” Cunningham signed with Sauerland Event and had a successful debut against Canadian Troy Ross last week. Too bad Cunningham had to go all the way to Germany to find a promoter that recognized his talent. This guy makes for some really good fights.

## How surprising was it to see Rafael Marquez score Mexico’s first goal in the World Cup against host South Africa in their 1-1- tie last Friday? I didn’t think he had any time to train with the Mexican national team while he was preparing for his fourth fight with Israel Vazquez, but apparently he’s that good. Of course, I’m assuming they’re both the same guy, but how many guys named Rafael Marquez can there be in Mexico, right?Paging John Smith…

News and Views: The Marquez-Vazquez weekend

2010-05-27T08:13:00.001-04:00

Israel Vazquez provides the crowd with a McDonald's Fillet-O-Face courtesy of his scar tissue and Rafael Marquez' punches. Thankfully, it looks like there won't be a best of five in this series.

Some thoughts on the recent happenings in the world of the Sweet Science:

News: Rafael Marquez knocks out Israel Vazquez in the third round of their featherweight clash Saturday after two hellacious cuts render Vazquez unable to see.

Views: This is why, even as a huge fan of both guys, I did not want to see this fight. There’s a reason it took both guys over a year to fight again after they completed their awesome trilogy in 2008. Vazquez, especially, looked very shaky his last time out against Angel Priolo last October; for that matter, Marquez certainly didn’t look like the pound-for-pound world-beater he was when he beat Jose Francisco Mendoza either, and that was a year ago. It was obvious to all but the blind that their three fights together had taken too much out of them, and to expect some kind of war this time around was fool’s gold. When Showtime analyst Antonio Tarver (who is really solidifying his place as the best ex-fighter doing color commentary today) took one look at Vazquez’ left eye and said it looked ready to open up prior to the fight even starting, you knew this one wasn’t going very far. The fight was barely two minutes old when that eye opened up, and Marquez (who was always the more skilled of the two) had more than enough to get Vazquez out of there two rounds later. Add yet another cut on Vazquez’ other eye in the third round from a headbutt, and the valiant Mexican just couldn’t see. The gruesome cut that Vazquez sported after the fight looked like it was done with a machete or something. The outcome was not satisfying at all and was actually a little sad, which is what I was afraid would happen.

News: While there was talk of a fifth fight between the two after the fight (the series is tied at 2-2), Vazquez’ manager, Frank Espinosa, said Israel would likely have to retire instead.

Views: Finally some smart talk from someone who genuinely cares about his fighter. At the very least, Vazquez will need major reconstructive surgery on that right eye just so he won’t look like he spent 20 years in the WWE. Given that prospect, why put him in the ring again? It’s too great a risk. He made a lot of money during his career, and no one is disputing his place as one of the great Mexican warriors in the history of boxing; we’ll remember his three fights with Marquez forever. How excruciating must it have been for his family to watch Vazquez’ face get carved up like a Christmas turkey? Sometimes, enough is enough, and it looks like it’s time for Vazquez to call it a career. There’s nothing more to prove between he and Marquez; they’ve both proved their greatness whether they do another thing in the sport or not.

News: On the undercard, bantamweights Yonnhy Perez and Abner Mares battled to a spirited draw.

Views: Anyone else excited about the 118-pound division these days? We already have Fernando Montiel, Vic Darchinyan, Hozumi Hasegawa and Joseph Agbeko at the top of the division, and now you can add both Perez and Mares to the mix. Yes, Perez did look like he was in trouble at the end of the fight (and the Finito had it 116-112 Mares), but Perez made it a fun scrap to watch and landed quite a few shots of his own. There were several close rounds, so the draw was a pretty good call. Not only is this one begging for a rematch, but you wouldn’t mind seeing either guy in with the names mentioned above instead, either. While each fighter has great skills, both have enough flaws that would make any combination of those matchups fun to watch. The biggest hurdle that Perez and Mares faced was getting a lot of TV time; that really shouldn’t be a problem from here on out.

News: Ruslan Chagaev decisions Kali Meehan to garner the WBA’s mandatory challenger to new titleist David Haye.

Views: So let me get this right: Chagaev gets destroyed by Wladamir Klitschko and loses his title, so now he gets to fight Kali Meehan (who’s ranked #1 by the WBA for some inexplicable reason) and get another shot? You would think that any organization would look at that beat down and decide that Chagaev needed to win a few more fights to get back in the title picture. No, friends this is the WBA! Instead, Chagaev gets to earn another shot by beating a guy who’s best known for losing every significant heavyweight fight he’s ever had. It’s just silly at this point, and it makes me wonder why fighters take these sanctioning bodies and their titles seriously. Yeah, sure the gold looks nice to carry into the ring, but by charging thousands every fight just to keep it, that belt seems just a tad overpriced. No wonder “Money” Mayweather told the WBA (stands for We’re Beyond Asinine, I think) to take a walk rather than pay the sanctioning fee for Shane Mosley’s title.

News: Manny Pacquiao is diagnosed with a mild stomach ulcer Monday.

Views: Between running for Congress in the Philippines and having to negotiate with Floyd Mayweather, I’m surprised the man doesn’t guzzle Tums by the box! Seriously, though, many Pac-Man fans have always worried that he’s spreading himself too thin with all the commitments he has going on. Between politics, fighting, movies, ads, charities and everything else, he makes the Dos Equis’ “Most Interesting Man In the World” look like a burger flipper at White Castle (heard their burgers will give you ulcers, too). We all want Pacquiao to be thrilling the boxing world for years to come, but he may need to dial it back a bit if he’s going to jeopardize his health. He needs to be a threat to his opponent’s health, not his own.

The Finito Five 5/20/10

2010-05-20T08:15:00.004-04:00

It's not known where Amir Khan ate Saturday night, but he sure had plenty of Italian earlier that evening. Khan showed that he was adept at swarming the "Magic Man" with punches as Malignaggi usually is with his opponents.

With even more letters (really, just a few more) than Krzysztof Wlodarczyk - Giacobbe Fragomeni II, it’s the Finito Five!

1. Amir Khan do it

All right, no Monday-morning quarterbacking here, you just didn’t see Amir Khan looking this good, did you? Going into Saturday night’s 140-pound clash of British import Khan and the always exciting (if sometimes unpredictable) Paulie Malignaggi, there weren’t a whole lot of boxing fans or scribes predicting the domination that Khan laid on the NYC native. As a matter of fact, as good as Malignaggi looked last time out in avenging his suspect loss to Juan Diaz, there were more than a few who thought that Khan might be in for a rude awakening. Though the only knock on Khan was a possible suspect chin (exposed inside of a round by Breidis Prescott a couple years back) and no one figured that feather-fisted Malignaggi would be able to test it, Khan had never faced anyone of Malignaggi’s considerable skills. At this point, the “Magic Man” might be the division’s ultimate gatekeeper. Beat him, as Miguel Cotto and Ricky Hatton did, you show yourself to be on the elite level; lose to him, as Edner Cherry, Juan Diaz and Herman Ngoudjo did, you’ve shown you’re not quite there.

If that’s the true litmus test, let it now be said: Khan has arrived. While Malignaggi has lost before, he never was beaten at his own game, which Khan was able to do in spades. He got off before Malignaggi, hit him harder, more often, and sometimes, almost seemingly at will. “King Khan” obviously has been paying attention to his trainer Freddie Roach, because his overall offensive and defensive game is miles above where it was around the Prescott loss. It just goes to show that even the best of talents can improve their ring skills, and it pays off like Lookin’ at Lucky did in the Preakness that same day. Malignaggi, however, looked more like Super Saver, beaten down and beaten up to the point that he was contemplating retirement after the fight. That seems premature; he’s still too entertaining and can beat too many fighters for that. It just looks like Khan might be one of those that will beat a whole mess of really good fighters before he’s done.

2. Worst choppers ever, Part 2

Last time out at the Finito, it was chronicled just how shockingly (and I mean like the first time you heard Mike Tyson speak shockingly) terrible Mikkel Kessler’s mom’s teeth were. If you study the tape of the Kessler-Carl Froch fight carefully, you can see several startled witnesses covering their children’s eyes at ringside as Mrs. Kessler opened her mouth. As frightening as it was for all of us, none of us were prepared for the sequel, as Amir Khan’s dad, Shah Khan (who’s Amir’s mom, Chaka Khan, then?), flashed a gap-tooth that you could fit an honest-to-God Concord grape into. Seriously, that space was big enough that you could see the man’s actual tonsils through it. And you thought eyes were the window to the soul! What’s the deal with the lack of orthodontistry in the boxing community? Perhaps there should be a doctor at ringside during fights, then an orthodontist in the locker room after the fight to check out the fighter’s relatives. Just an idea.

3. Victor Ortiz returns to “Vicious” form

Anyone who had a chance to watch “Vicious” Victor Ortiz’ last two fights (a KO over Antonio Diaz and decision against Hector Alatorre) wouldn’t have been wrong in thinking that Ortiz lost his killer instinct when he got knocked out by Marcos Maidana. Certainly, the Diaz fight was against a fighter who’s likely finished, and Allatore was a journeyman that Victor just couldn’t seem to pull the trigger on. The thought was that Maidana might have knocked the fight out of the 23-year old, as Ortiz both looked and talked like a guy who didn’t know if he wanted to be a fighter going forward. It was surprising then, that Ortiz roared back to form in beating Nate Campbell from pillar to post over ten rounds to stake his own claim at jr. welterweight. Now Campbell, who is 38, might be as done as Diaz was, but Ortiz acted as if he wanted this one, throwing harder and with more purpose than the aforementioned last two forays into the ring. At his best, Ortiz can be a don’t-go-to-the-fridge type of fighter, but it may always be mental with him, much like Kendall Holt’s Sybil-like ring performances lately. Let’s hope that Victor remains “Vicious” from here on out, because he will be headlining cards and exciting boxing fans for years to come if he can just keep the focus he had against Campbell.

4. The fight that never was, and the rematch that won’t happen

There are two type of no-contest bouts in boxing: those victories that get nullified due to some pre or post-fight shenanigans, and those that are stopped early due to some strange circumstance and never get off the ground. With the first type, at least, there is usually a complete fight to judge whether said shenanigans would have changed the outcome of the bout. The second kind, however, leaves everyone wanting to know what could have happened, and we all too rarely seem to get an answer. For three rounds, the Paul Williams-Kermit Cintron jr. middleweight tussle was anything but, as both fighters didn’t establish much offensively. Then, of course, just as they started to throw some actual punches in round four, a strange tie-up caused Cintron to fall out of the ring an onto a table, injuring himself too severely to continue. Now, because of the stupid California rules that say the fight can go to the scorecards after only three rounds (not the usual four), Williams won, but clearly there was nothing decided here, right? Wrong, as now boxing fans will never get to find out what happened, as the Williams camp is taking the win and splitting. Maybe this was karma for Cintron’s weak draw against Sergio Martinez (and there are some that have said Cintron should have lobbied harder to continue after his fall), but how can Williams and promoter Dan Goosen not even talk about a rematch? Now they’re acting like the “Punisher” had some kind of quality win, and are just moving on to greener pastures. Come on. This fight decided nothing, and boxing fans deserve to see how it would have played out. It’s not like Williams was handing it to Cintron before he took his spill, anyway. Williams struggles enough to garner fans as it is; he doesn’t need to do this kind of cut-and-run job.

5. Bet you know if Sonny Liston was really hit with that punch, too, Teddy

Teddy Atlas is half the reason boxing fans love ESPN2’s Friday Night Fights so much, with his passion, expertise and experience covering all aspects the fight game. Lately, though, Atlas seems to have taken his predilection for getting into fighters’ heads to a new and inappropriate level. First, two weeks ago, he insinuated that Shane Mosley might have lost so decisively to Floyd Mayweather because it was his first fight off steroids. If that wasn’t speculative enough, he then insinuated a week later that it was possible that Kermit Cintron was looking for a way out when he was carted off on a stretcher after a fall out of the ring against Paul Williams. While both of these scenarios could certainly be true, Atlas, who is no journalist, had absolutely no concrete information to back this up other than his spurious “I’ve been around, and I’ve seen how a lot of fighters act” schtick. While he does have a knack for seeing things in fighters like all trainers do, most of what he said flies in the face of actual logic. Forget that Mosley has actually [I]lost[/I] a handful fights since he would have allegedly been taking PED’s. Forget that Cintron had to have known he had no chance to beat Williams by begging out of the fight when it was stopped. Those are just logical scenarios that get in the way of all the insinuation. Teddy needs to stick to the action in the ring, and leave the journalism to the journalists.

The Finito Q & A – May edition

2010-05-06T16:36:00.006-04:00

Even though Sugar Shane had Mayweather reeling in the second round, from that point on it was Floyd who reeled Mosley in like a fish.

This month’s ten burning questions, from Mayweather’s straight right to Mikkel Kessler’s mother lack of straight teeth:

Q: Pretty impressive performance by Floyd Mayweather in beating Shane Mosley this weekend. Surprised that he dominated so thoroughly after nearly hitting the deck in the second round?

A: I wouldn’t say surprised, because most of us figured he may have had this in him, we just never had the opportunity to see it. That probably speaks more to “Pretty Boy’s” talent and career as a whole than anything else. Still, when Mayweather was rocked for the first time anyone can remember (and if you don’t believe he was one more right from tasting canvas, check the video again), he responded like the Hall of Famer he’s going to be. He took Mosley, who is going to Canestota someday himself, apart from that point on, and by the end of the fight Sugar Shane was out of gas and out of answers. Except for perhaps the first Vernon Forrest fight, Mosley’s never been in that position. It was simply an excellent performance against the welterweight champion.

Q: But what about Mosley being on the downside of his career? Surely this might have been a different fight had it happened eight years ago?

A: That may be the case, but for once, you can’t hold that against Floyd. He took on the Ring Magazine 147-pound champ, and beat him, simple as that. Besides, no one’s going to know if Mosley is shot until he fights a couple of more times. If he comes back looking like he did against Margarito, then it looks more impressive for Mayweather. If Mosely’s next fight is a shellacking like he took against Miguel Cotto, then we’ll know his best days are behind him. Either way, Mayweather took on a real welterweight, which is what he always needed to do and will have to continue going forward.

Q: So does this now usher in an era of Mayweather fighting the best in and around welterweight?

A: Not so fast, my friend. I’m still convinced that Mayweather was damn sure he had Mosley right when and where he wanted him, because that’s how “Money” makes fights. Whether it was the year-plus long layoff, overtraining due to his winter training camp in preparation for the Andre Berto fight that never happened, or simply that he was 38, Mayweather took this fight knowing that he would have some kind of advantage. He could have fought Mosley just about any time in the last decade, and the fact that he took this fight now was a calculated move. Mayweather may talk a lot of nonsensical crap, but as far as business goes, he’s no dummy.

Q: Will that mean Mayweather won’t fight Manny Pacquiao until he thinks he has Manny at his weakest point?

A: Yes, something like that. Whether it’s Pacquiao running for elective office in the Phillipines, perhaps doing another movie, or becoming Emperor of Manila, there’s every chance that Pac-Man might have a period of inactivity or suffer in his training due to having so many irons in the fire. Believe me, team Mayweather is watching this. Even if Manny agrees to the Olympic-style drug testing, I don’t think we’ll see the fight with Mayweather actually happen until Floyd sees some kind of flaw in Pacquiao’s armor. It may just be perceived on Mayweather’s part, but it will need to be there before the contracts are signed.

Q: How about the media coverage surrounding the event? It seems like a lot of mainstream media were actually talking about and covering the fight.

A: The coverage was welcome, and should make boxing fans feel good to be boxing fans again. While it’s hard for me sometimes to listen to non-boxing people talk about the Sweet Science without cringing, the mainstream media really did a fair and honest job of covering the fight as the event it was. For once, all the talk was about the action in the ring and not about how boxing is dying sport. That was refreshing, and nice to see. Hopefully, this will be a trend that continues.

Q: Going back ten days or so, looks like your streak continued in the Super Six tournament. What did you see in Kessler that made you think that he’d beat Carl Froch?

A: Well, put simply, I went with the home team on this one. I figured it would be a close fight, and it was that; the raving Danes (would that be a fantastic name for a punk band or what?) filling a packed house gave him a shot in the arm, I believe. Besides, Kessler has never had two bad fights in a row, and he bounced back from the loss to Joe Calzaghe pretty well. So after Andre Ward dusted him up, you had to figure that Kessler would be ready and desperate, although Froch actually fought much better than he did in his win against Andre Dirrell in the first round of the tournament. Look, one thing that’s becoming apparent is that anyone can beat anyone in the Super Six, there are NO easy nights. Ward had better watch out against Allan Green next month.

Q: So what was more surprising to watch, Froch’s humble response to his first loss or Kessler’s mom’s awful teeth?

A: While Froch actually giving credit to Kessler post-fight after sounding like Floyd Mayweather’s understudy for the last year was surprising, Kessler’s mother and her Choppers of Doom have to win this one. Seriously, Mikkel? You’re the biggest athlete in the whole damn country, make millions of dollars (or kroners), and your mom’s mouth looks like the Carlsbad Caverns? Get her some orthodontistry, dude! Man, I bet it wasn’t hard for her to keep the kids in line whenever she flashed those things in anger. Don King’s hair just told me that it relinquishes its title as Freakiest Thing In Boxing for as long as Kessler’s career lasts. Yikes.

Q: Since Fernando Montiel went to Japan and lifted a bantamweight title from Hozumi Hasagawa with a stunning fourth-round KO, would that qualify as the upset of the year so far?

A: Maybe not the upset of the year, but perhaps the surprise of the year. If anyone remembers, Montiel hasn’t exactly looked like a world-beater in his last few fights, and Hasagawa hadn’t lost since he was fighting four-rounders. Montiel just crushed Hasagawa with a massive left hook in the fourth round, and the Japanese fighter was absolutely out on his feet (somebody actually saw him on Queer Street having a beer, I hear). Great win for Montiel, but this one is begging for a rematch, because it was a single punch that changed the fight. Given that fighters from North America and the Orient don’t fight much (it was fortunate this fight ever happened in the first place), don’t be surprised if that doesn’t materialize, unfortunately.

Q: Showtime’s Shobox play-by-play man Nick Charles announced on last Friday’s telecast that his cancer is back, and he’ll have to take another leave of absence from the show. This really isn’t a good sign, is it?

A: No, cancer the first time or the tenth time never is. He beat it once, so we know he’s a fighter, and I think I speak for the boxing public when I say I hope he does it again. There’s no better ambassador for the sport or sports in general, for that matter. Charles is class all the way, adds a smooth professionalism to any broadcast he’s been a part of and is liked by just about everyone. I can remember him all the way back to the extra-curly haired CNN days; I sure wish we get to see on camera once again with that short-haired chemo look, because that would mean he’s returned from being down once again. Go beat this cancer again, Nick, and hopefully, this thing won’t need a trilogy.

The Finito Flash – Valero’s ignominious end, panic for Pavlik also needs to end

2010-04-21T16:05:00.002-04:00

Will Kelly Pavlik hoist any more belts in his future now that he's no longer middleweight champion? There are many who think the only thing that Pavlik will be hoisting is a bottle, which is probably unfair to the Youngstown, Ohio, hero (he'll hoist more than just a bottle).

Some quick thoughts about current goings-on in the Sweet Science:

It’s hard to believe that two months ago we were all talking about lightweight superstar Edwin Valero’s impressive bludgeoning of Antonio DeMarco. The thought went that if Valero could get just his visa issues in order, the sky was the limit for him. The man with the Hugo Chavez tattoo had flair, a dynamic style and skills that could take him to incredible heights. With 27 knockouts in as many fights, this guy was a killer inside the ring. Now we know that he was also a killer outside of it.

It’s bad enough that we prematurely lost Alexis Arguello, Arturo Gatti and Vernon Forrest in the last year, but at least those were tragic circumstances that befell our fistic heroes. Arguello may have took his took his own life, but the recent HBO Real Sports piece shed light on the untenable situation that Daniel Ortega’s Sandinistan government put Arguello (who had depression and suicide issues besides) in as mayor of Managua, Nicaragua. But now we hear that Valero not only stabbed his own wife to death last week, but also then hung himself in his Venezuelan jail cell. There’s no amount of explanation of personal demons or anything else that will take the stain of the whole situation.

As reports have now come out, Valero apparently was as brutal in his personal life as he was in his boxing career. Violence against friends and family was not uncommon, nor was alcohol and drug abuse. His mother-in-law recently went on record as saying he used drugs daily and was growing more violent, as well. Valero’s wife, Jennifer Viera was in the hospital for being shot in the leg, then later a punctured lung and broken ribs (Valero was suspected as being responsible for those injuries). Valero was even detained for violence against his own mother last September. Here clearly was a man not in control of himself.

The most sobering part of this whole sad episode is that Valero’s two kids are now without parents because the fighter couldn’t conquer his demons. It especially feels unsettling that we all cheered and loved him so much when he was responsible for so many horrific acts against his own family. It just goes to show how we all have to pay more attention when we root for someone, because that someone might be the last person we ought to support.

OK, before anyone even thinks of Kelly Pavlik’s next bout, let’s get the gripping and aspersion casting out of the way:

“Pavlik has never really beaten anyone except Jermain Taylor, who’s obviously good at getting knocked out.”

“Pavlik was ducking Paul Williams, and now we see why.”

“That staph infection has made Kelly’s hands brittle, he’ll never have the same punching power again.”

“See? His drinking problems and weight blow-up between fights have finally caught up to him!”

Look, in case anyone forgot, Sergio Martinez may be one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in boxing today, it’s just none of us knew about him until the last two years or so. Martinez has only ever lost to Antonio Margarito and Paul Williams, and many thought he beat Williams (of course, he beat Kermit Cintron, too, but got stuck with that silly draw). So when Pavlik lost a competitive decision to Martinez, it doesn’t mean that he’s finished. As a matter of fact, Pavlik looked like he was in position to win the fight after knocking the Argentinian down in the seventh round. Then the bad cut over his right eye happened two rounds later, and Martinez seized the advantage as any great fighter does. With Pavlik unable to see thanks to a corner that apparently had watched too many Rocky movies and didn’t stop the bleeding (no, don’t cut me, Mick!), he was unable to avoid the barrage that eventually came.

In reality, Pavlik’s biggest faux pas may be that he is no longer a 160-pound fighter, as his trouble making the weight would suggest. He weighed in as a light heavy on fight night, so it may be time for him to head up to Super Six land and ply his trade there. Chances are he won’t get any tougher competition than Martinez. This brings to mind how everyone was ready to bury Marco Antonio Barrera for his two losses Junior Jones, which Barrera seem to rebound from just fine and mae the Hall of Fame, thank you. This is not saying that Pavlik is bound for Canestota, but he is by no means shot or overrated. Great fighters will sometimes lose to great fighters; if they were easy to beat, they wouldn’t be great. Let’s not send Youngstown’s Finest to the scrap heap just yet.

The Finito Five 4/15/10

2010-04-15T15:34:00.001-04:00

Wow, look, kids! It's the Real Deal Evander Holyfield in one of his greatest fights - oh, wait, that must have been another picture. This is just a photo of Holyfield punching the shot, wheezing Franz Botha. So sorry.

Fouling less in a month than Roy Jones does in a round, it’s the Finito Five!

1. Berto fights for himself and country

Many a fight trainer will tell you that the Sweet Science has always been more mental than physical, as it is with any sport played at its highest level. While no one was disputing that welterweight contender Andre Berto’s dedication and drive to fight for his friends and relatives who perished in that terrible Haitian earthquake last January, his focus and rustiness would be another matter. When you learn that eight of your relatives died and other members of your family are missing amidst the devastation that was (and still is) Haiti, no one would blame Berto for not having boxing first and foremost on the mind. Heck, Berto even went down there for a week to help with the relief effort, pulling out of a possible career-defining fight with Shane Mosley on the way. Despite doing good and organizing the whole fight night as a de facto fund raiser for the island country, there was still the matter of shaking it all off and getting into the ring. And with the tough, experienced Paul Williams conqueror Carlos Quintana standing in the other corner, it figured to be no easy task.

That’s also what made Berto’s eighth-round smackdown of the Puerto Rican all the more impressive. Yes, Berto looked rusty early and lost the first couple of rounds, but after that point, he got it together and used that blazing hand speed to good measure. Seriously, Floyd Mayweather may have faster hands, but does anyone else have that kind of whack on his punches with that kind of hand speed? Maybe Yuriorkis Gamboa, but that’s about it. Chumps do not beat Quintana, so the guess is that Berto would be a handful for anybody at 147 pounds, even the Mayweather-Mosley winner. Just think what may happen during his next fight when he’s less distracted. The problem just might be that there’s too much risk and not enough reward for a lot of big names to fight Berto; as it is, with the way he looked Saturday, the more he fights for Haiti, the more he’s likely to beat people.

2. How’s my left hook, Andrew Ridgley?

OK, all boxing fans are thankful for the new Top Rank Live show, which brings us (almost) weekly fight cards featuring some of Top Rank’s 8,000 or so fighters they must have signed. Yes, none of us can read the small, supernova-red graphics at the bottom of the screen (is it really round 0?). Yes, most of the fights are broadcast in Spanish while Rich Marotta does the post-fight interviews in English (!). We also have to put up with the constant cut-to-commercial when there’s a knockdown at the end of the round (that ten count’s overrated, anyway). It’s boxing on TV every week and we love it. Still, will somebody at Top Rank can the stupid DJ already? It’s bad enough that he got us all pumped up last Saturday by welterweight Noberto Gonzalez’ ring entrance to AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck”, then the DJ inexplicably switched to Wham’s “Careless Whisper” before Mark Melliguen stepped in the ring! Huh? Way to kill the mood, Einstein! Nothing says gladiators going to battle more than a little 80’s pop, huh? Most everyone at the Hard Rock in Vegas probably thought that the song was Melliguen’s entrance music because they didn’t bother to change it until the Filipino was halfway down his ring walk. That’s just not fair. Now if Mr. DJ cranked up the Tubes or the Kajagoogoo upon Gonzalez’ entrance, that would have evened things out a bit. Too bad the crowd would probably leave before anything started, though.

3. Two battles for the aged

What is in the boxing water the last couple of weeks? First we’re all treated to the Fight No One Was Clamoring For, that being the Bernard Hopkins-Roy Jones tedious twelve-round foulfest. Just as all of us had gotten that crap out of our system, here comes Franz Botha-Evander Holyfield for the World Geriatric Championship to decide who can dislocate a body part first. At least most people though Hopkins was still an elite fighter, but after seeing his inability to take out a completely shot Jones like he said he would, whether the Executioner still has it (or any of it) is now in real doubt. Boxing fans have always wondered whether Jones’ lack of actual boxing fundamentals would cost him when he lost his athleticism, and it has done so in spades. If he couldn’t foul Hopkins, he couldn’t land a punch. But the Botha-Holyfield fight was arguably worse, as Botha, who couldn’t hold the Real Deal’s jock in his prime, was beating the 47-year old handily until he just ran out of gas by round six and got knocked out by round eight. Botha looked like he needed an oxygen mask in his corner just to make it a couple more rounds. Considering how poorly attended both these fights were and the fact the PPV numbers weren’t even released, why were they put on in the first place? We hear all the time about if it makes money, it makes sense; these didn’t make either. Maybe somebody will finally figure that out and not reapeatedly subject us to it.

4. From the department of Municipal Waste, Pt. 1.

First off, Dan Rafael of ESPN.com carries the boxing torch better than just about anyone, because he’s so unafraid to confront B.S. when he sees it. Such was the case with newly-crowned 140-pound WBC titleholder Devon Alexander, who is nothing but a credit to boxing and a great representative as world champion. Well, apparently that just wasn’t enough for the WBC, who had the audacity to send Alexander a letter saying he should relinquish his title because Alexander merely said he wanted to fight WBO titleist Timothy Bradley. Forget the fact that Alexander never said he wouldn’t fight the mandatory WBC challenger, or that he had not signed anything for a fight with Bradley; just the mention of his doing something other than what the WBC wanted made them pissy enough to tell Alexander to get lost. Wouldn’t you want your champion to prove his greatness by fighting who most consider the top guy at jr. welterweight? The arrogance just boggles the mind. Kudos to Dan to pile all over WBC president Jose Sulaiman and his stupid cronies in a recent article, saying, “The WBC, with so many reprehensible rulings, worthless forced mandatory fights and numerous approved mismatches, is responsible for much of boxing's downfall over the past two decades.” Amen.

5. From the department of Municipal Waste, Pt. 2.

With each passing month, it’s becoming clear that disgraced former welterweight champion Antonio Margarito is trying to make it clear to everyone he’s one of the dumbest guys in boxing. Despite the fact that the California State Athletic Commission has not yet reinstated his license due to his loaded handwrap debacle, he and Top Rank see fit to fight in Mexico on May 8, anyway. Good luck getting that license back in the U.S. again, guys – I’m sure the CSAC won’t take any offense that you clearly ignored their ruling and fought again. Not only that, in a recent statement to reporters, Margarito actually took offense to those disputing his claims that he had NO idea what trainer Javier Capetillo was putting into his hand wraps. "The way I box has always been clean,” he said. “Nobody has a clear idea what happened that night, and now I'm going to show who I am." Uh, yeah, Antonio, we do. The CSAC determined it was plaster of Paris, it was in your handwraps, and it could have killed Shane Mosley had you used them. That’s what that hearing was for, so that we would all know exactly what happened. Your claims of ignorance only make you seem more clueless. So quit being offended that everyone is questioning your integrity, because you brought it on yourself. If you didn’t have Bob Arum at Top Rank still supporting you (they keep enabling him like nothing ever happened), you’d be lucky ever to get another major fight again.

All prospects are NOT created equal

2010-04-08T16:20:00.002-04:00

While former U.S. Olympian Demetrius Andrade might have the look of a dangerous pro, the jury is still out on whether he'll be challenging for a world or regional title in a year like some of his Olympic brethren.

Midway through Demetrius Andrade’s tussle with .500 journeyman Geoffrey Spruiell during the opening bout of the last Friday Night Fights did it become apparent that Andrade’s future was not so apparent. Prior to that night, the decorated amateur and U.S. Olympian’s biggest flaw was his lack of competition, with ten pro fights against very limited opposition. Most boxing fans and commentators were in agreement that Andrade should be pushed along a bit faster by his team of David Keefe and father Paul, a la previous Olympians Oscar De La Hoya or Floyd Mayweather. Stardom was in this boy’s future, so let’s get the move on, right?

As a matter of fact, FNF commentator Teddy Atlas reiterated that fact numerous times during the start of the bout. Play-by-play man Joe Tessitore threw in names like Yuriorkis Gamboa and Juan Manuel Lopez as examples of fighters who became ready for world titles quickly by being matched tougher at the start of their careers. Atlas even said that “Boo Boo” should be getting rid of the limited Spruiell within two rounds. The overlying tone was that Andrade’s camp was babying their fighter too much.

The problem with statements like those is that the camp tends to know their fighter best. Perhaps co-promoters Joe DeGuardia and Artie Pelullo knew something the rest of us didn’t, because by the time the gutsy Spruiell reached the fourth, fifth, and finally the sixth rounds, just about everyone was eating heaping plates of crow. Yes, Andrade won the fight, but didn’t look overly impressive in doing so, casting doubts the size of Nicolay Valuev as to whether he was at all ready for a meaningful fight. Sure, the Providence, RI, prospect won every round handily, but in this era of prospects being matched softer and softer, dominating wipeouts are how early careers are measured. Gamboa, for example, may not have shown great defense early, but he sure impressively knocked out the chumps he was facing, even if they couldn’t beat anybody’s grandmother.

Most revealing may have been the back-and-forth between Andrade and his father in between the fifth and sixth round. Andrade actually said to his dad, “tell me I’m the best”, as if he wasn’t sure himself; the senior Andrade responded by confirming that he was the best. Now, could you imagine Teddy Atlas ever saying that to one of his fighters? There’s a better chance of Floyd Mayweather getting a Christmas card from Manny Pacquiao. Perhaps this was just banter between father and son that they routinely make during training, but it sure smacked of a father telling his son what he wanted to hear. And they were probably the only people in the building that believed it.

Now, it might not be fair, but when you consider the aforementioned De La Hoya and Mayweather winning world titles in their 12th and 16th fights, respectively, Andrade looks a long way off that pace. Comparing him in any respect to either of those two Hall of Famers is probably not fair, either. But to whom much is given, much is expected. Prime spots on FNF or Shobox are given out for a reason, and that’s because those fighters are eventually supposed to be main-event attractions, not to mention making man-event money for the networks.

Whether Andrade ever becomes that remains to be seen. He could be the next De La Hoya, but judging from Friday Night’s performance, he also could be the next Francisco Bojado, flaming out before reach the big time. Only time will tell that for sure, so to expect Andrade’s career path to mirror those of his successful forbearers is always a foolish gamble. His boxing future will reveal itself as the months go on; however, whether any of us will be interested in watching it is the larger question. If those struggles continue, the networks may not be so interested in airing it, either.

Then Demetrius Andrade will really need someone to tell him he’s the best.

The Finito Q & A – March edition

2010-03-31T09:17:00.004-04:00

The Super Six super middleweight tournament was turned on its ear after Arthur Abraham decided that Andre Dirrell ought to fight while on his knees, too.

This month’s ten burning questions, from Arthur Abraham’s stupid punch to Matt Godfrey’s stupid career moves:

Q: So the Finito picked another one correctly in the Super Six super middleweight tournament, but didn’t predict it would be by DQ. How could you have missed that one?

A: Uhhh, because no one else figured Arthur Abraham would go Andrew Golota and crank Andre Dirrell while he was knees-down on the canvas! While there have certainly been some surprising results with this tourney so far, this was by far the strangest. Regardless of the outcome, Dirrell really deserved this one; he did all the things that would have put him over the top in his last fight against Carl Froch. Dirrell stood and fought more, and moved only when it was effective. He thoroughly befuddled Abraham, and proved that the Armenian may not be the world-beater we all thought he was after he knocked out Jermain Taylor. Showtime analyst Antonio Tarver predicted just before the fight that the speed and movement of Dirrell would give Abraham problems; kudos to him, he was exactly right. Abraham, a real veteran, got frustrated by the eleventh round and made a stupid mistake.

Q: Was it surprising to you, then, that Abraham accused Dirrell of acting in the post fight, saying that he wasn’t really hurt?

A: Yes, it was, and even though Abraham is considered to be a good guy, that was not his best moment. Granted, he was probably pissed that he lost and got dominated along the way, but wasn’t he watching Dirrell spasm on the canvas after he hit him illegally? It was clear to everyone except Abraham’s corner that Dirrell was in some serious trouble, especially since Dirrell still couldn’t grasp that he had won the fight despite being told so multiple times. Sure, it was the heat of the moment and Abraham was still emotional at the impact of his first career (and title) loss, but that accusation was really out of line. I hope Abraham apologizes at some point for it. He could have shortened Dirrell’s career with that shot.

Q: So what does this mean for the Super Six going forward?

A: It means that it’s really anyone’s tournament to win, as everyone has gotten on the scoreboard except Allan Green, who has not yet fought. It is becoming clearer that all fighters are very near the same talent level, and depending on the matchup, any of them might win on any given night. Dirrell showed that he has as much talent as anyone, and his next fight against Andre Ward should generate huge excitement. If Green somehow beats Ward in June, the third round of this thing could be a win and you’re in kind of deal.

Q: On to other fights of the weekend. Is Marcos Maidana the most dangerous man at 140 pounds after his knockout of Victor Cayo Saturday?

A: There are a lot of dangerous fighters at junior welterweight, but it’s fair to say there aren’t too many lining up to get a piece of the Argentinean. Freddie Roach didn’t want Amir Khan on the same continent as Maidana, and Team Khan managed to maneuver the situation so that Khan didn’t have to face Maidana despite his being Khan’s mandatory title challenger. Regardless of how spurious that might have been, Maidana’s clearly one of the most fearsome punchers in any weight division. Cayo, while being a little young and technically challenged, is a good fighter, but couldn’t hang with Maidana’s relentless pressure. That body shot he landed on Cayo hurt even to watch. I’m sure it was hard for Khan to watch, too. Don’t be surprised if the Brit gives up his title rather than face him.

Q: In the fight before Maidana-Cayo on HBO’s Boxing After Dark, Joan Guzman beat Ali Funeka despite weighing in at 144 pounds for a 135-pound fight. Since this is Guzman’s third straight fight where he hasn’t made weight, what should happen to him?

A: Although this isn’t an actual rule, they should make these repeated offenses suspendable just like failed drug tests or loaded gloves. I mean, how obvious was this? He showed up heavy for his fight with Funeka the first time, got his butt kicked (he even escaped with a gift draw), so he shows up even heavier for the next fight to further his advantage? If he lost or drew again, was he going to keep showing up heavier until he eventually won? Anyone watching the fight could tell that the extra weight made Guzman able to dish out and take punishment he could not handle the first time they fought. Some commission should put Guzman on the shelf for a while until he decides if he wants to be a real sportsman, not a guy who shows up at whatever weight cheeseburgers will allow. The worst part is that Funeka may be the best 135-pounder out there, but his last three fights (a KO loss to Nate Campbell, as well) have been against guys who couldn’t make the weight. Not too fair in my book.

Q: Erik Morales came out of retirement Saturday to beat Jose Alfaro at welterweight. He has repeatedly said he wants to win a fourth world title as an impetus for his comeback. Any chance of that happening?

A: Well, that really depends on your definition of what a “world” title is. Sure, he could probably beat some sap for an IBO or WBF title, but in terms of Morales ever beating someone of note (especially at 140 pounds) title or not, he might grow horns before that happens. Remember, “El Terrible” did most of his damage at 126 pounds and lower, and to see him running around looking like the Pillsbury Dough Boy against the middling Alfaro is not conjuring up any visions of his win against Manny Pacquiao. When Morales retired, he was looking pretty washed up, and this fight did nothing to say that’s changed at all.

Q: Going back ten days or so, were you surprised at Eddie Chambers lack of, well, anything positive against Wladamir Klitschko in their heavyweight bout? You had been talking up Chambers lately.

A: Yeah, and I was as floored as anyone at his non-performance. With the Klitschkos, they are such good athletes that you have to match their athleticism, which I really thought Chambers could. But once it became apparent that “Fast” Eddie was anything but, it was over before it started. You simply can’t stand there at the end of Wlad’s punching range and not move your head or body. You’ll get killed. It says something, too, that Klitschko didn’t have to throw a single left hook until round twelve (at trainer Emmanuel Steward’s prodding), and when he did, it cleaned Chambers’ clock. I don’t know what it is about those Klitschko brothers, but they can get confident, talented fighters to freeze in their tracks like deer. I just thought Chambers would not be one of those.

Q: Now let’s head out of the ring for a second. Lightweight sensation Edwin Valero recently ended up in a rehab facility for alcohol abuse. How is this going to affect his career?

A: It largely depends on whether this is going to be a six-month stay as planned or if it carries on longer. Valero is sure as hell not doing himself any favors. Bad enough he had that DUI recently, but now Valero might have had some domestic assault issues. He was apparently at the hospital with his wife, who had a punctured lung and broken ribs; when Valero told doctors that his wife fell down the stairs (Isn’t that the most cliché excuse ever? Did the dog eat his homework, too?), he went nuts when they didn’t believe him. If he ended up in rehab for this incident, it’s a good bet he was loaded at the hospital, too. Man, if it’s not licensing issues with Valero, it’s brain scans and now alcohol. If he doesn’t get it straight soon, his entire promising career may need the rehab.

Q: So what happened to Friday Night Fights last week? I thought they had saved the Steve Cunningham-Matt Godfrey cruiserweight title bout in time for their to be a show.

A: According to ESPN’s Dan Rafael, the fight almost was saved by Main Events, who regained the purse bid after Don King couldn’t come to terms with ESPN. The Duvas at Main Events tried working with a local promoter in Chicago to move the fight there within a few days of King’s annulment, but even when that came together, Godfrey’s camp decided not to go through with the fight after all. Godfrey’s people said that the interruption in training and general letdown made it so that he couldn’t go through with the fight.

Q: But wasn’t this fight for the IBF title? Why would Godfrey not go through with it if the fight was still on the same date?

A: Because Godfrey either got some bad advice or won’t be getting accepted into MENSA anytime soon. First of all, what interruption in training is he talking about? He shouldn’t be sparring in the week leading up to the fight, anyway, and it was two days the fight was in limbo at the most. As far as any letdown, how could it be a letdown when his world title opportunity is still on? So it’s somehow less of a letdown to ditch the fight entirely? The IBF even dropped him from their rankings, as was their rule, if Godfrey had bothered to check. Smooth move, Ex-Lax. It’s not like title opportunities grow on trees (well, unless you’re John Ruiz or Rocky Juarez).

News and Views: The Pacquiao-Clottey weekend

2010-03-19T03:53:00.007-04:00

While Manny Paquiao tried to engage Joshua Clottey during their fight at Cowboys Stadium Saturday, Clottey was clearly determined to leave Pac-Man at the altar.

Some thoughts on the recent happenings in the world of the Sweet Science:

News: Manny Pacquiao pounds out a 12-round unanimous decision over Joshua Clottey.

Views: Pac-man has shown once again why he deserves to be at the top of pound-for-pound mountain. Even though Clottey basically decided to cover up and play defense for almost two-thirds of every round, Pacquiao still found a way to land punches and work his way in when he could. He never wavered from his game plan, and by the last couple of rounds, he was scoring frequently enough to make the Ghanian look wobbly and beaten. Regardless of how you feel about his part in the Mayweather negotiations, fight after fight, Pacquiao still finds a way to improve on his last performance and dominate his man. Add to that a pleasing action-based style, and that makes his fights worth watching every time out.

News: Manny Pacquiao outlands Clottey 246 to 108, throwing 832 more punches en route to his victory.

Views: Clottey better have enjoyed his time in the spotlight, because that’s likely the last he will taste of it. Put simply, Clottey didn’t show up with the will to win, and that is inexcusable for a fight and promotion of this magnitude. All he did was basically put the earmuffs on for most each round, throwing a few punches here and there. While you could give him the benefit of the doubt in terms of feeling Pacquiao out early on, when Clottey’s trainer, Lenny DeJesus, made it clear in between rounds that it wasn’t the game plan, it was apparent Clottey had made his mind up earlier as to how he ’d fight. You know damn well that Arum would never have had Clottey anywhere near the ring if he’d have known what kind of effort he’d be putting forth. Clottey has been known to take rounds off before, but this kind of thing likely has irreparably damaged his career and future earning potential. If you’re not going to try and win, who would want to see you fight?

News: The fight, nicknamed “The Event” packed more than 50,000 into Cowboys Stadium in Dallas, Texas.

Views: Can this possibly silence a critic or two as to whether boxing is dead? This fight ended up being the third-largest indoor crowd for a U.S. boxing match ever, and that is something significant. Manny Pacquiao is a bona-fide star, and even the stench of the Mayweather fight cancellation couldn’t stop the fans from coming out in droves. While the PPV numbers won’t come out for a bit yet, it’s safe to say that Oscar De La Hoya’s mantle has indeed been passed. The most famous man in the Phillipines is quickly becoming a household name everywhere else, which is just what boxing has needed.

News: “The Event” undercard featured Humberto Soto defeating David Diaz (lightweight), Alfonso Gomez making Jose Luis Castillo (welterweight) quit on his stool and John Duddy pounding out a decision against Michael Medina (middleweight).

Views: Remember when there used to be a fight or two on a Top Rank undercard that anyone was interested in? Just because Soto-Diaz is an improvement on the awful Julio Ceasar Chavez, Jr.-Troy Rowland dreck that passed for a co-feature at Paquiao-Clottey last year doesn’t mean it was passable.Perhaps Arum thinks boxing fans have short memories. Perhaps he took the ugliest girl to his junior prom so he could live with taking the second-ugliest to his senior prom. The three undercard fights that were broadcast were Top Rank Live-level fights, and wouldn’t be good enough for HBO or Showtime. So why show them here? The guess is that Arum knows he can get away with it, and as long as fans buy the main event, he can continue to do this kind of thing. Arum’s just lucky he has Pacquiao to carry the promotion, otherwise he’d probably be losing money, at least in terms of PPV buys.

News: Cruiserweight Marko Huck wipes out Adam “Swamp Donkey” Richards in three rounds on German soil.

Views: As much of an Internet sensation as the “Swamp Donkey” has been, it’s clear that he doesn’t have all that much talent. He looked lost and outclassed against the talented Huck, who pretty much had his way with Richards from the opening bell. This is the first serious step up in competition for the Donkey, and it could be his last. That doesn’t mean that he won’t make great fights on a Friday Night Fights or Top Rank Live card against like opposition, it just means that he shouldn’t be fighting guys in the top ten at 190 pounds. Still, Richards deserved his chance and the payday he received, so kudos to him. He’ll still be fun to watch, and probably expose a prospect or two along the way.

News: Andre Ward postpones his Super Six fight with Allan Green on April 24 due to a knee injury amid allegations from Green and promoter Lou DiBella that Ward’s camp was planning to sink the fight.

Views: Please, can we just have one postponement that doesn’t cause everyone to demand a federal ethics investigation? Ward is one of the biggest class acts in all of boxing, while Green is one of the biggest loudmouths. No one with any sense should doubt that Ward is legitimately hurt, and he also has no track record of canceling fights. DiBella, while upset as to how he heard about the cancellation (he said he didn’t hear it from Dan Goossen, Ward’s promoter), should be glad he’s even getting another piece of cheese. His first man, Jermain Taylor, was knocked out of the tournament by Arthur Abraham, if you remember. Does anyone really think that after soundly beating the excellent Mikkel Kessler that Ward’s afraid to fight Green, who barely beat Tarvis Simms in his last fight? Everyone just needs to relax and do this again when Ward’s ready to go. If nothing else, it will be Green’s biggest money fight (and biggest opportunity), so he should keep the complaints to a minimum.

The Finito Five 3/11/10

2010-03-11T08:24:00.005-05:00

Does this look like a man who's ready to tackle the octagon? For once, MMA & boxing fans both can have a laugh over James Toney's latest attempt to resurrect his faded career.

Bigger than Pac-Man-Clottey in Texas Stadium , it’s the Finito Five!

1. Alexander makes his 140-lb statement

When you look around the jr. welterweight division, the names of great fighters abound. Timothy Bradley, Ricky Hatton, Marcos Maidana, Amir Khan, Nate Campbell and Paul Malignaggi are just a few of them. While many didn’t know where St. Louis’ Devon Alexander fit into that mix, his statement eighth-round KO of the extremely tough Juan Urango showed that he does indeed belong. While the boxing public has raved about Alexander’s in-your-face style, power and toughness, his signature win over Junior Witter didn’t convince everyone. Many thought that the British Witter was used goods, and that Bradley had already beat the fight out of him back in 2008. With Urango, however, here was a guy that had only ever lost to Andre Berto and Hatton. The Columbian is also built like an NFL linebacker (as a Detroit Lion’s fan, I’d like to be the first to give him a tryout), has excellent power, durability and is just one of those fighters who you have to defeat in order get to the elite level at 140 pounds. Given Urango’s bludgeoning of Randall Bailey in the Friday Night Fight’s finale last year, it figured to be test for Alexander.

Truth is, until the knockout, Urango did test “Alexander the Great”. Alexander landed quite a bit early and showed great range with his uppercut, but was unable to get the big guy out of there. Urango actually bounced back by round five, and was landing some good shots of his own. If Devon couldn’t get Urango to the canvas, it figured to be a long night, win or not. Then, out of seemingly left field, Alexander unleashed the fury, just leveling the Columbian with an uppercut that sent him down to the canvas, then finishing him off with a second helping. That kind of punch and that kind of power will do some major damage at 140 or 147, so it’s worth seeing what he might do against any of the names listed above. Either way, Alexander has proven that he can beat whom he needs to beat; now we’ll see if he can beat those that are supposed to beat him.

2. I know that’s not Corey Haim you’re staring at in the tenth row…

Ring card girls are part of boxing. A good part. A very good part, in fact. Nothing like juxtaposing two guys beating the crap of each other with a woman parading around in next to nothing. We’re all staring at her, and she knows it. The question is, what the hell is she staring at? Not sure if you’ve noticed, but watch the next Top Rank Live show, and vex yourself while trying to figure out what these girls are looking at. What are you talking about, you ask? Just watch them before and after fights; with fighters and entourage parading around the ring right in front of them, these girls keep staring into space like no one’s even there. They don’t seem to stare at anything, and it’s honestly pretty creepy. I don’t know if this is standard ring-card girl training (at the Ring-Card Girl Academy in Las Vegas, natch), but these girls are much better smiling and winking at people rather than looking like an extra in Zombieland. After getting a DQ win, featherweight Andres Romero did two back flips literally a few feet in front of one ring-card girl, who didn’t even blink, flinch or otherwise pay any attention to it. Man, when doing back flips over a girl gets you only a blank stare, all guys are in trouble!

3. The Mayweather-Mosley bout starts with its own low blow

While everyone will have a chance to digest Joshua Clottey’s Chance Of a Lifetime bout against Manny Pacquiao this weekend (what is he, Rocky Balboa or something?), also in the public eye were Floyd Mayweather and Shane Mosley, who will have their own business in May. While no one’s forgetting the fight that should have been made with Pacquiao, “Money” Mayweather taking on a legit 147-pounder has everyone intrigued, and rightly so. However, one would figure that after all the random steroids testing wrangling in his negotiations with Pacquiao, surely Mayweather fighting a guy who has admitted to using steroids himself unknowingly (part of the BALCO scandal in the U.S.) would be fodder for some prefight trash-talk. Oh no, instead it was Floyd claiming that Mosley may be fighting because he’s lost money in his recent divorce. Forget that Mayweather came out of retirement himself for thinly-veiled money reasons of his own (the IRS can be very persuasive), just going there was enough to get “Sugar” Shane riled up. Now, instead of just having a promising matchup, boxing fans will likely get treated to a real grudge match. It makes you wonder, though, if Floyd manages to alienate everyone around him, who will give his Hall Of Fame introduction speech? God help us if it’s Floyd, Sr. or uncle Roger – that will be the first speech with more beeps than words.

4. Darchinyan meets his match (sort of)

At 115 pounds, there’s nothing more dangerous than a Vic Darchinyan left hand, which has ended the hopes of many a fighter. Even if the Armenian is never going to be the second coming of Ricardo Lopez, his sheer will and power have won out every time with only two exceptions (Nonito Donaire and Joseph “King Kong” Agbeko). So it was to everyone’s surprise that the unheralded Rodrigo Guerrero managed to not only take Darchinyan’s best punches, but also actually make it to the end of the fight. Keep in mind those who have gone down to Darchinyan’s power: Christian Mijares, Jorge Arce, Dmitry Kirilov and Irene Pacheco. None of those top guys could survive, but somehow Guerrero did, absorbing huge punishment in the process. While the outcome was never in doubt, and the “Raging Bull” turned in an outstanding performance, give Guerrero credit for doing something that many better fighters have not. Unfortunately, this is one of those beatings that may end Guerrero’s career early (he only had 14 fights coming in). Darchinyan, however, should now have bigger fish to fry; if he is moving up to 118, a rematch with Donaire needs to happen. While Donaire landed a great punch in an upset three years ago, it’s time to see if that was a lucky shot or if the “Filipino Flash” is the better man. Boxing fans sure would like to know.

5. MMA must stand for Many Meals Available

Why does it seem lately that the only thing the MMA & boxing have in common is that washed up fighters in each sport think they can try the other? Of course, fans of both sports tend to think the other is child’s play, but that’s just about as accurate as a Ricardo Mayorga right hand, which is to say not at all. Speaking of Mayorga, since he has no career left in the Sweet Science, now he thinks he can ply his smoking, trash talking Nicaraguan self in the octagon. Same with Shannon Briggs, who seemingly can’t figure out why he hasn’t gotten a shot against the Klitschkos when he couldn’t get by Sultan “What, me, Hepatitis?” Ibragimov, is also going MMA. And, yes, now James Toney has been going the rounds with Dana White and UFC in the last couple of weeks. It has been reported that White did offer Toney an actual contract after Toney confronted White after UFC 108. While that may look like a ridiculous move by White, Toney actually turned the contract down after he asked for one in the first place. Chances are Toney thought that UFC stood for Unlimited Food Court, for which his ever-increasing poundage would be tailor made.

The Finito Q & A – February edition

2010-02-28T14:36:00.004-05:00

Wladamir Klitschko may be able to fill a European arena, but American eyes won't be seeing his fight against Eddie Chambers unless it's via the Internet.

This month’s ten burning questions, from Victor Ortiz on the comeback trail to a bunch of can’t-watch TV:

Q: Is it really true that the Finito is a year old now?

A: Yes, believe it or not, somehow I have managed to keep my heavyweight musings from a strawweight brain going since Feb. 24 of 2009! From my initial ramblings about how Bob Arum was doing Miguel Cotto no favors by defending Antonio Margarito and his loaded gloves, the last year just flew by. I guess that means there was a lot to talk about in the fight game, which is always great thing. Good and bad, this is still a lot of fun. Blogs have given the fan a voice, and that can never be discounted. It is our passion as fans that keeps boxing going.

Q: Well, it certainly doesn’t seem that the boxing establishment helps itself out much in that regard. Is it accurate that the Wlad Klitschko-Eddie Chambers fight isn’t on American TV?

A: As of right now, that is unfortunately true. As much as I think the TV networks here are fairly stupid for not grabbing what I think will be a pretty good fight, the Klitschko camp is equally as clueless. The heavyweight champion defending his championship against the number three ranked man in his division on a webcast feed? Really? If nothing else, you would think someone would have set up some kind of terrestrial Pay-Per-View or something. All this does is make the heavyweight championship even more devalued. Klitschko may not care as long as he packs arenas in Europe, but this really shafts Chambers, who is American and deserves better exposure than this.

Q: Speaking of TV problems, wasn’t the Fight Night Club show with Victor Ortiz supposed to be on Thursday on FSN in the States? I couldn’t find it anywhere.

A: That’s because it wasn’t on [I]anywhere[/I], at least that night. I get the massive DirecTV package with about 50 FSN affiliates, and it wasn’t on a single one of those. It wasn’t until Friday night (when I already was at work), did I happen to stumble across it - right in the middle of the show, of course! I eventually caught it on replay, but this was another shoddy promotional job by Golden Boy and FSN. Most of the FSN affiliates were locked into showing some college hoops Thursday night, anyway, so Fight Night Club was never going to be shown then. You would think at least someone would have mentioned that fact somewhere. At least when ESPN maddeningly changes their starting times for Friday Night Fights, it’s still on Friday night! Oh, the trials and tribulations of being a boxing fan…

Q: Provided that anyone did get to see it, then, was Victor’s tenth-round KO of Hector Alatorre anything to suggest Ortiz is back?

A: It sure didn’t look like it, and Alatorre was a clear step down from Antonio Diaz, Ortiz’ last opponent. Alatorre wasn’t even in that good a shape, and while the uppercut from Ortiz that ended it was impressive, you would think that could have happened six rounds earlier. During the telecast, commentator Doug Fischer said that Golden Boy wanted Ortiz fighting Timothy Bradley by year’s end. Anyone see that as a competitive fight right now? It’s really hard to bang on a guy for a win, but Ortiz just doesn’t look like he did prior to his knockout at the hands of Marcos Maidana. He used to steamroll whoever was put in front of him; he still wins now, but it feels like a cautious performance rather than pure killer instinct.

Q: Going back a week or so, what did you think of Giovani Segura’s awesome KO of Walter Tello? Is Segura for real?

A: He’s as real as it gets at 108 pounds, which normally has a dearth of huge stars. He’s exciting, gives a great effort, a good interview, and seems to be an all-around cool guy. However, he finds himself channeling Arturo Gatti too much, and gets hit a lot. While that is fun for everyone except his family, he’ll have to clean that up if he wants to beat Ivan Calderon, who is likely his next opponent. If Segura can’t knock Calderon out, he’ll get hit with more punches than there are Saw movies. And let’s not talk about a fight against Roman Gonzalez, which also has been rumored. Someone’s headed for Queer Street for sure in that one, and it might be Segura.

Q: OK, onto the PPV from this weekend. Is Rodel Mayol destined to have a bizarre ending to every fight he’s involved in now?

A: You’d have to consult some boxing oracle about fistic destiny, but there’s no denying that the last four fights Mayol has had ended pretty strangely. First, there were the two premature head-butt endings with Ivan Calderon. Then, there was his butt-then-knockout combination that worked against Edgar Sosa. Now, his 108-pound title tilt with Omar Nino Romero goes to a no-contest. In case you missed it, Nino hit Mayo low in the third round. While Mayol was complaining about the hit and referee Vic Drakulich was halting the action, Nino walked up and cranked the Filipino with a left that knocked him almost cold. Drakulich even had his hands on Nino to restrain him when the last punch was fired. Nino initially thought he won, but Drakulich correctly ruled the fight a no-contest, or technical draw in Mexico. Very strange stuff.

Q: But the PPV commentators Col. Bob Sheridan and Benny Ricardo seemed to think that Mayol should have been protecting himself at all times and Nino deserved the knockout win despite the foul. Is there an argument for that?

A: Not a strong one, and this is from Sheridan, who once said the Laila Ali-Jacqui Frazier-Lyde fight was the best fight in the history of boxing (he’ll never live that one down in my book). Ricardo also contended that Nino probably didn’t understand Drakulich when he said, “stop” because it wasn’t the Spanish “alto”. Nino is a veteran of 34 fights and has fought in the U.S. before, so I don’t buy that for a minute. Nino probably knew he had hit Mayol low, so he shouldn’t be too surprised his subsequent divebomb attack was ruled illegal. It’s standard refereeing, based on advantage/disadvantage. You can’t gain an advantage with a low blow and then use that to knock a guy out. Drakulich did the right thing in some tough circumstances (in front of a Mexican crowd rooting like hell for Nino), which is a plus in this case for boxing.

Q: What was up with those Arroyo brothers on the undercard, McJoe and McWilliams? Are those names real?

A: Yeah, and both their names make me want to go to McDonalds for a Big Mac. Isn’t a McJoe what they call coffee now at Mickey D’s? Now granted, the brothers are from Puerto Rico, but last time I checked, you can hit the Golden Arches there, too. Maybe the Arroyos figured if their sons got famous, it was an endorsement deal waiting to happen. Still, these two will have to be placed alongside Los Angeles Angels’ outfielder Vladamir Guerrero in the pantheon of confusing mixed nationalities between first and last name. The best? Carlos Elliott, a Japanese cruiserweight from the 90’s. I still haven’t figured that one out.

Q: Did you see that judge Pierre Benoist weighed in with another questionable scorecard in the Gabriel Rosado-Saul Roman fight on Saturday’s Top Rank card? How does he keep getting fights?

A: My guess is he has pictures of someone at Top Rank doing something with somebody’s wife (or husband or both) that they’d rather not have made public. If you remember, Benoist was the guy that submitted a near-shutout scorecard for Paul Williams in his fight with Sergio Martinez, which was a very close fight. Even after the hue and cry surrounding that fiasco, Benoist was at it again, giving Roman a 97-93 edge when both judges had it for Rosado 96-94. It was a fairly close fight, but not seven rounds to three in Roman’s favor kind of close. Rosado had at least four rounds where he stunned Roman, so where Benoist found only three rounds to give to the Philly fighter is anyone’s guess. Let’s hope someone sends him back to Canada to judge figure skating and get him out of boxing’s hair once and for all.

Q: Word has it that Floyd Mayweather hasn’t said anything crazy this week. Is something wrong?

A: Maybe “Money” has been feeling under the weather this week, I don’t know. After comparing himself to Martin Luther King and Malcom X, I was sure that he’d find other allusions to his greatness. His stance against steroids was revolutionary like George Washington. He’s looking to reform boxing a la the original Martin Luther. He’s standing against boxing tyranny like Winston Churchill stood against the Third Reich. He has more kids than John & Kate Plus Eight. Whatever. I’m sure Floyd will be back with something totally nonsensical soon, and if he doesn’t, his old man or uncle Roger will do the honors. It’s only a matter of time, isn’t it?

The Finito Flash – Mayweather from Mars, Roy Jones from Mars, too

2010-02-19T05:23:00.008-05:00

The Bernard Hopkins-Roy Jones press conference last week was held debate-style. While both fighters repeatedly said the public wanted this fight, that fact may be what should actually up for debate.

Some quick thoughts about current goings-on in the Sweet Science:

Floyd Mayweather continually says he cannot understand why he isn’t given more respect by fans and the boxing community. Even if you were giving “Money” major props for standing his ground against Manny Pacquiao in regards to Olympic-style drug testing, Mayweather then has to take it a step further with this gem (to Grand Rapids Press and Ring Magazine reporter David Mayo):

“If it was all about money for me, I would’ve said ‘I don’t care what Manny Pacquiao does, just give me the money, I’ll take it,’ ” he said. “But it’s me taking a stand for something that means something. And it’s for the fighters who are up and coming.

“It’s sort of the same stance Martin Luther King and Malcolm X made, so we could have freedoms, so everybody could tell the world that we’re equal. The only thing I’m saying is that we are equal. So if you’re not on nothing and I’m not on nothing, then let’s go take the test. That’s all I’m saying."

So let me get this straight then, Floyd. So your stand against standard drug testing for slightly more rigid drug testing (in a sporting contest, no less) somehow compares to civil rights leaders fighting for a race of people to be able to attend the same schools as their white counterparts? Are you from another planet or something? You would think that having two uncles and a father involved in the sport (giving uncle Jeff a pass) who lived through the civil rights era might give Floyd some badly needed perspective, but that would be like asking John Ruiz to go through an entire minute without clinching. Chances are Roger and Floyd, Sr. probably don’t even remember the 60’s. And Mr. Mayo, please don’t go asking them.

Let’s not even ponder what Floyd considers “freedom” to be. Maybe he needs to go to North Korea or Krygyzstan, where he wouldn’t even be allowed to make such comments publicly. Fairness, as in sports drug testing, and freedom, as in having free speech, aren’t even close to the same thing.

Floyd, in his quest to make news again whenever someone stops talking about him for five minutes, personifies the out-of-touch athlete perfectly. If he hasn’t learned by this point to be careful to whom he compares himself, he never will. What’s next? The next time he decides not to take a fight, is Mayweather going to say he’s being non-violent like Ghandi?

And remember, Manny Pacquiao, this is the man you were worried was smearing your reputation. Still feel like suing?

The best part about the press tour that began last week for the long awaited (?) rematch between Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones is hearing the two try and explain why anyone should be interested in this fight. Forget that their fight in ’93 was nothing much to write home about, or that Hopkins is now 45 and Jones recently got his head handed to him the last time he stepped into a ring. Like every fight that has ever been signed, it’s “what the people wanted”, right?

Said Jones: "We're giving the fans what they want to see. They deserve this fight and why not supply the fans with what they demand? Now I can finally terminate the Executioner once and for all. My new nickname for this fight will be - The Terminator."

You know what the fans want to see? Mayweather-Paquiao. You know what fans wanted to see ten years ago? Jones-Hopkins. Just because you guys took longer to fight again than Guns N’ Roses took to make Chinese Democracy does not entitle you to the same fervor that would have been the case back in 2000. Besides, if Roy Jones wanted to supply the fans with what they truly demand, how about giving everyone their money back for that terrible fight he had with Jeff Lacy? There were more than a few who demanded a return for their PPV dollars for that one…

Now that we’ve all spent the week reliving the incredible Buster Douglas-Mike Tyson upset of 20 years ago (has it really been that long?), it’s interesting to reflect upon just how a single fight can change everything. Unlike maybe any other sport there is, one night in the ring can send careers in directions inconceivable the day before.

Buster Douglas, unknown journeyman, goes from obscurity to greatness, beating the invincible “Iron” Mike as a dedication to his recently deceased mother. He then throws it all away, falling out of shape and losing his championship to Evander Holyfield in his very next fight. From there, the parties, women and alcohol become an uncontrollable roller coaster ride, pushing him out of the sport. He nearly dies four years later from a diabetic coma, at nearly 450 pounds. He then dedicates his life to beating the disease, writing a book on his struggles that he and his family still have in overcoming it. Douglas has said that beating Tyson was nothing compared to some of the other issues he had to overcome in his life afterwards. He’s lucky to be alive, and a Tyson right hand may have been the least of his problems.

For all the press that Tyson has received in the past for his topsy-turvy life since that night, Douglas may have had just as unlikely a road to where he currently resides. The only difference may be Buster’s lack of facial tattoos!

The Finito Five 2/11/09

2010-02-11T16:16:00.004-05:00

Edwin Valero and his mighty gash pounded out a victory over Antonio DeMarco Saturday. No word yet on whether Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez approved of the victory, or would be appointing Valero to a cabinet position.

Tattooing your brain with boxing opinions, it’s the Finito Five!

1. Valero gets gashed, then gashes DeMarco

To many a trained boxing eye, bawdy records and knockout totals are only impressive as the competition they come against. Many times, in order to justify that record, fighters will need to back up that record against opponents highly regarded enough to make everyone take notice. While the Venezuelan lightweight Edwin Valero has compiled an eye-catching 27-0 record with all knockouts, those wins have come against fairly anonymous competition. Well, with his grueling stoppage of the excellent Antonio DeMarco in Monterrey, Mexico, last Saturday, it may be time to sit up and take notice. It wasn’t just the fact that Valero knocked DeMarco out, it was the heart and guts he showed in doing so that has everyone talking. If you saw only the first six rounds of the fight, you might have thought that the Man With Hugo Chavez On His Chest had finally faced a real opponent, and his stock was about to take a huge hit. DeMarco, a much taller fighter, was landing his share of punches while basically keeping Valero at bay. He was not getting knocked out inside of four rounds like most of Valero’s opponents, either. Add to that a massive gash to Valero’s forehead caused by an accidental elbow in round two (apparently, in Mexico, it takes more blood than a battle scene in 300 to stop a fight there) that caused his face to become the proverbial crimson mask. Still, Valero fought through it, and started to put a serious beating on DeMarco after round six, so much so that the Mexican withered under the assault and stopped on his stool after round nine. Of course, the stupid open scoring system the WBC uses announced that DeMarco was behind 98-91 after eight rounds, so that probably helped make his decision to quit that much easier.

Still, at this point, while this single fight is not enough for anyone to gauge whether Valero is the goods or not, we now know he has the heart to get in tough and persevere against a quality opponent. His toughest opponent may be his visa and past health problems, as he still can’t get licensed in the United States bar Texas, and to become truly big, he’ll have get his foot in the door in Las Vegas. Either way, Valero has proven that he’s certainly a boatload of fun to watch, and if he can get on TV more frequently, people will tune in. For DeMarco, however, this wasn’t a good night. While he was able to fend off Valero for the first handful of rounds, his size and reach should have been more effective, and wasn’t. This could have been a big feather in his cap, and he knew it. While Valero is certainly trending up, we’ll have to see if DeMarco can bounce back from this career crossroads. At least when DeMarco does it, most fans will be able to see it. With Valero, we can only hope.

2. But does Hugo Chavez have a left hook like JC Superstar?

Speaking of that Hugo Chavez tattoo on Valero’s chest (which covers practically the whole thing), why hasn’t anybody asked him about it yet? Tyson puts a Mao tattoo on his arm, and then another one of Che Guevara (several boxers have this, too), and the press can’t stop asking him about it. Somehow though, Valero can display his tribute to socialist governance with nary a question? Look, there’s been many a drunken night that ended up with misguided tattoo of some head of state (who the hell is Angela Merkel and why is she on my stomach?), but it would be interesting to at least hear Valero’s reasoning. Even better yet, being that boxing is such a capitalist endeavor in the first place, why don’t Bob Arum and Don King have tattoos of Bill Gates or Warren Buffett on their chests? My only hope is that Valero didn’t ask for Julio Ceasar Chavez on his chest, only to end up with his country’s leader instead. One thing we do know about Hugo Chavez is that no trainer would ever have to tell him to go to his left!

3. Adamek attacks the heavyweight ranks

It has been written in this space before that Thomasz Adamek would serve the boxing public better as a top cruiserweight than another small heavyweight on Planet Klitschko. Regardless of that or anyone else’s wishes, the Pole looks destined to ply his trade with the Big Boys of boxing full time. Showing up at a meaty but natural-looking 220 pounds, Adamek turned in a solid performance against the decent former U.S. Olympian Jason Estrada Saturday, winning a 12-round decision. Disregarding his first heavyweight foray against the over-the-hill Andrew Golota, this was his true debut against someone over 190 pounds. He didn’t disappoint the New Jersey crowd, which had enough Polish people in attendance that they must have been checking visas at the door along with tickets. Although Estrada put on his usual act of being shocked and befuddled at a fight he clearly lost, give Adamek credit; he has good hand speed for a heavy and can throw good combinations to the body, which he did often. He also can take a heavyweight punch, which he displayed when Estrada cracked him in round ten. As good as this performance was, however, all things heavyweight are measured against the Klitschko brothers. Would this showing have been enough to make Vitali or Wladamir take notice? Not yet, and only time will tell if Adamek can change that.

4. Giving fight fans more of what they want

It has been written in this space many times just how TV networks manage to mess with or mess up the fight game, so it’s only fair to praise them when they get things right. After it was thought that Fox Sports Net (U.S.) had left boxing permanently, Bob Arum and Top Rank has brought it back with a vengeance with no less that three new shows a month! The new Top Rank Live series has already given us such excellent fare as Brandon Rios’ superb knockout of Jorge Teron, Vanes Martirosyan and Kassim Ouma’s pitched battle, plus the return of Jorge Arce to the big stage. Add to that upcoming fights featuring Giovani Segura (and his famously disgraced trainer, Javier Capetillo), Victor Ortiz and Mike Jones, and this new series is quickly becoming must-see TV. Every week likely won’t be PPV-level fights, but when Arum has given us crap like Julio Ceasar Chavez Jr.-Troy Rowland on a major PPV undercard (Pacquiao-Cotto) before, maybe that’s not such a bad thing. At least it should be on the level of ESPN’s Friday Night Fights. Speaking of which, a quick kudos to FNF for grabbing the Glen Johnson-Yusaf Mack 175-pound tilt off the cancelled Mosley-Berto scrap heap. No one was sure if Johnson was on the way out or not, but that convincing knockout of the streaking Mack was a good return to form; thanks to quick thinking on the Worldwide Leader’s part, boxing fans were able to see it.

5. The return of Finito!

Thanks to Jorge “Travieso” Arce’s early technical decision win against Angky Ankota on the Top Rank Live show recently, boxing fans got to see a real treat. Of course, given the name of this blog, there’s a bias, but none other than Alonso “Finito” Lopez, son of Hall Of Famer Ricardo “Finito” Lopez was given some screen time in his third pro fight. If anyone blinked thinking they were seeing the old man, they could hardly be blamed; Alonso is the spitting image of his father. It’s amazing that his mother can tell them apart, because the rest of us would have serious trouble. He even fights like his father, albeit a little more raw and a little less accurate, but the slight hop in his movement, hands held mid-high and combination punching are all there. Of course, it helped that his opponent, Sergio Cruz, was determined to make an impression in his professional debut by swinging so wildly he looked like he was playing Jai Halai rather than boxing. Still, Lopez scored a third-round knockout worthy of his dad’s (and this blog’s) name. It’s going to be nearly impossible to go undefeated in 52 fights like his father, but as long as he’s any bit better or more exciting than the underwhelming Julio Caesar Chavez, Jr., it should be fun to watch Alonso’s rise.

The Finito Q & A – January edition

2010-02-04T04:13:00.008-05:00

Yuriorkis Gamboa looked spectacular in wiping out Roger Mtagwa Saturday. As to Gamboa's chances of doing the same to the pictured Juan Manuel Lopez after his victory over Steve Luevano, Bob Arum said hurry up and wait.

This month’s ten burning questions, from Juanma and Gamboa on a collision course to some shady fight cancellations:

Q: So what happened to last month’s burning questions? Where was the Q & A for December?

A: Look, some of have lives, so relax. Not only has the last month been short of any real action save the Mayweather-Pacquiao debacle, but it was also the Christmas season, man! Throw in a cold that kept me out of action for a good part of those holidays, and it was a slow month. Besides, if anyone’s really on pins and needles waiting for this column, they should seek help immediately.

Q: Fine, on to the fight that didn’t happen, then. You said a few weeks ago that Pac Man and “Money” Mayweather would eventually fight because they couldn’t pass the money up. Still believe that?

A: Yes, but unfortunately, that time is probably not anytime soon. One or both of them will probably need cash at some point enough to let bygones be bygones, but like Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones, who knows how long it will be from now? Five years? Ten years? Those two lunkheads passed up a golden opportunity for themselves and the sport, and no boxing fan will ever forget what could have been. Everyone’s still steaming over this.

Q: But what about Pacquiao-Clottey and Mayweather-Mosley? Aren’t those pretty good replacement fights?

A: Sure, but that’s a bit like saying you got a BMW instead of a Bentley. Not bad, but not nearly as impressive as it could have been. While both fights aren’t subpar, it will be interesting to see what the PPV numbers will be for these cards with fans in such an agitated state. Give credit to both fighters for not taking soft touches (especially with Mayweather taking on a real top-notch 147-pounder finally), but again, this is not what we were getting our hopes up for. Really, if Clottey can’t beat Cotto, who Pac Man wrecked, is anyone seriously worried about Manny’s chances? I’ll be much more interested to see what Mosley does against Pretty Boy.

Q: So what will be the actual fallout from this fight not being made?

A: A whole lot of things. First off, boxing will be on the mainstream media’s back burner again, probably for a while. Secondly, it will take some time before boxing fans shell out big money for either guy again. Top Rank and Golden Boy will probably be in for a rude awakening when it comes to that. Furthermore, this whole deal has killed the relationship between both promotional companies, so it’s going to be a while before we see any fighters from each stable fight each other. Given how many good fighters each company has, that might actually be the most damaging aspect to the sport going forward.

Q: On to the in-ring action. Just how good did Yuriorkis Gamboa and Juan Manuel Lopez look this weekend?

A: Awesomely good. The fact that Gamboa wiped out the tough-as-Beruit Roger Mtagwa (who is apparently not Rogers anymore) inside of two was simply amazing. Gamboa was not reckless at all, which he had been in previous fights, giving him an air of real vulnerability. Gamboa’s hands are the fastest we’ve seen in a while. And while Lopez looked great beating Steven Luevano, who is himself an excellent fighter, no doubt Gamboa took the show. He absolutely killed a guy that almost beat Lopez late last year, and if I were JuanMa, I’d be more than a bit worried about their future fight.

Q: Speaking of that, why did Bob Arum of Top Rank say afterwards that the both guys would have other tune-up fights before fighting each other? Wasn’t that what this card was all about?

A: This is Arum pretzel logic, which is why it has me worried. All we heard for the last couple of months was that the whole idea behind Saturday night’s card was to get both guys positioned to fight each other as long as they won. Now, Arum suddenly acts like that was never even in his plans, which is ridiculous. Look, if Gamboa really needs more seasoning, that’s fine; but let’s make sure he’s fighting credible opponents during that time. It would not be unlike Arum to milk this thing for an extra year having Gamboa and Lopez fight soft touches to “build up” momentum for the eventual fight. Who wants that? If they’re ready, they’re ready; Gamboa fighting guys with less ability then Mtagwa is not going impress or fool anyone. Besides, if you had no intention to have these guys fight next, then don’t say it in the first place! But that would make too much sense, wouldn’t it?

Q: Back in October, after Juan Carlos Salgado’s upset win over uber-prospect Jorge Linares got him a 130-pound title, you said that we should wait for a rematch before judging Linares. Well, now that Salgado got upset by unheralded Takashi Uchiyama a couple of weekends ago, what does that now say about that loss?

A: Right now, it says that Linares a bad loss on his record. Granted, Linares really just got stunned in the first round by Salgado; however, judging by the way Salgado just got dominated by a fighter with only 14 pro fights, he might be a one-shot wonder. Salgado was really never in the fight at all, looked lost at times, and succumbed to a continual left hook he couldn’t stop all fight. Maybe Linares will get that rematch with Salgado eventually. If he does, he better take Salgado out with the same authority, or boxing fans will all be wondering if Linares is really the goods.

Q: So is Brian Viloria now no longer the goods? He lost his jr. flyweight title to someone named Carlos Tamara Saturday in the Philippines.

A: If there’s a bigger enigma in boxing than the former U.S. Olympian, I have yet to see it. Viloria should have everything it takes to rule the 108-pound ranks, but he just can’t seem to show up for two big fights in a row. Remember, Viloria won the title last April with an awesome knockout of Ulises Solis, who Tamara couldn’t beat on his best day. There’s no reason that Viloria should have had this much trouble with Tamara, let alone getting starched by him. The “Hawaiian Punch” controlled the first two-thirds of the fight for the most part, so it's baffling that he could have found any way to lose it. Also, after being so strong in the later rounds last time out, he was out of gas in round twelve, and got knocked out because of it. I don’t know if this was a training issue or what, but Team Viloria needs to figure out what happened quickly. If not, Viloria will be treading water for the rest of his career. And that would be a total waste. It’s not like good American 108-pounders grow on trees (maybe just near pineapple trees).

Q: Antonio Margarito is also coming back to fight Carson Jones on the Pacquiao-Clottey undercard. Jones is also advocating his reinstatement. What does this say about boxing?

A: Well, I can tell you what it says about the Texas commission: They would apparently license Satan if he applied, horns and all. Forget the fact that Margarito hasn’t even gone in front of the California commission, where his original loaded-gloves transgression had taken place. The same people that gave us the Diaz-Malignaggi I debacle aren’t even going to make Margacheato explain himself before giving him the go ahead. Unbelievable. As for Carson Jones, he can say that canceling his fight Margarito would take food off his table, but it’s not like Margarito is the only damn big-name guy he can fight to make a name for himself. I understand his point, but he needs to realize that Margarito probably took food off a lot of fighter’s tables when he loaded his gloves. Maybe Jones should talk to Kermit Cintron, who had a bunch of potential big paydays derailed by two knockout losses to Margarito. Not only has Cintron never looked like that in any fight other than those two, it’s taken him a good five years to recover his career from that first loss, and it probably will never be what it could have been. Margarito needs to answer for that before any reinstatement is done.

Q: Then what do you make of the rumors that both Andre Berto and Jermain Taylor getting payoffs to pull out of their respective upcoming fights?

A: Step-aside money is one of the things I absolutely hate in boxing more than just about anything else. The reason I hate it so much is because it is usually hidden by some B.S. altruistic, save-the-whales reason for the fighter stepping aside, when it’s just about the greenbacks. So all of a sudden Taylor, after being told by everyone his chin is now made of glass, decides to graciously hang up his gloves? Come on. To no one’s surprise, he made it clear that this was only a temporary break; so it only makes sense that he would voluntarily pass up two huge paydays in the Super Six tourney, right? Worse yet, in Berto’s case, his reason for pulling out of the fight was due to his concern for relatives affected by that devastating earthquake in Haiti last week. While I believe that to be true, reports of a payoff to free up Mosley to fight Mayweather just smell bad. Even if everything’s above board, taking a payoff at the same time you’re telling everyone that you’re too grief-stricken to fight looks terrible. Berto’s management team should be a hell of a lot smarter than that. It would be nice if all these payoffs either went away or had to be made public. Then everyone would get the truth.

Pacquiao and Mayweather – an opportunity squandered now, a reputation damaged forever

2010-01-13T11:07:00.003-05:00

Unfortunately, boxing fans will not see Floyd Mayweather on this podium with Manny Pacquiao, as Mayweather will instead take on Paulie Malignaggi on March 13. While both fighters have tried to spin the fight's demise as the other's fault, there's plenty of blame to go around for each of them.

Thank you so much, gentleman. The sad part regarding the uncontrollable egos of Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather (and their camps) run amok is that it didn’t just lead to the cancellation of an important fight; the sport of boxing is used to that. What it has led to is the denial of something far more rare: A chance for boxing to reenter the public consciousness, if for only a time. This would have been a chance for mainstream media outlets to temporarily turn their attention away from the MMA, NFL or even the Tiger Woods Bimbo Of the Month Club to focus on the Sweet Science. Yes, on boxing! Really! This also would have been a chance for fight fans to have an event to remember for the ages, a “Do you remember where you were?” moment when the two best pound-for-pound fighters went at it in their primes. It’s funny, actually; had they fought, the excitement would focus around who would lose. When this fight became null and void, it made losers out of everyone.

Various boxing scribes and talking heads will tell you that the fans were the ones who lost, that it’s a blow to boxing that will take a long time from which to heal. There is truth to that. As mainstream media indifference rears its ugly head because they don’t care two bits about Pac-Man fighting Joshua Clottey, as the mantra of Boxing Can’t Get Out Of Its Own Way is chanted time after time by these people, the boxing world will be forced to lament what could have been. But boxing will survive with more great fights (see Berto-Mosley) and more great events, like it always has. While that same mainstream media will blame boxing for this latest debacle, the boxing public knows better. That’s where Pacquiao and Mayweather are in for a very rude awakening.

First off, all Mayweather’s demands of Pacquiao come off as a guy who really doesn’t want to fight unless he has all the advantages. He came in heavy for his fight with Juan Manuel Marquez, who was a lighter weight fighter, anyway. Floyd also has a recent track record of fighting guys lighter than he is or, if they are equal in weight, will be a safer touch. He has an undefeated record that he doesn’t want to lose. Now he wants special blood testing. Fine. Maybe Floyd really did have a legitimate concern, but all this smacks of to many is Floyd having a big out should the fight not happen. Now Floyd can go around and tell everyone that he wanted to fight, but Pacquiao just wouldn’t, as if the Filipino was afraid of him or something. What Mayweather’s proven with this whole situation is that while being an incredible talent in the ring, he has no heart or guts outside of it. Mayweather will get to Canestota, New York, one day, but will anyone put him in the same category as Henry Armstrong, Sugar Ray Robinson or Roberto Duran? No way. Those guys didn’t duck people nor waste anyone’s time trying to protect some mythical undefeated legacy. The greatest fighters are that way because they overcome adversity; Mayweather is determined never to face it. Whether actually true or not, the spectre that Mayweather is afraid to fight Pacquiao will continue to gain more traction, even as Floyd continues to scoff at the notion.

Pacquiao, by contrast, had the most to lose, and lost it. Yes, he will always be beloved by the Filipino fans and their throng. Yes, he will always be an exciting, breathtaking fighter to watch. But will he be thought of fondly as a gladiator like Marvin Hagler or Thomas Hearns now? Hardly. He has destroyed all that. His petulant response to Mayweather’s demands exposed his absolute lack of awareness of the event or what it means to boxing. Pacquiao couldn’t even be bothered to be in the U.S. as the biggest fight he will likely ever have circled the drain. At least with Mayweather, you knew he cared more about himself than anything else; with Manny, everyone expected more. Instead of being the warrior that would say damn the torpedoes, take the stupid blood test, and kick Mayweather’s pompous ass around the ring, Pacquiao instead chose to file a lawsuit. Never mind that no one before or after had seriously questioned whether Pacquiao was clean or not, or that taking these blood tests would have proven Mayweather to be the pompous loudmouth that he is (and more defense for his suit, anyway). No, instead, it was all about MANNY being pissed off, and if MANNY’S pissed, then, well, there’s not going to be any fight. The big, bad Mayweather has said something not nice, so it’s time to screw all boxing fans while we sue that meany! All this does is make people wonder if Pacquiao really does have something to hide, not the opposite.

To a boxing fan’s trained eye, all this whole matter did was expose both fighters for the egotistical divas that they are. Maybe this was expected to a degree from Floyd, but startling was the revelation that the friendly, smiling, Manny-of-the-World Pacquiao could be so petulant and thin-skinned. Since both men have come out with statements apologizing to the fans and blaming the other guy (I confess – it’s his fault!), it’s clear that neither of them truly get it at all. No fight fan, unless they are a die-hard apologist of either fighter, is going to take a side. They have enough blame to put on both men. Boxing is used to having it’s reputation hit; what’s happened here is that the reputations of Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather have been irreconcilably damaged.

So, on March 13, both fighters will be in separate fights in separate venues against separate opponents that no one will be really excited about. Maybe Tommy Hearns or Marvin Hagler will be at one of the arenas. If so, there will likely be hands shaken, pictures taken and congratulations on those three great rounds in ‘85 that we’ve remembered for so many years. And maybe, as the action goes on in the ring, someone in the stands will have a hard time envisioning Hagler and Hearns calling off their incredible fight by letting their egos trump their greatness. Too bad the same can’t be said for Mayweather and Pacquiao. Here’s hoping they eventually get it done so that this debacle doesn’t burden their legacies forever.

The Boxing Truth

2010-01-01T00:32:00.003-05:00

While the Pacquiao-Mayweather tilt may appear to be on the ropes now, a little less hipocracy from Mayweather and a little thicker skin from Pac-Man would save this fight. Both parties need to acknowledge the Truth.

The Truth? During the holiday season? Yes, friends, so close to the time we all fib to our kids that there’s a man in a red suit flying in a sleigh driven by reindeer dropping off presents to them, it’s time for a little levity. We need to get a little serious as we dive into our egg nog, which may or may not be spiced with some liquid Truth of its own. With all the spin and hot air flowing around the Sweet Science, it’s time to sort through the hype. Here are some pre-Christmas harsh realities of the fistic world:

Truth #1: Floyd Mayweather and his father having any concerns about another fighter’s use of illegal drugs is laughable.

It looks a whole lot like Floyd, Sr. forgot where he was for three years in the early 90’s. That would be in jail for smuggling cocaine into the U.S. Yes, in case everyone’s forgotten, he’s a convicted felon. Not only that, his brother (and Floyd Jr.’s uncle) Roger Mayweather may not be able to train Floyd for his showdown with Pac-Man because may be in the clink himself for allegedly choking and battering a female fighter earlier this year. And everyone’s taking the allegations of these guys seriously? Also keep in mind that Floyd, Jr.’s assertions of wanting this Olympic-style drug testing for fairness reasons comes from a guy that didn’t bother to make weight for his last fight against Juan Manuel Marquez, where he came in two pounds heavy in a fight in which he already had a distinct size advantage. How fair was that to Marquez? “Practice what you preach” is not a credo that the Mayweather clan subscribes to, and hasn’t for some time.

Truth #2: Manny Pacquiao needs to grow up a little bit.

All of this hubbub could have been avoided, however, if Pacquiao and his camp pointed any of this out to the relatively clueless mainstream media. Boxing scribes and fans already know to take a Mayweather statement with a grain of salt; however, since this fight has already garnered a great deal of international media attention (which actually is a good thing), a lot of what has been alleged about Pacquiao has been given gravitas it doesn’t deserve. Manny and his camp should know this, but instead, they’ve been acting overly offended and defensive about the whole matter. Pacquiao’s now calling the fight off one minute, threatening to sue Mayweather the next, screaming about how his image has been tarnished, etc. Instead of being so petulant, Manny needs to realize that he’s being called a cheat by a group of people who don’t have any credibility in the first place. How Pacquiao’s reacting is likely exactly how the Mayweather camp wanted him to; it’s like a little brother who tries to needle you a hundred different ways so one will eventually get to you. Pacquiao needs to understand that they’ll only get into his head if he lets them, and he’s definitely letting them.

Truth #3: The fight will still get made.

Does anyone really think, with a likely figure of $200 million to be made on this blockbuster bout, that this fight won’t get made? Please. Everyone has been wringing their hands all week about weather Boxing’s Biggest Fight Ever might be in doubt, as if this was some Pavlik-Williams bout that might be in jeopardy. Floyd might be full of it most of the time, but he’s not stupid, and neither is Golden Boy Promotions or Bob Arum at Top Rank. While boxing fans like to think that this fight needs to be made solely to help bring boxing back to the mainstream (if only for a time), the reality is different. In Truth, there will be so much money floating around for everyone from the promoter to the street vendor, all concerned have too much green to lose not to make the fight happen. The only wildcard in this situation may be Pacquiao himself, who gives away so much of his money already that it may not be the determining factor for him in deciding whether or not to take the fight. Either way, come hell or high water, this fight will get made.

Truth #4: Gus Johnson needs to go. He’s terrible.

For all of us NFL fans out there who’ve had to suffer through torturous NFL games with Johnson as the lead commentator, we already knew what was going to happen when Showtime hired him for their Showtime Championship Boxing series. It’s not that Johnson doesn’t know either game. It’s not that Gus doesn’t make sense or can’t get his point across. It’s just that HE SHOUTS AT DAMN NEAR EVERTHING THAT HAPPENS!!!! And that’s not to be mistaken for enthusiasm. Joe Tessitore has enthusiasm. When he gets excited during Friday Night Fights, he pulls the viewer, Teddy Atlas, and half of the arena crowd right into the action. When Gus gets excited, we’re with him at first, but by the 50th time he does it within 12 rounds, our nerves are frazzled. He’s excruciating to listen to because of that. Half the time when something significant actually does happen in the fight, no one knows if it’s legit because they’ve heard Johnson lose it so many times prior to that moment. During the Timothy Bradley-Lamont Peterson fight earlier this month, Gus must have had Peterson almost knocked out about ten different times, which was not anywhere close to the case. Boxing fans need commentators who can be their eyes and ears from the arena, and if those commentators can’t tell the difference between a good punch and a fight-ending one, then it’s time to get someone new. I hate to say this about a fellow Michigander like Johnson (who really is a good guy by all accounts), but Steve Albert needs to be reinstated to full-time duty yesterday.

Truth #5: Russ Anber’s treatment of Jean Pascal’s shoulder in his fight with Adrian Diaconu was nothing short of disgraceful.

Yes, Russ Anber is Canada’s Mr. Boxing, writes an excellent column for tsn.ca, and has helped promote the sport in North America. But his actions as chief second and subsequent column about Pascal’s recent win over Diaconu to retain his 168-pound title were head-scratching. Pascal separated his shoulder no less than three times during the fight, with the final time in round ten being so bad that he was literally slumped over to one side when he came back to the corner. Both Anber and head trainer Marc Ramsey, rather than saying that the third time’s enough, actually helped pop the shoulder back into place in the corner so Pascal could continue, which Pascal did, primarily with one hand. Yes, Pascal won the fight, but it was revealed afterwards that the super middleweight titleist had a bone fragment loose in his shoulder, which eventually required surgery on his labrum. While the surgery was a success, the question has to be asked: Would that have been necessary had the corner stopped the fight when the injury became apparent? And why wasn’t this even talked about in the media post-fight? Anber then wrote a blog on tsn.ca talking about Pascal’s heart and toughness in gutting out a victory, as if he had no say how any of it had played out. Nowhere in the column was it mentioned that there was any concern for Pascal’s safety or long-term health, just that his shoulder made its way back into the socket. Somehow, it’s hart to envision Teddy Atlas or Freddie Roach pushing a fighter out of his corner who had separated his shoulder that many times. As it is, Pascal is now out of action for two to three more months before he can begin training. It’s tough to know for sure, but given the different types of shoulder injuries due to separations by athletes over the years, Pascal looks to have gotten off lightly. Perhaps Anber should remember that the next time one of his fighters is injured in the ring.

…and that’s the Truth. Have a happy New Year!

The Finito Five 12/9/09

2009-12-09T07:41:00.003-05:00

Koki Kameda pounds at the flattest nose in the history of boxing belonging to Daisuke Naito during their flyweight superfight. Unfortunately, Naito couldn't pound some manners into Kameda despite repeated attempts.

Spreading more merriment than jolly ‘ol St. Nick, it’s the Finito Five!

1. Danny Green lays the TNT on Roy Jones and B-Hop

It’s truly amazing how fate can step into a boxing ring sometimes. For years, since their 1993 snoozer of a fight, Roy Jones and Bernard Hopkins have been talking about fighting each other, especially after Hopkins joined Jones on the pound-for-pound list back in the late 1990’s. After Hopkins dismantled Felix Trinidad in 2001, both fighters were in their primes, and boxing fans were demanding a rematch. The only problem was that Hopkins and Jones were doing a whole lot of talking and not enough negotiating. While Jones, like he always did in those days, talked about being the main attraction and getting main attraction money, Hopkins took his usual “I won’t be screwed by the boxing establishment” tack, essentially not giving in to any of the demands of Team Jones. As a result, nothing happened for years until recently, when a shaky 40-year old Jones and a 45-year old Hopkins (who’s still on most pound-for-pound lists for some reason) decided that early 2010 was the time. The only obstacle? Jones had to defeat cruiserweight Danny Green in Australia Wednesday, while Hopkins had to get past tough Enrique Ornelas at 175-pounds in the United States the same night. This Finito space had intended to be about how relevant the fight was going to be so many years after the first one had taken place, especially regarding how shot Jones was after more than a few KO losses this decade.

Well, thanks to Danny Green, none of that matters now, as he completely wiped out Jones inside of a round, upsetting the proverbial apple cart. If there was any debate about Jones being done, there should be none whatsoever now. Green, who is decent, but couldn’t hang even a little bit with a 2000 version of Jones, cracked Roy with one right hand about 75 seconds in, and it was essentially over. All credit to Green for getting it done, but Jones clearly can’t take a solid punch any more. While Hopkins did pound out a workmanlike decision over Ornelas for his part, it’s now time for B-Hop to face someone like Green or Tomasz Adamek, which would be much more compelling. For Jones, here’s hoping he decides to retire until getting that Hall Of Fame call from Canestota in 2015.

2. A little objectivity, anyone?

Many a boxing fan has had issues with the commentary of the HBO broadcast team of Lampley-Merchant-Steward or the Sky Sports team of Adam Smith and Jim Watt from time to time, even though both teams are the sport’s standard bearers. However, if you think they’re so bad, try the Australian Foxtel-TV trio of Andy Raymond, Barry Michael and Paul Briggs, who called the Jones-Green fight Wednesday. Among the gems heard during the fight:
Raymond, after Jones was knocked down: “When you beat a legend, you become a legend, and Danny Green is on the verge of history!”
Raymond, after Green won: “Danny Green has conquered Australia and the world!”
Michael, during the wrap-up: “This is the greatest win in the history of Australian boxing.”
Huh? Seriously? First off, just because you beat a legend that was in his prime ten years ago doesn’t make you as great as he was. By that logic, you should be able to go to Berrien Springs, Michigan and kick Muhammad Ali’s ass and call yourself the Greatest. Secondly, how did Green conquer Australia exactly by beating a dude from Florida? Doesn’t the fact that Green already lost to Anthony Mundine, a fellow Aussie, mean that Mundine should be the best Down Under, at the very least? And if Green’s is the greatest win in the history of the country, I guess all the wins that Jeff Fenech and Kostya Tszyu have over Hall Of Famers during their careers don’t mean so much, eh? Sounds like someone should test Foxtel’s boys for hyperbolic steroid use!

3. The battle of Japan reaches its anticlimax

What many sportswriters in the United States still can’t understand is how boxing can still grip a nation when it’s not theirs. When Tomasz Adamek-Andrew Golota puts a nation (Poland) on hold for an entire afternoon, it’s still an important statement on the hold the Sweet Science still has in some parts of the world. Add to that the 112-pound megafight between Koki Kameda and titleholder Daisuke Naito on Nov. 29, which may qualify as the most mega of any fight in any country in the last 20 years. Going into the fight, it had it all the makings of the classic grudge match; a controversial, foul-filled fight between Kameda’s brother, Daiki, and Naito, which ended up with Daiki suspended for a year. Kameda reportedly told his brother to use his elbows on Naito! It’s not clear what Naito may have done to engender this wrath (other than Kameda despising Naito having the flattest nose on earth), but it certainly didn’t translate to a great fight. Kameda moved very well, landing his punches everywhere on a confused Naito, who just couldn’t generate the offense that would have made this one special. While there were some good exchanges, there wasn’t much doubt at the end of the fight, both as to the winner and who was the most arrogant Japanese guy since Boleo Yeung in Bloodsport (who we all know isn’t really Japanese, anyway). Kameda might be a big star in Japan, but he shows an incredible lack of class during fights that would make Floyd Mayweather, Jr. proud, including a refusal to touch gloves or even acknowledge Naito and his effort after the fight. Since this fight did over a 50 share (yes, that means over 50 percent of Japanese TV’s that were on!), let’s hope the next Battle For Japan lives up to its billing.

4. Paul Williams finally meets his match

Forget Carlos Quintana when talking about Paul Williams; that was clearly an off night for “The Punisher”. Other than that, the man has beaten down Antonio Margarito (likely with his loaded gloves), Winky Wright, Verno Phillips and Quintana in a rematch. Well, last Saturday night, he finally found a worthy opponent that he couldn’t just walk over, that in Spain’s Sergio Martinez. While it was obvious that these were the two best jr. middleweights in the world (although the fight was fought above 154), no one could have expected the slugfest that resulted. Williams was not only knocked down in the first round, but actually got rocked a couple of times, as Martinez displayed excellent use of angles in getting to his 6’2” opponent. What this fight also showed was that Williams is more than up to facing adversity, as he gave it right back to the Spaniard, tiring Martinez out late in the fight as Williams came back from a couple of bad cuts. Ultimately, while Williams got the decision, it could have gone either way (throw out the fact that Pierre Benoist had an awful 119-110 scorecard he apparently scored from Williams’ house in front of his family), and there now will likely be a much-anticipated rematch. With all of the ducking that fighters have been doing to Williams, it’s good that he’s now found an opponent he can truly test his greatness against. With the grueling nature of this fight, it will be interesting to see how that will change each fighter by the time they step into the ring against each other for a second time.

5. Maybe this rematch shouldn’t be made, either

Lost in the shuffle a bit during an incredibly exciting last 30 days in boxing is that Israel Vazquez and Rafael Marquez are going to get it on for a fourth time. And who could argue, right? These two waged three of the greatest fights that the 122-pound division (or any other division, for that matter) had ever seen, each one memorable for it’s brutality and gladiator-style action. Even the boxing press seems fairly amped up for this fight, to take place in early 2010. However, has anyone asked just how much that great trilogy has taken out of these guys? Anyone who saw Vazquez’ struggling performance against Angel Priolo in October has to wonder just what a rematch will accomplish other than shortening their careers further. If Vazquez is on the downslope of his career, a fight like this may end it; for Marquez, he has only to look to his brother Juan Manuel to see what taking care of yourself can lead to in your late 30’s – more big time fights and a longer career. Trilogies are common in boxing for a reason; they settle the debate as to who is better, and then fighters move on. Both Vazquez and Marquez are as on par with each other as you can get, a fact that won’t change if they fight a hundred times. Let’s not ruin potential intriguing fights with Juan Manuel Lopez, Chris John or Yuriorkis Gamboa by putting these guys in a fight that might beat them out of action for another sixteen months, if not permanently.

The Finito Q & A – November edition

2009-11-26T19:44:00.004-05:00

Andre Ward seems to be making Mikkel Kessler rather unhappy here with his punches, something we're fairly sure Kessler missed when he complained about head butts and officiating afterward.

This month’s bevy of burning fistic questions, from Ward’s massive upset to Manny’s mummy-like singing performance:

Q: So after the Andre Ward’s surprising upset of Mikkel Kessler, looks like you picked the first-round winners of the Super Six tournament correctly. Are you going to gloat now, smart guy?

A: To be fair, I didn’t predict everything correctly. I said Carl Froch would knock out Andre Dirrell, and there was about as much chance of a KO in that fight as there was of Yuriorkis Gamboa defecting back to Cuba. Still, it was nice to see Ward really come through better than even I had thought possible. What a performance! Taking apart Kessler, who many considered the tournament favorite, was unexpected to say the least. Those two might still be the best in the Super Six, so maybe Kessler gets another chance at Ward eventually. Still, you have to like Ward’s win as the most impressive of the tourney so far.

Q: What about Kessler’s assertions after the fight that Ward’s headbutting and referee Jack Reiss cost him the fight? Valid, or are you going to give us one of your analogies again?

A: Analogy time! Kessler saying that the butts and refereeing cost him the fight is like saying Carl Froch’s girlfriend is hot because of her great teeth; there is some truth there, but it’s pretty low on the list of factors. The main reason Ward won was because he pounded Kessler all over the ring; sure the head butts didn’t help matters, but that didn’t determine the fight. Kessler had a bad night, while Ward had an outstanding one, simple as that.

Q: So who’s the favorite going into the second round of the Super Six?

A: It has to be Ward. As excellent as Arthur Abraham’s win over Jermain Taylor was, Taylor looks close to done. Ward beat a better fighter right now, so you have to like his momentum. However, the points lead is still Abraham’s at 3 until someone passes or ties him.

Q: That must mean that you aren’t rating Froch’s win very highly. After more than a month, are you still holding on to the notion that Dirrell won?

A: Yes! It wasn’t a huge screwjob or anything like that, but after watching the fight numerous times, I still don’t know how Froch could have won any of the first six rounds. He did nothing. That means it could have been a draw at best for him from that point with no knockdowns. I’m not going to continue screaming to the rafters on this one, but neither will I give Froch a whole lot of credit for that performance. We need to see more of the Froch that beat Taylor from this point on.

Q: Did you hear that Top Rank head Bob Arum flipped ESPN’s Dan Rafael the bird at the Pacquiao-Cotto fight for his negative comments about the undercard? What was up with that?

A: Well, all boxing fans should have flipped Arum the bird for that lame undercard. It looks like Arum couldn’t take the fact that Rafael called him to the carpet on it, and because Arum acts like a jerk about half the time, you get incidents like these. Come on, Julio Ceasar Chavez, Jr.-Troy Rowland as the co-feature for one of the biggest fights of the year? Please. Look I love Rowland, who lives about 20 minutes from my house, but the guy was just barely back after a 3-plus year layoff. He didn’t deserve to be there, and Chavez sure as hell didn’t, either. When you’re paying one of your fighters less than $50 grand (Rowland, of course) to be on the lead-in fight to a major PPV headliner, then it shouldn’t be on the card. The fact that the most talked about fight on the undercard was the Matt Korobov bout, which wasn’t even televised, should tell you something about the strength of it.

Q: Did you see that Rodel Mayol had another head butt issue in his fight against Edgar Sosa? Is this a trend, or just another coincidence?

A: This looks like a real trend, one that referees should put a stop to right away. Mayol is not intentionally butting fighters, but he is far too reckless with his head. If I were Sosa, who clearly never recovered from the butt and was actually down on the canvas for more than a minute trying to recover, I’d launch a protest to try and get a rematch. Sosa lost his 108-pound title in the fight, as well. It’s one thing when a possible style matchup caused his two fights against Ivan Calderon to be stopped due to headbutts, but it’s another thing when it’s happening every fight.

Q: So what should have been done after the butt happened?

A: A no-contest should have been ruled, simple as that. I don’t know why referees are so afraid to do this when an unintentional foul is committed. This wasn’t the same situation as with the Kendall Holt-Ricardo Torres rematch; in that fight, everything happened inside a minute, with no time to evaluate Torres properly. In this case, however, Sosa being prone on the canvas and barely able to stand the entire rest of the first round should have clued referee Roberto Ramirez in. Ramirez actually ruled the butt intentional and deducted a point; he should have taken it a step further and stopped it altogether.

Q: How in the world did Dimitri Sartison get a 168-pound title from the WBA by beating Stjepan Bozic in Germany this weekend? I thought Ward won that title from Kessler that same day!

A: That’s because the WBA (and the rest of the alphabelt soup gangs) only cares about getting money from fighters, not who represents them as champion. They have a designation called “super champion” they give to some fighters when they unify belts with another organization. The fact that Kessler had no other belts going into the Ward fight didn’t matter, they just elevated him to “super champion” anyway. And because Sartison and Bozic were dumb enough to fall for it, they paid sanctioning fees to the WBA to fight for their “regular belt”. I hope Sartison carries that baby around with pride; because only his family will think that he’s the champ and Ward isn’t.

Q: Giovani Segura now has 18 KO’s out of his 22 wins, pretty good for a jr. flyweight. Given that he still seems to be sticking around with Antonio Margarito’s former trainer, Javier Capetillo, how far is he going to go?

A: Not far enough, and that’s unfortunate. The sky should be the limit for Segura, who has some real panache and a flair for the dramatic, but as long as he’s with Capetillo, he can only go so far. He absolutely crushed Sonny Boy Jaro with a left to the body in the first round of their fight Saturday, a punch most guys his size do not have. While I totally believe that his power is legitimate, having a guy who has been caught loading gloves training you is just not smart; it casts doubt on every knockout you have. Segura, who lives in California, can’t even fight there because of Capetillo’s ban; so unless it’s against someone willing to fight him in Mexico, it’s not going to happen. He’s a young guy that probably wants to be loyal to his trainer, but it’s not worth doing that at the expense of your career.

Q: After the Cotto fight, Pacquiao gave a concert, singing for the gathered crowd with half his head bandaged. Strangest thing you’ve ever seen in boxing?

A: No, not the strangest (fan man at Holyfield-Bowe still takes the cake for me), but it’s definitely up there. Listen, I know Pac-Man can sing and wanted to give a concert at Madison Square Garden soooo bad, but who thought this was a good idea? It either shows no respect for the fact that Cotto might have seriously hurt Manny (which he came damn close to doing), or at best, assumed that after a grueling fight, he could still give some kind of great performance. No offense, but if I go see Bruce Springsteen, I sure as hell don’t want to do it after he just ran the Boston Marathon! You must want to see Pacquiao sing pretty badly to take in his show under those circumstances. He still probably looked better than Cher, though…

The Finito Five 11/19/09

2009-11-19T16:06:00.002-05:00

Miguel Cotto looks to have gotten tattooed more than once this year, as Manny Pacquiao attempts to add another on Cotto's face. Whether he can do this to Floyd Mayweather is the question being asked by boxing fans now.

More heavyweight musings from a strawweight brain…

1. Pac-Man proves he’s worth the “Money”

It has been said more than once that the difference between a great fight and a super fight is this: A great fight is one that boxing fans look forward to, while a super fight is an event that everyone looks forward to. And given pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao’s awesome beat down of Miguel Cotto in their welterweight PPV headliner Saturday, the resulting showdown with Floyd Mayweather will definitely hit “super fight” status. There have been few fighters in this current generation that can carry both power and hand speed up through multiple divisions, but the Filipino dynamo seems to defy the odds more and more with each fight. Against Cotto, a true welterweight (are you listening, Floyd?), Pacquiao was too quick, too strong, and generally too imposing for Cotto, who is himself normally the ring general. While Cotto did land some good shots and displayed some incredible heart to make it to round twelve, there was no doubt from about round six on who the victor would be. Yes, perhaps referee Kenny Bayless could have let Cotto last the final round, but the Puerto Rican had already proven his toughness by that point. This was Manny’s night.

Now let the clamor for the Mayweather showdown begin. While both fighters have not actually said they want to fight the other by name, there’s too much money and legacy at stake for it not to happen. This fight would be similar to Hagler-Leonard or Toney-Jones, a true bout for the ages, one that would cement the winner’s place in boxing history forever. And with good-guy Manny versus Mayweather, the Man Everyone Loves To Hate, Bob Arum can sip margaritas and work on his tan, as little promotion as this fight will need. And unlike Mayweather-De La Hoya, these are two Hall Of Famers fighting while both are in their primes. As former referee Mills Lane would say, let’s get it on!

2. “Bad” Chad Dawson is bad only at the box office

Pity Chad Dawson. Here’s a guy who is one of the best fighters in the world, the legitimate 175-pound world champion, a family man who never gets in trouble, and a general bright spot for the city of Hartford, Connecticut. Throw in a dominating performance in his rematch against Glen Johnson ten days ago in his hometown, and he should have the world at his feet. Unfortunately, the math is just not working out right now for Dawson. Less than 5,500 fans showed up at the XL Center (capacity of 16,000), and it was not a vociferous crowd at all, many times voicing their displeasure at Dawson’s lack of killer instinct. While he did dominate Johnson, who now looks to be closer to retirement than not, Dawson played it very safe, never once looking like he was going in for the kill. That may be Dawson’s biggest problem; since stepping up to the highest level at light heavyweight, he fights more like Ghandi and less like Genghis Khan, although he has 17 knockouts in his 40-plus bouts. He’s a terrific fighter, but boxing is also the entertainment business, which is the reason fighters like Paulie Malignaggi and Cory Spinks have to be matched correctly, because they’re not killers, either. The Johnson fight was made simply because there wasn’t much clamor for Dawson fighting anyone else; Dawson simply headlining a fight card isn’t reason enough to get excited. Until he finds his inner Arturo Gatti, it doesn’t look like that will change anytime soon.

3. Dawson shows that he protects himself at all times

You know how bad it really is for “Bad” Chad? While some boxers over the last decade have been known to shill themselves out for Goldenpalace.com or Bodog on their bodies, Dawson’s lack of stroke couldn’t even get him one of those unsavory gigs. Instead, he gets Condomdepot.com on his trunks! Yes, someone in the marketing department thought it was a stroke of brilliance (oh, was that pun intended?) to let the light heavyweight champion with four, yes count ‘em, four kids hawk condoms on the back of his shorts. The problem is, all those kids are completely legit and planned – what a waste! Now the real get would be to have Evander Holyfield with his nine (!) illegitimate kids to wear some Condom Depot gear at his next fight. Lord knows when Evander and his mom were eating their burritos at Taco Bell, they should have been talking condoms, not condiments.

4. David beats Goliath to the sound of heavyweight indifference

So after more or less ducking both Klitschko brothers, it was time for former cruiserweight champion David Haye to finally get his heavyweight title against seven-foot Nicolay Valuev. The problem is, it’s a bit like marrying Khloe’ Kardashian instead of Kim – although you can say you married a Kardashian, it’s not really all that impressive. Haye did do enough to beat the giant Valuev, but he didn’t turn in a particularly fantastic performance, which almost nobody does against the Russian. Valuev is so slow that anyone with enough guts and talent to work their way in will usually beat him easily; Haye definitely had enough of both to get it done. However, while he can claim he’s a heavyweight champion now, everyone knows whom he still has to beat. Boring fights like this won’t sell a lot of tickets, as evidenced by this fight being in Germany and not in Haye’s home country of England. If Haye wants to back up his bevy of trash-talk regarding the Klitschko’s, he actually needs to step in the ring with Wlad or Vitali eventually. Haye’s next mandatory for his belt is John Ruiz, who’s getting his 312th crack at a heavyweight title. At the rate boxing fans avoid Ruiz like H1N1, Haye better start getting the Klitschko fires stoked again very soon.

5. Z Gorres gets a win in life

With the deaths of Arturo Gatti, Vernon Forrest and Alexis Arguello, the bright light has been shining on some of boxing’s harshest realities lately. Luckily, we all avoided another one after Filipino 118-pounder Zeta Gorres appears to be OK after his frightening collapse two weeks ago. The scariest part, however, was that he actually won his fight over Luis Melendez, and only was in serious trouble when he was knocked down in the last 30 seconds of the fight with a left. He hit his head on the ropes, but was able to make it back up and seemed fine. Once the scores were read, he just collapsed, one of those collapses that boxing fans hope they never see, the one that signals real trouble. After being rushed to the hospital to remove pressure on his brain, he was put into a coma for 24 hours. As of this writing, he looks like he’ll recover, but his career is certainly done. It’s hard to believe that the fighter who fought Vic Darchinyan to a draw took one bad punch from a journeyman in a tune-up fight, and now he’ll never set foot in a ring again. The good thing is he will still be able to see his wife and four children, which truly is bigger than any boxing win he could have ever had.

The heavyweight dream of Tomasz Adamek should not be realized

2009-11-10T22:57:00.006-05:00

200-pound king Tomasz Adamek may decide to try his luck at heavyweight, but pardon the general boxing fan if they're less than enthusiastic at the prospect of a future with Sultan Ibragimov and Nicolay Valuev in it.

By and large, most boxing fans can’t help but love cruiserweight titleist Tomasz Adamek. He’s the kind of fighter that has all the tools for success both in and out of the ring: An action-packed style, great heart, willingness to slug, huge Polish following, TV-friendly fights. He’s one of those fighters you almost can’t help but root for, because you know you’re going to get your money’s worth every time he steps into the ring. He’s also stepped into the ring with many of the best to boot, including wins over Steve Cunningham, O’Neil Bell, Paul Briggs and a loss to number one 175-pounder Chad Dawson in the spring of ’09.

So it was completely understandable that in front of over 17,000 screaming Polish fans on October 24, Adamek took a competitive break and fought long-faded heavyweight Andrew Golota, his countryman. The fight was a sensation throughout the country, garnering both fighters big paychecks while the event became the most-watched TV program EVER in Poland. Despite moving up in weight, Adamek performed exceptionally, knocking out Golota in round five to the cheers of the Arena Lodz crowd. Adamek had fulfilled his heavyweight dalliance, and now it was off to a rematch with Cunningham, or intriguing fights with Jean Pascal, Adrian Diaconu or Tavoris Cloud.

But not so fast. Like so many that have dabbled with boxing’s Big Boys, Adamek said after the fight that he would either stay at 200 pounds or move up to the heavyweight division permanently. While his Polish faithful might be thrilled at that prospect, you could hear boxing fans all over the globe cringe, as yet another great fighter could potentially be lost to the proverbial heavyweight boondoggle.

For every Evander Holyfield, there are countless other fighters that have wasted their time moving up to heavyweight when they could have established themselves at 175 or cruiserweight. James Toney was doing some impressive things at cruiserweight when he decided that fighting guys like Sam Peter, Hasim Rachman and Fres Oquendo were his ticket to heavyweight stardom. No offense to Toney, who will surely be in the Hall Of Fame, but he was realistically going to get as close to dethroning the Klitschko’s as he was to becoming the U.S. Ambassador to Nepal. Instead of seeing if he could rule the cruiserweight roost as he had done at 168 so well, he immediately jumped up to heavyweight to fight Holyfield. After a win against the faded former cruiserweight king, Toney was above 200 pounds to stay (and the way Toney eats lately, his local burger joint was probably thrilled). While Toney was in some decent fights from that point on, the thrill of his last cruiserweight fight with Vassily Jirov was never close to being recaptured.

The same situation applies to Adamek here. Yes, he can make tons of money fighting European heavyweights. Yes, he can get huge TV exposure and would be a big draw at any arena, Poland or otherwise. Yes, he could handle himself by and large with those big heavyweights. But would he be a factor? Probably not. Like Toney before him, Adamek would likely struggle through the Ruslan Chagaev’s and Alexander Povetkin’s of the world, maybe winning, maybe not. He certainly won’t get through enough of them to face either Klitschko brother. Even if popularity eventually dictated that Adamek get a shot, does anyone think that he would beat Vitali or Wladamir? Adamek’s maxed-out weight for the Golota fight was still 30 pounds south of the Klitschko’s walking around weight. And unless Adamek is somehow different than most smaller fighters who’ve fought the Klitschko brothers, it sure wouldn’t make for an exciting night.

The idea here is not to begrudge Adamek if he wants to live the heavyweight dream, because it’s certainly understandable. Perhaps he would be much better than anyone thinks. It’s just that seeing him continue his thrilling dominance of the 200 pound division seems a lot more fun than watching him struggle to beat mid-level opposition in the heavyweight ranks. The heavyweight division already has its share of snoozers; it would sure be a shame if the once-exciting Thomasz Adamek contributed to that number.

The Finito Five 10/23/09

2009-10-23T08:20:00.008-04:00

Carl Froch did a lot of chasing Andre Dirrell during the second fight of the Super Six tournament on Saturday. Although Froch got the nod, it started a debate between the boxing writers and public as to who won the fight.

More Super than the Six, it’s the Finito Five!

1. Abraham hits a three pointer to start the Super Six

Boxing fans, by and large, are used to hype surrounding fight promotions; they’re also used to the hype being greater the fight. Just about everyone, however, thought that the Super Six 168-pound tournament had a great chance of living up to the hype. Luckily for all fight fans, they turned out to be exactly right! Going into the Super Six, many figured both Mikkel Kessler and Arthur Abraham were the two favorites. Abraham’s definitive twelfth KO of Jermain Taylor Saturday may just have moved him to the head of the Vegas board. If there’s another fighter with better late round power, he’s has yet to show himself. As a matter of fact, this fight almost mirrored Taylor’s fight with Carl Froch earlier this year; Taylor winning the early rounds, Abraham coming on late, and finally, Taylor tiring and not making it out of the last 30 seconds of the fight. Abraham connected with a crushing straight right that got through the gloves of Taylor, knocking the former middleweight champion more out than Elton John. The fact that referee Guadelupe Garcia counted at all was silly, unless the Mexican referee wanted to practice his English.

The result of all this is that with the Super Six point system, the Armenian Abraham takes a commanding lead, as he received two points for the win, and an additional point for the KO (great idea, by the way). Taylor, however, may have some hard decisions to make. This is his third brutal knockout loss is his last five fights (Froch and Kelly Pavlik), and he was found after the fight to have had a severe concussion and short-term memory loss. He was released from the hospital, but with tough fights against Andre Ward and Kessler left, it’s not like he can take a tune up fight beforehand. It’s tough to see another knockout not happening with at least one of those fights, so perhaps it’s time for Taylor to bow out, if not call it a career. It would sure be a shame to see another brutal knockout damaging permanently the only man to beat Bernard Hopkins twice.

2. Froch holds on, Dirrell holds Froch, fans & pundits hold an argument

The second Super Six fight of the night, while light on scintillating action, presented a fascinating situation the boxing universe doesn’t see that often: Boxing media and fans disagreeing. Many figured Andre Dirrell, who has been known to turn it on and off like the power company, might actually come out with a consistent effort against England’s Carl Froch, Dirrell’s biggest opponent to date. What they got was Dirrell showing flashes of brilliance, but also flashes of complete brain lock. While the Flint, Michigan native befuddled Froch with hand speed and movement, he also held the entire fight, and it was only a matter of time before referee Hector Afu deducted a point, which he eventually did. The amazing part however, was that it didn’t matter, as two judges had it 115-112 for Froch (Dirrell won the other card 114-113). Even stranger, almost all the media had Froch winning a fight in which he did almost nothing in the first eight rounds. Although punch stats were not kept, it was clear that Dirrell, although running and holding, was the only guy landing any shots. Froch did get to him later on, but it seems Dirrell was unfairly penalized for his fight strategy; boxing fans were incredulous, which led to several interesting chats and blogs arguing that Dirrell was the obvious victor despite press assertions to the contrary. Just watch the end of the fight; Froch didn’t look at all like he thought he’d won, and the hush over the pro-Froch Nottingham crowd was palpable. Many boxing writers say that crowds don’t score fights, but boxing fans know who won individual rounds. It has been written here before that Dirrell is a frustrating enigma, which he still is. But he still looked to be the better man this night, and got a big goose egg for it.

3. Ahh, but at least he’s more coherent than George Foreman

Showtime’s newly added third man on the announce team (along with “Captain Coronary” Gus Johnson and Steve Farhood), former light heavyweight champion Antonio Tarver, has impressed with his knowledge and ability to spot trends in fights. But like any rookie, you had to know there would be a few rookie moments. He may not have thrown five interceptions like first-year New York Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez last Sunday, but he did manage to combine Carl Froch’s name and call him “Crotch” live during the postfight analysis. Although he corrected himself a few seconds later, I’m sure this had to bring back painful memories for Froch of being teased at school; perhaps that’s why he became a boxer, huh? Give Tarver a mulligan, but be happy he didn’t have to pronounce the names of Frankie Tucker or Shawn Pitt, two boxers of the last twenty years. Then again, this is Showtime, home of the “L” Word and the Tudors, right? I guess we’re lucky Tarver didn’t try to get it on with the ring card girl! Ahh, premium cable – it’s not just for boxing.

4. The future of the heavyweight division…

In the heavyweight era of the Klitschko’s, both of whom are in their late 30’s, the fight game has been starving for young challengers. Lately, however, most of these Next Generation of boxing big boys has turned out to be more talk than talent. Does anyone really think that Kevin Johnson, Alex Povetkin or Tony Thompson are boxing’s next wave? Ruslan Chagaev, Alexander Dimitrenko and Sam Peter had that designation at one point, as well. Yawn. Thankfully, there may be some hope on the horizon. October 10th showcased both Cuban Odlanier Solis obliterating division gatekeeper Monte Barrett on the Juan Manuel Lopez-Rogers Mtagwa undercard, plus exciting Russian puncher Denis Boytsov knocking down overmatched Jason Gavern six times in Mecklenberg, Germany. While it’s too early to tell whether these two will go the way of any of the fighters mentioned above, both have excellent power, and created exciting knockouts of their opponents. Both have hand speed and accuracy rare in a heavyweight. While Solis came in too heavy at 271 and Boytsov’s biggest opponent to date is Taras Bidenko, both these deficiencies can be rectified. And the best part? The both look to have that something special others only wish for. Now that Cris Arreola has lost his Klitschko bid, maybe one of these two will challenge down the road.

5. …and the heavyweight past that should stay that way

All right, you knew it would happen, didn’t you? Just when it was safe to talk about Solis and Boytsov and the future of the heavyweight division, boxing fans are treated to Shannon Briggs’ comeback the same weekend. Really? You mean the Shannon Briggs that couldn’t hang with Sultan “What, me, hepatitis?” Ibragimov? Since his loss to Jameel McCline back in 2002, Briggs has racked up victories against the likes of Jeff Pegues, Wade Lewis, John Sargent, Luciano Zolyone and Chris Koval. Those names might be the lineup of the next season of VH1’s Tool Academy for all most boxing fans have heard of them. Yeah, Briggs did beat Sergey Lyakhovich, who might be working in a Russian Waffle House because no one has heard from him since. Now at 37, what is Briggs going to accomplish at this point? All comebacks must be measured against beating the Klitschko’s, and if Ibragimov couldn’t come close, what makes Briggs think he would be any different? His new manager, Ivaylo Gotzev, said, “We want to see how Vitali (Klitschko) feels when he's looking at an opponent, eye to eye, who can punch harder and faster than he can." Yes, Ivaylo, so do we; that guy sure as hell isn’t Briggs, though. The only chance Briggs has of knocking either Klitschko out is if he puts some of Antonio Margarito’s plaster of Paris in his dreadlocks!

The Finito Q & A – October edition

2009-10-15T22:50:00.009-04:00

While Juan Manuel Lopez may look confidently victorious here, he was anything but in the final round of his fight Saturday with Rogers Mtagwa. Whether the aura of invincibility will be gone from Juanma remains to be seen.

This month’s bevy of burning fistic questions, from Juanma’s weekend walk on Queer Street to a UFC-boxing dinner date:

Q: Wow, now that was some high drama at the end of the Juan Manuel Lopez-Rogers Mtagwa fight! Did you see this one coming?

A: No way, and neither did anyone else, for that matter. Juanma was absolutely a punch or two away from losing the fight in round twelve, but Mtagwa, who had been throwing bombs all fight, finally ran out of steam. If the fight had gone 30 seconds longer, it’s likely the Ghanaian would have won. Lopez got absolutely rocked about ten times between round seven and the final bell, and it was a testament to his fighter’s heart that he gutted out the fight until the end. All credit to him.

Q: OK, so is Mtagwa that good, or are there now some chinks in Juanma the Terminator’s armor?

A: This one is really hard to tell. Mtagwa had 13 losses coming into the fight, but most were a result of early mismanagement. You have to believe that living and fighting out of Philly has made him the real deal, and that he’d be a handful for anyone at 122 pounds. However, I’m not sure if this was Juanma just taking Mtagwa too lightly, or if this is a roadmap to beating Lopez. I’ll tell you this: Lopez got hit with a ton of wide, looping shots that someone on the P4P list has no business getting hit with. If he can’t get avoid those shots from Mtagwa, imagine what Celestino Caballero or Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym would do to him.

Q: After the fight, Top Rank chief Bob Arum spewed forth his usual invectives, saying how bad referee Eddie Cotton was, as well as the judges. Any credence to his complaints?

A: A little, but Arum is so full of crap most of the time, I can’t believe he doesn’t attract flies. First off, Cotton wasn’t very good as usual, and looked like he did miss a couple of possible knockdowns that were ruled slips. He also allowed Mtagwa punches after the bell repeatedly, and a few headbutts. However, he gave Juanma TONS of leeway when it appeared he was out on his feet at the end of the fight, so I don’t know how Arum could be too upset. As far as the scores go, he was way off base. I keep reading about how Lopez’ early lead carried him to the decision; sorry, but if your “early lead” is only six rounds, and the other guy beats your rear end for the other six, that’s a draw. Yeah, Lopez had a knockdown, but the last round could easily be scored 10-8 for Mtagwa. I have no real issue with the scoring (116-111, 115-111, 114-113), but the idea that 114-113 is a bad score is totally ridiculous.

Q: Was it as ridiculous as play-by-play man Al Bernstein calling Juanma Juan “Manual” Lopez the whole fight?

A: Not quite, but it’s up there. You’d think a guy who’s covered boxing since the ‘70s would know how to pronounce a Latino name or two. I can’t believe color man Raul Marquez didn’t correct him at some point; it was getting annoying. I like Bernstein a lot, but he really needs to consult his Spanish pronunciation “Manuel”!

Q: In other news of the shocking sort, Jorge Linares got knocked out this weekend by unheralded Juan Carlos Salgado. Does this mean Linares was just a bunch of hype?

A: First off, it’s amazing how everyone has flown into full panic now that boxing’s Next Great Thing has a stunning loss. Yes, it was a shocking result, but for anyone who watched the fight, this was not Marcos Maidana beating down Victor Ortiz for three rounds en route to a stoppage. Basically, Linares got caught with a flush left he never saw coming, and couldn’t recover quickly enough. Salgado never beat him up, nor really did anything but land that one punch. Things like this happen to the best of fighters (remember Wladamir Klitschko losing in two rounds to Corrie Sanders?), so it’s better to wait and see how Linares does in a rematch. We’ll know more then.

Q: Speaking of rematches, are we going to see Israel Vazquez-Rafael Marquez 4, or is Izzy a spent fighter at this point?

A: Judging from Vazquez’ comeback fight against Angel Priolo Saturday, it doesn’t look good right now. Although Vazquez finally got the KO in the ninth round, he took far too many punches, got cut and generally looked very rusty. Priolo had lost six fights in a row (yes, you read that right), and the Vazquez that beat Marquez and Jhonny Gonzalez would have wiped the mat with this guy. It may just be ring rust which will improve with time, but if he can’t avoid any punches, he should call it a career. Izzy is too good of a guy and respected ring warrior to sound like Meldrick Taylor in ten years.

Q: All right, on to the event everyone’s talking about: the Super Six kicks off this weekend. Who ya got?

A: Regardless which fighter I pick, the fun part of this is that anyone could win any of these fights; it’s really difficult to pick a winner. But since you put my feet to the fire, I like Arthur Abraham over Jermain Taylor by KO, Carl Froch to knockout Andre Dirrell, and in November, Andre Ward over Mikkel Kessler via upset decision. Honestly, I think Ward will be the best of the lot in five years. One thing is for certain: Whoever wins this tournament is going to end up on the P4P list, with a whole lot of cash in his pocket.

Q: What about Allan Green’s constant assertion that he belongs in the Super Six? Should he be in?

A: Well, Green had a chance to make a statement against Tarvis Simms 10 days or so ago on Shobox, and the only statement he made was that he complains a lot. To make his case, he should have steamrolled Simms, but instead, he ended up getting hit a lot en route to a lackluster victory. And for those Green supporters who say he nearly shut out Simms, ask yourself this: Could you see Abraham or Froch letting Simms hang around for ten rounds? Besides, with that performance, here’s betting that Lucien Bute’ just got a bit more interested in defending his title against Green. Green should just be happy if he gets that fight.

Q: Is there really going to be anyone paying actual money for a Hector Camacho, Jr. – Yori Boy Campas PPV?

A: Maybe the same people who bought Camacho’s old man fighting Campas earlier this year, or members of their families. Campas is so over the hill, he gets calls from Evander Holyfield telling him to hang up the gloves. Really, who in their right mind would pay for this? They should give us money to sit through this crap. What’s the venue? Camacho’s back yard? The best part of the promotion though, was Junior saying emphatically that Campas is not on his level. Hey, guess what? I’ll go on the record right now as saying that Campas is nowhere near as good at the biathlon as I am! Yeesh.

Q: Apparently Floyd Mayweather has offered the olive branch to UFC head Dana White, inviting him to dinner to bury the hatchet after their harsh words regarding each other’s sports recently. Good idea?

A. I don’t even know where to start with this one. I guess it would be amazing on some level to see two of the biggest horse’s rear ends in all of sports at one table, but that’s about it. Actually, the person I would feel sorry for the most is the waiter at the restaurant. Not only do you have to decipher what White ordered in between his constant f-words, then you have to put up with “Money” Mayweather’s tip being taken back by the IRS before you can even get your hands on it!

Time for British boxing to climb out of the Stone Age

2009-10-07T07:06:00.003-04:00

British heavweight John McDermott tries in vain to explain how referee Terry O'Conner awarded the decision to Tyson Fury in their September fight. His promoter Frank Maloney (left) probably thinks explaining quantum physics would be easier.

Imagine this scenario: It’s a prime-time matchup in the NBA, with a Los Angeles Lakers-Cleveland Cavaliers tilt in Staples Center (the Lakers’ home arena) that has everyone buzzing. It’s a nip-and-tuck affair with Kobe Bryant and LeBron James trading highlight reel moves. At the buzzer, Daniel Gibson of the Cavs hits a 3-pointer, tying the score at 103-103 at the end of regulation. Time to go to the judges to render a decision on which team has won the game. With a groan from the crowd, the head referee raises James’ hand, signifying a Cavaliers’ victory.

Later, all three officials are talking about the game. “Well, I hope I got that one right,” says the head referee. “I seemed to be working baseline most of the night, so I didn’t see how the guards played all that much.” The second referee chimes in. “Wow, that’s what surprised me, then, because Derek Fisher was excellent. He must have had 20 tonight.”

“Really?” the head referee says. “I was too busy looking at Shaq dominating the paint to notice all that, I guess.”

“Yes, and did you see Kobe hit a bunch of shots over Lebron James, too?” says the third official. “I was totally surprised it was so one-sided.”

The head referee looks at the other two. “Boy, I wish all three of us could have had votes. Looks like the Lakers would have won the game otherwise. I don’t know how I’m supposed to pay attention to everything on the court when my job requires me to officiate only certain pieces of it. This is ridiculous.”

Sound silly? Well, in Britain, this scenario plays itself out in hundreds of fights every year. In the case of September 11th’s John McDermott fight with rising British heavyweight Tyson Fury, it’s clear to see why that needs to change.

As nearest that can be determined, the British Boxing Board Of Control (BBBofC) is the only commission in the world that allows referees to be the sole arbiters of fights (if the fight is governed by another sanctioning body, however, the traditional three-judge system is used). This has been going on since the formation of the BBBofC in 1919, and with it has come numerous controversies and questionable decisions.

In the case of the McDermott-Fury fight, the veteran McDermott battered the much-hyped Fury around the ring for ten rounds, out landing the young heavyweight 114-104. McDermott’s 34% connect rate overshadowed the mere 18% displayed by Fury. The majority of Fury’s connects, however, were in the first four rounds, when the bout was much more competitive. From round five on, McDermott was landing the far more telling blows, and Fury’s face looked like it had been blown up with helium by fight’s end. Nearly everyone in Essex’ Brentwood Centre figured that McDermott finally got the big victory he had been starving for in his somewhat underachieving career.

Then, only a second after the final bell rang, referee Terry O’Connor raised Fury’s hand, as if it had been obvious all along who the winner was. Furthermore, O’Conner had inexplicably turned in a 98-92 scorecard for Fury, when the closest press row score had been a draw. Expectedly, McDermott’s camp went nuts, with his promoter Frank Maloney calling for an investigation (he even had a heart attack during the fight!). As of this writing, the BBBofC has granted McDermott a rematch due to the controversy.

The problem with all this is that if there had been three judges, the result likely wouldn’t have happened. The reason the three-judge system evolved in the first place was in case there was a hometown judge or a bad scorecard was submitted. The two judges would overrule the third. To further the objectivity, the judges were then seated on different sides of the ring. Although bad decisions happen in boxing all the time, it’s much harder to have two or three judges screw it all up than a single referee.

The logic of having a referee score a fight is spurious at best, anyway. There are many referees who also judge in the United States, but they either do one or the other. This is ostensibly because it’s too difficult to do both at the same time. As in the NBA scenario, think of the numerous things a referee has to think about during a fight; health of the fighter, low blows, holding, cuts, equipment and canvas conditions, etc. All this, and the referee is supposed to keep track of landed punches? How many times has a referee missed a knockdown call or low blow because he or she was out of position? Extrapolating that out, how many punches might a referee miss? A boxing referee has too much to worry about without having that extra duty.

One must also take into account if a corner or referee has a grudge or is angered by a fighter during a fight, such as when a corner argues with a referee. In this case, O’Conner had lost to McDermott’s dad as a professional. While no one thinks there was any impropriety for that reason, if O’Conner had decided to stick it to his conqueror’s son, there would be no other judges to overrule that decision. If O’Conner had given Fury those rounds because he didn’t particularly like the color of McDermott’s trunks, there would be nothing to stop him.

Let’s put it this way: The reason wooden tennis racquets are no longer used is because they’re obsolete; composite racquets are much better now. The BBBofC needs get with the times and start using a three-judge system like everyone else; it may not be a perfect system, but it’s the best there is right now. Bad decisions are too frequent in the fight game already; there’s no reason to heighten that chance by having a single referee with tons of other duties also determine the winner.

The Finito Five 9/25/09

2009-09-25T08:01:00.003-04:00

Floyd Mayweather had all the right moves against former 135-pounder Juan Manuel Marquez, but will he take those moves and fight Shane Mosley, who is a natural 147-pounder?

Back like Pretty Boy Floyd, it’s the Finito Five!

1. Mayweather is money while Mosley looks to cash in

Floyd Mayweather grates on a lot of boxing fans. The trash talk, the false bravado, the legal and IRS troubles, the ducking of fighters his own weight. Well, likable or not, Pretty Boy Floyd is one of the greatest talents of a generation, perhaps second only to Roy Jones (who also has known to frustrate a boxing fan a time or two himself). As great as Juan Manuel Marquez is, and he will have a plaque in Canestota, he was reduced to a no-hoper just a few rounds in by the superb fistic acumen of Mayweather during their welterweight clash Saturday night. Marquez likely has never seen hands that fast at 130 pounds, let alone at 147. Mayweather just moved out of the way of the Mexican’s punches, then countered with a couple of his own; this dance went on for all twelve rounds, interrupted only when Mayweather scored a knockdown in round two. Marquez was out landed by almost 200 punches, scoring only 69 of his own. Although most expected Floyd to win, the sheer dominance and lack of ring rust was astonishing nonetheless. Give it to Marquez for going the distance, but this was a squash from the word go.

As a matter of fact, the most intriguing part of the fight might well have been the post-fight interview, where Ring Magazine welterweight champion Shane Mosley stormed the ring, calling out Mayweather with a little help from HBO’s Max Kellerman. Mayweather, who shook hands with Mosley, then proceeded with the standard line of my promoter makes my fights, I just fight – as if Floyd had no say in the matter. While Mosley is obviously just looking for a dance partner, as he has had none for some months now, it is doubtful that the fight would ever happen. Say what you will, but Mayweather doesn’t like to fight true 147-pounders, and Mosley has been there for quite some time. The size difference between Mayweather and Marquez was stark, and Mayweather’s prima donna move of coming in two pounds heavy disadvantaged Marquez even more. Manny Pacquiao, Miguel Cotto and Mosley will not have just moved up from 130 pounds, so it will be interesting to see what “Money” does from here.

2. HBO needs to invent a Mayweather-to-English dictionary

HBO’s 24/7 series is always a welcome addition to any superfight, giving fans unmatched insight into each fighter’s camps prior to the main event. Mayweather-Marquez 24/7 was no different, complete with Marquez drinking his own urine and eating raw quail eggs as his preparation and training regimen. Yes, before you ask, we’ll never look at Marquez kissing his wife the same way again. The big gripe was, though, all the Spanish speakers on the program had English subtitles; where were the subtitles for Roger and Floyd Mayweather, Sr.? Seriously, has anyone understood a complete sentence either guy has said in the last ten years? These two make Ozzy Osbourne sound like William F. Buckley! Listening to Roger pontificate about Sugar Ray Robinson, it was unclear whether he thought Robinson was the greatest fighter of all time or an egg salad sandwich. Was it too many headshots for both guys during their careers? Hard to say, but if they showed up at a rehab clinic and merely opened their mouths, they’d likely get admitted right away.

3. Undercard musings

It’s always welcomed when a PPV event such as Mayweather-Marquez has quality undercard fights making it worth the $50 price tag (OK, maybe not worth that much!). In this case, there were two good ones. First, Michael Katsidis, huge tattoo on his back and all, tattooed fellow lightweight Vincente Escobido in a fight that surprised a fair number of people. Although the fight was more competitive than many Internet and newspaper reports have said, Katsidis was still too tough and determined for the overwhelmed Escobido. Look, Katsidis fights the same way every fight; to hang with him, you have to match his work rate and intensity for twelve rounds, and land the more telling shots. Escobido didn’t, and he lost. Also on the card, featherweight Chris John finally got the unanimous decision he deserved over Rocky Juarez after that gift draw in February. Not sure how one judge had it 119-109 for John after Juarez, like he always does, came on after his one millionth slow start and had John holding on for dear life in the final minute of the fight. Man, imagine what Rocky could do if he could manage to win an early round or two! We might be saying, “Manny who?”

4. Shobox rules the roost once again

Does anyone remember HBO’s KO Nation show? Yeah, that was HBO’s answer to Showtime’s new Shobox program, both meant to showcase up-and-coming talent facing off against each other. While KO Nation was complete with dancing girls, fireworks, and hip-hop music, Shobox simply focused on putting together great fights. Well, we know how that turned out (KO Nation didn’t last a year), and last Friday’s Shobox continued to remind fight fans why it’s always worth tuning in. Bantamweight Chris Avalos will soon be must-see TV because this guy is never in a bad fight. His fourth-round KO of Giovanni Caro was a real smoker from the first bell, as both fighters traded so much leather, you would have thought they were breaking in their gloves on a new heavybag. Avalos’ final right hand looked like it was going to remove Caro’s head from his shoulders. That fight was followed by heavyweight Tony Grano’s upset KO of Travis Kauffmann, also in round four. Kauffmann hadn’t yet fought any real competition, but he soon had Grano taking a left on Queer Street at the start of round four. Grano then smartly hit him low and spit out his mouthpiece, giving himself valuable time to recover, then pressed the attack on Kauffmann, taking him out after a furious assault. Kauffmann certainly didn’t see it coming, and neither did the audience. But that’s Shobox; they understand that good matchmaking likely makes for a good result, even if the fighters aren’t top-shelf. Here’s hoping the show lasts another ten years, with Nick Charles back and cancer-free.

5. Bad boxing decisions are evidently not good for one’s health

Teddy Atlas famously once said about his heavyweight pupil Michael Moorer that if he ever had a heart attack, he would blame it on having to train the former champion. While that might seem a little farfetched, try telling that to British boxing promoter Frank Maloney, who apparently did have a heart attack during the heavyweight fight between John McDermott and Tyson Fury on Sept. 11. It’s not known when the actual heart attack occurred, but if it was anytime around when clueless referee Terry O’Connor raised Fury’s hand after Fury got his rear end handed to him by McDermott over ten rounds, it would be understandable. It’s another argument completely why British boxing lets the referee decide the fight (which will be discussed in an upcoming Finito), but at least Maloney braved the possible Big One for a classic postfight quote. “He didn’t even have a mask on,” Maloney said of O’Conner. “Dick Turpin (famous English highway robber of the 1700’s) at least wears a mask when he robs you.”

The Finito Q & A – September edition

2009-09-16T08:03:00.008-04:00

Roy Jones may have dressed like a pirate prior to his fight with Jeff Lacy, but he at least lived up to his Captain Hook moniker during their the twelve round fight. Lacy looked more like Black (and blue) Bart after the bout.

Tackling the most pressing questions the fight game has to offer:

Q: Three blogs since the start of July? Just what the hell were you doing all summer?

A: Sorry about that. Truth is, I spent most of my summer moving, which was longer and more arduous than expected. Let me tell you, after not having moved for eight years, I can’t believe how much worthless crap I’ve acquired in that time. Just boxing magazines alone (I still really miss Bert Sugar’s Fight Game, by the way) made me realize my back isn’t what it used to be in my 20’s. Besides, with the dearth of good fights this summer, I guess I don’t feel bad taking the summer off - the promoters apparently took it off, as well.

Q: OK, back to boxing, you slacker. Whatever happened to Roy Jones not fighting past 35?

A: Well, apparently Roy is not Lennox Lewis. Remember, Bernard Hopkins said he’d retire at 40, as well. The lure of the money and accolades are too much for most fighters, and judging from Roy’s dismantling of Jeff Lacy, he’s still pretty good for 40 years old.

Q: So Roy Jones is back to being the old Roy Jones, then? He said as much in the postfight interview.

A: Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. Jeff Lacy is completely shot, even though he looks like a greek god. Although Roy still has good hand speed, Lacy has zero power at 175, as evidenced by the flush headshots he landed on Roy that Jones barely noticed. If that was Chad Dawson or Carl Froch landing those shots, Jones would likely be in a heap on the canvas. As long as Roy takes on this sort of opposition (like Danny Green, his next reported fight), he can fight for a few more years yet.

Q: Going back a few weeks, just how bad a screw job did Paulie Malignaggi get against Juan Diaz?

A: Not the worst I’ve ever seen, but pretty bad nonetheless. Unfortunately, the way Malignaggi fights, he’ll always go the distance, and the law of averages will say he’ll be on the business end of a broomsticking a few times. Still, when he basically explained prior to the fight exactly how he’d get screwed, and it happened exactly that way, that’s not good for boxing. What this does is seriously hurt Diaz’ ability to bring big fights back to Texas, because no one outside of the state will trust that commission.

Q: You’ve been all over Julio Ceasar Chavez, Jr. in previous blogs. Does his smoking of Jason LeHoullier finally convince you Junior is for real?

A: Look, I never said JC Jr. wasn’t talented; I just need to see him in a real fight. His supporters claim that flattening LeHoullier, who has a sturdy chin, inside of a round shows how good Chavez has become. While all of that is fine, let’s now get in the ring with Felix Sturm or Anthony Mundine. It’s time we see what Chavez can do against top ten guys – we already know what he can do with mid-level opposition. Otherwise, if all he’s going to do are these PPV fights, who cares how good he is or isn’t? Unless it’s against real competition eventually, it’s a moot point.

Q: So how lucky was Fernando Montiel to escape his fight against Alex Valdez with a technical draw Saturday night on the Chavez undercard?

A: Let’s put it this way, he must have made a quick trip to Ireland on Friday to kiss the Blarney stone. How “Cochulito” managed to escape the beating he was taking from Valdez without losing would make Harry Houdini proud. Of course Montiel got help from some incompetent officiating by referee Jesus Salcedo, who decided that after Montiel got cut in the first round by an obvious punch, he just didn’t need to inform anyone whether it was caused by a punch or not. It was an interesting scene after the fight ended in round three due to the cut, because no one had any idea what Salcedo had actually ruled. It was first called a technical draw, then changed to a KO win for Valdez, then back to a draw after the commission said they made a mistake. Valdez and his team were understandably ticked off; Montiel was just lucky he looked so terrible and got away with it.

Q: And what about Ivan Calderon and Rodel Mayol going to a second straight technical draw due to another cut on Calderon’s forehead? Weird, huh?

A: If styles make fights, the styles between these two 108-pounders make for a busted Calderon forehead. The only difference was the first fight was stopped in round six, this one in round seven. This time around, though, I thought that Calderon was headed towards putting this one away, had it gone the distance. Still, if you had gone to Vegas and bet this result, you’d be able to buy the arena for the third fight between these two!

Q: Andre Ward and Mikkel Kessler took care of business in their tune-ups, and are ready to face each other in November. So, are you excited for the Super Six tournament?

A: Are you kidding? This is the coolest thing to happen to boxing since Compubox! Man, think about it; Arthur Abraham-Jermain Taylor and Carl Froch-Andre Dirrell next month, followed by Ward-Kessler a month later. That’s some serious talent on display. Showtime really hit the jackpot with this one, which they routinely seem to do. They may not have the budget HBO does, but quick, name the bad fights you’ve seen in the last two years on Showtime Championship Boxing – it’s a short list. The network has really done boxing fans a favor here.

Q: After watching the Mayweather-Marquez 24/7 series so far, what do you find harder to fathom - that Marquez drinks his own urine, or that Roger Mayweather wants “to be good people”?

A: Well, these are two different things. We have video evidence of Marquez drinking his own urine; as for the other, Mayweather can desire to be the Eiffel Tower, but I’ll believe it when I see it. Sorry (and maybe I sound like everybody’s grandfather here), but you can’t have gone to jail for assault on your son’s grandmother and be up for yet another assault and be on the good person list. The whole Mayweather clan is about as likeable as swine flu.

Q: You know this would have to be asked sooner or later – do you buy Marquez’ assertion that he drinks his urine to recover his lost vitamins and proteins?

A: That’s like picking through the garbage in case you left some edible food in the trash bag, isn’t it? You certainly can do it, but it’s much easier to go to the store and get new food. Urine is a waste product for a reason; if there are vitamins and proteins lost, then get take some Centrum and eat a freakin’ turkey sandwich! It’s much easier and tastier. Unfortunately, as much as I have loved Marquez for years, whenever I see him now, the pee drinking will be the first thing I think of. Hope he gets an endorsement deal out of this from Scope or something. Yeesh.

Antonio Margarito and Top Rank just don’t get it

2009-08-06T16:12:00.003-04:00

You would think this scene between Antonio Margarito and his trainer Javier Capetillo would never be seen again; to this point, however, Margarito has not fired the trainer who supposedly put plaster in his gloves without his knowledge.

Two weeks ago this Saturday, with more than a few last-minute rearrangements, Top Rank’s Latin Fury 10 Pay-Per-View event commenced. The scheduled main event featuring Julio Ceasar Chavez, Jr. against Jason LeHoullier had to be scrapped due to a rib injury to Chavez (although there were reports rib and everything else was way over the 154-pound limit). In its place, Miguel Acosta’s upset of Urbano Antillon at lightweight took the top spot, a rather unexpected and exciting scrap that ended up with Antillion losing via TKO in the ninth round.

However, it was the fight prior to the main event that had everyone talking.

Up and coming 108-pounder Giovani Segura pounded out a solid defense of his jr. flyweight title against Juanito Rubillar, which was expected. Perhaps unexpected was not only the appearance of disgraced trainer Javier Capetillo in Segura’s corner, but also of the fighter supposedly so greatly wronged by Capetillo, one Antonio Margarito.

And it wasn’t as if Margarito accidentally tripped over a tanning Capetillo by the hotel pool in Puerto Vallarta, either. Not only was Margarito in Segura’s dressing room and in his corner, he actually appeared to be with Capetillo, talking with fighter and trainer both, acting as if he was part of the entourage.

How could Margarito show up with Capetillo on an internationally televised Top Rank telecast, you ask? Wasn’t Margarito claiming up, down and sideways that he had no knowledge of the plaster put in his gloves by Capetillo during his fight with Sugar Shane Mosley earlier this year? Now that Margarito is banned from boxing in the United States for a year and likely more, shouldn’t he want to punch his trainer out for ruining his career and reputation?

Guess not.

The whole production stunk so badly, it was a wonder the fight didn’t take place in a port-a-john. There was so much brain fade going on, you almost have to break down the stupidity piece-by-piece:

1. Antonio Margarito

Let’s just ignore the obvious questions above, and assume for a minute that Margarito is actually still friends with Capetillo, and is not mad with him because they were both in on the plaster wraps against Mosley. If Margarito wanted everyone to believe his lie about being innocent, why in the hell would he be anywhere near Capetillo, especially on TV? It makes his story look like a complete sham! Just for appearances, if nothing else, he should be miles away from Capetillo so he could get his boxing license back. Sure, Capetillo would take the fall, but at least Margarito would have a boxing future. Does he think the California Athletic Commission doesn’t watch Pay-per-view boxing or something? How is Margarito going to explain his chumminess with his trainer, who he hasn’t yet even fired? If Margarito were smart, he’d be off TV and off anyone’s radar until his hearing next year.

2. Javier Capetillo

Apparently, Capetillo couldn’t care less whether his fighters box in the States or not, especially since he won’t be there. Instead of taking his medicine and hoping not to end up like Panama Lewis (unable to work another fighter’s corner ever again), Capetillo continues to work fights as if nothing has happened. Since he can work in Mexico (which is a whole other ridiculous subject), his doing so is essentially thumbing his nose at California’s ruling, making it almost a certainty that he will never be reinstated north of the border. If he wants to decide to do that himself, that’s fine, but it’s asinine to think this won’t affect his fighters and their paydays, which are likely bigger in the U.S. If he really cared for Margarito, he’d tell his fighter to stay the heck away from him. He’s either not smart enough to figure that out, or he really doesn’t care what happens to his fighter’s career.

3. Top Rank

The worst part of this whole debacle is that Top Rank actually gave the go ahead for Margarito and Capetillo to be on the telecast together! Seriously, did they think no one would notice, or did they just not care? It was awful enough listening to Bernard Osuna (who’s becoming this generation’s Col. Bob Sheridan) and Raul Marquez (who I expect better from) heap platitudes and compliments on Capetillo as he worked the corner, making almost no mention of how disgraced the man is in boxing circles. The fact Margarito was there didn’t seem at all strange to anyone, either. Maybe since Bob Arum and Top Rank was paying their salaries, that was to be expected; Arum, however, should know better. If Capetillo and Margarito aren’t bright enough to stay away from each other, Arum, who is a smart businessman, should have told them to make like John and Kate (without the 8). You would think Arum would do everything possible to make sure Margarito gets reinstated, therefore making more money for Top Rank. Instead, they televise the ill-advised reunion for the entire world to see.

If nothing else, it will be interesting to see all three parties standing before the California Athletic Commission next year. Watching Margarito explain how he’s still close the man who essentially ruined his boxing career, a fact he cannot deny thanks to his promoter putting it on TV, should be captivating. It sure looks like not only that Antonio Margarito won’t save himself from himself, neither his trainer nor his promoter will, either.

The Finito Five 7/15/09

2009-07-15T06:14:00.003-04:00

Bantamweight Joseph "King Kong" Agbeko celebrates a hard-fought victory over Vic Darchinyan Saturday. Despite what Agbeko and promoter Don King intimated after the fight, referee Tommy Kimmons is not a member of Darchinyan's family nor does he get a monthly stipend from the Armenian.

This week’s mid-summer thoughts from a strawweight brain…

1. King Darchinyan gets Konged

Even the most hardcore boxing fans were unsure of what was coming from Joseph “King Kong” Agbeko prior to his first headlining fight against former flyweight ruler Vic Darchinyan Saturday night. Although his only loss was a disputed one to Wladamir Sidorenko five years ago, half of his fights had been against fighters with less than five total bouts, most in Africa. And this was Vic Darchinyan, who has demolished everyone he’s stepped into the ring with not named Nonito Donaire. While Doniare is a top ten pound-for-pound fighter, Darchinyan was at least top twenty; with all the hype surrounding Agbeko, how would he look? The answer was nothing short of superb, as he took apart the Armenian over twelve tough rounds; Agbeko actually beat up Darchinyan worse than even Donaire, and had Vic looking like he met a plate glass window at 90 m.p.h. by fight’s end. While Darchinyan landed some good shots, they never seemed to hurt the Ghanaian at all. Considering how Darchinyan recently picked apart the excellent Christian Mijares, Agbeko clearly beat a very dangerous fighter. Agbeko will soon find his way into the pound-for-pound rankings with another win like this one.

While the greatest of all apes has shown to be clearly on the upswing, what to make of Darchinyan now? Although Vic is usually a ridiculous loudmouth prior to any fight he’s in, he did own up to his performance afterward and admit that he had not done enough to win. Most boxing people think coming up in weight hurt him, as Agbeko has been a natural bantamweight his whole career, and Darchinyan’s flyweight power didn’t translate so well at the heavier weight. That may be, but Darchinyan has never shown any ability to adjust within a fight; he just tries to get in and eventually land the huge left. While that has worked in the past, bigger, better fighters won’t fall for that so easily. Darchinyan will need a more complete game if he wants to continue to be a factor at bantamweight or above.

2. Don King lives in a reality different from the rest of us

As tough and foul-filled as the fight between Agbeko and Darchinyan was, only Don King could somehow find a conspiracy against his winning fighter. Oh yes, before the scorecards were even so much as tabulated (and they were a little too close), Captain Hairdo was in the corner telling Agbeko how he had to fight two opponents that night: Darchinyan and referee Tommy Kimmons. Now, granted, Kimmons made a horrible knockdown call in the seventh round after Darchinyan pushed Agbeko to the canvas and grazed the back of his head on the way down, but these things happen in boxing, as well as in all sports. To hear King tell it, Kimmons had $100 large on Darchinyan, and was dead set on a vacation in St. Croix after the fight. Agbeko may be King Kong, but it was monkey-see, monkey-do afterwards, too, as Agbeko kept carping about Kimmons to the press until everyone was sick of hearing it. Sure, Don, like all those fifty cuts on Darchinyan’s face were caused only by punches! One thing we learned from the fight is that both guys like to use their heads, so enough of that talk. Besides, Agbeko’s biggest opponent upcoming might well be King’s ability to bury fighters with inactivity. We’ll see who ultimately wins that battle.

3. The heavyweight division gets interesting? Really?

Just when I start groaning and moaning about the lack of anything exciting in the heavyweight division (oh, like in the last Finito Five, perhaps), Eddie Chambers rises up from the ashes and gives us something to talk about! After the entirely too-heavy Chambers showed up in the 220’s against equally fat Sam Peter in March, a slim, trim 208-pound version stepped into a German ring 10 days ago to face the formidable Alexander Dimitrenko. And this lighter version was entirely too fast for the Klitschko-clone Dimitrenko, who at 6’7”, figured to do to Chambers what we’ve seen in so many Klitschko fights, where the bigger man pummels the smaller one. Chambers, however, has hand speed that many middleweights would kill for, and he thoroughly flummoxed his larger opponent, so much so that Dimitrenko was just trying not to get popped by punches he never saw coming. Now, Chambers had has weight and focus problems before, but if he can get his act together, this could be a preview of what he might do to either Klitschko brother (yes, I said it!). Now, no one’s saying Dimitrenko is a Klitschko, but wouldn’t it be interesting to see what Chambers would do against them? My guess is at the very least, it would be no easy night for Wlad or Vitali.

4. Winning is just for losers

During any fight, fighters are often criticized for not doing enough to win. Some criticisms are realistic, some are not, but most fighters give it their best to try and win. Then there was Antonio DeMarco’s lightweight victory over Benin’s (that’s in Africa, for those who failed geography) Anges Adjaho, where both fighters decided that winning was secondary to looking like a total idiot. DeMarco, who had previously talked about bringing the fight, punishment, Mexican warrior, this and that, had Adjaho seriously hurt at least twice in the fight (after the Mexican did almost nothing in giving away the early rounds) and inexplicably took his foot off the gas each time. This allowed Adjaho to subsequently win rounds, and actually pull ahead in the fight. If that wasn’t bad enough, the African then decided to throw all of that into the trash; as he was rocked a third time and knocked down by DeMarco in round nine, Adjaho decided he’d been hit illegally while he was on the canvas. I guess it didn’t matter to him that referee Tellis Assemenios correctly ruled the punch was prior to Adjaho’s knee touching and started to count the knockdown, Adjaho then turned face down on the canvas and acted like he’d just come down with botchulism. Umm, Anges, the referee was still counting… So when the confused Assemenios reached ten and the fight was over, Adjaho jumped up (he’s healed – praise the Lord!) in protest. What in the world did he think Assemenios was counting for? The number of ring-card girls he’d like to go home with? If the referee is counting, you better get up, whether you agree with it or not; it’s not like he’ll restart the fight for you after some coffee and discussion. So DeMarco got a win he probably didn’t deserve, but Adjaho certainly deserved it less. Yeesh!

5. Two that were taken from us far too early

While the time in and around July 4th is a great time of celebration here in the States, the two weeks since the beginning of the month have not been very celebratory for boxing fans. On the 1st we lost perhaps the greatest featherweight of a generation, Alexis Arguello, apparently by suicide. As if that wasn’t hard enough to deal with, there was Friday’s tragic death of Arturo Gatti, perhaps the greatest warrior of this or any other generation. It has come out since then that Gatti was perhaps murdered by his Brazilian wife while on vacation in the country, adding even more sting to an already grieving boxing public. The hardest part of all this is that all we want to do is remember the great thrills these two gave us. Arguello fought before my time, but his videos of his legendary fights with Aaron Pryor and Alfredo Escalera still show the greatness of “The Explosive Thin Man”, a man who would dominate so many in the division even today. And Gatti, of course, with a warrior’s heart, was almost never in a bad fight; packed with last-minute power and a desire to win despite the odds, he thrilled any fan that was lucky enough to see him fight. His trilogy with Mickey Ward will forever be part of boxing history. Even though these two fighters had retired, they were both great ambassadors to the sport, albeit with demons that they tried so hard to overcome. That may be what made them so dear to boxing fans. They will be sorely, sorely missed.

What to do when Victor isn’t the victor

2009-07-08T23:56:00.005-04:00

While junior welterweight Victor Ortiz has the looks and the style of a champion, does he have the heart? As his fight against Marcos Maidana showed, he's definitely not in Kansas anymore.

Ten days ago, Golden Boy Promotions sent their can’t-miss prospect, junior welterweight Victor Ortiz, into a Los Angeles ring to face Marcos Maidana. Although Maidana is a skilled fighter that gave Andreas Kotelnik all he could handle recently, his tendency to brawl made him the perfect candidate for the first main-event level fight featuring Ortiz. He would get some tough rounds from Maidana for sure, but Ortiz’ boxing skill would tell in the end. HBO cameras were there, complete with Ortiz’ riveting story about overcoming abandonment by both parents and lavish network hype prior to fight time. This would be the fight to showcase the Kansan’s step up to the big time, to possibly make Ortiz the name that carries the PPV torch for Golden Boy into the future. Shane Mosley’s not get any younger, you know.

Just one problem. Ortiz didn’t win.

Not only did he not win, Ortiz somehow got knocked out by the rugged Argentinean after sending him to the deck three times. Worse then that, when faced with Maidana’s unrelenting pressure in the sixth round, Ortiz appeared to quit, shaking his head and walking away from referee Raul Caiz, who, for some reason, didn’t stop the fight then. As Ortiz was cut from a punch, Caiz had the ringside doctor look at the cut, and upon his recommending the fight be stopped, nary a word of protest was heard from Ortiz. While this had to have Golden Boy’s Oscar De La Hoya and Bernard Hopkins already disappointed, the postfight interview with Max Kellerman had to make both ex-champions wince.

One of Ortiz’ great charms is his candor, but in speaking to Kellerman, he said things that no one wants to hear from their upcoming fistic stars. While Ortiz started with the usual “it wasn’t my night” and “I just quit while I was ahead”, he then added the curious “I want to be able to speak well when I’m older”. As much as boxing fans berate fighters who sound like Charlie Brown’s teacher due to hanging on too long (Evander Holyfield, anyone?), that statement sounds like a guy who isn’t willing to get hit. Ortiz then shocked everyone by saying, “We’ll see what happens from here on out. I’m young, but I don’t think I deserve to get beat up like this. I have a lot of thinking to do.”

Does that sound like the next Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler or Tommy Hearns? It sounds like someone who is destined for a college classroom, not boxing superstardom.

And here Golden Boy’s situation becomes very tricky. As with Alfredo Angulo a few weeks back, young fighters often hit a bump in the road. The greatest fighter in the world, Manny Pacquiao, took a couple of humbling losses (one a knockout) earlier in his career before hitting superstardom. In most cases, fighters will show a desire to learn from the mistakes, get better, and hunger to get a crack at the next opponent. This is not the realm of journeymen, who often will quit in fights knowing they’ll have to get in the ring several more times that year to make a living. For rising stars like Ortiz, the hunger should be constant. When it’s not, then the huge investment Golden Boy has made in the young man’s career has everyone on high alert.

So going forward, does Golden Boy cut bait with a guy who may not have the desire to become world champion? They can’t run him out there again when there’s a chance he could take a few punches and lose the will to tough it out. Boxing is a rough business, and outings like Miguel Cotto’s nip-and-tuck battle with Joshua Clottey recently are more the usual way a fighter has to win fights at the top level. Without that willingness to sacrifice, fighters who take the easy way out become remembered infamously by the boxing public. De La Hoya knows this, so he’s got to gauge Ortiz and his desire to continue his career. There’s too much six-figure money being doled out to be unsure of anything when fighters walk out to the ring on fight night.

So while Ortiz has a big decision to make, so does Golden Boy.

The Finito Five 6/26/09

2009-06-26T08:52:00.003-04:00

Ruslan Chagaev takes a seat during Saturday's Ring Magazine Championship fight with Wladamir Klitschko. Chagaev needed more time to sit and think, as he barely dented the Ukranian's armor in any of their ten rounds.

This week’s Finito Five is guaranteed hepatitis-B free!

1. The heavyweight division fails to surprise again

Well, that Wladamir Klitschko – Ruslan Chagaev tilt was a real shocker, wasn’t it? Who would have guessed that this fight would look exactly the same as every other Wlad fight since the Ukrainian fought Sam Peter going on four years ago? Oh, sure, there were some who had touted Chagaev’s undefeated record as somehow being an adequate substitute for the originally scheduled bout with David Haye, but all Chagaev proved is that he and Sultan Ibragimov are the same fighter. For those who didn’t see the fight, here’s the recap: Klitschko jabs, jabs, jabs, falls asleep for awhile, then jabs, jabs, throws a right hand that lands flush; all the while, Chagaev stands around at distance wondering why he’s getting peppered so much. The next punch to either Wladamir or brother Vitali’s body will be the first. It’s hard to say whether Chagaev was too cautious or too inept to do that, but not doing so was a recipe for disaster. By the tenth round, there was really no point in continuing the fight, whether Chagaev was cut or not.

With over 60,000 packing Veltins Arena in Germany and a flawless performance by Klitschko, it’s hard to argue Saturday night was anything but a resounding success. However, this is starting to feel like the Julio Ceasar Chavez, Jr. tour; until Wlad steps into the ring with someone that the boxing public views as a legitimate threat (and Chagaev sure wasn’t that), these fights just come off as the Klitschko Saturday Showcase. Maybe it’s just me, but for all the impressive performances against Hasim Rachman, Ray Austin, Sam Peter and Calvin Brock, what I still remember is Corrie Sanders wiping out Klitschko in two rounds. Wlad needs opponents who don’t appear out of their league all the time; otherwise, he’ll just be viewed as the best fighter of a terrible era.

2. ESPN is the Worldwide Leader in aggravation Pt. 1

With all the self-aggrandizement of Floyd Mayweather, ESPN has long been grating enough (they should call the show SelfCenter) to watch. However, there are a few shining stars within the cloud of self-importance in Bristol, and the Friday Night Fights crew is one of them. Joe Tessitore, the play-by-play voice, is top-notch, and while color man Teddy Atlas can get preachy, his knowledge of the fight game is unparalleled. And, with the Klitschko-Chagaev fight being commentated on from the U.S., one would think the “A” crew would get the assignment for ESPN Classic. Oh no. Instead, fans in the States got sometimes-FNF studio host Robert Flores & sometimes-fighting cruiserweight BJ Flores. Are you kidding me? What were Tessitore & Atlas (or even Brian Kenney) doing? Did they have a bar mitzvah to attend or something? No offense to Robert Flores, who’s probably a nice guy, but he’s so bland, he could make a striptease from Angelina Jolie seem unexciting. B.J. Flores is not a bad color man for his young age, but the two Flores’ called the whole fight like they were casually sitting on their living room couch. I could swear I heard BJ snacking on some pretzels during the sixth round! For the heavyweight championship of the world, you really should have the championship broadcast team.

3. The 175-pound division gets a little more interesting

The light heavyweight division is becoming more and more the one to watch. With an already great fight between Carl Froch and Jermain Taylor in the books and a Chad Dawson-Glencoffe Johnson rematch looming, Jean Pascal and Adrian Diaconu added to that list with a scintillating bout Friday in Montreal. Pascal, who had been outpunched by Froch earlier this year, came back strong, punishing the talented, tough Diaconu and proving that he’s got to be taken seriously. And, as good as Pascal was, the Romanian-born Diaconu was coming on at the end of the fight, and some felt that if he had started that earlier, Pascal would have lost. A rematch between these two might be on the horizon, but it’s clear that any combination of fights between any of the above six boxers would be must-watch TV. Pascal may keep his hands too low, but he has some great hand speed for his weight. A matchup between he and Johnson, who throws a ton of punches himself, would be an awesome fight whether Johnson wins or loses against Dawson. Here’s hoping it happens.

4. ESPN is the Worldwide Leader in aggravation Pt. 2

As stated earlier, ESPN already had me bent sideways with the appearance of the Flores brothers. So you can imagine how my blood boiled when I turned on the TiVo Monday to watch Friday Night Fights, only to find that the College World Series (baseball) was on! And, no, the game was not running late, it just was shown and FNF was not. Come to find out, apparently some scheduling difficulty had pushed the college game later, and, with no advance notice, ESPN just decided to move FNF from ESPN2 to ESPN Classic. Nothing like screwing with the boxing fans out there, huh? And ESPN has a history of doing this. Does anyone remember how they famously started their FNF 10th anniversary show (which they had been promoting all summer) an hour earlier than scheduled last fall without announcing anything? If anyone wanted to see who the Fighter of the Decade was (Emmanuel Augustus, rightly chosen), too bad – if you tuned in at the scheduled start time, you had already missed it. With all the 14 channels ESPN has now, you would think they could find some other network with poker reruns on which to move the baseball game. If it wasn’t for ESPN360, I wouldn’t have been able to watch, it period.

5. Lamps hits that time of the month

OK, Jim Lampley has been doing boxing so well for so long, many times boxing fans give him a free pass when he starts to get a little emotional during broadcasts. But even then, there are times when Lamps passes into creepy territory that makes you feel like the first time your parents gave you the birds & bees discussion. Prior to Miguel Cotto’s fight with Emmanuel Clottey, Lampley described how Cotto, who has been through a lot with his family recently, was crying while talking about his father to reporters. Cotto’s dad then came over and hugged him, which was surely a touching moment. However, Lampley started describing this as a “graphic demonstration of true, honest man-love”. Ewww. Fathers and sons can love each other, but a graphic demonstration of man-love is what you find in airport bathrooms, isn’t it? Just tap your foot, right? As if that wasn’t weird enough, Lampley started to well up at the end of the broadcast merely describing Cotto’s gutsy effort to come back and win the fight. It’s one thing for him to mist up after the death of a fighter or some tragedy, but now he can’t seem to keep it together just doing his closing monologue. Lamps better make sure Harold Lederman (who is a pharmacist in his spare time) brings the Midol for the next HBO telecast!

Canvassing the fight game for a better solution

2009-06-17T07:17:00.004-04:00

Ring canvasses like this have become all too common in boxing. How many logos do we need to be reminded that the New York Daily News is sponsoring the event?

It was an event that every boxing fan dreams of. A packed Madison Square Garden teeming with thousands of fight fans on Puerto Rican Day in New York City. HBO and major press coverage buzz all week. A fight card featuring Matt Korobov & Ivan Calderon, headlined by the much-anticipated welterweight showdown between Miguel Cotto and Joshua Clottey. And, to top it off, a great nip and tuck fight going all twelve rounds with Cotto squeaking out the win despite a bad cut that he bravely fought through. The stands packed full of Cotto’s Puerto Rican brethren made for an electric atmosphere. The best of boxing, right?

Well, thanks to something that is symptomatic of the worst in boxing, we almost never got to see it.

In round five, Clottey tried to clinch with Cotto near one corner of the ring. Although it has been described as a tackle, Cotto more or less pushed Clottey off of him. This move sent Clottey airborne, then spinning down to the canvas; it was immediately apparent that the Ghanian had injured his knee. Unfortunately, referee Arthur Mercante, Jr. didn’t get a clear look at the situation, as he had tripped on a ring photographer’s camera a couple of seconds before Clottey hit the canvas. Mercante allowed Clottey to take a few minutes to recover, but for the next few rounds, Clottey was a one-legged fighter. Cotto regained control of the fight at that point. Luckily, as the rounds wore on, Clottey was able to shake off the injury and continue (even winning rounds in the process), so the injury was not serious enough to warrant a stoppage of the action.

Further replays showed, however, that the injury was actually caused by Clottey slipping on a Tecate logo as he landed. This caused a subsequent WWE-like flop to the canvas. On that one bad leg, Clottey would continue to slip on the ring logos several times the rest of the way, sometimes on that same bad knee. Although Cotto didn’t have as much trouble, he did lose his footing a couple of times during the fight as well.

Which begs the obvious question: Why are these ridiculous canvas designs allowed to continue?

On the ring itself, there were four Tecate logos in each corner, with a fifth logo taking about a third of the entire canvas in the middle. There was an AT&T logo above that, plus a Madison Square Garden logo below. So out of the whole ring canvas, only each side of the large center logo could be found any free space. Making matters worse, the paint obviously had no grip to it, as many times as both fighters slipped during the bout. Although neither fighter complained about the canvas afterward (they were both far more worked up about the judge’s decisions), it was brought up by the HBO announce team during the telecast.

The question is, then, why does boxing continue to allow this to happen? With all the medical precautions that are taken with boxers, from the examinations and weigh-ins before fights to the ringside doctor, paramedic team and ambulance during, it seems crazy that these unsafe canvases are largely ignored. If I can buy a resin additive to put in paint at my local hardware store, explain to me how Top Rank is unable to do the same, especially with their million-dollar promotion at stake? I’ve seen fights where the canvas was so slippery, a referee took a Coke from ringside and poured it on the canvas logo. How utterly minor league does that sound? Just imagine the NHL not using a Zamboni between periods of hockey, and having the officials pouring water from a cup to clean up ruts in the ice. It never would happen, would it? Worth billions of dollars, the NHL has standards that all arenas need to follow to protect their players.

Boxing needs this as well. It is understandable that promotions need all the advertising revenue possible, but there should be a limit as to how much ring space can be used for advertising, uniform throughout the sport. Also, these commissions need to test the canvas prior to fight time with water, sweat or any other elements that a fight would have to make sure there’s no threat of injury. If a commission was to declare a ring unfit for fighting, you can well bet promoters would respond with some alacrity. With all that commissions do already, this doesn’t seem like a lot more to ask. The last thing anyone in boxing needs is for a great career to be cut short due to a torn ACL caused by something as stupid as slippery canvas.

Boxing is a dangerous sport by its nature, and those who step into the ring already risk so much to ply their trade. With all the steps made over the years that have made the sport safer, it’s time to make that first step on the canvas a safe one, too.

The Finito Five 6/11/09

2009-06-11T07:03:00.004-04:00

Heavyweight Nicolay Valuev (left) explains to Ruslan Chagaev that it's not nice to give people hepatitis B - or at least that's what we think he's saying.

More loquacious than Jim Lampley, it’s the Finito Five!

1. Absolut Cintron

Quick, show of hands for all those who though that Kermit Cintron’s days as any kind of factor in the 154-pound division were over? Yeah, me, too, but I guess that’s why they fight the fights. After Cintron’s ridiculous draw in February against Sergio Martinez (which should have had Cintron knocked out and then at least a points loss), his performance in taking down red-hot rising puncher Alfredo Angulo a couple of weeks ago was nothing short of shocking. Cintron nearly folded tent in his second fight with Antonio Margarito, and loaded fists notwithstanding, there are more then a few observers who thought that this was a performance that “the Killer” just didn’t have in him. Although Angulo was determined to use his aggressiveness and power, Cintron was having none of it, giving the Mexican a boxing lesson he hadn’t gotten before in his young career. Angulo did press the action a little better late, but Kermit had the fight well in hand by then.

Now, in a strange irony, the win made Cintron the mandatory for Martinez’ title again. Short of Martinez just wanting a little revenge, there’s not a lot of compelling reasons to make the fight. Cintron clearly has revitalized his career, but he’ll need a bigger win than this (Vernon Forrest, anyone? He’s not busy!) to start the talk about being a serious factor in the junior middleweight ranks. As for Angulo, while this was surely a disappointing loss, he’s got a lot of career to go, and maybe needed a wake-up call like this to let him know he can’t just show up and steamroll everyone. Pressure fighters are great until that tactic doesn’t work; Angulo will need to learn a plan B. Good thing is, there’s plenty of time for that.

2. Absolut-ly ridiculous

You know, I’m not a drinker, so maybe this is way out of my league, but how many damn types of vodka does Absolut need to make, anyway? There’s almost no fruit that seems to have escaped the Asolut treatment: grapefruit, raspberry, vanilla, lemon, grape, orange, lime, mango, peach. What’s next, pomegranate? Star fruit? I mean, how much of a vodka snob does one have to be to drink freaking mango vodka? I thought vodka was supposed to taste terrible! Look, I’m all for variety, but when my local liquor store has to tear out the 7-up cooler to find enough rack space for the Baskin-Robbins 31 flavors of Sweden’s finest vodka, something’s wrong. Besides, everyone I’ve ever seen drink the stuff is wasted in like an hour; Absolut drunkenness is a far more accurate title (no word on whether the WBA will make that an official title, but they do make decisions like they’ve been drinking most of the time)!

3. Inoculations, anyone?

Only in boxing. At this point, the Sweet Science has seen a million fights cancelled for a million strange reasons. Then there was the third attempt at the Nicolay Valuev-Ruslan Chagaev heavyweight tilt that was supposed to happen on May 30 in Helsinki, Finland. You would figure if it didn’t happen the first two times, maybe it just wasn’t meant to be, right? Especially if the second cancellation was due to Chagaev’s hepatitis B! Well, hepatitis is the gift that keeps on giving, and even though the fighters had weighed in and were ready to go, that same night, a Finnish lab determined that the risk of infection from the disease was too great. How the hell Chagaev gets a license anywhere boggles the mind, but he has 25 fights already, so evidently it’s not a problem elsewhere.

The best part is, after Chagaev’s promoter, Universum, tried to explain that since they’ve had Chagaev tested before and he’s no threat, they would offer Valuev the option of getting a vaccine prior to the fight so it could go forth. Fine, but what about the referee, chief seconds, announcing crew and the first three rows of fans? Next thing you know, Chagaev gets busted open, blood goes everywhere, and you’ve got a HAZMAT crew sequestering folks into a plastic bubble. Come to think of it, that would be way more exciting than the actual fight between these two! Valuev refused the shot, of course, so the fight was called off. Boxing fans may have been saved from far more than just a hepatitis-filled night.

4. One man’s deadly disease is another man’s heavyweight showdown

So, given that the Fins thought that Chagaev was an infection risk, it only makes sense that he’d get another fight in two weeks, right? Well, the gelatin in the petri dish hadn’t even become solid before the Russian dove right in to replace David Haye against Wladamir Klitschko on June 20, after Haye pulled out with a back injury. Forgetting for a minute how Chagaev could even get this fight after his hepatitis troubles, the fact is that Haye only needed until July 11 to make the fight happen, and Kitschko’s camp told Haye to take a walk. Really? Three weeks seems like a very reasonable time frame to wait for the only heavyweight fight anyone wants to see. So, naturally, HBO then told Klitschko to take a walk, deciding not to televise the fight. Wlad’s manager Bernd Boente actually said he couldn’t understand why, as if Wlad could fight a Balsam Fir and HBO should put it on the network. HBO’s only going to put fights on it thinks people will watch; this should tell Boente and Team Kitschko how much the network thinks of his drawing power. Or maybe they were just afraid of Larry Merchant having to be inoculated before fight time…

5. And you thought Iron Mike was strange before

Tragically, we’ve all heard by now about Mike Tyson’s daughter, Exodus, and her accidental death a couple of weeks ago. So it was even stranger to hear that Tyson, fresh off what has to be a devastating loss far greater then any he’s had in the ring, actually got married this last weekend. Yes, you heard that right; he tied the knot with his third wife Saturday. Now, I know nothing of Tyson’s family or how much they did or didn’t grieve, but I can’t believe you couldn’t just postpone something like this in light of that kind of tragedy. What must their wedding night or honeymoon have been like? Wouldn’t you have the loss of your daughter on your mind constantly so soon after it happened? It just seems so wrong on so many levels that even if you were OK enough to go through with the wedding, you wouldn’t just out of respect for your deceased child. I have always thought Tyson was a little off, and this surely won’t change my mind.

When the Sugar’s not sweet enough to get a piece of the welterweight pie

2009-06-04T06:36:00.003-04:00

"Sugar" Shane Mosley took it to Antonio Margarito in January, apparently taking Margarito's aura of invincibility in the process. As of June, he still can not get a big-time welterweight dance partner.

It may seem like a lifetime ago, but it has been only four months since “Sugar” Shane Mosley forcibly removed the aura of the Most Feared Fighter On the Planet from Antonio Margarito. In that January 24 bout, Mosley seemingly turned back the clock on his 37 years; where most had thought his best days were behind him, his dismantling of the Mexican warrior (sans the loaded gloves, of course) put him right back in the welterweight discussion.

Or so it was thought at the time. If one was to check the Ring magazine’s rankings in and around the 147-pound division, you see many of the top fighters matched against each other this summer. Miguel Cotto – Joshua Clottey. Andre Berto, who just fought, against Luis Collazo. Floyd Mayweather coming back to face Juan Manuel Marquez, with the winner getting Manny Pacquiao. Ricky Hatton just fought Pac Man, and his brother Matthew is fighting Zab Judah on July 18. Looks like the only one without a potentially significant fight is the #1 ranked fighter, Mosley, who is the division’s forgotten man at this point.

The problem is not that other fighters have bouts already, it’s that no one is even mentioning Mosley as a fight they’d like down the road. It has gotten so bad, that after ESPN’s Brian Kenney had his well-publicized tête-à-tête with Pretty Boy Floyd last week, Mosley had sink to making remarks about Mayweather’s financial troubles in hopes of getting him in the ring. And even lately, Mosley’s camp has taken to saying they’ve got a fight lined up with Pacquiao for October 18, even though Top Rank says they’ve had no discussions about that at all. It’s well known that the uber-popular Filipino’s shooting a movie all summer in his home country, and that date would seem a bit too soon. And, besides, no one’s heard Mosley’s name coming from anyone’s mouth but his.

Now, one could argue that this is karma for his admission that he used steroids in 2003 prior to his second fight with Oscar De La Hoya, and they might be right. Still, though, a fight between Mosley and Mayweather, Pacquiao, or even a rematch with Miguel Cotto would be worth paying attention to. At the very least, after the Margarito performance, he shouldn’t be relegated to fighting the Sergio Mora’s & Carlos Quintana’s of the world. He’s 37, and Mosley knows he doesn’t have unlimited time left. For the boxing fan, it would be much better to see him in action now against one of the top dogs rather than having him tread water for 18 months, perhaps looking old or rusty the next time he steps into the ring. Not everyone is Bernard Hopkins, you know.

For now, Mosley will have to bide his time, and if he’s smart, will take a stay-busy fight later this summer while the whole welterweight picture plays out. After all that is done, though, someone needs to step up to the plate and take on the #1 guy in the division. While Mosley isn’t De La Hoya when it comes to being a license to print money, he’s someone boxing fans will pay to see when matched appropriately. Sugar has earned his place at the table; someone now needs to give him a slice of that pie.

The Finito Five 5/20/09

2009-05-20T06:28:00.002-04:00

Chad Dawson may be the man at light heavy, but will he take on his biggest threat, Glen Johnson?

Back off the canvas after a left hook, it’s the Finito Five!

1. Andre Ward tames “The Panther”

Remember when your mother told you that good things come to those who wait? Not that she had super middleweight Andre Ward in mind when she said that, but with his decisive victory over Columbia’s Edison Miranda Saturday in Oakland, boxing fans finally got to witness Ward beating a real contender. How long had it been? Ward won a gold in the 2004 Olympics, so if the math is correct, that would be five years on the road to contention. While it can easily be argued that the journey should have been a lot quicker, it’s hard to be disappointed with the result. Ward just took it to Miranda, relegating the Columbian to trying to land a big shot at the end of the fight that wasn’t coming. Ward also showed some real heart after a semi-legal head butt cut him in the first round, the first cut of his career. The promise that the Oaklander showed now looks to be the real thing, and it will be interesting to see what he does against other top 168-pounders.

For Miranda, though, all his usual pre-fight trash talking came up empty on the big stage once again. Although it’s hard to hold losses against a fighter when they’re to Arthur Abraham (twice), Kelly Pavlik and Ward, Miranda needs a big win desperately. He can’t ride that Allan Green win forever. He’s always competitive and in great shape, but so was Frank Bruno, so you know how much that counts for. If Miranda can’t get a win over someone in the division’s top 10, his days as anything other than a division gatekeeper are over. He doesn’t want to become the next Ricardo Mayorga.

2. Man, I’d hate to be the guy doing the marquee…

As every hard-core boxing fan knows, one of the great parts about the sport is its true international flavor. Fighters from all different countries, all different backgrounds make a moniker like “Championship Of the World” ring true. However, thanks to the invasion of Thais in the lower weight classes, watching a fight featuring Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym or Oleydong Sithsamerchai can send you running for a widescreen TV that’s big enough to fit their names on. Usually, that’s the worst of it – until now. Italy’s Giacobbe Fragomeni apparently decided his cruiserweight title reign would not be complete unless he defended it against the only other name in the division as impossible to spell as his, that being Poland’s Krzysztof Wlodarczyk. How do these guys even fit their names onto their trunks, anyway? Imagine if Bernard Hopkins did the fight; he loves to call fighters by their first name, but by round two he’d be calling them the Italian guy and the Polish dude! And, of course, the result of the fight was a draw, so they’ll lace up the gloves again in a few months. Better head out and get that TV…

3. The short-selling of Juan Manuel Marquez

With Manny Pacquiao’s two-round annihilation of Ricky Hatton that changed him into Ricky Flattened, the clamor for a Pac-Man-Floyd Mayweather showdown started almost immediately after the fight was over. This would be the greatest showdown in years! Not so fast. Has everyone forgotten that Mayweather is fighting one of the greatest Mexican fighters in history, Juan Manuel Marquez, this summer? From the talk coming out of the boxing media, a Mayweather win seems like just a formality, like Marquez is some kind tune up. There has been only one fighter since 2005 that has stayed in the ring with Pacquiao, and that’s “Dinamita”. Many observers think Marquez has beaten Pacquiao twice already, just not gotten the correct decision either time. Mayweather’s not been in the ring for two years, while Marquez just got done knocking out the excellent Juan Diaz in February. Marquez thinks he has unfinished business with Pacquiao, and I think Pac-Man’s people dread the possibility another fight with him. Let’s just put it this way: The Pretty Boy Floyd of old better be present and accounted for on July 18th, or Marquez just might send him back into retirement.

4. Chad Dawson needs to do the right thing

OK, so we all finally got that second Chad Dawson-Antonio Tarver fight out of the way, and Dawson is still the class of the 175-pound division. Although Tarver was more competitive this time around, they could fight a hundred more times without any change in the result. With a dearth of capable opponents in the light heavyweight division that anyone wants to see, a rematch between Dawson and Jamaican Glencoffe Johnson is the only one that makes any sense. The problem is, Dawson and his people want none of it. At this point, they’ve given every excuse in the book except Johnson has swine flu and they don’t want to catch it. What they don’t want to catch is all the right hands Johnson landed in their last fight, which many thought Johnson won. If Dawson thinks that a fight with Zsolt Erdei is going to get anyone excited, he needs to see a shrink. Johnson is deserving of a shot, and Dawson needs to do the right thing and give it to him.

5. This is what the opposite of a superfight looks like

Show of hands: How many people thought that the Hector Camacho that fought 37-year old Yory Boy Campas 10 days ago was Junior, not Senior? Amazingly, it wasn’t the younger Camacho, it was “Macho” Camacho, who, at 46, makes Evander Holyfield look like he’s not hanging on. Campas, who has taken a million punches in 117 fights and hasn’t been a factor in nearly ten years, seems bent on turning his brain into soup by 2012. How did Camacho’s people decide on Campas, anyway? Was Greg Haugen not available? Worse yet, this eight-round fight (yes, an eight-round main event) was on PPV for the ridiculous price of $30; frankly, any price would have been ridiculous. But here’s the kicker; as if this fight wasn’t enough of a farce, its originally scheduled venue in New Jersey wouldn’t license Camacho to fight after the commission saw him sparring. So with less than a week before fight time, instead of canceling the fight, they just moved it to some hotel in Orlando where he could get a license (no word on whether it came from a Cracker Jack box). I guess it’s too bad if you bought tickets in New Jersey, huh? What a joke of a promotion and fight, everyone involved should be embarrassed. Even Don King wouldn’t haul out his “Only in America!” for this one.

Of thoroughbreds, prizefighters, and the dying sport of boxing…

2009-05-19T16:08:00.004-04:00

While both the Sweet Science and the Sport Of Kings have arrived at the same place in sports culture, only one of them is considered to be on deathbed watch.

On May 2nd, the sports world was treated to a true rarity: Two marquee sporting events headlining on the same day. In this day and age of numerous cable or satellite channels and the subsequent ever-precious slice of the ratings pie, the risk of putting your marquee event opposite another sport’s is normally a risk not worth taking. NASCAR would never be caught dead hosting the Daytona 500 on the same day as the Super Bowl, right? This year, however, the first Saturday in May showcased the 135th running of the Kentucky Derby, followed by the Manny Pacquiao-Ricky Hatton superfight later that evening. So while sports fans can debate whether 50-1 underdog Mine That Bird’s Derby win was more shocking than the Pac Man’s destruction of Hatton in two rounds, the fact that these two particular sports were in the marquee on that day presented its own interesting referendum on what it means to be a “dying” sport.

You see, if one was to glance over a typical American sports page circa 1940, you would find three sports featured significantly above the rest: Baseball, horse racing, and, yes, the Sweet Science. For a large part of the 20th century, you could stop anybody on the street and they all knew who Joe DiMaggio was, who Joe Louis was fighting next, and could also tell you who was favored to win the Belmont Stakes that June. While baseball still finds its healthy place in the American media, both boxing and horse racing have seen its coverage decline to the point of being relegated to “other sports” sections of newspapers and TV shows. To find an actual show featuring either sport requires you to dig rather deep into the 300+ channels offered, and even then it is possible to come up completely empty. However, ask your grandfather if he remembers how great Rocky Marciano was, chances are that he could recite nearly all of his big fights and where he was when they happened.

Well, for the sports world, the last “where were you when it happened?” fight was Tyson-Douglas, now nearly 20 years ago. Somewhere since that time, boxing seems to have drifted away from the consciousness of the sports public. Not only that, everyone let themselves become stupid about the sport. Remember Lewis-Tyson? Though Tyson was years past being a serious heavyweight factor of any kind, mainstream media coverage acted as if the Tyson that destroyed Michael Spinks in 1988 was somehow going to walk into the ring that night in 2002. Even now, many boxing fans literally cringe when hearing non-boxing sports reporters talk about a big fight; it sounds like Flavor Flav trying to explain particle physics. Reference the fact that ESPN2’s First Take show once asked ESPN.com boxing writer Dan Rafael if after their respective fights on a PPV card, Miguel Cotto and Kelly Pavlik would face each other playoff-style, despite a 15-pound weight difference. That’s akin to saying that if three NFL teams from the same division made the playoffs, they’d have to play a round-robin tournament before playing in the conference championship game! It would never be allowed, would it?

To be fair, boxing itself has caused some of this atrophy. As boxing moved away from network TV to PPV and premium cable channels exclusively, much of the general public’s ability to see great fighters and the progression of their careers was taken away. Add onto that the advent of numerous sanctioning bodies, which made boxing extraordinarily difficult to follow. In a sports league you may have some 32 teams, or a top 25 to keep tabs on; in boxing, you have hundreds of top fighters, and now 60+ champions to keep track of. With no major league oversight, boxing is like sports’ own Heathrow Airport, with everyone coming and going all over the place. General sports fans and sports media like things simple, and boxing has not provided that. Add to the situation unscrupulous promoters, bad hometown decisions and more sports options on TV, and maybe we’re looking at the reason boxing is where it is today.

Perhaps, at this point, boxing really is just a niche sport. And, actually, that’s OK. If the media chooses to leave it alone for the most part, the general boxing fan can live with it; the Internet allows us to follow it better now than ever before. However, more and more it seems, instead of getting a few extra news blips from the mainstream sports media about this or that superfight when one happens, there has to be added questions about whether boxing is dying or not. The rationale used is always that since boxing was mainstream 20 or so years ago, and the media pays no attention to it currently, it has to be going the way of the dodo. Never mind that boxing has survived just fine (if not under the radar) in all that time, it supposedly needs to be classified as healthy or dying. And many boxing fans are getting sick to death of it.

The worst part is that non-boxing media often don’t bother to do their homework, typical of sports they don’t care about. Food for thought: The Pacquiao-Hatton fight had a sold out gate of 18,0000, nearly 15,000 more around Las Vegas watching on closed-circuit TV, about 850,000 PPV buys, plus another 25,000 British fans (yes, there’s only ONE Ricky Hatton!) in town. Perhaps it’s not a Super Bowl-worthy crowd, but does that sound like a dying sport? Especially for the American media, the fact that Julio Ceasar Chavez once crammed 100,000 fans into a Mexican bullring doesn’t count for boxing, because, to them, Mexico doesn’t count; they might as well have had the fight on Mars. It’s this myopia that really frustrates boxing aficionados, because no one will listen. If Mayweather-De La Hoya didn’t save boxing, it must now be on its deathbed, right? Please.

Which brings us to the Sport Of Kings. Like boxing, as big as horse racing once was, the only pulse it has these days is the Triple Crown races: The Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, and the Belmont Stakes. One can follow horse racing on various cable stations or web sites if they would like, but those three races are really the only part of the sport that gets significant media coverage. No one is really arguing that the sport has fallen off the radar somewhat. However, the difference between coverage of horse racing and boxing is stark. While everyone has a great time at Churchill Downs on Derby day with their frilly hats and mint juleps, no one in the media makes mention of horse racing’s state as a sport. If it’s dying or not, it doesn’t seem to matter. Enjoy the show, have a good time, the media will cover the sport for six weeks, everyone’s happy.

For whatever reason, boxing doesn’t get this same treatment, although the two sports are mirror images of each other. You’d think that the same media that said that boxing wouldn’t survive Oscar De La Hoya’s retirement would wonder at some point how horse racing would survive without a Triple Crown winner since 1978. But it doesn’t happen, and for that matter, it shouldn’t happen, to horse racing or any other sport with legions of fans. But as long as ignorance rules the day, a sport cannot be appreciated for what it is; it has to be scrutinized for what someone thinks it ought to be. Boxing doesn't have to be the NFL or the Premiere League to exist in the sporting landscape.

For my matter, I enjoyed the Derby, and then equally enjoyed Manny Pacquiao’s electrifying performance later that night. And you know what? I didn’t once wonder if I was going to see another night like this. Boxing, like horse racing, will die only when it’s good and ready. And, like with most fighters who have no quit in the ring, I just don’t see that happening anytime soon.

The Finito Five 4/29/09

2009-04-29T08:35:00.006-04:00

Super middleweight Carl Froch landed a whole lot of these right hands in his fight with Jermain Taylor Saturday, eventually knocking "Bad Intentions" out with only 15 seconds left.

This week’s top-ranked thoughts from a WBC mandatory brain in-recess:

1. Carl tells Jermain Taylor to Froch off

When people ask us boxing aficionados why we are boxing fans, especially with numerous reports of its imminent demise, it can sometimes be difficult to put it exactly into words. Then again, sometimes a fight like the super middleweight tilt between England’s Carl Froch and Arkansas’ Jermain Taylor comes along and does the explaining for us. This fight had everything; two warriors with high skill, both fighters getting knocked down, a close, competitive fight with lots of action, and amazing high drama at the end. Taylor, who was trying to reestablish himself as a big-time player after two losses to Kelly Pavlik, was simply awesome in the first half of the fight, knocking down Froch in the third. He beat the Brit to the punch repeatedly, and took control of the fight on the scorecards. To his credit, Froch showed why he is incredibly tough to beat, taking control back in the latter half, spectacularly knocking out Taylor with only 15 seconds left in the fight. Taylor was hanging on for dear life by that time, and was out on his feet when referee Michael Ortega waved it off. Taylor would have won on the cards had he finished the round. Showtime’s Gus Johnson nearly needed a defibrillator by fight’s end.

Froch is definitely not as skilled as Taylor, but he knows his limitations and proved he knows how to win fights. If you don’t fight twelve full rounds against Froch, you will lose. The real story with this fight, though, was probably Taylor. Once again, he just couldn’t finish the deal, and he’s starting to get a rep for it. He was ahead in both Pavlik fights, losing much the same way (albeit the second time via decision). He’s had stamina issues in he past, and this fight won’t change that perception. But with the way he fought the first part of the fight, it’s easy to see how unstoppable he could become if he can somehow correct his late-rounds letdown. While we know what we’re getting from Froch, it will be interesting to see if Taylor can ever change that scenario. If so, a rematch just might go in the Razorback’s favor.

2. Jim Gray gains entrance in the D-bag & Stupid Question Hall Of Fame all at once

While HBO’s Real Sports show is one of the best on TV, there’s nothing that ruins one of its poignant stories more than uber-arrogant Bryant Gumbel and his post-story chat with the reporter on the piece. Nothing like bringing down the accomplishments of a mentally disabled marathoner by asking how his times would really stack up against non-disabled runners (jerk!). Showtime’s Jim Gray is the boxing equivalent of Gumbel. After watching an electric, drama-filled Froch-Taylor fight that was stopped absolutely at the right time, Gray had to start in with the, “What did you think of the stoppage?” line of questioning. Forget that no one was debating the stoppage at all, even Taylor’s camp and his fans. Inexplicably, he not only asked Froch that question, but also referee Ortega, and then Taylor. What, was Froch supposed to disagree with the stoppage or something? Ortega basically explained to Gray again what was perfectly obvious to everyone else, and Taylor, to his credit, took the high road and said he abided by Ortega’s decision. Gray said that Taylor’s was a classy answer, which is more than we can say for Gray. Way to make a controversy where there was none.

3. Juanma knocks out a Filipino slab of granite

Most boxing fans know that Puerto Rican jr. featherweight sensation Juan Manuel Lopez can hit hard and a lot. But no one expected just how much of that assault he would have to use on Filipino Gerry Penalosa during their fight in Bayamon, PR, Saturday. Penalosa, a two-time titleist who had never been knocked out, was blitzkrieged by Lopez with over – get this – 1,020 punches in nine rounds, with 444 of them landing. The sheer fact that that the Filipino made it that far, and was still punching back and hitting Lopez from time to time, makes his effort one of the toughest seen in recent boxing history. Most fighters can’t last two rounds with Juanma, and Penalosa moved up from 122 for the fight. Lopez didn’t say this, but I’m pretty sure he thought he was going to need the ring stool to get Penalosa out of there. Penalosa didn’t even stop it himself, his trainer Freddie Roach did. While Lopez has some great moments ahead of him, here’s thanking the 37-year old Penalosa for a great career, as this might be it for him. He’s one of those guys that always earned his paycheck.

4. The “Hawaiian Punch” finally does just that

Brian Viloria, like so many fighters, has always been an enigma. He’s always had the talent to be a factor at 108 pounds, but every time he’s stepped up to the world title stage, he’s just not brought his A-game. His losses to Edgar Sosa and Omar Nino (he lost a second, too, but Nino failed a drug test, and the result was changed to a no-contest) both seemed like fights he should have won. Well, that all changed ten days ago, when he finally let his hands go and starched the excellent Ulises Solis in the eleventh round of their fight on the Nonito Donaire – Raul Martinez undercard. For many who have followed Viloria’s career, this was the performance that he was thought to be capable of. He showed consistent workrate, superior power, and the ability to finish late, all against a guy that had not lost in five years, and had only lost once. It’s a rare thing to have a legitimate American (Viloria’s of Filipino descent) flyweight presence, and this could help him get some serious mainstream exposure in the States. If he keeps performing like this, it will be hard not to keep watching him.

5. A whole big mess of stupid

Way to go, James Kirkland & Kendall Holt. Nothing like derailing your careers with degrees from the Plaxico Burress School Of Career Advancement! Apparently, Kirkland would rather spend this Saturday in jail then fighting Michael Walker on the Ricky Hatton-Manny Pacquiao undercard (he was arrested on felony possession of a firearm). Although everyone in Kirkland’s camp is saying he’s a victim of circumstance, he’s still a felon (a 2003 armed robbery conviction), and can’t be near guns of any kind. Regardless what those circumstances are, it’s still going to be hell to clear his name and get his freedom back. Even worse, Holt, who has a wife and kids, admitted he was taking drug money and transporting it to his then-manager, Henry Cortes, who is going to the Big House soon at a jail near you. Luckily, it looks like Holt had nothing to do with the drugs themselves, just transported the money for no fee, so he can complete a court program and not go to the klink, too. Still, he needed to be smarter than that. It’s one thing to make bad decisions in the ring, it will only lose you a fight; do the dumb stuff outside of it, you can lose everything. I like both guys; I hope to never hear anything like this from them ever again.

The rush to determine how "Golden" this Boy truly is

2009-04-22T05:08:00.004-04:00

The thrilling twelve-round split decision against Ike Quartey in 1999 is one of many fights for which Oscar De La Hoya will be remembered. The final round of that fight is considered to be Oscar's guttiest performance. We may never see trunks this short again, either.

A week ago, Oscar De La Hoya retired. Not that it was so unexpected, really. His Golden Boy Promotions Company has shown to be more than just a dabbling interest for both Oscar and Bernard Hopkins, and is definitely big enough to compete with the Top Ranks and Universums of the world. De La Hoya was a multiple division champion, a pound-for-pound mainstay during his prime, a featured attraction everywhere he went, and a huge box office draw. After getting beaten up by Manny Pacquiao in December, it was apparent to many (apparently including De La Hoya himself) that Oscar just didn’t have it at the elite level anymore. After such a great career in the ring, what else was there to prove? Some fighters have no life after boxing; Oscar, with his promotional company, will remain a factor in the sport for years to come.

Well, since that happened, a couple of different camps have come out of the woodwork. There are those who were thrilled by De La Hoya’s exciting bouts, remembering the events his fights always were, and the anticipation they brought (I can remember having so many people over to my apartment for his fight with Felix Trinidad, we couldn’t fit anyone else in without a shoehorn and some Vaseline!). There are still others who have spent the last week trying to figure out where the Golden Boy fits in amongst the greats of the sport. C’mon now, boxing is over 100 years old, right? We surely have to have somewhere to put this man who transcended boxing in a way not seen since Mike Tyson!

The problem is, for the latter group, placing Oscar is going to be difficult. Prior to him, transcendent fighters of the last 50 years were a lock for the Hall Of Fame in Canestota, New York. No real thought was required. The only exception was Tyson, who was surely headed there (and might still be, depending to whom you talk to), but derailed himself with bizarre behavior both in and out of the ring. But list fighters such as Roy Jones, Jr., Muhammed Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard or Robinson, George Forman, “Marvelous” Marvin Hagler and J.C. Superstar and there’s no question they belong. All were top draws garnering the biggest crowds and the greatest media attention, just like De La Hoya. Even non-boxing fans knew who they were.

Do you think of De La Hoya being as great as those fighters? Yes, he beat a faded Chavez (especially the second time), and has wins over inducted HOF’ers Pernell Whitaker and likely candidate Ike “Bazooka” Quartey. Many still believe he beat Trinidad, so that would count as another. However, all his actual career losses are to those headed for the Hall, as well: Trinidad, Shane Mosely (twice), Bernard Hopkins, Floyd Mayweather, Jr. and Pacquiao. Although he sports numerous wins over other world-class competition just a notch below those fighters just mentioned, is that enough to be classified with the greats? Is there a Joe Frazier, Roberto Duran, Thomas Hearns, James Toney or Sonny Liston on that resume’?

This is the argument that has been raging all week, with arguments on both sides putting Oscar in or out of the proverbial Greatest Of All Time list. Does that matter, though? Is the Golden Boy’s impact measured only in his in-ring accomplishments? Use that argument all you want, but there can be no denying his impact throughout boxing and beyond. As Dan Rafael of ESPN.com said, what other boxer would have his farewell press conference televised live on ESPNews? The answer is no one. Who else could pack 100,000 in the Sun Bowl for a meaningless fight with Patrick Charpentier? Regardless of Oscar’s actual merit inside the ring (which, as pointed out above, is still incredibly substantial), his impact on the fight game may never be replaced. And in this day of the “dying” sport of boxing (someone eventually needs to explain to me at what point a sport enters the “dying” stage), there can never been too many Oscar De La Hoya’s.

So while the debate rages on about where the Golden Boy ranks all time, I think I’ll prefer to remember his impact, which is Canestota-worthy. There were so many thrilling fights with top-level opposition that he never ducked. He never gave us less than a 100-percent effort, even when he was making millions. The sport was important to him, and still is, as evidenced by his promotional company that gives us fans quality fights. Hey, De La Hoya will never be confused with perfection, but he was sure perfect for boxing. Happy retirement, Oscar.

The Finito Five 4/16/09

2009-04-16T06:13:00.002-04:00

Paul Williams searches for the head of Winky Wright during their middleweight clash on Saturday. Rumor has it that due to Winky's massive gloves, Williams didn't discover his opponent actually had a head until midway through the second round.

This week’s big thoughts from a strawweight brain:

1. Paul brings the punishment

For the longest time, the debate raged on between fight fans: Who was the most avoided fighter, Antonio Margarito or Paul Williams? Consider that question finally answered, and it has nothing to do with any art-school materials finding their way into Margarito’s gloves. Williams outworked, outhit, and generally out-everythinged former pound-for-pound entrant Winky Wright during their middleweight clash last Saturday. Although Wright was coming off a nearly two-year layoff, he certainly had never been beaten up like this before. Williams threw an astounding 1,086 punches (yes, you read that right), and given the odds of even just a few of them landing, he was going to hit Winky a lot before the fight was over. And even though Wright did land some good punches also, the fight was never in doubt past the fifth round or so.

Now, as good as Williams is, I can’t imagine who’d ever want to fight him. See, the problem is not only that Williams is 6’3” and awesome, it’s also that he’s not much of a draw. Word is that only about 2,000 tickets were sold for the fight, and that Mandalay Bay was practically giving them away before fight time. Williams is great, but he has the personality of a bowl of cold tomato soup. Even the pre-fight story aired on HBO tried to choke some charisma out of Williams and failed miserably, even though his back story was quite interesting. Couple that together with Wright, who never has exactly carried a promotion, and you have a bunch of people disguised as empty seats. Paul “The Punisher” may have to hook up with a Ricardo Mayorga or Edison Mirando to get Williams riled up enough to be interesting.

2. Bag gloves become legal in Vegas

Man, since when did 10-ounce gloves become so damn big? The most amazing thing about the Williams-Wright fight was that Williams could penetrate Winky’s Grant gloves, which looked like he was carrying volleyballs on his hands. I know that glove manufacturers like Winning (out of Japan) have larger, more padded gloves, but I didn’t think Grant, of all people, made a pillow-puncher model. I have 16-ounce bag gloves in my basement smaller than those things! Next thing we’ll hear from Jim Lampley is, “He connects with a straight right hand… at least, I think he did. With his defense up, I haven’t been able to actually see his head since round four!”

3. Holt on just a minute…

It is becoming increasingly obvious these days that one thing you can depend on with Jr. welterweight Kendall Holt is that you can’t depend on him. Seemingly with all the tools needed to become great, Holt showed in last week’s title fight against Timothy Bradley that he might just not have it mentally to get there. For a guy who talks all the trash possible to get a mental edge on his opponent, once in the ring, that seems to go south on him. After mouthing off during the prefight instructions (tacky, to say the least), Holt then decked Bradley with a superb left hook in the first round, putting Bradley immediately into survival mode. Despite having all this momentum, Holt then basically quit pressing his advantage and let Bradley outwork him the rest of the fight. Holt knocked down Bradley twice and still lost 115-111 on two cards, which should tell you how many rounds the judges though Holt lost. While Holt is a likeable guy and has the personality Paul Williams doesn’t, it was clear that Bradley had the clearer focus (Holt repeatedly refused to do anything his corner told him the entire fight). If Holt doesn’t get it together, his will be a lot of talent wasted.

4. Looking into the Cristobal

Yes, heavyweight Cristobal Arreola is too heavy at 255 pounds. Yes, he’s very sloppy at times. Yes, he swears too much during the post-fight interview. But despite all these drawbacks, there’s something about Arreola that makes for compelling TV. That’s due to the fact that no matter what, he gives it his all, and Saturday, his all was way too much for Jameel McCline, who’s probably seen his last fight on the big stage. Arreola loves to throw big punches, which is a prerequisite for a successful heavyweight. Those punches had McCline out the door by round four. The question everybody wants answered, of course, is can he knock the Klitschko’s out with those punches? Eventually, we should get our answer, but likely not just yet. Arreola against another top heavy, such as Alexander Povetkin, should tell us more about whether Arreola’s ready or not.

5. Stupid interview question Hall Of Fame inductee

One of my personal favorite stupid questions was once again thrown back out there like a new Extenze commercial after the Arreola-McCline fight. Anytime a younger, ranked fighter beats an older trial horse who has fought many of the big names, interviewers seem obligated to ask the old guy if the young stud can beat any of the big names out there. So what the hell is the old guy, in this case McCline, supposed to say? If he says no, it means that Arreola is good enough to beat him, but not anyone that really has some talent. What self-respecting fighter is going to say that? If you don’t answer yes, you’re basically admitting you stink! Never mind that he just got his butt kicked in the fight, he’s probably smarting, ticked off he lost in the first place, and now he supposed to say how great his conqueror is? That question is as pointless as another Saw sequel.