Wherein anything tangentially connected to this weekend is fair game for scattershot observations.
I’ve managed to catch up with some of the weekend’s top fights, not including the biggest, Joe Calzaghe’s thrashing of fellow light heavyweight (175 lbs.) Roy Jones, Jr. on HBO pay-per-view. But I’m pretty confident none will top the above bout, a featherweight (126 lbs.) battle that should rank with the best of the year. Check out the above clip and follow the links from the all-out slugfest between Rogers Mtagwa and Tomas Villa to the dramatic final two rounds. I don’t want to immediately piss on it, because it was a hell of a fight, it really was. Like I said, it was one of the best of the year. But it’s a little ways back in my Fight of the Year contenders for 2008 because I dock it tons of points for deficit of skill. That isn’t a total disqualifier — Arturo Gatti-Mickey Ward wasn’t very technically polished — but it just hurts it for the top spot this particular year, is all. If you like guys winging punches at each other non-stop, this brawl has everything you need. I never get to see Solo Boxeo because Telefutura is not in my satellite television plan, but if this kind of fight airs even semi-regularly, I see why it was so popular and why it will be missed…
My discussion of Mtagwa-Villa in this paragraph will contain spoilers: One of the things I liked about it is that the corners and refs handled it perfectly. The ref could have stopped it when Mtagwa was on shaky legs in the 9th; he appropriately let it go on. Mtagwa’s corner actually asked the ref, in the event Mtagwa came out not throwing punches, to stop the bout quickly. That’s a corner showing appropriate concern for its man, but giving him one last chance to prove himself. The ref could have stopped it after the second Villa knockdown of the 10th, and really gave him a long look, but the second Mtagwa landed another big shot, he waved it off. Perfect, perfect, perfect…
I clarified it in the comments section of my post-Calzaghe/Jones meditation, but I want to clarify it here: Calzaghe should feel free to retire now without getting hounded by anyone about whom he ought to fight next. He’s 36 and his career is loaded up with accomplishments. All I was saying was that if Calzaghe fights again, I’d be most excited to see him in against Chad Dawson or Glen Johnson, because I think those are the two men with the best chance of beating him AND making exciting fights with him. A rematch with Bernard Hopkins is more significant, and a rematch with Mikkel Kessler has some significance too, even if Calzaghe proved he was the better fighter. A fight with Carl Froch could make some dough in the U.K. and would be an acceptable farewell bout. I just think that because of their styles, Dawson and Johnson could make the most interesting match-ups with Calzaghe — Dawson because he would match or eclipse Calzaghe’s speed, Johnson because his pressure gives everyone fits…
If Calzaghe retires, he will go down as the best super middleweight (168 lbs.) ever, in part because it’s a relatively new division, and one of Britain’s best ever. But the statement by ESPN’s Dan Rafael that “you can argue the Welshman is Europe’s all-time best fighter” is a little overboard. The Ring’s William Dettloff makes the argument against that look pretty easy. Seriously, I’m not pissing on Calzaghe here. I just think not getting carried away and overstating his case serves him better, because his case is plenty awesome without any hyperbole…
If I’ve neglected Jones in all this, it’s because I think he’s the least likely to retire of the two. I’ll have more to say when he does. One thing stands out to me, and I’ll mention it here on the caveat that I haven’t seen the fight yet. It’s what Jones said about the first round knockdown he scored. “When I had him down, I had two plans. I couldn’t make up my mind. I wanted to go at him, and then I didn’t want to go at him. I started punching too big and I got out of my fight game.” 1. Why would any fighter who hurt his opponent as badly as Calzaghe reportedly was not make up his mind to go after him? 2. Why does Jones think he decided to go after him? Most people think Jones didn’t capitalize on the opportunity…
Mr. Dawson, if he cannot lure Calzaghe or Hopkins into a fight — and I doubt either of them see the value in that, given that Dawson is still a ways off from emerging as a potential attraction — has a trio of dangerous options. One is to defend his belt against knockout puncher Tavoris Cloud. Another is a rematch with Johnson, which he owes him because of how close their first fight was. Kessler may be interested in moving up to face Dawson, too. What do all three of those men share? They hit hard. Dawson proved he could handle big punchers when he rather easily defeated Tomasz Adamek, but even in that fight Dawson hit the canvas once, and Johnson rocked him several times. The root of any remaining skepticism about Dawson is his chin — somewhat deservedly — and if he clearly beat any of those three men, I wonder what his critics would say then…
The Calzaghe-Jones undercard was, on paper, dreadful, and it lived up to everyone’s expectations. That a couple fighters pulled out made it worse than it would have been, but what I found interesting was that HBO strongly indicated it didn’t give a damn about undercards. Here’s what George Kimball wrote, quoting HBO vp Mark Taffet: “Taffett also noted that HBO’s extensive research indicated that while viewers might express their displeasure over a less-than-compelling undercard, the dramatis personae of the supporting acts is a negligible factor when viewers decide to buy or not to buy a PPV telecast. ‘In the end, people who wanted to see Calzaghe-Jones were going to buy the fight no matter who was fighting on the undercard,’ he said. ‘And our figures show that viewers who are inclined not to buy a pay-per-view fight aren’t going to change their minds based on the undercard, regardless of who is on it.'” I have no doubt that HBO’s “extensive research” indicated that. I can tell you that I might have bought Calzaghe-Jones with a better undercard, but maybe I’m the exception to the research. I do think, however, that HBO’s missing a huge opportunity to give exposure to new fighters or generate interest in potential match-ups by putting on terrible undercards. After all, it’s not just the money you get now — it’s the money you get later. Yet another example of HBO’s focus on the short term at the suffering of the long term…
AN HBO exec did make a potentially valid point this weekend about the apparent decline in ratings for its boxing events. The fact is that a lot of people Tivo fights and the like, which means that it’s hard to get a sense of who’s watching events live, which is what the ratings are based upon. There may be rumors of HBO slashing its budget, but senior vp Kerry Davis insists that HBO’s happy with how its boxing programming is doing and that subscribers tell HBO it’s one of the main reasons they subscribe. Could be spin, but it’s good news if it isn’t…
Remember how I said Arthur Abraham didn’t seem to mind Raul Marquez’ vicious body shots in their middleweight (160 lbs.) title fight? I was wrong. Abraham acknowledged that he felt Marquez’ shots before forcing him to quit on his stool, and it appears he complained a rib injury mid-fight to his traine
rs. I’m not saying that should give much hope to his future opponents — Abraham really looked unaffected by the injury, and he’s fought through broken jaws before — but it does appear that attacking his body is the way to go. Abraham doesn’t defend there much and a bigger puncher than Marquez — Kelly Pavlik maybe? — might have better luck bending his iron will…
The HBO digital series “Ring Life,” which pays some overdue network attention to younger talent, to is off to a good start. It has HBO’s trademark canny camera work and production values, but Dmitriy Salita, unlike Jones and Calzaghe in the 24/7 series, is a compelling figure for documentizin’, largely because he strictly adheres to Jewish law — no training on certain days, diet, etc. Salita reportedly didn’t have all that great a weekend, winning a difficult junior lightweight (140 lbs.) bout with a pretty anonymous opponent who was moving up in weight, but he’s not bad television outside the ring. Best quote of the two episodes, from a man in a gym whose name I didn’t catch, talking about Salita having God in the ring with him: “God ain’t gonna get his ass kicked. You gonna get yo ass kicked.” Salita shyly admitting that Rocky IV was an inspiration for him to go into boxing was pretty funny, too.
