There’s a kind of pessimistic feel around these parts lately, I concede. I’d been noticing some of the bad trends that Steve Kim writes about here, and pointing them out — none of the big fights we want, Top Rank’s increasing tendency not to deal with other promoters, etc. — although Kim does a pretty nice job of putting it all in one place and adding to it, pointing out that the incest is the best over at Golden Boy, too.
Maybe I’m bitter that every time I draw a line in the sand about buying a Latin Fury card, it turns out to get good reviews, as this past weekend’s card did. Me: “Why should I pay to watch Juan Manuel Lopez beat the hell out of Rogers Mtagwa?” “Who on Earth other than a Mexican or Irishman would want to shell out $40 for Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr.-John Duddy?” Yeah, we all know how those ended up.
But it still was a pretty light weekend. Let’s hash out what went down last weekend and glance ahead to the next one, the latest in a run of light weekend stretching out between the last couple weeks and August. If you’re already feeling depressed, you can gird yourself with Doug Fischer’s more optimistic take about the upcoming months for boxing.
Last Weekend
Hey there, what’d everybody who forked over the $40 think of Chavez not totally sucking, by most accounts? All I can judge his performance by is the above clip, where his punches looks a bit sharper than before, but then everybody looks like a crisp puncher against Duddy, whose head might as well be stuck on the top of a broom handle connected to his tailbone with as little as it moves. A fair amount of the talk has suggested Duddy took a career-shortening beating, so I hope he’s OK. He’s an earnest fighter who’s given plenty of thrills to us and almost unanimously viewed as a nice guy. Top Rank’s Bob Arum is talking about matching up Chavez with Miguel Cotto (of Top Rank… see?) at 154 in a move down from 160, and matching Duddy with Yuri Foreman (of Top Rank… now do you see?) next, also in a move down to 154. I have zero interest in those fights.
On the undercard, lightweight Marco Antonio Barrera beat Adailton De Jesus in a performance that wasn’t as highly-praised, and I don’t care about him, either. Also, junior bantamweight Raul Martinez got good reviews and Tomas Villa upset featherweight prospect Salvador Sanchez.
In the U.K., heavyweight Tyson Fury stopped John McDermott in a rematch of their controversial initial meeting. Fury reportedly (I didn’t watch a single boxing match this weekend, for real) got gassed, which makes sense given that he weighed 270 pounds, but finished stronger. I don’t see anyone talking about this one nicely.
On TeleFutura, junior welterweight Pablo Cesar Cano struggled to beat Oscar Leon on the scorecards, which is a bad sign about what kind of prospect he is.
For more results… yup.
This Week
In laying out the schedule last week, I failed to mention a few fights that aired on TRLiveStream and Wbcboxing.tv, so if I fail to do it again, just check both websites anytime there’s a WBC- or Top Rank-related card.
Wednesday, Anthony Mundine continues his exceptionally strong run of never fighting anyone whom he perceives as dangerous, this week being Carlos Adan Jerez at junior middleweight. Same night is U.K.’s Prizefighter tourney, with the middleweights doing it this time.
On ESPN2’s Friday Night Fights it’s two former junior welterweights, Demetrius Hopkins and Mike Arnaoutis, fighting at 147. Both were only ever fringe contenders at 140 and each have encountered setbacks in the last couple years.
On Top Rank Live Saturday on Fox Sports Net/Fox Sports en Espanol, Ring top-10 ranked junior flyweight Ulises Solis fights Eric Ortiz at flyweight, who’s recently been knocked out by lesser fighters than Solis. Rebounding Filipino welterweight prospect Mark Melligen fights Anges Adjaho, last seen getting knocked out in 2009 by lightweight Antonio DeMarco.
Off TV Saturday, top-10 ranked junior bantamweight Hugo Cazares take an easier fight after two grueling wars with Nobuo Nashiro, against Everado Morales, who’s lost to fighters who aren’t as good as Cazares. And junior flyweight Johnriel Casimero takes on inexperienced Roman Garcia Hirales in advance of his scheduled August meeting with lineal division champion Ivan Calderon.
Yawn.
