That video there is one of the two most noteworthy bouts of the weekend. Junior welterweight prospect Danny Garcia, who at times has looked spectacular and other times lackluster, was in fine form for his 4th round knockout of Michael Arnaoutis, and it should’ve been stopped a round earlier. The right hook/left hook combo that sent Arnaoutis down not once but twice was a beaut.
The other noteworthy bout of the weekend hasn’t hit YouTube yet, but it featured flyweight champion Pongsaklek Wonjongkam fighting to an unexpectedly difficult decision over Suriyan Por Chokchai. If not for the WBC’s lame unintentional foul rule, it would have been a draw — an even more unexpected result for Wonjongkam, who’s picked up some top-10 pound-for-pound love in some places this year.
I missed them both over the weekend visiting family and friends in Evansville, IN. One of the results of that trip is that I now have a fantasy basketball team named “Andray Blatche’s Raccoon Nursery,” but it would take too long to explain why (as would my pals’ team names of “Raymond Felton’s Pigeon Peepshow” and “Roy Hibbert’s Hamster Holocaust”). Instead, maybe we should review the last week or so of what little happened that we haven’t yet.
Quick Jabs
There’s yet more Super Six/Andre Dirrell aftermath. Ring has a back and forth couple pieces between Michael Rosenthal and Eric Raskin, both persuasive. I think both are essentially compatible — Rosenthal’s correct that it’ll be hard to make it work under any circumstances, while Raskin is of the mind that it could work and should be tried again. I’m more persuaded by Raskin’s take, because I would rather see it tried again than not, so maybe it’s about what I want to be true…
Besides the aforementioned weekend fights, bantamweight Gerry Penalosa won his retirement bout. Assuming the retirement sticks, never a given in boxing, it’s worth putting Penalosa a bit in perspective. He won’t even sniff the Hall of Fame, although there’s a case that with a couple breaks he’d be in the ballpark. It might be that I completely love the fella. He was a wonderful counterpuncher and judges rarely rewarded him for it in close fights. If they had, he might have wins over Daniel Ponce De Leon, Eric Morel, In-Joo Cho and Masamori Tokuyama on his resume, and then the Hall of Fame resume gets stronger. OK, he’s not there at all, even with those breaks. But he was a pioneer for Pinoy boxing breaking back into the mainstream of the sport’s culture, which counts for something historically. Two of my favorite heroic boxing moments involve Penalosa. Trailing badly against the superior-in-most-every-way Jhonny Gonzalez in 2007, an undaunted Penalosa kept charging forward against the taller Gonzalez until he finally found a perfect punch to Gonzalez’ liver to knock him out quite unexpectedly. In 2009, he suffered a hellacious beating at the hands of the larger-still Juan Manuel Lopez, one where the heavy-punching Lopez set multiple records for punches landed but had to ask his corner if he was winning because Penalosa was catching him with some crisp counters at times. That Penalosa lasted that long, and was competitive even despite clearly getting shellacked, is a tribute to the kind of fighter Penalosa was…
More stuff worth reading, this time about 2010 closing out strong: Dan Rafael’s take, then Rosenthal’s. With the deletion of Andre Ward-Dirrell at super middleweight, it’s less exciting than when they were published, but it should get you amped up if you’re a boxing fan. Cliff Rold (one of my faves) gave it the old college try to make the case for why 2010 has been good for boxing fans, but if your case starts with the possibility that someone other than Floyd Mayweather or Manny Pacquiao will win Fighter of the Year, you’re scrounging…
Funny how reactionary the media accounts of Pacquiao’s sparring have been. One day he’s looking fantastic. A couple days later everyone’s worried about how unimpressive he is. All I know is that his “intimidating pointing” needs some work — or maybe I don’t buy it since I know the guy’s so happy-go-lucky…
Last batch of stuff to read: Jake Donovan asks where boxing would be without HBO. It’s a good question. Maybe there’d be some good (promoters having to work harder, more boxing on terrestrial television) but the overall verdict is that boxing most likely would be screwed. You can criticize HBO’s role in isolating boxing from fans who aren’t subscribers or pay-per-view buyers, justifiably, and you can criticize some of the network’s decisions, justifiably. But every now and then, it’s worth putting things in perspective the way Donovan has…
Heavyweight David Tua is reportedly a financial wreck. No matter how many times I hear that old boxing story, it makes me sad…
First-ballot Hall of Famers Mike Tyson, Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. and Kostya Tszyu are on this year’s ballots. Easy as pie. I suppose some might question Tszyu’s ease of entry, but he’s one of the best few 140-pounders ever…
As if the Danny Green-Paul Briggs saga wasn’t weird enough — was it a dive, or was Briggs completely unfit to fight? — the introduction of Lebanese street gangs into the equation makes it weirder still…
The more the Nevada commission inches toward stronger drug testing, the better…
Everybody seems on board with the bantamweight tourney, at least. Good promo here.
Round And Round
Junior welterweight Timothy Bradley says he’s signed the contract to fight Devon Alexander in January. Finally.
Bantamweight Fernando Montiel reportedly had fractured his leg in a motorcycle accident, but a later report downplayed the extent of his injury. Days before, Top Rank was acting like Montiel-Nonito Donaire was one fight away for both men, in February on HBO. Either way, whaddya bet this means Top Rank pushes back the Donaire fight to 2012? Unfortunate.
Heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko is booked to fight Derek Chisora in December. It’s impossible to criticize Klitschko over this, since he tried to fight just about everyone he could only to be turned down repeatedly, but man have he and his brother had a wasted 2010.
Victor Ortiz-Andriy Kotelnik would have been a great accompaniment to Amir Khan-Marcos Maidana in December, but Kotelnik’s team allegedly wants too much money. Too bad. It was the perfect fight for both men. [UPDATE: Not long after I wrote this, it was reported that Ortiz would face Lamont Peterson. Not as perfect as Ortiz-Kotelnik, but still very good.]
(Round and Round sources: BoxingScene, Fanhouse, ESPN, Twitter)
