Here’s what I’ve been called in the past two days by some Filipino fans of Manny Pacquiao for daring to bump him to #3 on the list of best fighters on the planet, something other writers, like ESPN’s Dan Rafael, have already done: gay; racist; retarded; dumb; an idiot; blind; deaf; brain-damaged; gay; a woman; a convict; a Martian. Keep it up, members of the most obnoxious sect of Pacmaniacs. You’re going to give your ilk a really good reputation with all that homophobic, misogynistic, insulting filth. I’m sure you’ve done Pacquiao — a classy, humble, easy-going, non-trash-talking dude — proud. (As friend-of-the-site Bob points out, it’s a good thing Boxrec.com doesn’t have a comments section — they have Pacquiao listed at #6. They must be mutant communist terrorists with a bad case of pink eye!)
So Floyd Mayweather’s dropping the green flag for the Indianapolis 500. Let’s see, dancing, basketball, wrestling, racing, mixed martial arts… is there any other sport Mayweather ought to be giving a try? Hmmm, no, nothing comes to mind.
Here’s a dose of “Quick Jabs,” with a side scoop of “Round and Round”:
Calzaghe-Hopkins Aftermath, Part III
Here in America, and probably most of the rest of the world, the reaction to the Joe Calzaghe-Bernard Hopkins fight was a kind of collective “Ugh.” It was nothing pretty, true, true. But in the U.K., it’s being celebrated as a huge, huge win. Calzaghe, now the Ring magazine champ at both super middleweight (168 lbs.) and light heavyweight (175 lbs.), got congratulated both by the prime minister and Prince Charles. Can you imagine President Bush calling Hopkins if he had won? And a freaking prince! I readily concede that in the United States, boxing is not what it once was, although it’s still a far more vital sport than most people realize. But I’m still constantly amazed at what a gigantic force it is in other countries.
Now, ugly though that fight was, I have to take objection to this ESPN.com article using it as the basis for a comparison with mixed martial arts. A UFC event was happening the same night that was, apparently, more entertaining. But to use that one night to compare the entertainment value of boxing, overall, to the entertainment value of MMA, overall, under those circumstances, is like using Nickleback as a representative of American rock music, overall, when comparing it to U2 as a representative of Irish rock music, overall. The writer of that piece, Franklin McNeil, does good work, usually, and he hedged about which sport came out on top “that night.” But the comparison was just a fatally flawed experiment. Are there more knockouts in MMA, as the piece mentions frequently, either through quotations or in photo captions? If so, nobody provided any statistics to McNeil, or he kept them to himself. And yes, fans do like knockouts, but I’ll take a fight like Israel Marquez-Rafael Marquez III any day of my life, where there wasn’t a knockout but there was jaw-dropping action, so if those stats exist, I don’t care much. I know it’s tempting to make these comparisons all the time between boxing and MMA, but really, again, it’s a matter of taste. If you think two men wrestling around on the ground and not doing much offers more action than a well-fought boxing match — and I keep giving MMA a try only to get bored and change the channel after a couple minutes of two dudes laying on top of each other — you and I have a different opinion of what constitutes action, but I can’t begrudge you that. There are lots of sports that I don’t enjoy, but that plenty of others do, like NASCAR. Let’s just drop this boxing vs. MMA game, OK?
Back to Calzaghe and Hopkins as individuals: First, Calzaghe still seems to be on course for a Roy Jones fight, albeit at an uncertain location and with no deal signed yet. Calzaghe is ticked about Jones saying there’s something done when there isn’t. He’s also still ticked at Hopkins. It’s hard to blame him. Hopkins is a grating individual who has said all manner of uncool things before and after the bout. However, Calzaghe’s wrong when he says Hopkins isn’t a “legend,” but that Jones is. There are plenty of unpleasant things Calzaghe could say about Hopkins that would be within the bounds of reason, but Hopkins, Jones and, maybe, James Toney, are the three most accomplished fighters of the 90s/early 00s. Second, Hopkins appears to be heading toward retirement, because he’s turned down a Felix Trinidad fight. Trinidad’s team is still trying to goad him into it, but if he turned it down once, and none of the advantages or disadvantages have changed, I can’t imagine he’d change his mind. If Hopkins does, truly, retire, it has been — yes, I’ll say it — a legendary career.
The Weekend Of Toughness
I didn’t catch ESPN2’s “Friday Night Fights” when it aired, but I DVR’d it with the intent of catching what was being hyped as a great slugfest between Jesse Feliciano and Andrey Tsurkan, two guys whose primary attributes are an abundance of toughness. It started off with a loss by another tough mofo, Terrell Nelson, who told the story of getting shot — the bullet went through his liver and was inches away from paralyzing him for life — and continuing to box on as a heavyweight. It’s times like that where I’m amazed how even non-world class boxers are just made of sterner stuff than just about everyone on the planet. (Nelson got knocked out by Albert Sosnowski shortly after the segment on his bullet wound aired; shortly after we heard about his background as a Marine, cruiserweight [200 lbs.] John Schneider got knocked out by Clarence Moore. Is it me, or does every time ESPN gives you a little of a boxer’s personality to root for, he proceeds to get knocked out?)
Now, admirable as toughness is, the cliche about being too tough for one’s own good, often applied to a guy like Feliciano, fitshim like a glove. I was looking forward to the fight, only with some reluctance. The sometimes-welterweight (147 lbs.) just gets hit so, so much, so, so cleanly, and never stops coming forward. It’s worked for him at times, pulling out upset wins or near-upset wins, so it’s hard to say he shouldn’t be able to continue doing it. But I don’t know what he sounded like back when he was on “The Contender,” I just know that in the interview segments that aired prior to the fight, he sounded a little slurry. Having not followed his career closely, I wasn’t aware he’d been knocked out not just once (by Kermit Cintron, which I knew about), but three other times, too, although three of the four KOs were of the technical variety. So he comes in against Tsurkan and gets just punished. In some of the rounds, midway through the 8th round stoppage, he was competitive, but he was taking the harder, cleaner shots. It was difficult to watch. At 25, Feliciano should strongly consider getting out of boxing, while he still can. Granite-chinned dudes with indomitable wills — I’m thinking Jerry Quarry — often end up worse for the wear. I’d say he should stop fighting massive power punchers, but he’d have zero chance against a slick-boxing guy who doesn’t hit that hard. Being on a TV show, pulling off some big performances and impressing people with your heart is plenty for a career, given Feliciano’s lack of natural ability.
In other weekend results, junior middleweight (154 lbs.) Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. gutted out a tough win over one Tobia Loriga despite an ankle injury. Going against the X-Treme Toughness theme was Zsolt Erdei, the highly-ranked light heavyweight, who continued his career-long trend of fighting and beating mediocre competition, the latest a fellow named DeAndrey Abron, who himself had never fought any big-name opponents.
Round and Round
The biggest fight being discussed in the last week or so has been the possible Oscar De La Hoya/Miguel Cotto bout, raised by “The Golden Boy” himself as his farewell bout later this year. I like this fight primarily for one reason: It’d give Cotto the exposure he deserves. Of course, it depends on a few things. Cotto beating fellow top welterweight Antonio Margarito in July, for starters. De La Hoya beating Steve Forbes next weekend, the likely outcome but in my mind not a completely foregone conclusion. If De La Hoya loses to Mayweather, that doesn’t keep this fight from happening. Since De La Hoya’s wife is Puerto Rican and doesn’t want him fighting Puerto Ricans, I suppose wifey could get in the way, though. (That Cotto-Margarito fight is happening in Vegas, by the way, because they’ve done away with the 10-ounce gloves rule for lightweights and welterweights. You can read it as caving if you want, but I thought, while it was worth checking out, maybe, was a strange idea to begin with.)
Trinidad has been painting himself into a pretty narrow corner. After failing to get a Hopkins rematch, he also turned down a fight with Jermain Taylor. His dad insists Felix is not retiring. He’s looking for a big name, but what’s out there for him? They apparently still think they can get Hopkins or De La Hoya, but that’s foolish. Middleweight (160 lbs.) Kelly Pavlik is as determined to stay at the division for a while as Trinidad is in foolishly deciding not to return to it. Jones or Calzaghe are focused on each other. Antonio Tarver, maybe? Or a rematch with Winky Wright? I don’t get what Trinidad is doing here. Taylor, without Trinidad, is now returning his attention to Brian Vera.
Heavyweights David Haye and Vladimir Klitschko have been barking at each other, and even, apparently, meeting over dinner. Haye says Klitschko is scared. Klitschko says he has to defend his title belts against mandatory defenders, plus Haye needs to establish himself at heavyweight. I would watch a Haye fight over a Klitschko fight any day, but I’ve got to side with Klitschko on this one. Klitschko doesn’t want to have his belts stripped, and Haye, I think, needs to prove he’s more than an overblown cruiserweight before shooting straight for the division boss.
Speaking of heavyweights, Sam Peter has humorously dismissed the idea of fighting Shannon Briggs. When boxers put down one another, it’s common to hear one say of the other, “He’s a ‘B’ fighter.” Peter called Briggs an “F” fighter. Oh snap. Also, American prospect Chris Arreola is close to signing up for the toughest fight of his career June 21, a bout against fellow top American prospect Chazz Witherspoon. Good for both of them for getting it on.
There are a couple good ESPN2 cards coming up: super middleweights Jean Pascal vs. Fulgencio Zuniga (a June 6 guaranteed slugfest) 140-pounders Herman Ngoudjo vs. Souleymane M’Baye (same night, to become mandatory challenger for Paulie Malignaggi’s beltr [whom Ngoudjo almost beat, therefore making him deserving of another shot]), and 135-pounders Julio Diaz and Rolando Reyes (on June 25, with Reyes on a roll and Diaz looking to rebound from last year’s loss to Juan Daiz). Then, YURIORKIS GAMBOA WATCH — on June 27, the junior lightweight (130 lbs.) prospect and one of my personal faves will fight Jose Rojas, assuming he wins his fight this month.
Does anyone have any interest in seeing the sons of Julio Cesar Chavez and Hector Camacho relive their fathers’ battle? Me neither, but that’s who Chavez, Jr. wants next. That kid’s a money train, though. He doesn’t need me.
OK, I thought, I can live with a Kostya Tsyzu comeback, which he’s been pussy-footing around about for literally years. The junior welterweight (140 lbs.) was one of my faves, but his Hamlet-like vacillations were mighty annoying. So he says, recently, hey, I’m coming back, some Russians are willing to underwrite it. Then he’s talking about an exhibition with Jackie Chan? I mean, I know it’s just an exhibition, but, wha?
