Wheels on the bus go round and round… (via)
You may read The Queensberry Rules, but did you know you could watch it or listen to it? You might have caught the relatively new Boxing With The Beard feature on YouTube already, but now you can tune into a TQBR radio show that debuted this week, both helmed by the golden-voiced Patrick Connor, and both of which revisited the weekend that was. Or, if you're into text and want to get caught up on the immediate post-fight recaps the past weekend from Joseph R. Holzer, Jeff Pryor and myself, you now have the links to do so before diving into this days-removed look. TQBR strives to give you layers of redundancy so that if there's a boxing apocalypse, there will be TQBR there for you somehow, even if it's via semaphore or telegram.
In this edition of Weekend Afterthoughts, we try to conclusively answer the debates that raged this past weekend, such as: Is Guillermo Rigondeaux objectively boring? Are your scorecards dimwitted? What about the Weekend before — remember that? (Preview of the answers — no; probably; depends on how Asian you are.)
- Guillermo Rigondeaux's performance. In becoming the lineal junior featherweight champion, Rigo put on a masterclass of boxing. That is the indisputable part. Then there's the tired old "either/or" debate about skill vs. action, which seems to happen every weekend, no matter how much more boring that debate is than an actual boring fighter. Different strokes, different folks. I like this kind of fight and this kind of fight and this kind of fight; some like only one kind of fight. I'm not going to talk anyone into liking a peanut butter and pickle sandwich anymore than I'll talk them out of liking it. Even within this false skill/action dichotomy is debate over whose kind of skill is most boring. Again, matters of taste. Rigo doesn't do it for me like other skilled guys named Floyd Mayweather and Andre Ward, although he does it for me more than Bernard Hopkins or Chad Dawson. I could try to explain or convince you, and it would probably be related to the degree that Rigo uses his legs to evade contact compared to how much Mayweather and Ward stay in the pocket and engage without much getting touched, while Rigo punches harder than B-Hop or Dawson (as Donaire's badly damaged eye in the 12th round would suggest), but you like the flavors you like and the whole exercise is pointless.
- Nonito Donaire's performance. Rumors of Donaire's bad camp were not at all exaggerated. He looked listless to the nth degree, some of which had to do with his usual inability to lead against counterpunchers, some of which had to do with Rigo's exceptional defensive performance, some of which surely had to do with his camp. The notion that Donaire trains himself and basically is trained by Robert Garcia via telephone is absurd, as is Donaire proclaiming that he didn't study Rigo prior to the bout, and that has to be fixed immediately. It's embarrassing, frankly, that someone would show so little devotion to their profession; clearly, Donaire has become accustomed to coasting to victory based on raw natural ability. I can understand the impending fatherhood thing being a distraction, but if you aren't going to train properly for what many expected to be the toughest fight of your career, wait for the kid to get born and then fight when you're ready. And if you need shoulder surgery, go ahead and get the damn thing. Even with all of these problems, Donaire still managed to knock down Rigo and keept it close on the scorecards; you have to wonder what a properly prepared Donaire could've done.
- Scorecards. Night of, I thought the scorecards rendered by the judges were too close. Looking at my scorecard, I had them in that ballpark. But this carping Donaire has been doing about how he deserved to win or draw is gauche, not to mention destructive to him fixing his bad habits. My scoring was on the generous side, and apparently some but not all of the ringside observers had it closer than not, but I don't know anyone other than Donaire who thought Donaire won. If you had it relatively close, I obviously can relate to that. But if you had it fairly wide, you were probably more on the side of truth and justice.
- Next for Rigo. Rigo's promoter Bob Arum has joked that he'll have to do the best promotional job of his career to make Rigo popular, to which I might respond to the old master, "Maybe you should've matched Donaire in a more winnable/richer fight against Abner Mares — even though Mares is promoted by your hated rival Golden Boy — rather than feeding him to a (somewhat) fan-unfriendly boxer with no fan base who made him look bad." But I'm somewhat sympathetic anyway. "Boring" fighters usually have some hitch, be it Mayweather's "make myself an insufferable jerk to the point everyone wants to see me lose" schtick or Ward's Oakland fan base. Rigo has neither. No promoter in recent memory has shown any knack for promoting Cuban fighters in America, and while his story about escaping Cuba has some appeal, it's not all that unique or sellable. Fortunately for Rigo and Arum, HBO likes the guy, and the bout did a reasonable 1.1 million audience — more of which is probably accounted for by Donaire, admittedly — so he'll be back, and some fans will be happy about it and some will not. Rigo's team wants Mares, which won't happen, or Carl Frampton, which might, because HBO loves shipping over gutty British fighters to lose to the guys it's nurturing.
- Next for Donaire. Besides getting serious about his training, learning how to lead, training to throw punches when his opponent won't give him openings for one sensational knockout punch, regaining his focus on boxing and healing? Apparently it's a move to featherweight. Don't think it's a good idea. Yes, he struggled to make weight Friday. But this whole notion of Donaire having no choice to move up in weight doesn't ring true to me. A few fights ago, he was quipping that people thought he was too small for bantamweight. He was a gigantic flyweight back when, for sure, but now he looks a tad soft at 122 and he no longer towers over his opponents. Arum is talking about Juan Manuel Lopez for Donaire next, although I doubt it'll happen anytime soon if ever, considering that Juanma wants to move to 130 and is in discussions for other fights.
- Pound-for-pound. The top-10s have been all over the place for various lists of the best fighters in the world after the defeat of one of its top-5 guys. I'll probably slap Rigo in behind Timothy Bradley and Vitali Klitschko and dump Donaire behind him, because while it was a very impressive win and performance, Rigo's pro resume remains pretty short. The Transnational Boxing Rankings Board did something similar, only both men were in the top 10, while ESPN threw Rigo in there at a whopping #6. To quote Digital Underground, "Doowutchyalike."
- Ryan Coyne and Don King. Light heavyweight Ryan Coyne lost this weekend, another tragic chapter in the career of a boxer who has been kept on the shelf by the aging legend/villain/promoter Don King. King's decline has, if nothing else, inspired some great journalism/features by Thomas Hauser (a sympathetic profile of King in Tavoris Cloud's corner, but filled with colorful anecdotes of King's disconnect), Jessica Lussenhop (zeroed in on how King's disconnect is screwing one fighter in particular, Coyne) and Jay Caspian Kang (taking the longest view of the three).
- Weekend odds and ends. Indonesian featherweight Chris John spun his wheels with a technical draw, other Indonesian featherweight Daud Yordan suffered an upset loss and "retired" and lightweight Juan Diaz returned for some reason. For a recap of the main fights, go here. To see how they affected the rankings, go here.
- Last Weekend's Weekend Afterthoughts. Asia got shook the hell up the weekend before, and not just because of the HBO2-televised China card. For instance, there's a new lineal flyweight champion, Akira Yaegashi, and Milan Milendo lined himself up for a shot at top flyweight contender Juan Francisco Estrada with a big knockout. Time didn't permit doing a full Afterthought lineup, but all the action forced the TBRB to alter the rankings at 154, 130, 118, 112, 108 and 105, as well as the pound-for-pound rankings. Check it out at http://tbrb.org.
