This week’s Heavyweight musings from a Strawweight brain:
1. The Wrath of Khan
In my last Finito Five, I praised both Juan Manuel Marquez & Glen Johnson for defying the long odds by still being effective at 35+ without appearing to lose a step. The reason they are such rarities in the fistic world is that most fighters go the way of Marco Antonio Barrera, who at 35, looks to be at the end of his illustrious career. For any of those who saw him basically get pummeled for five rounds by a clearly rejuvenated Amir Khan in their 135-lb. clash Saturday, the Barrera who schooled Naseem Hamed in Britain eight years ago has gone the way of appreciating real estate.
Clearly, Khan has improved by leaps and bounds with trainer Freddy Roach’s tutelage, and looks nothing like the guy who was starched inside of one round by Breidis Prescott last year. But, as my co-worker pointed out so astutely, this fight resembled the Pacquiao-De La Hoya fight. Khan, like Pac-Man, was just too strong and too fast for Barrera, who looked the role of Oscar and just didn’t have any answers. Yes, the bad cut that Barrera suffered in the first round didn’t help matters, but the fight would have likely been the same by round 12. Barrera’s one of my favorite fighters of all time and was a pleasure to watch, but now it’s time to let the Amir Khan’s of the world take their place. Those of us who remember Barrera won’t want to see him go out some trial horse with a big name.
2. Trust me, stopping a fight before round four is just bollocks!
While I will admit Amir Khan deserved to win his fight over Barrera, the actions of referee Dave Parris and the ringside doctor in regards to Barrera’s cut was just ridiculous. Although Barrera suffered the nasty forehead gash in round one, it was never really examined by anybody until round four, when his face became the proverbial crimson mask (great wrestling term!). When Parris took Barrera over to have the doctor examine the cut, it was spouting blood so badly that Barrera had to keep blinking and moving his head just to be able to respond to the doctor. So how was that cut any different in round five when Parris did the same thing again and finally stopped it? Well, it wasn’t. The only difference was that with four rounds complete, the fight would go to the scorecards (with Khan getting the obvious win), instead of a no-contest had it been stopped before then. They could have stopped it in round two, it was clear the cut wasn’t going to be stopped unless the corner had stitches on them. A NC wouldn’t have taken anything away from Khan’s performance; this farce just took away from the British commission’s credibility.
3. Well, if Roy Jones thinks it’s a good idea…
Without trying to navigate the land mine-filled demilitarized zone that is boxing vs. MMA (an argument for another time, perhaps), it’s curious to see that Roy Jones’ promotional company, Square Ring, has a mixed Boxing-MMA PPV this Saturday. So far, I have read from both the boxing and MMA sides of the debate, and neither of them like it. Both argue that a fan of one sport won’t pay for the other, while RJ is banking on crossover appeal to attract fans that like both sports. I, for one, think there is a crossover appeal, much as there is with pro wrestling (WWE or TNA) and boxing, traditionally covered until the 80’s together as ring sports. The question is, how much appeal is there? My guess is that Jones vs. Omar Sheika (like he hasn’t taken enough punches already), B.J. Flores & former WWE start Bobby Lashley is NOT going to really answer that question.
4. Mijares & Maccarinelli make like the stock market
Boy, what a difference a year makes. Last year at this time, unified bantamweight champion Christian Mijares was in the top 10 pound-for-pound and Enzo Maccarinelli was headed into David Haye land looking to be the next cruiserweight sensation and possibly a future heavyweight challenge to the Klitschko brothers. Now, both have suffered two losses, with both losing this weekend, and are sinking like stones. Mijares losing to Nehomar Cermeño (who?) was bad enough, but Maccarinelli getting wiped out with one right hand by Ola Afolabi, he of six big KO’s, was really damaging. These guys need a career stimulus package, and quick!
5. Boxing Digest editorial curiosity of the month
Boxing Digest likes to tout that they are the only independent boxing magazine in circulation, which is probably true. This becomes especially apparent the way that Oscar De La Hoya sports a Ring T-shirt every other time he’s on TV these days. However, reading BD these days is like going to your crazy uncle’s house; you’re never quite sure what you’ll find in there. I can’t fathom half the time why the put what they do in their magazine. Case in point: the article in each magazine in Spanish. Why? It’s one stupid article, and the rest of the magazine is in English. If you only speak English, you can’t read it, and if you want a Spanish-language boxing mag, there’s a bunch out there already. They say, “BD travels the globe to cover the Latin boxing scene in Spanish.” So when they cover Hozumi Hasegawa’s next fight in Japan, is it going to be in Japanese? If the Klitschko’s speak English, German & Russian, do you then get to pick? I give this one 4 out of 5 Oliver McCall’s on the nuts-o-meter.
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