Ruslan Chagaev takes a seat during Saturday's Ring Magazine Championship fight with Wladamir Klitschko. Chagaev needed more time to sit and think, as he barely dented the Ukranian's armor in any of their ten rounds.
This week’s Finito Five is guaranteed hepatitis-B free!
1. The heavyweight division fails to surprise again
Well, that Wladamir Klitschko – Ruslan Chagaev tilt was a real shocker, wasn’t it? Who would have guessed that this fight would look exactly the same as every other Wlad fight since the Ukrainian fought Sam Peter going on four years ago? Oh, sure, there were some who had touted Chagaev’s undefeated record as somehow being an adequate substitute for the originally scheduled bout with David Haye, but all Chagaev proved is that he and Sultan Ibragimov are the same fighter. For those who didn’t see the fight, here’s the recap: Klitschko jabs, jabs, jabs, falls asleep for awhile, then jabs, jabs, throws a right hand that lands flush; all the while, Chagaev stands around at distance wondering why he’s getting peppered so much. The next punch to either Wladamir or brother Vitali’s body will be the first. It’s hard to say whether Chagaev was too cautious or too inept to do that, but not doing so was a recipe for disaster. By the tenth round, there was really no point in continuing the fight, whether Chagaev was cut or not.
With over 60,000 packing Veltins Arena in Germany and a flawless performance by Klitschko, it’s hard to argue Saturday night was anything but a resounding success. However, this is starting to feel like the Julio Ceasar Chavez, Jr. tour; until Wlad steps into the ring with someone that the boxing public views as a legitimate threat (and Chagaev sure wasn’t that), these fights just come off as the Klitschko Saturday Showcase. Maybe it’s just me, but for all the impressive performances against Hasim Rachman, Ray Austin, Sam Peter and Calvin Brock, what I still remember is Corrie Sanders wiping out Klitschko in two rounds. Wlad needs opponents who don’t appear out of their league all the time; otherwise, he’ll just be viewed as the best fighter of a terrible era.
2. ESPN is the Worldwide Leader in aggravation Pt. 1
With all the self-aggrandizement of Floyd Mayweather, ESPN has long been grating enough (they should call the show SelfCenter) to watch. However, there are a few shining stars within the cloud of self-importance in Bristol, and the Friday Night Fights crew is one of them. Joe Tessitore, the play-by-play voice, is top-notch, and while color man Teddy Atlas can get preachy, his knowledge of the fight game is unparalleled. And, with the Klitschko-Chagaev fight being commentated on from the U.S., one would think the “A” crew would get the assignment for ESPN Classic. Oh no. Instead, fans in the States got sometimes-FNF studio host Robert Flores & sometimes-fighting cruiserweight BJ Flores. Are you kidding me? What were Tessitore & Atlas (or even Brian Kenney) doing? Did they have a bar mitzvah to attend or something? No offense to Robert Flores, who’s probably a nice guy, but he’s so bland, he could make a striptease from Angelina Jolie seem unexciting. B.J. Flores is not a bad color man for his young age, but the two Flores’ called the whole fight like they were casually sitting on their living room couch. I could swear I heard BJ snacking on some pretzels during the sixth round! For the heavyweight championship of the world, you really should have the championship broadcast team.
3. The 175-pound division gets a little more interesting
The light heavyweight division is becoming more and more the one to watch. With an already great fight between Carl Froch and Jermain Taylor in the books and a Chad Dawson-Glencoffe Johnson rematch looming, Jean Pascal and Adrian Diaconu added to that list with a scintillating bout Friday in Montreal. Pascal, who had been outpunched by Froch earlier this year, came back strong, punishing the talented, tough Diaconu and proving that he’s got to be taken seriously. And, as good as Pascal was, the Romanian-born Diaconu was coming on at the end of the fight, and some felt that if he had started that earlier, Pascal would have lost. A rematch between these two might be on the horizon, but it’s clear that any combination of fights between any of the above six boxers would be must-watch TV. Pascal may keep his hands too low, but he has some great hand speed for his weight. A matchup between he and Johnson, who throws a ton of punches himself, would be an awesome fight whether Johnson wins or loses against Dawson. Here’s hoping it happens.
4. ESPN is the Worldwide Leader in aggravation Pt. 2
As stated earlier, ESPN already had me bent sideways with the appearance of the Flores brothers. So you can imagine how my blood boiled when I turned on the TiVo Monday to watch Friday Night Fights, only to find that the College World Series (baseball) was on! And, no, the game was not running late, it just was shown and FNF was not. Come to find out, apparently some scheduling difficulty had pushed the college game later, and, with no advance notice, ESPN just decided to move FNF from ESPN2 to ESPN Classic. Nothing like screwing with the boxing fans out there, huh? And ESPN has a history of doing this. Does anyone remember how they famously started their FNF 10th anniversary show (which they had been promoting all summer) an hour earlier than scheduled last fall without announcing anything? If anyone wanted to see who the Fighter of the Decade was (Emmanuel Augustus, rightly chosen), too bad – if you tuned in at the scheduled start time, you had already missed it. With all the 14 channels ESPN has now, you would think they could find some other network with poker reruns on which to move the baseball game. If it wasn’t for ESPN360, I wouldn’t have been able to watch, it period.
5. Lamps hits that time of the month
OK, Jim Lampley has been doing boxing so well for so long, many times boxing fans give him a free pass when he starts to get a little emotional during broadcasts. But even then, there are times when Lamps passes into creepy territory that makes you feel like the first time your parents gave you the birds & bees discussion. Prior to Miguel Cotto’s fight with Emmanuel Clottey, Lampley described how Cotto, who has been through a lot with his family recently, was crying while talking about his father to reporters. Cotto’s dad then came over and hugged him, which was surely a touching moment. However, Lampley started describing this as a “graphic demonstration of true, honest man-love”. Ewww. Fathers and sons can love each other, but a graphic demonstration of man-love is what you find in airport bathrooms, isn’t it? Just tap your foot, right? As if that wasn’t weird enough, Lampley started to well up at the end of the broadcast merely describing Cotto’s gutsy effort to come back and win the fight. It’s one thing for him to mist up after the death of a fighter or some tragedy, but now he can’t seem to keep it together just doing his closing monologue. Lamps better make sure Harold Lederman (who is a pharmacist in his spare time) brings the Midol for the next HBO telecast!
Ring canvasses like this have become all too common in boxing. How many logos do we need to be reminded that the New York Daily News is sponsoring the event?
It was an event that every boxing fan dreams of. A packed Madison Square Garden teeming with thousands of fight fans on Puerto Rican Day in New York City. HBO and major press coverage buzz all week. A fight card featuring Matt Korobov & Ivan Calderon, headlined by the much-anticipated welterweight showdown between Miguel Cotto and Joshua Clottey. And, to top it off, a great nip and tuck fight going all twelve rounds with Cotto squeaking out the win despite a bad cut that he bravely fought through. The stands packed full of Cotto’s Puerto Rican brethren made for an electric atmosphere. The best of boxing, right?
Well, thanks to something that is symptomatic of the worst in boxing, we almost never got to see it.
In round five, Clottey tried to clinch with Cotto near one corner of the ring. Although it has been described as a tackle, Cotto more or less pushed Clottey off of him. This move sent Clottey airborne, then spinning down to the canvas; it was immediately apparent that the Ghanian had injured his knee. Unfortunately, referee Arthur Mercante, Jr. didn’t get a clear look at the situation, as he had tripped on a ring photographer’s camera a couple of seconds before Clottey hit the canvas. Mercante allowed Clottey to take a few minutes to recover, but for the next few rounds, Clottey was a one-legged fighter. Cotto regained control of the fight at that point. Luckily, as the rounds wore on, Clottey was able to shake off the injury and continue (even winning rounds in the process), so the injury was not serious enough to warrant a stoppage of the action.
Further replays showed, however, that the injury was actually caused by Clottey slipping on a Tecate logo as he landed. This caused a subsequent WWE-like flop to the canvas. On that one bad leg, Clottey would continue to slip on the ring logos several times the rest of the way, sometimes on that same bad knee. Although Cotto didn’t have as much trouble, he did lose his footing a couple of times during the fight as well.
Which begs the obvious question: Why are these ridiculous canvas designs allowed to continue?
On the ring itself, there were four Tecate logos in each corner, with a fifth logo taking about a third of the entire canvas in the middle. There was an AT&T logo above that, plus a Madison Square Garden logo below. So out of the whole ring canvas, only each side of the large center logo could be found any free space. Making matters worse, the paint obviously had no grip to it, as many times as both fighters slipped during the bout. Although neither fighter complained about the canvas afterward (they were both far more worked up about the judge’s decisions), it was brought up by the HBO announce team during the telecast.
The question is, then, why does boxing continue to allow this to happen? With all the medical precautions that are taken with boxers, from the examinations and weigh-ins before fights to the ringside doctor, paramedic team and ambulance during, it seems crazy that these unsafe canvases are largely ignored. If I can buy a resin additive to put in paint at my local hardware store, explain to me how Top Rank is unable to do the same, especially with their million-dollar promotion at stake? I’ve seen fights where the canvas was so slippery, a referee took a Coke from ringside and poured it on the canvas logo. How utterly minor league does that sound? Just imagine the NHL not using a Zamboni between periods of hockey, and having the officials pouring water from a cup to clean up ruts in the ice. It never would happen, would it? Worth billions of dollars, the NHL has standards that all arenas need to follow to protect their players.
Boxing needs this as well. It is understandable that promotions need all the advertising revenue possible, but there should be a limit as to how much ring space can be used for advertising, uniform throughout the sport. Also, these commissions need to test the canvas prior to fight time with water, sweat or any other elements that a fight would have to make sure there’s no threat of injury. If a commission was to declare a ring unfit for fighting, you can well bet promoters would respond with some alacrity. With all that commissions do already, this doesn’t seem like a lot more to ask. The last thing anyone in boxing needs is for a great career to be cut short due to a torn ACL caused by something as stupid as slippery canvas.
Boxing is a dangerous sport by its nature, and those who step into the ring already risk so much to ply their trade. With all the steps made over the years that have made the sport safer, it’s time to make that first step on the canvas a safe one, too.
Heavyweight Nicolay Valuev (left) explains to Ruslan Chagaev that it's not nice to give people hepatitis B - or at least that's what we think he's saying.
More loquacious than Jim Lampley, it’s the Finito Five!
1. Absolut Cintron
Quick, show of hands for all those who though that Kermit Cintron’s days as any kind of factor in the 154-pound division were over? Yeah, me, too, but I guess that’s why they fight the fights. After Cintron’s ridiculous draw in February against Sergio Martinez (which should have had Cintron knocked out and then at least a points loss), his performance in taking down red-hot rising puncher Alfredo Angulo a couple of weeks ago was nothing short of shocking. Cintron nearly folded tent in his second fight with Antonio Margarito, and loaded fists notwithstanding, there are more then a few observers who thought that this was a performance that “the Killer” just didn’t have in him. Although Angulo was determined to use his aggressiveness and power, Cintron was having none of it, giving the Mexican a boxing lesson he hadn’t gotten before in his young career. Angulo did press the action a little better late, but Kermit had the fight well in hand by then.
Now, in a strange irony, the win made Cintron the mandatory for Martinez’ title again. Short of Martinez just wanting a little revenge, there’s not a lot of compelling reasons to make the fight. Cintron clearly has revitalized his career, but he’ll need a bigger win than this (Vernon Forrest, anyone? He’s not busy!) to start the talk about being a serious factor in the junior middleweight ranks. As for Angulo, while this was surely a disappointing loss, he’s got a lot of career to go, and maybe needed a wake-up call like this to let him know he can’t just show up and steamroll everyone. Pressure fighters are great until that tactic doesn’t work; Angulo will need to learn a plan B. Good thing is, there’s plenty of time for that.
2. Absolut-ly ridiculous
You know, I’m not a drinker, so maybe this is way out of my league, but how many damn types of vodka does Absolut need to make, anyway? There’s almost no fruit that seems to have escaped the Asolut treatment: grapefruit, raspberry, vanilla, lemon, grape, orange, lime, mango, peach. What’s next, pomegranate? Star fruit? I mean, how much of a vodka snob does one have to be to drink freaking mango vodka? I thought vodka was supposed to taste terrible! Look, I’m all for variety, but when my local liquor store has to tear out the 7-up cooler to find enough rack space for the Baskin-Robbins 31 flavors of Sweden’s finest vodka, something’s wrong. Besides, everyone I’ve ever seen drink the stuff is wasted in like an hour; Absolut drunkenness is a far more accurate title (no word on whether the WBA will make that an official title, but they do make decisions like they’ve been drinking most of the time)!
3. Inoculations, anyone?
Only in boxing. At this point, the Sweet Science has seen a million fights cancelled for a million strange reasons. Then there was the third attempt at the Nicolay Valuev-Ruslan Chagaev heavyweight tilt that was supposed to happen on May 30 in Helsinki, Finland. You would figure if it didn’t happen the first two times, maybe it just wasn’t meant to be, right? Especially if the second cancellation was due to Chagaev’s hepatitis B! Well, hepatitis is the gift that keeps on giving, and even though the fighters had weighed in and were ready to go, that same night, a Finnish lab determined that the risk of infection from the disease was too great. How the hell Chagaev gets a license anywhere boggles the mind, but he has 25 fights already, so evidently it’s not a problem elsewhere.
The best part is, after Chagaev’s promoter, Universum, tried to explain that since they’ve had Chagaev tested before and he’s no threat, they would offer Valuev the option of getting a vaccine prior to the fight so it could go forth. Fine, but what about the referee, chief seconds, announcing crew and the first three rows of fans? Next thing you know, Chagaev gets busted open, blood goes everywhere, and you’ve got a HAZMAT crew sequestering folks into a plastic bubble. Come to think of it, that would be way more exciting than the actual fight between these two! Valuev refused the shot, of course, so the fight was called off. Boxing fans may have been saved from far more than just a hepatitis-filled night.
4. One man’s deadly disease is another man’s heavyweight showdown
So, given that the Fins thought that Chagaev was an infection risk, it only makes sense that he’d get another fight in two weeks, right? Well, the gelatin in the petri dish hadn’t even become solid before the Russian dove right in to replace David Haye against Wladamir Klitschko on June 20, after Haye pulled out with a back injury. Forgetting for a minute how Chagaev could even get this fight after his hepatitis troubles, the fact is that Haye only needed until July 11 to make the fight happen, and Kitschko’s camp told Haye to take a walk. Really? Three weeks seems like a very reasonable time frame to wait for the only heavyweight fight anyone wants to see. So, naturally, HBO then told Klitschko to take a walk, deciding not to televise the fight. Wlad’s manager Bernd Boente actually said he couldn’t understand why, as if Wlad could fight a Balsam Fir and HBO should put it on the network. HBO’s only going to put fights on it thinks people will watch; this should tell Boente and Team Kitschko how much the network thinks of his drawing power. Or maybe they were just afraid of Larry Merchant having to be inoculated before fight time…
5. And you thought Iron Mike was strange before
Tragically, we’ve all heard by now about Mike Tyson’s daughter, Exodus, and her accidental death a couple of weeks ago. So it was even stranger to hear that Tyson, fresh off what has to be a devastating loss far greater then any he’s had in the ring, actually got married this last weekend. Yes, you heard that right; he tied the knot with his third wife Saturday. Now, I know nothing of Tyson’s family or how much they did or didn’t grieve, but I can’t believe you couldn’t just postpone something like this in light of that kind of tragedy. What must their wedding night or honeymoon have been like? Wouldn’t you have the loss of your daughter on your mind constantly so soon after it happened? It just seems so wrong on so many levels that even if you were OK enough to go through with the wedding, you wouldn’t just out of respect for your deceased child. I have always thought Tyson was a little off, and this surely won’t change my mind.
"Sugar" Shane Mosley took it to Antonio Margarito in January, apparently taking Margarito's aura of invincibility in the process. As of June, he still can not get a big-time welterweight dance partner.
It may seem like a lifetime ago, but it has been only four months since “Sugar” Shane Mosley forcibly removed the aura of the Most Feared Fighter On the Planet from Antonio Margarito. In that January 24 bout, Mosley seemingly turned back the clock on his 37 years; where most had thought his best days were behind him, his dismantling of the Mexican warrior (sans the loaded gloves, of course) put him right back in the welterweight discussion.
Or so it was thought at the time. If one was to check the Ring magazine’s rankings in and around the 147-pound division, you see many of the top fighters matched against each other this summer. Miguel Cotto – Joshua Clottey. Andre Berto, who just fought, against Luis Collazo. Floyd Mayweather coming back to face Juan Manuel Marquez, with the winner getting Manny Pacquiao. Ricky Hatton just fought Pac Man, and his brother Matthew is fighting Zab Judah on July 18. Looks like the only one without a potentially significant fight is the #1 ranked fighter, Mosley, who is the division’s forgotten man at this point.
The problem is not that other fighters have bouts already, it’s that no one is even mentioning Mosley as a fight they’d like down the road. It has gotten so bad, that after ESPN’s Brian Kenney had his well-publicized tête-à-tête with Pretty Boy Floyd last week, Mosley had sink to making remarks about Mayweather’s financial troubles in hopes of getting him in the ring. And even lately, Mosley’s camp has taken to saying they’ve got a fight lined up with Pacquiao for October 18, even though Top Rank says they’ve had no discussions about that at all. It’s well known that the uber-popular Filipino’s shooting a movie all summer in his home country, and that date would seem a bit too soon. And, besides, no one’s heard Mosley’s name coming from anyone’s mouth but his.
Now, one could argue that this is karma for his admission that he used steroids in 2003 prior to his second fight with Oscar De La Hoya, and they might be right. Still, though, a fight between Mosley and Mayweather, Pacquiao, or even a rematch with Miguel Cotto would be worth paying attention to. At the very least, after the Margarito performance, he shouldn’t be relegated to fighting the Sergio Mora’s & Carlos Quintana’s of the world. He’s 37, and Mosley knows he doesn’t have unlimited time left. For the boxing fan, it would be much better to see him in action now against one of the top dogs rather than having him tread water for 18 months, perhaps looking old or rusty the next time he steps into the ring. Not everyone is Bernard Hopkins, you know.
For now, Mosley will have to bide his time, and if he’s smart, will take a stay-busy fight later this summer while the whole welterweight picture plays out. After all that is done, though, someone needs to step up to the plate and take on the #1 guy in the division. While Mosley isn’t De La Hoya when it comes to being a license to print money, he’s someone boxing fans will pay to see when matched appropriately. Sugar has earned his place at the table; someone now needs to give him a slice of that pie.
Ruslan Chagaev takes a seat during Saturday's Ring Magazine Championship fight with Wladamir Klitschko. Chagaev needed more time to sit and think, as he barely dented the Ukranian's armor in any of their ten rounds.
