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!
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