Yuriorkis Gamboa looked spectacular in wiping out Roger Mtagwa Saturday. As to Gamboa's chances of doing the same to the pictured Juan Manuel Lopez after his victory over Steve Luevano, Bob Arum said hurry up and wait.
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This month’s ten burning questions, from Juanma and Gamboa on a collision course to some shady fight cancellations:
Q: So what happened to last month’s burning questions? Where was the Q & A for December?
A: Look, some of have lives, so relax. Not only has the last month been short of any real action save the Mayweather-Pacquiao debacle, but it was also the Christmas season, man! Throw in a cold that kept me out of action for a good part of those holidays, and it was a slow month. Besides, if anyone’s really on pins and needles waiting for this column, they should seek help immediately.
Q: Fine, on to the fight that didn’t happen, then. You said a few weeks ago that Pac Man and “Money” Mayweather would eventually fight because they couldn’t pass the money up. Still believe that?
A: Yes, but unfortunately, that time is probably not anytime soon. One or both of them will probably need cash at some point enough to let bygones be bygones, but like Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones, who knows how long it will be from now? Five years? Ten years? Those two lunkheads passed up a golden opportunity for themselves and the sport, and no boxing fan will ever forget what could have been. Everyone’s still steaming over this.
Q: But what about Pacquiao-Clottey and Mayweather-Mosley? Aren’t those pretty good replacement fights?
A: Sure, but that’s a bit like saying you got a BMW instead of a Bentley. Not bad, but not nearly as impressive as it could have been. While both fights aren’t subpar, it will be interesting to see what the PPV numbers will be for these cards with fans in such an agitated state. Give credit to both fighters for not taking soft touches (especially with Mayweather taking on a real top-notch 147-pounder finally), but again, this is not what we were getting our hopes up for. Really, if Clottey can’t beat Cotto, who Pac Man wrecked, is anyone seriously worried about Manny’s chances? I’ll be much more interested to see what Mosley does against Pretty Boy.
Q: So what will be the actual fallout from this fight not being made?
A: A whole lot of things. First off, boxing will be on the mainstream media’s back burner again, probably for a while. Secondly, it will take some time before boxing fans shell out big money for either guy again. Top Rank and Golden Boy will probably be in for a rude awakening when it comes to that. Furthermore, this whole deal has killed the relationship between both promotional companies, so it’s going to be a while before we see any fighters from each stable fight each other. Given how many good fighters each company has, that might actually be the most damaging aspect to the sport going forward.
Q: On to the in-ring action. Just how good did Yuriorkis Gamboa and Juan Manuel Lopez look this weekend?
A: Awesomely good. The fact that Gamboa wiped out the tough-as-Beruit Roger Mtagwa (who is apparently not Rogers anymore) inside of two was simply amazing. Gamboa was not reckless at all, which he had been in previous fights, giving him an air of real vulnerability. Gamboa’s hands are the fastest we’ve seen in a while. And while Lopez looked great beating Steven Luevano, who is himself an excellent fighter, no doubt Gamboa took the show. He absolutely killed a guy that almost beat Lopez late last year, and if I were JuanMa, I’d be more than a bit worried about their future fight.
Q: Speaking of that, why did Bob Arum of Top Rank say afterwards that the both guys would have other tune-up fights before fighting each other? Wasn’t that what this card was all about?
A: This is Arum pretzel logic, which is why it has me worried. All we heard for the last couple of months was that the whole idea behind Saturday night’s card was to get both guys positioned to fight each other as long as they won. Now, Arum suddenly acts like that was never even in his plans, which is ridiculous. Look, if Gamboa really needs more seasoning, that’s fine; but let’s make sure he’s fighting credible opponents during that time. It would not be unlike Arum to milk this thing for an extra year having Gamboa and Lopez fight soft touches to “build up” momentum for the eventual fight. Who wants that? If they’re ready, they’re ready; Gamboa fighting guys with less ability then Mtagwa is not going impress or fool anyone. Besides, if you had no intention to have these guys fight next, then don’t say it in the first place! But that would make too much sense, wouldn’t it?
Q: Back in October, after Juan Carlos Salgado’s upset win over uber-prospect Jorge Linares got him a 130-pound title, you said that we should wait for a rematch before judging Linares. Well, now that Salgado got upset by unheralded Takashi Uchiyama a couple of weekends ago, what does that now say about that loss?
A: Right now, it says that Linares a bad loss on his record. Granted, Linares really just got stunned in the first round by Salgado; however, judging by the way Salgado just got dominated by a fighter with only 14 pro fights, he might be a one-shot wonder. Salgado was really never in the fight at all, looked lost at times, and succumbed to a continual left hook he couldn’t stop all fight. Maybe Linares will get that rematch with Salgado eventually. If he does, he better take Salgado out with the same authority, or boxing fans will all be wondering if Linares is really the goods.
Q: So is Brian Viloria now no longer the goods? He lost his jr. flyweight title to someone named Carlos Tamara Saturday in the Philippines.
A: If there’s a bigger enigma in boxing than the former U.S. Olympian, I have yet to see it. Viloria should have everything it takes to rule the 108-pound ranks, but he just can’t seem to show up for two big fights in a row. Remember, Viloria won the title last April with an awesome knockout of Ulises Solis, who Tamara couldn’t beat on his best day. There’s no reason that Viloria should have had this much trouble with Tamara, let alone getting starched by him. The “Hawaiian Punch” controlled the first two-thirds of the fight for the most part, so it's baffling that he could have found any way to lose it. Also, after being so strong in the later rounds last time out, he was out of gas in round twelve, and got knocked out because of it. I don’t know if this was a training issue or what, but Team Viloria needs to figure out what happened quickly. If not, Viloria will be treading water for the rest of his career. And that would be a total waste. It’s not like good American 108-pounders grow on trees (maybe just near pineapple trees).
Q: Antonio Margarito is also coming back to fight Carson Jones on the Pacquiao-Clottey undercard. Jones is also advocating his reinstatement. What does this say about boxing?
A: Well, I can tell you what it says about the Texas commission: They would apparently license Satan if he applied, horns and all. Forget the fact that Margarito hasn’t even gone in front of the California commission, where his original loaded-gloves transgression had taken place. The same people that gave us the Diaz-Malignaggi I debacle aren’t even going to make Margacheato explain himself before giving him the go ahead. Unbelievable. As for Carson Jones, he can say that canceling his fight Margarito would take food off his table, but it’s not like Margarito is the only damn big-name guy he can fight to make a name for himself. I understand his point, but he needs to realize that Margarito probably took food off a lot of fighter’s tables when he loaded his gloves. Maybe Jones should talk to Kermit Cintron, who had a bunch of potential big paydays derailed by two knockout losses to Margarito. Not only has Cintron never looked like that in any fight other than those two, it’s taken him a good five years to recover his career from that first loss, and it probably will never be what it could have been. Margarito needs to answer for that before any reinstatement is done.
Q: Then what do you make of the rumors that both Andre Berto and Jermain Taylor getting payoffs to pull out of their respective upcoming fights?
A: Step-aside money is one of the things I absolutely hate in boxing more than just about anything else. The reason I hate it so much is because it is usually hidden by some B.S. altruistic, save-the-whales reason for the fighter stepping aside, when it’s just about the greenbacks. So all of a sudden Taylor, after being told by everyone his chin is now made of glass, decides to graciously hang up his gloves? Come on. To no one’s surprise, he made it clear that this was only a temporary break; so it only makes sense that he would voluntarily pass up two huge paydays in the Super Six tourney, right? Worse yet, in Berto’s case, his reason for pulling out of the fight was due to his concern for relatives affected by that devastating earthquake in Haiti last week. While I believe that to be true, reports of a payoff to free up Mosley to fight Mayweather just smell bad. Even if everything’s above board, taking a payoff at the same time you’re telling everyone that you’re too grief-stricken to fight looks terrible. Berto’s management team should be a hell of a lot smarter than that. It would be nice if all these payoffs either went away or had to be made public. Then everyone would get the truth.
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