Wow, look, kids! It's the Real Deal Evander Holyfield in one of his greatest fights - oh, wait, that must have been another picture. This is just a photo of Holyfield punching the shot, wheezing Franz Botha. So sorry.Fouling less in a month than Roy Jones does in a round, it’s the Finito Five!
1. Berto fights for himself and country
Many a fight trainer will tell you that the Sweet Science has always been more mental than physical, as it is with any sport played at its highest level. While no one was disputing that welterweight contender Andre Berto’s dedication and drive to fight for his friends and relatives who perished in that terrible Haitian earthquake last January, his focus and rustiness would be another matter. When you learn that eight of your relatives died and other members of your family are missing amidst the devastation that was (and still is) Haiti, no one would blame Berto for not having boxing first and foremost on the mind. Heck, Berto even went down there for a week to help with the relief effort, pulling out of a possible career-defining fight with Shane Mosley on the way. Despite doing good and organizing the whole fight night as a de facto fund raiser for the island country, there was still the matter of shaking it all off and getting into the ring. And with the tough, experienced Paul Williams conqueror Carlos Quintana standing in the other corner, it figured to be no easy task.
That’s also what made Berto’s eighth-round smackdown of the Puerto Rican all the more impressive. Yes, Berto looked rusty early and lost the first couple of rounds, but after that point, he got it together and used that blazing hand speed to good measure. Seriously, Floyd Mayweather may have faster hands, but does anyone else have that kind of whack on his punches with that kind of hand speed? Maybe Yuriorkis Gamboa, but that’s about it. Chumps do not beat Quintana, so the guess is that Berto would be a handful for anybody at 147 pounds, even the Mayweather-Mosley winner. Just think what may happen during his next fight when he’s less distracted. The problem just might be that there’s too much risk and not enough reward for a lot of big names to fight Berto; as it is, with the way he looked Saturday, the more he fights for Haiti, the more he’s likely to beat people.
2. How’s my left hook, Andrew Ridgley?
OK, all boxing fans are thankful for the new Top Rank Live show, which brings us (almost) weekly fight cards featuring some of Top Rank’s 8,000 or so fighters they must have signed. Yes, none of us can read the small, supernova-red graphics at the bottom of the screen (is it really round 0?). Yes, most of the fights are broadcast in Spanish while Rich Marotta does the post-fight interviews in English (!). We also have to put up with the constant cut-to-commercial when there’s a knockdown at the end of the round (that ten count’s overrated, anyway). It’s boxing on TV every week and we love it. Still, will somebody at Top Rank can the stupid DJ already? It’s bad enough that he got us all pumped up last Saturday by welterweight Noberto Gonzalez’ ring entrance to AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck”, then the DJ inexplicably switched to Wham’s “Careless Whisper” before Mark Melliguen stepped in the ring! Huh? Way to kill the mood, Einstein! Nothing says gladiators going to battle more than a little 80’s pop, huh? Most everyone at the Hard Rock in Vegas probably thought that the song was Melliguen’s entrance music because they didn’t bother to change it until the Filipino was halfway down his ring walk. That’s just not fair. Now if Mr. DJ cranked up the Tubes or the Kajagoogoo upon Gonzalez’ entrance, that would have evened things out a bit. Too bad the crowd would probably leave before anything started, though.
3. Two battles for the aged
What is in the boxing water the last couple of weeks? First we’re all treated to the Fight No One Was Clamoring For, that being the Bernard Hopkins-Roy Jones tedious twelve-round foulfest. Just as all of us had gotten that crap out of our system, here comes Franz Botha-Evander Holyfield for the World Geriatric Championship to decide who can dislocate a body part first. At least most people though Hopkins was still an elite fighter, but after seeing his inability to take out a completely shot Jones like he said he would, whether the Executioner still has it (or any of it) is now in real doubt. Boxing fans have always wondered whether Jones’ lack of actual boxing fundamentals would cost him when he lost his athleticism, and it has done so in spades. If he couldn’t foul Hopkins, he couldn’t land a punch. But the Botha-Holyfield fight was arguably worse, as Botha, who couldn’t hold the Real Deal’s jock in his prime, was beating the 47-year old handily until he just ran out of gas by round six and got knocked out by round eight. Botha looked like he needed an oxygen mask in his corner just to make it a couple more rounds. Considering how poorly attended both these fights were and the fact the PPV numbers weren’t even released, why were they put on in the first place? We hear all the time about if it makes money, it makes sense; these didn’t make either. Maybe somebody will finally figure that out and not reapeatedly subject us to it.
4. From the department of Municipal Waste, Pt. 1.
First off, Dan Rafael of ESPN.com carries the boxing torch better than just about anyone, because he’s so unafraid to confront B.S. when he sees it. Such was the case with newly-crowned 140-pound WBC titleholder Devon Alexander, who is nothing but a credit to boxing and a great representative as world champion. Well, apparently that just wasn’t enough for the WBC, who had the audacity to send Alexander a letter saying he should relinquish his title because Alexander merely said he wanted to fight WBO titleist Timothy Bradley. Forget the fact that Alexander never said he wouldn’t fight the mandatory WBC challenger, or that he had not signed anything for a fight with Bradley; just the mention of his doing something other than what the WBC wanted made them pissy enough to tell Alexander to get lost. Wouldn’t you want your champion to prove his greatness by fighting who most consider the top guy at jr. welterweight? The arrogance just boggles the mind. Kudos to Dan to pile all over WBC president Jose Sulaiman and his stupid cronies in a recent article, saying, “The WBC, with so many reprehensible rulings, worthless forced mandatory fights and numerous approved mismatches, is responsible for much of boxing's downfall over the past two decades.” Amen.
5. From the department of Municipal Waste, Pt. 2.
With each passing month, it’s becoming clear that disgraced former welterweight champion Antonio Margarito is trying to make it clear to everyone he’s one of the dumbest guys in boxing. Despite the fact that the California State Athletic Commission has not yet reinstated his license due to his loaded handwrap debacle, he and Top Rank see fit to fight in Mexico on May 8, anyway. Good luck getting that license back in the U.S. again, guys – I’m sure the CSAC won’t take any offense that you clearly ignored their ruling and fought again. Not only that, in a recent statement to reporters, Margarito actually took offense to those disputing his claims that he had NO idea what trainer Javier Capetillo was putting into his hand wraps. "The way I box has always been clean,” he said. “Nobody has a clear idea what happened that night, and now I'm going to show who I am." Uh, yeah, Antonio, we do. The CSAC determined it was plaster of Paris, it was in your handwraps, and it could have killed Shane Mosley had you used them. That’s what that hearing was for, so that we would all know exactly what happened. Your claims of ignorance only make you seem more clueless. So quit being offended that everyone is questioning your integrity, because you brought it on yourself. If you didn’t have Bob Arum at Top Rank still supporting you (they keep enabling him like nothing ever happened), you’d be lucky ever to get another major fight again.
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