The Finito Flash – Margarito’s impossible choice, Kessler’s obvious choice

Antonio Margarito may be in shape, but does he have anywhere to fight? California told him to take a walk, but Texas may decide that loaded gloves are only important if they prevent the Cowboys from playing.

Some quick thoughts about current goings-on in the Sweet Science:

By now, most everyone has heard that the California State Athletic Commision (CSAC) has denied welterweight Antonio Margarito a license to continue fighting after his plaster-in-the-hand-wraps debacle prior to his fight with Shane Mosley a year and a half ago. That was definitely the right thing to do, and I believe that Margarito probably should be on the shelf for longer than just a year. In fact, I’m still torn as to whether he even belongs back in the ring period. I simply don’t (and won’t ever) believe that Margarito had no idea his gloves were being loaded when he’s been around thousands of wrapped hands, his own or otherwise. Cement in your gloves is about as heinous a transgression as can be done in the Sweet Science, and it should never be taken lightly. Ever.

Having said all that, however, the dog-and-pony show that was put forth by the CSAC in denying Margarito his license defied all logic. From all accounts, Margarito (and his lawyer, Daniel Petrocelli of Ron Goldman fame) had no chance coming into the hearing simply because the CSAC was determined to give Margarito two impossible options. He could admit his guilt (which is what the CSAC had said they essentially wanted him to do), which would probably result in his becoming so radioactive that not even Lady Gaga would touch him with a ten-foot pole. It’s not like you can walk around saying, “Yeah, I knowingly let my trainer put cement in my gloves, my bad. So when’s my next fight?” His second option (which he chose) was to deny any wrongdoing, but in doing so, meant that he would never get the CSAC to reinstate his license. Couple that with the CSAC’s citing some obscure “sparring license” rule that Margarito failed to follow as some further example of his general negligence (yes, because not getting a license that half of California boxers don’t even know about and loading your gloves are in the same place on the egregiousness meter!), and the Mexican was as good as done.

Now, this is not to say I have any sympathy for Margarito, because I don’t. His fighting in Mexico while suspended in the U.S. coupled with his continued association with trainer Javier Capetillo for months afterward was among the stupider things in boxing history. Margarito has made his own bed so many times, he should be working at Howard Johnson. He’s applied for a license in Texas, and if that commission has any decency, they will deny him once again. Still, the CSAC made their case less legitimate by making the proceedings look more like a Boston Legal episode than an actual hearing. Let’s hope it’s the only time this happens.

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Bummer of bummers, it looks like Mikkel Kessler has pulled out of the Super Six super middleweight tournament. Apparently, it had to do with a muscle around Kessler’s eye that sustained repeated damage during sparring, and it has been an issue with the Dane for quite a while. Eye injuries are always a serious thing, whether you’re a boxer on not. Luckily for fight fans, after about a year, he should be back to normal, and can resume a career that excites boxing fans around the world.

Still, what are they going to do with the rest of the tournament? Kessler had a genuinely good shot of making the semi-finals of the tournament if he had beaten Allan Green; with Green’s no-show against Andre Ward, that may have been a good Vegas bet. Adding someone new at this point virtually guarantees that fighter no chance of advancing if Kessler’s points aren’t carried over to them, but is it also fair to give credit for Kessler’s accomplishments to someone just coming in? Probably the only fair way to finish up the tournament is to scrap the third round and just have Andre Dirrell, Ward, Carl Froch and Arthur Abraham start the semi-finals right now. Of course, Green would be left out in the cold, but he was pretty fortunate to be asked in the first place. Besides, why not just make Green-Kessler after Kessler’s eye heals? We wouldn’t have to miss the fight at all then, but obviously the Super Six is making for some strange promotional bedfellows we wouldn’t normally see. That fight being made under normal circumstances may be more of a reach than Floyd Mayweather actually answering a question about Manny Pacquiao this year.

From what it sounds like, Showtime is discussing skipping round three of the tournament, so there’s encouraging news on that front. Even though we may have lost a round of great fights, it’s hard to argue that the Super Six has been anything other than an excellent idea, one which will be remembered for years to come.

This Chad was just plain “bad”

Chad Dawson got in the face of fellow light heavyweight Jean Pascal more often at the weigh-in than he did for most of their fight Saturday. Maybe Pascal's breath was bad enough to scare Dawson from engaging him closely during the bout.

As an observer of boxing for over 20 years now, I can say that there are three things that I firmly believe go into making a boxer who he or she is (and you could probably apply them to any sport, really). Setting aside for a minute any other intangibles that could come into play, these are the three variables:

1. Skill – Whether this is God-given talent or acquired by training, the actually boxing ability of a fighter in the ring.

2. Intelligence – Otherwise known as wisdom or ring smarts, this covers the mental side of the game, from the ability to adapt to getting your opponent to fight your fight.

3. Heart – This is what most fans call the warrior’s mentality, from the journeyman who keeps fighting after being knocked down five times to the champion who summons the will to grind out the last two rounds of a title defense.

Every fighter has varying degrees of each one of these attributes, but here’s one thing that’s for sure: If you’re severely lacking in any one of these areas, but are great in the other two, it will eventually catch up to you.

Want an example or two?

Ricky Hatton has tons of fighting heart and dictated his all-attacking style to just about every opponent he ever faced. However, when it came down to matching skill on skill with the Pacquiao’s & Mayweather’s of the world, he just couldn’t hang and eventually lost. Does that mean he was without skill? Of course not. But as a fighter attempts to ascend the highest rungs of boxing’s ladder, not having one of the attributes at the same high level of the other two will make life difficult, and that’s what happened to Hatton. Too bad there can’t be more than one Ricky Hatton, eh?

A different example would be welterweight Kendall Holt. While “Rated R” has skill beyond compare and a willingness to bring the fight each and every time, he is also very capable of melting down mentally at a moment’s notice. Anyone remember his awesome first couple of rounds against Timothy Bradley last year? Holt could have been in control of the fight and possibly won, but he inexplicably decided to quit throwing punches and using his jab, so Bradley took over. How about the rematch against Ricardo Torres, where Holt wasn’t ready for Torres to start brawling at the opening bell (which is all Torres ever does), and got knocked down twice in the first round before eventually coming back to win by knockout in the same round? Great heart, but Holt could save himself a lot of pain and suffering by keeping his wits about him sometimes.

Which now brings us to the third example, that of light heavyweight Chad Dawson. We know Dawson’s skill is among the very best in boxing, period. We know he is cagey enough to keep world-class fighters like Glen Johnson and Thomasz Adamek off their games and frustrated. But never has Dawson’s heart been truly tested. Never has he had to prove that he wanted it more than the other guy. Never has he had to overcome that adversity that makes so many fighters great.

Against Jean Pascal last Saturday, Dawson showed that he might not have what it takes to bring it at the highest level. And what a disappointment that is.

When it became apparent during the first few rounds that Pascal was going to use his familiar Montreal crowd to bring the fight and wrest the title of best 175-pounder from Dawson, “Bad” Chad was just plain bad. Make no mistake, Dawson is the better fighter by miles, both in terms of skill and ring smarts. But it was apparent early on that Pascal just wanted it way more than Dawson did, to the extent that Pascal was going to keep throwing punches until something good happened. Here’s a guy that suffered three shoulder separations (ouch!) in his second fight with Adrian Diaconu, and still found a way to win.

Dawson, when faced with this situation and opponent, apparently forgot to bring the gasoline with him. Pascal totally dictated the fight, but it was obvious that during the infrequent times that Dawson decided he wasn’t going to fight safety-first, he could really do some damage. Still, there was no energy, no passion to win and really no significant punch output coming at all from Dawson. It wasn’t until the later rounds when he decided to get on his horse that he had Pascal hurt in the ninth and nearly out in the eleventh before an accidental headbutt cut Dawson and caused the fight to go to the cards. At that point, it was too late. Dawson was toast.

The worst part was that it was inexcusable for a guy that was fighting in the challenger’s hometown because he can’t sell tickets in the United States not to lay everything on the line. What did he figure would happen? With the vocal Montreal crowd ooohing and aaahing with every Pascal punch, they would give the decision to the guy from Connecticut? Dawson, unlike crowd-pleasing fighters like Arturo Gatti, has to find a way to keep winning so that HBO and the boxing public will remain interested. With this lousy performance and the lack of any guts, who’s going to flock to see Dawson now? Pascal’s the man at 175, not him. And, although Dawson’s calling for a rematch, a bazillion-dollar fight with Lucien Bute’ is next for Pascal, because the Bute’ matchup is much more interesting, from Canada to Bhutan.

At this moment, Dawson is at a crossroads. He needs to decide whether he has the passion to take some risk and get his crown back, or if he’s going to join the Derrick Gainer’s of the world as just a skilled fighter who plays it too safe to ever be a real factor again.

It may be time for some real heart surgery.