The Finito Q & A – September edition

Now that the Scorpions are the WBC's “honorary ambassadors for peace”, maybe we can finally figure out if all the band members collectively weigh as much as James Toney did for his MMA fight last month.

This pressing questions in the fight game, from Mora’s running to the Scorpions’ rocking:

Q: After all the negative press the fight has received, was Sergio Mora-Shane Mosley really that bad?

A: It depends on how you look at it. In terms of the fight itself, it was pretty terrible until about round ten when Mora finally decided he actually wanted to make a determined effort to win. The last three rounds did have some good action back and forth, so it wasn’t as bad as Manny Paquiao-Joshua Clottey, for instance. In that fight, Clottey didn’t show up for any round at all, and ran constantly just to make it to round twelve. With Mora, his feinting and clinching style was a definite game plan, he just had no offense to go with it. But all in all, it was a lot of Mosley trying to make the fight and Mora trying not to, so it was pretty hard on the eyes.

Q: If it was so one-sided, how did it end up a draw?

A: Because the judges (well, at least two of them) were absolutely awful. I have not yet seen anyone score this fight towards Mora more than 116-112 Mosley except for Kermit Bayless (115-113 Mora) and Lou Moret (114-114), and unfortunately, their scores counted. I had the fight scored 118-110, and there were only two other rounds I thought were close enough to possibly give to Mora. Other than that, there was no way you could give Mora any more than five rounds (4, 7 & 10-12), because he was not competitive in the others. This was not a fight with a lot of close rounds; Mosley clearly did enough to win and got shafted. HBO’s Jim Lampley called the decision atrocious, and he was right.

Q: With all that said, what does this mean for each fighter’s career at this point?

A: For Mosley, everyone will probably consider this fight a victory, if not on the scorecards. Sugar Shane clearly isn’t what he was ten years ago, but he still has world-class skills and a willingness to get in there and fight. For Mora, the thing he now has in common with Clottey is that he won’t see a big stage ever again. You would think with millions at stake if he had won the fight, the “Latin Snake” would have fought like his life depended on it; instead, he fought like his afternoon nap depended on it. Not only did he show up three pounds heavy at the weigh-in, he used none of his natural size and reach advantages to press the action during the bout. I’m not even sure he even threw a meaningful body shot until the second half of the fight. In the post-fight interview, Mora said he respected Mosley too much. Respect for your opponent should never get in the way of being a professional, and now Mora will have plenty of time to think about that on those Solo Boxeo and Friday Night Fights cards to which he’ll now be banished.

Q: Does this fight take any luster off of Floyd Mayweather’s victory over Shane?

A: It shouldn’t. Like I said before, Mosley has seen his best days, but he still fights at the top level and is a Hall-Of-Famer. The fight with Mora was one of those bad stylistic matchups, so you can’t kill Mosley too much for it; besides, Mosley did his best to bring the action and did win for all intents and purposes. Until someone dominates Mosley like that again, you have to consider Mayweather’s victory a significant one.

Q: Speaking of Mayweather, do you think he’s going to fight again now that three felony counts have been brought against him?

A: Apparently you didn’t read last week’s Finito Five. Floyd is not going to be mentioned here unless it’s for some actual in-ring action. Until that happens, I couldn’t care less if he ends up in jail or not.

Q: OK, then back to the PPV. Maybe the main event was terrible, but didn’t the undercard fights (all KO’s) take away some of the stench?

A: Yes! For all the bad the feature fight gave boxing fans, the three fights before it were absolutely thrilling. You’d have thought the French Revolution was in full swing the way the heads were rolling. Daniel Ponce De Leon showed that he’s becoming a real boxer in addition to his awesome power by wiping out fellow featherweight Antonio Escalante in three rounds (back to FNF with Mora, Antonio!). “Vicious” Victor Ortiz won the battle of the “Vicious” nickname by knocking down Vivian Harris four times on the way to a third-round knockout. Ortiz really looks like he’s getting some of that swagger back he lost against Marcos Maidana. And as for 154-pound Mexican redhead Saul Alvarez smoking iron-chinned Carlos Baldomir in round six, what more needs to be said? Baldomir is long in the tooth, sure, but he hasn’t hit the deck in more than ten years, and has certainly never taken a ten-count. With the buzz generated by those fights, fans were chanting Alvarez’ name while Mora was doing all his running during the main event. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen that before.

Q: The Top Rank Live card this last Saturday had two fights with world title implications, but the Jorge Arce-Lorenzo Parra jr. feather clash was only in round three by the supposed end of the show at midnight. Many a DVR owner must have been frustrated. What happened?

A: First off, it’s a live sporting event, so DVR users, get used to extending your recording times an hour (or start it an hour early if it happens to be on ESPN!). Secondly, this was just par for the course with Top Rank Live these days. While boxing fans are eternally grateful to Bob Arum for putting these shows on, the production often resembles cable-access programming. If you look at any ESPN or Telefutura show, there are absolutely no more than 22 scheduled rounds of boxing for any given show. Why? Because the fights themselves (barring knockouts, of course) take about 90 minutes, leaving 30 minutes for ring introductions, fight analysis, ads, et cetera. The card Saturday, between Omar Chavez and Humberto Soto’s fights before the main event, totaled a ridiculous 30 scheduled rounds, which would run at exactly two hours for just in-ring fight time. If Chavez hadn’t ended his fight in round four, the show would have lasted almost three hours. Not very good planning by the Top Rank folks.

Q: So the Arce-Parra fight was a draw then wasn’t a draw afterwards, so what did fans miss?

A: What was missed was a complete mishandling of scorecards, which again is indicative of just how messy some of the Top Rank Live shows are. It was bad enough that rounds three and ten didn’t come back from commercial break until a minute into their respective rounds; but when the fight was over, and seemingly in a rush to end the show, an obviously confused ring announcer Lupe’ Contreras just said the fight was a draw and the show ended. No scores, no explanation, nothing. After the fight was over, officials at the fight said the scorecards were added up incorrectly and Arce was the winner. A day or so later, the Culiacan Boxing & Wrestling Commission said the original draw would stand for now, and there’s to be a hearing. So in other words, no one knows who won right now. And given that Arce dominated the fight from pillar to post, I’m not really sure how there can be that much confusion with the result.

Q: Cruiserweight Enzo Maccarinelli got knocked out once again against Alexander Frenkel this last weekend. Why is he still being allowed to fight?

A: He shouldn’t be, at least not for a while. The British Boxing Board Of Control really needs to get on this before something really bad happens to Maccarinelli. Frenkel absolutely crushed him with a left that eventually ended up with doctors giving the Welshman oxygen on the canvas. This is the fourth time in eight fights that he’s been brutally knocked out, so much so it should give his team (Joe Calzaghe’s father, also named Enzo, is his trainer) some pause about putting him back in there. It’s one thing to have a run of getting stopped in fights, but it’s another when those knockouts end with you sleeping on the canvas. The only reason he’s allowed back in the ring every time speaks to how celebrated Maccarinelli was for years in Britian prior to his facing David Haye. Perhaps Maccarinelli should find another line of work before he starts sounding like Tommy Hearns or worse.

Q: Did you see the WBC gave rock band the Scorpions an honorary championship belt? The Scorpions?

A: Yes, I did see that. As if the WBC doesn’t do enough strange things already with their belts and rankings, now apparently Klaus Meine and friends are “honorary WBC ambassadors for peace”, which garners some sort of belt. What in the world the Scorps have to do with boxing (yes, I know they have played at Klitschko fights in the past) or what the WBC has to do with world unity seems is comparable to what Oscar De La Hoya has to do with Antarctic exploration. I suppose, though, when you have four champions in one division and have been known to rank dead fighters, giving rock bands their own belts is not such a stretch. I just hope this doesn't mean that if I ever need to replace my "Love At First Sting" CD, there isn't an extra sanctioning fee that goes along with it!

The Finito Five 8/17/10

Wladimir Klitschko's not making Bernard Hopkins' executioner sign, although he did nearly behead Sam Peter in their rematch Saturday. No matter how much body the Ukranian exposed, Peter just felt like getting a hug instead of throwing a body shot.

More coherent than any video rant, it’s the Finito Five!

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1. Open mouth, insert Mayweather

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OK, I try to be objective in this space every time out, but there comes a time when I have to cut the cord. That’s it. Until he steps into the ring again, I’m officially done with Floyd Mayweather. It’s bad enough he wouldn’t sign to fight Manny Pacquiao earlier this year, but then he throws out a YouTube video so stupid it makes the Flat Earth Society look legit. Never mind his ridiculous, semi-racist rants directed towards the Filipino superstar in which he’s not even smart enough to insult his intended target correctly (uhh, Sushi is Japanese, not Filipino, dummy). Never mind his pathetic yes men agreeing with everything Floyd said to the point that if he told one of them they were owls, they’d probably start hooting. This stupidity we expect from Mayweather. The most galling thing, however, is that he’s calling out the pound-for-pound best boxer in the world (and, believe me, it’s not you, “Money”) as if Pacquiao won’t fight him, when it’s clearly the other way around. At least if you’re going to call someone a chicken, you should at least make sure you’re not the one with the beak. The only reason this video probably even happened in the first place was that Pretty Boy just couldn’t take that Pac-Man was in the news again for an actual, honest-to-God fight and he wasn’t. It’s getting positively tiring to constantly hear news about Mayweather without it having to do with a signed contract for his next bout.

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The difference this time is that Mayweather’s now really stepped in it. Up until now, the Mouth from Grand Rapids could just about say anything he wanted with no repercussions. However, as soon as that video came out, instead of everyone just shrugging off his comments as they usually do, an outcry from fans and Filipino groups alike actually made Floyd issue a weak apology the next day. And make, no mistake, his “I was only playin’ around” excuse was just that. He crossed a line that was beyond just trash talk. If that wasn’t enough, now we find Mayweather back in jail again on charges he stole cell phones from the mother of three of his kids and a possible charge of domestic battery. To be sure, no one knows the facts of this case just yet, but Floyd’s ex-girlfriend did go to the hospital, so something happened. With Las Vegas police saying that Mayweather actually threatened to beat HIS OWN KIDS if any of them called the police, this could get much more ugly before it’s all done. And you know what? As much B.S. as I’ve had to constantly put up with from Mayweather (and as much of a creep as he is, anyway), until he steps into the ring, I couldn’t care less what he says or does. Like I said before, I’m done.

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2. The Montiel/Margarito World Tour

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With most boxers who dedicate their blood, sweat and tears to the fight game, it can usually be said that their lives are boxing. But you would think that even the most dedicated of fighters would like a weekend or two off with their families, like the rest of us working Joes do from our own jobs. Apparently, this doesn’t work for bantamweight Fernando Montiel and welterweight Antonio Margarito, who have seen fit to show up at damn near every fight in North America over the past six months. Just about every Top Rank show that is on TV these days, there’s Margarito in the ring with his smiling Mexican face, while Montiel is in the first couple of rows rocking sunglasses with some hottie at his side. At Giovani Segura-Ivan Calderon, there they were again, and I’m pretty sure they were at Tomasz Adamek-Michael Grant as well, selling cotton candy and popcorn for all we know. Guys, you can have interests outside of boxing; get a hobby! But, alas, there Margs was again Saturday night behind Brandon Rios prior to his fight with Anthony Peterson. Maybe he's just saving up his frequent flyer miles so he can fly somewhere that never heard of Plaster of Paris! As a matter of fact, I’m pretty sure I saw Montiel at the bread isle in my local supermarket yesterday. I’m half expecting that when I open up my closet tomorrow, Margarito will be standing there asking me for advice on beating Pacquiao. And whatever advice I would give him, I certainly won’t tell him to go out and plaster Pac-Man…

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3. Still Petered out

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Well, so much for being excited at the Wladamir Klitschko-Sam Peter rematch, huh? There were more than a few fans and scribes alike that thought that perhaps a slimmed down, focused and streaking Peter may give the Ukranian his best test since, well, the last time they fought. If you remember, that was also the last time big Wlad hit the deck and actually was in some serious difficulty. The only difficulty (at least until the tenth round) was remaining interested in the fight itself while watching it. Look, it’s obvious that Klitschko has gotten markedly better since the first time he fought Peter, and wasn’t going to let the Nigerian get in any position that was dangerous. The disappointing thing was that Peter wasn’t doing much to BE dangerous. Unlike his brother, Wladamir is only a few clinches per fight away from John Ruiz territory, and Peter was willing to let the bigger man tie him up and not attempt any work on the inside. For the millionth time, heavweights of the world, YOU WON’T EVER BEAT A KLITSCHKO FROM THE OUTSIDE! You would think that since Wlad has fought every bout essentially the same way for the last ten years, someone would figure out that maybe they need to get inside his reach and work to the body? Peter and his team didn’t seem to have that figured out. Don’t they say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing each time and expecting a different result? In that case, maybe Wlad’s next title defense ought to be in an asylum.

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4. Rios makes a statement, Peterson makes a mistake

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With all apologies to Yuriorkis Gamboa’s excellent featherweight title defense against Orlando Salido, the undercard of HBO’s Boxing After Dark Saturday was the fight with all the intrigue. Undefeated lightweights Brandon Rios and Anthony Peterson were going to tangle, and the winner might be the Next Big Think at 135 pounds. Honestly (including this space here), many thought it would be Peterson, the D.C. phenom who had been kicking butt and taking names along with his brother, Lamont. I guess that’s why they fight the fights, right? Because I’m now a huge fan of Rios, who just laid a beating on Peterson from seemingly out of nowhere. He had Peterson so frustrated, Rios was in danger of not being able to procreate due to Peterson’s 20 or so low blows. “Bam Bam” obviously had a stronger will and mental game than his opponent, and while Rios’ career has shot to the stratosphere, now the questions will start mounting for Peterson. Peterson obviously had more boxing ability, but when it came time to demonstrate it, he quit using his jab and started to get tagged. Despite repeated and easy to follow directions from his trainer Barry Hunter to use that jab, Peterson just wouldn’t do it. Finally, one too many blows south of the border caused referee Russell Mora to disqualify him. While his brother Lamont may have lost to a pound-for-pound world-beater like Timothy Bradley, this was Rios’ first big win of note. The question is whether Anthony Peterson will have another one of his own. He needs to get right before that can happen.

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5. I wouldn’t want to be in this Hatton Wonderland

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When Ricky Hatton more or less stopped fighting after his loss to Manny Pacquiao, there were a handful of boxing people that wondered whether he would be able to resume a normal life. This is a guy that would blow up to damn near 200 pounds when he fought at 140, and it was well-known that Hatton liked the pubs and the good life. It wasn’t so much of a surprise then, that Hatton had been seen over the winter looking more and more like “Hands of Food” Roberto Duran. Many athletes put on weight after their playing days are over. Sadly, it looks like Hatton may have slipped into Johnny Tapia territory. A British newspaper recently published a sobering photo of Hatton snorting cocaine on their front page, a photo that can’t be denied or claimed to have been altered into something it wasn’t. And before everyone cracks any jokes about whether the picture was taken at Joe Calzaghe’s house (c’mon, you know you were thinking about it!), it’s time to realize just how bad it’s gotten for the English “Hit Man”. According to reports, Hatton is now in rehab, as the drugs were only a minor sidelight to a serious drinking and depression problem. So, in other words, the good time, hanging-out-with-his-mates and having a Guinness Hatton is no longer funny, it’s ruining a once-great champion’s life. Here’s hoping Hatton gets it together and comes out of this a better man. Beating addiction will probably a lot tougher than Pac-Man.

Off The Cuff II

The sweat was up and flying several times during the Giovani Segura-Ivan Calderon clash, but "Iron Boy" should have been flying around the ring and not trading with an awesome puncher like Segura.

Now that Labor Day is fast approaching here in the States, it’s time to labor through another round of rapid-fire thoughts about our beloved Sweet Science:

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## Watching the recent Tomasz Adamek-Michael Grant fight, I have to say that there was nothing there that made me think the Polish heavyweight could beat either Kitschko brother. Sure, it was a gutty, gritty performance against Grant, who looks like he should be playing linebacker in the NFL rather then boxing, but it sure wasn’t a cakewalk. Grant had Adamek hurt a couple of times during the fight, and may have won had Adamek not swept the first six rounds. Grant is nowhere near as busy or accurate at Wlad or Vitali, and if Grant can do that kind of damage, Ukranian’s Finest might end the night early for Adamek. Then again, it’s not like the Klitscko’s have been ending much of anything early lately except my interest level.

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## I had to laugh during the fight when Integrated Sports PPV play-by-play nutcase Col. Bob Sheridan kept repeating that Adamek was “just not going to be intimidated by the imposing Michael Grant!” All I could think of was the fact that no one else in the heavyweight division has been intimidated by Grant since about 1999, either. But give Sheridan credit for trying.

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## Seriously, I could write a whole column about Col. Bob’s constant trips to Bonkersville every time he does a fight, and we’ve had two of them to pour over in consecutive weeks. For those not properly trained in Sheridan-Speak, here’s what you need to know:

1. Every fight is the greatest of all time (remember Jacqui Frazier-Laila Ali?).

2. Every fighter is a true warrior, and this is the best division in boxing.

3. The Integrated Sports PPV (or whomever he’s working for at the time) team is just amazing, and it’s simply amazing they haven’t yet cured cancer.

4. If there’s an inconclusive or controversial ending to a fight, every theory from the shooter in the grassy knoll to Machiavellian scheming by Don King’s barber will be put forth until we learn that, yeah, it was just a close fight.

So we need to forget the fact that the good Colonel had Adamek out on his feet in the twelfth round when he wasn’t even close, or the fact that Adamek was putting American heavyweights back on the map (uh, Adamek is POLISH!). He’s just a roller coaster ride, so you just have to go with it at times.

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## Just as any Col. Bob Batman needs his Robin, Benny Ricardo fills the bill nicely as the chief second on the Integrated announce team. His best highlight was in the sixth round of the Giovani Segura-Ivan Calderon flyweight championship fight Saturday, when he said, “These guys don’t even know how to hold!” just as they were, you guessed it, holding. Still, he had one of the funniest lines I’ve ever heard during the same fight, as they panned to bantamweight Fernando Montiel sitting in the crowd with two attractive women on either side of him: “He is the WBO & WBC bantamweight champion. I guess when you’re a champion of two divisions, you get two women like that!” Now that was funny…

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## Speaking of that fight, I can’t for the life of me figure out why in the world Calderon stopped moving in the fourth round and started trading with Segura. Maybe it had something to do with “Iron Boy” fighting in front of his native Puerto Rican crowd, but Calderon had been dominating the fight up until that point. While Segura’s attack was relentless, he wasn’t really connecting until Calderon inexplicably quit moving and, worst of all things he could have done, started to back up instead of going side to side. I’ve heard all the chatter about Calderon being 36 and slowing down, but I still think it came to some bad decision making in the ring that cost him in this one. We’ll see if he does the same in a rematch.

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## It was really refreshing to hear Ring magazine flyweight champion Ponsaklek Wonjongkam show some honesty from a fighter for once when talking about his surprise loss to Diasuke Naito in their third fight. “I had become complacent,” he said, “and I took Naito for granted. Never again.” Maybe that’s what spurred him on to turn a surprise of his own when he shocked undefeated Koki Kemada earlier this year, likely putting him in Canestota. Contrast that with motormouth 140-pounder Hank Lundy on Friday Night Fights last week trying to make every excuse in the book for his loss to John Molina on that same show last month. He was sick that night, the ref messed up, the lights were too bright, the dog ate his homework, whatever. As a fan, you just get sick of it after a while.

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## As for Friday Night Fights, it wrapped up another season Saturday. Even though Teddy Atlas can grate on me and sometimes the matchups aren’t stellar, it really is the best boxing show around. I miss the heck out of Atlas, Brian Kenney and Joe Tessitore, and it makes me actually want freezing January to get here so they can start up again.

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## Yeah, so James Toney got killed in his MMA fight with Randy Couture. Anyone surprised? Yeah, me neither. And for those MMA idiots (just the idiots, not the fans who truly respect ring sports) who say that this proves MMA’s dominance, just keep in mind that Couture beat a guy who hasn’t been a boxing factor in years, didn’t bother to train himself into shape and didn’t train in any of the other fighting disciplines needed to become a good cage fighter. Toney is no more a legit MMA fighter than Kimbo Slice is going to be as a boxer. This was a sideshow, nothing more, and I bet Couture knows that, too.

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## And just to show you MMA isn’t the only place to find complete idiots, I can sure do without stodgy boxing writers denigrating MMA every time they forget to take their Prozac. Jeff Ryan’s constant assertions in the pages of Ring magazine that MMA fighters can’t take a punch is just stupid and petty. I wonder how many of today’s boxers would have great chins if boxing switched to four-ounce gloves like MMA? I bet a six round fight would be considered long. Both disciplines are incredibly challenging, and great athletes and fighters abound in each, and neither is going away. Just deal with it.

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## So Texas gave Antonio Margarito a license to fight Manny Pacquiao. Color me shocked. When there’s promotional greenbacks involved, Jack the Ripper would probably get a license. From the same commission that gave us the first Juan Diaz-Paulie Malignaggi screwjob, I’m not surprised.

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## Anyone else hoping that Pac-Man lays a massive beatdown on Margacheato?

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## So, now that Pacquiao has a dinner date for later this year, any surprise that Floyd Mayweather has climbed out of his cave and seems interested in another fight all of the sudden? I thought “Money” was busy enjoying his summer, but I guess when your rival that you ought to be fighting one-ups you and actually fights, insecurity just won’t let you continue to relax by the pool. It’s almost hilarious if it wasn’t so sad.

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## Oh, and just for the record, the Sam Peter fight with Wlad actually does have me interested. Keep in mind that whenever Peter has been in shape, he’s been pretty dangerous, and he’s been in shape recently. We’ll see what kind of shape the younger Klitschko brother is in after that fight is over.