The Finito Five 9/30/11

And you wonder how the WBC could strip a belt from someone the caliber of Sergio Martinez? Wonder no longer.

My top five thoughts about the boxing world for hump day:

1. You have to be wondering at this point what’s going through Juan Manuel Lopez’ featherweight brain (and I DON’T mean that as an insult, so be quiet, all of San Juan) when he says he wants a piece of Yuriorkis Gamboa. While I believe that Juanma is afraid of no man, he probably had to think about it twice in the face of the Cuban’s absolute destruction of Jorge Solis. Solis is no chump, and he could do nothing with Gamboa’s speed or power. You got the feeling that Solis knew what was coming, but could do zero to stop it. As great as Lopez is, Gamboa looks like he could even take Manny Pacquiao’s head off right now; the longer Top Rank takes to make this fight happen (anytime now, Arum), the more I feel like Juanma may get his first loss.

2. Jeeze, Jorge Solis sure doesn’t look anything like his 108-pound brother Ulises, does he? I always have to do a double take when one brother accompanies the other to the ring just to make sure I’m watching the right fight. Come to think of it, maybe they should have done something with their names like the boxing Simms brothers, Travis and Tarvis. How about Jorge and Gorje? Or maybe Ulises and Twolises? Just a thought.

3. How great was it to hear and see Nick Charles doing the Mikey Garcia-Matt Remillard fight on the Gamboa-Solis undercard? After reading that recent Sports Illustrated article, I didn’t think Charles was ever going to be healthy enough to do anything on TV again. But there he was on HBO, still fighting cancer with Arturo Gatti-like heart, giving all of us boxing fans an unexpected treat. As great as Nick has been for boxing (and sports in general), we sadly may not have him much longer. Big props to HBO and regular Boxing After Dark blow-by-blow man Bob Papa for letting us hear Slick Nick once again.

4. As much as Gamboa upped his stock Saturday, that’s how much fellow Cuban Erislandy Lara’s dropped the night before. What was with that stinkbomb against Carlos Molina on Friday Night Fights? Lara was coming off of four straight first-round knockouts, for heaven’s sake! I don’t know if Lara thought he’d just be able to smoke the capable Molina with one punch, but that’s sure as heck what it looked like he was trying to do. You barely saw a combination from him the first six rounds. In fact, Lara didn’t get serious until the last four rounds or so, and he was damn lucky to get a draw. Since Molina was easily the best opponent Lara’s faced, he better get serious and start listening to trainer Ronnie Shields, who he repeatedly ignored the entire fight. He’ll never beat any serious fighter at 154 looking like that.

5. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Just look at the above photo of WBC President Jose Sulaiman and WBC Executive Director Mauricio Sulaiman. If this doesn’t answer the question about how Julio Ceasar Chavez, Jr. got ranked #1 at middleweight, I don’t know what will.