The injuries to Amonsot and Larios emphasize—should emphasis be necessary—just how insanely dangerous a sport boxing can be. They also underline how remarkable it is that a man like Bernard Hopkins can continue to perform, at such a physical and mental level, at the age of 42 and after 53 bouts.
His battle with Winky Wright had been dubbed “Coming To Fight,” and while the contest was rarely pretty and infrequently exciting, both men definitely did live up to the billing. Each gave his all, and while their styles frequently led to more mauling than brawling, the bout was absorbing and interesting.
NOTEBOOK PART TWO
Wright did what everyone had assumed he would do: he stood in front of Hopkins, and attacked him behind his southpaw jab. The question was what Hopkins would do to try and neutralize it, and whether he would be successful. The most likely scenario posited Hopkins using his footwork to move outside Wright’s jab from the outside, and then smother him and maul him on the inside. But, at 42, would his legs allow him to work that way for twelve tough rounds? And would he able to negate Wright’s best weapons in the process?
The answer was yes, and yes.
It took Hopkins a little while, as it often does, but eventually he mastered, neutralized, and overwhelmed his opponent over twelve increasingly one-sided rounds. After a brisk start, he fell behind over the first third of the bout, hauled even by the halfway point, and dominated down the stretch. It was classic Bernard Hopkins, and in the end, at least at 170 lbs., even a Hall-of-Famer like Winky Wright was no match for him.
Of course, Hopkins was not averse to using his head in ways other than pressing a psychological advantage, either; Wright had warned he would do as much beforehand, but in so doing, he only fed into Hopkins’ game plan. As the Executioner put it at the post-fight press conference, when he heard Wright complain about Hopkins’ penchant for tactics of borderline legality, and explain that his style of fighting was borne partly out of a desire to avoid serious injury, Hopkins gauged that, when it really came down to it, Wright didn’t have the stomach to battle it out with him in the deepest of trenches.
And, sure enough, despite his brisk and determined start, Wright ultimately succumbed to Hopkins’ cavalcade of blows from fist and forehead.
It wasn’t pretty, but it was effective. Hopkins is rarely anything else.
However dramatic the action may at times have been inside the ropes, spare a thought for the tension in Media Row C. For our own reasons, your correspondent and his press row neighbor, Dan Rafael of ESPN.com, spent the evening sweating and praying for an early night. Dan, whose niece’s four-year-old birthday was on Sunday, had booked himself on a redeye flight back to Washington, DC that night, and needed to be at the airport by 11PM. My focus was on altogether more frivolous concerns.
When I was too young even to be an aspiring fight writer, I had a serious crush on The Bangles. And really, what young man in the late 1980s didn’t? So I was, I don’t mind admitting, pretty psyched to see that Susanna Hoffs and friends would be playing at the Mandalay Bay while I was in town; and, frankly, hugely disappointed to see that their concert would be on fight night, and starting at 9PM.
“Oh, you’ll be fine,” said Scott Voeller, who is MGM Mirage Vice-President for Marketing, as I grumbled over drinks one night. “The main event will start at 8, you’ll file quickly, you’ll only miss a couple of songs.”
Like I wanted to see the Bangles for their songs. But anyway, Scott kindly comped me a couple of tickets, and as the telecast began, Dan and I found ourselves doing mental arithmetic. With four fights on the pay-per-view, we realized we needed a couple of fights to end early.
“Stop the fight,” we demanded when Librado Andrade landed his first punch on Ted Muller in the PPV opener. A little more than a round later, that’s exactly what did happen. Dan and I bumped fists. It was looking good.
But Michael Katsidis and Czar Amonsot went twelve, exciting rounds. Oscar Larios and Jorge Linares went ten. And the main event didn’t begin until 8.30, and didn’t end until my favorite girl group of all time was well into its third song.
I filed my first piece within the requisite fifteen minutes, but my second, updated story, complete with quotes, took until 10. And then I had to chase the rumor about Amonsot’s brain bleed. By the time Bernard Hopkins had finally left the stage at the post-fight, I trudged down the hallway of the Mandalay Bay, and heard, wafting from the distance, the dulcet tones of Ms. Hoff singing “Eternal Fame.”
I made it through the doors to the edge of the outdoor arena just in time to hear her say, “It’s been a wonderful evening. Thank you, and good night.”
So I shuffled to the bar and asked Bert Sugar to buy me a drink.
Dan made his plane.
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Oscar De La Hoya was, of course, in attendance all week as the fight’s promoter, and during a brief conversation, he confirmed his intent to continue fighting, and at welterweight, no less—where he hasn’t competed since stopping Arturo Gatti in 2001.
Without committing himself, he made clear that he has his eyes on Ricky Hatton, which seemed obvious from the moment he called the Brit in his dressing room after Hatton’s knockout victory over Jose Luis Castillo last month. Hatton, in turn, acknowledged via e-mail an understandable interest in fighting the Golden One. But with Oscar fighting no more than once a year, and a Hatton-De La Hoya showdown unlikely before May 2008, there is much water that can pass under the bridge between now and then.
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Indeed, the welterweight division right now is packed full of possibilities. HBO is looking to make a November to remember out of any combination of Hatton, Miguel Cotto, Shane Mosley, and Floyd Mayweather, Jr. Antonio Margarito remains viable, Joshua Clottey is a serious threat to anyone. Paul Williams is most likely the odd man out for now, because who wants to fight a 6’2” welterweight who throws 100 punches a round?
It isn’t just the welterweights. 130 pounds and thereabouts is packed with the likes of Manny Pacquiao, Marco Antonio Barrera, Juan Manuel Marquez, Jorge Barrios, and Erik Morales, Joan Guzman, Humberto Soto, Edwin Valero, the aforementioned Jorge Linares, and others; and the super middleweights and light-heavyweights aren’t exactly slouches either. Furthermore, many of these fighters all want to fight each other, and the promoters and networks are working together to make it happen.
Over breakfast on Saturday morning, HBO’s Mark Taffett argued that a lot of the credit goes to the huge success of Mayweather-De La Hoya.
“Everyone wants a piece of that gold ring,” he said.
It’s an exciting time to be covering boxing, and an exciting time to be a fan.
As Hopkins said after beating Wright, “Boxing is back.”
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Editor’s Note: In case you don’t recognize the man in the middle of the photo with Hopkins and de la Hoya, it is none other than former middleweight champion and all-time-great Marvelous Marvin Hagler.
