THE Last Round wishes the best for Czar Amonsot, who apparently has suffered some form of injury to the head, the extent of which is still being verified.
From where this writer sat, it was as a very winnable fight for Czar, but sadly, a confluence of factors, some self-induced, some attributable to the ineptitude of others, and others by just plain bad luck, conspired to deny him his dream of becoming a world champion.
In any case, let us hope this doesn’t happen to any of our boxers in the future, but here’s how you lose a title match.
First, get a referee who will obsess only about your infractions but curiously fail to notice your opponent’s. Referee Jay Nady kept on warning Amonsot for the clash of heads, apparently forgetting such is usually the case when southpaws (such as Amonsot) and orthodox fighters (Katsidis) meet. Southpaw Winky Wright and Bernard Hopkins also clashed heads several times during the main event.
Second, make sure the referee will count only your knockdowns but not your opponent’s. In the seventh, an off-balanced Katsidis got tagged by an Amonsot right hook and fell down in the process. Nady ruled it a slip.
Third, try to be unnecessarily cocky. While we salute his courage in battling through attrition, Amonsot showboated and neglected his defense several times during the fight. In round two, after finding a home for his uppercuts, Amonsot motioned for Katsidis to bring it on, and immediately got caught with a flush right hand. Knockdown number one.
Knockdowns take a lot from you. Not only do you get hurt, you lose points, credibility with the judges, and your confidence.
Inexplicably, Amonsot also allowed Katsidis to hit him repeatedly to the body. Don’t ask me why. Your guess is as good as mine.
Fourth, stray from your game plan. What really riled me was the fact that Amonsot, a sharp masterful boxer, opted at times to brawl.
Katsidis does not know how to fight in the middle of the ring. Repeatedly speared with stinging jabs, uppercuts and straight lefts, and bleeding from several cuts in his face, Katsidis had no choice but to bully Amonsot into the ropes where his sinewy arms could whack away at will at a still target.
Katsidis isn’t a great puncher, but he is a pressure puncher. He will throw not one but 15 successive hooks. If you wished to trade, chances are, five or six will find their mark. The result? Knockdown number two.
Finally, lest I forget, no title-losing bid would be complete without some cooperation from the judges. Two judges had it 116-110 and 115-111 for Katsidis. The latter is still within the realm of reason, as a four-point advantage can be secured by two knockdowns in which the rounds were scored 10-8.
However, a six-point advantage is prissily unfair. It can only mean that Katsidis could have won the fight even without the knockdowns. Only Patricia Jarman scored it just about right for the Last Round, 114-112.
WE WANT JONES. As predicted, Bernard Executioner Hopkins used his size and height advantage to frustrate southpaw “Winky” Wright.
Unable to land his vaunted bread-and-butter right jab, Wright could not set up his combinations. In contrast, Hopkins masterfully moved laterally giving Wright weird punching angles and crowding him with punching flurries from time to time, giving him most of the rounds.
What’s next for B-hop? In the post fight interview, he mentioned undefeated super-middleweight champion Joe Calzhage. That’s a good challenge, but a rematch with Roy Jones Jr. has been on my mind for a decade already.
No matter how secure his legacy is, the loss to Jones will always gnaw at his ego, and only a victory over the only man to completely dominate him will conquer his demons.
THE LAST ROUND. It is on the only guy I ever allowed to put ink under my arm, master tattoo artist Ronnie Macapagal, who celebrated his birthday last week. Cheers!
