I?LL call it the way I saw it, and last Saturday night, I saw Z Gorres lose to a stronger fighter. Not necessarily better, but definitely stronger.
It was a close fight, which featured good two-way action but in the end, I had the ?Raging Bull? ahead by two points on my scorecard.
I think Z became giddy after he scored the knockdown in the second. He started to wing wide punches at Darchinyan?s direction hoping to catch him again and that must have taken a lot out of him as he was visibly tired in the later rounds.
Punching power was a huge factor in the fight. As expected, Z?s speed enabled him to outmaneuver the ?Raging Bull? repeatedly, but when he got hit, it really mattered.
In contrast, Z?s punches never really stymied Darchinyan?s attacks, and since his legs seemed to give at the later rounds, I scored these for Darchinyan and his single-minded aggression.
SIZE ADVANTAGE. I had figured Z to be somewhat bigger come fight time, having fought at 115 pounds longer than Darchinyan. But the latter came in not only with a height advantage, but with bulging, rippling muscles that looked like they had been carved in stone.
TOO MANY COOKS. What?s worse than an animated cornerman? Too many animated cornermen.
After Z suffered a knockdown in the ninth, I tried to make my way into his corner to observe how his corner reacted. Unfortunately my worst fears were confirmed.
There were too many people talking at once. I?ve never been a fan of noisy corners Animated cornermen only worsen the situation and too many animated cornermen spell disaster.
A fighter who comes back to his corner needs to get some rest and to listen to some good, sound advice. That can only come from one person (okay, maybe two, but that?s it) who will calmly point out what adjustments need to be done.
UNBECOMING. All told, the split draw verdict wasn?t the gaffe of the night for Cebu boxing. It would be too much of a stretch to blame the hosts for biased judging. Hell, even the Cebu-based judge scored it for Darchinyan.
No sir. It was the unruly behavior of some of those in attendance.
I?ve been beefing up support for local boxing and our boxers in my columns and I must say, throwing water bottles and other objects at the ring after a bad call isn?t exactly what I had in mind, guys.
It?s a setback of sorts as we have been trying to promote Cebu as an ideal place for live boxing events. Proof positive of that was the mammoth crowd that last Saturday night?s event drew.
Unfortunately, the actuation of those who got carried away intimidated the referee and in my opinion, actually led him to make several more bad calls.
C?mon guys, we can behave better than that.
NITO GOADS THE BULL. When IBF flyweight champ shared the ring with Z and Vic, I just couldn?t help but notice how much bigger he was.
As Nito stepped down from the ring, I approached him for a photo op. He gamely posed, and afterwards, told me that he tried to stare down Vic atop the ring, but the latter just wouldn?t look at him in the eye.
FEEDBACK. Among those who thought that Vic Darchinyan deserved the nod were MTCC Judge Francisco Seville and former Barangay Tinago chairman Joel Garganera who were both at ringside.
Model and celebrity boxer John Hall thinks that Vic deserved to be credited with more knockdowns but since the referee failed to call them, the fight was just about even.
LAST ROUND. It?s on the grand old man of the Gopico clan, Aventino or ?Lolo Benting? who just turned 88 years old, and on my beautiful sister-in-law Claudine Navarro who celebrates her birthday today. Cheers!
