The fight comes first.
We know that much.
But there?s something else that might be at play this weekend.
The third bout, this Saturday on Showtime (9:30 PM EST/PST) between World Jr. Featherweight champion Israel Vasquez (42-4, 31 KO) and former champion Rafael Marquez (37-4, 33 KO) could be the least of their three and still be worth every second, every drop, of emotion invested into it. Just thinking about how many fewer people have seen their first two bouts, will see this rubber match, and what that means to their bank accounts in contrast to what is commanded by something like last Saturday?s Wladimir Klitschko-Sultan Ibragimov Heavyweight bout is depressing.
What is also depressing is what this fight might mean in the big eyes of history. Never wanting to avoid a clich?, this could be the end of an era.
Eras of course are hard to define. Time never stands still and thus is never easily divisible. The reigns of individual fighters are often referred to as eras (the Louis era, the Ali era, the Robinson era). They are also though the broader canvas of a remarkable career. Put another way, would it really have been an ?era? without the central cog?
Jr. Featherweight, 122 lbs. if you will, is different. The title this week provides two dates; those dates represent two fights; and those two fights represent a bookend that can very well be defined as an era. If we look backwards, fondly, to 02/03/1996, it lives up to one definition of an era. It was ?a date or an event forming the beginning of a distinctive period.? It was the day that Mexico?s Marco Antonio Barrera truly exploded on the boxing consciousness with an off the floor, twelfth round stoppage of former U.S. Olympian Kennedy McKinney.
Between that fight and this Saturday, 122 lbs. has experienced an era that stands tall alongside any in history. It has produced fighters, and fights, that will stand the test of time. In a short piece for this site a few weeks ago (CLICK HERE), I wrote about the new crop emerging behind Vasquez-Marquez III. They?re a good group of young fighters but they don?t look like what preceded them.
It?s been that good.
That?s why it is so deserving of both a nod of appreciation and a bow of recognition for the chapter that appears to be closing.
Here are the ingredients that earned such reverence.
The Fighters: In any great era, the quality of the fighters combined with a willingness to thrill make all the difference. Judged on that standard, this was not just great but one of the greatest eras for any division in boxing history. Vasquez has been one of the key players in the second half of the era but has yet to achieve the fame of the three men who still define it. Those three men will all one day walk into the International Boxing Hall of Fame with near unanimous consent.
First among them was Barrera, the former L.A. Forum darling who helped to define the initial intent of HBO?s Boxing After Dark series. His fight with McKinney in 1996 was a revelation. At a time when the network was heavily invested in the boxing acumen of Pernell Whitaker, Lennox Lewis and Roy Jones, and staunchly devoted to the burgeoning superstardom of a young Oscar de La Hoya, Barrera was red meat for the fight fans. His ascent to the Hall of Fame began at Jr. Featherweight that cold February night in 1996. It picked up important pieces of its character and story in losses to the talented Junior Jones. And the division provided his resurrection by way of a rival.
That rival was fellow Mexican countryman Erik Morales. Like Barrera, the building blocks and early triumphs for Morales began at 122. His 1997 stoppage of another future Hall of Famer, Daniel Zaragoza, in 1997 for the WBC belt in the class began one of the division?s better title reigns since the 18-defense run of terror launched by Wilfredo Gomez a generation earlier. He would defend that belt nine times, the final of those in his first epic clash with Barrera where he added a WBO belt as well. He added thrilling victories against the likes of Junior Jones, Wayne McCullough, Angel Chacon and Juan Carlos Ramirez along the way that foreshadowed the success he would have in higher weight classes.
Before becoming the master of both Barrera and Morales, 122 was the turning point for another future Hall of Famer in Manny Pacquiao. An obscure (in the U.S.) Filipino former Flyweight champion, Pacquaio was brought in as a late substitute opponent for what was assumed to be an African superstar in the making, then IBF titlist Lehlo Ledwaba, in June 2001. He left the ring six rounds later with at least HBO?s Larry Merchant convinced he?d seen one of the best fighters in the world pound-for-pound.
As has been so often the case, Larry was right. Pacquiao would rack up four title defenses before moving on to more memorable things. Without his shocking turn in this domain, would Manny have had the chance to be MANNY?
And then there is Vasquez. Timing, for him, was everything. Had he been born but a year earlier, or had a little bit better luck of the draw, he could have been in the ring with the big money makers mentioned above. Instead, he has been perhaps the central figure in perpetuating the division?s run, only now getting the respect and (almost the) dollar he deserves. What many missed was that he was there all along. If there names had meant more in 1997, his first round knockout win of fellow future titlist Oscar Larios might have done the trick. That he later would capture the division?s vacant world title in the Larios rubber match in 2005 was a career circle drawn closed. A second win over Marquez, if he even needs that, could add him to the Hall alongside his more famous brethren as well.
Mention of Larios leads to the crop just below the center. Larios was more than a memorable trilogy with Vasquez; he also had two memorable bouts with Willie Jorrin (a decision loss and first-round win), two wins against McCullogh and a lengthy run as a WBC titlist. Jorrin made a short mark as a sort of mini-Paulie Ayala, capturing narrow and unpopular decisions over Larios and Michael Brodie, but never lacked in the excitement department. Current Jr. Lightweight titlist Joan Guzman built his bona fides at 122 lbs. while a world away, the Euros got in on the action by way of a stream of wars from long reigning WBA beltholder Mahyar Monshipour. And of course there was McKinney, and there was Jones, and?
?and it was a bumper crop, one that rarely failed to deliver on the most important ingredient of all.
The Fights: That?s right. The bumper crop fought. And fought some more. In fact, from February 1996 on through to this weekend, Jr. Featherweight has produced three Ring Magazine Fights of the Year.
It should have been four.
It could have been five.
Barrera-McKinney was the birth and the should, an epic five-knockdown struggle that left both the T.V. announcers and audience in visible awe. But for the shadow it would fight later in that year by way of Evander Holyfield?s dramatic upset of Mike Tyson, the honors probably go to this battle. In fact, if you ever have the time to watch those two in a doubleheader, you might actually laugh at the idea that it didn?t win in spite of the big name big boys. With the shock of upset worn off by time, there?s no question what the better bout in the ring was.
It wouldn?t be until the first bout between Morales and Barrera, its controversial decision in favor of Morales and all, that the honors would head south on the scale. Two years later, on the eve of Arturo Gatti-Mickey Ward I, Vasquez and Larios memorably did battle for the second time. In a world where Ward-Gatti doesn?t happen, it could have been the sports finest bout in 2002.
The last two years have each been marked by additional classics. YouTube, and some enthusiastic American reporting, brought the savagery of Monshipour-Somsak Sithchatchawal front and center in 2006. It was the sort of overseas war that our parents would have read about in the back pages of Ring brought to pixilated life in a new world. And of course last year there were the two bouts between Vasquez and Marquez.
Beyond the red carpet bouts was a depth of quality action that I can?t do justice to. I won?t try too hard, instead just listing some of the titles that should be in your DVD catalogue. McKinney-Jones; Vasquez-Ghonzalez; Morales-Jones; Monshipour-Medjkoune; Guzman-Sanchez.
And those are just the tip of the iceberg.
The Legacy: Add it all together and you know why this weekend?s bout is both special on its own and as the sum of its parts. Younger fans of the sport, and even the less young 30-somethings like me, know what its like to hear older fans tell us what we missed out on. Usually they?re right. Here is a refuge, one place where there can be no argument. This era at 122 lbs., in the ring, was as good as anything any generation has ever had to brag about.
Three certain Hall of Famers; potentially two more on display this weekend.
Three fights of the year; potentially another come Saturday.
No one should want this to end.
