Golden Boy Promotions suffered another in a series of recent setbacks (not including their wildly successful Mayweather-Marquez sting operation as they will smugly remind anyone within the confines of the Milky Way Galaxy) when Jorge Linares was vaporized in 73 seconds by Juan Carlos Salgado, a boxer with only three fights since 2007. “Anyone who has seen Jorge Linares fight knows that he is one of the best fighters in the world, pound-for-pound,” De La Hoya said a few weeks ago. Come to think of it, every three or four months De La Hoya signs a fighter and says the exact same thing.
The Linares debacle can now be added to a laundry list of GBP misfortunes recently covered in TCS: Robert Guerrero may be headed back to Goosen-Tutor promotions after a protracted legal battle, James Kirkland was sentenced to a stretch in the hoosegow, an overhyped Oxnard fighter/saint found out that his halo was made out of papier-m?ch?, Ricky Hatton may retire, David Haye is a loose cannon, Vivian Harris is shot, Juan Manuel Marquez is 36, Shane Mosley is 38 and has not been able to secure a fight, Bernard Hopkins is closing in on middle age, and Oscar De La Hoya recently retired from getting smacked around by smaller fighters. Thank goodness a “historical” bout between two fighters–Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones Jr.–with a combined age of 86 will be facing off in 2010!
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As for Linares, it remains to be seen if he can recover from the demolition job he suffered. Sometimes a quick KO loss like the one Linares suffered can spell the end of the road. Two recent fighters who have not recovered from devastating one-punch knockouts, for example, are Gary Stark Jr. and Mike Oliver. Ironically, Oliver outpointed Stark Jr. in 2007. Since then, however, Oliver was obliterated by Reynaldo Lopez and followed up that disaster by being floored four times en route to a stoppage loss at the hands of Antonio Escalante. In 2007 journeyman Andres Ledesma shockingly knocked out Stark Jr. After a few confidence boosters (including a decision over Ledesma in a rematch), Stark Jr. was blasted out in two by Escalante and had the look of a fighter who could no longer handle a clean blow.
Another example might be heavyweight Travis Walker, who claimed his 15-second KO loss to TJ Wilson was a fluke and “proved” it by walloping Wilson in a rematch. Wilson, however, is a limited talent, and Walker has since been knocked out twice. On the other hand, lightweight Julio Diaz went on to achieve paper title status after being blitzed in one round by Juan Valenzuela in 2002. He has also been knocked out three times since then and, at 29, appears to be through. Obviously, his loss to Valenzuela was an indicator of his fragility.
Judging by the Youtube video, admittedly not the best medium to watch a boxing match, the blow Salgado landed did not look particularly fierce. Either Linares was caught cold or he simply cannot take a punch. That, of course, is a 50-50 proposition, so why are so many of the experts suggesting it was a fluke? Now it turns out that Linares was struggling to make weight. This bit of spin has been offered (by exactly who you would expect, no less) despite the fact that Linares had already moved up a division in 2008. The handwringing over Linares is due to the fact that the same suspects sat at their keyboards and without using the sweat of their imagination concocted another hero. Yes, Linares looked skillful smacking Oscar Larios around. So what? Larios was in his 13th year as a pro and in the previous 19 months had been knocked out by Israel Vasquez and worked over by Manny Pacquiao. These days, anyone who wins two or three bouts in a row against modest opposition is a great fighter. Once again we are faced with the specter of one false narrative (Fluke! OMG! He was weight drained!) being generated by another (Linares is P-4-P! The best signing in Golden Boy history!) by writers who live in an alternate universe. Linares is a capable fighter; why is that never enough?
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Great fighters of the past–like Bob Montgomery and Archie Moore–overcame first round knockouts well into their careers, but that was because they were great fighters and boxing was a profession much different from what it is today. Montgomery was crushed by “Bummy” Davis in 1944 in 63 seconds, and less than three weeks later he went on to win the lightweight championship of the world from Beau Jack after 15 grueling rounds.
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Has anyone noticed how a prominent website–one that pours out thousands of words for Fight Night Club cards featuring Cristian Favela, now with a record of 17-21-6–had little or nothing to say about the recent Juan Manuel Lopez and Yuriorkis Gamboa doubleheader? But over the last week there were more photos of Israel Vazquez on this same site than there are of Megan Fox on the entire World Wide Web.
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Top Rank has taken a lot of heat for the disappointing undercard it has cobbled together as support for the Manny Pacquiao-Miguel Cotto superfight. From a business point of view, it makes perfect sense to put Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. on the bill: He will probably add a significant number of buys (from Mexican-Americans) and Bob Arum has a chance to showcase him to a much wider audience than the “Latin Fury” cards Chavez Jr. typically fights on. For the viewer, of course, it makes no sense whatsoever. Neither does seeing a Telefutura bout between Jesus Soto-Karass and Alfonso Gomez. Daniel Santos is at least a world-class fighter and Arum is gambling that his bout with Yuri Foreman will bring media coverage from outlets not typically interested in boxing. Foreman, after all, is studying to be a rabbi. But all of this planning and guesswork is almost always at the expense of the paying customer.
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Associated Press coverage of boxing has suffered mightily since Ed Schuyler retired in 2002, but whoever writes the headlines at AP is a licensed blockhead. “LOPEZ, GAMBOA EASILY DEFEND TITLES AT MSG,” read the wire report. Most likely it was written by an “auxiliary” member of the Boxing Writers Association of America.
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After a hiatus of over a year, Bernard Hopkins has every right to take a tune-up bout. But does he have to follow the Golden Boy Promotions blueprint for success to a “T” and face off with a journeyman two full divisions below him? Enrique Ornelas was last seen losing a decision to Marco Antonio Rubio in a WKRP Middleweight Title Eliminator in 2008. This is the same Marco Antonio Rubio who became a conscientious objector just after the opening bell rang for his bout with Kelly Pavlik. Were mediocre super middleweights and pedestrian light heavyweights all booked up for December? The great light heavyweight legacy of Bernard Hopkins will now include an ex-junior middleweight (Winky Wright), a middleweight (Kelly Pavlik), a middling middleweight (Enrique Ornelas), a super middleweight (Joe Calzaghe), and a 41-year old (Roy Jones Jr.). Only Antonio Tarver qualifies as a light heavyweight at or near his prime.
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Juan Manuel Lopez, whose Houdini act last Saturday against Rogers Mtagwa was both thrilling and disturbing, probably learned some valuable lessons about keeping his cool in the ring. It takes a certain kind of talent to force a skillful fighter into trading bombs recklessly and Rogers Mtagwa has it. First he riled Lopez up by butting; then he added a few shots after the bell; for good measure he shoved and shoulder blocked; finally, he never changed expression no matter how many times Lopez walloped him with crushing right hooks and straight lefts. Lopez eventually went toe to toe with him and tossed technique by the wayside. Still, poor strategy or not, it was alarming to know that Mtagwa landed 45 percent of his power punches. Mtagwa is not particularly fast, does not use a jab as a set-up, and is not much of a combination puncher, but the ease with which he hit Lopez is a red flag for the young Puerto Rican.
Lopez is another fighter observers feel compelled to offer excuses for. Like Linares, this has something to do with all the gushing and cooing over a boxer whose only real accomplishment was ridding the airwaves of inept Daniel Ponce de Leon. Whereas Linares is now the victim of a “fluke,” Lopez, it turns out, struggled to make weight. And Mtagwa? Well, before facing Lopez, Mtagwa had made the junior featherweight limit of 122 pounds exactly once in 8 ? years.
