Remember back when people thought before they spoke?
Remember those days when opinions were developed from within instead of just spouted out?
Now we get talking heads with knee-jerk reactions under the pretense of analysis, filling airtime the moment after momentous occasions. Their existence is in response to the desires of a 24-hour news cycle, a society in which attention spans have gone the way of quick-cut music videos, and the only thing that can keep anyone from changing the channel is the drama of a police chase.
U.S. senators were given six-year terms to allow them to deliberate, to take their time on matters of opinion and policy, time not allotted for those serving two-year terms in the House of Representatives.
There is plenty to gain in “thinking on it.”
And so I have thought on it, on boxing news items ranging from the downfall of Roy Jones Jr. to HBO’s indictment of Antonio Margarito, from the pending suspension of Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. to the recent stoppage of Tyrone Brunson.
One can reach new conclusions without being a revisionist historian. “Thinking on it” meant taking a look at new information, doing further research or just taking a look from a different angle.
First Thought: Roy Jones’ decline from his once-great form is solely a result of age, which has slowed his reflexes and left him less able to slip hard shots.
Think Twice: The cause for Roy Jones’ downfall might not be just his aging body – it could be his head, too.
Upon Further Review: The right hand from Danny Green that hurt Jones – leading, soon thereafter, to his technical knockout loss – didn’t appear to be much. Seen quickly, it looked as if it didn’t land solidly and caught Jones on the side of his head.
Slow motion shows Jones turning his head and getting hit – again, still not too solidly – on the side of his head behind his ear. Review of two other Jones losses reveals more.
Glen Johnson knocked Jones out with a right hand. Jones turned his head and got caught on the left side. And in the 11th round of Jones’ third fight with Antonio Tarver, Jones was wobbled by a quick counter right hook from Tarver that landed on Jones’ left temple.
This could be coincidence. But it lends credence to something Danny Green said before he fought Jones:
“I won’t name which punch, but there’s one punch, if I hit him clean with it, he is going to be knocked out for a week,” Green was quoted as saying in the Australian media.
It’s possible Green reviewed film of Jones’ past fights and saw how Jones – his reflexes now slowed by age, his evasiveness now lessened – responded to hard shots on the left side of the head.
First Thought: HBO found evidence Antonio Margarito had tampered hand wraps for his fight with Miguel Cotto.
Think Twice: Either HBO’s evidence isn’t as strong as people were led to believe, or Diego Corrales used tampered hand wraps, too. The former seems more likely than the latter.
Upon Further Review: “We have this photograph of Antonio Margarito from after the victory over Cotto,” HBO blow-by-blow announcer Jim Lampley said during the Cotto-Pacquiao pay-per-view broadcast. “And we are looking at the pink stain on the outside of his white hand wrap [on his left hand]. What does it mean?”
Responded analyst and famed trainer Emanuel Steward: “Of all the years that I’ve been in boxing, I cannot understand or explain why that redness is showing, because all the things that wrap around a fighter’s hand, the gauze and the tape, even the pads … it’s all white.”
Said Lampley: “So if we go to the observation that the plaster of Paris substance which California State commissioners removed from Margarito’s gloves before his fight with Shane Mosley was pink, does that create a circumstance which leads you to a possible conclusion?”
Lampley soon noted that there had been conflicting reports as to the color of the plaster of Paris substance, including an observation from an HBO producer that said it wasn’t pink. But the accusation was already out there.
My mind changed when an astute poster on the BoxingScene message board grabbed a frame from after Diego Corrales’ knockout win over Jose Luis Castillo showing Corrales holding his ungloved hand toward the camera and showing… a pinkish stain on his hand wrap over the left pinky knuckle, about the same spot the stain was on Margarito post-Cotto.
I went back to my copy of Corrales-Castillo and verified the picture.
A California State Athletic Commission photo of the pad seized from Margarito pre-Mosley shows a pinkish stain in what would presumably be in the same spot.
I’m one of those people who knows there is no proof Margarito used tampered hand wraps in fights before he faced Mosley. But I also suspect Margarito wouldn’t have just started doing so for the Mosley fight and not for other difficult challenges.
Yet there are too many holes in HBO’s circumstantial evidence. Taking into account the picture of Corrales’ hand wrap, the stains could be something as coincidental as blood wiped off post-fight. It could be something far more sinister. The issue is that we don’t know, and we cannot draw solid conclusions when there is such doubt.
Did Margarito try to use tampered hand wraps for the Mosley bout? Yes. Is it possible, or even probable, that Margarito got away with using tampered wraps in other fights? Yes. Will we ever know for certain without testimony from involved parties? No.
First Thought: Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. was too heavy in his fight with Troy Rowland.
Think Twice: Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. was too heavy before his fight with Troy Rowland.
Upon Further Review: Chavez Jr., who turned pro at 17 years old and fighting at 130 pounds, is now nearly 24 years old and last fought at 160 pounds. In his last bout, a 10-round unanimous decision over outmatched journeyman Rowland, Chavez Jr. appeared sluggish, as if the extra weight had put cement in his shoes and taken the snap out of his punches.
Then, this past week, the Nevada State Athletic Commission said Chavez Jr., in his pre-fight urine sample, tested positive for the diuretic Furosemide.
If Chavez Jr. used a diuretic to urinate out more water, helping him lose weight, then perhaps the issue was that he came into camp too heavy and rushed to drop the pounds, thereby affecting his performance.
First Thought: It’s about time Tyrone Brunson got exposed for his manufactured record.
Think Twice: The fighter isn’t always responsible for how he’s marketed.
Upon Further Review: Twenty months ago, Brunson, fighting as a middleweight, moved into the record books but did so in a manner in which the record meant little.
Brunson had scored 19 straight first-round knockouts to start his career, eclipsing the 18 straight first-round knockouts Edwin Valero had rolled off himself.
But while many criticized the level of Valero’s opposition, Valero at least faced a few fighters who were far, far better than any on Brunson’s ledger. Valero went on to capture a junior lightweight title and, more recently, a lightweight belt. Brunson hadn’t yet shown himself to be anywhere near contender status.
There is often a sense of schadenfreude, glee when touted fighters fail, and there was some of that as Brunson was held to a draw in his 20th fight. And this past weekend, Brunson, as a just-over-the-limit junior middleweight, was stopped in the third round by a 23-7-1 fighter named Carson Jones.
Before the Jones bout, Brunson admitted that he’d got caught up in the hype before, that his former team had sought to get Brunson publicity by manufacturing his record and, well, the record. But Brunson was changing his style, boxing more than brawling, recognizing that he would have to be more well-rounded if he were to succeed against better opposition.
In some ways, Brunson is similar to Kimbo Slice, the backyard brawler who entered mixed martial arts in the now-defunct EliteXC. The victories Slice scored shouldn’t have earned him the superlative praise that EliteXC was using to market him, but that was neither Slice’s fault nor his doing.
When Slice finally got knocked out within seconds by a jab from a far-smaller fighter, many celebrated the deflating of the balloon, the exposure of Kimbo Slice.
But Slice merely went back to work. He continued to train in an attempt to become better, landing a spot on the UFC’s “The Ultimate Fighter” reality competition. Slice lost his first fight there but won this past weekend over a capable opponent in Houston Alexander.
Slice will never be atop the UFC. Brunson might never be among the best in boxing. But if all they do is work toward improving, then their dedication and actions will compensate for all the past empty talk.
The 10 Count
1. A correction: An early edition of last week’s “Fighting Words” erroneously stated that Librado Andrade’s first career knockdown came in his first fight with super-middleweight titlist Lucian Bute. This writer failed to remember that Yusaf Mack put Andrade on the canvas a whole year before Andrade and Bute met.
D’oh.
I regret the error.
2. Time-lapse photography captures large changes and slow processes and presents them in a sped-up format. Here, then, is the time-lapse photography version of the Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Manny Pacquiao saga, as presented through a week’s worth of BoxingScene.com headlines:
11/29: Mayweather-Mosley, Pacquiao-Foreman Next: says Hopkins. 11/30: Mayweather Won’t Trade Words with Roach, Baits Pacquiao 11/30: Mayweather vs. Pacquiao Negotiations Hit a Snag 12/1: Pacquiao-Mayweather: Manny Makes Decision, March Date? 12/1: Mayweather vs. Pacquiao Close To a Done Deal? 12/1: Pacquiao-Mayweather Fever: Arum Leaves for Manila 12/2: Pacquiao Wants Mayweather Fight Pushed Further Back? 12/3: Pacquiao-Mayweather: March 13 or Bust Says Bob Arum 12/3: Dallas and MGM Grand Battle for Mayweather-Pacquiao 12/4: Pacquiao-Mayweather is On: Manny Signs The Deal! 12/4: Mayweather-Pacquiao: The Venue Hunt Continues 12/4: Mayweather Wants Pacquiao at 154? Wants 10oz Gloves? 12/5: Mayweather-Pacquiao: MGM Grand Has The Edge To Host 12/6: Mayweather-Pacquiao: Manny Gets a Massive Guarantee
3. So we went from hearing of tune-up fights and snagged negotiations to talking of twists and turns about where the fight would take place, in what weight class and with what size gloves, and finally we have a fight with both Mayweather and Pacquiao earning the same amount, fighting at the welterweight limit and using 8-ounce gloves.
That’s a lot of change for just seven days.
Then again, at the start of the week, Allen Iverson had been retired for four days. A week later, he was prepping for his first game back with the Philadelphia 76ers.
4. The decision rendered in Sergio Martinez’s loss to Paul Williams is similar to that seen in Paulie Malignaggi’s loss to Juan Diaz. Not a robbery, but eyebrow-raising because of a lone scorecard.
I scored Williams-Martinez 115-113 for Martinez, but I noted close rounds that could have swung in the other direction, and thus had no issue with a 114-114 draw or a 115-113 scorecard in favor of Williams.
Similarly, I scored the August fight between Malignaggi and Diaz at 115-113 for Malignaggi, but noted close rounds that could’ve swung it to, again, a 114-114 draw or 115-113 for Diaz.
In the case of Diaz-Malignaggi, the uproar was that only one judge had a close 115-113 tally; the others had the action 116-112 and an unreasonable 118-110, meaning Gale Van Hoy only saw two rounds for Malignaggi.
In the case of Williams-Martinez, the uproar isn’t from the 114-114 scorecard, nor is it from the tally reading 115-113 for Williams. Rather, it is Pierre Benoist’s 119-110 that fuels outrage. Somehow, Benoist saw one round even, and gave only the second to Martinez.
As I said with Diaz-Malignaggi, had all three judges saw Williams-Martinez at 115-113 for Williams, would there have been any outrage?
I’m not sure how complete the listings are for the judges on BoxRec.com, but that Web site shows that Benoist is far from inexperienced – he’s been a judge since 1995, with most of his work coming since 2002. But of all the fights he’s scored, BoxRec only shows him working 14 fights that have gone a 10-round distance, and the number of fights he’s worked that have gone the full 12 can be counted on one hand.
Don’t know if that means anything.
5. Chris Arreola has found a way to supplant James Toney as the fattest heavyweight in Dan Goossen’s stable.
6. Now that Roy Jones got knocked out by Danny Green and put a damper on plans for Jones and Bernard Hopkins to do a rematch 17 years after their original, what becomes of Hopkins?
I got it:
Bernard Hopkins, 44 years old, former middleweight champion, former light heavyweight champion, future inductee into the International Boxing Hall of Fame – against Caitlin Upton, 20 years old, former Miss Teen South Carolina 2007.
The battle: a test of wits in geography.
Here’s Upton, in the Miss Teen USA pageant, when asked why one-fifth of Americans can’t locate the United States on a world map:
“I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, uh, some people out there in our nation don’t have maps, and I believe that our education like such as South Africa and, uh, the Iraq, everywhere like such as and I believe that they should our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S., should help South Africa, and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future.”
And here’s Bernard Hopkins, after his win last week over Enrique Ornelas, saying why he felt he and Roy Jones should still have their rematch. His justification was that the referee stopped the fight too early.
“Everybody know what happens when you go over in Europe. That’s why I would never go over there.”
Green-Jones was in Australia.
7. Boxers Behaving Badly: A former 130-pound title challenger has been arrested in his native Colombia and charged with extortion, according to the Associated Press and the EFE news agency (with this columnist receiving translation help from a friend).
Aristides Perez, 28, was one of two men taken into custody late last month after allegedly trying to get $15,000 out of a merchant in the city of Barranquilla.
Perez, 16-1-1 with nine knockouts, lost in his only title shot, which came in September, a second-round stoppage loss to Humberto Soto. Perez was to have fought lightweight trinket-holder Miguel Acosta later this month, but that won’t happen now.
8. Boxing Trainers Behaving Badly: The man who once was trainer to former featherweight champion Barry McGuigan has been sentenced to six-and-a-half years in prison for sodomy sexual assault, according to numerous reports from across the pond (including, for this columnist’s purposes, the Irish Independent).
Frank Mulligan, 63, pleaded guilty to sodomizing three teenage boys and sexually assaulting two others over a 13-year period from 1989 to 2002. Last year, Mulligan was sentenced to seven years in prison for similar offenses.
Another newspaper said Mulligan will serve his sentences concurrently, meaning at the same time, rather than consecutively, meaning one sentence would follow the other.
9. Brilliance in unexpected places:
Last week, a Pennsylvania welterweight named Darren Fallen lost to an undefeated New Jersey fighter named Jeremy Bryan. It’s apt enough that Fallen lost by second-round knockout. But what makes the situation perfect is the brief summary of the bout on BoxRec.com:
“Fallen down three times.”
10. Some people couldn’t help but notice the ring announcer for Bernard Hopkins’ fight with Enrique Ornelas because of his slurping introduction that seemed better suited for an episode of “This Is Your Life”
Me? I had another reason.
I was trying to figure out whom said ring announcer resembled most:
A tuxedoed Ricardo Montalban from “Star Trek 2: Wrath of Khan,” or…
A revived David Carradine.
…I guess you had to be there…
