After four fights on Saturday, it would seem logical that a few “unofficial scorecard” articles would come of it. Not so. Victor Ortiz earned a win over Antonio Diaz when Diaz’s corner stopped the fight between the sixth and seventh round; however, most of us were watching Timothy Bradley showcase his talent against a live Lamont Peterson. Paulie “Bobo The Clown” Malignaggi redeemed himself against Juan “Baby Slug” Diaz, and Vitali Klitschko earned a title defense against Kevin Johnson in what should be declared as The Most Boring Fight of 2009.
The only controversy coming out of last night was The Ring’s Doug Fischer labeling Bradley as “the best junior welterweight in the world.” Fischer, however, printed a disclaimer that Manny Pacquiao is “the champion” of the division in order to avoid what would have been a full on Filipino attack to his e-mail account. Fischer is a fantastic boxing columnist and he probably meant that Bradley is “the best” in a post-Pacquiao environment.
So remove Pacquiao from the junior welterweight division. Is Bradley the best? After digesting the totality of last night, he may well be. He will need to face Marcos Maidana and Amir Khan first though. Naturally, Malignaggi believes that his name should be in the mix as well. Regardless, being “the best” at 140 will not equate to big paydays for Bradley because he has no power. A gifted boxer for sure, but without the excitement generated by a fighter who can end a fight at any moment, the money just isn’t there.
The same goes for Malignaggi. Paulie was never destined to be the headliner that he thinks he is, and it is difficult to make out his win over Juan Diaz because Diaz never showed up. As such, Malignaggi-Diaz II was more of a “where is the Baby Bull?” than “wow, look at Paulie!” It looked like the two men were trying to set up demand for a third fight rather than what was supposed to be round 13 of the first one. Note to HBO: we do not want to see a third act and it is debatable as to whether either man is worth your broadcast time in 2010.
Diaz, who normally outworks his opponent, was instructed by his corner to “take the [seventh] round off,” which was a round that Diaz needed to start clawing his way back from a large point deficit. After then ninth round, Diaz’s corner told him to “bum rush” Malignaggi. After the tenth, Diaz was told to “stop rushing in.” An interesting and confusing strategy even for the law school bound Diaz.
If the baby bull in Diaz was beaten out of him by Juan Manuel Marquez, then Diaz has neither the skill nor power to exist in the sport a boxer-puncher. The better move may well be to let the boxing go and focus on the demands of law school. Alternatively, it is time to replace Ronnie Shields once and for all.
Finally, the heavyweight bout between Vitali Klitschko and Kevin Ferguson did nothing more than give us a reason to care about who the best fighter is at junior welterweight. Just when the division seemed like it is bottoming out, it got worse last night. It is no longer about finding the next American heavyweight–it’s about finding any man who the people can call champion. Until that happens, and it will eventually, Manny Pacquiao is the best junior welterweight and Timothy Bradley may be a distant second.
