Years ago on an episode of the sitcom ?Everybody Loves Raymond,? Raymond?s father, Frank Barone, was named ?Man of the Year? at his local men?s lodge. Sons Raymond and Robert decided to compile a video tribute for their father and headed to the lodge. When asked for their response to the selection, the men at lodge all answered, ?Frank Barone? We?re down to him??
So as I look forward to Saturday?s Jean Pascal vs. Bernard Hopkins WBC light heavyweight title fight rematch, I look at the state of big fights and HBO ?World Championship Boxing? main events and ask, ?Are we down to this??
I have no problem with the fans of Hopkins and Pascal looking forward to the fight, both knowing it won?t take but a dozen more punches from either guy to win this time around. But for the rest of us, this bout offers very little, unless you?re one who marvels at a 46-year-old man still fighting.
While the pre-fight hype has been amusing, although to me a bit phony, don?t expect any lingering resentment to manifest itself in the ring. If styles make fights, this one is as far from ?Must-See-TV? as you can get.
How bad was their first fight? I?m not a big fan of using CompuBox numbers to argue who should or should not have won a fight. Every round has its nuances and basic punch stats are not the proper gauge to determine the more effective fighter. However punch count stats can at least paint a picture of the activity of a fighter or fighters in a given round and fight.
The champion Jean Pascal stated last week, ?My style is to take risks. I?m not a boring fighter. I like to fight a spectacular fight.? He should be thankful that pre-fight hype isn?t subject to false advertising laws. In their first bout, Pascal landed less than ten punches in every round but 11 and 12, when he landed 12 and 14 punches, respectively. In five of the 12 rounds, Pascal landed five punches or less. Yeah, champ, real spectacular.
Hopkins was hardly better. He landed ten blows or less in half the rounds. That?s nothing worth seeing again, even if he is 46. Also in half the rounds of the fight, neither man was able to land more than ten punches. Keep in mind; these are total punch numbers, jabs plus power punches. To put this into perspective, Manny Pacquiao, in his ?subpar? performance against Shane Mosley, landed a total of 224 punches; Hopkins and Pascal combined to land 239.
The combined number of punches thrown in the fight was 852, again for perspective, while Antonio Margarito was getting his eye socket bashed into pieces by Pacquiao, he alone managed to throw 817 punches. In every one of the first ten rounds, the two failed to land even 25 combined punches.
Of course, some will say the intrigue lies in the fact the first encounter ended in a controversial draw. Nonsense. If there was ever a fight that should have been a draw, this was it (I guess Mosley-Sergio Mora falls into this category as well). For all the Hopkins fans that cried foul, here?s the facts: Pascal landed a total of 14 combined punches in the first three rounds and two of them knocked down Hopkins. Hopkins won rounds 11 and 12 on all three judges? cards, which means he lost five rounds on two scorecards in which Pascal landed fewer than ten punches.
If you can?t win rounds when your opponent is landing less than ten punches, don?t complain about a draw.
But as the WBC ordered a rematch, Golden Boy was too happy to layout a $1.9 million purse bid and tell HBO to show them the money.
However, Hopkins did succeed this week where most fighters and promoters fail by gaining attention in the mainstream sports media. Of course, this attention has nothing to do with the upcoming rematch. No, Hopkins earned the media attention the old-fashioned way by saying something really stupid. Hopkins again used the podium to denigrate NFL quarterback Donovan McNabb, a man who has handled himself with dignity and class, from being booed at the NFL draft to dealing with racist nonsense from Rush Limbaugh.
To Hopkins, dignity and class just makes Donovan a white man with a suntan, as ?B-Hop? put it. Hopkins went on to describe McNabb in a way people would use the pejorative terms ?house Negro? or ?Uncle Tom.? Now if Hopkins actually believes such nonsense, he is truly a dope and a buffoon. On the other hand, if he is just saying these things to bring attention to himself and the fight, then he is truly a dope and a buffoon. If carrying yourself with class and dignity makes you white, then he should include Brett Favre among black people.
Hopkins did talk about the fight as well. He made the understatement of the week when he said ?The last time I had a knockout was Oscar De La Hoya. I?ve been in a drought for many years.? The ?drought? has been nearly seven years. To put that in layman?s terms: the last time Hopkins scored a knockout, he was in his 30s.
The two also made what have to be considered ridiculous comments about how they would fight this fight. Hopkins added, ?After last Saturday (Pacquiao-Mosley), I think the boxing fans deserve a nice knock-down, drag-out fight. I?m willing to do my part,? while Pascal made the observation, ?Bernard Hopkins said I?m a four-round fighter and this is it. I?m going to knock him out inside four rounds.?
While that sounds nice, keep in mind that in his last 22 full rounds, Pascal landed more than ten punches in only seven. Their first bout in December was the furthest thing possible from a knock-down, drag-out affair.
Given what HBO must have paid for this fight, I have to wonder how many quality ?Boxing After Dark? telecasts they could have paid for. Instead, we?ll be stuck watching a rematch of an almost unwatchable fight from last year. And while we sit through minutes of inactivity and rounds with less than a dozen punches landing, I ask the HBO Championship Boxing execs, ?Are we down to this??
Questions or comments can be directed to [email protected]. Please visit Alec at http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1255732257&ref=ts or follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/alecmaxboxing. You can also tune in to Alec?s new weekly online show every Tuesday at 9:00 PM EST at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/search/aleckohut/
