Boxing Scribe Vivek Wallace brings his Left-Hook Lounge mailbag to FightHype.com, answering questions for fans and giving his own unique perspective on all the latest current events in boxing. This week, check out his response to fans as they discuss the post-fight brawl between Dereck Chisora nd David Haye, the recent performance of Paul Williams, the controversial decision that Tavoris Cloud won, and much more.
Alezin Z. (Copenhagen, Denmark): So many things happened in the sport this weekend that I found noteworthy. Without narrowing it down to one topic or one fight, I’d like to know what were your thoughts on everything as a whole?
Vivek W.: There’s no way to effectively capsulize all the bizarre events that took place this weekend. To say that this was a very bizarre weekend in the sport would be an absolute understatement. Everything about it was truly abstract. I guess I can go from normal to crazy to craziest! The Williams/Ishida fight went precisely the way I felt it would. Many came into this fight expecting Ishida to win on the strength of his Kirkland victory. I never fed too much into that hype. Ishida is a great opponent, and a very durable one, but nobody seems to remember that he was facing a Kirkland who came in off a fight camp that was barely about 3 weeks.
Ishida is too experienced and too durable to place Kirkland under those circumstances, and particularly without the services of Ann Wolfe. We all know that styles make fights, and I felt that Williams was coming in with a slight chip on his shoulder. While Ishida was a good measuring gauge for his level of heart, I just really felt all along that Williams’ style, reach, and work rate would be too much. And it was. Regardig Tavoris Cloud, he’s a very good fighter, but it’s time to make a change. He’s showing no skill and extremely limited defense. When a fighter can be hit that much, I don’t care how great his chin is, there will come a point when he will wear down.
I really think Cloud has capped his potential with his current corner, and the debacle that followed his poor effort displayed everything wrong with the sport. I continue to say that every judge who makes a fool of himself, scoring a fight in such a blatantly dishonest way, deserves to lose his/her license to feel the pain associated with the lost money and opportunities the fighter they just cheated encounters in the aftermath. It’s criminal. Don King says “Only in America”. I say “Only in Boxing”! No other sport in the world would allow such a disgrace.
Regarding the Vitali-K/Chisora fight, I think Vitali’s time is running out, but Chisora’s effort can’t be discounted either. Chisora was very much a live dog, and had he mounted an attack earlier, he could have done well, albeit probably still in a losing effort. The melee that followed with Chisora and Haye was another disgrace. Between that melee, Kings racial comments, and the Cloud decision, I don’t know what was worse. I haven’t seen this much drama in one weekend in the history of the sport. Worldwide attention….for all the wrong reasons. Boxing is really giving itself a bad name. I guess this is what we should expect from a sport where people are allowed to hit one another. Light humor from a heavy heart! Wow!
Allen L. (Charlotte, NC): Paul Williams put himself right back in the thick of things. Alvarez and Chavez are two good potential opponents. After seeing him Saturday, has your position changed from your response a few weeks ago about him against these two?
Vivek W.: Short answer….No! I think his reach, size, and work rate combined would make a very difficult night for both men. Williams is one of those men that I kinda take with a grain of salt nowadays. When he was showing no commitment and appeared to be losing interest, I truly began to lose respect for him. Hate to sound like a “chick” (for lack of a better term) here, but when he’s “showing commitment”, there are certain things about Paul I like and rarely see in others. How many fighters today can we truly say will fight anyone, anywhere, at any time…at the drop of a dime?
I can say that about Paul. He takes on all-comers and has called out more names than we’ve seen call him out or respond when called out. I think his approach would make for an interesting fight with either of these guys, and I think he’d fare well, because neither could hurt him. The shot Martinez landed was a strategically placed shot, and it’s one that I don’t think Chavez or Alvarez would be savvy enough to land under the same given circumstances. I think Williams, with the proper level of motivation, would do a very good job against these two.
I wont’ go out on a limb and say he wins both matches, but it’ll be close on the cards and I like his chances. His length in particular with Alvarez would present very big problems. Chavez is a bigger guy, walking in at 180 pounds, but Williams I still give a strong chance of defeating him, simply because of his work rate and length. I hope we see more from Williams. In a quick sidebar, I did find it quite interesting that he went to the good ole “I’ll have to talk to my promoter and manager” statement when asked about Kirkland though. That was classic, and it was the first time I’ve seen him backtrack that way. Wonder what that was all about?
Paul G. (Northridge, CA): I never hear anyone talk about the Klitschko’s in the P4P race. With their dominance, why haven’t they earned the respect of the American media?
Vivek W.: I don’t think it’s a matter of “not earning the respect” of the American media, as much as it is probably not being entertaining enough to earn that respect. When you think of American heavyweights of the past who “earned the respect”, that respect was worldwide, and it was all based around the level of excitement they created. Tyson and Ali earned most of it with their mouths, but both put on a show every time they laced ’em up! A prime Tyson created a level of excitement unparalleled to this day. Ali was a different type of phenomenon.
I think the mystique surrounding both Ali and Tyson in their day was pretty much the measuring bar for any fighter. We’ve rarely seen any other fighters in the history of the sport reach that cult phenom level, so to narrow it down to the Klitschkos I personally don’t find totally fair. No, they haven’t reached that level of “acceptance”, but how many have? I think we have to respect their level of dominance, but to keep it real, the level of competition they’re dominating has been pathetically weak.
Can’t hold against them the fact that they came along in a weak era, but the flipside to that is that even against weak opponents, Tyson and Ali did things that simply made them stand out. I don’t like to get into the mythical P4P talk, because I see things quite differently from the norm, but when you have fighters who excite, like Pacquiao, or put cheeks in seats, like Mayweather, who back it up in the ring like they do, how can you honestly compare? I respect the K-Bros, but it’s tough to see one place them at the top of the P4P list. As dominant as they’ve been, it’s a tough call. They’re first ballot Hall of Famers. That’s all the points I can render at this time.
