Boxing has its angels, and we worship the ground they walk on, but if you lie down with dogs you wake up with fleas?
?Give Doc [Kearns] a hundred pounds of steel and he?ll knit you a stove.??Archie Moore
If there?s something defective in your car it can always be replaced. All one needs is a mechanic, hope he knows what he?s doing, and trust that he wasn?t a pirate in a former life.
The same rules apply to a body part that?s not working properly. Just prepare your paperwork, no small task in these bureaucratic times, make an appointment to see a doctor, look skyward and hope for the best.
But boxing is not your car or body. There is no mechanic or doctor to tend to boxing?s needs. Although the sport sometimes seems like it?s filled with religious zealots, there may not even be a boxing god to whom we can pray. Boxing has its angels, and we worship the ground they walk on, but if you lie down with dogs you wake up with fleas.
Boxing is global, rather than local, and hence bigger than your car or body. It is longer lasting, at least by several decades, if not by millennia. It?s not subject to whims of fashion and taste. It is also a good deal more recalcitrant, which is saying something, given the vagaries of flesh and steel.
When judging in boxing is defective, the judges aren?t replaced. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, they aren?t even reprimanded. Even CJ Ross, the notorious judge who imagined the fight between Floyd Mayweather and Canelo Alvarez was a draw and went with her imagination, took a voluntary leave of absence, to no doubt return when the dust settles.
The three judges in last week?s fight between Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Bryan Vera also failed to distinguish themselves. No one in their right mind thought Vera would get the decision, not unless Chavez was knocked to the canvas several times, and even then where?s there?s a will there?s a way. A handful of observers felt that the scorecards were just. Most thought it was a scam.
Reversing the verdict wasn?t about to happen, simply because it doesn?t happen, not because a mechanism for reversal isn?t in place. However a rematch (i.e., fallback position) between Chavez Jr. and Vera might be in the cards, and presumably for all the right reasons.
I don?t hate Top Rank?s Bob Arum. I don?t love him either. I will say that he?s an interesting study, as he uses language in much the same way as Doc Kearns used ?a hundred pounds of steel.?
?He (Chavez) won the fight,? said Arum the other day. ?I was brought up in an era where if fighters are exchanging punches and punches aren?t doing any damage and one guy belts the other and that punch does damage?he gets the round. Everything else is bullshit. That?s how they used to score, and that?s the way they scored this fight. Yeah, 8 to 2 was sort of a little crazy. I thought Chavez could have gotten 6-4 or it could have been a draw. Look at the HBO score. They had Vera leading 5-4 going into the 10th round. And Chavez won the round; they gave it to Vera. It wasn?t a robbery. The 8-2 was a little crazy. Even Marty Denkin?s 7-3 wasn?t crazy, a little stretch, but I could see where he?s coming from. If Vera won 6-4, okay too. So hopefully there will be a rematch and we?ll do the rematch in December. We?ve talked to HBO about the rematch and if HBO is unable to do it, because of financing and so forth, I?ll just put it on pay-per-view.?
One can pull apart the above statement and there?ll be nothing left but bones. There?s still the marrow to contend with, but I?d rather leave that others.
?Chavez has a constituency that wants to see him,? continued Arum. ?And even though we know from time to time to becomes a fuck-up, it?s like a reality show. People are always looking?People don?t want the ordinary stuff. And they don?t want the bullshit about ?he throws a good left hook, a left jab and this.? People want to be entertained. They want something that really captures their imagination. Chavez, for whatever reason, does.? Follow us on Twitter@boxing_com to continue the discussion
