Afterwards Bob Arum will comment that if the fight was held in the Eastern U.S. Marquez would have won 7 rounds to 5?
PART II
Ringside! Marquez 8 Rounds, Bradley 4 Rounds / Tell You Why!
Post-Fight Sunday ?Manny?
The ring is packed with gorgeous Tecate girls. There must be at least one hundred of them. Champion Manny Pacquiao congratulates Champion Marquez and looks at the Schmidt personal security, bodyguard, training partner, Coyote Shepherd dog ?Bronson? who is standing on his hind paws, bearing his teeth, with a slight lip curl to his snout. He has a T-shirt on that says, ?I am Rios?the good?the Bradley?the ugly?? Manny looks at Marquez and Rios and smiles, ?We make good fight for the fans. That?s entertainment.? Mexican flags fly overhead shaped like Doves.
The ring canvas is a very expensive mosaic tile and above floats a giant parasol Mexican flag. Michael Buffer takes the microphone, post-fight; ?Ladies and gentlemen please click the computer button at the side of your chair and let HBO know who won?(pause) Ladies and Gentlemen the President of Tecate has announced that if Bradley has the courage to fight Marquez in Mexico, free Tecate beer for everyone!? Bronson curls the lip on his furry snout, ?Si Se?or, we make good fight for fans.? Ringside, Steve Wynn asks legendary Crooner Steve Lawrence who he thinks won and Lawrence responds ?Blame It on the Bossa Nova Baby.? Wynn looks to his left and asks Tony Rome what he thought. ?At least Marquez tried to punch somebody in the kisser baby,? responds Rome.
The automatic drapes, movie Matt Helm-like, open up in my Wynn Resort room showing a panoramic view of the Desert Mountains in the distance. Well that was some dream!!! Brandon Rios and Bronson in an alley! Sorry Brandon but you are ?gone in sixty seconds.?
Pre-Fight / Wynn Resort, Las Vegas, Thursday Evening
I am here at Wynn Resort, Thursday evening, enjoying a huge, succulent, prime rib at SW Steakhouse, water level, looking out at Steve Wynn?s man-made three acre Lake of Dreams.
There is a seventy-foot waterfall and every thirty minutes a light, sound, and music show commences. Out above the waterfall rises a thirty-foot green singing mechanical frog. Tonight Mr. Frog, for I do not know his name otherwise, is doing a beautiful lip-moving rendition of Louis Armstrong?s ?What a Wonderful World.?
Our host/waiter for the evening is young Mr. Jason Rives, rock mountain climber of Wyoming. He has been perfect company and conversation to the lovely Suzanna and I all evening long and asks what I think of Mr. Frog. What is one to say with respect to a gigantic singing ?What a Wonderful World? frog? ?Whimsical? is the word that Suzanna gives Jason. I add that this entire Wynn Resort is full of ?whimsical,? mixed with casino gaming folly to match, along with pure class, and the stamp of personality of the big boss himself, Steve Wynn. Believe me when I tell you that ?Resorts? don?t come any better than this.
As I watch the evening light show pulsating amongst the lake, the waterfall, and the tall trees in behind Mr. Frog, I think back a few hours earlier. The perfection of pleasure! Somewhere in the back of mind I am recalling a Steve Wynn interview where he commented that he wanted to make beautiful things for people to enjoy and he happened to make a fair bit of money while doing it and obviously that was the added bonus and one hell of a bonus at that. As Jackie Gleason would say, ?and away we go,? to another maker of beautiful things, the ?Nacho? man!
Mid-Afternoon Thursday / ?The Chairman?s Salon? / ?Something that Resonates?
I have just come in from the V.I.P. pool area where I was lounging for a few hours near the cabana shop. Gorgeous young girls serving great food right to your lounge chair by the pool, bikinis, beautiful people? this is Classville, Las Vegas, Nevada.
It?s been a few days since I spoke to Ignacio ?Nacho? Beristain, by phone, down at his world renowned Mexico City Romanza Gym. Perhaps it is appropriate, in consideration of Nacho, that we meet close to the ?Chairman?s Salon? at Wynn?s. Nacho ranks with the legendary trainers of all time and, by the numbers, through the past few decades, he is the best. Numbers don?t lie!
?And then you look up, and you see something that resonates with you; it makes you smile, and perhaps you?ll stop and think someone designed that for my enjoyment and my discovery.??Steve Wynn
It is almost forty-eight hours to the forty-eight minutes to glory fight of Saturday. Here sits the Steve Wynn-like stamp of perfection, pugilism style, ?Nacho.? Hospitality of the punch you in the kisser type: Fifty-two years in the business and an astounding twenty-six world champions. In his own way Ignacio Beristain has created beautiful things for people to enjoy including the technical perfection and precision punching of the likes of Grand Champion Juan Manuel Marquez and Ricardo ?El Finito? Lopez.
Nacho and I talk briefly with the help of an interpreter and I say hello to some of the other team members including Angel ?Memo? Heredia. There?s no sense talking about the fight at this stage for as surely as the ball is in movement on the Roulette Table around the corner, this fight is already set in motion. It?s hurry up and wait time. There are fighters in the hallways and Trainers and Managers sitting in the reception area. Some things don?t change!
Friday Night ?Sinatra?s? / The ?Last Supper?
What a great way to end a day. From lounging at the V.I.P. pool with the lovely Suzanna and watching clouds drift by while listening to the likes of Shirley Bassey, ?Hey Big Spender?? and Frank Sinatra, ?I?ve Got You Under My Skin???songs of yesterday, to talking to team Marquez, to Friday night dinner at ?Sinatra?s? at the Wynn Resort, with World Light-Heavyweight Champion tough guy Beibut Shumenov and his Vice-President of Operations Cary Redlin. The two of them, Champion Shumenov, and Ms. Cary Redlin, like Marquez, like this Wynn Resort, seek nothing less than raising the bar on quality and the stamp of perfection.
We eat at Sinatra?s on the secluded outdoor patio with its fireplace. We have a great evening and an impressive meal in a restaurant that was designed, with the input of the Sinatra family, by Steve Wynn and company. Over at Bartolotta Ristorante the Champion Marquez is enjoying a post weigh-in pasta.
As the evening wraps up, I can?t help but thinking of a Mexican fan that I literally bumped into on the way to dinner. There wasn?t translator about and it?s unfortunate that I do not speak Spanish. All this gentleman kept saying to me (I had a media pass around my chest at the time) was ?one, two, Manny, one, two Manny, one, two, Manny.? I am not sure if he was trying to convey that this fight was ?one two Manny? for Marquez or, in his mixing in the name of Bradley repeatedly, was conveying some type of CompuBox theory, or Marquez gets Manny next! Maybe he had ?one, two, Manny? himself! Like most the people here, one reason or ?Manny,? there?s a big smile on his face.
Fight Night
I am thinking of that CompuBox ?one, two, Manny? as I sit first row, number one, section one, seat fourteen. In retrospect maybe I should have been thinking about the POD Index and how these judges ?show.?
I have a clear unimpeded view ringside, with my buddy ?Big D? sitting to my right, Kathy Duva to my immediate left, and some photographer named Nonito Donaire slightly two foot forward to my left. Immediately behind me Chavez Jr. Between the likes of Donaire, Chavez Jr., young prodigies Glen Tapia and Felix Verdejo, Mike Tyson, Tommy Hearns, Miguel Cotto and of course the big man himself, Steve Wynn sitting beside Bob Arum, this certainly has that Top Rank electric feeling about it.
I also see the NFL?s Brandon Marshall, wrestler ?The Undertaker,? and, my heavens, legendary ?Crooner? Steve Lawrence who for seventy years plus looks fantastic. They don?t pay this big bald guy, yours truly sitting ringside, for his looks. It?s memory time! Dear old Pops was a huge fan of Steve and Eydie and we got a blast of music every weekend. Hell, I can hear in memory a Steve and Eydie duet for Tim Bradley. ?Hey baby? how about a song for Bradley such as ?We Got Us,? ?It?s Us Again,? ?I Gotta Be Me,? or ?How Many Stars Have to Shine.? They can then turn around to the Grand Champion Marquez and give us ?I Will Wait for You.?. (I do not know nor have I met Steve Lawrence although I assure you it would be a great thrill. Having said that I feel I would be remiss in not offering our condolences on the passing of his wife Eydie on August 10th of this year.)
I still get the tingle up and down my spine, before every big Top Rank fight, when they start the Top Rank video, sound booming with at the time commentary, of the likes of Arguello and Pryor slugging it out, Leonard, late rounds, coming off the ropes and tagging Hagler eight shots in a row, Duran dropping Moore with a right hand and Howard Cosell yelling ?oh, it came from nowhere? as that Ali left hook lands on Oscar Bonavena?s jaw and he crumbles like an Argentinean accordion. TOP RANK MAGNIFICENT.
Bradley enters the ring to a chorus of boos and he will leave the ring to an astounding level of boos once the decision is announced. The fight moves through its forty-eight minutes in rapid fashion. There isn?t much in the way of clinching. Every time Marquez even twitches Bradley is moving and as Marquez will state after the fight, ?I fought an opponent who did not want to fight.?
The bell rings ending the fight and Marquez peaks under the top rope directly at Big D and myself and raises his eyebrows with a slight smile. He knows he has won but the Accountant, by other trade, is wondering by how much and the eyes are asking.
I have met this Grand Champion before you see and I should tell you he has a superb razor-like mind and memory. Am I biased? Perhaps, but not in what I scored. I put up my two hands signaling eight rounds, possibly seven, for him and he nods in appreciation. For twelve rounds a forty-year-old fighter, looking stronger as the rounds went on, initiated the action and was tracking down a younger, bigger, stronger man.
Afterwards Bob Arum will comment that if the fight was held in the Eastern U.S. Marquez would have won 7 rounds to 5. ?They would have scored the fight for Marquez because he landed the more telling blows and was continuously the aggressor?it was a terrific fight, great atmosphere.? That it was! If that is the case put a rematch in Madison Square Garden and talk to Champion Cotto as to the winner at 147 and lucky 7?s all across the table! Better yet put it in Mexico City. Marquez deserves that. A lifetime supply of that free golden smooth beer to Bob Arum from Tecate would be in order on that one!
Post-Fight Media Room / One, Two Manny / Marquez Clearly
It was Marquez pressing the fight. Well let?s have at it then on the CompuBox: Total punches thrown, 562 for Bradley and 455 to Marquez, Connected: 168 Bradley to 153 Marquez, 30% ratio to Bradley and 34% ratio to Marquez. In summary, Bradley landed an average of 1.25 punches (if you could quarter a punch as it were) per round. The separation is clearly showing as Marquez?s accuracy. Jabs thrown: Bradley 337 and Marquez 169. Jabs landed: 82 Bradley and 38 to Marquez. In short, a whole lot of throwing by Bradley, and 44 more jabs landed. Again, as it were, 3.6 more jabs per round by Bradley. Power punches thrown: 225 to Bradley thrown and 286 by Marquez thrown. Power punches connected: 86 by Bradley and 115 by Marquez. Marquez threw 61 more power punches connected on a 40% average opposed to Bradley?s 38. By CompuBox numbers it would appear that the fight boiled down to a whole lot of Bradley throwing, jabs, and Marquez initiating the action constantly and far exceeding in the power punch department, and neither fighter separate but for a small margin by average total punch per round.
As I left ringside I asked Chavez Jr. whom he thought won and he felt it was extremely close but had Bradley by one point. I entered the media room and asked Teddy Atlas ?How did you have it?? and Teddy responded ?Bradley by one point? and then paused, waiting for my reaction. I raised my eyebrows and stated, ?I had Marquez.? Teddy caught me off guard with his next response but it was vintage Teddy: ?Does it matter! I mean does it really matter what you or I think. Maybe, just maybe, what is really important tonight is that we have a fighter, a champion in Bradley, who for a lot of people there is concern as to his physical well being, and what we saw tonight is that he is physically okay and performed at a championship level. Maybe that?s the important thing.? Maybe, I am sorry, is not satiating the Schmidt Sweet Science cravings!
There?s another ?maybe? to the end of this event and it was that astounding volume of boos after the decision was announced. Bradley?s trainer commented that fans are not judges and in fact over 95% percent of the fans were probably Mexican. Therein lies the ticket rub so to speak. Tim Bradley is a born and raised American fighter from just down the highway. This Thomas & Mack venue indeed was filled to the rims with Marquez fans and not many in the Bradley department. Bradley was not the ticket seller here, not the ticket seller at all! In the end result, in what is, MAYBE, of more legacy value down that memory highway is the fact that Marquez was overwhelmingly the winner by way of fan appreciation. Bradley did ?to hell with the crowd? boxing. As I mentioned to you in ?Legacy One? this is probably what Bradley would do and that he did to the crowd boiling like hell mad.
Well, to hell with mainstream media. At the end of the day boxing is still the entertainment business. I?m not going to feed the creation of ?who has arrived? but I would suggest you go internet surfing your way down Central America or Mexico website geography and see what ?scoring? and entertainment enjoyment comments you get!
Sunday Post-Fight / Out of Dreams
At exactly 8 am this morning, two legends, Senor Beristain and Peoples Champion/Champion Marquez have breakfast in the Champion?s Wynn/Win suite; the privacy of one?s own suite to collect thoughts and start to contemplate the fortune of favored fan reaction as against those split decision minute numbers.
Me, I am across the street from Wynn Resort getting some fresh air and a fine lunch at El Segundo Restaurant. Vice-president and partner of El Segundo, Ross Butler, is engaging the lovely Suzanna and yours truly in conversation. Perhaps it?s fitting that I am having Mexican food in a Mexican atmosphere as I can?t get Marquez and Nacho off my mind. If you want to take a short two-minute walk across the street from the Wynn Resort, this is definitely the place to be if you like Mexican food. Immediately next door are high-end retailers such as Macy?s and Saks 5th Avenue. I need to ?walk out? my frustration and leftover energy of last night!
The Marquez ?Wynn?
From his early youth, and championship forward, Marquez, with the Nacho stamp of trained pleasure of perfection, has given us great memories. The Grand Champion Marquez has given us nothing less than everything in his pursuit to provide pleasure to the fans. It was readily apparent by way of the reaction after the fight. He is all that, in the ?Wynn? way.
The Champion Marquez was quoted earlier in the weekend, in answer to a question as to where he stands with the likes of the legendary Latinos Monzon and Duran, that ?Every fighter writes his own story.? I?m not sure if Marquez is done writing. Certainly by his Wynn/win performance he has quite a few chapters to write if he so chooses.
There are ?if? options. The ?if? starts in the next few hours for surely if Ruslan Provodnikov ends up beating Mike Alvarado he is the perfect come forward type of opponent for Marquez. If that fight were to take place, it might indeed be ?one, two, Manny,? as in one or two fights to another match with Manny. A fight in Mexico,would be a giant extravaganza at this stage, against any of Rios, Alvarado, Provodnikov, Bradley, or Champion Manny. If the money is right Champion Manny would fight in Mexico. He is, in every sense of the word and meaning, a fighter! It would be of interest to hear his specific comments on last weekend?s fight!
Either way, continue or retire, it has been a pleasure to watch the perfection of Marquez; watching him right hand palm off attempted body shots with a turn of the glove, dipping that left shoulder as if that left hook or left uppercut was coming and then seeing an overhand right come like a laser, slicing an arched over hand right over the opponent?s jab and those precision point combinations. Yes, he is the Champion Marquez ?Wynn? and beautiful for people to watch and enjoy. There is much to admire of Bradley and the record of his last five opponents, entering the ring is a stunning 246 wins – 15 losses – 4 draws. But Bradley is no Marquez and he is no Manny when it comes to fan appeal.
In one final thought of Marquez, who most certainly over the years has exceeded expectations and put on memorable performances, I can?t get that giant green frog out of my mind. It?s those giant lips twitching out the song ?What a Wonderful World.? If the Grand Champion Marquez decides to retire and spend time with his family, as the family man that he is, then all power to him. I hope he enjoys ?What a Wonderful World.? As for Ignacio? Well Ignacio reminds me of one of those classic old western gunfighters. I think he?s going to die with his boxing boots on. He is a tough man in a tough business and by the number he is a walking legend. There is a whole lot of boxing training ahead and a whole lot of boxing champions yet to come from the pistol Beristain. In fact this early Friday morning, Oct. 18th, Nacho is back in his gym designing and creating his next champion as he takes young fighters through ?the rounds.?
The ?Wynn?
To the Wynn Resort and all staff I must say on behalf of the lovely Suzanna and myself, thanks. Simply put this is an incredible place. As the lovely Suzanna and I left Sunday afternoon, I had a short conversation with amateur phenom Vasyl Lomachenko who I had met earlier Thursday. The lovely Suzanna asked me what I thought. ?Lomachenko! Obviously one hell of a fighter and grease lightening pivot quick? I responded. Suzanna laughed and stated, ?No, no, the entire weekend??
We both agreed that the weekend, from a ?Wynn? perspective, was?PERFECTION OF PLEASURE! This is a place that exceeds your expectations. No, let me correct myself on that comment. This is a place that exceeds your imagination and if one follows the logic of exceeding ones imagination then perhaps you?re in Dreamland. Yes, we are in Wynn beautiful dreamland! Am I over the top on this comment? Sure I am, but this is a place one way or the other, beautiful people, great Restaurants, Gaming, Waterfall features, amazing Architectural Design, Giant Green Mr. Frogs, that gives pleasure and the staff aim to exceed.
The ?Kid?
There will be some of you, wondering from Part I, How ?the Kid? performed. The Kid, a Poker prodigy, is a very wealthy young man this week. He made more than enough to make up for the betting loss Mr. Jensen Strauss took on Marquez, or, shall I say, he took by way of the judging.
This place, Las Vegas, once described I believe by Budd Schulberg as the ?razzle-dazzle capital of Suckerland? has come a long way from the early days of the Riviera, Sahara, Thunderbird Hotel, and the Dunes amongst the Sands. Indeed if this is the razzle-dazzle capital of Suckerland then there shall be winners and losers.
There is much to dislike about some of the recent judging in Las Vegas and certainly when one judge has Bradley winning 8 rounds to 4, then having Marquez calling it out, along with Nacho, for what it is, is certainly in order! How about Bradley telling you he has watched his fight with Champion Pacquiao over and over again and has himself winning 8 rounds to 4. Not speaking up in this business of Boxing leaves you as dry as those Sands and Dunes and Sahara-like heat back in the early 1960s when tumbleweeds still drifted across the strip here in razzle-dazzle land. You don?t have to be in this business of Boxing long to get it one way or the other, the business that is! I?d love to drill you some new veins of insightful thoughts otherwise but you?ll have to drill them from my unpublished observations and that will cost you a nice juicy steak and my hourly rate! The plum tree never stops giving!
?Unforgettable moments can mean many things to many people.??Steve Wynn
I won?t forget that look in the Grand Champion Marquez?s eyes as he peeked down over the top strand to look at us after the fight. Yes, Chairman Steve Wynn, ?someone designed that for my enjoyment and my discovery.?
Side Note
Since my friend and advisor Jensen Strauss apparently likes quotations as you?ve seen from Part I, The Legacy ?One?, I give one back to you, sir, in the case of Browning:
?I was ever a fighter, so ? One fight more, the best and the last! I would hate that death bandaged my eyes, and forbore and bade me crept past. No! Let me taste the whole of it, there like my peers the heroes of old?? or perhaps my friend Jensen, Picasso is more relevant: ?I am never interested whether the jury?s verdict about my work is favorable or unfavorable. My enthusiasm for my work is all that I need.? That is the message the Grand Champion Marquez left us with at the end of the evening. What else did he have left at that point? We only need to change ?never interest? to ?not interested.? Fans were overwhelmingly pleased with his performance and that was the giving on ?interest.? The Grand Champion was pleased with his performance. What story he writes now, what slice of life details he provides us now, are his, hard earned, and rightfully only his to write forward.
Again a special thanks to all the Wynn staff for a perfect and memorable four-day weekend. When something exceeds your imagination, well then indeed one has experienced something fresh and as new as those floral arrangements and Picasso color vibrant mosaic tiles when you first step though the doors to this other world. I am refreshed, recharged, and ready for the next ?Body and Soul.?
