Now that everything important has taken place, thought it would be a good time to dole out some awards — good and bad — for 2006. Some of my awards are typical, some are unique. They’re all juicy:
Hypocrite of the Year: Diego Corrales
This was probably the easiest pick to make. When Jose Luis Castillo weighed 139? for what was supposed to be a third 135-pound fight with Corrales in June, the fight was canceled and a lot of people lost a lot of money. Corrales went off verbally on Castillo and his promoter (Bob Arum) for letting it happen. He said he loved his sport too much to ever do anything like that. Corrales also ripped the Nevada State Athletic Commission for being too soft in its punishment of Castillo, who was given the maximum fine of $250,000 and suspended the rest of the year.
So what did Corrales do? He weighed in at 139? for his fight against Joel Casamayor in October — the same 4? pounds Castillo was over. Corrales lost his World Boxing Council lightweight belt on the scales. Asked the day of that weigh-in if he felt like a hypocrite for doing exactly what Castillo did in every way, Corrales said “No.” He said that as long he was willing to accept his punishment, he didn’t need to feel like a hypocrite. Wow!
It doesn’t matter that after his loss to Casamayor the next night, he said he did feel like a hypocrite. By that time, he was smart enough to do some damage control. As far as I’m concerned, what Corrales said to me just after his embarrassing failed weigh-in is how he really felt.
Bush League Move of the Year (Courtesy of the World Boxing Hall of Fame)
This organization just doesn’t get it. It isn’t enough that it has inducted scores of unworthy folks — lightweight Joey Barnum and referee Gwen Adair are in it — the World Boxing Hall of Fame really crossed the line when it had a Howard Cosell impersonator be emcee at its annual induction banquet in October.
Mind you, this wannabe comedian was doing most of the inducting. This is supposed to be a serious event, where people being enshrined into the Hall feel honored. A Howard Cosell impersonator? And he didn’t even play it straight.
This banquet was so long, so drawn out, that I could not bear it and left before the fighters were inducted. But a good source told me that this Cosell dude made a “no mas” reference when he was introducing Roberto Duran.
Can you imagine that? Something tells me that’s not going to happen when Duran is inducted into the very real International Boxing Hall of Fame next June in Canastota, N.Y.
Incidentally, the World Boxing Hall of Fame has been around longer than the International Boxing Hall of Fame, yet has no museum. The International Boxing Hall of Fame, of course, does.
Comeback Fighter of the Year: Oscar De La Hoya
The Golden Boy, who by the way stole his nickname from the original — Art Aragon — took one year, eight months off following his ninth-round knockout loss to Bernard Hopkins in September 2004.
De La Hoya signed to fight Ricardo Mayorga for his World Boxing Council super welterweight belt in May. During the promotion, Mayorga talked more trash than even Fernando Vargas did before he was knocked out by De La Hoya in September 2002.
Although Mayorga had been stopped in the eighth round by Felix Trinidad Jr. in October 2004, he has a very good chin. Most experts figured De La Hoya would just outbox and frustrate the awkward champion and come away with a decision. Some thought Mayorga would win.
Instead, De La Hoya took the fight to Mayorga. He decked him once in the first round and twice more in the sixth before stopping Mayorga at 1:25 of the round.
He Should Retire Trophy: Fernando Vargas
Vargas, a tough son of a gun, might be too tough for his own good. The young man had everything going for him, then had everything taken out of him. First by Trinidad, who knocked down Vargas five times before stopping him in he 12th round in December 2000. Then by De La Hoya. De La Hoya also put Vargas on the canvas, stopping him in the 11th round.
Fast forward to 2006. Vargas fought twice and got stopped twice by “Sugar” Shane Mosley. Their first fight in February ended in the 10th round because Vargas had gargantuan swelling on and around his eye. Mosley then stopped Vargas in the sixth in July, a fight in which Mosley was pitching a shutout on all three scorecards.
Both fights were at 154 pounds. Vargas has said if he continues, it will be at 160. Well, I hope that doesn’t happen. This man is financially set. He doesn’t need this game anymore, and he shouldn’t be in it.
He is nowhere near the stud he was before Trinidad. At 29, he should retire before he suffers permanent damage. If he doesn’t retire, once he gets in there with a real 160-pounder, tragedy could occur.
Publicist of the Year: Donald Tremblay
Tremblay works for Main Events Inc. Besides being a very personable guy, he gets outstanding quotes when he goes into the ring after the fight. Those quotes are brought down to press row and given to deadline reporters pounding away on their computers.
Hey, John Beyrooty, Kelly Swanson, Bill Caplan, Fred Sternburg, Lee Samuels and Ed Keenan also get solid quotes. But Tremblay is the only publicist who stays at press row after the main event is over and protects reporters from the highly motivated men who have been hired to tear down the ring and everything within a hundred feet of it — like press row. It’s nothing for these workers to “accidentally” unplug the power, which doesn’t do our computers any good.
I mean, these guys take stuff down around us and make more noise than the fans do during the fight. And we have to write well with all of this on top of us. I know, none of you fans really care about the writer, but these are my awards, and writers are the backbone of the media.
Tremblay, bless his heart, was the only publicist this year (that I noticed, anyway) who stayed out there with us and made sure these guys didn’t get so carried away that we couldn’t do our jobs.
It was particularly noticeable in the aftermath of the second fight between Marco Antonio Barrera and Rocky Juarez in September at MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Juarez fights for Main Events. He lost the decision, yet there was Tremblay, watching our backs.
Stunner of the Year: Calzaghe-Lacy
That Joe Calzaghe defeated Jeff Lacy in March in a super middleweight title unification bout wasn’t shocking. But the way Calzaghe beat down Lacy over 12 rounds was absolutely stunning.
Calzaghe had held the World Boxing Organization belt for 8? years before meeting up with Lacy, yet most American reporters picked Lacy, who is a brute of a fighter. But Calzaghe took apart Lacy in impressive fashion, knocking him down in the 12th round on the way to a ridiculously lopsided decision.
Calzaghe won by 12, 12 and 14 points on the scorecards.
Fight of the Year: Morales-Pacquiao III
This wasn’t Thomas Hearns-Marvin Hagler or Corrales-Castillo I. Then again, those were two of the greatest fights in history. But the rubber match between Manny Pacquiao and Erik Morales last month was an incredible display of two fighters with great skills, vicious punching power and large hearts going after one another with a vengeance.
That is until Pacquiao took Morales’ heart by tearing him apart in the third round. It was nearly nine minutes of exhilarating give and take. The 18,000-plus in attendance at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas, most of them either Filipino or Mexican, will be hard-pressed to find another fight with the kind of electricity delivered in this one.
With flags from both countries being waved in the stands, Pacquiao took Morales’ best punches to the head, shook them off and destroyed the legend from Tijuana.
When Morales did not get up after being knocked down for the second time in the third round and the third time overall, the fight ended with three seconds left in the round. The ensuing roar of approval from the Pacquiao faithful was deafening.
Fighter of the Year: Manny Pacquiao
Pacquiao did something that no one had ever done — stop Morales inside the distance. And he did it twice. Pacquiao won a 10th-round TKO over Morales in January, then came back and knocked out Morales in the third round last month.
His performance in the most recent conquest of Morales has made many experts with pound-for-pound polls rethink their top pick. Floyd Mayweather Jr. was the consensus No. 1, but some weren’t thrilled with his approach to his fight against Carlos Baldomir last month, which resulted in a lopsided Mayweather decision that earned him the WBC welterweight belt.
And Pacquiao was so incredibly good, so tremendously destructive last month against Morales that he is now being called the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in many ports.
