Alright, I was rooting for Mercito Gesta (31-2-2, 17KOs) last night. Fuck it, I wanted him to win. I?m not really a big Jorge Linares (44-3, 27KOs) fan and wanted to manufacture a way for my guy to win, WELL ? it didn?t work out. It?s not like he got paint jobbed, but he did get spray painted with a ?Welcome to Las Vegas? sign by Linares outside of Los Angeles at The Forum in Inglewood, CA. on HBO Boxing After Dark.
Gesta, who faced a B+ talent, was a southpaw in possession of B+ toughness and intangibles with a C- in offensive variety. In short, he proved to be Manny Pacquiao in the form of a Volkswagon: good and dependable, but nothing to turn heads in traffic. Linares was more like a vintage Porsche that seemed too have grown too sophisticated for his former mechanic, Freddie Roach, to work on. That, or maybe he just realized the limitations of his Volkswagon while daydreaming in the corner about a Maserati or a Bentley Coupe that would smoke his ass.
Those two fighters would be Mikey Garcia or Vasyl Lomachenko. Garcia is a sharper, far more explosive combination puncher of deadly accuracy and precision. He would definitely slice up, bludgeon and subdue Linares. Lomachenko is a cruel data miner, and would find nothing but gold every time he struck Linares ?particularly, with his Olympic left hand. The WBA lightweight champion is not especially difficult to hit, but is a fierce competitor passionate about not losing. This could only insult Lomachenko, who would respond by giving him a massive ass whooping for behaving this way. It would not be pretty at all folks. But let?s deal with the new WBA ?regular? champion (this is, once again, absolute sanctioning body bullshit for greed) Lucas Matthysse (39-4-1NC, 36KOs) and his 8th round fiction over a crude Tewa Kiram (38-1, 28KOs) straight out of central casting. The ?1-2, 1-2? 1.2 scale tsunami was actually beating Matthysse well into the fight with a style more vanilla than? vanilla.
He was somewhat marked up heading into the 8th and had tasted the vaunted power of Matthysse, so nothing really suggested that a moderate right hand would drop him ? and then ? that a left jab would give him something to think about before deciding it was enough to count him out It [looked], honestly, ?fixed?. Matthysse is shot, as I?d suspected prior to this bout. That doesn?t mean he?s no longer a very good fighter (because he is), it?s just that he?s done being an elite fighter. After Danny ?Swift? Garcia turns Brandon Rios into a breathing heavy bag that bleeds, he would make a mattress out of Matthysse with no springs attached. Maybe that sets the stage for a rematch with Keith ?One-Time? Thurman, who would then get rid of this ?regular? champion bullshit and regulate DSG. I can only guess that would lead to a showdown with the supernatural IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr.
Who knows?
The 13th Round What really bothered me about Saturday night?s card, was that it revealed how factionalized and childishly corrupt the business of boxing has truly become. It was wrought with a complete lack of integrity. From the tricky shit in the corner of Kiram to the phantom finish, can we really trust anyone or anything in this once noble sport anymore? Before this card happened, a certain fat bastard who looks like something out of Wayne?s World, basically said the card was trash. Turns out he was right. But he knew like I did, that Erislandy Lara V Terrell Gausha as a headliner was awful before it proved to be even worse. Why would rival promoters take to Twitter to fire shots at each other? If we never learn anything else from Donald Trump, it?s that you are what you tweet.
