Welcome back RSR readers, and not just to my mailbag, but to Ringside Report. The website was down for much of last week due to server problems. We switched servers recently to a web hosting company call ?StartLogic? who, unbeknownst to us at the time, happens to be the worst web host on the planet. Too bad we did not check out this site: StartLogicsucks.com or others like it before we signed up. But not to dwell on past mistakes, RSR is back as you can obviously see since you are reading this column and we are no longer relying on StartLogic to bring to the latest news, fight reports, and feature columns from the best team of boxing writers on the net.
Back to business as usual, I have a lot to talk about in this week?s edition of my mailbag including my take on past fights, my thoughts on some prospects, and, as always, some feedback on Manny Pacquiao. Before I get to the questions there are a couple topics that I would like to touch on.
Veteran Filipino boxer and former champion Gerry Penalosa scored a nice TKO victory over veteran contender from Thailand Ratanachai Sor Vorapin last weekend. That kind of win was exactly what Penalosa needed to show the boxing world that he is still willing and able to take on the best in the world. He also defended his moniker as the best technical boxer from The Philippines.
Even at 35 years of age, Gerry appears to still be in peak physical condition. I believe that Penalosa has one more campaign towards a championship left in him before he starts to be greatly affected by Father Time. A rematch between Penalosa and Daniel Ponce de Leon would be interesting; assuming that Ponce de Leon is able to get past Juan Manuel Lopez, which is no gimme.
The Penalosa fight made me want to go back and watch more of ?Fearless? Gerry so I found a tape of his March 2007 fight against Daniel Ponce de Leon. Penalosa put on a boxing clinic in the few half of the fight. Ponce de Leon would come forward with hard but wild shots but 90% of them were blocked and the other 10% were dodged! Then Gerry would counter with precise punches that landed hard and clean. The four criteria for scoring a fight are clean punching, effective aggressiveness, defense, and ring generalship. Penalosa dominated two of the four with his stellar defense and clean punching. Ponce de Leon was extremely aggressive early on but that aggression was very ineffective.
In the later stages of the fight I commend Ponce de Leon for having the presence of mind to switch his strategy because his initial plan of reckless aggression was not working. Daniel used movement to keep distance so that he could take full advantage of his longer arms. Penalosa had a hard time getting past Ponce de Leon?s reach in the second half of the fight. The late tactics by the champion made the fight close on my scorecard but I still had Penalosa the winner by the narrowest of margins.
I gave rounds 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, and 12 to Gerry Penalosa and I gave Daniel Ponce de Leon rounds 4, 6, 8, 9, and 10. Round 11 was even on my card, leaving me with a final score of 115-114 in favor of Gerry Penalosa. The official judges were way off in their assessments. Two judges gave only one round to Penalosa and one judge scored the fight a shut out in favor of Ponce de Leon, painfully showing the incompetence of some of boxing?s prominent judges.
I will concede that the fight was a bit difficult to score for a few reasons. Ponce de Leon threw about three times as many punches as Penalosa even though Penalosa threw the better quality punches. Las Vegas judges are known to favor the aggressor no matter if his aggression is effective or not. Also, the rounds that Ponce de Leon won he won big whereas Penalosa won many of his rounds subtly, though still definitively. Gerry seemed to take rounds off whereas Daniel Ponce de Leon worked steadily throughout.
The wide margin on the scorecards was ridiculous and an injustice to one of boxing?s hard luck losers. I would have been okay with Daniel Ponce de Leon winning as long as the scorecards were close because that is what the fight was, very close and down to the wire. The statement is true that Penalosa would have done better if he had thrown more than one or two punches at a time. But still, Penalosa landed more clean punches in the first four rounds than Ponce de Leon landed the entire fight. He deserved more credit that he received from the three ringside judges.
Switching topics, I am starting to look forward to the showdown between Miguel Cotto and Alfonso Gomez in a couple weeks after initially being disappointed in Cotto?s choice of opponent. Gomez is one of the most famous and well-liked fighters to come out of ?The Contender? the television show. He made a big impression in episode one, season one of ?The Contender? when, as a complete unknown, he was challenged by Peter Manfredo, a ranked contender. Gomez shocked the TV audience by holding his ground and winning a decision over Manfredo. That dramatic win was considered the highlight of the entire season by most.
Gomez took his newfound fame from ?The Contender? and used it as a springboard for his pro career. Since the show Gomez has taken on any willing challenger, going 6-0-1 in the process. The draw was against the tough-as-nails Jesse Feliciano. His wins include a knockout over Arturo Gatti and most recently a decision over Ben Tackie.
Conventional wisdom in boxing says that Alfonso Gomez and all of the other boxers from ?The Contender? are second rate fighters who are over-hyped because they was lucky enough to get some mainstream exposure. That may be true. Gomez is not particularly skilled and he is a light hitter. His best asset is his heart, and in boxing, heart is not enough to make it to the top. Gomez is an average fighter who is a huge underdog against Cotto. That is why I was initially disappointed in the match up. However after more reflection I have changed my tune, even though I still think that Gomez is going to get destroyed by Cotto. Miguel will eat up Alfonso?s hard-nosed Mexican fighting style.
But Gomez deserves this opportunity. His fifteen minutes of fame are about to be over so it is now or never for the Orange County, California resident. He was brought in as a lamb to the slaughter against Gatti, just like he was against Peter Manfredo, but Gomez fought his way out both times heroically. Gomez has done enough to merit a title shot and he worked his way up the right way, by fighting worthy opponents. Gomez may not fit into the grand scheme of the exciting welterweight division, but Alfonso has the fan following and credentials to make this fight worthy of our viewing pleasure and worthy of its HBO time slot.
Even if you don?t like Alfonso Gomez as an opponent for Miguel Cotto, I am sure that you will be tuning in anyway to watch the dynamite match up between RSR?s own Kermit Cintron and Antonio Margarito.
Now onto the questions:
Pacman vs. Oscar
Hi Brian, what can you say about the news lately that Manny and Oscar will fight each other in the near future? If there is a catch weight, what weight would it be? Some say that it would be at 146 or 147lbs, do you think Manny can carry the said weight? How about Oscar? It looks very hard for him to reach that weight. And who do you think will win that fight, which I would consider this early as the fight of the century?
Also, your thoughts on these: Pacman vs. Mayweather at 140, Pacman vs. Hatton at 138. Thank you!
-Madilyn Tabachingching
Madilyn,
I have heard the rumors about Manny Pacquiao vs. Oscar De La Hoya. They have been swirling around for almost a year now. I think that it is a very bad idea because Oscar is so much bigger than Pacquiao. A catch weight of 147 would still favor De La Hoya because 147 is probably De La Hoya’s ideal weight whereas Pacquiao’s ideal weight is many weight classes below that. De La Hoya has not fought at welterweight in a while and I could not foresee him being able to make any weight less than welterweight. Oscar has claimed that if he was motivated and trained properly he could once again make welterweight.
That would be bad news for Pacquiao because if the fight was at 147 De La Hoya would have to be in the best shape of his career for that to happen. 147 is not a natural weight for Pacquiao. He already looks more muscle bound than a boxer should and he is only fighting at 130 pounds. As he moves up in weight he will have to gain more bulk muscle. That will make him stronger but also make him slower and have less stamina.
De La Hoya would win this one but I think that logic will prevail and team Pacquiao will refuse the fight. Pacquiao vs. De La Hoya simply does not make sense.
As for the other potential superstar fights that you mentioned, I think that Pacquiao would lose both of those too. Mayweather is not only bigger than Manny but he is better in a pound for pound sense as well. Mayweather would box circles around Pacquiao.
A Hatton fight would also be tough because Hatton and Pacquiao are similar fighters only Hatton is significantly bigger and stronger. Hatton?s fighting style is rough and nasty which would maximize his size advantage against Pacquiao.
Manny should stick to fighting guys his own size. He has plenty of great options to choose from whether he wants to fight the best at super featherweight (Juan Manuel Marquez, Edwin Valero, Joan Guzman) or lightweight (Nate Campbell, Joel Casamayor, Juan Diaz).
Did Juan Manuel Marquez Cheat?
Marquez’s trainer, Nacho Beristain, could be seen on television packing what appeared to be a long yellow string soaked in an undetermined liquid solution into the wound, covering the cut with Vaseline, and sending Marquez out for the next round with the string still inside the wound.
Are you aware that there are certain rules that no other medication is allowed inside the ring aside from what the author specified? If not, then how would you react to controversies in Thailand that they’re illegally using ammonia to their boxers especially when their boxers are on the verge of being knocked out?
Hmmm? that leave us the BIG question of how Marquez survived the 3 knockdowns from their first fight and the 3rd round knockdown from the rematch. If you’re going to watch the end of the 3rd round of his rematch with Pacquiao, you’ll notice that Marquez doesn’t know where his corner at because of the effect of the knockdown punch but incredibly, he’s back to the right condition at the start of 4th round. Do you notice what Nacho did to him before the start of 4th round? I smell something fishy…
-Edwin Ramirez
Edwin,
Do I smell something fishy? No, I don’t. I really don’t believe that there is any foul play here. There is no evidence except the paranoid writings of a fight scribe that you cited in your email. No boxing official has accused team Marquez of any cheating. The liquid in question was probably a coagulate (a solution used to stop the bleeding of a cut) which is perfectly legal. Every corner and cutman has some kind of coagulate.
The use of ammonia or smelling salts would be illegal but that would something that they stuck in front of Marquez’ nose to wake him up. I do not know of any compound that if put inside of a cut will cure someone from the effects of a punch. If I were you I would not be kept up at night worrying about this non-controversy unless more incriminating evidence is released.
Prospects to Watch
I always enjoy reading your mailbag because it seems like you really know your stuff. You have a take on any fighter that someone brings up so I can tell that you pay a lot of attention to all of the fights. Since you watch a lot of the current fights, who are some of the up and coming boxers to watch aside from the really well know prospects (Amir Khan, Andre Ward, Yuriokis Gamboa, etc)? Thanks.
-Caleb
Caleb,
The guys that you mentioned are likely the future pound for pound stars of the sport but there are a few under the radar prospects that I think have potential.
25-year-old Puerto Rican prospect Roman Martinez, 18-0 with 11 KO?s, looks like the real deal. He has a win over the always-tough Francisco Lorenzo and a knockout win over the same Daniel Jimenez that upset former Olympian Vicente Escobedo.
Tyrone Brunson, 19-0 with 19 KO?s, recently caught my eye when he broke Edwin Valero?s record of consecutive 1st round knockouts to begin a career.
I admire the heart and passion of Raul Martinez, 22-0 with 13 KO?s. He reminds me of a young Jorge Arce only not as offensive minded.
?Machine Gun? Mike Jones, who has a record of 13-0 with 12 KO?s is starting to step up and fight journeymen and fringe contenders. Is he the next great fighter from Philadelphia? I don?t know but I like what I see so far.
Aaron Williams, who just improved his record to 17-0 with 12 KO?s with his destruction of Andre Purlette last Friday, is someone to watch. He has a great amateur background, a solid trainer in Eddie Mustafa Muhammad, good power, but patience to go with that power. Williams is a talent but he should resist the temptation of moving up to heavyweight because he is undersized for a heavyweight. Cruiserweight would be a good fit for him.
There are many others, too many to list, but this is a sampling of some of the young fights that I am high on right now.
Pacquiao Is Not Afraid
Good day! Thank you very much for your time to read my message. I’ve read an article saying that Juan Manuel Marquez is the PPV attraction among the Mexican fighters, sounds like that. I agree at some point that the Manny Pacquiao vs. Juan Manuel Marquez rematch earned a lot of PPV revenue, but I think the other reason that this PPV did so well is because of the opponent. And with due respect to Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales, I believe that the two deserved to be called Mexican attractions as well.
Secondly, I think that Marquez and other people should stop saying that Pacquiao is afraid to fight him again, because it was Marquez who kissed the canvas. And also, other people should stop saying that Pacman is a Mexican killer or Mexicutioner because Pacquiao himself said that he is just an ordinary boxer and it just happened that his best wins have been against Mexicans.
Now, do you think that Pacman needs a longer training to adjust to 135 lbs? Will the higher weight affect his speed and power? What should Pacman do?
-Jason Calara
Jason,
I find that quote interesting because I don’t think that Marquez is more of a PPV attraction than Morales or Barrera. He fought Pacquiao at the right time and at a time when the fans demanded it so the PPV buy rate was good. Funny because Marquez his whole career has been considered far less marketable than his peers until now. We all knew that Marquez was on the same level as Barrera and Morales as far as talent goes, but he was always lagging behind in terms of marketability and name recognition. Marquez is finally getting that recognition at the tail end of his career.
To comment on the whole ?he is scared of me? talk coming from both sides, Pacquiao is not afraid of Marquez but perhaps Bob Arum is afraid of Marquez. Arum has set up a fight schedule for Manny and that schedule does not involve Juan Manuel Marquez. Pacquiao is doing what his promoter is telling him to do, which is getting ready to fight David Diaz. Both Pacquiao and Marquez are born fighters who have willingly fought 24 rounds together. Neither is scared of the other.
For Manny to find success at 135 pounds he does not need to have a longer training camp, just a different kind of training camp. He should work on building some muscle but still maintaining his speed and agility. His speed will be his best asset at lightweight because his power will not be as effective against bigger opponents.
That concludes my mailbag for this week ladies and germs. Send in your questions and I will be happy to answer them and include them in my next mailbag. Have a great week everyone!
