“It’s weird…you know the end of something great is coming, but you want to hold on, just for one more second…just so it can hurt a little more.” ? Unknown
There is skepticism in the air for at least one of the big fights on tap this weekend. Oddly, it’s the fight with the two biggest names ? the two most likely future Hall of Fame entrants. The possibility of a bad style clash stopping a fight from breaking out has been discussed by this scribe and many others. It’s there. It’s legitimate. This Saturday, for those who pay to see it, lineal World Lightweight champion Joel Casamayor (36-3-1, 22 KO) makes the third defense of his claim to the throne against Juan Manuel Marquez (48-4-1, 35 KO). No matter how it plays out in the ring, we know both grizzled old veterans will be there and are long past proving their legitimacy. Looking for angles beyond how the styles might, or might not, mash up, there are plenty of positive approaches.
There’s the Mexico-Cuba rivalry…the chance to talk about men like Jose Napoles and Kid Chocolate.
There’s the implications on a wild Lightweight class…will this lead someday to Marquez-Manny Pacquiao III? Will the winner face the winner of Saturday’s other big divisional clash between multi-belted titlist Nate Campbell and Joan Guzman?
Those are all conversations worth having.
One could also think about Knockout Kings.
In 1999, the first version of the video game that would morph into Fight Night unveiled its first version on the original Playstation. Then the PS2 hit and Knockout Kings 2001 came with it, complete with a fantasy match-up mode. The typical stuff was there, mythical dances like Ray Robinson-Ray Leonard at users’ fingertips. There was also a suggestion of more modern flavor, a fantasy clash between Floyd Mayweather and Erik Morales.
Casamayor-Marquez is a piece of that fantasy come to life and whether the two technicians produce yawns or yee-haws, it’s no laughing matter.
It’s a chance to hold on for one more second.
Eras in boxing are a tricky thing to define. Sometimes single figures stand out and get a whole age named after them ? The Ali Era” for example. Other times, groups of notable fighters emerge together to define each other and the times they bled in. Fight fans in the late 1990s and throughout the 2000s were blessed with two such groups, divided most of the time between 122/126 and 130/135 lbs.
Casamayor-Marquez will mark the first big marquee clash of those “eras”. It might be the last and only. Both eras are over for all intents and purposes. Sure, boxing might get Pacquiao-Marquez III someday, but it likely won’t be for at least another year and Marquez isn’t getting any younger. The blooms are all but off a crop of roses and this era intersection comes as more postscript than defining chapter.
Every second of pretending otherwise can be comforting.
For all the tales of woe and laments for days gone by, it’s hard to find fault in the last decade at Feather or Lightweight. When this period in history is looked back on, both weight ranges will have five fighters apiece who stand out above the rest. From 122-126 (with significant late action at 130), Morales, Barrera, Pacquiao and Marquez were joined by Naseem Hamed. From 130-35, Casamayor stood afield with Diego Corrales, Jose Luis Castillo, Acelino Freitas and Floyd Mayweather.
In each group, the initial central star spent the least amount of time with the rest of the club, if for very different reasons, and their path to the center was comparable. Hamed burst from British rings to the global stage, making his place at the table by walking through tried veterans Tom Johnson and Kevin Kelly in 1997. The latter was a war of one-upsmanship, each man hitting the deck before Hamed finally prevailed at Madison Square Garden and created a whole new pay scale at Featherweight. His game is still debated; his impact on the mortgage and investment possibilities of the men around him cannot be.
Mayweather ascended quickly as well, turning pro after the 1996 Olympics and streaking towards his first title belt in an October 1998 domination of Jr. Lightweight vet Genaro Hernandez, stopping him in eight. When Mayweather added the scalp of the respected Angel Manfredy just shy of two months later, 1998 had its “Ring” Fighter of the Year and, while at a lesser scale than Hamed, the boys at 130 and 135 had an explosive new star in their midst. Yes, he would go on to do things beyond the Lightweight realm, but it remains his work at 130 that stands out as his very best.
Ironically, at the beginning it was a sort of mini-rivalry between Mayweather and Hamed which first broached the idea of inter-divisional warfare. Mayweather’s famous “slave wages” comment? It was being used to contrast what Mayweather was being offered versus what Hamed was getting.
Many of the great fights which developed after the climbs of Hamed and Mayweather might have happened anyways; all of the best ones didn’t involve them. There is no denying though that each made the stage larger. Castillo’s near win over Floyd in their first fight made his career; Hamed’s embarrassing loss to Barrera moved the Barrera-Morales rivalry from Boxing After Dark (B.A.D.) to pay-per-view, eventually bringing Pacquiao and Marquez along for the ride. That was the top of the food chain.
A few links down, Casamayor and Marquez built respect amongst the die-hards while waiting and waiting for a chance at the brass ring. The charmed lives of the stars ahead of them sat in awkward balance with the rough luck of the two men squaring off Saturday. Marquez, who turned pro in 1993, received his first title shot in 1999 and lost in a dreary outing against Freddie Norwood on B.A.D. Many thought Marquez won the bout, but it was bad enough for too many fans to forget why they should care. For most of the two years following the Norwood loss, Marquez was the WBO mandatory to Hamed, a position never honored by the champion or sanctioning body. It took until 2002 for Marquez to even get a serious fight on HBO again, defeating Robbie Peden on the undercard of Manfredy-Paul Spadafora.
Casamayor had better luck in his first title try but beat a man few in the States had ever seen or heard of, Jong-Kwon Baek, on Fox’s national basic cable affiliates. A 1992 Olympic gold medalist who found the courage to defect from Cuba before the 1996 games, Casamayor displayed skills, which made a future clash with Mayweather seem inevitable. It was never to be. His first major stage opportunity, a 2001 unification clash on Showtime against Acelino Freitas, ended in a narrow defeat caused in part by a controversial point deduction and knockdown call.
Their lives changed for good within months of each other when Casamayor split two classics with Corrales in October 2003 and March 2004 while Marquez got off the floor three times to hold Pacquiao to a draw in April of the latter year.
Now here we are in 2008 and Marquez and Casamayor are still standing. Pacquiao is too, but he was the youngest of either crew, building on his elders a rise to the top of the pound-for-pound debate. Mayweather is nominally retired, Freitas walked away last year, Castillo just joined them and Hamed has been gone long enough to be eligible for the Hall of Fame. Morales and Barrera vacillate between retirement and being inevitable cannon fodder for younger men.
Marquez and Casamayor are likely to join them soon enough. They just aren’t joining them yet.
Remember how tricky it is to define an era? Both of these men survived their first and now color a second as an outbreak of fantastic action at Lightweight happens with and all around them. Perhaps because they had to wait longer, they stay longer.
There’s also the fact that both can still go. They proved it in March.
Marquez proved he’s still got it in a thrilling narrow loss to Pacquiao. Casamayor moved beyond a ho-hum rubber match win over Corrales in 2006 and an awful decision victory that should not have been in late 2007 vs. Jose Armando Santa Cruz to trade knockdowns before knocking out then-undefeated Michael Katsidis in a Fight of the Year contender. Even if the fight this weekend doesn’t produce the naked violence of either man’s bit of March macho, they’ve earned the right to still linger near the top.
Of course, all of it begs the plainest question of all, a question not discussed often enough but one pushed to the forefront now. As the first clash of the men from their respective fearsome fives takes place, which quintet was superior?
It’s the sort of question where the arguments are better than answers.
The Featherweights’ five career and competitive numbers are incredible. They produced a total of 12 fights between them; two Ring Fights of the Year (Morales-Barrera I & III); five lineal World championships (Hamed, Barrera at 126; Pacquiao at 112, 126 and 130); and 19 alphabelt title reigns. All but Hamed are strong first ballot chances for the Hall of Fame.
The Lightweight Five was right with them in terms of accomplishments. They produced a total of 11 fights; one Fight of the Year (Corrales-Castillo I); six Lineal World championships (Mayweather at 130, 135 and 147; Castillo, Corrales, and Casamayor at 135); and 17 alphabelt title reigns. Only Freitas is unlikely to be denied the Hall of Fame over time.
Those are just numbers. It was the memories built from them that mattered. When people who lived through the time of these fighters have kids, they’ll tell them about the great fights they saw. They’ll force the kids to watch some of the classics to prove it. Now, for the first time, we’ll see the five joined as ten and take whatever memories come from that as well.
And who knows? Marquez and Casamayor might fool us all in this waning second, creating a sort of unsung classic both men were for so long. It’s just too bad this intersection couldn’t have been arrived at sooner.
No video game after all can ever replace the real thing.
Cliff Rold is a member of the Ring Magazine Ratings Advisory Panel and the Boxing Writers Association of America.
