This Saturday night, HBO gets back into the thick of things with a doubleheader that features the return of Shane Mosley against Ricardo Mayorga and the first title defense for WBC welterweight belt-holder Andre Berto versus the sturdy Steve Forbes. It?s a twinbill that should be long on excitement, if not actual competitiveness. Mosley and Berto are the prohibitive favorites to win their bouts, but it should be a fun night of boxing regardless.
And it usually is when it takes place at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California. With the demise of the historic Grand Olympic Auditorium and the Great Western Forum (which I believe are now used as big churches) their 8,000 seat tennis court has become the new boxing cathedral for the hardcore purists.
Yes, the Staples Center – the home of the Lakers and Kings – might host LA’s biggest fights, but the best bouts in recent years in Southern California have taken place on 18400 Avalon Blvd.
The Home Depot center is described on its website as, “A 125- acre development in Carson, California, featuring state-of-the-art stadiums and facilities for soccer, tennis, track and field, cycling, lacrosse, volleyball, baseball, softball, basketball and other sports. Designated as an ‘Official U.S. Olympic Training Site,’ the Home Depot Center is the nation?s most complete training facility for Olympic, amateur and professional athletes.”
What boxing fans know and care about this AEG facility – that was opened on June 1st, 2003 – is that, for whatever reason, good fights seem to break out on its tennis court.
The first bout that ever took place at the venue was on June 20th of that year when a comebacking Diego Corrales would halt Damian Fuller in three rounds on ‘Friday Night Fights’ on ESPN2. Since that point, it’s been a consistent destination for fights on the HBO/Showtime level that aren’t quite big enough for the Staples Center. But it has become the place to put ‘fight fans? fights.’ With its usually affordable ticket prices and great sight lines (there’s literally not a bad seat in the house), it provides a cozy, intimate and lively atmosphere. This joint has quickly gained a reputation with the blue-collar fight fans as the place to go to watch fights at the highest levels of the sport.
If Las Vegas is too far and Staples a bit pricey, the Home Depot Center is the place for you. There are no casino comps, no season ticket holders who just happened to show up for a night out. When cards are staged here, the fans show up early, cause a ruckus (anyone else remember what took place after Vic Darchinyan’s fight against Victor Burgos?), drink plenty of beer (lines are longer than a Star Wars premiere) and are very much into the fights.
The history of this place isn’t very long, but it’s become quite storied.
– June 19th, 2004: On this HBO televised show, Marco Antonio Barrera would return from his knockout loss at the hands of Manny Pacquiao by halting Paulie Ayala in what would be the last fight of Ayala?s productive career. On the undercard, a young and up-and-coming Jermain Taylor would stop Raul Marquez (who we all believed had his career ended that night, also).
– May 27th, 2006: In front of a sparse crowd (so sparse, I think at the end of the night everyone knew each other on a first-name basis), Jhonny Gonzalez would decision the highly reluctant Fernando Montiel in defense of his WBO bantamweight title. Opening up the HBO portion of the broadcast was an unknown welterweight by the name of Paul Williams, who would outclass Walter Matthysse. But this wouldn’t be his biggest win in this venue.
– July 14th, 2007: In front of what was the biggest crowd to date on the tennis court (around 7,500 patrons), Williams would hold off the late rally of Antonio Margarito to take ‘the Tijuana Tornado’s WBO welterweight title. While their prior shows had modest-to-meager attendance figures, buoyed by the strong promotional push put on by Goossen-Tutor, this became quite the ticket.
But the two fights that have really defined this venue were the bookend fights of the Israel Vazquez-Rafael Marquez trilogy that took place nearly a year apart on March 1st, 2007 and March 3rd, 2007. Years ago, a Mexican blood war like this would’ve been staged at either the Olympic or the Forum; now it takes place here.
The first bout of this series would see a crowd of around just 3,000 on its premises as the organizers of the event proved that too many cooks do indeed spoil the stew. Incredibly, the venue was not set for this eagerly anticipated matchup till about two-and-a-half weeks before the actual fight. The fight itself lived up to most of its billing. After getting sent to the canvas in the third, Marquez seemed to control most of the first half of this bout. But as Vazquez seemed to be working his way into the fight with his advantages in size and strength, we never got to see the climax as Vazquez would call it a day, citing damage to his nose.
After Vazquez would turn the tide in a fight that surpassed their initial hook-up in Texas, the rubbermatch would be scheduled for the Home Depot Center this past March. And what had become a notable rivalry would reach legendary status as the two battled life-and-death for 12 rounds. Marquez would take the lead early on the basis of his boxing skill, and unlike the rematch, he refused to get sucked into an all-out slugfest. But by the late rounds the hard-charging Vazquez closed the gap and started to wear down Marquez with his steady, grinding attack.
For 11 rounds this was a great fight. What took place in the final three minutes took it to a whole new stratosphere. Needing something significant (like a knockdown, perhaps) to overcome Marquez, Vazquez charged out and proceeded to throw a volley of right hands at Marquez that had him visibly reeling around the ring. He would valiantly hold his ground and try to fight back and just when it looked like he would make it to the final bell without hitting the canvas, a late flurry of power punches would have Marquez sprawling to the canvas, the ropes being the only thing holding him up. Referee Pat Russell would correctly rule it a knockdown. The late rally brought about memories of Julio Cesar Chavez’ late surge against Meldrick Taylor in 1990. And it was appropriate that the Mexican icon was ringside calling the action for Mexican television.
The din was overwhelming, the fans seemingly as breathless – but not nearly as beat up – as the fighters themselves. Everyone knew they had witnessed something special. Nobody seemed to leave their seats for a good 15 minutes after the verdict had been rendered. Perhaps it was because they wanted to soak in what they had just been a part off.
The knockdown would be the difference in a one-point split decision victory for Vazquez, which almost seems like a sidenote in the bigger scheme of things. Both Vazquez and Marquez emerged as full-blown stars on this night.
The same might be said of the arena that held it.
TICKET INFO
Tickets for this Saturday night – which are priced at $350, $150, $75 and $50 – can be purchased at any Ticketmaster outlet, their website (www.ticketmaster.com) or can be purchased by phone at 213-480-3232.
Tickets can also be bought at the Home Depot Center box-office, which is open from Monday through Friday from 10 am to 6 pm.
TELEFUTURA
There was a very good Telefutura show this past Friday night that saw Kid Diamond rally late to get past the game Javier Jauregui by the scores of 97-93, 96-94 and 95-95. If Kid Diamond would’ve had one of his bad nights, he doesn’t win this fight.
The telecast opened up with jr. middleweight prospect Vanes Martirosyan taking a ten round decision against Michael Medina by the scores of 100-90, 97-93, 98-92. But the scores don’t tell the story of just how good of a test this was for Martirosyan, who was really made to work for this W.
And for the first time, Martirosyan really looked like a professional fighter. He wasn’t bouncing around the ring like he was on a pogo stick, he set his feet more and fought well inside the pocket. It was the perfect development fight for Martirosyan at this stage of his career.
You wish Top Rank would’ve put this caliber of a show on their Versus telecasts, instead of wasting everyone?s time with the likes of Tye Fields.
FINAL FLURRIES
Well, the marriage between Amir Khan and trainer Jorge Rubio didn’t last long did it? I think Liz Taylor had marriages that were about as short if I recall….Has there been a fighter with worse luck than Jose Armando Santa Cruz, who got KO’d over the weekend by Antonio Pitalua? By the way, was there anyone in the States that actually got to see that fight? I have about eight versions of HBO and couldn’t find it. In fact, I don’t know of anyone that did view this fight….In my book, now Pitalua is ‘the reeeaaaaalllll’ lightweight champion….Loved to see a fight between warring Redskins Clint Portis and Brian Mitchell….Hey, what ever happened to INOJ? Nobody could do a remake of 80’s songs like her….Best part of the Home Depot Center? It’s about a half-hour drive (less without traffic) from my home….And yes, since Miami is playing UNC in the morning on ESPN2, I look forward to being there….I’ll say it right now, ‘the Karate Kid’ has one of the best soundtracks of the 80’s….Going through youtube for my music, I have to ask, which had the worst dancing from its performers, Seduction’s, ‘It Takes Two’ or LL Cool J’s, ‘Round the Way Girl’?….It’s official, Florida State is now just Mike Tyson post-Lennox Lewis. All they have is their name and past reputation. But they certainly don’t scare anybody anymore….Tickets for Pacquiao-De La Hoya go on sale on September 24th on Wednesday at 10 a.m. And no, I have no contacts, no short cuts, no nothing, so don’t even ask….
