There?s a running joke between Angel Rodriguez and I about who has to write which side of our Head To Heads, where each of us picks a fighter and then advocates how and why they will win that weekend?s bout.
There?s three classes of bouts: those we succinctly disagree upon (about 50 percent), those The Corner is ambiguous about (25 percent — Angel couldn?t spell ?ambiguous? if you spotted him the first eight letters) and the remaining 25 percent, which seem about as hopeful a cause as picking a fight with Mike Tyson in an elevator. Naturally, we all have to take one for the team now and then, and this is boxing, so anybody can win on a given night, but those ones really are the fun tests of stretching the mind of the optimists and parlaying the possibilities into some skein of reason that says he will win.
Picking Erik Morales last week fell into the middle group on last week?s Head to Head assignment, but unlike the final group, which often resemble the massed Polish Cavalry preparing to charge a Panzer division, he had some tools that figured to factor into the equation. And he faced one heck of a dangerous guy in Manny Pacquiao. The Corner actually committed the cardinal sin of picking Pacquiao in the ?Fight Picks? section only to switch over to Morales, but really, I did pick Morales. The check?s in the mail??
The reasons behind picking Morales were hard-learned and simple. A good chin beats good power, just as in baseball where good pitching beats good hitting. Morales, a fighter with two losses, has been perceived as on the brink of drying up and blowing away more often than that 98-lb. guy that gets sand kicked in his face in the Charles Atlas ads. But there was always one inviolable thing about him ? hit hard enough, he will always fight back. Perversely, Pacquiao figured to hit him harder than Barrera did in beating him twice, and sure enough, it was sufficient to spark in Morales a good mix of boxing and brawling that turned the trick nicely. To cap off a perfect evening, my Maxboxing scorecard was 115-113, matching that of the three judges. I haven?t felt this clever since I mastered the opening sequence to Robert Johnson?s ?Traveling Riverside Blues.? It?s all downhill from here, even with the mojo hand in tow??
Much was made of the gloves controversy ? you read it here first thanks to Michael Katz ? but in retrospect, using Reyes gloves instead of the Winning gloves probably would?ve made Morales, not Pac Man, more likely to score a knockdown or knockout. After all, Morales wasn?t the guy getting knocked around the ring and driven into the ropes on a half-dozen occasions. He may have taken Pac Man?s head off with some of those straight rights he was drilling home, although in the second round it appeared that Morales had been gut-shot after a vicious Pacquiao body blow. Indeed, both men were driven to the brink in what should be the fight of the year, at least for the next couple months until Trinidad-Wright, Tszyu-Hatton, and Gatti-Mayweather make their cases. Those fights, for stylistic or matchup reasons, are not seen as the neck-and-neck pick?ems that Pacquiao-Morales was, but all of them could be classic fights, particularly Trinidad-Wright, a wonderful collision of styles.
And Gatti-Mayweather probably isn?t the mismatch some fear it to be ? I?m not so sure that Mayweather won?t just stick and move when he finds out he can?t hurt Gatti, especially with his brittle hands and Gatti?s cement head. He might stop Gatti on cuts, or score a flash knockdown from a brilliantly timed counter, but Mayweather is also facing the hardest punching guy of his career. At 140-lbs. Gatti can bring the pain and the pay-per-view price will justify itself the second Mayweather parks on the ropes and gives ?Thunder? a few freebie chances to make his case that he?s the better man. If Mayweather never goes near the ropes it?s gonna be a long night for Gatti.
The Return of ?El Feroz? A Pleasure, Albeit Sometimes A Guilty One
To assess a test of heart, The Corner always likes to freeze-frame a fight during a moment of high drama, when one guy is in a deep hole, and contemplate what the odds would be of him surviving the round, or pulling out the rally that ensues. It?s a good way to get your hands around how much heart a guy has, and how crafty he is conducting the rough business of pugilism.
For Fernando Vargas, his escape from Felix Trinidad?s assault ranks up there with any escape job in the last ten years. Floored twice with perfectly timed left hooks thirty seconds into the bout, Vargas looked like a dying man falling into the rapids, but miraculously, he fought his way out of the dangerous stretch and made a helluva fight out of it before succumbing in the twelfth round.
Since then, Vargas was stopped by Oscar De La Hoya in 2002, while beating lesser opponents like Tony Marshall, Jose ?Shibata? Flores, gatekeeper Wilfredo Rivera, and Fitz Vanderpool. He returns Saturday night against Raymond Joval, and with the complex chess game being played in the 154 lb. and 160 lb. divisions, he could be a player again with an impressive win. Vargas? post-Trinidad performances haven?t been as impressive as his earlier showings, where he was a potent blend of power, speed, and boxing acumen. The jury?s still out on what he?s got left, but Vargas always showed a ton of heart ? perhaps too much, when he might?ve been better served to stick and move ? and there are big fights where he?d be a lock to sell pay per views and seats. Here?s hoping it?s a redemptive pleasure in watching him lay the first steps back ? and doesn?t feel like a guilty one in watching him struggle with guys who couldn?t have shined his shoes five years ago.
Much was made over the years of the feud between Vargas and De La Hoya, but what it boiled down to was that Vargas completely lacked pretension and said what was on his mind, rather than what he thought people wanted to hear to prop up a public image. It was what made him accessible to journalists and fans, whereas a quote from De La Hoya ? invariably culled from a pseudo-event like a press conference or carefully prepared press release ? always smacked of the cloying fingerprints of his image handlers. Even when De La Hoya was chopping wood or tearing up a Vargas bobble head doll, you just didn?t get the feeling that he was really mad. On the flip side, ask Vargas about Winky Wright sometime; he will not need a script to convey his displeasure.
Fire in the belly. That?s Vargas. Whether there?s enough armor left on the tank is another matter altogether ? but his run back up the mountain will prove compelling either way, because even when he loses it?s with passion. And remembering how much better he seemed just a few years ago, if he has trouble with the Jovals of the world, it might be a better course of action to retire before he gets permanently injured. He?s got plenty of money and doesn?t have to fight. That?s probably the most interesting subplot of the night ? seeing who Vargas is matched with next given his showing and demonstrable reservoir of skills.
Heavy, schmevy
Can?t keep track of the rotating dates for upcoming heavyweight fights on my calendar, so I?ve decided to ignore them altogether until two weeks before hand. With Vitali Klitschko pulling out of an April 30 with Hasim Rahman, James Toney-John Ruiz has been moved to replace that fight. Wladimir Klitschko?s go with Sergei Liakhovich was changed to Klitschko-Eliseo Castillo on April 23 ? this barnburner is competing with the ESPN/Main Events pay per view card that has four fantastic fights on it. Really, in what possible universe would someone pick Klitschko vs. Liakhovich/Castillo over Kermit Cintron-Antonio Margarito, Shane Mosley-David Estrada, Juan Diaz-Ebo Elder, and Jameel McCline-Calvin Brock? Sure, it?s $29.95 (which is the best pay per view boxing value I can remember?.ever). Klitschko-Castillo is on HBO so it?s technically ?free? if you already subscribe, but I don?t think I?d watch that match if I was paid to do it. For action, it can?t even hold par with McCline-Brock.
Still haven?t made a pick for Toney-Ruiz. But if Toney wins, he?s probably the most popular heavyweight in the world. If he loses, maybe they can put Ruiz on the next cover of EA Sports? ?Fight Night.? The EA sports video game curse goes way back (go on, Google it).
Bad Intentions not ready to curse The Executioner
With middleweight champ Bernard Hopkins on the cover of the recently released ?Fight Night 2? you wonder if the EA curse will strike when he meets Jermain Taylor July 16. Both sides have agreed on terms and the bout looks like it?s a go. Though The Corner got a boatload of e-mails after stating recently that Hopkins seemed vulnerable to either Trinidad or Taylor, it would?ve been nice to see Taylor taken deep in a tough fight before facing Hopkins. Maybe against a Felix Sturm or Robert Allen type of opponent, someone with some tools to challenge him and make him solve puzzles on the fly, instead of blowing them out early or dishing out a one-sided beating.
This lack of distance experience has me staying with Hopkins. Taylor has a great jab, power in both hands, and should definitely give Bernard some problems, but Hopkins has too much experience, guile and trickerations, so to speak, to be out pointed over the distance. At this point he reminds you Ali in 1976-1977, when he could win rounds, and fights, on reputation and a few well-placed shots while killing the clock and using smoke and mirrors to get a blow. If someone is going to beat him, you need to push the pace and do damage early, and throw the gauntlet down. Taylor could be that guy for four, five, six rounds, but I don?t know if he can do it over the distance.
When you go into a tough fight against an experienced champ for the first time, lack of a good distance test is a serious impediment. I always think of Gerry Cooney tackling Larry Holmes. Cooney hadn?t gone past eight rounds before facing ?The Easton Assassin,? who?d had plenty of long-distance scraps and knew how to pace himself and pull out a tough fight. Yet Cooney?s handlers sent him in against an established veteran champion ? in the June Vegas heat, to boot ? in a 15-round bout. It was like showing up to a gunfight carrying only two bullets in the chamber because they were so cocky they?d finish the job quick. In the end, Holmes had a lot more bullets in his gun ? and his .22 beat Cooney?s .45 revolver.
Cooney did pretty good for a guy who hadn?t gone the distance, but succumbed in the 13th. You could see the uncertainty creeping in because his body had never been pushed that hard, so fast, so deep. The pick here is that Taylor surprises Hopkins early, and has the crowd smelling the hint of an upset in the opening rounds, but Hopkins rallies tough and takes a decision win with a gritty stand down the stretch.
If anything, it should make Felix Trinidad?s chances against Hopkins that much better if the bout passes. At least Taylor will make Hopkins use some bullets on him, unlike virtually everyone else that Hopkins has faced since 2002. To beat the champ you?ve got to be willing to go out and beat him down. Taylor will be looking to do just that and will probably be doing a lot of advance work for Trinidad, but I don?t see him pulling the trick.
And yeah, in the end, the curse prevails if Tito ever faces Hopkins again ? I think Trinidad has too much power and gas for Winky Wright, but it should be one hell of an exciting fight while it lasts. Just wanted to get on the bandwagon first before May 14, when seats will start going fast?.
