SO HOW freaking hard is it for a fighter’s seconds to wipe their corner dry before they send out their man back to the fray?
Apparently, Yuri Foreman’s team found this to be an extremely difficult job and they could possibly have caused Foreman his junior middleweight crown.
Foreman, who was boxing and moving well enough to hold his own against Miguel Cotto, slipped in the seventh round due to the excess water that percolated in his own corner.
He gamely got back up clearly favoring his ankle, only to fall again in another corner.(He would later say he aggravated an old knee injury).
He then proceeded to hobble around the ring like an executive who had a bottle of vodka for lunch.
Like a bloodhound, Cotto pounced on his handicapped opponent and landed some combinations. Deprived of the lateral movement that had served him well, Foreman stood his ground and fired back.
Alas, standing toe-to-toe with Cotto isn’t such a good idea, unless you are Manny Pacquiao, of course.
A body shot and another fall made Arthur Mercante Jr. wave the fight off mercifully in the ninth round.
In between, a bizarre sequence of events transpired (see below) which lends credence to the adage that indeed, anything can happen in boxing.
UNIMPRESSIVE. At the time of the stoppage, all three judges had Cotto ahead. I gave him only two of the first six rounds plus of course the seventh, eighth and ninth after Foreman became a one-legged fighter.
Prior to the fall, most of the rounds were close and could reasonably have been scored either way, but that alone speaks volumes about Cotto’s status as an elite fighter.
At times, Foreman made Cotto look slow and predictable and made the burly Puerto Rican miss so badly, he ended up hitting nothing but thin air.
The fact that it took him three rounds to finish off a one-legged fighter demonstrates he should stay far, far away from Pacquiao.
COMEDY OF HORRORS. This I gathered after reading George Kimball at www.thesweetscience.com.
At the 8th round, Joe Grier, Foreman’s chief second (probably conscience stricken after that grievous sin of omission) approached, NYSAC inspector Ernie Morales and informed the latter of their decision to stop the fight.
Morales climbs up the steps, but is inexplicably ordered by referee Arthur Mercante to stay away. A few seconds later, Grier throws in the towel. The action is halted and people flood the ring, assuming the fight has been stopped.
Inexplicably(again), Mercante rules that the person who threw in the towel was not authorized to do so and orders the fight restarted. Much later, ring announcer Michael Buffer announces the towel was thrown by an outside source, hence it was not recognized.
By “outside source” does that mean the towel came from outside the ring, as opposed to a towel thrown from inside the ring? Hmmm…
In the latter’s case I therefore move that boxers be allowed to bring their own towels inside the ring so they themselves can wave the white flag once they decide to cry uncle.
Plus, the added paraphernalia will allow the fighters themselves to wipe off any excess moisture in their corners just in case their seconds are too busy ogling the ring girls.
Second the motion, guys?
DEFTAC. Cheers to Deftac Cebu who once again made us proud by garnering 33 medals (9 golds, 10 silvers and 14 bronzes) during the 2010 Pan Asian Gi and No-Gi International Competition” in Manila.
The tournament is considered the biggest BJJ tournament in Southeast Asia. The golden boys were Robert Mellana and Ram Ananda for the Blue Belt Division, Gerb Inajada, Jiggy Canizares, Keeno Jingco, and Vaughn Donayre for the white belt division and Ren Anthony Lao in the juniors division and Carl Rizon in the kids division.
LAST ROUND. It’s on super-mom Janet Gorne who celebrates her birthday today. Cheers!
