Sergio Mora might be the only fighter I want banned more than Antonio Margarito. For all but a few rounds, he hardly did anything Saturday night; you might say he wasn’t a participant in his boxing match with Shane Mosley at all. Yet somehow he managed a draw in his junior middleweight bout with the future Hall of Famer, who didn’t look all that hot, but at least managed to do something, anything as Mora ran and held.
With the exception of a some of the late rounds, it was a bout that exceeded my expectations for how badly it would suck, and my expectations for its suckiness were high. And while the undercard at least had a few sensational knockouts, it wasn’t anything to celebrate. Somehow, 13,000 fans bought tickets (or were given them) for the show, and I was one of the suckers who was ambivalent about the HBO/Golden Boy pay-per-view card but still bought it at the last minute, hoping for the best or maybe just desperate for some boxing tonight. If you were wiser, I applaud you.
SHANE MOSLEY-SERGIO MORA
I scored the bout 10 rounds to two for Mosley, giving Mora the 10th and 11th, when he came alive and finally began really throwing punches at a tiring Mosley, who was taking very deep breaths in the 9th. I wrote down the 4th and 7th as close. I have a hard time imagining how anyone could score it for Mora, as one judge did, let alone a draw, as another judge did. The other had it a more reasonable 116-112 for Mosley.
From what I’ve heard about press row scoring and from the way people were talking on Twitter, some did see this as a legitimately close bout. I’ll answer them. I’m not the kind of person who believes in scoring activity or aggression if it’s not effective. Mosley was active, and aggressive, but rarely effective. But what did Mora do that was effective at all for most of the fight? There were rounds where he’d land one right hand that was eye-catching, and then do nothing else but circle and hug. With Mosley fighting even a little — and, yes, landing occasionally, as the bigger punch connect numbers would suggest — I can’t see why anyone would give rounds to the ineffective, not-fighting guy over the ineffective, fighting guy.
Since the fight sucked so bad, let’s talk about what it means for both men.
Mora must never fight again on a grand stage. I’ve seen a lot of stink-out performances in my day, but this ranks highly amongst them. And the sad part is that, once he threw some punches, he did all right. So he gets double demerits for showing he had a little talent, which means he sucked when he didn’t have to, which would be tragic if his performance was capable of inspiring anything more than boredom seasoned with a dash of contempt. (Actual post-fight quote: “They were telling me it was a close fight, but I thought I was winning the fight and so because I have so much respect for Shane, I loosened up and didn’t want to hurt him.” How many things are wrong with that sentence? 1. You weren’t winning, or at least, to most of us you weren’t. 2. You actually got more aggressive as the fight went on, not less. 3. What boxer doesn’t want to hurt his opponent? Not permanently, of course, but at all? 4. If Mora thought he even COULD hurt Mosley, well, Mora hasn’t been paying attention to his career-long power deficit.)
Mosley started strongly, I thought. His reflexes looked pretty good against a longer, fast, awkward opponent. But as the fight wore on, he began to look worse for wear. His team surely will say Mora was using his extra weight and size to tire Mosley in clinches, and that he was tired from all the chasing he had to do. But it’s harder to explain that for two fights in a row, including the Floyd Mayweather bout, Mosley had trouble getting his punches off a bit. I guess you could say he fought two defensive fighters, but in both occasions it appeared to me he had openings he didn’t take, as trainer Naazim Richardson has said during or after both bouts. And another thing I’ve seen now is two fights in a row is Mosley’s stamina fading late. You can blame that condition in the Mayweather fight on ring rust, and in the Mora running and clinching, but it’s still not a good trend. At 39, Mosley might still be a good fighter, but he no longer is a great one as far as I can tell.
He’ll want Manny Pacquiao, and maybe the day will come where he’s still a better opponent for Pacquiao than most anybody else, but Mosley would be better off staying at 147 and fighting the second-tier likes of Andre Berto, if he fights anymore at all. I don’t think he needs to retire quite yet, but I bet his career ends long after everyone thinks he should end it. He’s too much of a fighter at heart, as his occasional slurring proves, to hang them up before it’s too late.
SAUL ALVAREZ-CARLOS BALDOMIR
Alvarez gets deserved kudos for his strong finish, with him knocking Baldomir out flat on his face in the 6th of their junior middleweight fight. Baldomir, age 39, hadn’t been knocked out since 1994. And Alvarez is a solid technician with good power, so he’s got that going for him. When he turned it on finally — he could hit Baldomir at will, but was cautious early — he finished with aplomb.
But Alvarez is so, so slow. Only a 142-year old Argentinian who was slow even when he was 25 could make him look fast. Because of that, I would pick everyone in the top 10 of his division to slaughter him. I’m not sure he’s faster even than Alfredo Angulo, who hits far harder and more frequently. Let’s not forget: The worrisome aspect of Alvarez getting decked in May by Jose Cotto is not that he got decked — it happens to prospects — but that he got decked by a natural lightweight who wasn’t much of a puncher in that division.
I think the 20-year-old Alvarez needs to be looked at not as much of a prospect, but as an attraction. With his crowd-pleasing style, unique red hair for a Mexican and generous personality, and with women apparently digging him, he can sell move some tickets. He’s a big deal with Mexican fans. Lately, I’ve been questioning the taste of many Mexican fans — Did you hear how many people turned out for shot Erik Morales’ last fight? Who wants to see a shot former great struggle with people he once would have knocked out in the 1st round? — but they like what they like, I guess. And it’s a good thing when a boxer draws fans to the sport.
VICTOR ORTIZ-VIVIAN HARRIS
This fight confirmed two things for me I already knew: Ortiz, with his improving skills and natural speed and power, can still be a player; and Harris is totally shot. Harris only threw 11 punches in the 1st round, and only connected on one of them. When Ortiz opened up in the next round, he dropped Harris three times, some on less-than-flush punches. When he dropped him again in the 3rd, this time on a flush, compact right hook, the referee appropriately called a halt to the bout.
The key here was to see how Ortiz fared against someone with punching power, something he hasn’t faced since the Marcos Maidana debacle. Harris did land a couple good blows in the 2nd as Ortiz rushed to close the show, but Ortiz wasn’t phased. His other two post-Maidana tests were a confidence-builder against journeyman Hector Alatorre and a heart-tester against the gritty but faded Nate Campbell.
Those are the three tests Ortiz needed to pass to get back in the game against a live body. Now let’s see him do it. Anyone in the division’s top 10 will suffice, although his team has talked about Timothy Bradley or a rematch with Maidana, both bouts I’d be interested in watching.
DANIEL PONCE DE LEON-ANTONIO ESCALANTE
The fight many thought would be the fight of the night turned out to be a one-sided slaughter more akin to the other two undercard bouts, with De Leon beating up then stopping Escalante on a huge right hook in the 3rd that forced the ref to call a halt to it the second Escalante hit the ground.
I’d said beforehand that De Leon was probably the better technician, which friend of the site Irvin Ryan answered might be a trigger for the apocalypse. But there was no “probably” to it. De Leon was loads better, both on offense and defense. Escalante was tough and determined, but nothing else. He had trouble even connecting on De Leon, who countered him when he tried then hammered him with both hands to the head and body no matter how much Escalante ducked or moved.
De Leon’s power, in absence for most of his featherweight run, reemerged. It could come in handy, as could his improved technique, should he get a fight with another big name at 126. He’s supposedly the mandatory challenger now for Juan Manuel Lopez, who flattened him in one round the first time they met, but I wouldn’t expect it to happen soon if ever. And despite the improvement, I see Lopez making easy work of De Leon again if it does.
Some of the week’s other results:
