The quote above belongs to HBO analyst Roy Jones, who said those words Saturday in a context far different from how they deserve to be remembered. Jones was selling the HBO audience, pre-fight, on a chance oddsmakers had things all wrong about the main event to come. But the oddsmakers were right, of course.
Saturday, in the latest of what could be a string of sabotaging efforts by the outgoing regime at HBO Sports, Filipino Nonito Donaire decisioned Argentine Omar Narvaez by scores of 120-108, 120-108, 120-108, 120-108, 120-108, 120 . . . in another mismatched event that should not have happened on public airwaves much less a subscription channel. The fight happened in The Theater at Madison Square Garden and moved from curiosity to farce directly after the opening bell.
That was when the discrepancy in the men?s sizes became apparent. There are ways of tricking the public into buying the competitiveness of a match before it goes off, tricks like platform shoes and multiple layers of clothing boxing has long used, but there are no believable lies once men strip to their waists and meet at center ring.
When that happened Saturday, the difference in the men?s physiques, beginning with the size of their heads, told even the least serious fan nothing competitive was about to happen. Narvaez was undefeated and rated highly below 115 pounds, in Argentina, where he?d spent every one of the 11 years of his career, but was appropriately unknown in the United States, which might have been fine, fun in fact, had Narvaez not been 36 years-old and facing a prime champion easily three weight classes larger than him.
Frankly, it felt like something of a warning shot across Donaire?s bow by his former and current promoter, Bob Arum. Donaire, you?ll recall, enjoyed a canonization of sorts in February when he landed the year?s best punch against Mexican Fernando Montiel and gained entry into conversations about boxing?s best fighters. Then Donaire signed a contract with rival promoter Oscar De La Hoya, launching one more Top Rank v. Golden Boy Promotions lawsuit, and got himself benched for eight months.
Donaire returned to Arum?s company a media-friendly prodigal. This was his first match since coming home. Fighting about 3,000 miles east of the Bay Area, where he lives, and 10,000 miles from his birthplace in the Philippines, Donaire defended his 118-pound belt against a 115-pound defensive specialist from South America in a small Manhattan theater.
