It’s that time of year when we like to give thanks for what boxing has given us this year and to wish for what we would like the sweet science to provide in the upcoming year.
We give thanks for:
The performance by Juan Manuel Marquez in his welterweight title fight against Manny Pacquiao on Nov. 12 in Las Vegas.
Marquez had been frustrated in two previous fights against the Filipino congressman with a draw and split-decision loss to show for his fine efforts.
The third time was not the ultimate charm. Marquez obviously defeated Pacquiao with a tremendous night of work – thoroughly out-boxing his nemesis – but Pacquiao was scored the majority-decision winner. That awful job of judging aside, Marquez earned more respect in the industry than he already had, and that’s saying a lot because Marquez is a certain Hall of Fame inductee.
By the way, at 38 he is six years Pacquiao’s senior.
The return of Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Even though his fourth-round knockout of Victor Ortiz in their welterweight title fight in September ended in bizarre fashion, Mayweather showed even after a 16-month layoff he’s still the most incredible all-around boxer to grace the ring in several decades.
Ortiz. This young man’s hard-knocks upbringing has been well-chronicled, and now he is giving back by becoming ambassador for Big Brothers Big Sisters. Losing in the ring doesn’t make one less of a man, but helping underprivileged and at-risk youths makes one more of a man.
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newest results of the prestigious YahooSports pound-for-pound poll, which now has Mayweather first and Pacquiao second in the wake of their aforementioned recent fights.
Yours truly already had Mayweather No. 1, but many of the other roughly 30 voters from across the world needed more convincing and received it.
Pacquiao may have been given the victory over Marquez by the three blind mice – er, judges – but most of the pound-for-pound voters knew who won and reacted accordingly.
Super middleweight champion Andre Ward of Oakland.
Not only has he made his way into the pound-for-pound poll, he is a complete class act who cares about what’s going on in the world, not just inside the ring.
Amateur boxer Joseph Diaz Jr. of South El Monte.
After winning back-to-back titles at the U.S. National Championships in 2010 and 2011, the featherweight qualified for the 2012 Olympic Games in London by winning the U.S. Olympic Trials and giving a strong showing at the World Championships. Diaz turned 19 on Wednesday, which means he won his first U.S. title when he was just 17.
Promoter and former world champion Oscar De La Hoya coming clean about his drug and alcohol abuse, his infidelity and the truth about him being photographed wearing female undergarments.
Not an easy thing to do for a fighter from East L.A.
And now, a drum roll please, we wish:
The International Amateur Boxing Association would get its head out of the prehistoric ages. It wants female boxers who will compete in the Olympics for the first time in London to wear skirts.
If they want to – and most of them don’t – fine. If they don’t, they should be allowed to wear the same gear the men do. They are boxers before anything else. They get punched just like men.
Mayweather and Pacquiao finally square off in the ring.
Fans of Pacquiao won’t like the result, but if anything it would prove once and for all Mayweather is to boxing what Michael Jordan was to basketball – in a world of his own.
For an American-born heavyweight world champion. The recent death of the great “Smokin” Joe Frazier brought back memories of just how tremendous the heavyweight division was during his time. Virtually all the big men from that era were Americans.
Junior middleweight champion Saul”Canelo” Alvarez and middleweight championJulio Cesar Chavez Jr. would dukeit out next year.
Promoters could put this fight between the Mexican countrymen in the biggest arena in Mexico and it would sell out. The red-headed Alvarez is looked upon as the Mexican James Dean, and Chavez Jr. is the son of a legend. And they don’t like each other.
Israel Vazquez would stay retired.
The former super bantamweight champion from Los Angeles via Mexico gave us countless thrills while winning two of three fights against Rafael Marquez. But when Marquez badly cut Vazquez and knocked him out in the third round of their fourth fight in May 2010, the retirement writing was on the wall.
Vazquez’s manager, Frank Espinoza, later said Vazquez was told by a doctor he would need special bone-shaving surgery around his eyes to prevent him from being cut so easily if he wanted to fight again. Once a doctor says that, it’s time to go.
Vazquez, who will be 34 Christmas Day, wants to come back in 2012. He is a great guy with a terrific family. He doesn’t need this anymore.
Panama’s Moreno suffers through identity crisis
Bantamweight world champion Anselmo Moreno of Panama is fairly well-known in his native Panama.
“Yes, people do when I’m out running and they want to stop me and take a picture with me,” Moreno said when asked if he gets recognized on the streets of his homeland.
But few would know him here in the United States, and he wants to change that.
“There aren’t too many famous athletes from here and Roberto Duran was the most famous boxer,” Moreno said of his countryman.
“I know I wouldn’t be recognized walking down the street in Los Angeles now, so that’s what I’m hoping will change after a few more fights in the States.”
Moreno will be fighting for the first time in the U.S. next Saturday when he defends his title against Vic Darchinyan on the undercard of the bantamweight title fight between Abner Mares and Joseph “King Kong” Agbeko at Honda Center (on Showtime).
Moreno is 31-1 with 11 knockouts. Of his 32 fights, all but six have been in Panama, and several were at Arena Roberto Duran in Panama City. It’s possible that in Darchinyan (37-3-1, 27 KOs) he is fighting the toughest opponent of his career, and certainly one of the hardest-hitting.
But Moreno believes he is prepared for the full-on attack Darchinyan most likely will deliver.
“I feel like I’m a strong fighter, just like he is,” said Moreno who, like Darchinyan is a southpaw. “I’m at the point in my career when I’m ready to fight the great ones like a Vic Darchinyan.
“He has a good record and I have a lot of respect for him. He will be quick and come forward and I’m aware of his power.”
Moreno, 26, won the championship in 2008 and has made eight successful defenses. Even with all that success, his plans to become known in the U.S. will get derailed if he loses.
If he wins, he won’t go to nearby Disneyland, though. See, he and his wife are expecting twins.
“No, my wife says she’s in no condition to walk that much or go on any rides,” he said.
His wife is Rouss Laguna Moreno, daughter of former lightweight champion Ismael Laguna of Panama. Laguna made a name for himself here when he stopped lightweight world champion Mando Ramos in the ninth round at the Sports Arena.
Etc.
HBO will televise two championship fights tonight from different venues. Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (38-0-1, 28 KOs) will defend his junior middleweight belt against former welterweight champion Kermit Cintron (33-4-1, 28 KOs) in Mexico City. Adrien Broner (21-0, 17KOs) and Vicente Rodriguez (34-2-1, 19 KOs) will square off for a vacant junior lightweight title from Broner’s native Cincinnati. … The junior middleweight title fight between champion Miguel Cotto (36-2, 29 KOs) and Antonio Margarito (38-7, 27 KOs) slated for next Saturday at Madison Square Garden is a go after the New York State Athletic Commission granted Margarito a license. At issue was Margarito’s cataract surgery after being dismantled by Manny Pacquiao in their November 2010 fight. … Three weeks from today, on Dec. 17, the Showtime super middleweight tournament will be decided when Andre Ward (24-0, 13KOs) of Oakland takes on Carl Froch (28-1, 20 KOs) from Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, N.J. This also is a title unification bout.
