?Did you see that fight on HBO last Saturday?? inquired Al the Barber while motioning me to get into his chair as I walked into the fine barber shop on San Fernando Road:? That was one hell of a fight. It?s too bad they robbed that British boy in our nation?s Capitol as if he was a tourist getting pick pocketed. I?ve been following the fight game since before you were born and I?ve never heard a pug getting penalized for pushing. Who is that referee? What?s his name, Joseph Cooper? That?s why those boys won?t come over here across the ocean; they don?t want to get robbed. That, my friend, was a capital crime. They robbed that boy blind.?
?Blind,? exclaimed Downtown Ronnie Brown:? I think you are blind. Did you even watch that fight or were you just looking at the referee. This is no Olympics. It?s called professional prize fighting. You got to see who is doing all the damage. That local boy, Peterson was a beast; he was firing all the shots that mattered. Khan?s punches had no significance. Yes, his fists are fast, but they were doing very little damage. This ain?t no capital crime. This ain?t no crime at all. Khan insisted that he was the cleaner fighter, but this is a fight game; you don?t get extra points for fighting clean. You score points for doing damage. Forget all the penalties and a bogus knock down they gave to Amir in the first round and the local boy still won the fight no matter how you slice it.? Advertisement
?I would have to slice it a little different,? whispered Dave the Barber as if he did not want Ronnie to hear what he had to say:? Look at the punch stats. Amir fired and landed more punches in almost every round.?
?Here we go again with those stupid punch stats,? interrupted Ronnie Brown: ?As if they have a computer counting punches. They got two dudes like you and me doing it, and anyways, to me those punch stats don?t mean a god damned thing. As a song goes you gonnna have to hurt someone.?
?First of all, don?t ever interrupt me again,? cried out Dave the Barber:? Or you might experience hurt first hand. Secondly you blubber about Amir as if the boy has no bullets in his guns. Trust me he was not shooting blanks. He did some serious damage; just look at Lamont?s eye. It was closed. His shots did not seem as powerful because he was boxing and moving, but if you asked Lamont; he felt them. So don?t talk to me about damage as if you are an authority on power punching. What bothered me was that the ref completely ignored Amir?s complaints about Peterson leading with his head. He had to push him off to avoid head butts and to get his distance. He had no other choice. That was a real home town cooking.?
?You just hit a nail straight on the head,? exclaimed Big Steve who suddenly woke up from a day dream:? The whole fight was about distance. Amir wanted to fight on the outside, but he couldn?t keep the brother off him. I say it was a close fight and it could go either way. Give Lamont some credit. He fought like a champ and now he is one. And like a true champ his is up for a rematch. I say let?s do it again.?
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