Classic Saturday: Every Boxing Cliche Takes its Turn!

Saturday Dec 11 was a night of packed fight cards on both HBO and Showtime. The most impressive moment of the night was the realization that not only was the Showtime card even better than advertised but that the HBO Main Event was the single best fight of the night. When three of four fights are that good, it's good for boxing. Period. When every classical literary and historical trope in boxing takes a run around the ring in its turn, it only serves to crystallize a great night.

The most immediate cliche to jump to the surface is that of redemption.

Coming into Tacoma on Saturday night, Joseph Agbeko was the number six bantamweight in the world on The Ring's list. His last fight was a decision loss to Yohnny Perez of Colombia, in which a determining factor was a controversial knockdown that may have been a head-butt. Referee Robert Byrd later admitted that he himself did not know whether Agbeko's trip to the canvas had been caused by a punch or a clash of heads. The judges weren't any more helpful. Everyone in boxing suggested the fight had been much closer than the score cards. Yet no one suggested that he won either.

In the second fight of Showtime's 'double main event', Agebeko proved he could box and showed he could do it very well down the stretch when it really mattered. He cut Peres with a punch in round 4 and Perez was pawing at it by round 7. Scoring the fight off tv, I had Agbeko shutting Perez out over the last five rounds. Perez kept repeatedly rubbing at the cut in every round and his punch out-put dropped. This time the judges gave the fight to Agbeko without reserve: Glenn Fellman by a score of 115-113, Glenn Hamada by a score of 116-112, and Alan Krebs 117-111. My final tally was 117-111 as well.

Agbeko grabbed his retribution when the chance came, regained his alphabet title, and advanced to the fial round of Showtime's tournament. It wouldn't be hard to make the argument that the manner of his victory over Perez makes him the favorite to win the tournament.

Agbeko put it more simply. "I've got my meal ticket back," he said to Steve Farhood.

Amir Khan's meal ticket appears fairly well assured as well. The photogenic young Englishman boxed well enough to dominate most of the minutes of his fight with Marcos Maidana. He also hit well enough to score a first round knockdown with a stiff body blow. It was the only offical knockdown of the fight (though referee Joe Cortez waved another apparent knockdown off as a slip in R9) despite questions about Khan's chin and Marcos Maidana's proven power. After dominating the first half of the fight and giving Maidana a really good thrashing in round 9, Khan was caught flush by a pair of really nasty right hands from Maidana in round 10. Khan refused to clinch and, despite a lot of effort put into his defense, mostly refused to run as well. He even waved Maidana in on two occasions, the second as the twelfth round wound down. Khan survived the tenth with skill, heart, and (lest someone else forget to mention it) CHIN. Though he was out on his feet on at least two occasions (once in the tenth and once in the eleventh), he did not go down and managed to make serious efforts to steal both the eleventh and twelfth rounds back from Maidana.

Amir Khan deliberately chose Maidana as an opponent to prove he could fight a hard fight, and win, against the hardest puncher in the division. I'd say he did just what he wanted. I'm not saying that he can't be knocked out or that he isn't vulnerable to a big uppercut, but he's proved he has enough talent and a good enough beard that 'a weak chin' is not to blame should he ever be stopped again.

The Las Vegas crowd managed to provide another boxing cliche: the inability of casual fans to believe that someone who almost knocked his opponent out could still deserve to lose or to understand that surviving such a puncher until one can fight back is an achievement and not a failure of character. Their booing of Khan was disappointing.

Another less than pleasant boxing cliche was provided by Vic Darchniyan after he was out-punched by undeated Abner Mares. Mares survived a head-butt induced cut in the first round, a flash knockdown in the second, and a borderline point-deduction for low blows in the 4th to keep the fight largely even through six rounds (a fact strangely unappreciated by the press row score cards shared with Shotwime) and then to out-slug Darhninyan for an arguably two-point round 7. Darchinyan made a tough stand in round 10, blunting Mares' offensive and arguably stealing the round. Mares was simply unwilling to stop looking for the knockout. In round eleven, Darchinyan was hurt several times and was forced to lean heavily on Mares in the clinches to stay on his feet. He was simply too tired and hurt to fend off a wild, sloppy offensive explosion from Mares and score the stoppage necessary to win. The judges didn't all see the same fight, with Glenn Hamada scoring the fight 115-111 for Darchinyan (a difficult position to defend), Alan Krebs 115-112 for Mares, and Tom McDonough 115-111 for Mares. My final score was also 115-112 for Mares.*

The victory means that Mares will face Agbeko in the tourney final. I really liked his guts and aggression in his win over Darchinyan and he really has fast hands and a little bit of a punch. Yet he clearly had momentarily trouble when Darchniyan boxed well, and Darchniyan's power shots allowed him to hold his own. Agbeko is bigger and stronger than Darchinyan and hits harder than Darchinyan at bantamweight. He's also better than Darchniyan, whose style is so unorthodox that it becomes a weakness and whose basic boxing fundamentals show as lacking even when he boxes well.

I have to favor Agbeko in the final. If Mares is as aggressive as he was against Darchniyan and Agbeko is as good as he was against Perez then I think Agbeko wins by late knockout. He is physically much bigger and stronger than Darchniyan and will be able to out-bully Mares if necessary. Mares will have to box smarter to find a way to beat Agbeko. I like this fight a lot and am eager to see it.

Darchniyan, however, blamed the judges for not seeing it his way and blamed the referee for warning him against grinding his glove into Mares' cut. His display of self-pity was very disappointing. He cut Steve Farhood's questions about his next fight off in order to say, "Let me finish," and go back to reciting the injustices of his defeat until Farhood appeared to decide, with some possible distaste**, that Darchinyan would simply not answer questions and dismissed him.

Which leaves only Victor Ortiz vs. Lamont Peterson. The deprived, homeless childhoods of both fighters lent drama outside the ring. The clash of styles promised an entertaining fight. The fact that both men could not afford to lose lent a sense of urgency to the battle.

Unfortunately, it didn't even offer any such sense of urgency to Ortiz and Peterson. Both men spent the first two rounds feeling each other out, which Ortiz's greater activity and greater pop barely giving him the lead. In the third we were given the promise of excitement when Ortiz dropped Peterson with a combination, initiated something of a brawl in which he then employed a dead-weight take-down*** to put Peterson on the canvas a second time, and then scored a second legal knockdown soon thereafter. The fight promised either an exciting resolution or a dramatic performance by Peterson in the rounds to come.

Peterson did provide a bit of early drama when he punched himself out trouble well enough to avoid a knock-out and stay in the fourth round, then boxed well enough to steal it. He slowed the fifth round down, keeping things inactive enough that he could make an argument for the otherwise close round with a few good hooks. When Ortiz tried to force the action in the sixth, Peterson kept the round very close. Yet it wasn't terribly exciting to watch. Ortiz fought well enough down the stretch to steal an otherwise uneventful round 7. Round eight was close and relatively slow again, but Ortiz made another major press to win the fight in the eight. He tagged Peterson a few times and forced another fight, and Peterson again punched out of trouble well enough to manage to steal the round. In the ninth they both boxed well enough to make the round slower again, but Ortiz landed the heavier shots down the stretch. In the tenth, Ortiz fought a smart, effectively aggressive round and appeared to finish strong.

I had the fight 97-92 in Ortiz's favor, because I thought the knock-downs gave him a big edge in an otherwise close fight. I was impressed by some of the things Peterson did to stay in the fight, but I don't think he saved himself as much as Ortiz let him off the hook by abandoning a steady body attack. I could see the fight being a little closer, but not so close as to prevent the knock-downs from making the difference.

Hence another cliche: the oddly unexplainable 'Vegas decision.'

The judges saw a totally different fight. Robert Hoyle scored the fight a ridiculous 95-93 for Peterson. Patricia Morse-Jarman and Dave Moretti (aka 'the usual suspects')then turned in hardly more defensible scores of 94-94. I had Ortiz up by five points after three rounds. The math that we then require to accept Hoyle's score is this: Peterson won every other round after the first three. Peterson just didn't look that good to me. The drawn score requires that Peterson lose only one more round. I don't see how someone couldn't find at least three rounds for Peterson in the final seven.

That's Vegas.

In retrospect, the combination of cliches connected to Saturday night's fights made the two fight cards a microcosm of boxing in its entirety. The good, the bad, the ugly, and the foolish were all on display.

*I don't remember Alan Krebs' name from any previous fights, but this is sure some judge! Imagine someone getting the two big fights in front of him EXACTLY right twice. I thought I was the only one who did that!

**I don't want to put thoughts into the head of Steve Farhood. I don't know what the man was thinking at the time. I can only read his tone and body language. They didn't read like he was thinking happy thoughts. By contrast, he looked much more comfortable and happy with the other fighters.

***I think Ortiz is in the wrong sport. He hits hard, he's a fine wrestler, he doesn't like to get hit, and he has already had the experience of losing by submission. I think he's ready for The Ultimate Fighter.