I will start by admitting that I'm a Bernard Hopkins fan, maybe the only one in the world. Every time he proves the conventional fan wisdom wrong, I laugh and I love it. There are a few reasons for this. The most important is probably that I admire boxing craft a lot more than I admire exciting punchers. This isn't to say that I don't prefer an exciting fight to a boring fight or love exciting fighters. I just respect a genuine craftsman more than a super-talented fighter who fails to master the fundamentals of his chosen profession, no matter how entertaining his fights may be or successful his career may be. It's why I was never particularly impressed by Mike Tyson, Oscar de la Hoya or Roy Jones Jr.
A reason nearly as fundamental is the reason 'House' and 'The Mentalist' are successful on television and among my favorite shows. There is something attractive about the pompous ass who has really earned his pomposity and manages it with some wit and style. Yes, B-Hop is a nasty piece of work. If he weren't, he wouldn't be nearly as good as he is.
And like all Americans, I love it when experts are wrong and smart people do or say something stupid. I'm not far gone enough to believe expertise is worthless. I'm hardly a Republican. But I'm too much of a product of my culture not to enjoy its defining vice, pleasure in the misfortunes of the 'elite.'
Bernard Hopkins is not the greatest American fighter of all time. He may not be the Last Legitimately Great American Fighter. Andre Ward shows every sign of being the next B-Hop if he keeps soldiering on so successfully. Hopkins is the definitive American fighter. He captures all our archetypes from his rags-to-riches success story to his unrepentant narcissism outside the ring and his shameless sadism and dirty-tricks inside it. What is more American than winning by any means necessary and believing that victory justifies the tactics that achieved victory?
Maybe I've buried the lead a bit, but everyone knows Bernard Hopkins beat Jean Pascal on Saturday. Now he's boxing's oldest legitimate champion ever. Even if he were younger than George Foreman, he'd still have outstripped his achievements. He's fought a much stiffer class of opponent to claim his post-40 victories and this is his second post-40 light heavyweight championship. Bob Fitzsimmons only won one. I don't think Hopkins is wrong to call himself the Archie Moore of our century.
Most of all, I am glad that Hopkins won. He isn't keeping the next generation out of the spotlight or denying the young guns their chance to shine. He's just making them earn it.
Like he did.
Monday, May 23, 2011
Friday, May 20, 2011
Ishida not good enough for HBO?
I respect that HBO wants to provide their subscribers with the best fights possible, but they thought Amir Khan's fight with Paul McCloskey was worth broadcasting to American boxing fans. Yet, after approving Nobuhiro Ishida as an opponent for Paul Williams' first fight since being flattened by Serigo Martinez, they have suddenly changed their mind and said Ishida is not good enough for an HBO fight.
If they are afraid that fans have not heard of Ishida, they may have a valid point. I had never heard of Ishida before he decked James Kirkland three times in the first round to score a huge upset TKO win. Yet HBO's Max Kellerman had been touting Kirkland has a potential worthy opponent for Sergio Martinez after the prospect-turned-ex-con got a few comeback fights under his belt and took a step up in competition. Ishida was good enough to knock Kirkland silly and Kirkland's protest that there is no three knockdown rule in Vegas ignores the fact that the three knockdown rule was left off the unified ABC rules because of a concern that referees were allowing fighters to get pounded until they went down a third time. No one would suggest the lack of a three knockdown rule should stop a referee from protecting fighter who is getting beaten up.
Let's not forget that this is Williams' first fight back after being stopped in the first round himself. HBO's proposed opponents for Paul Williams (Sergei Dzindziruk and Pawel Wolak ) are a slick, difficult southpaw and a bruising pressure slugger. Neither man is a devastating puncher but neither is the first guy a manager wants his fighter to face after coming back from a first round KO.
HBO is not just asking Williams to take a bigger risk than most fighters would take in his situation. They are also denying Ishida, a man who earned a tv date with the biggest win of his career over a prospect many experts were hailing as a future star prior to his legal troubles. Why should be denied the only chance he may get at this kind of exposure?
I'd like to see Ishida on American tv. I don't know Williams' contractual status with HBO, but if this fight could be made on Showtime it might remind HBO that they are not always the best arbiters of just what boxing fans will enjoy. If they were, Timothy Bradley-Devon Alexander would have thrilled a lot more of us.
If they are afraid that fans have not heard of Ishida, they may have a valid point. I had never heard of Ishida before he decked James Kirkland three times in the first round to score a huge upset TKO win. Yet HBO's Max Kellerman had been touting Kirkland has a potential worthy opponent for Sergio Martinez after the prospect-turned-ex-con got a few comeback fights under his belt and took a step up in competition. Ishida was good enough to knock Kirkland silly and Kirkland's protest that there is no three knockdown rule in Vegas ignores the fact that the three knockdown rule was left off the unified ABC rules because of a concern that referees were allowing fighters to get pounded until they went down a third time. No one would suggest the lack of a three knockdown rule should stop a referee from protecting fighter who is getting beaten up.
Let's not forget that this is Williams' first fight back after being stopped in the first round himself. HBO's proposed opponents for Paul Williams (Sergei Dzindziruk and Pawel Wolak ) are a slick, difficult southpaw and a bruising pressure slugger. Neither man is a devastating puncher but neither is the first guy a manager wants his fighter to face after coming back from a first round KO.
HBO is not just asking Williams to take a bigger risk than most fighters would take in his situation. They are also denying Ishida, a man who earned a tv date with the biggest win of his career over a prospect many experts were hailing as a future star prior to his legal troubles. Why should be denied the only chance he may get at this kind of exposure?
I'd like to see Ishida on American tv. I don't know Williams' contractual status with HBO, but if this fight could be made on Showtime it might remind HBO that they are not always the best arbiters of just what boxing fans will enjoy. If they were, Timothy Bradley-Devon Alexander would have thrilled a lot more of us.
Monday, May 16, 2011
Bogere passes the test!
Sharif Bogere, 20-0(12), was the topic of my first professional article. So I naturally feel an interest in his career. Why should you? Because he's one tough little SOB!
"The Lion" faced the toughest test of his career to date on last Friday's ShoBox card. The leering mess of ink looking to get Bogere into deep water was Ray Beltran, 24-5(16). Beltran is famous for being Manny Pacquiao's sparring partner but he showed a fighter's heart in a bloody, sometimes dirty brawl in Primm, Nevada at Buffalo Bill's Star Arena. Beltran (who was a 4-1 underdog but fought like the favorite) may just need to trade the overused moniker of "Sugar" for something hipper and more descriptive like "Rorshach." He doesn't look at all sweet but he sure told us a lot about Bogere's personality. If more comic book geeks followed boxing then more of my tiny readership would understand why it's a perfect nickname for a lightweight who is looking to hurt someone.
Despite fighting at 140 pounds on a number of occasions, Bogere looked two weight classes smaller than Beltran in the ring. He must not have been intimidated because he started fast. He demonstrated a great jab and backed Beltran up on several occasions with flashy overhand rights to win the first round. The promising start was underappreciated by analyst Steve Farhood, but apprentice blow-by-blow man Curt Menafee sure liked what he was seeing. Unfortunately the first round was the only time Beltran backed up from a punch and Bogere had a long night ahead of him.
Everyone has been told once or twice that they should use their head to get out of trouble. Beltran took the advice literally. The Mexican brawler began to lead with his head in the second round and this, combined with judicious wrestling on the inside and a steady uptick of activity, appeared to give him the edge in the second round. Bogere fought back hard in the third and TV audiences needed the replay to believe the ugly cut Beltran sustained late in the round was caused by a clash of heads and not Sharif's right hand.
Beltran's head was an important factor in rounds four and five. First he mugged Bogere in the fourth, wrestling on the inside and leaning his head against Sharif's. Beltran's punch output and the effect of his punches rose in rough correlation to the number of "accidental" butts. Beltran appeared to hurt Bogere on several occasions during the fifth, clearly winning a bloody and brutal round, but also opened a cut on Bogere's eye with another butt and was sternly warned by referee Robert Byrd for using his head as a weapon.
Sharif's corner did a heroic job of rejuvenating their fighter for round six while Ray began to show signs of fatigue. Bogere used his quickness, mobility, and the moves he's been learning from veteran trainer Ken Adams to reestablish his presence in rounds six and seven. He moved better, he was busier, and his shots found their target more cleanly. Beltran frequently held his hands low and his defense became much looser. He had a few moments in the last minute of round seven, but Bogere had already won the first two and Beltran didn't quite manage to steal the round.
But he did have a scare for Bogere in the eighth. A vicious left uppercut wobbled Sharif badly and the 4-1 favorite had to pull a trick from his sleeve to avoid hitting the deck. Staggering into Beltran, he first attempted to use the bigger man to hold him up. When Beltran wrestled free and Sharif started to go down, he dragged Ray down with him. In a borderline call that could have been equally unpopular had it gone the other way, Byrd ruled that Bogere had not been knocked down. The crowd booed, then Beltran slipped to the canvas again while missing with a haymaker before the round ended. Despite his too wild trips to the canvas, however, the eighth was Beltran's best round of the ninth.
Sharif responded by not only producing his best round of the fight, but by showing the blueprint for how he should have fought all ten rounds. In the ninth he protected his swollen (but no longer bleeding) eye, paid close attention to defense, and moved precisely the way trainer Ken Adams had been telling him to move all night. He began to throw his right hand straight, not looping it over the top so much. He kept his jab going. Beltran still found time to be effective with his head, but was unable to do the necessary damage with his fists to compete. His punching got a bit better in round ten but it was too late and Bogere threw his best combination of the fight just before the final bell rang.
The Boxing Geek scored the fight 96-94 for Bogere. So did judges Lisa Giampa and Jerry Roth. Patricia Morse Jarman had it 97-93 for Bogere. Menafee and Farhood both scored the fight a draw, the crowd loudly booed the unanimous decision, and there is very little doubt it will be controversial with boxing writers who favored Beltran's power and roughhouse tactics over Bogere's guts, skill, and desperate toughness.
On the same card, Beltran's fellow ink blot Evans Quinn appeared to quit in the first round after feeling undefeated heavyweight prospect Seth Mitchell's power. Mitchell showed an ability to create pressure with his jab and to work Quinn with hard combinations against the ropes but the former Michigan State football player was not given enough of a test for this one fight to allow an early verdict on his career.
Bogere, however, hung on to find a way to win a decision against a man who gave him all he could handle. The flashes of power he has shown against other opponents were not there but his work rate, conditioning, and jab were superb. When he committed to defense he showed us that his fundamental boxing skills have greatly improved. When he was on the verge of being dropped in the eighth round he thought his way out of trouble and it paid off. Then he changed his game plan and did what needed to be done to win. That doesn't just show that he is a smart kid who learns what his trainer teaches him.
It shows that he is a real fighter who will remember every trick he is taught and use them when they are they only things he has left. That's what makes a winner over the long haul.
"The Lion" faced the toughest test of his career to date on last Friday's ShoBox card. The leering mess of ink looking to get Bogere into deep water was Ray Beltran, 24-5(16). Beltran is famous for being Manny Pacquiao's sparring partner but he showed a fighter's heart in a bloody, sometimes dirty brawl in Primm, Nevada at Buffalo Bill's Star Arena. Beltran (who was a 4-1 underdog but fought like the favorite) may just need to trade the overused moniker of "Sugar" for something hipper and more descriptive like "Rorshach." He doesn't look at all sweet but he sure told us a lot about Bogere's personality. If more comic book geeks followed boxing then more of my tiny readership would understand why it's a perfect nickname for a lightweight who is looking to hurt someone.
Despite fighting at 140 pounds on a number of occasions, Bogere looked two weight classes smaller than Beltran in the ring. He must not have been intimidated because he started fast. He demonstrated a great jab and backed Beltran up on several occasions with flashy overhand rights to win the first round. The promising start was underappreciated by analyst Steve Farhood, but apprentice blow-by-blow man Curt Menafee sure liked what he was seeing. Unfortunately the first round was the only time Beltran backed up from a punch and Bogere had a long night ahead of him.
Everyone has been told once or twice that they should use their head to get out of trouble. Beltran took the advice literally. The Mexican brawler began to lead with his head in the second round and this, combined with judicious wrestling on the inside and a steady uptick of activity, appeared to give him the edge in the second round. Bogere fought back hard in the third and TV audiences needed the replay to believe the ugly cut Beltran sustained late in the round was caused by a clash of heads and not Sharif's right hand.
Beltran's head was an important factor in rounds four and five. First he mugged Bogere in the fourth, wrestling on the inside and leaning his head against Sharif's. Beltran's punch output and the effect of his punches rose in rough correlation to the number of "accidental" butts. Beltran appeared to hurt Bogere on several occasions during the fifth, clearly winning a bloody and brutal round, but also opened a cut on Bogere's eye with another butt and was sternly warned by referee Robert Byrd for using his head as a weapon.
Sharif's corner did a heroic job of rejuvenating their fighter for round six while Ray began to show signs of fatigue. Bogere used his quickness, mobility, and the moves he's been learning from veteran trainer Ken Adams to reestablish his presence in rounds six and seven. He moved better, he was busier, and his shots found their target more cleanly. Beltran frequently held his hands low and his defense became much looser. He had a few moments in the last minute of round seven, but Bogere had already won the first two and Beltran didn't quite manage to steal the round.
But he did have a scare for Bogere in the eighth. A vicious left uppercut wobbled Sharif badly and the 4-1 favorite had to pull a trick from his sleeve to avoid hitting the deck. Staggering into Beltran, he first attempted to use the bigger man to hold him up. When Beltran wrestled free and Sharif started to go down, he dragged Ray down with him. In a borderline call that could have been equally unpopular had it gone the other way, Byrd ruled that Bogere had not been knocked down. The crowd booed, then Beltran slipped to the canvas again while missing with a haymaker before the round ended. Despite his too wild trips to the canvas, however, the eighth was Beltran's best round of the ninth.
Sharif responded by not only producing his best round of the fight, but by showing the blueprint for how he should have fought all ten rounds. In the ninth he protected his swollen (but no longer bleeding) eye, paid close attention to defense, and moved precisely the way trainer Ken Adams had been telling him to move all night. He began to throw his right hand straight, not looping it over the top so much. He kept his jab going. Beltran still found time to be effective with his head, but was unable to do the necessary damage with his fists to compete. His punching got a bit better in round ten but it was too late and Bogere threw his best combination of the fight just before the final bell rang.
The Boxing Geek scored the fight 96-94 for Bogere. So did judges Lisa Giampa and Jerry Roth. Patricia Morse Jarman had it 97-93 for Bogere. Menafee and Farhood both scored the fight a draw, the crowd loudly booed the unanimous decision, and there is very little doubt it will be controversial with boxing writers who favored Beltran's power and roughhouse tactics over Bogere's guts, skill, and desperate toughness.
On the same card, Beltran's fellow ink blot Evans Quinn appeared to quit in the first round after feeling undefeated heavyweight prospect Seth Mitchell's power. Mitchell showed an ability to create pressure with his jab and to work Quinn with hard combinations against the ropes but the former Michigan State football player was not given enough of a test for this one fight to allow an early verdict on his career.
Bogere, however, hung on to find a way to win a decision against a man who gave him all he could handle. The flashes of power he has shown against other opponents were not there but his work rate, conditioning, and jab were superb. When he committed to defense he showed us that his fundamental boxing skills have greatly improved. When he was on the verge of being dropped in the eighth round he thought his way out of trouble and it paid off. Then he changed his game plan and did what needed to be done to win. That doesn't just show that he is a smart kid who learns what his trainer teaches him.
It shows that he is a real fighter who will remember every trick he is taught and use them when they are they only things he has left. That's what makes a winner over the long haul.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)