Year End Awards: Not The Ones You'll See From The Professionals

This is the last day of 2008. Tomorrow will be the first day of 2009. This marks the first year of The Boxing Geek. I hope it will be the first of many. I have mistakes to learn from and improvements to make, and I need to commit to a more regular posting schedule. Yet I am happy with what I have started to accomplish as well.

So this is my very first yearly awards entry. Some of these are straightforward. Others are more off the wall. Enjoy, feel free to complain.

Fight of the Year: Tomasz Adamek W12 Steve Cunningham (This was not the most hyped fight of the year, the most watched fight of the year, the biggest money fight of the year, or even the fight whose resolution made me happiest. I admit, I thought Cunningham won by two points. Yet this was an amazing fight, for a legitimate world championship, broadcast on free cable. Both men fought to win from beginning to end, with Cunningham skilled and busy and Adamek patient and powerful. I'd honestly rather see these guys fight a second time than any other pair I saw fight this year. Even more than Vazquez-Marquez IV!)

Fighter of the Year: Antonio Margarito (Other men may have had bigger fights or won bigger victories, but Margarito beat two alphabet titlists and went from being the alleged 'most ducked welterweight' to being the number one welterweight in the world and a pound-for-pound fighter. Now he just needs to fight rematches with Paul Williams and Joshua Clottey.)

Comeback of the Year: Bernard Hopkins (Vitali Klitschko's heavyweight return wasn't something that tremendously impressed me. He came back from retirement, he beat a pug I never thought much of, he won an alphabet title that meant nothing. He has signed to fight David Haye, but I am skeptical that he won't be forced back into retirement by another training injury. Vic Darchinyan's KO of Cristian Mijares impressed me and totally blew me away, and deserves honorable mention. Yet Darchinyan had not been completely dismissed as a fighter in the manner Hopkins had, nor was he a 43 year old man whipping the pants of a man nearly twenty years his junior. Besides, I admit it, I like Hopkins. The loud, dirty-fighting, pragmatic old bastard has my respect as an individual and a boxer. Unappealing style or not, he may be the last complete American fighter for a very long time. Think on that.)

Worst Decision of the Year: Tomasz Adamek W12 Steve Cunningham (This is a tough one. My scoring disagreed with the judges on the winners of several of the fights I watched and wrote about this year, but this one is the most egregious in my eyes. Yes, Adamek knocked Cunningham down three times, each in a different round. However, he was losing one of those rounds completely when he scored the desperation knockdown and I only had him winning one round in which he did not drop Cunningham. I have the other eight rounds to Cunningham: he boxed better, he was busier, and Adamek did not work for a full three minutes in any round. Worst of all, judge John Stewart gave the fight to Adamek by a whopping six points in a fight with a one to three point margin of error in Adamek's favor at best. Cunningham dominated rounds ten through twelve, and won rounds one and three quite solidly. Adamek slightly topped that by knocking Cunningham down three times and winning one round without a knockdown. Adamek did not simply put in the work to sweep the remaining three rounds. On my card, in fact, Cunningham swept them.)

Least Controversial Controversy of the Year: Lucian Bute W12 Librado Andrade (Yes, I know this fight has been beaten around from pillar to post and Marlon Wright has been called the worst referee in history. That said, Bute beat the count. Yes, he leaned on the ropes during the long count and he took all the time he was given. But he was up, off the ropes and ready on a count of 9 and leaned back against the ropes when it was clear the count was going to be long. When Wright returned to the count, he got off the ropes again. Wright wasted time in getting Andrade back to his corner, and whether Andrade needed to be put back in his corner is questionable, but Bute beat a standard ten secound count. The Showtime broadcast team had a conniption over nothing, and Ivan Goldman just happens to be from Los Angeles and his hometown opinion clearly is coloring his perceptions. Most of the other serious writers in boxing have shown more discernment. Wright should never referee a world championship again, the fact that there even was a controversy is all his fault... but Andrade did NOT knock Bute out.)

And that's it.

See you next year.

The Fight of the Year: Adamek-Cunningham

The title says all I am going to say about the main event just yet. Instead, I'm going to start by talking about the network. I've never watched a fight on Versus before this one. I knew the channel for the rather disappointing continuation of HBO's 'Legendary Nights' series, which had gone on largely as a commercial for Bob Arum's Top Rank boxing and frequently featured fights that were considerably less than legendary, and for the kind of redneck outdoor 'sports' shows that I have no real interest in.

Versus was inspired to pick up this card. Not only was the main event my fight of the year for my full first year running this blog, but the televised co-feature was very nearly as good. Both fights showcased divisions one usually doesn't see on HBO or Showtime, bantamweight for the co-feature and cruiserweight for the main event, and none of the fighters were marquee names. But alphabet titles were on the line in both fights, and the main event was also for The Ring's cruiserweight championship (and mine, since my championship system is based on The Ring's and I accept The Ring's ratings as my own since I cannot see every fight their staff covers.) The card, as a whole, was better than any card on HBO or Showtime all year, and the only fight close to the main event was Bute-Andrade. I also have no complaints about the broadcast team, as Shobox host Nick Charles' more annoying traits are perfectly compensated for by Wally Matthews' professionalism and calm. Though Charles is the blow by blow man and Matthews is the color commentator, it is Matthews who offers the intelligent summation of the action and Charles who provides the color with his more excitable style.

The co-feature starred Joseph Agbeko of Ghana defending his IBF bantamweight title against his mandatory challenger, William Gonzalez. Unlike the majority of fights between an alphabet titlist and an alphabet mandatory, this one was great. For one thing, Gonzalez came to fight. Both men jumped on one another in the first round and kept swinging for the entire fight. Even when the action slowed in the 'dull' rounds, these guys were throwing 50+ to 60+ punches a round. The first round was dead even, and though I gave three rounds in a row to Agbeko afterward based on the effect his right hands appeared to be having on Gonzalez, they were all close. Gonzalez changed his style in the mid rounds, trying to box more and time Agbeko and he managed to find a bit more success, but down the stretch Agbeko was simply too strong and too much more effective with his right hand. On the official scorecard, Agbeko won a majority decision winning 116-112 on the scorecards of Larry Doggett and Lawrence Leighton while veteran New Jersey judge Tom Kaczmarek called the fight 114-114. Having called two rounds even, I scored the fight 116-114 for Agbeko off the telecast.

I don't know precisely where to start with the main event. Steve Cunningham was defending his IBF cruiserweight strap for the first time against Polish transplant Tomasz Adamek of New Jersey, and the two men were fighting for the vacant cruiserweight championship of the world. It was a wild fight, in which Steve Cunningham tried both boxing and punching and never stuck to either and switched to southpaw and back for much for much of the action. In the first round he appeared to out-box the equally tentative Adamek in a slow round, and he appeared to dominate the first six rounds... except for his trips to the canvas. In the second round, caught by a clean right hand, Cunningham suffered what appeared to be a flash knockdown when hit by the very last punch of a round he seemed to be winning by a narrow margin. In the first round, after surprising Adamek early with a big shot and dominating the round solidly (nearly stopping Adamek, or so it seemed, in the first half of the round), Cunningham appeared to have punched himself out and was knocked down more seriously by another right hand as it entered the final stretch.

Cunningham could not appear to decide whether to box or punch with Adamek, and he appeared to get caught whenever he tried to switch between the two strategies. After a strong seventh round, Cunningham was caught by a left hook in a furious exchange and stumbled into the ropes for the third credited knockdown of the fight. This time it appeared their feet had gotten tangled, but the left hook was quite solid as well. Then Adamek had his best full three minutes of the fight in the ninth round and appeared to possess all the momentum.

Instead, Cunningham (by boxing more intelligently in the tenth and fighting more desperately in the eleventh and twelfth) appeared to roar back to dominate the last three rounds of the fight. The problem was, the three knockdowns guaranteed the final scoring would be difficult. The official scores were 114-112 Cunningham (Clark Sammartino), 115-112 Adamek (Shafeeq Rashada), and 116-110 Adamek (John Stewart) to make the final call a split decision for the new IBF and world champion, Tomasz Adamek. My score, off Versus, was 114-112 Cunningham, the same as Clark Sammartino.

This was an amazing fight. While Adamek was unable to consistently dominate any round but the ninth, he scored three knockdowns in the first eight rounds and had good moments in every round but the first. Though Cunningham was the better fighter for more of the fight, Adamek's power and refusal to be out-boxed by the bigger man all night certainly earned him his victory the hard way. He is a deserving champion and a rematch on HBO or Showtime for real money is precisely what these guys deserve. I can't find any fault with the final call, though I do have to consider John Stewart's 116-110 score for Adamek something of a magoo. I want to see more of both these guys, preferably against each other at least once more.

They deserve some big money, after this.

Sometimes You're Just Wrong: Darchniyan-Mijares

I am on record on as saying that the excitement about the 115 lb fight between Cristian Mijares and Vic Darchinyan was unwarranted, because Darchinyan just didn't have the polish to compete with Mijares.

When Darchinyan knocked Mijares out inside the closing twenty seconds of their battle, I was proven wrong.

Not because I didn't know that Darchinyan was a big puncher. I did. Rather, the Darchinyan I knew was the clumsy, easy-to-hit, open-to-being-hurt-by-a-counter who was floored in a draw with Z Gorres in his first fight at 115 and knocked out by Nonite Donaire at flyweight.

Fight night, Darchinyan was quick-handed, awkward but NOT clumsy, and his defense was surprisingly tight. His awkward defense and hard punching allowed him to limit the output of the naturally bigger Mijares, who appeared to be trying to use his size to back up and intimidate Darchinyan. It didn't appear to work until the 4th round, and it never worked consistently enough to win Mijares more than a round or two before he was knocked out.

Of course, Darchinyan was still a puncher, and it was his punching that made this fight exciting. He floored Mijares with a leftt uppercut in the first round and continued to land big left hands throughout the fight. He has clearly added much better combination punching to his arsenal, for he landed as many jabs and nearly as many right hooks as he did big lefts.

The result is a shakeup of the 115 lb division and, perhaps, of the Pound-for-Pound rankings. Mijares was considered a top-ten lb for lb fighter prior to this fight, and was The Ring's #1 ranked fighter at 115. Darchniyan simply beat him up with the harder punches, while holding his own in the boxing match. Mijares' Pound-for-Pound ranking has to be a thing of the past and, while I think slick and hard-hitting boxer-puncher Fernando Montiel and brutal punher Alexander Munoz have to be considered in the mix as well, Darchinyan has established himself very solidly in the top three of the division.

Darchinyan has now unified three 115 lb belts with the KO win, and it looks to me that there are only two big fights remaining to be made in the division. The first is another boxer-puncher matchup between Darchinyan and Montiel and the second is a slug-out between Darchinyan and Munoz. Clearly, Montiel (considered Mijares' closest rival prior to Darchinyan's upset KO) has to be considered to have priority over Munoz, who has lost a decision to Mijares earlier in 2008. One almost has to consider Darchinyan has a legitimate 50/50 chance to beat either man, though both present their own challenges. Fernando Montiel is a tremendous athlete still in the prime of his physical talents, both an exceptionally fast boxer and a decent hitter who has shown knockout power. Exactly the kind of opponent (Donaire) who knocked Darchinyan out. Yet Darchinyan has shown improvement in the areas Montiel would be expected to exploit, promising the strong possibility of a classic fight. Munoz, a murderous puncher in his own right and the naturally bigger man at 115, has to be acknowledged to have a very good chance of really beating Darchinyan up if Vic isn't a real 115 lber. Yet Munoz's own losses in big fights have to be considered.

I was wrong. I think Vic Darchinyan is officially a legitimate power at 115 lbs with at least an equal chance against the men I believe to the other two top fighters of the division.

The question must now arise of the 115 lb championship. No, Darchinyan was not ranked #2 or #3 coming into this fight and Cristian Mijares was not already The Ring's champion. By the originally published policy of The Ring, unifying all three major titles (WBA, WBC, and IBF) should qualify Darchinyan as the undisputed 115 lb champion. This was good enough for Roy Jones Junior, who never faced The Ring's #1 light heavyweight until his first fight with Antonio Tarver. It should be good enough for Darchinyan. If they have published a rules change since, I missed that issue. Anyone who does know of such a rules change, please cite it for me.

In closing, not only was I wrong about Vic Darchinyan's chances against Mijares, but I think he is the deserving 115 lb champion.

When All Else Fails, Make A Lot of Noise: Bute-Andrade

The undercard of Bute-Andrade on ShoBox tonight was a bit lackluster, Ronald Hearns dominating Paul Clavette en route to a 6th round TKO win. Clavette did not have the polish, the fundamentals, or the power to legitimate compete with Hearns and his toughness was not enough to handle being genuinely beaten up over the course of the fight. Hearns looked good, but the fight had its sloppy moments and I'm not sure looking good against Clavette was enough. Still, he stopped a man who had never been stopped before, added another win to his record, and is apparently en route to a fight with John Duddy that may give one man or the other a touch more legitimacy.

Bute-Andrade (for the IBF 168 lb title), on the other hand, was as spectacular as a one-sided fight could be and had a touch of drama at the very end. That drama was then exaggerated needlessly by the ShoBox broadcast team.

Bute came out strong, working off the southpaw jab and landing the straight left with consistency. He worked the right hook and left uppercut in every now and then, focusing on combination punching, accuracy, and defense. These weapons allowed him to jump out to an early lead, sweeping the first three rounds.

Andrade started to establish himself in the fourth, turning what had looked like a steady movement following Bute into real pressure and taking Bute out of his game plan. I gave Andrade the fourth, perhaps generously, because Bute's punches were clearly not diverting his new pressure and his increased punching output and forward movement allowed him to impose his will. I gave him the fifth round as well, which he clearly won by walking through Bute and landing hard rights.

Bute retook control in the 6th, standing and fighting more, landing the southpaw uppercut more, and tying Andrade up more on the inside to break up his rhythm. Once again he got his punches flowing and his movement in rhythm and swept the rounds from the 6th to the 11th. In the tenth, a sneaky straight left and some entanglement on the inside sent Andrade to the canvas and Bute was credited with the knockdown. The call was borderline, a punch was landed and it did have effect on Andrade, who was off balance as a result. However, their feet may have become entangled before Andrade hit the deck and Bute did push off with a sneaky little move that may have actually sent Andrade to the canvas. Bute kept his momentum despite Andrade's desperation rally in the 11th.

The final round was the complete opposite of the previous twelve. Bute could no longer land his shots with the same crispness, and Andrade took clear control as the round commenced and walked Bute down. The IBF titlist was out on his feet as the final seconds ticked away, and in the closing five seconds was floored by a big right hand and went down in the corner.

Here the referee plainly behaved as if he did not belong in the ring in a title fight. He shuttled Andrade to the neutral corner, began to count, and then moved off to get Andrade back into the neutral corner, shouting at the Mexican-born Californian. Then he returned and finished his count with Bute on his feet. Naturally, the Andrade corner began to protest.

All well and good. Nick Charles and Steve Farhood, however, immediately began to declare that injustice had been done and that Andrade was being robbed by a long count... before they even reviewed the replay to check the time. When they did review the replay, the count showed that Bute was back on his feet in approximately 7-8 seconds and used the time granted by the referee's lapse to lean against the ropes and wait. When the referee returned, Bute leaned forward, the count was completed, and the bell rung.

Even before the scores were read (though they were a foregone conclusion, as Bute had dominated the bulk of the fight) Charles and Farhood were crying foul yet again, even claiming the replay had proven the knockout despite the fact that it proved Bute was on his feet in 7-8 seconds. Yes, the referee's conduct was unprofessional, but it did not affect the outcome of the fight. Bute beat the count. The ShoBox team's continued effort to cast doubt on the end of the fight was at least as unprofessional as the referee's error.

The judges returned a unanimous decision for Bute, as lopsided as the fight had been before the final round.

I scored the bout 116-110 off the Showtime broadcast.

The fight was exceptionally satisfying, and Andrade showed true sportsmanship afterward. On the other hand, the hysterics of the ShoBox broadcast team very nearly ruined what should have been a great show.

I guess it wasn't exciting enough for them.

Well, There Go Those Fair-Weather Fans Again...

Bernard Hopkins pulled off a genuine hat trick, as I hope everyone reading this article knows, and beat middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik in their catchweight bout. The armchair experts who crowned Pavlik as the best thing ever are already saying he was crap. Fans who adored Pavlik are now saying he was exposed brutally and was never any good, while the people who doubted before are coming out with vicious bile now.

This appears to be the mindset of modern boxing. Every fighter is either the greatest pound for pound ever, or a disappointing failure who fooled us all. Archie Moore's old saw 'Show me an undefeated fighter, and I'll show you a fighter who never fought anyone,' appears to have once again fallen by the wayside in favor of the notion that only bad fighters ever lose. Whether it's a Mayweather fan saying 'Yeah, but Sugar Ray Robinson /lost/ all those fights' or a writer who thought Jeff Lacy was the second coming of Bob Foster and now derides his limitations, the idea that defeat equates with disgrace appears stronger than ever in many circles of boxing fans.

I'm still a Pavlik fan, I think he can still clean out the middleweight division. I think he can move up again in a few years and do much better. But clearly, Bernard Hopkins was better than him the night they fought. People who were predicting Pavlik's easy win because Hopkins was so far gone are now claiming Hopkins' win over Pavlik as proof that this is an inferior era, because no one would possibly succeed at Hopkins' age in a greater era.

Errrm, excuse me. What about Bob Fitzsimmons? Archie Moore? Tiger Flowers? Jersey Joe Walcott? Joe Brown? Not every man on that list was successful at Hopkins' literal age, but every one of them was a man who fought at a high level well past the usual age. For that matter, add Nate Campbell and Joel Casamayor to the list. George Foreman comes to mind too.

Hopkins is an amazing freak, a man who is simply too smart to ever be counted out of a fight. He knows his business. If he wants to stop calling himself 'the Executioner' and start calling himself 'Old Bones', 'The Professor', or 'The Old Mongoose', I don't think Joe Brown, Azumah Nelson, or Archie Moore would have much to complain about.

An Answer to Mr. Jason Peck

I have made several references in previous entries to East Side Boxing, the site which I read for news of fights that I have missed watching (or have not been televised) and easy access to the fix for my boxing addiction. I have named several writers from that site from time to time as well, positively and negatively. Some of my entries on this blog have been replies to articles on ESB with which I have taken issue.

One of the writers with whom I have taken issue in the past is Jason Peck, an online boxing writer who has written on several websites including ESB. I have disagreed with his articles more than I have agreed, and at times I have been harsh in expressing my disagreement. I will not deny that I felt, and still feel, that the harshness of my writing has been appropriate.

However, I must admit that Mr. Peck has risen somewhat in my estimation. He wrote to me asking for a chance to speak to him about The Ring magazine and its relationship with Golden Boy Promotions. He was polite and professional in his approach and in his reply to my somewhat suspicious response. I gave him the 'benefit' of my complete opinion on the situation with The Ring as it stands at this point in time. I have not included Mr. Peck's original letters because he did not give unasked permission, and I have not asked for it. However, I have included my email to him about The Ring in its unedited entirety.

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I don't know that I am entirely 'a supporter of The Ring' on this issue. I feel that the magazine itself, at this moment, is still above reproach in the main. If one reads the content of the magazine and avoids the advertising changes, ninety nine percent of the content is entirely unchanged since the buyout. Respectable boxing writers with columns either in the The Ring or under its auspices (by the latter, I mean William Detloff's weekly online The Ring Update column) clearly have not changed their writing or opinions. They have not begun writing pro-Golden Boy articles and all of them have weighed in to criticize De la Hoya-Pacquiao. While I do not always agree, one hundred percent, with some of the opinions of The Ring's columnists, their opinions have not changed with the merger and none of them have been fired. Agree or disagree with them on a point by point basis, they are still the best team of opinion writers in boxing journalism.

The purely journalistic content is still the best boxing writing available. Fight coverage is thorough and shows no visible favoritism toward Golden Boy fighters. I don't believe anyone could argue against the fact that the Golden Boy fighters included in the All Star report cards belong there, and one could even call Bernard Hopkins being dropped from that list premature. Yes, he lost to Calzaghe, but he is still a big enough deal that he is jumping right into a fight with Kelly Pavlik.

The main example of favoritism I have heard others advance is the Joel Casamayor-Juan Diaz issue. Casamayor was given a gift decision against Jose Armando Santa Cruz, yes. No one denies that. The Ring, in fact, called it one of the worst decisions they have ever seen. However, Casamayor won the fight acording to the official record. One of the chief objections to the alphabet cartel's handling of business is their willingness to disregard their own rules in pursuit of money, good press, national favoritism, the favor of one promoter or another, or some combination of those four. The Ring's championship policy is clear, and their decision to follow that policy under pressure is a sign of legitimacy, not illegitimacy. Someone will beat Casamayor and will be the legitimate champion.

Even if The Ring had chosen to declare that Santa Cruz was the real winner of the fight and disregard the judges' official scores, the policy would have required them to declare Santa Cruz and not Juan Diaz the lightweight champion of the world. Casamayor was the recognized champion, and rightly so, after beating Diego Corralles. Had he lost to Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz would have been the recognized champion. Juan Diaz did not fight Joel Casamayor, nor has Nate Campbell since beating Diaz. The only basis for naming Juan Diaz the champion would have been his alphabet belts, which had been awarded by fiat by the syndicates after Floyd Mayweather moved up in weight. No one considered Julio Diaz the legitimate lightweight champion of the world outside the syndicate that awarded him the belt. Beating him did not make Juan Diaz champion. Beating Acelino Freita and Jose Miguel Cotto did not either, as they were not the legitimate world champions either.

One can argue that the championship policy of The Ring has flaws. It is based on their rankings of fighters, and rankings are always subjective. That said, there is not another set of rankings in boxing as legitimate. The alphabet syndicates' rankings all exhibit one glaring flaw: they do not rank the holders of rival titles. If one grants that Wlad Klitschko is the heavyweight champion of the world as the IBF and the WBO maintain, was Tony Thompson really the best and most deserving available contender as the WBO claimed? Are not Samuel Peter, Ruslan Chagaev, or even Nicolay Valuev above him in any legitimate classification? ESPN uses The Ring's rankings, and while Fox Sports' rankings were not identical to those of The Ring they were based upon The Ring's rankings.

Ask the majority of serious boxing writers to choose between The Ring and the rankings of any of the alphabet syndicates and they will choose The Ring. They may quibble with specific fighters and specific numbers, but their welterweight rankings will be closer to The Ring rankings than to the WBC's rankings. Do you believe that Andre Berto is the welterweight champion of the world and that Luis Collazo is the number one contender? Is Collazo number one and Miguel Cotto only #2? Is it legitimate to leave Antonio Margarito and Paul Williams out of the rankings, because they hold rival belts, when they are arguably the two best welterweights in the world in the wake of Williams' rematch win, Margarito's stoppage of Cotto, and with Floyd Mayweather officially retired? Is it legitimate to leave Shane Mosely, Zab Judah, Kermit Cintron, Carlos Quintana and Joshua Clottey out of not only the top ten but the entire top 40?

If one agrees that The Ring rankings are the most legitimate rankings in boxing, then one has to accept that (despite its flaws) their championship policy is still superior to any of the alphabet
organizations. By that policy, Santa Cruz would have been the lightweight champion of the world had he beaten Joel Casamayor in their fight. Juan Diaz does not even figure into the championship discussion. Nor does Nate Campbell now, despite Don King's attempts to say otherwise. Joel Casamayor is set to fight Juan Manuel Marquez and the winner will be, by The Ring's policy, the lightweight champion. One can argue that Casamayor and Marquez are both Golden Boy fighters, but does anyone deny that Marquez is a deserving challenger? Much of the established boxing press has said they believe Marquez beat Pacquiao in their rematch and everyone wants to see them fight a third time. If Marquez becomes lightweight champion that is nearly certain to happen, perhaps it is the only thing that would get Pacquiao in the ring with Marquez again.

The Ring Ratings are still the best rankings in boxing and they have not substantively changed in favor of Golden Boy since the buyout. The Golden Boy fighters ranked were all ranked before the buyout, deservedly so. Shane Mosely and Bernard Hopkins have fallen in the rankings since the buyout, also deservedly and as a result of real events in the ring. The only championship berths with which anyone bother to argue are the lightweight spot occupied by Casamayor (and I believe I have successfully dissected that argument beyond repair) and the vacant heavyweight slot. Some writers (and I myself) believe Wlad Klitschko has done enough to deserve the open slot. That said, Klitschko's exclusion is entirely consistent with The Ring's policy as his win over Samuel Peter came before Peter moved up to the number two slot in The Ring Ratings.

The only change in The Ring since the merger that I consider worthy of complaint is the change in tone of the editorial column written by Nigel Collins. While it has not changed so drastically as to claim all fighters but Golden Boy fighters suck, it has been favorable (or at least approving) of the possibility of a De La Hoya-Mayweather rematch despite Collins' criticism of the original fight. Collins recently defended De La Hoya-Pacquiao as 'a legitimate superfight' despite his staff's near universal dismissal of the fight as a publicity stunt. Still, De La Hoya is the biggest gate attraction in the sport despite being used up and it is only natural for Pacquiao to want to fight him and get in on the money and acquire the kind of more recognized stardom that Hopkins and Mayweather gained from fighting De La Hoya.

I don't like the sudden lack of enthusiasm, from Collins, for a De La Hoya-Margarito fight. When everyone thought Cotto would win, enthusiasm for a De La Hoya-Cotto fight was high from all quarters as a symbolic passing of the torch from the old star to the young star. With Margarito's win, he's earned the money and press a fight with De La Hoya would bring. That said, I'd rather see a rematch between Margarito and Paul Williams anyway. So I'm not lost in tears. Still, Margarito is right if he feels slighted and Collins is wrong not to defend his right to the fight should he want it.

The change in tone of Mr. Collins editorials does trouble me, and I have written about it before. Feel free to read what I've said. Yet, while Nigel Collins is the publisher of The Ring he is not The Ring personally and his statements are clearly not supported by his staff. De La Hoya-Pacquiao has been pretty harshly ridiculed by William Detloff and Jeff Ryan in their columns.

I don't consider this a partisan defense of The Ring, but rather a mostly objective and logical discussion of the facts. In the main, the facts are on The Ring's side at this point in time. If the facts visibly change, then my opinion will change as well. For the time being, I see no clear reason to change it.

Of the issue in my hands now, as I write this, only the All Star Report Cards (of the features)
covers Golden Boy Fighters and only those who are genuinely stars of the sport. Kelly Pavlik, the subject of a feature article and a featured interview, and central on the cover of the magazine, is promoted by Top Rank. Though David Haye appears on the cover, and is promoted by Golden Boy in the US, fellow Briton Joe Calzaghe (also on the cover) is promoted by Frank Warren. Haye's inclusion in the trio, as undisputed champion of his weight division and as an exciting fighter whose move to heavyweight is drawing a lot of comment by a lot of boxing people not affiliated with The Ring, is hardly inappropriate. Ricky Hatton, Timothy Bradley, and Eddie Perkins are the other professional fighters who appear centrally in features. Hatton and Bradley, the two active fighters on the list, are not Golden Boy fighters. Eddie Perkins is long retired, and he retired long before GBP existed.

This is not to say that the relationship does not give me some qualms. It does, and I will continue to monitor it closely. I read The Ring Update every week and I am a subscriber to the magazine. I am also not at all afraid of voicing criticism when I feel it necessary, as you know. If the tone of the magazine changes, I will know it. If I feel that undue favoritism is being given to undeserving fighters or that deserving fighters are being denied space in the magazine, I will say so.

Home Cooking: Juarez-Barrios and Diaz-Katsidis

Tonight, in Houston Texas, veteran also-rans Rocky Juarez and Jorge Barrios squared off in a co-feature prior to once-beatens Juan 'the Baby Bull' Diaz and Michael 'the Great' Katsidis battling it out in the main event. While the fights were good, when they were allowed to happen, fans were treated to a night of bizarre refereeing by Rafael Ramos and Laurence Cole.

The most bizarre of the two fights was the first, in which Jorge Barrios dominated the action from the second round after letting himself be out-jabbed in the first. He boxed well, through his punches with authority, moved reasonably well, and was busier than Juarez throughout the fight. From the second round to the tenth, on my scorecard, Juarez only won the eighth. It was in the eighth, however, that Juarez found his winning formula. Firing to the body, he was able to come upstairs and get some work done to steal the eighth round and make a fight in the ninth and tenth (though he came up just a touch short in both.) In the eleventh, however, the formula paid off. Juarez floored Barrios with a combination (though it also appeared as if their feet were entangled) and the referee began to count. Barrios made it back to his feet, but a particularly gory cut on his mouth prompted the referee to stop the fight at the behest of the ringside doctor. The stoppage was legitimate, but the referee docking Barrios points for alleged low blows in the third and ninth rounds was highly questionable and so were the numerous warnings issued to Barrios for low blows throughout the fight. The judges had inexplicable scores, through ten rounds, with one card even and Juarez winning on the other two despite Barrios very nearly literally dominating the fight until the moment he was floored.

That said, it was a strong performance by Juarez, who was patient enough to stalk and walk his opponent down even while being very nearly dominated and who scored the points that mattered at the key moment without any help from the referee or the judges. For a fighter who has had so much hard luck and trouble in big fights in the past, the 11th round TKO win must have been sweet. He was so happy and pleasant in his postfight interview that it was impossible not to like him and to be happy for him. I felt glad he won, listening to him talk, despite having been rooting enthusiastically for the equally hard-luck Barrios throughout the fight itself.

The second fight was even more bizarre. While my card had Diaz dominating the early fight, starting with an even round and with Katisidis winning only the fifth round, the numerous warnings given to Katsidis for simply fighting the kind of fight a big, strong brawler naturally fights appeared highly questionable. Diaz boxed extremely well, and Katsidis was fighting too disciplined and patient a fight to deal with the native Texan's higher work rate through the first seven rounds. I gave him the fifth because I believed his punching was more effective, and I called first even because neither fighter gained a clear advantage, but Diaz was clearly the better man overall.

In the second half of the fight, as Katisidis began to pick up his pace and out-throw Diaz going down the stretch, referee Laurence Cole stopped the action repeatedly. He cut demanded tape be cut off Katsidis' glove, he had the doctor check Katsidis' cuts, he issued another warning, he didn't let Katsidis jump on Diaz coming out for the bell. Even in rounds when the action was not stopped, he slowed Katsidis down and then told both men to fight once both were in the center of the ring. Despite this, I gave Katsidis the eighth, ninth, and eleventh rounds and called the tenth and twelfth rounds even based on the strength of Katsidis' power shots down the stretch. At the end of the fight, my card had it a 116-116 draw.

One judge had his card close to mine, Glen Hamada calling the fight 115-113 for Katsidis, having given him rounds 8-12 outright. The other two judges had wins for Diaz, justified in what I felt was a closer fight than the HBO broadcast team would have led the tv viewer to believe. Watching the fight, I was sure Diaz had won big too, looking at the fight as one organic piece, and I don't find the decision unjustified. However, round by round, Katsidis fought very well and took the fight to Diaz hard late in the struggle. Diaz's moments in the tenth and the twelfth were not enough to give him those rounds outright, but were enough to blunt Katsidis' momentum. I think Katsidis, in the future, would be better served to punch hard from the opening bell rather than trying to box.

The conduct of the referees was terrible, despite the quality of the fights, and Laurence Cole's continued excuses for delaying the beginning of late rounds left me wanting what should have been the climax of the fight to just be over and done with. While I agree completely with the checking of the tape, was there really any cause to stop Katsidis from coming hard out of his corner in the rounds when the tape was NOT an issue? Both referees imposed themselves far too much on the fights when they should have stayed out of the way. Their inability to do so was a big weakness in what should have been a great card.

I'd like to see Katsidis again. Despite having lost two in a row now, he has an Arturo Gatti flair about him that could take him far. If he reverts to his former wild man style, he might even do better against busy boxer-punchers like Diaz. A rematch might be interesting. He came into this fight a very big lightweight, perhaps he has a future at junior welter.

Jorge Barrios, despite having boxed very well, should consider retirement. He came into the fight with Juarez off the longest layoff of his career only to suffer an ugly injury which will lead to another long layoff. At his age, 32 is old for a junior lightweight, time lost is time never regained.