The Brown Knight Rises (What happened for those of you who didn't buy the fight)

It's nice having your own blog.  You can be politically incorrect to bait people to come read what you have to say.

It is 1am and I have to be at work in five hours but I know I won't sleep.  I am reliving Round 6 of Pacquiao/Marquez IV:

YES! YES! 10 MORE SECONDS AND MARQUEZ IS FINISHED.  ONLY 5 SECONDS LEFT IN THE ROUND.  THAT'S IT MANNY.  BACK HIM INTO THE CORNER! 

GET OUT OF THE WAY, REF!

ROUND OV-...WAIT?  WHAT'S GOING ON?

WHY IS MANNY ON THE CANVAS?  WHY IS HE FACE DOWN?

OH MY GOD!  MANNY PACQUIAO HAD A HEART ATTACK!

I was in denial for another few minutes until I saw the replay and recognized brilliance in motion.  

A few rounds earlier, Marquez floored Pacquiao with the same brilliance.  Marquez crouched and unleashed his right hand.  Given his body position and trajectory, Pacquiao expected a right cross to his body.  It's really only a matter of tilting to the left and raising your shoulder to change that right cross into an overhand right which is what Marquez did at the last moment.  Pacquiao's hands were down to protect his diaphragm (a classic mistake that instinct forces us to make).  Now there was nothing between Marquez's right and Pacquiao's temple and nothing between Pacquiao and the floor a second later.

Four years ago, Oscar de la Hoya felt the sting of Manny Pacquiao's laser left hand.  It seemingly teleported into the skulls of Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito a few fights later.  Marquez had the answer for Pacquiao's left before Pacquiao fought de la Hoya- 

....a simple tilt to the right followed by a counter right cross. 

From Pacquiao's view, if Marquez's head is noon, then 9 o'clock is where his head will be when he feels Pacquiao's left is coming.  Pacquiao's left cross would fly effortlessly over Marquez's (and later Tim Bradley's) head and Pacquiao would have to eat a counter for his troubles.

For the past year I've shouted at Manny to "Aim for 9 o'clock!" but he just does not listen through our family's Vizeo.  Prepare yourself for irony.

Marquez was not moving his head like he did in his previous fight with Pacquiao.  He was eating left hands and bits of his own nose as it was oozing down his face by the end of Round 6.  Marquez backed against the ropes.  I yell, "Aim for 9 o'clock".

...and boy did he.  A perfectly straight, full force, shoulder turned in, weight of his entire body behind it, left cross landed at 9 o'clock with the precision of a Patriot missle.............except Marquez's chin wasn't there.

Marquez wasn't moving his head tonight because he wasn't planning on dodging Pacquiao's left.  Tonight his head was at 3 o'clock where it was guiding another overhand right that plowed through Pacquiao's face.

The Perfect Ending

4 fights.  42 rounds.  6 knockdowns.  2 Hall of Fame careers.  How the boxing community expected anything less than this climax I'll never know.

It's said that within every aging fighter is one last moment of glory.  I hope Manny Pacquaio and Juan Manuel Marquez retire.  I want my last image of the two of them to be the one I saw tonight:

Two legends concentrating mind, body, and soul into a single punch knowing full well that only one will land.

* UPDATE: I'm seeing in other reports that it was a right hand that Pacquiao was countered on a missed right hand.  Oh woe is me.  I'll have to fire up the DVR and watch it again.

Who Knew This Was Such Hard Work?

Wow, an entire year since I've written anything on this blog.

So what happened with boxing?  It got a little disappointing.  Let's organize this by person.

Bob Arum
At eleventy billion years old, Bob feels the need to generate revenue for short term gain rather than drum up interest in the sport with intriguing fights.  It was fun seeing karma bite him in the ass with undefeated Juan Manuel Lopez losing his cherry to Orlando Salido.  There goes that Gamboa mini-megafight.  Then Yuriorkis Gamboa boycotts the fight with Brandon Rios which is fair considering Rios' scale is always off by 5lbs.

Manny Pacquiao
He peaked!  Sure he accomplished a lot but it seems he's at a point where his talent can't take him any further.  He is not the professor of boxing that Juan Manuel Marquez is.  Pacquiao can't outclass an opponent with anything but his physical gifts.  No shame though.  Talent alone got him about 4 legitimate titles.

Floyd Mayweather
Floyd is the entertaining person, but Pacquiao is the entertaining fighter. A 50-50 split of a potential purse is not out of the question.  Where does Floyd find the gall to call Pacquiao a $10 million  fighter?  By the way Floyd, she'll never marry you until you put away that prenup.  In the meantime, Vegas' strip club revenue plummets.

The State of Texas
Even the rocks are racist in Texas (anyone who understands that is my friend).  The Texas State Athletic Commission is chaired by a man named Dickie Cole.  His son, Lawrence, (who in the past has prematurely given out judge's scorecards before the bout ended, held Chris John's arms while Rocky Juarez's kept swinging, and will be a bigger contributor to Antonio Margarito's Parkinson's than Pacquiao and Cotto) is given every major bout in the state.  How can this go wrong?  In the past 4 months alone, a disqualification due to inattentive officials and Cloud/Campillo scorecards.  If you're ever boxing in Texas, just remember- KNOCKOUT.

The Ring Magazine
It started with some appealing format changes. More pictures.  An amateur section.  A women's section.  Card Girl of the Month.  Then in the timespan of one issue, Nigel Collins was out as editor-in-chief.  Michael Rosenthal was in.  Doug Fischer was pretty much given the entire RingTV website.  William Detloff, out.  Eric Raskin, out.  Ivan Goldman, gone.  Jeff Ryan, done.  Joseph Santoquito, goodbye.  Jabba the Hutt Emeritus, Jim Bagg, retired.  Now these were pretty much the only boxing writers in the English-speaking who are old enough to have danced at a disco.  The Ring Magazine retired them overnight.  Asking about it on the periodical's Facebook page earned me a block.  Hey Ring Magazine, why don't you and every girl I dated go have a party and laugh about it!

The Next JCC?

My people are so desperate to find the next great incarnation of Julio Cesar Chavez.  Two years ago, I was at the Staples Center for the Margarito/Mosley fight.  The cheers there for every Margarito jab left me deaf for two days. Those cheers have been reduced to a mere golf clap after the revelation of his plaster-filled gloves.

Israel Vasquez and Rafael Marquez took several decades out of each others lives, so we turned to Alfredo Angulo and Cristobal Arreola (an American for God's sake).  Well, Angulo committed the greatest sin of losing to a Puerto Rican then losing his green card.  Arreola gave us motion sickness whenever he took off his shirt.  Where are the heroes? 

Enter Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez.  Heavy hands, sturdy build, and a left hook he turns over so well, it ends with his back facing the floored opponent.  The components of a Mexican star are all there, but what's missing?

Matthew 'Magic' Hatton knows.  Every time he lunged face forward at Alvarez, he exposed Canelo's weakness- the inability to fight on the inside.  Thankfully, there was nothing Hatton could do about that.  It's not a bad thing.  Now Alvarez's fights will have a question mark hanging over it.  How would he bully Manny Pacquiao if he is limited to fighting in PacMan's range?  How would he pressure Mayweather, the master of fighting in the pocket?  How would he handle the reach of Paul Williams at that range?

All questions I look forward to seeing the answers too.

Seriously Disillusioned

The firing of Eric Raskin and William Dettloff from RingTV.com left me with a bad taste in my mouth.  I seriously didn't know what to write because something felt rotten about the sport in general.

Right now, RingTV.com is raving about Brandon Rios' performance Saturday.  The high school sportswriters there don't know that such praise will ultimately play a role in Rios' destruction.

Rios is what Oscar de la Hoya was at lightweight.  A big kid fighter older guys.  Miguel Acosta WAS boxing beautifully, but at 24, Rios can afford to block more punches with his face which he did until Acosta was exhausted.

Anyone can get tired from hitting a punching bag, right?

Roberto Garcia should be getting more praise though. His fighters seem to have better offensive form.

Antonio Margarito found a lengthy, pole-arm jab. It took Manny Pacquiao an entire two rounds to figure it out.  Nonito Donaire puts his entire weight behind his left hook by turning it over perfectly.  Even Brandon Rios' has an offense based on compact hooks and uppercuts, powered by the turning of his hips.

I'll be at the Honda Center next week to see Alvarez/Hatton.  Hopefully I'll find my passion there too.

The Firing of Two Outstanding Journalists/ The End of Ring Theory

I have been informed that Eric Raskin and William Dettloff have been fired from RingTV.com.  When asked by these two for the reasoning behind their termination, RingTV.com gave none.  This new ad-riddled website has also cut off ties with Raskin and Detloff's podcast, Ring Theory.  Furthermore, Ring Theory listeners will need to subscribe for the fee of $29.99 for an entire year because Golden Boy Promotions, who owns a company that owns Ring Magazine, will not allow Ring Theory access to the usual sponsors (i.e Tecate, Everlast, etc.).

This is shocking considering Eric Raskin made an eye-opening point in his last article on the change in fan's sentiment of Pacquiao/Mosley now that it's on Showtime PPV.  William Dettloff, senior writer for Ring magazine, has been a part of the Ring Magazine's website since it was nothing but a few links and a blue background.  I find it hard to believe these two were let go for lackluster performance.  We deserve to know if other RingTV.com and Ring Magazine reporters can keep their jobs while being critical of Golden Boy, who ultimately signs their paychecks.  At the very least, Eric and Bill deserve to know why they are being treated this way.

Anyone who enjoyed the hard work these two put into bringing us weekly columns throughout the highest and lowest moments in the sport, please voice your concerns to RingTV.com through their Facebook, Twitter or email the co-editors Doug Fischer and Michael Rosenthal at their addresses (dougiefischer@yahoo.com) (RingTVeditor@yahoo.com)

HBO W/O PACQUIAO

Wow, I mean.....wow.

The original title of this post was supposed to be "If HBO Passes on Pacquiao/Mosley...".  So far I haven't seen any details about the negotiations between HBO and Top Rank Promotions.  What I hoped would happen was HBO did not want to foot the bill for a '24/7' series and pay a license fee for what would likely be an uncompetitive fight.

The Boxing Universe isn't giving me much to work with here but now I have to look forward to...

-Fight Camp 360 on CBS.

-Pacquiao/Mosley commercials for the 'How I Met Your Mother' and 'Big Bang Theory' audience.

-The move that set this all in motion- Martinez facing a pure boxer in Sergei Dzinziruk.

Tonight's 'Friday Night Fights' even had a great start with good old-fashioned, two punches to land one, Mexican boxing proving too much for Mike Dallas Jr..

Boxing and the Free Market

Even after the market crashed around him in 2008, President Bush praised capitalism and the free market like they were the greatest thing since the red rubber multi-purpose ball.  In the following months, the bankers went to Congress, demanded some socialism for their industry and offered none as they continued to foreclose on properties.


If lawmakers paid more attention to the boxing world in the past 15 years, they would have seen that the unregulated, free economy is extremely beneficial to the very few who make it their life's work to consume; that it is a path towards self-destruction.


How is boxing like the free market?


I'll answer that with another question.  Who regulates boxing?  A federal agency?  Nope.  A state commission?  They dabble a bit but no.  A city manager?  He might expect tickets but still no. 


The WBC?  If you pay them they will call you champion or interim champion or champion emiritus or unified champion or diamond champion....let's see.......uh.....well if your check clears, you're a champion.  Back to the question, no, not the WBC, IBF, WBA, WBO, IBA, or whatever three letters you can put together. 


I hear boxing writers and commentators beg and plead for the marketplace to make the major decisions in boxing; to act as the market should act.  In the free market, it is the consumers who decide by making the purchase that will best suit them.  It is this action that is supposed to regulate the market.  

Don't like dolphins in your tuna?  Don't buy it and force the manufacturer to use dolphin-safe nets.  Tired of your Chevy breaking down every 5000 miles.  Trade it in for a Toyota.  If Chevy wants your business back, then they should stop fastening parts with bubblegum and paper clips.  Well, after decades of making Radio-Flyers with Chevy emblems, the marketplace decided no more and bought fleets of the Prius and the Corrolla.  Chevy could wither and die for all we care but wait....what?  The Fed is buying stock in GM in attempt to save the company that sells subpar products?    No kidding?  The Fed is bailing out the banks that acted in collusion to make bad loans and sell them off.  Now that's not capitalism...or at least not the way it should be.


If only those writers knew they were getting capitalism at its purest in boxing.  No regulatory bodies.  Commissions there to make sure that the boxers aren't bums off the street (insert Kimbo jab) and that they were following the Queensbury rules.  And the promoters, the manufacturers of fights, finding a way to ignore the needs of the sport and the desire of the fans.  Need to artificially raise the stakes on the fight?  Pay the WBC for the Super Duper Champion Belt.  Commissions giving you trouble?  Take the fight to another state or country and promise it will inject money to the local economy.


Now, promoters <cough..Golden Boy and Top Rank..cough..> have the ability to deliver a crummy product on a consistent basis to the point that we're starved.  So starved, that we're willing to swallow Pacquiao/Mosley and Julio Caesar Chavez Jr./ Tijuana Cab Drivers and Plumbers Local 218.


What will it take to turn the tides?  When I know the answer, you'll be the first to hear it.