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A Night of Veterans fighting One Last Time
This past Saturday on Showtime featured an evening of the grizzly veterans fighting prospects and youngsters on the way up. Beginning with Sakio Biko exposing the weakness of Dyah Davis; the evening was to answer the questions how much does experience count and when does experience cease to be a benefit and age becomes a hindrance?
In the opening bout of the evening, Biko simply
pounded Davis from the opening bell to the finish when Davis resorted to
using his head to block Biko sledgehammer punches. The referee decided
that the head blocking strategy would simply not do and stopped the
fight.
In second fight, 32 year old South African veteran
Vusi Malinga challenged the 23 year old Leo Santa Cruz for the vacant
IBF Bantamweight title. The first round started out fast and set the
pace for the fight as Cruz connected on punches through the southpaw
Maligna guard; while throwing over 100 punches, a total that he averaged
for the fight. This was a fight that was competitive every round as
Maligna held his ground to fire back but Cruz was simply too much for
the older Maligna. Round after round, Cruz connected on double the
punches and had double the output and Maligna simply could not keep up
the pace set by the younger Cruz. Cruz victory was a case of a younger,
aggressive fighter who simply put the pedal to the metal and went for
broke.
If the second fight was a wall to wall action fight
with both fighters average some 170 plus punches per round, Austin Trout
fight with Delvin Rodriguez was a snoozer. Trout hand speed perplexed
Rodriguez who never seems to get off as he threw a punch here and punch
there. It took Rodriguez nearly eleven rounds before he found a home for
his right hand but by then, it was too little, too late. As for Trout,
Al Bernstein final statement on the fight summed up his performance,
“Efficient but not spectacular.” This was a night that he needed to be
spectacular, he settled for being merely effective. As for Rodriguez, he
had an opportunity to break through and become a championship contender.
Rodriguez always produced action fights and had lost his share of close
controversial fight but on this night, he simply froze at time and
allowed Trout to set the pace of the fight. For Rodriguez, this was his
opportunity for the big time and he simply did not meet expectation.
Winky Wright has fought some of the best fighters
and over his last 18 fights, he fought 12 champions and his record was
13-4-1 but his last fight was nearly four years ago and he was now 40.
Pete Quillin found himself in a no-win position for he had to win and
win impressively against one of boxing smarter fighter. The first round
showed Wright dilemma as he simply had trouble with Quillin’s hand speed
as Quillin unleashed solid combinations. Wright had to pursue Quillin,
but this made him vulnerable to Quillin’s counters.
In the third round, Wright got closer to Quillin as
he managed to connect on a few jabs but Quillin shook Wright up with an
upper cut and Quillin ended the fourth round with a tough combination.
Quillin and Wright got into a firefight but it was Quillin's quicker
hands that held the advantage. With forty seconds left in the round,
Quillin connected on a straight right that sent Wright down and for the
next thirty seconds, Wright survived by keeping his hands up and blocked
many of Quillin’s bouts.
In the sixth round, Quillin teed off with some
sharp combinations and while Wright did manage to land some solid left,
they did very little damage. At his peak, Wright was never a one punch
knockout artist but in this fight, Wright power was missing.
In the eighth round, Wright moved forward in an
effort to change momentum got nailed by an upper cut that sent him
reeling. Wright was saved simply because there only fifteen seconds
left. If there was more time, Wright would have been stopped for the
first time in his career. Wright survived the fight but there was no
doubt that Wright was not the fighter of yore and Peter Quillin showed
some nuance in his defense skills. Bernstein summed up what it meant for
both fighters as he noted, “This fight showed that Quillin victory due
to Wright diminished skills and his own improvement.”
Antonio Tarver faced Lateef Kayode, an undefeated
cruiserweight and this fight came off because Kayode didn’t like
comments Tarver made about him as a Showtime announcer. Kayode threw
some rights that got through but nothing seem to hurt Tarver as Tarver
played possum, looking to see what the young fighter had. Kayode
athletic ability looked decisive over the first half of the fight. After
five rounds, Tarver corner told their fighter that he was behind and he
came out in the sixth more aggressive. Tarver nailed Kayode with a
straight left and an upper cut that spin Kayode’s head. At the end of
the seventh round, Tarver caught Kayode with two left, one that pushed
Kayode back. Tarver repeated the same thing in the eighth round as he
staggered Kayode with time running out of the round.
Tarver continued to stalk and nail Kayode with
lefts and one left once again staggered Kayode for yet another time with
a minute left but Kayode did manage to land two rights to get back in
the round but this was another round for Tarver. With three rounds left,
it was a close round. The tenth round was close as both fighters had
their moments but the most effective punches of the round may have been
Kayode’s body shots. The eleventh round was also a close round but the
final minute saw Tarver connect on two sharp left. The twelfth round was
another close round with neither fighter landing that big punch nor made
a definite statement on who was the big winner.
The decision was as a draw as the judges could not
really come to grip with who truly won. Tarver kept his title with the
score 115-113 for Tarver, 115-113 for Kayode and 114-114 even. The fight
was even as both fighters landed similar number of punches. Tarver
showed that he was 43 years old and at time, he looked slow. Kayode
showed improvement over his past fights against an elite fighter, even
an old elite fighter. This was a fight that saw a diminished Tarver and
an improved Kayode.
There are still question about Kayode since while
he showed improvement, he never hurt Tarver and over the second half of
the fight, it was the old man who looked the strongest. There were at
least three times that Kayode was staggered and one has to ask, if a 43
year old Tarver could nearly stop Kayode, what happens when he step up
further in competition?
As for Tarver and Wright, it is time to end their
career. Both men have fought well over their career and both may be
heading for the boxing Hall of Fame but neither had the skills of old. A
younger Wright would have beaten Quillin and a younger Tarver would have
knocked Kayode out and at least Tarver will retire with a title.
Thoughts on Tapia and Williams
Over the past week, there were three big events of
note. The first was the passing of Johnny Tapia, a boxing legend. In the
1990’s, he made the lighter weight interesting with his life story, many
tattoo and exciting style of fighting. He began his career as a Super
Flyweight and fought his last fight as a light weight.
In the ring, Tapia showed mastery of the sweet
science but he still had enough power in his punches to make a
statement. He had 30 knockouts in 59 victories but what set him apart
from others was his boxing skills. Many New Mexican sports fans remember
his fight with Danny Romero, another New Mexico fighter when both were
among the elites of their division. Tapia won the decision while
capturing Romero Super flyweight belt while keeping his. More
importantly, he won the battle of New Mexico. Tapia had his share of
demons outside the ring including drug abuse and in the end, Tapia died
too young with much left to give to the sport outside the ring. RIP,
Tapia.
Paul Williams was on his way to fight one more big
battle this September against the Mexican youngster Saul “Canelo”
Alvarez but that fight will never happen. Williams may be paralyzed as
result of a motorcycle accident and now, the real miracle will be if he
is able to walk again. Williams had a unique, go for broke style in
which his offense was his defense. Despite his lanky 6’1” frame,
Williams did not always fight tall but simply threw volume of punches in
an effort to overwhelm and then stop his opponent.
His first big victory was against Antonio Margarito
, and his next big moment was revenging a twelve decision lost to Carlos
Quintana with a spectacular one round knockout. He followed that up with
an easy decision over the veteran Winky Wright.
Williams managed to win a close majority decision
over Sergio Martinez but Martinez nailed Williams in the rematch when he
stopped Williams in the second round. From that point, he had a close
controversial wins over Erislandy Lara before defeating Nobuhiro Ishida
in his last bout. Williams had a good career, was a champion, beat some
excellent fighters and now he fights for his ability to do what many of
us take for granted, simply walk a few steps.
Last week, Carl Froch showed that he may just be
the second best Super Middleweight in the world as he stopped and
dominated Lucian Bute. Bute came into the fight as the overwhelming
favorite in a two fight home and home contract with the first fight
being in Nottingham England; Froch home town.
Bute cleaned out the non-Super Six portion of the
Super Middleweight and considering that when the Super 6 tournament
began, the Super Middleweight was the deepest division with twelve or
thirteen fighter capable of being the man of the division. When the
smoke cleared after the tournament was over, Andre Ward was the king of
the Super Six and Bute was the undefeated last obstacle in Ward’s way.
Except that Froch showed the world that maybe the best Super
Middleweights already fought in the Super Six and he pounded Bute from
the opening bell till Froch stopped him in the fifth. The difference
between Bute and Ward could be seen since Ward demonstrated that he
could fight on the inside and outside. Froch admitted as much that Ward
was the better fighter between the two but Bute had Ward hand speed but
he lacked Ward flexibility as fighter. As for Ward, he is now relieved
of fighting Bute and now he may have Chad Dawson in his sight for
Dawson’s light heavyweight belt.
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