On the co-feature of the Arthur Abraham/Edison Miranda fight down in Miami last month, undefeated Dominican middleweight Giovanni Lorenzo took on popular veteran Raul Marquez for the right to fight for the IBF middleweight crown (currently held by Abraham). After Lorenzo got off to an early lead on points, Marquez scratched his way back into the fight with guile and tenacity, eking out a very close but unanimous decision, winning the bout 114-113 on all three scorecards. (In the photo below, taken by Bob Wallace, co-manager Rich Ryan, trainer Pastor Ralph Farrait, Giovanni and co-manager Kurt Emhoff await the decision in the Marquez fight).

It was a classic tale of the boxing universe , the undefeated but largely untested prospect meets up with the crafty but past his prime veteran. In this particular version of the story, the veteran prevailed, leaving the prospect, with his precious ’0” up and gone, to contend with the next phase of his career, a phase where he’s no longer ‘up-and-coming” but rather a fighter with a loss on his record and a battle ahead to maintain his relevance in the cutthroat promotional universe of the sport.

This is the angle of Lorenzo’s loss that interested me and the question that immediately leapt to my mind after the fight: What does this classic type of boxing loss , a tough step-up fight where your ’0” just had to go , what does that look like from the business side of the equation? How did the fighter get to that point in his career where all the stars were aligned for him, and where does he go after he’s got that first L on his record?

Luckily for us, Giovanni Lorenzo’s co-manager is a true friend of No Mas, Kurt Emhoff, a highly knowledgeable and articulate boxing fan who also, through his experience in managing fighters, possesses that rare insight into the nether realms of the business end of the sweet science that so fascinate all of us diehard fight fans. You’ve probably seen Kurt’s comments here at the site before, or read my previous interview with Kurt from earlier in the year when we talked about another one of his fighters, Dmitriy Salita, when Dmitriy was in the running for a potential bout with Oscar De La Hoya in the spring.

This time around, Kurt was gracious enough to have a long, interesting talk with me about a painful topic, a very difficult loss for one of his fighters in a hugely important fight. So enjoy our conversation below, No Masians, the story of Giovanni Lorenzo’s professional boxing journey as told to me by our man Kurt.

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posted by Baggiesboy

(The Bag is back, recovered, I gather, from the excesses of Basel, or Bristol, or wherever the hell he was, and pounding the MLS pavement once again. All hail the mighty Bag… L)

A press release received from the New York Red Bulls today informed me that tickets sales for the David Beckham (and his Galaxy Pips) game against the Red Bulls next week have already surpassed the 40,000 mark. Oh yes, ‘Goldenballs” is headed back to the Big Apple. Which begs the question: is there a better pair of nicknames in the entire world? You have to be careful about nicknames when you go around writing under the name ‘Baggiesboy,” but the subject of nom de plumes brings me to the subject of the MLS player I most want to succeed this season: Dr. Goals.

How can anyone resist that name? Not me, and nor could the front office of Real Salt Lake. Kenny Deuchar is the good doctor’s given name. He got his moniker in the Scottish border town of Gretna, where he scored 63 goals in 90 games for the Weddingmakers. (Gretna, by the way, is the Las Vegas of the way north ,hence the now defunct team’s own memorable nickname: in days of yore it was the traditional elopement spot for young British lovebirds with stars in their eyes and passion burning in places for which there are pet names too numerous to mention here.) Amid that 63 goals haul, six hat tricks in 2005, a feat that tied Jimmy Greaves’ long standing British record.

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posted by Large

Well, the whole thing got a little obscured for us here at the Mas due to the historical nature of yesterday’s tennis marathon, but now I think we are prepared to give the devil his due on the Kendall Holt/Ricardo Torres one-minute concussion-fest Saturday night, a fight in which, to put it mildly, the smacketh was rather dramatically layeth downeth all overeth the place.

This was a rematch of a 2007 fight down in Barranquilla, Colombia that involved a lot of beercans being thrown into the ring and an eventual dubious stoppage of an injured but still battling Kendall Holt, giving the victory to the hometown hero, the Colombian Torres.

Saturday night, from the opening bell, it was pretty clear that there would be no issue of quick stoppages this time around, because come hell or high water somebody was getting CTFO (Carried the Fuck Out). Right off the bat it looked like it was going to be Holt, who got dropped with a monster overhand left from Torres about 14 seconds in. Then Holt pretty quickly went down again and looked very shaky getting up and it seemed like it was time for Torres to pull out the muleta and finish the job.

That’s when… well, sadly that’s when Torres ate a headbutt that would make an Arsenal-loving skinhead proud…

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posted by Large

I talked to I-Berg soon after the Nadal/Fed filibuster had ended this afternoon (“afternoon” out here in Berkeley anyway) and he made some jokes about how, with my passion for Herculean hyperbole, I was going to manage to properly hyperbolize the Wimbledon men’s final when I’d already trotted out the “Achilles/Hector” and “Ali/Frazier” lines so many times before.

His idea was Ahab and Moby Dick, in which I suppose Fed would have to play the role of the whale (I have been known to refer to him as “Moby Fed”). Me, I was thinking maybe Satan and the archangel Michael from whatever book it was in Paradise Lost that those two threw down. Because you know that was some kind of tangle right there.

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