posted by Large

Dudes, again I refer you to my piece at The Sporting Blog, which touches on a subject near and dear to our hearts, the two gigantic, rival promotions of the fall.

To which I will add that this annoying situation where I am generally writing my pieces over at TSB and then linking to them here is going to be resolved soon once and for all, and I think to everyone’s satisfaction. More on that very soon…

Mayweather/Marquez vs. Pacquiao/Cotto Could Be the Fight of 2009
“If Floyd really wants to take a sure path towards making this fight enormous, and if he wants to immediately supersede any other news that surrounds him or his camp or the fight as it is posited right now, he has it in his power to do so… All he has to do, with his inimitable gusto, is insult the honor of Mexican boxers, Mexican people, and Mexico itself. Then, oh man … then all hell would break loose.”

posted by Large

A late reminder that I’ll be making my inaugural appearance on the Pound 4 Pound radio show tonight, an hour-long show that airs at 7 p.m. EST on Sirius/XM 98. Other than my esteemed self, the guests are Chris Arreola, Steve Cunningham and Stephane Larouche, who plays left wing for the Canadiens. No, wait… he’s Lucien Bute’s trainer.

I understand the topics that I’ll be addressing will be the Showtime Super Six tourney, the Pac/Cotto extravaganza, David Haye’s continuing ridiculousness and some other recent news today concerning Tomasz Adamek and Amir Khan. They’re also encouraging call-ins tonight, so do holla if you have the itch at 1-888-942-7326. I include below some links to recent pieces of mine from The Sporting Blog and my latest HBO article.

Pacquiao vs. Cotto: Questions Will Be Answered (HBO.com)
“Over the next four months, this match-up is certain to provoke a firestorm of debate among devoted followers of the sweet science. Both men are accomplished stars who inspire great passion in their fan base, and yet they have unanswered questions hanging over them at the moment,questions that will be settled once and for all when they fight in November.”

David Haye Is Ducking the Klitschkos (The Sporting Blog)
“I have no doubts that the Klitsckos were working him over big-time at the negotiating table, but them’s the ropes in this hustle, Hayeburger. You essentially have done nothing in your heavyweight career yet but talk a big game and wear cool t-shirts. You’re a former cruiserweight champ with a stoppage loss to Carl Thompson on your record. The most impressive scalp on your belt is a past-his-prime Jean-Marc Mormeck, who wasn’t all that impressive even when he was in his prime. No matter how much you blab, son, when your resume is that bloody thin, you’re going to have to settle for table-scraps if you want to sit at the king’s table, or even the king’s brother’s table.”

Pacquiao vs. Cotto: Big Fight, Good Fight (The Sporting Blog)
“Bob Arum’s Top Rank Promotions officially announced yesterday that the Manny Pacquiao vs. Miguel Cotto fight, scheduled for November 14 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, is a done deal at a catch-weight of 145 pounds. In what has been a strange, transitional year for the sweet science, this is likely to prove the only true super-fight of 2009 in terms of both the legitimacy of the match-up and the interest it generates.”

Kelly Pavlik: A Man Without a Plan (The Sporting Blog)
“Pavlik and his handlers now have themselves a serious problem. A boxing Machiavelli like Bob Arum has to be thinking to himself at this point, “Maybe, just maybe, Kelly Pavlik isn’t that good.” After all, he doesn’t really have any A-list scalps on his belt. He beat Jermain Taylor twice (who, of course, beat Hopkins twice in highly disputed decisions) but there is no one in the fight world left standing who will tell you that Jermain is or ever was a great boxer. A-plus potential, but Jermain probably maxed out at B-plus performance.”

posted by Large

I’ve been trying to get up here with a report on Khan/Kotelnik all day, but various nuisances have kept me otherwise engaged. And then, well, then the other shoe falls and suddenly a Khan/Kotelnik recap seems about as pressing as a soft summer rain (though it was a pretty enjoyable fight on the whole – I’ll try and get a short piece up here with my thoughts either today or tomorrow).

So look, brothers of the Mas, if you don’t know, now you know – the shit is on like Donkey Kong. So many arguments, so many comments, so much dissension to be enjoyed in the ranks. I’m going to do a feature on this very topic for HBO this week, and when I’m done I’ll link it here and then I’ll be available to start moderating the madness. Until then, Brad, Ricky, and the rest of you maniacs… play nice.

posted by Large

I can’t believe what I’m reading, in the recaps and opinion pieces at other boxing sites and in the comments here at the Mas. What the hell were people watching last night that they can conclude after that fight that, ‘Cotto has lost it, Cotto isn’t that good, Cotto is still haunted by Margarito”?

To all of these people drawing these conclusions, I have a question: DID YOU NOT SEE THE CRATER OF A CUT OVER COTTO’S LEFT EYE THAT HE FOUGHT WITH FOR NINE FUCKING ROUNDS? JESUS!

To me, the cut essentially invalidates the fight and the result, period. It probably should have been stopped – that might have been in the better interest of both parties. Clottey is right to call for a rematch, and he’ll never get it, which is a shame, although he would have had his rematch if he’d manned up and gone out there and conclusively won those last three rounds, so he’s left to think about that when he’s fighting some up-and-comer on Friday Night Fights in November.

I’ll get to the decision later. It’s definitely debatable. But it was clear to me that Cotto would have been well within his rights to opt out of that fight at any point after the third round. Fights have been justifiably stopped for much lesser cuts. It also was clear to me that around the seventh round, when it was obvious that the cut was not going to stop pouring blood into his eye and making him all but defenseless to right hands, when even the announcers were starting to say, ‘man, they should probably stop this thing”… if the fight had been stopped then, Cotto would have had an indisputable lead on the scorecards. You can debate whether he deserved that decision after 12, but there is no debate that he was up after seven.

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No Masians, wanted to share the Paul Williams videos we made for Everlast during their recent photo shoot at Gleason’s. In the main event, we have P-Will threatening to “retire” Winky, challenging Manny Pac, and sounding pessimistic about Cotto or Shane ever picking up his gauntlet.

Once again, we are gonna run a contest for Saturday night, and Large is gonna bless us with a full prognostification. Outcome predictions posted here will be eligible, and there will also be a prize for the best counter to Large’s analysis on Friday. Closest to the the winner and the round or the judges scorecards for a decision wins shirt of your choice. Hit it on the button and get five shirts of your choice or a shirt and a hoodie. Must post before the fight starts to win. Good luck good sirs.

After the jump are shorter topical clips, wherein we have Paul and his trainer George Peterson on the finer points of getting ducked, the secret origin of The Punisher, and the ol’ 1-2-3.
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posted by Large

(Be sure to check out Baggiesboy’s piece on tomorrow’s U.S./Mexico soccer match below this post. I had to bury him due to the breaking Margo situation, but as always he brought his A-game to the pitch. -L)

As I’m sure you guys have read or heard by now, Tony Margarito and his trainer Javier Capetillo both had their licenses revoked by the California State Athletic Commission after a hearing today into the handwraps controversy that emerged prior to Margarito’s fight with Shane Mosley on January 24th.

Our crack commenter Howard in NYC, who I gather doubles in his non-Masian existence as a lawyer, pointed out last week that because Mosley’s trainer, Nazim Richardson, had removed the suspiciously hard pads from Margarito’s dressing room and taken them to Mosley’s, there would be chain of custody issues raised by Margarito’s defense team, and indeed there were.

But apparently, nobody was biting on that line. Margarito’s trainer, Capetillo, also tried to take the entire blame upon himself, saying that he himself was responsible for the hard pieces being inside the fighter’s wraps and that Margarito had no knowledge of the matter whatsoever. As for what he’d done, Capetillo said it was “an innocent mistake.”

Nobody swallowed that, either. A year of license suspensions was voted by the Commission for both men to the tune of 7 yeas and zero nays. Down goes Margo.

Perhaps the most stunning revelation of the day, however, had no influence on the final judgment, though it is certain to lead to mass speculation and perhaps further punitive action against Margarito and Capetillo. During the proceedings, a deputy attorney general for the prosecution, Karen Chapelle, tried to introduce a claim that Margarito had worn similar pads under his gloves for the Cotto fight last July. The Commission refused to hear it, saying that it was irrelevant to the question of what happened at the Staples Center prior to the bout with Mosley.

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posted by Large

Let the Monday, or in this case, early Sunday morning quarterbacking begin. Plaster of Paris in his gloves? Looking more emaciated at 47 than De La Hoya did? And getting… knocked the fizznuck out??!?!!?! Jesus man, my head is spinning like I just got punched by Shane Mosley a couple hundred times.

Oh wait, that wasn’t me. That was Margarito.

Look, I sensed it, I even bet on it, and oh how I wish I’d had the nads to prognosticate on it because then I could get all “kneel before Zod” on my brothers here at the Mas and feel all righteous and Zodly (Ricky Roe can step up to that mike). As it is, all I can do is count my money and admit that though I certainly felt like Shane had a good chance, I never would have bet a red cent on him getting the stoppage, not in a million years.

In the very first round, I started to wonder, though, because it just didn’t look like a Tony Margs kind of affair. He always starts slow, but even then he’s stalking, moving forward at angles, geometrically trapping his man over and over again and forcing him to fight his way out of trouble.

Here, well, it was immediately apparent that Shane was stronger than Margs, and what’s more, he looked bigger, which was almost as bizarre as Pacquiao looking bigger than Oscar last month. And Shane used that advantage to good effect, stepping into Margo’s lunges rather than away from them and often just manhandling him around the ring. The pattern was established early, Shane letting Margs walk to him, getting off first (and second, and third…), and then smothering his man before he got any chance to work. Lather rinse repeat.

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