Gents, I bring you my recent pieces from The Sporting Blog concerning Roy Jones’ performance against Jeff Lacy (in which I pay undue attention to an aging Phillies’ pitcher of note) and also last night’s highly disappointing news that the Pavlik/Williams fight has been postponed and consequently may never happen.
Roy Jones: The Pedro Martinez of Boxing?
He was embarrassed by Calzaghe, but Calzaghe was a truly great fighter still at the peak of his powers. I couldn’t help but wonder on Saturday while I was watching Roy take Lacy apart how he would fare in Showtime’s super middleweight tournament. Of course, Roy hasn’t fought at 68 in over ten years, and it’s unlikely that he’d be inclined to go back to that weight now. But if he did … could he compete in that tournament? Could he eke out wins over the likes of Jermain and Andre Dirrell and Carl Froch?
Kelly Pavlik vs. Paul Williams Postponed, Possibly Cancelled
What’s left now is to see whether the two promoters can come to some agreement on a make-up date, which is quite a dicey proposition in the ever delicate world of boxing negotiations. There always was something about this fight that seemed too good to be true , two big, exciting fighters in their primes taking a huge risk in agreeing to face each other in a matchup that, although hotly anticipated by boxing diehards, doesn’t even have the crossover juice to warrant big-time pay-per-view money.
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.
I quote Harold Lederman in my title to sum up an utterly bizarre night of boxing, one marred by disgraceful refereeing and blind-as-a-bat-ass judging, but ending with a memorable scrap that, just by a hair, redeemed the evening. Let’s go straight to the videotape:
Alfredo Angulo – TKO5 – Cosme Rivera
There’s not much to say about this fight that we didn’t know going in. Alfredo is hard as the nails that all the other nails are afraid of. That cut he got was seriously nasty, and just like Paul Williams last November against Verno Phillips, he brushed it off like it was less than a scratch. Of course, Cosme Rivera is welterweight and a journeyman by profession, a damn good one and game as they come (more on that in a second), but an undersized journeyman nonetheless, not at all a guy destined to hang in for very long against a perro with Angulo’s kind of bite.
So why, WHY, did Rivera have to take so many lethal shots before… Christ, before the Commission rep had to jump in the ring and save his ass? JESUS. Did you see Shannon Briggs in the crowd yelling for it to be stopped? He looked exactly like I did at that moment – hands on his head, pain in his eyes, screaming for someone to stop the goddamn fight.
It was horrendous to watch. Boxing is absolutely digusting when a ref and a corner don’t do their jobs to save a poor fucker like Rivera from himself. Because, look, Rivera is a Mexican nobody fighting on HBO on short notice. He knows he’s there to give the fans a good show, and like many a proud Mexican before him, he’s got the will and the heart of a thousand rhinos. Angulo probably would have had to shoot him in the face a couple of times before he would have hit the canvas of his own accord.
I’m very surprised that the predominant attitude here at the Mas towards my Margs/Mosley part-one piece was along the lines of, ‘ninja please!†Seems as if the great mass of Masians don’t have much of a sweet tooth on this one, with none other than Ryan, our crack prognosticator on all things Margo, calling for Sugar Shane to get stopped in the ninth.
I certainly understand the sentiment. When trying to envision how a fight might go down, I always find it useful to entertain the possibility that each man might at least equal his finest performance and decide which fighter would prevail in that case. For Margarito, of course, that career performance is a fight we are exceedingly familiar with. And to put it plainly, if Margs pulls another Cotto-type night out of his ass, well, Shane Mosley will not be winning the fight, not if he goes into the ring riding a loaded rhinoceros. I think we all agree on that.
As for Mosley, his best outing was the first De La Hoya fight, I suppose, and that is probably what weighs down his chances in my mind more than anything. While Margarito’s greatest moment in the ring occurred six months ago, Shane’s is eight years gone. He did look mighty good against Cotto, mighty good indeed, but even that is over a year ago. And though he finished his most recent fight in style, it’s true that he had problems with Mayorga. To be fair, though, Mayorga will give you some problems, especially at 47, where he is gigantic. The man is awkward and strong and crazy. I get the sense that mixing it up with the Matador is like playing speed chess with someone who’s brazen but otherwise has no idea what he’s doing. People like that constantly mess with your rhythm because you’re used to your opponents doing things that make sense and these bold fools do everything wrong. It can take you a while to get the feel of that kind of game, and you can even get behind, despite the fact that you’re an infinitely superior player.
