Cotto, yo
In a trio of fights last night involving three of boxing’s best pound-for-pound fighters, Miguel Cotto made by far the most impressive statement, stopping Carlos Quintana to win the vacant WBA welterweight title. Cotto knocked Quintanaa down twice in the fifth, and the ref stopped it before the start of the sixth. After Cotto’s domination of Paulie Malignaggi in June, he is definitely shaping up to be one of boxing’s next super duper stars – undefeated, Puerto Rican, with dynamite power and a penchant for fighting a wide-open, blood-and-guts style.
Cotto’s next opponent may be the man who fought on his undercard, Antonio Margarito, who apparently had an off night, winning a unanimous but uninspired decision over Ghana’s Joshua Clottey. Given all the hype around Margarito lately as the most feared/ducked man in boxing, I’m surprised that he delivered a lackluster performance in this bout. He’d had a long layoff, hadn’t fought since February, which may have been the problem. And hey, who gives a fuck, because a Cotto/Margarito bout remains a VERY exciting proposition. Let’s hope it happens.
I, Large, did not see either of the above Showtime fights because I was watching the HBO card, with Winky Wright utterly dominating Ike Quartey in the main event. It was an unexpected showing for me – I thought Winky would win, but I didn't think didn’t think he would be able to so completely control Ike in the ring. But in just about every facet of the bout Winky had the advantage over the Ghanaian – speed, size, skill, conditioning. Winky is just a great fucking boxer, which is part of his problem. He makes it look too easy. Then again, he didn’t coast in this bout nearly as much Floyd did against Baldomir. He made it a good show, undoubtedly because he’s angling for the winner of Floyd/Oscar. Personally, I think Floyd/Winky is the most evenly matched, high-octane fight boxing could offer us right now, a real showdown for top-dog pound-for-pound bragging rights. But I doubt it will ever happen. Hard to imagine that Floyd thinks he has anything to gain from that fight.
The biggest loser last night was on the Winky/Quartey undercard, as Jeff Lacy won a highly suspect majority decision over the very game Ukrainian, Vitali Tsypko. The fight was supposed to be the beginning of a Lacy comeback after his dismantling by Joe Calzaghe last March, but it was an inauspicious outing. In fact, I thought Tsypko should have been awarded a very narrow decision. It was a pleasing fight to watch, a compelling chess match in the middle rounds, but taken as a whole it has to put the future of Lacy’s career in doubt. Compelling slugfests against the Vitali Tsypkos of the world certainly do not seem like the harbinger of great things to come for Jeff Lacy. It may be time for everyone to admit that he was never as good as he looked, or as we wanted him to be.
Cotto’s next opponent may be the man who fought on his undercard, Antonio Margarito, who apparently had an off night, winning a unanimous but uninspired decision over Ghana’s Joshua Clottey. Given all the hype around Margarito lately as the most feared/ducked man in boxing, I’m surprised that he delivered a lackluster performance in this bout. He’d had a long layoff, hadn’t fought since February, which may have been the problem. And hey, who gives a fuck, because a Cotto/Margarito bout remains a VERY exciting proposition. Let’s hope it happens.
I, Large, did not see either of the above Showtime fights because I was watching the HBO card, with Winky Wright utterly dominating Ike Quartey in the main event. It was an unexpected showing for me – I thought Winky would win, but I didn't think didn’t think he would be able to so completely control Ike in the ring. But in just about every facet of the bout Winky had the advantage over the Ghanaian – speed, size, skill, conditioning. Winky is just a great fucking boxer, which is part of his problem. He makes it look too easy. Then again, he didn’t coast in this bout nearly as much Floyd did against Baldomir. He made it a good show, undoubtedly because he’s angling for the winner of Floyd/Oscar. Personally, I think Floyd/Winky is the most evenly matched, high-octane fight boxing could offer us right now, a real showdown for top-dog pound-for-pound bragging rights. But I doubt it will ever happen. Hard to imagine that Floyd thinks he has anything to gain from that fight.
The biggest loser last night was on the Winky/Quartey undercard, as Jeff Lacy won a highly suspect majority decision over the very game Ukrainian, Vitali Tsypko. The fight was supposed to be the beginning of a Lacy comeback after his dismantling by Joe Calzaghe last March, but it was an inauspicious outing. In fact, I thought Tsypko should have been awarded a very narrow decision. It was a pleasing fight to watch, a compelling chess match in the middle rounds, but taken as a whole it has to put the future of Lacy’s career in doubt. Compelling slugfests against the Vitali Tsypkos of the world certainly do not seem like the harbinger of great things to come for Jeff Lacy. It may be time for everyone to admit that he was never as good as he looked, or as we wanted him to be.
1 Comments:
I missed the first four rounds of Clottey Marguerito, which was when Clottey was supposedly really dominating. Apparently he broke a bone in one of his fingers and then couldn't use his left hand without extreme pain. Between every round he seemed to be pleading for permission from his corners to quit, but unlike Quintana (who by the way does look a little like like our local dude Edgar Santana), he hung in there and fought an extremely interesting fight basically with one hand.
This is the first time I've ever seen Marguerito and I was not very impressed. He was very busy without landing a lot which is not the kind of fighter I dig. Even without good use of his left to set it up, Clottey nailed him with some punishing uppercuts. To his credit he does have a beard on him, but the scoring on this fight was shameful. Marguerito won but it should have been much closer than it was scored.
By the way, does anyone know if "El 7 Mares" is his nickname or if he is sponsored by that fish taco restaurant on Sunset near Echo Park. Either way, he moves up another notch in my estimation.
After the Winky fight we watched Sugar Ray vs. Wilfredo Benitez on a pretty decent bootleg my boy the Mirman had acquired from his source. Leonard is shown to best effect when he is up against more of a bullish and a bigger opponent, but to watch him slowly dissect a counterpuncher of only slighly inferior skill was also exciting.
What I most enjoyed though was Cosell's call of the bout. The most striking thing you notice, when you have to live in this pathetic era of three in a booth miminums is that Cosell was all alone. There is no play by play vs. colorman. He does both! And he does it seamlessly and wonderfully with perfect timing and cadence like he's laying down an uptempo drum beat for a very funky bassline. Yet more ammunition to hate Lampley. It's so disrespectful to the audience for the announcer to scream all the time--as if we are incapable of noticing when something interesting happens.
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