WARRIORS AND WIENERS

WARRIORS

Marco Antonio Barrera and Juan Manuel Marquez engaged in a dramatic, action filled war last Saturday night at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. In a fight spiced with controversy, Marquez won a unanimous decision and with it the WBC super featherweight title, 118-109, and 116-111 (twice). But forget the scores - they don’t portray the fight correctly anyway - this was a possible Fight of the Year candidate, certainly the best we’ve seen so far this year. And if everything goes according to plan, we can look forward to the rematch on September 16 on the week of Mexican Independence Day.

Personally, I enjoyed another good weekend, picking the winners in all three major fights. The last time that I failed to pick a winner was January 6 when Anna Nicole Smith and I watched Samuel Peter dismantling James “Tubby” Toney.

I saw Marquez winning the fight 114-113 in a fight that was difficult to score because both men did good work during the course of the bout. The circumstances of the seventh round, as it turns out, was not a critical point of the fight, but it is worthy of discussion as it should have been crucial.

During that round Marquez hurt Barrera with a straight right at about the midway point, and then followed with his full arsenal, dominating the round. Well, at least until literally the final seconds of the round when a sweet Barrera right put Marquez on all fours. Barrera threw a bonus right while Marquez was down and was penalized a point. To make matters worse for Barrera, referee Jay Nady didn’t see the punch and ruled it a slip. So instead of possibly pulling out the round with a 10-9, possibly even 10-8 advantage, Barrera was on the short end of a 10-8 score, a three point swing at the minimum.

If Nady scores the knockdown and directs Barrera to a neutral corner, it’s unlikely that he fouls Marquez. But as it turned out, because of the surprisingly disproportionate scoring, Marquez would have won the fight anyway. (I mean, c’mon, 118-109?)

No, I am not letting the Jim Lampley cheerleading team cloud my judgment. For rounds after the knockdown that wasn’t, he was calling for an instant replay system such as the one recently approved for use in New Jersey. But that system is flawed too, as we wrote in a previous article. The last time I checked New Jersey hasn’t even used it yet, and since the promoters have to pay for it, and share it equally, don’t hold your breath.

Yet Lampley says that Larry Hazzard, the Executive Director of the New Jersey Commission must sleep well at night, knowing that he has this rule in place.

Larry Merchant pressed Nevada State Executive Director Keith Kizer about instant replay in a post-fight interview. Kizer cleverly responded that they had been looking into it and were awaiting some results from New Jersey.

Marquez ended the fight with his left eye virtually closed and blood streaming from the right eye, looking very much as if he was the loser. Barrera suffered a cut left eye that was not a factor. But the judges must have been more influenced by Marquez’ 197-146 advantage in power shots than Barrera’s clean appearance.

The attendance of 8127 had to be disappointing to Golden Boy, the promoters of the fight. What was the reason for this lack of interest in such a highly anticipated, long awaited fight? Was it the NCAA tournament? Was it St. Patrick’s Day? Let’s hope that boxing’s fan base is not dwindling down to this level. A fight of this quality, if anything, should help elevate the sport.

The co-feature between WBO 122 pound titlist Daniel Ponce Deleon and Gerry Penalosa was won by Deleon by scores of 119-109 (twice) and 120-108. That scoring also seemed out of line. I saw it 117-111 for Deleon. Deleon may have thrown 1399 punches in the fight but he connected at a 19% rate. I thought it was a step backward for him.

In the opener, Demetrius Hopkins, nephew of Golden Boy partner Bernard Hopkins, retained his USBA 140 pound title over Steve Forbes, a finalist in season two of The Contender and a former 130 pound titlist, by scores of 118-110 (twice) and 117-111. The crowd booed the decision, as well they should. I saw it 115-113 Forbes, but even if a round or two could be argued to give Hopkins the victory, there’s no way that the scoring was appropriate.

Forbes outscored Hopkins 174-132 on power punches, and 198-168 overall. This was not a good night for the judges.

WIENERS

In other big fights this weekend, Evander Holyfield stopped Vinny Maddalone in the third round of their scheduled 10 rounder when Maddalone’s corner stopped the action with 12 seconds left in the round, and their fighter looking like Henry Cooper. The fight was really over in round one when Holyfield, showing good movement on 44 year old legs opened a cut on his opponent’s left eye with a series of lefts, then used his Sunday punch, the unintentional butt, to create a severe cut on the middle of Maddalone’s forehead. Holyfield was sharp in his short stint, and continues his quest for a fifth title, but needs to fight some live competition if he is to be taken seriously.

Jean-Marc Mormeck defeated O‘Neil Bell with a 12 round unanimous decision, 116-112 and 115-113 (twice). I haven’t seen the fight as yet, but the reportage of the fight suggests that it was a toe to toe battle with Mormeck jumping out to an early lead. Open scoring, that scourge of boxing fans everywhere, apparently was a factor in this one as Bell surged in the final rounds to salvage victory as he did in their first fight. But Mormeck, knowing that he had an insurmountable lead, elected to carefully box and stay away from Bell. There’s no way that happens without the impact of open scoring in Mormeck’s strategy.

Recently I wrote that I doubted that Sergio Mora would ever step into the ring with Jermain Taylor. It was only obvious when he balked at fighting for $1.4 million that he was looking for a way out. Now the May 19 meeting is off because Mora didn’t want to fight in Memphis. No competitive fighter gives up a chance to win the middleweight title because he doesn’t like Memphis. If they had moved the fight, he would have found another excuse.

Taylor is now looking at Cory Spinks as a possible replacement, which is good because he makes a better opponent anyway.

I know I’ll get more letters for this, but I have to think that Mora has no heart, knows he will be beaten badly, and it is financially advantageous to him over the long haul to beat a dozen tomato cans for $1.4 million than to gain it in one shot and be exposed in the process. He received some free publicity without having his head popped like a champagne cork.

Maybe Mora can use his fame to get a gig on “Dancing with the Stars,” so long as he doesn’t back out before the competition begins like Vincent Pastore did.

Contact mswann4@aol.com with any questions. Come back Thursday for a surprise guest attraction.