Saucedo-Zappavigna: A sacrificial sheep made into a ram
By Bart Barry-
Saturday on ESPN in Oklahoma City junior welterweight Alex “El Cholo” Saucedo made an adopted-homecoming match against Australian Leonardo “Lenny Z” Zappavigna thrilling in the moment as it was disappointing for Saucedo’s future. Saucedo ultimately prevailed when Zappavigna, blinded by his own blood, got rescued by his corner. Within an hour of the match’s conclusion Zappavigna retired from prizefighting.
Alex Saucedo, meanwhile, is now upon a plateau, or perhaps beneath it. He is not what promoter Top Rank thought he was or hoped he’d become.
The first time I interviewed Bob Arum, 13 years ago, I asked him what was the most important quality a fighter might have. Arum answered in the form of a question: “Does he dissipate between fights?” It does not appear Saucedo does (Juanma Lopez, conversely, was a worldclass dissipator).
If it is essential to Top Rank one of its fighters not forfeit quality when he is not fighting one can easily infer it is doubly better when a fighter gains quality in that same unsupervised stretch. This brings a second, if unspoken, prong to the Top Rank development program: Can we work with his trainer?
Top Rank’s matchmaking staff, best in class, is not particularly fond of the we-grow-together, entrepreneurial-dad model whereby a fighter’s father or fatherfigure acts as chief second during junior’s ascent. Trainer dads be tolerated so long as junior progresses on Top Rank’s aggressive schedule, but once a fighter falls offpace Top Rank is not timid about recommending the pursuit of a new trainer in a new city.
The first time I was ringside for a Saucedo fight, El Cholo’s pro debut on a Son of the Legend undercard in Houston, 2011, hopes were high for the lanky 17-year-old welterweight. Three months later hopes at ringside were even higher in San Antonio for Saucedo’s second professional match. Four months after that in El Paso hopes were still climbing, albeit at a slightly reduced rate. Saucedo’s first year as a prizefighter concluded in Houston on the undercard of Nonito Donaire’s soulsnatching Jorge Arce. Saucedo was by then 7-0 (5 KOs), but the two matches that were not KOs brought some concern given the opponents involved. A pair of matches back in Oklahoma preceded a return to South Texas: Laredo, Corpus Christi, Laredo. Which preceded a return to Alamodome, another Son of the Legend undercard, and openly expressed concerns about Saucedo’s development.
Saucedo costarred on Donaire’s HBO card at the end of 2012 but was an afterthought 16 months later.
“You know any good trainers in Oklahoma?” went one insider’s reply when I mentioned at ringside Saucedo was not where we thought he’d be 13 prizefights in.
I found the mood dispirited enough to stop following closely Alex Saucedo much the same way I stopped following closely Jose Benavidez, who in his third career fight, as part of Pacquiao-Clottey weekend, looked every bit promising in 2010 as Saucedo did 20 months later.
After Saucedo failed to score a knockout in 2016 against three men whose résumés indicated an ability if not a willingness to be stretched a new trainer and region got summoned for Saucedo. Abel “Mexican Style” Sanchez, the great beneficiary of HBO’s manufacture of Gennady Golovkin, became Saucedo’s chief second and evidently decided Saucedo, born in Chihuahua, wasn’t Mexican Style enough and needed a Big Bear residency at the GGG School of Robotic Pursuit where Saucedo could learn at the master’s feet exactly how far a fighter can go with the right combination of careful matchmaking and no head movement.
Reliably enough Saucedo next went down a weightclass then went lunatico on Gustavo David Vittori, an Argentine who made his pro debut 10 pounds below Saucedo’s and didn’t get a chance to leave Argentina till the call came for a Saucedo sacrifice: KO-3. Four months later it was Abner Lopez’s turn: KO-7.
Which brought Saucedo loping to Saturday’s match with Lenny Z, a b-level trialhorse and a-level bleeder. Zappavigna, who made his pro debut as a lightweight, was 32-1 in his native Australia but 5-2 in the U.S., and looked the perfect opponent for Saucedo’s homecoming on ESPN, primetime, a proud man whose face came presliced.
And for most of the match’s opening, things followed their script: El Cholo attacked without too much variety, Lenny Z swelled and readied to bleed. Then round 4 opened and Zappavigna decided to stop pretending he didn’t notice Saucedo’s head remained ever stationary. Zappavigna tagged Saucedo with righthands enough to realize Saucedo wasn’t open to them because he wanted to be but because he hadn’t the defense to have a choice. Then Lenny Z caught Saucedo going Mexican Style with a left hook, and clocked him.
Saucedo stumbled backwards to taste a lefthand hungrily as he’d eaten what right preceded it. Zappavigna went after Saucedo and in so doing showed Mexican Style comes unadorned with footwork or infighting. (Confirmed, not showed, actually; Canelo Alvarez showed this the world last September, no?)
How this was the round of the year in the fight of the year is anyone’s guess. Zappavigna beat Saucedo all round the ring for three minutes and bled profusely from the mere exertion of it. Saucedo bled, too, but did little more than that and survive Zappavigna’s relentless attack.
From there Zappavigna’s face did as it was contracted to do, spilling open and gushing everywhere, until Saucedo did exactly what an undefeated prospect in his 28th prizefight is supposed to do with a retiring journeyman – pillowface his every initiative till a handler flies the pink towel.
Saturday’s match was good and hard but won’t make anyone’s Top 5 list by year’s end, and neither, frankly, will Alex Saucedo at 140 pounds. That’s an endorsement neither of his talent nor his new trainer.
Bart Barry can be reached via Twitter @bartbarry
