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Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Famous USS Steve Cunningham vs. Tomasz Adamek Robbery Case


Black guys, white guys, Arabs, Jews, and Asians…. the entire alphabet soup that is the world…  none of it matters in boxing.  There is only one truth, and it is in the ring, even if the truth doesn’t repose with the judges.

The truth didn’t repose with the judges in the case of USS Steve Cunningham in a long awaited 2nd fight with Tomasz Adamek.  Stipulate that I like Adamek.  He’s a machine of a man, as tough and determined as they come.  In a sense, he looks invincible.

That’s what trainer Nazim Richardson thought,  as he and Cunningham worked out a fight plan that should have put them in the win column.  Stipulate also that Adamek can knock you out, and that that’s something to be avoided.

Take a long look at boxing.  Everyone loves a puncher, a KO artist, especially the squares.  Pour blood in the ring and the mob will think it’s a great fight—even when it isn’t.

Cunningham vs. Adamek was a great fight because it pitted a tough boxer against a tough boxer-puncher with a shorter reach.  What’s a guy like Cunningham to do?   Is he supposed to put himself in harm’s way, in a place that says, ‘Hey, Tomasz, here I am and come and knock me out?” 

Ridiculous.   Imagine yourself in a fight.   You know the other guy is stronger, can knock you out.  The crowd behind you is exhorting you to g’head, fight!... slug it out!... Mix it up…get in close and punch.   You’re going to do it, but only if you’re an effing idiot.

Cunningham boxed and Adamek pressed, and eventually two of the three judges decided they liked a guy who “came forward.”  How many points do you give a guy who “comes forward” when he’s catching more shots  than the net at a Knicks game? 

So two of the judges read the boxing claims manual and woodenly decidedly to give Adamek every round he managed to walk forward in, which was most of them.  But Adamek was beaten, and beaten while standing up.  The third judge saw that, and awarded the fight to Cunningham.

OK, I had it Cunningham won, but even if I were wrong, the best that could be said of it was a draw.   

Some guys won’t go down, not in 12 rounds, and Adamek is one of them.  You think that maybe he would have gone down in 15, or maybe Cunningham would have slacked off and got knocked out.

I’m okay with the 12 round limit. I used to like the 15 round limit but I don't like to see fighters die or become brain-dead. 

There is another solution:  five judges instead of three.  With five judges, it would remove some of the suspicions that the fights are “fixed.”   It would be very difficult to sway three of five judges, when it is challenging to, by questionable means, to sway only the two needed for a win.

Just my thought on the Cunningham Robbery.  Oh, and by the way, you got to see a fantastic boxer in Steve Cunningham.  The real deal.  Try fighting Adamek yourself sometime.  

G’head…. Put your head out there.  Think about it.

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Leo Santa Cruz Outlasts Alberto Guerrero

Love the bantamweights.  They don't rest;  they don't quit;  it's non-stop action.  That's the way it was in LA when CBS broadcast a free championship fight. It was the build-up to the CBS and Showtime broadcast of the Amir Khan comeback. 

A pure case of the prelim IBF championsip bouts topping the 'main event.'   The short of it is that  Leo Santa Cruz won a unanimous decision, but struggled in the early rounds, as Alberto Guerrero showed he knew what boxing was about.

Guerrero knew he couldn't slug it out with tough guy Santa Cruz so he boxed, and boxed,and boxed.  He did it well enough so that you couldn't accuse him of running.

 What Guerrero did was smart, and he had fast hands, fast enough to land deft combinations often enough to have Pauli Malignaggi, suddenly a boxing commentator)  praising him profusely. 

Malignaggi  had a bad case of wishful thinking, though.

Malinaggi obviously favored the hit and run style of Guerrero and was sort of praising himself by default.  I wasn't so much impressed with Malignaggi ever but I have grown to appreciate him.

he did a fair job of  providing commentary for the match, so...whatever.

Meanwhile, back in the ring, Santa Cruz has sustained some damage at Guerrero's sharp punching but the issue was always this: 

What would happen when Guerrero tired?

 He had never gone 12 and he began to slow in the middle rounds, and toward the end was getting tagged pretty much when trying to leave the engagement.   Santa Cruz seemed to have good luck firing the last punch, a left hook, as Guerrero ended his cobinations. 

Santa Cruz eventually broke him down and that was that. But both guys showed heart and neither had any intention of quitting.  Mexican fighters don't seem to have the word "quit" in their vocabulary. 

A cynical promotor might have called this IBF title fight "Class Warfare" or something similarly lame because the two fighters had vastly different backgrounds.

 Guerrero is a college boy, a middle class college kid who is also studying to be a lawyer.  But if his performance last night was any indication of future success, I'd say he'd be a bang-up shylocks.  He was strong, determined, and a "pretty fighter" with decent pop in his punches (though not a KO artist.)

Leo Santa Cruz had an interesting background story, too.  His was a narrative of crushing poverty and disappointment, the large family living in a small apartment until Leo's boxing proceeds allowed them to buy a small bungalow that was still crowded.

Leo's brother was supposed to be the fighter in the family but was diagnosed with Lupus.  So Leo Santa Cruz took up the family leadership, fighting for the family honor, for his brother's medical treatment, for better living conditions.

  I know a little bit of poverty myself, currently not so much, but early on I could go toe to toe with the best of them (and the worst).

So I'm glad for Santa Cruz who should go on to get bigger fights.  But Guerrero wasn't the type of guy you could pad your record with.  The funny thing was that, at the end, Santa Cruz felt he had to apologize for not knocking out Guerrero.

Maybe  he had metal fatigue.  The kid's a fighter.  This was his fifth fight in the 2012 year and he was looking like a champion.

Oh, and did I mention that Amir Khan KOd Carlos Molina in Round 10?  The boxing writers say Molina was overmatched. In other words, they gave Khan an easy fight to give him confidence.

Khan boasted to Danny Garcia, present at ringside, that he would have beaten him if they'd fought tonight.  But the night he did fight Garcia wasn't his night, as they put it in "On the Waterfront." 

"It wasn't your night, Kid.," Rod Steiger tells Marlon Brando.  So Khan's next fight will be the one that tells if he's on the "one way street to Palookaville," as the dialogue has it in the movie.

So I end with this terribly literary analogy.  I'm doing it on purpose.  I've lived it both ways.  And now I'm doing it "my way."  LOL.  Peace out.



Saturday, December 15, 2012

Amir Khan Takes on Carlos Molina After CBS Free TV Boxing Card

Some good news in boxing is that it is returning to free TV today at 4:00 p.m. this afternoon.  Since we're nearing Christmas, I guess I could have titled this one "Santa Cruz Is Coming to Town" because Leo Santa Cruz is one of the earlier fights on the card.

He's from California and will be facing bantamweight Alberto Guerrero of Mexico.    The smaller they are the harder they fight, in my opinion.  I'm exagerrating but but a little bit if you consider teh dullness in the heavyweight ranks. 

I think it's all very hard in the weight classes up to middle and light-heavy, because that's where the largest number of fighters are.  To even have your name mentioned in boxing at these weights, you've got to have gone through the boxing equivalent of the Battle of the Bulge. 

Anyway, I'm prejudiced.  I've been beaten up pretty good by guys much smaller than myself--in the gym, I mean.  I'm not a boxer, not really;  I just like the sport and I've put in a little time in the amateurs.  Don't write me off, however, I know a little something.

The same fight card has one of my favorite fighters on it -- Alfredo Angulo (21-2, 18 KOs) vs.Jorge Silva (19-2-2, 15 KOs)..  I love Angulo--he's just tough, durable, serious.  I don't know exactly why I love the guy so much but I guess it's because he takes some hard fights--witness the one he lost against James Kirland.  For that matter check the whole record at BoxRec.

Anyway, the top billed fight will be Amir Khan vs. Carlos Molina.  I'm for Molina but I'm trying to get over my prejudices against Khan.  Paying more attention to him lately, I've begun to like him at least on the personal side if not on the boxing side.

Khan has fired Freddie Roach and hired Virgil Hunter (who trains Andre Ward).  The object, of course, was to get better at boxing.  Khan is very fast and has great reach, punches hard, etc but he seems to fight in a single plane.   Front, back, mostly frontal---coming at you in a straight line.

That didn't work against Philly Homeboy Danny Garcia, a bit slower, but a never-say-die type of ebullient, nice, pleasant street kid who embodies streets of Philadelphia in the way that Bernard Hopkins,  Hank Lundy, and an entire history of other Philly fighters have.

So to make a long story short, will Khan learn to adjust to different conditions?  Is his jaw still fragile?  Molina's likely to test that and take advantage of Khan's losses to Danny Garcia and to Lamont Peterson before that. 

If Khan loses tonight, he'll do well as a matinee idol.  He's handsome, well-spoken, and perhaps can find solid career elsewhere in the entertainment business.   Anyway, his last two losses have put him back to scale--now we'll see if strike three means he's down for the count or whether he really has the heart for a comeback and the fighting skills to achieve it.