Tyson-Golota wasn't the disgrace some people thought it would be although Golota lived up to his reputation by quitting when things started getting tough for him. The only surprise was that both Tyson and Golota fought a reasonably clean fight.
I felt Golota was winning the first round until Tyson knocked him down with a nicely thrown right to the head. Golota got up fine. Golota went on to win the second round on my card, but this was definitely not the Golota of the Bowe and Grant fights. He was outlanding Tyson and was scoring, but he wasn't throwing the right hand with the same force that he did when battered Bowe and Grant before he found a way to lose in those fights. To me, it was as if Golota abandoned the powerful boxing ability he had shown in the past in order to do a Vitali Klitschko imitation. In any case, he quit between the second and third rounds and throwing his once potentially great heavyweight career out the window, probably for good this time.
As for Tyson, we didn't learn much but he was able to keep his composure and he was finding a way to get inside of Golota's superior reach. A good indication that Tyson is still very much a threat to Lennox Lewis if Lewis can beat David Tua in November.
The fight of the night belonged to the women, again. Laila Ali won an action-filled fight with a unanimous decision over Kendra Lenhart. Whenever the women lace on their gloves in a predominantly male fight card, they always seem to steal the show. And judging from the chauvenistic mentality I see amongst boxing male fans, it drives them nuts. Good.
Ali took her first serious step up by fighting the gritty, hard-punching Lenhart.
It was probably Ali's first hard fight and she came through by winning the decision. Ali won every round in my card, but it was a close tough fight most of the way. Ali was rattled by Lenhart's power shots, but she hung in there and fought back. It was a good indication that Ali inherited her father's determination. But that wasn't the only thing, she definitely inherited the Ali staredown. And for a huge Muhammad Ali fan like myself, it was great.
Clearly, both have fighters had stamina problems, but Ali did her best to stay focused and poised in her first step up and in her first fight to last the distance. She outlasted a fight with more experience and that's a good indication that Laila will become a very good fighter.
I heard several people making fun of the Ali-Lenhart fight and ridiculously calling for eliminating women's boxing from male cards. I usually shut them up real good when I point out that the fact that Ali-Lenhart was more exciting than any fight in the card doesn't help their case.
I've heard several boxing fans shower welterweight king "Sugar" Shane Mosley with praise for his bravery in taking on Jr. Welterweight contender Antonio "Tono" Diaz.
I was quite disappointed when I heard this matchup announced. I was hoping Team Mosley would seek out a legitimate welterweight contender. Someone like Oba Carr, Kofi Jantuah, Shannon Taylor or even James Page. Diaz, to my knowledge, has never fought at welteright.
Certainly you can't top a win over De La Hoya at 147, but I still hoped for Shane to continue his dominance over the division. Diaz has come close to losing at 140 pounds. A lot of people thought Omar Weis was robbed in their fight. To his credit, Diaz has impressed whenever he's had to step up. More recently, he defeated "Irish" Micky Ward by 10th round decision in a good scrap. Anyone who can take it and dish it out against Ward has got to be tough and Diaz proved that he is.
But Diaz is going to step up and fight Mosley for his very first fight at welterweight which will very likely end up being a losing effort for Diaz. Now, Diaz has a really nice gig going: he's the main eventer on ESPN2's Friday Night Fights often. Practically all of his fight are televised. He's made a name for himself at Jr. Welterweight and I'm sure he's got a nice, steady paycheck coming because of it. To risk all of that and risk a megafight with current Jr. Welterweights Kostya Tszyu, Zab Judah or Sharmba Mitchell by fighting Mosley is a testament to Diaz's bravery. If anyone is to be commended for taking the fight, it's Diaz, not Mosley. Why? Because Diaz is clearly the one taking the big risk here. Virtually nobody gives him a chance against "Sugar" Shane and he may just end up taking a beating. Diaz has a good style to face Mosley at 140, but by stepping up into what is uncharted waters for him against the fighter many consider the best in the world is a serious disadvantage.
If Diaz is able to give Shane a run for his money and lasts the distance in an inspired but losing effort, he can probably go back to ESPN2 and continue where he left off at 140. But if he takes a beating and has to take time off because of it, or if he's gets blown away, he risks losing the ESPN2 gig and the potential money makers against Tszyu, Mitchell or Judah. And if it's a case where he takes an awful beating, he may not be the same fighter again. So I hope whatever they pay Diaz is worth the risk.
At least we'll get to see Shane again. I'm a big fan of his and I'm dying to see him fight again after that artistic performance over De La Hoya. But I think it's excessive to give Shane all the props when Diaz is the one taking a big chance.
It's been more than a few days since Roy Jones beat Eric Harding by 10th round TKO, but I still want to give my two cents on the matter.
Roy Jones acted like a real schmuck. Here are all these fans paying to get in the arena or paying a lot of money for pay-per-view service to see him. Not Derrick Gainer or Freddie Norwood, not Marco Antonio Barrera fight unproven commodity Valbuena. Him. And he has the gall to say that he wasn't focusing and that the reason he didn't do his best was because he was distracted by promotions and by Gainer's title fight.
If Roy struggled because his best wasn't getting the job done as impressively as expected, fine. A fighter can only do his best. But to so blatantly give such a lackluster performance because of distractions is the act of a celebrity fighter ignorant of his fan base.
But hey, in the end, not only do the fans suffer, Roy's image suffers too. And it will make fans think twice before buying the next Roy Jones pay-per-view fight.
As for the fight itself, Harding did give Roy a lot of stylistic trouble. Roy turned it up toward the end and hurt Harding. I like how he adopted a Rocky Marciano approach by hitting Harding's right arm to make him lower it. So Roy did show some fistic brilliance. But what makes me mad is that Roy didn't give his best.
By the way, what was up with referee Paul Sita in the Gainer-Norwood title fight? Over the years, Sita has proved to be a competent ref, but he really blew it in this fight. Easily one of the worst performances by a referee in recent memory. The fight should not have been stopped for a low blow. For those of you who didn't see the fight, Gainer landed a low blow, Norwood went down and Sita issued a 20 count, stopped his count at 12 and awarded the fight to Gainer in a foul-filled bout. Ludicrous officiating by Sita.
Undefeated trio Fernando Vargas, Erik Morales and Diego Corrales passed their recent tests with aplomb.
Fernando Vargas vs. Ross Thompson:Last week before the fight, Vargas seemed distracted by his future fight with Felix "Tito" Trinidad until his opponent Ross Thompson lost repsect for him and started an insult factory at the pre-fight conference.
ESPN 2 boxing analyst Max Kellerman said that Thompson focused Vargas by making Vargas pay attention to their fight. That might very well be so, but I also thought that Thompson was trying to get Vargas to lose his cool in the ring. And it seemed that he succeeded in doing so right up until the referee's instructions where Vargas refused to shake hands with Thompson.
But once the ring cleared and the starting bell was about to clang, a serenity enveloped Vargas and he was in business. Once again, Vargas's poise was a dominant and impressive quality. He took out Thompson with relative ease.
Vargas seems destined for ring greatness. He can punch, he's smart inside the ring and he can box very well. If Vargas can stay out of jail and avoid getting into trouble, he should have a prosperous career. No matter what happens against Tito.
Diego "Chico" Corrales vs. Angel Manfredy:Corrales impressed by knocking out Angel Manfredy in three rounds. Manfredy has so far been unsuccessful in winning the big one. He's 0-3 in championship fights, losing to Floyd Mayweather, Stevie Johnston and now Corrales. Manfredy, a brave, tough and talented fighter, can take solace in the fact that he has so far only lost to the best in the world.
As for Corrales, his recent domestic dispute was not a factor because Corrales was very focused. Corrales seems posied to dominate the Jr. Lightweight division at the rate he's going. He's very tall for a 130 pounder, but he also hits very hard, throws crisp punches, and he's a very good finisher. Mayweather will want to train diligently for Corrales because Corrales is nothing to jive about.
Erik Morales vs. Kevin Kelley: Kevin Kelley impressed me a little more than Morales impressed me. I thought Kelley was a seemingly shot fighter. Losing to journeyman Benito Rodriguez about a year ago, and dropping a boring decision to Derrick "Smoke" Gainer in their rematch. But against Morales, Kelley came out and provided Morales with a few tough rounds.
Morales was always dominant, but everyone expected that. He put a hurting on Kelley with hard bodyshots and hard right hands, eventually knocking Kelley out in 7.
The talk for Morales now is a mega fight with "Prince" Naseem Hamed. I like Morales' chances slightly better after watching his style against Kelley, but I still pick the quicker, seemingly harder puncher in Hamed to beat Morales by decision. Should be a great one.
After looking through several recent boxing magazines, I noticed several boxing columnists bashing Butterbean and Mia St. John, especially when they're featured on pay-per-view fights. So I decided to give my take on this somewhat controversial topic.
Starting with Mia St. John.
Mia can't fight. Period. To be perfectly blunt, she sucks. I gave her the benefit of the doubt at first. After all, she was just starting out and I think everyone deserves a chance. But its now been a couple of years that she's been on major PPV cards and I've seen very little improvement.
She's boring, you can see her punches coming from miles away because she swings so wide, she hasn't taken a serious step up. It's meaningless. And it doesn't belong on PPV. Not when you have talented, willing women like Lucia Rijker, Lena Akesson, Fredia Gibbs, Laura Serrano and Melissa Salamone on the sidelines and are willing to fight the best in their class.
Which brings to the fact that Mia St. John fights have been lethal to women's boxing. You have no idea how many boxing fans are turned off by women's boxing because they see Mia fight, incorrectly assume this is the best there is and incorrectly assume this is how all the women fight, which is, of course, not true. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if female fighting became more popular if we had more technically sound women, and believe me they're out there, fighting each other.
Mia had her chance to shine. To her credit, I think she tries really hard. I wouldn't have trouble watching her on regular television while she continues to strive to be a good fighter. But PPV is clearly not her domain. At least not yet.
Now, anyone who knows me, knows I'm a hardcore advocate for women's boxing. I love it. I've seen several talented women fight who get very little credit or none at all. There's a lot of female fighters out there, paying their dues, fighting tough fights, really deserving some PPV exposure. I say give them a chance, especially Lucia Rijker. Rijker is so talented, so dedicated that it's been incredibly depressing watching her talent go to waste. Give her more of those opportunities.
On to Butterbean. I like Butterbean. He's original, he seems like a real cool, real nice guy. And I've enjoyed watching him fight over the last few years. He's given us some nice sideshow moments, some good, picturesque knockouts and some funny moments.
But it's now spiraling out of control. And he has overstayed his welcome. I couldn't believe Butterbean, a guy with over 50 fights, was stepping into the ring with some push over with 3 fights. That was appalling, even by Butterbean standards.
With over 50 fights, I think Butterbean should continue fighting guys like Peter McNeeley and Louis Monaco. Guys who are tomato cans, but by Butterbean standards, would make a Butterbean superfight. You can laugh at me all you want, but being a Butterbean fan, I was delighted that he was fighting McNeeley on the Paulie Ayala-Johnny Tapia undercard. I really looked forward to that fight. Another one I liked was when Bean gave Cowboy Eaton a rematch after Eaton knocked him down and gave him one of his toughest fights.
But a guy with a 2-1 record? Not even I, the great Butterbean fan, could tolerate that. And if I can't take it, who can?
Great win for Antonio "Tono" Diaz. His hardfought decision win over "Irish" Micky Ward proves that Diaz has the toughness to go with his skill. I have no problem seeing Diaz compete with the likes of Kostya Tszyu, Zab Judah or Sharmba Mitchell. Diaz versus any of those guys should be a fight to see. Incidentally, I thought Diaz won the fight, 96-93. As for Ward, you can't count Micky out, especially since I thought he was starting to close in effectively in the latter stages of the fight. In fact, I wouldn't have been surprised to see Ward win if the fight was a 12 rounder instead of 10.
Hamed looked a bit vulnerable against Augie Sanchez. Sanchez cracked him good several times before Hamed finished him off. Makes me think about Erik Morales and Marco Antonio Barrera's chances. At the same time, Hamed was never hurt. His recuperative powers seem to put X-Men Wolverine's healing factor to shame. You'll see Hamed's head snap back, you'll see him get knocked down, but he gets up without a problem. Will Morales or Barrera change that? We'll have to wait and see. I'd pick Hamed to beat both at this point.
With a brilliant one punch, first round knockout win over veteran Freddie Pendleton, Ben Tackie moves up again and makes the already interesting Jr. Welterweight division even more interesting. I'm definitely going to keep my eye on him. Good wins over Hicklet Lau, Golden Johnson, Roberto Garcia and Freddie Pendleton.
Women's boxing continues to flourish without Christy Martin scoring the impressive knockouts that she used to acquire the spotlight.
Melissa "Honey Girl" Salamone, sister of former light-heavyweight champion Lou Del Valle, 19-0 7 KOs, fought to a draw with "Poet of the Ring" Laura Serrano, 10-0-1 4 KOs, in a slugfest.
The decision was disputed by some people who thought that Serrano won a clear decision. The fact is that this was a close, hard fought fight which helped further the struggle for women to be recognized in the ring, as they ought to be.
Serrano, who fought to a draw with Christy Martin in her pro debut and has beaten the likes of Tracy Byrd, Cheryl Nance and Deirde Gogarty, used her southpaw style to confuse Salamone in the early going, often connecting solidly to the head and body of Salamone.
Serrano scored a disputed knockdown in the third round where Salamone seemed to be the victim of a slip more than a punch. Around the sixth round, Salamone found her right and began to score effectively enough with it to the point where Serrano's aggressive style wasn't enjoying the same, dominant success.
In round 8, Salamone scored the most impressive punch of the night when she dropped a rushing Serrano with a right hand to the chin during the final seconds. Salamone went ahead to rally and win the last two rounds on my scorecard, but it wasn't enough, in my opinion, to overcome the hole Salamone had dug herself into in the early rounds.
I had it 98-95 in favor of Serrano. Two journalists next to me had it even, or with Salamone ahead. So the decision couldn't be all that controversial.
Two things are for sure. One, this was the fight of the night during a good, entertaining fight card at Miccosukee which featured an interesting fight between Santos "Chino" Cardona and Santiago Samaniego and some new talent like Puerto Rican Eric Pinero. And two, this fight helped elevate women's reputation in the ring, which is just what it needed in the face of the close-minded, chauvenist mentality of some fight fans who won't give the women their due.
Hopefully, this is the start of a new trend for women, who deserve as much respect and attention as the men.
The sunset to which all heroes must travel to is calling to Commander Vander to hang up his gloves and accept his entry into the hall of fame. Slowly but surely, Holyfield is being forced down that road.
In a close fight where Ruiz had an edge in effective punching, Holyfield showed more than ever, that is getting to the point where he is no longer going to be able to compete among the elite. People cried out for Holyfield's retirement many times before, and we're going to hear those cries again. Holyfield has made a career out of proving people wrong by coming back and winning in fights he was supposed to lose.
It's entirely possible he can do that again. I for one, learned a long time ago that you can never, and I mean never count Holyfield out. But how many more times is he going to prove the boxing world wrong at the expense of his health? In all fairness, Holyfield looked fantastic from a physical standpoint. His body is still defined and doesn't seem to have an ounce of fat on him. His boxing skills, that's another story.
When Holyfield fought Vaughn Bean and was in an unexpectantly tough fight, many thought he grew old over night. The same people later enforced that after an embarrassingly ineffective performance against Lennox Lewis in their fight no. 1. I disagreed with this notion. I thought Bean was a better challenger than advertised and Holyfield fought as well as he could against a fighter with as swarming a style as Bean had. I think Holyfield beat himself in Lewis I when he didn't deliver the third round KO he predicted. And subsequently lost to the better, fresher man against Lewis in fight no. 2, even though Holyfield gave a much more inspired, effective performance in the Lewis rematch.
Against Ruiz, who turned out to be a better fighter than I expected, it wasn't just Ruiz's performance that made Holyfield look bad, it was Holyfield's age. Anyone could see that Holyfield's reflexes were frustratingly slow, and his punch output was ridiculously low compared to three years ago.
Holyfield can still hurt you, he's uncommonly brave, and I would hate to have to get used to boxing without Holyfield, but as a fan of his, I think it'd be better for him to retire very soon. I'll grant him one or two more fights, but after that, if I were a family member, I'd insist on retirement.
Zab Judah and Eric Morel registered their most important victories of their careers so far this last weekend.
Justifiable doubts permeated the careers of these two for a long time and they were successful in partially answering some of those doubts.
Judah, a terrific talent, finally beat a true world class opponent in some time. His chin is unquestionably going to go down as suspect since he's been dropped in back to back fights, (the first being against Jan Bergman). To be fair, Judah hasn't looked to be in serious trouble in any of the two knockdowns as evidenced by the fact that he was still able to turn things around and win impressively.
His punching power is still somewhat suspect. Terron Millett was KO'd by Sharmba Mitchell in the first round, so there still are questions to be answered, but Judah did what he had to do and he knocked Millett out. And as a result, Judah seems ready for the big time. He holds a win not only over Millett, but over the extremely hard, hard-hitting Mickey Ward.
I had serious doubts about Morel. He looked ok on Univision and some other of his televised bouts, but he never seemed to have the fire to have a successful ring career. But this weekend, Morel came alive and fought a high energy fight, throwing punches like he was really trying to prove something. Maybe Sornpichai Pisnurachank has a really hard chin, but Morel's punching power is suspect given that he wasn't able to knock his man out after landing so many clean punches. The important thing though is that Morel fought well in the face of adversity, and even though he doesn't seem to have a knockout punch, he hits with authority. To me, that means a lot. Some fighters who aren't known for their punching power like to make the excuse that they fight defensively because they don't have a big punch and resort to light hitting performances and go absolutely defensive for an entire fight, throwing little slaps. I don't like that. I respect when a boxer like Morel, who doesn't seem to hit hard, goes all-out and hits with conviction.
Saying a fight can go either way has been a tiresome cliche to use in order to explain the closeness of a fight. But there is little other way to say it, and in my mind, Lazcano-Leija was that type of fight.
Leija had an obvious edge in the first half of the fight. He was winning his rounds more convincingly than Lazcano. Halfway through the fight, I had it 4-1 Leija.
From the 6th round forward, I thought it was becoming a closer fight. I saw Lazcano just barely edge Leija in some of those later rounds. When the 10th round began, I had it 4-4 and 1 even, so that the 10th round was a critical round to win to get a win on my card. Lazcano took the round on my card and just barely won the fight on my card.
I would not have been surprised to have seen Leija win, and I don't mean that in a cynical way. The fight was close enough in several rounds that theoretically could've gone to Leija.
If I were to describe this fight in any way, it would be like this: Leija won his rounds more convincingly than Lazcano, while Lazcano just barely would win his. So I think that's why there was a general sense that Leija won after the final bell rang.
But fair is fair, and there is no way possible that this fight could've been 77-73 in favor of Lazcano. That is almost impossible to fathom. And it was no surprise when Steve Weisfeld scored it like that. Of all the name judges in boxing, Weisfeld is synonymous with bad judging in my book. People justifiably came down on Dalby Shirley for that strange score in the Erik Morales vs. Marco Antonio Barrera fight, but Weisfeld has been consistently bad. I knew when I saw his name announced before the Lazcano-Leija fight that his card was going to be shady. And as predicted, it was.
For Mike Tyson, this provided one of his best wins in years. He was able to move in and successfully destroy a good opponent with relative ease as he had in his prime years.
For Tyson, this is a sign that he still has it, but for Lou Savarese, never before has the option of retirement been so unflinchingly clear.
Savarese had a decent run campaigning as a heavyweight contender. He beat the likes of Buster Mathis Jr., Buster Douglas (albeit an over-the-hill version) and the up and coming, hard-punching, Lance "Mount" Whitaker. He also lost to George Foreman, David Izon and Michael Grant, but he was inspiring in those defeats as he always tried to get up and fight. Quit was never an option for Lou. No matter how futile the situation, the struggle in his face to get up and try to win won the respect of many fans.
But the punishment he endured in all those high-profile fights can not be overlooked. They made us proud to be boxing fans, but as boxing fans we must now offer the advice we would give to a friend: hang 'em up.
It would be sad to see any fighter to go the way of Jerry Quarry. He did his best, but there's no need to keep going now.
But for Mike, it's getting to be that time again where he will soon be campaigning for a heavyweight title. His psychotic episodes are scrutinized by many and deservedly so.
With the exception of the Julius Francis fight, every fight Mike has had from Holyfield 2 to Savarese has had some type of highly questionable behavior by Mike. I would not be surprised to see Mike get into trouble yet again.
I've always hoped the best for Mike and would like to see him succeed and find a way to exorcise his demons. But I've come to the conclusion that while there are many people out to get him, there are also people willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Hopefully, Mike will realize this.
While a lot of people had Shane Mosley ranked in their top 5 pound-for-pound lists, I was a lot more reserved and wanted to wait until I saw Shane fight a top 5 opponent to see where he was at.
After all, until he beat Oscar De La Hoya, Shane had merely fed on either scrubs, overmatched opponents, or past-their-prime opposition like Jesse James Leija and John-John Molina.
But now, Mosley succeeded in defeating De La Hoya via 12 round decision and this is definitely not an accomplishment to overlook.
I had actually scored the fight 114-114 even, but I did feel that Mosley had an edge when the final bell rang, especially with that convincing 12th round. The fight, I feel, could've gone the way of Oscar, but in the end, I could not complain for one second that Shane won the fight.
Shane also showed a tough chin, something he hasn't proven as a pro.
As for De La Hoya, I think he could win a rematch just as close as the one he lost. The main problem I see with Oscar is that he listens to his critics WAY too much. He's trying to please everybody and in doing so, he's jeopardized his record. DLH is very versatile. He can box and slug. If I were Oscar's trainer, I'd work on combining both. In his last 2 big fights, Oscar either totally boxed or totally slugged. I think he should mash the two, and he'd be in top form again.
As for Mosley, he's easily in a position to rule the Welterweight division. The only other real threat in the division besides maybe Vernon Forrest, is of course De La Hoya himself.
Both fighters were ultra classy in the post-fight interviews, so my glass is raised to them.
Two things are for certain. One, that no matter who you had winning Mosley-De La Hoya I, you can't deny it was a close fight. And two, Mosley was right: This fight was Mosleydelahoya.
I enjoyed the new format that KO Nation provided. I'm not a big fan of hip-hop, but the use of hip-hop in the show, the way everything was done in an energetic way, I liked.
I was not big on the commentating team, except for Julie Lederman. I've heard Julie call several fights and I like the way she calls the score. I've already heard some people criticizin her not being energetic like her dad, Harold Lederman, who does the shows for all the other HBO boxing shows, but hey, there's only one Harold Lederman. I like Julie's style and I like the fact that there's a lady who is part of a boxing show commentating team.
As for Ed Lover, I was worried that an "MTV VJ" was going to host this show because I wasn't sure how knowledgable he was on the sport, but it turns out that his knowledge of the sport was irrelevant. Lover did his job well, which is get everyone pumped up for the show. At that point, it's the fighters who are supposed to take over, and the fights were pretty good.
Cliff Etienne did very well against the more experienced Lamon Brewster. He scrapped his way to a well deserved decision win. I'm not sure that I see championship potential in Cliff just yet, but he took an important step up with the Brewster fight and that is definitely good for Cliff.
The Paul Spadafora-Mike Griffith bout was not bad. Spadafora again had trouble with what was considered an "easy" opponent. Somehow, Spadafora has not been able to duplicate the masterful, scientific performance he had over Israel "Pito" Cardona, a fight in which Spadafora practically scored a shutout over Pito. Maybe it's just that Spadafora needs a challenge in front of him, but he better shape up. One day he's going to underestimate the wrong guy. I'd pick Stevie Johnston to pick Spadafora apart at this point in their careers.
All in all, I though KO Nation was a successful show. It needs to improve certain things. One thing the show definitely needs is for its commentators to show more energy, especially since it's a show designed for younger people. But hey, as long as it is good for boxing, I'm for it. If KO Nation brought new fans aboard, then it did its job and I'm a happy guy.
Danny Romero scored a near shutout over Jorge Munoz, a journeyman fighter who has been stopped more than once, and raised doubts as to how high he can go at Jr. Featherweight.
Romero landed flush power shots for 12 rounds and was unable to knock his man out. What's going to happen when he faces a top 5 opponent that fights back hard or boxes really well? Romero is going to have to start working on his boxing ability because as it is, I can not see him beating Clarence "Bones" Adams. Adams takes a punch and is an excellent counter-puncher.
Romero might have had a chance against the chinny, more vulnerable Nestor Garza. Romero should've taken that fight when he had the chance because Adams has since defeated Garza convincingly and is now the champ.
As for Johnny Tapia, he too scored a convincingly unanimous decision victory over Pedro Torres. Tapia, however, is not a power puncher, but a boxer and he showed his mastery of the "Sweet Science" in spades against Torres. And he still managed to look exciting depsite the fact that he was facing an opponent who was always running, whining or holding. And he inflicted a lot of damage.
Tapia hopes to move up to Jr. Featherweight and beat the likes of Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales, and then move up to Featherweight to challenge Naseem Hamed.
A tall order, but if Tapia can retain his speed and chin at an even higher weight class, he stands a chance. I simply can not imagine Hamed intimidating Tapia. I'd probably have to give Tapia the psychological advantage if Hamed-Tapia ever happened. It'll be interesting and if Tapia pulls it off, he's an instant Hall of Famer and all-time great.
Some picked Michael Grant to win, others, as I did, picked Lennox Lewis to win. Some even said that Lewis would win early. But I don't think anyone expected Lewis to score a blowout knockout win over Grant as easily as he did.
It was ironic that "Smokin'" Joe Frazier was present, I thought, because Lewis-Grant was pretty much a replay of George Foreman vs. Joe Frazier I. Only Grant couldn't or wouldn't get up to be knocked down for a sixth time.
Clearly, the Lewis-bashers are quickly running out of ideas in which to try and downplay Lewis' achievements. They try to bring back the old arguments that Lewis never fought Riddick Bowe or Mike Tyson, but these arguements are clearly outdated. For Lewis has accomplished a great deal.
Lewis effortlessly pounded the highly touted Grant, who many called "the heir apparent to the heavyweight division", into what appeared to be a sack of potatoes on the floor.
Lewis has come a long way since his controversial knockout loss to Oliver McCall way back when. He has beaten every opponent put in front of him and he is now showing what few champions in boxing are willing to show: a willingness to fight the best in his weight class.
Even if you think Grant was green or overrated, he was certainly a top 5 heavyweight who had come a long way in a short period of time and Lewis could've easily accepted the proposed fight with the #1 contender John Ruiz. Instead, Lewis said to hell with the corrupt sanctioning bodies and fought one of the most heralded fighters in the heavyweight division.
As for Michael Grant, he has beaten several very credible opponents. He has impressive wins over David Izon, Lou Savarese, Andrew Golota and an inspired Obed Sullivan. He was also incredibly sportsman-like in defeat and gave Lewis his just due.
Lewis-bashers get ready to eat crow. With terrific fighters like David Tua and Chris Byrd on the horizon, Lewis is poised to become a top 10 all-time great if and when he can beat the remaining top fighters of his time.
And if you are one of those guys who can't stand Lewis, hey, you have every right to root against him, but you can't deny what he has achieved to this point. Give him credit.
Fernando Vargas continues to impress with every victory. In his last fight against Ronald "Winky" Wright, I was very impressed with Vargas' poise and patience. Wright was a very awkward fighter, giving Vargas all kinds of angles that have him a lot of trouble, and yet, I never saw Vargas' confidence flutter for even a second. Vargas was very stoic in that frustrating fight. A fight which by the way I had scored in favor of Vargas by a point.
Against Ike Quartey, Vargas was facing the most experienced, the most dangerous, the most talented and the hardest hitting opponent he had ever faced. And again, he came through.
Quartey was coming off a year's layoff, but layoffs don't seem to bother Quartey as evidenced by his strong showing against Oscar De La Hoya a year before. A lot of boxing insiders felt that the added weight would help Quartey and it did help him physically because he didn't show any signs of seriously tiring out as he had in welterweight fights against De La Hoya and Jose Luis Lopez.
A lot of people picked Quartey to win based on his power and experience, but Vargas again proved his critics wrong by outboxing Quartey and taking Quartey's heavy artillery. And like in his fight with Wright, Vargas showed incredible poise against Quartey in the face of adversity. Vargas took Quartey's crunching power shots and kept fighting back to win a convincing and impressive 12 round decision.
Both Vargas and Felix Trinidad seem to want each other next. Given both fighters will to fight, this should be the superfight the boxing world has been yearning for. Vargas has shown to have the goods that his Jr. Middleweight counterpart David Reid seemed to lack: A very sturdy even granite chin and tremendous poise.
Some have suggested that Trinidad would knock Vargas silly, but I don't think so. Vargas took brutal shots from Quartey one right after the other in the 9th and Vargas was still right there, boxing and fighting back.
So who is the #1 Jr. Middleweight in the world, Vargas or Trinidad? Although you can possibly make a case for Trinidad, my pick would be Vargas. Vargas has been at 154 longer and has beaten more Jr. Middleweights while Trinidad has only beaten Reid, who was an excellent opponent as well. The good thing about this whole debate about Vargas-Trinidad is that there will be a definitive answer once Vargas and Trinidad step into the ring together. Both parties seem very willing to fight each other.
Felix Trinidad Sr. told me personally that after talking to Don King, they were ready to face the winner of Vargas-Quartey next. Vargas, as evidenced in his post-fight interview after the Quartey bout, wasted no time in making it unflinchingly clear that he wants Trinidad next.
May the best man win. It'll be fun finding out who it is.
So where does Ike Quartey go from this loss to Fernando Vargas? He could of course retire. He is seemingly very well off financially and I understand he owns a successful hotel back in his home country of Ghana.
But the boxing world could use an Ike Quartey. He has been a superb champion, so far only losing to De La Hoya and Vargas in competitive fights. There's no reason not to believe that Quartey can come back, stay active and challenge one of these guys again and win. It's not inconceivable.
Quartey still boasts one of the best jabs in boxing, probably the best in all of boxing, and his right hand is very powerful. I for one would still love to see Trinidad-Quartey.
What would happen if Ike were to crack Tito with the same right hand bombs that Ike hit Vargas with? Would Ike take Tito's punch? Would one outbox the other? I don't think it's a foregone conclusion that Trinidad would beat Quartey.
Quartey could also challenge the likes of David Reid, Keith Mullings, Tony Marshall. There's lots of outstanding fights out there to be made, especially if De La Hoya moves up to 154 in the next year or so.