Mosley KOs Mayorga one second before the final bell!

September 28, 2009
posted at boxingcapital.com
link: click here

It took ‘Sugar’ Shane Mosley (45-5, 38 KOs) five rounds to finally get his rhythm and overwhelm Ricardo Mayorga (29-7-1, 23 KOs) with his slick boxing and roughhousing in a fight that punctuated by the 37 year old Mosley with a spectacular knock-out win one second before the final bell. While the fight was light-years away from the intensity and brilliance of the first Julio Cesar Chavez (107-6-2, 86 KO’s) - Meldrick Taylor (38-8-1, 20 KOs) contest, one could not help but draw a vague parallel between the two fights. Mosley beat Chavez by a single second in the record.

Mosley spent the first three rounds shaking-off ten months of ring rust and figuring out Mayorga and his right straights before he finally started to heat up with a one-two combination to open the fourth round. Mayorga ruled the first three rounds with his trademark antics and right leads.

The California native was for most of the first quarter well within the range of Mayorga and thus fell prey to straight rights which caught him clean several times. Mosley tried to box the Nicaraguan early in the first round but the guy who conquered his conqueror just kept landing his wild and wide straight rights. Mayorga surprisingly outworked the master craftsman on the first three rounds. Mayorga was even able to roll away beautifully with a straight right thrown by Mosley during the second round.

The all-American smile of Mosley’s was not there and he looked to be in a slight trouble as Mayorga was commanding the fight strongly. Mosley’s corner advised him to duck under Mayorga’s punches and work the body, which would eventually pay off for him midway onwards.

Ring rust now shaken off, the fourth round served to be his warm-up to the restoration (albeit not completely unlike his younger years) of his old rhythm on the fifth. He was now ready to get inside Mayorga's wild punches and dig downstairs and throw more upstairs. Also, he was now ready to take one in order to give two. Old Mosley was back.

The fourth and fifth rounds saw Mosley connecting with several hard shots to the head and body, which forced Mayorga to step inside and clinch. Mayorga was now too close for his wild but powerful straight rights to land. He was throwing away his only hope to win the fight against the future Hall of Famer. He was giving up the tool that overwhelmed the ferocious KO artist Fernando Vargas (26-5, 22 KOs) and the classy Vernon Forrest (41-3, 29 KOs).

Mosley didn't have to work hard ducking under the punches as Mayorga was clinching on several occasions during the middle rounds courtesy of different kinds of crushing punches he landed to the head and the body. The fight seemed to be a wrestling match as Mayorga continued to hold on in the sixth. Mayorga had now slowed down and Mosley landed a big three-punch combination that set the crowd roaring. Mosley was now the boss; he was baby-sitting the Nicaraguan loudmouth.

The infighting clinic continued to the seventh and eighth. Mayorga ate lots of left and right hooks and his body received similar punishment. Mayorga landed some of his own but the master craftsman Mosley was several notches above him in speed, defense and overall infighting ability. El Matador was visibly shaken off and tried to feign supremacy and control by raising his hands at the end of round eight but no one was buying, certainly not Shane.

Mayorga appeared to have caught his second wind at the ninth and tenth rounds. Mayorga was able to land some ugly punches to Mosley, who now seemed to be a little confused. Was it a sign of aging or the punches he was taking has now taken its toll on him? Probably both, as Mayorga closed the ninth round with a beautiful uppercut.

Mosley temporarily switched to the southpaw stance on the next round. It was either to confuse his opponent who was making a strong comeback or to shake-off his own confusion. But it paid-off as he was able to outwork Mayorga on the inside. Mayorga connected his own punches, but it was ‘Sugar’ Shane who got the better of the exchanges here. There was now fierce inside fighting between the two.

It was again an infighting lesson in the eleventh for Mayorga as Mosley connected with a beautiful right hand. The action was followed up by the two fighters by exchanging powerful body shots, culminating in both fighters being warned by the referee for low blows. Mosley connected flush with some clean head shots and Mayorga twice raised his hand to the crowd. Mayorga was projecting the usual bravado but who would buy it as Mosley was clearly winning most of the round?

Going into the twelfth and final round, Mosley was leading on the scorecards of two of the judges but his corner didn't want to take the chance. They wanted Mosley to mix it up and finish the fight in a strong fashion. This saw more wrestling and body shots for the two minutes of the round until Mosley caught his opponent with crushing right hands that shook the Nicaraguan terribly. A beautiful combination followed up and Mayorga crashed to the canvass with the clock now ticking down to the final seconds. With less than ten seconds left Mayorga got up but looked spent. A devastating left hook from Mosley sent Mayorga down again. He didn't bother to get up.

The official time of the stoppage was 2:59 seconds of the 12th round. It was a very impressive KO win for old Mosley, proving to the world he can still win a grueling fight with his strong chin and big punches despite his advancing years. An immediate fight with Antonio Margarito (37-5, 27 KOs) or a rematch with Miguel Cotto (32 -1, 26 KOs), would be very interesting, although it does seem remote possibility for now with their impending busy schedules.

The official scorecards of the three judges on the time of the stoppage were: 105-104 for Mayorga, 105-104 for Mosley and 107-102 for Mosley.

Pinoy lawmaker presses to stop Pac-Hoya

September 28, 2008
Posted on boxingcapital.com
link: click here

The whole country was startled last night by a rather unwelcoming news that a lawmaker has asked a Philippine sports regulating body to temporarily cancel the boxing license of Manny Pacquiao because of "a possible mismatch" in his coming bout against Mexican-American Oscar De La Hoya.

The report, which headlined a primetime news program of a major free-TV network in the country, said that Philippine lawmaker Rufus Rodriguez has asked the Philippine Games and Amusement Boards (GAB) to temporarily suspend the boxing license of the country's premier athlete.

The next morning, several newspapers have quoted Rodriguez into saying that Manny can't "even shake Oscar" and that he's "afraid that Oscar can hurt Manny very badly."

Rodriguez is pressing the GAB to immediately act to stop fight and "save Manny".

The lawmaker who described Pacquiao as a national treasure also said in interviews "the (Philippine) government will be put in a bad light" if "something bad happens to Manny in that fight." The fight, whose tickets were all sold out in just several hours upon availability, is scheduled on December 6 this year at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

GAB Chairman Eric Buhain clarified that Rodriguez is merely concerned over the safety of the country's boxing hero. "The GAB and the House of Representatives want Manny to be more cautious in this fight," said Buhain in interviews.

Pacquiao, who started his pro career at light flyweight, is viewed by boxing experts as an underdog in his coming welterweight fight against the boxing Golden Boy. De La Hoya, on the other hand, has fought as far as the middleweight in his career.

Experts were saying that the huge size discrepancy between the two is what making the fight a gross mismatch.

Buhain has clarified in recent interviews that GAB will not suspend or withdraw Pacquiao's license. The GAB chairman stressed however that the issues raised by Rodriguez is legitimate.

Last July, the GAB has passed a resolution to the Philippine House of Representatives, which expressed its opposition to the fight.

The GAB only stops fights when it sees a boxer is unprepared for the match according to Buhain.

Buhain has sent letters to Team Pacquiao asking the latter to give GAB regular updates on Manny Pacquiao's preparation in US.

In local politics, Rufus Rodriguez is a member of an opposition party while Pacquiao had just signed his membership to the ruling party several days after his victory over David Diaz.

Of Respect & Legacies

September 17, 2008
published at boxingcapital.com on september 19, 2008
link: http://boxingcapital.com/News_Article_190908Ofrespectandlegacies.html

Only but few give respect to the courage in facing greater odds. The fans, especially of this naturally brutal sport, tend to ridicule with sadistic tone the fighters who dare step into less explored terrains. The essential feature of the game that separates people of different sizes for safety purposes is one of these sacred grounds that nobody dared to mock. Until there was Henry Armstrong.

Nobody could argue against moving up in division to seek greater challenges and fatter bank accounts. It’s natural nowadays to see fighters capturing titles in three or even four divisions. But leapfrogging multiple divisions to fight much bigger guys is not natural. A featherweight titlist going up against a welterweight champion is simply crazy.

But Armstrong was both crazy and great. And only but very few could do what he managed to do: capture titles spanning three weight classes all at the same time, during an era when there were fewer divisions.

Boxing have never been friendly fans. They don’t welcome with open arms new ideas that mock the sport and its features. They mock you. They don’t roll out the red carpet for fighters who dare cross the line of widely accepted conventions. They roll litanies of contempt for you. They only become friendly when a feat of historic proportion is done. But then, there was Armstrong. Then, there was Roberto Duran, Thomas Hearns and few others who have followed suit and set their own records in boxing history.

These fighters have had their own shares of critics and detractors. It’s never easy to win a great number of boxing loving populace if you’re not Jack Dempsey, Muhammad Ali or Ray Leonard. Taking on greater challenges and bringing your game to a new level may be a mark of a great fighter but there would always be some skeptics around. For one, it’s always stupid to take on bigger opponents when you can have plenty of them in your natural weight class. It’s not natural to take on guys who comfortably reside on several divisions north of yours. Oscar De La Hoya can only expect a lukewarm reception for his choice of fight in Manny Pacquiao on December 6. The gutsy Pinoy on the other hand, can never hope for a better audience aside perhaps for Freddie Roach, his legion of Pac diehards, and his beloved president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. The reason being is that it’s not natural to do so.

But what is natural in boxing? Rocky Marciano carried lethal power into his unnaturally small hands. Thomas Hearns, who packed his right hand with vicious power, was an oversized welterweight and light middleweight. Sam Langford was known for his murderous power and long arms. Willie Pep was almost supernatural in his ability to get away from your line of sight in an instant. Ceferino Garcia could KO people with his long, swinging and wide uppercuts while other users of such technique could only dazzle their opponents with it. And of course, there was Muhammad Ali’s chin and body, which can absorb tremendous punishment that could immediately put lesser mortals in a body bag. Buster Douglas’ victory over Mike Tyson was not natural either.

Freaks of nature are a fixture of this sport. They happen to be the elite of the elites. Whoever believed Roberto Duran could beat Iran Barkley—the guy who twice beat Hearns who was the same guy he himself could not beat—at middleweight? Nobody in his right mind would place his bets on Duran considering that the bout was at Duran’s 9th weight class.

Thomas Hearns has set the benchmark for capturing titles in multiple divisions. He has set several firsts in this sport: the first guy who has ever won four titles in four divisions; the first guy who has ever won five titles in five divisions; the first guy who has ever won six titles in six different divisions.

De La Hoya was also a six division champ and Floyd Mayweather was a five division champion. Manny Pacquiao, on the other hand, has captured four titles (or five including the featherweight lineal title he earned by demolishing Marco Antonio Barrera in 2003) in a span of eight divisions.

It’s easy to see what motivates De La Hoya in picking the Pacquiao fight which is not worthy of his stature and legacy: money. Pacquiao may well be the best fighter in the pound for pound rankings today but the huge size discrepancy between the two is a huge turn-off.

But then again, freaks of nature are a fixture in this sport. Leapfrogging multiple divisions and winning titles was unheard of until there was Armstrong. Winning titles in a span of nine divisions is unheard of until there was Duran. Capturing four, five and six titles in four, five and six divisions was unheard of until there was Hearns. A former flyweight titlist winning belts in super-featherweight and lightweight was unheard of until there was Pacquiao.

While it’s hard to see how Pacquiao could pull-off a win against the much bigger Mexican-American, it’s laudable enough that he has enough balls to face De La Hoya in his 10th weight class. But who knows? Manny’s nickname wasn’t really “Pacman.” It’s “upset.”

Money defies logic

MONEY DEFIES LOGIC
Ericson Sarmiento Dela Cruz
erik_boxing@yahoo.com

posted at boxingcapital.com on 02 Sept 2008
link: http://boxingcapital.com/News_Article_DLHPac_Erik010908.html

Seven years and 25 pounds ago, he was at the undercard of the sports biggest star who was then fighting Javier Castillejo. It was the night when Manny Pacquiao announced his arrival to the US boxing scene by dispatching south African Lehlo Ledwaba with powerful, accurate and lightning fast combinations to win the IBF super-bantamweight title via six-round stoppage. That stellar win by the fiery Filipino knock-out artist was even magnified many times more by the amount of exposure he got for fighting that same night with his boyhood hero: the legendary Oscar De La Hoya.

Now, the Filipino speedster who was introduced to the world that night with his mispronounced name is set to fight the same guy who helped him banner his name and boost his marketability across the boxing world and business conglomerates. He was then a super-bantam; Oscar then was already comfortably fighting at the light-middleweight division. The 154 lb weight limit. It was six divisions north of Pacquiao’s 122 lb division. To even think of the possibility of a match-up between the two at that time was downright idiotic, if not complete lunacy.

But boy, here are the two biggest stars of boxing separated by many divisions set to clash on December 6 this year. Everything has reportedly been ironed-out, paving the way for what could be one of the richest fights in history.

On the surface, the biggest stumbling block that seemed keeping the much hyped fight from happening was the huge size discrepancy. Manny is (now) a small lightweight and Oscar has comfortably campaigned at light-middleweight for some years now. But no, size doesn’t matter when money talks. It was not the size, which, by logic and any philosophy should dictate match-ups. It was, unfortunately, the greed. Both camps had a hard time convincing the other to accept their offer and counter-offers about how the purse should be divided. A $100 million dollar fight is too lucrative for Oscar and Manny to just turn their back on.

When money talks, size doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter that the electrifying Pinoy performer has started fighting at 107 and the most celebrated figure in boxing at 130. It doesn’t matter that Pac is now a bloated lightweight and Oscar a bona fide junior middleweight. It doesn’t matter that Pac is fighting in his 10th weight class and Oscar is going back to the division he ruled some years ago. It doesn’t matter that Pac would report between 142-145 lbs come fight night and Oscar between 160-165 lbs. The size discrepancy is too huge. By logic, the fight is a total mismatch and should not happen. But here is where money comes to fix everything. The god money can defy logic. The god money can defy everything.

There are reasons for divisions; the same reasons why other safety measures were instituted to moderate the innate brutality of the sport. The same surgical brutality that impaired Freddie Roach speech. Roach should have known better when he called out the fight. He’d be putting his most prized fighter’s health and career in jeopardy! The sport is too brutal and the damages it inflicts to fighters are irreversible. Ray Robinson could only be so sorry for the life of Jimmy Doyle. But anyway, discounting death aside as it seemed to be a remote possibility on the Pacquiao-De La Hoya match, $20 million is a good figure to laugh your way to the hospital.

That would be a hell lot of money. But is it worth the damage he is going to take that could possibly end his illustrious career? Pac fans could only hope that Roach is not mistaken in thinking that Oscar can no longer pull the trigger as he once could.

People are using De La Hoya’s last ring action as a springboard for a rather outrageous claim that Pac could upset the Barcelona Olympic gold medalist. Roach even went further by saying that his guy could KO the man he helped shaped up against Floyd Mayweather, Jr. Steve Forbes, a small guy hand picked to give Oscar some kind of a hard sparring session, was “surprisingly” able to redden the face of the Golden Boy. But Forbes was there to lose, and Oscar, with little respect to the sting of his opponents’ punches, left his face open in search for openings. To think that Oscar would do the same against the pound-for-pound king on December 6 was downright stupid. The 35 year old fighter who “unofficially” beat Floyd Mayweather last year was too smart of a fighter to let the most devastating puncher in the business nail him with flush clean shots. If there was something that Oscar was known for aside for his exquisite left, was his ring smarts and fight complexion awareness. The final scorecards of the De La Hoya-Forbes sparring were very telling: 120-108 and 119-109 twice. Its very lopsided and a testament of how De La Hoya merely toyed with the undersized and underpowered but very game Forbes. He can no longer pull the trigger? Pac fans could only wish Roach was correct.

Pac’s last outing, on the other hand, was a very electrifying performance and a complete dominance of his bigger opponent. He was all over Dangerous David in every seconds of every round nailing him with every kind of shots. The performance was too good that people have dreamed of the same outcome against lightwelter king Ricky Hatton and the legendary Oscar De La Hoya. But sorry to Pac’s legion of loyal fans, Oscar was no David. The difference between the two is wider than the pacific.

Oscar may already be past his best. The sting of his left hook may had already been diminished, his footworks many no longer be as flashy as before, and his defense may no longer be as solid as it was once, but his good chin and first-rate ring awareness were enough to beat a naturally smaller man, specially those who started their career at 107. The power of his left, diminished as it seemed, was more than enough to bother small guys. He may no longer be as effective as the Oscar before the Mosley fight, but he was still the same Oscar who was able to effectively close the gap between him and the flashy and defensive master Floyd.

The fight is too easy for businessman Oscar as it was too dangerous for lightweight Manny. It could be nothing more than a farcical exhibit of one guy trying to make it look competitive and the other guy trying everything to overcome the great odds.

Oscar had many choices of fights to close his 16 years of illustrious career—fights that could very well be risky but meaningful. There is no shame in losing to Miguel Cotto, Antonio Margarito or Paul Williams, especially at this advancing stage of his career. Unfortunately for true boxing fans, those fights just happen to be less profitable than the Pacquiao fight.