By Jake Donovan

It's a practice that will never go away, but one that has become an ugly recurring trend all through March. A loss is no longer a loss, instead grounds for a fighter or his camp to air out a list of reasons why the other guy's hand was raised by night's end.

Two bouts on this weekend's schedule – Joel Casamayor-Michael Katsidis and Gavin Rees-Andreas Kotelnik – all but have controversy written all over them. Rare is the occasion when a Casamayor fight that goes the distance doesn't result in major dispute over the final scorecards. The next win Kotelnik manages on the road will be his first, which should make for plenty of anxious moments this weekend in Wales, Rees' home country.

Assuming the excuses fly regardless of the outcome in either of the two bouts, it will mark four weeks in a row where the action and achievements in the ring become overshadowed by the poor sportsmanship exuded afterward.

Call it boxing's version of March Madness.

The month began on as high a note as one can ask for, with Israel Vazquez and Rafael Marquez once again offering a leading candidate for Fight of the Year with their thrilling rubber match. In the end, it was Vazquez by a nose, eking out a split decision to wrap up one of the greatest trilogies – if not the absolute best – in boxing history.

Only Marquez wasn't finished fight. In the ring, sure, but that didn't prevent the proud Mexican warrior from hurling bombs afterward. Not with his fists, but instead his mouth, where he was outraged not only over the decision, but referee Pat Russell's 10th round point deduction for repeated low blow infractions, and a called knockdown in the closing seconds of the 12th and final round where it was (correctly) ruled the ropes were the only thing that prevented Marquez from hitting the deck.

Where Marquez was correct is that the infractions provided the margin of victory. Where his argument lost steam was his insistence that both were unwarranted; Russell was on the money on both occasions. But far be it for Marquez to give in to logic. Instead, his team vowed to protest the decision, a demand that ultimately fell on deaf ears.

You'd think Juan Diaz' camp would take notes, realizing that protests without merit leave you playing the role of sore-loser, rather than just a losing participant. Diaz appeared to heed the lesson, remaining humble as always in accepting his first defeat with as much class as you can ask of a fighter.

But far be it from Willie Savannah, Diaz' manager, to go quietly from any situation regarding his fighter. When actual fighting wasn't enough to preserve Diaz' record against a rejuvenated Nate Campbell in Mexico, Savannah scratched and clawed for loopholes.

He appeared to be onto something when citing the lack of a pre-fight or post-fight drug test, standard practice for any sanctioned fight. Onlookers were even willing to lend credence to his claim of Don King's timing in announcing his promotional split from Diaz days before the fight to be unethical. But his insistence that Campbell, 12 years Diaz' senior, had to be juiced to deliver a performance like that?

You're on your own, and are sullying Juan Diaz' good name, to boot.

Diaz wasn't the only losing fighter on March 8 to have a team member speak out of turn in attempts to discredit the winner. Enzo Maccarinelli and trainer Enzo Calzaghe said all of the right things following his 2nd round knockout loss to David Haye in London. Trainer and fighter both acknowledged that Enzo Mac merely got caught with a good shot, and was unable to recover. It's a part of the sport, and certainly not the end of his career. Fine. We move on.

Nope. Enzo Calzaghe, 2007's Trainer of the Year, decided there was more to be said of the fight. "I think the same of Haye as I did before. If Enzo went 12 rounds with the guy, he would have destroyed him. It wasn't his performance that counted; it was Enzo's performance. He was only as good as Enzo made him look."

Sure, and if the Queen had balls, she'd be the King. "If" has nothing to do with it. Save the hypotheticals for pound-for-pound debates, and let actual results speak for itself.

Juan Manuel Marquez nearly had the majority of viewers on his side after a closely contested 12-round battle with Manny Pacquiao for the second time in as many fights. Much like their 2004 bout, Marquez believed that he won enough rounds to overcome early knockdowns and still win the fight. Only one judge agreed on both occasions, leaving Marquez 0-1-1 in bouts where a valid argument can be made for his winning at least 15 out of the 24 total rounds.

Chances are those same viewers would still be on his side had Marquez and his handlers entered last weekend's post-fight press conference acknowledging the fight was close while pledging their belief that they won. But when he and his entire camp began spouting conspiracy theories, the story became the after-party and not the fight itself. A shame, as the actual fight was a fantastic battle, featuring even more ebb and flow than their first.

Among major fights over the last three weekends, the only losing fighter to not pitch a bitch afterward was Oleg Maskaev, who lost by 6th round knockout to Samuel Peter in the same Mexican arena that housed the aforementioned Diaz-Campbell battle.

That Maskaev went away quietly was perhaps the month's greatest irony, considering all of the excuses he and his camp made in avoiding a Peter fight for well over a year. But in the end, the two fighters fought, and Maskaev, who was out on his feet but never officially hit the canvas, offered no excuses, in fact acknowledging that referee Lupe Garcia's decision to stop the fight at that point was the right call.

Perhaps Maskaev and his handlers could've made things easier by staying mum in the weeks and months leading up to the fight, but civility after the fight is an acceptable alternative.

Hopefully those on the wrong end of this weekend's action will follow the post-fight example of the Big O rather than the little oh-no's. If tempted to react otherwise, perhaps someone from their camp, rather than fueling the fire, can put a bug in their ear that if they have that much energy and rage after the fight, then it's because they didn't do enough during.

Leaving the fighting to the ring, and the March Madness to the college hoopsters. Because the next time you have something bitter to say after fight that didn't go you're way, we only have two words in response.

SHUT UP!

Jake Donovan is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and the Tennessee Boxing Advisory Board. Comments/questions can be submitted to JakeNDaBox@gmail.com