The Dog Days of Summer Are Upon Us Once Again
By Steve Kim
This past weekend saw another case of both HBO and Showtime televising cards on the same evening. It's gotten to a point where you can't even keep track of who is counter programming each other anymore.
On HBO’s side, there was the replay of Antonio Margarito's breathtaking battle versus Miguel Cotto, and then the fight between Joshua Clottey and Zab Judah, which was to have basically served as an elimination bout for the right to face Margarito in November.
Showtime featured a card that had IBF jr. bantamweight champion Dimitri Kirilov defending his crown against the rebounding Vic Darchinyan, who last year was halted by upstart Nonito Donaire. And what was supposed to be classic matchup of boxer versus puncher instead became a blowout as Darchinyan just simply overpowered Kirilov with his power punches. Not too long ago, Kirilov was a crafty counterpuncher, but there seemed to be a loss of reflexes and quickness from the Russian. And because of that, he simply couldn't hold off the hard-charging Darchinyan, who adds another marquee name to an already deep division. Donaire-Darchinyan II is a must for 2009.
Meanwhile in Las Vegas, just as it looked like Clottey was going to close hard on Judah, a phantom clash of heads would ultimately put an end to the fight in the middle of round nine. HBO replays clearly showed that it was a right hand from the Ghanaian that caused the cut over Judah's right eye. Referee Robert Byrd would call a timeout, and as Judah claimed he couldn't see, the fight was waved off. The only problem was that because it was ruled that the bloody gash came from a clashing of noggins, the fight would go to the cards, when rightfully it should've been ruled a TKO.
Bottom line, it looked to many observers like Judah was trying to Rahman his way out of the fight (I guess spitting the mouthpiece out has become passé). His gestures basically conned Byrd, who fell for it hook, line and sinker. It was another case of a referee who makes a ruling - not based on what he sees - but what he thinks may have happened and is in turn influenced by the fighter.
But a huge miscarriage of justice was averted (barely) with two of the three scorecards having Clottey winning by a single solitary point.
But Judah, who has an amazing capacity to land on his feet, can/will claim that he was on the verge of winning and that he was actually the aggrieved party. He was already proclaiming himself 'the People's Champ' but I think at this point most people see through his transparent attempts to convince people he's still an elite prizefighter. The only people he's truly a champ to is his own family and the crew that surrounded him after the fight. People in his own borough of Brooklyn don't even believe him anymore.
But with the circumstances of this last fight, rest assured, he'll get another big fight opportunity in no time. Being from New York and one of the ten fighters HBO knows by name comes in real handy.
As for Clottey, it turns out he may have injured his left bicep right around the fourth or fifth round of this bout. What's interesting is that this time around he didn't make such an open announcement to everyone ringside of his ailment this like he did against Margarito back in December of 2006, when he claimed he injured his hand. I guess it's a lot easier to hold yourself together when there's a fighter in front of you that is much easier to overcome. But regardless, because of this injury, his status for November is now in jeopardy.
And guess what folks - this is it for awhile. We will not have another major card on a premium network till September 6th when Michael Katsidis and Juan Diaz go at it in a much anticipated slugfest from Houston, Texas. Yeah, Telefutura and ESPN2 will have their regular schedules intact, but the heartbeat of this industry are the fights that take place on HBO and Showtime. Because of the Olympic Games in China, the networks are reluctant to really spend any money this month.
I can't really blame them, but this has to be an excruciating month for boxing aficionados. Boxing fanatics care and watch one thing - and one thing only - boxing. They don't care if it's the Super Bowl, Final Four, the World Series or Armageddon; they watch boxing and nothing else. Me, I'm a meat-and-potatoes American sports fan. And my meat-and-potatoes is boxing and football. Simply put, I don't think there's anyone that cares less about the Olympics than I do. Outside of a few track and field events and basketball, I won’t be tuning in. What about boxing? Well, I find amateur boxing pretty much unwatchable, and besides, who in the world knows where NBC is going to televise it?
I can't wait for these two weeks to be over so we can resume our regular lives as American sports fans. Yeah, I admit it, I would much rather see a report on 'SportsCenter' on how Jeremy Shockey is adjusting to the New Orleans Saints system than hearing about how many gold medals some pre-pubescent, anorexic gymnast has won. Yeah, I completely understand the caliber of athletes they are (perhaps the best in the world), the number of meals they have thrown back up into the toilet, the abuse of going through a Bela Karolyi torture camp. That's all understood, but anything that takes boxing of my airwaves will be boycotted by the patriot that is Steve Kim.
So I guess the next few weeks will be spent watching pre-season games (hey, it's still football!!!) and viewing Margarito-Cotto again and again, while waiting for the calendar to turn.
It's going to be a long month.
These really are the dog days of summer.
CLEAN
The post-fight urinalysis for both Margarito and Cotto would come out clean as a whistle. The reason why this is even a story is because there had been rumors circulating over the internet (where of course, no erroneous reports are ever hatched or spread, right?) that Margarito was on steroids and Cotto was poisoned.
It's unfortunate that such a great performance had to be besmirched with such unfounded allegations, but in this day and age, anytime a performance of that magnitude is seen, there will be doubts. Whether it's Lance Armstrong, Marion Jones or Dara Torres, eyebrows will always be raised when human beings seemingly go beyond their own capacity to achieve great things athletically. That's just a fact of life nowadays.
It's now been a full decade since Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa captivated the country and perhaps resuscitated the business of baseball with their home run duel. But that memorable season has now forever been tainted in the view of many because it turns out that those two (along with many others) were 'juicing'. In many ways it was the end of innocence - or maybe, everyone's naiveté.
And while baseball and the NFL are most closely associated with HGH and other illegal performance enhancing substances, boxing has been far from immune to this universe with big names like Fernando Vargas, Ricardo Mayorga, Evander Holyfield and Shane Mosley being implicated in recent years.
While the rumors were baseless, I think everyone still breathed a sigh of relief when Margarito tested clean. In light of how much buzz and goodwill this fight had created, if either of these men would've come up dirty, it would've been catastrophic - not only for Margarito - but for boxing as a whole. And yes, usage of steroids or anything of that ilk is worse in boxing than in other sports because of the brutal nature of this sport. While a hitter may gain ten feet in distance on his fly balls (the difference between a warning track out and a home run), a boxer can gain an advantage of increased stamina and the ability absorb and dish out much more punishment in the late stages of a fight. I'm not condoning either, but nobody ever got brain damage over a three-run homer.
Margarito was as clean as he was tough. He may have broken the spirit of Cotto, but he didn't break the rules.