by David P. Greisman
If we needed one more reason why the sanctioning bodies are hurting boxing – and we didn’t – then one needs only to have watched Saturday’s middleweight trinket fight between titlist Arthur Abraham and challenger Edison Miranda.
Whereas a title belt – any title belt – holds validity to the dozens of boxers who otherwise would never get a chance to compete at a high level, who would never have a prize that rewards them for their dedication and pride, it also brings attention to events and bouts that otherwise are better off ignored.
It’s absolutely opinion and nowhere near being gospel, but Abraham-Miranda was a prime example of the reversing of a cliché, a fight that should have been heard about and not seen.
Along with the fighters, I blame the first report I read online.
Written by Karl Freitag, he reported that Abraham-Miranda was “a definite fight of the year candidate,” and “an unbelievably vicious fight.” With this weekend’s sole televised offering being Jorge Arce-Hawk Makepula on HBO, I quickly waited for an illicit copy of the bout to appear on the Internet.
I could’ve easily done without.
Before watching Abraham-Miranda, I sat down with my parents over cheeseburgers and curly fries and described the bout I was about to watch as “a real barnburner over in Germany, a slobberknocker,” naively channeling my inner Jim Ross.
And the first couple of rounds did start out decently, with Miranda attempting to penetrate Abraham’s high guard, all the while attempting to make Abraham stationary with a dedicated body attack. Abraham, meanwhile, would show flashes of the power and ability that helped turn an undefeated prospect into one of the middleweight division’s elite.
And then it broke down.
Rather often, Abraham’s hooks looked like slaps, with his arms stiffened and lengthened, flailing on an extremely wide orbit. He’d turn his back, drop his hands and occasionally adopt the four corners offense.
Miranda was no better. His intentional head butt in the fifth looked amateurish and unnecessary, especially with Abraham’s mouth already bleeding profusely from punches. About the only punch that landed with accuracy was Miranda’s left hook to the body, and unfortunately sometimes “the body” included Abraham’s groin and thigh.
Miranda was docked a total of five points – two for the head butt and three for low blows. Yet in each of the rounds that Miranda lost points, Abraham never won the stanzas on my card. Post deductions, Abraham had the default points advantage in rounds five (9-8), and seven (10-8 after two low blows), and the eleventh ended up at 9-9.
By the time the final round finally came, referee Randy Neumann told the corners, “Last round, let’s make it a good one.” As if that, like the finale to last year’s Hasim Rahman-Monte Barrett snoozer, would make it all worthwhile.
It was the kind of title fight that almost made one long for a repeat airing of Chris Byrd-DaVarryl Williamson, or, dare one say it, for the never-anticipated Chris Byrd-John Ruiz unification bore-fest.
It was the kind of title fight made possible by sanctioning fees. Last December, Abraham beat Kingsley Ikeke for the vacant IBF trinket after middleweight champion Jermain Taylor ditched the title, realizing how unnecessary it was – what with him also owning the WBC, WBA and WBO belts – to take an additional three percent off of his purses.
Like Miranda (and to be honest, like Taylor), Abraham essentially needed only to defeat divisional measuring stick Howard Eastman to rise high enough in the rankings for a title shot. To think, for all the desire for unified champions, for many of the occasions in which a Roy Jones Jr. or Bernard Hopkins takes on and out nearly all of the contenders, the lack of competitiveness ends up inhibiting most development.
By the end of Abraham-Miranda and through the five-minute wait for the judges’ tallies to make it to Michael Buffer, I felt like I had devolved into an amoeba, but with no stimuli and no responses until Buffer read the official decision, marking my misery officially done.
My scorecard, by the way? 113-111 in favor of Miranda. Not that it matters. No one should have come out the winner. After watching, I certainly didn’t feel like one.
The 10 Count
1. If HBO’s Boxing After Dark has mostly been a waste of its mission statement since its relaunch earlier this year, then the only upside to Saturday’s broadcast was that it gave airtime to Jorge Arce, an entertaining, active and talented flyweight who nevertheless had not recently been seen by a wide audience except on the undercards of Erik Morales-Manny Pacquiao I, Diego Corrales-Jose Luis Castillo II and Floyd Mayweather-Zab Judah.
Unfortunately, Arce’s 115-lb. debut came against Hawk Makepula, a faded designated opponent brought in, as usual, to help establish a star that HBO may want to promote major events with in the future. As expected, Arce ended the fight early, stopping Makepula in the fourth round.
2. If Arce-Makepula was good enough for television, and if HBO was willing to pay for Andre Ward to continue his growth against Andy Kolle on the Apr. 29 edition of Boxing After Dark, then how surprising was it that the network chose to not air the Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. bout they had already paid for?
As reported by scribe Dan Rafael, HBO chose to not air Julio Cesar Chavez on the undercard of Arce-Makepula, unhappy with the choice of opponent, 15-2-2 Jacy Kuhn, Nonetheless, the network still was to pay promoter Top Rank for the fight, although that may have changed when Kuhn was replaced by designated opponent Shad Howard.
Oh, by the way, Chavez beat Howard by stoppage. No surprises.
3. Reports are that last weekend’s Marco Antonio Barrera-Rocky Juarez II pay-per-view only did 165,000 buys, according to preliminary numbers. Although the show likely did enough sales to break even, it must be seen as rather disappointing and surprising when considering the exemplary matchmaking and the danger to the Golden Boy Promotions fighters on the card.
Barrera-Juarez I was a very good fight, close and exciting enough to warrant a rematch, while Jorge Barrios-Joan Guzman and Israel Vazquez-Jhonny Gonzalez were great match-ups on paper that fulfilled most expectations in the ring. With all but Juarez fighting under the Golden Boy banner (Vazquez is co-promoted by Sycuan Ringside Promotions), the company unselfishly spotlighted its stars, chancing damage to their previous investments.
4. As usual, HBO re-aired its pay-per-view main event as a “free” broadcast one week later, putting Barrera-Juarez II under Arce-Makepula. Considering the tame nature of Barrera-Juarez II in comparison with the great Israel Vazquez-Jhonny Gonzalez fight on its PPV undercard, HBO’s decision caused derision. But if I recall correctly from the failed negotiations for Roy Jones-Bernard Hopkins II earlier this year, HBO pays a sum for rebroadcast rights and likely wanted a return on their investment. Although fans likely would be more entertained by Vazquez-Gonzalez than by Barrera-Juarez II, there must have been – considering the low number of buys – a sizable audience that had waited to see Barrera-Juarez II for a cheaper price, especially with the numerous pay-per-views scheduled over the next few months.
5. Arturo Gatti’s promoter Main Events has proposed a fight between Gatti and Dmitriy Salita, Lou DiBella’s welterweight prospect, DiBella told writer Dan Rafael recently.
DiBella has moved Salita (25-0-1) along slowly through his five-year professional career, building experience and a sizable fan base while avoiding any setbacks (excepting a controversial draw with Ramon Montano). If a win vaults Salita one step closer to stardom, what does the fight do for Gatti after his beatdown at the hands of Carlos Baldomir?
Aside from allowing a comeback fight to come with a decent payday, Gatti’s career and potential matchmaking choices are approaching crossroads status, a sign that he either needs to retire for once or retool once again. One hopes that Gatti realizes the heights he has already reached and chooses the former.
6. Following a two-year sabbatical, Raul Marquez has continued with his successful implementation of the Vernon Forrest comeback plan by knocking out Elco Garcia on Friday with a body shot.
Marquez, who retired in 2004 following a stoppage loss to Jermain Taylor, has kayoed Miguel Hernandez, Sergio Rios and Garcia since returning to the ring in April. Rios and Garcia, mind you, were the first two victims of Forrest following his own two-year layoff due to assorted injuries.
Forrest’s next foe was Ike Quartey, who is currently scheduled to face Winky Wright in December. With Forrest available, it’d be rather symmetrical for his path to converge with that of Marquez, but it is unlikely as that match is more fiscally advantageous to the latter than the former.
7. “Duva Drama, Minto Mess,” part two: As noted last week, heavyweight Brian Minto rankled feathers with his promoter, Duva Boxing, by mentioning his supposed upcoming free agency in multiple press releases. Duva Boxing, on the other hand, insisted that Minto’s contract would not be ending in the near future.
Last week, syndicated European boxing beat writer Per Ake Persson reported that Minto would be facing the comebacking Axel Schulz on Nov. 25.
But in an interview with Greg Leon, Dino Duva said, “[Minto] will not be fighting Schulz or anyone else without Duva Boxing being involved. Brian and his manager Pat Nelson have taken the unfortunate course of trying to make their own deals and cut Duva Boxing out, even though we have an exclusive promotional agreement with Brian. I will deal with that in the proper course and hopefully the German promoters, Brian and Pat Nelson come to their sense so we don’t have to take the legal route, but I will go that route if necessary.”
8. After seven years as the WBO cruiserweight titlist, Johnny Nelson announced his retirement last week, citing his prolonged knee troubles and his current back injury, according to multiple overseas reports.
Since knocking out Carl Thompson in 1999, Nelson made 13 defenses, winning all but a 2002 draw with Guillermo Jones. But of late, Nelson had been fairly inactive, defending only once each in 2003, 2004 and 2005.
Nelson’s pulling out of an October bout with Enzo Maccarinelli will do little to help a cruiserweight division that, once ignored, had garnered attention with numerous entertaining fights until promoters and the world apparently forgot all about them again.
9. With the initial announcement of Top Rank’s boxing broadcasts on the Outdoor Life Network (renamed Versus), there must have been many, like me, who regretted living in an area that did not carry the station. Now, though, with the ESPN2-like quality of a majority of the series’ bouts, it’s probable that we don’t feel as bad but still wish, for the sake of the sport, that the matchmaking was better, even if we miss it.
10. The Contender Update: How apt is it that, by the end of the second season of Mark Burnett’s boxing reality show, the winner might truly be a contender?
With this Tuesday’s season finale pitting former junior lightweight titlist Steve Forbes against underrated junior middleweight mainstay Grady Brewer, the victor will have entered and left the show as a respected, capable veteran still yearning to make an impact in the sport.
On last week’s episode, Forbes outpointed Cornelius Bundrage and Brewer took a five-round majority decision over Norberto Bravo to make their way to the final two.
This week, along with the Forbes-Brewer final, Bundrage and Bravo will face off for third place while the live audience’s undercard will be rounded out with Walter Wright-Vinroy Barrett and Michael Clark-Freddy Curiel.
