by David P. Greisman (photo by Chris Cozzone/FightWireImages)
A great fight is like falling in love – sometimes you just know.
Sometimes the chemistry just promises that a collision will lead to combustion, combining into an explosion, an exhibition of drama and action.
Those are two crucial elements. Consistent action, chemistry that leads to physics, every action leading to an equal and opposite reaction. One fighter’s flurry of punches ends and another returns fire with a combination of his own. The pattern continues, pugilistic acceleration, objects remaining in motion until an external force brings them to a stop, be it due to time running out or from gravity kicking in.
That action builds drama, a story unfolding, left hooks building to plot twists, shifts in momentum – warriors confronted with mortality, heroes contending with adversity. Chemistry and physics are maintained by biology. Heart and guts, brains and balls.
Those two elements and those three sciences form the essence of the sweetest of the Sweet Science – a Fight of the Year.
Sometimes you just know.
Juan Manuel Marquez is a boxer-puncher who trades with technique, though without being too tactical. He is a master at sizing up the action and adjusting midway through a fight, tweaking his strategy and changing his artillery.
Juan Diaz can be his nickname, a Baby Bull who comes out of the gate with a head of steam, head-down, keeping his opponent in his sights and getting to him with pressure. Diaz can also be his day-job, a student who looks at what he has in front of him from a distance before breaking his opponent down and bringing the fight to its conclusion.
Marquez, at 35, is no longer the unappreciated third wheel missing the attention given to his countrymen, fellow Mexican featherweights Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales. While Barrera and Morales have since fallen from their lofty perches, Marquez is still riding high.
As he aged and slowed, his bouts are no longer one-sided clinics but instead consist of two-way action. Now he is unavoidable, a headliner for the past two years in the 130- and 135-pound divisions.
Diaz is a 25-year-old who has already fought nine years in the professional ranks. He held a world title at 20, though his first half-dozen defenses came against fringe contenders, quizzes to help gauge where the student was at before he was to have his first true test. But then he knocked out Acelino Freitas and Julio Diaz, two fellow beltholders, earning him wide consideration as the best lightweight around.
Then he lost. Nate Campbell took him to the woodshed, gave him a beating and left him strapless. Two fights later, he would need to beat Marquez to show that he still belonged at the top of the class.
They were two combustible fighters – a veteran champion who wanted to hold on to the respect that had long eluded him and a younger challenger who had reached great heights but now needed to claw his way back.
Diaz started the bout with his usual activity, throwing 104 punches in the first round and 98 in the second. Marquez worked to keep pace, sending out 95 shots in the opening stanza – more than he had ever thrown before in a round – and 94 in the next. Marquez was landing as often as Diaz, with 63 connects to Diaz’s 61, with 42 power punches on target compared to Diaz’s 43.
But one punch meant more than the rest. A Diaz left hook midway through the second round momentarily wobbled Marquez. It seemed to show that Diaz, never a fighter with one-punch power, had an advantage over Marquez as a career lightweight.
If Diaz’s foundation was activity, then Marquez’s was accuracy. And chemistry led to physics. In rounds three, four and five, the action heated up, combustion exploding over. Diaz threw 255 punches in those nine minutes, hitting Marquez with 89, 62 of which were power shots. Leather from Marquez landed on Diaz 98 of 254 times in that same duration, with 68 of those being power punches. Those harder blows hit Diaz 48 percent of the time.
Action built drama. Marquez had a cut over his right eye from the fifth round on. Through six rounds, Marquez had already seen more power punches thrown at him than he’d ever confronted over any fight. Diaz was hitting him, but Marquez was battling back.
Marquez adjusted. His punches began to land more cleanly. He hit Diaz with 35 of 70 punches in the seventh, a 50 percent connect rate that included 20 power punches landed out of 31 thrown, an astonishing 65 percent of those shots hitting their target.
By the eighth, Diaz had a cut of his own, blood over the right eye, not the red this Baby Bull wanted to see. Marquez took advantage, hurting Diaz in the final minute of the round, just one of the 30 power punches landed out of the 56 thrown. By contrast, Diaz was a paltry 8 of 35. He had little left to offer.
Diaz was an object in motion slowing down. An external force was about to bring him to a stop.
With 45 seconds left in round nine, Marquez put together a combination that culminated in an uppercut and sent Diaz to the canvas. Diaz got up, heart, guts and balls that couldn’t contend with Marquez’s brains. Another uppercut from Marquez and Diaz was down once again, his time having run out, gravity having kicked in.
A great fight is like falling in love – it is exciting while it lasts and impossible to forget once it is over.
Juan Manuel Marquez and Juan Diaz combined for 26 minutes and 40 seconds of action and drama, every moment matching the anatomy of a Fight of the Year, science so sweet as to leave those who experienced it head over heels.
The 10 Count
1. Juan Manuel Marquez’s first fight with Manny Pacquiao took place at featherweight, ending in a draw. Pacquiao eventually jumped from 126 to 130. Marquez followed.
Marquez’s second fight with Pacquiao took place at junior lightweight, ending in a split-decision win for Pacquiao. Soon thereafter Pacquiao jumped from 130 to 135. Marquez followed.
Pacquiao has since fought as a welterweight and will soon be challenging the junior-welterweight champion, Ricky Hatton. After Marquez beat Juan Diaz this past weekend, he said he, too, would go to 140. But instead of calling out Pacquiao, Marquez dropped the name of another fighter with quite the pound-for-pound pedigree – Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Really?
Mayweather’s not fought since December 2007, when he knocked out Ricky Hatton. Mayweather retired less than a year ago, pulling out of a rematch with Oscar De La Hoya. Few believe Mayweather’s retirement to be legitimate. Many feel he’s waiting to see the result of May’s mega-fight between Hatton and Pacquiao before announcing his next move.
It’s hard to see Marquez fitting into his plans. Though Marquez is a top fighter, he’s never been the kind of draw that would convince “Money May” to sign on the line. If Pacquiao wins in May, one imagines he will go on to face Mayweather or some other star at welterweight. But if Hatton wins, it’s doubtful that Mayweather would do a rematch for any reason but the money. Hatton-Marquez seems an attractive option.
2. Juan Diaz has plenty of options himself, despite the crushing knockout loss and despite him suffering his second defeat in three outings. The lightweight division is going through another shift, with Pacquiao, Nate Campbell and now Marquez setting off for heavier weight classes. But a crop of young challengers and potential claimants to the 135-pound throne have arrived. Golden Boy Promotions will be hosting an eight-fighter tournament. Perhaps Diaz, who is also part of that promotional stable, will find his next opponent from that card.
3. Hasim Rahman is the latest boxer whose diminished competitiveness in the Sweet Science has led him to consider a jump to mixed martial arts, or MMA.
Kind of.
“We’re talking to quite a few different organizations, from small promotions up to the big ones,” Rahman’s manager told Jason Probst of Sherdog.com. “We’re looking to fight name fighters like Kimbo, Butterbean, James Thompson, someone to bring a name to the table.”
Kimbo Slice is the street fighter who gained a cult following through YouTube videos and turned that into a stint in the now-defunct EliteXC promotion. Slice trained with noted MMA figure Bas Rutten. Butterbean is the rotund boxer and former self-proclaimed “King of the four rounders” who is now a special attraction in a different combat sport. Thompson lost to Butterbean by knockout in less than a minute but gave Slice quite a challenge last year in a bout that ended in controversy and a Kimbo victory.
“All fights start standing up,” Rahman told Percy Crawford of FightHype.com. “Kimbo would get knocked out trying to take me to the ground.”
Many boxers speak with similar bravado when contemplating how they would do in MMA. Of course, it’s a lot easier for Rahman to utter such words when his crossing over is limited to guys less able to pick him apart with leg kicks, take him down and then finish him with ground-and-pound.
4. One boxer who tried the same thing as Rahman is Ray Mercer, who lost twice in kickboxing matches and then was submitted in 70 seconds by a certain Kimbo Slice.
Mercer is turning 48 in April. And then on May 30 the former boxing heavyweight titlist will face a former MMA heavyweight champion.
That’s right: Mercer will apparently meet Tim Sylvia in a boxing match in Las Vegas. Sylvia, whose MMA record is 24-5, twice was the best big man in the UFC. His last MMA appearance was a knockout loss to Fedor Emelianenko, 36 seconds of what was essentially a boxing match.
This has train wreck written all over it.
5. Seven months after Oscar Diaz collapsed in the ring and was rushed away for treatment, the welterweight warrior has been released from the hospital and is now in a rehabilitation facility.
The San Antonio native was in front of his hometown crowd this past July against Delvin Rodriguez when the frightening scene happened.
Referee Robert Gonzalez came to Diaz’s corner between the 10th and 11th rounds to check on the fighter. Diaz, unresponsive, stood up and wobbled over to his trainer. His legs then started to buckle, and he began to collapse. Diaz let out an audible moan indicating the pain he was in. Gonzalez waved his arms, and the nearby medical help immediately jumped between the ropes.
Diaz went from a limp body nearly falling off his stool to a seemingly lifeless person being laid down on the canvas, while medical workers attempted to stabilize the fighter for transport to a nearby hospital. The prompt response may be one reason why Diaz, after undergoing surgery to relieve the pressure of bleeding and swelling in his brain, is still alive and, in a different way, fighting. He came out of his coma two months later.
“He’s doing remarkably well compared to when we first saw him,” neurosurgeon Dr. David Jimenez was quoted as saying in the San Antonio Express-News. “He’s totally alert. He’s awake, smiles and gives the ‘thumbs up’ sign. We’re very happy with his progress.”
Here’s hoping he continues to improve.
6. Boxers Behaving Badly, part one: A retired British pug who stepped into the squared circle 122 times as a professional prizefighter is now in prison for his role in a cigarette smuggling ring that cost the government more than £11 million in unpaid taxes, according to the Manchester Evening News.
Desmond Southern, a 48-year-old who boxed under the name Des Gargano, will spend five-and-a-half years behind bars for being the head of the ring, which dealt with some 72 million cigarettes and 68.5 kilograms of hand-rolling tobacco. Southern’s 25-year-old son was sentenced to three years in prison. Others in the ring will also be incarcerated.
Southern turned pro in 1985, embarking on a career that largely saw him in the role of designated opponent. The most recognizable name on his ledger is Prince Naseem Hamed, who in his fifth fight sent Southern down for the count.
Southern last fought in February 1999, losing a six-round decision that was his 13th straight defeat. He retired with 32 wins, three of which came by way of knockout, 87 losses and three draws.
7. Boxers Behaving Badly, part two: In other crime ring news, Marcelino Flores, a Pennsylvania boxer who captured two local Golden Gloves titles but barely fought as a pro, pleaded guilty last week to being part of a drug distribution group that sold cocaine and methamphetamine, according to the Altoona Mirror.
Flores, 30, was charged with “two counts of possession with intent to deliver, conspiracy and criminal use of a communications facility,” the newspaper reported. Flores’ wife also pleaded guilty to a series of charges. The alleged ringleaders have not yet entered pleas.
Flores’ sentencing will likely take place in about two months.
Flores fought only four times in the pro ranks: one time each in 2000, 2002, 2003 and 2006. That last appearance was his only loss.
8. Boxing Journalist Behaving Badly update: The trial of a former boxing photographer accused of being a serial killer is now in the hands of the jury, which after two days of deliberations has not yet reached a verdict, according to the Associated Press.
Dale S. Hausner, whose work occasionally ran on a well-known boxing Web site, was allegedly one of three men connected with a 15-month shooting spree in and around Phoenix that ended with eight people dead and left 20 more wounded. He was arrested in August 2006.
Hausner pleaded not guilty to all 83 charges, which range from eight counts of first-degree murder to one count of arson. The trial began last fall. If convicted, Hausner is facing the death penalty.
A former roommate of Hausner’s pleaded guilty to two of the murder. Hausner’s older brother, Jeff, allegedly played a role in the spree as well.
9. A brief linguistic study in Teddy Atlas, from four rounds of action on last week’s episode of ESPN2’s “Friday Night Fights.”
Danny O’Connor-Jamar Saunders, round two: “And again, Joe, I think it’s a big advantage in a four-round fight, with a guy like Saunders, where he’s facing a southpaw, he just doesn’t have enough time early on to adjust to a lefty.”
O’Connor-Saunders, round three: “And again, a jab coming from a side, a lefty, that Saunders is not used to seeing.”
O’Connor-Saunders, round four: “And again, you see O’Connor gives you opportunities every once in a while to get your hands off.”
O’Connor-Saunders, round four: “And again, that’s one of the pitfalls in fighting a southpaw in a short fight.”
Antwone Smith-Norberto Gonzalez, round two: “And again, in the mind of Smith is, ‘I won’t throw as much as you do, but I’m going to try to make it count.’ ”
By my count, Teddy used “And again” to start a sentence another 10 times in the broadcast, at the least.
10. The thing about Teddy Atlas is he will make some very good points in his role in analyst. But the problem is that he makes them again. And again. And again. And again…
David P. Greisman is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. His weekly column, “Fighting Words,” appears every Monday on BoxingScene.com. He may be reached for questions and comments at fightingwords1@gmail.com
