by David P. Greisman (photo by Chris Cozzone/FightWireImages)
Presented together, they portrayed the before and after, the cause and effect. This is your brain. This is your brain on drugs.
This is your face. Before: Unexceptional. Indistinctive. Anonymous. After: Asymmetrical. Disfigured. Unmistakable.
After: Here are Israel Vazquez and Rafael Marquez. Vazquez’s face is a Rorschach canvas of crimson inkblots, red flecked and squiggled in spots, streaming and screaming from its sources. His skin is a papier-mâché piñata. It takes but one well-placed whack for what’s inside to pour out. Keep hitting it and it comes apart.
Vazquez and Marquez have fought each other four times in three years, three times alone in a 364-day span between March 2007 and March 2008. Their latest match together was marketed as their last match together – “Once And Four All.” It was meant as a description of a conclusive collision. It read like an admission of an ill-conceived continuation.
It is the end.
Before: Here are Yonnhy Perez and Abner Mares, their faces bruised and puffy, their expressions a combination of exhaustion and disappointment. They battled for 12 rounds, 36 minutes of balls, bravado and brawling, 1,864 punches thrown between them, two fighters and no victor.
The scorecards read 115-113 for Mares – once – and 114-114 twice, a majority draw in which Perez retained his world title. He was the winner without winning. Mares was the loser without losing. It was their first fight together. Talk immediately turned to a rematch.
It is the beginning.
These are their faces:
Vazquez and Marquez are recognized for the viciousness they’ve had unleashed upon their visages. For Vazquez, the accumulated punishment has culminated in disfigurement. He came out of the third fight with a detached retina. Following the fourth fight – after a few rounds, a few clashes of heads and more than a few punches – the cut over his left eye went down to the bone and needed three layers of stitches to close.
Perez and Mares are respected now for their willingness to war. They stole the show, the undercard beating the main event to the punch. They were the opening act bringing down the house before the headline band took the stage. The marquee will soon belong to them.
At what price fame? This is the circle of fight. Taking a toll is worth it.
Brawlers’ careers are memorable but ephemeral. A great fight is forever, but it is still one night in one year. There will always be another great fight. Often it begins a great rivalry.
Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales gave way to Diego Corrales and Jose Luis Castillo. Corrales and Castillo gave way to Vazquez and Marquez. And now Vazquez and Marquez will give way. Perez and Mares seem primed to take their place.
Together. That is how it must be. A great fighter can only prove himself so against other great fighters. Yohnny Perez and Abner Mares had each won 20 fights and lost none before they faced each other. Perez had captured a world title. Mares had earned a chance to challenge for one.
Perez could have defended his belt against a number of contenders. Mares could have faced another beltholder and won a strap for himself. And it is possible that none of that would have brought as much individual glory as that which they earned together.
Together. That is how it must be. That is why Israel Vazquez and Rafael Marquez faced each other for a second time, then a third, and then a fourth. Originally, it was that they could earn the most respect and the most money facing each other. Later, it was that they could earn the most money facing each other without the risk of facing younger, fresher opponents.
Vazquez had won the second and third battles. What he put himself through to win those fights is what put him in the condition that would lead him to lose the fourth. This last fight lasted two-and-a-half rounds, the end coming halfway into Round 3. He and Marquez showed glimpses of their combustible chemistry. Any sustained action, however, was cut short by biology.
Vazquez was cut after the first. He was cut again after the second. He couldn’t see in the third. Marquez was already the less damaged man entering this fight. He had an even wider advantage once Vazquez was bloodied and blinded.
It was anticlimactic. It was the way it needed to be. It was the end, sending Vazquez off not just to recuperate, but to retire. It allows Marquez to break free of the rivalry, to see whether he can add chapters to an already thrilling story or whether his next fight will begin his epilogue.
As Vazquez and Marquez exit, Perez and Mares emerge. As with before Vazquez and Marquez first met, Perez and Mares promised to put on a candidate for Fight of the Year – and did. They promise to do so again in their next episode.
This is the way it needs to be. This was just the beginning. This is the circle of fight.
The 10 Count
1. In case you didn’t notice – after all, it wasn’t parroted obnoxiously by Gus Johnson like his constant mentions of Perez-Mares being for the IBF bantamweight title – Vazquez-Marquez 4 was contested for something called the “WBC Silver Championship.”
Sigh.
Presented here, either to amuse you or depress you, is an excerpt from a March news release from the WBC:
“World Boxing Council President, Jose Sulaiman, based on his habit of reform in boxing, announces that the organization is studying the possibility to implement a world title that substitutes interim championships, which seem to be already approved by everybody everywhere, considering there is a possible confusion for fans around the world.
“In the next WBC Convention to be held in Cancun, President Sulaiman intends to propose the creation of a WBC world silver championship, as we believe there is great need to give a title value to many fights that cannot be for a WBC world title, but are of great importance, for instance the bout between Mexican fighters Israel Vazquez and Rafael Marquez.”
Sigh.
2. “Fights … of great importance?” Just how important was the first WBC silver championship fight – a featherweight bout in April between Cyril Thomas and Justin Savi?
No, I’ve not heard of them either…
3. Let’s get this straight, part one: To combat confusion due to there being far too many title belts – the WBC has created another title belt.
A rose by any other name might smell as sweet. And a steaming pile of crap dressed up as the “WBC world silver championship” is still a steaming pile of crap.
4. Let’s get this straight, part two: Israel Vazquez and Rafael Marquez have taken so much punishment that they deserve as much money as possible so they can eventually retire – and stop taking punishment.
So what does the WBC do? Convince Vazquez and Marquez to fork over sanctioning fees for the biggest waste of money since the rematch between Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones Jr.
5. Diamond championships! Silver championships! Coming up next?
- The WBC Sun Belt, made for the best fighters from the southern United States.
- The WBC Bible Belt, made for fighters who win and then thank both God AND Jose Sulaiman.
- The WBC Rust Belt, made for fights involving Kelly Pavlik.
- And the WBC Chastity Belt, made for fighters who want to be blissfully ignorant that the sanctioning body is screwing them…
6. And in case you didn’t notice, Vazquez-Marquez 4 wasn’t contested under the unified rules of the Association of Boxing Commissions, but rather under California state rules.
You know, in case one of them took a dive out of the ring.
7. Boxers Behaving Badly update, part one: Andrey Nevsky, a Russian prospect who had been fighting out of New England, has been found guilty of drug trafficking, according to the Canadian Press.
Nevsky, 25, was one of more than 45 arrested and charged with being part of a drug distribution ring. Police “seized more than $5 million, 25 kilograms of cocaine and 4,000 pounds of marijuana,” according to the report.
Nevsky was found not guilty, however, on charges of money laundering and smuggling. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for Sept. 15. He faces up to 10 years of prison.
Nevsky is 7-0 with four knockouts.
8. Boxers Behaving Badly update, part two: A British fighter whose brief boxing career never went far has been found guilty of manslaughter, according to the Coventry Telegraph.
Shane Walford, 33, is a soldier who boxed under the name Shane Junior. He approached the man in a bar and punched him. The man fell to the floor and died in the hospital a day later.
Walford had three fights in 1999, winning twice and losing once, according to BoxRec.com. He had one more fight, a win in 2007 that brought his record to 3-1 (3 knockouts).
9. I had wondered how long Paulie Malignaggi would take to return to Twitter following his stoppage loss to Amir Khan. He got back to tweeting this past Tuesday. Among the highlights:
“[O]nce the BELL RINGS, all that shit talking goes out the window, and when the fight is over…THE GRUDGE IS OVER!!!!!! I have tons of respect for @AMIRKINGKHAN, and i want to wish him the best of luck, he is a true champ and a great fighter.”
Khan was also more than civil:
“I had fun and all the drama at press conf/weigh-in was hype nothing personal, PM [Paulie Malignaggi] is a great guy. I spoke to PM and his team after the fight and I respect him.”
A losing boxer stepping out of the spotlight and giving his victorious opponent credit and respect? A winning boxer taking the high road after an exchange of trash talk and deciding not to gloat over his triumph?
Wow.
What if the rivalry between Erik Morales and Marco Antonio Barrera had taken place during the Twitter era?
10. Just when I’d mastered the spelling for Somsak Sithchatchawal, Mahyar Monshipour, Almazbek Raiymkulov and Pongsaklek Wonjongkam…
Boxing gives us Ruslan Provodnikov, Krzysztof Wlodarczyk and Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym.
Don’t even get me started on Jhonny Gonzalez and Yonnhy Perez, who I believe are boxing’s answers to basketball’s Dwyane Wade.
In the grand scheme of things, all of this makes me thankful for “Chris John.”
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
