by David P. Greisman
It is difficult, at times, to be an American boxing fan when nationalism undermines a fan’s enthusiasm, for the latent message is that the only important fights are those broadcast in the United States.
In many countries worldwide, bouts both domestic and international receive attention, with television stations and broadcast companies buying the foreign rights to air the biggest main events and their undercards. In return, fans forgo sleeping to see live boxing, or wait a week or two for a delayed broadcast while their anticipation bubbles over.
On Saturday, American fans were given competing cards. On Showtime, Juan Manuel Marquez knocked out Terdsak Jandaeng, and Rafael Marquez stopped Silence Mabuza. Meanwhile on HBO, Kassim Ouma outpointed Sechew Powell, and in the main event, Vernon Forrest took a controversial decision over Ike Quartey.
Only after the double dose of doubleheaders had ended did one of the most anticipated bouts of the summer occur, as Edwin Valero challenged junior lightweight titlist Vicente Mosquera in Mosquera’s native Panama City, Panama.
While some Internet message board denizens were busy fretting over Forrest-Quartey, others had their eyes and ears tuned to Mosquera-Valero.
Ever resourceful, fans produced a link to a streaming audio broadcast, and those (like this scribe) who were currently regretting their choice to take French lucked out as Spanish speakers translated and summarized the action.
The praise heaped on the “V-Nom” by boxing writer Doug Fischer, combined with Valero’s 18 straight first-round knockouts and 19 total kayos, created a cult following. As such, it was a surprise that Valero’s official arrival – a tenth round stoppage of a capable titlist – made news not as a boom but as an echo, most hearing about it after the fact.
Such is the case that while a majority of boxing lovers have seen Diego Corrales-Jose Luis Castillo I and the trilogy between Arturo Gatti and Micky Ward, this year’s top candidate for Fight of the Year can only be viewed on YouTube or via illicit downloading.
Just since 2005, a handful of great fights have gone unseen, having taken place outside of America, on non-televised undercards or on smaller television networks.
In chronological order, they are:
Roberto Vasquez KO10 Beibis Mendoza – 4/29/05
In the same Panama City convention center that hosted Saturday’s Mosquera-Valero throwdown, native son Roberto Vasquez knocked out Beibis Mendoza for a vacant junior flyweight title belt.
While ESPN2 broadcasted Samuel Peter’s squash of Gilbert Martinez, Telemundo carried a much more competitive match-up.
Vasquez and Mendoza came out firing, going toe-to-toe over the first several rounds, each giving as good as he was receiving. As the fight progressed, Vasquez took the momentum, but Mendoza dug deep, refusing to give in.
By the tenth round, though, Vasquez’s body attack produced results, with Mendoza no longer as able to sustain the punishment being doled out. Mendoza was sent to the canvas, got back up but was floored once more, this time for the count.
Although Corrales-Castillo I garnered its deserved recognition as 2005’s best fight, writers like Steve Kim of MaxBoxing gave Vasquez-Mendoza its due, listing the bout as the third best of the year, behind Erik Morales-Manny Pacquiao I.
“[A] thrilling back-and-forth affair [that] finally turned on the youth and exuberance of Vasquez,” Kim wrote.
Tomasz Adamek UD12 Paul Briggs – 5/21/05
People can thank Antonio Tarver for this bloody war.
After knocking out Roy Jones Jr., the WBC mandated that Tarver face Paul Briggs. Meanwhile, Glencoffe Johnson, also coming off of a knockout victory over Jones, was ordered to defend against a mandatory opponent.
Rather than enter bouts that would earn them less money and respect, Tarver and Johnson dropped their belts and faced off for the claim to being the top light heavyweight, Zsolt Erdei and his lineal claim aside.
Adamek-Briggs went untelevised in America, and by all logical thought it should have been given airtime. Their fight was on the undercard of Lamon Brewster’s demolition of Andrew Golota, a bout in which the introductions lasted longer than the actual main event.
Fans who had tuned into HBO saw a replay of the previous week’s virtual shutout of Felix Trinidad at the hands of Winky Wright, followed by one minute of live boxing.
It would have been fantastic if the network had figured out a way to show Adamek-Briggs, Neither man ever went down, but nor did they ever let up, a treat that riled up the Poles who had filled up the United Center in Chicago to support Adamek and Golota. They ended up thrilled by the majority decision for Adamek, but were let down by Brewster’s wipeout of Golota.
A rematch had been announced for October of this year, with the expectation that Adamek-Briggs II would be on HBO under Nicolay Valuev’s heavyweight title defense against Monte Barrett. But with the location and date up in the air due to Madison Square Garden’s booking of Wladimir Klitschko just a month later, it remains to be seen if Adamek-Briggs II will be seen.
Antonio Escalante UD10 Jose Andres Hernandez – 1/27/06
It would have been thrilling enough just seeing Antonio Escalante come back from a second-round knockdown to win his fight against Jose Andres Hernandez, but the pace was fast, the punches were hard and the leather was landing.
After coming off the canvas in the second round, Escalante went to Hernandez’ body, taking return fire upstairs but nonetheless breaking down his opponent. The tide had turned, and in the ninth round it was Hernandez coming off the mat, surviving the round.
With the win, Escalante, a junior bantamweight prospect fighting under Golden Boy Promotions, took advantage of being the televised co-feature under a Marco Antonio Rubio main event on Telefutura’s Solo Boxeo.
Since January, Escalante has fought twice, picking up a trinket by outpointing Juan Ruiz in May, and then stopping designated opponent Alex Baba last month. His career is young, but if he stays at 122 pounds and remains as crowd-pleasing as he was against Hernandez, there are potentially entertaining match-ups against the rising bantamweight king Rafael Marquez or stablemate Daniel Ponce De Leon.
Willie Gibbs TKO12 Lenord Pierre – 3/10/06
Word of how amazing this fight was came first from Joe Tessitore, play-by-play announcer for ESPN2’s Wednesday- and Friday Night Fights. As Tessitore wrote in a column on ESPN.com, he had taken his 6-year-old son John to a card at Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut, taking advantage of a weeklong hiatus in Friday Night Fights to get some extra family time, a night of boxing for John’s birthday.
If only Joe Tessitore had brought a camera and a microphone, too.
Willie Gibbs, a middleweight whose only loss has been to Jermain Taylor’s fall guy Daniel Edouard, clobbered Lenord Pierre with a right hand in the first round, but Pierre – who had been knocked out in the first by John Duddy a year prior – took it and fought back.
As the bout progressed, Pierre had the momentum and things appeared desperate for Gibbs, a far cry from the initial stanza.
“It was the final minute of the final round,” Tessitore wrote. “Pierre was still being the brave warrior. He was moments away from his career-defining victory. And then it happened. Gibbs floored him. Pierre was hurt badly.”
Pierre got back up, though, and Gibbs must have felt like Julio Cesar Chavez against Meldrick Taylor. With seven seconds left, Gibbs knocked Pierre unconscious, snatching victory from the jaws of defeat.
Although it was announced in March that a tape of Gibbs-Pierre would be shown, this is a gem that’s still largely unseen.
Somsak Sithchatchawal TKO10 Mahyar Monshipour – 3/18/06
A fight so brutal it sent its loser, who had won each of his five previous title defenses by knockout, into retirement.
The aforementioned likely Fight of the Year, Somsak Sithchatchawal’s stoppage of junior featherweight titlist Mahyar Monshipour is slowly making its rounds into people’s lists, thanks largely to the footage on YouTube and illicit downloading.
Like Juan Manuel Marquez’ controversial loss earlier this year to Chris John, people have to see it to believe it, an unfortunate reality when overseas bouts (this one was in France) are important but not imported.
Like the previous four bouts on this list, Monshipour-Sithchatchawal was toe-to-toe action, the kind of fight where neither man will give an inch.
After coming back from a first-round knockdown, Monshipour sustained damage from a barrage of uppercuts and body shots, but he continued to battle back, in essence going out on his shield.
In a poetic parallel to last year’s top fight, this year’s frontrunner for Fight of the Year also ended with a sudden turnaround in the tenth.
The 10 Count will return next week.
