By David P. Greisman
Superstars converge in June, with a handful of superb and intriguing fights on the docket promising to keep fans chatting all month.
In this week’s edition of Fighting Words, we shall preview Ricky Hatton’s imminent throwdown with Kostya Tszyu, Miguel Cotto’s search for revenge against Mohamad Abdullaev, the circus act featuring Mike Tyson and Kevin McBride, the battle for light heavyweight supremacy between Glencoffe Johnson and Antonio Tarver, and Arturo Gatti’s title defense against Floyd Mayweather Jr.
As always, we will wrap things up in The 10 Count, which this week's features include thoughts ranging from this past weekend’s Julio Cesar Chavez pay-per-view card to the upcoming ABC reality series, “Dancing with the Stars,” starring Evander Holyfield.
June 4 - Can The Hitman Take Out The Thunder From Down Under?
Kostya Tszyu, 31-1 with 1 no contest and 25 KOs, has been, aside from a brief blip following his 1997 upset loss to Vince Phillips, the king of the junior welterweight division, a man who has dispatched everyone from Sharmba Mitchell (twice) to Zab Judah. In recent years, however, injuries have limited “The Thunder From Down Under” to one appearance a year from 2002 to 2004.
As other claimants to the throne stepped up, taking two of his old belts and sustaining the heat of the deep and talented 140 pound weight class, England’s Ricky Hatton built an undefeated 38-0 record and an immense fan following in front of hometown crowds at Manchester’s M.E.N. Arena.
Despite his inactivity, Tszyu remains a formidable force, as evidenced by his last fight, a November 2004 TKO of Sharmba Mitchell. Over the course of three rounds, Tszyu sent Mitchell to the canvass four times, reestablishing himself as the man to beat.
Hatton tends to come forward, a style that will seemingly bring “The Hitman” straight into the jaws of the shark. He has not been in the ring with an opponent of Tszyu’s caliber, feasting mainly, as some critics have put it, on Mitchell’s “leftovers.”
Still, there is always the possibility of a pugilist getting old in the middle of a fight, but the 35 year old Tszyu seems to have similar conditioning to another ageless wonder, Bernard Hopkins.
This match has barnburner written all over it.
June 11 - Cotto’s Chance at Revenge
Coming out of the 2000 Olympics in Sydney was a class of junior welterweight prospects upon whom high expectations were heaved. In the half decade since, Ricardo Williams Jr. has found his way to prison and Mohamad Abdullaev has almost disappeared, while Puerto Rico’s Miguel Cotto has attained fame, fortune and success.
For Cotto, whose career to date has seen him feasting on an increasingly difficult level of opposition, June 11 will provide the WBO beltholder with the opportunity to avenge his Olympic loss to the Uzbeki Abdullaev.
Like Cotto, Abdullaev vaulted out of the gates to an 11-0 record, but in June 2003 he fell victim to a tenth round knockout at the hands of journeyman Emmanuel Clottey. Since then, his career has stagnated, and while he is 15-1, his matches have come on cards much smaller than the HBO shows featuring Cotto.
In his last outing, against DeMarcus Corley, Miguel Cotto won by dubious stoppage, his veneer tarnished by a counter right hook from “Chop Chop” that left him wobbled and in serious trouble.
By facing his last conqueror, Cotto is taking an important step, a gut check that will show just how far he has come since his amateur career.
As for Abdullaev, this appearance on the grandest stage of all, at Madison Square Garden in New York City, could be his final chance to grasp relevance before he drifts into obscurity.
June 11 – Iron Mike: A Wrinkle in Time
Nobody, not Felix Trinidad, Oscar De La Hoya or Julio Cesar Chavez, gets the boxing crowd buzzing like Mike Tyson.
The former heavyweight champ is relying on that intrigue to sell pay-per-view buys for his clash with unheralded giant Kevin McBride. For the bankrupt boxer, seats at the MCI Center in event-starved Washington D.C. have sold like hotcakes, but he needs a victory over the 6’6” challenger in order to continue his fundraising.
It will not be a match featuring champions, or for that matter, contenders, but people will watch. Sure, Mike Tyson hasn’t seen his prime since new wave albums still sold, but his name conjures up the excitement of a vicious first round knockout.
Tyson should be glad that McBride is no Danny Williams, who knocked Tyson out in four last year, but then again, Tyson hasn’t been “Iron Mike” for more than one or two rounds per bout in nearly a decade and a half.
June 18 – Tarver/Johnson, Take Two
For Glencoffe Johnson, his split decision win over Antonio Tarver last December was just the icing on the grand cake that was 2004. After outpointing Clinton Woods and knocking out Roy Jones Jr., the working-class Jamaican had finally achieved the respect that had been missing during a long career of controversial decisions.
Having actually gotten the nod from two of the three judges, Johnson established himself as the best in the light heavyweight division, even if it meant giving up his championship belt in the process.
As for Antonio Tarver, who also dropped his title in opting to face Johnson, this rematch will provide the gregarious Floridian yet another shot at overturning a decision loss. In 2000, Tarver lost on the scorecards to Eric Harding, only to knock him out in the fifth round two years later. November 2003 saw a close fight against Roy Jones Jr. that went against Tarver, scoring that the defeated man disputed. Ensuring that similar circumstances wouldn’t repeat, a tremendous left hook knocked Jones out in the second round of their May 2004 rematch.
Tarver is promising to knock Johnson out this time, but fulfilling that desire could prove to be difficult. Aside from a stoppage loss to Bernard Hopkins eight years ago, Johnson has never been kayoed. And in order to dispose of Johnson, Tarver will need to overcome a mauling, aggressive attack that gives Glencoffe’s opponents little room to move, nor time to breathe.
June 25 – Thunder Versus Lightning
When Arturo Gatti and Floyd Mayweather Jr. meet in the ring on the last Saturday in June, it will be a match-up pitting guts and heart against speed and brilliance.
While few deny the sheer courage that Gatti has shown over his the years in resurrecting his career and providing tremendously entertaining wars, his status as a world champion is questionable.
The New Jersey resident picked up Kostya Tszyu’s vacant WBC belt with a January 2004 win over Gianluca Branco, and since then his only defenses have been against Leonard Dorin and Jesse James Leija. Sure, before each of those matches the pundits had predicted brawls, only to see Gatti knockout Dorin and Leija in the second and fifth rounds, respectively. But in a division as deep as the junior welterweights, a bout with someone on the level of a Mayweather has been a long time coming.
The undefeated Mayweather, though, has yet to be hit with the kind of power punches in Gatti’s arsenal, but like the question of whether Winky Wright could handle Tito Trinidad’s shots, the point is moot if Gatti cannot land.
Mayweather is a defensive stylist with tremendous speed, and it is entirely feasible that “Pretty Boy” Floyd could box circles around Arturo. If Gatti lands his heavy hands, however, and the two begin to trade, then the situation becomes more intriguing, possibly even.
The major tests will consist of whether Mayweather can handle Gatti’s power, if Gatti can hit Mayweather in the first place; whether Gatti comes in as a boxer or a brawler, and thus what adjustments his trainer Buddy McGirt can help him make; and whether the fast hands of Mayweather will cut up the skin of Gatti, a notorious bleeder.
The 10 Count
1. Perhaps the memories of Diego Corrales and Jose Luis Castillo have left me spoiled, but watching the twelve-round brawl between super featherweights Jesus Chavez and Carlos “Famoso” Hernandez did not impress me as much as it did other spectators. Nonetheless, I look forward to seeing if the winner, Chavez, gets the opportunity to face WBC champion Marco Antonio Barrera that the victory entitled him to.
2. Boxers Behaving Badly: According to the Associated Press, Paul Spadafora, a former lightweight champion in prison for shooting then-girlfriend Nadine Russo, has been denied the chance to participate in a boot camp program until he completes a violence prevention program. An amazing sidenote: since shooting Russo in the abdomen, Spadafora made his victim and girlfriend into his fiancée, and had a son together.
3. I’m not making this up: Evander Holyfield will be a contestant in the new ABC reality show, “Dancing With the Stars.” In a commercial for the program, Holyfield states, “Fighting is dancing. It’s all about rhythm.” However true that may be, I’m waiting for the episode in which “The Real Deal” intentionally head butts some lucky lady.
4. War for Spaniard: Main Events and Don King Productions, the respective promoters for Fernando Vargas and Ricardo Mayorga, are dueling over Javier Castillejo, the WBC junior middleweight titlist, each chiding the other for being an unworthy contender for the throne. Recent press releases state that a contract has been signed for Castillejo to face Vargas on August 20, but the WBC has said that if that goes forward, they will strip the Spaniard of his belt.
5. After their fight on Saturday, hopefully both Julio Cesar Chavez and Ivan Robinson will retire. For Chavez, he received an emotional farewell from a packed crowd at the Staples Center, winning a fairly easy ten round decision. Robinson made 34 look old, every punch but his jab coming up short as he was bulled around the ring by a man eight years his senior.
6. As for Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., it may be time for the kid to slightly step up his class of competition, after he made Adam Wynant quit just 42 seconds into the first round. The victory improves his record to 19-0 with 14 knockouts, but with his father hopefully retiring, the 19 year old will need to begin making his own name.
7. Also on the undercard of Chavez/Robinson was a title fight between Rafael Marquez and Ricardo Vargas. Marquez held his own against a diligent scrapper to earn a twelve round unanimous decision and retain his IBF bantamweight belt. Considering all that I had heard about Marquez’s knockout power, I was surprised that the fight went the distance, but perhaps instead of denigrating Marquez, credit should be given to Vargas.
8. Former bantamweight titlist Cruz Carbajal was suspended by the Nevada State Athletic Commission after testing positive for an anabolic steroid and a diuretic following his May 13 loss to Silence Mabuza, according to a report by the Associated Press. The exact penalty has yet to be issued, pending a hearing that Carbajal will have in front of the commission. The positives were for nandrolone, the same steroid that heavyweight James Toney tested positive for, and hydrocholorothiazide, a drug designed to increase the flow of urine.
9. Word is that Vernon Forrest will return on the undercard of the July 16 Bernard Hopkins/Jermain Taylor PPV. No opponent has been set for Forrest, who has been plagued by injuries since his last fight, a July 2003 decision loss to Ricardo Mayorga.
10. Wrapping up The 10 Count on a somber note, thoughts go towards flyweight Ruben Contreras, who is hospitalized and in a medically induced coma after his sixth round loss to Brian Viloria last Saturday.
Next Week’s Fighting Words
Next week’s edition of Fighting Words will discuss the results of the June 4 fight between Kostya Tszyu and Ricky Hatton, and should hopefully include a review of the motion picture “Cinderella Man,” which will be released in theaters on June 3.
