by David P. Greisman
A hero is lifted by adulation, burdened with expectations.
The reward? Pride. The danger? That the pride comes before the fall. It goes both ways. The more eyes there are watching, the more there are to see the hero succeed. The more eyes there are watching, the more there are to see the hero fail.
The United States doesn’t produce national heroes anymore. Our interests are too varied; there are too many channels, too many distractions, too many niches. We have fascinations with celebrities, but those we ordain as “celebrities” can be Jon and Kate, balloon boys or White House party crashers. We have admiration for accomplishments, but widespread recognition is impeded by geography. The nation is a collection of towns, counties, states and regions, each with their own identity.
In other lands, however, talents become celebrities, celebrities become fixtures and fixtures become heroes.
Juan Manuel Lopez and Yuriorkis Gamboa aren’t at hero status yet. But the blueprint is there.
Lopez’s hometown is Caguas, Puerto Rico, which also produced Miguel Cotto. The island has a history of noteworthy boxers, including numerous champions, a handful of whom have been inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame – Wilfred Benitez, Wilfredo Gomez, Carlos Ortiz, Edwin Rosario and Jose Torres.
For modern fight aficionados, the foremost Puerto Rican boxing hero is Felix Trinidad. It is Trinidad whose footsteps Cotto had to follow if he were to become a star. Others of Puerto Rican origin, be they Daniel Santos, Kermit Cintron or Ivan Calderon, have lacked the right combination of skill, strength, fire and charisma to become the standard-bearer.
Cotto needed wars with DeMarcus Corley and Ricardo Torres to officially arrive. Since then, he has packed stadiums in Puerto Rico and the States. He has fought in Madison Square Garden on the weekend of New York City’s Puerto Rican Day Parade in four of the past five years and is scheduled to do so again this year.
Cotto is still a star despite his two losses to Antonio Margarito and Manny Pacquiao. They will still flock to the Garden for June’s Clottey fight, just as they did for Trinidad in 2004, three years after his loss to Bernard Hopkins, and in 2008, two-and-a-half years after his loss to Winky Wright.
Trinidad was there in the Garden this past Saturday. So was Cotto. Their presence was a blessing of and a stamp of approval for Juan Manuel Lopez. And then Lopez showed the reason for their faith.
Against a capable, competent world titlist in Steven Luevano, Lopez went out and outworked his opponent in close, punishing him with his punches and then finishing him in the seventh round with a conclusive combination. A right uppercut sent Luevano staggering back. Lopez followed with a right hook, then a left hook, two body shots that made sure Luevano’s guard remained down, a right hook that set the table and then the left hook that swept all the dishes down with a crash.
Luevano reclined in a neutral corner as if he had just been thrown there. He got up at seven but was in no condition to deal with Lopez. The referee waved the bout off, bringing in even more cheers from the 5,142 people at the Madison Square Garden arena theater. Lopez, 26 years old, is now 28-0 with 25 knockouts.
Most were there to see Lopez. Earlier in the night, they saw another sensation from another Caribbean island nation.
Yuriorkis Gamboa comes from Cuba, another place that has produced champions and Hall of Famers. Inducted into Canastota are Kid Chocolate, Kid Gavilan, Jose Napoles and Sugar Ramos.
There have been other notables: Joel Casamayor won titles at junior lightweight and lightweight and Juan Carlos Gomez held a belt at cruiserweight, to name two recent fighters. But there could be so many more names on the list if Cuban fighters didn’t have to choose between staying amateur in a country that doesn’t let its boxers go pro – thereby staying with their families – or attempting to defect, leaving their loved ones behind and trying to make a better life for themselves and, by extension, those they care for.
Teofilo Stevenson won Olympic gold as a heavyweight in 1972, 1976 and 1980. Felix Savon won Olympic gold as a heavyweight in 1992, 1996 and 2000. Mario Kindelan won Olympic gold as a lightweight in 2000 and 2004. None ever turned pro.
Gamboa won gold in 2004 at flyweight. So did four other Cubans: Kindelan, Yan Barthelemy (light flyweight), Guillermo Rigondeaux (bantamweight) and Odlanier Solis (heavyweight). All but Kindelan are now in the pro ranks.
Just as Lopez seems the chosen one for Puerto Rican pride in boxing, Gamboa is the right Cuban at the right time. Yoan Pablo Hernandez, a cruiserweight, suffered a knockout loss in 2008 and has yet to return to contention. Barthelemy lost in his seventh and 10th pro fights and is now 9-2. Solis is 15-0 but has ballooned to 270 pounds in a division in which the fattest are being harpooned by the fittest. And Rigondeaux is only four fights into his career; he is expected to challenge for a title sooner rather than later.
Gamboa has been spotlighted on multiple ESPN2 “Friday Night Fights” episodes and three HBO broadcasts. He has a featherweight belt, is 28 years old, and is 17-0 with 15 knockouts. The last knockout came Saturday, a stunning showcase of his speed and talent, a two-round, one-sided drubbing of Rogers Mtagwa – a gritty trial horse who had Juan Manuel Lopez badly hurt and reeling in one of 2009’s best fights.
Lopez can fight in front of Puerto Ricans in his homeland and in the United States. Gamboa can fight in front of other expatriate Cubans in southern Florida, but he can never go home again.
Each has talent. Each is becoming a celebrity in boxing circles and a fixture on television screens. Neither has yet transcended into the category of hero.
To do so would bring them the adulation each is striving for and the expectations each would deal with. No man is an island, but their islands are what have made them men.
The 10 Count
1. Often when HBO features two fighters in the same weight class on the same broadcast, it’s meant to set the stage for a showdown.
It was done with Bernard Hopkins (against Howard Eastman) and Jermain Taylor (against Daniel Edouard).
It was done with Jermain Taylor (against Cory Spinks) and Kelly Pavlik (against Edison Miranda).
And it was done with Miguel Cotto (against Alfonso Gomez) and Antonio Margarito (against Kermit Cintron).
This past Saturday’s broadcast seemed to set the stage for a featherweight clash between Yuriorkis Gamboa and Juan Manuel Lopez. But there won’t be an immediate payoff in their next bout, according to several reports following this weekend’s fights. Instead, promoter Bob Arum plans to put the pair on broadcasts again and again, ratcheting up the anticipation.
Bigger buzz equals bigger bucks.
Until then, don’t expect to see Gamboa and Lopez in with opponents who can beat them. Yes, Erik Morales lost to Zahir Raheem and still had a rematch with Manny Pacquiao. And yes, Roy Jones Jr. lost to Danny Green and is still having his rematch with Bernard Hopkins.
This is different.
Arum won’t feel pressured to put Gamboa and Lopez in competitive fights. He doesn’t have to take network dollars and get approval for opponents. Instead, he can put on one of his independent pay-per-views featuring Gamboa and Lopez, or he can use a couple of his three dozen “Fox Sports Espanol” cards set for this year to keep them busy.
Could Arum prove me wrong and put Gamboa and Lopez in with other top names? Absolutely. And I hope he does…
2. Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao falls apart at the bargaining table. Shane Mosley vs. Andre Berto is called off due to the tragic earthquake in Haiti (Berto is of Haitian origin and lost family members in the quake).
The talk turns to Mosley-Mayweather for May 1 or May 8. Except, well, the fight isn’t official yet.
In a week, we’ll be three months away from the proposed date. Didn’t we just run into this type of time crunch with the haggling over Mayweather-Pacquiao?
3. I couldn’t believe my eyes: A small minority of posters on boxing message boards have actually questioned Berto’s decision to pull out of the Mosley fight, especially after it was reported that Berto might have taken step-aside money to waive his contractual postponement clause and free the path for a Mosley-Mayweather fight.
People deal with tragedy and loss in different ways. Brett Favre went out and crushed the Oakland Raiders a day after his father died. Michael Jordan retired from basketball after his father was murdered.
4. The lone good news that came out of the cancellation of Mosley-Berto was that a good fight from the undercard will now get the spotlight.
Glen Johnson was to have faced Yusaf Mack in a light heavyweight elimination bout Jan. 30 on the Mosley-Berto undercard. But Mosley-Berto would’ve been the sole bout on the HBO broadcast. Those who wanted to see Johnson-Mack and the other undercard fights would’ve needed to get access to the international broadcast stream.
HBO still will not air Johnson-Mack, or anything, on Jan. 30. The entire Las Vegas card was canceled. But Johnson-Mack was resuscitated for six days later in Florida, the main event for the Feb. 5 episode of ESPN2’s “Friday Night Fights.”
Tune in. Expect war.
5. Speaking of undercards, the pay-per-view undercard March 13 to the Manny Pacquiao-Joshua Clottey fight could feature Antonio Margarito.
Yeah. Remember him?
How could you not?
Margarito will face Carson Jones – if and only if Texas licenses Margarito to fight. Which it shouldn’t.
Margarito was suspended last year after he was caught with tampered hand wraps prior to his fight with Shane Mosley. I wrote last year that Margarito should be banned for life (see that article here – https://www.boxingscene.com/?m=show&id=19174 ), and I still believe that.
The intent to cheat should be enough. The punishment shouldn’t be any less just because he didn’t get away with it.
I admit I would love to see Margarito’s fights, be it a rematch with Miguel Cotto or battles with other opponents. But I think some people might get caught up in that, in Margarito’s fan-friendly style, his likable personality or his celebrity.
If this were some villain or some relative nobody that had been caught with loaded wraps prior to a bout, wouldn’t the call for a lifetime ban be one of unanimous outrage?
6. Love the new HBO Boxing homepage, which got a makeover and has added more content, including 131 videos (among them, a handful of full fights).
But (and there’s always a but)…
How ironic is it that the new Web site includes a feature on Lennox Lewis titled “Perfect English”?
7. Jermain Taylor is out of Showtime’s “Super Six” super middleweight tournament. Allan Green is in.
If Taylor agreed to a buyout, which many suspect he did, that doesn’t take away from the difficult decision that promoter Lou DiBella made to drop Taylor from his stable (out of what DiBella said was concern for Taylor’s health).
Yes, Green is a DiBella fighter. And yes, DiBella will probably get a cut of Green’s paydays in the tournament.
But is any of this really a surprise? Green had long been referred to as the first alternate in the tournament in case someone got injured or dropped out, and the thought had always been that Taylor was one loss away from his career essentially being over.
DiBella had looked out for his client (Green) in getting him that spot as an alternate, just as DiBella was looking out for his client (Taylor) in pushing him to call it quits following his knockout loss to Arthur Abraham.
Green will face Andre Ward on April 17.
8. Andre Berto has seen his homeland devastated. Jermain Taylor has lost four of his last five and suffered brutal knockouts in three of those defeats. And yet people are raising questions over payoffs…
Where’s Jim Mora when we need him? “Payoffs?! Don’t talk about payoffs! You kidding me?”
9. Boxers Behaving Badly update: Retired welterweight Eamonn Magee has been found guilty of assaulting a man in a social club in Northern Island, according to BBC News.
The man had asked Magee, 38, to leave the club this past August. Magee responded by head butting the man, busting the man’s nose. Magee claimed the man was drunk and had shoved him three times. He also claimed he was attacked by as many as 15 people after the confrontation.
Magee’s sentencing is scheduled for February.
Magee was also charged in another assault last year, this one for a September incident in which he allegedly assaulted a woman. I’m not sure where that case stands at this time.
Magee fought in the 140- and 147-pound divisions, holding national pro titles and being the first person to knock Ricky Hatton down. Magee lost to Hatton and five other fighters. After a May 2007 loss to Kevin Anderson, Magee left the sport with a record of 27-6 (18 knockouts).
10. Hayden Panettiere might be 5-foot-1 if she stretches in the morning. Wladimir Klitschko is 6-foot-6. They’re dating, apparently. This is a problem:
If the short girls date tall guys, what hope is there for us short men?
There’s a 17-inch difference between Panettiere and Klitschko. By that math, Ivan Calderon’s wife should be 3-foot-7.
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
