by David P. Greisman
Michael Jordan would turn any slight, actual or perceived, into 40 or 50 points and a Chicago Bulls victory. Athletes will pin newspaper clippings to locker room bulletin boards, inspiring their teammates to respond, come game time, to ensure their opponents know there will be consequences for whatever is said.
But when trash talk is the standard in your sport, when the prospect of press conferences and interviews turning nasty is more expected than exciting, motivation doesn’t necessarily come from the mouth of the man standing in front of you.
Yes, Oscar De La Hoya was spurred on by pre-fight rhetoric from Fernando Vargas and Ricardo Mayorga. But of late, it seems, the go-to who gets guys going… is me.
Well, not exactly.
It is the media, though, that have been behind two of the biggest, most surprising wins in recent weeks: Bernard Hopkins’ drubbing of Kelly Pavlik, and Vic Darchinyan’s conquering this past weekend of fellow 115-pound titlist Cristian Mijares.
We said Hopkins, at 43, was too old, that his skills had deteriorated, that his will to fight every minute of every round had long disappeared. We said his fights had become an exercise in ugliness, that he would do little but take away what his opponent does best en route to a close, controversial loss.
We said Darchinyan was too slow, too predictable, too limited, that Mijares would box circles around him, doing to Darchinyan what he had done to Jorge Arce, Alexander Munoz and Jose Navarro. Mijares, we said, had the kind of pound-for-pound talent to stay away from Darchinyan’s pounding.
The NFL has “Any given Sunday.” The Sweet Science isn’t limited to a specific day. But oh, these two Saturday nights…
On this Web site alone, 24 staffers, including me, predicted a Pavlik victory over Hopkins. Only three picked Hopkins. And in a poll of 32 members of the boxing press, 26 picked Mijares to beat Darchinyan. I would’ve done the same.
Forget us. Forget the three judges at ringside with their scorecards. Hopkins and Darchinyan punched opponents instead of ballots and guaranteed that theirs would be the only votes that counted.
They did the perspiration. We provided plenty of inspiration.
“To all the writers and reporters in boxing, did I keep my promise?” Darchinyan said in a post-fight interview. “What about my pound-for-pound ranking? Mijares was number six.
“From the first round I didn’t get stupid,” he said. “I promised to deliver a skillful, smart fight. I promised to destroy him and knock him out. And I did that.”
For all the talk Darchinyan did himself before going up against Mijares, it was his performance that spoke loudest. He was disciplined, strategic and effective. Mijares underestimated this “Raging Bull,” and in this case the matador ended up gored.
For all the talk Bernard Hopkins had been known to do whenever a microphone, camera or tape recorder was nearby, his strongest statement came with his mouth shut and his eyes open, glaring.
Hopkins followed his clinic against Kelly Pavlik by looking out of the ring, down at press row.
“Ninety percent of the media … had a poll that I would lose the fight, and a lot believed that I would get knocked out. Yes, I got talent, but it’s the naysayers, I need them,” Hopkins said in a post-fight interview. “If I don’t have them, I wouldn’t fight to the best of my ability. I need to have people against me. Not that I want it. But as long as I’m in the hurt business, I’ve got to have it.”
When the polls predicted a clear defeat, Hopkins rallied back with a win that kept him in power. And when surveys showed Darchinyan to be the clear underdog, he battled forward with a primary victory that will open up opportunities further in the future.
For on the same night as Darchinyan’s knockout of Mijares, two other fighters in and around his weight class came out on top in their respective matches: Jorge Arce stopped Isidro Garcia, and Nonito Donaire beat Moruti Mthalane by technical knockout.
Darchinyan could take on another aggressive, charismatic spark plug in Arce, a long-awaited pairing finally showing promise. That would require Darchinyan’s promoter, Gary Shaw, to get along with Arce’s promoter, Bob Arum.
Or Darchinyan could seek revenge against Donaire, who knocked him out last year and gave him his sole loss. But that would require Donaire to get along with Shaw, the promoter he left on bad terms.
The only other beltholder at junior bantamweight is Fernando Montiel, who fought this past weekend in a keep-busy bout. He, too, is under Arum’s promotional stable.
Yet in victory, this little man with big power made himself a star, a three-belt titlist whom the division must go through, a Darchinyan candidate, if you will. He was counted out. But his was the only vote that counted.
The 10 Count
1. As if Marlon Wright’s performance in the final rounds of the recent Lucian Bute-Librado Andrade fight was bad enough, last week continued to be rough for the proverbial third men in the ring.
In New Jersey, former 140-pound titlist Vivian Harris benefited from quite the delay after being dropped in the first round by journeyman Octavio Narvaez in a bout broadcast online at GoFightLive.tv.
It started with a big right hand that sent Harris onto his back. Referee Lindsey Page pointed Narvaez toward the furthest neutral corner, but Narvaez, for some reason, began to jog toward the one nearest Harris.
Harris began to rise while Page brought Narvaez where he belonged. Harris was on his feet some eight to nine seconds after his rear end hit the canvas. Harris backed up into a neutral corner and Page wiped the fighter’s gloves on his shirt, but Page continued to stand in front of Harris.
By the time Page finally let the action begin again, 21 seconds had passed since the knockdown. Narvaez scored another knockdown and then pegged Harris with two more punches while he was down, but Harris got back up and the bell rang to end the round.
Harris would come back to get a sixth-round stoppage victory, though the manner in which it happened paralleled Joe Calzaghe’s win against Peter Manfredo Jr. last year. Harris unleashed a furious flurry that pummeled a lot of air. Narvaez apparently wasn’t doing enough of a job defending himself intelligently against missed punches, so Page stopped the bout.
2. Ray Corona wasn’t much better on Saturday.
Corona was the referee for a super-middleweight bout between Andre Dirrell and Victor Oganov on the undercard to Darchinyan-Mijares. And in a match that began with Corona standing on top of a beer advertisement reading “Corona Extra,” we got far too much of the third man in the ring.
Corona was unnecessarily officious. There were also two questionable moments.
The first came halfway through round four, when Dirrell dropped to the mat off of an obvious Oganov low blow. But instead of giving Dirrell time to recover, Corona directed him to get back to fighting. As Showtime’s announcers astutely pointed out, either it is a knockdown and Dirrell ends up on the receiving end of an eight count, or it is a low blow and Dirrell gets time to recover.
Then came the opening moments of round six. Dirrell had been landing plenty of shots on Oganov, but Oganov continued stalking, seeking to wear Dirrell down and land a big fight-changing shot. But then Dirrell landed a left uppercut, followed by another left uppercut and a left hook, and Corona stepped in and waved things off, saying Oganov’s buckling knees and the cumulative punishment necessitated the stoppage.
It was a curious moment, especially as Oganov seemed to be making headway, even if the momentum had yet to turn in his favor.
3. When was the last time boxing had made the top stories on CNN.com? Sure, there’s always Mike Tyson, but it hadn’t happened with Oscar De La Hoya, Bernard Hopkins, Floyd Mayweather or Manny Pacquiao.
One man holds an honor that those future Hall of Fame inductees don’t. His name is Peter Buckley.
Buckley, 39, announced his retirement last week after a career that spanned two decades and 300 (yes, 300) fights. And he went out with a win, something that had only happened 31 times before.
Buckley’s ledger includes losses to some who would later become stars, including Acelino Freitas, Naseem Hamed (twice) and Scott Harrison (twice). But of those 256 (yes, 256) defeats, Buckley had only been knocked out 10 times.
Before this past Friday, Buckley had not won a match since October 2003, a span that included 89 fights without a victory. His final opponent? Matin Mohammed, who just 26 days beforehand, in his pro debut, had fought Buckley to a draw.
This time, Buckley came out with a four-round points win. His final record: 32 wins (eight by knockout), 256 losses and 12 draws.
4. Boxers Behaving Badly: Massachusetts cruiserweight Chris McInerney was arrested last week and charged with attempted murder after an apparent domestic dispute in which he allegedly punched, dragged and choked a woman, according to that state’s Stoughton Journal (via newenglandboxingpromoters.com).
McInerney, 29, has also been charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, witness intimidation and four counts of domestic assault and battery. He is free on $15,000 bail and is scheduled to appear in court in December.
The woman declined medical transport to a local hospital, though she later sought treatment on her own.
McInerney turned pro in 2004, and since then he has nine wins, six of which came by knockout, two losses and one draw. His last appearance was in March, a third-round defeat to some dude named Tim Flamos.
5. Thomas Hauser’s excellent post-fight feature on Bernard Hopkins’ October whitewash of Kelly Pavlik included the behind-the-scenes revelation that Pavlik entered the biggest challenge of his career on the tail end of a bout with bronchitis.
Hauser’s recent article supports what Pavlik said in interviews after his loss to Hopkins, that he wasn’t himself in the ring that night. But thankfully Pavlik never truly used his being sick as an excuse. Hopkins was the best man in the ring, and it seems certain the result would have been the same even had Pavlik come to the ring in peak health. The scores might have been a little bit closer, but Hopkins had the strategy, the smarts and the skills.
Hopkins proved so many doubters wrong. And now it is up to Pavlik to do the same with this new crop of second guessers.
6. Another interesting tidbit from Hauser’s article included a discrepancy involving the unofficial pre-fight weights HBO usually gets from boxers on the day of their bouts.
The official weigh-in had seen both fighters making the catch-weight of 170 pounds, with Pavlik a little bit under at 169 and Hopkins on the dot at 170. The next day, according to HBO, Pavlik had gained five pounds, bringing himself to 174, while Hopkins had gained 10, going up to 180.
That’s not what the numbers on the scales read, however.
Pavlik, who had a tracksuit on but no shoes, weighed 176 pounds. Hopkins, who had sneakers on, was 185 pounds. HBO apparently deducted two pounds and five pounds, respectively, for what the fighters were wearing.
Those numbers didn’t have any bearing on the fight’s outcome, but the apparent guesswork involved in deciding how much, say, a shirt, pants and a pair of shoes weigh, is worth noting.
7. The aforementioned Hopkins has been sued for allegedly failing to pay a masseur for rubdowns he received prior to his July 2007 fight with Winky Wright, according to legal documents obtained by entertainment news outlet TMZ.com.
Michael Marzulli, a Philadelphia-based massage therapist, claims Hopkins owes him $35,227.50 plus interest.
One question comes to mind: Could this be one of those rare cases involving a judge, a jury and The Executioner?
8. In other action last week, Sergiy Dzinziruk retained his junior-middleweight title with a unanimous decision win over Joel Julio, but that’s not the story.
The story is that Julio traveled to Germany in the first place.
Julio, once a highly touted, undefeated Colombian welterweight prospect, had bounced back since suffering his first loss in 2006 when Carlos Quintana out-boxed him over 12 rounds. Julio had won seven in a row, including a knockout of Cornelius Bundrage and a points victory against Ishe Smith.
He was on the verge of contending in an open 154-pound division. And he had options – he could face fellow rising star Sergio Martinez for an interim belt in the main event on last month’s episode of HBO’s “Boxing After Dark,” or he could challenge Dzinziruk overseas in an undercard fight that could get him a world title but little in the way of a post-victory bump in popularity.
The Martinez bout, according to Dan Rafael of ESPN.com, would’ve gotten Julio a payday of $125,000 and a potential (but not probable) showdown with the eventual winner of a rematch between Sergio Mora and Vernon Forrest (Forrest ended up winning).
Somehow, I think Julio made the right choice.
Martinez is an impressive talent. Had Julio lost, some may have considered him, as they had done following his loss to Quintana, shown to be at his limit against the best fighters. But with few in the United States seeing his defeat Saturday at the hands of Dzinziruk, he remains marketable, a potential opponent for other beltholders or for battles with the likes of Alfredo Angulo, James Kirkland or Ricardo Mayorga.
9. Dodgeball, an occasional update: Like the Washington Redskins of late, Aim Low has a habit of playing down to its level of opposition. And so while this team of destiny opened up with a 1-0 lead, it soon saw the scoreboard reading 2-1 in favor of the strangely named Braggingly Happy BGW.
The Redskins, a loss to the St. Louis Rams aside (which at this point is no longer as much of a sin), were able to buckle down and beat the Cleveland Browns and Detroit Lions. And Aim Low dug in, came back and won four straight games, coming out victorious by a score of 5-2. Team record: 2-0. This past week’s post-game beer of choice: Rogue Yellow Snow IPA.
10. Yes, I drank the Yellow Snow…
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
