By Cliff Rold

With the long hot summer fully underway, boxing 12-month season reaches its halfway mark without knowing where it will end up.   The biggest fight which can be made is the same one which fell apart to start the year, Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao, and close to a quarter of a billion dollars in revenue could ride on the answer to will they or won’t they.

In the meantime, the sports two biggest stars stayed active with dominant wins while the rest of the game rolled on.   Boxing has seen memorable action all over the scale with careers redefined at Flyweight and Bantamweight, coronations in the storied Welterweight and Middleweight classes, and the ongoing development of the “Super Six” Super Middleweight tournament.

It sets the stage for a fascinating second half which will determine who advances in the “Six,” who will rule Lightweight, and whether the Heavyweight tandem of Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko can find something they have lacked in recent vintage: a genuine threat.

All the news has not been in the ring.   Boxing has also seen tragedy in 2010 of a sort even the heart wrenching 2009, which saw the losses of Arturo Gatti, Vernon Forrest, and Alexis Arguello, could not have predicted.   Closer in tone to professional wrestling’s savage Chris Benoit murder/suicide, unbeaten knockout artist Edwin Valero took first the life of his wife and then later his own in a Venezuelan jail.   Heads still shake at the senselessness of it all.

Boxing fans can hope for only fistic surprises for the rest of the year.   They’ve had their share already, none more pleasant than what was found in the man who leads the field for Fighter of the Year honors so far.

Fighter of the Half-Year: Sergio Martinez

Everyone loves a human interest story.   Boxing fans like theirs with blood and guts.   Bullied as a kid and having picked up the sport later in life than most, at a surprising 20 years of age, Sergio Martinez (45-2-2, 24 KO) proved the freshest faced 35-year old boxing has seen in some time.   He fulfilled the human and inhuman obligations of story along the way.   Martinez splashed into the American consciousness in 2008 with an HBO-televised win over Alex Bunema and improved his standing in a narrow defeat to Paul Williams in late 2009.  

Granted the opportunity in April to win one of the sport’s most prestigious and storied titles, Martinez did not disappoint.   Middleweight Champion Kelly Pavlik fell behind early only to roar back, dropping Martinez in the seventh and seizing the initiative.  

Then, in round nine, Martinez seized in right back.

As reported by Jake Donovan :

His ability to avoid the incoming somehow eluded him in the ninth, as Martinez turned up the aggression. Enough left hands scored to open up a cut over Pavlik’s right eye, providing enough motivation for Martinez to let his hands go for the first time since early in the fight. 

While the cut over Pavlik’s left eye was manageable, the one over the right eye was a gusher, and his corner did a poor job of trying to stop it. Martinez used it as a bullseye, jabbing and shooting straight lefts in rapid fire succession. 

The ringside physician paid a visit to Pavlik’s corner prior to the championship rounds to examine the cuts. Assurances were made by his corner that their fighter was fit to continue, but it was Martinez who continued to control the action in the 11th round. Pavlik stood center ring, but it was virtual target practice for Martinez, who landed flush lefts at will while dancing around and playing to a crowd that was anything but amused with the theatrics. 

It was all business in the 12th and final round for both fighters, but it was Martinez who continued to control the tempo. 

A left hand sent Pavlik to the ropes early on and the round never got any better for the soon to be ex-champion. Martinez slowed things down but was still ruling the real estate. More left hands busted open the cut over Pavlik’s right eye, who ended the fight with blood pouring down his face and having lost the last four rounds in a monumental collapse. 

Still, if Martinez learned anything from past fights, it’s to never take the final outcome for granted. Having been screwed by the judges in each of his last two fights, the transplanted Argentinean finally caught a break on the cards, with all three judges scoring heavily in his favor to mark a new era in the middleweight division.   

It’s impossible to say just how long the Martinez era will last but that history will record a Martinez era at all is remarkable enough.   If he finds his way into a rematch with Williams, and wins, Martinez will have a heck of a shot to be at the top of the heap when Fighter of the Year honors are handed out.

Other Notables… The choice was close between Martinez and Bantamweight Fernando Montiel .   After a short stint as a Flyweight titlist and a couple of Jr. Bantamweight runs, Montiel was up and down in his third weight class.   He looked great in a pair of title fights but merely escaped in a non-title affair with Alejandro Valdez.   Great looks were back in vogue in a unification bout with long reigning titlist Hozumi Hasegawa in Japan.   Montiel scored a fourth round stop in his defining performance after a decade as one of the world’s best… Floyd Mayweather overcame second round pain against Shane Mosley with ten rounds of utter domination to retake his claim to the lineal World Welterweight title in the year’s biggest fight so far...When fighters lose titles after setting a division’s consecutive title defense record, those titles have historically almost always remained lost.   Thailand’s Pongsaklek Wonjongkam , who posted 17 defenses from 2001-07, bucked trends with a precision performance against much younger Japanese superstar Koki Kameda to regain the lineal Flyweight honors in March.  

Fighters can be memorable but it is their fights that make them so and the race for Fight of the Year, so far, is in many ways still waiting to be run.

Fight of the Half-Year: Mikkel Kessler-Carl Froch

This category came very close to being left at none.   2010 has seen a number of good fights, some (as is the case with the selection made) qualify as very good.   This year has yet to produce more than that though; has yet to produce the sort of lasting classic which typically seals the honors as the Fight of the Year.

Choices must be made and the fight which comes closest to greatness so far is the fight which also stands as the highlight contest of the “Super Six” Super Middleweight tournament through two rounds.   Kessler (43-2, 32 KO), a former unified titlist at 168 lbs., lost a chance to be the man in 2007 when he was outdueled by Joe Calzaghe.   The WBA title he picked up after that fight was lost in his tournament opener to Andre Ward.   Questions were asked about whether the Dane was slipping, whether he had enough in the tank for rugged Brit Carl Froch (26-1, 20 KO).   Over twelve rounds, they would take the measure of one another. 

As recapped on April 25 :

…Kessler struck first with a light left jab and both men took turns on the stick before Froch opened and missed with a looping right.  He wouldn’t miss near the minute mark with a sweeping left and Kessler struggled to land clean with harshly intended power shots as the opening frame progressed.  Kessler began the second round with more focus, doubling the jab and whipping straight lefts to the body.  Froch responded while circling with jabs of his own, letting Kessler stalk while looking for counters, but ate leather to the ribs whenever Kessler went downstairs.   

Round three began as the previous two had, Kessler jabbing but the Dane was increasingly aggressive as the round wore on.  Froch ripped in with a flush right at the midway point but Kessler showed no affect, still pressing and beating a steady volume of blows.  Down the stretch, both men took their turns at each other with wild power shots that looked better than they were.

It was in the middle of the fourth that Froch struck again with the right hand, jarring Kessler, but it was a small highlight in a round controlled by the consistency of his foe.  Kessler stayed active behind the jab and matched Froch’s right in the closing seconds with one of his own, appearing to claim possibly three of the first four rounds.

Froch rebounded dramatically in the fifth round, right hands and sneaky left hooks catching Kessler throughout three minutes, forcing him off balance.  A short trip to the canvas appeared at first to be Kessler suffering a knockdown but replays showed three missing blows and tangled feet.   Kessler answered in the sixth, if in less hammering fashion, letting his hands go when Froch backed to the ropes and employing better head movement than he had the round before.  Froch engaged in the final thirty seconds but Kessler kept pace enough to keep the round from being stolen. 

Both battlers struggled to land the best of their arsenals for most of round seven but Kessler’s jab landed plenty and a pair of heavy, connecting rights in the closing seconds brought his countrymen to their feet.  The second of them struck Froch to the back of the head as the Brit turned away but a brief attempt at complaint fell on deaf ears.  Kessler maintained his momentum in the eighth, his biggest moment of the bout coming with a minute left in the round.

A right hand wobbled Froch, but the titlist kept his feet and braced as Kessler came forward with both hands and backed him into the corner.  Dodging and weaving, Froch worked his way back to mid-ring, eluding a volley of blows from Kessler but heading to the corner with a cut on his nose. 

Fighting with a confidence not seen since prior to his losing battle against Joe Calzaghe in 2007, Kessler stayed pressing, his hands moving, in the ninth and Froch had little answer until the final minute when a couple of rights and a wide left connected.  A cut was opened near the end of the round over the left eye of Kessler but whether it was caused by a punch was unclear.

Only three rounds remained, Kessler seeming to have a commanding lead, and the former champion ripped a left uppercut to the chin of Froch only seconds into the tenth to keep command.  A landing right from Froch brought two Kessler hooks to the body in response, Kessler pawing between exchanges at the cut.  In the final minute, both men let loose with winging blows, Kessler having the last word with a right near the corner.   

With a bruising raised under his right eye, Kessler stepped into the final six minutes and found a Froch not ready to part with his belt or undefeated mark.  After a measured first minute, both men went to work with bombs, Froch shaking Kessler with a right at the middle point of the round and Kessler landing a snappy left hook in return.  Closing in on a minute left, Kessler crashed home to the face of Froch with a right hand and a partly landed left hook near the ropes, Froch stepping back and missing with a nasty right hand.  They traded rabbit punches in a short clinch, quickly separated by referee Michael Griffin and then resuming the action.   

Kessler missed a left and right, Froch covering and taking a step back.  A right hand was blocked by the guard of Kessler but it created an opening for a Froch left uppercut and right hand right behind it.  Kessler clinched, perhaps buzzed, and his offense was made up of token blows as Froch came on down the stretch of a fantastic round. 

A double jab and right hand started the final round for Kessler, Froch missing his first few powerful attempts.  Another double jab and right landed before a minute was gone, shortly followed with a clipping left hook.  A right hand and left hook laced Froch in the middle of the round as the crowd built to a fever behind Kessler.  Froch missed with two rights, then another, but then found a series of left hooks.  

With a minute to go it was bedlam, Kessler striking with the right hand and firing, if mostly missing, while Froch was to the ropes.  A Froch right hand caught Kessler and suddenly it was Froch coming forward, an exhausted Kessler grabbing hold of Froch after tasting a slinging left.  With ten second to go, Kessler launched a final assault, landing lefts and rights thrown with what he had left in the tank, both warriors smiling at each other as the final bell rang. 

Celebrating in the corner well before the cards were read, there could be no surprise when the scores came in 117-111, 116-112, and 115-113 for Kessler.  

Kessler-Froch will struggle to hold on the top spot with fights like Chad Dawson-Jean Pascal and Juan Manuel Marquez-Juan Diaz II on tap (not to mention Froch-Arthur Abraham), but that won’t make the fight itself any less memorable. 

Other Notables …With less fanfare but violence every bit as compelling as the top pick, Antonio Escalante got by rival Featherweight Miguel Roman in a savage affair last February…Jr. Bantamweights Hugo Cazares and Nobuo Nashiro didn’t match quite as well for the full twelve rounds the second time around, but the last quarter was as rough as one could ask for as Cazares avenged a 2009 draw and won a belt in his second weight class… Yohnny Perez-Abner Mares were deadlocked after twelve in Bantamweight title action but the fans who saw it steal the show from Rafael Marquez-Israel Vazquez IV were winners in seeing the rousing draw… Librado Andrade recovered from his first stoppage loss to score a stop of his own and end the comeback of former titlist Eric Lucas in a fight eons better than anyone could have expected…The same could be said of the sort-of coming out party for Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. who proved he is at least a cut above John Duddy .   Time will tell how much that’s worth but the Chavez decision win made for a memorable affair.

And now, fans, pundits, and fighters alike await the second half.

Weekly Ledger

Cliff’s Notes… Ghana 2, U.S. 1, me hearing another stupid vuvuzela, 0…Marco Antonio Barrera continues on and maybe against Humberto Soto for a Lightweight belt.   Anthony Peterson is Soto’s mandatory and has been for a minute and his wait for a Lightweight shot is ridiculous…Shane Mosley-Sergio Mora on pay-per-view?   Hey, at least it’s not eating up budget funds from the networks…Hugo Cazares gets an easy one at 115 this weekend but wouldn’t a war against Vic Darchinyan be great?   Hint hint…What’s the difference between Michael Spinks and Fedor Emelianenko?   Twenty-two seconds of course.

Cliff Rold is a member of the Ring Magazine Ratings Advisory Panel and the Boxing Writers Association of America.   He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com