By Cliff Rold

With little fanfare last Saturday night in Mexico, a man some viewed as the uncrowned Lightweight champion of the world lost that distinction.  Most reading here probably didn’t see it.  This scribe can be included with the most.  The final result read Antonio Pitalua (46-3, 40 KO) W KO6 Jose Armando Santa (26-4, 15 KO) Cruz.  There is more to be read between the lines.       

Over the course of 2008, Boxing fans have been treated to a number of high profile fights in the Lightweight division.

The kind of fights ending up on HBO…

…the kind of fights which pay.

Jose Armando Santa Cruz wasn’t in any of those fights. 

He should have been, or at least been in position.  Last November, Santa Cruz lost what was widely reviled as one of the worst decisions in recent years on the undercard of Shane Mosley-Miguel Cotto.  He stepped between the ropes into a perfect storm of sorts, fully prepared himself while facing a World Lightweight champion, Joel Casamayor, with over a years worth of rust.  He dropped Casamayor awkwardly in the first and continued to press the action throughout.  Both on their best days, Santa Cruz doesn’t beat Casamayor, but Boxing doesn’t happen in the vacuum of mythical matchmaking.

Some had Santa Cruz winning as many as ten rounds; few had him winning less than seven.  Unfortunately for Santa Cruz, two of the few had official say and he lost a split decision.  It wasn’t a particularly thrilling fight nor one folks will still be watching a generation from now. 

But the fight was his and he didn’t get it.  The Lightweight championship of the world was his and he didn’t get it.

He didn’t get a rematch when it was over.  He didn’t get a call from any of the name fighters, managers or promoters who saw the injustice for a big fight.  He went back to being Jose Armando Santa Cruz, a pretty good fighter with flaws, and now those flaws have been exposed again.  It’s what fate had in store for him.

It’s worth thinking about why fate sucked in this regard.

Of the many victims in Boxing’s long history who walked away from a fight crying ‘robbery,’ Santa Cruz wasn’t the highest profile.  Given Boxing’s place in the mainstream sports world below Golf these days, his loss wasn’t much more than a ripple in the pond.  It didn’t inflict the damage on the sport ‘draw’ verdicts in Pernell Whitaker-Julio Cesar Chavez or Lennox Lewis-Evander Holyfield I once did. 

His loss to Casamayor also wasn’t the worst call ever.  An oldie-but-goodie like Tyrone Everett-Alfredo Escalera was worse; so were the aforementioned.  Yet, when comparing the impact on the fighter, it doesn’t get much worse.  Sure, Everett met a tragic end shortly after the Escalera fight, but it’s a reach to lay the road from one event to another.

Think about the real impacts.  If Santa Cruz gets the decision last November, he walks away with WBC interim status, the Ring Magazine belt, and lineal recognition as champ.  That would have put him in line to face David Diaz for the whole bag of WBC marbles and put him in the crosshairs of Manny Pacquiao.  He’d faced Diaz once before, losing by late stoppage with a massive cards lead; he’d have had a chance to finish and cash in.  Is it to say Manny becomes an automatic?  No.  There are lots of variables; but his chances would have been pretty good.

We do know what Casamayor got with victory.  He got an HBO main event against Michael Katsidis and then he got a pay-per-view main event with Juan Manuel Marquez.  At the same time, Juan Diaz and Nate Campbell did battle for the WBA/IBF/WBO title strands and, after Campbell’s win, Santa Cruz could well have had a case for next.  We know Diaz and Katsidis rebounded from losses against each other. 

In a world where the November scores of Frank Lombardi and Ron McNair don’t read 114-113 for Casamayor, it’s tough to believe at least one of those paydays doesn’t come his way.  All fighters work towards the day where the big payday can arrive; a lot of them get to the brink and fail; Santa Cruz got there and was denied. 

Upon this latest defeat to Pitalua, it bears reflection.  The reality of Boxing, the hard lives that feed it and spring from it, predict a day when Santa Cruz will look for the extra dollars one of those big pay days he didn’t get would have provided.   It could be for something good, like a wedding or a child’s tuition, or for something not so good like a funeral or doctor’s care for a relative. 

It bears reflection because, unlike a Lennox Lewis or Pernell Whitaker, fighters who were stars on big stages long before they were on the wrong end of bad news and kept on being stars, fighters like Santa Cruz often only get one big shot.  They aren’t guys who are expected to or end up near the top for a lo0ng time.  When they make the most of the limited opportunity they get, success has a more pronounced upside.

Failure, or least a verdict rendered as failure, means a whole lot less cash and dangerous punchers like Pitalua.  It’s the human face of Boxing controversy.

Perhaps the most comparable story would be that of Dave Tiberi nearly a generation (My God, it’s really been that long) ago.  Tiberi was brought in to be the opponent for then-lineal World Middleweight king James Toney.  Toney was coming off of a career best performance against Mike McCallum that ended in a December 1991 draw with controversy of its own, all favorable to Toney.  Just shy of two months later, Tiberi was a chance for Toney to shine on ABC’s Wide World of Sports before the inevitable rematch with McCallum.

The wrong guy did the shining. 

After eating some massive power shots early on, Tiberi was still standing and Toney, already beginning to build the legacy of conditioning issues that plagued an otherwise awesome career, started cramping.  Tiberi kept punching, turning the tide of the fight and feeling of the crowd.  At the final bell, judge Frank Brunette had it for Tiberi, a score in line with many of the press and the ringside announcers.  Judges William Lerch and Frank Garza saw Toney win seven rounds few others did and that was the ball game.

Sort of.

Proving just how much bigger Boxing was then, Tiberi’s loss would lead to Congress asking questions.  In 2008, it would be difficult to think of many in Congress knowing the story of Jose Armando Santa Cruz much less knowing what he does for a living.  Tiberi, only 26, never fought again.  The politics did him in and, something he probably knew inside, he would never again get a Toney as vulnerable as the one he faced on February 8, 1992.  He could walk away with his head up and an eternal, invisible weight around his waist where his championship belt should have been. 

But it would have been nice to have the money which would have come with visible gold.

Same for Santa Cruz.  There is no shame in his losing last weekend and he’s not alone.  Many a fighter has walked away feeling robbed and lost not too long after, validating in some way to fans that no matter the injustice of a particular verdict, he really wasn’t World champion material anyways.  But he was, at least for a single night, and how different life might have been had history officially recorded it so.

The Weekly Ledger

But wait, there’s more.  There always is (or at least was for the last week):  For instance, there was:

Cliff’s Notes…

No real notes this week…Report card for Mosley-Mayorga forthcoming.

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