By Cliff Rold
The weekend began with a shroud of controversy on the gulf coast and an air of uncertainty in the desert. By the end of the night, all the negatives were replaced by what always turns frowns upside down: a damn good fight. Heading into the battle between Juan Manuel Marquez and Joel Casamayor, the question was which of the two counter-punchers would lead.
The answer was both as they came to fight for not only the win but also their futures. Something perhaps not considered enough by the skeptics (and I was loudly one of them) was just how much defeat meant for the man who suffered it. The margin of error is small in the modern business of Boxing. Fighters don’t fight enough to make their losses forgettable. At middle-age, defeat becomes even more damning. The new World Lightweight champion Marquez, 35, and Casamayor, 37, both ran the risk of becoming the ‘he’s too old’ opponent and fought like they wanted to avoid the fate.
Marquez’s right hand proved his fateful ticket to continuance. It was a fine performance. How does it stack versus the rest of the weekend?
Let’s go to the Report Card.
Marquez-Casamayor
Speed – Pre-Fight Grades: Casamayor B; Marquez B/Post-Fight: Marquez B+; Casamayor B
Power – Pre-Fight Grades: Casamayor B; Marquez B/Post Fight: Marquez B+; Casamayor B
Defense – Pre-Fight Grades: Marquez B+; Casamayor B/Post-Fight: Same
Intangibles – Pre-Fight Grades: Marquez A; Casamayor A/Post-Fight: Same
The only thing really bad to say is it’s too bad it couldn’t have happened sooner. Like Marquez’s battle with Marco Antonio Barrera last year, there is the unmistakable feel that the men involved were having a very good fight…for their age. Casamayor in particular showed the affects of 37 years. Early on, he was beating Marquez to the punch but notably slowed down in his reaction times as the fight wore on. Marquez gets credit for forcing the issue though; on any day of his career, Casamayor would have had trouble with the accurate right hand of Marquez. It would have been nice to see both at prime speed. Very good might well have become classic.
This is not to take away from what Boxing got. The level of psychology involved in the fight was magnificent. Marquez and Casamayor have always been thinking man’s fighters, and the ring intellect they’ve picked up was on full display. In the first two rounds, they took turns showing off their best weapons and then, as the rounds unfolded, took turns adjusting and readjusting to those weapons. From the fifth through eighth rounds, Marquez largely took away the left hand of Casamayor only for the Cuban to recreate the geography of the bout with subtle foot and head movement to get it back. The eleventh and final round saw Casamayor building momentum towards a strong finish only to have the bouts last adjustment be his end. Not all fighters can think with their bodies the way those two did and students of the game, both in and outside the ring, could find plenty to learn from on Saturday.
Vernon Forrest-Sergio Mora II
Speed – Pre-Fight Grades: Mora B+; Forrest B/Post-Fight: Forrest B+; Mora B
Power – Pre-Fight Grades: Forrest B; Mora D+/Post-Fight: Same
Defense – Pre-Fight Grades: Forrest B; Mora B/Post-Fight: Forrest B/Mora C+
Intangibles – Pre-Fight Grades: Mora B+; Forrest B/Post-Fight: Forrest & Mora A
On the undercard of Marquez-Casamayor, another 37 year old boxer was supposed to face his waterloo but instead made a man ten years his junior play Napoleon. Vernon Forrest’s performance in regaining the WBC Jr. Middleweight belt wasn’t a prime showing and he didn’t get any younger. However, he was in better shape, was more determined, and lives to fight another day. Of note, Mora’s attempts in the fights second half to turn the tempo up instead provided him a diet of hard right hands he couldn’t digest.
It was known in both their fight that Forrest hits harder than Mora, but on Saturday he was also getting off first and finishing flurries of action Mora started. In terms of intangibles, Forrest showed the professionalism to fight as if the first encounter hadn’t happened and Mora showed big heart and guts in staying on his feet and firing back up until the final bell. Mora won’t ever reach any pound-for-pound lists, but in his two bouts with Forrest he improved his sagging reputation, first in victory and then in gritty defeat. In a wide-open division, it is unlikely Mora won’t get chances to grab more belts. As to Forrest, it’s hard to say where he goes from here but a bout with WBO Welterweight titlist Paul Williams might not be a bad idea for either man.
Nate Campbell-Joan Guzman
Campbell: A
Guzman: F(’d)
On another network, in another part of the country, Mississippi fight fans were treated to an ESPN2 level main event on a Showtime card with WBC Jr. Welterweight titlist Timothy Bradley making easy work of Edner Cherry. It wasn’t supposed to be that way.
The inability of Joan Guzman to make weight and then to make the fight with WBA/WBO/IBF Lightweight beltholder Nate Campbell was ugly stuff and has been well covered here at BoxingScene (seriously…links abound on the main page). So why dish grades at all?
Because the behavior of Nate Campbell in his interview on Showtime merited it. He was composed and professional, masking the bitter disappointment this had to bring. He needed Guzman to polish his 2007, make his case for Fighter of the Year, and further his position in hopes of a serious money fight in 2009. He’s already got most of the division’s best fighters walled away from him in one way or another by Golden Boy Promotions and decreased visibility doesn’t help in shaming the shameful strategy of avoidance going on under a banner constantly spouting ‘the best need to fight the best.’ Marquez has histories claim to the Lightweight title, but Campbell’s win over Juan Diaz gave him the rights to feel like the people’s champ.
The debate will rage on. Marquez might be headed towards Juan Diaz while Campbell faces IBF mandatory Ali Funeka and perhaps even Marco Antonio Barrera. He and Campbell now share promoter Don King and the King could certainly sell that one.
For Guzman, this is a disaster the affects of which won’t be fully known until later. Already 32, his body will likely now reinflate during a suspension and, while he might walk around heavy, the former Jr. Featherweight titlist is unlikely to fit in well north of the Lightweight class. Lots of Boxing watchers are suckers for fighters who are avoided, romanticizing the big chance. Not many fighters who get their big chance after a decade of waiting so completely dump on it. That said, Guzman can’t weather this alone. His managers, trainers and promoters had to know, or should have known, what was going on behind the scenes. He never should have been allowed on that scale. They are as guilty as the fighter but, as is too often the case, the fighter will eat the burden alone.
It wasn’t enough to ruin an otherwise solid weekend, but it does remind of what kind of business Boxing can sink to sometimes.
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
