By Lee Groves
This past weekend was a busy one with telecasts on ESPN2, Fox Sports Net, pay-per-view and Argentina’s Torneos y Competencias channel on DirecTV.
It was a wonderful way to spend a snowbound weekend and, as usual, the thoughts flowed freely as I watched from the comfort of the easy chair inside the Home Office.
Here are only some of them:
* There’s nothing like a great neighborhood turf war to kick off a fully loaded boxing weekend. The rivalry between featherweights Antonio Escalante and Miguel Roman dated back to childhood and their savage 10-rounder on ESPN’s "Friday Night Fights" confirmed that they carried their long-held grudges into the squared circle.
This was no boxing match; this was a full-out war that had all the passion, excitement and drama that makes boxing such a gripping spectacle. As Roman struck a defiant cross-armed pose in round nine, one could almost picture a bully-versus-target dynamic playing out, but unlike those long ago days Escalante was fully prepared to answer the challenge.
Although the scorecards were lopsidedly in Escalante’s favor, Roman’s grit and determination made this fight a memorable contest – and a potential Closet Classic.
* I tuned into one of the many Fox Sports Net affiliates to record the tape-delayed broadcast of the "Fight Night Club" card topped by Victor Ortiz’s 10th round TKO over Hector Alatorre.
I don’t know who was in charge of editing at the affiliate, but this person needs a refresher course. At the start of round four of Charles Huerta-Guadalupe DeLeon, a Fox Sports Net logo came on screen and the voice-over declared "due to time constraints we now move ahead in our coverage on FSN."
When the broadcast resumed, only 21 seconds of action had been chopped off. The preceding announcement had chewed up nine seconds, so you mean to tell me that the affiliate couldn’t find an extra 12 seconds to make sure the entire fourth round was shown?
When I attempted to record the same fight later that night, it was TWICE interrupted by the same pre-emptive message. C’mon guys, you’re better than that – or at least you should be.
* The weekly TyC broadcast featured a pair of outstanding knockouts as junior welterweight Oscar Nunez flattened Juan Cuellar with a crunching right to the jaw while Jesus Cuellar restored his surname’s honor with a one-round blowout of Lucas Baez.
The Cuellar-Baez fight ended with a well-delivered hook to the jaw that caused Baez to execute a dramatic slow-motion collapse to the ground. Pretty spectacular stuff.
Oddly enough, the two fights that followed between lightweights Pedro Irusta and Federico Malaspina and junior welterweights Abel Casco and Miguel Barrionuevo each ended in a four-round draw. Go figure.
* Junior middleweight Gabriel Rosado doesn’t have a glossy record (14-4, 8 KO), but he is always a tough out and if a fighter is not totally on his game he’s going to get burned. Saul Roman found that out Saturday night when he suffered a wicked vertical cut over his right eye and a Rosado stretch drive en route to a split decision defeat.
I first saw Rosado’s determination when I punch-counted his upset eight round decision over previously unbeaten James Moore at Brooklyn’s Aviator Sports Arena in June 2008. While he has gone a modest 4-2 since then he consistently gives it his all no matter who he fights.
His dogged persistence paid off against Roman and he deserves kudos for the way he plies his trade. I say this because it’s easy for solid guys like Rosado to go through the motions and collect checks, but he fights like a man who still has ambitions in this game.
Who knows, if he strings together a few more good wins he may yet get his shot at fulfilling some of those dreams.
* The dual-site pay-per-view topped by Wilfredo Vazquez-Marvin Sonsana and Rodel Mayol-Omar Nino Romero had a little bit of everything – good and bad.
The three-fight undercard on the Bayamon portion was dreadful in terms of competition but fulfilling if one wanted to see NASCAR-style crunch-ups. Local attractions Carlos Negron, McWilliams Arroyo and twin brother McJoe Arroyo took a combined nine minutes and 10 seconds to dispose of Roy Ashworth, Eliecer Sanchez and Giovanni Rivera respectively.
For those looking to witness potential stars of the future, Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. scored a scintillating fourth-round destruction of Filipino teen-ager Marvin Sonsona to not only capture the WBO super bantamweight title but also follow in his father’s footsteps.
Wilfredo Vazquez Sr. knocked out Raul Perez in three similarly spectacular rounds in March 1992, doing so in Perez’s home country. While it was considered an upset at the time, Vazquez Sr. went on to defend the belt honorably, then capture a third WBA belt at featherweight in his mid-30s.
Will "WV2" follow the same path? Only time will tell but he’s off to an excellent start.
* When the scene shifted to Guadalajara, things got weird.
A highly questionable 10th round stoppage marred what had been a grueling back-and-forth battle between lightweights Daniel Estrada and Angel Alirio Rivero. Referee Stephen Blea intervened after Estrada tossed a right to the jaw that landed clean but lacked real force.
The move had the smell of home cooking as it benefited a Mexican over a Venezuelan, and the crowd’s boos indicated that they didn’t believe in the stoppage’s purity either. Rivero was throwing back at the moment Blea stepped in and given the circumstances, Rivero should have been given the opportunity to at least finish on his feet.
It was just another example of events that force us who love boxing to defend it to those who don’t understand its appeal, and in cases like these it’s a losing argument.
* Whatever stench the Estrada-Rivero ending engendered could have been exacerbated by the Mayol-Romero ending.
For those who did not see it, Romero landed a very low right hand in round three, a blow that caused Mayol to drop both hands to his side. Referee Vic Drakulich raced in from behind, put both arms on Romero’s shoulders and yelled "stop," with the clear intent of calling a time-out to let Mayol recover. But before Drakulich could complete the necessary steps, Romero struck the defenseless champ with a hook to the jaw that knocked Mayol down for the count.
It would have been convenient, and popular, for the WBC to rule Romero – a Guadalajara native – the new champion. At first it appeared that would be the case as Romero and his camp began a victory celebration.
For once, however, cynicism didn’t rule the day. To the credit of WBC vice president Mauricio Sulaiman, commission members and Drakulich, cooler heads and common sense eventually prevailed.
As Mayol was carried out on a stretcher, a conference was held at ringside – one that may have included instant replay. After a period of consultation, Sulaiman himself came into the ring and explained the situation to Romero – the bout would be declared a technical draw (though it really should be a "no contest") with Mayol retaining his title.
It was announced to the crowd that an immediate rematch would be pursued, a move that somewhat placated the local audience.
Mexico is among many countries that regularly face accusations of provincialism. This fight marks a welcome reversal from what occurred in December 2007 in Cancun when hometown hero Rodolfo Lopez fought previous conqueror Naoki Matsuda in a bout billed as a WBC featherweight title eliminator.
A clean right hand produced a cut over Perez’s left eye, a cut that steadily worsened until the ringside physician waved off the fight between rounds eight and nine. Perez’s corner furiously tried to convince referee Laurence Cole that the cut had been caused by a headbutt.
Such a ruling would’ve sent the fight to the scorecards, at which point Lopez would’ve won by majority decision. Cole didn’t budge, however, and when it became clear to Lopez that he was about to lose a second time to Matsuda he threw a punch at the celebrating Japanese contingent (an action for which he later apologized).
Matsuda left the ring believing he had a TKO victory but the Boxing Commission of Cancun changed the result to a no-contest, preventing Matsuda from parlaying his two wins over Lopez into a title shot against then-champ Jorge Linares. WBC president Jose Sulaiman added fuel to the fire by offering this justification: "We are tired of them unfairly taking away Mexicans’ deserved victories, mostly in the country to the north, and we will not allow it to happen in our own homeland."
The fairest resolution was to have let Matsuda’s TKO victory stand and let Linares-Matsuda happen with the strict condition that Lopez would get first crack at the winner. Of course, that didn’t happen – Guty Espadas Jr. stopped Matsuda in two rounds and Linares moved on to win the WBA 130-pound belt.
Fast-forward from then to now. The shenanigans of December 2007 were replaced with something foreign to boxing – levelheaded integrity. A freakish set of circumstances could have provided more grist for the anti-boxing faction but thanks to some statesmanship all that was avoided. Boxing and statesmanship – imagine that?
* Finally, Rodel Mayol-Omar Nino Romero sparked memories of two other fights where the winner was carried off on a stretcher.
The first took place In November 1994 – coincidentally in Mexico City – when Luis Santana "won" the WBC super welterweight title when a blow that barely grazed the back of his head prompted the veteran to lay motionless on the canvas for more than 10 minutes.
The second took place in January 1996 in Miami when Juan Coggi and defending WBA super lightweight champion Frankie Randall met in the second of their three fights. The pair violently cracked heads in the fifth and while Randall walked to his corner holding his head, Coggi walked to his, then collapsed to the canvas where he lay until he was carried out of the arena.
Coggi won by one-point on all three cards and for the second time Randall lost a title on a rules technicality. The first time occurred in his second fight with Julio Cesar Chavez, which ended on an eight-round technical decision in May 1994.
The difference between these two fights and Mayol-Romero was that Santana and Coggi appeared to be losing fighters with something to gain by staying on the canvas and drawing a potential DQ while Mayol was still very much in the fight.
March promises to be another active month for boxing, and surely more "thoughts" will leap to mind as I take in the action along with you. Let’s hope they are positive ones.
E-mail Lee Groves at lgroves@hughes.net
