By Lyle Fitzsimmons
Some stream-of-consciousness observations from last Saturday night.
1. Perspective was reality… even a week later.
Following the live PPV broadcast of Margarito-Cotto on July 26, indictments of the network’s Lampley-Kellerman announce team were plentiful from both sides of the consensus courtroom.
Many who’d picked Margarito blasted the duo for its seemingly blatant homer treatment of house fighter Cotto. Meanwhile, to those who’d leaned toward the Puerto Rican welterweight coming in, it seemed the pair’s comments lauding the Mexican’s constant pressure ignored the consistently one-sided nature of exchanges - usually won by Cotto - on between-rounds highlight packages.
Only one thing changed the second time around.
Somehow, Emanuel Steward sounded even better in August.
While the “Boxing After Dark” rebroadcast was again replete with Lampley and Kellerman’s breathless superlatives, it was economical third man Steward who alone seemed to sense what would happen from the minute the fighters engaged in round one.
The Kronk guru was prescient and precise in fleeting opportunities to speak amid the blather, correctly forecasting as early as round three - even as Cotto was putting rounds in the bank - that the stretch run would ultimately provide a devastating and withering challenge.
He reiterated when given the chance in each subsequent round, ominously and correctly claiming far ahead of the curve that “Cotto has won pretty much every round, but the momentum is definitely going toward Margarito” in the seventh.
And two rounds later, when Cotto sat on the middle rope while eluding a Margarito onslaught, Steward cleverly and accurately pointed out, “The next step from the middle rope is the floor, and he’ll be sitting there if he doesn’t do something soon.”
Though he’s not so clear in his viewpoints every time out and oft-times gets lost under the dueling profundities of his colleagues, Steward was as consistently and devastatingly effective outside the ring on fight night as Margarito was in it on Cotto.
One classic match. Two classic performances. Bravo Emanuel.
2. I really wanted to like Zab Judah, but, well… I can’t.
A few years ago he was a front-running punk with a nice left hand and a reticence to mix it up.
But since the 2006 melee with Floyd Mayweather Jr. in Las Vegas, it seemed the “Super” man had grown up. The perpetual in-ring nonsense stopped, and, over 11 punishing rounds with Miguel Cotto a year later, he displayed as much resolve in one defeat as he had in 34 victories.
That’s why at least part of me was rooting for him to succeed against Josh Clottey on Saturday.
Nothing against the Ghanaian - I picked him to win, after all - but at least a part of me hoped Judah, with his tight 143-pound physique and newfound focus and determination, would finally live up to claims and prove his days as an elite weren’t quite through.
As it turned out… we got a little of both.
Though he was again as impressive in adversity as he‘d ever been in prosperity, the 30-year-old took a backward step in welterweight relevance by dropping a technical decision for the IBF belt, then did nothing to curry favor with a whiny post-fight rant that blatantly ignored reality unfolding on replay screens throughout the Palms Casino.
“We knew about the head butts. It was strongly addressed before the fight and yet it happened over and over and over,” Judah said, claiming an ugly gash over his right eye was caused by a foul and not the left uppercut/straight right combination clearly illustrated on video.
“The whole arena says I won this fight. It hurts. It hurts. But I’m the people’s champion, y’all know that.”
Actually Zab, not so much.
Though he was effective with flashy combinations in the first round and intermittently thereafter, Judah was clearly taking more than he was giving as the bout wore on - a disparity viscerally illustrated by persistent trickles of blood from his nose and gradually worsening swelling on his eyes and cheekbones.
The cut was merely the last straw of a persistent Clottey attack, signaling Judah’s final stand as an elite while elevating the winner to a competitive stratosphere that includes unification with WBC champ Andre Berto in the short term and perhaps a rematch with new overall kingpin Margarito in the long term.
And regardless of what they might tell Zab when he returns to Brooklyn, a recent career resume that includes wins over Edwin Vazquez and Ryan Davis sandwiched amid losses to Carlos Baldomir, Mayweather, Cotto and Clottey is most indicative of where the 2008 vintage Judah truly stacks up.
“Over two consecutive weeks, what we’ve seen was not so much substance over style - because all four men had plenty of substance - but in the end a question of who really does want it more,” Kellerman said correctly.
“No one wants it more than Antonio Margarito, but it’s clear that Joshua Clottey definitely wants it a whole lot.”
3. Retired or not… the “Pretty Boy” is “Money”
OK, last but not least this week can we finally give this Mayweather bashing a rest?
Kellerman’s show-ending soliloquy - the latest in a network series aimed at the former five-division champion - was predictably long on wind and supposition, but conveniently short on facts and logic.
To claim Floyd’s legacy is somehow lacking, after a career that featured 39 straight wins and a multi-year run of world-class victims, seems more a product of personal distaste than an actual deficiency.
Unlike many who claim multi-class status, Mayweather has faced and beaten the best along the way - including 38-1-1 Genaro Hernandez and 33-0 Diego Corrales at 130, consensus No. 1 Jose Luis Castillo (twice) at 135, fan-favorite tough guy Arturo Gatti at 140 and returning elitist Oscar De La Hoya at 154.
He was a pristine 4-for-4 over two years as a welterweight, scoring dominant wins over a linear champion (Baldomir), a once-removed undisputed champion (Judah) and an unbeaten media darling claimant (Hatton) that saw him take 85 of a possible 99 rounds over nine judges’ scorecards.
Was he always a great guy along the way? Maybe not.
Did he approach fights late in his career with a businessman’s eye? Yes.
But he’s hardly the first to be guilty of either. And while Kellerman was so eloquently trashing him for “ducking” Margarito, he was ignoring the point he’d made moments earlier about the Tijuana Tornado’s reticence to face Clottey again because he wasn’t the most lucrative option out there.
If Floyd takes him up on the offer to return… I hope he’s got his crow seasonings ready.
Lyle Fitzsimmons is a full voting member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Reach him via e-mail at fitzbitz@msn.com.
