Weekend Review: Robberies or Many Compelling Fights?
By Terence Dooley
December started with a bang here in the UK with fans treated to an entire weekend of boxing as well as enough scorecard controversy, imagined or otherwise, to last them for at least three days. Martin Murray, Dereck Chisora, Brian Rose, Prince Arron and John Murray just some of the names in action over a forty eight hour period that was a real test for the attention span, Sky+ capacity and backsides of British boxing fans. Both Sky and BoxNation provided a deluge of coverage to launch the festive period and the action crisscrossed the continent before finishing over in New York for the heavily hyped, ultimately disappointing, Miguel Cotto-Antonio Margarito bill.
Friday – Mannheim, Germany: Felix Sturm-Martin Murray (WBA middleweight title)
Felix Sturm’s plan to bring over a strong, physically imposing British fighter with the initials MM in a bid to remove the stench left from his close but clear win over Matthew Macklin in June almost backfired when the judges returned a drawn decision after his tussle with St. Helens’s Martin Murray. Shocked, unjustly cheated of a win and plain robbed, Sturm, 36-2-2 (15), had every reason to feel aggrieved after seemingly pulling out a close but clear victory for the second time in succession only for the judges to disagree.
Viewed as a sacrificial lamb in some quarters ahead of the bout, Murray, now 23-0-1 (10), overcame a slow start, arguably 3-0 down after the first three, to work his way into the contest despite Sturm’s heavier handed work and overall control of the pace of the bout. As was the case with Macklin, Murray has been crowned the unofficial winner courtesy of Compubox punch stats, with the challenger registering a 76 punch edge, 258 blows landed overall to Sturm’s 182 according to the stats.
Whatever the truth when it comes to the figures, and don’t forget that the punch counts favoured Manny Pacquiao recently during his ‘Boxing 101’ lesson at the fists of Juan Manuel Marquez, they do not tell the whole story. If you do want to go solely by them you should pay close attention to Sturm’s greater accuracy as well as the fact that a lot of Murray’s punching was along the tap, tap, tap then bang lines, three relatively soft shots followed by a hefty wallop whereas Sturm powered home his blows.
My own card read 116-112 for Sturm, he boxed the better fight; Murray, though, boxed above and beyond anything he has produced in the past so this may have coloured one or two opinions. Either way, Martin proved that he can hang at this level, meaning he can skip the British/European treadmill that has wearied and worn out so many contenders in the past.
It is now up to Team Murray, headed by Hatton Promotions, to build on this fine platform in much the way Macklin did. The Birmingham-born boxer inked with middleweight kingmaker Lou DiBella and looks set to take on Sergio Martinez next. Perhaps it is time for HP and Matchroom to make a Murray-Barker domestic showdown to crown an unofficial ‘King Of The UK’ at 160lb?
Saturday – Helsinki, Finland: Robert Helenius-Dereck Chisora (EBU heavyweight title)
“I was robbed!” claimed Dereck Chisora, 15-2 (9), when speaking to the assembled press after his narrow defeat to Finland’s huge heavyweight hope Robert Helenius, 17-0 (11). Scores of 113-115, 113-115, 115-113 from Giuseppe Quartarone, Manuel Oliver Palomo and Leszek Jankowiak indicating that the fight may have boiled down to a difference of opinion over some of the close rounds. The cards backed this up, with the judges unanimous on rounds 1, 2, 4, 5 and 8 but split over the rest and the fight itself was close enough to be settled by your interpretation of the scoring criteria.
Man, what am I saying? “Robbery, robbery, the ref was crooked, the judges were paid for and the whole thing stank.”
As for the ref, Boxrec’s popular, and generally solid, British forum was awash with criticism of Adrio Zannoni after the contest, BoxNation’s Steve Bunce gave him a rocket also, then the cards are published on the forum, someone notices that the ref had noted that, ‘The challenger controlled the fight and at least deserved a draw’, under the scores and guess what, the man who was seen as an incompetent official incapable of fairly reffing the bout is suddenly able to badly ref the fight and yet score it brilliantly – a kind of inverted Terry O’Connor – except he didn’t did he because he gave it a draw. So that is as clear as mud, then
What is the story? Was it a conspiracy involving only two judges and a ref that has a Manchurian Candidate-esque ability to be both anti-Chisora and pro-draw? Or yet another fight on the continent in which the British boxer puts all his emphasis on aggression, meaty, often partially blocked, swings and body punching only to be undone by the guy who uses range, straight shots and cleaner punching.
Why aren’t British boxers learning their lesson, why do they keep going over to places like Germany and fighting a fight that would get them a win in the UK – where we never produce questionable decisions, apart from Tom Dallas versus Zack Page and Jamie Cox against Obodai Sai – but does not dissect the Coleman’s abroad?
Macklin, Murray and Chisora all fought brilliantly, the problem is that their opponents produced the kind of performance that earns a W on the continent. Football teams here in the UK adapt their style of play for European ties. Perhaps it is time for UK fighters to learn from this year’s reversals and box accordingly.
Alternatively, they can stay on their feet for twelve rounds, cry ‘robbery’ and return to the UK, where they can at least be the benefactors when close or poor decisions, sorry, ‘robberies’, occur. That is supposing the imported opponents survive the first flurry of the night from a British boxer without the ref jumping in.
Was Helenius-Chisora close? Yes. Did the right man win? Define ‘right’. Was this a conspiracy? Given that only two officials were in on it the answer must be ‘No’. It was just a very close fight witnessed by a bunch of people who go from 0 to ‘robbery’ by way of ‘Where are those punch stats’.
Wigan, Britain: Prince Arron-Brian Rose (British light-middleweight title)
Forget the latest Sturm storm; draw a line under Chisora’s night; the worst scorecard of the evening was turned in by our very own Phil Edwards after twelve rounds of boxing dominated by Blackpool’s Brian Rose. Phil turned in a 115-114 card in favour of Arron, who was clearly and widely beaten, with scores of 113-116 and 113-117, from Victor Loughlin and John Keane respectively, overriding Phil’s abomination and ensuring that Rose, who improves to 18-1-1 (5), held aloft the British belt.
That card was a disgrace, the claim that hard working British lads go away to the continent only to get robbed fade in the face of the realisation that we don’t have to travel to feel the sting of poor scoring, they can just as easily get jobbed on these shores. If Loughlin had seen one or two more rounds differently then talk of Chisora’s poor fortune would be buried under an avalanche of home grown controversy.
Rose’s largely dominant, punch perfect display deserved better than Edwards’s tally, the 26-year-old is now the deserved holder of the Lonsdale belt and Arron, so impressive when winning the belt from Sam Webb, will have to lick his wounds and regroup after falling to 21-4-1 (4).
Indeed, it is hard to criticise continental judges whilst keeping a straight face. The officials were split in the Helenius-Chisora fight, with the ref seemingly throwing down a draw, yet the scores are close enough to exonerate the men who went for Helenius, it was that type of fight.
British judges, however, are turning in some amazingly off beam scores, and will probably continue to do so as long as fans focus on the continental scene or start banging the drum after an injustice only to lose interest once the next weekend’s boxing rolls into view. Anyone remember the flurry of complaints after Cox-Sai, no? That is because bigger controversies came along and no one really cares that Sai lost his belt, it was a soap box issue for a few days and was then dropped like a stone, probably weighed down by notions of British fair play and accurate judging.
The lesson to be taken from these three championship fights? A split card is a real shame, it does little for both men and often leads to spurious cries of ‘robbery’, but some of the cards that have popped up in the UK this season, with Phil’s tally the icing on the cake, are shameful. We should put our own house in order before pouring scorn across the water.
New York, USA: Brandon Rios-John Murray (Rios misses the weight, WBA lightweight title only on the line for Murray)
BoxNation’s first subscription weekend was topped by the rematch between Miguel Cotto, a badly faded former golden boy who has lost a lot of what made him effective, versus Antonio Margarito, a one-eyed cheat, for yet another spurious WBA title, the ‘Super’ world light-middleweight title, although it would have been the ‘Sullied’ title had Margarito won it.
Cynical, horrible and with a build up that was car crash TV, the fight itself was one that had to happen after the controversy that blew up months after their first meeting when Antonio and his then-trainer, Javier Capetillo, were found guilty of loading the Mexicans wraps ahead of his meeting with Shane Mosley.
A ban followed by an almighty beating at the hands of Manny Pacqiauo, in a fight that was beyond cynical and would have been derided had Floyd Mayweather taken it, was viewed as a just punishment for Margarito’s crimes, yet another top level bout his reward for taking Manny the distance. A horrible fight in a jaded sport, the rematch saw Cotto glean something analogous to the type of grim enjoyment you gain from an act of revenge sex on a former partner after the doctors rescued Antonio due to his badly damaged right eye in the tenth to signal the end of an anti-climatic meeting.
The undercard featured Britain’s John Murray. The Manchester-based lightweight was out-weighed, out-gunned and almost out-machismo’d by Brandon Rios, who stopped his 25-year-old opponent at 2:06 of the eleventh ahead of a move to light-welterweight.
Murray hung with Rios, 29-0-1 (22), early in the bout before picking up eye damage and taking a sustained beating from the eighth onwards, referee Earl Brown wisely halted the bout late in the penultimate round in a move that smacked of compassion for the visitor, who was doing well on the cards when the end came and was trying to get to Rios when the ref ended the bout.
Although almost ruined by Brandon’s errant weight, the contest was a feel good one in many ways, vindicating John’s repeated claim that he is the Martini Rosso of British boxing: he’ll fight anyone, anytime, any place, anywhere. Murray allowed a photo of his bruised face to be posted online the next day and has ignored calls to retire, stating that he wants to have more thrilling fights like the Rios and Kevin Mitchell (an eighth round stoppage in July) bouts.
“That was a pure robbery. I won by at least four rounds. We shoulda stood in bed!” Murray’s post-fight reaction. Actually, that is a lie, the 31-2-0 (18) brawler stated that, “I didn’t want to come away from a world title fight thinking I ¬hadn’t put everything on the line. I want more fights like this. I showed the Americans that I’m all-action and hope they’ll have me over again,” when speaking about his second defeat of 2011. Murray’s record of 31 consecutive wins is now in the past but some solid domestic fights beckon, not bad for a fighter once repeatedly and inaccurately accused of shirking big fights/names.
Win, lose, draw or ‘robbery’ (a combination of the three) Murray, Chisora, Rose, Arron and Murray will be welcomed back to our TV screens during 2012 and are sure to be involved in more meaningful, perhaps contentious, action during the coming year.
Please send news and views to neckodeemus@hotmail.co.uk or Twitter @Terryboxing.
