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They never surrendered
by Graham Houston
Main Body:
TUESDAY, AUG. 15: Never giving up does not always equate to coming out a winner, but a fighter willing to keep punching till the last gasp is always going to be in the fight.
Oleg Maskaev’s win over Hasim Rahman surprised me, while David Diaz’s come-from-behind stoppage of Jose Armando Santa Cruz surprised me even more.
Each underdog in Las Vegas last Saturday showed a willingness to endure. Each won the battle of the wills.
Maskaev had been battling a back problem in training camp. A chiropractor had been brought in. The fighter’s roadwork and gym work had been affected.
When I spoke with Maskaev’s trainer, Victor Valle Jr., over the phone before the fight he told me: “I am a Christian and a believer in Jesus and I cannot lie to you, but things are not going right at the moment. I can’t tell you any more than that.”
I took this as a remark made in confidence and I did not use it in my preview in Boxing Monthly or on this website.
After the fight, though, Valle confirmed that he was concerned. If it had been just an everyday fight he would have pulled Maskaev out, he said, but this was too big a chance to forgo at this stage in the 37-year-old’s career.
So, Maskaev fought, gritted it out and won — he even suffered a sprained left thumb in the fight, Valle said.
David Diaz gritted it out, too. Although Jose Armando Santa Cruz was winning the fight he was having to battle it out in every round. Diaz was there to fight all night. Santa Cruz would let fly with sequences of punches, and there was Diaz, coming right back at him as soon as the bell went for the next round. That can be discouraging for a fighter as the rounds keep rolling by. As with Maskaev, Diaz’s spirit was unbreakable.
These fights also showed that a player can never be sure, no matter how well his pick might be doing, until the fight is over and the verdict is in. Jose Armando Santa Cruz won every one of the first nine rounds on Harold Lederman’s TV scorecard but at ringside I could sense the physical and mental strain that Diaz was putting him under. I never, ever thought that Santa Cruz had it in the bag. The line from the Kenny Rogers song The Gambler is applicable here: “You never count your money when you’re sittin’ at the table.”
You never count your money if you’ve bet against a big-hearted fighter such as a David Diaz.
Speaking about counting money, one of the site’s readers told me he had Maskaev by decision at +800. So near, so far.
Anyone playing Verno Phillips or Edner Cherry to win on points in their recent fights would also have known that “close but no cigar” feeling, with Teddy Reid and Daniel Alicea each getting stopped in the final round, in the case of the Phillips-Reid fight with just 20 seconds to go.
I thought the best play of last week was Humberto Soto-Ivan Valle “under 11 1/2 rounds”. Soto has been impressing me over the past two or three years as a very solid fighter indeed and I simply could not see Valle keeping him off as the fight went into its later stages. A four-round knockout did surprise me, though.
A reader of the site thought that betting on Rahman was “money in the bank” and players at the sportsbooks and on site seemed to be of similar mind. At the MGM Grand sports book, for instance, Rahman opened at -200 but had been bet up to -270 by the day of the fight.
I have to confess that I started to get a vague feeling of doubt about Rahman late in the day due to his seemingly overconfident talk. When a fighter sounds off like this it worries me about his chances. It is as if he is trying to cover up insecurity. Too often, the more outlandish comments are not backed up when it’s time to answer the bell.
As my Las Vegas oddsmaker pal Herb Lambeck liked to say: “Talkers don’t win.”
In Rahman’s case, certainly, Herb would have been right.
by Graham Houston
Main Body:
TUESDAY, AUG. 15: Never giving up does not always equate to coming out a winner, but a fighter willing to keep punching till the last gasp is always going to be in the fight.
Oleg Maskaev’s win over Hasim Rahman surprised me, while David Diaz’s come-from-behind stoppage of Jose Armando Santa Cruz surprised me even more.
Each underdog in Las Vegas last Saturday showed a willingness to endure. Each won the battle of the wills.
Maskaev had been battling a back problem in training camp. A chiropractor had been brought in. The fighter’s roadwork and gym work had been affected.
When I spoke with Maskaev’s trainer, Victor Valle Jr., over the phone before the fight he told me: “I am a Christian and a believer in Jesus and I cannot lie to you, but things are not going right at the moment. I can’t tell you any more than that.”
I took this as a remark made in confidence and I did not use it in my preview in Boxing Monthly or on this website.
After the fight, though, Valle confirmed that he was concerned. If it had been just an everyday fight he would have pulled Maskaev out, he said, but this was too big a chance to forgo at this stage in the 37-year-old’s career.
So, Maskaev fought, gritted it out and won — he even suffered a sprained left thumb in the fight, Valle said.
David Diaz gritted it out, too. Although Jose Armando Santa Cruz was winning the fight he was having to battle it out in every round. Diaz was there to fight all night. Santa Cruz would let fly with sequences of punches, and there was Diaz, coming right back at him as soon as the bell went for the next round. That can be discouraging for a fighter as the rounds keep rolling by. As with Maskaev, Diaz’s spirit was unbreakable.
These fights also showed that a player can never be sure, no matter how well his pick might be doing, until the fight is over and the verdict is in. Jose Armando Santa Cruz won every one of the first nine rounds on Harold Lederman’s TV scorecard but at ringside I could sense the physical and mental strain that Diaz was putting him under. I never, ever thought that Santa Cruz had it in the bag. The line from the Kenny Rogers song The Gambler is applicable here: “You never count your money when you’re sittin’ at the table.”
You never count your money if you’ve bet against a big-hearted fighter such as a David Diaz.
Speaking about counting money, one of the site’s readers told me he had Maskaev by decision at +800. So near, so far.
Anyone playing Verno Phillips or Edner Cherry to win on points in their recent fights would also have known that “close but no cigar” feeling, with Teddy Reid and Daniel Alicea each getting stopped in the final round, in the case of the Phillips-Reid fight with just 20 seconds to go.
I thought the best play of last week was Humberto Soto-Ivan Valle “under 11 1/2 rounds”. Soto has been impressing me over the past two or three years as a very solid fighter indeed and I simply could not see Valle keeping him off as the fight went into its later stages. A four-round knockout did surprise me, though.
A reader of the site thought that betting on Rahman was “money in the bank” and players at the sportsbooks and on site seemed to be of similar mind. At the MGM Grand sports book, for instance, Rahman opened at -200 but had been bet up to -270 by the day of the fight.
I have to confess that I started to get a vague feeling of doubt about Rahman late in the day due to his seemingly overconfident talk. When a fighter sounds off like this it worries me about his chances. It is as if he is trying to cover up insecurity. Too often, the more outlandish comments are not backed up when it’s time to answer the bell.
As my Las Vegas oddsmaker pal Herb Lambeck liked to say: “Talkers don’t win.”
In Rahman’s case, certainly, Herb would have been right.