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Some miscellaneous observations:
We all knew going in that Sharmba Mitchell would be fodder for Paul Williams, but I was impressed with the kid anyway. Know why? His expression never changes. When Mitchell, who still has fast hands, caught him with three flush right hooks, Williams’ reaction was impressive: He didn’t have one. Same thing when he fought Walter Matthysse. I’d love to see him against Antonio Margarito.
I wrote a few weeks ago that Lennox Lewis was improving as HBO’s Boxing After Dark analyst. It’s starting to look as though he’s about as good as he’s going to get. That’s not good.
Jose Luis Castillo’s hearing is on August 24. I imagine the esteemed members of the Nevada State Athletic Commission are giddy with anticipation at making an example of him, as millionaires Bob Arum and Gary Shaw play the role of victim, if you can believe it. Who do you guess pushed for the fight to be made at 135 to begin with?
Showtime is running an entertaining preview of the James Toney-Samuel Peter fight, which is scheduled for September 2. To Peter fans, I suspect the show will prove more fun to watch than the fight.
Random thoughts on last week’s The Contender:
I hate to sound like a commercial, but there has never been a vehicle that takes viewers right into fighters’ hearts and lives the way this show does. It’s dramatic, riveting stuff, and if you’re not watching it, you’re missing out.
I asked a couple weeks ago if Michael Stewart could talk. Well, he can, and I think it was more comfortable when he didn’t. That is one very serious dude, and his stoppage of Ebo Elder, who I thought would go deep into the tourney, was impressive.
It was a serious error in judgment for Stewart’s wife to tell him Elder’s kids were crying. How does she expect him to get anywhere if he’s getting all philosophical? She can have a husband who has a shot at the big-money prize, or a husband who’s all sensitive and whatnot, not both.
Besides that, who the hell cares if the kids are crying? Crying is what little kids do. My six-year-old daughter cries every damn day, usually for reasons no more serious than SpongeBob SquarePants is over. That’s what kids do. It’s not terminal.
Speaking of wives, Elder’s told him to “stay out of his face and move to your right.” Poor Ebo was doing exactly that when Stewart caught him with the hook that turned the fight around. That’ll learn ’em.
Jeff Fraza is awfully ****y for a guy who saved himself from an almost-certain beating when he got chicken pox in the first season.
Wasn’t it a little weird when Elder and his wife started making out while he sat on the stool in the middle of the ring?
Hey, how come Leonard doesn’t spar with any of these guys? Wouldn’t that be fun?
Bill Dettloff can be contacted at dettloff@ptd.net.