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The Ring "Updates"...Guy is great, here's his last one...
END-OF-SUMMER MISCELLANY
By William Dettloff
As is usually the case at this time of the year, there weren’t any very big stories in boxing last week, but there were lots of little ones. So rather than try to squeeze a little story into a big one, I decided I’d go with the flow and try to hit on as many little ones as I could. Never mind going for the knockout punch. Call it taking the Grady Brewer approach. This is the result.
So the WBC is considering ordering a rematch to Sam Peter’s win James Toney. Interesting. They didn’t order rematches to Jose Luis Ramirez-Pernell Whitaker or Whitaker-Julio Cesar Chavez, or Chavez-Frankie Randall II, or the dozens of other rip-offs they sanctioned over the years, many of which were far worse than Peter-Toney. What makes this one so special?
Speaking of the WBC, if you want a laugh, check out their Website at www.wbcboxing.com. They’ve got the 1985 charity single “We Are the World” playing as the homepage downloads. I wonder if Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie know about this.
When you think about it, why couldn’t Bernard Hopkins beat Oleg Maskaev?
It’s funny to hear Oscar De La Hoya complain about being screwed over by Juan Diaz. How long has he been in the fight game? Still, why don’t any of these fighters ask King for references? What does Diaz think—that he’s the one guy by whom King will do right?
In addition to reportedly signing with Golden Boy Promotions, Manny Pacquiao visited the restroom last Wednesday and nature took it course. What, you didn’t hear about it? It was all over the Philippine press.
Joe Calzaghe probably was right to laugh at Jeff Lacy for asking for a rematch, but he shouldn’t laugh too hard; he could injure something and have to pull out of his fight against Sakio Bika next month.
OLN’s Thursday night main event featuring Carlos Hernandez against Kevin Kelley should be good—until Hernandez lands a couple clean shots. Kelley lost the ability (and the willingness) to take a good shot years ago.
Wow, that Sombrero Ricky Hatton was wearing really made him look Mexican when he did the ring walk with Marco Antonio Barrera before Barrera’s fight with Rocky Juarez, didn’t it? Maybe at Hatton’s next fight Barrera can follow him into the ring Riverdancing.
If you’re scratching your head over HBO’s decision to air Barrera-Juarez underneath Jorge Arce-Hawk Makepula instead of Israel Vazquez’ stirring knockout of Jhonny Gonzalez, or even Joan Guzman’s exciting win over Jorge Barrios, you’re not alone. They could have gotten by with showing highlights from Barrera-Juarez – assuming they could find a couple.
Arce is a firecracker in there and a match against power punching Vic Darchinyan is about as good as it gets in this business. My pick? Darchinyan. He’s got one-punch power and Arce is still young enough that he doesn’t care that much if he gets hit.
I think I’ve found the genesis of Lennox Lewis’ problems behind the microphone: the microphone is on. Turn the damn thing off. Unplug it. He can still sit there with Fran and Max and still talk every now and again, only this way it won’t hurt our ears so much because we won’t hear him. I’m not sure he’d even mind. My guess is he knows exactly how bad he is.
I tried to like Lennox as a broadcaster and believed he’d get better with time. He hasn’t. He’s gotten worse, as evidenced by his myriad screw-ups during the Arce-Makepula fight. My favorite line: “Arce’s belly looks bloated. I think he ate some spaghetti before the fight that didn’t go down.” Sigh. But maybe I shouldn’t be so hard on Lennox. Maybe he was just “illubriated.”
Makepula: worst ring walk ever.
Some random observations about last week’s episode of The Contender:
I like finalist Steve Forbes as much as anyone, but all his talk about being the tournament underdog—presumably because of his size—is a little silly. Most guys I know saw him as the clear favorite going in.
Raise your hand if you jumped off your couch when Norberto Bravo decked Grady Brewer. And then tell me these aren’t “real” fights.
If sentiment is what the producers are after (and clearly they are), they missed a golden opportunity when Gary Balletto left the show. Balletto was a friend and gym mate of Bobby Tomasello, who died after drawing with Steve Dotse in October 2000. Exploring that with Balletto on camera would have been great television.
Diane Lane in the house. Yowza!
Tommy Gallagher is TV friendly and an authentic fight guy, but has anyone heard him give any of these guys real strategic advice in the corner, even once? Something more than “throw punches.”