By Michael Rosenthal
BIGGEST WINNER
Errol Spence: This item could’ve been labeled MOST DISAPPOINTING.
I was settled into my recliner, Stella in hand, expecting to see more than three minutes of the first or second best American fighter on Saturday night. Alas, a left to the gut of poor Carlos Ocampo paralyzed the Mexican in the final seconds of Round1 and he couldn’t go on. I had only taken a few sips.
Spence was fighting in his hometown of Dallas, in the training facility of his beloved Dallas Cowboys. Even he said he was disappointed that he didn’t give his fans more of a show. Such is life with Spence, whose skill set and punching power is far superior to all but a few fighters.
Consider that Spence (24-0, 21 knockouts) has stopped all but three of his opponents, including his last 11 even though the level of his opposition has improved. He stopped Kell Brook and Lamont Peterson in his two fights leading up to Ocampo.
And Spence has lost only one round (on all three cards) in the three fights that went the distance. He shut out two opponents and almost shut out the third. No fighter has been more dominating.
Ocampo (22-1, 13 KOs) was Spence’s first true “gimmie” in years, something he earned after a long stretch of success. The native of Ensenada, not far from the U.S. border, had somehow become Spence’s mandatory challenger even though he reportedly had never beaten a Top-20 fighter or fought outside of Mexico. The fact Ocampo was fighting a major star for a major title is an indictment of the sanctioning-body system, but that’s a different column.
The question now is when and against whom Spence will face a genuine challenge. He reiterated after his knockout that he would like to fight start unifying the welterweight titles, starting with the winner of the August 25 Danny Garcia-Shawn Porter matchup for the vacant WBC belt.
WBA titleholder Keith Thurman could come after that. And as I wrote when Terence Crawford took Jeff Horn’s WBO title on June 9, Spence vs. Crawford would be the most compelling non-heavyweight matchup in boxing.
I think Spence beats Garcia, Porter and Thurman. I have no idea how a showdown with Crawford would go. I just hope it all leads to that fight.
MOST PREDICTABLE
Gennady Golovkin vs. Canelo Alvarez: I’ll write the same thing about this fight that I wrote when news broke that Floyd Mayweather would fight Conor McGregor: Surprise, surprise. Two astute businessmen who stand to make a fortune have agreed to collect the money.
Golovkin (38-0-1, 34 KOs) and Alvarez (49-1-2, 34 KOs) announced this past week that they have agreed to a rematch on September 15, a year after they fought to a controversial split draw.
I’m not sure why anyone would be surprised that the fight was salvaged at the 11th hour; it’s almost always about the money. Neither fighter could make as much against anyone else.
I will say this, though: I applaud Golovkin. Alvarez and Triple-G originally agreed on a 65 percent (for Alvarez)-35 percent (for Golovkin) split of the purse but Golovkin, angry that Alvarez spoiled the fight by failing two drug tests, demanded a 50-50 split during the second round of negotiations.
I believe Golovkin was unhappy but I also believe his firm stand was a negotiating tactic. And it paid off. Golden Boy ultimately agreed to a 55-45 split in favor of Alvarez, according to some reports. That’s a big win for Golovkin, who I suspect never believed that 50-50 was realistic.
Of course, the biggest winners are the fans. The first fight was entertaining, inconclusive and generated a reported 1.3 million pay-per-view buys , which made a rematch a no-brainer. And all that has happened since then – the failed drug tests, the back-and-forth vitriol and the public negotiations – only adds to the intrigue.
It doesn’t get much better than Golovkin-Alvarez II.
RABBIT PUNCHES
Danny Roman (25-2-1, 9 KOs) is on a nice run. The Los Angeles-area product beat good Japanese fighters back to back in Japan – the first to win the WBA junior featherweight title – and then easily outpointed oversize Moises Flores (25-1, 17 KOs) on the Spence-Ocampo card. Roman is an excellent boxer, durable and unusually busy, which makes him tough to beat. Roman said he wants to unify against either Rey Vargas (WBC) or Issac Dogboe (WBO). I think he’s ready. … The ending of the Javier Fortuna-Adrian Granados fight on the Spence-Ocampo card was unusual to say the least. The action was heating up when Fortuna fell through the ropes and was taken away on a stretcher, apparently as a precaution. Fortuna didn’t appear to hit his head on anything but complained of pain in his head. Granados said afterward that he believes Fortuna was looking for a way out of the fight because Granados had turned up on the heat on him. I doubt that but who knows? A rematch is called for.
COMING UP
Fight of the Week: Josh Taylor (12-0, 11 KOs) vs. Viktor Postol (29-1, 12 KOs), Saturday, ESPN+. Taylor, the gifted junior welterweight contender from Scotland, should beat the veteran Postol in Glasgow but it might not be easy. Postol has turned himself into a question mark because he has fought only once – outpointing Jamshidbek Najmiddinov – since he lost a near-shutout decision to Terence Crawford 23 months ago. The Postol who ouboxed and then knocked out Lucas Matthysse in the fight that preceded Crawford looked like a potential star but it’s difficult to gauge how much an inactive 34-year-old has left. The guess here is that Taylor, a young, slick boxer, will win a wide decision. … Miguel Berchelt (33-1, 29 KOs) defends his WBC junior lightweight title against Jonathan Victor Barros (41-5-1, 22 KOs) on Saturday in Mexico on ESPN+. Barros received this opportunity even though he was outclassed by then-featherweight titleholder Lee Selby in his most recent fight. I don’t get it. … The women will be featured Friday on Showtime, as all four major middleweight titles will be on the line. Two-time Olympic champion Claressa Shields (5-0, 2 KOs) faces Hanna Gabriels (18-1-1, 11 KOs) for two vacant middleweight titles. The most interesting thing about the matchup might be that Shields is moving down in weight while Gabriels will be moving up. I assume Shields will be able to handle the drop in weight. If she can, she should overwhelm Gabriels physically. Also on the card, Christina Hammer (22-0, 10 KOs) defends her two belts against Tori Nelson (17-1-3, 2 KOs). Shields and Hammer are on a collision course.
Michael Rosenthal is the most-recent winner of the Boxing Writers Association of America’s Nat Fleischer Award for excellence in boxing journalism. He has covered boxing for almost three decades.
