Boxing Blogging: 7/19/08

We're back! Sorry for the long hiatus. I was watching fights, I just couldn't think of anything good to write about them. But this week's action seemed to reinspire the muse. Unfortunately, part of that has to do with the tragic events on Wednesday, where Texas-based Oscar Diaz collapsed in his corner and is currently comatose after suffering severe brain swelling. The doctor has said Diaz is "likely to survive", which is good news but also underscores the gravity of the injury he suffered.

Wednesday

Terrance Cauthen (33-4, 9 KOs) UD8 Alexis Camacho (16-1, 15 KOs)

The last time I saw Cauthen fight, it was in a title eliminator against the superbly talented Sechew Powell. Cauthen, as his record indicates, is not a brawler, but for some reason he decided to mix it up with Powell and was rewarded with a knockout loss (admittedly in an entertaining fight). Powell, for his part, blew his title shot by smoking pot before a tune-up fight, getting knocked out and getting suspended for the drug use. Oops.

But anyway, back to this week. Cauthen, a former Olympic bronze medalist, was a huge step up for Camacho, who (after a close win in his first fight) had rattled off 15 straight knockouts against limited opposition. The Powell fight apparently convinced Cauthen to stick with what he knows, because there was no brawling or mixing it up in this fight. The first round was indicative: the total punch landed stats totaled Cauthan 1, Camacho 0. Cauthen pot-shotted, used his speed and movement, and counter-punched effectively, frustrating the slow and limited Camacho. The decision win was deserved, but promoters have to know that this is what you get when you put Cauthen in the ring: a very capable fighter who does not make interesting fights.

Delvin Rodriguez (23-2-1, 14 KOs) KO11 Oscar Diaz (26-3, 12 KOs)

This was a back-and-forth fight for most of the evening, though Rodriguez was beginning to take over in the later rounds. But at no point did Diaz look battered or severely injured. Until, of course, he wailed in pain and collapsed in his corner prior to the start of the 11th. He was immediately attended to by medical personal, and when they couldn't even get him to sit upright in his stool, they put him on oxygen, got him on a stretcher, and rushed him to the hospital.

When I told a friend of mine what happened, he was incredulous: "Stop fighting before your brain swells up." But I have to say, while there may have been an element of "too tough for his own good" in Diaz's injury, as I said there was no time I saw prior to him collapsing where he looked seriously injured. He was still attacking Rodriguez and still winging solid shots throughout the fight. The referee saw something we didn't in the corner, because he was all over Diaz and probably insured that medical help got there as quickly as it did.

Everyone's thoughts and prayers are with Oscar Diaz, who is still comatose as far as I know.

James Toney (71-6-3, 44 KOs) TKO3 Hasim Rahman (45-6-2, 36 KOs)

Don't let the result fool you: this was not an exciting fight. How could it be, with these two plodding, over the hill fighters in the ring together. A clash of heads opened a cut over Rahman, who then quit after the third round. Then it was ruled the clash came from a punch (false, but that's boxing), and so Toney came out with a TKO victory.

The third round had some decent action, I guess, but in general heavyweights are not worth your time. And these two fighters are particularly suspect: Rahman is a serious underachiever who, aside from his cinderella knockout of Lennox Lewis, has never really done anything of note in the division. Toney actually was an all-time great at middleweight, but in his campaigns at heavyweight looks doughy and slow.

I actually have a lot of respect for Toney (aside from the doping), because he's someone who -- like Chris Byrd, Floyd Mayweather, and now Manny Pacquiao -- can fight effectively well above his natural weight class because he's so skilled and so talented he can take down much bigger opponents. But Toney is well past his prime, and has not looked good since his first fight against Sam Peter. Rahman struggled against Zuri Lawrence for God's sake -- he is no longer an elite echelon fighter either.

That networks still believe these are the types of fights we want to see, when folks like the sensastional Yuriorkis Gamboa are fighting down in the lower weight-classes, is utterly bizarre to me.

Friday

Richar(d) Gutierrez (24-2-1, 14 KOs) D8 Jerome Ellis (11-8-2, 10 KOs)

Didn't HBO tell us that this guy's name had no "d" at the end of it? I'm pretty sure they did. But BoxRec still has the "d", hence my confusion.

At first glance, Teddy Atlas was right when he briefly questioned why the commission would sanction this fight. Guiterrez is a legitimate title contender whose only losses have come to Joshua Clottey, and a (possibly early stoppage) knockout loss to super-prospect Alfredo Angulo in his last fight. Ellis is a journeyman who had lost four fights in a row coming in tonight, and took the fight on three days notice.

But dig a little deeper into Ellis' record. The combined record of those last four opponents? 86-15-1. Okay, but there are lots of journeymen who consistently fight and lose to top level opposition. However, prior to that streak, he had three straight wins, all by knockout. Combined record of those opponents? 49-9. The point being, Ellis has only fought good fighters throughout his career. He hasn't been stopped since 2004, and all but one of his wins (a split decision over the quite capable Ed Parades) have been by KO. Ellis' clearly has nobody taking care of him: he takes fights on short notice, he's been matched way too aggressively, and this is the record that results. If he had fought the standard assortment of schlubs along the way, his record would be more in the 25-8-2 range.

And so, far from being a mismatch, last night's fight was exciting, action-packed, and relatively even. When Gutierrez was able to get inside (and, importantly, elected to work) he landed some gorgeous ripping body shots. But Ellis was often able to use his superior speed and movement to keep Gutierrez on the outside, or duck in, land a fast combination of his own, and get out before the Columbian could counter. It was a war of wills, and at the end of the day Ellis certainly earned his draw. But for the love of God, can somebody get him a promoter that will get him some easier fights after this?

Yuriorkis Gamboa (11-0, 9 KOs) TKO1 Al Seeger (27-4, 21 KOs)

Gamboa continues his trend of making mincemeat of extremely capable fighters who normally would be considered huge steps up for a fighter of his age and professional ring experience. Tonight, it was a highlight reel one round KO of former title challenger Al Seeger, who has now lost three straight. Seeger did take the fight on short notice, but I don't want anything to take away from the tremendous skill set that Gamboa displayed tonight.

Everybody talks about Gamboa's power and speed, and they were in abundent display tonight. But what impresses me most is that Gamboa does not allow himself to get tied up. You try and grab him, and he will go to war to get his arms free and keep socking you. It's what gave him his knockout tonight: Seeger was trying to hold, Gamboa ripped his arms free and launched a beautiful downstairs/upstairs combination that left Seeger flat on his back. The referee didn't even bother to count.

It was a good performance from Gamboa, coming off the toughest fight of his career against Darling Jiminez. That's not saying that much -- Gamboa dominated most of that fight too -- but he was on floor and Jiminez was really the first fighter not to completely wilt before his dominating skill set (so props to Jiminez for that). Anyway, with Gamboa, it's just a matter of time. He has the skills and the resume to fight anyone in the division. You just don't see brighter prospects than this.

Special bonus coverage!

A little while ago, Humberto Soto was handed one of the clearest quotation mark "losses" seen in boxing, a disqualification in a fight where he was pummelling a clearly out matched Francisco Lorenzo. Referee Joe Cortez kept moving like he was going to jump in and stop it, but never pulled the trigger, so Soto kept punching. When Lorenzo finally went down, Soto (still in the motion of punching) landed a single grazing shot to the back of the head. Lorenzo -- whose face was a bloody mess -- acted as if that was the punch that did him in, and Cortez bought it. It was an utterly bogus move, a terrible decision, and a robbery for Soto, who again fell just short of winning a world title.

The WBC, for its part, reacted harshly: it refused to award Lorenzo the title, ordered an immediate rematch (Soto: "he won't take it, because he knows I'll rip his head off next time."), symbolically labeled the fight a no contest (it still officially goes in the books as a win for Lorenzo unless the Nevada commision overturns the result -- which I think they should), and recently fined Lorenzo $2,000 for unsportsmanlike conduct.

This last bit Tim Starks thinks goes a bit too far. Fighters fake all the time, he says, so why start handing out fines now?

I think Starks is dead wrong on this though. First of all, fighters faking injuries in a sport where (as Oscar Diaz just frighteningly showed us) real injuries can be deathly serious is very dangerous. Referees need to know for sure that when a fighter acts severely injured, he's severely injured. What if Diaz had been cut earlier in the fight, and the referee assumed he was faking his injuries to get the fight to go to the cards (given that he was beginning to lose momentum as the bout progressed)? Even a couple seconds delay could have been literally lethal for him. This sort of behavior needs to be nipped in the bud before it gets out of hand.

As for the "everyone is doing it, so why not fine everyone" defense, I think that it makes perfect sense to give a mostly symbolic $2,000 fine in this particularly flagrant case of unsportsmanlike conduct, as a sign that the sanctioning bodies are on notice and are growing less likely to tolerate this BS. It'd be one thing if the WBC docked Lorenzo's whole purse, but $2,000 strikes me as a good "opening bid" to start checking this sort of behavior. Nobody is going to go after the borderline cases anyway, but these extreme examples of unsportsmanlike conduct are bad for the sport, unfair to the contestants, and dangerous for the health of the fighters.

http://mvn.com/boxing/2008/07/17/more-quick-jabs-luis-yanez-chessboxing-pay-per-view-policy-yuriorkis-gamboa-and-more/

Dirrell DQ11 Abraham

In what was, for the most part, an exciting if one-sided fight, Andre Dirrell (19-1, 12 KOs) prevailed over previously unbeaten, Super Six tournament leader Arthur Abraham (31-1, 25 KOs). Unfortunately, it didn't quite happen the way Dirrell would have liked. Dirrell was well in control of the fight on every card, including knocking "King Arthur" down for the first time in his career in round four. But he was beginning to tire, and referee Laurence Cole (who was at his typical levels of incompetence) missed what should have been a knockdown against "The Matrix" in Round 10.

In round 11, though, things got scary. Dirrell slipped on a ring logo in the corner, and went down. Abraham then proceeded to uncork a massive right hand that knocked Dirrell out cold. You can see it here (at around 55 seconds in):



Dirrell was clearly, clearly already down when the punch was thrown. And so Abraham was disqualified, rightfully so.

So a couple of things. First, Abraham loses massive points for acting like a punk. I can accept, barely, that he did not intentionally mean to hurt Dirrell. Things can get a little wild in the ring, and its the referee's job to get between the fighters in situations like this (Cole, predictably, was way out of position). Nonetheless, this was an obvious foul, and Abraham lost a lot of respect for both trying to pretend that Dirrell was not on the floor when he hit him, and then later accusing Dirrell of acting.

Which moves us to number two: Dirrell was obviously not acting. You don't act the twitching you saw from Dirrell when he was on the canvass. If you're acting, you don't keep up the facade after the announcer already has proclaimed you the winner (Dirrell, for quite some time after the fight, still didn't seem to realize he had won). You don't show the signs of clear disorientation that Dirrell demonstrated if you're acting. And finally, unless you're a bad guy on an episode of House, I don't think actors can fake trained doctors into thinking you might have a brain bleed. Dirrell almost definitely suffered a severe concussion as a result of Abraham's blatant foul.

And finally, number three: This fight is the exact reason I hate Francisco Lorenzo's true acting job that got him a DQ win over Humberto Soto. I supported the fine against Lorenzo at the time, precisely on the grounds that his behavior leads folks to think boxers are faking injuries when they're not, and in a sport such as this, even a moment's hesitation can quite literally be fatal.

As much haterade as I direct towards Cole, he did act reasonably quickly to make sure a doctor was in the ring, and was quite firm in making the correct DQ ruling. But what if he had wondered, even for a few extra moments, if Dirrell was just putting on an acting job? A bunch of the folks I was watching with were pretty quick to say that Dirrell was at least partially BSing. Again, observing how Dirrell behaved both after the punch landed, and in the aftermath responding to Showtime's attempts to interview him (attempts that failed because Dirrell was essentially incoherent), that assessment is obviously wrong. But it's the actions of people like Lorenzo who plant that seed of doubt when faced with situations like Dirrell's, and frankly that's not acceptable given the risks these fighters take on for our entertainment.

Top Ten Boxers I'm Glad Won Titles (1-5)

(See Boxers #6-10 and a description of this list here).

* * *

5. David Diaz (Lightweight, 36-4-1, 17 KOs)

Hey, remember when folks were wondering whether 135 lbs was just too high for Manny Pacquiao? David Diaz does. Part of the trifecta of Diaz's (the others were Juan and Julio) who possessed lightweight titles, David Diaz was seen as the weakest of the three when he was picked as the opponent for Pac-Man's experiment with higher weight classes. In retrospect, that's probably unfair (I think his career stacks up quite well against Julio Diaz). But anyway, I get ahead of myself.

Diaz is the sort of guy who's always performed above expectations. He earned a spot on the 1996 Olympic team by upsetting far more heralded Zab Judah, losing in the second round to eventual silver medalist Oktay Urkal. Diaz started his professional campaign 26-0 before being knocked out by Kendall Holt (see below). A year later, Diaz won the interim WBC lightweight title by defeating Jose Armando Santa Cruz, then, after being elevated to full titlist, defended against what was thought to be a long-faded Erik Morales in a win that looks much better in hindsight.

That paved the way for the payday against Pacquaio, who wowed the boxing world by destroying Diaz over the course of nine rounds. That set up Pacquiao's mega-fight with Oscar De La Hoya, and the rest, as they say, is history. Though I do like to point out that Diaz gave Pacquiao more of a challenge than either De La Hoya or Ricky Hatton. Diaz lost in his attempt to get his old title back from Humberto Soto, and then was knocked out in a hellacious war this past year versus prospect Hank Lundy.

4. Luis Collazo (Welterweight, 31-5, 16 KOs)

A skilled southpaw fighter from Brooklyn, Luis Collazo has been on the short end of several close decisions where he was the short money -- something that I imagine would be particularly gnawed at him had he never managed to hoist a belt. But fortunately, that wasn't the case, as he won the WBA welterweight title in 2005 against Jose Antonio Rivera, and defended it once against Miguel Gonzalez before accepting a challenge from undefeated Junior Welterweight star Ricky Hatton, who was moving up in weight and looking to establish himself as a superstar.

Collazo lost a unanimous decision in a fight many thought he won, but in which a Collazo victory stood to lose various boxing promoters massive sums of money (it would have, for example, derailed Hatton's ability to become a viable opponent for Pacquaio and Mayweather). Collazo lost more clearly to Shane Mosley before challenging HBO blessed-son Andre Berto for his WBC belt. In a life-or-death struggle that could have gone either way, Berto escaped with an exceedingly narrow unanimous decision win.

Since then, Collazo fell virtually off the map, winning a bounceback fight immediately after the Berto loss, then taking a nearly-two year layoff. Upon his return, he lost a disappointing decision to fringe contender Freddy Hernandez (whom Berto had earlier starched in one), which may have spelled the end of Collazo's run as an elite contender.

3. Kendall Holt (Jr. Welterweight, 27-5, 15 KOs)

Kendall Holt is nicknamed "Rated R", but he might as well be nicknamed "Enigma". I'm not sure I've ever seen a fighter in as many different varieties of fights as the Patterson, New Jersey-based fighter. Sometimes he unleashes devastating, one-punch KOTY candidates like against Julio Diaz. Sometimes he wanders aimlessly around the ring and is lethargically outboxed, like against Danny Garcia. Sometimes he's involved in all-action slugfests that last round after thrilling round, like against Ricardo Torres. Sometimes, he's involved in all-action slugfasts that don't last past the first round, like against Ricardo Torres in the rematch (or Thomas Davis).

Sometimes, all these qualities manage to come together within the space of a single fight, like against Timothy Bradley. There, he alternated between being utterly dominant (knocking Bradley down twice in the first and twelfth rounds) and utterly disinterested (most of the rest of the fight). To my eyes, it looked as if Holt was thoroughly in control for any part of the fight where his head was actually in the bout -- unfortunately, that consisted of a bare handful of rounds.

And that, in a nutshell, is the Kendall Holt story. The athleticism is there. The power is there. The head is most certainly not there. The upshot is a wildly inconsistent fighter who did manage to lift the WBO Jr. Welterweight title and hold it for one defense in 2008.

2. Cristobal Cruz (Featherweight, 39-12-3, 23 KOs)

Cristobal Cruz turned pro in 1992 at age 14, winning his debut by second round knockout. His record began to reflect that of a Mexican fighter with no serious promotional backing who turned pro at 14, and in 2007 when he faced a comebacking Zahir Raheem, he sported a fugly 34-10-1.

The Raheem fight was ugly, as Zahir Raheem fights often are, but in my opinion Cruz acquitted himself quite well -- I scored the fight a draw. The judges all gave the fight to Raheem by shutout or near-shutout, which is what happens when you're a 34-10-1 fighter against a former champion in an ugly fight. And that figured to be the Cristobal Cruz story -- a journeyman guy who got on ESPN2 once as a comeback opponent, did better than expected, and was firmly not rewarded for it by judges who weren't paying attention.

But by stroke of luck, the powers-that-be brought in Cruz as opponent for Thomas Mashaba as the latter geared up for a title shot. Cruz and Mashaba went to war in an incredible fight that saw Cruz break the Compubox record for most punches thrown in a fight. But it was a tight fight, and nobody knew how the scorecards would read. As it happened, Cruz managed to squeak out the upset majority decision victory, and the title shot that would have gone to Mashaba instead was handed to Cruz.

Cruz met Orlando Salido for the vacant IBF featherweight title, in a rematch of a fight Salido had won. In an exciting match, Cruz won by split decision and approved his record to 37-11-1 in the process. Cruz defended his title three times, including a spirited match against Jorge Solis which featured new and exciting innovations in fouling, before losing it to (who else) Salido in the 2010 rubber match.

A twenty-year pro now at age 34, Cruz is still going strong, scheduled to fight Juan Carlos Burgos in February 2012.

1. Nate Campbell (Lightweight, 34-9-1, 25 KOs)

Nate Campbell is number one on my list for several reasons. He's a genuinely nice guy, and he won his titles (three at once) in a pretty sizable upset. But most importantly, Campbell tops this list because of what he would have been remembered for if he hadn't managed to finally, at age 36, win the title that had eluded him for so long.

Campbell got a late start to boxing, originally inspired to try the sport after shadow-boxing to stay awake during late shifts at his job. His career started off with 23 straight wins before losing to Joel Casamayor in a closely contested bout. But it was his next big shot, an IBF title eliminator against Robbie Peden, that nearly defined his legacy. Well ahead on the scorecards going into the 5th round, Campbell stuck his chin out, daring Peden to hit him ... and proceeding to get himself knocked out. He was knocked out again in a rematch with Peden for the IBF Junior Lightweight title, then lost again to Francisco Lorenzo. Career momentum that was regained after an upset victory over undefeated Kid Diamond seemed arrested when he lost a split decision in a title eliminator to Isaac Hlatshwayo.

Going back into the trenches, Campbell kept at it, winning another eliminator against Matt Zegan and then (because this is boxing) yet another eliminator by thoroughly beating up Ricky Quiles. This made him the mandatory for IBF lightweight champ Julio Diaz, but his shot was delayed to make way for a (Julio) Diaz vs. (Juan) Diaz unification match. The latter, younger Diaz won, and Campbell was the decided underdog against the undefeated "Baby Bull" -- a charismatic Mexican-American fighter who now held the IBF, WBA, and WBO lights and that many were heralding as the next big thing. Campbell, for his part, never blinked -- I still remember Dan Raphael describing "The Galaxxy Warrior" as "supremely confident" in the months leading up to the fight.

And he backed it up. Campbell came out aggressive and put unprecedented pressure on Diaz. A cut caused by an accidental headbutt seemed to rattle the young champion, and Campbell kept on him. Most observers thought Campbell had won, but hearts stopped when the announcer declared it a split-decision. But in the end, the right guy had his hand raised, and Nate Campbell had the victory he had been searching for his entire career.

After the Diaz fight, Campbell's characteristic bad luck reasserted itself and his career spiraled downward with astounding celerity. A big payday against Joan Guzman fell through when the latter came in grossly overweight and refused to fight. Campbell declared bankruptcy, then lost his belts on the scale in a fight against Ali Funeka. The Funeka fight was Campbell's last great hurrah, seemingly battling father time as much as the South African, seemingly falling behind the fight only to surge back on the strength of 2nd and 11th round knockdowns. His majority decision victory was the last major triumph of Campbell's career -- he was being thoroughly dominated by Tim Bradley before that fight was stopped (it was later ruled a no contest), then lost to Victor Ortiz. A defeat to journeyman Walter Estrada led Campbell to announce his retirement, but he came back to lose to Danny Garcia and Khabib Allakhverdiev.

Still, I know of not a single person in the boxing community who does not consider themselves a Nate Campbell fan. Brash and occasionally foolhardy as he may be, he just seemed to exude a likeability and professionalism that won him admirers across the sport. And while most of us wish he'd end his career, we also hope he stays in the game as an announcer (for which he's shown natural talent). And all of us remember that great day in Mexico, March 8th, 2008, when he upset an unbeaten star to finally put those belts -- those belts which fans dismiss and commentators deride, those belts which cheapen the sport and drive away new viewers, those belts which Campbell had been pursuing fruitlessly for 8 years -- around his waist.