Great fights occur in boxing on a weekly basis with no one hearing a whisper about it. Lack of television exposure has a lot to do with this. Other times, a fight is so over-hyped that there is no way it can live up to the billing. Look to last year’s pay-per-views for examples. In the case of Erik Morlaes – Manny Pacquiao II, a great fight lived up to the hype it received.
It is hard to say if the second fight between Morales and Pacquiao was better than the first but that’s not the point. The point is that two men were able to match the intensity of a brutal first fight yet this time, a conclusive ending was reached. Unlike the first fight in which Morales won by unanimous decision, Pacquiao was able to stop Morales in the 10th round in their second battle. Prior to this bout, Morales had one official knockdown on his record and it was a controversial ruling against Marco Antonio Barrera. Morales was put to the canvas twice in his fight with Pacquiao last week. The second knockdown prompted referee Kenny Bayless to stop the fight. There is no controversy surrounding those knockdowns. Morales was a tired fighter in the 10th round. Every time Morlaes gets rocked, he responds with a flurry of his own. This proud Tijuana fighter was not responding to Pacquiao in the 10th. As much as Morales has given to us, it’s time he took some time off before even considering fighting again.
If there is a better warrior than Erik Morales, it would be Arturo Gatti. Gatti fought undefeated Thomas Damgaard on HBO this past weekend in another Gatti-esque brawl. Gatti dominated, despite injuring his right hand in the fight as he has done for the past three years. He’s like Bill Walton without the hyperbole. Damgaard showed no ability to hurt his opponent. Arturo Gatti bleeds more than Ric Flair yet managed to come away from this bout unscathed. The referee stopped this contest with under ten seconds left in the 11th round after Gatti wobbled Damgaard on his feet. Damgaard’s face looked like Play-dough at this point so it was a justified stoppage. After the fight, Gatti alluded to a fight with new Welterweight champion Carlos Baldomir. Baldomir upset Zab Judah on January 7th and a matchup with Gatti would be another in a long line of intense battles for Arturo “Thunder” Gatti.
Kassim Ouma also fought this weekend, gaining an 8th round TKO of Francisco Mora on ESPN’s Friday Night Fights. Ouma was set for a showdown with Light Middleweight king Winky Wright last year until he was upset for his IBF title by Roman Karmazin. Since that loss, Ouma now has two TKO victories. It may take a few more wins to get back to the top of the division, but this 27 year-old has faced much greater hardships in his life. Ouma was only 8 years old when he was forced into the Ugandan army. He was given military training and taught how to fire a gun while most children his age were learning cursive and long division. When I was 8 years old, my only concern was stopping my older brother from sitting on my chest and farting until I smelled it. It seems as though Kassim Ouma was brought along faster than most children his age and gained a greater sense of maturity as a result. There is no word if Kamala the Ugandan Giant suffered through the same upbringing. Regardless, it’s hard to root against Ouma and I wish nothing but success for him in 2006.
Other results from last weekend:
– Takashi Koshimoto def. In Jin Chi by split decision. After Morales, Pacquiao, and Barrera, In Jin Chi is regarded as the next best Featherweight. Dropping the WBC title to Koshimoto certainly shakes up that division.
– Markus Beyer retained his WBC Super Middleweight title against Alberto Colajanni. With Jeff Lacy and Joe Calzaghe set to fight in March, Beyer ought to be in line to fight the winner of that contest.
– Jorge Arce over Adonis Rivas via 6th round stoppage. This is Arce’s second victory over Rivas which makes him the interim WBC Flyweight champion.
– Jason Litzau beat Carlos Contreras on the Gatti/Damgaard undercard to remain undefeated in the Featherweight division. Litzau is a 22 year-old hot prospect that is now 17-0 with 15 Kos.
– Otis Griffin, the winner of FOX’s boxing reality show The Next Great Champ, was victorious this past weekend over Matt Gockel.
– 2004 US Olympian Rock Allen won his 5th professional fight as part of the Friday Night Fights card on ESPN.
– Light Middleweight Marco Antonio Rubio remained hot by defeating Aslanbek Kodzoev for his 7th consecutive victory.
– Jameel McCline picked up a first round KO of Dan Ward in Miami, FL.
– Lightweight Nate Campbell defeated Francisco Javier Olvera by TKO in the 6th round.
– At 42 years old, Virgil Hill captured the vacant WBA Cruiserweight title over Valery Brudov. This is an example of how messed up boxing politics are when these two undeserving combatants compete for a World title.
Super Bowl Parties
Now is the time when everyone starts to wonder what they there are going to do for the Super Bowl. It’s almost to a point where your plans for the big football game are more important than your plans for New Year’s Eve. That being said, I’ve made a short list of things you should keep in mind when making those crucial Super Bowl decisions. The same guidelines can be followed for boxing get-togethers as well.
1.) Never watch the game by yourself.
I’ve tried this before and it doesn’t work. I went to someone else’s house for Super Bowl XXXVIII between the Patriots and Panthers. I guarantee that if I had stayed home, I would have missed one of the best Super Bowl games in the last 15 years. The lackluster first quarter would have forced me to channel surf. In doing so, I would have eventually landed on MTV and the Jessica Simpson/Nick Lachey show, or whatever marathon they were counter-programming with. I find it nearly impossible to stop watching those damn marathons once I get into them. “Go out? No, I can’t. I’ve got to see if this chick makes it out of the Gauntlet for the fifth time!” If you watch the game with other people, the fear of ridicule for channel surfing hangs over your head and you won’t miss a second of the action because of it.
2.) Make sure that girls are coming.
I learned this one at my latest rendezvous to a friend’s house. I’m not talking about the women that follow sports and that can carry a conversation about the Cover 2. Those girls are fine for about an hour, but that act wears thinner than the film on pudding that has sat out too long. I’m talking about the girls that say “What does fullback mean?” and “Which team is in the blue shirts, again? That’s who I want to win.” These girls kick all kinds of ass at Super Bowl parties for all kinds of reasons. First, they aren’t there for the game. This is a chance for them to cook bean dips, cheeseballs, and chili. The more girls you invite, the more of a snack assortment you have.
Second, as long as the game is on, they are more than happy to make beer runs or refill bowls, as long as you ask nicely. Asking nicely is extremely important. When dealing with nacho cheese, you don’t want to take any chances with it ending up on your head because you thought it would be funny to call her “woman” in front of your friends. This is an invaluable service during the game and shouldn’t be taken for granted.
Third, while some may perceive their “stupid questions” as annoying and too frequent, this is certainly not the case with me. I love them. No matter how dumb or off the wall the question is, I always know the answer. It feels good to know I have the answer to every question. Feeling smarter, if only for a few hours, is certainly worth the aggravation of putting up with questions like, “How many halves do they play?”
3.) Make sure that loud-mouth guys only there for the beer are not coming.
These are the guys that think they know everything about football when in reality, they haven’t seen a football game since Super Tecmo Bowl. These would be the same guys that get irritated with questions from the women above. Ironically, while the women stay in the living room and watch the entire game with minimal complaining, these guys show up at halftime, drink most of the beer and eat the rest of the food by themselves, and yell from the kitchen, “Anyone score yet?” One guy from last year didn’t make an appearance in the living room until the final three minutes of the game, as he spent the whole time in the kitchen yelling out movie quotes that no longer seem cool to me. Then he had the audacity to make fun of one of our girls that “hoped the game would end in a tie so both teams could win.” He showed up at halftime and only dragged his lazy ass in to see the game because everyone was hollering. And now he publicly mocks the girl that baked freakin’ brownies for everyone!? If I were the host, this guy would have been watching the final seconds of the game through the backyard window.
4.) Don’t watch halftime shows on other channels.
Let’s face it. The days of In Living Color skits on Fox during halftime are over. Granted, the musical selection doesn’t seem to cater to the average football fan, but I saw more boob in the last minute of the Janet/Justin performance than I did during 15 minutes of the Lingerie Bowl. Plus, the girls seem to like the show. It’s the least we can do for them after all they’ve done for us. And there is no need to run the risk of missing the start of the third quarter, is there? Now we need to see if Damon Wayans and David Alan Grier are available for next year.
