While not a stellar card on paper by any means, the season opener of Friday Night Fights turned out to be an enthralling one, with three fights featuring eight knockdowns. In the main event, former junior middleweight titlist Roman Karmazin dramatically climbed off the canvas to stop Dionisio Miranda.
The majority of the show naturally was dominated by the on again, off again superfight between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. Dan Rafael confirmed that Pacquiao has walked away from the fight and accepted the terms for a fight with former welterweight titlist Joshua Clottey, also promoted by Top Rank.
My take on that fight? This is Bob Arum’s way of getting Pacquiao another win while keeping all the money in the Top Rank camp. While Clottey is a top five or six welterweight, and a big one too (he will more than likely weigh in as a super middleweight on fight night), his activity level will cost him against Pacquiao. Clottey faded in the last three rounds of his two biggest fights, and Pacquiao will have no problem outworking him to a decision, maybe even a late stoppage.
Brian Kenny claimed Pacquiao-Mayweather was all but done when Floyd threw a new wrench into the plans by asking for Olympic-style blood testing. Rafael quickly dispelled rumors that Mayweather introduced the steroid demands after all other stipulations had been agreed upon. He made it clear that Mayweather wanted extensive steroid testing from day one.
In an interview recorded earlier in the day, Freddie Roach told Kenny that Pacquiao didn’t feel right for about three days after taking a blood test. Roach’s comment doesn’t do Pacquiao any favors since Mayweather proposed to stop the testing 14 days before the fight. Roach said he can confirm that Pacquiao is 100 percent clean and that he hoped a fight with Mayweather could happen later in the year.
The most intriguing part of the show came when Teddy Atlas gave the casual fan’s perspective on this superfight going down the drain. He asked the pertinent question, “Why would you walk away from 30 million dollars on the table just not to take some blood – just not to take a test? If you’re clean, what do you have to hide?”
Atlas said that any doctor would attest to the fact that giving the amount of blood required for the tests does not weaken the body in any significant way. He also noted that anyone who looked at Pacquiao’s body and saw his tattoos wouldn’t buy the original excuse introduced by the Pacquiao camp that he was afraid of needles.
Finally, Atlas also referenced the emails emanating from the Pacquiao camp, asking what kind of punishment Pacquiao would receive should he test positive for a banned substance and also whether the fact could be kept quiet. Atlas said he had a source that had seen the emails. Probably afraid of being sued himself, Teddy made it clear that he wasn’t saying Pacquiao was using illegal substances but that the common man is going to lean that way given Pacquiao’s response to drug testing.
Hard to argue with any of the points Atlas made. The casual fan is going to look at the failed negotiations and raise a suspicious eyebrow in Pacquiao’s direction.
On to the fights because, as much as Pacquiao and Mayweather would have you believe otherwise, fights do still happen in boxing.
In heavyweight action, 23-year-old Andrey Fedosov knocked out 42-year-old Lionel Butler in two rounds. The last time I had seen Butler was when he was being dismantled by Lennox Lewis more than a decade ago. After a first round that included some good exchanges, Fedosov dropped Butler with two big right hands. Butler beat the count but took several more flush shots from Fedosov, eventually going down again. Referee Lou Moret stopped it after the second knockdown, not even bothering to count. Butler wasn’t making any attempt to get up anyway.
Light heavyweight Anatoliy Dudchenko won a six-round unanimous decision over Isaac Atencio after knocking Atencio down three times in the fight. Dudchenko landed a flurry of about eight clean shots in round one, ending with a nudge that sent Atencio to the canvas. Referee James Jen Ken called it a knockdown, and Atencio, who wasn’t fighting back, didn’t complain. In round two, Atencio went down from another weird knockdown as he didn’t appear to be hit clean but took a knee. A straight right and a left hook put Atencio down again in round five. He rolled over and wisely spat out his mouthpiece to buy some recovery time, which probably helped him make it to the final bell, where he lost by scores of 60-51 on all cards.
In a back-and-forth main event, Karmazin overcame some perilous moments to stop the heavy-handed Miranda. After winning the first two rounds, Karmazin was hurt in the third when Miranda buckled his knees with a big right hand. Karmazin managed to survive the round and rebounded by winning the fourth. A clash of heads also opened a cut over Miranda’s left eye in the round. Karmazin appeared to edge the fifth and won the sixth on a late rally. Karmazin’s power punching gave him round seven and appeared to put him well ahead in the fight.
Miranda had a strong round eight and followed up by blasting Karmazin with a huge right hand in the ninth. Karmazin turned sideways and fell into the ropes before collapsing on his hands and knees but immediately stood up on shaky legs and survived the remaining two minutes of the round, showing a lot of heart. Karmazin fought back in the tenth, and, with a minute to go, Miranda went down on a delayed reaction from a left-right combination to the chin. Miranda beat the count by standing at eight. After that, Karmazin was all over him with power shots to the body and head. A left hook and a straight right stunned Miranda, and Karmazin dropped him hard with the next straight right. So devastating was the shot that Jen Ken didn’t bother to count and waved off the fight, giving Karmazin the dramatic knockout win. Miranda was down for a while but seemed to be fine.
Joe Tessitore revealed after the fight that two of the judges had the fight even going into round ten, while the other actually had Miranda ahead by three points. I couldn’t see that. Some of the rounds were close, but Karmazin clearly won several and appeared to do more efficient work in the closer rounds. Fortunately for Karmazin, he eliminated the need for scoring and got himself back on track to winning another world title.
All in all, a good show supported by a strong main event. The Pacquiao-Mayweather drama may be wearing thin, but it’s good to hear the experts weigh in with their opinions. And if Teddy is correct in how he thinks the casual fan will view the fiasco, then Pacquiao will be performing damage control the rest of his career and boxing will need more free fights like Karmazin-Miranda to win back some of those casual fans who may have given up on the sport this week.
