Your weekly random thoughts …
• Last summer, Miguel Cotto and Kelly Pavlik were undefeated stars and world champions quickly climbing the pound-for-pound top 10. The sky was the limit for both exciting fighters. Suddenly, both crashed to earth with rough, physically taxing defeats in upsets.
In July, Cotto faced Antonio Margar-cheato in a sensational fight. But in the 11th round, Cotto finally succumbed to his opponent's relentless pressure and perhaps-plaster-wrapped fists. (Guess we'll never know if he cheated in that one, but I digress). Gone were Cotto's welterweight title and perfect record.
In October, middleweight champion Pavlik was taken to the woodshed in a nontitle 170-pound fight by Bernard Hopkins, who won a virtual shutout in what amounted to man vs. boy.
Had Cotto and Pavlik won their respective bouts, I'd be really disappointed in Top Rank promoter Bob Arum's decision to match them in the fashion he has for Saturday night.
That's when Cotto faces England's Michael Jennings (who am I, and how did I become a mandatory challenger?) for a vacant welterweight belt at New York's Madison Square Garden, and Pavlik returns to middleweight to defend his championship in his hometown of Youngstown, Ohio, against hard-hitting but limited Marco Antonio Rubio.
With HBO and Showtime passing on the fights, Arum -- the one promoter who has never been shy about taking a risk -- packaged the bouts for his own independent pay-per-view card, which will cover both fights from different cities along with other undercard bouts.
Arum's guys need to fight, and just because a network passes does not mean he shouldn't put on the show. Pay-per-view was the only way.
If fans want to watch, they'll buy it. If they want to see it live, they'll buy a ticket. At the gate, both shows seem to be selling. The Chevrolet Center in Youngstown will be sold out, with more than 7,500 in the house. Arum said he expects around 12,000 at the Garden, a very solid figure considering Cotto is coming off a loss, the economy stinks and Jennings is as obscure as they come.
Before their definitive defeats, I'd have ripped Arum for putting on a card like this, because I'd expect undefeated star champions in bigger fights. But given the severity of the losses suffered by Cotto and Pavlik, I understand Arum's position. On the surface, Cotto and Pavlik are huge favorites against virtual unknown opponents. But nobody, including the fighters and Arum, knows what they have left or how either will react coming off brutal losses. So there's nothing wrong with Top Rank being careful with a fighter in that position and showing a little TLC in the opponent department.
One of the reasons my interest in the fights is piqued is because I keep having visions of Cotto, his face bashed in and bleeding, taking two knees in surrender against Margarito. Same goes for a helpless Pavlik sopping up blow after blow against Hopkins.
I'm actually a bit intrigued to see how they're going to bounce back. If the $44.95 price tag is too much for you, I suggest what I always suggest for pay-per-views: Get a few friends together and chip in. Cotto and Pavlik, whomever they are fighting, are usually worth the price of admission.
• Who do you like in this fight: Margarito's loaded hand wraps vs. Zab Judah's shower door? For those curious as to why The Cheater no longer appears in the ESPN.com pound-for-pound or divisional rankings, it's pretty simple: He's banned from fighting in the United States for at least a year because of a major rules infraction. Therefore, he's out.
• Is it just me or does Ali Funeka look like someone took Ishe Smith and stretched him out to 6-foot-1?
• My father used to own a chain of pet stores when I was a kid. If he was still in the business, you can be sure I'd hit him up for a few better-looking dog collars for Alfredo "Perro" Angulo.
• I really loved the feature pieces HBO did on boxing's best young fighters during the "Boxing After Dark" telecast last week. It shows that HBO really is looking to the future and will use "BAD" as a vehicle to give the young guys exposure in worthy fights. The piece included younger established fighters such as Chad Dawson, Paul Williams, Andre Berto, Juan Diaz, Robert Guerrero and Juan Manuel Lopez. Some of the rising prospects included were Yuriorkis Gamboa, Victor Ortiz, James Kirkland and Angulo. As much as I enjoyed it, I thought there was one glaring omission: junior welterweight Devon Alexander.
• I'm pretty psyched for next week's Juan Manuel Marquez-Diaz fight.
• When I heard promoter Dan Goossen tried last week to get Hasim Rahman approved by HBO as an opponent for Cris Arreola on the April 11 Williams-Winky Wright undercard -- he wasn't -- I didn't know if I should laugh or throw up.
• From the moment Golden Boy's Richard Schaefer told me about his April 4 all-lightweight pay-per-view card, I liked it. I like it even more with the addition of the Joel Casamayor-Julio Diaz fight, to go along with the other three bouts: Edwin Valero-Antonio Pitalua, Jorge Barrios-Carlos Hernandez and Michael Katsidis-Jesus Chavez. That's going to be a fun show.
• When I read that Johnny Tapia was in trouble again -- admitting to falling off the wagon and using cocaine and winding up in jail for violating his probation terms -- I can't say I was surprised. Sad for Tapia, but by no means surprised. I will be far more surprised if he makes it to his 50th birthday.
• Quote of the day, from a delusional Kermit Cintron after his lucky draw with Sergio Martinez last Saturday: "Hell yeah, I did enough to win. I clearly won it. I thought he hit me with a headbutt in Round 7. Nobody hits that hard." By now, Cintron has surely watched video of the fight, and though he might think he won -- which means he's still delusional -- at least he'll see the indisputable evidence that it was a left from Martinez that dropped him in the seventh, not his head. Guess what, Kermit? Somebody does hit that hard.
• That indefensible draw Martinez received against Cintron came on Valentine's Day. Martinez got no love.
• I want to see heavyweight Adam "The Swamp Donkey" Richards somewhere on a televised boxing card. Matched against Chazz Witherspoon on the untelevised Jermain Taylor-Jeff Lacy undercard last fall, Richards lost but helped deliver a terrific fight. He has just the kind of style fight fans like to see from heavyweights.
• I saw some quotes from David Haye manager/trainer Adam Booth this week in which he referred to me as a "biased keyboard warrior," a response to my comments in last week's blog about his pathetic negotiating skills with regard to a proposed fight for Haye against heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko this summer. I don't think it's bias to expose someone who spends a lot of time boasting about fights he supposedly wants to make, then manages the negotiations like a hand grenade. Put it this way: As a manager, well, Booth is a hell of a trainer. He makes Nacho Beristain look like Al Haymon.
• Can't anyone in a big lightweight fight make weight? From Jose Luis Castillo to Diego Corrales to Joan Guzman and now Nate Campbell, they've all missed weight in recent years for 135-pound title fights. I sense a trend.
• Don't you just get the feeling that Vic Darchinyan would trash-talk his own mother?
• DVD pick of the week: I felt old watching this week's pick as I went back to Feb. 13, 1999. How can it have possibly been 10 years since Oscar De La Hoya's tight split decision against Ike Quartey at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas? Well, it has been. Even a decade later, the fight remains one of the high points of De La Hoya's glorious career. Defending the welterweight title, he and Quartey put on an excellent show. They both went down in the sixth round before De La Hoya, in danger of suffering his first defeat, had a huge 12th round. He knocked Quartey down again and battered him along the ropes in a memorable flurry to impressively close the show and claim the deserved victory while handing Quartey his first loss. Ten years? Damn.
Dan Rafael
