There's only one ... Ricky Flattened
Your weekly random thoughts return …
• How about these new lyrics to the Ricky Hatton song? "There's only one Ricky Flattened!" If he decides to continue fighting -- which you know he will -- who wants to bet he'll drop trainer Floyd Mayweather Sr. faster than Mayweather can order lunch at the Taco Bell drive-thru? (If you don't get it, you missed the terrific "24/7" on HBO.)
By the way, how utterly stupid does Mayweather Sr. look now after all the smack he talked about Manny Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach? And how genius does Roach look after predicting the outcome exactly? (He said Pacquiao by knockout inside three rounds, and Pacquiao starched Hatton in the second round.) By most accounts, the Mayweather-Hatton union was a disaster during training camp, even though they did a pretty good job of keeping it quiet until just a few days before the fight. Hatton and the others in the camp didn't exactly treat Mayweather well, but Mayweather didn't show much class, either. He spent most of the promotion telling everyone he was the greatest trainer in the world while disrespecting Roach by calling him "Freddie 'The Joke Coach' Roach." After Mayweather's man got destroyed, guess he's the real joke of a coach, huh?
• For a change, Hatton's British fans actually showed some class by not booing during the American national anthem. Except for their previous disrespect shown to the American anthem, Hatton's fans really are amazing. They travel halfway across the globe and energize an arena like no other fans on earth. They even make Hatton's weigh-ins special events with more electricity than many fights.
• How's this for shocking: David Diaz was more competitive against Pacquiao than Oscar De La Hoya or Hatton.
• So Floyd Mayweather Jr. announced he was coming out of retirement. I'm shocked.
• Speaking of Mayweather Jr., maybe I'm just cynical, but I have to believe he knew exactly what he was doing when he opened the door for promoter Don King to try to sign him. By bringing King into the mix, Mayweather gained significant leverage with Golden Boy and got himself a better deal. The fight with Juan Manuel Marquez is fine, but let's keep it real: Wouldn't it be nice if Mayweather actually fought a true, prime welterweight? While Mayweather is looking down the scale for his second consecutive opponent, Pacquiao has consistently looked up the scale for his.
• So just who is going to fight Shane Mosley, the apparent odd man out among the big welterweight fights being made -- even though he's the champ?
• I guess Mayweather Jr. and Zab Judah, one-time ring rivals, are buddies again. At Mayweather's insistence, Judah will fight on the undercard of his July 18 match with Marquez. Hanging out at strip clubs together in Las Vegas must be the key to their male bonding.
• The only one with less class than Mayweather Sr. is his brother Roger Mayweather, Floyd Jr.'s trainer. During the news conference to announce the Marquez fight, Roger stepped to the podium and spent most of his time trashing legendary trainer Angelo Dundee for no apparent reason rather than talk about his nephew's comeback fight. It was disgusting and uncalled for.
• Congrats to HBO, which won four sports Emmys for previous editions of "24/7" among its eight total trophies on April 27. HBO, which won one award for "De La Hoya/Pacquiao 24/7" and three for "Calzaghe/Jones 24/7," deserves to pick up another batch next year for "Pacquiao/Hatton 24/7," which was terrific. The fourth and final episode was excellent, but what was most impressive was that by delaying it until the day before the fight (previous final episodes had always run on the Thursday night before the fight), the producers got in footage and narration of the electrifying weigh-in from Friday afternoon, just a couple of hours before the final cut had to be delivered to the network. Nobody does it better than HBO. The network is planning another batch of episodes during the buildup to Mayweather-Marquez.
• While I was in Las Vegas for Pacquiao-Hatton, I ran into Genaro Hernandez, the former junior lightweight champ, at the weigh-in. When he was active, Hernandez was one of my favorite fighters. And having gotten to know him in the years since I started covering boxing, you won't meet a better guy. Last fall, Hernandez was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare kind of soft tissue cancer. He had been very sick and his weight had dropped to 120 pounds, 10 less than he had fought at as a champion a decade ago. But the good news is that Hernandez has been told by his doctor that his treatment worked and the cancer is gone. Even though "Chicanito" still looked a bit frail and his hair hasn't grown back yet, he said he was feeling OK. He had a big smile on his face, which was great to see.
• Anyone think Jermain Taylor has gotten a good night's sleep in the past two weeks?
• Here's a not-so-glamorous moment from the life a boxing writer: A middle-of-the-night drive to catch a 6 a.m. Sunday flight (at least I had the upgrade) from Hartford, Conn., back home to Washington after the Carl Froch-Taylor fight at Foxwoods on zero sleep. I made my flight thanks to my main man Alex "Yanksalex" Dombroff. Gotta give him props for the hour-plus ride through the back roads of Connecticut from the casino to the airport. That Frappuccino stop at 4:30 a.m. was about as clutch as it gets.
• The super middleweight division is hot right now, which is one of the reasons, in case you hadn't noticed, that Showtime is so heavily into the division. The network has been featuring numerous super middleweights of late, including Froch, Taylor, Lucian Bute, Librado Andrade and Allan Green along with up-and-comers Andre Dirrell and Andre Ward, who faces Edison Miranda in a very interesting fight May 16. I think what Showtime is doing is smart -- getting into a deep division so it can televise a series of strong bouts in the weight class.
• So now junior middleweight titlist Vernon Forrest wants out of a proposed Aug. 1 Showtime fight with interim beltholder Sergio Martinez. If Forrest does pull out -- the mandatory is way overdue, and he has been ducking Martinez worse than we're all ducking swine flu -- he ought to be stripped of the title. Time for Forrest to put up or shut up.
• As exciting as boxing can be, we also need to remember that there is a human toll sometimes. Condolences to the family and friends of Benjamin Flores and former heavyweight champion Greg Page. Flores died this week at age 25, five days after suffering injuries in a junior featherweight bout with Al Seeger last week. Page was 50 when he died April 27 from complications from the brain injury he suffered in a March 2001 bout with Dale Crowe. Page had been partially paralyzed since the fight and had suffered a stroke.
• I'm really hoping the proposed match between Yuriorkis Gamboa and Celestino Caballero happens.
• How great is Gerry Penalosa's chin? I'm not sure Antonio Margarito, with his loaded gloves, could knock him out.
• It was great to see bantamweight Abner Mares back in action on the Pacquiao-Hatton undercard after recovering from a serious eye injury suffered last fall. Hopefully, he'll reach his full potential without the eye causing him any more difficulties.
• This one is off-topic, but it had to be done. Today is my mom's birthday, so happy birthday, Michelle Rafael.
• DVD pick of the week: This one never, ever gets old. I could watch my DVD of the Showtime bout every week. But four years ago, on May 7, 2005, at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Diego Corrales and Jose Luis Castillo waged the single greatest fight I have ever seen. It was a privilege to be ringside for one of the best fights in boxing history. They traded toe-to-toe for the entire fight in what was already a classic by the time they reached the 10th round of the lightweight unification bout. The 10th round, one of the greatest ever, sent the fight into legendary status as Corrales survived two rough knockdowns (helped, no doubt, by spitting out his mouthpiece twice) to rally for the improbable TKO victory in the final minute. It was jaw-dropping stuff. Fights simply get no better. It turned out to be Corrales' final victory. He lost his next three (including a rematch) and, sadly, two years to the day of the fight, Corrales died in a motorcycle accident. It's an anniversary I never forget.
Dan Rafael
