Mayweather's Legacy Disgraced, Merchant's Legacy Cemented

By now everyone knows the details of Saturday's big fight but let me explain for posterity and because these youtube videos will surely be taken down soon.
Floyd Mayweather was completely dominating Victor Ortiz for four rounds. Ortiz's only offense was rubbing his head on Mayweather until he blatantly head-butted him at the end of the 4th round. The fight was halted and a point was deducted.



After the fight resumed, Ortiz tried to apologize and an angry and frustrated Mayweather clearly didn't accept the apology. He hit a defenseless Ortiz with a combination that knocked him out and ended the fight.

Here's my take:
1) Ortiz was wrong for his dirty headbutts
2) Mayweather was wrong for taking advantage of Ortiz's seemingly sincere apology
3) Joe Cortese was the most culpable. He clearly did call the fighters back and restart the fight. But then he turned away. He did not see the knock-out punches. If Mayweather had kicked Ortiz in the stones, or head-butted him in retaliation, Cortese had no way of knowing.
4) Protect yourself at all times is technically correct, but it excuses Mayweather for hitting a fighter he knew wasn't protecting himself. It was within the rules but very unsporting of him. But it was nothing compared to what he did after the fight.



Larry Merchant is known for being tough on fighters, especially brash, arrogant ones. Many people say Merchant is racist, I don't agree, but the perception is out there. Regardless, Mayweather is getting paid millions of dollars, part of that is to answer Merchant's questions respectfully. Flipping out on a mostly-respected elder statesman of boxing just shows how little class Mayweather has.
But Larry's comeback "I wish I was 50 years younger and I'd kick your ass" was classic and guarantees he will forever be remembered as a tough in-ring, post-fight interview.



Bottom line: until Mayweather fights Pacquiao, many boxing fans, including myself, will have no respect for him, and will not consider him an all-time great.

Bob Arum Rips MMA

Great interview with boxing promoter Bob Arum. He says he hates MMA and UFC fans are skinheads.

Nine minutes long but worth it.



"Guys rolling around like homosexuals."

Classic!

Story suggested by TON

Good Find SCZA

SCZA found a high quality video of the entire Manny Pacquiao - Ricky Hatton fight.

Note: You have to click play twice, the first time ads will appear. The second time the fight will play. You will probably need to watch this fullscreen since TON never changed this blog to the layout that accepts wide screen video.



Pac-Man is just too quick and even though he's moved way up in weight throughout his career he still has that one-punch knockout power. The guy is an absolute monster. If Mayweather beats Marquez in July, he could face Pacquiao in December. That could be the highest grossing fight of all-time (raw dollars, not adjusted for inflation) even in this period of economic turmoil.

I also love the fact that Manny doesn't seem ready to retire like every other boxer. He just wants to keep on fighting. He could get every contender between 140 and 154 -- Moseley, Margarito, Cotto -- and beat them all.

The Eloquence of Jim Lampley

Everything in life is better when Jim Lampley is describing it. The same goes for this unusual display of boxing by Trenton Titsworth.

Round of the Year?

I've written before about how my love for boxing has been diminished since the sport descended into a cesspoll of controversial decisions and crappy fights. I never even watch matches live anymore, I just wait for them to be good, then catch them on youtube. So when I heard that the fight between Kendall Holt and Ricardo Torres featured the "Round of the Year," I was intrigued:



I was actually very disappointed by this because the second knockdown was a pretty cheap one, and the knockout punch didn't seem all that devastating. Exciting fight, but I've seen better.

Nasty Gash

This week's nasty boxing injury is a cut over the left eyebrow of "Irish" John Duddy [corrected].



While impressive (it's much bigger than his eyebrow), it is still nothing compared to the Hasim Rahman hematoma (which was bigger than his whole head).

Kings of the Ring

When I was younger I loved boxing. I would watch every HBO fight. Papa Poop and I saw Buster Douglas beat Mike Tyson live. I remember loving Mike Tyson and his 90 second knockouts. But then Tyson went to jail and there were so many horrible decisions that it was pointless to even pay attention anymore. After a while I completely gave up on the sport and it's probably been a couple years since I've actually watched a fight live.

But boxing is great because the best fights you can watch over and over again and enjoy, even if you know the eventual outcome. Plus, boxing is very compatible with youtube because the best fights and the best rounds can be posted in one short clip.

Earlier this week, I DVRed the Contender Season 3 finale to watch (for the third time), the main event fight between Jaidon Codrington and Sakio Bika. Enjoy round 1 and pay attention to the commentary of Teddy Atlas who sounds gruff but is actually very intelligent and one of the most insightful announcers in any sport.



Bika won by TKO in the 8th.

Watching that fight got me thinking about the best rounds in boxing history and of course I immediately thought of Diego "Chico" Corrales - Jose Luis Castillo, Round 10.



Corrales died in a motorcycle accident exactly 2 years later, to the day.

But perhaps the coup de grace as far as youtube boxing is concerned is the full 8 minutes of the war between Thomas "The Hitman" Hearns and "Marvelous" Marvin Hagler.

Fight of the Century

Floyd Mayweather vs. Oscar De La Hoya is being billed as the fight to save boxing. This is ridiculous. Boxing is dead. It will never again be anything more than a niche sport in the United States. In certain countries, especially Spanish speaking ones, certain fighters will be popular (apparently Manny Pacquiao can't walk down the streets of the Philippines) but it will never again be a big time sport in the U.S.
First of all, it doesn't appeal to women, but it never did.
Second of all, the young male audience that used to love boxing now spends its pay-per-view dollars on wrestling and UFC (which apparently gets incredible buyrates).
And no worthwhile boxing is ever on free TV. Every once in a while HBO has a good fight but mostly it's a good fighter against a chump.
And here's the main problem with boxing, it's a group of individuals, instead of an organized unit with a governing body to protect, nourish and grow the sport. UFC and WWE both have that.
For instance, this fight is so big, it could have drawn a huge audience on a Saturday night on NBC or Fox. But that means instead of a $35 million purse, maybe the fighters would have had to split $15 million. But there was no incentive for them to do it, because all boxers are essentially individual contractors.
Imagine how big this fight would be if it were on free TV. Everyone would watch. It would get better ratings than every show this year except for the Super Bowl and the American Idol finale.
But instead it's relegated to PPV for $55 and only a few crazies (Nails, Michael) will convince their friends to get together and chip in to buy the thing. Most of the money will come from bars which will have to shell out big bucks and maybe even charge admission to cover the cost.
All of this for a fight that probably won't be all that entertaining. Mayweather is good but mostly he runs around the ring trying not to get hit. He'll probably dance for 6 rounds, then catch a frustrated De La Hoya with a few good shots and win a very boring decision.

Hematomas

Fernando Vargas got a nice hematoma (and a loss) in his fight against Shane Moseley. This reminds me of the hematoma by which all other hematomas are measured, Hasim Rahman's that he got from a head butt during a fight with Evander Holyfield. After watching that fight we went out and saw a girl with huge tits. I told Shoeb that she had been flatchested until Holyfield head butted her. From that point forward large breasts became Rahmans. Vargases will also be acceptable.