I don’t want the two people who usually read my boxing musings to think that I am taking a prolonged vacation from writing the type of stories you have become accustomed to. I am actually working on a two part series about one of the most interesting fighters that has come out of Tijuana in the last sixty years. I had the pleasure of spending a lazy, early breakfast morning with this gentleman and frankly he filled up my digital recorder with his memories of the boxing world during the 50’s and 60’s so it has taken me some time to put it on paper or better said, on the computer screen. Please bare with me but in the mean time, I present to you my latest thoughts on the happenings of this crazy sport we call boxing:
*The first order of business is Mayweather-Marquez. I know this fight has gotten a lot of press and I promise this will be the last you hear of it from me because minus the knockdown in the second round, what transpired during the 36 minutes of official fight time was pretty forgettable. The most interesting part of the whole night, was the Kanye West-like interruption from Mosley during the Max Kellerman post fight interview of “Money” Mayweather. It seemed that Floyd was expecting Mosley to congratulate him for a bout well fought but with the egging on of one Bernard Hopkins, it turned into something much, much different plus a lot more enjoyable.
This is the not the first time that Mayweather has been in a snoozer of a fight, pretty much all his latest fights have been pretty predictable because of the opponents he chooses. Mayweather has not been in a quasi competitive fight since the first half of his scrap against Zab Judah in which Judah actually won some rounds. I would go out on a limb and guess that most of us buy the PPV because we are just hoping against hope that Baldomir, Hatton or De La Hoya would have finished up the job and beat Mayweather but at the end, we knew that the chips were stacked against them while Mayweather stacked the chips in front of him. Too bad the chips that Mayweather stacked really were worth something and were not just being used figuratively.
The people who I feel sorry about is the fair weather boxing fan or in better words, the people who know boxing, like boxing but do not follow it as ardently as we do.
Believe me, if you are reading this, you follow boxing ardently.
These people got swept up by the hype, by the Tecate poster at their local liquor store or the thirty second commercial during their favorite show. They recognize Mayweather’s name from his fight with De La Hoya and see that a Mexican Warrior, they might have heard of or not, is going after him and they want to see the loud mouth Mayweather get his due. They have no idea that Marquez is going up in weight ten pounds, that Marquez is 36 battled scarred years and that despite Mayweather not having fought in two years, its no hill to climb for the quickest and quite possibly best fighter in the world.
Case in point, my boss at work. The day of the fight, he decided to order it despite my pleading for him not to, despite me telling him that Marquez had no chance. He then proceeded to call me immediately afterwards and inform me that it was the most boring fight he had ever witnessed. Now how will I ever be able to convince him to order a fight that really deserves his hard earned cash?
At least he got to have a carne asada…
*After the news was released that WBC lightweight champion Edwin Valero’s visa to work in the United States was revoked, I called my good friend Antonio DeMarco to get his reaction. DeMarco was amused but not to concerned since he is focused on his training for Jose Alfaro, the hard hitting Nicaraguan he will be facing on October 31st at a site to be determined. I also asked him about the possibility of him traveling to Venezuela in December to challenge for the title as Valero stated was his plan at a recent press conference. DeMarco stated that he was willing to go anywhere at any time for his chance to fulfill his life long dream of championship glory but made sure to remind him that foremost on his mind was Alfaro who according to DeMarco will be a tough nut to crack.
I also bumped into Roberto Quirarte, son of DeMarco’s trainer Romulo Quirarte. Roberto, who also makes up Team DeMarco, shared with me that they were waiting for a call from DeMarco’s promoter Gary Shaw to see if there was any truth of a possible Caracas trip. Quirarte did not believe it was possible since HBO or Showtime are unlikely to travel to the south American country for financial and/or political reason since “Yankees” are not to much welcomed by the Hugo Chavez country.
*This weekend, the boxing world might see history in the making as Chris Arreola, an American of Mexican descent, will challenge Vitali Klitschko for the WBC heavyweight title of the world. If Arreola could some how pull off the upset, he would be the first Mexican or Mexican-American heavyweight to ever strap a championship belt around his waist. The fact that it is the green and gold belt, which all Mexican fighters covet, must be extra special for the “Nightmare”. I am not ready to go out on a limb and predict the Arreola upset for the simple reason that I have not seen the weigh in photos and we all know the troubles Arreola has with the scale but if Arreola can get inside the Klitschko jab, which has not seen much action in the last couple of years since Vitali has been hurt, there is a chance that Arreola might make the southern California faithful boxing fans go nuts at the Staples Center.