St. Valentines Day Massacred
By William Trillo
Photo-Chop: Bret “The Threat” Newton
If ever there was a fight card that was destined to be a complete bust it was this weekends Valentines Day card in Sunrise, Florida. From the outset this fight card was plagued with problems and by the time the final fight was “finito” the problems only seemed to get worse.Let’s see if we can give you a quick recap.
Alfredo Angulo was supposed to fight Ricardo Mayorga but “El Matador” hasn’t been seen since Shane Mosley bounced him off the deck in California. Danny Perez was supposed to step in but he too went MIA. Finally we got the trial horse Cosme Rivera who gave it his best shot but was just too old, slow, weak etc. for “Perro”.
Then of course we had Sergio Martinez, the Marvelous one. First he was set to fight Joe Greene, (not the mean one), but Greene started passing kidney stones and he was shelved. Daniel Santos was rumored to be Sergio’s opponent but he apparently won’t be ready to fight until sometime next fall…maybe. That’s when Kermit Cintron stepped up to fill in and although that seemed like a good match-up on paper, it was a horrendous affair in the ring. Martinez stayed away for a few rounds and when he had Cintron figured out he popped in and out in a bout that was not thrilling to watch, but Martinez was winning easily. So easily in fact he dropped Cintron with a hard left hand that Cintron claimed was a headbutt, it wasn’t. Cintron went down at the end of seven and DID NOT BEAT THE COUNT! Somehow the ref decided he did, or the bell saved him, or something happened…but the fight that was stopped was somehow allowed to continue. It got a little better for a brief moment but then went back to a chess match that Martinez clearly was winning. Another blunder by the ref in the 12th saw him take a point away from Martinez for holding…WHAT??? That enabled the judges to screw everything up and call this a majority draw. Ugh! Martinez won this fight twice but still could do no better than a draw. Memo to the promoters…WE DON’T WANT TO SEE THIS ONE AGAIN!
Lastly we saw Nate Campbell defeat Ali Funeka but lose all his belts because he couldn’t get down to 135 pounds, which is where he held his titles. Basically this fight was a waste of time for fans because it just didn’t amount to a hill of beans. By winning all Nate did was clarify that all the titles are now vacant. Thanks a lot. I’d have been happier if Funeka won, at least we would have a Champ. Now all we have to look forward to is a bunch of underclassmen lobbying for hardware they normally would not deserve to get a sniff of.
Only In America!
Like I said…This St. Valentines Day was Massacred!
