Billy’s Boxing Blog

By William Trillo

That was easily the best fight weekend we had in 2011. Regardless of whom you were rooting for or not, this will be a weekend that will have ramifications in the World of boxing for quite some time. Depending on who you were rooting for there was more than enough thrills and spills to keep even the most skeptical fight fan entertained.

High: It’s going to be very hard to get newly crowned Welterweight champ Victor Ortiz off the high he must be on now. After all the second guessing of Victor’s heart no one can deny that what he did against Andre Berto on Saturday night erases every thought of Ortiz’s questionable courage.

As I said in my blog: “Point Khanter Point” last year: I’d really like Ortiz’s handlers to stop forcing him to get down to 140 and let him fight at his more natural weight of 147 pounds from now on. There is NO REASON to make him stay at Jr. Welter!

I am not suggesting that anyone listened to my advice but it was awful watching Victor suffering to make 140 pounds, it’s great to see him fighting at the weight he belongs at. Ortiz will be a force at 147 pounds.

Low: Is it just me or did Andre Berto’s corner look like a huge circle jerk in between rounds? He had guys yelling at him from the front back and either side & none of them were on the same page. After that double knockdown round I swear all the corner men were doing was arguing with each other while Berto sat there with a blank stare on his face.

What’s the line in that “Stealers Wheels” song say,
Clowns to the left of me,
Jokers to the right,
Here I am,
Stuck in the middle with you!

That was some of the worst corner work I have seen in years and if I am Berto I fire all of them.

Up: As impressive as it was to see those 4 (or was it 5) knockdowns in the Berto vs. Ortiz affair it was 1,000 times more impressive to see these guys get up and fight on. Ok, honestly, how many of you really thought Ortiz was going to get up from that wicked knockdown he suffered in round 6? For those of you who said you knew he would get up, how many figured Victor would knockdown Berto in spectacular fashion before the round was over?

Down: How many different mistakes were made that led up to the disatourous knockout of Puerto Rico’s fallen hero Juan Manuel Lopez? Anyone who said that Juanma’s personal life did not have any affect on him prior to the fight was either lying or just flat out didn’t know any better. Of course it affected him. You don’t go through what that young man went through with a clear head and you can’t expect things to remain the same…that’s the definition of insanity.

Juanma and everyone in Puerto Rico can cry and complain that the fight was stopped too early but the fact is this was in his own backyard with a hometown ref; there is nothing to suggest favoritism or foul play was at work here. Salido was whipping up on Lopez and with a few more straight right hands it could have gotten very ugly. I hear the ref had to get escorted out of the arena by the police on Saturday night. As outrageous as that seems, it’s a lot better than Juanma getting taken out on a stretcher.

And it’s real nice for Bob Arum to say in hindsight that Juanma’s personal life is to blame, but if Arum saw that coming, especially after seeing Juanma balloon up to 180-190 pounds, why did he roll the dice on this fight with Salido and put the Gamboa fight on ice? That roll of the dice came up Snake Eyes and now all parties concerned lost out on a huge payday. You can spin it any way you want, they will never get the glamour and glitz of that proposed super fight back!

In: Mexican fighters’ pulling off shocking upsets. Over the last few weeks we have seen underdog Mexicans ruin parties from Canada to Japan to Puerto Rico and all points in between. Throw in the Erik Morales performance against Maidana and it looks like the Cinco De Mayo celebration has started very early.

Out: Amir Khan. How awful was that fight? Six rounds of sheer boredom that came to an end after a minor head butt. I know McCloskey was up in arms about the stoppage and maybe he had a good point. But really Paul, no one wanted to see 3 more minutes of that atrocity. You were making Khan look pedestrian at best so credit to you for that, but you can’t break an egg laddy, you didn’t stand a chance.

Can we get over the Khan charade now? He has zero charisma and having him as the prelim to the Ortiz/Berto fight shows exactly just how dull he is.

Really Out: Floyd Mayweather Jr. Hey Pretty Boy, did you hear the crowd booing loudly every time they showed your grill on the TV screen? Yes, those boo’s were directed at you. I know you tried to smile and pretend you were getting love, but you know the truth, those people (boxing fans) genuinely do not like you. My question is why were you there? Certainly I doubt you were there to scout either Berto or Ortiz. If history tells us anything, (and it does), you don’t have the cajones to get in the ring with either one of ‘em.

Check out www.Pound4Pound.com for all the latest boxing news

Last night at The Pechanga Resort and Casino there was a fight that reminded me of why I appreciated those who competed in the manly art of self Defense. Due to an early ending in the Semi-Main, ESPN was forced to put a fill-in fight before the main event. It was supposed to just fill some time but before the fight was over the fight had the crowd cheering for more.

Light heavyweights Mike Gavronski 2-0-1 and Tyrell Hendrix 5-1-2 put on a show for the fans that harkened back to the old days. With purses that most likely didn’t come to $3,000 combined the two men gave every ounce of themselves in a fight that most likely didn’t register a blip on the alphabet soup radar. Both men went down early but got back up to continue the slugfest. Midway through the fight Hendrix suffered cuts over both eyes from headbutts and the ref stopped the action for the Doctor to take a look. Before the Doc had a chance to say anything Hendrix said, “I can see!  I can see!” Unlike many of our so called stars (Guerrero, Ortiz, Rahman, Dirrell) who would have looked for a way out Hendrix chose to fight on and thankfully the Doctor allowed him to continue.

The war ended in a Draw and although both fighters were a lot worse for wear they both can hold their heads high. They gave the fans what they came to see and no one was disappointed.

The problem with the broadcast was it allowed ESPN to go to the in studio announcer of Dan Rafael. Of course Rafael pontificated about a number of things but then when speaking about the Marcos Maidana vs. Erik Morales fight Rafael said,” I was one of the few reporters that gave Morales a chance, in fact I said it could be a possible fight of the year candidate!”

My knee jerk reaction was , “Bullsh*t”

I had kept a pretty good eye on all the experts opinions and I certainly didn’t remember Rafael saying that. Just to make sure I searched around the ESPN website and elsewhere and I can’t find a trace of what Rafael claimed. I was going to send Dan an email but I couldn’t find his email anywhere on the site. Not a shock.

I guess when you are sitting on the ESPN chair you can say whatever you want and people will have to believe you, but that doesn’t make it right and until one of his tweeples can show me in writing where Dan made that prediction I will stand by my opinion that he is full of crap.

As far as predictions go here is what I said in my Morales/Maidana “If Anyone can…A Mexi-Can”  postfight blog:

 

 

Last but not least I have to give an honorable mention shout out to Erik Morales, who even in defeat showed more against Marcos Maidana than this reporter or 99.9% of the rest of the media gave him credit for. Anyone who says otherwise is a big fat lair, and yes tweeples, you know exactly who I am talking about.

And you can look that up, unlike the Rafael statement, mine is there for all the world to see and verify.

Check out www.Pound4Pound.com for all the latest boxing news.

By William Trillo

¿Usted habla Español?

If you answered “si” to that question then the chances are you were very happy with the outcome of fights that took place in Montreal, Japan and Las Vegas over the weekend. If you answered in the negative it is highly likely you were not happy with the upsets that took place on opposite sides of the planet.

The first and most glaring upset was the KO loss suffered by the homegrown Montrealer David Lemiuex who was brought back down to earth with a thud at the hands of Mexican veteran Marco Antonio Rubio.

This was a night that was supposed to send the undefeated and reported hard hitting Lemiuex into middleweight stardom. According to his promoter Yvon Michel, HBO was closely watching this event and if David won impressively they would be calling the GYM Promoter on Saturday to discuss a multi-fight deal! “When have you ever heard of a 22 year old getting a multi-fight contract with HBO,” asked Michel?

If he was asking a rhetorical question with the answer being never, then I will go ahead and assume that answer didn’t change after the ESPN televised disaster.

Here’s my question, when have you ever heard of a 22 year old getting so much hype when the truth of the matter is he really hasn’t beaten anyone of consequence? I mean really, take a look at the fights that lead up to Lemiuex’s downfall on Friday night?

Purnell Gates, a 37 year old C-fighter who never fought anyone in the top 100.

Hector Camacho Jr., a fighter whose best days were fought at 138 pounds.

Elvin Ayala, came into the Lemiuex fight winning only 2 of his last 5 fights.

Walid Smichet, lost 4 of his last 7 fights.

Jason Naugler, including the loss to Lemiuex he has lost 8 of his last 9 fights.

I could go on but you really don’t want me to mention guys like the 16 win and 17 loss  Ulises Duarte that Lemiuex feasted on during his rise to the “top” do you…too late.   J

On the flip side, Rubio had not only been in with but beaten many of the world’s top middleweights, his resume was reported North of the border often, Zertuche, Ornelas, Ouma, Miller, Randall, Vanderpool and more. That list read like a who’s who of recent middleweight contenders. His biggest loss came at the hands of Kelly Pavlik. Yes, Rubio had those early KO blemishes like Kofi Jantuah on his record but somehow he had gotten through those disasters and was back in a title eliminator.

Yet, the “mystique” surrounding Lemiuex’s power had most believing Rubio was in for an early night. Truth be told David hit the so called “Glass Chin” Rubio with everything but the kitchen sink early on and I never saw his knees wobble. NEVER! That in and of itself verified some inside intel I am privy to that states Lemieux’s power is highly overrated and is far from what is seems.

Another thing that may be highly overrated is David’s drawing power. For being the pride of Montreal boxing I was far from impressed with the announced attendance of 4,650 at The Bell Center on Friday night. Fighters like Lucian Bute easily triple that figure and Jean Pascal more than doubles it. A year ago Eric Lucas and Librado Andrade put over 8,000 in Quebec City in a non title fight. If Montreal’s favorite son could not put 5,000 butts in the seats on his biggest night what are the chances he can put half that number in the stands next time?

A few time zones away Mexican featherweight Jhonny Gonzalez TKO’d Hozumi Hasegawa at the 58 second mark of round 4. Gonzalez took away Hasegawqa’s WBC featherweight title and it had to come as a tougher defeat than most considering the tragedy that has taken place in Japan over the past weeks.

Like Rubio, Gonzalez is a true Mexican warrior who has been in with the best and is no stranger to adversity. I am sure it was hard for him to go to a country ravaged by earthquakes and radiation to take a man’s title, but boxing is his business and he had a job to do…he did it well.

I can’t even imagine putting myself in Hasegawa’s shoes and we hope the best for him and his country.

Last but not least I have to give an honorable mention shout out to Erik Morales, who even in defeat showed more against Marcos Maidana than this reporter or 99.9% of the rest of the media gave him credit for. Anyone who says otherwise is a big fat lair, and yes tweeples, you know exactly who I am talking about.

What “El Terrible” did on Saturday night is astonishing. I don’t know how he will fare against the other 140 pound elite, but coming off this performance we have to at least give him a chance.

Check out www.Pound4Pound.com for all the latest boxing news.