If The Mayweathers Played Up That Beef For The Cameras, Give ‘Em An Oscar…WOODS

Published

13 years ago

August 31, 2011

There were those that thought HBO’s 24/7 franchise had run its course, that there would be no fertile material to pluck. Those doubters swallowed their theory when they watched the jaw-dropper of a final scene in the first installment of the Mayweather-Ortiz 24/7, which is now running on HBO and HBO.com.

The confrontation between Floyd Mayweather Junior and Senior looked like something which called for the presence of Dr. Phil, or maybe Joe Cortez, because one sensed that violence, if not imminent, wasn’t out of the question.

Before that crackerjack ending, viewers saw the Mayweather they’ve come to love, or loathe, depending on how much his brand of braggadocious loquacity is your thing.

He of course proclaimed his superiority, asking rhetorically what other athlete works as hard as him, and what other sportsman has been at the top of his heap for 16 years.

His manner contrasted mightily with Victor Ortiz, who was presented as a work in progress, a man not too far from the humble origins of his youth, when he was treated with the care reserved for an old sofa scarred with too many stains, cat-scratches and too-compacted springs. One parent blew Ortiz off, then another, and he was left to his own devices much more so than any youth should be as he exited a hellish childhood, and clawed his way to become the WBC welterweight champion.

“I’m a very positive person,” the 24-year-old Ortiz told us, and had us rooting that much harder for this massive underdog, as we learned that most of his training team works 9-5 jobs, and then comes to the gym for their second shift. Who wouldn’t root for this kid, who told us how his family fractured. “What would you do if I were to leave you guys?” his mom asked him. “You wouldn’t do that,” little Victor said. But she did, she left a 7 year old boy. A few years later, dad bolted the kids, left them in a trailer without food or electricity. Victor and siblings fended for themselves for a few years, staying with friends, before they entered the foster care system. Again, I ask, who wouldn’t be rooting for this good to pull off a massive upset after hearing about that ordeal…even if you’ve already heard the tale.

The contrast between Ortiz and Mayweather, who refers to his crew, which includes the rapper 50 Cent, as “The Money Team,” was skillfully rendered by the HBO artists. No, there’s no one like Uncle Roger on Team Ortiz. “Why would I give a f— about Victor Ortiz, he don’t mean s— to me. Victor Ortiz ain’t no kin to me. I wouldn’t know him from another bag of white rice,” Floyd’s trainer said.

How you respond to such rhetoric I guess it all depends on what sort of behavior appeals to you, and perhaps, what side of the tracks you grew up on. Someone coming from hardscrabble origins might be more inclined to identify with Roger’s manner, see it as totally understandable, while some would label crude and dismissive.

Viewers then saw Floyd Senior visit Junior in the gym. “At the end of the day, he’s a son, it’s your blood, blood is thicker than mud. If he wins, I win. His name’s Floyd Joy Mayweather…Junior, I’m Senior.” The implication is clear, that these two are still hashing out a turf war, still clarifying their position in the familial pecking order, with the dad trying to elicit some credit from the son for being responsible for his presence, and the son sending the return message that his status derives not from a genetic gift, but from self determination.

“It all started with my father,” Floyd allows, but anyone that has followed the saga knows that the active fighter is not beneath tossing a barb at dad which diminishes his role in the success of the son.

There is no absence of psychic drama in the mind of Ortiz, mind you. Viewers were reminded how Victor’s ‘no mas’ against Marcos Maidana shaped him. “I don’t regret anything I did in my life,” he said, when asked about the night he quit. He redeemed himself, of course, when in late spring he took down Andre Berto. One had to be struck by his vehement belief in himself, and the dripping contempt he shows for the opinions of others. If you saw him as an 8-to-1 underdog, maybe you dropped him down to 7-to-1 as you saw the embers in his eyes.

And what if Mayweather’s sparring with the law–he’s a defendant in six different cases currently–affects his focus as he readies himself for Sept. 17? “Eff it, it’s going to be what it’s going to be,” he said when asked if the law woes will drain him. It’s of course impossible to know if he’s fronting, playing the role of the intrepid rebel, and actually lies awake at night pondering an iffy future and if that future might include time behind bars. That’s part of the fun of immersing yourself in the Mayweather maelstrom, sifting through what is likely BS and what is real.

Speaking off what is real, viewers saw footage of Floyd’s fiancee, who was ID’d as “Miss Jackson.” Her real name is Shantel Jackson, a model and aspiring actress from Miami. She flashed a massive rock, and dimples to die for. Ortiz probably hopes Floyd spends too much time admiring all her dimples and crannies, and neglects training…

It doesn’t look like Ortiz is neglecting the grunt work before the big day. Trainer Danny Garcia oversees Ortiz, and there is drama in that relationship, as well. His kid brother Robert used to train Ortiz but Victor dumped him, and asked Danny to helm his ship. Things aren’t right to this day in the Garcia family because of that development.

Mayweather father and son, though, their division is at a whole ‘nother level. Viewers saw disturbing evidence of this, when Junior said “You can’t train nobody when you’re locked up” when Senior looked to get credit for crafting Junior. Junior then tells his dad that Roger is the best trainer, Senior says he’s the best, and an average viewer shakes his head and wonders how people harboring such animus and immaturity have been able to make such professional headway.

“Tell me one champion you got right now,” Junior asks Senior, who sputters. “You ain’t got none…De La Hoya left you, Hatton don’t want to be with you…Roger’s the one, this is my trainer right here…We don’t want anybody interfering while we’re working…Get out of our way…This is our gym.” At this point, the juicer bodyguards slide into the picture, and look to de-escalate the whole fracas, which of course none of us know is the real deal, or played up in the style of “Jersey Shore,” or “Housewives” or any of the other “reality” series which feature beefs just like this one to boost ratings.

Junior tries to toss his dad out of the gym and dad tells him to “push me out, emeffer.” The “emeffer” in case you lost track, is his son.

“I’ll beat you’re mothereffing a–,” the father screams, and then yells, “41-1,” apparently implying that he’d hand Floyd his first loss. “You couldn’t fight worth s—,” Floyd responds. “You weren’t nothing but an emeffer cab-driver.”

Bottom line, if this was a put on, or even deliberately escalated to amp the show, then some Grade A acting was going on. It looked like tempers were flaring like herpes; neck veins bulged everywhere and onlookers looked horrified.

Floyd cools down with an explanation, saying that is all paid up on his houses and cars, and that he could retire after the Ortiz fight if he wanted to. “Roger Mayweather made the Mayweather name and I took it to the next level,” he said, finishing that only he and Roger are the Mayweathers that matter in the boxing universe, and for that matter, “I’m not no Junior.”

And you were worried that 24/7 wouldn’t be able to muster compelling material?

One can argue that such squabbles shouldn’t be fodder for drama, that the father-son faceoff is nothing but a sad commentary on a mega-dysfunctional family which needs ample therapy to heal their wounds, instead of cameras to inflame and exploit. One can’t argue that Mayweather isn’t a compelling character, and that without him, boxing is a much more boring place.

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Michael Woods

Fury-Usyk Reignited: Can the Gypsy King Avenge his Lone Defeat?

Published

17 hours ago

December 20, 2024

Arne K. Lang

Fury-Usyk-Reignated-Can-the-Gypsy-King-Avenge-His-Londe-Defeat?

In professional boxing, the heavyweight division, going back to the days of John L. Sullivan, is the straw that stirs the drink. By this measure, the fight on May 18 of this year at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, was the biggest prizefight in decades. The winner would emerge as the first undisputed heavyweight champion since 1999 when Lennox Lewis out-pointed Evander Holyfield in their second meeting.

The match did not disappoint. It had several twists and turns.

Usyk did well in the early rounds, but the Gypsy King rattled Usyk with a harsh right hand in the fifth stanza and won rounds five through seven on all three cards. In the ninth, the match turned sharply in favor of the Ukrainian. Fury was saved by the bell after taking a barrage of unanswered punches, the last of which dictated a standing 8-count from referee Mark Nelson. But Fury weathered the storm and with his amazing powers of recuperation had a shade the best of it in the final stanza.

The decision was split: 115-112 and 114-113 for Usyk who became a unified champion in a second weight class; 114-113 for Fury.

That brings us to tomorrow (Saturday, Dec. 21) where Usyk and Fury will renew acquaintances in the same ring where they had their May 18 showdown.

The first fight was a near “pick-‘em” affair with Fury closing a very short favorite at most of the major bookmaking establishments. The Gypsy King would have been a somewhat higher favorite if not for the fact that he was coming off a poor showing against MMA star Francis Ngannou and had a worrisome propensity for getting cut. (A cut above Fury’s right eye in sparring pushed back the fight from its original Feb. 11 date.)

Tomorrow’s sequel, bearing the tagline “Reignited,” finds Usyk a consensus 7/5 favorite although those odds could shorten by post time. (There was no discernible activity after today’s weigh-in where Fury, fully clothed, topped the scales at 281, an increase of 19 pounds over their first meeting.)

Given the politics of boxing, anything “undisputed” is fragile. In June, Usyk abandoned his IBF belt and the organization anointed Daniel Dubois their heavyweight champion based upon Dubois’s eighth-round stoppage of Filip Hrgovic in a bout billed for the IBF interim title. The malodorous WBA, a festering boil on the backside of boxing, now recognizes 43-year-old Kubrat Pulev as its “regular” heavyweight champion.

Another difference between tomorrow’s fight card and the first installment is that the May 18 affair had a much stronger undercard. Two strong pairings were the rematch between cruiserweights Jai Opetaia and Maris Briedis (Opetaia UD 12) and the heavyweight contest between unbeatens Agit Kabayal and Frank Sanchez (Kabayel KO 7).

Tomorrow’s semi-wind-up between Serhii Bohachuk and Ismail Madrimov lost luster when Madrimov came down with bronchitis and had to withdraw. The featherweight contest between Peter McGrail and Dennis McCann fell out when McCann’s VADA test returned an adverse finding. Bohachuk and McGrail remain on the card but against late-sub opponents in matches that are less intriguing.

The focal points of tomorrow’s undercard are the bouts involving undefeated British heavyweights Moses Itauma (10-0, 8 KOs) and Johnny Fisher (12-0, 11 KOs). Both are heavy favorites over their respective opponents but bear watching because they represent the next generation of heavyweight standouts. Fury and Usyk are getting long in the tooth. The Gypsy King is 36; Usyk turns 38 next month.

Bob Arum once said that nobody purchases a pay-per-view for the undercard and, years from now, no one will remember which sanctioning bodies had their fingers in the pie. So, Fury-Usyk II remains a very big deal, although a wee bit less compelling than their first go-around.

Will Tyson Fury avenge his lone defeat? Turki Alalshikh, the Chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority and the unofficial czar of “major league” boxing, certainly hopes so. His Excellency has made known that he stands poised to manufacture a rubber match if Tyson prevails.

We could have already figured this out, but Alalshikh violated one of the protocols of boxing when he came flat out and said so. He effectively made Tyson Fury the “A-side,” no small potatoes considering that the most relevant variable on the checklist when handicapping a fight is, “Who does the promoter need?”

The Uzyk-Fury II fight card will air on DAZN with a suggested list price of $39.99 for U.S. fight fans. The main event is expected to start about 5:45 pm ET / 2:45 pm PT.

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Unheralded Bruno Surace went to Tijuana and Forged the TSS 2024 Upset of the Year

Published

2 days ago

December 19, 2024

Arne K. Lang

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Unheralded Bruno Surace went to Tijuana and Forged the TSS 2024 Upset of the Year

The Dec. 14 fight at Tijuana between Jaime Munguia and Bruno Surace was conceived as a stay-busy fight for Munguia. The scuttlebutt was that Munguia’s promoters, Zanfer and Top Rank, wanted him to have another fight under his belt before thrusting him against Christian Mbilli in a WBC eliminator with the prize for the winner (in theory) a date with Canelo Alvarez.

Munguia came to the fore in May of 2018 at Verona, New York, when he demolished former U.S. Olympian Sadam Ali, conqueror of Miguel Cotto. That earned him the WBO super welterweight title which he successfully defended five times.

Munguia kept winning as he moved up in weight to middleweight and then super middleweight and brought a 43-0 (34) record into his Cinco de Mayo 2024 match with Canelo.

Jaime went the distance with Alvarez and had a few good moments while losing a unanimous decision. He rebounded with a 10th-round stoppage of Canada’s previously undefeated Erik Bazinyan.

There was little reason to think that Munguia would overlook Surace as the Mexican would be fighting in his hometown for the first time since February of 2022 and would want to send the home folks home happy. Moreover, even if Munguia had an off-night, there was no reason to think that the obscure Surace could capitalize. A Frenchman who had never fought outside France, Surace brought a 25-0-2 record and a 22-fight winning streak, but he had only four knockouts to his credit and only eight of his wins had come against opponents with winning records.

It appeared that Munguia would close the show early when he sent the Frenchman to the canvas in the second round with a big left hook. From that point on, Surace fought mostly off his back foot, throwing punches in spurts, whereas the busier Munguia concentrated on chopping him down with body punches. But Surace absorbed those punches well and at the midway point of the fight, behind on the cards but nonplussed, it now looked as if the bout would go the full 10 rounds with Munguia winning a lopsided decision.

Then lightning struck. Out of the blue, Surace connected with an overhand right to the jaw. Munguia went down flat on his back. He rose a fraction-of-a second before the count reached “10,”, but stumbled as he pulled himself upright. His eyes were glazed and referee Juan Jose Ramirez, a local man, waived it off. There was no protest coming from Munguia or his cornermen. The official time was 2:36 of round six.

At major bookmaking establishments, Jaime Munguia was as high as a 35/1 favorite. No world title was at stake, yet this was an upset for the ages.

Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank

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Steven Navarro is the TSS 2024 Prospect of the Year

Published

3 days ago

December 18, 2024

Arne K. Lang

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“I get ‘Bam’ vibes when I watch this kid,” said ESPN ringside commentator Tim Bradley during the opening round of Steven Navarro’s most recent match. Bradley was referencing WBC super flyweight champion Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez, a precociously brilliant technician whose name now appears on most pound-for-pound lists.

There are some common threads between Steven Navarro, the latest fighter to adopt the nickname “Kid Dynamite,” and Bam Rodriguez. Both are southpaws currently competing in the junior bantamweight division. But, of course, Bradley was alluding to something more when he made the comparison. And Navarro’s showing bore witness that Bradley was on to something.

It was the fifth pro fight for Navarro who was matched against a Puerto Rican with a 7-1 ledger. He ended the contest in the second frame, scoring three knockdowns, each the result of a different combination of punches, forcing the referee to stop it. It was the fourth win inside the distance for the 20-year-old phenom.

Isaias Estevan “Steven” Navarro turned pro after coming up short in last December’s U.S. Olympic Trials in Lafayette, Louisiana. The #1 seed in the 57 kg (featherweight) division, he was upset in the finals, losing a controversial split decision. Heading in, Navarro had won 13 national tournaments beginning at age 12.

A graduate of LA’s historic Fairfax High School, Steven made his pro debut this past April on a Matchroom Promotions card at the Fontainebleau in Las Vegas and then inked a long-term deal with Top Rank. He comes from a boxing family. His father Refugio had 10 pro fights and three of Refugio’s cousins were boxers, most notably Jose Navarro who represented the USA at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and was a four-time world title challenger as a super flyweight. Jose was managed by Oscar De La Hoya for much of his pro career.

Nowadays, the line between a prospect and a rising contender has been blurred. Three years ago, in an effort to make matters less muddled, we operationally defined a prospect thusly: “A boxer with no more than a dozen fights, none yet of the 10-round variety.” To our way of thinking, a prospect by nature is still in the preliminary-bout phase of his career.

We may loosen these parameters in the future. For one thing, it eliminates a lot of talented female boxers who, like their Japanese male counterparts in the smallest weight classes, are often pushed into title fights when, from a historical perspective, they are just getting started.

But for the time being, we will adhere to our operational definition. And within the window that we have created, Steven Navarro stood out. In his first year as a pro, “Kid Dynamite” left us yearning to see more of him.

Honorable mention: Australian heavyweight Teremoana Junior (5-0, 5 KOs)

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