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Guilty Pleasure: The Countdown To Margarito-Cotto Is On…RASKIN

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We’re not exactly looking at a barren boxing calendar for the remainder of 2011. Over the next 11 Saturdays, there are 10 fight cards on either Showtime, HBO, or HBO Pay-Per-View. Four of the top five pound-for-pound fighters will be in action. There are eight different bouts remaining that I would categorize as having “Fight of the Year potential” (including a rematch to the fight that is currently the frontrunner for the award).

So it is not an empty compliment when I declare that I’m looking forward to the December 3 Antonio Margarito-Miguel Cotto rematch more than any other boxing match between now and the end of 2011.

On the spectrum of sporting-events-as-occasions-for-rubbernecking metaphors, Margarito-Cotto II is a gruesome 10-car pileup in which it turns out all 10 cars were being driven by topless strippers. When the road is littered with smashed fenders, broken glass, and half-naked women, maybe you don’t feel good about slowing down to look, but you’re damned sure going to anyway.

Unquestionably, there are more important fights on the 2011 calendar. Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez is the third installment of an all-time-great rivalry between two future Hall of Famers. Bernard Hopkins-Chad Dawson is for a lineal championship. So is this weekend’s Sergio Martinez-Darren Barker fight. Margarito-Cotto II is by no means insignificant; Cotto is probably the number-one guy in the wide-open junior middleweight division at the moment, and he’s a fringe candidate for a P4P ranking. Still, compared to Pacquiao-Marquez III, Hopkins-Dawson, and Martinez-Barker, who wins and who loses in the Margarito-Cotto fight doesn’t carry historical weight.

Instead, the appeal of Margarito-Cotto is mostly of a visceral nature. It’s something you feel in your gut, not something you explain with your brain. (And yes, I’m aware of the irony in my devoting 1,000 words to trying to explain it anyway.) This fight stirs emotion. It’s a fight that lends itself perfectly to hype, and is also about 99 percent certain to live up to that hype.

The hype began with a three-stop media tour last week, and the last major affair was the taping of HBO’s Face Off With Max Kellerman. This tweet last Thursday from the debate show’s host said it all: “Just finished Cotto-Margarito II Face Off. Oh. My. God.”

(Quick aside: Kellerman gave followers perhaps his best tweet ever the previous Saturday when, at the conclusion of Erik Morales’ war with Pablo Cesar Cano, he tweeted simply, “Erik Morales!” It was a wonderfully self-aware use of Twitter, as Kellerman has perfected the minimalist color-commentary art of offering analysis simply by stating a fighter’s name emphatically.)

How could the Margarito-Cotto version of Face Off not be monumentally intense? One guy hates the other and believes his opponent spent 11 rounds three years ago beating him about the head with loaded gloves, not only stealing a victory but carrying the potential to deprive him of his health—or his life—through illegal means. The other guy feels that burning hatred and either lives with soul-melting guilt every day or is fighting the uphill battle of the wrongfully accused. Either way, his emotions have to be running high.

It’s a fight loaded with combustibility. You’ve never seen a man fighting for redemption to the extreme that Margarito will be. You’ve never seen a man fighting for revenge to the extreme that Cotto will be.

There are so many compelling questions coming in. Will the outcome of this fight give us a meaningful indication of whether Margarito’s hand wraps were “enhanced” the last time? How depleted is Margarito after his beating last November from Pacquiao? How depleted is Cotto after, well, being Miguel Cotto for 38 pro fights? Can Cotto hurt Margarito now? To what extent is Margarito in Cotto’s head? Will Cotto’s hatred for Margarito prompt him to stand still and slug it out all fight long?

One element of this fight requires no question mark: Madison Square Garden WILL be rocking. This could be the loudest and most passionate MSG crowd since Tito Trinidad returned from his first retirement and went to war with Ricardo Mayorga. Cotto’s hold on Puerto Rican and Puerto Rican-American fans has been noteworthy, but it hasn’t quite hit Trinidadian levels. Against Margarito, it very well might.

This is a pay-per-view that fans of fistic action won’t be able to say no to. And that was true even before we learned that Brandon Rios is going to be on the undercard. You know that 10-car topless-stripper pileup? Add a live musical performance atop the cars by all four Beatles, including John and George somehow brought back from the dead, and you approximate the extra rubbernecking value of Rios.

Money is tight in households all over the world, and pay-per-view costs keep rising anyway. If ever there was a time to be discerning and disciplined about what PPV shows you support, that time is now.

But Margarito-Cotto II passes all of the “I don’t care how broke it makes me” tests. This is the 2011 fight I refuse to miss, above all others.

Their first fight was a tainted classic. That taint is a key reason why the rematch might be even better.

Eric Raskin can be contacted at RaskinBoxing@yahoo.com. You can follow him on Twitter @EricRaskin and listen to new episodes of his podcast, Ring Theory, at http://ringtheory.podbean.com.

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Undercard Results and Recaps from the Inoue-Cardenas Show in Las Vegas

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The curtain was drawn on a busy boxing weekend tonight at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas where the featured attraction was Japanese superstar Naoya Inoue appearing in his twenty-fifth world title fight.

The top two fights (Inoue vs. Roman Cardenas for the unified 122-pound crown and Rafael Espinoza vs. Edward Vazquez for the WBO world featherweight diadem) aired on the main ESPN platform with the preliminaries streaming on ESPN+.

The finale of the preliminaries was a 10-rounder between welterweights Rohan Polanco and Fabian Maidana.  A 2020/21 Olympian for the Dominican Republic, Polanco was a solid favorite and showed why by pitching a shutout, punctuating his triumph by knocking Maidana to his knees late in the final round with a hard punch to the pit of the stomach.

Polanco improved to 16-0 (10). Argentina’s Maidana, the younger brother of former world title-holder Marcos Maidana, fell to 24-4 while maintaining his distinction of never being stopped.

Emiliano Vargas, a rising force in the 140-pound division with the potential to become a crossover star, advanced to 14-0 (12 KOs) with a second-round stoppage Juan Leon. Vargas, who turned 21 last month, is the son of former U.S. Olympian Fernando Vargas who had big money fights with the likes of Felix Trinidad and Oscar De La Hoya. Emiliano knocked Leon down hard twice in round two – both the result of right-left combinations — before Robert Hoyle waived it off.

A 28-year-old Spaniard, Leon was 11-2-1 heading in.

In his U.S. debut, 29-year-old Japanese southpaw Mikito Nakano (13-0, 12 KOs) turned in an Inoue-like performance with a fourth-round stoppage of Puerto Rico’s Pedro Medina. Nakano, a featherweight, had Medina on the canvas five times before referee Harvey Dock waived it off at the 1:58 mark of round four. The shell-shocked Medina (16-2) came into the contest riding a 15-fight winning streak.

Lynwood, California junior middleweight Art Barrera Jr, a 19-year-old protégé of Robert Garcia, scored a sixth-round stoppage of Chicago’s Juan Carlos Guerra. There were no knockdowns, but the bout had turned sharply in Barrera’s favor when referee Thomas Taylor intervened. The official time was 1:15 of round six.

Barrera improved to 9-0 (7 KOs). The spunky but outclassed Guerra, who upset Nico Ali Walsh in his previous outing, declined to 6-2-1.

In the lid-lifter, a 10-round featherweight affair, Muskegon Michigan’s Ra’eese Aleem improved to 22-1 (12) with a unanimous decision over LA’s hard-trying Rudy Garcia (13-2-1). The judges had it 99-01, 98-92, and 97-93.

Aleem, 34, was making his second start since June of 2023 when he lost a split decision in Australia to Sam Goodman with a date with Naoya Inoue hanging in the balance.

Check back shortly for David Avila’s recaps of the two world title fights.

Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank

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Canelo Alvarez Upends Dancing Machine William Scull in Saudi Arabia

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Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, who has acquired a new nickname – “The Face of Boxing” – is accustomed to fighting on Cinco De Mayo weekend, but this year was different. For the first time, Canelo was fighting outside the continent of North America and entering the ring at an awkward hour. His match with William Scull started at 6:30 on a Sunday morning in Riyadh.

In the opposite corner was 32-year-old William Scull, an undefeated (23-0) Cuban by way of Germany, whose performance was better suited to “Dancing With the Stars” than to a world title fight. Constantly bouncing from side to side but rarely letting his hands go, Scull frustrated Canelo who found it near-impossible to corner him, but one can’t win a fight solely on defense and the Mexican superstar was returned the rightful winner in a bout that was a fitting cap to a desultory two days of Saudi-promoted prizefighting. The scores were 115-113, 116-112, and 119-109. In winning, Canelo became a fully unified super middleweight champion twice over.

Terence Crawford was in attendance and HE Turki Alalshikh made it official: Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) and Canelo (63-2-2, 39 KOs) will meet in the Fight of the Century (Alalshikh’s words) on Sept. 12 in Las Vegas at the home of the city’s NFL team, the Raiders. For whatever it’s worth, each of Canelo’s last seven fights has gone the full 12 rounds.

Semi-wind-up

In a match between the WBC world cruiserweight title-holder and the WBC world cruiserweight “champion in recess” (don’t ask), the former, Badou Jack, brought some clarity to the diadem by winning a narrow decision over Noel Mikaelian. One of the judges had it a draw (114-114), but the others gave the fight to “Jack the Ripper” by 115-113 scores.

A devout Muslim who is now a full-time resident of Saudi Arabia, the Sweden-born Jack, a three-division title-holder, had the crowd in his corner. Now 41 years old, he advanced his record to 29-3-3 (17). It was the first pro loss for Mikaelian (27-1), a Florida-based Armenian who was subbing for Ryan Rozicki.

The distracted CompuBox operator credited Mikaelian with throwing 300 more punches but there was no controversy.

Tijuana’s Jaime Munguia, a former junior middleweight title-holder, avenged his shocking loss to Bruno Sarace with a unanimous 12-round decision in their rematch. This was Munguia’s first fight with Eddy Reynoso in his corner. The scores were 117-111 and 116-112 twice.

Surace’s one-punch knockout of Munguia in mid-December in Tijuana was the runaway pick for the 2024 Upset of the Year. Heading in, Munguia was 44-1 with his lone defeat coming at the hands of Canelo Alvarez. Munguia had won every round against Surace before the roof fell in on him.

Surace won a few rounds tonight, but Munguia was the busier fighter and landed the cleaner shots. It was the first pro loss for Surace (26-1-2) and ended his 23-fight winning streak. The Frenchman hails for Marseilles.

Heavyweights

In a 10-round heavyweight match fought at a glacial pace, Martin Bakole (21-2-1) and Efe Ajagba (20-1-1) fought to a draw. One of the judges favored Ajagba 96-94 but he was outvoted by his cohorts who each had it 95-95.

Bakole, a 7/2 favorite, came in at 299 pounds, 15 more than he carried in his signature win over Jared Anderson, and looked sluggish. He was never able to effectively close off the ring against the elusive Ajagba who fought off his back foot and failed to build on his early lead.

The fight between the Scotch-Congolese campaigner Bakole and his Nigerian-American foe was informally contested for the heavyweight championship of Africa. That “title” remains vacant.

In a 6-rounder, heavy-handed Cuban light heavyweight Brayon Leon, a stablemate of Canelo Alvarez, was extended the distance for the first time while advancing his record to 7-0 at the expense of Mexico’s Aaron Roche (11-4-1). Leon knocked Roche to the canvas in the fourth round with a right-left combination, but the Mexican stayed the course while eating a lot of hard punches.

Photo credit: Leigh Dawney / Queensberry Promotions

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Rolly Romero Upsets Ryan Garcia in the Finale of a Times Square Tripleheader

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Rolly Romero Upsets Ryan Garcia in the Finale of a Times Square Tripleheader

Disappointment.

Those bright lights on Times Square proved too much for some but not for Rolly Romero who soaked it up, floored Ryan Garcia early, then cruised to victory on the public streets of Manhattan on Friday.

Romero (17-2, 13 KOs) rode into the prize ring in a vintage Chevy Impala against Garcia (24-2, 23 KOs) and his flashy Batmobile on the streets of Manhattan and walked away victorious.

Simple as one-two-three.

Though both fighters pack tremendous power it was the lightning speed of Garcia that transfixed most and many felt that speed would prevail. It did not.

Instead, Romero caught Garcia inside with his own left hook followed quickly with another hook and down went the Southern Californian in the second round. But just like in previous instances Garcia quickly got up.

Romero tried to end the fight but was caught with a Garcia left hook and you could visibly see the changes in attitude. Romero re-thought his strategy and took the safer approach of making it a slow-moving exchange of feints, jabs and touches from distance.

For the next 10 rounds the crowd first sat on the edge of their seat then slowly sank back realizing that self-preservation had overtaken both fighters.

Though there were moments of possible shock, awe and explosion, it never came. After 12 rounds two judges scored it 115-112, and another 118-109 for Romero.

“Knockdowns always help the fighter,” said Romero.

Garcia was gracious in defeat.

“Rolly fought a good fight and did a good job,” said Garcia. “Hats off to Rolly.”

Haney Wins

Las Vegas fighter Devin Haney (32-0, 15 KOs) defeated Central California’s Jose Carlos Ramirez (29-3, 18 KOs) in a fight with few punches exchanged but plenty of side-to-side movement to win by unanimous decision.

For most fans, watching dirt turn to mud would have been more exciting.

If Haney’s goal was to win the fight and remain undefeated, he succeeded. If he was seeking to entertain fans and prove he is one of the best welterweights in the world?

It was a failure.

Still, Haney evaded exchanges for more than two minutes out of every round. Ramirez, knowing that chasing with abandon could lead to traps could not close the distance.

Haney did get caught a few times and proved any shock residual from his last fight against Ryan Garcia a year ago was a none-issue. Ramirez was also caught by a few uppercuts and survived.

Though very little meaningful punches were landed by either fighter, the judges chose Haney 119-109 twice and 118-110.

Teofimo Wins

Fighting in front of hometown fans, Teofimo Lopez (22-1, 13 KOs) gave Arnold Barboza (32-1) his first defeat.

But it was never easy.

It was like watching a magician at work as Lopez led viewers, commentators and TV judges to think he was overwhelming Barboza with his left hand. Meanwhile the actual fight was happening in a far different dimension.

Jim Lampley, the golden voice of TV commentating for decades, returned but he needs a crack group to lead him toward the proper direction. In this instance he was told Lopez was winning every round.

He was not.

Every time Lopez tried to bamboozle his foe, he was met with a body shot, jab or some other deterrent. Every round was contested scientifically with precise steps, counter steps and touches.

Lopez was quickly swollen by the blows landed by Barboza, yet the Californian did not show as much. Lopez was indeed connecting too.

It was a brilliant display of scientific boxing that the commentating crew failed to convey to the viewers. At one point, I simply turned off the sound.

Few blows landed flush. A right cross that beat Lopez to the punch in the sixth round was perhaps the best. A slick three-punch combination by Lopez in the seventh round was poetry.

Neither fighter was able to take over the fight.

Lopez moved around every round never staying in the same spot. Barboza maintained his balance and composure and seldom gave Lopez easy pickings. After 12 rounds of scientific boxing all three judges scored in favor of Lopez 116-112 twice and 118-109.

“Never quit in anything you want to do,” said Lopez.

On another note, the new commentating team for DAZN needs better side support for Lampley.

Overall, the Ring Magazine fight card was all razzle but no dazzle.

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