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Other Than On Paper, Pacquiao-Marquez III Is A Tough Sell…LOTIERZO

This is big fight week and the hype for the third and final encounter between all timers Manny Pacquiao 53-3-2 (38) and Juan Manuel Marquez 53-5-1 (39) is about to explode. The hook for the fight is the fact that these two have already fought two terrific fights against each other with Pacquiao officially holding the edge 1-0-1. However, depending on who you ask, Pacquiao, 32, has really defeated Marquez, 38, twice or on the other hand he’s yet to beat him once.
Many fans and writers were all over this fight before it was even signed. Yet, I never once had my interest peaked by the thought of it and now that it’s almost here, nothing’s changed. For a fight to be compelling before the fact, it has to involve two fighters where you can see a plausible way for each to win. And regardless of how close their previous two fights were, I don’t think that translates into the third one being super close or competitive. A lot has changed over the last three and a half years for Pacquiao and Marquez, with physics being at the top of the list.
What’s often been left out of the conversation regarding the outcome of this fight is, the first two bouts were fought at 126 and 130, this one will be contested at 144. Since they last fought back in March of 2008, Pacquiao is unbeaten and has compiled a record of 7-0 (4). Five of those victories have been over fully flowered welterweights and they weren’t even close, Pacquiao dominated. Since losing a split decision to Pacquiao in 2008, Marquez is 5-1 (4). So you’d figure on the surface neither boxer should hold a significant advantage over the other this time. But you’d be wrong. The only fight that really gives us any indicator where Marquez is right now and how he matches up with Pacquiao is his bout with Floyd Mayweather two years ago. And that stands out for two reasons: 1) it’s the only bout in which Marquez has ever fought weighing more than 140 pounds (142) and 2) he was totally taken apart by Mayweather and was never in the fight.
For 12 rounds Marquez looked like a boy trying to overpower a man. Even when he did manage to get through and land on Mayweather, Floyd never changed his expression or blinked. Mayweather’s size and physical strength advantage totally shut down Marquez’s terrific fundamentals and basics. Due to the simple fact Marquez wasn’t nearly strong enough to implement or apply his wealth of experience, he resembled a church mouse being toyed with by a house cat. And luckily for Marquez, Mayweather is risk averse because it sure looked as if Mayweather could’ve stopped Marquez if he wanted to.
And that’s why I think Pacquiao-Marquez III is a hard sell. Forget about who you think would win between Pacquiao and Mayweather if they ever fight. What we do know is Pacquiao punches harder than Mayweather with both hands, he throws more punches, appears to take a better punch and looks to attack. In addition to that, we know inside Manny wants to beat Marquez not just conclusively this time, but also in a much more spectacular and memorable fashion than Mayweather did. It’s all about style points for Pacquiao and Mayweather. It’s sort of like college football before they fight. Both (2) Alabama and (1) LSU beat Florida on back to back weekends, so the natural thing to do before this past Saturday night’s game between them was to draw comparisons against Florida. And since the scores on both games were almost identical (Alabama 38-10 & LSU 41-11), the debate as to who was better LSU or Alabama took off before the game.
Well, that’s some of what will be on Pacquiao’s mind going into the upcoming fight with Marquez. With the thought being if I can’t get Mayweather in the ring, I want to beat him in the eyes of the fans or should I say pollsters. Granted, since their last fight Pacquiao has become a little less reckless and more conventional, something that Marquez’ trainer Nacho Beristain says will aide his fighter this time. Obviously it’s easier to fight someone who’s a little more predictable than one who’s all over the place and unorthodox. But how does that change the fact that it’s hard to envision Marquez hurting Pacquiao at 144? Another thing Beristain (who I think is the best trainer in boxing) said is, his fighter will be better served because Pacquiao likes to fight and mix it up as opposed to Mayweather who fights more defensively.
I guess in the main that’s true, but Mayweather wasn’t defensive against Marquez and took his liberties with him during the fight. And luckily for Marquez, Mayweather didn’t take more because he may have been stopped. Again, I don’t see how Pacquiao’s willingness to rumble is an advantage for Marquez. In fact I think it’s the opposite. The fact that Manny will really try and impose himself physically over Marquez is the reason why I don’t give Juan much of a chance to come out on top. As great as Marquez is as a counter-puncher and at setting traps, once Pacquiao starts opening up and carrying the fight, what can Marquez do other than fight for his life and try to hold him off?
When all is said and done, Pacquiao has a monumental advantage fighting Marquez at 144. So much so that it really makes it hard to foresee anything but a one sided beatdown starting somewhere by the midpoint of the fight. And those style points Manny’s fighting for will be a factor in him not showing Marquez any mercy the way Mayweather did. On paper, Pacquiao-Marquez III looks like a dream fight, but the scale will ruin the dream.
At this stage of the game Pacquiao is too big and strong for Marquez. Pacquiao-Marquez III is a hard sell because it’s nearly impossible to build a case for Marquez winning. The only glimmer of hope for Marquez is if Manny has taken his training too lightly or been too distracted elsewhere. But that’s not his MO, is it?
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âHow To Boxâ by Joe Louis: Part 6 of a 6-Part Series â Putting It All Together

âHow To Boxâ by Joe Louis: Part 6 of a 6-Part Series â Putting It All Together
âYou got to be a killer, otherwise Iâm getting too old to waste time on you.ââJack Blackburn
Much has been said concerning the Joe Louis duels with Max Schmeling. It was proof that Louis was vulnerable to right hands. It was proof that Louis wasnât vulnerable to right hands. It was a victory for America over the Nazis. But Schmeling wasnât a Nazi. It was boxingâs biggest fight. But it wasnât about boxing. It was what made Louis a hero. But he was already a hero.
One of Abraham Lincolnâs most successful biographers, Roy Basler, wrote that âto know the truth of history is to realize its ultimate myth and its inevitable ambiguity.â Is there a more telling example of this truth in sports than Louis-Schmeling II? Sometimes the tale can obscure the truth. To put it another way: when was the last time you just wondered at it? Wondered at what Joe Louis did to Max Schmeling on a night when, admittedly, the world was on the brink of war and the African-American was on the road to reclaiming himself from the white power structure in the USA? When was the last time you ignored all those very important things and just marvelled at that fight, the recording of which reporter Henry McLemore called âthe most faithful recording ever made of human savageryâ?
Iâm going to invite you here, please, to wonder at it again.
In one moment.
First, we must take a look at Joeâs best performance.
Buddy Baer
The bigger, less celebrated of the Baer brothers had his own rematch with Joe Louis at the beginning of 1942. The first fight had ended in the controversy of a DQ win for Louis and, as he always did when there was the merest hint of scepticism after a title fight, Joe arranged to meet the Giant Californian once again.
A huge man in any era, Buddy tipped the scales at 250 and scraped the ceiling at a little more than 6â6. As noted by the St.Petersburg Times, âa fellow of Baerâs size in good condition, and equipped with the usual quota of arms, legs and eyes must be conceded a chance in any bout, particularly if he has courage and a punch.â
Buddy had both in abundance, but he was not a natural fighter. âWe have the feeling he would rather be out picking violets,â is how the Times chose to illustrate the point. While this is a bit much we all know what he means. Louis, who would famously be fighting for free that night in support of the Navy Relief Fund, was a natural gladiator. Buddy Baer was not.
If Max Schmeling is clearly the tougher of the two opponents and Louis wreaked similar havoc on each of them, what is it that makes this Joeâs greatest performance? Baerâs size? Might it be suggested that herein lies the key to arguing Louis the master of all modern super-heavies as he destroys one in this encounter? Itâs a reasonable point, but no, it is not that. It was my own favourite line from How to Box by Joe Louis that brought me to this conclusion.
âThere are two basic methods of attack,â the1948 manual tells us, âeither by force or by skill. The attack by force is used only by the slugger who depends only upon hitting power. The attack by skill is used by the boxer who relies upon his cleverness in feinting, correct leading, drawing and in-fighting.â
This is a fine division, at once elegant and incomplete, of the boxerâs physical abilities versus his technical ability, his gifts as an athlete as weighed against his skill as a boxer. While Joeâs destruction of Schmeling is his most devastating display, he relies often in that short fight upon his natural gifts, his speed, his power. Joe fights ugly for short, vicious stretches against Baer, too, but not before he has demonstrated for us the height of his art.
Louis and his ghostwriter, Edward J. Mallory, describe the various feints Louis employed in his championship years and most interesting among them is the left jab to the body, the lie, and then the right uppercut to the head, the truth. It is a difficult move from a technical perspective, calling upon the weight to be transferred from the left foot to the right and for the fighter to move from long distance to the inside, downstairs to up, all without getting caught. Louis pulls this move off against a fresh Baer, twenty-five seconds into the fight.
Baer came out aggressively and Louis was momentarily crowded out of the fight, driven and harried back to his own corner first by Baerâs length, then his size. Buddyâs physical advantages overcame Joeâs technical superiority, for just a moment. They circle, and Louis takes a short step back, employing the draw, before throwing a nothing left hook. Louis notices that the challengerâs tactic upon being jabbed are to dip, then make a grab and try to tie the champion up on the inside, allowing him to use his size and weight to bear down on him. A fine plan for a big man, but in fact the fight is now lost.
A few seconds later Louis is shuffling back and away from Baer once more and as Baer moves forwards Louis throws another jab. Again, Baer dips and tries to crowd but Louis has no intention of landing the jab. Instead, he holsters his left, takes a step to the outside with his left foot and even as Baer draws himself into his shell and prepares his grab, Louis uncorks his right uppercut, slipping his weight across his body as a part of the natural movement of the punch, the absolute perfection of this skill. The punch is not a finisher but note Baerâs reaction when Louis jabs at him once more, moments later. Instead of trying to menace the champion with his size or a counter, he backs up directly; shy of the uppercut that the jab disguised last time around. This is the ultimate realisation of the feintâto imbue in the jab, a hammer blow at the best of times the virtual attributes of the uppercut. Baer has now to abandon his pre-fight plan for Joeâs most important punch, that jab.
Skill has determined that his superior size is now worthless.
Paraffin to the wound seconds later as Louis pulls the trick off once more, this time after following through on the jab. A right-handed uppercut to the jawâthe hardest punch to land from a technical perspectiveâturns the trick again and now Baer is hurt. Louis plants a left hook behind the glove just above the ear and then he is ready to unleash the combinations that made him famous.
People say Joe Louis has slow feet. There is something to this, although hopefully it has been explained in the proper context in Part 1âThe Foundation of Skill. Even then, however, we discuss his speed relative to those opponents who run. Well footwork is not merely a byword for a foot race. I defy anyone who takes the time to pay close enough attention to the speed at which Louis adjusts his feet now as Baer retreats across the ring to name him slow.
Out of position for a left hook as Baer is going away slightly outside his right foot, Louis shimmiesâthere is no other word for itâa quick step forwards, channelling all his power through his left leg and hips. This allows him to land that deadly, rare, straight right and behind it, even though he each time has to shimmy and hop forwards, he lands a left hook and then that rolling right cross. With each punch he is covering ground and with each punch he touches down long enough to get the torque through his hips and crack home hard punches, knockout punches. Perhaps the most startling thing about this sequence is that if you press pause at the moment these blows are landing, they look as though Louis were punching from a stationary position. His balance is perfect, his rushing attack is in no way affecting the value of his punches, yet he takes literally no time to get set. He is a cobra packing a shotgun.
âUse the weight of the body in every punch,â (my italics) advises How to Box and it is a tenet Louis is married to. My expectation upon placing it under the microscope was that I would have to issue a warning similar to the one I described when analysing Joeâs straight right handâthat it bore sweet fruit when it worked but that it was to detail-specific to be really viable in the ring, and that countermeasures must be employed. To my astonishment I found that Louis threw power punches (if not always his jab) in this fashion without compromising his balance on offense. It is my suspicion that this is a unique skillset above 200 lbs. and that you would have to work to find fighters who can fight like this in even the smallest divisions.
Though the fight is only a minute old, referee Frank Fullam takes his first close look at Baer as he wobbles back to Joeâs short rope behind a left-right combination to the jaw and a right to the body that Louis lands after ducking into a clinch as Baer tried to throw his first punches in some seconds. Louis is made to miss in turn as Baer bores him back and away from the ropes, missing first with the right uppercut and then the left hook. These are the most difficult punches to remain composed behind, but Louis does so, remaining in punching position.
Head-to-head in a maul, Louis appears the loser as he slowly gives ground during an exchange of meaningless shots, but a split second later, he has moved out of the maul that Baer remains bowed solemnly into, and Louis begins the assault again. A bobbing top caught in two opposing tidesâhis, and the punches Joe is driving homeâBaerâs size is now nothing less than a handicap in the face of the genius of Joeâs box-punching.
For the first knockdown Louis slips the non-existent jab he expects when he is on his way in, jabs to the stomach and bombs a right cross over his defence. Watch carefully and you will see Baerâs high guard rappelled right and down by the famous Louis follow-through before snapping back into place as Baer collapses in an enormous heap on the canvas, forty-pound weight advantage and all, the first time he has looked big since that first uppercut landed.
Itâs hard to admire a man shooting fish in a barrel but take a moment to appreciate the blinds being drawn and the man Leroy Simerly (Herald-Journal) called âstrictly a sixteen-inch gunnerâ in full flow.
Baer was magnanimous in defeat clutching Joeâs head in his oversized paws, almost comically huge next to the man labelled in newspapers the following morning as âthe most destructive puncher the fight game has ever seen.â
Baer figured Louis to be champion for some time to come.
âMaybe my next child will be a son and I can raise him up to do the job.â
Three days later, Louis would pass his army physical. He would never reach the heights of the Buddy Baer fight again. It is a frightening thought, but it is possible that boxing never saw the very best of its greatest champion.
Max Schmeling
âAinât no sense foolinâ around like I did last time.â
Louis said more than once in the run up to the fight that he would end Max Schmeling in a single round. For the most part this was dismissed as hyperbole by a press which did not break ranks to predict anything earlier than a third-round knockout. Hyperbole was the furthest thing from the minds of Louis and Blackburn, however. This was a plan with its foundation built firmly upon the scientific reasoning that Schmeling had become so famous for.
When Joe Louis attended the welterweight title fight between Henry Armstrong and Barney Ross, it was not as a fan, although he was one, but as a disciple. It is possible that Armstrong was the only man in the history of the fight game capable of teaching Louis about controlled destructive violence in the ring, but the story goes that he didâand that along with handler Eddie Mead, he convinced Louis and Blackburn that a direct, rushing assault was the best strategy.
And the story had more than just a hint of truth to it. First Joe was seen at Henryâs training camp and then Henry was seen at Joeâs. Louis did not speak of it directly, but Blackburn was less equivocal:
âLast time Chappie fought just the way Schmeling wanted him to. This time itâll be different. Chappieâs going to learn from Armstrong. Heâs going to set a fast pace right from the start.â
Max Machon, trainer to Schmeling, did not see the danger, encouraging Louis to do just that:
âHe would be as awkward as a school girl on her first pair of ice skates!â
Schmeling, meanwhile, wasnât paying attention or had seen a bluff where there was none:
âI think in the first round we will just feel each other out.â
According to the World Telegram, âSchmeling will make no mistake in strategy. Louis doesnât know what the word means.â This was the prevailing attitude at the time, but in fact a reversal of this equation was happening right under the noses of the dismissive newspapermen. Even those that sniffed out a possible tactical dimension to the Louis battle plan were disdainful of it. Perhaps they were right, and perhaps Blackburn and Mead were the masterminds behind the directness of the violence about to erupt in Yankee Stadium. But the fact is that Louis had been obsessively watching the first Schmeling fight, originally with a journalist (who could not believe that Blackburn had never shown it to the champion and had in fact discouraged him from seeing it), then with his trainer and finally alone.
Over and over again.
âI know how to fight Max now.â
Louis was to fight Schmeling in the opposite style, as far as How to Box is concerned, to the one he would use to destroy Buddy Baer. There, he fought by skill, here it was to be by forceâspeed, power.
Louis doesnât stalk or attempt to draw a lead from Schmeling. At the first bell, he is after him straight away and when Schmeling tries to move, Joe moves with him, still in the small steps and still behind that ramrod jab but with more urgency than is normal. The hard jab and a closet left hook are landed before Max moves out of range, but the leaping left hook he uses to drive Max before him is a new flavor of Louis, especially against an unharmed world-class opponent. Louis had reportedly shadowboxed for forty to fifty minutes before emerging from his dressing room wearing two gowns to keep his body warm. Now he was making both Schmeling and Machon foolish in their pre-fight predictions. Not only was Louis wasting absolutely no time in feeling Schmeling out, but he also bore very little resemblance to a schoolgirl on ice skates. He looked more like coiled galvanized steel brought miraculously and terrifyingly to life.
Referee Arthur Donovan would later claim that this left hook caused Maxâs face to swell and changed his pallor to a âfaint bluish green.â
The hook also carried him inside, but rather than moving for space Louis dug his heels in and pushed against Schmeling, denying him room, landing three hard uppercuts, pulling out and then stabbing back in with the one-two. When Schmeling puts his left glove over Joeâs right, cupping his own body protectively with his free arm, Louis reverted to his old habits, making room for himself as he punched, adjusting tactically to Schmelingâs increasingly desperate defensive manoeuvres.
After the German lands his only significant punch of the fightâa right hand as the champion moved awayâLouis stalked a rattled Schmeling to the far rope and drew the inevitable pressure lead, before going to work with both hands to the midsection and switching upstairs. When Schmeling tries to hide up close after another one-two, Louis pushes him back and away, giving himself room for his aggressive rushes. Here, then, was the culmination of the tactical switch as he drove Schmeling back with the uppercut then invoked the most famous fistic assault between Dempsey and Tyson, hammering Schmeling back with both fists, the German catapulting away but seemingly caught in the Bomberâs horrifying gravity as he catches the rope for support with his right gloves and catapults himself right back into the kill zone. Louis is swarming all over him and Schmeling, now half turned away, is nothing more than a slab of meat and one that the champion goes to work upon in earnest, a butcher wielding two cleavers, finally landing perhaps his most famous punch, a right hand just above the kidney that fractured the transverse process of the third and fourth lumbar vertebrae, tearing the muscles surrounding it in the process. The scream that erupted from Schmeling was âhalf animal, half humanâ and according to David Margolick author of Beyond Glory: Max Schmeling and Joe Louis was so bloodcurdling that many patrons on that side of the ring reached for their hats as though compelled to retreat. If it occurred, this was a primal reaction but Louis, for me, was not giving the primal showing of legend.
âHe is a jungle man,â wrote journalist Henry McLenmore. âAs completely primitive as any savage out to destroy the thing he hates. He fought instinctively and not by any man-made pattern.â
This is not true. Louis had re-armed himself with some new tools for this fight and had shown a strategic surety the German came nowhere near matchingâSchmeling was outthought for all that he was also slaughtered. When necessary, Louis switched between pure aggression and his drawing, counterpunching style with seamless ease and although he used his physical rather than his technical brilliance to master Schmeling, I would argue that âthe hand of manâ is more apparent in this performance than any other one of his fights.
âI thought in my mind, âHowâs that Mr. Super-race? I was glad he was hurt,â said Louis in response to questions about his thoughts on the punch that had broken Schmelingâs back. Now he did cut loose, battering Max like he was a heavy bag and indeed from this point on the challenger put up about as much resistance. The final punch, when it came, had the same affect upon Schmelingâs face as a baseball bat would an apple, according to the Herald Tribune. The fight ended in confusion and uproar as first the towel, then Max Machon himself stormed the ring but Schmeling was as knocked out as any fighter had ever been. Louis had wiped the floor with him.
His reward, outside of the $400,000 he had just banked, was to be compared in the next few days in the press to every dangerous animal that walked the earth. Lions, tigers, bears, snakes, hawks and most of all panthers were what the champion was like and the racial climate in which he fought makes us look back and shake our heads at the casual racism. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and John F. Kennedy were all in Americaâs glittering future. But I do not think it was a matter of raceâor not only of race.
It is a fact, however, that some of the pressmen that talked about Louis in these terms were black.
Louis himself, by virtue of his skill in the ring would take a hand in steering his race toward calmer waters.
Itâs us.
We all look at Louis and see something primal because there is something primal within all of us. He speaks to it.
And thatâs fine. Boxing needs its violence every bit as much as it needs its heroes. If this series of articles was about anything it was about stripping away that projection, that stardust, that lie and looking at the fighter underneath, because that is a beautiful thing that all too often is overlooked. Louis had one of the best jabs, one of the best skillsets, was one of the best counterpunchers, one of the best boxers at any weight, everâand I hope I have shown that his supposed tactical rigidity and strategic naivety is something we have projected onto this âanimalâ this âkillerâ this âbomber,â too, for all that these were not his greatest strengths. He had help and Blackburn was an important part of arguably the greatest story our sport has ever known but as Joe Louis said, âOnce that bell rings, you are on your own.
âItâs just you and the other guy.â
And I sure wouldnât want to be the other guy.
For those of you who have taken the considerable time to read these articles on Joe Louis from the first word to the lastâthank you.
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Action Galore in the U.K. on Saturday — Title Fights at Three Separate Venues

Action Galore in the U.K. on Saturday — Title Fights at Three Separate Venues
Englandâs premier promoters â Eddie Hearn (Matchroom), Frank Warren (Queensberry), and the new kid on the block, Ben Shalom (BOXXER) — have competing shows this Saturday. The headline attractions shape up as competitive fights, especially the battle in Belfast where hometown hero Michael Conlan (18-1, 9 KOs) is a very slight favorite over Mexican spoiler Luis Alberto Lopez.
Belfast, Northern Ireland (ESPN+}
This fight is expected to kick off first with the ring walks at 9 pm local time (4 pm ET). At stake is the IBF world featherweight title which Lopez (27-2, 15 KOs) won with a well-earned majority decision over Josh Warrington in hostile Leeds. It was Lopezâs 10th straight triumph. The Mexicali campaigner has been training in Las Vegas under Kay Koroma.
Conlan, the two-time Olympian, fought for the WBA version of this title in March of last year in Nottingham.
His war with Leigh Wood was the sort of fight that shortens a fighterâs career, but Conlan has shown no ill-effects. His lopsided decision over Miguel Marriaga in his last start followed a first-round blast-out of Karim Guerfi.
AlsoâŠ
In a fight slated for 12, Liverpoolâs Nick Ball (17-0, 10 KOs) squares off against South Africaâs Ludumo Lamati (21-0-1, 11 KOs). The five-foot-four âWreckingâ Ball, with his buzzsaw style, has been called Britainâs most exciting fighter. In a companion 12-rounder, Belfastâs Anthony âApacheâ Cacace (20-1, 7 KOs) meets Damian Wrzesinski (26-2-2), a 38-year-old Pole. Cacace has been a road warrior. This is his first fight in his hometown in eight years.
Manchester (DAZN)
In a rematch for the WBA world featherweight title, Mexico Cityâs Mauricio Lara (26-2-1 (19 KOs) squares off against Leigh Wood (26-3, 16 KOs).
Fourteen weeks ago, Lara went into Woodâs backyard in Nottingham and stopped him in the seventh round. Lara was behind on the cards when he felled Wood with crunching left hook. Wood beat the count but his trainer Ben Davison tossed in the towel which struck many, especially Wood, as premature as less than 10 seconds remained in the round. In a previous trip to England, Lara stopped Josh Warrington in Leeds.
At last glance, Mauricio Lara, the younger man by 10 years, was a 3/1 favorite to take the measure of Wood once again.
Co-Feature
In his first appearance since his controversial defeat to Josh Taylor in Glasgow in February of last year, Jack Catterall (26-1,15 KOs) opposes Irish southpaw Darragh Foley (22-4-1, 16 KOs). The Sportsman called the Catterall-Taylor fight, a split decision win for Taylor, the most controversial fight in British boxing history.
Unlike Catterall, who may have some ring rust, Foley was in action 10 weeks ago, scoring his signature win with a third-round stoppage of favored Robbie Davies Jr.
Also
Adding spice to the card â assuming a suitable opponent can be found â is Terri Harper who was slated to fight Cecilia Braekhus last Saturday in the co-feature to Taylor vs. Cameron in Dublin. That match fell out when Braekhus developed flu-like symptoms following the weight-in.
The 26-year-old Harper (13-1-1, 6 KOs) owns the WBA 154-pound world title after previously holding the WBC belt at 130 pounds.
Bournemouth
Lawrence Okolie (19-0, 14 KOs) makes the fourth defense of his WBO world cruiserweight title against Chris Billam-Smith (17-1, 12 KOs).
Okolie, who blows hot and cold in terms of delivering a fan-family fight, returns to the ring two months after winning a snoozer in a mandatory defense against New Zealandâs David Light.
These two are well-acquainted, having sparred hundreds of rounds when both were trained by Shane McGuigan. Okolie has since abandoned McGuigan in favor of SugarHill Steward. Billam-Smith is on a nice roll â heâs won eight straight â and he will have home field advantage at Vitality Stadium where extra seats have been added in expectation of a sellout, but Lawrence Okolie, at last glance, was a 4/1 favorite.
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The Haney-Lomachenko Tempest Smacks of Hagler-Leonard; Dave Moretti Factored in Both

Veteran Las Vegas judge Dave Moretti found himself in the crosshairs once again last Saturday night. Moretti had the widest score in the Haney-Lomachenko fight. He gave Loma only four rounds, one round fewer than each of his cohorts, Tim Cheatham and David Sutherland. To say that the unanimous decision favoring Haney was unpopular would be putting it mildly. âWhoever thinks Loma didnât win does not know sh** about boxing,â tweeted Oscar De La Hoya from his ringside seat.
A closer look at Morettiâs scorecard revealed that he awarded Round 10 to Devin Haney. This was arguably Vasily Lomachenkoâs best round. If Moretti had scored the round for Haney, this wouldnât have changed the outcome. However, it would have deflected the brickbats. The most caustic charged the 78-year-old arbiter with corruption.
David Moretti, a native of Niagara Falls, NY, moved to Las Vegas in 1975 after losing his job at Carborundum, a company that manufactures semiconductors of the kind used in auto body shops. He started judging fights in 1977 when boxing matches in Nevada were scored on the âfive-point mustâ system. He gradually moved up the ladder to where he came to be regarded as the top boxing judge in the Silver State. In 2019, his name appeared on the ballot for the International Boxing Hall of Fame in the non-participant category. By rule, his name will remain there for 10 years if he isnât voted in beforehand. If he makes it into the Hall, he would be the second Las Vegas judge to be so honored following the late Jerry Roth who was enshrined in 2017.
This isnât the first time that Dave Moretti finds himself in the crosshairs. The Nevada State Athletic Commission launched an investigation of him following the âThe Super Fightâ between Sugar Ray Leonard and Marvin Hagler in 1987.
Five days before this fight, Moretti and Billy Baxter were observed conversing in the waiting area of the airport in Atlanta that would take the name Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. They were awaiting their connecting fight to Las Vegas after spending the previous night in Norfolk, Virginia, where Pernell Whitaker successfully defended his NABF lightweight title with a unanimous decision over Roger Mayweather. Dave Moretti was one of the judges. His scorecard was concordant with the others.
Sugar Ray Leonard, a 3/1 underdog in Las Vegas on the final day of betting, defeated Marvin Hagler, winning a split decision. Dave Moretti scored the fight for Leonard 115-113. Mexican judge Jo Jo Guerra also favored Leonard. His tally, 118-110, was preposterous. The dissenting judge, Lou Filippo, had it 115-113 for Hagler.
Marvin Hagler thought he was robbed and quit the sport in disgust, moving to Italy. Many sympathized with him. Thirty-six years after the fact, the debate continues to rage. Did Marvin Hagler get a raw deal?
About that conversation between Moretti and Baxter in Atlanta, a rumor surfaced that Moretti and Baxter were discussing a business deal. This would have been a conflict of interest for Moretti as Billy Baxter was Roger Mayweatherâs manager. The rumor made the rounds after it became known that Baxter, a high stakes gambler, had made a big score on the fight. The rumor had it that Baxter bet $300,000 on Sugar Ray.
The commission conducted a thorough investigation and determined that the allegations were unfounded, that Dave Moretti did nothing that would have compromised his objectivity. Moretti allowed that he had considered starting a series of club fights in Las Vegas and asked Baxter for his feedback (Moretti never did venture into the promotional side of boxing). Billy Baxter testified that his wager on Sugar Ray Leonard was $30,000, not $300,000, and said he made the wager months in advance of the fight when the odds against Leonard were juicier. A survey of Las Vegas sportsbook operators found no irregularities in the pattern of wagering.

Dave Moretti
Unlike that glorious night under the stars at Caesars Palace in 1987, the underdog didnât prevail this past Saturday night at the MGM Grand. But the similarities are striking. In both cases you had a smaller man who was seemingly past his prime taking on a challenge that was seemingly a bridge too far for him. It was David against Goliath and whenever a David makes headway in a grueling battle against a formidable foe, he picks up rooters along the way. Thatâs what happened Saturday night. Those in the audience that were neutral and even some that were fans of Devin Haney found themselves liking Lomachenko more and more as the fight progressed.
This reporter had it 7-5 for Lomachenko, a tally that jibed with most of the other scribes in attendance. But this was no robbery. And for those that havenât yet seen the replay, I reiterate that one cannot objectively judge a fight off the television without muting the sound because the talking heads tend to crank up the decibels whenever the underdog has fine moments.
One bad night by a sports official can spoil an otherwise impressive body of work. No one ever talks about the times when Dave Morettiâs scorecard was the smartest of the three. To take but one example, most folks thought that Gennady Golovkin had done enough to warrant the decision in his first match with Canelo Alvarez. Moretti concurred; he had it 115-113 for GGG. But the bout ended in a draw when Adalaide Byrd channeled Jo Jo Guerra and had Canelo winning lopsidedly.
Although boxing judges are handsomely paid for a big fight (my goodness, this isnât brain surgery), they need a thick skin and thatâs especially true nowadays when any know-it-all with a computer and a mouse can spew venom and have it go viral. And I believe there is something else at work that ratchets up the torrent of abuse whenever a boxing judge or referee has a bad night. On May 14, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the federal law that gave Nevada a monopoly on sports gambling, opening the floodgates. More folks gamble on boxing nowadays then ever before. I have no doubt that many of those that raged loud on social media when the decision went against Loma had money at risk. To them, Dave Moretti and his two cohorts were more than just warped, they were pickpockets.
Letâs wrap up this story with a quote from the noted boxing historian Lee Groves. Talking to upstate New York sportswriter Ernie Green for a 2019 story, Groves had nothing but good things to say about Dave Moretti. âHeâs universally respected for the great job he does,â said Groves. âYouâd be hard-pressed to find someone who has a bad word to say about him as either the judge or the man.”
Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank via Getty Images (Haney is standing on the scale, exaggerating his physical advantage).
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Arne K. Langâs third boxing book, titled âGeorge Dixon, Terry McGovern and the Culture of Boxing in America, 1890-1910,â rolled off the press in September. Published by McFarland, the book can be ordered directly from the publisher or via Amazon.
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