OnThEGRinD BoXiNG

Sunday April 19th, 2009
By Jack Johnson Presscot

I guess that I am just not cut out for boxing forums.

Weeks ago I made a political analogy comparing the Dictator-like contracts that the Klitschkos forced David Haye to sign, to a certain Fascist Regime of years past. This caused me to get “banned” from a certain website. Again this morning, I asked a simple question about the scoring of the Fight of the Millennium, and in comparing Oscar De La Hoya’s male fan base to little 13 year old girls at a Jonas Brothers Concert, I had a moderator threatening to contact the Vatican in Rome and have Pope Benedict XXVIV fly over to where I am at so that he may counsel me on boxing forum etiquette. I have never been one to “play nice” with others when it comes to a good old fashioned debate on boxing, so I am out of there as well.

Friends of mine, like Johnny Alucard and Dr. Menard at other Websites also have been “banned” for merely comparing Oscar’s fan base to the audience at a Justin Timberlake Concert. I cannot abide in what my friend Dr. Menard has prescribed as “Blind Manlove,” which is the loyalty that Oscar’s male fan base has for him. They refuse to admit Oscar was defeated in the “Fight of the Millenium,” they refuse to admit defeat for both Sugar Shane Mosley fights, and the Pretty Boy Mayweather Jr. fight as well. When I bring up the scoring in the Felix Sturm match, they usually cover their ears and go “la-la-la-la-la, I can not hear you la-la-la”….and while they love to bitch about the scoring of the Trinidad fight, they become indignant when I bring up the “De La Hoya-Whitaker Robbery,” in which Compubox had Oscar scoring 34 punches in 3 rounds. I have seen that fight many, many times and I dont think I saw Oscar score a decent solid hit on Sweet Pea. I did however see him miss entire 4 punch combinations at a time, while Pernel Whitaker openly snickered at him with the cameras running.

These same ignorant fans all booed the decision on Cinco de Mayweather, 2007, when Floyd Mayweather Jr. gave Oscar De La Hoya a Boxing Lesson.

I, for one have never really understood the blind loyalty to the “Ricky Martin with Boxing Gloves” of the sport, even though he came along basically at the time when the Great Mike Tyson was already on his way out. By 1997 Tyson was a past great, and Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis were not the most exciting fighters out there. Julio Sr. was already old and ready for the rocking chair. There were other great fighters as well who deserved the accolades and the fan support that De La Hoya seemingly garnered only because of his, “matinee idol looks” as Jim Lampley of HBO Sports likes to put it.

Pernel Whitaker and Kostya Tszyu were 2 of these, as was Johnny Tapia, and Marco Antonio Barrera and Eric Morales. The Earth however didn’t stop on the nights these men fought the way they seemed to whenever Oscar was on HBO. He fought the Ghosts of Chavez and Camacho, and fans after theses victories were acting as if he was the next Sugar Ray Robinson, without even stopping to consider that both Camacho and Chavez had peaked in the 80’s. Things like that made the end result of the Fight of the Millennium that much sweeter.

I knew who Felix “Tito” Trinidad was having followed his career as IBF Welterweight Champion, since his demolition of Maurice “The Thin Man” Walker. Fans of De La Hoya were clueless as to just how good Trinidad was, being too blinded by Oscar’s wins over Chavez, Camacho, and something called Patrick Charpentier in San Antonio, was it…???…and of course the robbery over Whitaker. Watching the fight at “The Joint” at the Hard Rock in Vegas, it seemed that I was the only Trinidad fan in the entire place. I was in a virtual sea of “casual fans” who were clueless as to how a round is scored in boxing.

1. Effective Aggressiveness
2. Ring Generalship
3. Clean Punches and
4. Defense.

The first round was even. It was a feeling out round without either man really doing anything. Oscar found his rhythm in 2-4, which he swept. The jab was landing as were his 3-4 punch combos.

I gave Trinidad round 5 (barely) based on a few good punches landed.

Somewhere in here, Oscar landed a shot that bloodied Tito’s nose and the Oscar fans were celebrating like it was St. Patty’s Day in Boston.

Oscar took 6, but 7 was close and I gave it to Tito.

By the end of 8 Oscar’s fans had been “high fiving” and hugging at the end of each round, presumably having bets at the sportsbook on their Golden Hero.

Then round 9, and Oscar started strong and ended weak, giving it away.

Going into the Championship Rounds, I had it 1 round even… with 3 rounds going to Tito, and 5 to Oscar. A good lead, but the fight was not “in the bag.”

Then the miracle happened.

Inexplicably, Oscar started running and in my mind I was tallying…as the Oscar fans were high fiving. At the end of the 12th I turned to my cousin, at a particular moment when all of the Oscar fans were hugging and celebrating and told him, “This is a lot closer than they think it is…” Sure enough, when Lederman’s card was shown it was a DRAW, and I was the only one in the room with a smirk and clapping.

Finally, it was all in Michael Buffer’s hands. When the first judge (Hamada?) had it a draw, I was vindicated. The boos and guffaws were deafening.

Then came the ultimate vindication…..”DE PUERTO RICCOOOOOOO!!!”

The room at The Joint quickly turned into a Funeral Parlor as I was jumping for joy and singing “The Circle of Life,” from the Disney Film “The Lion King…” Anyway, I got the hell out of there and grabbed a cab to Mandalay Bay in order to collect my bet. The scene at the Mandalay Bay was surreal…and if you are familiar with George Romero and his Zombie flicks, it looked like a scene from one of his Dawn of the Dead trilogies, where hordes of the Living Dead are shambling slowly and moaning. Only this time they were shambling out of the Events Center, in shock and denial. That denial is still firmly in place a decade later.

Get a grip people.

Learn to score a round.