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A Force to be Reckoned with...
By Jeff Mayweather
Saturday night was a great night of boxing on all levels... It seemed like old
times when you paid for a fight and you got great fight(s). During the Tyson
era I remember being able to watch Mike Tyson, Julian Jackson, Gerald
McClellan and Terry Norris all in one card. The names may not have been as big
but this was one PPV boxing event that was well worth the money.
I was blessed to witness it all from the very first row at ringside inside of
the Las Vegas MGM, starting off with a huge upset when
James Kirkland was knocked out in the first round by a fighter I never heard
of, although he was a former World Champion and only had 7 knockouts to his
credit... No way could you convince James Kirkland of that mere fact because
every time Kirkland was hit cleanly, Kirkland went down as though he was being
hit by a fierce puncher. I still don't know the guy's name but I have the
utmost respect for his accomplishment.
The Malignaggi vs
Cotto fight
went pretty much as I thought it would, with Paulie out boxing Miguel Cotto's
older brother; kind of like getting some satisfaction and revenge out of
beating a Cotto even though it wasn't the more notorious Cotto, (Miguel),
Paulie nevertheless defeated a Cotto.
The Robert Guerrero - Mike Katsidis match was also a great, entertaining
fight. It seems to me that Guerrero has become a better fighter since
returning to the sport after a short-term retirement brought about by
health-related issues that affected his wife. Guerrero has moved up in weight
and appears to have gotten stronger and maybe even more focused.
Katsidis is always dangerous, even though he has never had any idea of what
it's like to have defensive skills. Nevertheless, he's sixty thrills a minute
because he always appears to be one punch away from getting knocked out or
turning the tables on his opponent. He reminds me a lot of the late Arturo
Gatti, who gave the boxing world so many great fights. Win, lose or draw
you left the arena knowing that Gatti put everything he had on the line. The
same goes for Katsidis, a blood and guts warrior, who fought with all his
heart against Guerrero but was always a punch or two away from getting knocked
out. He took countless shots to the head, and from where I was sitting it was
quite brutal to watch. Late in the fight he made a brief run of coming back
but Guerrero gathered himself and won a unanimous decision fairly easy. It was
a great action-packed fight, and with the win "The Ghost" captured the
vacant WBA and WBO interim
lightweight titles.
Just when I thought it couldn't get any better, the main event of the evening
would serve possibly as the Fight of the Year. When this match was first
announced, (I must be honest), I teamed up with about 95% of the boxing world
who believed Erik "El Terrible" Morales had no chance of winning this fight. I
was just hoping that he wouldn't get hurt, particularly since I consider him
to be a friend. He and I went to a few camps back when I was boxing, and we
developed a friendship. We were respectful of one another, so I was certainly
rooting for him, but considering that my last image of him was getting beaten
by David Diaz I thought he had no chance against Marcos Maidana and my, was I
ever so wrong!
Erik Morales, who fought eleven rounds with one eye, not only beat Marcos
Maidana but did it better than the young Amir Khan did, hurting him on several
occasions as well.
The first round was tough for Morales, who seemed to be going through the
feeling out process. Maidana had plans of his own; he wanted to get Morales
out of there as fast as he could. Maidana jumped on Morales and caught him
with lots of big shots in the first round, seemingly setting the pace and
establishing who was the boss. It looked as though the fight would go like
most people thought it would, with Morales getting knocked out early. However,
that would not be the case. Morales reached back in time and began fighting
like the Morales that was a part of the epic battles with Manny Pacquiao and
Marco Antonio Barrera. He started landing telling blows to Maidana's face and
immediately got his respect; he knew from that point on that he was in a
fight! It was give and take all the way to the final bell, but in the later
rounds it looked to me as though Morales began to deliver the most punishing
blows and at one point in the fight Maidana was so confused he was walking to
the wrong corner.
Even
though Morales could only see out of one eye, his vision somehow seemed to get
better; as he began to land the bigger and cleaner shots. While Maidana
continued swinging big, wild punches, Morales made him miss badly in close
quarters. It was sad not to see Morales emerge victorious. He made a huge
statement to all the fighters in the Jr. Welterweight division, he is back and
a threat to anyone in the weight class. Champion or top contender, Erik
Morales is back and a force to be reckoned with...
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For Fight Recaps between January and June 2010, click
here...
For Fight Recaps between January and May 2009, click
here...
Fight Recaps - Part I - (January-May 2009)
For Fight Recaps starting June 2009, click
here...
Fight Recaps - Part II - (June-December 2009)
4-9-2011
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