Sharkie’s Machine
By Frank Gonzalez Jr.
May 17th, 2008
“Favorites All Win On HBO’s
Triple Header”
HBO’s Boxing After Dark series
featured three prospects in fights against three “respectable
opponents” Saturday night. First up was a Jr. Middleweight
contest starring James Kirkland (22-0, 19 KO’s), who scored a
first round KO over Eromosele Albert (22-1, 10 KO’s). Not much
of a fight there. Albert came into the ring with a bulbous
mound on the right side of his head that looked like he just
got whacked upside the head with a hammer in the locker room.
Kirkland landed a straight left
to the temple that saw Albert go down and though he beat the
count, he wasn’t really ready to continue.
Kirkland caught him again and he went
down in submission. Joe Cortez, the referee, stopped it. If
you blinked, you might’ve missed this one. The prize was the
NABO Light Middleweight title. Hey, everyone’s a champ these
days.
James Kirkland is trained by
Ann Wolfe, the former Middleweight and Light Heavyweight
Champion, as you may recall, she was always calling out Laila
Ali but Ali would never fight her. Wolfe is tough and runs a
rough training camp that involves a lot of punishment to
condition her fighters to be above whatever the ring has to
offer in the way of punishment.
Kirkland, with 22
pro fights under his belt, looks ready to fight a legitimate
banger, name brand type fighter already. Too bad Albert wasn’t
as sturdy as his record suggests because we learned nothing
new about
Kirkland Saturday
night.
Kirkland has only
gone the distance twice, once in a four rounder and once more
recently, a ten rounder against Ozzie Duran (23-6-1, 9 KO’s).
I’d like to see him fight Sechew Powell (23-1, 14 KO’s), Joel
Julio (33-1, 30 KO’s) or Travis Simms (25-1, 19 KO’s), all of
whom would be legit opponents that would really show how good
Kirkland is. Hey,
here’s a great one, how bout
Kirkland vs. Julio
Caesar Chaves Jr.? Chavez has been milking his name to a
record of 36-0-1, with 29 KO’s. If Chavez keeps going against
the questionable caliber of fighters he’s been making his
bones with, he may retire before ever facing anyone we’ve ever
heard of.
***
The second fight was another
Jr. Middleweight bout between Alfredo Angulo (13-0, 10 KO’s)
and Richar Gutierrez (24-2, 14 KO’s). This was the most
exciting fight on the card, as both guys are boxer/sluggers
with similar styles and level of ability.
Angulo started out pushing
forward with an effective offense. Gutierrez was warned for
hitting and holding. Gutierrez landed a big left hook, which
led to a lot of action. Angulo came forward and Gutierrez
landed a clean right. Angulo landed often to the body and they
battled for five rounds, with Angulo getting the better of the
exchanges and winning four of the five rounds before scoring
the TKO win in the fifth round after Angulo scored a series of
clean punches, a right, left, right…right, left, right, then
referee Tony Weeks stepped in and stopped it.
Angulo fights like a modern day
Raging Bull. He can take big shots without losing his cool and
return fire with good accuracy and a nice blend of body work
and shots upstairs. If you've never seen him fight, he’s like
Margarito in temperament, with a body like Miguel Cotto.
Because Angulo was matched
against another good fighter with some pop, we got a real look
at how Angulo acts under pressure and the kind of fighter he
really is. He showed a damn good chin after getting popped a
couple of times with clean shots but he kept coming forward,
always relaxed, always throwing punches with a preference for
the inside game. He gets an A in my book and I can’t wait to
see this guy fight again! Too bad he wasn’t the match up for
James Kirkland; that would’ve been a telling fight.
Guys I’d like to see Angulo
fight are Daniel Santos (31-3-1, 22 KO’s), Cornelius Bundrage
(28-3-2, 16 KO’s) or Andrey Tsurkan (26-3-1, 17 KO’s).
With only 13 pro fights under
his belt, Angulo looks more like a seasoned pro than many guys
with double his stats. Of 13 pro fights, six have been against
guys with winning records and that percentage is WAY higher
than the average prospect these days.
***
The third fight was more of an
inter-divisional match up, though it was billed as a Jr.
Lightweight contest. The highly touted Cuban from
Guantanamo, nicknamed, the
“Cyclone of
Guantanamo”
Yuriorkis Gamboa (10-0, 8 KO’s) came into the ring weighing
140 after officially weighing in at 128. If you gain 12 pounds
overnight, it’s clear that you’re not fighting at the proper
weight. The “opponent,” Darling Jimenez (23-3-2, 14 KO’s),
officially weighed in at 131 and came in weighing 132. It
should be noted that Jimenez hasn’t fought in over a year.
Jimenez is a good technical boxer of NY Golden Gloves pedigree
and he had his moments in this showcase fight.
Gamboa has uncanny dexterity,
great mobility and ring generalship. He’s got fast hands and a
lot of flashy moves to go with them. With his chiseled
physique and flat top hairstyle, he’s as cocky as they come
and showboats via body language in the ring. He was billed as
a big puncher by Max Kellerman (or whatever you
call him), who insinuated that Gamboa was a better puncher
than Meldrick Taylor was.
During the fight, Gamboa was
very aggressive, throwing a lot of punches but missing most of
them. Gamboa keeps his hands down low and got hit cleanly in
spots by the unassuming Jimenez, who employed quality,
technical boxing skills. Jimenez managed to land counter shots
in spots but he didn’t land enough of them to win many rounds.
In the fourth round, Jimenez clocked Gamboa with a right to
the temple that dropped him to the canvas. After getting up
and beating the count, Jimenez jumped on him but was unable to
catch the speedy Gamboa who has the ability to run without
looking like he’s running because he has such an arsenal of
moves.
With Gamboa pressuring him all
night, Jimenez spent the majority of his time on defense. That
was how Gamboa won the fight, by being busier and constantly
throwing punches that must have looked very impressive from
the back rows but up close, you could see that he rarely
landed anything flush. If he’s a better puncher than Meldrick
Taylor, this fight did little to prove that true.
The crowd didn’t seem to like
Gamboa much. They booed when the ref warned both guys for a
pair of low blows and another time, when he head butted
Jimenez, who complained to the ref to no avail. Gamboa fouled
often but the referee, Russell Mora, would warn both
fighters every time Gamboa fouled. It was an
interesting way to protect Gamboa from being disciplined for
fouling. The fans clearly noticed it. Favorites get special
treatment, there’s no doubt about it. With only ten pro
fights, Gamboa is already enjoying the Michael Jordan Rules.
In the end, Gamboa rightly got
the decision; he was the busier fighter for all of ten rounds,
in spite of suffering the knockdown in the fourth. I had
Jimenez winning three of ten rounds, obviously the fourth, and
he landed the cleaner punches in the sixth and the eighth.
Jimenez proved to be a tough kid with some good defensive
skills. If he gets into proper condition and starts fighting
regularly, watch out for him to make some noise in the
mid-section of the division.
Gamboa is definitely
entertaining. I think he needs to develop a bit more before
knighting him the next big fighter because although he has an
extensive amateur background (400+ fights at amateur) he is
not an accurate puncher by any means. Maybe he can contact
Meldrick Taylor for some private instruction?
All in all, the favorites all
won. Not much drama there but that is how contenders are made.
* * *
Comments can be
sent to
dshark87@hotmail.com
5-17-2008
