By Umar ben-Ivan Lee

Some weekends you see almost everything in boxing and this past weekend has been such an occasion. Now, we may not have witnessed any remarkable fights and nothing may have been settled in any division but we still saw plenty.

First and foremost, we saw a Leavander Johnson come close to losing his life in the ring after an eleven round beating at the hands of Jesus Chavez who was cheered on by a crowd that eyewitnesses told me repeatedly shouted racial epithets in Spanish for Chavez to kill Johnson and they may have gotten their wish unfortunately.

After the fight, Johnson was rushed into surgery within forty-five minutes of the fight and put into a chemically induced comma in order to ease the swelling on the brain. Initially doctors expected Johnson to not make it but now his condition has been upgraded. 

In Johnson’s loss, Chavez gained the IBF version of the Lightweight title, although he will take a backseat behind Diego Corrales, Jose Luis Castillo, Zahir Raheem, Joel Cassamayor, Acelino Freitas and Juan Diaz in terms of his popular ranking in the division amongst fight fans. For years Chavez has thrilled crowds with his rugged performances and in particular impressed many by his losing battle with Erik Morales in which he fought with one hand.

Johnson, who is trained by his father, had a stellar amateur background and as  a promising prospect who knocked out a young Sharmba Mitchell before getting derailed and losing in his three previous efforts at a title.

I pray for Leavander Johnson and all of his family in this time of need and may Allah protect them.

Unlike his arch-rival Morales, who last week was made to look like a journeyman by Zahir Raheem, Marco Antonio Barrera defeated a game but outgunned Robbie Peden. What did the victory mean besides another belt for MAB?  Not a damn thing but a payday for Golden Boy.

However with his win we must now recognize that MAB is still in his prime and any fighter not in the elite level he can still easily dominate. Will Golden Boy chance their cash cow against Raheem, Pacquiao, Juan Manuel Marquez or even Jorge Barrios? Time will tell.

Shane Mosley proved the opposite of Barrera in his bout with the sluggish Jose Luis Cruz; he is absolutely not in his prime. After the bout, Mosley said that he is ready for Zab Judah or Antonio Margarito. This came after a night when he was repeatedly hit with clean shots by a painfully slow Cruz. If those would have been Margarito rights or Judah lefts then Mosley would have been counting lights on the ceiling within the first five rounds.

Hopefully this weekend also put an end to the freak show that is known as Julio Caesar Chavez, Sr. Maybe he can now join Mike Tyson in Chechnya or something because I don’t know who wants to see him in the boxing ring again. The ancient Chavez made Grover Wiley look like Floyd Mayweather in his loss and lets just hope that he retires and doesn’t decide to go ahead and fight Jesse James Leija next on his so-called 'adios" tour. Apparently Bob Arum has already inked Wiley to fight JC Chavez Jr. on the undercard of the Vitali Klitschko-Hasim Rahman clash. Yea, that’s what I pay PPV money for!