‘Little’ Bit of Luck Needed After Big Snooze

By Michael Katz

Photo © Chris Cozzone/FightWireImages.com

Let’s see, since we last got together, the middleweights and heavyweights went out of their way to prove that boxing’s new glamour divisions might well be junior fly and super bantam. No knock on Kelly Pavlik, except he doesn’t seem to have many viable opponents at 160 pounds, but if Wladimir Klitschko is the best heavyweight in the world, then this planet has more serious problems than global warming. Thankfully, there are always guys around like Israel Vazquez and Rafael Marquez to remind us that good things come in smaller packages.

And not at welterweight, because the titular leader at 147-pounds is more interested in rassling than in real drama. If Vince McMahon really is giving Floyd Mayweather Jr. $20 million, than my Argentine back-breaker (who else remembers?) should come out of mothballs. And if there really are 47 million rassling fans in this country, Wladimir Klitschko is not that serious a problem.

But why complain when Vazquez and Marquez, two Mexican 122-pound stalwarts, are set Saturday for an Act III that should conjure memories of Tony Zale and Rocky Graziano, Riddick Bowe and Evander Holyfield, Arturo Gatti and Micky Ward and, of course, Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales.

They are returning to the scene of their first clash, the Home Depot Center in Carson, CA, where Marquez moved up from bantamweight, busted up Vazquez’s nose and in seven breath-taking rounds, gained the super bantam, or junior featherweight, title – because the breath he really took away was Vazquez’s. Unable to continue because he couldn’t breathe through his busted nose, the guy who grew up in a Mexico City funeral parlor where his father dressed corpses not only gave up his title, but thought about retiring from the ring.

But once he heard whispers that he was a “quitter” – hell, if you can’t breathe, you SHOULDN’T take a dive, either – he knew he had to come back. Freddie Roach, his trainer in March, advised against it, so Frank Espinoza, Vazquez’s manager, astutely hired Rudy Perez, Barrera’s longtime mentor. In the rematch in August, in Hidalgo, TX, Vazquez survived another ferocious attack to bust up Marquez in six rounds in what most of us experts hailed as the fight of the year.

Now the father of an hemophiliac toddler is about an 8-5 favorite to confirm his superiority over Marquez, who like his big brother, Juan Manuel, is handled by one of Mexico’s greatest trainers, Nacho Beristain. The smaller Marquez – Juan Manuel faces Manny Pacquiao on March 15 at 130-pounds in another of the most anticipated fights of the new year – said “this fight has the possibility of being better than the first two.” That almost seems preposterous, but I’m not going to argue with a guy who owns knockout victories over Mark Johnson and Tim Austin, and who, until last August, had not lost in seven years.

Vazquez said it was going to be “a great night for boxing,” and without looking beyond Marquez, he has acknowledged that he may not stop at 122-pounds – a challenge of the magnificent Venezuelan, Jorge Linares, at featherweight and then maybe Marquez’s big brother at junior lightweight – if Juan Manuel upsets Pacquiao in their rematch.

I have a slight lean towards Vazquez, the bigger guy here, after picking Marquez in the first two meetings. But the only safe pick is that there will be lots of blood and guts.

PENTHOUSE: My “bro,” Steve Sneddon of the Reno Gazette for finally winning the Nat Fleischer Award for excellence in boxing journalism and that’s all I’ll have to say about the Boxing Writers Association….Cristian Mijares, who confirmed his place on the pound-for-pound lists with a brilliant performance on the Kelly Pavlik-Jermain Taylor undercard by clearly outpointing the very capable Jose Navarro. Some guys set up uppercuts with jabs – Mijares can do it with a slip and a duck. His defense should be studied in every gym….Fernando Montiel preserved his share of the 115-pound title by stopping Martin Castillo, but it was a very pale version of Castillo. Either he is gone or he was feeling well below par...Wladimir Klitschko and Sultan Ibragimov, for reminding us again that heavyweights should be heard and not seen….Loved Max Kellerman’s out-loud wish that Vitali Klitschko, who is in line to fight the Oleg Maskaev-Samuel Peter winner, become injured in training to “clear the way” for Wladimir to take his big brother’s place and get three of the belts (and recognition as the “real” heavyweight champion by everyone this side of Ruslan Chagaev).

OUTHOUSE: Anyone who thought Jermain Taylor was “robbed.” Pavlik clearly won that fight. His problem is getting someone else to dance with at 160 pounds. John Duddy, cut badly in a majority decision victory (some thought it a robbery, luckily I didn’t see it) over journeyman Walid Smichet, will be unable to keep a June 7 date with the middleweight champion that if the New York State Athletic Commission didn’t bar, the Better Business Bureau should have….With Winky Wright, who says it takes $5 million to phone him, pricing himself out of existence, the best alternative for Pavlik would seem to be Arthur Abraham, the German-based Armenian, who holds one of the plastic titles, and who ranks just behind Pavlik and Wright in the division….Boxing fans in general should get a place in the loo after only 9,706 paid to see Pavlik-Taylor II live at the MGM Grand Arena.

HBO, for insisting on showing us Wladimir Klitschko and Sultan Ibragimov. Maybe, Maskaev and Peter in a couple of weeks will be worth watching. Maybe. Meanwhile, all those Klit fans out there who think Wlad should be on pound-for-pound lists, try to imagine him at 160 pounds – think he’d have a shot against Kelly Pavlik? The man has no penchant for battle. “Not good at all,” Dr. Steelhammer was told by trainer Emanuel Steward before the final boring round. “You have to try to knock him out, otherwise the reaction will be bad.” Yep….Meanwhile, maybe Ibragimov should emulate other red-blooded Russian boychiks and play chess. He doesn’t have the right moves for boxing.

BAD JUXTAPOSITION: HBO compounded the poor heavyweight fight last Saturday by showing its long-awaited, and not spectacular (the cable network has set such high standards) bio-documentary of the great Joe Louis. By HBO standards, it was rather weak – though Joe Louis Barrow Jr. did add some perspective to the well-known story of how the government ,that his father had so helped, affected his last years.

I was 11-years-old, watching with my Uncle Moe on a small black-and-white TV, when Louis had his last fight. Tears were running down my cheek even before Rocky Marciano knocked the old man out of the ring. For me, too, the world didn’t’ seem right without Franklin Delano Roosevelt as President and Joe Louis as heavyweight champion.

Years later, I was working boxing for the New York Times and in Atlantic City for a fight when word came that Louis had passed away. I naturally went over to get the reaction from one of Louis’s great rivals, and even greater admirer, Jersey Joe Walcott, then the chairman of the New Jersey State Athletic Commission. Walcott had not heard yet, and broke into tears. He asked for a few minutes to compose himself before returning to express his grief in words.

I met Louis a few times in his final years. After the stroke, he was unable to speak much, but I’d go out to his Las Vegas home when I was in town to give my regards.

The HBO documentary mentioned how demeaning it was when Louis had to enter a wrestling ring to try and make some of the money for which the IRS was hounding him. It was, of course, a point made by the playwright Rod Serling in “Requiem for a Heavyweight.” I’ve often wondered how anything could be more demeaning than boxing. Of course, unlike rassling, most of the time the competition is honest.

It was good to see Walter Smith, one of the great old Detroit trainers and an old Louis buddy, repeating “72 right hands, 72 right hands,” to explain the loss to Max Schmeling (and if you get a chance to see it, watch how after the knockout, the German rushes to help his fallen rival get up). Joe Louis Barrow Jr. said his mother told him that afterwards, when his father went for walks, white kids would come up and “whisper in his ear, ‘Max Schmeling, Max Schmeling.’”

It was a shame that such as Muhammad Ali – he would change his tune in later years – would characterize Louis as “an Uncle Tom.” Louis in fact was one of the great pioneers in the improvement of race relations. He was also one of the greatest fighters in history – in or out of the ring.

The late great Eddie Futch, who as an amateur lightweight in Detroit used to spar regularly with his good buddy (“whenever Joe felt he needed to get sharp,” the hall of fame trainer used to say), was asked by the Associated Press at the end of the 20th Century to rate the millennium’s heavyweight boxers, surprisingly put Louis second to Ali. He said he reasoned if his friend, with whom he used to run back in the days, could have trouble with 169-pound Billy Conn, then he’d figure Ali could have won.

I’m not sure, but I think it might have been a better match than Wladimir-Ibragimov.

BOOM BOOM: Good to see my old sparring partner, Ray Mancini, at ringside to root for his fellow-Youngstown fighter, Pavlik. Boom Boom, who had it close for Pavlik, did observe afterwards that Taylor, after being reminded early of his rival’s power, fought to survive. Pavlik’s trainer, Jack Loew, agreed that Taylor’s game plan was to go the distance, knowing that a second knockout loss would have relegated him to the back of the line. Now, with Pavlik returning to 160 pounds, Taylor becomes a major player in the suddenly interesting 168-175-pound mix….When it was mentioned to Loew that the Irish Dud, before he had to be scratched from Pavlik’s next fight, was a “gimme,” the trainer nodded at first, then hastily added, “There’s no such thing as a ‘gimme’ in this game.”

DIS AND THAT: Jamie Foxx, who won the 2005 best actor Oscar for portraying Ray Charles, is going to play Mike Tyson from a screenplay the former champion will help create….Hope Mike gets an Academy Award for staying sober….Would not shock me to see Yuriorkis Gaboa, the Cuban Olympic champion who has had all of nine pro fights, able to beat someone like Joan Guzman by year’s end. And I happen to think Guzman is in the top 20 pound for pound…..Pavlik is not the only champion “Ghost.” Robert Guerrero, who has that same scary nickname, is a 6-1 favorite Friday night on Showtime to successfully defend his featherweight strap against Jason Litzau…..Giovanni Lorenzo, 26-0 against riff and raff but being mentioned as a possible replacement for the Irish Dud against Pavlik in June, has just bobbed up as the WBClowns’ No. 1 contender, and thus Pavlik’s mandatory….Noticed Mario Costas in Ibragimov’s corner. Does that mean Panama Lewis was lurking nearby? Costas was the nominal owner of Lewis’s old New York gym….Love this about Israel Vazquez. After winning back his title from Rafael Marquez, he could be found sweeping up the hair at his wife’s South Gate, CA, salon….Wish Ronnie Hearns, who sometimes with his left hand low and his right glove held beneath his chin looks eerily like his famous old man, could hit like the Hit Man. Another Thomas Hearns would be more than welcome – the original has been one of the great class acts in this game as I was reminded reading proofs of George Kimball’s fine “Four Kings.” Book, about the era of Hearns, Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvelous Marvin Hagler and Roberto Duran, points out how Thomas, after scoring first-round stoppage of James Shuler, flew cross-country to bury the NABF belt with he won that night with Shuler, who was killed in a motorcycle accident shortly afterwards….That victory was to have earned Hearns a rematch with Hagler, but on that same card, Hagler struggled to beat John Mugabi and Leonard decided to come out of  retirement again to challenge the middleweight champion. Hagler never fought again after losing the decision to Ray.