By Jason Pribila

Much like the Weezer Blue Album, the winter of 2016 announced its arrival with a thunderous track named Jonas.  As the weekend approached, even if one had avoided the published warnings from the National Weather Service, they could not side step every amateur weather man with an app on their phone.   By the time morning turned into afternoon, I had heard projections ranging anywhere from a few inches of snow to the possibility of waking up inside The Fortress of Solitude.

My weekends are no different than most boxing fans.  Check the schedule to see which fights would be televised, and allow everything else to fall into place.  I was now at the point of the afternoon where after 12 years of public school lunches, this Pavlovian dog started to think about pizza.

No signs of snow and ShoBox was about to come on the air.  I was tuning in to see if Decarlo Perez could continue to build on his recent career momentum building performances against Rob Brant.

However, a press release from Salita Promotions had me curious to see whether or not Bakhtiyar Eyubov was capable of stealing the show. The unbeaten prospect from Kazakhstan may have accomplished that on pre-fight appearance alone, appearing on screen in t-shirt featuring a post-incarcerated – pre-tattooed Mike Tyson, as he wore a wig full of wild white hair.

My first impression was that the drummer for “The Commitments” was finally getting paid to punch.

Jared Robinson was soon introduced to us as Eyubov’s opponent. After 15 seconds of action it was clear that I had two things in common with Robinson: neither of us had seen Eyubov fight before; and neither one of us could get out of the way of a left hook.

Eyubov dropped Robinson again in the first before finishing him in the third.  He will no doubt be a fun fighter to watch.  He understands the concept of “TV-friendly” and his defensive strategy is basically taking two in order to land one big bomb.

However, much like the running back that prefers to run over than around a would-be tackler, Eyubov’s style rarely equates to career longevity.

The second televised bout of the evening featured Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller, a 6-foot-4, 274 pound heavyweight from Brooklyn.   Miller is a supremely confident fighter.  This is evident by the fact that he wore trunks barely long enough to cover his protective cup.

Like most big punchers who seem to reward themselves with a post-workout meal of cheesesteak and gravy fries, Miller appears as if he will become increasingly vulnerable after each round north of four.

This was the point of the fight when 2015 Boxcino alum Donovan Dennis began to have success.  Unfortunately, he’d already suffered two early knockdowns and was conceding a weight disadvantage of over 50 pounds. The combination proved to be a task too tall to climb.

While many rightly lauded Dennis for the courage he showed absorbing big punch after big punch against Miller, I started to get an uneasy feeling.  He took numerous concussive blows to the head from a large man. He will always have the visual evidence from the evening 1/22/16 to prove his manhood.  I would like for Dennis to draw on the courage he showed inside the ring to make the decision to walk away from the ring. He has qualities that will translate to success in whatever other profession he chooses.

Based on their previous appearances on ShoBox, many had the Decarlo Perez vs. Rob Brant middleweight bout as a pick ‘em. 

It soon became a battle between Brant’s chess vs Perez’s checkers.  As much as I considered Perez a live-dog, I was afraid the paltry five knockouts in 19 fights on his ledger would encourage Brant to be the aggressor.

Brant faced very little resistance throughout the fight. He hurt Perez several times before a double right sent him to the canvas in the third. A double-jab and straight right dropped Perez, leaving his body momentarily draped over the second rope.

Brant’s outlook for 2016 got a lot brighter in an instant.

It was officially a new day, and I had to set my alarm so that I could wake up early enough to purchase enough carbs to get me through the weekend.

My alarm went off, and to my surprise it was not only showing, but it was also sticking. My pug, Murphy led me down the stairs to get a closer look at Jonas. Snowfall predictions had Bethlehem falling between 6”-10”.

By 9am we had 14”.

Normally a snowstorm takes me back to being a kid. On this day, it made me feel like an amateur.

How on Earth did I not ensure that my fridge was stocked on a weekend that included boxing’s return to free-to-air Fox as well as well as a pair of football games set to determine who would participate in Super Bowl 50?

I decided it was time to change the momentum of the weekend and I went on a journey to the package store.  I was sporting my Saul ‘Canelo’Alvarez Under Armour sweatshirt and starting to think about possible New Year’s Resolutions (which I don’t begin until the Monday after the Super Bowl). I started to think about possible routes that would allow me to jog…or at least power walk for some much needed cardio.

A few steps later I felt a sharp burn in what I’ve been told is my Sciatic Nerve. 

As I approached the package store, I could see that there were lights on. As I got closer, I could see that those lights were reflecting off a parking lot that did not have as much as a foot step inside of it all day. This would be an evening at the fights sponsored by Diet Mounrain Dew.

Boxing had returned to FOX for the first time since Tyson vs Buster Mathis Jr. 20 years ago. I was happy to see Brian Kenny drew host duties, and then cringed when I realized that Gus Johnson would be doing the blow by blow.

The first bout of the evening was a curious match-up between heavyweights: Dominic Breazeale and Amir Mansour.  The PBC decided that the best way to introduce their brand to a new audience was to match a guy who used to be a college quarterback against an ex-con who had done eight years in the cooler for cocaine trafficking.

“Honey, I got the DVR on pause. I thought you and the kids were going to watch boxing tonight?”

What the PBC needs to realize is that TV audiences fell in love with not only the fighters who grew up on their airwaves, but also their stories. Sure, most watching are boxing fans, but you are also introducing this sport to women and children.

The announcers also failed to alert 5th Avenue as they talked over and over about Mansour’s conviction and rarely mentioned the fact that Breazeale lost his mother while in training camp.

The fight itself was entertaining, but it failed to make anyone forget about Larry Holmes vs. Ken Norton. Mansour was landing at will and exposing Breazeale’s limitations.

Suddenly, after a commercial break we return to action to find that Mansour quit on his stool.

Of course, myself like many made comments on social media before realizing that Mansour suffered a broken jaw, which was the reason for the stoppage.

No one should expect another human being to fight with a broken jaw. However, prior to seeing the replay, I wouldn’t have been surprised to see Ving Rhames with a Band-Aid on his neck escorting Mansour out of the ring.

I was looking forward to watching Sammy Vasquez attempt to steal the show against Aron Martinez.

Unfortunately the fact remains that it still does in fact take two to tango.

There is an unfortunate truth in boxing, that if a fighter gets hurt in camp, he does not get paid. Therefore, there is the risk of us seeing non-performances like we saw from Martinez. If the PBC wants to send a message, they need to go all Vince McMahon In moments like this and fire the fighter from ever appearing on network television again.

There has been a full generation of fighters who never had the privilege to fight on free TV. For those who are getting this opportunity they need to remember the responsibility that they have to not only the sport, but to all of those fighters who never had this opportunity.

I look forward to seeing Vasquez in the ring again soon. I’m hoping to make a trip across the state to see him fight in his adopted hometown of Pittsburgh, PA.

I was ringside when he fought at the Bethlehem Sands.  The bus loads of fans he brought with him did their best do drink the casino dry. As Vasquez’s opponent was being counted out, I took an elbow from a man behind me who claimed to be an uncle.

Normally I would have turned asking the all-important, “WTF”, but I decided that it was a worthy war wound earned at an evening on press row. And the Team Vazquez energy was contagious.

It was now time for the main event of the evening between Danny Garcia and Robert Guerrero.

Once again, rather than being introduced to two likeable fighters, the focus was on their sleep inducing fathers. Guerrero entered the ring with a full goatee. All I could think about was how he was becoming less likeable the more he begins to look like his father.

This seemed to be a bout that was made to make Garcia look good. If in fact he was going to be stronger at 147, he should have been able to display that against a fighter who has not been hard to find in recent bouts.

Garcia eventually found his range and pulled away on the scorecards.

Guerrero never stopped trying and after two minutes into the final round he convinced Garcia to trade with him, giving the audience and Staples Center crowd a reason to applaud when the final bell rang.

Garcia is now in line to either have a rematch against Amir Khan, or he could wait for the winner of the March 12 bout between Keith Thurman and Shawn Porter.

In case you failed to notice, Thurman was ringside with a microphone during the telecast. I’ll give the PBC credit, hiring Thurman as an analyst made me long for his ring return.

Floyd “Money” Mayweather appeared ringside four rounds into the main event. He promptly told host Brian Kenny that he thought Guerrero was winning, despite missing the rounds Guerrero actually won.

He apparently had words with Amir Khan, and after only a few moments on camera he reminded us that we are years away from anyone replacing him in the welterweight division.

The PBC on Fox and Winter Storm Jonas were now history.

As I look forward to this weekend’s rematch between Sergey Kovalev and Jean Pascal, I realize I have less than two weeks to perfect my Dabbin Dance.  Sciatic nerve be damned.

Jason Pribila is a full voting member of the BWAA.  He could be reached for questions/comments at pribs2000@gmail.com