To The Victors Go The Spoils
November 11, 2007
Let’s begin with the sweet the science. The Park was actually live and inside Madison Square Garden to witness a great night of boxing. Surprisingly, I had only seen one live boxing fight before in my life – Gatti vs. Hutchinson in 2000 – and while that bout certainly had its fair share of fireworks (and blood) last night’s experience was on a whole different level.
Firstly, the crowd was off the charts. Walk to the bathroom or concession stand and you would instantly find yourself in the midst of an impromptu mini-Puerto Rican Day Parade. Gotta love how passionate those PR fans are when it comes to local talent.
I never thought I would see the day when sweet ol’ “Sugar” Shane Mosley would get booed like he did last night but the pro wrestling fan in me loved the clear-cut heel vs. babyface battle last night’s bout represented.
Speaking of Mosley…wow. That’s really all I can say. I walked away from that fight way more impressed with the “aging” superstar than the rising star Cotto. Truth be told, I actually scored the fight a draw and while I am aware a fight can look a lot different from the nose bleeds than on TV I really thought Mosley had as much of a right to win that bout as Cotto did. We all expected Mosley to be quick but few (including myself) expected to see Cotto back pedal from an oncoming Mosley assault as many times as he did.
That said, I had no problem with Cotto winning. He proved his worth and should definitely be next in line for Mayweather. That fight easily makes the most sense. The loud-mouth (and older) Mayweather against the quiet brahma bull. The phenom looking to shut the self-centered champ for good. Beautiful. Thrown in the extra storyline line of Cotto looking to finish the job fellow Puerto Rican, Oscar De La Hoya, couldn’t finish and you have an instant 2008 Fight of the year on your hands.
Here’s hoping SI.com’s Chris Mannix isn’t right when he says Cotto vs. De La Hoya may be up next. I fail to see what can be proven from that match-up. Plus, didn’t De La Hoya once say he had no interest in ever fighting another Puerto Rican?
One more note about last night: The undercards, as expected, were great. Margarito and Ortiz came out guns blazing. For a minute I thought I was watching a UFC card with all those first round KOs. The other rumeur du jour appears to be Margarito vs. Cotto but, at this point, that fight would clearly be a step down for Cotto. Margarito is a tremendous boxer but there’s a hell of a lot more money to be made in a bout against Mayweather or De La Hoya.
Once Cotto’s hand was raised, I rushed home from MSG to watch Elite XC: Renegade and all things considered, I came away thoroughly pleased. Sure, most of the fights ended early but I enjoyed each one of them including the much-anticipated debut of Kimbo Slice.
Despite the fact that his first official MMA fight lasted only 19 seconds the spectacle of seeing this larger-than-life fellow step into the cage was something to remember. I never thought I would see Bo Cantrell, who looks quite intimidating in his own-right, appear as scared as he did before the fight. Rumor has it Cantrell was throwing up in his locker room before the bout and, really, who can blame him? Kimbo looked downright vicious in the cage and it appears as though Tank Abbott may be next on his hit list. Good luck, Tank.
The only negative coming out of the fight was that I couldn’t help but feel a little cheated by Cantrell’s performance. The cage looked like it was the last place he wanted to be and after two so-so punches he tapped out due to strikes. Weak. Sure, he took the fight on very short notice but he showed no intention of ever putting up a fight. Watching his performance brought back memories of Brock Lesnar’s MMA debut in June in which Lesnar’s opponent, Min-Soo Kim (also a late replacement), submitted due to strikes 69 seconds into the first round.
Elsehwere, friend of Jarry Park, KJ Noons, shocked the MMA world by defeating Nick Diaz to become the first-ever 160-pound EXC Lightweight champ in a controversial ref stoppage due to a couple of large gashes on Diaz. This decision was particularly disappointing because the first round was exceptional (I had Noons winning the round 10-9). Who would have ever thought we would see the inexperienced KJ Noons dominate Nick Diaz in all facets of the fight? Needless to say, I think a Noons vs. Diaz rematch should be signed right away.
Jake Shields and Antonio Silva continued to enjoy success in Elite XC with Shields really making a statement. Mike Pyle can complain all he wants about EXC not promoting him enough but the fact of the matter is he turned down a shot at the Welterweight title and had a chance to beat a top-10 Welterweight on his way out of the promotion and did nothing to prove he deserves a big money contract from any other rival organization. On the other hand, Shields, as he said in our interview last week, continues to prove he is one of the top Welterweights in the world and certainly one of the best on the ground. Question is: Who does he fight next?
And how about Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva. Has anyone at 265 lbs ever looked that agile before? I would love to see him drop to heavyweight because I think he can be a true force to be reckoned with in that division and face better-skilled opponents.
Ok, I’m done. What a great night of fighting. Keep visiting jarrypark.com all week as we’ll be reviewing this weekend’s action and hope to speak with some of the big winners from the ring and cage.
***Update: In case you missed it, below is footage of Kimbo’s debut. Did Cantrell take a dive? See for yourself…
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