All it took was a check of the Twitter feed last night to figure out that a vocal sampling of sports-following individuals are not enamored with boxing. Regardless of boxing's decline, a group of friends and I decided, like we usually do, to order the fight, grab some drinks, and watch some boxing (with the Celtics-Heat game making some cameos between rounds on the undercard).Like many, I realize boxing's popularity has waned, and boxing's decline is further highlighted by MMA's rise in acclaim. I like MMA, but it's also my opinion that when you get a good boxing match, it's still one of the best shows in sports. Last night's fight was not one of those matches.
I found the undercard to be surprisingly satisfying, though I would have felt like I wasted my money had I ordered the package on my own. With Kelly Pavlik fighting early in the night, it was the first time I was excited for the undercard in a long time, possibly ever. Unfortunately, the Pavlik clearly had to shake the rust of rehab off, and it wasn't nearly as exciting as his fights against Jermaine Taylor or Bernard Hopkins. Next was a fight between something named Arce v. something named Vasquez, Jr. for some organization's Junior Featherweight championship. If there was one pleasant surprise to this evening, this fight was it. They threw good punches the entire fight, there was real back-and-forth, the challenger, Arce, used the Rocky Balboa strategy of leading with the face, and the fight was called in the 12th after a flurry of punches by Arce that clearly did some damage. Vasquez, Jr.'s bruises on his face all merged together to form a Gorbachev-like marking on his face.
Finally, the main event. Our biggest reaction of the night was to "Jami Jamison" singing "Eye of the Tiger" while walking Manny Pacquiao out to the ring. General laughter and several variations of "I'm sure he was available" surfaced. You can read about the fight several places, but my theory on this bout before it happened came true, and if I'm right, then Mosley accomplished exactly what he set out to accomplish. Leading up to this fight, no one thought Mosley would win. I would sooner bet on Ray Edwards beating the Klitschko brothers at the same time. At 39-years old, and with the direction his career has taken lately (the guy Floyd and Manny pick so it doesn't seem like they're mailing it in), I think he trained specifically to keep his "never KO'ed" streak alive (although all of Mosley's swelling made him look like a garbage-pail kid after the fight). He only threw 260 punches, and to add to the general mediocrity of the fight, Manny threw about 400 less punches than he throws in a typical 12-rounder.
This match did nothing to help boxing's dropping popularity. I think Common Man Dan Cole would refer to this fight as a Dusty Trunks v. Willie Getup.
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