Snips and Snipes - 19 September 2011

There are written rules and there are unwritten standards of behaviour, which in some ways are seen as more important. For instance, in soccer there is no rule which says you must kick the ball into touch if an opposing player is injured, but if the team without the injured player continues the game then under those circumstances the crowd’s reaction is usually much angrier than if a foul had been committed.

On Saturday, what Floyd Mayweather did in realising the fight was on again, and seeing that Victor Ortiz was ignoring another unwritten rule about defending yourselves at all times, was in line with the written rules, but made a lot of people very angry. Yet to my mind he was probably the least guilty.

The real questions are - did referee Joe Cortez give a clear instruction for hostilities to recommence? If he did not, then it is his fault there was confusion. If he did, then Ortiz was at fault in not obeying that instruction. What was Mayweather supposed to do? Say to Ortiz, "Excuse me Victor old chap, you have just butted me in the face and cut my mouth, but I feel that I should in all fairness point out that Mr. Cortez has ordered us to recommence hostilities, so would you mind putting your guard up, old chap?"

I don’t think so! Mayweather is out to win a boxing contest not a popularity contest, and whilst, somewhere in my well of British belief in fair play I feel uncomfortable, I can’t blame Mayweather for seizing a chance when Ortiz presented it to him.

If no news is bad news then the controversy over Mayweather’s victory, and his capture of the WBC title will, if it’s possible, make the fight with Pacquiao an even bigger event. Think of all of the one time neutrals who will now want to see Floyd get battered (that’s not a prediction) for his “lack of sportsmanship”.

One thing that Floyd will have to be careful about is publicising when he is away from home. A little while back I reported that Juan Manuel Marquez had been burgled whilst away banging the drum for his fight with Pacquiao, well now the great little Filipino has also been burgled. Let’s hope the police catch who did it before Manny and Juan Manuel do.

The Saul Alvarez-Alfonso Gomez fight was another example of now you don’t see him, now you do. After 14 months of inactivity Gomez was nowhere in the WBC top 40. On May 21 he beats unrated Calvin Green, and is not in the top 40 of the WBC ratings issued on June 9. It is announced that he will be fighting Saul Alvarez for the WBC title, and in the July ratings he is No 6!

Sometimes a postponement of a bout can have hidden consequences. At the weekend Erik Morales won the vacant WBC light welterweight title by beating Pablo Cesar Cano, a short notice substitute for Lucas Matthysse. A long time ago the WBC nominated Ajose Olusegun to fight Ali Chebah in an eliminator. At the time Olusegun was No 2 and Chebah No 4. That fight has been postponed and postponed, but is now due to take place at the end of this month. Currently Olusegun has risen to No 1, but due to inactivity Chebah is down to No 7. Selling the fight to TV has been a large part of the problem, as neither is a high profile fighter. If that fight had taken place when it was first mooted then the winner would have been in pole position as No 1 contender to fight for the vacant title, and earn a career biggest payday for fighting Morales. In fact, with Olusegun No1, you have to ask why he was overlooked when the Morales-Matthysse fight was approved. The Chebah fight would not have been an impediment. It had already been postponed a few times, and Chebah would have gladly stood aside on agreement he got a shot at the winner. A straight title fight instead of an eliminator much preferred. It will be interesting to see whether the winner of this Olusegun vs. Chebah fight becomes the mandatory challenger, or whether the Morales vs. Matthysse fight is resurrected.

Boxing lost one of the greatest trainers of all time with the death of George Benton. Born in Philadelphia and was one of a family of eleven children. George started boxing at the age of 13 and turned pro at 16. He boxed professionally from 1949 to 1970 and finished with a 62-13-1 record. In the whole of his career against world class middleweights he was never floored, and his only two inside the distance losses were on cuts. His opponents constitute a roll call of the world’s best middleweights at a time when the division was at its strongest. Holly Mims, Charley Joseph, Clarence Hinnant, Henry Hank, Freddie Little, John McCormack, Rudolph Bent, Joey Giardello, Ruben Carter, Ernie Burford, Jimmy Ellis, Luis Manuel Rodriguez, Milo Calhoun, Bennie Briscoe etc. He just never managed to land a title shot. In 1970 George was the innocent victim of a gun attack and was in hospital for a long period. He went to work for Lou Duva as a trainer working with the Main Events fighters and proved to be an even better trainer that he had been a fighter. He worked with Evander Holyfield, Mike McCallum, Meldrick Taylor, Pernell Whitaker, Rocky Lockridge, Johnny Bumphus, Michael Moorer and many others. In 1989 and 1990 he was voted Trainer of the Year by the Boxing Writers Association of America and was inducted into the International Hall of Fame in 2001 for his work as a trainer. A great man of boxing. RIP George.

Whilst I was looking at over the background data on some promising American amateurs, a name from the past cropped up. One of the amateurs was Dominic Breazeale, a heavyweight from California, who was third at the US championships. It turns out that he is trained by former Olympic heavyweight gold medalist Henry Tillman. Back in 1984, Tillman was the No 1 rated amateur heavyweight in America. To get to that position, and to get the Olympic berth, he twice beat one Mike Tyson. Like Tyson he had problems in his life, serving time for armed robbery before taking up boxing. He had been boxing for only three years when he won his Olympic gold medal and turned pro shortly after that. He mainly boxed as a cruiserweight and in his first fight, in December 1984, he beat Jamaican Uriah Grant. Both fighters would go on to fight for the world title - Tillman lost, Grant won. In February 1987 Tillman lost in seven rounds to Evander Holyfield for the WBA cruiserweight title and moved up to heavyweight, not successfully. In 1988 he lost on points to Willie DeWitt, who he had beaten in the Olympic final in Los Angeles. Tyson got his chance for revenge in June 1990 and took it with both hands knocking Tillman out in the first round. Tillman fought on until 1992 and then retired with a 25-6 record. He hit trouble again in 1994 when he was arrested for credit card fraud, but is now a respected trainer with the All Americans Heavyweight Boxing Club and has a number of young fighters under his wing.

Just going over some old notes, it struck me that you can usually judge the standing of a sanctioning body by their title fights. Take the obscure UBC title fight in Porto in June. The fight for their vacant world light heavyweight title was between Tony Quiganga of Portugal and Eugen Stan of Romania. The 38-year-old Quiganga had a record of 14-20-2, had lost his last two fights inside the distance, and had then been inactive for seven months. Pretty bad, eh! No, in fact he was the star of the show. Stan had a 5-53-1 record and had won just one of his last 41 fights. I leave you to judge whether the UBC is a joke, but if it is then the joke is on boxing.

I came across two great nicknames last week as follows: Vince “Vinsanity” Arroyo and James “The Goodwindi Gun” Giltrow. How do they think these up - and why?

As I expected, Danny Green, having lost a load of money on promoting his fight against Antonio Tarver, has not retired. Next up for Danny is a challenge for the WBC cruiserweight title against Krzys Wlodarczyk in Perth on November 11. Usual ratings shuffle. In the August ratings Green was No 32. This month, without fighting, he is No 15 - which just happens to make him eligible to fight  for the title - what a coincidence.

There is talk of WBC featherweight champion Jhonny Gonzalez fighting WBO bantamweight champion Jorge Arce. I think that would be a bridge too far for Arce, brave as he is. What the WBC should be talking about is a shot at his title for “Champion in Recess” Elio Rojas.

Former WBO heavyweight champion Tommy Morrison is back in jail. He was picked up on charges relating to possession and use of drugs, with his bail set at $50,000. Tommy was very popular with the fans when he turned up at the Hall Of Fame, and it is a pity to see him in trouble again.

It is strange how fighters disappear from the scene. Take heavyweight Malik Scott. As an amateur he had a 70-3 record, was World Junior champion and US champion. He missed out on a berth for the 2000 Olympics and turned pro that year. At 6’4” and around 240 to 250lbs was a genuine heavyweight by today’s standards. Up to the end of 2008 he had won 32 straight, but curiously only two of his fights were scheduled for ten rounds, all the rest were 4, 6 or eight. A long time to be a prelim fighter. Since December 2008 he has gone missing - where did he go? America needs all the 6’4” 250lbs heavyweights it can find.

The new WBA super flyweight champion Tomonobu Shimizu is going to be out of action for a while. The 30-year-old suffered a fractured right eye socket in his win over Hugo Cazares and it looks as though it will around April before he can fight again. The WBA will have an interim title match approved faster than I can type the words.

Don’t you just love a trier? Argentinian German Angel Ilundain certainly comes into that category. He won his first pro fight in February 2005. Over the next six and a half years he failed to win any of his next 34 fights, but he never gave up. On September 16 this year he stopped Fabian Cruces in nine rounds, to break his six year duck. Double his total of wins in one go. Good one, German.