have a locked password on your security system, for one. RT @DaRealNette: There's an underlying message to The Purge...there's actual a few. 22 minutes ago
“He’s gonna come out and fight hard, or come out and try to play a chess game. You can’t play chess with me.”
Last night, fans who watched the replay of Floyd Mayweather and Victor Ortiz were rewarded with a bonus edition of 24/7 chronicling the aftermath of the fight’s controversy. They start at the weigh-in through the post-fight press conference. This one also features comments from the fighters, referee Joe Cortez and others from the Nevada Athletic Commission. It’s good to see HBO has taken notes from Showtime’s Fight Camp 360; this is the first time HBO has shown post-fight footage, in line with Fight Camp’s post-fight episode with Pacquiao vs. Mosley. I hope both networks keep this going and up the ante. For those who haven’t seen the fight in its entirety, that’s included in this episode.
LAS VEGAS, NV — Victor Ortiz quickly found out he picked the wrong fighter to head butt, as Floyd Mayweather retaliated immediately with a pinpoint right cross for a 4th round KO last night at the MGM Grand.
From round one, Mayweather made good on his promise to stand in front of Ortiz and pursue a knockout. Despite Ortiz weighing 164 pounds on fight night compared to Mayweather’s 150, the challenger easily abused his much bigger foe with straight rights down the middle. The high accuracy had Ortiz backpedaling and seeking to catch Mayweather with a occassional burst of hooks. Mayweather, still quick enough to back up in straight lines and tie up, did so with a mocking grin at every Ortiz flurry.
The champion did much more effective work in round two. While still backpedaling, Ortiz landed a counter straight left and right hook in the first minute that gave Mayweather caution in his pursuit. He responded by holding his lead hand out as a range finder and blinder before catching Ortiz with two hard and flush straight rights. The shots seemed to embolden Ortiz; he stayed close to Floyd and drove him to the ropes twice before the closing minute. However, Mayweather effectively caught Ortiz’s inside flurries on his gloves and shoulders, and closed the round strong with three consecutive straight rights. The straight right would again catch an incoming Ortiz in the last 10 seconds to secure another statistically dominant round.
With Victor Ortiz now wary of the right hand, Mayweather switched to countering his pressure with left hooks. Two of these punches had Ortiz retreating after the first minute. He fared no better trying to jab his way in; Mayweather countered him immediately with straight rights. He mixed in a right uppercut that had Ortiz on his heels to end the round.
Round four began with Floyd Mayweather exciting the crowd with something he rarely does, punch in sustained combination. In the first 30 seconds, Mayweather threw a blistering combination of hooks and uppercuts that caused Ortiz to hold on. When Ortiz got Mayweather to the ropes and was clinched, he responded with a blocked head butt, which elicited a warning from referee Joe Cortez to watch the head. When Ortiz again tried to push Floyd to the ropes, he received a left hook and had to reset. Back at ring center, Mayweather landed a right uppercut, left hook combination. Ortiz responded with a sharp right hook, and for the first time punched quickly with hooks while Mayweather covered up on the ropes. After the flurry, Mayweather smirked and shook his head.
Mayweather remained composed and immediately went back to landing the straight right at ring center. Ortiz got him to the ropes again, and threw another inside head butt at the 1:18 mark, which got a “watch the heads” warning from Cortez. Mayweather landed well with right hands as Ortiz backpedaled before he exploded with a right and left hook combination that pushed Mayweather back to the ropes. Mayweather was visibly smirking on the inside as Ortiz wailed away with more power punches that Mayweather slipped. With 10 seconds left in the round, Ortiz launched into Mayweather’s mouth with a head butt followed by a left hook that immediately caused Mayweather to turn away in pain.
Joe Cortez promptly stopped the clock, which seemed to make Ortiz realize what he had just done. He hugged Mayweather and kissed him on the cheek in contrition before Cortez took him by the hand and docked one point. While still with Cortez, Ortiz reached out and touched gloves with a visibly angry Mayweather, who complied with the second apology as he crossed the ring to another corner. Corte gave Ortiz another warning before calling “time in!” and looking at the timekeeper to make sure the clock was going. After being waved in, Ortiz made a third apology by trying to hug Mayweather, who measured him with his hands up before leveling the champion with left hook and straight right that knocked him flat on his back. Cortez picked up the count, and Ortiz could only make it to his knees before being counted out.
The controversy carried into the post-fight press interview, as Mayweather began a tirade with HBO commentator Larry Merchant, alleging bias.
“I was always told to protect yourself at all times,” Mayweather said in the post-fight press conference. “My mouth was split open. I said keep it clean. Once you touch gloves, it is go time.We came together to fight. It is fight time. You want to do me dirty and then two minutes later you want to be my friend? This is the hurting business. Without the fourth round, he was going to get knocked out anyway. I was fighting stronger. I was keeping my composure and sticking to the game plan.We
were breaking him down. I listened to what my corner said.”
Ortiz, who did not complain about the punches when he regained his senses, remains confident that he’ll recapture a welterweight title.
“He landed a good one. It was a good shot,” Ortiz admitted. “I started it, but I got my point taken away. I was letting him come in because he wasn’t hurting me at all. He doesn’t have a stiff right. I am fine. I will be champion again. Within the next six months, I will be champion again.”
Alfonso Gomez (23-5-2, 12 KOs) was the victim of a quick stoppage after giving undefeated Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (38-0, 28 KOs) a tough fight at Los Angeles’ Staples Center. Despite scoring an early flash knockdown off a counter jab, Alvarez let Gomez outwork him in several rounds while he focused on a shoulder roll defense and countering. In round six, Canelo landed a counter right uppercut, his pet punch of the night, followed by a right cross that stunned Gomez. Alvarez drove him to the ropes and threw an assortment of hooks, all blocked, before referee Wayne Hedgpeth called off the bout to a shocked Gomez.
“I think the ref was looking for an opportunity to stop the fight,” Gomez said. “He hit me hard but I was OK. The ref asked me and I said I was fine. It is what it is. You take the opportunity. I wanted to go the distance, I wanted to continue.”
Erik Morales (52-7, 36 KOs) won his first title at junior welterweight with a brutal and bloody victory over Pablo Cesar Cano (22-1-1, 17 KOs). Early on, Morales struggled with the hand speed of Cano, who was able to land 3-4 combinations. Morales slowly pulled his young foe into a brawl by timing right hands and opening up a gushing cut that spanned the entire length of Cano’s left eye socket. Morales mixed in rights to the body, and rolled with Cano’s punches as he continued to land harder shots in close and rearrange Cano’s face into a grotesque mask. Following the 10th round, Cano’s corner pulled him to prevent further punishment.
“We are very happy. Two years ago we contemplated this return,” Morales explained. “We thought about it and took a break. We wanted to come back strong, to make this dream come true and win the world title. We worked very hard. It was a tough fight. We fought a young, strong fighter, but we did it.”
“There is some work to be done. There are some adjustments to be made. The kid is strong. He fought hard, but we are very happy we won the fourth title. I want to thank the press, who at times they have been a little hard on me. Thank you for making me work that much harder.”
In the opener, prospect Jessie Vargas (17-0, 9 KOs) won a very tight split decision over Josesito Lopez (29-4, 17 KOs). Vargas fought off the backfoot after being hurt early on the inside by Lopez, who proved to be the stronger fighter. After an accidental head butt opened a cut on Lopez in the middle rounds, Vargas was able to get back in the fight by landing light combinations before clinching. Lopez managed with landed the harder, more sporadic shots, and even hurt Vargas late in the last round. The final scorecards read 95-94, 94-95 and 96-93.
As violent as boxing is, there are rules in place to ensure there isn’t complete bedlam in the ring. But we all know rules are made to be broken, and ironically it’s usually done by fighters considered the best in their field. Ali would hold behind the head to prevent fighters from working inside. Guys like Jack Dempsey, Bernard Hopkins and Felix Trinidad have no issues throwing low blows. Evander Holyfield considers headbutts a legal punch. Mike Tyson would just as easily throw a forearm as he would a hook. The below video compiles some of the best examples of dirty fighting over about the last 25-30 years. Most are blatant fouls, and you’re guaranteed to laugh at the outrageousness of some of them (Riddick Bowe’s faces after Golota’s low blows gets me every time). Others will make you wince in pain. Shout out to YouTube member ErracticBoxing for brining all these clips together.
HBO’s promise of an epic battle between young champions Timothy Bradley and Devon Alexander proved to be unfounded, as their highly anticipated matchup ended with an unsatisfying, headbutt-prompted technical decision.
The fights pattern was established early; Bradley slowly stalking and Alexander backpedaling while throwing quick 1-2′s. However, this wasn’t an Ali-Frazier scenario. Both fighters were wary of being caught clean, and the fight was a slow, calculated chess match rather than Timothy Bradley’s promise of a Hagler-Hearns, or Emanuel Stewards pre-fight prediction of a Hearns-Leonard.
Still, these early rounds favored Bradley, who threw constant hard hooks to the body. Alexander looked content to throw flashy arm punches, and held any time Bradley got close. Bradley also made himself a very small and elusive target by crouching whenever he waded forward.
The third round featured the first accidental clash of heads, which opened a sizable cut above Devon Alexander’s right eye.
Alexander’s best round came in the fifth. After losing the early exchanges, he bounced back to outwork Bradley in the final two minutes. Alexander didn’t land any hard blows, but he kept Bradley guessing with his movement, jab and straight left.
Bradley got back on track in the sixth and remained in control for the remainder of the fight. Bradley kept his hands moving with flurries befor the inevitable clinches. In rounds 7-9, all the hard shots came from Bradley, who never stopped pressing. The eighth round was notable for several stops due to accidental headbutts, and would turn out to be harbinger of what was to come.
In the tenth round, the fighters heads collided together awkwardly. Alexander cried out in pain and immediately turned away. The clash hit above Alexander’s left eye, but he claimed it was his right eye that burned. The ringside doctor, Dr. Peter Samet , asked him several times to open his eyes.
“That shit hurts, ah!” Alexander responded. Alexander said he couldn’t open his eyes consistently, causing a stoppage and boos from the crowd.Bradley, who suffered a cut to the side of his right eye, looked disappointed and unconvinced of Alexander’s injury.
Going to the scorecards gave Bradley a unanimous decision victory by scores of 97-93, 96-95, and 98-93 to unify the WBC and WBO titles.
Bradley made known afterward that his two main fights plans included Amir Khan and Marcos Maidana, which he hoped would eventually lead to a showdown with Manny Pacquiao.
“Khan right now would probably be #1 on my list,” Bradley confirmed. “But I want the fight fans to pick who I fight next and I’ll fight him…That’s the gate key right there to Manny Pacquiao.”
Timothy Bradley improves to 27-0, with 11 KOs. Devon Alexander suffers his first defeat and falls to 21-1, with 13 KOs.
A lot of fans were disappointed last night. Not just due to the ending, but the slow pace throughout. From all the interviews and hype, some had expected a ferocious battle between these two young fighters.
I knew better. This was a hardcore fan’s fight, and I predicted there would be nerves early. However, I was wrong in thinking the fight would heat up down the stretch with big exchanges. A decent bout, but not one to bring in the casual fans as anticipated.
The big question from last night is whether Devon Alexander “quit.” First, let’s hear from the man himself about the injury.
“I couldn’t see after the headbutt. He’s got a big head, he came at me full force,” he explained. “My eye were burning, I couldn’t see. You can’t work on a headbutt [in the gym], only skills. He didn’t stop me from using my skills. No excuses. There’s a rematch clause in the contract, and I want a rematch with Timothy Bradley.”
Some aren’t buying it. The most vocal in the immediate aftermath were promoters Lou DiBella and Oscar De La Hoya, and welterweight titlist Andre Berto.
“He could have continued,” DiBella fumed. “Dreadful and the runner quit. Dreadful.”
“I’m so disappointed. These fighters have to strap their jock and fucking fight!” De La Hoya added via Twitter.
In retort to Alexander’s claim of not being able to train for a headbutt, Berto questioned Devon’s heart.
“You can’t train that thing that beats in ya chest; either you have it or you dont,” Berto said. “So damn true. [That's] what made Arturo Gatti a star.”
Ringside physician Dr. Peter Samet gave his account of Alexander’s possible injury.
“I told Devon that he had to open his right eye or the fight would be over. I asked him to open his eye three times, but he couldn’t do it,” he detailed. “I feared temporary nerve damage or temporary paralysis was preventing him from opening his eye, so I recommended to the referee that the contest be stopped.”
I always give fighters the benefit of the doubt with injuries. The bottom line is I’m not the one taking the punches in there, and everyone has a limit to their pain thresholds. I don’t expect everyone to be Arturo Gatti. That’s what made fighters like Gatti special.
But it does appear Devon Alexander panicked and looked for a way out. This is where trainer Kevin Cunningham should have tried to come in. When Muhammad Ali, then Cassius Clay, was blinded by a foreign substance against Sonny Liston in 1964, his immediate reaction was to have his gloves cut off and quit. But Angelo Dundee calmed him, and said the championship was at stake. He literally pushed his man out to ring center and told him to stay away until his eyes cleared. Check out the below video starting at the 7:52 mark. Note that Clay attempted to call the fight at 8:27 before being grabbed by Dundee.
What hurts Devon Alexander’s reputation is that he didn’t ask for a few minutes to recover. He just wanted out of there immediately despite the high stakes, and claims before the fight that he’d have to be killed in order to lose.
Do I think Alexander should be crucified and dismissed forever as a quitter? Not at all. He’s still a 23 year old young man learning his craft. He had a bad, indecisive moment (which many of us had at that age), that hopefully he learns from as his career progress.
