Tonight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas is Shane Mosley vs. Fernando Vargas II on HBO PPV. I don’t know about you, but I can think of lots of things that boxing fans can spend $49.95 on besides this fight. That’s good for 17 gallons of gas up my way.
Let’s be real here, shall we?
This rematch is only happening because their first fight did 410,000 pay-per-view buys. There is no legitimate championship on the line in this fight and both guys are leaving the 154-pound division after tomorrow night. Vargas is moving to middleweight because he can’t stop stuffing tacos into his face, and Mosley is moving to welterweight because he never belonged at 154 to begin with.
Had each of them just moved on after the first fight maybe a Jermain Taylor vs. Fernando Vargas fight could have been made for September and a Floyd Mayweather vs. Shane Mosley fight could have been made for November. This fight then has gotten in the way of those much more interesting match-ups, as well as my Saturday night.
Whatever the case, I like Fernado Vargas this time around because I don’t think that Shane can fight as good a fight this time around – especially with father Jack in the corner. Don’t get me wrong, Jack Mosley is a heckuva’ nice guy, but he was speechless, clueless and every other ‘less’ you can think of when he manned the corner in Shane’s losses to Vernon Forrest and Winky Wright. If something goes wrong awry tomorrow night – Shane is on his own.
Did you guys hear that all fighters that fight in Las Vegas that weigh 135 pounds and up are now going to wear 10 oz. gloves? It's a rule designed to promote safety. It used to be that boxers that weighed 154 pounds and up wore the pom-poms on their fists.
I’m no neurologist, but in my opinion, wearing these big gloves is going to do a few things:
(1.) Drive more fans away from the increasingly passive sport of boxing and into the more violent lap of the UFC. People pay to see a fist-fight, blood and some knockouts not two guys in there wearing sparring gloves flailing away on each other for twelve rounds of a sleep inducing pillow fight.
(2.) The fighters are going to actually take more punches rather than less. The fights will be prolonged and guys will actually take more punches to the head rather than less because of these big gloves. Let me ask you - Would you rather be punched in the head once by Diego Corrales with an 8 oz. glove or ten times with a 10 oz. glove? I rest my case.
(3.) Lastly, with these big gloves, more fights are going to go to decisions in Las Vegas. We already have enough twelve round fights ending in decisions where nobody can tell who won. The judges in Vegas already border on the incompetent. Now Keith Kizer and the commission is giving these judges more of a voice in the outcome of fights. Utter nonsense.
And finally, fighters in Vegas are now going to be able to consume sports drinks in the corner between rounds. That means Gatorade, Powerade - you name it. I heard Panama Lewis is already marketing his specially mixed peppermint schnapps drink with Aaron Pryor’s face on the bottle for guys to drink between rounds.
July 2006
Let’s be real here, shall we?
This rematch is only happening because their first fight did 410,000 pay-per-view buys. There is no legitimate championship on the line in this fight and both guys are leaving the 154-pound division after tomorrow night. Vargas is moving to middleweight because he can’t stop stuffing tacos into his face, and Mosley is moving to welterweight because he never belonged at 154 to begin with.
Had each of them just moved on after the first fight maybe a Jermain Taylor vs. Fernando Vargas fight could have been made for September and a Floyd Mayweather vs. Shane Mosley fight could have been made for November. This fight then has gotten in the way of those much more interesting match-ups, as well as my Saturday night.
Whatever the case, I like Fernado Vargas this time around because I don’t think that Shane can fight as good a fight this time around – especially with father Jack in the corner. Don’t get me wrong, Jack Mosley is a heckuva’ nice guy, but he was speechless, clueless and every other ‘less’ you can think of when he manned the corner in Shane’s losses to Vernon Forrest and Winky Wright. If something goes wrong awry tomorrow night – Shane is on his own.
Did you guys hear that all fighters that fight in Las Vegas that weigh 135 pounds and up are now going to wear 10 oz. gloves? It's a rule designed to promote safety. It used to be that boxers that weighed 154 pounds and up wore the pom-poms on their fists.
I’m no neurologist, but in my opinion, wearing these big gloves is going to do a few things:
(1.) Drive more fans away from the increasingly passive sport of boxing and into the more violent lap of the UFC. People pay to see a fist-fight, blood and some knockouts not two guys in there wearing sparring gloves flailing away on each other for twelve rounds of a sleep inducing pillow fight.
(2.) The fighters are going to actually take more punches rather than less. The fights will be prolonged and guys will actually take more punches to the head rather than less because of these big gloves. Let me ask you - Would you rather be punched in the head once by Diego Corrales with an 8 oz. glove or ten times with a 10 oz. glove? I rest my case.
(3.) Lastly, with these big gloves, more fights are going to go to decisions in Las Vegas. We already have enough twelve round fights ending in decisions where nobody can tell who won. The judges in Vegas already border on the incompetent. Now Keith Kizer and the commission is giving these judges more of a voice in the outcome of fights. Utter nonsense.
And finally, fighters in Vegas are now going to be able to consume sports drinks in the corner between rounds. That means Gatorade, Powerade - you name it. I heard Panama Lewis is already marketing his specially mixed peppermint schnapps drink with Aaron Pryor’s face on the bottle for guys to drink between rounds.
July 2006
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