Plenty of rant-worthy material this week…
Rant #1: A draw for Mosley-Mora last night was a completely fair judgment for a fight where, literally, nothing happened.
But before Shane Mosley shares in the stink of Saturday’s roller skate expo at the Staples Center, 99% of the blame has to belong to the newly-dubbed Sergio Snore-A. “The Latin Snake” is a skilled defensive fighter and when someone of his skills decides to just stink up the joint and never try to actually engage, there is little any opponent can really do.
Mora ran, feinted, and held the whole night and when he actually did land a real punch (about two every three rounds), he would connect because Mosley simply wasn’t expecting any punches to come his way. Mosley tried to pursue, but he could only do so much with an opponent content on not ever taking a risk. It’s too bad that Mosley had to waste a critical end-of-career fight on such a load like Mora.
Hopefully, our days of seeing Sergio Mora with easy access to mainstream boxing shows are a thing of the past.
From what I heard, the fans were chanting “Canelo, Canelo” at one point during the Mosley-Mora snoozer. Not even the fans could take sides in this craptacular. It’s never a good thing when the public feels the need to entertain itself in the “heat” of a main event featuring two former world champs.
Rant #2: HBO, needs to get over themselves.
More and more, the HBO crew seems to want to tell a story rather than call a fight. They pick a side, choose an angle and shape the action so that it fits into their agendas. By listening to Lampley and Merchant, you would’ve envisioned a bout where Mosley was winning each and every round. The fact of the matter was that NOTHING was happening and while effective aggression should be scored, so should effective defense. And when, again, NOTHING, is happening for long periods of the contest, awarding each round comes down to maybe one punch in particular or one effective maneuver. At least eight rounds on Saturday could’ve easily gone either way.
Lampley, Merchant should save their indignation for actual rotten, corrupt calls– There are plenty of them on HBO. Or, better yet, point that rage inward and give themselves a lashing for taking a huge part in the Margarito-Pacquiao Scumfest they’ll be airing in November.
Rant #3: In case you needed further proof of boxing’s unique ability to chew up and ruin its own champions, look no further than the tale of Vivian Harris.
Fighting at least three fights and two years longer than he should, he was used on the Mosley-Mora undercard as cannon-fodder for heavy-handed Victor Ortiz.
Harris was to be paid $50,000 for a sad performance which saw him hit the canvas every time Ortiz connected with a real punch. Hopefully, Harris could take that 50K, invest in a business and be able to take care of himself in life away from the ring, right?
Not so fast.
Harris’ purse was withheld to pay off part of a $100,000 debt to his former promoter, Main Events.
So, boxing is sending Harris off to retirement with a nest egg of minus 50K after a solid, respectable career and after having his head scrambled repeatedly in the name of building other promoters’ prospects.
But, of course, we all know Harris won’t retire. He’ll stick around and be passed around from state to state and prospect to prospect, suffering more and more physical damage while making less and less money.
By the time boxing gets done with Vivian Harris he’ll be 150k in the hole and in need of full-time medical care.
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