By Paul Strauss: Unfortunately for fans and ESPN announcers Joe Tessitore and Teddy Atlas, there wasn’t much excitement at Mallory Square in Key West, Florida. At least not in the ring. Joe and Teddy had plenty of time to talk about upcoming fights, past fights and college football bowls. The telecast also switched back to the studion and Bernardo Osuna for input and commentary. Primarily, Bernardo reported on yet another example of the unfairness of our justice system. If you have money and power, you get the breaks. As evidenced by reports that Floyd Mayweather, Jr’s high priced attorneys were able to get the beginning of his jail time back to June 1st. Apparently the attorneys successfullly argued that Floyd was under contract to fight May 5th, even though his opponent is TBA. What a surprise.
Who will Floyd fight on May 5th? It just so happens to be cinco de mayo, so Saul “Canelo” Alvarez’ name was tossed around. According to Osuna and ESPN’s Dan Rafael, the fight would be an easy one to make, and since Alvarez is Mexican, and it would fall on cinco de mayo, it would be a natural, even it it was in Vegas. Alvarez is a Mexican red fair haired boy, and him being thrown in with the best or second best P4P fighter in the world would draw out his fans like OWS twerps in hopes of scoring a free meal or free something. The only thing that would make it better is if Floyd were French. Instead of wearing a sombrero, maybe Floyd could come into the ring wearing a beret.
Osuna and Teddy also talked about Manny Pacquiao’s next fight, and rumors that Bob Arum doesn’t want to make the fight. Teddy speculated that one reason Arum might not want it is because both fighters (Floyd) want too much money. Arum has other options to make lots of money, and wouldn’t have to take the risk of having to come up with such huge guarantees (100 million?) for the big fight. Arum has made no bones about saying there are four possibilities for Manny, and two are rematches. The fighters named are Miguel Cotto, Juan Marquez, Timothy Bradley and Lamont Peterson. I think most fans, with the exception of JMM fans, would rather see Manny fight someone new. A Peterson vs. Khan rematch has to enter the picture too, but Lamont would more certainly be able to make more against Manny, so simple economics.
Getting back to Key West and Mallory Square, the judges scored the co-feature between the southpaw Denis “Momma’s Boy” Douglin 14-1-0 with 8 KO and the right handed Steve Martinez a draw. Douglin, coashed by his mother Sphya, was a little faster and sharper. Martinez was described as the harder puncher of the two, but neither fighter posed much of a threat against the other. Douglin probably could have pulled out a UD if he didn’t tire a bit in the seventh round of the eight round fight. He dug down a bit in the eighth and acquited himself better. All three judges scored the fight 77-75, but two had it that way for Douglin, and only one for Martinez.11-1-0 with 9 KO
The main event was a real stinker. Dyah “Ali” Davis 20-1-1 with 9 KO, who is former 1976 Olympic Gold Medalist Howard Davis came in as the favorite over the more experienced Alfonso “El Tigre” Lopez 21-1-0 with 17 KO. The sad fact is there was nothing even remotely resembling an “Ali” or “El Tigre” in the Mallory Square ring tonight. Teddy joked that referee Dennis Assimenios won the first round. That scenario carried on through much of the fight. There was no real long distance fighting, no in fighting, and in truth neither fighter even had to clinch much, because neither guy wanted to fight inside.
After about the fifth round, Lopez would just step forward, like he was making a dance move, and then stand there next to Davis, with neither man doing much at all. It was unique to say the least. The surprising thing was the fans weren’t booing that much, but Joe and Teddy were struggling to talk about the action in the ring, because there wasn’t any.
Some wit offered, “Someone should tell these guys their punches are supposed to land!” He also said boxing should have a category called, “Neither guy deserves a win”. That pretty much decribes the goings on tonight in FNF’s main event. Davis came away with a UD, but it was more by default than by merit. Hopefully things will get better as the new year rolls along.