Boring bouts and not-so-laughable jokes

By Al S. Mendoza

 

IT was another boxing bore, all right.

But who said it wasn’t to be?

Minutes after the fight deal was inked, I immediately said it was going to be a bore in the magnitude of the Mayweather-Alvarez stinker.

Only the results of both fights provided some topic of conversation:  Split decision.

A judge had completely taken a detour and voted Alvarez the winner even as it was more than obvious that Mayweather was the winner, which the two other judges had correctly scored.

That was on Sept. 14, earning for Mayweather a 2-1 result for a split decision victory to remain unbeaten in 45 fights.

On Oct. 13, a virtual replica of that result was framed when one of the three judges in the Bradley-Marquez sleeper did a U-Turn, turning Bradley from winner to loser.

So, instead of a 3-0 win, Bradley settled for a similar 2-1 triumph for the second straight bore in as many months.

Boxing has never been this battered, thanks to some judges constantly flailing away with the wildest of shots designed not to gain but to maim.

But in fairness, it was Bradley who provided some thrill, though it came as rare as the poems of Jun Velasco.

While Marquez contented himself with waiting for the right opportunity to land his big blow that never came, Bradley, at times, would initiate a brawl.

Sadly, however, except for a couple of brief exchanges when Marquez obliged, rather unhesitatingly, the Bradley brawl would fizzle out just as fast.

Thus, if you still have questions on how Bradley was able to remain unscathed in 42 fights, refer back to his October 13 fight with Marquez.

Bradley rarely gets hit and, matched against one that rarely charges like a bull in Marquez, he becomes virtually untouchable.

Nowadays, it is hard to find boxers that excite and, sadly, even Manny Pacquiao, after his back-to-back losses to Bradley and Marquez in 2012, has become suspect.

Thus, the question is, should Pacquiao defeat Brandon Rios on Nov. 24 in Macau, will it be an exciting win—the way it used to be when PacMan was pummeling his way to winning eight world titles in eight different categories?

The truth is, Pacquiao is into the crossroad of his career and talks of either a Pacquiao-Bradley rematch or a Pacquiao-Marquez return bout are unpalatable at the moment.

First of all, Pacquiao must win first before we could even start discussing his succeeding fights.

In fact, we are not even talking here of just a victory for Pacquiao.

A resounding win it must be, as in a knockout of earthquake proportions, for Pacquiao to become saleable again.

To be honest, a win on points for Pacquiao would be as unacceptable as Drilon’s claim that he doesn’t personally know Janet Lim-Napoles.

That’d be a joke as cruel as suddenly seeing Benjie Lim appear at City Hall, screaming, “I’m back!”

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