number1contender.net

HBO World Championship Boxing Recap

January 24, 2009

Staples Center-Los Angeles, California

This event has set a new record for a crowd at the Staples Center with a sell out of 20,820. That is well above what had been expected even last week and a tremendous success.

WBA Welterweight (147 pounds) 12-Round Championship Match:

Antonio Margarito (37-5, 1 NC, 27 KO's, 146 pounds) (c) vs. Shane Mosley (45-5, 1 NC, 38 KO's, 147 pounds)

Margarito won this title in his last match via technical knockout at 2:05 of round 11 over Miguel Cotto on July 26, 2008 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Tijuana, Mexico resident beat the seemingly unstoppable Cotto into submission in the match. In round 11, Cotto voluntarily took a knee twice to stop Margarito from hitting him anymore. Finally, following the second time Cotto took a knee the Puerto Rican's corner threw in the towel to end a great match and give Cotto the first loss of his career. The full recap of that match can be found here: http://www.number1contender.net/the-latest/2009/1/23/recap-of-antonio-margarito-vs-miguel-cotto.htmlMargarito is making his first defense of this title.

There are concerns going into this match that Margarito will be unfocused. It has already been announced that win or lose he will rematch Cotto on June 13 on HBO PPV in Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York. That is the weekend of New York City's Puerto Rican Day Parade,since Cotto has made main eventing a boxingevent at MSG that weekend an annual tradition. Add to that, Margarito is a notorious slow starter and the fear is he could give away too many early rounds in a match expected to go the distance, before being mentally into the match. Against Cotto, Margarito was down huge on all of the judges' scorecards after 6 rounds. Margarito has only lost 1 match at 147 pounds, since February 26, 1996. That was to Paul Williams on July 14, 2007 at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California. In that match, Margarito started very slow, while Williams was throwing on average over 100 punches per round in the first half of the match to build up an insurmountable lead on the scorecards. (The recap of that match can be found here: http://www.number1contender.net/the-latest/2008/7/25/recap-of-margarito-vs-williams.html) Margarito said he has taken his usual 2 month training camp in the mountains to prepare for this match and intends to start faster. He said the same thing prior to facing Cotto, and lost the early rounds of that match. However, he was able to apply constant pressure with his power punching to break Cotto down in the second half of the match.

Margarito is The Ring magazine's number 1 contender to their vacant championship at 147 pounds. Additionally, he is The Ring's number 6 ranked pound-for-pound best boxer in the world.

Mosley is dealing with a host of distractions heading into this match. First, Mosley has decided to replace his longtime trainer with Nazim Richardson, the trainer of fellow Golden Boy Promotionspartner Bernard Hopkins. Mosley had been trained by his father, Jack Mosley. However, Jack is continuing to train Shane's son, Shane Mosley, Jr.

The boxer's father is not the only family member that Mosley is having problems with right now. Mosley is apparently having problems with his wife, Jin with whom he has 3 children and whoalso acts as his business manager. She was noticeably absent from the pre-match press conference. HBO is reporting during the broadcast that Shaneis now his own business manager and had to leave his training camp 2 weeks before the match to finalize the terms of his divorce.

However, Mosley's biggest distractions still relate to BALCO. Mosley used "the clear" whichis a very powerful designer steroid and "the cream" which was the masking agent for "the clear" prior to defeating Oscar De La Hoya in 2003. Mosley for years has insisted he had no idea he was taking steroids and is suing BALCO founder Victor Conte for saying Mosley knew what he was doing. In the last few weeks, grand jury testimony has been released where Mosley admits toinjecting himself with EPO, which raises the amount of oxygen in the blood to increase stamina. Mosley's lawyers say this is all consistent with his public story. However, the testimony seems to directly contradict Mosley's previous public statements. Add that to the calendars of usage and blood tests Conte documented at the time tomonitorMosley's new superhuman physiology, the boxer's story seems unfathomable. Mosley's lawyer, Judd Burstein,was sitting next to him at the pre-match press conference and had to field a number of questions from reporters.

On Friday, the day before this match, one of Mosley's distractions was cleared up for now. A judge dismissed a lawsuit that had been filed against Mosley by his former strength and conditioning coach. Mosley was being sued for defamation for saying in 2004 thatthe strength and conditioning coach is the one that took the boxer to BALCO. There is no word yet on an appeal.

Mosley's last match was an exciting knockout at 2:59 of round 11 over Ricardo Mayorga on September 27, 2008 at the Home Depot Center to win the WBA Inter-Continental title at 154 pounds, which will not be at stake in this match. Mosley's twelfth round knockout of Mayorgawas so great that it caused HBO's Larry Merchant, who was doing color commentary of the match, to exclaim, "Shane Mosley, I love you!" Mosleyhad Mayorga in trouble in several rounds earlier in the match, but backed off toconserve in energy. It turns out that Mosley had scar tissue in his nose that was causing a 60% blockage of hisnasal passage.Mosley has since had the scar tissue removed and is expected to have more energy in this match.A full recap of Mosley vs. Mayorga can be found here: http://www.number1contender.net/the-latest/2008/12/24/recap-of-shane-mosley-vs-ricardo-mayorga.html

Mosley is The Ring's number 3 contender at 147 pounds.

At 30-years-old, Margarito is 7 years younger then the 37-year-old Mosley. Margarito has the height advantage standing 5' 11" tall, while Mosley stands 5' 9" tall. Mosley has the reach advantage with a 74" wingspan, compared to the 72" wingspan of Margarito. Approaching match time, both boxers unofficially weighed-in at 160 pounds.Both boxers will employ the orthodox stance. According to HBO.com, Margarito is a solid 4-to-1 betting favorite.

California's modified version of the unified rules of boxing are in effect for this match. Two of the official judges keeping score of this match from ringside are from California and the other is from Puerto Rico. The referee is Raul Caiz, Sr. Harold Lederman will be keeping HBO's unofficial scorecard for this match.

Now for the celebrity roll call for this event: "Sugar" Ray Leonard is in row 4.A jacked to the gills Sylvester Stallone is here, and appears to be snacking on some nachos. George Lopez, and Mark Wahlberg are here.Joe Pesciis apparently not dead, butin fact in attendance at this event. Governor Schwarzenegger is in attendance, and gets booed by the crowd. (We have a terrible budget crisis in this state due to a ridiculousamount of funding being tied up in voter passed bond measures. Blaming the Governor is a simplistic answer. He will still become Senator Schwarzenegger in 2011. Feel free to email for an explanation.) Oscar De La Hoya is not here, but his statue is. Apparently, Affliction paid De La Hoya $5 million to personally promote the Affliction show on Saturday and go to it over this boxing event. Even Eric Bischoff would have thought that was a tremendous waste of money.

Before the opening bell, there is already some controversy in this match. The California State Athletic Commission checked Margarito's hand wraps and found he was using an illegal pad. The pad would harden when it became wet from perspiration. It was apparently a "plaster-like substance". The CSAC has apparently bagged the hand wraps and taken them into evidence. There may be some very lengthy suspensions coming for some people. Margarito was forced to have his hands re-wrapped 3 times before heading to the ring. In a situation like this, it is rare that a boxer is caught cheating in this way the first time. That means Margarito may have been using illegal hand wraps to make his hands harder for years. Cotto may have been knocked out by Margarito, because the boxer from Tijuana, Mexico was throwing punches with loaded fists. This is pretty much the worst form of cheating a boxer can commit. Boxers have been killed, because their opponents have loaded their hands with plaster.

Mosley starts fast and takes a close round 1, 10-9. Lederman scores round 1 for Mosley, 10-9. Mosley easily wins round 2 on Lederman and my scorecard, 10-9. Thechallengerhas beenmuch faster and stronger defensively in the early rounds then the champion. At the end of round 2, both boxers were warned for reckless use of their heads. There have been numerous head clashes in the first 2 rounds and it is surprising that no one has been busted open, yet. Margarito has checked his forehead and mouth for blood several times after collisions with Mosley's head. Mosley's superior speed and technical punching win round 3, 10-9. After round 3, Mosley leads on my scorecard, 30-27. The challenger wins round 3 on Lederman's scorecard, 10-9, and Mosley leads on Lederman's scorecard after 3 rounds, 30-27.

Mosley easily takes round 4, 10-9. Margarito is continuing to walk through some very hard punches by Mosley, and appears to be readying to make his usual second half comeback. However, Mosley has never been knocked out in his pro or amateur boxing career and only been knocked down once. That knockdown was caused in part by a headbutt. Therefore, Margarito is going to need to startwinning roundsimmediately, or suffer the same fate as he did versus Williams. Mosley takes round 4 on Lederman's scorecard, 10-9. With under 30 seconds to go in round 5, there is blood coming from the mouth of Margarito. Margarito is not bleeding from an unintentional clash of heads, but apparently from a Mosley left hook. The challenger takes round 5 on Lederman and my scorecard, 10-9. Mosley is completely dominating Margarito. Mosley takes round 6 in demonstrative fashion, 10-9. At this point, Margarito and his corner are beginning to look seriously concerned. The seemingly iron-jawed champion is beginning to back up when hit with the challenger's straight right hands. After 6 rounds, Mosley leads on my scorecard, 60-54. Lederman scores round 6 for Mosley, 10-9, and has the challenger ahead after 6 rounds, 60-54.

With 2:27 to go in round 7, the referee calls time to deal with some lose tape on the left glove of Mosley. After about a 10 second break in the action, the boxers resume their work. Mosley is getting stronger in winning round 7, 10-9. Lederman scores round 7 for Margarito, 10-9. With under5 seconds to go in round 8, Mosley lands a right hook that drops Margarito to the canvas. Margarito had actually gone down a few seconds earlier when he fell into the ropes and the ropes were the only thing holding him up. The referee missed that call. However, Mosley did not allow Margarito to escape the round without being knocked down officially. Margarito is hurt very badly and barely staggersup at the count of 8. The referee gives Margarito a long look and allows him to continue. The bell rings to end round 8 before anymore punches can be thrown. If Mosley had 10 more seconds, he would have finished Margarito. Round 8 had been very even for the first 2 minutes, until Mosley landed a left hand to take over in the last 40 seconds to win the round on everyone's scorecard, 10-8. With as bad as Margarito looks going back to his corner, it appears only a matter of minutes before Mosley deals Margarito the first knockout loss of his career. Margarito is not responding properly in his corner and it his clear he is out on his feet. They kept asking him how he was and after a very long delay the champion said he was okay. Margarito's trainer then looked into the boxer's eyes to see if they were clear and replied, "No you're not." They are going to stop it. Apparently, Margarito convinced his corner to let him continue. However, he looks terrible to start round 9 and this match should have been stopped. Margarito appeared to not block or dodge a single Mosley punch when the action resumed. The referee started to move in to save Margarito with 2:19 to go in round 9. However when he got there with 2:17 to go in the round, a right hand from Mosley had sent Margarito crumbling to the ground for a second time. Margarito's corner was throwing in the towel as the referee was stopping the contest. Either way that stoppage was very late. At least 43 seconds too late. In round 9, Mosley landed 21 total punches, while Margarito landed 0 total punches.

The official outcome courtesy of the legendary Michael Buffer: is that at 43 seconds of round 9 the winner via technical knockout, "in one of the greatest performances of his Hall of Fame career" and new WBA Welterweight Champion of the World, "Sugar" Shane Mosley. The win moves Mosley to 46-5 with 1 no contest and now 39 wins coming by way of knockout.

The final punchstat numbers have Mosley landing 178 of the 507 total punches he threw, for a 35% total connect percentage. Mosley landed 118 of the 240 power punches he threw, for an outstanding 49% power connect percentage. Margarito landed 108 of the 485 total punches he threw, for a 22% total connect percentage.The former champion landed 78 of the 303 power punches he threw, for a 26% power connect percentage.

In his post match interview, Mosley said the distractions motivated him to put on one of the greatest performances of his career. Mosley smiled when asked how to grade this match. The new champion said he would have to go back and watch the tape, but his hitting power was a 10. He also said that someday there will be a statue of him out in front of the Staples Center to join De La Hoya's. Also, Bernard Hopkins as part of the Golden Boy Promotions team, who was standing behind Mosley would get a statue out there. They are great boxers, but that is simply wishful thinking.

A concussed Margarito is going to do a post-match interview in the ring. These are frequently bad ideas, because the boxers are not thinking clearly. Margarito said that Mosley deserves all the credit. The former champion said that his corner did want to stop the match after round 8, but it was his decision to continue. That is why people with concussions are not supposed to be allowed to make that decision. Margarito said in truth he wanted to be knocked out. Even when it was stopped he felt he could have continued. This idiocy got a loud cheer from the crowd. Margarito's comments would indicate that the referee did not stop the contest on his own volition. This appears to not have been thecase, but is part of the confusion that can result from interviewing a concussed boxer. The referee did stop the match on his own as Margarito's corner was coincidentally throwing in the towel. Margarito says he will still face Cotto in his next match as planned.

Mosley was amazing in this match. It is hard to think of anything he could have done better in this match. Mosley will clearly move into The Ring's rankings as one of the top 10 boxers in the world, pound-for-pound, and assume Margarito's mantle as The Ring's top ranked boxer at 147 pounds. However, with the way the boxing calendar is set up, there are not a lot of viable big money opponents available for Mosley right now. The most obvious is the other boxer who beat Margarito at 147 pounds, Paul Williams. Mosley has previously turned down huge offers to face the supernaturally large 147-pounder. However, there may not be a lot of quality opponents available to face Mosley in the near future, and Williams is a quality opponent. It would not be a PPV match, but could probably do a sizable gate in the Los Angeles area with Mosley getting a much better downside deal then he got for this match. (That downside was $2.4 million.)

This match was disastrous for Margarito. If he had just lost via devastating knockout to the future Hall of Famer in Mosley that would not have been that bad. However, being caught using illegal hand wraps then getting dominated is very bad. It makes it appear that much of Margarito's power has been manufactured and has probably been that way for years. Tonight,the noted power punchernever had Mosley hurt. This calls into doubt everything Margarito has accomplished in the sport. Margarito is still going to face Cotto on June 13 in Madison Square Garden on HBO PPV, assuming Cotto does not lose to Michael Jennings. Even with the recent string of upsets, that is a fairly safe assumption. That match may actually be easier to market now, because there is a clearly defined heel and babyface.

This match is going to contend for upset of the year. The 4-to-1 odds against Mosley were ridiculous, but this was still very impressive. This is definitely a replay to find.

News and Notes: The Manny Pacquiao vs. Ricky Hatton match is now official. It will be on May 2 at the MGM Grand and carried live on HBO PPV. The promotional tour for the match had been called off on Wednesday, because Pacquiao was unhappy with the terms of the contract. Then on Thursday, Pacquiao agreed to the match. Pacquiao was not happy with a 50/50 split of the North American PPV revenue and a guaranteed $12 million. He was then offered a 52/48 split of the PPV revenue with the same downside and agreed to sign. Bob Arum, Pacquiao's promoter, said that if the pound-for-pound best boxer in the world did not face Hatton, that Pacquiao was probably going to face Humberto Soto. The realization that there would have been a huge difference in paydays between the two matches probably played a part in Pacquiao's signing to face Hatton. The guaranteed $12 million for Pacquiao is $1 million more then he was guaranteed to face De La Hoya in December.

Gilroy, California's Robert Guerrero was in action on the undercard of this event and scored a knockout 27 seconds into round 1 over Edel Ruiz. With the win, Guerrero will now be part of a 3 match HBO Boxing After Dark card at the San Jose Arena on March 7. The Arena (HP Pavilion) is about a 40 minute Caltrans ride from Gilroy. (However, Caltrans does not run to Gilroy, home of the excellent Gavilan Hills Academy where I went to elementary school, on the weekend.) The event will be headlined by James Kirkland vs. Joel Julio. The card will be filled out with ESPN.com's 2008 Prospect of the Year, Victor Ortiz, facing Mike Arnaoutis. This means Guerrero is going to be counted on to draw a lot of the crowd.

Paul Williams next match may be April 11 against a finally returning Winky Wright at 160 pounds on HBO. The match will take place at either the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles or the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. Chris Arreola would box on the undercard. Win or lose, Williams should be available to face Mosley in July.

Following last week's victory over Luis Collazo, The Ring has moved Andre Berto up in the rankings to be their number 7 contender at 147 pounds. Collazo's performance in the match was so strong that he remained as the number 8 contender at 147 pounds despite the loss. Berto's promoter, Lou DiBella, says that Berto will make a defense of his title in the late spring or early summer and then give Collazo his promised rematch. HBO has added replays of Berto vs. Collazo to this week's schedule, because the match was so great and should finish in the top 10 for match of the year.

HBO has picked up the option in Larry Merchant's contract, and he will continue as the color commentator on HBO World Championship boxing until at least May 31, 2011. Merchant will be 80-years-old when his current contract expires.

The Amir Khan vs. Marco Antonio Barrera match in Manchester, England on March 14 will be televised in the United States. Unfortunately, it will only be shown on PPV for $24.95. Therefore, there will be no recap of that match on this website.

The details of the Vitali Klitschko heavyweight title defense against Juan Carlos Gomez are almost finalized. The match is now set for March 21 at Hanns-Martin-Schleyer hall in Stuttgart, Germany. There match is currently not scheduled to be televised in the United States, but it will probably end up on ESPN Classic. That means there will be no recap of that event.

The deal for Wladimir Klitschko to defend his heavyweight titles against David Haye is almost finalized. The match will take place at a soccer stadium in London, England on June 20, and be carried in the United States on HBO.

One of the ads on the side of the ESPN.com boxing page asks you to take a test to compare your IQ to those of other people. It lists the supposed IQ of various famous people on there to entice people to click and see how they would match up. It then lists the IQ of the average boxing fan as 94. Hopefully, that is incorrect, because the average IQ is 100. However, that would explain why HBO would think it could get away passing of pro-wrestling footage as footage of shoot fights last week.

In a disappointing note, Roy Jones, Jr. has announced that he will return to the ring following his loss to Joe Calzaghe. Jones willheadlined a combined MMA and boxing PPV againstOmar Sheika on March 21 in his hometown of Pensacola, Florida. It will be Sheika's first match in over 18 months. The big selling point to the local crowd is that it will be Jones' first match in Pensacola in over 10 years. None of the other boxing or MMA matches on the card have been announced. However, these stipulations will make it eligible for the Wrestling Observer Newsletter's Worst Major Wrestling Show in next year's award balloting.

The next recap will come out January 31 covering the previous night's ESPN 2 Friday Night Fights event featuring Herman Ngoudjo vs. Juan Urango, which will determine a new belt holder at 140 pounds.

Sincerely,

Jereme Warneck

number1contender.net

Boxing and Video Game Correspondent for f4wonline.com

Hidden Valley Lake, CA

I can be reached for feedback and comments at ZurRoadie@aol.com or as JeremeW on XBOX Live. I read everything.