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HBO World Championship Boxing Recap

April 12, 2008

Boardwalk Hall-Atlantic City, New Jersey

HBO is trying to bill this as night of Puerto Rican boxers facing Mexican boxers. However, this is largely diminished by the fact the Mexican boxer in the main event went to school in Napa, California, which is about 1.5 hours from my house and nothing like Mexico. (It is however, a great place for tourists to spend a weekend, as the heart of the Northern California wine country.)

WBA Welterweight 12-Round Championship Match:

Miguel Cotto (31-0, 25 KO's, 146.5 pounds) (c) vs. Alfonso Gomez (18-3-2, 8 KO's, 147 pounds)

Cotto won this title when it was vacant via technical knockout at 3:00 of round 5 over Quintana on December 2, 2006 at Boardwalk Hall. Quintana failed to answer the bell to start round 6 following a vicious body shot that ended round 5. The previous champion was Ricky Hatton, who vacated the title to return to 140 pounds. This is Cotto's fourth defense of this title.

Cotto had a stellar amateur boxing career that was capped off by representing Puerto Rico in boxing at 139 pounds during the 2000 Sydney Summer Olympiad.

The champion's last match was a first in the history of CompuBox. In Cotto's match versus Shane Mosley on November 10, 2007 at Madison Square Garden, both Mosley and Cotto landed 248 of the 774 total punches they threw. No match on record has seen both boxers throw and land the same number of punches. Cotto took the match in a narrow 12-round decision: 115-113, 115-113, 116-113.

Cotto is The Ring's number 1 contender at 147 pounds. The Ring also, ranks Cotto as the number 7 pound-for-pound boxer in the world, behind the number 1 pound-for-pound boxer, Mayweather.

Gomez rose to fame as part of Season 1 of the now canceled reality series "The Contender". That season featured boxers at 160 pounds. However, Gomez had only boxed professionally at 147 pounds before the show, but still managed to earn third place behind superior hand speed.

The success on the show, and a spin-off "The Contender Challenge: UK vs. USA" where Gomez defeated Martin Concepcion via technical knockout at 2:23 of round 7 at the Metro Radio Arena in Newcastle, England, earned Gomez a shot at Arturo Gatti. On July 14, 2007 at Boardwalk Hall, Gomez sent Gatti into retirement with a 7-round technical knockout. The then New Jersey State Athletic Commissioner, Larry Hazzard jumped in the ring to end the match and save Gatti, while the referee was still counting following a knockdown in round 7. In the match, Gomez out-landed Gatti 216 total connects to 74 total connects. In round 7, that only lasted 2:12, Gomez landed 40 of the 62 power punches he threw. For the entire match, Gatti landed 29 power punches. The match proved Gatti was finished as a boxer, but still left questions as to whether Gomez was a legitimate top boxer or had just taken advantage of a boxer past his prime.

The challenger's last match was a 10-round unanimous decision victory over Ben Tackie on October 16, 2007 at the Home Depot Center. Tackie has lost his last 4 matches, which includes the Gomez match, all by 10-round decision. Gomez broke his right hand in round 2 of the match, and that injury could be a factor in this match. It was the first match of Gomez' career to go past 8 rounds, and only his second scheduled 10-round contest.

Gomez is unranked by The Ring, but the number 11 ranked boxer at 147 pounds by boxrec.com.

Both boxers are 27-years-old. Gomez has the height advantage standing 5' 9" tall, while Cotto stands 5' 8" tall. Both boxer have a 23.5" arm length. Unofficial weights for the boxers approaching match time is unavailable, but both boxers should be about the same size entering the ring. Both boxers will employ the orthodox stance, despite the fact Cotto is naturally a southpaw. Cotto is a 7 to 1 favorite going into this match according to HBO.com.

The judges are from South Africa, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The referee is Randy Neumann.

An extremely confident Cotto has marked Gomez' face in several place in the first 1:30 of round 1. Cotto is too fast for Gomez and is looking to make this a short night. Cotto wins round 1, 10-9. Lederman scores round 1 for Cotto, 10-9. The HBO commentators point out in round 2 that Cotto is treating this match as a sparring session, which is accurate. Cotto is turning southpaw and trying out different things against a legitimate opponent in competition, because he feels Gomez is no threat to him. Cotto is in a real boxing match, and actually having fun, and playing around while someone is trying to knock him out. A right hand to the body from Cotto sends Gomez stumbling to the canvas with 44 seconds to go in round 2. The punch was not meant to knock Gomez down and Gomez appeared off balance when he went down. The punch did not appear designed to really hurt Gomez, because Cotto appears to want more time to play with his opponent. Action is resumed with 34 seconds to go in the round. On replay it appears the right to the body did not knock Gomez down. Gomez actually fell dodging a Cotto left hand. The left hand did not connect, but Gomez went down ducking the punch and it was incorrectly ruled a knockdown. Gomez had never been knocked down as a pro prior to that questionable knockdown call. Still Cotto will win round 2, 10-8. The extra point will be meaningless when Cotto decides to end this match. Lederman scores round 2 for Cotto, 10-8. With less then 10 seconds to go in round 3, a series of left hands from Cotto send Gomez to the mat, and he is probably not going to get up. Gomez was knocked down in his corner and the referee allows Gomez to continue by simply standing up. That is a bad job by the referee. Gomez was still holding the ropes to stand and had turned into the corner. Gomez was not facing the referee or showing that he was in any shape to continue at the count of 8. The referee needed to make Gomez walk to him. Had the referee done that this match would be over. Instead the bell rung and Gomez' stool was placed under him without the action resuming. The doctor jumped in the ring as soon as the bell sounded to take a look at Gomez in the corner. The doctor is going to let Gomez continue, but the referee probably bought Gomez an extra 5 seconds to recover. That extra time allowed the doctor to see Gomez sitting down and recovered enough to let this match continue, when this match probably should have been stopped. Cotto wins round 3 on Lederman and my scorecard, 10-8. Cotto is winning the match after 3 rounds on Lederman and my scorecard, 30-25.

Cotto has decided round 4 is the time to end it, and with a little more then 1 minute to go in round 4, Gomez is looking very bad. However, Gomez is refusing to go down and his corner needs to throw in the towel, immediately. Jim Lampley doing play-by-play of this match for HBO points out that of Cotto's last 8 opponents, 3 have not boxed competitively after facing him. Cotto wins round 4, 10-9. In round 4, Cotto landed 60 total punches, while Gomez landed 12 total punches. After round 4, the doctor tells Gomez he has 1 more round to make something happen or they are going to stop the match. The HBO commentators raise the question that if the fired Larry Hazzard were still in charge would this match have been stopped already. Hazzard did an amazing job as commissioner and was a central figure in putting together the modern unified rules of MMA. He was diligent in protecting athlete safety and was fired for issues of trying to continue protect athlete safety. Dave had a great article on this several months back in a Newsletter, and Hazzard's disgraceful firing. This match is getting very scary. The promoter of Gomez was considering asking for this referee to be replaced before the match, because this is the same referee who forced Hazzard to jump in to save Gatti versus Gomez when Neumann was going to let Gatti continue after taking an inhuman beating. Gomez' trainer is his father, and this brings up the problem of father's training sons, because they do not want to disgrace their sons by stopping the match. A left hand from Cotto send Gomez stumbling backwards to the canvas with 1:13 to go in round 5. Hazzard would have certainly stopped the match here. Yet, this seemingly uncaring referee is counting. With 1:04 the referee sends Gomez back out to face Cotto, like a lamb to the slaughter. It is unclear what delusional thoughts are keeping Gomez' corner from throwing in the towel. The punch that knocked Gomez down was a jab, and not an especially hard jab from Cotto. The bell sounds to end round 5. Cotto wins round 5, 10-8. The doctor finally decides to stop this beating, after looking at Gomez in the corner. Randy Neumann needs to never be allowed to referee another boxing match, ever. His lack of regard for the well being of the boxers is reckless, cruel and borderline sadistic. No one with a conscience could have sent Gatti back into action after what he went through in round 7 versus Gomez and the same is true of what happened tonight with Gomez in this match with Cotto. Neumann is going to get a boxer killed if he continues to referee and to ignore that fact is to be a part of the problem. Be clear, I meant exactly what I, Jereme Warneck, have just written about Randy Neumann. It is not the views of Dave or Bryan.

The official result from Lupe Contreras is: the referee (who deserves zero credit for this stoppage) on advice of the doctor has stopped the contest at 3:00 of round 5, making the winner by technical knockout and still WBA Welterweight Champion of the World, Miguel Cotto. The win moves Cotto to 32-0 with 26 of those wins coming by way of knockout.

The final punchstat numbers are disturbing as Cotto landed 188 of the 369 total punches he threw, for a virtually unheard of 51% total connect percentage. The champion sent Gomez to the hospital with 125 power connects out of the 213 power punches he threw, for a sickening 59% power connect percentage. Gomez landed 63 of the 316 total punches he threw, for a 20% total connect percentage. The boxer born in Mexico hit Cotto with 46 of the 143 power punches he threw, for a 32% power connect percentage. That works out to Cotto landing 25 power punches per round, while Gomez landed 9.

After being congratulated in the ring by Sammy Sosa, Cotto gives a lackluster post match interview. Cotto did not challenge Mayweather, but rather said he was not afraid of Mayweather. There was also no promo on Margarito, only a promise to be prepared. Better promo skills could land a match with Mayweather, faster.

The Cotto-Mayorga match was listed as taking place in the United States, but it was presumably to happen at Yankee Stadium. In this version's final year of operation, the stadium management has been desperate to hold one more big boxing event, and Cotto has become the best proven draw in New York City.The Oakland A's are scheduled to be in town to play the Yankees that day, but the game time has not been announced, meaning it could have been worked into some form of day night double header or something like that to accommodate boxing on that day. However, following this event Cotto signed to face Margarito on July 26, with the match to probably be held in Yankee Stadium. How the deal for Cotto-Mayorga and Margarito to box in Mexico were scrapped is unclear, but the fact this is boxing should be a sufficient answer.

For Cotto, though he seems to be stuck taking stay busy matches, like tonight or matches to build his credentials to the point they become overwhelming and force Mayweather to face him, like the match with Margarito. Cotto's people say he would like to face Mayweather soon, with the preferred location of Madison Square Garden. However, it appears Mayweather has no intention of facing Cotto in the 12 months or outside of Las Vegas. At this point in their careers, Mayweather can dictate the terms of the engagement. It does appear that the natural heel in Mayweather is enjoying playing with Cotto, like a cat batting a ball on a string. Cotto needs Mayweather to make a substantial amount of money. Mayweather has a long list of opponents he can draw money with to some degree. Some reports say that Mayweather will rematch Ricky Hatton in Spring 2009 at Wembley Stadium in London, England. This would be assuming Oscar de la Hoya wins his match against Steve Forbes on May 3, then Mayweather beats de la Hoya on September 20. Hatton would need to defeat Juan Lazcano on May 17, and probably Paulie Malignaggi sometime in September. Then, assuming Cotto keeps winning and Mayweather defeats Hatton, maybe Mayweather faces Cotto in September 2009 at the earliest in Las Vegas for HBO PPV.

In the meantime, both Judah and Mosley deserve rematches with Cotto and are legitimate PPV main events. Each event should do over 300,000 buys, which would make Cotto a more appealing opponent for Mayweather.

Gomez is going to be placed on medical suspension by the end of Monday, and should not consider boxing for months after this beating. It is unclear if he will ever be the same caliber boxer he was before this match. By the end of the match he was noticeably slower and showed diminished skills. If Gomez is fully healthy, he should be able to return to main eventing ESPN events in 10 months. However, Gomez may have incurred serious brain damage from this match, or at least the beginnings of serious brain damage if he continues to box. If he is healthy, he could be built up to be on the undercard of PPV's or other major events. It does not appear he will able to main event major shows on his own anytime soon.

The promoter for The Contender stars has done an awful job selecting title matches for the boxers the show. Peter Manfredo, Jr. was also given a title shot after being on the show and lost via technical knockout to Joe Calzaghe in less then 3 rounds in a match that should never have been made. This match becomes a savage beating towards the end of round 3. The show builds some interest in a match between Margarito and Cotto, but the 147-pound division seems to be waiting for Mayweather and Cotto to meet or someone to knock one of them off before they can face each other.