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HBO PPV Recap

Number One/Numero Uno

Floyd Mayweather, Jr. vs. Juan Manuel Marquez

 

September 19, 2009

MGM Grand-Las Vegas, Nevada

 

 

 

This event has drawn 13,116 fans, which is just shy of a sellout.
 

 

 

1. WBO NABO Featherweight (126 pounds) 10-Round Championship Match:

Cornelius Lock (18-4-1, 11 KO's, 125 pounds) vs. Orlando Cruz (16-0-1, 7 KO's, 126 pounds)

 

 

This title is currently vacant. It was last held by Yuriorkis Gamboa who vacated the belt, because it is a relatively meaningless trinket.

 

This match was added to the televised portion of the card at the last minute. It had been scheduled for the untelevised undercard portion of this card. That means both boxers have had adequate time to prepare for the match. The opening match on this card was supposed to be Zab Judah vs. Antonio Diaz in a 144-pound catch-weight match. Then for a reason that has yet to come out publicly, Judah pulled out of the match 2 weeks before the pay-per-view. Based on the comments coming out of Golden Boy Promotions, who is promoting this event, whatever excuse Judah gave when pulling out of this event it was very weak. Golden Boy Promotions tried to get Diaz a replacement opponent to keep him on the card and not punish him for Judah being unreliable. Unfortunately, an opponent could not be found for Diaz on short notice. Golden Boy Promotions then tried to add a completely new match to the PPV, because they wanted to have 4 quality matches on the PPV. Unable to put together a high quality match on 2 weeks notice they considered going with a 3-match televised card to make sure they only aired quality matches. In the end, they decided to add this match to the card, because Lock is a friend of Floyd Mayweather, Jr.'s. To say the people at Golden Boy Promotions are unhappy with Judah would be an understatement. The fact that Judah flaked out on this PPV match after pulling out of a scheduled PPV main event with Golden Boy Promotions partner Shane Mosley without telling them is not making the Brooklyn, New York native any friends at one of the most powerful boxing promotions in the world.

 

As noted, Lock is on the televised portion of this card, because he is one of Mayweather's friends. In fact, Lock is signed to the somewhat fictitious Mayweather Promotions. (Mayweather Promotions is not a licensed promoter in Nevada, making it a promotional company in name only.) The other connection to Mayweather is that they are both from Michigan.

 

Lock was completely dominated in losing his last match via 10-round unanimous decision to Antonio Escalante on July 24, 2009 at the Don Haskins Center in El Paso, Texas. The Detroit, Michigan native was knocked down twice in the match and lost every round of the match on 2 of the official judges' scorecards. That is Lock's only loss via decision. Lock's first loss came via round 3 technical knockout in his pro debut to Mark McQueen on June 30, 2000 in Southfield, Michigan. The second loss came via technical knockout at 2:59 of round 8 to Cristobal Cruz on October 29, 2004 at the Orleans Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. Lock's last knockout loss was a technical knockout loss at 1:05 of round to Mario Santiago on October 21, 2005 at the Chumash Casino in Santa Ynez, California. (Showtime ran a ShoBox event from the Chumash Casino last night. Tony Grano knocked out Travis Kaufman in the main event, then excitedly announced in his post-match interview that he had bought tickets to this PPV and was on his way to the show. However, Grano will not be so gleeful after sitting in the traffic from Southern California to Las Vegas on a Friday night.)

 

Lock is unranked by The Ring, and ranked by boxrec.com as the number 50 boxer in the world at 126 pounds.

 

Cruz had a very good amateur boxing career that peaked when he represented his native Puerto Rico in the 119 pound division at 2000 Sydney Summer Olympics. He then turned pro with a round 1 knockout of Alfredo Valdez on December 15, 2000 in Carolina, Puerto Rico. He has had regular periods of inactivity, since that match.

 

As a professional boxer, Cruz has compiled his impressive record against very limited opposition. Boxers at the lighter weight classes are expected to advance much faster then boxers at the heavier weight classes, because so much of their success depends on speed. That is the first thing that goes away as a boxer ages. Heavier weight boxers can overcome that with power and veteran savvy. Lighter weight boxers can only try and get by with veteran savvy. That is usually not good enough. 

 

Cruz' last match was a knockout 45 seconds into round 5 over Leonilo Miranda on January 16, 2009 at the Million Dollar Elm Casino in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

 

Cruz is unranked by The Ring magazine, and ranked by boxrec.com as the number 15 boxer in the world at 126 pounds.

 

At 28-years old, Cruz is 2 years younger then the 30-year-old Lock. Lock has the height advantage standing 5' 7" tall, while Cruz stands 5' 4" tall. The Detroit native has the reach advantage with 23.5" arm length measured from the armpit to the end of the fist, compared to Cruz' 21.5" arm length. Cruz will be the heavier boxer in the ring having unofficially rehydrated to 135 pounds approaching match time. Lock has only unofficially rehydrated to 129 pounds approaching match time. Both boxers will employ the southpaw stance.

 

The unified rules of boxing are in effect for this event. All of the official judges keeping score of this match from ringside are from Nevada. The referee is Robert Byrd. Harold Lederman will be keeping the unofficial scorecard of this event for HBO PPV.

 

Before this match begins there is a 10-bell salute to honor long-time boxing judge Bill Graham, Nevada timekeeper Mike Lacella and Main Events Promotions executive Dennis Dueltgen.

 

Cruz was winning round 1, until he was hit with a counter right hook followed by 2 left hooks that put him on the canvas with 39 seconds to go in the round. The Puerto Rican easily answers the referee's count and is allowed to continue with 27 seconds to go in round 1. Cruz is forced to hold to make it out of round 1 without being knocked down, again. Lock wins round 1 huge on everyone's scorecard, 10-8. The officials are very slow to clear the ring following the break between rounds 1 and 2. That means round 2 will only be 2:50 long. Cruz' more accurate punching wins a close round 2, 10-9. Lederman scores round 2 for the busier Lock, 10-9. With 2:04 to go in round 3, a quick right hook lands solidly on Cruz' cup. Cruz turned around and was looking for timeout. The referee thought Cruz was embellishing the severity of the foul and ordered him to resume boxing without a break. Cruz was solidly winning round 3, until he got hit with another series of power punches in the final minute of the round. Luckily, this time the Puerto Rican did not get knocked down, which made the round close. However, Lock wins round 3 based on effective punching, 10-9, and leads on my scorecard after 3 rounds, 29-27. Through 3 rounds, Cruz has landed 44 of the 100 total punches he has thrown, for a 44% total connect percentage. Cruz' connect percentage is great, but his work rate is abysmal. Averaging roughly 33 total punches thrown per round is well below the heavyweight average. At 126 pounds, that is well under half of the number of total punches a normal boxer in the weight class throws per round. In the first 3 rounds, Lock has landed 35 of the 169 total punches he has thrown, for a 21% total connect percentage. The 169 total punches thrown by Lock through the first 3 rounds is also below the division average. Lederman scored round 3 for Lock, 10-9, and has the Detroit native ahead after 3 rounds, 30-26.

 

Cruz does some outstanding body work to win round 4, 10-9. Lederman scores round 4 for Cruz, 10-9. With 1:04 to go in round 5, Cruz collapses to the canvas after being hit on the jaw with a monstrous right hook. Based on the stunned look in the Puerto Rican's eyes when he went down, Cruz is probably not getting up from this knockdown. Cruz stood at the referee's count of 8. However, the referee saw the vacant look in Cruz' eyes and waved off the match. Lock wins by technical knockout. That is a good stoppage.

 

The official outcome courtesy of the legendary Michael Buffer is that: at 2:08 of round 5 the winner by technical knockout and new WBO NABO Featherweight Champion, Cornelius "Lightning" Lock. This win moves Lock to 19-4-1 with now 12 wins coming by way of knockout.

 

The final CompuBox numbers have Lock landing 53 of the 239 total punches he threw, for a 22% total connect percentage. The new champion landed 44 of the 141 power punches he threw, for a 31% power connect percentage. Cruz landed 72 of the 171 total punches he threw, for a very good 42% total connect percentage. The Puerto Rican landed 62 of the 112 power punches he threw, for a phenomenal 55% power connect percentage. Seeing a boxer land over 50% of their power punches and lose is like finding a 4-leaf clover it is so rare.

 

This was not a PPV quality match as far as the skill of the boxers involved go, but Lock made it entertaining. Lock is poor defensively, as demonstrated by Cruz' ridiculously high connect percentage. He also does not have a lot of power, but Cruz never saw a lot of Lock's punches coming. That allowed Lock's punches to do a lot of damage and make the Detroit native appear to have world class punching power. The only reason Lock appeared to be so busy in this match, was because Cruz was so lethargic. Against an actual top level 126-pounder, Lock would likely be in for a very bad night. However, ESPN has committed to televising numerous cards produced by Golden Boy Promotions every year. Golden Boy Promotions can probably heavily protect Lock on those shows and through smoke and mirrors on those shows land Lock a title shot.

 

Cruz appears to have more raw potential then Lock, but appears to have not been trained very well. The Puerto Rican kept Lock to a low connect percentage. However, that is deceiving. In reality, Cruz is abysmal defensively. He constantly gets off balance throwing his punches. That allowed Lock to land punches the Puerto Rican never saw. Working at such a slow pace, Cruz is not going to win any decisions against top competition in the weight class. Cruz needs to start from scratch with a new trainer if he is going to make an impact in the 126-pound division at any point in his career,

 

 

 

2. Interim WBO Lightweight (135 pounds) 12-Round Championship Match:

Michael Katsidis (25-2, 21 KO's, 135 pounds) vs. Vicente Escobedo (21-1, 13 KO's, 134 pounds)

 

 

The interim version of this title is being created in this match. That is because Juan Manuel Marquez holds the full version of this title may never be competing at 135 pounds, again.

 

Katsidis had a strong amateur boxing career that culminated when he represented Australia, the host nation, in the 132-pound division at the 2000 Sydney Summer Olympiad.

 

The Australian is probably Golden Boy Promotions most exciting young prospect. (That should not be confused with best.) Katsidis never has bad matches, only matches that very from good to great. The Australian has been called "The Next Action Hero". That is not a great moniker, because he is a lot more entertaining then Governor Schwarzenegger's movie The Last Action Hero. Katsidis has also been called the "New Arturo Gatti" as an all-action boxer that is not elite, but always exciting. (That moniker may be rather accurate, but no longer flattering.) Katsidis seems to bleed in every match and have no regard for defense. Whatever the proper moniker, whenever Katsidis is boxing, people should go out of their way to watch.

 

Katsidis' last high profile match was an odd split decision loss to Juan Diaz on September 6, 2008 at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. It may be the case for why boxers should not have complete fear of getting terrible judging against them when they head to Texas. Katsidis did what he supposed to do in that match. He was not there to win, but lose an entertaining match with Diaz, who was coming off the first loss of his career. Uncharacteristically, Katsidis started slow, boxing a very technical match. In round 1, Katsidis threw 28 jabs, a CompuBox record for him. Max Kellerman, who was doing color commentary of the show for HBO, joked after round 1 that maybe Katsidis was waiting to see blood to get going. Then less then 1 minute into round 2, following an accidental clash of heads crimson began to flow from above Katsidis left eye. The cut was under Katsidis eye brow and the plasma was flowing down around his eye disrupting the Australian's vision. As if on cue, once the blood began to flow, the pace of the match increased. From round 2 on, Diaz and Katsidis brawled. They could have contested the match in 5' x 5' ring. In round 7, Katsidis was again cut. This time the Australian was cut near his bottom lip. His face was now a complete mess, but he was insistent on the match being an inside brawl. At the start of round 10, the referee had the doctor check to see if the match needed to be stopped due to the myriad of cuts on Katsidis face. The doctor ruled Katsidis fit to continue and Katsidis came back with one of his best rounds of the match. After round 10, Katsidis right eye was nearly swollen shut, but he would not take a step back in this brawl. Katsidis ended up only losing: 115-113, 112-116, 113-115. The judge who had Katsidis winning gave him rounds 8-12 and that may have been on guts alone. A full recap of that match and a link to Katsidis vs. Joel Casamayor which was one of the best matches of 2008 can be found here: http://www.number1contender.net/the-latest/2009/3/11/recap-of-juan-diaz-vs-michael-katsidis.html

 

Katsidis' last match went into the official record books as a technical knockout victory at 10 seconds of round 8 over Jesus Chavez on April 4, 2009 at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas. In reality, Chavez quit on his stool after round 7, unable to handle Katsidis relentless pressure. That should have given Katsidis a technical knockout victory at 3:00 of round 7.

 

Katsidis is The Ring's number 4 contender at 135 pounds to their champion in the weight class, Juan Manuel Marquez.

 

Escobedo had a very good amateur boxing career that culminated when he represented the United States in the 132 pound division at 2004 Athens Summer Olympics. The American turned pro after the Olympics knocking out Abraham Verdugo at 1:05 of round 2 in a scheduled 6-rounder on February 19, 2005 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. That is unusual, because most boxers make their pro debuts in 4-round matches. The fact Escobedo made his pro debut in a scheduled 6-round match shows how highly he was thought of coming out of the Olympics.

 

However, Escobedo has faced very limited opposition in the last few years. Up until recently, the 135-pound division had been one of the deepest in boxing with a plethora of big name opponents to face. Unfortunately, Escobedo has not faced any of them. As Escobedo increased the number of rounds he was boxing, the American continued to face low level opponents. This is Escobedo's highest profile match of his career, first scheduled 12-rounder and against the best opponent he has ever faced by a wide margin. That is usually a bad combination.

 

Escobedo's last match was a technical knockout victory 1:53 seconds into round 2 over Kevin Kelley on May 21, 2009 at Arco Arena in Sacramento, California. Kelley had an impressive 60-9-2 record entering the match. However, 3 of those 9 losses had come in his 5 matches prior to facing Escobedo. That shows a career on a sharp decline.

 

Escobedo is unranked by The Ring, and ranked by boxrec.com as the number 17 boxer in the world at 135 pounds.

 

At 27-years old, Escobedo is 2 years younger then the 29-year-old Katsidis. Escobedo has the height advantage standing 5' 8" tall, while Katsidis stands 5' 7.5" tall. Both boxers have a 23" arm length. Katsidis will be the heavier boxer in the ring having unofficially rehydrated to 142 pounds approaching match time. Escobedo has only unofficially rehydrated to 139 pounds approaching match time. Both boxers will employ the orthodox stance

 

Two of the judges keeping official score of this match from ringside are from Nevada and the other is from Wisconsin. The referee is Russell Mora.

 

With around 1:00 to go in round 1, Katsidis is already cut over his left eye. Katsidis is similar to Ricky Hatton and other prolific bleeders throughout the history of boxing in that they have shed so much blood in the ring that cuts no longer effect him. Katsidis lands numerous power punches to win round 1, 10-9. The Australian appears intent on stealing the show, once again. Escobedo tried to start round 1 by jabbing, but Katsidis quickly lured him into exchanging power punches. A close-up in the corner after round 1 shows Katsidis cut could be trouble for a normal boxer. It is in the eyebrow line above the outside of his left eye and appears to be bleeding into the eye. If it is not closed, it will effect Katsidis' vision. However, as noted Katsidis has been in this situation many times before and knows how to deal with it even if it keeps bleeding. Katsidis wins round 1 on Lederman's scorecard, 10-9. Katsidis uses his superior physicality to complete dominate Escobedo in winning round 2, 10-9. Escobedo looks visibly concerned in the ring. The American has no idea how to deal with this bully from Australia. Katsidis is winning this match easily, yet after round 2 a close-up in the corner reveals Katsidis has a new mark under his left eye. On the bright side, the cut above his left eye has stopped bleeding. Katsidis is going to be spending another night after a match in the hospital. Lederman scores round 2 for the Australian, 10-9. Emmanuel Steward and Max Kellerman, who are the color commentators for this event, spend round 3 having a discussion of Katsidis' greatness. Kellerman believe Katsidis may become a legend, while Steward believes Katsidis does not hit that hard. Jim Lampley, who is doing play-by-play of this event, is taking the Kellerman side. It appears Escobedo thinks Katsidis hits hard. Katsidis apparently hard punches win round 3, 10-9, and Katsidis leads on my scorecard after 3 rounds, 30-27. Through 3 rounds, Katsidis has landed 76 of the 183 total punches he has thrown, for a 42% total connect percentage. Escobedo has landed 68 of the 197 total punches he has thrown, for a 35% total connect percentage. Katsidis takes round 3 on Lederman's scorecard, 10-9, and leads on the Lederman scorecard after 3 rounds, 30-27.

 

Katsidis shows some much improved defense in winning round 4, 10-9. Unless, Katsidis makes a silly mistake, which he is prone to do, the Australian is going to stop Escobedo before the end of round 10. Katsidis has hit Escobedo with so many power punches he may score a legitimate knockout. There is also a strong chance Katsidis' physicality will break Escobedo spirit, forcing the boxer or his corner to stop the match. Lederman scores round 4 for Escobedo, 10-9. Katsidis lands a lot of good body punches to win round 5, 10-9. The Australian wins round 5 on Lederman's scorecard, 10-9. Round 6 was boxed at a much slower pace, until Katsidis pushed the pace in the last minute. That solid last minute of action from Katsidis wins the Australian round 6, and has him ahead on my scorecard after 6 rounds, 60-54. Lederman scores round 6 for Katsidis, 10-9, and the Australian leads on his scorecard after 6 rounds, 59-55.

 

Round 7 is close and Escobedo may have won it by appearing to be a little more active, 10-9. Katsidis landed the harder punches to win round 7 on Lederman's scorecard, 10-9. Katsidis wins round 8 in dominating fashion on Lederman and my scorecard, 10-9. In the opening minute of round 8, Katsidis landed some of the hardest punches he has landed in the entire match. Escobedo, who had regained his composure several rounds ago, once again looked concerned. The American spent the next 1 minute retreating and not punching as Katsidis relentlessly came towards him. Escobedo is being trained by the great Nacho Beristain, who will be cornering Juan Manuel Marquez later tonight. Beristain alertly saw that Escobedo is beginning to crack under Katsidis constant pressure. The trainer immediately asked Escobedo if the boxer wanted the match stopped when he reached the corner after round 8. However, the boxer said he wanted to continue. Beristain is probably only going to give his charge one more round to do something offensively in this match before he stops it. A left hook catches Escobedo low, and the referee calls timeout for the American to recover with 2:32 to go in round 9. It did not appear to be a significant foul, but Escobedo seems glad to get the break. Escobedo only takes about 15 seconds to recover, and then the action is resumed. Katsidis overwhelms Escobedo with pressure and power punching to win round 9 handily, 10-9, and leads on my scorecard after 9 rounds, 89-82. Lederman scores round 9 for Katsidis, 10-9, and also has Katsidis ahead after 9 rounds by the score of 89-82.

 

Katsidis completely out-classes Escobedo in winning round 10, 10-9. This has become a rather lackluster match, because Escobedo is unable to muster any resistance against Katsidis. Escobedo clearly needs a knockout at this point, but faced with Katsidis overwhelming pressure is only running and holding. Lederman scores round 10 for Escobedo, 10-9. Katsidis continues to physically dominate Escobedo on the way to winning round 11, 10-9. The Australian has dominated this match from the opening bell and entering the final round his face is a mess. There is severe swelling underneath both of Katsidis' eyes and there is some severe swelling on Katsidis right cheek. It is possible Katsidis broke his jaw several rounds ago. Katsidis wins round 11 on Lederman's scorecard, 10-9. With around 1:30 to go in round 12, a left hand cuts Escobedo near his right eye. At this point in the match that cut is irrelevant. Katsidis could have boxed round 12 defensively sitting on his comfortable lead, but that is not his style. Instead, Katsidis boxes as aggressively as ever winning round 12, 10-9, and the match on my scorecard, 119-109. For Katsidis to box aggressively in round 12 took a superhuman effort. His cheek began to balloon in round 12. The boxer's jaw is definitely broken and the Australian must be in extreme pain. However, Katsidis never took a step back in round 12. Escobedo landed a few hard punches at the end of round 12 when Katsidis got sloppy defensively to win the round on Lederman's scorecard, 10-9, but Katsidis wins the match on the Lederman scorecard, 117-111.

 

The official outcome courtesy of Michael Buffer is that the judges have scored this match: 116-112 for Escobedo, 115-113 for Katsidis, 118-110 for the winner by split decision and new Interim WBO Lightweight Champion of the World, Michael "The Great" Katsidis. The win moves Katsidis to 26-2 with 21 wins coming by way of knockout.

 

The final CompuBox numbers have Katsidis landing 336 of the 889 total punches he threw, for a 38% total connect percentage. Katsidis landed 278 of the 644 power punches he threw, for a 43% power connect percentage. Escobedo landed 295 of 900 total punches he threw, for a 33% total connect percentage. The American landed 193 of the 472 power punches he threw, for a 41% power connect percentage.

 

Katsidis was outstanding in this match. His defense has improved substantially over the last few years, but he is still entertaining. The Australian's size and aggression are going to give lesser boxers lots of problems. Any Katsidis match is must see TV. The only reason this match was not as entertaining as the usual Katsidis matches, was because he was so superior to Escobedo that the American could only run and hold to survive. This win makes Katsidis the mandatory contender to Marquez should Marquez return to the 135-pound division. Unfortunately, that is a terrible match-up for the Australian. Katsidis' style of constantly pressuring his opponents will have him walking into counter punches from Marquez the entire match and eventually getting knocked out. However, Katsidis is going to be out of action for a long time recovering from the injuries he sustained in this match. Should he get to come back against an opponent of his choosing there are numerous boxers in the 135-pound division that he can have very entertaining matches with in the semi-main events on HBO World Championship Boxing cards. As for the scoring, for the people who saw the Juan Diaz-Paulie Malignaggi match but did not see this match, and the 118-110 scorecard for Diaz was not as bad as the 116-112 scorecard for Escobedo. In that match, Diaz could have generously won the match 116-112. That meant the judge made up 2 rounds to give Diaz. At best, Escobedo lost this match 115-113. For him to get a 116-112 scorecard in his favor, a judge had to make up 3 rounds to give Escobedo. Therefore, it is a worse scorecard then the 118-110 scorecard in the Diaz-Malignaggi match. This scorecard was turned in by the inexperienced judge from Wisconsin. The 2 experienced judges from Nevada had Katsidis winning. The commentators noted that it is unlikely Keith Kizer is going to be bringing the Wisconsin judge back to Nevada any time soon. 

 

Beristain, Escobedo's own trainer, knew the American lost this match badly. That was partially why the trainer offered to stop the match. Escobedo appears to be too small for this weight class. He was pushed around and bullied with ease by Katsidis. It is a credit to Escobedo that he was not mentally broken by the relentless pressure from Katsidis. Many boxers would have quit facing the beating he took in the ring. The commentators pointed out that many boxers would have been mentally broken by the non-stop aggression of Katsidis in the first 3 rounds. To stop Escobedo from being bullied like this again at 135 pounds, Escobedo is going to have to add muscle and learn to brawl. However, that is probably not the best strategy for him. Escobedo's success in boxing is based on speed. If he adds muscle he will give up some of that speed. Even then, at the higher levels a brawl would likely favor Escobedo's opponents who would have more experience boxing on the inside. At 130 pounds, Escobedo would have enough power to dictate the distance he wants the match to be contested at and not get manhandled, again.
 

 

 

3. WBA "Super" World Featherweight (126 pounds) 12-Round Championship Match:

Chris John (42-0-2, 22 KO's, 126 pounds) (c) vs. Rocky Juarez (28-4-1, 20 KO's, 126 pounds) II

 

 

John won the vacant interim version of this title via 12-round unanimous decision over Oscar Leon on September 26, 2003 at the Kartika Plaza Hotel in Kuta, Indonesia. The belt was rapidly upgraded to a full WBA Championship and this is the first time it will be defended as a "Super" World Championship. However, by rule it should not be a "Super" World Championship. According to the WBA, a championship becomes a "Super" Championship when it is unified with one of the other 3 major sanctioned championships (IBF, WBC, WBO) in the weight class. This belt has never been unified with any of those other titles.  Therefore, it should not be a "Super" World Championship. The thing is that when the WBA creates a "Super" World Championship, by rule the WBA must create a "Regular" Championship in the weight class. A regular championship is the equivalent of the old ROH Number 1 Contender's Trophy. The "Regular" Champion is not the true champion, but the mandatory contender to the "Super" Champion. The big difference is that the WBA gets to collect sanctioning fees for all defenses of the "Regular" Championship. In reality, the bowling trophy with AJ Styles on top was a lot better, because wrestlers did not have to pay to have it and it meant the same thing. John is making his twelfth defense of some form of this title.

 

When Katsidis-Diaz can be pointed to as an example of a foreign boxer getting fair judging in Texas, John-Juarez I can be pointed to as a foreign boxer facing completely biased judging in Texas. John appeared to completely dominate the match, but the outcome was a seemingly inexplicable unanimous draw as all of the judges officially scored the match, 114-114. Punchstat numbers can sometimes be deceiving of what is happening in the ring, but in that match they were not. John landed 344 of the 1,190 total punches he threw, for a 29% total connect percentage. Juarez landed 209 of the 797 total punches he threw, for a 26% total connect percentage. John threw more punches, landed more punches and connected at a higher percentage. John threw and landed more punches then Juarez in every round of the match. If the judges were trying to score the match based on damage, John dominated there, too. John was landing hard power punches that had Juarez' left eye beginning to close by the end of round 3. With 1:13 to go in round 5, Juarez was hit with a straight right hand that cut him badly over the left eye. After round 5, Juarez also had a cut under his left eye from taking so many hard right hands from the champion. With over 1 minute to go in round 9, another cut had been opened up on the bridge of Juarez' nose. John was getting stronger as the match wore on and threw over 100 punches in round 7-11. This should have been a blowout on the scorecards, but it was still an exciting match. A full recap of that match can be found here: http://www.number1contender.net/the-latest/2009/9/17/recap-of-chris-john-vs-rocky-juarez-i.html

 

This rematch was originally scheduled for June 27 on the undercard of the HBO Boxing After Dark event from the Staples Center that featured Marcos Maidana knocking out Victor Ortiz to claim a vacant interim 140-pound belt. However, John had to pull out on June 21 due to an undisclosed blood disorder that was preventing him from training. On June 20, after 3 rounds of sparring John fainted.  The boxer was taken to the doctor and given blood tests, which showed something wrong. It was nothing serious as John had passed his blood test issued by the California State Athletic Commission for infectious diseases like hepatitis or HIV 2 weeks earlier. The mysterious blood disease John suffered that caused him to pull out of the match is believed to be something along the lines of anemia. However, the actual ailment that caused John to pull out of the match has never become public.

 

John is The Ring's number 1 contender to their vacant championship at 126 pounds.

 

Juarez had an outstanding amateur boxing career that culminated when he took home the silver medal in the 125-pound weight class for the United States at the 2000 Sydney Summer Olympics.

 

The American was offered the opportunity to stay on the June 27 card against a different opponent. Juarez vs. John was expected to draw several thousand extra people to the Staples Center to help out Ortiz in his first main event. Therefore, Golden Boy Promotions scrambled to find a new opponent for Juarez that HBO would accept, and they did. Mario Santiago agreed to face Juarez on less then 6 days notice for the chance to appear on HBO. However, in a move that made a lot of people at Golden Boy Promotions and HBO unhappy, Juarez turned down the match. Santiago boxes out of the southpaw stance, while John boxes out of the orthodox stance. Juarez said he could not adjust to a boxer who used the southpaw stance that quickly. That decision means Juarez needs to win this match or he may have difficulty getting matches on HBO in the future.

 

Juarez is The Ring's number 4 contender at 126 pounds.

 

At 29-years old, Juarez is 1 year younger then the 30-year-old John. John has the height advantage standing 5' 7.5" tall, while Juarez stands 5' 5" tall. The champion has the reach advantage with a 22.5" arm length, compared to the 22" arm length of the challenger. John will be the heavier boxer in the ring having unofficially rehydrated to 135 pounds approaching match time. Juarez has only unofficially rehydrated to 134 pounds approaching match time. Both boxers will employ the orthodox stance.

 

Two of the official judges keeping score of this match from ringside are from Nevada and the other is from Washington. The referee is Joe Cortez.

 

The busier and more active John wins round 1, 10-9. This looks like round 13 of John-Juarez I. The match is following all of the same patterns that had John seeming to win in a blowout. Lederman scores round 1 for John, 10-9. According to CompuBox in round 1, John landed 12 of the 56 total punches he threw. According to CompuBox in round 1, Juarez landed only 5 of the 52 total punches he threw. In round 2, Kellerman points out that John has "Gatti" written on the back of his trunks in honor of the late boxer. That is ironic, because John boxes nothing like the legendary brawler. John is too hard for Juarez to hit in winning round 2, 10-9. The Indonesian also wins round 2 on Lederman's scorecard, 10-9. John out-works and out-lands Juarez to win round 3, 10-9, and the Indonesian leads on my scorecard after 3 rounds, 30-27. Juarez landed 1 good power punch in the last minute of round 3 to take the round on Lederman's scorecard, 10-9, but John leads on the Lederman scorecard after 3 rounds, 29-28.

 

With around 1:15 to go in round 4, Juarez' left eye is beginning to swell shut. It does not appear to be a problem for the American, yet. Round 4 is John's best of the match and he wins it easily on Lederman and my scorecard, 10-9. In round 4, not only was John the busier and more effective boxer, but he landed numerous power punches. It appears obvious that John is in a different class then Juarez. According to CompuBox in round 4, John out-landed Juarez 25-to-5. John puts on a boxing clinic on his way to winning round 5, 10-9. Lederman scores round 5 for John, 10-9. Juarez had a better round 6 boxing on the inside and probably won it, 10-9. However, John leads on my scorecard after 6 rounds, 59-55. John wins round 6 on Lederman's scorecard, 10-9, and is ahead in the match after 6 rounds on Lederman's scorecard, 59-55.

 

John wins round 7 the same way he has won all the previous rounds, 10-9. Lederman scores round 7 for John, 10-9. According to CompuBox through the first 7 rounds, Juarez is averaging 8 total punches landed per round. That is putrid. John wins round 8 on Lederman and my scorecard, 10-9. The Indonesian is boxing even better then he did in apparently dominating Juarez the first time. John is showing more punching power, and has not sacrificed any of his superb defensive skills to do it. Round 9 is more of the same and John wins it on Lederman and my scorecard, 10-9, and leads on both of our scorecards after 9 rounds, 89-82. On the official scorecards, John may have won every round. Both the round Lederman scored for Juarez and I scored for Juarez, were somewhat out of pity. John has turned this match into such a route that the HBO commentators have been discussing the main event during the action of the last 3 rounds. In round 9, Lampley told viewers that the undercard matches are running long and this match is boring. That meant they will not have a break to discuss the main event between matches. Instead, they are going to ignore the minimal action likely to takes place in rounds 10-12 and discuss Mayweather vs. Marquez.

 

Wash, rinse and repeat. John wins round 10 on everyone's scorecard, 10-9. John's left eye is beginning to swell as the bell sounds to end round 10. It should not be a factor in the match, even if it swells closed. John appears to be so phenomenal defensively that he could box the last 2 rounds with both eyes swollen shut and Juarez would still be unable to hit him. In round 10, John landed 23 of the 79 total punches he threw, for a 29% total connect percentage. In round 10, Juarez only landed 8 of the 51 total punches he threw, for a 16% total connect percentage. It is unfathomable that these 2 boxers went to an unanimous decision draw 7 months ago based on watching this match. There is a delay starting round 11. The referee called timeout 4 seconds into the start of the round when he saw John come to the center of the ring with the left side of his face covered in Vaseline. There was a 10 second delay where John was sent back to his corner and the grease was removed. Juarez landed a few good power punches to possibly win round 11, 10-9. Still, Juarez clearly needs a knockout to win in the final round. Lederman also scored round 11 for Juarez, 10-9. To start round 12, John's left eye is almost completely swollen shut. It is unlikely the champion has any vision out of his left eye. That is unlikely to matter in the remaining 3:00 of this contest. Actually, it mattered. Juarez had John badly hurt in the final seconds of round 12, but the Indonesian was saved from a knockdown by the bell. Juarez wins round 12 huge. That is a borderline, 10-8, round without a knockdown. However, it will probably only go to Juarez, 10-9, and that means John wins the match on my scorecard, 117-111. Lederman scored round 12 for Juarez, 10-9, but has John winning the match on his scorecard, 117-111.

 

The official decision courtesy of Michael Buffer is that the judges have scored this match: 114-113, 119-109, 117-111, all for the winner by unanimous decision and still WBA "Super" World Featherweight Champion, Chris "The Dragon" John. The win moves John to 43-0-2 with 22 wins coming by way of knockout.

 

The final punchstat numbers have John landing 274 of the 953 total punches he threw, for a 29% total connect percentage. That is a new CompuBox record for the most total punches landed on Juarez in a mach. John landed 189 of the 549 power punches he threw, for a 34% power connect percentage. Juarez landed only 119 of the 598 total punches he threw, for a 20% total connect percentage. That works out to less then 10 total punches landed per round. That is wretched. Juarez only landed 74 of the 328 power punches he threw, for a 23% power connect percentage.

 

John completely out-classed Juarez in this match. Had John's eye not been swollen shut, the champion probably does not get badly hurt in the last round and arguably could have won every round of the match. The fact one judge had John only winning by the score of 114-113 is bizarre. This match was competitive for literally less then 30 seconds, and that was at the end of round 12. At no other point in this match did it appear that John was in anything, but complete control. John deserves significant consideration to be listed on the top 10 pound-for-pound list, especially since he has a win against Juan Manuel Marquez. (That may have been a hometown decision, though.) There are a lot of good boxers in the 126-pound division for him to face coming off of 2 impressive matches against Juarez. If John wants to be on the pound-for-pound list, The Ring's number 4 ranked boxer in the world, pound-for-pound, Israel Vazquez is returning to action at 126 pounds. That would be a good place for both of them to start. A win over Vazquez would solidify John as an elite boxer, pound-for-pound. For Vazquez, a win over John vaults him to the top of the 126-pound division. Another key consideration is that Vazquez has already taken a dangerous amount of damage in the ring, especially in his last 3 matches with Rafael Marquez, Juan Manuel Marquez' younger brother. John does not possess enough power to do significant damage to Vazquez, who should be protected at this point in not only his boxing career, but his life if he is going to be healthy as he grows old.

 

Juarez was terrible in this match. His workrate was poor. The only real success Juarez had in the match came when John was half-blind. This was probably Juarez' last shot at a title. He had been a mainstay on HBO events, but the American may have burned that bridge with his refusal to face a replacement opponent on June 27. Also, his awful performance in this match is not something that is going to incline the network to give him airtime, again. Juarez is probably going to main event ESPN shows for a lot less money for a long time after this. However, his days as a big money boxer are over.

 

 

 

4. Welterweight (147 pounds) 12-Round Match:

Floyd Mayweather, Jr. (39-0, 25 KO's, 146 pounds) vs. Juan Manuel Marquez (50-4-1, 37 KO's, 142 pounds)

 

 

This match was supposed to be for the newly created WBC "Diamond" Championship. That is a new type of title being made up for this event. This match was originally scheduled to be held at a catch-weight of 144 pounds. With all of Marquez' titles at 135 pounds and Mayweather having vacated his 147-pound titles to "retire" this match by default would have been a non-title match. Therefore, the WBC created a new type of title to get a sanctioning fee for the match.  This new "Diamond" Championship is independent of weight classes. That makes it nearly impossible to vacate. That means the WBC can collect sanctioning fees for this belt indefinitely. However at some point this stopped being for a "Diamond" Championship. Luckily, another WBC "Diamond" Championship belt is being sanctioned for the upcoming Manny Pacquiao-Miguel Cotto match. In a sport filled with meaningless belts, this may be the most meaningless title. It has all the prestige of the TNA Legends Championship when Booker T gave the title to himself.

 

The reason this match is now at 147 pounds is because Mayweather came in over weight. That would be the first time in the boxer's career. Mayweather informed Marquez' camp the Las Vegas resident was probably not going to make weight on Wednesday Therefore, the sides agreed to a new catch-weight limit of 147 pounds, the usual welterweight limit. However, that contract kept a provision from the original contract where Mayweather had to pay Marquez $300,000 for every pound he was over 144 pounds. Mayweather must have had a really good reason to not try and lose those extra 2 pounds to forfeit $600,000 of his purse. The boxer did not look drained at the weigh-ins, but Mayweather was drinking Gatorade within minutes of getting off the scales. Also, it is a good thing Mayweather informed Marquez' people on Wednesday he was going to miss weight. Otherwise, Mayweather would have been fined by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. Based on Mayweather's purse, that fine would have been $1 million. The NSAC is still not happy with Mayweather, because he was late turning in his signed contract for this match. He was supposed to turn it in on Wednesday. Mayweather then told them he would turn it in late on Thursday. The boxer ended up turning in his contract on Friday, only a few minutes before the official weigh-ins.

 

Mayweather was a stellar amateur boxer, whose career peaked when he took home a bronze medal for the United States in the 125-pound division at the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics.

 

Mayweather's last match was a technical knockout victory 1:35 seconds into round 10 over Ricky Hatton on December 8, 2007 at the MGM Grand. It was the first defeat of Hatton's professional career, in fact the event had been titled "Undefeated" as it saw 2 undefeated boxers facing off to determine who was the undisputed number 1 boxer in the world, pound-for-pound. That night, the constant aggression from Hatton pushed Mayweather to have the best performance he had ever had in a boxing ring. Mayweather has a reputation as a boring counterpuncher. That night, he was an exciting showman that left people wanting to see more. With 1:58 to go in round 10, Mayweather landed a left hook that sent Hatton face first into the turn buckle pad and tumbling to the ground. Hatton got up from that knockdown, but was nearly done. With 1:30 to go in round 10, Mayweather pinned Hatton against the ropes and another left hook dropped the Englishman as the referee was moving in to stop the match. It was voted the match of the year in a poll on ESPN.com. (In reality, it was not even close to the match of the year.) A full recap of that match can be found here: http://www.number1contender.net/the-latest/2008/11/23/recap-of-ricky-hatton-vs-floyd-mayweather-jr.html

 

After the match with Hatton, Mayweather announced in the ring that he was going to retire or at least not box again in 2008 or 2009. Mayweather had made a similar announcement about retiring after he beat Oscar De La Hoya in May, and signed to face Hatton less then 6 weeks later. After beating Hatton, Mayweather agreed to a rematch with a De La Hoya in September 2008 a few months after this retirement announcement. De La Hoya announced Floyd Mayweather, Sr. would train him for the rematch and with training camp and shooting for that 24/7 show to begin, Mayweather announced his retirement again canceling the September match with De La Hoya. Had Mayweather actually retired, the he would have joined NFL Hall of Famer Jim Brown as the only modern athlete to walk away as the undisputed best in their sport in their prime. (Barry Sanders was not the undisputed best in his sport when he walked away in his prime.)

 

While Mayweather has been away from the ring, his life has been anything but boring. He had his notable appearance wrestling Big Show at WrestleMania XXIV and produced a great match. Based on star ratings, both Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer only rated Undertaker as having better one-on-one PPV matches with Big Show in the months following Show's return to WWE. The Big Show-Mayweather match received several votes for the best match at WrestleMania in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter poll following the PPV. According to Alvarez, in the building, there was no bigger heel to the live crowd then Mayweather. Mayweather was able to work much of the boxing and mainstream media into believing that he received $20 million for his stint in WWE. That made the media think, any risk he took of getting hurt in the wrestling ring was more then worth it, and that this was not beneath him. In reality, Mayweather received something closer to $2 million for his appearance in WWE and after advertising WWE spent $5 million to bring Mayweather in to work WrestleMania. That made the event not quite a financial success. However, it would be incorrect to pin that on Mayweather, but rather bad booking on the part of WWE. Mayweather has established himself as a heel and plays the part well. WWE tried to book him as a babyface up until the last week. By badly misusing and forcing him to read scripted promos, when no one knows the Mayweather heel character better then the boxer, they squandered a lot of his potential value. It was even clear watching WWE television at the time Mayweather knew that and watching his recent appearance on Raw as he played a pure heel coming out with a $100 bill underneath his watchband.

 

Mayweather reportedly made $8 million in 2008, but is also reported to have issues with unpaid bills. On the most recent of 24/7 mini-series to build-up this PPV, the boxer was shown living large. The first episode had a version of MTV Cribs where Mayweather showed off all of the ridiculous things he bought and were all reportedly completely paid for, meaning no loans. There were numerous expensive automobiles, that were just flashed on screen. However, the highlight was his new 22,000 square foot house in Las Vegas. The boxer has found ways to spend money on that house that most people cannot even imagine. First, Mayweather likes roller skating. Therefore, they opened the video package by showing that the downstairs halls are so wide that Mayweather and his children can roller skate around the house. Next, he has a 1,000 square foot walk-in closet in his master bed room. (Most apartments in San Francisco are not that large.) Finally, in the most awe inspiring waste of money, Mayweather had silk wallpaper installed in his house. That is completely impractical, because it should be nearly impossible to keep clean. Still, it is mind blowingly great in its level of excess.

 

Now, for the itemized list of unpaid bills. According to an Associated Press article in descending order of amount owed, Mayweather owes the IRS $6.17 million, $193,000 in taxes to the state of New Jersey, $9,400 to 3 homeowners associations, $3,900 to a contractor who programmed some electronics at his house and $320.10 to his garbage collector. Mayweather's manager Leonard Ellerbe says those numbers are wrong. Ellerbe also said there is no problem with the IRS, because they have not taken any of the boxer's stuff. However, there may be a lien on the boxer's new mansion that Ellerbe is neglecting to mention. In addition during the week of September 7, JP Morgan Chase Bank filed a lawsuit against Mayweather saying he still owes them money for a 2007 Mercedes Maybach 57S. Mayweather reportedly bought the car for $528,000 in February 2007 and took out a $415,000 loan to pay for it. The loan had a 16 percent annual interest rate and had Mayweather paying $9,000 per month. Mayweather reportedly stopped making payments on the car around February 2008 and the bank repossessed it in January 2009. At that time, Mayweather still owed $363,000 on the car. The bank was able to sell it for $196,000. They now want Mayweather to come up with the difference and probably some expenses. That is a minimum of $167,000.

 

Of course there are some people who have taken some of Mayweather's stuff, the Las Vegas police. On Sunday August 23, there was a shooting at the Crystal Palace Skating Rink in Las Vegas. The Crystal Palace Skating Rink is a mega-complex that has both an ice skating and roller skating rink that Mayweather takes his children roller skating at every Sunday. There was even footage of Mayweather at the rink on August 16 on Mayweather/Marquez 24/7. The shooter has been identified as a man that goes by the alias of "O.C." He is listed as a known associate of Mayweather's. Reportedly O.C. fired several shots into a car with 2 people in it as it drove away from the rink. Thankfully, no one was injured in the shooting. Apparently, one of the people in the car had gotten in an argument with Mayweather a few minutes earlier at the rink. The man, Quincy Williams, had sent Mayweather a text messages about a month earlier that he hoped the boxer lost to Marquez. According to Williams, he was confronted by Mayweather and 2 other men, one of whom was "O.C." prior to being shot at. It is then reported that as Williams' and his friend were driving away from the rink, when "O.C.", who was standing next to Mayweather, pulled out a gun and opened fire on the victims' vehicle. Mayweather and "O.C." were reportedly standing next to Mayweather's Rolls-Royce, which the boxer says he drove to and from the rink. That Rolls-Royce was then seen speeding away from the shooting. The police say Mayweather is not a suspect and cooperating with the investigation. The police also say the Rolls-Royce was involved in the shooting. This appears to be police kayfabe for the type of cooperation where it is clear the police are readying charges against Mayweather. The police searched Mayweather's house on August 24, the day he was hosting Raw, to look for evidence. On the search warrant, Mayweather told police he did not know an "O.C.", who to reiterate is a known associate of the boxer. Mayweather also said he was unaware of the shooting at the rink. During the search the police confiscated: 2 handguns (one with a loaded cartridge in the chamber), 3 magazines loaded with live ammunition, a holster, 2 bulletproof vests, 2 cell phones, a photo album, 2 plastic drinking bottles and 2 cars. Both of the guns were registered to Mayweather's security guards. The thing that sticks out most on the list of things confiscated is the photo album. The police probably took pictures of Mayweather together with "O.C." That shoots the boxer's story full of holes.

 

This is of course, not enough drama for the Mayweathers. On August 4, Roger Mayweather, the boxer's uncle and trainer, was arrested on charges of felony coercion and strangulation. Roger apparently tried to beat up a 25-year-old woman that he used to train. Roger used to train the woman, but at some point she switched to another gym. However, she was still living in an apartment Roger owned. She was not renting the apartment from Roger, but was staying as the guest of the person who was renting the apartment from Roger. Apparently on August 4, Roger determined it was time for her to move out. The details get really fuzzy from here. It is clear there was an argument and she hit Roger with a lamp. At some point in there Roger grabbed her by the throat. Whatever else happened will come out in the trial set to take place in a few weeks. Regardless, Roger has continued training Junior throughout this mess and will be in his corner tonight.

 

Mayweather had himself removed from all rankings when he "retired". At the time of his "retirement", Mayweather was The Ring Champion at 147 pounds and ranked by The Ring as the number 1 boxer in the world, pound-for-pound. Hence why he has earned the right to be billed as "Number 1" in the build up for this match.

 

Marquez had a modest amateur boxing career that included 2 Golden Gloves tournament victories

 

This match got a 4-part HBO 24/7 series to hype it. One of the things those series are best at is making stars. With Mayweather an established mainstream star, this mini-series needed to make Marquez a star. Episode 1 was merely there. In episode 2, Marquez was unforgettable, though not necessarily in the good way. The show centered around Marquez' unusual training techniques. It showed that Marquez' diet while training was something straight out of Fear Factor. Every morning he drank raw quail eggs. The scene of Rocky drinking raw eggs to face Apollo Creed has become iconic. However, that was a movie. This was just nauseating and an invitation for food poisoning. Later in the episode, Marquez drank his own urine. Urine drinking is so disgusting that it got cut from the season of TUF that featured guys eating freshly urinated on fruit and sushi with semen on it. The episode had some redeeming qualities in showing how hard Marquez trained and how hard he hit. It showed Marquez hitting so hard that he popped a speed bag. This match had been originally set from July 18, but had to be delayed due to  Mayweather suffering a rib injury. Normally in that case a boxer would take a break from training and restart his camp a few months away from the new date. (This has been rescheduled for the weekend of Mexican Independence Day to help draw a crowd. As an aside, Mayweather-De la Hoya II was also scheduled for the weekend of Mexican Independence Day.) Instead, Marquez has been training for 5 months straight. The last 3 months Marquez has spent exclusively training speed. With Marquez a known counterpuncher and Mayweather the same, Marquez has made a point of saying he will be the aggressor in this match. They have shown video of him boxing aggressively in sparring to force Mayweather to make mistakes in this match.

 

In episode 3, the action picked up and Marquez was made into much more of a star as Mayweather played the part of true heel. The episode opened with Mayweather watching the previous week's episode of 24/7 and seeing Marquez drink his own urine. Mayweather told the camera he would not do that for all the money in the world, but Marquez could drink his "silverback gorilla piss". Mayweather then told his children he would be boxing the "Pee-Pee Man". This allowed Marquez to shine as a true babyface in this episode. HBO showed Marquez helping one of his sons with their math homework. After that, as a reward father and son played a soccer game on the PS3. (There was an XBOX 360 sitting next to the PS3 under the television. The boxer clearly understands the importance of video games.) There was more in this episode about how much Marquez' family and parents love him to make him the true babyface he needs to be in this match. To show what a big star Marquez was, he was introduced before a crowd of more then 100,000 people when the Mexican national soccer team played in Mexico City. Marquez really came across as a top babyface star in this episode.

 

In episode 4, Marquez continued to play the ultimate babyface. His wife kept telling him to come back quickly. Marquez said he would come back the Monday after the match. His wife told him Sunday, because his family missed him so much. This was in stark contrast to Mayweather who was recognizing his need to be a better heel in this last episode. Mayweather underwent a pre-match eye exam, and was then told not to use the speed bag, because his eyes were dilated. The Las Vegas resident then rushed to the gym to use the speed bag, while Stevie Wonder music played in the gym. It was offensive and funny all at the same time as Mayweather worked the speed bag wearing sunglasses. Mayweather then staggered around his gym pretending to be blind.

 

During episode 4, HBO showed Marquez arriving to a star reaction leaving the airplane in Los Angeles. There was a band playing and people begging him for autographs. He appeared to be a major star. There was then an open workout in Los Angeles where fans clamored to see Marquez and get autographs. At the open workout, Marquez put on a show, by popping another speed bag. Then the next 10 minutes undid a lot of the good of the previous few episodes. Mayweather was shown going to do an interview on some talk show on E! HBO tried to tell people it was a major talk show, but the viewers of 24/7 cannot possibly be that gullible. They had seen Oscar De La Hoya go on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno every time before he has a major match. A minor league talk show on E! is just that. The interviewer then proceeded to be completely unprepared, unprofessional and ask possibly the worst question in history. She asked Mayweather, legitimately not knowing, " Who are you fighting? Juan something?" That should never have been shown on a television show building up that match. Marquez needs to be portrayed as a star, not someone that it is not worth an interviewer's time to learn his name. Then the show got TNA-riffic. Mayweather, the star, flew from Los Angeles to Las Vegas on his private plane. It is less then an hour, but stars fly in privates planes. Then in a moment straight out of TNA, they say that Marquez flies commercial, which is not a big deal. However, they show Marquez getting off the plane and all the goodness of his arriving on the plane from Los Angeles is undone. No one recognized Marquez coming down the escalator in Las Vegas or asked him for autographs. This was worse then when the Motor City Machine Guns were sitting in the crowd at iMPACT! and the crowd just ignored them. They showed the limo sent to pick up Marquez had a cheap hand written sign that said "Marquez" and again no one went up to the boxer. The crowd clearly thought he was just some regular guy. At the time Marquez got off the plane, there were adds all around Las Vegas promoting this match, and probably in the airport, 3 episodes of 24/7 had already aired and no one paid any attention to the main eventer.

 

Marquez may not be the number 1 ranked boxer in the world, pound-for-pound, but he has a rightful claim to that title. That makes it fair to bill him as "Numero Uno" in the hype for this match. Manny Pacquiao is currently ranked as the number 1, pound-for-pound, boxer in the world and Marquez may have beaten him twice. Pacquiao's trainer, Freddie Roach, admits that Marquez' style is all wrong for Pacquiao. Pacquiao is an aggressive boxer. That plays right into Marquez' hands. Marquez' has an amazingly high boxing IQ and as Pacquiao comes charging in Marquez has proven his ability to counter the Filipino time and again. They met in the ring for the first time in May 8, 2004 at the MGM Grand and the match ended in a draw that many viewers thought Marquez won. Marquez and Pacquiao faced off in the ring a second time on March 15, 2008 at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino. This time Pacquiao won a split decision, with the deciding scorecard giving Pacquiao the edge by 1 point in a match that most observers feel Marquez won. Ever since then, Pacquiao's promoter, Bob Arum, has made sure to keep the Filipino national hero far away from Marquez.

 

Unless something really special happens in the rest of 2009, Marquez' last match will be the match of the year for 2009. He defeated Juan Diaz in the main event of the show that featured John-Juarez I via technical knockout at 2:40 of round 9. Diaz forced Marquez to perform at a level the future Hall of Famer never had to win, and Marquez responded the way true champions do, by rising to the occasion. The thought going into the match was that it was going to start out as a technical match and degenerate into an all-action brawl as Diaz decided to push the pace. Instead the boxers decided to skip straight to the brawl with Diaz pushing the pace from the opening bell. Diaz opened the match by pushing Marquez into the ropes and Marquez seemed to forget he was a technical counterpuncher. The veteran decided to stand and trade with Diaz. In round 1, Marquez set a new CompuBox record for the most number of punches he had thrown in a round at 95 total punches, landing 29 total punches. However, the younger Diaz was a little better landing 31 of the 104 total punches he threw in round 1. To put in perspective what a blistering start this was from both boxers, the average number of punches thrown per round by a boxer at 135 pounds is 63.9. In round 2, Marquez kept up his new faster pace throwing 94 total punches, but Diaz probably won it landing several left hooks that appeared to have Marquez hurt in the middle of the round. A combination just before the bell sounded to end round 5, cut Marquez above the right eye as he continued to brawl with Diaz. It was a cut originally opened in Marquez' second match with Pacquiao and re-opened when Marquez faced Casamayor last September. It was dripping blood directly into Marquez' right eye and obstructing the boxer's vision. That makes it something to watch for tonight against Mayweather. Through 6 rounds, Diaz had already thrown more power punches then any of Marquez' previous opponents had against him in an entire match, including Pacquiao. That meant to beat Diaz in this match, Marquez was going to have to be better then he was against Pacquiao and the Marquez was. In round 7, Marquez appeared to be getting tired from boxing at this frenetic pace, but everything changed in round 8. With around 2:30 to go in round 8, a left uppercut opened up a cut above Diaz' right eye. The cut got bad quickly and was obstructing Diaz' vision. This caused the young boxer to appear to panic in the ring and revived Marquez. Marquez landed a big left hook that had Diaz hurt at the end of round 8, but that was not enough. After 8 rounds, Marquez had landed more punches then he had in any match tracked by CompuBox, but he still needed to do more to win. Then with 45 seconds to go in round 9, Marquez finished a combination with a right hand that sent the Houstonian to the canvas. That was still not enough, as a still very wobbly Diaz was able to beat the count and was allowed to continue. Finally with 26 seconds to go in round 9, Marquez landed a right uppercut and the referee was waving off the match, before Diaz' body could hit the canvas. When Marquez needed to have the best performance of his career to win, he did. A full recap of this all-time great match and a link to Marquez-Pacquiao II can be found here: http://www.number1contender.net/the-latest/2009/8/20/recap-of-juan-manuel-marquez-vs-juan-diaz.html

 

Marquez is The Ring Champion at 135 pounds and ranked by The Ring as the number 2 boxer in the world, pound-for-pound.

 

At 32-years old, Mayweather is 4 years younger then the 36-year-old Marquez. Mayweather has the height advantage standing 5' 8" tall, while Marquez stands 5' 7" tall. The Las Vegas resident has a massive reach advantage with a 26" arm length, compared to the 23" arm length of Marquez. Mayweather should be the heavier boxer in the ring, but refused to step on HBO's unofficial scales before the match. As a guess, Marquez' trainer, Nacho Beristain, thinks that Mayweather will be entering the ring at 152 pounds. Marquez unofficially rehydrated to 148 pounds approaching match time. That type of weight gain suggests Marquez used an IV to rehydrate after the weigh-ins, which makes no sense. He came in 2 pounds under the weight limit. It would make no sense for a boxer to dehydrate himself to get below the weight limit. Steward believes that drastic weight gain could be because Marquez did his unofficial weigh-in with all of his clothes on and he is substantially lighter. Both boxers will employ the orthodox stance. The MGM Grand has Mayweather as a 4-to-1 favorite.

 

Two of the judges keeping official score of this match from ringside are from Nevada and the other is from Illinois. The referee is Tony Weeks.

 

Now for the pre-match celebrity crowd shots. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is here. Governor Schwarzenegger attends most of the major boxing events in California and Nevada. George Lopez is 2 seats away from Governor Schwarzenegger and completely marks out when he sees himself on the big screen. That was embarrassing. Charles Barkley is here. A smiling Mike Tyson is in the crowd. Diddy is sitting in the third row at ringside. Magic Johnson is in the crowd.

 

A true heel to the end, Mayweather, flanked by Triple H, entered to mariachi music on the weekend of Mexican Independence Day. Mayweather then makes it to the ring and the crowd serenades him with a chant for Marquez.

 

Mayweather is uncharacteristically aggressive in winning round 1, 10-9. Mayweather's performance in round 1 was so good that it makes the thought he would have ring-rust seem laughable. Against an outstanding defensive boxer, Mayweather landed 18 of the 31 total punches he threw, for a 58% total connect percentage in round 1. Mayweather has maintained his defensive prowess despite the long layoff, as Marquez was only able to land 4 of the 52 total punches he threw, for an 8% total connect percentage in round 1. Lederman scores round 1 for Mayweather, 10-9. With 1:52 to go in round 2, Marquez lands a hard straight right hand that causes Mayweather to smile. That punch hurt him. With 1:39 to go in round 2, Mayweather answers Marquez' straight right hand with a short left hook that drops Marquez. Marquez has been knocked down numerous times, and come back to box well. He is up quickly following this knockdown and the referee allows him to continue with 1:27 to go in the round. However, Marquez is not fully recovered when the action resumed. Before the match, Mayweather bragged about finishing opponents after he knocks them down. That was a shot at Pacquiao who was unable to finish Marquez after scoring knockdowns in both of their matches. In fact, Pacquiao knocked Marquez down 3 times in the opening round of their first match and Marquez came back to win the majority of the rounds on all of the judges' scorecards. Mayweather now has a chance to back up his words, and finish Marquez. Marquez makes it out of round 2 without suffering another knockdown or resorting to holding. Still, the knockdown means Mayweather wins round 2 huge on everyone's scorecard, 10-8. With all the talk before the match about Mayweather winning this match because of his superior size, Mayweather is winning the first 2 rounds, because of his superior speed. Mayweather puts on a show in winning round 3, 10-9, and he leads on my scorecard after 3 rounds, 30-26. The Las Vegas resident wins round 3 on the Lederman scorecard, 10-9, and is ahead on the Lederman scorecard after 3 rounds, 30-26. Through 3 rounds, Mayweather has landed 51 of the 86 total punches he has thrown, for an astonishing 59% total connect percentage. Through 3 rounds, Marquez has only landed 15 of the 125 total punches he has thrown, for a miserable 12% total connect percentage. After round 3, the HBO cameras cut to a shot of Governor Schwarzenegger, who gets roundly booed. At boxing events, the 2 celebrities that get booed every time are Governor Schwarzenegger and De La Hoya. Yet, strangely, those 2 are always the ones that have drawn more money then anyone else in the building by a wide margin. While the camera is on Governor Schwarzenegger, George Lopez stands up to get in front of the camera like some drunk at a football game who is desperate to get on television. Lopez better be drunk or this is truly pathetic. Of course, if Lopez is drunk and acting like a clown on television, that would also be pathetic, too.

 

With over 30 seconds to go in round 4, there is a cut outside Marquez' right eye. Also at this time, Marquez looks visibly frustrated. Marquez is a boxing genius that is able to make superb tactical adjustments during a match. However, he is completely baffled at how to defeat a true master of the craft in Mayweather. Mayweather uses his more consistent workrate to win round 4 on Lederman and my scorecard, 10-9. Mayweather wins a closer round 5, 10-9. Marquez is trying to apply pressure to Mayweather, but Mayweather is too fast for Marquez to catch. After round 5, there is blood coming out of Marquez' right nostril. Lederman scores round 5 for Mayweather, 10-9. Mayweather landed numerous power punches on his way to winning round 6 huge, 10-9, and leads on my scorecard after 6 rounds, 60-53. The Las Vegas resident takes round 6 on Lederman's scorecard, 10-9, and is ahead on the Lederman scorecard after 6 rounds, 60-53. Mayweather has reaffirmed his status as an all-time great boxer in the first 6 rounds of this match. After round 6, the referee went to Marquez' corner to ask if the boxer wanted to continue. The boxer, of course, said he wanted to continue. However, that shows how dominant Mayweather has been in this match

 

Mayweather out-lands Marquez to win round 7, 10-9. Lederman scores round 7 for Mayweather, 10-9. In round 8, Marquez throws a lot of punches that have the crowd cheering. Unfortunately, almost all of those punches were blocked. Mayweather landed more clean punches in round 8 to win the round, 10-9. The Las Vegas resident wins round 8 on the Lederman scorecard, 10-9. This match could not have gone any better for Mayweather in his dreams then the way it is playing out in the ring. In round 9, both boxers started looking to score knockouts. Marquez was looking for the knockout, because he knows he needs it to win. Mayweather was looking for the knockout, because he feels that Marquez is running out of energy. Also, as Marquez goes for the knockout he becomes more available to counter punches. Mayweather knows his best chance to end the match with 1 punch will come catching Marquez with a counter punch the Mexico City, Mexico native does not see coming. Mayweather wins round 9, 10-9, and leads on my scorecard after 9 rounds, 90-80. Lederman also scores round 9 for Mayweather, 10-9, and has Mayweather ahead after 9 rounds, 90-80.

 

Mayweather wins round 10 easily on Lederman and my scorecard, 10-9. The Las Vegas resident has been so great in the match through the first 10 rounds, that the HBO commentators are talking about his performance among the best performances of the greatest boxers in history. Mayweather has been so stellar defensively in this match that if he does not knockout Marquez, Marquez will set a new record for the fewest number of total punches landed in a 12-round match recapped for wrestlingobserver.com/f4wonline.com. That covers more then 2.5 years and hundreds of matches featuring at most 3 boxers better then Marquez. With around 2:30 to go in round 11, Mayweather broke his CompuBox career record for most total connects in a match. At this point, Mayweather has also shattered every previous record for jab, power, total and any other type of connect possible against Marquez. Mayweather lands more hard power punches to take round 11 on Lederman and my scorecard, 10-9. In round 12, Mayweather, with a big lead on the scorecards, is probably going to go for the knockout. In round 12, Marquez, who has probably lost every round, may be the one boxing defensively in an attempt to finish the match standing. Mayweather landed 41 total punches in round 11, the most punches he has landed in any round of the match. His previous high was 34 total connects. Mayweather established that previous high in round 10. Both boxers have historically gotten stronger the longer in the later rounds. Tonight as the match ends, Mayweather is getting stronger and Marquez is rapidly fading. Before round 12 ,Beristain told Marquez simply, "Finish with dignity." There are no strategic adjustments or sage advice that can help Marquez tonight. Mayweather finishes strong winning round 12 on Lederman and my scorecard, 10-9, and the match on both of our scorecards, 120-107.

 

The official decision courtesy of Michael Buffer is that the judges have scored this match: 118-109, 120-107, 119-108, all for the winner by unanimous decision, still undefeated, "Pretty Boy" Floyd "Money" Mayweather, Jr. The win moves Mayweather to 40-0 with 25 wins coming by way of knockout.

 

The final punchstat numbers have Mayweather landing 290 of the 493 total punches he threw, for a ridiculous 59% total connect percentage. Mayweather landed 185 of the 316 jabs he threw, for an amazing 59% jab connect percentage. Mayweather landed more jabs in every round then Marquez landed total punches. The Las Vegas resident landed 105 of the 177 power punches he threw, for an outstanding 59% power connect percentage. The fact that Mayweather did this against a future Hall of Famer is nothing short of incredible. Marquez only landed 69 of the 583 total punches he threw, for a miserable 12% total connect percentage. That works out to fewer then 6 total punches landed per round and as expected shatters the record for fewest connects in a match recapped for wrestlingobserver.com/f4wonline.com. The previous record for fewest connects in a 12-round match was held by Cory Spinks in a match vs. Jermain Taylor on May 19, 2007 at the FedEx Forum in Memphis, Tennessee. In the match Spinks only landed 85 total punches. That worked out to averaging over 8 total connects per round. (Taylor only landed 101 total punches in that wretched match. That match was so bad, people in Taylor's hometown literally started throwing cans at his close friends in the grocery store after that abomination.) The Mexico City native landed only 21 of the 288 jabs he threw, for a pathetic 7% jab connect percentage. Marquez landed 48 of the 295 power punches he threw, for a 16% power connect percentage. The thing is Marquez' effort made tonight's match was entertaining despite Marquez' his CompuBox futility.

 

Mayweather said in his post-match interview that he can get better then he was tonight. The victor refused to answer any questions about his weight or money. That was after Mayweather tried to plug Reebok as his sponsor and mentioned it was a 7 figure endorsement deal. He is so great. Mayweather was then asked about a potential match with Shane Mosley. This lead to an immediate face-off in the ring between Mayweather and Mosley with Bernard Hopkins shouting in the background as Kellerman stood there helplessly holding the microphone. Floyd Mayweather, Sr. is moving in to separate the boxers and Triple H has emerged standing in the background in case of a problem. Kellerman then tried to ask Junior about Pacquiao to distract the boxer from Mosley. Junior then tried to grab the microphone from Kellerman, telling the commentator that he does too much talking. At that point, Kellerman said "Jim" and threw it back to Lampley at ringside as they shut off the microphone. The camera did catch Junior yelling at a smiling Kellerman, before it got returned to the broadcast desk. HBO may owe Kellerman some hazard pay for those last few minutes.

 

Marquez in his post-match interview said that the weight difference was the major factor for him in this match. The Mexico City resident was then asked about what chance Pacquiao would have against Mayweather. Marquez made it clear that he thought Pacquiao would lose to Mayweather soundly. Marquez believes he is the best match-up for Mayweather, but only after a few more matches at 147 pounds.

 

The general rule in boxing is that a boxer keeps his ranking until he loses. Mayweather is still unbeaten and after 21 months away from the ring looks better then ever. The Las Vegas native deserves to go back on top of The Ring's pound-for-pound rankings and be returned to his status as The Ring's Champion at 147 pounds. Mayweather's performance in this match is nothing short of an all-time great effort. Mayweather faced a first ballot Hall of Famer and made him look foolish. This was not really an issue of size. As noted in the tail of the tape, there is only 1" height difference. There was probably only a 4-pound weight difference in the ring. Cruz had a 6 pound weight advantage in the ring over Lock in the first match and no one is going to call that unfair. Mayweather won this match for 2 key reasons. The first is that Mayweather is an unbelievably better technical boxer then one of the best technical boxers in the sport today. The other is that Mayweather had far too much speed Marquez to handle. The thought of Mayweather moving down in weight was to take away some of his power advantage. Mayweather's speed and technical advantage would still be there. As for the thought of Mayweather vs. Pacquiao, that now appears like it would be a bad night for Pacquiao. On ESPN2 on Friday, Pacquiao's trainer, Freddie Roach, made it clear that Pacquiao had trouble with the counter-punching style of Marquez. It is now clear that Mayweather is a completely different level of counterpuncher then Marquez. If Pacquiao can get by Miguel Cotto on November 14, which is a big if, his people will probably want to keep him far away from Mayweather. HBO is trying to pitch the idea that Mayweather will face the winner of Cotto/Pacquiao. That is not even a guarantee for various boxing political reason. If it does happen, look for it around May 5 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Mayweather did fail to deliver in 1 key way in this match. The Las Vegas resident said if he knocked Marquez down he would finish the rugged boxer from Mexico City. Mayweather got the knockdown, but was unable to finish Marquez. That is going to have a lot of people criticizing this performance. Still for a historically boring boxer, Mayweather has just turned in back-to-back entertaining performances. That should cause people to reassess Mayweather. Mayweather's base pay for this match was $10 million, and it went down to $9.4 million after he failed to make weight. Still, after his cut of the PPV revenue Mayweather should make at least $15 million from this outing.

 

Marquez was made to look bad in this match. That can solely be attributed to how great Mayweather is. Marquez did his best, but Marquez, a future Hall of Famer, is a level below Mayweather. After this match, Marquez should be ranked no lower then number 3 on the pound-for-pound list. Marquez' next match will probably be his mandatory title defense against Katsidis. However, that is going to be delayed many months as Katsidis heals from the injuries he sustained tonight. Marquez is still not a very established gate draw. That means that match will probably be part of a double main event on a major HBO World Championship Boxing Event sometime in Spring 2010. Marquez' base pay for this match was $3.2 million. He is now going to get a minimum of $3.8 million, because of Mayweather's mishap at the scales. That number will probably double when he gets his cut of the PPV revenue.

 

 

 

The first match on this show was good, because it featured 2 boxers with significant flaws that meshed for an entertaining match. The next 3 matches were all one-sided, entertaining to different degrees, but very different. The Katsidis-Escobedo match was unentertaining for a lot of the match, because Escobedo knew he was so over-matched that he refused to engage with the bigger Australian. It still had its moments of excitement. The John-Juarez match was largely unentertaining. John is not as superior to Juarez as he appeared in the match. However, when Juarez had his opportunities to punch on the inside, he did not let his hands go. That made for a largely uninteresting match. That last round was very exciting, though. The Mayweather-Marquez match was the most one-sided match on the scorecards, but the most entertaining of the lop-sided matches. There were 2 key reasons for this difference. First, was the supreme skill Mayweather demonstrated offensively and defensively. Second, was that Marquez never stopped trying to engage Mayweather. Marquez threw and landed fewer punches then either losing boxer in the previous 2 blowouts, but he was visibly trying to pressure Mayweather and win. The Mexico City native was simply unable to do it due to a gross skill disparity, and not a lack of effort. The main event is worth catching on a replay to see an all-time great boxing performance.

 

 

 

New and Notes: Following up on a story from last week, boxing promoter Frank Maloney is currently in a London hospital recovering from heart surgery. The promoter was taken to the hospital after he found the 2008 Olympic bronze medal winning boxer from Ireland in the 175 pound division Darren Sutherland hanged on September 14. At the hospital, it was discovered that the 55-year-old Maloney had suffered a heart attack sitting ringside during the Tyson Fury-John McDermott heavyweight match 3 days earlier. Maloney is expected to make a full recovery. As for the death of Sutherland, the police say there are no suspicious circumstances surrounding it. The police expect the official inquest into the matter to wrap up shortly concluding the boxer committed suicide. It again raises the question of what role head trauma played in the premature death of another athlete.

 

Before this event, Golden Boy Promotions announced the signing of 130-pound titleholder Jorge Linares. Linares who has been boxing primarily out of Japan for the last few years would be ideal to face Robert Guerrero from Gilroy, California (home of the excellent Gavilan Hills Academy where I went to elementary school) in a title unification match at the San Jose Arena in San Jose, California. Both boxers could have a title defense on the same card to build up interest in the match. After that, they could probably draw 10,000 to the Arena, which is only about a 45 minute train ride from Gilroy.

 

Roy Jones, Jr. has signed to challenge Danny Green for the Australian's fringe 200-pound title on December 2 in Sydney, Australia. It will be Jones' first boxing match outside the United States since he lost in the gold medal round of the 1988 Seoul Summer Olympics in a decision that was so bad that the Olympic boxing scoring system was completely changed.

 

Finally, a thought on Quinton Jackson taking the role of Mr. T in the upcoming A-Team movie. History says Dana White is absolutely correct and Jackson should have turned down the role. A lot of people are analyzing this situation as that Jackson's match with Evans will only be delayed by the movie and no harm is done. However, boxers who do movies usually lose after doing movies. Lennox Lewis was knocked out by Hasim Rahman after filming a cameo in Oceans Eleven. Lewis came back to knockout Rahman after not having the distraction of filming a movie. The other recent case is of Antonio Tarver who lost a wide unanimous decision to Bernard Hopkins after starring in Rocky Balboa (Rocky VI). Movies frequently require actors to put on extra cosmetic muscle for starring roles. That costs combat sport athletes their speed when they return to competition. Jackson is probably going to come back slower against Evans and get beat. That would move him out of the main event picture for a few matches and is a huge blow to his career as a mixed-martial-artist. Historically, people can be actors or athletes, not both.

 

 

 

The next recap will be covering the September 26 HBO event featuring Chris Arreola challenging for Dr. Vitali Klitschko's heavyweight title.

 

 

 

Sincerely,