Boxing Journal 3-9-14

Yeah, don’t expect this to be a regular feature.  Saturday night Canelo Alvarez fought Alfredo Angulo at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.  I wouldn’t have cared but a co-worker’s girlfriend is obsessed with Canelo and Mexican boxing in general.  In an effort to know what they would be talking about on Monday, I felt compelled to watch.  Otherwise, since I have yet to see a good boxing match, I wouldn’t have bothered.  So, while the girlfriend plunked down $50 for the pay-per-view, I adjusted my antenna to get the Juarez station that was carrying the fight for free, and shockingly it was shown live.  (I can get about five different stations on Saturday nights that are carrying boxing matches.  I get the impression it might be a popular sport in Mexico.)

I skipped all the intros.  The guys looked fairly evenly matched in height, weight, and build, not so evenly matched in fans and looks.  Canelo is adored by a legion of fans, not only for his fighting prowess, but his looks.  The other guy, well let’s just say, was not in the ring for his looks.  Canelo was decked out in yellow trunks, with yellow gloves and yellow trimmed shoes.  It was a bold fashion choice likely inspired by his sponsor, Corona, who also had their advertising around the ring along with the Corona Girl ring girls.  In between rounds, the network was also showing a commercial starring Canelo.  I am not insinuating there was a fix in (it’s not the NFL after all), but clearly there was a favorite.

Here I am watching two big sweaty, shirtless guys hitting each other each, more or less suspecting I’m going to be disappointed, rather than watching a certain little local hottie newscaster. . . who’s sexual preferences are somewhat dubious, thus somewhat destroying my fantasy.  Disappointment abounds.  Bring on the sweaty guys. 

The fight begins.  Again, the guys seemed pretty evenly matched.  Annoyingly there was no round-by-round scoring by the commentators in between rounds.  Certainly you couldn’t go by the highly biased crowd noise.  They were gasping, oohing, ahhing, chanting, and cheering nearly continuously for Canelo.  The announcers were strangely sedate during the broadcast, at least in comparison to TV Azteca’s wildly enthusiastic commentary.  Not even understanding most of what they’re saying, they’re very entertaining. 

By the third round, Canelo’s great hair has gotten messed up.  That’s how you can tell when he’s facing a tough opponent.  Meanwhile, there’s this gorgeous brunette in a black evening gown in the front row.  She looks familiar, but I can’t place her.  I’m sure she’s famous somewhere.  In the eighth round, Angulo has gotten Canelo on the ropes, but the red-head counterattacks savagely.  Probably the best round of the match.  The audience can sense the fight is coming to a climax, one way or another.  Disturbingly, there’s a Mexican Pizza Hut commercial between rounds advertising a stuffed crust pizza with Doritos crumbs sprinkled on top.  Look Doritos, just stay in the damn bag!

While Canelo’s hair needs combing, it’s hard not to notice that Angulo's face is starting to look like a bloody pile of meatloaf.  (And he wasn’t that good looking to begin with.)  In the 10^th round, Canelo leaves his feet to deliver a left uppercut underneath Angulo's defenses, snapping his head back and sending him staggering into the ropes.  The ref, who up to this point had had little to do as the boys were going at it pretty cleanly, stepped in and called the match.  Strangely, both fighters seemed surprised by this call.  Angulo was still on his feet and conscious and aware enough to be angry.  Canelo stood there more confused than Angulo for a moment after the decision.  They both wanted to keep going.

Angry and confused myself, I put in a nearly unprecedented weekend call to my co-worker (also consider it was after 11:00 at night).  “What the hell was that?” I asked.  I was aware that two other fighters had died from injuries in bouts this year, and apparently that was the excuse for stopping the fight.  The officials have gotten a little nervous.  Maybe.  They did show a close-up of Angulo's face afterward, not only bloody, but both eyes were swelled shut, though he had little trouble seeing himself getting screwed.  At least the girlfriend was happy.

In sum, once again I have watched a boxing match that did not include knockout and ended with some controversy.  Here’s the part where I would usually say what I usually say after watching a NASCAR Nationwide Series race, “I’m never doing this again.”  And then I end up watching again.  (Yeah, I watched the Nationwide Phoenix race last weekend.  I don’t want to talk about it.)  UFC (MMA, whatever) fights that I’ve seen are sometimes good, sometimes bad, sometimes horrifying, but at least they’re not always the same thing for me.  I know there are good fights out there (like the last Pacquiao bout where he ended up on his face), I hope to someday see one.