TALKIN BOXIN
by Howie Reed 
November 17, 2003

Facing the curse “head on”, I last week “shilled” for
Saturday nights fight on HBO between Marco Antonio
Barrera (57-3) vs. Manny Pacquiao (37-2-1). Thanks to
a couple of warriors the “Curse of Talkin Boxin” is
died and hopefully buried. It was one hell of a fight.
The curse you ask ? Like the one associated with
Sports Illustrated (If you’re on the cover of Sports
Illustrated bad things happen to you. I’m signed up to
provide those “bad things” to and for the next cover
of the swimsuit issue.) if I suggest watching a fight
in turns into a “yawner”. An all time stinkaroo. Not
this time. Thanks guys. But before I write about the
fight, I had mentioned that Marco Antonio Barrera was
the best fighter not to hold a title. When he won the
WBC title Dr. Jose’ Sulaiman refused to accept the win
declaring the title vacant. To the working stiff, the
only way to work, that’s when you’re told you have a
lifetime job. When you get fired you ask, But you
told me I had a lifetime job?” “You did. I just
declared you dead.” Same deal. Well looks now like
MAB’s new promoter wants a title. The new promoter is Golden Boy, aka Oscar DeLaHoya. “Surprise… Surprise” as Gomer use to say. The World Boxing Association’s new ranking have Barrera as the #1 featherweight contender to fight either Super Champion Juan Manuel Marquez or regular Champion Chris Johns of Indonesia. The latter is average at best. Now to continue, guess who promotes Juan Manuel Marquez and Oscar ? Too easy that would be Bob “I’ll Never promote in Nevada Again “ Arum. Here’s another coincidence DeLaHoya for the first time shows up as #3 in the ranking WBA with the top spot open and #2 fighting for the title. And finally former Light heavyweight Champion Dariusz Michaelczewski also shows up in the WBA rankings from nowhere.. Think the WBA ran an ad, “Wanted fighters…will guarantee you a world champions in six month. Send resume’ to Gilberto Mendoza.. Check please to numbered bank account in Cayman Islands.”

“It was a fight, Pacquiao-Barerra, that took me back
to the days of my “Yutt”. In the words of Keith
Jackson, ”Whoa Nelly.” For those Joe Friday fans that
want just the “facts mame’” Manny Pacquiao improved
his record to 38-2-1 when he over powered Marco
Antonio Barrera (57-4) stopping him at 2:56 of round
11.” To type in these spaces that Philippine native
Manny Pacquiao was magnificent would be to understate the oblivious. If you discount the first rind that Referee Larry “The Clown” Cole insured went to
Barerra, Manila Manny (ever though he’s not from
Manila) tossed a shut out at the fighters “everyone”
proclaimed as the best fighter pound for pound. Of
course everybody weren’t the “wise” guys in Vegas that bet a ton of money on Pacquiao. He started out at +380 (bet a dollar to win $3.80) and one book had him at +225 by fight time. Did they know something ?

Yep they knew that Manny Pacquiao is one of the better fighters in the world today. He’s young, fast, strong and hungry. With 10,127 in attendance at the Alamo Dome on Saturday night Barrera proved he was none of the above. In round 1 Pacquiao missed a punch and fell down. Referee “Clown” didn’t see what happened so he called it a knockdown. Up to the time Barerra had been aggressive and forcing the action which might have caught Pacquiao by surprise. The next surprise was his as from the end of the first until the end Pacquiao was in total control.

The “Port Sider from the Philippines” was able to
utilize his right to set up a straight left that was
unstoppable. He cut through the defense of Barerra
like a hot knife through butter. (Those at home don’t
try this with “It Tastes Like Butter” won’t work. Got
to use the real thing) The fact that he dominated
every phase of the fight was more impressive than the
win. The Fabulous Filipino out boxed, out hustled, out
worked, out scored and surprisingly, at least in the
ring, out classed one of the truly great fighters of
the era. There’s a couple of other acts that are of
some important. In the third Barrera hit the deck for
only the thirds time in is career. “I though I had him
in the third but he was very tough.” In the 6th
Barrera again went down with “Clown” Cole missing the
punch and therefore calling it “no knockdown.”

The final word on this fight comes from my pal in
Pattaya Beach, Thailand. Patrick is a now retied
professional fighter. He’s a skydiver, a restaurateur,
a trainer of fighters and will be promoting a fight
card on December 23 in Land of Smiles. He is a man of few words. He shared his few words on Paquiao-Barrera with Talkin Boxin. “Waw, what a beating Barrera had from Pacquiao, he couldn't get a change to hit Pacquiao, Pacquiao is the new feather weight King
believe me. Long Time ago I saw real boxing again,
thanks Pacquiao, may God bless you big time! I would
like to see Pacquiao against camel rider Hasseem, I
give Hasseem 2 rounds, 1 to p*** in his paints and the
2nd round to run away back to the Sahara desserts, where he belong.  F.Frog .” ‘F. Frog ?” Yes that’s for Flying Frog his Hash name which is a whole different story.

I have to apologize up front for my next comments, as
I’m sure to all they are getting tiresome. Here was
what turned out to be a “great fight”. Not fight of
the year but still right up there. In the end the
scenario could have been written in Hollywood, where
Pacquiao trains under Freddy Roach. Young gun defeats the “boss”. “He’s a great fighter.” The Old Warhorse says the usual. “I wasn’t myself. I had many
distractions in training.” “Did you have trouble
seeing his straight left that seemed to be landing at
will ?” ‘There are a lot of punches that I didn’t
see.” In was a class operation from start to finish
EXCEPT for the usual suspects.

Let’s start with Michael Buffer who becomes a bigger
gasbag with each passing appearance. He is a flat out
disgrace to the announcing profession. The late great
Jimmy Lennon and Chuck Hull must be turning over in
their graves or at least looking down from above in
disgust. In introducing the fight Buffer said, “For
the featherweight Championship of the World.” Wrong
Mr. Buffer and as a professional you should have been
aware that neither fighter held the “ANY”
featherweight champion. Many Panquaio was and is the IBF Flyweight champion at 122 pounds. This fight was at 126. Could they then be fighting for the
Featherweight title ? Hardly as the champions at 126
are Manuel Medina (WB0), Eric Morrles (WBC), Juan
Marquez (IBF) and Derrick “No Heart” Gainer (WBA).
Buffer compounded his unprofessional behavior when
giving the results, ‘And the new featherweight
champion of the world.” Boxing has enough trouble
without a lying ring announcer. Get the facts. This
fight was good enough it didn’t need any BS but that’s
what Buffer is. Pure and simple. A cartoon character.


HERE’S a first for Talkin Boxing. I have no opinion on
the Roy Jones-Antonio Tarver fight that took place a
week removed last Saturday. I didn’t see the fight so
I can’t comment on the scoring. I did kind of watch it
with my good eye on the replay Saturday Night but then  that have already forgotten Japan’s Glen Hamada had it 117-111 for Jones, Texan Dave Harris had is 116-112 for Jones and Nevada’s Jerry Roth had it a flat footed tie at 114-114. The fight was for the WBC Light heavyweight title. Roy Jones means a lot to the WBC in terms of money. Of course he cost them a lot also.. For those that might have forgotten he cost them 35 million dollars when Graciano Rocchigiani’s lawsuit scored a KO against the WBC. .The WBC declared the title vacant. Rocchigiani won it, Jones decided he wanted the title back so the WBC took it back. Judge say, “You owe Graciano Rocchigiani’s 35 million. “ The crowd was not happy with the Jones0Tarver decision. So ? Little history on the judges. Glen Hamada is generally considered one of the better judges in the world. Texan Dave Harris is a house judge for the WBC and almost no one cares. Jerry Roth of Nevada is good.  Pal Billy Major did see the fight and has an opinion. How do I now? I have a e-mail to prove it..

“Howie, come on ........ Jones did not win that fight
anymore than Mosley beat Oscar or Byrd beat fres
quendo. especially when you have to take it away from the champion. granted , the weight loss hurt Jones
real bad and in a rematch he would destroy Tarver but
... it was the usual bullstuff the stupid*** blind
judges gave it too the wrong guy as usual , and
judging isn’t objective , either you know what
effective aggressiveness and ring generalship is or
you don’t and most people judging the fights these
days don’t know what they are doing at all . its
getting so bad to me that I had a well known fellow
( he worked with Sam Silverman ) out here in the east
meet with me Wednesday to ask me if id be interested
in training some fighters for him in a new boxing gym
he is planning on opening here and where id would
have done it out of pure love of the game , now you
couldn’t pay me enough to do it ! these decisions are
ruining the game . I don’t think that we should be
shrugging our shoulders and saying oh well... when
this stuff happens , these guys work to hard and
sacrifice to much for this kind of crap ! I've had it
personally. Thanks.” .

I mentioned that the local advertising for
Jones- Tarver was horrendous. Must have been effective as about 8,000 jammed themselves into a venue scaled down for 9,000 plus. In addition the PPV
(Pay-Per-view) did about 200,000 which is pretty good
considering it was a lousy fight. That at $49.95. so
everyone made money. Good for them. Next up for Jones is a reported fight against Mike Tyson. “Bring on the money” said Jones. If anyone needed more proof that Roy Jones jr. is more about money than fighting this should seal the deal. He will wipe the floor with
Tyson. Too fast. On the same card as Tarver-Jones was Ronald Wright. The casual fan may have a hard time remembering Ronald Wright. Had the radio ad’s said,  “Winky” Wright maybe someone would have cared. They didn’t. Doing the radio thing in the car heard the local boxing shills say , “It would be a great fight between you (Wright) and Floyd Mayweather.” That was last week. This week? “Wrights a stiff. He couldn’t even KO Angel Hernandez.” From the greatest thing since the sliced bread to a stiff. That was the
quickest a stiff appeared without the help of the
magic blue pill.

Heard once that there’s no place for old fighters. Not
true at all. Next Saturday Night in Tijuana Julio
Cesar Chavez (104-5-2) gets back in the ring after an
absence of 2 years. His last out he got a TKO over
Terry Thomas in 2. I may be wrong but Thomas was a
great comedic actor but I’m pretty sure that he’d been
dead awhile before this November 24, 1001 encounter.
There is them that will say, “Chavez looks best at
this age against either comedic actors or them that
are dead.” I concur. For this monumental comeback
Chavez will fight Willy Wise (26-10-4). Wise beat
Chavez in 1999 in what was called by Ring Magazine
“The Upset of the Year”. Ho hum. Wise’s record belies
the fact that he’s only won 3 of his last 10. Chavez
is one out of his last three outings having TKO’d Buck
“Tombstone” Smith (178-13-2) one of my all time
favorites.

A couple of other names from the past were in action
this past week. The ever loving fun guy Andy “The Foul
Pole” Golota got his second win on the comeback trail.
If you’ve ever been around the “Big Guy” you’ll
realize that there is the possibility that he doesn’t
know it’s a comeback as he doesn’t know that he’s been anywhere. That aside he scored a 6th round KO over “Tomato Can” Terrance Lewis Friday night. Probably shouldn’t use the term “TC” with Lewis. He was down four times but did try to put up a fight “TC” fold like accordions. That’s to his credit. The wire
service reported that “ Golota was warned for a low
blow in round three.” Golota ? Low Blows ? Could you
be having a jest with Mr. F Wonderful ? The “F” of
course standing for Former. Paulie Ayala (35-2) got
back in the ring also on Friday this time against Edel
Ruiz. Ayala won a unanimous decision
(98-92,97-93,100-90) in his first fight in 12 months.
Ayala’s last fight was a war with Johnny Tapia who was at ringside. Could there be a rematch of stage ? Yep.

SOAP BOX. While driving around the other day and
listening to the radio I heard a sports guy say, “I’m
not a nationalist but I love my country.” I was mystified by his comments. What the hell did he mean? Was it yes “I love the country” but have no problem transferring my affection elsewhere. Did the gentleman
mean, “Yea I love my country but it isn’t all that
great ?” Well good guy, “You are full of it.” “I love
my country but I’m not a nationalist is the same
liberal crap that spews from people that should thank
heaven for Nationist so they’re allowed to pump out
their ignorant bile. In case you’re a little hazy on
the word Nationist or nationism let me quote Webster's.  “the devotion to one’s nation; patriotism or the decorum of national interest, security, ect.., are more important than international considerations. or the desire for or advocacy of national independence.” So the next time you hear some gasbag say they love their country but aren’t nationist consider the state of
education today to say nothing of recreational drugs.

That aside I have a hero named Johnny Colombero.
Young Johnny is the son of a college Pal of mine.
Johnny serves his country as a member of the United
States Marines. Young Colombero served his country in Iraq. Lt. Johnny Colombero was awarded the Navy Marine Commendation Medal for Combat Valor. A proud Dad wrote, “ The Commendation medal is ordinary but the Combat Valor designation is special.” A true hero not a spineless jellyfish that has to play with words to hide his contempt for his country.. .

AND FINALLY. wasn’t all that smart. He said, “Pie
are Squared.” That’s silly everyone knows “pie are
round”.. From my Pal in the Bangkok Post. “What do you call a fish with no eye?”  “A Fish”.


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