Written by Tim Starks
| 10 March 2008
Considering that the weekend previous produced what
I believe was no worse than the third-best fight in about 20 years, a letdown was inevitable for the just-completed weekend's loaded boxing schedule. And yet, I left Saturday night strangely sated, given the circumstances. There were a number of compelling battles on TV, each meaningful and/or dramatic in their own ways.
Danger Ahead Indeed
As far as I'm concerned, the lightweight (135 lbs.) struggle on HBO between Juan Diaz and Nate Campbell was the most fascinating of the TV bouts. Campbell won in a huge upset, really just beating up Diaz like he never has been beaten up before. It was an all-out inside brawl, and those are always gripping viewing. Strategically, what Campbell did was something of a marvel. It turns out the book on Diaz is wrong, at least for the time being; sheer punching power isn't what beat him, as many (including yours truly) thought would be required. No, it took big power in combination with beating Diaz at his own game. Campbell actually outworked Diaz, whose whole career so far can largely be summed up as "outworking everyone who gets into the ring with him." I practically had to rub my eyes to believe what I was seeing when Campbell began the first round with a fusillade. A 36-year-old never known for inside fighting or volume punching grinded down the will of a 24-year-old whom many (including yours truly) believed was the top lightweight, headed for superstardom and pound-for-pound greatness! It was impressive work.
There were some less impressive aspects about it. One was the judge who scored it for Diaz. I don't think he won a round after the sixth, so I don't quite see that. At least the other two judges had it about right. The least impressive bit was the way Campbell headbutted and forearmed Diaz like mad and never really got much of a warning from the referee about it. A very deliberate-looking head butt in the first round opened the cut above Diaz' eye that later turned into a high-def eyesore (no pun intended) when it opened nearly along the length of Diaz' eyelid, off a punch mistakenly ruled a head butt. That Diaz didn't have an experienced cutman in his corner was more than a little head-scratching. That the fight wasn't stopped, and that no one suggested it should be, was likewise befuddling. The Ring magazine's "Fight Doctor" column this month had the very definition of when a fight should be stopped because of a cut, and it basically reads like a description of what was happening to Diaz -- he couldn't see out of his eye, and it was leading him to a significant competitive disadvantage. He simply wasn't the same after that cut opened up, and it just doesn't seem like there's any question that the cut was a big reason. The blood was going directly into his eye.
Campbell's clean power shots were the other. Aside from the cheating parts, I was really wowed by him. And besides the outworking parts, he also demonstrated some real speed and boxing skill. I think he would've beaten Diaz even without opening the cut. If one fighter wins by outworking his opponent, and one of his opponents outworks him AND is faster and harder-hitting and quite smart, well, that's a recipe for impending doom. In no way am I down on Diaz because of this loss. That he stayed up at all -- around the 10th, I became convinced he was going to get knocked out -- demonstrated some serious heart. I do worry, as HBO's commentators did, about Diaz doing this kind of thing to himself regularly. It's really fun to watch when it goes well, but it was painful to me, as a fan, to watch him get so thoroughly hammered in failure. It's a dispiriting thing to see a fighter you're cheering for go through that. Diaz has always said he's not going to do this very long, and I fear this could be a setback in the minds of some. It shouldn't be. He just got beat by a savvy veteran who was overdue for his talent and ambition to jell into a championship-worthy performance. Next for Campbell, presumably, is the winner of Joel Casamayor-Michael Katsidis, coming up in just a couple weeks, to definitively answer the question of who the best lightweight is, if there's any remaining question. I wouldn't mind seeing Diaz in against the Casamayor-Katsidis loser in something of a double-elimination tournament, then on to a rematch with Campbell, assuming Diaz adds a few more needed tricks. I don't mind Campbell being high-profile, though, because he's an exciting fighter we get some good wacky high jinks out of it. Like that matador outfit he wore in to the ring (Diaz is nicknamed "The Baby Bull," get it?) or the fact that he spent the days before the Diaz fight
arguing with fans on boxing message boards. Hilarity.
Speaking of upset-via-outworking: Tough journeyman featherweight (126 lbs.) Cristobal Cruz and his 11 losses out-punched heralded fellow featherweight Thomas Mashaba Friday night on ESPN2, tossing 1,580 blows at him en route to a narrow decision victory. Campbell threw 1,145, by comparison. Cruz showed his own guts standing and trading on the inside like that, but I have to say, ESPN's Dan Rafael recently called Mashaba "
one of boxing's best kept secrets," and I just didn't see it. I thought he won, barely, but he didn't look like anything special to me. He got hit a ton, even got hurt in the final round, and never really moved Cruz with his own punches. Kudos to Cruz, though, for being so freaking macho.
Not Bad Big Men
Over on Showtime, David Haye scored a serious victory over Enzo Maccarinelli (cruiserweight, 200 lbs.), knocking him out in the second round.
I knew it would be short. But Haye has now proven his mettle twice in a row against top-ranked talent, and I think he has to be included on the short list of the sport's biggest punchers, now that his opponents aren't tomato cans. I've gone from skeptic to believer to now actually thinking he could be the man to "save" the heavyweight division. Yes, he once again was wobbled by a punch, and his chin problems are going to be a concern all career-long. If a big, big, big man hits him at heavyweight, I wouldn't be surprised to see him get knocked straight out. But he's going to be faster than every heavyweight even if he packs on another 20 pounds, which he has proven he can do comfortably, and his punches are still going to be TNT-laden, as he showed against Tomasz Bonin in his one stop at heavyweight. Haye knocked him out in one round, where a more established heavyweight, Audley Harrison, needed nine. I'd probably favor Haye over every heavyweight right now except Vladimir Klitschko, who poses massive match-up problems for everyone because of his height, skill level and excruciatingly cautious style. That on-again, off-again Hasim Rahman fight would be a good litmus test for Haye. I do think he needs to work on his nickname. I gather that a "haymaker" is a kind of punch, and that Haye calling himself "The Hayemaker" is a play on that, but there's some cognitive dissonance here... In his own nickname, Haye is making, well, himself. Maccarinelli, meanwhile, can still be a factor at cruiserweight -- I like the idea of him meeting up with Steve Cunningham, the most overlooked of the cruisers, albeit less so these days off his string of quality wins.
Speaking of heavyweights, Sam Peter scored his own important KO, although it was a good many notches below Haye's. No, he didn't look all that good in defeating Oleg Maskaev, despite the cooing from HBO's commentary team. He's still a big power-puncher who is very hittable and loops his shots, even if he looked more polished and poised against Maskaev than he did against Jameel McCline in his disastrous 2007 outing. Maskaev is nothing great but he's not terrible, and he landed some of his own big shots, but Peter finished him off in the sixth by putting together a pretty nice, clinical combo, patiently delivered, but with real force. Afterwards, he entertained with quotes like this: "I hit him with one and I him with another. Then I crack him up. My jab was good and then I him in the head and break off his head. I knew he was strong so I was careful. I feel great. I could fight again tomorrow. Im ready for anyone. If there's an appeal to Peter, it's his enthusiasm and that he is inclined to "break off his [opponent's] head" each time he steps into the ring, and that makes him a real heavyweight, if not a particularly exceptional one; he's the clear #2 in the sorry division, behind Klitschko. That head-breaking approach and Maskaev's own willingness to trade in spots made this frequently actionless affair -- I estimated about 10 seconds worth of excitement, on average, per round -- about as good as it gets for the heavyweights, at least until Haye arrives. (How anyone could see the Diaz-Campbell fight and still prefer the heavyweights, I will never know.) Maskaev, at 39, should retire, but I'd very much take a helping of Haye-Peter, by the way, if Peter doesn't land one of the Klitschko brothers.
