Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Babies & Boxing

Well, we had a pretty good weekend. We went to our friends' place (hey Mike & Colleen!) for a bbq yesterday. (Ironically, they live in Ashburn, home of Redskins training camp, yet know nothing and care nothing about football). They have a 3 year-old boy, so most of the attendees' had kids of similar ages. The kids were all very well behaved, and the parents were all very nice. Gee, go figure. They're great people, and their friends are great people. Shocker. We spent most of the time chatting with the the only other childless couple there. Raakay and Carol were very cool. They tracked with us on a ton of things. We would quote a movie, and they actually got it! Fun times! Not that we wouldn't have enjoyed ourselves if it was just us and 14 babies, but you know what I'm saying.

I finally finished watching the boxing matches I recorded from Showtime on Saturday night. In the undercard, 37 year-old veteran Raoul Marquez handed young favorite Giovanni Lorenzo his first defeat. After a slow start, Marquez showed his experience by adjusting to Lorenzo's game plan and increasing his pressure. Despite getting three separate cuts on his face, including a bad one over his right eye, Marquez showed heart. He stayed in there and showed young Lorenzo what it takes to be a title contender.

I think his win earned him a fight against the winner of the evening's main event: "King" Arthur Abraham v. Edison "Pantera" Miranda. In their first fight, Miranda broke Abraham's jaw in the 4th round. Since they go to the score cards only in the event of an accidental head butt, Abraham had to either continue the fight, or lose by TKO. He went on! (Miranda is a hard puncher, too - 26 of his 30 wins are by KO). Despite fighting for EIGHT ROUNDS with a broken jaw, Abraham won! There was some controversy due to five (!) points being taken away by the ref for intentional head butts and low blows, but given the final scores, they wouldn't have made a difference in the outcome. Miranda was determined not to leave any doubt about the outcome this time. He came in lean and mean and ready to kick some arse. Miranda came out jabbing. He was definitely more active. Abraham had said before the fight that he was expecting Miranda to wear out later in the fight, so it wasn't a surprise that he wasn't more active early on. By the third round, Abraham picked up a little. Then, in the fourth round, the same round when Miranda previously broke Abraham's jaw, the "King" unleashed a vicious straight right that landed "Pantera" on his tail. Two more knockdowns, via powerful left hooks, and the ref rightly stopped the fight. Unfortunately for Miranda, if he couldn't beat Abraham with a broken jaw in eight rounds, I think that says something about the match-up and I think the outcome was inevitable. So, I think I saw that Abraham will defend his middleweight title (this fight was at super-middle) against Marquez. Either that, or he will go for the unification bout against Pavlik. That's the one I want to see. Marquez looked great against Lorenzo, but I don't think he would last long against Abraham. But a man who can fight with a broken jaw for eight rounds? That's a man I want to see take on The Ghost.

P.S. Belated congrats to Sergio "The Latin Snake" Mora on his victory against Vernon Forrest to take the WBC Light Middleweight title!

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