The \'Left-Hook Lounge\': Vivek Wallace\'s Q&A Mailbag Featuring ...

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The 'Left-Hook Lounge': Vivek Wallace's Q&A Mailbag FeaturingMargarito, Cotto, Oscar, Pacquiao, David Haye, and Many More!
30.07.08 - By Vivek Wallace : This weeks 'Left-Hook Lounge' segment takes a look at some prettyinteresting questions from fight fans around the globe. On the tabtoday, we look into matters surrounding everything from lastweekends Cotto/Margarito fight, to Pacquiao's proposed showdownwith Oscar, to a host of other topics. So, with no furtherado........

Rodrigo Salinas (Houston, TX): What do you think ultimately led toCotto's loss and what do you see in his future?

Vivek W. (ESB): Leading up to the fight I analyzed probably 8 to 9hours worth of fight footage and the more I watched Cotto's pastfights, the more I was convinced that no matter how great Mosley,Judah, and others he faced were perceived to be, none of them werethe type of BONA FIDE CLOSER that Margarito is. They all got him hurt but few would actually attempt to push theenvelope and pull the curtains when they got him there. Margaritois that guy. Always has been. My constant questions were how earlyand often would he hurt Cotto, and how long would it take beforeCotto would succumb to the pressure after realizing the fact thathe could not hurt him in return? I knew that once that point wasreached, it would be a matter of time because that alone is enoughto break the will of any man. In the end, that would once againhold true. As far as where he goes now, considering that Pacquiao,Freddie Roach, and attorney Franklin Gacal have stressed that theywill mandate a same-day-of-fight weigh in that will require a $750Kfine for every pound that Oscar De La Hoya lands over 147 for theirproposed showdown, I wouldn't be surprised if such an odd demandand a request for a purse of astronomical figures don't somehowdivert the attention back to Cotto. The Cotto camp has stated thatthey want to be back in the ring before the end of the year andthis is a very winnable fight, a big name, and a helluva way to gethis confidence back. Stranger things have happened. And when itcomes to securing a mega fight, there couldn't be a more desperatesource with the intellect support to get it done than Oscar and hisgroup at Goldenboy.

Lamar Parker (Virginia): What do you think of an eventualMargarito/Pavlik showdown? And how do you see it playing out?

Vivek W. (ESB): I think when you consider that there's not much ofa weight differential between the two, (when outside of the ring),this fight will be made. When you compare the two boxers, I don'tknow how this fight isn't made. Margarito is gonna come forwardlike a battalion with marching orders, Pavlik will do the same.Both men can 'crack' and wear their opponents down in the laterounds. I think the chin edge goes to Margarito. Although wehaven't seen him face opposition that size, I think similarly towhat we've seen out of Pacquiao, the extra weight will only enhancehis power and durability. I won't go out on a limb and try topredict who wins that fight, but i could see them fighting at 160or a close catch-weight. The cool thing about this is that itshould be relatively easy to make happen because once again, bothfighters fall under Bob Arum. Seems he's holding all the chips nowdays. Pacquiao, Pavlik, Margarito, and Cotto all fall under hisumbrella, and after last week we now know that he's OK with pittingthem against one another if the time is right and the dollars arelong. I wouldn't look for such a fight before Winter '09, but onceagain, stranger things have happened.

Chima Penalosa (Miami Lakes, Florida): Oscar De La Hoya initiallysaid that he would face the winner of the Cotto/Margarito fight,and now he's talking differently. Why is the media allowing Oscarto play them like a pawn instead of giving that attention to truewarriors on the rise ?

Vivek W. (ESB): I can't speak for the rest of the media, but onething I don't do as a boxing scribe is play politics and favoritism- with anyone. Others out there give Oscar that special comfortzone, sweeping obvious miscues under the rug, but as legendary ashe is and as much as he's done for the sport, I'd tell him to hisface if the opportunity ever arrived that he does the sport muchbetter sitting in the stands as a promoter than he doesperpetrating as a dedicated boxer. When you look at boxingheadlines all over the globe people are calling Oscar out for this.In the SKYSPORTS NEWS, headlines yesterday read "Oscar Scared ofMargarito". WBC President Jose Sulaiman was even more candid in hisresponse in a recent interview about a potential fight betweenOscar De La Hoya and Manny Pacquiao when he stated: "what are theygonna do? Stuff Manny [Pacquiao] with tamales and beans, and reduceOscar in the steam bath to bring them together?" He then added,"It's ridiculous, it's absurd, it's a fraud to the public and itcannot happen"! Those words echo my sentiments exactly and this isprecisely why people on the outside of boxing's mainstream find thesport a bit more humorous than headlining. We just got donewatching one of - if not THE - best fight of the year so far, andimmediately after, we can't even focus on what those warriors willdo next because the media is busy buying into the De La Hoyasweepstakes. I'm a fan, and I respect him greatly, but there has tocome a point where a line is drawn in the sand. When you trace thehints and check the files, consider this sequence ofevents......After Hatton defeated Castillo, word quickly spreadthat Oscar contacted Hatton via cell phone while still in hislocker room with what was supposed to be a congratulatory call, butsomehow ended up in him saying that they could sell out a stadiumin Hatton's homeland. Mayweather comes along and derails thoseplans. After being humbled, Hatton changes his mind and kills theidea totally. Mayweather considers a rematch with Oscar, only tofind that despite defeating Oscar once, Oscar still won't concedeto giving him the larger portion of a rematch purse - which is whathe did with Trinidad in negotiations as well - so after gettingtired of the diva charade, Mayweather moves on about his business.Next Oscar says that although his wife doesn't want him to fight aPuerto Rican, "he makes the business decisions", and warms thepublic up to the notion of him facing Cotto, and then Margaritocomes along and derails those plans. Rather than him taking thelast man standing - (Antonio Margarito) - he comes out with thelamest excuse in the book, stating that he doesn't wanna go out ofthe fight game facing another Mexican. I can't say he's scared butit sure as hell looks that way. He thought Cotto would defeatMargarito, so to create a path for that fight, the recent rhetoriconly days before that fight was that he thinks Pacquiao should faceMarquez again. Now Cotto loses and he doesn't want Margarito so hetells the public that Pacquiao's comments about "knocking him out"stirred up his desire to face him. Let's take a look here, that'sHatton, Mayweather, Pacquiao, and Cotto, yet somehow the truecontender - who happens to be closer to his own size - is the onein position to face him in what could be a mega fight, but hedeclines? If it were near Cinco De Mayo, I gaurantee you he woulduse that as a selling point to make a fight with Margarito fortheir fellow Mexicans because the monetary reward would justify therisk, but on a regular ole Saturday night in December, what it allcomes down to is found in the words of Margarito's co-manager,Sergio Diaz who stated that "Oscar wants to retire, but he doesn'twant to retire hurt!" That's the bottomline. Fighting Pacquiao islow risk, high reward, and the only one being rewarded is Oscar,because Pacman has all the risk, and the fans will barely berewarded. I say we all move on!

Bryan Smith (Coral Gables, Fl): What are your thoughts on the JamesToney/Hasim Rahman decision being overturned?

Vivek W. (ESB): I think it's another slap in the face and anotherblack eye to the sport. Technically, the rules state that the fightshould have been a no-decision since it ended before the 4th round,but it wasn't what happened as much as it was how it happened. Thecut wasn't serious, and my point of contention is the fact that byhis own admission the night of the fight, the doctor stated that hehadn't even analyzed the cut when the fight was stopped. He statedthat he saw the cut, but before it was officially analyzed, Rahmanstated that he could not see, so if he couldn't see, the fightneeded to be stopped. Regardless of how the cut got there,(headbutt or not), a fight can only be stopped as a result of afight doctor analyzing a wound and deciding that a fighter can't goon. That's not what happened. The fighter basically told him thathe wasn't gonna go on. So I don't agree with the call at all, andif you look at the fight again, you notice that Rahman had not evenflinched or rarely winked that eye until Toney came alive andstarted tossin' hot leather at him. Rahman's words after the fightwas pretty telling when he said "I'm not crazy enough to fightJames Toney with one eye". That was a slap in the face of fightersin the past who have fought with broken jaws, broken hands,severely closed eyes, and all kind of other stuff. I think Rahmanquit, personally, but all he did was prolong the inevitable becauseit seems that David Haye is gonna choose him for his firstheavyweight fight. It took a James Toney that was out of the ringfor over a year three rounds to begin to pick him apart, but withHaye's speed and power, I give Rahman 5 rounds tops before Hayeturns the lights out.

Javier Acosta (Brooklyn, NY): In light of the Cotto loss toMargarito, do you think that an undefeated record necessarily meansa whole lot in the world of boxing?

Vivek W. (ESB): This is a topic that I've openly spoken out aboutin the past, and to address it directly, not at all. Don't get mewrong, if it's done by a fighter who takes on all comer's andsomehow he was able to escape the "L" column, definitely, morepower to him. But in the grand scheme of things, I don't think aloss tarnishes the reputation of a fighter much, if at all in thelong run. You take a guy like Lennox Lewis who literally came backto avenge every lost he ever suffered by defeating the men who gavethem to him, or someone like Paul Williams who lost to CarlosQuintana, and came right back and totally dismantled the guy; Thoseare examples of fighters elevating their game by effectively makinga method from the madness. At times, it takes a setback like a lossto bring out the true greatness within a fighter and as great asAli, Tyson, Leonard, and many others were, it's safe to say that ifthey never lost, they wouldn't have been the men we now know themas. Taking it a step further, you take fighters like Glen Johnson,or even Antonio Margarito, both of whom suffered alot of lossesearly for whatever reason, yet now stand amongst the best of theircurrent crop, and that's a clear testimony to the fact that there'slife after losses. In team sports where you have a group of men torely on it's tough to remain undefeated, so why people believe thatit should be easy in a sport where it all falls on one set ofshoulders is beyond me. These guys are only human and on any givennight, the best can be conquered by the rest.

(Got Questions or Feedback?: Contact ESB's Vivek Wallace atvivexemail@yahoo.com, 954-857-6858, or show some love atwww.myspace.com/anonymouslyinvolved)
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