Over the last few days, this observer has made a point of
it to point out to his readers as well as those who follow me across social
media platforms that Boxing is truly a 24/7 365 day a year entity and at times
there is no stop in what goes on throughout the entire sport even if there is
no action taking place inside the ring on a particular day. This point was in
reference to the announcement on Friday, February 24th that Saul
“Canelo” Alvarez had agreed to return to digital subscription sports streaming
network DAZN, but with the added twist that DAZN would be introducing a pay-per-view
platform in seemingly reverting from its sales pitch as being a “Pay-Per-View
Alternative” for consumers who are tired of paying inflated pay-per-view prices
with little value attached to such fees. Although I have already shared my thoughts on this subject, which I stand by as a frequent critic of the
pay-per-view model, and even though the subject and potential backlash from
DAZN’s subscribers for their venturing into pay-per-view will likely remain for
better or worse, a big story through the Boxing news cycle for the foreseeable
future, the final weekend of February 2022 did feature action inside the ring
that saw the return of world champions and top contenders.
While this observer had planned to cover the Boxing card headlined
by WBO Cruiserweight world championship fight between champion Lawrence Okolie
and WBO number four contender Michal Cieslak, which took place at the O2 Arena
in London, England on February 27th as it’s own separate piece of
content, I made a decision that this would be better suited to be covered as
part of this column seeing as it’s subject is what occurred in the final
weekend of February in the sport. As for what occurred inside the ring, the
first topic that will be covered concerns the return of undefeated Undisputed
Jr. Welterweight world champion Josh Taylor, who returned to the ring after a
lengthy absence due to both an injury suffered while in training as well as a
bout with COVID-19, to defend his crown for the first time as undisputed
champion against undefeated WBO number one contender Jack Catterall in Taylor’s
home country of Scotland.
Taylor, who was making the third defense as a world
champion since winning the IBF Jr. Welterweight world championship in May 2019,
but his first since fully unifying the championship by defeating previously
unbeaten WBC/WBO world champion Jose Ramirez last May, seemed to have all the
advantages going into this fight with the unbeaten, but untested Cattreal.
Height, punching power, as well as hand speed.
Although there were a lot of things that seemed to favor
the champion, what a lot of people including oddsmakers, who had Taylor as a
significant favorite going into the fight, did not factor into the equation was
a fight plan implemented by Catterall that emphasized timing and elusiveness.
In the interest of honesty with the reader, this was at times not the most entertaining
fight to watch. This was due to an awkward style that Catterall used that
including staying close to the champion, using lateral movement to deflect much
of Taylor’s offense, but only attacking at opportune times, particularly with a
right jab followed by variations a left hand either, straights, hooks, and
overhands from the southpaw stance as the champion came forward that he would
not see coming.
The fact that both fighters are southpaws as well as
frankly a bad meshing of styles made this an ugly fight in the sense that there
was almost as much grappling akin to a Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fight as there
was Boxing. Nevertheless, Catterall’s awkwardness proved to be effective in
minimizing the opportunities that Taylor could land his punches. This in
addition to the success he had in landing the left hand off of his jab gave the
appearance that while it was not the most entertaining bout to watch, it was
the challenger dictating the tempo of the combat, despite the elements of it
being a fight designed as a homecoming for the champion as well as a hostile
crowd.
As the fight progressed, I felt that Catterall’s approach,
while not necessarily smooth, was carrying the fight as I felt he won several
of the rounds over the course of the first half of the twelve round world
championship bout. With the fight moving into rounds seven through twelve, I
felt that while not impossible, Taylor would have a significant deficit to
overcome in terms of scoring. A reason for this was even though he was
aggressive at times, Catterall was able to make him miss with the majority of
his offense and if one views a fight with an objective mindset, it becomes very
difficult to justify scoring a round for one fighter when whatever punches they
do land, does minimal damage and does not score knockdowns, which can have an
impact on the scoring of a bout.
In contrast to the champion, despite attacking in spurts,
Catterall seemed to be out working and out landing Taylor. The highlight for
the challenger came when he was able to score a knockdown of the champion, the
first of Taylor’s career in the eighth round with a short combination to the
head. An element that would increasingly become part of the story of this fight
however, would be the involvement of Referee Marcus McDonnell, who became
overly involved at times and appeared to fail in terms of being able to control
the rough housing/grappling between the two fighters. This unfortunately
included deducting points from both fighters at seemingly inappropriate times.
First deducting a point from Cattreal in round ten for holding, which was
followed by deducting a point from the champion at the conclusion of round
eleven for tapping Catterall on the stomach, a common practice throughout the
sport seemingly under most circumstances as a sign of sportsmanship between the
two fighters as if to say “Good round.”
It is important for me again in the interest of honesty
with the reader as I always am, to point out that this was the first time in my
recollection that I can remember seeing Marcus McDonnell officiating a bout on
the amateur or professional level of the sport. This does not necessarily mean
that I have not covered a fight or a full Boxing card over the past two and a half
decades that I have been covering the sport where McDonnell may have officiated
bouts. I bring this up because as ugly as this fight was to watch, due largely
to the grappling/rough housing involved between the two fighters and
McDonnell’s in ability to control it, I feel that the decision by McDonnell to
deduct points was not appropriate in either case, considering what he had
allowed from both fighters throughout much of the fight without deducting
points, but issuing stern warnings from time to time.
The opinion of yours truly notwithstanding as someone who
has covered Boxing on every level possible and keeping in mind that I cannot
recall at least at the time of this writing seeing McDonnell work a fight
before, it is certainly not the first time I have seen what I refer to as a
strict “By The Book” referee. Under most circumstances, referees who earn that
moniker are the type with a strict adherence to rules and regulations giving
fighters very little leeway to get away with things in the process. While
McDonnell seems to fit this moniker based on what I observed in this fight, I
feel he made a mistake as far as when he chose to deduct points as there were
moments during the course of the bout particularly in the middle and late
rounds where seeing as he did admonish both fighters, point deductions may have
been appropriate. I can also not recall ever seeing a point deduction issued
for a fighter seemingly saying “Good round” to his/her opponent at the end of a
round.
Although I cannot personally recall as of this writing
seeing McDonnell officiate prior to this fight, which given how many fights and
Boxing cards I cover year in and year out, I would not be surprised if I were
told that I had covered a fight before in which he was the referee, after some
time following this fight, I did do some due diligence and Marcus McDonnell has
been a referee in the sport since 1988, having officiated nearly 1100 bouts in
his career. It would therefore be irresponsible of me to suggest that
McDonnell’s officiating in this bout was a result of inexperience, as obviously
the research I was able to do shortly after this bout in an effort to jog my
memory, shows that the man is indeed experienced. It was clear however, that
the two point deductions issued by McDonnell proved to have a significant
impact on this fight as Taylor would go on to win a twelve round split decision,
but with two differing scorecards, one in favor of Taylor and the other in
favor of Catterall being separated by a single point, with each scorecard
coming out to 113-112.
While an argument could certainly be made that had it not
been for the point deductions, this fight could have ended in a draw, which
would mean Taylor would have still retained his championship, I believe that
the point deductions at minimum eliminated clarity in the scoring if not led to
a change in the outcome, whether that outcome had been a draw or perhaps
Catterall winning the decision. The bottom line, no matter how one chooses to
view this fight, Josh Taylor had a bit of a scare in this bout and for a
fighter who is trying to earn opportunities against some of the biggest names
in the sport, which would then lead to more lucrative paydays for him, this was
not the type of performance or victory that builds a strong argument as for his
getting those opportunities.
As for this observer, I feel Jack Catterall did enough to
win as I scored the fight 115-111 in his favor. It was certainly not the worst
fight I have seen or covered in a lifetime of covering Boxing, but I do feel
that the styles of the two fighters simply did not mesh well and if Taylor and
Catterall were to meet in a rematch, the fight would probably be fought in a
similar way as this fight was.
Stop number two on our journey discussing the Boxing
events that concluded the month of February takes us to Las Vegas, NV where the
Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) group of promoters presented a card headlined by
undefeated Jr. Lightweight contender Chris Colbert as he faced fellow unbeaten
contender Hector Garcia in a scheduled twelve round bout. Garcia, who took the
fight on short notice, was not particularly well known prior to this fight, but
quickly proved he belonged in the ring with Chris Colbert, who has been one of
the rising contenders in the sport in recent years. Garcia dominated the bout
over twelve rounds including scoring a knockdown of Colbert, the first time
Colbert had been dropped in his career to earn a convincing unanimous decision
victory.
An obvious story coming out of this fight is was this a
case of Colbert being under prepared for an opponent on short notice as he was
scheduled to fight WBA Jr. Lightweight world champion Roger Gutierrez, who had
to withdraw from the bout after testing positive for the COVID-19 virus. This
made the bout between Colbert and Garcia an elimination bout to determine who
will challenge Gutierrez. Although Hector Garcia won this bout and did so
convincingly, there is the obvious possibility now that the PBC will look to
secure a rematch between he and Colbert as soon as possible as Colbert has been
a fighter they have been developing over recent years and the fact that this
fight occurred on limited notice gives for better or worse, an opportunity to sell
a potential rematch as giving both fighters adequate time to prepare.
While this observer is as old school as it gets when it
comes to Boxing and feel that Garcia should get the opportunity he earned to
fight Gutierrez as soon as Gutierrez is medically cleared to return to
competition, the sport and to be more specific, the business that surrounds the
sport does not always work in a simple structure like a fighter who wins an elimination
bout will get a title shot at the earliest possible opportunity. I know that I
have used this phrase more than a few times now, but for better or worse, there
are business interests in play and whether Boxing fans or those of us who cover
the sport agree with it or not, there are times where the business interests
take priority over what a fighter has earned. Even though more often than not,
a rematch of an elimination bout occurs after some form of controversy happened
in the elimination bout, Hector Garcia won this fight clearly, there was no
controversy attached to it, and by all rights, he should face Roger Gutierrez
next. Whether or not, he does, remains to be seen.
One of the best fights of the year took place on the
undercard of Garcia’s victory over Colbert as unbeaten Jr. Bantamweight
contender Fernando Martinez scored a thrilling twelve round unanimous decision
over longtime IBF Jr. Bantamweight world champion Jerwin Ancajas to win the
championship. Martinez set a very aggressive pace from the opening bell and the
two fighters went toe to toe for virtually all twelve rounds. When it comes to
fights like this, there often is not much you can offer in terms of analysis,
as this was simply a toe to toe battle with Martinez generally getting the
better of the action. Although this was clearly a star-making performance for
Martinez, particularly here in the United States where many of Boxing’s lower
weight divisions, like the 115lb. Jr. Bantamweight division, do not always get
consistent television exposure, my concern is that his style is such that even
though it will often lead to entertaining bouts as this one was, it does not
necessarily translate to a long career as defense is usually not a priority and
it will often lead to fighters taking significant punishment over the course of
a fight as was the case for both fighters in this fight, but more so for Ancajas.
It will be interesting to see if Martinez adapts a new approach with more emphasis
on not putting himself in positions to get hit as easily as he was in this
fight. Despite Ancajas indicating after the bout that he would look for a rematch
with Martinez per a rematch clause in the contract for the bout, he may want to
take time to heal from the sustained beating he took over the course of the
fight. Both fighters quite frankly need the rest after a grueling fight like
this where 1381 total punches were thrown between the two fighters and the
majority of them were landed by Martinez who landed 427 total punches of 833
thrown to Ancajas’ 170 of 548 total punches according to CompuBox statistics.
A bout that was in the middle of the card between
Martinez’ victory over Ancajas and Hector Garcia’s win over Chris Colbert, saw undefeated
Jr. Welterweight contender Gary Antuanne Russell score a tenth round stoppage
over former WBC Jr. Welterweight world champion Viktor Postol. Russell
controlled the majority of the bout and was able to get a stoppage late in the
tenth round that was seen as controversial by some simply because there was
less than thirty seconds remaining in the bout and Postol did not appear as
though he were in enough trouble to warrant a stoppage at that point in the
bout. For Russell, the victory is likely one that will put him in line to face
undisputed world champion Josh Taylor at some point, assuming that Taylor is
not moved into a rematch with Jack Catterall later in the year.
This brings us to the final bout that will be discussed
in this column and I am speaking of course of the card that took place in London,
England where Lawrence Okolie defended his WBO Cruiserweight world championship
against Michal Cieslak. In what was a convincing performance by the undefeated
champion Okolie, which saw him score a knockdown of the challenger in round
five, the champion was able to box his way to a twelve round unanimous decision
in what was his second title defense. While historically, the Cruiserweight
division has seen many of it’s more prominent world champions ultimately
venture towards the Heavyweight division in search of greener pastures, most recently
former undisputed world champion Oleksandr Usyk, who went on to become the
current unified Heavyweight world champion, the current state of the 190lb.-200lb.
Cruiserweight division is one of limbo. Despite Saul “Canelo” Alvarez’ next two
fights being announced taking place in the two divisions below Cruiserweight,
there are still ramblings that Alvarez will ultimately venture into the
division to continue seeking greater accomplishments.
For a fighter in Okolie’s position as a current world
champion who has a promotional agreement with Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing,
and Matchroom Boxing's firm alignment with DAZN as it’s broadcast partner and the network’s
new agreement with Alvarez, the possibility is there for Okolie to eventually
get an opportunity against Alvarez, assuming of course that everything that has
been drawn up on paper with Alvarez potentially winning his next two fights
goes on with no issue or a loss. As
always in the world of Boxing, the Boxing fan should always expect the
unexpected even as what goes on outside of the ring with networks vying for the
best fights for their respective platforms even if it is not in the best
financial interest of the consumer who supports the sport, is just as
compelling as what goes on inside the ring.
“And That’s The Boxing Truth.”
The Boxing Truth® is a registered trademark of Beau
Denison All Rights Reserved.
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