Mailbag: Weekend fallout

Let’s dive headfirst into a busy reader mailbag and touch upon questions on Juan Manuel Marquez’s victory over Joel Casamayor on Saturday, Joan Guzman’s failure to make weight for his bout with Nate Campbell and assorted other topics.

My answers are in italics after the question.

DUCKED MANNY

I have no doubt that Juan Manuel Marquez is a good fighter. He has proven himself many times. But saying he’ll fight anyone as you did in your column after his win over Joel Casamayor is not entirely true. I’m a Pac Man fan, and I believe that Manny won their first fight in 2004, that was scored a draw. I also believe that Marquez deserved to win the second, though Pacquiao got the decision. After the first fight, Manny wanted a rematch, but Marquez declined, saying he had nothing more to prove. He went on to say that he should be paid more than Manny. That’s just an excuse not to fight the man who knocked him down three times in the first round. And humble? I don’t think so. If he wants a third fight with Pacquiao, he must earn it by beating other fighters first.

Blino Jobacko

Mexico City

Marquez’s manager/trainer, Nacho Beristain, in what I believe to be one of the most short-sighted decisions of the century in boxing, turned down the rematchin 2005. Pacquiao wasn’t the big financial star then that he is now and both men were offered $750,000 for an immediate rematch. Pacquiao accepted, but Beristain declined on Marquez’s behalf. He wanted $1.5 million. It was ridiculous and hurt Marquez’s career, but it’s not like Marquez didn’t want the fight. Marquez and Pacquiao put on two of the greatest fights of the decade. Regardless of who you feel won, as a fan of the sport, wouldn’t you want to see them fight again? And maybe again after that? Why settle for a ho-hum beatdown like Pacquiao gave David Diaz when you can get a compelling affair like Pacquiao-Marquez?

GIVE HIM A REMATCH

Juan Manuel Marquez is the best lightweight in the world. Look what he did Saturday to Casamayor. He won the two fights against Pacquiao, there’s no doubt. Manny will never fight Marquez again. He knows he didn’t deserve either the draw or the split decision. He lost both fights. I think he will fight Ricky Hatton after the Oscar De La Hoya circus. Do you think Manny will fight Marquez again? Marquez deserves that fight.

Israel

Puerto Rico

I wouldn’t be so quick to anoint him the best lightweight, given the presence of Pacquiao and Nate Campbell in the division, but it’s very close. If Pacquiao comes out of the Dec. 6 fight with De La Hoya all right, I do believe the most likely next opponent after that would be Hatton. I’d have no problem with that fight, but I’d rather see a third Pacquiao-Marquez fight first.

FACE JOHN NEXT

Juan Manuel Marquez’s next opponent must be Chris John of Indonesia. After that, he should fight Juan Diaz. If he wins convincingly, then he has the moral authority to say, “Come on, Manny. Let’s lay the cards on the table for everybody to see.” His fights with Pacquiao were close but Marquez must admit that those knockdowns from Pacquiao’s powerful fists made the judges hesitant to award him the victories.

Greg

Guam

Chris John is a featherweight and Marquez is now fighting at lightweight, so I don’t anticipate that bout happening. And given that John is all but unknown to the television audience in the U.S., that makes it even more unlikely he’d get a crack at Marquez. As for the knockdowns, judges take those into consideration in the round they’re in, but they should have no impact upon the scoring of subsequent rounds. Judges score the fight as 12 individual three-minute units and not as one big mass of a fight.

MISSING WEIGHT

I cannot understand why Joan Guzman refused to fight Nate Campbell on Saturday when Campbell himself said he would fight him at any weight. Why is this allowed? Shouldn’t Guzman be penalized? How hard is it really for fighters to lose weight?

Noel Domingo

Caloocan, Philippines

Guzman weighed in on Friday at 138½, 3½ pounds over the 135-pound lightweight limit. He had two hours to get the extra weight off but refused. He probably did so because he realized if he had tried, he’d have been so physically depleted he would have no chance of winning. He could have fought in a non-title match, simply to accommodate the fans in the arena and Showtime, which was televising the bout in the U.S., but he chose not to do so. That’s going to hurt him with both Showtime and HBO in the future, which aren’t going to be interested in showing his fights. A source close to Guzman whom I consider very reliable predicted on Wednesday he would miss weight but didn’t want to say it on the record. Ask any boxer, wrestler or mixed martial artist about cutting weight and they’ll tell you it’s the worst part of the job. But 99.9 percent of them do it with no problems. I would urge fans to remember what Guzman did next time he’s on a pay-per-view that you are considering buying or when he’s fighting on a card in an arena near you and you’re thinking of buying a ticket.

CAMPBELL A CLASS ACT

Good article on Nate Campbell. I met the guy why I was stationed in Florida. He was humble and even allowed me the opportunity to spar with him in the gym. He’s a very good guy who fights with his heart.

Tyree Tucker

Campbell is an exceptional guy, but the thing about boxing is that there are a lot of stories like his out there waiting to be told. Unfortunately, there are few newspapers interested in looking for and telling those stories. That’s sad.

WILL JUNIOR STEP UP?

Do you think Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. will ever face some big names? I loved his dad and respect his legacy, but it seems like they are just making money off the name alone. The kid has 37 victories and nothing to show for it. It’s time to put him out there and see what he’s got against the big dogs.

Mauricio Rosales

Kenosha, Wis.

Top Rank is milking the name for all it can get. Chavez Sr. was revered among Mexican boxing fans and Top Rank discovered that his fans want to see the son nearly as much. The son had no amateur career and thus was handled very, very carefully early in his pro career. I don’t think he’s a world-champion caliber fighter, and I doubt you’ll see him in with the likes of De La Hoya, Shane Mosley or Vernon Forrest. He can’t hang with that quality of fighter. Top Rank makes plenty of money having him fight C-level opponents and I think that’s what he’ll do. At some point, perhaps he’ll graduate to B-level oppositions, but he’ll never meet the A and A-plus guys. He fights Matt Vanda on Nov. 1 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.

DO YOUR RANKINGS

You made the comment in a recent mailbag that there is nothing that can be done about the unregulated grip the sanctioning bodies have on boxing. I think I might have a solution to the problem. If a group of 10 well-respected boxing writers got together and put together their own list of the best in each division, I think people would stop paying attention to what the sanctioning bodies say and listen to you guys. It would be kind of like the pound-for-pound list in each division.

Vinnie Bihn

Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

I hate to be the doomsayer, but that won’t work, Vinnie. There aren’t enough boxing writers who follow all of the divisions to know the top 10 in each weight class. And if you don’t see a lot of fights in every class, how are you going to fairly rank the fighters? The other problem I have with your scenario is putting journalists into the position of ranking fighters, which would have a direct bearing on the bouts they get and, ultimately, the compensation they receive. Ethically, that doesn’t seem right to me and can cause problems.

MOSLEY-MARGARITO?

Do you think if Shane Mosley defeats Ricardo Mayorga in their fight that he will get a fight with Antonio Margarito? If they do fight next year, what do you think the outcome will be?

Manny

New Jersey

Manny, it’s not IF Mosley will defeat Mayorga. That’s all but a slam dunk. I can’t understand why Mayorga keeps getting these kinds of fights. I do think a Mosley-Margarito fight is possible, but more likely is that Margarito and Cotto take on lower-level opponents while sharing a card early in 2009 and then meet in a rematch of their July 26 fight sometime in the middle part of the year. A Mosley-Margarito fight would be fun, but I’d probably lean to Margarito. But that’s a tough fight to pick and I reserve the right to change my mind.

POOR JUDGES A PROBLEM

I have seen so many examples of bad scoring that it causes me to wonder why can’t boxing get better professional judges? Most of the judges out there seem to be either inexperienced or corrupt.

Gonzalez

Chesepeake, Va.

One of the problems in finding judges is that it’s hard to train them in the pro game. The amateurs use a different (and completely ridiculous) scoring system. It used to be that a judge could do amateur fights and then move up to the pros. That’s no longer an option and now it’s almost on-the-job training. And while I see a lot of scores I disagree with, I don’t think it’s corruption.

KHAN ANOTHER HAMED?

With Amir Khan having been stopped in the first round by Breidis Prescott on Sept. 6, I have wondered if he is going to now become the next Naseem Hamed. That isn’t to suggest that Khan has the out-of-ring troubles Hamed has/had, but Hamed pretty much disappeared after a bad lose as well. Do you see a comparison?

K.J.

Stacy, Minn.

I really don’t see much of a comparison. Khan is a hard puncher, but he’s nowhere near the puncher that Hamed was. Khan is a developing fighter who may still win a title one day. He’s got awful defense and needs to be schooled on how to slip punches and how to pick off punches. But he’s nowhere in Hamed’s league when it comes to talent. Hamed only fought once after his only loss, to Marco Antonio Barrera, but I think Khan still has a long career ahead of him.