Due to the early start for television, the card apparently started with the featured bouts with the undercard following deep into the night, according to Steve Kim, my go-to boxing read.
Steve's live-tweeting of the undercard was hilarious and made me laugh plenty, but made me wonder just why PBC didn't start the card in the afternoon and run-up to the top bouts as Steve's photo showed about the same amount of fans near the end as attend most Hagerstown Suns games.
Snark aside, Leo Santa Cruz did what he has traditionally done against overmatched antagonists- overwhelmed them with volume punches matched by few fighters in the game.
The durable opponents go the distance and lose a lopsided decision, which was the case in this one as Rafael Rivera was able to win the opening round and had a few moments for himself but would win no further rounds on my card or any of the three judges as Santa Cruz galloped to a unanimous decision to retain his WBA featherweight title.
Santa Cruz can be a fun fighter to watch, but there is a certain monotony in his performances and there does seem to be another feeling of been there before when you see him in the ring.
Santa Cruz also seems like a really nice guy that is easy to root for and has an interesting back story with his father training him while battling cancer (his father pictured above also reminds me of the late wrestling manager Paul Jones with the mustache and hat), but these types of fights are not gaining him any fans and he's at the stage of his career where he needs to decide just what he wants to be.
Does he want to be remembered as a top fighter of his era or is fine with being a belt collector and is content with swatting light flies with the occasional upper to mid-level contender?
Santa Cruz says he wants WBC champ Gary Russell, which would not only be a fascinating title unification that should be easy to make with both fighters promoted by PBC, if not for one problem-Santa Cruz does not fight a lot and Russell fights even less, so coordinating their schedules might take years.
That's typed in some snark, but there is a certain amount of truth to the statement as well.
It would be one of the better fights in the game, but both men will have to be willing to gamble on greatness and Santa Cruz has seldom shown the willingness to do this (only in his split series with Carl Frampton) and Russell hasn't shown that willingness at all.
Sometimes athletes can be content with what they have, but either way Santa Cruz title defenses against the likes of Rafael Rivera are not the type of main event fare for network prime time television and needs to be coupled with a better top bout in the future.
The co-feature looked like a really exciting bout on paper and it was strong enough action-wise, yet it felt to me like when you look forward to a great meal at a nice restaurant and when it's over, it was good, but not quite up to what you expected.
Former WBC lightweight champion Omar Figueroa once was looked at as a future star.
I even named him way back when I began to work with Ramon Malpica as my pick as a can't miss player for his power and exciting style.
Figueroa has fought only once in the past three years, left a division due to weight issues, and reportedly did so again prior to his fight against veteran John Molina, who figured to come to Figueroa, make a firefight and re-establish Figueroa as a potential opponent for any of PBC's welterweight stars.
Instead, Figueroa didn't shine as expected, had PBC's fight commentators (Dan Goossen and Lennox Lewis) flowing criticism his way (Goosen thought Molina won) and even though I had Figueroa winning close (96-94), it didn't feel like a redemptive evening by any stretch.
While two of the three scorecards were ridiculous (98-92 and 99-91), this should have been the type of night that saw Figueroa take out Molina and show why so many thought so highly of his talent.
In all sports, there are athletes who don't seem to want to stand out as much as others want them to and therefore don't live up to expectations.
Omar Figueroa looks like he is going to be one of those athletes.
The Fox broadcast was pretty cluttered with speaking mistakes, graphic errors, and just too many damn people to listen to.
PBC/Fox needs to fix this and quickly (their next broadcast is in three weeks with Shawn Porter vs Yordanis Ugas) before their broadcasts hit rock bottom.
I thought Kenny Albert as the blow by blow man was a large upgrade over Chris Myers and Dan Goossen is decent enough as an analyst and isn't afraid to voice opinions, even if they are wrong as Goossen believed that not only did John Molina defeat Omar Figueroa, but he was robbed by the judges, which is an opinion not shared by many others.
Lennox Lewis is rather bland and unlike Goossen, has to have his thoughts dragged out of him and stated during the fight that he doesn't like to score fights, which isn't mandatory for a commentator, but shows his reticence in offering opinions.
The larger issue is the others fighting for air time as there are just too many voices, not enough time and as a result, you wonder what the point of it all is.
Ray Mancini is usually on point and he knows the history of the game very well, but under this format, viewers don't get enough of Mancini because PBC almost always squeezes in an active fighter from the stable to sit at the desk and rarely do they have the time to offer anything of value, even before the limitations of the person involved, which in this case was IBF super-middleweight champion, Caleb Plant.
Plant offered little insight other than generalities and seemed very uncomfortable in the role as he was using the time that would have been better used for Mancini's time
Kate Abdo, who was imported from Great Britain for Fox's soccer and boxing coverage, is solid enough as the host, but she simply has too many scorers around her and one ball to pass.
Heidi Androl is pleasant enough, but like so many others that have been given positions in boxing television, doesn't seem to know the product well enough, just as in her interview with Leo Santa Cruz after his win asking him about a unification fight with "Gary Marshall".
Since I am assuming there would be a small audience for Santa Cruz against the late producer of "Happy Days", the slip-up was a sign of a lack of knowledge.
Fox isn't alone in hiring the less than boxing savvy interviewers/hosts, DAZN has Kay Adams among their telecasting problems, but when you are using folks not from the boxing community (Androl's background is hockey and MMA) it's better for the program if you limit their time or at least keep them to fluff pieces that don't allow their lack of knowledge to shine through.
An old saying has been used "Less is More", for Fox the lesson may be "Fewer microphones mean more knowledge.
All of that aside, Fox does have one standout that makes their broadcast worth sticking with until the end If you live in the DMV (District, Maryland, and Virginia for non-locals) you are fortunate enough to have the card followed by the weekend news with Lauren DeMarco.
I wonder if Ms. DeMarco wants to work for Fox boxing??
Perhaps those ideas on another day...
In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica scored four points to my three (including the Rob Brant victory Friday night) over the weekend with the difference being Leo Santa Cruz winning by decision.
Ramon extended his challenge lead over me to 36-34.
No comments:
Post a Comment