Sergio Martinez Vs. Miguel Cotto
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A Hurting Sport BOOKS BY THOMAS HAUSER GENERAL NON-FICTION Missing The Trial of Patrolman Thomas Shea For Our Children (with Frank Macchiarola) The Family Legal Companion Final Warning: The Legacy of Chernobyl (with Dr. Robert Gale) Arnold Palmer: A Personal Journey Confronting America’s Moral Crisis (with Frank Macchiarola) Healing: A Journal of Tolerance and Understanding With This Ring (with Frank Macchiarola) Thomas Hauser on Sports Reflections BOXING NON-FICTION The Black Lights: Inside the World of Professional Boxing Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times Muhammad Ali: Memories Muhammad Ali: In Perspective Muhammad Ali & Company A Beautiful Sickness A Year At The Fights Brutal Artistry The View From Ringside Chaos, Corruption, Courage, and Glory The Lost Legacy of Muhammad Ali I Don’t Believe It, But It’s True Knockout (with Vikki LaMotta) The Greatest Sport of All The Boxing Scene An Unforgiving Sport Boxing Is . Box: The Face of Boxing The Legend of Muhammad Ali (with Bart Barry) Winks and Daggers And the New . Straight Writes and Jabs Thomas Hauser on Boxing A Hurting Sport FICTION Ashworth & Palmer Agatha’s Friends The Beethoven Conspiracy Hanneman’s War The Fantasy Dear Hannah The Hawthorne Group Mark Twain Remembers Finding The Princess Waiting For Carver Boyd The Final Recollections of Charles Dickens The Baker’s Tale FOR CHILDREN Martin Bear & Friends A Hurting Sport An Inside Look at Another Year in Boxing Thomas Hauser The University of Arkansas Press Fayetteville 2015 Copyright © 2015 by Thomas Hauser All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America ISBN: 978-1-55728-683-3 e-ISBN: 978-1-61075-572-6 19 18 17 16 15 5 4 3 2 1 ∞ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials Z39.48-1984. Library of Congress Control Number: 2015938419 For Peter Nelson and Ray Stallone Contents Fighters and Fights Behind the Scenes at Pacquiao-Bradley 2 3 Sergio Martinez vs. Miguel Cotto 16 Chris Algieri: An Unlikely Champion 24 Boyd Melson: An Atypical Fighter 29 GGG = WOW 35 New York Notes 39 Jermain Taylor’s “Comeback” 47 Hopkins-Kovalev: A Legacy Fight 51 A Look Back at Hopkins-Kovalev 56 Larry Holmes at Ecco 64 Non-Combatants Remembering Paul Hoggatt 69 Don Turner: Opinions and Memories 76 John Duddy: Actor 79 Curiosities “I’m Going Down” 85 David Diamante at Pamplona 89 Tina and Manny Redux 92 HBO’s “Delta Force” 95 Fistic Nuggets 98 Issues and Answers Floyd Mayweather, Donald Sterling, and TMZ 111 What Is Al Haymon Planning? 116 Instant Video Review and Boxing 126 Fistic Notes 131 The SCP Summer Premier Auction 149 Mayweather and Pacquiao vs. the Modern 135-Pound Greats 153 viii THOMAS HAUSER 100 Days: The New York Times and Boxing 158 Floyd Mayweather and Ray Rice 166 Literary Notes 171 In Memoriam 182 Floyd Mayweather, Showtime, and the Nevada State Athletic Commission 196 Author’s Note A Hurting Sport contains the articles about professional boxing that I authored in 2014. The articles I wrote about the sweet science prior to that date have been published in Muhammad Ali & Company; A Beautiful Sickness; A Year at the Fights; The View From Ringside; Chaos, Corruption, Courage, and Glory; The Lost Legacy of Muhammad Ali; I Don’t Believe It, But It’s True; The Greatest Sport of All, The Boxing Scene, An Unforgiving Sport; Boxing Is; Winks and Daggers; And the New; Straight Writes and Jabs; and Thomas Hauser on Boxing. Fighters and Fights A HURTING SPORT 3 Manny Pacquiao and Tim Bradley stand for the proposition that nice guys can finish first. Behind the Scenes at Pacquiao-Bradley 2 Shortly after one o’clock on the afternoon of Thursday, April 10, Manny Pacquiao concluded a series of satellite interviews that origi- nated in Section 118 of the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. The interviews were designed to promote his April 12, 2014, fight against Tim Bradley, and everything had gone according to plan. “My advantage is that I’m quicker than him and punch harder than him,” Pacquiao told one interviewer. When asked about being knocked out by Juan Manuel Marquez, Manny responded, “Sometimes these things happen. That is boxing.” An interviewer for Sky TV posed the all-but-obligatory question of whether or not Pacquiao would fight Floyd Mayweather. “I’m happy for that fight,” Manny said. “If not in boxing, maybe we can play one-on-one in basketball.” As for his musical talents, Pacquiao acknowledged, “I can sing, but my voice is really not that good. The fans like my singing because of what I’ve done in boxing.” At one point, Manny noted, “Sportsmanship is very important to me because it is my way of displaying respect to the sport of boxing, to my opponent, and to the fans.” After the interviews ended, Pacquiao was leaving Section 118 when a voice from across the arena shouted out loud and clear: “Manny, we love you. Manny, we love you. Manny! Manny!” Pacquiao turned to acknowledge the fan, one of many who follow him wherever he goes. Then his face broke into a broad smile. The man shouting was Tim Bradley. Manny waved, Tim waved back. In two days, they would try to beat each other senseless in a boxing ring. But for now, there was fondness between them. 4 THOMAS HAUSER Welcome to Pacquiao-Bradley 2, featuring two elite fighters who carried themselves with dignity and grace throughout the promotion with no lapse of decorum by either man. Pacquiao’s saga is well known. In an era of phony championship belts and unremitting hype, he has been a legitimate champion and also a true peoples’ champion. The eleven-month period between December 6, 2008, and November 14, 2009, when he demolished Oscar De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton, and Miguel Cotto were his peak years in terms of ring performance and adulation. That was a while ago. Tim Bradley believes in himself and epitomizes Cus D’Amato’s maxim: “When two fighters meet in the ring, the fighter with the greater will prevails every time unless his opponent’s skills are so superior that the opponent’s will is never tested.” Most elite athletes are overachievers. Bradley comes as close to get- ting 100 percent out of his potential as anyone in boxing. He’s a more sophisticated fighter than many people give him credit for. He’s not just about coming forward, applying pressure, and throwing punches. He has a good boxing brain and knows how to use it. But he isn’t particularly fast, nor does he hit particularly hard. The keys to his success are his phys- ical strength and iron will. “I’m not the most talented fighter in the division,” Tim acknowl- edges. “Not at all. There are guys with better skills and better physical gifts than I have. Where I separate myself from other fighters is my deter- mination. I wear the other guy down. That’s what it is; hard work and determination. I work my butt off. I come ready every time. People keep saying that I don’t hit that hard, that I don’t box that well. But I keep winning, don’t I?” Before each fight, Bradley promises himself that his opponent will remember him for the rest of his life. Marvin Hagler is his favorite fighter. Blue-collar work ethic, shaved head, overshadowed by boxing’s glamour boys. Pacquiao and Bradley met in the ring for the first time on June 9, 2012. During that bout, Tim suffered strained ligaments in his left foot and a badly swollen right ankle. He was rolled into the post-fight press conference in a wheelchair. A HURTING SPORT 5 “Both of my feet were hurt in that fight,” he recalls. “And I had a lion in front of me. All I could do was take it round by round. And it wasn’t enough to survive each round. I had to win them.” Bradley, as the world knows, prevailed on a split decision. A firestorm of protest followed. In the aftermath of the bout, Pacquiao was an exemplary sportsman. “I’m a fighter,” Manny said. “My job is to fight in the ring. I don’t judge the fights. This is sport. You’re on the winner’s side sometimes. Sometimes you’re on the loser’s side. If you don’t want to lose, don’t fight.” But others were less gracious. The beating that Bradley took outside the ring was worse than the punishment he took in it. “After the fight,” Tim remembers, “they announced that I was the winner. I was on top of the world, and then the world caved in on me. It should have been the happiest time of my life, and I wound up in the darkest place I’ve ever been in. I thought the fight was close. I thought the decision could have gone either way. You prepare your entire life to get to a certain point; you get there; and then it all gets taken away. I was attacked in the media. People were stopping me on the street, saying things like, ‘You didn’t win that fight; you should give the belt back; you should be ashamed of yourself; you’re not a real champion.’ I got death threats. I turned off my phone. All I did was do my job the best way I could, and it was like I stole something from the world.” “It was bad,” says Joel Diaz, who has trained Bradley for the fighter’s entire career.