POST FIGHT NOTES FROM THE MANDALAY BAY
By Ed de la Vega, DDS
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 22 Nov 2015
LAS VEGAS -- The Canelo Alvarez-Miguel Cotto was what Golden Boy and Roc Nation said it will be an exciting fight that is worth the money fans will pay to see it.
Most everything that was predicted happened except of course Freddie Roach?s hollow promise of a knock out. Cotto was so far out there that he didn?t even have a prayer to beat Alvarez let alone knock him out. All that knock out stuff was just a product of the imagination of a trainer hoping against all hopes that his boy will win.
And who said trainers make fighters look good? It?s more of the opposite. Fighters make trainers look good.
Roach should just keep his mouth shut and focused on the task ahead and let the spin makers hype the fight. Didn?t Roach also said that Pacquiao will beat Mayweather? And all the Pinoys, myself included, believed him!
Guillermo Rigondeaux should quit boxing. The guy has no concept of the true essence of combat. But others adore his ?pure tactical skills? and his ?hit but don?t get hit? approach to boxing.. I guess it's to each his own, huh? But I am betting and Ryan Songalia of Rappler said this first - Rigondeaux ?will be on the shelf again for at a year? before he fights again or sooner if he accepts the challenge of Nonito Donaire for a second fight to prove that Rigondeaux's win over Donaire was not a fluke.
I guess Takashi Miura found out the hard way that putting an opponent down on the canvas and not effectively following it up to end the fight may bite you back. Miura knocked down the undefeated Mexican challenger, Francisco Vargas in round 3 and also cut up his face in the round before, but failed to take advantage so he paid for it dearly. A well place punch dropped Miura in round 9 and he was never the same after that leading referee Tony Weeks to stop the fight to save Miura from further damage.
Height and longer reach are many times advantageous but are not a guarantee for a clean win. Chinese giant Zhang Zhilei know that by now. He towers over his opponent in Juan Goode but he was dropped by Goode and almost turned the table on him. Lucky for Zhang, he survived the KD and went on to win by a very close unanimous decision.
The Media Center for the Canelo-Cotto fight at Mandalay was so far from the arena that it takes several long corridors, an elevator ride and a very long walk to reach it. There must have been a great reason to put it there other than to allow the media folks to build an huge appetite for the sumptuous dinner the promoters serve before the TV fights started.
The folks that make up the ?auxiliary media? are indeed very patient people. Regardless of where they are placed, only a few complained albeit silently. Their position for the Canelo-Cotto fight at the Mandalay was located along Section 119 and 120 on row K. Problem is the seating arrangement at the Mandalay is only up to Row J. That means the auxiliary media folks must stand behind the last row close to the rafters. But they endured.
In so far as controlling the crowd after the fights to lead them out of the arena, Mandalay Bay is a better place than MGM for huge fights like the Canelo-Cotto. The thousands who came to see the fights got out of the arena in no time. And, there was no stampede, an event that happens when Mayweather fights at the MGM.
Yes Alvarez easily beat Cotto. But the scores in my opinion did not reflect what happened at the fight. One score, a 119-111 was just a bit too far off. But we will never know what the judges really see from their perspective at the ringside.
Photos by Dr Ed de la Vega / PhilBoxing.com
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