The State of the Boxing Nation

In that we've been gone so long and so much has happened in our absence, I thought I'd start today by airing out my thoughts on a few major stories in our bread-and-butter pursuit here at the Mas, the sweet science.

1. Cotto v. Margo - The April 12th Cotto/Gomez, Margarito/Cintron card, despite featuring two non-competitive fights, proved to be a great night for boxing in that it set up the kind of Immovable Object v. Irresistible Force bout that, for all the big names floating around out there, was sorely lacking from the remainder of the 2008 schedule. I'm still a little worried that it won't happen for some reason - nothing is signed yet as far as I know and no location has been agreed upon. But still, this bout is a fight fan's dream. Obviously we have a lot of time to mull it over and so I won't get into any deep prognostification right now, other than to say that I lean towards Cotto but with heavy reservations.
2. Oscar Spars in Front of 27,000 People - I was in the house for this one doing some reportage for The Sporting Blog (you can check those posts here and here and here). On the whole, I thought it was more competitive than expected, particularly early, where I had Stevie winning... I think I had it 3-2 Oscar after 5. Mostly it seemed like a soft outing for The Golden Boy, with some real deterioration of both speed and power on display. How much of it was rust it's hard to say. I was talking to a journalist down on press row who said he'd had a long talk with Floyd Sr. the day before and that Daddy Floyd had told him that he'd hated the Forbes make from the beginning, that Oscar was setting himself up to need a big knockout to come out of the fight looking good and that Stevie was a very difficult guy to knock out or even hurt that much. And that was pretty much the story of the evening, a glorified sparring session in which Oscar decisively won rounds but did little else to impress. Was that a function of Forbes' savvy? Maybe. But I couldn't help feel like five years ago Oscar would have gotten him out of there no problem. I certainly saw nothing to make me think that he'll fare any better in a rematch with Money May.
3. Execution - Did Calzaghe/Hopkins even happen? Doesn't that fight almost seem like a mirage now? When I saw Bernard in the ring at the Oscar/Forbes fight, preening around as if he was running the show in an expensive-looking suit and an ill-advised peach shirt, I thought to myself, goddamn man holms is never going to retire. He looked like he might peel that Armani shit off at any moment and get to fighting with somebody just to get some himself some attention. And it's a shame, because after that Calzaghe slap-and-tickle session, I really feel like I don't want to watch another BHop fight. He's tough to read, he makes you look bad, he never lets you hit him square, he fouls the crap out of you and the ref never knows it... all true. He's a marvel, a walking boxing compendium of angles and maneuvers and sneakyass shit. But he doesn't fight to win anymore - he just doesn't have it in him. He was never a thrill-a-minute guy even in his prime, and now, well, now he's excruciating to watch. I hope we've seen his last fight, but I sincerely doubt it. Something tells me that Tito Trinidad thing is going to happen whether we want it or not.
4. Money May Disappoints Money-Wise - Did you see this? Wrestlemania's PPV numbers were down this year, a fact that is largely being attributed to Lil Floyd being not nearly the draw that McMahon and Co. thought he would be. Which I think is good news all around, to be honest. I'm all for the circus act, but some active encouragement to get back to basics seems in order for Cash Money right about now.