The Square Ring

Even in this day of multi ranking organizations and superfluous weight class’s that’s something. The fight ? A humdinger from the opening bell for 5 rounds. After splitting the first 2 rounds the 3rd was going to Cotto (34-2) when out of the blue Pacquiao landed a right that dumped Cotto on the back of his lap.

The 4th round sealed the deal. With Cotto well ahead in the round he got clocked with a left uppercut late. The punch dropped Cotto like a bad habit for Lent and had his eyes spinning like a slot machine. TSR gave Cotto the 5th mainly because Pacquiao allowed it. From this point on it was “when” not “if” for Cotto. “It’s the punches you don‘t see that hurt,” opined the great trainer Emanuel Stewart. There were a lot that Cotto didn’t see but felt. “I can’t defense punches I don’t see.” When the end came Cotto had cuts around both eyes as well as noticeable swelling. Pacquiao appeared unmarked but TSR noticed that during the post fight interview with Larry Merchant Pacquiao’s right ear had developed all the ugly signs of cauliflower ear. Post fight photo’s show Pacquiao with his head heavily bandaged.

A Right Cross
“O.R.” Cross was landed right when he reminded TSR of “the old adage that speed beats power. This was most certainly verified with this fight. Pacquiao took the best Cotto could give and gave him a real beating. The best fight of the year. Now (maybe) the world is once again interested in boxing. The money record has to be in a Pacquiao-Mayweather dust up. Hope it comes before I go to Buddha.” Pacquiao didn’t answer any questions about his next fight. “My job is to fight in the ring. Mr. Arum and my trainer decide who I fight.” Look for Mayweather-Pacquiao maybe late next spring. Did Tim rename her place “Buddha ?” Just axing.

One who was at least half right was trainer Freddie Roach. “I honestly don’t think we’re going to knock him out. We’re going to make him quit.” Cotto is a warrior and would never quit. He didn’t. Strangely enough it was TV’s Larry Merchant who said it best. “We thought Pacquiao was great but he’s better.”

Ranting Lordship
When his Lordship goes off on a tangent he goes at mock speed. This time he was set off by an event at the WBC Convention recently held in Jeju,South Korea. The liftoff was the suspension of Chris Arreola by the WBC ranking committee for his “foul mouth tirade after his onesided loss.” They decreed that he’ll be out of the rankings for 6 months sitting in the “sin bin.” His Lordship gets the “RA” as he’s had it with self righteous sports organization penalizing “real” athletics because they don’t act like either choir boy’s, choir girls, choir person’s or declined to state cause it’s none of your business. The sport of boxing has much bigger fish to fry.

What did Arreola say ? “I worked my a-- off. Vitali is a strong mother f–ker. I wanted to go the full 12. I knew it was fu—ing me up. I couldn’t get to him, Man. Fu-k! This ain’t the last you’ll see of me. Fu#k that. I’m coming back.” What Arreola said is mild compared to the foul-mouth garbage that is the usual HBO day-to-day fare. HBO is ignoring the ban as Arreola is scheduled to fight on HBO December 5th.

His Lordship came down to earth with the news that the WBC is serious about getting involved in “amateur boxing.” The first step in that direction will manifest itself with “an amateur tournament” that will be run by professional boxing people. The WBC will have to fight the dinosaurs of amateur boxing but it is a fight worth having and winning.

Lightheavyweight Par Duex
The Lordship’s college chum emailed in with the though that “you slight Bob Foster.” Garth Ennis may have a point as His Lordship had Bob Foster at number 4 with a 56-8 record. Upon closer review his record was really a lot better. His last two “l’s” can be discounted as he was just in there for the payday. Like many Light heavy’s of the day to make a dime they had to move up and fight heavy’s. Foster did losing to Ernie Terrell, Zora Folly, ‘Smok’en’ Joe Frazer and Muhammad Ali who out weighted foster by a whooping 41 pounds. Against light heavy’s Foster was 56-2. Still tough to move Foster up over either Billy Conn or Ezzard Charles the latter who has a street named for him in his hometown of Cincinnati Ohio.

His Lordship also got an email from Will Morledge who each month puts out the great web site Midnight Hour focusing on Bangkok. A good read. “We shouldn't forget Archie Moore's fight with heavyweight Rocky Marciano, where he knocked Marciano down and almost beat him, only to lose later after 5 knockdowns by Marciano. One of his best fights was as a heavyweight.” That and the first Walcott fight were by far Marciano’s
most difficult.

At Nürnberger Versicherung Arena, Nürnberg, Germany

With the good Colonel Sheridan and Benny “I Keek a Touchdown” Ricardo mikeside for the PPV to the surprise of no one David “Chicken” Haye (23-1) defeated Nikolai Valuev (50-2) for the WBA heavyweight title. Two judges saw it 116-112 while one judge, Juan Manual Garcia Reyes, had his seeing eye dog do the scoring so it was called a 114 draw. Senior Ricardo said of the decision, “The first right decision out of Nuremnerg Germany since the trials.” More pearl of wisdom from Ricardo, “Haye had to stay quick because at the end of the fight Valuev would still be big. Easier to knock a face off Mt. Rushmore than KO the 7-2, 316Lb Valuev.” O.R. Cross probably lured into watching this fight, he’s boycotting heavy guys fights, by his favorite announcer the Colonel Sheridan emailed, “forced myself to watch Haye-Valuev. Renewed my faith in boycotting the heavy guys. Might tune in Haye and either Klitschko.” Must be selecting boycotting.

The fight drew a crowd if 8,000 along with 8.4 million on German’s free ARD TV. Haye become the second cruiserweight, Evandler Holyfield being the first, to move up and win a heavyweight championship. Next up for “Chicken” Haye, who ducks a real heavyweights like a “Teelock” does her “honey” when the pension check’s late, is John Ruiz

The Thailand Scene
Couple of local boxers had good outings recently. Bantamweight contender Tantong Kiattaweesuk (13-0) was described as “impressive” when he stopped Chinese invader Wan Jun Hui. Kiattaweesuk dropped Hui three times in the 4th round when referee Sanong Au-Im stepped in to stop it at 2:40. Upon further review this win wasn’t anything special as Hui was 5-9 with his 5 wins coming from boxer’s with a combined record of 2-3- while 3 wins came from debuting boxers. WBC youth bantam champion Pungluang Sor Singyu (25-1) showed good power when he dispatched Filipino Jilo Merlin at 1:32 of the first stanza. Even though Merlin was only 7-5 he had never been stopped. Singyu’s only loss was a “dodgy” split decision loss in Belgium to undefeated Stephane Jamoye (14-0) by a point.

Super bantamweight Sod Looknongyangtoy continued on his winning ways with a Technical decision over Rochard Olisa. As this was a “directional WBC title fight” (WBC Asian title) the scores were read after four rounds. Sod was comfortably ahead on all cards. In the7th Sod received a bad head gash so was unable to continue. Going to the cards Sod won easily. This improved Sod’s record to 43-2 with the only two blemishes coming at the fists of Daniel Ponce de Leon both in the USA. Stay home young man. Same card Lady 102 lb champion Buarimbung Lookjandaeng (13-0-1) got a draw against a Swedish lady using a fake name. Got to
watch them dodgy Swedes.

Who?
It’s very possible that not many casual boxing fans in Thailand or anywhere know the name Wethya Sakmuangkland. He’s a throwback to the “olden days” with a record of 78-5. In his 13 year career there have only been two opportunities to win world titles. On both occasions he came up short once against Guty Espadas jr. in 2000 and then in 2001 against Manny Pacquiao. Last time he lost a SD, by 1 point, to Rolly Matsushita in Japan. He goes back to the Land of the Rising Sun to face Yuta Nagai on the 27th of this month.

Jeeves Time
“How about the latest ThisIsThailand moment ? The biggest fight of the year with Pacquiao-Cotto no Thailand local coverage.. Sir Frog was forced to get up early on a Sunday morn after a Pattaya Saturday night to ventured to Shenanigans to watch the action on South African TV. Did you know that Manny Pacquiao has lost 2 fights via the KO route ? Yes Sir and one was to Thailand’s Medgeon Singsurat in 3 rounds back in September of ’99. “OK Jeeves. Let’s drink to that and to Kim at Shenanigans for showing the fight. That plug ought to be worth a pint or 5 on my next visit. Jeeves the lager, the tobacco stick and the old Delbert McClinton
CD cause Cheewit dee khrup”