Boxing: What we learnt in 2011

By Peter Wells: Well, another year is coming to an end, and what a year it’s been. It’s pretty hard to sum it all up in one article but I’ll do my best to review what has been a fascinating year to say the least.

I’d like to start with a few positive notes, including the conclusion of the Super Six, where Andre Ward was crowned king of the Super Middleweights without looking out of 3rd gear. Danny Jacobs is reported to be fully recovered from his battle with cancer and is even back training. Also the unveiling of a statue of the late Leavander Johnson, the inspirational figure displayed the true definition of never giving up and the monument in Atlantic City is a fitting tribute. And let’s not forget some of the great fights we’ve seen this year.

Unfortunately we have lost some great fighters, trainers, and promoters this year, I can’t mention all of them but they are all in our hearts. The passing of Sir Henry Cooper and Joe Frazier are included in the list, two legends of the sport whose legacy’s will live forever.

Now it is coming to the new year and I feel it appropriate to make this a fun article, as this has been a pretty comical year in boxing.

This year has been full of controversy, from diabolical refereeing to diabolical judging to diabolical match making. Earlier this year the Germans did it again, when Matthew Macklin fought brilliantly to surely steal the WBA Middleweight title off Felix Sturm but somehow the judges awarded Sturm with the verdict. But that was a good decision in comparison to some of the rest. Erislandy Lara looked a clear winner against Paul Williams but the judges were the only one’s who saw a Williams win, they were rightly suspended but unfortunately the inconsistency of banning judges has continued. Juan Manuel Marquez looked to have beaten Manny Pacquiao but the judges again decided to steal the limelight from a fantastic fight. Finland don’t get many fights so when they did they made sure we’d remember them. Derek Chisora looked to comfortably beat Robert Helenius, but was unfortunate enough to have judges with no brain cells scoring the fight.

If you think the judges have been bad this year then I’m sure your appalled by the referees this year. Joe Cooper decided to go point deduction crazy in Amir Khan’s defeat to Lamont Peterson, twice penalizing Amir Khan for shoving and pulling his opponents head down. Those deductions cost Khan both his titles but its hard to deny that Peterson was well worth the belts. Joe Cortez lost it in the Floyd Mayweather-Victor Ortiz super fight, signalling time in then taking his eyes off the fight to speak to the time keeper, only to turn round to see Ortiz on the canvas. The thing is how did Cortez know Mayweather hadn’t just flying kicked Ortiz to the ground, or maybe Ortiz decided he wanted to head butt the canvas. But it was Russell Mora who takes the prize for the worst referee of 2011. Abner Mares went low blow crazy in his fight with Joseph Agbeko, Mora gave plenty of warnings but didn’t deduct a single point. He decided to call a knockdown for Mares after he’d landed the lowest blow of the night, how Mora didn’t realize it was low despite standing directly in line with the fighters, we’ll never know. The only thing I can think of is that Mora thought that Agbeko had the longest body in the world and the shortest legs and that the lower half of his body was yellow.

The Mayweather-Ortiz fight may not have been as great a fight as many expected but it sure had plenty to talk about. Victor explained to us before the fight that he doesn’t actually have great speed or power, but we now know why he won the WBC Welterweight title; because he’s a “badass”. This superpower didn’t work against Mayweather although we did learn one of Victor’s superpower’s, which was the “diving headbutt”. Unfortunately for Victor, Floyd’s defence is so good no superpower can harm him, even Victor’s “death kiss” didn’t work. While Ortiz was confused with what was going on Mayweather decided to show the public he could punch, he wont get much credit for it though as Ortiz wasn’t exactly expecting it. It was a bizarre ending to a bizarre fight.

It was Larry Merchant though who stole the show. After Mayweather told Merchant he should be fired, Larry said something that will be remembered for years: “If i was 50 years younger, I’d kick your ass”. It was a brilliant line and you could tell Larry was pretty proud of himself afterwards.

Overall this year has been pretty extra-ordinary, James DeGale learnt to never celebrate too early, David Haye showed the world his bad toe, Joseph Agbeko is the official definition of “balls of steel”, Bob Arum decided he’s more important than the fighters as he still can’t work with anyone but himself, Amir Khan has become a “keyboard warrior”, and Bernard Hopkins is still showing the young ‘uns how it’s done.

Well thank you for reading and i wish you all a happy new year, God Bless.

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