PRETTY BOY FLOYD TO BRING BACK THE FUNKY JUDAH
RINGSIDE LA WITH JOHNNY ORTIZ
MARCH 30, 2006
PHOTOS BY DAVID MARTIN WARR/DON KING PRODUCTIONS
PRETTY BOY FLOYD TO BRING BACK “THE FUNKY JUDAH”
After Zab Judah created “The Funky Judah” dance after going down nearly three times from a big right hand from then jr. welterweight champion Kostya Tszyu, he is set to add a few more impromptu dance steps when he steps into the ring with everyone’s best pound for pound fighter, former Jr.Welterweight champion Floyd “Pretty Boy” Mayweather. On April 8, 2006, Zab and Floyd will be fighting for Judah’s IBF Welterweight title at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas. It still tickles me whenever I see a replay of the Tszyu-Judah fight that was fought on March 11, 2001, after setting a blistering pace in the first round, Zab looked as though he was going to be hard to beat, let alone catch. I can only imagine, due to the fact that he had won the first round so convincingly, Zab for some reason or other, slowed down the pace in order to have some fun at Kostya’s expense…big mistake! “The Thunder From Down Under” stalked him until he had Zab dead in his sights, Judah never saw the big right hand from Kostya Tszyu, he hit Zab so hard he went down twice from the same punch, if referee Jay Nady had not caught and held Judah up after the second knockdown, Zabdiel would have gone down for the third time from Kostya’s right hand bomb. This is when Zab began doing his improvised little dance around the ring. Nady wisely stopped the contest at the official time of 2:59 of the second round. Had he not stopped it when he did, Kostya could have seriously injured a helpless, whacked out Judah. It would have taken more than one minute to revive his badly, scrambled brain. Judah went on a rampage, he threw a stool and then tried to choke referee Nady. The fight had been for Kostya Tszyu’s WBC, WBA and IBF Jr. Welterweight belts. I really do not give Zab Judah much of a chance to defeat Floyd Mayweather Jr. In Zab’s last fight; he was soundly beaten by a 10-1 underdog by the name of Carlos Baldomir. Judah, looking past Baldomir to his next scheduled fight against Pretty Boy, was no excuse for not being properly prepared for the likes of Baldomir. Even though a fighter may think he has an easy fight coming up, it is up to his trainer and those in his fight entourage to constantly remind him that the other guy, Carlos Baldomir, was in rigorous training for the fight of his life. Zab deserved to lose just as much as Carlos deserved to win, if he thinks he had his lunch handed to him in the Baldomir fight, wait until he steps in with Pretty Boy. Zab Judah lost his WBC and WBA Welterweight titles to Baldomir, the only reason Zab was allowed to keep the IBF belt he and Floyd will be fighting for on April 8th, was due to the fact that Baldomir did not pay his IBF sanctioning fee. Mayweather has officially relinquished the WBC Super Lightweight crown he won from Arturo Gatti in order to challenge Judah for his IBF welterweight tiara. The accomplished three-division champion will be adding a fourth division title when he makes Zab go into his “Funky Judah” dance. You can make book on it.
I wasn’t much of a Floyd guy in the beginning, even though I knew him to be extremely talented, he did a little too much running in the ring to suit me, I just didn’t think he had yet to learn to put the God given talent he had at his disposal to good use. He started to turn me around in his last five fights, it seemed as if he had finally started to believe in himself, and his incredible abundance of talent. I now consider Floyd Mayweather Jr. to be the “complete package.” Floyd has amazing ability, and now that he has learned to put it all together, there is no telling what fistic heights he can reach. This will be Floyd’s second venture into the welterweight ranks, he destroyed a very good fighter in Sharmba Mitchell, he handled him with ease before putting him away via a TKO in the sixth round of a scheduled twelve round affair. It is not a well kept secret that after he dusts off Judah, the fighter Floyd most wants is none other than the “Golden Boy” himself, Oscar De La Hoya. This past Thursday in Los Angeles, Floyd had this to say to the boxing reporters on hand, “I have nothing but respect for this guy, he’s still one of the best fighters out there pound for pound, but as of right now, I’m focused on Zab Judah. Once we get past him, my team will go back to the drawing board and see what they talk about. Even though he must feel good about his upcoming fight with Judah, I like the fact that Floyd is not looking past him. A fighter must learn to take them one at a time. Oscar vs. Floyd could very well become a reality; Oscar has said that he would like to end his celebrated fighting days against Floyd Mayweather Jr. The fight would be a huge and befitting way for the Gold Medal winner and six-time world champion from ELA to go out. The fight would in all probability take place in September, all Oscar and Floyd have to do is get Judah and the professional amateur, Ricardo Mayorgo, out of the way, something that I certainly believe they will both accomplish with a great deal of flair. They would probably fight at a catch weight of 152 pounds, that is if Bob Arum would consent to putting his best fighter in with his now archrival…Oscar De La Hoya. One could not ask for a better marquee matchup, I can just see it now…“The Golden Boy vs. The Pretty Boy!”
The HBO PPV fight card is appropriately titled, “Sworn Enemies.” Both Floyd and Zab claim to be friends, that may, or not be true, but the one thing I am sure of is the fact that the bout between Jorge “Travieso” Arce (43-3-1 w/33 ko’s) and Rosendo “El Bufalo” Alvarez (37-2-2 w/24 ko’s) is sure to be a down and out grudge fight. After stopping Adonis Rivas on January 28, 2006, for the second time inside two months, Travieso was accosted by none other than Rosendo Alvarez. El Bufalo took a shot at him as Arce was walking down the aisle to his dressing room, then adding to his aggressive nature, Alvarez then threw down a challenge to the new idolo de Mexico, Travieso, not one to let grass grow under his feet, accepted the challenge from the highly regarded Nicaraguan. Not trying to diminish the excitement the main event is sure to bring, the fight I am looking forward to is Travieso vs. El Bufalo. These are two great, little warriors; I consider Ricardo “Finito” Lopez to be the greatest 105-108 pound fighting machine and arguably the very best fighter to ever come out of Mexico. He retired with an amateur and professional record of 84 wins and no losses; his two toughest fights were against the same Rosendo Alvarez. Their first fight held on March 7, 1998, ended in an eight round technical draw due to an ugly gash Finito received from a second round accidental head butt, Ricardo won their second encounter by way of a 12 round split decision on November 13, 1998, the scores were: 67-64, 66-66, 68-63. I was, and still believe that Finito had won the fight unanimously, but losing a split decision to Finito gives testimony to the great fighting ability of Alvarez. Finito Lopez fought only three more times before announcing his retirement at an emotional press conference in Mexico City on November 28, 2002. His last fight, an eight round KO win against Zolani Petelo on September 29, 2001, also marked the final fight the great, eighty-one year old Arthur Mercante would ever referee. The last fight Alvarez would lose was to Beibis Mendoza on December 8, 2000, he was disqualified in the seventh round by referee Mitch Halpren after landing the last of his three low blows. Rosendo would beat Mendoza the next three times they met. A sad note to add to Alvarez’ DQ loss was that eight days after the fight, referee Mitch Halpren tragically committed suicide. Not to be outdone, Travieso Arce last loss was to a great fighting champion, Michael Carbajal; he was stopped on a TKO in the 11th round on July 31, 1999, he was only 19 years old. The lethal punching Travieso from Los Mochis, SIN, Mexico, is a non-stop punching machine, he never stops coming at you, throwing punches in bunches. I’m picking the little exciting gladiator Arce to win, he is only 26 years old compared to Rosendo’s 35 years of age. If it were the Alvarez who fought two great fights with Finito, it would be hard to pick against him, but as I always say, “Youth must be served.” It is almost unheard of for a flyweight to be still fighting competitively at the age of 35, but it hasn’t seemed to slow down the little warrior from Nicaragua, both he and Arce are on big win streaks. Jorge and Rosendo will be fighting for the WBC Interim Flyweight Championship. This fight makes the PPV fight card worth the money. Also on the card will be what appears to be a terrific WBA Lightweight title confrontation between the champion, Juan Diaz vs. Jose Miguel Cotto. This is a battle of undefeated lightweights, Juan Diaz, aka “Baby Bull,” is 28-0 w/14 KO’s, Jose, the brother of Puerto Rican sensation Miquel Cotto, is 27-0 w/19 KO’s. This should prove to be the Baby Bull’s toughest test to date, I haven’t seen much of Cotto, but I know, and have seen Diaz fight on a few occasions, one being the time he won the lightweight title from Lakva Sim, Juan had an easy time of it, winning the crown going away. Not being that familiar with Cotto’s fighting style, I’m picking Juan to bull his way to victory, he’s not a big puncher, but he can box your ears off. Julio Caesar Chavez Jr. is also on the card vs. TBA. These matchups I’ve written about are well worth the price of admission. If you like fights with high profile names, this fight card is right up your alley.
“PATH TO GLORY RETURNS TO THE DOUBLETREE HOTEL!”
This Friday night, March 31, 2006, Thompson Boxing Promotions will host their second fight card of the New Year at the Doubletree Hotel Events Center in Ontario, California. If their first fight card of the year is any indication of what lies ahead for the busiest boxing promotional team in the Southland, the fight fans are indeed in for a banner year of exciting, sold out, fistic performances. As I reported in my last article, the success of Thompson Boxing Promotions cannot be pinpointed to any one particular person, Kenneth Thompson; the head of the promotional team has assembled a boxing staff that knock themselves out with each new promotion. Starting with the now highly regarded and experienced matchmaker, Alex Camponovo, who in just a few years is now being considered in the top echelon of matchmakers. I have been there from the start; I can say unequivocally that in all of my years in boxing, and having dabbled a bit in matchmaking myself, I have yet to see someone learn the matchmaking trade as fast as the personable Mr. Camponovo. The excellent boxing cards that are put on by Thompson Promotions are a definite testament to his matchmaking skills. Then there is the very pretty young woman who answers to the name of Cindy Gutierrez, she does quite a variety of jobs for Mr. Thompson leading up to the big night, Cindy and her staff are the ones you meet before entering the boxing site, they put the gears into action, any and everything connected with making the night a success, Cindy and her girls see to it that fans are the recipients of a great night of boxing. The guy I envy is Mr. Thompson’s son Steve, a good looking young man who has the implausible job of being in charge of all of the beautiful ring card girls, I bet he wishes that was all he had to do, but all kidding aside, Steve is all over the place, aside from making sure everything is being run on all cylinders, if something suddenly needs attention…Steve’s on it. That’s the skinny on Thompson Boxing Promotions, from the head guy, charismatic Kenneth Thompson, right down to the ticket takers. It is a formula that Thompson Boxing put together a long time ago; it took a while to perfect it, but prefect it they did. It really is not all that surprising that all ten of their shows last year were all sold out, standing room only events. Their opening fight card this past February 17th, featured two of Thompson Boxing Promotions fast, rising young stars in Timothy Ray “Desert Storm” Bradley and Jose “Joseito” Lopez in separate main events. Timothy and Joseito did not disappoint their fast growing legion of fans. Timothy Ray reminds me of a young Aaron Pryor in that he is a non-stop punching machine, and like Pryor, he is as strong at the finish as he is in the beginning, it is no wonder that his style has attracted so many loyal fans. The same can be said of Joseito, he is just as exciting, but he is a more calculating type of fighter, you can almost see him thinking as he intelligently figures out his opponent. As always, it was another festive gathering of fight aficionados. Every fight had something to offer, this Friday night will be no exception, an ingredient that the late, successful promoter Eileen Eaton built her following at the Olympic Auditorium on, was the “House Fighters,” she maintained that if you put certain fighters on cards that the audience liked, they would come back to see them in action. The list is way to long to mention, but some of the electrifying few were Bobby “Schoolboy” Chacon, Danny “Lil Red” Lopez, his brother “Indian Red,” Jerry Quarry, Joey Orbillo, “Scap Iron” Johnson, Mando Ramos, Rudolfo “El Gato” Gonzalez, Albert Davila, Mando and Oscar “The Boxer” Muniz. Kenneth Thompson and Matchmaker Camponovo have decided to give Eileen’s excellent theory a try, they have started to put together a stable of house fighters of their own, they have signed two very hot prospects, the aforementioned Timothy Ray Bradley and Jose Lopez to exclusive promotional agreements. Just last week, they announced the signing of yet another young gunslinger in super featherweight Dominic Salcido, he is 7-0 w/4 KO’s. Thompson Boxing scored big in signing “The Rialto Kid,” he was a much sought after prospect, don’t take my word for it, judge for yourself, Dominic Salcido will be fighting on this Friday night’s fight card, he will be facing a very formidable foe in young, tough Odilon Rivera. Timothy Ray Bradley will join Dominic in the fight lineup; he will be defending his WBC Youth Welterweight Championship in the main event against Eli Addison. Rounding out the rest of the card will be a super bantamweight fight between Sytel Wilbarn and Francisco Rubio, followed by a featherweight bout pitting Rafael Garcia against Mario Franco; the closing act will bring together jr. welterweights, Felipe Campana and Adrian Tait. This card figures to be a great night of boxing. Be sure to stop by and meet some of the great ex-champs and contenders that can usually be seen in the Thompson Boxing Promotions fight audience. I’ll be there, please come up and say hello, I like nothing better than to make new boxing friends. For tickets call: (714) 935-0900 or contact Cindy or Alex by visiting www.thompsonboxing.com
The doors will open to the Event Center at 6:30 p.m. The first fight is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Remember…all roads lead to the Doubletree Hotel in Ontario.
UNTIL THE NEXT ROUND…PEACE AND GOD BLESS!
JOHNNY ORTIZ IS A MEMBER OF THE WORLD BOXING HALL OF FAME BOARD OF DIRECTORS
JOHNNY ORTIZ IS A MEMBER OF THE GOLDEN STATE BOXERS ASSOCIATION BOARD OF DIRECTORS
JOHNNY ORTIZ IS A FORMER CO-OWNER OF THE WORLD FAMOUS, LEGENDARY MAIN ST. GYM