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Parody Photo © icheehuahua
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He’s back. Arturo Gatti beat up Thomas Damgaard at the Boardwalk Hall this past Saturday in a successful return to the welterweight division. Where he goes from here is yet to be seen. He is no shoe-in to beat Baldomir, the title is not his for the taking. If Gatti wants to add a third division world title to his legacy, he will have to do it the Gatti way: with heart, blood, guts and probably a broken hand. There will be more Gatti, Mayweather, light heavyweights, Jermain Taylor and much more on the newest installment of Ranting and Raving.
Mayweather Judah is back on: And it makes about as much sense as Floyd taking on Henry Bruseles. I’m not insinuating that Zab and Bruseles are the same caliber fighter, but in terms of significance it is the same fight only with a meaningless IBF strap attached to it.
If Mayweather wants to be the pound-for-pound king any longer he had better start winning linear titles from undisputed champions and quit fighting meaningless belt holders with mass local appeal (i.e. Gatti in Jersey and Judah in Brooklyn). You cannot blame Zab for taking this fight; he is taking a shot at redemption, blame him for choking brutally against Carlos Baldomir and shattering a mega payday. But if you want to know why HBO is burning a PPV date on this, blame Mayweather’s promoter, blame Mayweather, and blame HBO for not putting a stop to this. Apparently great fights and significant division changing outcomes take a back seat to Mayweather’s willingness to never shy away from the easy way out. He has all the talent in the world, and only Corrales and Castillo on the ledger, years ago.
Dixon-Balboa, what about Tarver-Johnson 3?: Kudos to Antonio Tarver for winning the Roy Jones trilogy and achieving some crossover fame, but what about that construction worker that has given you hell for the past year and a half?
After Glen Johnson dominated George Khalid Jones it seemed that the ‘Road Warrior’ was in great position to complete another trilogy in the career of Tarver, setting up a third meeting between to the two light heavyweight kings. This all went by the wayside when ‘The Magic Man’ took the role of heavyweight champion Mason ‘The Line’ Dixon in Sylvester Stallone’s sixth ‘Rocky’ movie.
Rumors have Tarver trying to lure the shot and uninspired Mike Tyson out of retirement, or just moving to heavyweight to start a title run in those barren wastelands of big men. Either way Glen Johnson’s name has been number four on Tarver’s list after the movie and other career moves. All would not be lost for Johnson as he could probably pick up the trinkets left behind by Tarver from guys like Clinton Woods, Tomasz Adamek and others. Both Tarver and Johnson had better hurry and decide on what path they will take; both are on the wrong side of 30 and father time has moved up in weight after defeating Bernard Hopkins, to light heavyweight to take these two down next.
The remainder of Arturo Gatti’s career: When you have participated in as many brutal, gruesome battles as Gatti, you’d have to think that your magic number of fights left is dwindling. This is why it would be wise for Gatti to choose carefully whom he fights in the next year.
Baldomir is a fantastic choice. He is a beatable, undisputed champion that could bring big bucks to both men and a third world title to Gatti’s legacy. The rumors pitting Gatti against Manchester, England’s Ricky Hatton would be disastrous for ‘Thunder’. If Arturo were to win the welterweight crown, Gatti should either retire, or take an easy farewell fight in Jersey. Hatton has the aggressiveness of Damgaard which in itself gave Gatti trouble, but Hatton also has infinite more power than the Dane. Gatti’s career would end violently and horrifically if this bout ever took place.
Baldomir good… Hatton bad. Main events is a very smart matchmaker and I have confidence in their handling of Gatti’s final days as a prizefighter.
Taylor vs. ?: It’s time for HBO’s new golden boy to move from fighting geriatrics to defending against true contenders like a champion should. I cannot blame Lou Dibella and HBO for talking about a Sam Soliman fight in Little Rock, but it could possibly be a message being sent that is heard loud and clear by this scribe. Winky Wright is bad news for Jermain Taylor. Dibella and company say Taylor needs a break from the grind that is two fights with Bernard Hopkins, but from what I saw neither Hopkins nor Taylor should read a book after all the brain work they did thinking in the ring, but as far as fighting and action goes, they could fight tomorrow.
There is no doubt in my mind that ‘Bad Intentions’ wants to fight the best but for some reason his handlers are milking his title reign. Perhaps because he is young and they feel to make the most money he should pace himself. After all what good is Winky Wright if they beat him right away as there is no draw after Winky at 160. If Taylor wants to fight the best now, he needs to switch handlers. So in other words, Taylor won’t be fighting the best for another year or so.
The new crossover star: We all knew Manny Pacquiao was a hard puncher, a good fighter with a lot of heart, and could bang with the best fighters in the world. But how many of us knew that he would be deemed by many to be a crossover star and boxing’s brightest one after a KO victory over Mexican legend Erik Morales?
I thought it over and I really like this prospect of ‘Pac Man’ being our new face of the sport. The very marketable Pac Man image is good for the sport as well as Pacquiao learning English to appeal to American fans. It is a lot better than hearing about fighters being arrested and being basically punks whenever they are in the spotlight. Pacquiao is a very appealing face, a god in the Philippines, and the most exciting fighter to watch in the game today. I think we can declare this the ‘Pacquiao era’ very soon.
Next Ranting and Raving: Check out the next edition that will include Lacy-Calzaghe quips, Toney-Rahman, Castillo-Corrales and much more next week in Ranting and Raving.
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© Copyright / All Rights reserved: Doghouse Boxing 1998-2006
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Ranting and Raving by Aaron Imholte (February 3, 2006) 
