By Jim De Pierro

15.11.2002 - Well fight fans once again it is fight time and its time for me to look in my crystal ball and tell you the future of what is going to happen this weekend. I meant to do a column last week on the Phillips vs. Mitchell fight and Spadafora vs. Holbaek-Pederson fight but I was just lazy and seemed to come down with a case of writers block plus I had just purchased this new video game and I have been devoting almost all my spare time to beating it. If you have never played Grand Theft Auto Vice City let me tell you everything about that game is wrong. It is the most base, degenerate, immoral video game that I have ever played and you know what it is fun as hell. I still haven’t beaten this game but I am getting there.

It is probably just as well I didn’t write a column last week because I would of told you Vince Phillips was going to KO Sharmba Mitchell and I would be looking real foolish right now. That rotten Sharmba Mitchell does nothing but run for 10 rounds and then has the nerve to Kostya Tszyu, who is one of the best class acts in boxing, a “bum”. I don’t mind listening to fighters talk trash about Zab Judah because I feel that you reap what you sow but I think it’s a little ironic to call Judah “little gay boy” when you have just finished fighting your fight wearing a skirt.

In case you haven’t figured it out yet I don’t care much for Sharmba Mitchell. He reminds me too much of Hector Camacho Sr. for me to ever be a fan. Like Camacho he runs around the ring wearing a skirt, never really stands in the trenches and actually fights. The only thing that I can say in Mitchell’s defense that makes him better than Camacho is that at least Mitchell doesn’t call himself macho. Mitchell and Camacho’s style of fighting is mostly flash and is really more about making your opponent look bad than actually winning a fight. I did think Mitchell deserved the win against Phillips but unlike the Showtime announcers I thought the fight was a lot closer than they Cyz and company saw it. I had the fight 96-94 for Sharmba Mitchell. A majority decision was a reasonable verdict IMO for that fight.

I won’t comment too much on the Spadafora-Pederson fight because I didn’t see it. It amazes me that anybody would actually pay to see Paul Spadafora fight. Everytime I watch Spadafora fight I am bored to tears. Spady thinks he is so tough and old school but as far as I am concerned Spady is nothing but runner who throws the same combinations while moving backwards. Sooner or later someone is going to figure out Spadafora for the one trick pony that he is. Spady is probably a cool guy out of the ring but in the ring he is awful to watch. The only thing I can say for sure that I like about Spadafora is that he hates Floyd Mayweather.

Guty Espadas 35-5 (21 KOs) vs. Clarence “Bones” Adams 41-5-3 (19 KOs)

(PPV under-card fight for Morales-Ayala)

Hmm, this is a tough fight to call as I think both fighters have seen better day. I am kind of tempted to pick a draw as I think both have sunk to a similar level but I have to go with Adams in this as I think Espadas is IMO definitely washed up whereas Adams is probably washed up or doesn’t seem to have the heart for the game anymore. Espadas has been in the ring with the likes of Jesus Salud, Erick Morales, Agapito Sanchez and Luisito Espinoza. Against that crowd he is 2-2. His fight with Morales was close enough IMO that it could have gone either way. If you have never seen Morales-Espadas fight you didn’t miss anything. It was one of those fights that was close because neither fighter really did anything. What makes me believe that Espadas is washed up is a loss to an unknown by the William Abelyan where he was knocked down twice in a fight that he lost by unanimous decision. I have seen Abelyan fight once and in all fairness to Espadas he did seem like a fairly good but boring fighter against the now ancient and totally washed up Jesus Salud. Abelyan, from what I saw doesn’t pack much of a punch so I have to really question Espadas’s chin if he got dropped by this guy.

Bones Adams strikes me as being kind of a weirdo. Here is a guy who aspires to be a cutman after he is done with boxing. There is nothing wrong with being a cut man per se but that’s kind of a strange thing to aspire to. I could be wrong but I think that most people that become cutmen do so as a stepping-stone to becoming a trainer or are cutmen in addition to some other line of work. I am guessing that this fight is probably taking place at featherweight, which means that Adams will be fighting at a weight a little higher than he is used to fighting at. I thought Adams clearly beat Ayala in the first fight but for the rematch it looked to me that he only showed to get a payday. I read a rumor and it may not be credible at all that Adams wasn’t training very hard and was in bad shape leading up to the re-match with Ayala. Regardless I think Paulie Ayala clearly did his homework and fought a much better fight in the re-match against Adams than he did the first time.

My best guess is that Bones Adams is going to win a lackluster unanimous decision against Guty Espadas in a fight where neither fighter will look very impressive.

Clarence “Bones” Adams UD over Guty Espadas

Erik Morales 41-1 (31 KOs) vs. Paulie Ayala 34-1 (12 KOs)

PPV Main Event

No surprises here, I am going with Morales to win this fight. Morales should win this fight just by virtue of the fact that he is bigger, stronger and just as if not more skilled than Ayala. The thing to really watch for in this fight is how Morales will be able to deal with Ayala in comparison to how well Barrera’s performance against Tapia. Overall I think Tapia is a better and more accomplished fighter than Paulie Ayala but let’s face it the only reason Tapia was given a shot at Barrera was for his name recognition. A 2002 version of Johnny Tapia is less of a foe than a 2002 Paulie Ayala. Morales will probably be in a tougher fight against Ayala than Barrera was in against Tapia a few weeks ago.

Morales will be coming into this fight off the first loss of his career. I don’t think Morales loss to Barrera in his last fight is likely to affect him as he probably believes that he deserved to win the fight with Barrera. I thought Barerra gave up to many early rounds in their second encounter for Barrera to be called the victor. I also felt that Barrera was robbed in the first fight so I guess in a way two wrongs does make right at least it does in the world of boxing.

Even though I think Morales will more than likely prevail I don’t see this fight as impossible for Ayala to win. Ayala’s best chance of clinching victory away from the heavily favored Morales aside from crooked judges which Ayala has unfortunately benefited from in the past, is if Morales were to overlook Paulie Ayala. Say what you will about Ayala but one thing is for sure is that Ayala will come to fight and if Morales is having an off night than Ayala will win.

The only fight I have ever seen of Ayala where I thought he deserved to win was the re-match with Bones Adams. In fights with Hugo Dianzo, Johnny Tapia and Bones Adams (the first fight) Ayala was given the official nod by the judges in fights where many at ringside felt he lost. I did see the first Tapia-Ayala fight and while I wouldn’t quite go so far as to call it a robbery I did think Tapia enough to beat Ayala in a very well contested fight. From what I understand Tapia did better in the re-match with Ayala but still came up short on the judges scorecards. I never saw the re-match with Tapia but Ayala has a track record of winning suspect decisions. One thing I did notice about Ayala in his last fight with Adams was that Ayala looked a little bigger and stronger than he had on other occasions that I have seen him. I thought Ayala clearly looked like the stronger fighter the second time around with Bones Adams. Ayala, with only 12 KOs to his credit out of 35 fights, is clearly not KO artist but I think Ayala has enough pop in his punches to at least get his opponents respect.

Morales has a lot of KOs especially for a featherweight but I think the KOs Morales has have come about as a result of handspeed and being able to put his punches together quickly. Several years ago when Morales had beaten Kevin Kelley by 7th round TKO Kelley was asked about how hurt he was against Morales and how Morales punches compared to Prince Naseem Hamed. Kelley, who is excellent as an impartial observer and commentator, said that Morales was able to knock him down because he was able to keep him off balance and that Morales wasn’t that hard of a puncher when compared to Hamed. Ayala has got quite a bit of handspeed himself which leads me to believe that he will be able to hold his own in exchanges with Morales.

I am going to go out on a limb and predict that the judges will score this fight fairly (always a question in boxing) and that Morales will win a hard fought decision in a fight where Paulie Ayala will make a surprisingly good account of himself.

Erik Morales UD over Paulie Ayala

Agree? Disagree? Think I’m full of it? E-mail me at jdepierro@adelphia.net and tell me what you think or post a comment.