By Ted Sares, Photo by Sumio Yamada – Okay aficionados, its Club time again. Pull up a comfortable chair near your computer and torch up a nice Cohiba Siglo III (Corona Grande). For scotch this month, we are featuring an 18 year old Glenmorangie Quinta Ruban, a velvety-textured single malt whisky, for confident, dynamic luxury spirit drinkers who enjoy a beautifully balanced taste, with just a hint of honeyed nuts coming through.
In the background, we have mostly jazz tonight and I’m going with John Coltrane and Stan Getz performing Rifftide live from Germany in 1960, a very rare tape. The late Clifford Brown and Max Roach are lurking and so are Gene “Jughead” Ammons, J.J. Johnson and Sonny Stitt. Miles is always here.. Hey, this stuff is for hardcore jazz buffs and I do mean hardcore, but I will entertain any resonable request. Along these lines, I also have Jeff Beck ready to go with Goodbye Pork Pie Hat / Brush with the Blue, and Blood, Sweat & Tears might make a vocal apperance as well.
It’s time to discuss all things boxing, and I have listed some subjects that might spark your interest, but as always, feel free to inject your own topic.
1 At l least three fights that need to be made are:1) Pavlik vs. Abraham; 2) Darchinyan
vs. Donaire; and either of the Klitchko’s vs. Haye. Pavlik-Abraham is attractive because the best should fight the best and it likely would be a pick ’em affair. The fans want this to happen, so let’s get it on. As for Vic, getting even is a great motivator and Vic needs this fight with the “Flash” for his chance at redemption. Why in God’s name is it so hard to make this happen?
While on this subject, I am getting tired of guys like Winky Wright and Sergei Liakhovich who lose and then disappear for a year or two. Back in the day, a guy loses a big fight and gets right back in there. Today, they have a nervous breakdown and require grief counseling. I’m sick of this. Fight or retire
2) I found the PPV doubleheader featuring Cotto and Pavlik to be a poor value. These days, fifty bucks means something and with all respect to Matt Vanda, he is not a PPV fighter, nor is Jennings or Rubio. And the announcing was worse than awful. You expect and should get more professionalism, and for the second consecutive week, I actually felt embarrassed for Al Bernstein. These kinds of promotions are killing the goose that laid the golden egg?
3) Recently, I engaged in an exchange about why Eric Morales should not fight Marco Antonio Barrera and visa versa. My reasoning was not related to concern for the fighters, though that certainly was an element. It was that such a fight proves very little and more than likely will prove less than compelling. I recall Duran’s two slow motion bouts with Camacho; both were grim to watch, though I did believe Roberto got stiffed in the second one. LaLonde vs. Hill and Maske vs. Hill were awful and what did Nelson-Fenech prove?
4) I don’t know whether the buzz around Tommy Hearns wanting to fight again is true, but if it is, I am hereby calling on all commissions in the US to ban him from fighting. Sure, I know all about free enterprise, capitalism and the right to do what you want, but at some point, someone needs to step in and stop the madness. Boxing has a freak show dimension that needs to be minimized. Morrison vs. Williams was a circus act and that kind of stuff does boxing little good.
5) I am attending the Delvin Rodriguez vs. Shamone Alvarez tiff in Conneticut in March, as D-Rod is ne of my favorite young fighters at the lower weights. He brings excitement into the ring which is something badly lacking these days in the heavyweight division.
6) I recently worked on putting together some ranking in each division. They are in the left hand margin on the ESB home page. It’s a grueling and arduous task, but I got it done through use of bench markings and analyzing each fighter‘s record and level of opposition. I left Valuev off my top 15 in the heavyweight division, though he does show up due to a computer glitch. Am I being too tough on the “Beast from the East?” Hell, he got a gift win against an equally inept Holyfield and there is no way in hell I can rate Evander in the top 15.
Visit the author’s site at www.tedsares.com