Cyber Boxing Zone -- News

RABBIT PUNCHES: RODNEY VERGES

NEED MORE?

There you have it, Felix Trinidad Jr. is the ONLY man to convincingly beat Pernell Whitaker. Granted it was two years and a couple of Drug rehabs later than the Whitaker-Oscar De La Hoya fight, but it happened none the less. The multi division champ Whitaker showed exactly why he has been on top for so long.

Although most of his defense is gone, good old Pernell came in a five to one underdog, and fought like only he knows how.

THE BEST RETURNS

As for Tito, it was great seeing him back in the ring. He did look a little awkward with regards to his balance in the first round. However, that can be attributed to Whitaker's foot placement. Southpaw pugs can easily put down a conventional fighter by stepping behind there lead foot, and coming with a left hook.

It seemed to me that Felix was most impressive when the fight came down to the mind game. What do you do when fighting a tricky veteran like Pernell? Get tricky yourself. Most of Coke Spoon's game is to throw his opponents head off center, and Trinidad would have none of it. When Whitaker would try to step behind Trinidad, Tito would step on Sweat Pea's foot.

When Pernell came in ducking, Felix would push his head down. It was tactics like this that not only threw the thirty five year old warrior off his game, but made him look bad in the process.

TWO WAYS TO LOOK AT IT

The ease at which the #1 welter in the world ousted Pernell Whitaker could be a double edged sword. Either his recent public exposure will force Oscar De La Hoya to fight him, or have De La Hoya running for the hills.

NEVER BEEN HERE

For the first time ever, Oscar will not enjoy a height advantage. And he will be overmatched in the power department also . Although Trinidad will beat De La Hoya in the same manner as Ike Quartey did, Tito will have no problem in the later rounds. The Puerto Rican ring master has his moments of inactivity early in fights, but he will be right there come the 10th, 11th, and 12th rounds.

Hopefully after the Golden Gal gets done "highlighting her career" with Oba (who was KO'd by Tito in '94) Carr, these two champions can square off together. And where does Quartey, and WBA guy James Page, where do they fit in the 147 lb. picture?

POLL RESULTS

Speaking of De La Hoya and Quartey, I found the results of last weeks reader's poll to be just as I'd imagined. And like I said before; The winner by split decision, and new WBC champion of the world, is Ike Quartey.

TOTALS

The final percentages are Ike Quartey 56%, Oscar De La Hoya 33%, and a draw 11%. These numbers point to either a split decision for Quartey, or a draw.

Even before I opened most of the messages I knew who the writer had winning, by who's name appeared first. Whoever had Oscar winning, their subject was usually Oscar-Ike scorecard. Those in support of Ike, read Ike-DLH score, or something to that effect.

The Oscar supporters would start their message like "What fight were you watching!!!". While the Quartey contingent said, "You seemed to hit the nail on the head with your Ike DLH score."

OSCAR"S BACKERS

However, just as one judge did, some of my replies had Oscar winning by a score of 116-113. While Quartey's highest total was 115-113, but with less regularity. All in all, most of the scorecards read 114-113 for Ike, or 115-113 favoring De La Hoya.

My favorite response for Oscar had De La Hoya a "115-113 victor. De La Hoya won the fight fair and square. It's people like you and Pedro, that look like "gals". You'll try to find any excuse to degrade De La Hoya. And as for your comment yesterday about " most " Mexicans thought Ike won...That is bull s*it and you know it.

Why even bring race into this in the first place? It shows your weakness for credibility as well how you'll make any excuse to prove your point."

QUARTEY SUPPORTER GETS EQUAL TIME

I received a form fitting reply to this from one of Ike's supporters that read as follows.

"It seems as if it's quite an unwritten law that boxing needs at least 1 big selling Mexican these days as so many of us pay for these fights. We had Julio Cesar Chavez and look how tough it was for him to lose! Pernell Whitaker, Meldrick Taylor and Frankie Randall tried, but they couldn't beat the establishment.

"They are not going to let a Chavez or a De La Hoya lose to a non descript fighter who has the fan base of a Kurd in Turkey."

By the way, both of these messages were by writers with Hispanic last names.

CHOMP ON THIS

All things being equal, here is some food for thought dedicated to those who said things like, "You will have to look more impressive than Ike did to take away a champs title." If that is the case, I would LOVE to see who you guys or gals had winning when Oscar and Pernell met!

So who knows, maybe we need bad decisions to keep everyone choosing sides and betting their name and their word on a fighter. Even being marred by a foul smelling decision, these past two welterweight weeks are what it takes to bring boxing to where it needs to be. The best fighting the best, win or lose.

PRETTY BOY COPY CATS

Floyd Mayweather Jr. started it, and it seems to be catching on like wild fire. And in turn it is lighting up the big picture of professional boxing. Let us all prey to whoever or whatever we believe in, that this is no fad, and the trend continues.

Rodney Verges

The writer is one of three featured exclusively at www.fighters.com Mr. Verges can be reached with your comments at dranjd@yahoo.com