The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

By:  | Posted: Tuesday, July 1st, 2008 at 8:44 pm.

The Good

Josh Thomson proved that every dog has his day as the 3 to 1 underdog turned in a masterful performance in dominating Strikeforce Lightweight champ (and former training partner) Gilbert Melendez over five rounds last Friday night in front of just over 7 thousand fans at the HP Pavilion in San Jose en route to capturing the 155lb title. “The Punk” turned “El Nino” into a tropical depression as he sidestepped Melendez’s power shots and used his own jab and front kick to set up his highly effective attacks. According to CompuStrike totals, Thomson dominated the fight in all facets. He landed 131 out of 192 total strikes compared to 66 out of 275 for the former champ.One stat in which the new kingpin definitely had “a leg up” was with leg strikes as he connected on 69 out of 81 compared to Melendez’s paltry 1 out of 3. Both Thomson and Melendez have solid wrestling backgrounds as Thomson competed at the NCAA Division 1 level at Stanford University while Melendez made his wrestling bones at Santa Ana High School where he qualified twice for the California state championships before earning a scholarship to San Francisco State. There he met one of his current trainers,Elite XC star Jake Shields. Unfortunately for Melendez, nothing could shield him from Thomson’s dominance in the takedown department as the new champ secured 6 takedowns to Melendez’s bagel. With most of the top lightweights locked into UFC contracts, Thomson may have to look outside of the United States to find his first challenger. Former Pride lightweight champion Takanori Gomi,who is rumored to be facing Chris Horodecki on August 24th at World Victory Road’s Sengoku 4 event in Japan,could be a possibility. Heck with the IFL on life support,maybe Horodecki will find his way to San Jose. Thomson has also stated he is not against giving Melendez a rematch. I know Melendez is capable of a whole lot more than he showed last Friday but I also think Thomson has not gotten his due as one of the top lightweights in the sport.After all,the numbers don’t lie.

With Floyd Mayweather taking time off to count all his Benjamins (and I’m not talking about the so called 20 million he made for his Wrestlemania appearance because that’s a bogus number;he pocketed a lot less) Manny Pacquiao solidified his standing as pound for pound king in boxing with his dominant performance last Saturday night in Las Vegas. The most famous celebrity in the Phillipines proved to be too fast,too strong, and too skilled for a game but badly outgunned David Diaz. “Pacman” gobbled up the WBC Lightweight title with a 9th round TKO,earning a convincing victory in his debut at 135 pounds. Pacquaio became the first Asian fighter and the ninth boxer in the recorded history of the sport to win four world titles, joining an elite list that includes Tommy “The Hitman” Hearns, Sugar Ray Leonard, Roberto “Hands of Stone” Duran, Pernell “Sweet Pea” Whitaker, Leo Gamez, the “Golden Boy” Oscar De La Hoya, “Pretty Boy” Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Roy Jones Jr. With De La Hoya announcing that he will end his illustrious career at the end of the year, Pacquiao is set to take over the title of boxing’s walking ATM.

The Bad

On the undercard of the Pacquiao masterpiece on Saturday night, Humberto Soto and Francisco Lorenzo met for WBC Interim Junior Lightweight title and it ended under a cloud of controversy. Controversy in boxing? Surely,you can’t be serious! ( I am serious and don’t call me Shirley. Ha ha,just watched Airplane again last night. It’s a comedy classic!) Anyway,in what was a one sided affair, Soto dominated Lorenzo who was forced to take a knee in the 4th round. For all intents and purposes, the fight was over,but in the heat of the moment,Soto landed what,at best,can be described as a glancing blow to the back of Lorenzo’s head. Referee Joe ” fair but firm” Cortez wasn’t very fair or firm as he ended up disqualifying Soto for the phantom foul after conferring for what seemed like an eternity with Nevada State Athletic Commission officials. Soto’s promoter Bob Arum called the decision “an act of lunacy”. I tend to agree. The one saving grace was the fact that the WBC elected not to award the interim title. Hopefully, Soto will get another chance to finish what he started against Lorenzo

The Ugly

Forget about the Great White Hope. 6’8 American Tye Fields was exposed as the Great White Dope on Saturday night as the Bob Arum manufactured heavyweight, who had been dining on a steady diet of tomato cans, was blown out by two time world title challenger Monte Barrett in just 57 seconds. Fields’ nickname heading into the fight was “Big Sky”. After the fight? “Bye Bye”.

At the Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame banquet in Waterloo,Iowa on Saturday night, Bret Hart caused a scene when making a speech about his late father, the legendary promoter Stu Hart of Stampede Wrestling fame who was being inducted posthumously. Hart launched into a tirade about Slam wrestling columnist Greg Oliver,who was on hand to accept the Jim Melby Memorial award for excellence in wrestling journalism. Hart still harbors resentment towards Oliver for being ranked “only” 14th in Oliver’s 2003 book on Canada’s greatest professional wrestlers. For Hart to use a special occasion like the banquet to go off on something so petty is ridiculous to say the least. Having worked for the Hart family at the beginning of this decade,I was subjected to a different side of Bret Hart than the millions who lionize him as a Canadian hero are used to seeing. While I only saw him on a few occasions, those times are indelibly etched in my mind. At Davy Boy Smith’s funeral, Hart spoke glowingly of Smith’s accomplishments in the ring and what a true friend he was. Hours later,at the Hart House, Hart showed up and started screaming at his sister, Davy’s ex wife Diana about what a drug addict Davy was and how she enabled him etc. It was surreal to say the least and I was absolutely disgusted by his display of insensitivity. For him to do it in front of Davy’s family and friends while we mourned his loss made it that much more egregious. Hart’s actions on Saturday night didn’t surprise me at all. His true colors came out for many of his peers to see. Some hero huh?

CATEGORIES:Editorial