Boxing Blog – TSS Tidbits

IBF champ Wladimir Klitschko one-twos his way to victory

The big man put on quite a show in the big room. Wladimir Klitschko played the Garden on Saturday night and he responded the way all of the greats have in the past. With a flair.

Over the first couple of rounds it might have been easy to dismiss Klitschko as a guy who just doesn’t get it. It was frustrating to watch. But here’s why. Calvin Brock was doing the only thing he could do to try to win the fight. He wasn’t going to outbox Klitschko, so he tried to crowd him, tried to work inside. He tried to smother the big guy.

But give Klitschko credit. He stayed composed and he kept popping that jab. That stiff left jab won him the first four rounds. Now here’s where the fight changed. In the fifth, Klitschko finally found the distance. He had enough separation from Brock to make the right hand effective. What gave him that separation? The left jab!!!

With Klitschko immediately establishing that jab, Brock was reluctant to walk into it by the fifth round. So as soon as Brock stayed back, the right hand started finding its home. Once that happened, the fight was over.

OK. So I was off by two rounds with my prediction, but I wrote it here first on TSS, the jab and right hand win the fight for Klitschko.

One last thing, what a moving tribute to Ali – not Laila, Muhammad – as the Garden crowd chanted his name upon entering the arena. That’s all for now. Keep punching!

The weight debate and what it means to be a southpaw

I hate to say I told you so, but I told you so. Joel Casamayor came away with a split decision against Diego Corrales at Mandalay Bay on Saturday night just as we suggested on TSS.

Here’s the logic behind my pick. As a fellow southpaw, I am very, very familiar with split decisions (damn those Miami judges and Luis Rodriguez’s incredible recuperative powers). I have endured my share of split decisions and a big reason why is because I was a southpaw. Part of the problem is that orthodox fighters are uncomfortable facing lefties and thus the rhythm and flow of a fight can become choppy. This also impacts the way a judge scores the fight. This usually gets blamed on the lefthander, but hey, it takes two to tango.

At times – but not every time – a lefty-righty encounter winds up with a lot of clinching and awkward moments. It’s up to both men to fight out of those situations. A good southpaw, like Casamayor, knows how to use those awkward situations to his advantage. A good judge recognizes that. Too often, that goes unrecognized.

In the case of Casamayor – who lost splits to Corrales, Castillo and a disputed unanimous to Acelino Freitas – his stance was only part of the reason. The other part was that he would fade down the stretch. Not so this time around. Casamayor boxed steady and countered effectively while Corrales pursued but didn’t punch.

As for the weigh-in, I’m thinking that Corrales figured it worked for Castillo, so why not for him. That logic backfired, wound up costing Diego money, his title and perhaps his career.