"Blessed is the truth???"
While recently in transit in Seattle over the weekend, I was startled at the amount of traffic that "appeared to come out of nowhere, and for no apparent reason." Was it a bad accident? Another 'impromptu' drill for the much-dreaded 'dirty bomb'?
"Man...what is the deal with all this TRAFFIC," I muttered to nobody in particular upon my feet touching pavement.
"It's the Dalia Lama, dude..." replied a guy in a tattered t-shirt that looked as if he hadn't shaved in a week, and smelled like a Pink Floyd concert.
"Hey...fair enough I suppose...," was my bewildered reply.
Well, turns out 'his holiness' was indeed in Seattle over the weekend, and that was in fact the reason for all the traffic. But after watching that (Saturday) night's fights, I was left asking myself the following...
...Why couldn't he have maybe been in Atlantic City instead, namely in the corners of one Alphonso Gomez and Kermit Cintron?
On second thought, perhaps 'The Lama', The Pope, Buddah, and David Copperfield would have been of no service to the above-mentioned over-matched foes. In fact, I think there are probably only two guys that would have been of much help to them...
"Smith & Wesson". And I'm not even sure if they would have been enough...
These two fights - quite simply - were just painful to even watch. One (Cintron) was 'painfully game', and the other (Gomez) more akin to 'dead game'.
And without-a-doubt -- in the WRONG 'game'.
I actually thought that while Cotto would win, Gomez would give the stone-faced and stone-fisted Boricuan a "pretty good go".
Boy was I wrong.
While the first round was somewhat competitive, from that point on, the obvious came to light: This...was an absolute MISMATCH, and one of startling proportions. The difference in class between these two cannot be understated; it was a bit like watching USC blast some division-2 school like "Appalachian Valley" to the tune of about 98-0. I thought that Gomez - while a 'B-level fighter' - would manage to give the elite Cotto a good and honest scrap by (mainly) virtue of grit and toughness. Well...Gomez certainly has that, but the separation in class was just simply far to wide. Gomez not only took on the look of a 'C-level fighter', but a 'Y-level' one as well. As in: 'Y-the-F*ck' is this guy in the same ring as Cotto??? Gomez was simply no match for the world-class (and perhaps worlds best?) Welterweight, and the onslaught was thankfully called to a halt in the 5th.
As for the other Welter bout (Margarito-Cintron) I liked Margarito to win, but at 3-1...I kind of liked Cintron. I thought he had a chance here.
Simply put...Cintron -- had NO chance.
After a fairly even and competitive first round, the outcome became (painfully) obvious in the second round.
"He's absolutely done. He has no chance here," was the comment made to my Father on the phone at that time, one of which he immediately agreed with.
Cintron was dolling out some blows and punishment of his own to be certain, but they were having no affect on the granite-chinned and machine-like relentless Margarito, and you could just SEE the handwriting on the wall; not too mention you could also (painfully) see Cintron reactions to the VISCIOUS body-punishment Antonio was dishing out. It was obvious in not only his face, but his (crouched over and at times passive) body-language. Before long, things started to become expectantly (yet frighteningly) brutal and one-sided.
No other way to really put it folks: Cintron...was just simply...getting his ASS KICKED.
He would lose by KO in the 6th, finally being felled for the count by one final (and hallicious) shot to the body. Cintron (unlike the 'fringe contender' Gomez) is in fact a legitimate world-class fighter, but Margarito...was just simply too much for him. And as evidenced by their last encounter -- it appears as though he just plain 'has his number'.
In sum, it was an impressive taking-care-of-business type display by Margarito and Cotto, and heck of a display of heart and courage from Gomez and Cintron. It was obvious to all that they had virtually no chance whatsoever of emerging victorious -- but that still didn't stop the two from (amazingly...) still trying.
Perhaps 'The Lama' was in their corner after all?
"And the Dalia Lama also blessed me...so...I kinda got that going for me as well, ya' know..." - Bill Murray in the 1980 movie "Caddyshack"
*Bizzy On Boxing*
(2008)
