Sergio Martinez Highlights

Sergio Martinez Video
Made a Video for Youtube with HBO Sports Footage
featuring Lipsew recorded on my iPad in one take.

Independence Day

The two titans of boxing are at  it again and this time it's a good thing for boxing fans.  Instead of matching their premiere fighters against shitty opponents from their own promotion they are matching their premiere fighters against each other.

On June 12 Golden Boy promotions announced Victor Ortiz v.s. Saul "Canelo" Alvarez would fight at the MGM Grand on September 15th on Showtime pay per view. 

On Saturday June 16th Top Rank officially announced Julio Cesar Chavez jr. v.s. Sergio Martinez  at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas on HBO pay per view.

The magnitude of both announcements are glorious for me. The moment the Canelo-Ortiz match was set my bags were packed, the timeshare was reserved and the usual suspects were rounded up for the trip 50, Juan, Miguelito, and Moe.

Personally I would love nothing better than to watch two young Mexican fighters in their prime go toe to toe on Mexican independence day weekend fighting for the title but more importantly Oscar DeLa Hoyas Attention.  Yet,  I would love nothing better than to watch Sergio Martinez destroy Chavez jr. on Mexican independence day weekend. I have been clamoring for that since the day Chavez was handed the WBC title after Martinez was unfairly stripped by the commission.

What heck am I suppose to do?  Go watch Ortiz-Canelo or Martinez-Chavez jr. or should I stay home and watch them both on TV simultaneously ? Nope! I'm going to Vegas no matter what.  I thought maybe one of the promotions might switch the date in order to make the decision  easy for me.

This morning in an exclusive interview with Oscar DeLa Hoya, ahem via twitter, I asked Oscar himself.

There it is!  My first interview with De La Hoya was a success and it even had one favorite by some guy named Patrick.

It seemed to me in our  personal conversation that De La Hoya is adamant about keeping his fight card on September 15.

And, According to Boxingscene.com Bob Arums is not budging either. He claims to have reserved the September 15th date in  February.

"Their fight is an okay fight but our fight is much, much bigger. They will find that a lot of the MGM's customers are going to want to come to see our fight,"  

After a spring of shitty ass cards all of a sudden both promotions want to put an awesome fight in the same day, and I get the feeling they are doing it to fuck each other over  rather than to please the fans.

That's okay with me though that's their problem,  I just thank God for DVR and HBO on Demand.

All that matters is that two good fights are happening that weekend,  Chavez and another guy are going to get their ass kicked and i'm watching one of the fights live.

Eventually my decision will be made by 50 because no matter what fight I chose to attend he will chose the opposite.

Everybody wins in this situation the fans, the fighters, the casinos, and especially those assholes from Stubhub who will buy all the tickets and charge triple for them.

Another benefit about that weekend Mayweather and Pacquiao are not involved.

The Day I Met Antonio Margarito

Today El Tornado de Tijuana Antonio Margarito retires from boxing.  I am deeply saddened by the news because he is one of my favorite boxers. Every time I tuned into a Margarito fight I knew someone was going to get their ass kicked either him or the other guy.  He embodied a true Mexican Aztec warrior always coming forward with a flurry of punches with no regard for his health or his opponents.  

As Mr. Arum said "He wasn't the most talented" but he did have the biggest heart. 

I met Antonio back in September of 2010, I was in Vegas for a buddy of mine's bachelor party it was a few months before his fight with Pacquiao.  My boy 50 and me had jumped out of  moving car and were looking for a bathroom in the Palms while our friends searched for a parking spot.   In our search to relieve our bladders we hurried past two shiny well groomed Mexicans, toying with an iPhone.

They caught 50's attention "Hey Man! I think that's Margarito"

We were both pretty buzzed but to confirm I yelled out " Margarito Chingate a Pacquiao Huey!"

Margarito looked up and gave us the thumbs up.

Instantly we approached him and asked him for a picture. I stood toe to toe with one of my favorite fighters and did the boxing pose. His fist are huge! I wish I wasn't as intoxicated so I would have asked him some questions about the Cotto fight, but I was buzzed and in awe. 

That was the highlight of my night I could of care less about the club or the girls I just met Margarito!

I hope to meet Margarito one day and have a drink with him talk about his wars and what the hell made him keep going forward in those fights. 

People like to talk smack about him and his plastered gloves but I just tell them.

"Y que huey? fue campeon y tu no"

Mi VIda Loca

The first time I saw Johnny Tapia fight I was 10 years old.  I was watching one of the Julio Cesar Chavez fights on PPV or I forget who.   All I remember is that I was  ten and Johnny Tapias opponent had the virgin mary tattooed in his chest.
My uncle kept screaming that Johnny wouldn't hit the Virgin, but  Mid way through the second round BAM! Johnny connected to his opponents chest.
"The Son of a Bitch hit her!" my uncle screamed and the audience laughed.
Personally I hated Johnny.  He looked like every thug that hung out in the park  a low life gangster.  I wanted him to lose bad.  I wanted the clean cut Mexican guy with the Virgin Mary Tattoo in his chest to knock him out cold  because he stood for everything that is right religion, boxing, Mexico, family, tradition and not being a  gangster.
Johnny won the fight and I took it personal just like in my life the gangsters win again.  In the post fight interview I I found out something even worse the Johnny didn't even speak Spanish! He wasn't a true Mexican!
I kept running into Johnny Tapia fights in undercards. Every time I cheered against him and every time  he won.  I was too young to appreciate his heart and could not look past his thuggish exterior.
As I got older I started to appreciate Johnny I don't know if its because the thugs in the park were no longer intimidating or that he won me over with his style of fight.
He was a brawler in the same light of Arturo Gatti and Rocky Balboa. I found myself cheering for Johnny"Mi Vida Loca" Tapia.  He didn't give a fuck.  Not about his style, his health, his look, or what people thought of him he came to fight and boy did he give fight fans a fight.
I wish I could go back in time and tell that ten year old kid to wise up and enjoy Johnny while you can that in a less than 10 years fighters will start not giving a fuck either, but not in a good way.
Fighters would care about their health, their looks, their wallet but not care much for their fans their fights or their legacy.  Promoters would put up fights the equivalent of someone taking a crap on film for 36 minutes.
Fighters like Johnny are once in a life time and a dying breed.
Sadly May 26, 2012 Johnny Tapia was found dead at the age of 45.
  His troubled life is written in better detail in this article.
I made my peace with him a long time ago, but today I thank him for being who he was.
 Johnny Tapia was a big reason I got into boxing he kept me watching under cards in hopes that he would lose and he won and kept on winning.
I truly hope Johnny finds peace.