Cory Spinks and Edison Miranda were each half right in Saturday’s two middleweight fights at the FedEx Forum in Memphis. The result was a half-good show. Unfortunately, the bad part was the main event.
Boxing’s guiding principle is “to hit and not get hit.” In the main-event title bout, Spinks mostly accomplished the latter but pretty much ignored the hitting part. He got it only half right. Despite jumping around like a victor when the final bell sounded, he landed far short of what was needed to wrest the crown from middleweight champion Jermain Taylor.
And the fans in the arena and at home watching on HBO came up far short of seeing a worthwhile fight.
That, however, was provided by the main undercard bout that saved the evening.
Unbeaten Kelly Pavlik and once-beaten Miranda threw caution aside and punches aplenty from the opening bell. Each caught the other with solid shots. But Pavlik’s powerful right hands, scoring repeatedly over Miranda’s lowered left, did the most damage. He dropped Miranda twice in the sixth round before stopping him after another knockdown in the seventh.
Before the fight, Miranda chided Taylor for not facing the best opposition on the card, namely himself, predicting he would beat Pavlik.
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Despite Spinks’ protestations, an unofficial ringside count showed him landing only 85 punches in 12 rounds. That is fewer than eight per round, not the stuff to take the title from a champion, even one who only lands 101 punches.
After Taylor’s lackluster split-decision victory, which one judge scored surprisingly and decisively for Spinks, the champion vowed his next fight would be against “the best opponent we can get.”
In pure boxing terms, that should be either Pavlik at middleweight or a move up from 160 to 168 pounds to face super-middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe. But these days, most fighters no longer make a pretense of meaning “the best opponent” if it isn’t also “for the best money.”
A cluster of upcoming bouts will try to build on the momentum of the recent Oscar De La Hoya-Floyd Mayweather bout. Shannon Briggs defends his World Boxing Organization heavyweight title against Sultan Ibragimov June 2 in Atlantic City. World Boxing Association welterweight champion Miguel Cotto faces Zab Judah June 9 in New York City. Junior welterweights Ricky Hatton and Jose Luis Castillo square off June 23 in Las Vegas. On July 7 in Cologne Germany, Wladimir Klitschko defends his International Boxing Federation heavyweight title against Lamon Brewster.
A whiff of Olympics?
C.K. (Ching-Kuo) Wu, president of the amateur International Boxing Association, was in town Tuesday to visit the UIC Pavilion, selected to host the World Boxing Championships Oct. 17-Nov. 1, an Olympics qualifying event.
He declined to speculate on whether Chicago’s hosting abilities this fall would score points toward winning its bid for the 2016 Olympics.
“It’s an excellent opportunity for Chicago to prove it has the enthusiasm and capability to host an Olympics,” he said.
Whether or not the city gets the nod for the 2016 Games, it will play a role in the 2008 Seoul Olympics. Six hundred boxers will compete in the world championships at UIC and 80 top performers will qualify automatically for the Seoul Games, Wu said.
After visiting the Pavilion, Wu met with Mayor Richard Daley. Wu, who is also an International Olympic Committee member, stressed neither he nor any other IOC member could officially scout Chicago in advance of the 2016 site selection.
Once the IOC executive committee picks finalists, the full body will select the host city.
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