Pugilistic pleasures

WHAT better metaphor to judge this year in and out of the ring than the sport itself. Like a journeyman pro, the sport has in 2006 been all things to all men.

There’s been plenty of nonsense, much ugliness and enough bad stuff to keep Santa’s naughty list running into the next millennium.

There have, however, been flashes of brilliance, some rare moments when the humdrum has been suppressed and boxing has reached out of its skin to remind us all that somewhere inside this lumbering, punch-drunk veteran there is a slick operator capable of achieving the spectacular and the scintillating.

Indeed the year started with a bang when undisputed welterweight champion Zab Judah made the second defence of his reign at Madison Square Garden in the first week of January against little known Argentine, 37-year-old Carlos Baldomir.

It should have been a procession for the New Yorker en route to a spring showdown with Floyd Mayweather Jr, but someone forgot to tell Baldomir, who claimed an unanimous points victory.

The action then shifted west to Las Vegas, where, a fortnight after Judah’s comeuppance, super featherweight star Erik Morales took delivery of the fright of his life when he was knocked out for the first time in 52 fights by the tenacious, all-action Filipino Manny Pacquiao.

It was a truly epic encounter, this rematch from a March 2005 victory for Morales. The Mexican slugged it out second time around but was no match for the relentless Pacquiao who eventually broke his rival’s will in the 10th round as the spent Morales leaned against the ropes and simply shook his head in disbelief.

The pair would meet again, back in Vegas, last month, but this time Pacquiao was way too good, dismantling Morales in the third round.

Amazingly, neither of this year’s Morales-Pacquiao meetings was for a world title, but the Filipino will surely make amends in ‘07 when he takes on ageing WBC champion Marco Antonio Barrera, the not-so-baby-faced assassin he stopped just over three years ago.

Back at welterweight, Mayweather Jr remained boxing’s greatest enigma. Unquestioned as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, he dazzled intermittently and frustrated his fans a whole lot more in 2006.

Mayweather fought once more this year, defeating Baldomir last month in an under-whelming points win that drew boos from a disappointed Vegas crowd. They will expect much more from the best boxer in the world when he finally gets to face off against Oscar De La Hoya in what’s already shaping up to be the fight of the year on May 5 at the MGM Grand.

It is unlikely Wales’ Joe Calzaghe will ever reach such recognition in his career, yet the WBO super-middleweight champion is heading into his 20th straight title defence early next year when he meets American Peter Manfredo in Cardiff.

Despite his unblemished record in 37 fights, Calzaghe’s reluctance to fight outside of Britain has hampered his standing in the fight game.

Ireland’s Bernard Dunne, however, this year proved you can cross the Atlantic in the other direction and still thrive.

In Ireland, the sweet science appears to be on the up and up, highlighted by Katie Taylor’s gold medal at the world amateur championships in India last month and Dunne’s assumption of the European Super-Bantamweight crown earlier in November.

He remains unbeaten after 22 victories and with the esteemed Ring Magazine ranking him 10th in a division championed by his former Californian sparring partner Israel Vazquez, an appointment for a world title date is in the offing for 2007.

That’s not to say that transferring one’s skills to America is a disadvantage. Derry middleweight John Duddy has seen his stock rise continuously throughout the year, fighting out of New York.

A solid if unspectacular amateur at home, the 27-year-old would have quit the sport had he not left Ireland to ply his trade. Working with old-school trainer Harry Keitt, Duddy has taken his record to 18-0 this year, with barnstorming victories in front of sell-out crowds at Madison Square Garden over Shelby Pudwill, for the vacant WBC Continental Americas title, and veteran warriors Freddy Cuevas and Yory Boy Campas. The latter earned him a nominal world title belt, the IBA crown. Paper title or not, his unanimous points victory over Mexico’s Campas was an epic contest, a veritable slugfest, which both thrilled his fans and alarmed his Irish Ropes management in equal measures.

Duddy will return to the ring on March 16 in New York under orders from Keitt and co. to sharpen his defences if he is to take the next step in his development towards becoming a true world champion contender to the incumbent Jermain Taylor.

Joining him as a contender could be Limerick’s Andy Lee, whose reputation as an upcoming middleweight will be sealed when the aforementioned Ring names him as its new face for 2007 in its February issue.

Lee, Ireland’s sole Olympian in Athens two years ago, relocated to Detroit to work with hall of fame trainer Emmanuel Steward 12 months ago and began his pro career in March. Six fights later he is unbeaten and perhaps more importantly has gained first-hand experience training and sparring with the likes of middleweight champ Taylor, Wladimir Klitschko and regular Kronk stable-mates Kermit Cintron and Johnathon Banks. The future looks bright, as it would for fellow former amateur star James Moore, had behind the scenes difficulties with promoters not stifled his progress.

If the Arklow puncher gets up a head of steam, he could form part of a very handy, US-based trio of Irish middleweights over the next 12 months.

Clones heavyweight Kevin McBride briefly flirted with that ‘contender’ category after he surprised everybody and stopped Mike Tyson in 2005. But after doing the same to the little-known and even less well regarded Byron Polley in April, the Boston-based 33-year-old’s hopes came crashing down around him in October when Mike Mollo dispatched the Irishman just 44 seconds into the second round.

It has again been a muddled year for the heavyweights, although Wladimir Klitschko has emerged as the pick of the crop as fighters from the former Soviet republics have muscled in on the scene.

At one point in 2006, all four title belts in the division were held by boxers from eastern bloc countries – IBF beltholder Klitschko, WBC champion Oleg Maskaev, Nikolay Valuev (WBA) and Serguei Lyakhovich (WBO).

What every heavyweight champion, and boxing fan, wants now is a unification series, so the sport can rally round a standard-bearer in its blue riband division.

Maskaev and Klitschko have tentatively set a date for a WBC-IBF showdown in April but could face losing their respective titles before then if they do not fulfil mandatory defences against lesser opponents.

Cue the intervention of Don King, who has invested a great deal in the fortunes of contenders James Toney and Samuel Peter, who happen to be fighting an eliminator for Maskaev’s crown on January 6, as well as Ray Austin, the IBF’s number one challenger to Klitschko.

While King is around, the heavyweight division will remain splintered. Don King messing things up?

Some things never change.