GOOD
One criticism of women’s boxing I hear a lot is that the talent pool isn’t deep. And that problem is particularly prevalent at the higher weights, beginning in the divisions in which Claressa Shields does her thing.
I would respond to that by saying that the depth of talent has improved over the past decade. And I would add that there are a number of excellent fighters at the top.
Those are the opponents Shields has dominated in her short career, including Ivana Habazin on Friday night in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Shields (10-0, 2 KOs) overwhelemed Habazin (20-4, 7 KOs) to win a near-shutout decision and two vacant junior middleweight titles. That gives her major belts in three divisions in only 10 fights, which is a record regardless of gender. Vasiliy Lomachenko and Kosei Tanaka turned the trick in 12 fights.
The achievement is remarkable. The two-time Olympic champion pursued the best possible opponents from day one and has been nothing short of spectacular.
The question now: Is there anyone who can give Shields a challenge?
The obvious answer would be Cecilia Braekhus, the unbeaten 38-year-old star from Norway who has said she wants to fight Shields. The American would have a natural size advantage – Braekhus is a welterweight – but neither fighter is a big puncher, which means the better boxer probably would win.
Let’s hope it happens. Shields needs a next-level challenge. And women’s boxing needs its superfight.
BAD
I hate when fighters make excuses – even when they have some legitimacy.
Jesse Hart said after he lost a split decision to Joe Smith Jr. on Saturday night in Atlantic City that he fought with an injured right hand. The orthodox boxer said he suffered the injury in his previous fight, a victory over Sullivan Barrera in June, and aggravated it both during training and early in the fight Saturday.
I’ll take Hart’s word for it. His hand bothered him. And I understand a fighter’s instinct is to explain if he believes an unusual factor played a role in a poor performance.
I also want to give Hart some credit for the manner in which he couched post-fight comments he made to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
He said: “I don’t want to make no excuses because Joe fought a great fight. I hurt the hand in my last sparring session and thought I could overcome that. Credit to Joe for doing for what he had to do.”
Hart might not have wanted to make an excuse but he did, which diminishes Smith’s important accomplishment.
Hart chose to fight with a tender hand. It didn’t work out. I wish he had left it at that.
WORSE
One problem with a bad scorecard is that it can permanently give the wrong impression of a fight. Smith handled Hart easily yet had to settle for a split-decision victory because of a baffling card.
Joseph Pasquale and Eugene Grant scored the fight 98-91 and 97-92, respectively. That reflects what happened in the ring. James Kinney somehow had Hart winning 95-94.
I always ask myself when I see a scorecard that seems out of line: Is there a way it can be justified? For example, maybe several rounds could’ve gone either way. Or maybe a judge rewards one style over another, which can be legitimate sometimes.
In this case, I couldn’t come up with a logical reason to score the fight for Hart. Smith pushed the action from beginning to end. He threw more punches and landed more punches than Hart, including a big edge in power shots, according to both the eye and CompuBox. And Smith put Hart down.
The only edge that Hart had was in jabs and neither fighter threw many of those. The closest the fight should’ve been scored if you give Hart every benefit of the doubt was 96-93 in Smith’s favor. 95-94 – six rounds to four – for Hart is outrageous.
I won’t call for Kinney to be banished from boxing, as Bob Arum, the promoter of both fighters, did.
“That judge should be banned from ever scoring a fight,” Arum said. “He should be investigated and banned. And I promote Hart! I mean, s—, how can you ever score that fight for Jesse Hart? I mean, it’s not even an argument.”
I agree with the investigation part. Kinney has some explaining to do.