Enter Javier Fortuna.
We all knew the Dominican dynamo was a good, entertaining fighter. He merely reminded us of that on Saturday night at Staples Center in Los Angeles, where he overwhelmed Antonio Lozada en route to a sixth-round knockout.
Fortuna started winging wide shots from the opening bell and Lozada, a capable fighter, couldn’t figure out how to get out of the way. The tall, lean Mexican went down in the first round, survived for a while and then took a series of hard shots that prompted referee Gerard White to end the one-sided fight.
The 31-year-old from La Romana has now won three in a row (plus one no-decision) after his split-decision loss to then-titleholder Robert Easter in 2018, which many thought Fortuna deserved to win.
Fortuna left no doubt against Lozada. He looked like a fighter who might be able to compete with any of the top 135-pounders. Now he just has to get one of them into the ring.
He was supposed to have met Luke Campbell for an “interim” title and then Jorge Linares in fights that were canceled. Thus, he had to settle for Lozada.
Of course, his victory over Lozada doesn’t carry the same weight as a win over a ranked opponent would but he won in dominating fashion on national TV. Maybe his performance and the exposure will have enhanced his credentials as a legitimate opponent for the top 135 pounders — Teofimo Lopez Jr., Gervonta Davis, Devin Haney, Ryan Garcia, et al.
Fortuna isn’t as well known as those fighters but he might be as good. He deserves the chance to prove it.
***
BAD
The Nov. 28 Mike Tyson-Roy Jones Jr. exhibition is similar to the 2017 Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor “fight” in that it’s farcical.
Mayweather-McGregor was a ridiculous mismatch yet made fortunes for both of the principals. Tyson-Jones is nothing more than a sparring session between two old men yet will surely do good pay-per-view business.
I just hope that those who fork out $50 to watch the exhibition are clear on what it is.
The videos showing Tyson looking fit and ferocious at 54 have led some people to believe that he can still fight at a high level. He can’t. He was a shell of himself when he last fought, which was 15 years ago.
Indeed, the impression left by the videos is an illusion. Don’t be fooled.
Tyson and Jones have done their duty by talking up the event, which is required to generate pay-per-view buys. That’s called marketing.
One comment made by Jones stands out to me. The former four-division titleholder said he might’ve made a mistake agreeing to fight Tyson, the message being that he was in some kind of danger.
That’s garbage. One, Jones is going to make a lot of money to spar. And, two, if this were a real fight, Jones, 51, would probably knock out Tyson. He’s a bit younger. And he was active recently. He fought in February 2018, when he outpointed Scott Sigmon in a cruiserweight fight.
So, again, I hope you know what you’ll be seeing — a sparring session that will be tightly controlled by California officials. There will be no official scoring, no official winner. Just a drive down memory lane.
***
WORSE
Canelo Alvarez was extricated from an agonized legal quagmire and, thankfully, is set to fight again. Let’s hope Tyson Fury also overcomes his obstacles to hear an opening bell soon.
Fury had multiple dates to face rival Deontay Wilder a third time and they all were canceled, in part because of COVID-19. He announced he was moving on and was near a deal to fight Agit Kabayel on Dec. 5. That, too, fell through.
Now it seems clear he won’t fight again until next year, which is frustrating to him and those enamored with arguably the most-compelling personality in the sport.
Team Wilder is holding out hope that a mediator will force Fury to fight him a third time per a rematch clause for their second fight, which Fury won by seventh-round knockout to win his title.
A positive ruling for Wilder doesn’t seem likely but I’m no legal scholar. Who knows?
I thought Bob Arum, Fury’s co-promoter, laid out a sensible plan: If Anthony Joshua beats Kubrat Pulev on Dec. 12, then Fury will go directly into a showdown with Joshua. If Pulev wins, then Fury will face Wilder again.
The problem for Fury regardless of what happens on Dec. 12, Fury isn’t likely to fight until March or even April, meaning he will have been out of the ring for more than a year.
Again, frustrating.
Perhaps things will fall into place for Fury after Dec. 12. If he fights Joshua, great. If he fights Wilder one more time, fine. The bottom line is that Fury is at his absolute peak, the time of his career when he should be solidifying his legacy as the best heavyweight of his era.
Instead, he has been forced to watch as fights have been made and then fallen out multiple times. The man needs to fight. And we need to watch him do it.
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