A critical look at the past week in boxing
GOOD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sU6TEiBpCFE
Vergil Ortiz Jr. moved to the next level on Saturday night.
It’s one thing to beat up on solid fighters like Antonio Orozco, Brad Solomon and Samuel Vargas. It’s another to have your way with someone like Maurice Hooker, a talented former champion determined to find his place among the best welterweights.
Ortiz endured the toughest challenge of his career but in the end did to Hooker what he had done to all his previous opponents, scoring a brutal knockout in the seventh round.
The performance was impressive beyond his trademark pressure and power punching. I liked his ability to shift his focus to Hooker’s body after it became clear he couldn’t hurt him with shots to the head, although you wonder why he didn’t target the gut earlier.
And I think his defense is underappreciated. He slipped many of Hooker’s punches or caught them on his gloves.
That tells me he’s not just a strong, aggressive fighter; he’s evolving into a better all-around boxer under trainer Robert Garcia. And at only 22 he’s going to continue to improve over the next few years.
What’s next?
Terence Crawford has been mentioned as a potential opponent for Ortiz, although preliminary talks between the camps haven’t amounted to anything. And that’s fortunate for Ortiz, who probably isn’t ready for that type of challenge.
Hooker was a step up in opposition for him; Crawford is a giant step up from Hooker. Ortiz should take his time, gain more seasoning against good opposition and then take his shot at the top 147-pounders.
He’s almost there now. 2022 could be his breakout year.
***
BAD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6JZOMy1EFU
Maurice Hooker isn’t a bad fighter. In fact, the opposite is true, as he demonstrated early in his entertaining fight with Ortiz.
The former 140-pound champion used his long jab fairly effectively, landed some clean power shots and showed a good chin against a big puncher. Indeed, he gave his fellow Texan a run for his money … until he didn’t.
Hooker was broken down by Ortiz’s body work and overall pressure by the middle the fight and simply couldn’t continue beyond Round 7.
He blamed an injured right hand – and we’ll take his word for it – but the beating he took from Ortiz also played a role. The injury might’ve been a blessing in disguise: It saved him from taking further punishment, which was on the way.
Hooker has now suffered brutal knockout losses in two of his past three fights, the first being a sixth-round stoppage against Jose Ramirez that cost him his 140-pound belt in 2019.
That doesn’t bode well in terms of his ambition to win a title at 147. He has ability but evidently not the resilience required to cope with bruisers like Ramirez and Ortiz, who make their livings by gradually chopping down their opponents.
Hooker obviously was frustrated after the fight. He responded to boos from his hometown fans during his post-fight interview by yelling, “F— y’all.”
Who knows? Maybe he’ll use the disappointment as motivation to prove people — including me — wrong.
***
WORSE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUu9zbpWltA
We endured the latest example of the mandatory blues on Saturday.
Artur Beterbiev, the physically imposing light heavyweight titleholder, took on someone named Adam Deines who really had no business being in the ring with him. He survived nine-plus rounds on limited ability and an abundance of courage.
So how did he end up fighting Beterbiev?
First of all, the Russian-born German was ranked No. 5 by the IBF. He has some ability, but No. 5 in the world? C’mon. And, second, evidently no one ranked above him was available to fight Beterbiev. Thus, he became the mandatory challenger.
For the record, Beterbiev needed the work. He hadn’t fought in 17 months. And he probably was satisfied with a nice showcase in front of his home-country fans in Moscow.
That said, this is supposed to be the highest level of the sport. Beterbiev is on pound-for-pound lists. ESPN, which televised the fight, is supposed to be the big leagues. And fans were served up a mismatch.
It wasn’t as bad as Canelo Alvarez’s defense against another mandatory challenger, Avni Yildirim, but it wasn’t competitive.
The bigger problem is that fighters are putting too much emphasis on titles and not enough on the man who stands across the ring from them. We can’t expect every fight to be like Juan Francisco Estrada vs. Roman Gonzalez but we shouldn’t accept second-rate matchups like Beterbiev vs. Deines either.
RABBIT PUNCHES
A new cruiserweight star arrived on Saturday. Lawrence Okolie, facing the biggest test of his career, blew out veteran Krzysztof Glowacki (31-3, 19 KOs) in the sixth round to win the vacant WBO title at SSE Arena in London, Okolie’s hometown.
Okolie (16-0, 13 KOs) is 6-foot-5 and knows how to use his height and reach. He kept Glowacki used his jab to keep Glowacki at a safe distanced and set up hard, accurate power shots. The knockout punch – a straight right – left no doubt about the winner’s ability to hurt an opponent.
And the 2016 Olympian is remarkably quick for a man of his height, another reason he would be a difficult challenge to any 200-pounder and perhaps to heavyweights on day. …
Seneisa Estrada (20-0, 8 KOs) gave a strong performance against long-reigning strawweight champ Anabel Ortiz (31-4, 4 KOs) on the Ortiz-Hooker card, winning a near-shut decision and the WBA title.
Estrada deserves to be mentioned among the best female fighters in the world.
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