Writer Roundup: Pros and Their Prose on a Packed Fight Weekend

Photo credit: Tom Casino/Showtime

This was not necessarily the weekend to be a brawler. Michael Katsidis served himself up on a proverbial platter to master technician Juan Manuel Marquez. Sakio Bika found himself out-dirtied against Andre Ward. And, on a more positive note for one brawler, Carl Froch put aside the bruiser and became a boxer for a night, taking an easy decision over Arthur Abraham.

Those were but three of the five fights on HBO and Showtime on a big fight weekend. And as always, BWAA members were on press rows or in front of their screens to capture the action.

The most noteworthy fight on paper turned out to be the most noteworthy fight in the ring. Among the many capturing Marquez-Katsidis on deadline were Lance Pugmire of the Los Angeles Times, Jake Donovan of BoxingScene.com and Gabriel Montoya of MaxBoxing.com.

"Katsidis was well on the verge of falling into a deep hole before scoring with a monster left hook to floor Marquez and leave him buzzed even upon beating the count," Donovan wrote of the dramatic third round. "Ever the warrior, Marquez not only avoided disaster and survived the storm, but punched himself right back into the fight by rounds end."

Inevitably, talk post-Marquez-Katsidis turned to whether a third bout between Marquez and Manny Pacquiao will ever happen. The actual question, of course, is not who will be next for Marquez, but who will be next for Pacquiao.

Tackling that topic were Lem Satterfield of AOL Fanhouse, Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports, Dave Skretta of the Associated Press, and Bill Dettloff of RingTV.com.

"You remember how it was when Oscar De La Hoya was at the top of the food chain," wrote Dettloff before handicapping the candidates. "Every half-ass pug within 70 pounds of him either way was willing to lop off a leg or swallow his weight in cheese puffs for a chance to get into a ring with him, and it didn’t matter if he had a chance in hell of winning."

Marquez made a case for himself, both with his performance on Saturday and with his attire afterward.

"Marquez attended the post-fight news conference wearing a T-shirt that said on the front, 'Juan Manuel Marquez beat Pacquiao twice,' " noted Iole. "On the back, the shirt read, 'Pacquiao, your next.'

"Alright, he’s not a great grammarian, but he’s one hell of a fighter"

We'll leave the fighting up to Marquez and his peers, and he can leave the grammar up to the BWAA members.