Frazier Beats Ali -- March 8, 1971

"In a classic 15-round battle, Joe Frazier broke the wings of the butterfly and smashed the stinger of the bee tonight in winning a unanimous decision over Muhammad Ali at Madison Square Garden," Dave Anderson wrote in the New York Times.

It was March 8, 1971, 40 years ago today.

"Frazier, with an unrelenting pursuit and a brutal body attack, wore down the dancing, jabbing Ali through 14 rounds, then sent him crashing to the canvas and pounded him at will in the final round to retain his championship with a unanimous decision," the UPI wire story reported. Ali's jaw was hurt and he was taken to a hospital. "I don't think he wants a rematch -- not right away," Frazier said, in the AP story.

Frazier won the Fight of The Century that night -- but it's mostly Ali people are remembering today. GQ put him on the cover in February, for the second time in three years, this time as one of the "25 Coolest Athletes of All Time" (in 2007 it was for being one of the "50 Most Stylish Men of the Past 50 Years.") Whatever. Inside, GQ runs three quotes about Ali, from Don King, Norman Mailer, and...Garry Shandling.

At The Sweet Science, Bernard Fernandez has a new piece looking at the syndicate of Philly guys who bankrolled Frazier (and later banked profits) as he turned pro and started winning big purses.

The keepers of Life magazine are releasing a gallery of photos from the 1971 fight and its build-up -- photos that, they say, are previously unpublished, though I know I've seen this one (top right) before. The whole pictorial is worth checking out -- it's right here.

Little But Big, B.A.D. But Good (Part Two)

Image credit: Chris Cozzone

Let us postscript this past Saturday's fight between Nonito Donaire and Fernando Montiel, with our writers' words providing a form of oral history:

Jake Donovan, BoxingScene.com: The talent long ago suggested that Nonito Donaire was destined for greatness. All that he needed was the big wins to match the potential.

Saturday night provided that part of the formula, in a very big way.

Kevin Iole, Yahoo Sports!: Montiel looked stiff when the fight began and paid a price early when Donaire raked him with a straight right in the opening moments. About a minute or so later, Donaire ripped him with a left hook that seemed to bother the champion.

Donaire, who was poised and calm throughout, knew long ago that it would be an early night. He said he told trainer Robert Garcia right before Christmas he would knock Montiel out in the second.

He was true to his word, knocking Montiel down with a vicious left hook and then a right uppercut that was totally unnecessary. Montiel was laying on the mat, with his legs twitching.

“I hit him with a left hook, I looked down and he started twitching,” Donaire said. “I knew the fight was over.”

It should have been, but, incredulously, referee Russell Mora let it continue. Montiel fell on his first attempt to get up and didn’t respond to Mora’s command to walk toward him when he did arise. However, Mora walked to Montiel, wiped his gloves and somehow saw fit to allow the bout to move on. Donaire landed two punches before Mora then jumped in.

Bart Barry, 15rounds.com: Even serious boxing fans were forgiven their disbelief at Saturday’s spectacle. For most of us, after all, Nonito Donaire was the guy who stretched Vic Darchinyan on Showtime 40 months ago, left promoter Gary Shaw and disappeared into promoter Top Rank’s farm system, making reportedly excellent if alliterative progress on Pinoy Power pay-per-view programs.

By 2010 Donaire was lost to the public. While specialists knew of his technical acumen, most everyone else assumed Top Rank already had its Filipino superstar in Manny Pacquiao – and one was enough. Rabid as boxing’s supporters in the Philippines were, there was only so much money to be squeezed from the world’s number 46 economy.

How well Top Rank has handled Donaire’s career is debatable. How well Top Rank has developed Donaire as a prizefighter, though, is not.

Dan Rafael, ESPN.com: A star is born. Donaire, with a massive knockout against a top-notch opponent in a much-anticipated fight, took his career to a new level and stamped himself among the handful of the best fighters in the world. Montiel, 31, of Mexico, a three-division titleholder, had not lost since 2006 and had established himself as the No. 1 bantamweight in the world by virtue of his impressive knockout of Hozumi Hasegawa last year to unify a pair of alphabet belts. Yet Donaire -- "The Filipino Flash" -- erased him in violent fashion to claim his 118-pound belts.

Little guys usually don't score such huge knockouts. Donaire, 28, a longtime flyweight titlist who also briefly held an interim belt at junior bantamweight before moving up in weight again in December, is not just any little guy. He's special.

Little But Big, B.A.D. But Good (Part One)

Let us preview tonight's fight between Nonito Donaire and Fernando Montiel, with our writers' words providing a form of oral history:

Robert Morales, Long Beach Press-Telegram: Fernando Montiel and Nonito Donaire are both promoted by Bob Arum, which made it easy for them to become fairly good friends.

But they say that won't matter tonight when they square off for Montiel's two bantamweight world titles at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas (on HBO).

Thomas Gerbasi, BoxingScene.com: The anticipation leading up to this bout is reminiscent of the lead-up to the bouts between Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez, and stylistically, it wouldn’t be too far a stretch to suggest that Montiel and Donaire can deliver the same kind of intense action. Of course, given the disappointment of last month’s highly-anticipated Superfight between Timothy Bradley and Devon Alexander, containing your excitement level has become a necessary requirement of being a boxing fan these days. Montiel says not to worry, because he’s bringing it, and he’s willing to take all the risks necessary to beat his foe.

Jake Donovan, BoxingScene.com: HBO takes a rare peek into the bantamweight division.

Even if it’s not the norm, a matchup pitting a pair of bona fide pound-for-pound entrants is way too tempting for anyone to pass up.

“The Montiel-Donaire showdown features two of the most accomplished little men in the sport,” states Kery Davis, Senior Vice President of Programming for HBO Sports. “It’s as good as any match-up you will see in the smaller weight classes.”

It’s also as good as any Boxing After Dark fight that has been shown in recent – and perhaps even distant – memory, as none of the B.A.D. entrants from 2010 certainly measured up.

Michael Rosenthal, RingTV.com: Ask an expert who he believes will win the Fernando Montiel-Nonito Donaire fight on Saturday and he or she will probably sigh before serving up an answer with minimal conviction. Donaire is a 3-1 betting favorite but most believe it’s a pick-‘em fight.

We'll return after the fight for part two.

Pacquiao-palooza

This TMZ/Entertainment Tonight/Us Weekly 24-hour-news-cycle generation has served to make cult figures of celebrities. Manny Pacquiao was already a national hero in the Philippines and a superstar in the boxing world.

Now?

Now you half expect there to be people on street corners handing out pamphlets letting you know all there is to know about Pacquiao.

Did you know that Manny Pacquiao's haircut is not modeled after Justin Bieber but rather is in tribute to Bruce Lee?

Did you know that Manny Pacquiao has a sizable lump near his right wrist that comes from something called Gideon's Disease?

Did you know that Manny Pacquiao's name is ubiquitous?

Bob Arum and Floyd Mayweather Jr. were seen sitting together at the Super Bowl. What does this mean for a possible fight between Pacquiao and Mayweather?

Who in history would Saul Alvarez most want to fight? Manny Pacquiao.

"[T]here are web sites where writers go out of their way to force a certain popular Filipino fighter’s name into every single article to drive search-engine traffic their way," writes Eric Raskin in a guest post on the stellar Queensberry Rules blog. "How pathetic. I would never do something like that."

Raskin's sums up the madness with his next thought in the piece:

"Manny Pacquiao is good at boxing."

Heck. Manny Pacquiao is great at boxing. And he's great for boxing. Can we start talking about Manny Pacquiao AND boxing again?

Thank You(Tube)

It was hidden away on the non-televised portion of the undercard to Timothy Bradley vs. Devon Alexander, but that doesn't mean it was hidden away to all. There's such a thing as the international feed, and there's such a thing as YouTube.

Some are touting Kendall Holt's first-round knockout of Lenin Arroyo as an early candidate for knockout of the year (praise not just the person who loaded this video, but also from Steve Kim of MaxBoxing.com).

I'm not as high on it. I don't think the camera angle helped, and I don't believe the blow was "stand up from your seats" good. Still, here it is:

Bradley-Alexander: Coming Up Short

Photo credit: Carlos Baeza/Thompson Boxing Promotions

Writers don't have venom tongues so much as they venomous ink – if they are disappointed or angry or unhappy, they will let you know by letting the venom ink flow.

So when Timothy Bradley vs. Devon Alexander – a fight with great expectations – turned out to be a woeful clash of styles, writers dug into it with pleasure. Or with displeasure.

Dan Rafael of ESPN.com:

"Talk about a disappointment. Bradley-Alexander, the first unification fight between two undefeated American titleholders in 24 years and only the third ever, was supposed to launch the winner, and maybe even the loser, to stardom, if it had been a great fight. Instead, it was a giant dud.

"The fight, fought before a crowd of 6,247 at the Silverdome, was competitive all the way with several very close, hard-to-score rounds. But the fight was not pleasing to watch. It was messy and never found a flow, and it ended in ugly fashion after yet another head-butt badly rattled Alexander."

Jake Donovan of BoxingScene.com led off with this in his post-fight recap:

"Dead atmosphere. Disappointing action. A major fight that ends on a butt and not a punch.

"Not exactly the ideal return to the big time for a sport desperately in need of a shot in the arm."

Bart Barry of 15rounds.com framed part of his story around his encounter with Bradley at the airport:

"Bradley was exhausted, busted up and bandaged, his left eye swelled shut from accidental collisions with Devon Alexander’s head. He was also the world’s best 140-pound prizefighter – if anyone cared.

"It appeared no one did. And that was fitting a footnote as any to the weekend’s depressed and depressing event, a spectacle billed as “The Super Fight” that filled little more than five percent of Silverdome’s available seats in Pontiac, Mich."

Ouch.

All of these words sting nearly as bad as Alexander's eye must've after that final head butt.

The Big Stage, The Big Screen, The Big Challenge, Two Big Guys

The Big Stage

Inside a large domed football arena this Saturday will be Devon Alexander and Timothy Bradley. So many other writers have weighed in on the economic side of things. But here's a Michigan man, David Mayo of The Grand Rapids Press, discussing what this fight could mean to the state.

Lem Satterfield of AOL Fanhouse, while not from Michigan, says Detroit needs this fight.

The Big Screen

Kieran Mulvaney of ESPN.com looks at a fascinating documentary on modern bare-knuckle boxing.

Murray Greig of the Edmonton Sun has his top 10 boxing movies.

The Big Challenge

Mixed martial artist Nick Diaz wants to try out boxing, says Franklin McNeil of ESPN.com.

Two Big Guys

George Kimball of The Sweet Science kept a secret for a long time – Why did Butterbean get knocked out by Mitchell Rose way back in 1995? Here's the answer...

And Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated takes a look at Chris Arreola and his new, supposed dedication to training.

What's The World Coming To?

Don't call us nattering nabobs of negativism. There's plenty of good news out there – for just one example, there's Thomas Gerbasi's feature on Kevin Cunningham, trainer to Devon Alexander, on BoxingScene.com.

But blog posts are better made when they're not just roundups, but when there's an overriding theme. And so there's these:

Thomas Hauser of SecondsOut.com has the behind-the-scenes stuff on how the flagship boxing network, HBO, lost the top boxing star, Manny Pacquiao, to Showtime.

John Whisler of the San Antonio Express-News has the story of drama involving a South Texas amateur boxing organization.

Tom Archdeacon of the Dayton Daily News looks into the dangers of Toughman contests, which returned to his city last week.

And Lance Pugmire of the Los Angeles Times says the newly launched World Series of Boxing is already in major financial trouble.

No need to pile on with the poor ticket sales for this Saturday's fight between Timothy Bradley and Devon Alexander...

That's What Sheed Said

There was a report on NPR this week saying that writer Wilfrid Sheed has died, and it took me a second to connect the name to the first boxing book I ever bought. I got Muhammad Ali: A Portrait in Words and Photographs probably a year or so after it came out in 1975, because I remember I used to stretch my teenage budget by shopping for big, glossy books about movies and sports at the discount table, where a lot of good ones eventually landed.

Of course I was drawn to the book by the awesome Neil Leifer photos. Ali looked great. He was cool. So were Frazier and Foreman and Liston. I tore out some of the 9-by-11 photo pages for my wall. I can't say I read the book cover-to-cover. I always figured Sheed was a grizzled sportswriter along with all the other guys I was reading then -- Dick Schaap, Stan Fischler, Ray Fitzgerald at the Boston Globe, Pat Putnam in Sports Ilustrated. The obits say Sheed was a satirical British essayist and novelist. His two biography subjects were Ali and Claire Boothe Luce. But looking back -- I still have my tattered copy of the book -- this is good stuff:

The face has been flattened ever so slightly by the hammers of Mars, and there is some reluctant scar tissue around the eyes. Yet he looks the better for it. Narcissus probably had a dull face without all those ripples on it -- a few rounds with Frazier would have helped him too. Ali's eyes themselves are deadly weapons, black as carbon and jabbing in every direction, from impassive surroundings.

Oh, Holy... Field.

Evander Holyfield loves boxing. And boxing fans loved Evander Holyfield. But there's a reason why the 48-year-old heavyweight – who will enter the Hall of Fame five years after he finally retires, if and when he finally retires – is fighting in a lesser venue against a lesser opponent and would be getting less attention of his fight wasn't coming on an otherwise empty weekend.

Tim Dahlberg of the Associated Press:

The problem is Holyfield hasn't had a good fight in years, unless you count his win over equally ancient Francois Botha last April a good fight. It wasn't, and there's no body of evidence in boxing that the older fighters get, the better they get.

It's the exact opposite, of course, as it is in all sports. But other sports don't involve getting hit repeatedly in the head.

The fighter who helped make the '90s a good time for the heavyweight division might be emboldened in his quest by the knowledge that the cupboard is painfully bare among boxing's big guys. Take away the Klitschko brothers and Britain's David Haye, and there's not a whole lot left in the division.

But Holyfield is never going to get a fight with the Klitschkos or Haye, much less beat them. He's stuck fighting guys like Williams and Brian Nielsen, who is coming out of a nine-year retirement to fight Holyfield in Denmark in March.

Still, he soldiers on, fighting for paydays a fraction of the $35 million he made to fight Tyson the second time around. He's had recent money issues and a payday is a payday, but listen to Holyfield talk and you get the feeling he really does think he can be heavyweight champion again.

The Talk

Not everything is flowery prose and dramatic storytelling and witty turns of phrases. Sometimes the best thing to do is just to get out of the way of the subjects and let them speak. And sometimes writers don't need to write at all, but rather will report, ask questions and let the answers speak for themselves. The above segment with Timothy Bradley and Devon Alexander carried much more power to it than any other minute-long production HBO could've put together.

The beauty of the Internet is that should a writer choose to publish an interview on its own, rather than turning it into an article, it is welcomed because doing so is suited to the short attention span that often comes with reading online. And much like Muhammad Ali saw that television would give him a channel to use his mouth to amplify his stardom, boxers have taken to the Internet to sell their fights.

Writers, of course, are willing to oblige.

In With The New...

It's easy to get caught in nostalgia, to look back at the great fighters and the great fights of decades past. Nostalgia means name value, which is why we still see Hector Camacho and Evander Holyfield and an assortment of long past-their-prime fighters still step in the ring (or why we see Buster Douglas in what might be the worst amateur commercial contest entry ever).

That, and they need money.

We will never be completely out with the old. But we are in with the new.

Thomas Gerbasi of BoxingScene.com talks to prospect Demetrius Andrade and the disappointing 2010 he had just two years after turning pro out of the Olympics:

Still unbeaten as a pro, still on most pundits’ Top Prospects lists, Andrade nonetheless only fought three times last year against pedestrian opposition and ate some backlash from fans and those in the media, including ESPN commentator Teddy Atlas.

Yet the 22-year old from Providence, Rhode Island took everything in stride.

“I just basically keep it moving, keep focused, and I try not to pay too much attention to it,” said Andrade, who chuckled when asked if this is what he signed up for when he became a professional boxer.

“Not at all. I didn’t expect a lot of things outside of boxing to happen. It’s crazy.”

For a taste, just look at Andrade’s social media output. Usually used just as a marketing tool, his webpage and Twitter account provided a glimpse into what he was going through.

Twitter - May 24 - My fight was cancelled last week due to my opponents arrest. My next fight is scheduled for June 18 at Northern Quest Casino in Spokane, WA.

Twitter - June 21 - My June 18 fight at Northern Quest Casino was cancelled, due to my opponents medical condition. Check my tweets for info on my next fight!

Webpage – September 23 - “I want to say to my family, friends, and fans that I've been reading things online regarding my father and myself. I'd like to set the record straight by saying, he's still my dad and he will always be in my corner. It is to my father’s credit that I am, where I am, today. My father is still a key person in my life and will always be.”

Add in a new baby, and it’s kind of amazing that Andrade was able to fight at all, but he did, he kept his “0” and now it’s on to what he hopes will be a better 2011.

There is a new television series centered around boxing called "Lights Out." Michael Woods, writing for ESPN.com, sets the premise of the show:

Some Goodbyes...

Cyberboxingzone.com – Image Credit

The end of the year is meant to be cathartic, a symbolic purging of the negatives of the last 12 months, a filing away of everything positive as we look toward what is to come and what must be done.

That requires saying some goodbyes. This last week brought the death of respected Philadelphia middleweight Bennie Briscoe. How respected was he? Let us turn to the Philadelphia Daily News, which this week re-ran an article by Elmer Smith from 1983 following a tribute that year to the retired fighter.

They rang the final bell on Bennie Briscoe's career last night in one of Philadelphia boxing's most decent and dignified hours.

Undisputed world middleweight champion Marvin Hagler, boxing Hall of Fame inductee and five-time world champion Emile Griffith, former light-heavyweight champion Eddie Mustafa Muhammad and a dozen other local and nationally known figures took turns at Palumbo's microphone to recall the wars they fought with Bad Bennie and to wish him the best.

They talked about how hard they had to train to get ready for a night with Bennie during the years when Philadelphia was still a "must" stop on the route to the top of the middleweight rankings and how they tried to build their reputations on Bennie's bald head.

And they told about how a fight with Bennie Briscoe told them more about themselves than it did about him.

The article includes several quotes from Briscoe's opponents. It's worth reading, even 27 years later.

Meanwhile, Murray Greig of the Edmonton Sun takes a look back at someone lost long, long ago: former heavyweight champion Tommy Burns, the man whom Jack Johnson would defeat to gain that crown. Greig's timing is apt, for it was 102 years ago that Greig faced Johnson:

Boxing: The Gift That Keeps On Giving

There are down times in boxing, periods when there are no big fights for several week, periods such as the time between Dec. 18 (when Jean Pascal and Bernard Hopkins fought to a draw) and Jan. 29 (when Devon Alexander and Timothy Bradley meet in a battle for junior-welterweight supremacy).

There is no offseason, however, no need to force the news with talk of hot stove leagues or draft picks or scouting combines. There is always a recent run of fights to review. There is always an upcoming fight to preview. There are fighters to feature, issues to discuss.

Tim Smith of the New York Daily News was one of many taking aim at the May 2011 fight between Manny Pacquiao and Shane Mosley:

[T]he news of Mosley being the next Pacquiao opponent isn't surprising or disappointing. Actually it makes perfect business sense - low risk, big reward.

It is merely par for the course with how Arum promotes Pacquiao, but if you want to blame someone for Pacquiao fighting Mosley, blame Pacquiao because ultimately he's the one who decides who he wants to fight. All Arum does is outline the financial particulars and negotiates the contracts with the various parties involved with staging the fight.

Thomas Gerbasi of BoxingScene.com had a feature on Wladimir Klitschko's rise to heavyweight prominence and his continued heavyweight dominance:

Sometimes Truth is Stronger Than Fiction: Micky Ward and "The Fighter"

Sylvester Stallone has fame and fortune. He has an Oscar, millions upon millions of dollars, and even a plaque in the International Boxing Hall of Fame, which has inducted him as an observer, and deservingly so, for his role as the writer and star of the "Rocky" movies.

Micky Ward toiled for 18 years and 51 fights, respected by those that knew of him, revered for what they saw of him. Rare was he in the headlines or under the spotlights, and even when he was, the amount of attention he received (and the amount of fame and fortune that comes from that) was less than what his real-life story deserved.

Ward's been retired for more than seven years now. He went out on top – even with two straight losses – with his trilogy of wars with the late Arturo Gatti. At last, Ward is receiving attention beyond the niche audience of boxing fans. He will never have the fame or fortune of a Sylvester Stallone – and he will never have a plaque in the International Hall of Fame (though when I visited he was referenced within the museum in Canastota).

But people will know who he was.

Sometimes truth is stronger than fiction. And while movie makers must take some liberties with his biography, there is "The Fighter."

Bernard Hopkins Does Everything But Make History

Photo credit: Tom Casino, Showtime.

He rose from two knockdowns. He won more rounds. He turned back time and the tide and the fight put forth by a champion nearly 18 years his junior.

He did everything but make history.

Bernard Hopkins' draw amazed in what the nearly 46-year-old was able to do, and so many of the writers who watched the fight gave him recognition that the judges didn't. Jean Pascal and Bernard Hopkins fought to a draw, a result that this scribe felt was fair but an ending that others felt robbed Hopkins – not just of what they saw as a rightful victory, but of a record as the oldest man to win a lineal championship.

Dan Rafael of ESPN.com:

"Hopkins turns 46 on Jan. 15 and deserved the decision, but didn't get it. Was it highway robbery? No. But he did more than enough to overcome flash knockdowns in the first and third rounds to dominate virtually the entire rest of the fight, a stunning performance against a [28-year-old] champion in his prime."

Don't Call Him Old News: Bernard Hopkins Takes on Jean Pascal

Photo credit: Luc Grenier

Let us let Bernard Fernandez of the Philadelphia Daily News set not only the scene for Saturday's fight between Jean Pascal and Bernard Hopkins, but also the theme for today's post.

The boxing ring, like the jungle, can be a savage place. Old fighters are like old lions; at some point a younger, stronger lion is certain to challenge the aging king for leadership of the pride. More often than not, youth must be served. It is called survival of the fittest, and it is nature's way.

Hopkins, of course, is the old lion in Saturday's fight. But he is a cagey and capable one, which gives him a shot at breaking the record set 16 years ago, when George Foreman, 45, knocked out Michael Moorer to become the oldest-ever world champion. On fight night, Hopkins will be 38 days older than Foreman was then.

Here's Don Steinberg, writing for The Wall Street Journal:

Other fortysomethings have tried unsuccessfully to win crowns. Roberto Duran was 47 when he lost a bid to regain a middleweight belt in 1998. Evander Holyfield came up short in a challenge for the heavyweight title at age 46—and he's still active at 48. Saoul Mamby, a former junior welterweight champ, pulled a Minnie Minoso and came back for one fight at age 60—the oldest in a modern, sanctioned fight, though it wasn't a title bout.

These thoughts are not to give short shrift to the man facing Hopkins, the legitimate light heavyweight champion, Pascal. But Hopkins' quest for the championship is also a quest for history. Here's Jake Donovan of BoxingScene.com taking a look at the other side:

Books: Ali Memories and Carver Boyd

Occasionally in this space we'll showcase the writing in new boxing books by BWAA members. Today is a two-fer. First, Tom Hauser and Bart Barry have teamed up to create an exclusive title for Barnes & Noble, The Legend of Muhammad Ali, a coffee table book that contains some fine writing and removable reproductions of Ali memorabilia. Here's a little teaser from Chapter 8:

In one understated elegant gesture, Futch turned toward the referee and unfurled the fingers of his left hand. He would not allow the fight to continue.

Across the ring, Ali realized that the carnage was over. He stood up, lowered his head, and lifted his right glove in the air, more in relief than triumph. Then he allowed his body to slowly ooze to the canvas. Later, Muhammad would say that the fight had been 'the closest thing to death I know of.'

Hauser also has published a new boxing novel, Waiting for Carver Boyd, which Jerry Izenberg at Secondsout.com calls "better than anything he has written before, no matter how well he wrote it." Here's an appetizer:

That’s when I saw a woman about my age on the sidewalk walking toward me.

She saw me the same moment that I saw her.

She was as beautiful as any woman who ever walked on the face of the earth. Tall with long auburn hair and a body that I won’t try to describe because words wouldn’t do it justice.

Her face was as dreamlike as the rest of her.

The distance between us narrowed and there was a flash of recognition in her eyes.

“You’re the fighter,” she said.

Writer Roundup: Khan Survives Maidana; Agbeko, Mares Advance in Bantamweight Tournament

Some storylines are natural, others artificial. Either will produce interest, at least so long as entertainment is promised.

The storyline to Amir Khan's fight with Marcos Maidana was natural: fighter perceived as having flaws facing fighter perceived as being able to expose those flaws.

The anticipated moment in the story of Khan-Maidana would come in Round 10. Michael Rosenthal of RingTV.com:

The problem was that Khan couldn't hurt the tough-as-they-come Argentine even though he landed 190 (of 360) power shots, the only exception being an excruciating body shot that put him down in first round.

That allowed Maidana (29-2, 27 KOs) to attack with abandon and land his own telling punches. He was able to score inside, many times with uppercuts, but he also landed some wild shots from a distance. That included the punch that instantly turned Khan’s legs into wet noodles.

Khan did more than save the victory however, Rosenthal writes:

Grab Your Popcorn – It's a Double Feature Weekend

If only we had the late Don LaFontaine, the famed deep voice that boomed over all those movie trailers.

In a world... where Saturday night will be spent watching four of the best 118-pound fighters in the sweet science, Showtime is there to broadcast the action. Vic Darchinyan is The Raging Bull. Abner Mares is his challenger. Joseph Agbeko is King Kong. And Yonnhy Perez is there to attempt to shoot him down.

They star in the latest Star Wars extravaganza: The Bantamweight Menace.

And in a world... where Saturday night will also be spent watching HBO, particularly for its main event. Amir was a young man with fast hands but a questionable chin. Marcos Maidana was a man who waited all year to test that speed and that chin.

They star in the latest Star Trek extravaganza: The Wrath of Amir Khan.

Alas, we do not have LaFontaine, but we do have these previews of this weekend's action:

In actuality, Doug Fischer of RingTV.com, who's traveled from SoCal to Tacoma, Wash., to cover the Showtime card, sets the table for Agbeko-Perez as well as LaFontaine could have.