I don’t know when I first started watching boxing, probably
sometime in college if my somewhat hazy memory is correct. I know as a kid I
wasn’t into it. My dad didn’t drag me to
fights, nor did we watch much boxing on TV.
If I had to give anyone credit it would probably be Saint
Leo Mike and Link. My first boxing memory (again a bit hazy) involves a
Saturday night trip to the Tampa Jai Alai fronton for a Julio Cesar Chavez
fight. Thanks to BoxRec I can see the
fight was against Meldrick Taylor. As
four white college kids we wisely joined in the “Viva Chavez” cheers from the
largely Hispanic crowd (including a Cuban who explained the wonderful sport of jai
alai to me).
My second memory involved college kids crowded around a
13-inch color TV that somehow produced a fuzzy, but clear enough to watch
showing of George Foreman beating Michael Moorer.
My first boxing argument was with Link’s freshman roommate
about whether Muhammad Ali was a slugger or more of a cagey boxer. My nascent view, based only on the iconic
photo of Ali standing triumphantly over a fallen Liston, was that Ali was more
about knockouts than boxing. It wasn’t until much later, after reading about
and watching his mastery of the ring did I realize that Anthony might have had
more of a valid argument than I was willing to concede.
Post college I was lucky enough to live in an area that was
enjoying a rather successful run in professional boxing. A young Antonio Tarver and Ronald “Winky”
Wright were bringing pride to the Tampa Bay area while Roy Jones, Jr. bought a
world title fight to the Ice Palace.
Winky didn't block ALL punches thrown his way. Sidenote - I once saw him in the mall holding his wife/girlfriend's purse |
I do, however, know the exact fight that turned me from a
casual boxing observer to the type of fan that pays for HBO not for the movies,
but for the fights (this was before they became known for their Sunday night
programming. Yes I’m old). I wish I
could say it was some obscure, undercard fight between two fighters who had one
great fight and then were never heard from again so I could establish my
hipster boxing credentials. Alas, it was one of the most popular fights from
this century.
It was the first Micky Ward/ Arturo Gatti fight. There is no
doubt that it was one of the defining fights of the 2000s and the 9th
round is in the top 10 of greatest rounds ever. I remember recording the
rebroadcast on VHS (yup, I’m that old) and telling folks that hadn’t seen it
that it was the closest thing to a “real life Rocky fight” that I had ever
seen.
Gatti blocks a punch with his face. |
Ward, who has been Mark Wahlberg-ed into being a better
fight then he was, was a straight ahead fighter who had a tremendous left hook
and willingness to walk through a rainstorm of punches to throw it. Gatti, “The
Blood and Guts Warrior”, was on the wrong side of 30 and known for his wild out
of the ring lifestyle and propensity to bleed more than his boxing acumen. Needless to say, they made for excellent
television.
Ward was cut in the first round and bled throughout much of
the contest. Gatti would crumble to the canvas in the ninth from one of Ward’s
trademarked left hooked. If you watch the fight, you can hear the unrestrained
glee in Jim Lampley and Emmanuel Steward’s voices as they call the fight. They
know they are watching, knowing that what they are seeing is why we as fans
watch the sport. Two guys, leaving it
all in the ring, wailing away at each other with everything they have for the
enjoyment of people around them.
Which brings us to Frankie Leal. Don’t know who he is? Neither did I until I perused Deadspin this
weekend and read an excellent post by the writer/commenter known as “Iron MikeGallego”. On Saturday the 19th, Leal, a 26-year-old Mexican fighter,
fought Raul Hirales. Hirales floored
Leal in the 8th round with a solid left hook to the body and a right
hand that cuffed the back of Leal’s head.
Leal managed to get to his feet, but then slowly slid down
the ring corner as the refs count reached eight. The young fighter looked dazed
as he slumped in the corner as the ring doctor steadied his head and flashed a
light in his eyes. After being taken out of the ring in a stretched he fell
into a coma after the fight and three days later passed away due to traumatic
brain injury. Not that it needed anymore tragedy, but Hirales and Leal were
good friends outside of the ring.
I’ve watched the fight (there is a link in the Deadspin article) and what stands out to me
is how routine the fight was to watch.
For eight rounds the two fighters went toe-to-toe fighting close rounds.
While I had Hirales well ahead on points (thanks to a 6th round knockdown)
each round was pretty close.
If you were to watch the fight without knowing the morbid
outcome you would be hard pressed to believe that Leal suffered life-ending trauma
during the fight. Contrast it to the vicious
shots that were landed throughout the entire Gatti/Ward fight. There is a moment in the 5th round
where Gatti has his hands down and Ward absolutely tees off with a three-shot
combination that lands flush. Gatti
looks dazed but doesn’t go down.
Throughout the eight rounds last Saturday there are plenty
of clean shots that land, but no “smoking gun” punch that one can directly
point to exact moment that doomed Leal. Therein lies the problem. In a sport where the object is to physically
beat a person to the point where he is incapacitated for at least 10 seconds,
where is the line drawn when enough is enough?
Leal popped up from his knock down in the 6th
with no issue in fact he looked more troubled by an earlier low blow that
caught him flush on the cup. During the fatal knockout sequence Leal is hurt by
a body shot, then a flurry of punches drive him from the corner. As he starts
to fall, Hirales clipped him on the back of the head with a “rabbit punch”. It
was unintentional, caused by Leal’s falling body, but he got up briefly before
his body gave up and he collapsed to the mat.
Could Leal’s life have been saved? Possibly. It took several minutes for the
medical team to get into the ring, get the stretcher to the ring and get Leal
out of the arena and on his way to the hospital. In March of 2012 Leal had also been
stretchered out of the ring after being knocked out by Evgeny Gradovich.
However, those factors took place outside of the ring. Unfortunately, if you
look at just the in-ring action there isn’t much that could have been done to
prevent his death.
It’s a testament to how far boxing has fallen from the
limelight that Leal’s death isn’t drawing more national attention. If a football player died last Sunday from
severe head trauma the sports world have gone apoplectic. The talking heads
would be stroking out while expressing their outrage. There would be talk of
cancelling games and government investigations. Yet, in boxing the beat goes
on.
That is the face of a man with ill intentions. |
On Saturday, Gennady Golovkin, the hardest-hitting
middleweight that no one knows about, will take on Curtis Stevens in New York
City. Undoubtedly there will be a 10 bell count in his memory and then after
some thoughtful words Golovkin will go on his way to trying to knock out
Stevens to the delight of the HBO crowd. The scene will be repeated in November
when Manny Pacquiao and Brandon Rios trade power shots with each other in what
could be the most entertaining fight of the year.
In the Deadspin post, the writer refers to the Leal/Hirales
fight as “ugly”. It's really the one point that I disagree with him on. Unfortunately, upon watching it didn’t seem ugly to me, it
seemed all too normal.