BERNSTEIN ON BOXING
Vargas and Mayorga threw down at the crossroads in Los Angeles.
difference, and Mayorga won a close majority decision. The win propelled Mayorga to two more major fights against Shane Mosley and
That cynicism could be correct, or it could be vastly underrating Spence and/or overestimating Tszyu. The Australian’s last two losses
Miguel Cotto (both losses) as his career continued. Vargas never fought again. His boxing career was over.
have been by stoppage and his resiliency could certainly be questioned at this point.
title reigns at 154 pounds, including five successful defenses to the IBF belt he lost to Felix Trinidad in an epic battle. He came into the Mayorga fight off two losses to Shane Mosley, and his place in the upper echelon of 154-pound contenders was in doubt. The colorful, controversial and to some infuriating Mayorga was a former unified welterweight champ and 154-pound beltholder. This 34-year-old chain-smoking Nicaraguan warrior had lost three of his last five fights, with two of the losses coming to Vargas victors Trinidad and Oscar De La Hoya. One of the things that equates this match to Tszyu-Spence is weight. Mayorga, like Spence, was most successful as a welterweight and had not been at 154 long, despite having already held a junior middleweight title. Spence has only fought at 150 or above twice in his career. In both Tszyu-Spence and Vargas-Mayorga, one fighter demanded a higher weight limit, and after some tough negotiations, both got their way. Vargas wanted the fight at 162 and it was agreed, but then he demanded it go up to a 166-pound catchweight, which was where the fight was ultimately fought. Ironically Spence, normally a welterweight (147 pounds), wanted a 160-pound middleweight limit for the fight, but after heated discussions between the two teams, it landed at a catchweight of 158 pounds. The Vargas-Mayorga fight produced the expected fireworks, which included two knockdowns of Vargas and many great exchanges between the two fighters. The knockdowns were the
In all crossroads fights, we tend to center our thinking on the negatives because both men always have a lot to prove, but let us also look at the positives. Even if these two men are a little diminished (as is often the case with crossroads fights), it could contribute to the action-packed nature of the fight. Both men are relatively stationary, which makes them offensive- minded fighters who can be hit. And the vulnerability each has shown defensively in recent times is likely to be on display for this fight. In short, expect a firefight. From a style standpoint, there are several elements that should be fascinating. The Tszyu straight right is a very good punch, and you can expect to see it against the southpaw Spence. The wild card will be how well Tszyu throws the left hook, which is a good but sometimes underused punch for him and one that can be effective in controlling a lefty. If Spence’s hand speed is even close to its normal level, it will be a key in this fight. That is Tszyu’s kryptonite. He does not deal well with combination punching. But while the X’s and O’s of this fight are important, it all may still come down to the intangibles. Spence is going across an ocean to Australia. He beat Brook in England, but this is still a factor. Then there is the big intangible: When the inevitable firefight portion of the evening begins, which man still has the grit, punch resistance and will to fight his way through it successfully? I don’t have a definitive answer for that question, but I do know one thing: Like all crossroads fights, one man will move forward with some new opportunity on his plate, and the other might be left searching for his next meal.
A true crossroads fight has even more variables than a battle of champions or unblemished contenders, because both men have shown recent vulnerability. That has to be factored in while still fairly evaluating the strengths each man brings into the fray. Tszyu-Spence offers us a myriad of these variables. When the 36-year-old Spence steps into the ring on July 26, it will be the first time in just under three years – the time that has elapsed since the night he took a fearful beating from Terence Crawford. It was the first time Spence had lost as a pro, and yet the severity of the loss and subsequent hiatus made it feel to many like a career-ending loss. I announced that fight, as I did the 2017 win over Kell Brook that gave Spence his first world title and made him a boxing star, as well as several of his title defenses. It was shocking to see him so totally dominated by Crawford in a match most thought would be a close contest. I left that night wondering if we would ever see Spence in the ring again. Will this crossroads fight be a career- ender, as Vargas experienced with Mayorga, or a rebirth that will lead Spence to future glory? The question marks involve his age, the long layoff and his insistence on a weight limit well above his most effective fighting weight. Will the Spence hand speed and combination punching be there for this fight? Will he be able to use angles against the straight-line attacking Tszyu with the extra weight he’s carrying and potential ring rust? He will be facing a naturally bigger fighter and a good 154-pound puncher in Tszyu. The 31-year-old Tszyu is a throwback in many ways. He believes
The loser of Spence-Tszyu may have some tough choices to make.
THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE By Al Bernstein
in fighting his way back to stardom and is not one to avoid risks along the way. He has fought seven times during Spence’s three-year hiatus from the ring. I chronicled Tszyu’s rise to 154-pound titleholder, including victories over Brian Mendoza and Tony Harrison. But he has lost three of his last six fights. Some wonder what his career would look like if he hadn’t been hit with that errant elbow from Sebastian Fundora early in their first match. To that point, it looked like Tszyu’s power was already chipping away at Fundora, but the terrible cut caused by the elbow changed the trajectory of the fight and Tszyu’s career. He enters this fight off two wins against undefeated fighters, albeit not upper-echelon fighters and certainly not on Spence’s level. Still, he has shown the willingness to get in the ring to earn future opportunities. That’s what the roll of the dice against Spence is all about. Some would say it is a path of less resistance because of Spence’s move up in weight and long layoff. The Spence marketability, they say, makes him a good but beatable opponent.
I like to think of myself as a broadcaster and writer who is not wedded to boxing cliches, but sometimes they are so apropos that you cannot avoid them. Such is the case for this assignment. I am tasked with writing about the upcoming battle between Tim Tszyu and Errol Spence, a quintessential example of an often used and sometimes misused boxing cliche: “crossroads fight.” So, how do we define a crossroads fight? To me, it is a match where the winner of the fight has the chance to move on to bigger and better things while the loser’s career is derailed to the point of gatekeeper status at best or retirement at worst. For this label to fit, you need several things. First, you
must have two well-known, marketable veterans of the sport with solid achievements on their resume, hopefully world titles. Then, you require both to have fallen from a lofty perch but with the star power to create a big match that boxing fans will care about. This match certainly checks those boxes. To put it in further context for you, I offer an example of a memorable and important crossroads fight involving another pair of ex-champions in the same general weight area with several similarities to Tszyu-Spence. On November 23, 2007, former world champions Fernando Vargas and Ricardo Mayorga met in Los Angeles at a very definite crossroads in their careers. The 29-year-old Vargas was already a 10-year veteran with two
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