THE WEIGHT OF HISTORY
who had fought at 154 but was primarily a welterweight, was challenging one of the fiercest middleweight champions of all time. A big difference between Hagler-Leonard and Alvarez- Crawford is that hardly anyone gave Leonard a chance. Conversely, Crawford had many supporters who thought he could win. The betting odds in 1987 had initially favored Hagler 4-1, while Alvarez started as a 2-1 favorite over Crawford. Despite the talk of Crawford challenging a naturally bigger fellow, there was no sign at the betting windows that he was doomed. Leonard? People were praying for his safety. “This match endangers the eyesight of Leonard, as well
Los Angeles, taking Oscar’s WBC welterweight title in the process. Maybe there were not as many belts on the line, but one could argue that De La Hoya was an even bigger star than Alvarez at the time, especially in the United States, where he’d become a mainstream celebrity. Still, Crawford’s win over Alvarez is more impressive, for not only did he more thoroughly dominate Canelo, but he’d never fought at 168 before (much less 160). Prior to facing De La Hoya, Mosley tested the welterweight waters with KO wins over Wilfredo Rivera and Willy Wise. Crawford didn’t test the waters. He dove into the deep end of the ocean, a knife in his teeth, ready for the sharks.
Los Angeles Times put it succinctly by describing Ruiz as “a footnote to history.” The Times also labeled the fight correctly by writing it “wasn’t always as entertaining as it was historic.” 8 \ Manny Pacquiao vs. Antonio Margarito, 2010 Though now it’s remembered as just another night in Pacquiao’s amazing career, the buildup to Pacquiao- Margarito was highly dramatic. Pacquiao, who began his career at 106 pounds, was now fighting for a vacant belt at junior middleweight against Margarito, a much taller and bigger-boned character. Even when he emerged from the featherweight classes to take on lightweights and
people uneasy. Smiling cockily underneath his sinister mustache, Margarito looked more villainous by the day. When it was learned that he’d rehydrated to 165 pounds by fight night, there was an ominous feeling at ringside. Pacquiao was a wide betting favorite, but until the fight started and fans could see him at work, there was no downplaying the threat posed by Margarito. He was the living embodiment of a black storm cloud. In the end, however, the fight was all Pacquiao’s. He battered Margarito for 12 rounds, taking an easy decision, winning the vacant WBC title and sending Margarito home with a fractured orbital bone. “I can’t believe I beat someone this big and this strong,” Pacquiao said after the bout.
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7 \ Roy Jones Jr. vs. John Ruiz, 2003 When Roy Jones Jr., a former middleweight titlist who’d been ruling the light heavyweight division for the past six years, stepped up to heavyweight in 2003 to dethrone WBA titleholder John Ruiz by a lopsided 12-round decision, there was an immediate move by his admirers to anoint him the greatest of all time. He was subsequently given the new – and in retrospect the rather overstated – nickname of “Superman.” Granted, the later part of Jones’ career was wildly uneven, but his win over Ruiz was hyped by some as a monumental occurrence, as if he’d climbed Mount Everest barefoot without ropes. And nobody hyped it more than Jones himself. “It’s bigger than me,” Jones said after the bout. “I wanted to do something great for the sport of boxing.” Yet there are major differences between Jones’ defeat of Ruiz and Crawford’s win over Alvarez. Despite giving up 33 pounds in weight, seven and a half inches in reach and four inches in height, Jones was a 2-1 betting favorite. Ruiz, though he owned an alphabet belt, was hardly the cream of the heavyweights, was rather one- dimensional and was certainly not a star by any measure. The
as his life,” said Ferdie Pacheco, by then a fight analyst for NBC, “and makes a mockery of the credibility of any boxing commission that sanctions it.” Frank Deford of Sports Illustrated dubbed the fight, “The Blinding of Sugar Ray.” Such was the concern over Leonard as he prepared to face Hagler. Yet Leonard proved the pessimists wrong by boxing a smart, tactical fight and taking a 12-round split decision. But as mind-bending as Leonard’s achievement was, Hagler was competitive and won enough rounds that many found fault with the scoring. No such controversy marred Crawford’s win. If the scoring was questioned, it was because the two 115-113 scorecards didn’t reflect Crawford’s mastery. 6 \ Sugar Shane Mosley vs. Oscar De La Hoya, 2000 Maybe Shane Mosley knows something of what Crawford accomplished, having once jumped a weight class to take on – and defeat – the biggest name in the business, Oscar De La Hoya. Mosley, who had been a longtime IBF lightweight titleholder, earned a hard-fought 12-round split decision over De La Hoya on June 17, 2000, at Staples Center in
welterweights, Pacquiao had seemed tiny. It felt inevitable that he’d someday run into an opponent who was simply too big for him. Some thought the menacing Margarito would be the guy to end PacMan’s streak of success. The intrigue continued at the weigh-in when Manny was well short of the agreed-upon 150-pound catchweight, coming in at 144.6, a surprisingly low weight that was even well below the welterweight limit. Margarito weighed a chiseled 150, stood an alarming five inches taller than Pacquiao and exceeded Pacquiao’s reach by six inches. Adding to these factors was a rumor that Pacquiao had been distracted by his recent foray into Philippine politics. Moreover, Margarito’s reputation was as dark as anyone’s has ever been in boxing, what with allegations of loading his gloves in a recent fight, which led some to claim he should be banned for life. As punishment for the glove tampering, Margarito was denied a license to fight in Las Vegas, which resulted in the fight taking place in Texas at Cowboys Stadium. Adding to his badman persona, Margarito was caught on video mocking Pacquiao’s trainer, Freddie Roach, apparently laughing at Roach’s Parkinson’s disease. Margarito apologized, but there was something about him that made
It was his eighth division title, a record that may never be surpassed. Of course, a much younger Pacquiao had once jumped from flyweight to junior featherweight, so fighting bigger opponents was not new to him. And as Crawford pointed out after beating Alvarez, size isn’t always a factor. Not when you’re possessed of sublime talents. “A lot of people put too much in me moving up in weight,” Crawford said. “Canelo is not a big guy. He’s a smaller guy fighting in a big weight class.” Noting that he had longer arms than Alvarez, Crawford added, “All in all, we’re about the same size.” He further explained that Alvarez was far from being the hardest puncher he’d ever faced. Fair enough. Maybe Alvarez’s size wasn’t so important, after all. All we know for certain is that the fighter of the moment is a plainspoken father of seven from the American heartland. As you’ll be reminded constantly in the coming months, he’s the first male boxer in the four-belt era to be undisputed champ in three weight classes. Whether he’s the greatest ever or just great for this year is impossible to say. But being mentioned with Henry Armstrong and Sugar Ray Leonard is great enough for now.
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