" It seems like all major fights this year were a bust," announced Dave the Barber upon my arrival at his fine establishment on San Fernando Road:" First we had Pacquiao Mosley which was a snooze fest, then we had Mayweather Ortiz fiasco. Cotto Margarito ll could have been a good fight, but it was one sided. Pacquiao Marquez lll was a decent scrap, but to my naked eye it lacked the violence of their past battles."
" Talking about violence, a frey that caught my eye was on ESPN earlier this year, two boys from the East Coast, Delvin Rodriguez and Pawel Wolak, " said Big Steve:"These boys went at it for ten rounds. That was one hell of a fight. It was better than original Rocky movie. Wolak's face was grotesque; he had a welt on a side of his head the size of a hockey puck, but the boy kept firing and attacking as if he was defending his infant child. They went at it with no time to breeze, Rodriguez, a boxer turned puncher and Wolak, an unstoppable beast. The only thing that stopped them was a final bell. The draw was a fitting conclusion. The only regret I had was that no one ever went down."
" If you want to talk about violence, you have to consider Kirkland Angulo," cried out Al the Barber:" Round one, a malicious, breathtaking firefight that almost ended twice, first in favor of Angulo, then in favor of Kirkland.It was the best combat round of boxing I have seen in a while. It was Hagler Hearns all over again, only harder and more violent. Those middleweights were throwing heavyweight punches , non stop. It was fistic magic. It seemed like a war to the finish, like they were both willing to die in that ring. Good thing the reff stopped it when he did, he might have saved Angulo's life."
" It was all of that and a bag of chips, but it was only one round," exclaimed Downtown Ronnie Brown:" After that one round it was a nightmarish beat down. I need two way, sustained competitive action to grab me. The fight that saved the day for me, in fact it saved the whole Pacquiao Mosley event in Las Vegas was Arce and Vasquez Jr. Now that was one hell of a battle that upheld a long standing rivalry between Mexico and Puerto Rico. It reminded me of 2008 brawl between Cotto and Margarito, only guys were smaller. First it looked like younger and stronger Vasquez was going to end it early, Then Arce came back, Then it was back and forth, then it was Vasquez again and then Arce comes back out of dead and stops the younger man in the twelfth. That fight kept me on the edge of my seat until the heart breaking knock out ."
" That was a good scrap, but those boys are too tiny to cause any real damage, " complained Dave the Barber:" The fight that really did it for me was Berto Ortiz early in the year. Now those boys put on a show; they came out smoking, especially that young lad, Ortiz. He told Berto in no uncertain terms - If you play with fire, you are going to get burned. The unbeaten Berto had a look of a deer caught in headlights on a dark night, but he came back and dropped Ortiz with a right hand in the second round. And then, and then there was round number six, a round as vivid as if someone painted a permanent picture in my brain. that was hypnotic. First we had Berto beginning to feel better about himself and putting together some memorable shots, than we had that skull numbing right hand that dropped Ortiz as if he was hit by a freight train. The fight is over- I thought, but that's when that boy Ortiz showed me something I didn't think he had. He got up and fought back as if his whole life depended on it. May be it did. Still, Berto was delivering some major damage and I didn't think Ortiz, on shaky legs, was going to make it through the round. And then, just when it looked like Berto was going to end the night,Victor in heavy distress, landed a right hook that dropped Berto and made everyone inside my house, including my frigid wife, jump up and start screaming and hollering . That was an adrenaline rush, better than sex, especially considering that I haven't had any in the last twenty years. And then Ortiz showed a resolve to win the fight, no matter what. It' s too bad the boy lost it when he fought Mayweather. Otherwise it could have been interesting if it went to the late rounds. Ortiz Berto is my fight of the year, no questions. That's why they are going to do it again soon. What do you think ?"
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