Fight Game Blog

I didn’t get to see any of the action tonight, but by the looks of it, it wasn’t the greatest nights of fights.

Juan Manuel Marquez knocked out Joel Casamayor in the 11th round to become the new lightweight champion.

Vernon Forrest proved that he isn’t done by cleanly defeating Sergio Mora in a one sided unanimous decision.

SC at Bad Left Hook has all the details.

Several things are going on this weekend.

Tomorrow night, we have two fairly decent sized title fights.

Juan Manuel Marquez and Joel Casamayor are fighting for the lightweight champion with Sergio Mora and Vernon Forrest underneath. Marquez is coming up to lightweight, hoping to secure a third fight with Manny Pacquiao and faces the lineal champion in Casamayor. Casamayor could possibly get a fight with Pacquiao if he’s impressive in victory.

Of course, that’s after Pacquiao’s big fight with Oscar De La Hoya at the end of this year.

Mora and Forrest are fighting for Mora’s newly won junior middleweight title, which he beat Forrest for earlier this year. Forrest looked well on his way to beating up the smaller Mora, but about mid way through, the fight changed and Mora looked quicker, slicker, and just outpointed him the rest of the way. All of a sudden, Forrest looked all of his 37 years old. It will be interesting to see which Forrest we’ll get because we know which Mora we’ll get. He’s always been “The Latin Snake”. Will Forrest be “The Viper” though?

Also, TNA has a PPV this weekend. No Surrender features a four way for the belt between Samoa Joe, Kurt Angle, Christian Cage, and Booker T. They are teasing a Jeff Jarrett return, and if you go to TNA’s website they are also teasing Mick Foley. Foley left WWE last month after his contract ran out. He was Jim Ross’ Smackdown announcing partner and said that part of his reason for leaving was because of Vince McMahon yelling at him through his headset.

If they waste Foley’s return without using him to sell the show, it’s a huge mistake.

Though UFC and WWE are no where to be found this weekend, it’s still going to be a pretty good weekend of action.

He had a great plan. He was going to fight three times this year and end his career with a bang. He was going to fight a tune up bout in the spring to get him ready for his rematch with Floyd Mayweather Jr., who beat him in 2007. It was the biggest money fight of all time, and though the second fight more than likely wouldn’t have done the same business, it would’ve been the biggest fight of this year. And then, in December, he was set to end his career with one more fight, possibly in his home town.

Part one of the plan went to fruition. De La Hoya beat Steve Forbes in May to set up his fight with Mayweather. But Mayweather Jr. decided to retire instead of take the fight.

(According to Dave Meltzer’s Wrestling Observer there were early talks for both De La Hoya and Mayweather Jr. to be involved in this year’s Wrestlemania to help sell their fight for later this year. Obviously, De La Hoya wasn’t involved in Wrestlemaina, but Mayweather Jr. was.)

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It’s kind of odd to be reading an ESPN news story about another sports network picking up their crumbs.

But what ESPN doesn’t want, Versus will gladly take. The Versus network already broadcasts the WEC, sister company to the UFC. They recently did a great television rating for the WEC fight between Urijah Faber and Jens Pulver. They also previously showed Ricky Hatton’s last fight.

With Sergio Mora beating Vernon Forrest for his Super Middleweight title and Steve Forbes going twelve rounds with Oscar De La Hoya, you’d think that the Contender brand would be stronger than ever. But that can’t be the case if ESPN didn’t find use for them with all of their hours of programming to fill. Versus is a good spot for it if they’re going to get behind the show, but it’s definitely a lower cable network.

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It’s been a good year and a half since I missed watching a UFC PPV, but with their recent UFC 85: Bedlam show, I couldn’t talk myself into paying $44.95 to watch a very average card. Had this been on live television, I’d have been all over it. But there just wasn’t anything that I had to see. It wasn’t really the UFC’s fault though. Originally, Chuck Liddell was supposed to face Shogun Rua (and then Rashad Evans), but Chuck hurt his hamstring and turned it purple and he was out of the fight. Chris Leben and Michael Bisping were also supposed to fight, but Leben had issues with the authorities which didn’t allow him to train for the fight, and that one was scrapped too. Matt Hughes and Thiago Alves became the main event and while I’m a Hughes fan and Alves is a good fighter, there was nothing there. It was simply put together at the last minute and I wasn’t moved to buy the show.

Even though I wasn’t going to pay to watch MMA last night, I got my fix via the sweet science. Showtime and HBO both had fight cards last night and while it’s a pity as to what relates to big boxing cards on cable TV these days, at least I had some fighting to watch.

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Back in May, Sergio Mora beat Peter Manifredo Jr. in the Contender finale in a close fight. If you remember that fight, Sly Stallone was already asking for a rematch, and we were barely in the third round. NBC had dropped the show after only it’s first season, and it seemed Stallone was over hyping it to get someone to think about putting it on their network. Enter ESPN.

ESPN saved the show and as long as it’s the exact same concept as last year, I will love ESPN all over again. However, I’m not sure if anyone really wanted to see another Mora and Manifredo Jr. fight so quickly. Is it because they don’t want to fight anyone else so they decided to dance again with each other? Or is it because ESPN wants to get a jump on next season, which is scheduled to start in April? And why the hell did I only find out early this week that this was happening? All I know is that this is sort of important to them as they have Dan Patrick hosting. We’ll see how this goes.

The bad thing about both fighters is their lack of power. Mora only has 3 knockouts in his 16 wins and Manifredo Jr. has 10 in his 24 wins. Give me “Sugar Shay” and Alfonso over both of them.

I wonder if Stallone and Sugar Ray are still a part of this thing? They show Stallone in the audience and Patrick says he’s still executive producer. And this is a good thing. Stallone was so great in his role last year as you could tell, it was something he was truly interested in. And I want to see him spar again.

It looks like we have three fights as Alfonso Gomez fights Luciano Perez (who?) and Jesse Brinkley and Anthony Bonsonte have a rematch of their fight from last year when Jesse knocked him out. And then the main event will now be 8 rounds rather than 7 from last year’s final. I have one question. If Sergio loses, does he have to give his Contender Championship Belt to Peter? Can this belt be defended against guys not on the original Contender show? I need to know this.

Teddy Atlas says that Peter Manifredo Jr. needs to use his jab more. These are actual boxing people acting like this is a real fight. Well, now that ESPN is behind it, I guess it really is.

Gomez vs. Perez

Gomez wins round one, but it’s probably a little closer than he wanted. Perez is a smaller man who just throws haymakers on the inside. Gomez will probably use his size to his advantage from here on out and just hit him from the outside because Perez isn’t moving well. Perez is so sloppy and looks like he hasn’t been fighting long. Gomez needs to knock this guy out. In the greatest moment on the show thus far, Slater from Saved By The Bell interviews Sergio. Sadly, he’s missing his famous curl. Gomez knocks him down in what looks like a slip. Gomez destroyed him in the third and it really did look like a Rocky movie. Perez hasn’t learned that you’re supposed to move when the other guy is trying to hit you. The ref stopped the fight in the fourth round prematurely, but Perez wasn’t going to win this thing unless Gomez all of a sudden went blind. Still, Perez didn’t even really wobble much.

Sly Stallone is talking to Dan Patrick and affirms that Rocky VI is on! Woo hoo! It starts in December. You better believe you’ll see more about this.

Brinkley vs. Bonsante

I don’t think anyone was more hated on the show than Bonsante. He was just as ass and showed his true colors by fighting dirty against Ishe Smith on the undercard of last year’s finale. And while I hope Jesse Brinkley knocks him out again, I wonder if it will happen. Bonsante was well ahead in that fight before getting caught with an uppercut. But I hope that Brinkley proves me wrong. Peter Manifredo Sr. is Brinkley’s new trainer. Interestingly, Brinkley looks much bigger and quicker. I thought Bonsante was busier, but Brinkley might’ve stolen that first round with the last 45 or so seconds. Second round was kind of uneventful and this type of fight is probably why on the show, they don’t air the entire fight and instead show different angles of the best action of each round. Round three was probably the best one thus far. Bonsante was busy early with jabs but Brinkley hit him with some good power shots later in the round. Slater also interviews Manifredo Jr. in an awkward situation. We learn that Manifredo Jr. won’t have Manifredo Sr. in his corner. It’s turning into a pro wrestling match here. Bonstante egged Brinkley on and then Brinkley motioned to him to come fight and then bounced off the ropes and threw a straight right that connected. But Bonsante looks to be better conditioned and Brinkley looks tired. The fifth round was Brinkley swinging, Bonstante holding, and Brinkley getting frustrated. The judges score the fight for Brinkley while the announcers go crazy because they thought Bonsante pitched a shutout. Bonsante just walked back to the lockerroom. I thought Bonsante at least won 3 rounds to 2.

Dan Patrick is now talking to Mark Burnett the man who puts these shows together. Burnett says the story leads up to the action and the story helps you care more about the fight in the ring. Burnett says they are casting now for season 2. For some reason, Bonsante comes back toward the ring and Ishe tells him that he won the fight. Burnett says that they are getting more fighters because of the success of the first one.

Mora vs. Manifredo Jr.

Round One

• Manifredo is wearing some frilly trunks
• Mora is cut above his left eye already
• Last 30 seconds were better than the first 2:30

Round Two

• Manifredo looks so much stronger, but he did last time as well
• Mora wins a nice little flurry between the two
• The ref has Sergio’s eye looked at
• Mora probably won that round and they traded blows after the round ended

Round Three

• Mora digs two or three uppercuts into Manifredo
• Manifredo wobbles him slightly and Mora goes back into the ropes while Manifredo raises his hands
• They are talking trash, more Manifredo it seems

Round Four

• Manifredo is much busier of the two
• Manifredo seems to be withstanding Mora’s quick flurries much better than last time
• Mora tries to steal the end of the round, but Manifredo controlled it for the most part

Round Five

• Sergio throws about 25 straight punches before Manifredo throws back
• Mora might’ve punched himself out
• When it seemed that Mora was worn out, the ref gave him a time out so they could look at his eye
• The is the only round that Mora has won decisively thus far, even though I also had him winning the second

Round Six

• Neither man is taking much of a chance this round
• Manifredo is staying on the outside for the most part this round
• Manifredo gives the cut of the throat sign after the end of the round, that is usually not something television networks enjoy

Round Seven

(I missed about a minute and a half of this round because of Tivo)

• The last 30 seconds or so showed Manifredo thinking he’s won the fight
• Mora seemed to be lunging at the end

Round Eight

• Manifredo’s trainer, Freddie Roach is telling him not to run and to fight hard even though he knows he’s way ahead
• Sergio is worried about his eye
• He also doesn’t seem too urgent in his delivery
• Mora gets him in the corner, but Manifredo quickly turns him around
• Manifredo wins round eight fairly easily
• Manifredo raises his arms as Mora says, “hell no!”

The Decision

77-75 for Mora
77-75 for Manifredo Jr.
77-75 for Mora

Wow. That’s two fights in a row where the judges had absolutely no clue. Bonsante got robbed and so did Manifredo Jr. Mora tried to shake his hand and Manifredo Jr. looked him right in the eye and said, “you didn’t win that fight.” Mora said that he hopes Manifredo isn’t a sore loser because he knows that Mora won the fight. I should let you know, Slater is interviewing again. He now interviews Manifredo Jr. and Manifredo Jr. says Mora may have won 2 rounds. Manifredo Jr. says he didn’t even get hit. Looks like Mora got a hometown decision.