Weekend Boxing (and american football) review!

I probably shouldn’t be talking shit, but hey, Richard Sherman inspired me to speak my mind! The BMB crew went out after the fight last Saturday night and discussed the Pascal vs. Bute “mega-fight”. There were glimmers of glory as the main card established an elevated game of feinting early on, revealing that, indeed, the men in the ring had already been playing chess in their heads anticipating each other’s styles. It was actually exciting for a couple of rounds as Pascal pushed the envelope and lunged forward with one-two combinations, while Bute was kind of reminiscent of a more successful Mosley in the Mayweather vs. Mosley fight, and was making Pascal pay with shots to the inside.

Unfortunately, the chess match was more one-sided than anticipated as Pascal pretty much continued his game plan, and amazingly, Bute doubted himself as the rounds went on. Pascal was visibly winded around the 7th and 8th round, while Bute still seemed fresh, but Bute just didn’t want to take any chances. Maybe Pascal’s shots actually hurt Bute being 15 pounds heavier than him? Bute had all the advantages to pull off a vintage upset (home court advantage, crowd on his side, adrenaline, and motivating pressure) but he just didn’t press down on the gas for the win. It was just too easy a win for Pascal, and he didn’t seem to prepare any better for this supposed Manny-Mayweather-esque Canadian boxing extravaganza. Must be nice being you Pascal, must be nice.

A couple of notes about the undercards. 1) Mike Perez vs. Carlos Takam. Snoozefest. Mike Perez was not strong, while Carlos Takam was stronger but scared in all rounds except the last one. It looked like two linemen who got knocked out of the playoffs and went into the ring, and there were 4 too many rounds.

2) Andy Gartiner vs. Eleider Alvarez. This was a gem of a fight that I was fortunate to catch. Gartiner was a beautiful action fighter with satisfyingly powerful body blows that lit up the cocky Eleider Alvarez. There were times where I thought any man would have fallen to Gartiner’s body blows, but Eleider showed incredible glimmers of talent and power that were very impressive. Other than the terrible sportsmanship, (Yes, people. There were worse displays of unsportsmanlike conduct in the world.) Eleider showed genius potential combined with power. His intuition, reaction time, and vision for the counter was exceptional, and I think he should get bigger fights as soon as possible, perhaps to test his talent and ego on a bigger stage. Great discovery of talent this weekend, for both fighters, and hope to see more of them soon. Watch the good 10-rounder here!

Go Hawks!