Cotto and Calzighe have very different personalities but looked upon as a whole there are some interesting parallels between these two fights, here are some that intrigue me:
1) The Cotto Martinez fight, much like the Calzighe Lacy fight was a very polarizing event. I was struck by how much people were either tuned into Martinez cleaning house, or Cotto winning handily. Same with the Lacy fight. People either thought Lacy was going to murder Joe or vice versa.
2) Both Lacy and martinez were unorthedox athletic fighters who without the benefit of much experience were hyped on their punching and athletic ability. It seems like in both cases people suspended the part of the thinking process that considers normative abilities most fighters have: Martinez lack of competition, was given short shift, meanwhile Lacy's total reliance on his hook, his ponderous lack of foot speed was not considered.
3) Both fights were a real beating....nuff said not even close. And the experts were as a whole clueless.
What interests me about this comparison is not so much Cotto or Calzighe who were in a sense mere red herrings, rather it is Martinez and Lacy....for the record I drank the Lacy koolaid!
Mrtinez basically, as Ray said, fought ****. NOBODY here or on any board thought much of junior Chavez! suddenly he is a big strong puncher when Martinez beat him? ha! I used to hype the kid before he stopped training and even I knew he was **** at this junction of his protected excuse for a career. Pavlik was damaged goods, Williams being the one exception. Martinez never really beat an oppopnent of Cotto's quality!! people should have understood this.
Lacy also was coming up...miuch like Taylor, another strong limited guy, but the difference was whom both guys had faced. Calzighe was in fact a major step up for Left Hook, people should have known!
It is rare that a boxing board is so unnecessarily polarized by a fight that should have been a gimme...even the casinos bought the hype! And no Martinez is not a hype job well maybe he is...but there was no way he had fought anyone on Cotto's level before that night.
1) The Cotto Martinez fight, much like the Calzighe Lacy fight was a very polarizing event. I was struck by how much people were either tuned into Martinez cleaning house, or Cotto winning handily. Same with the Lacy fight. People either thought Lacy was going to murder Joe or vice versa.
2) Both Lacy and martinez were unorthedox athletic fighters who without the benefit of much experience were hyped on their punching and athletic ability. It seems like in both cases people suspended the part of the thinking process that considers normative abilities most fighters have: Martinez lack of competition, was given short shift, meanwhile Lacy's total reliance on his hook, his ponderous lack of foot speed was not considered.
3) Both fights were a real beating....nuff said not even close. And the experts were as a whole clueless.
What interests me about this comparison is not so much Cotto or Calzighe who were in a sense mere red herrings, rather it is Martinez and Lacy....for the record I drank the Lacy koolaid!
Mrtinez basically, as Ray said, fought ****. NOBODY here or on any board thought much of junior Chavez! suddenly he is a big strong puncher when Martinez beat him? ha! I used to hype the kid before he stopped training and even I knew he was **** at this junction of his protected excuse for a career. Pavlik was damaged goods, Williams being the one exception. Martinez never really beat an oppopnent of Cotto's quality!! people should have understood this.
Lacy also was coming up...miuch like Taylor, another strong limited guy, but the difference was whom both guys had faced. Calzighe was in fact a major step up for Left Hook, people should have known!
It is rare that a boxing board is so unnecessarily polarized by a fight that should have been a gimme...even the casinos bought the hype! And no Martinez is not a hype job well maybe he is...but there was no way he had fought anyone on Cotto's level before that night.
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