Cuban Night in Louisiana: Lara stops Lee in one, Despaigne dominates
by Scott Christ on Aug 18, 2010 11:33 PM EDT
in Boxing Results and Post-Fight Analysis
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The ESPN2 boxing special tonight from Monroe, Louisiana, featured no surprises, as the two Cuban fighters being featured rolled to easy victory.
154-pound contender Erislandy Lara (13-0, 8 KO) stopped Mississippi's Willie Lee (17-7, 11 KO) in the first round. Lara floored Lee with a beautiful combination quickly, and finished him off moments later, wailing away and throwing punches in bunches with Lee backed up to the ropes. Referee Laurence Cole saw no need for the fight to continue, as Lee had been rocked further before making it to the ropes. Cole's stoppage was certainly understandable.
In the co-feature, light heavyweight Yordanis Despaigne (7-0, 4 KO) cruised over undersized, under-prepared Frank Paines (11-1, 10 KO), winning a unanimous ten-round decision. Scores at ringside were 100-89, 99-90 and 96-93. Bad Left Hook scored it 100-89, as Despaigne only met any trouble when the fighters' heads clashed together and opened a pretty bad cut in the fifth round. Paines had hit the mat in the second round. The 96-93 score was absurd, as there was literally no way to see four rounds of this fight for Paines, who had some grit to him and fought as best he could, but was simply well out of his depth against Despaigne.
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Erislandy Lara should either step up or step out. I’m sick of his level of opposition.
Pray for Nick Charles
This one was even a blatant step back. There was a time when Willie Lee was a nice stepping stone guy, but he’s really not anymore (all due respect to him) and Lara has already fought the last step of “tune-up” guys like Grady Brewer and Danny Perez. Hell, Lara had seven fights in a row that were better than his last two. He’s got plenty of talent. It’s time to start using it. To his credit, he sounds like he’s ready for that. Golden Boy and Arena Box may be another story.
Bad Left Hook
"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."
by Scott Christ on Aug 19, 2010 12:32 PM EDT up reply actions
He did seem somewhat angry last night that he had to face that level of competition. Scott hit the nail on the head with the fact that we should really be aiming the vitriol at Arena Box and Golden Boy and not at Lara himself for the pathetic level of competition.
by Waldo Rastel on Aug 19, 2010 1:01 PM EDT up reply actions
Golden Boy has the worst matchmakers ever. It’s always either too easy or too hard, never just right.
Their matchmaking has probably hurt some prospects. I don’t mean to say it’s a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” thing, because it’s not. Top Rank nurtures and develops fighters at the same time. They protect, sure — everyone does. But Golden Boy seems to jump the gun on development a lot of the time. That or they have matchmakers completely underestimating opponents (which I think may have happened for Jacobs-Pirog). I just don’t think it’s a coincidence that Top Rank continually has more productive prospects. It’s not like Golden Boy is signing second-rate young fighters and overhyping them. They just don’t get the most out of them.
Bad Left Hook
"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."
by Scott Christ on Aug 19, 2010 1:29 PM EDT up reply actions
Definitely. To be clear in case I wasn’t before, I wasn’t being ironic in my first comment, I actually do think GBP is terrible at matchmaking. The goal should be to incrementally increase the level of a prospect’s opposition until he reaches the world class stage sometime during his physical and emotional prime (usually around age 27 or so, give or take). The way Top Rank successfully executed this with Miguel Cotto was kind of a thing of beauty. GBP just doesn’t get it at all. It’s tomato can, tomato can, tomato can, tomato can, NOW WORLD CLASS!
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