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The Eighth Round Begins This Saturday on Showtime
By Steve Kim (July 30, 2007) Photo © German Villasenor

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Back in early March, in what had to be among the most disappointing conclusions on cable this year, outside of 'The Sopranos' series finale, Rafael Marquez and Israel Vazquez were in the midst of a fight that was living up to it's advanced billing as one of the most anticipated matchups of 2007 at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California.

After a quick start, where he would stagger Vazquez with booming right-hands, Marquez, who was challenging for the WBC 122-pound title that night, would get dumped to the canvas himself from a big left hook from the defending champion. But he would dust himself off and regain control of the proceedings using his reach and powerful two-fisted attack the next few rounds.

Then in the sixth and seventh frames, much like he had against Jhonny Gonzalez last fall, it looked like Vazquez had started to close the gap and get inside on Marquez, banging his body with both hands. It looked like this heated contest was going to come to a thrilling crescendo. But instead of the screen suddenly going black - where we are left to speculate what happened to Tony Soprano and his family - Vazquez would call it a night because of the condition of his nose, which left him unable to breathe properly.

But while David Chase left his audience dangling in perpetuity, Showtime brings the rematch between the two this Saturday night at the Dodge Arena in Hidalgo, Texas (9 pm ET/PT).

"What I remember is that I was very close to beating this guy, within minutes of beating him," Vazquez would tell Maxboxing last week at the South El Monte Boxing Club. "My injury, my nose, didn't let me do it. So this time, even if I have a broken nose, I'm going to beat this guy."

Vazquez's nose was not broken or fractured, but suffered a metabolic blockage which caused the right nostril to be blocked 90-percent and the left nostril to be completely closed off, which obviously affected his breathing patterns.

The nose would be bloodied in the very first round. In the fifth, as he was hit on his beak, Vazquez would completely turn his back to Marquez in great pain. After a pretty good seventh stanza, he would call it a day.

"What hurt me most," said Vazquez, "was losing the fight."

But injuries like that can become chronic, as it is believed that his nose was injured during his bout with Gonzalez last September.

"The nose, I don't worry about it no more," he says. "Because if it's going to happen, again, I'm just going to keep going. I'm just going to win that fight."

"It was already a problem," confirmed his manager Frank Espinoza. "A lot of people say that he broke his nose, no, he did not break his nose. His nose was damaged from the inside. Dr. Kotler took out the cartilage from the inside so he was able to breathe better. If in the event his nose was broken, this fight wouldn't be happening this fast on August the
4th. They took out the cartilage. He's able to breathe now and if it happened, God forbid, he was able to break his nose, he would still be able to breathe."

Some observers are surprised that this rematch is taking place so quickly given Vazquez's ailment.

"I wouldn't have put him in any sooner if I didn't have the doctor’s OK," said Espinoza. "We have a letter to confirm this. The doctor has given him the green light and he said he would be ready to go."

When asked about his foe's injury during their first encounter, Marquez would admit on a national conference call with reporters that he was aware of it.

"When I got up, I noticed he was having problems breathing. But I didn't let it affect me. He could have stopped the fight earlier, but he decided to go all the way to the seventh. He couldn't go any more, but he showed that he was hurt in the first round and he continued to the seventh," he would say.

Marquez, one-half of perhaps the greatest brother duo this sport has ever seen, believes he has no real advantage, psychologically or physically, going into the return bout.

"No, not really," he would say. "I don't look at it that way. I don't see that I have any advantages at all. Every fight is a tough fight with a tough fighter. I see it that way. I prepare myself the best because I know he's coming for the title. I'm going to defend the title I have with everything I've got like always. I'll prepare myself for everything. And what is sure is that people are going to see a great fight, two warriors inside the ring. We'll do everything for me to defend my title."

As of now, Marquez is on top of his game. At age 32, he is considered among the very best fighters in the world pound-for-pound. He is also perhaps the sport’s best puncher (with 33 stoppages in his 37 victories, including KOs of Tim Austin, Mark 'Too Sharp' Johnson and Vazquez) and working his corner as always, the esteemed Nacho Beristain. He is the model of consistency and stability.

The same could not be said, however, of Vazquez when it came to his corner. Going back to this spring, heading into the first bout with Marquez, there was a question if his long-time trainer Freddie Roach would even be at the fight, given that he was expected to be in Puerto Rico to begin training camp for Oscar De La Hoya's bout with Floyd Mayweather. Roach would eventually work the fight. But from that point on, there was a chaotic stretch where Vazquez seemed to be with every trainer and at every gym in the Southern California area as the rematch was inked.

He would first go with Justin Fortune (who had split with Roach) at a nearby gym in Hollywood, then with Joe Goossen at his gym in Van Nuys, back to Fortune and then eventually to Rudy Perez at the South El Monte Boxing Club. Espinoza was going through about as many trainers as George Steinbrenner did Yankee managers in the 80's.

But it seems they have found their man in Perez, who has been a mainstay in the corner of Marco Antonio Barrera.

"After all this time, I finally found a trainer I think just fits right with Vazquez," said Espinoza. "He's got 30 years of experience, he's already a proven trainer with Barrera, he's had great, great success. I like him as a strategist and he seems to fit in. That's so important, he fits with me, he fits in with the fighter and it's just a great situation for us."

They seem to have jelled in this short amount of time.

"We're working quite well. We're jelling together really good," says the fighter. "We got a strategy to go in with for the fight and I hope to win on the 4th."

There's always a misconception that when a fighter gets a new trainer, that a major overhauling takes place. But in reality, it's a series of minor tweaks and adjustments to get a fighter to improve on his existing style.

"It's very hard to change a veteran fighter," Rudy Perez would say through veteran cutman Tony Rivera. "I don't intend to do that. But in the seven weeks I've had him, I've just been polishing his natural skills, the best of him. I've been polishing that."

Perez would add: "I'm very, very happy with him because my way of training is very, very hard. I train him like I train Barrera. Barrera's a three-time world champion and I'm really happy that he was able to mesh to my style of training, which is very intense."

While Beristain is lauded - and rightfully so - for his work as a trainer, Perez has been overshadowed. One of the reasons is because he has worked almost exclusively with one boxer, for the most part, all these years.

"The problem with Rudy is that he got stuck with Barrera so many years and he didn't have a chance to open up his wings up to other fighters," said Rivera, who has worked many corners with Perez. But as Barrera winds down his Hall-of-Fame career, Perez is now becoming a coveted commodity. Already, he has been hired to work with Jorge Barrios for his upcoming bout with Juan Manuel Marquez. Other managers have come around and inquired about his services.

"He's not a loud mouth, he talks to the fighters and he gets the best out of his fighters by being nice to these guys," explains Rivera, of his effectiveness. "Some of these trainers, they scream at the fighters. And fighters don't like that. He's a nice guy, he's a mellow guy."

Rivera believes that Perez was the best man for this job for another reason.

"I don't mean to demean anybody but fighters that don't speak English need a guy that speaks Spanish in the corner," he states. "It's very, very important. And Rudy is the kind of guy that can talk to his fighters. And when a fighter feels comfortable with a trainer, that's the best thing you can do for a fighter."

For Vazquez, Saturday night will the continuation of what was taking place five months ago.

"I am going to think it's the 8th round because I'm going to fight with hunger. I'm going to pretend it's the 8th round because I had him close."

MT. ST. DIBELLA

Eruptions from promoter Lou DiBella take place about as often as relapses from Lindsay Lohan. The latest coming this past week over something rather innocuous written by our own David Kolb, of the East Coast Notebook, who wondered if DiBella had enough prospects to fill out his September 29th show featuring Jermain Taylor's middleweight title defense versus Kelly Pavlik.

Kolb pointed out that guys like Gary Stark and Edgar Santana had gotten knocked out recently and that Curtis Stevens (just recently given his release by DBE) had had a less-than-scintillating outing on HBO.

Very true points.

Kolb would then write, "No worries, I'm sure Top Rank has a few fighters to help the situation."

Another cogent point made by Mr. Kolb.

But with that came another volcanic eruption from Not-so-sweet-Lou, who then proceeded to make phone calls like the lunatic he is and told Kolb, that he - along with all of Maxboxing - would be barred from the September 29th event and all future DBE promotions.

Well, missing out on Taylor-Pavlik is a hit, I guess. But never having to go to another Broadway Boxing show?

Everyone should be so lucky.

But can someone just give this guy a 'timeout' every time he throws a tantrum?

DUNDEE-ESQUE

I get the feeling that the problems with Andre Berto's glove after round six this past Friday night against Cosme Rivera weren't just coincidental. It was very reminiscent of what Angelo Dundee concocted after a young Cassius Clay was drilled by Henry Cooper.

It's unfortunate that the window of opportunity that Rivera had created for himself was slammed shut because of the extra time allotted to Berto between the sixth and seventh frames.

More than one observer of the amateur scene has told me that if there is a chink in the armor of the explosive Berto, it's his chin. It'll be interesting to see how he is handled in the near future.

UPON FURTHER REVIEW

On second viewing of the Bernard Hopkins-Winky Wright fight - which did around 300,000 pay-per-view buys from what I'm told - I found that this fight was just as unwatchable as the first time I saw it. Sorry, but there's nothing subtle or artistic about an ugly fight.

I still think it was a much closer bout than what the judges had it. But then, do I really care?

HATTON-MAYWEATHER

Looks like it's a done deal for early December in Las Vegas, predictably ending one of the shortest 'retirements' in boxing history.

I'll say it right now, I like Mayweather to outbox Hatton fairly easily. But it will be interesting to see the haggling that takes place over who will be the referee in this bout, as you can be assured that the issue of clinching will be brought up by Mayweather and his camp - and rightfully so.

FINAL FLURRIES

Is it just me, or am I the only one that likes Chazz Witherspoon? Yeah, he was a bit passive early on against Talmadge Griffis, but I think he has some pretty good tools and a good head on his shoulders....Look for newly crowned WBO featherweight champion Steven Luevano to appear on the Pacquaio-Barrera undercard on October 6th. Names being mentioned are Marcos Ramirez and Martin Honorio (who gave him his lone loss). Luevano, who has made great strides under the Garcias in Oxnard, has turned into a pretty decent body-puncher, as he floored Nicky Cook several times with shots downstairs. I just saw this fight, and Luevano looked good....I just recently viewed the Tony Thomspson-Luan Krasniqi fight. I'll say this, Thompson is about as relaxed and deceptive a heavyweight as there is right now....Look for Nonito Donaire to make the first defense of his IBF flyweight belt in either November or December, possibly on Showtime....Old Man River keeps flowing, as Glen Johnson would stop Fred Moore in five in Miami this past Friday night. He is the consummate pro....I don't know about you, but I think Karl Dorrell needs to give his assistant coaches at UCLA some pay raises....There's a pretty good bout on FNF when Jean Pascal gets Kingsley Ikeke....Hey, I don't know if Randy Shannon can actually coach football or not, but I love the way he is recruiting at Miami. Marcus Forston, Aldarrius Johnson, Patrick Johnson, Jordon Futch, come on down!!!....Finally, congrats to Mr. Padre, Tony Gwynn (and of course, the Iron Man, himself, Cal Ripken Jr.). Being a Padre fan, this guy was a big part of my childhood. For my money he was the best line-drive hitter I have ever seen - and don't forget he also could steal a base or two early on his career (56 bags in 1987, I believe) and won a few Gold Gloves for his work in right field before he started looking like the old Padre logo......