by David P. Greisman
Don’t look at the result.
Forty-seven minutes of story, of conflict and drama, of falling and rising action, summed up in just two letters, one for the protagonist, one for his foil. The “W” went to Lucian Bute; the “L,” to Librado Andrade.
From the earliest chapters, the conclusion seemed inevitable. Bute was the hero, the Romanian transplant who had found a welcome home in Montreal, the city where he became a star and a champion, defeating all he had met. Andrade was his tough and relentless challenger, slower, less skilled, a super middleweight who had fought to the top but was bound to end up eighty-sixed by the best at ’68.
Plots twist. Major players confront fatal flaws. And sometimes lesser characters come forward from the background to hold more influence than minor roles are typically permitted to have.
Look at the referee. Normally one would not. The third man in the ring tends to flit out of the camera frame and into the periphery, only noticed when necessary, auxiliary to the action. Marlon Wright, a former fighter with a brief, unspectacular career two decades ago, had since traded in the gloves and trunks for black slacks and a white dress shirt.
Wright is a veteran referee of eight years who was working his fifth title fight. At a moment when Bute’s title belt was hanging in the balance, Wright was in the wrong, noticed when not needed, and unashamed when confronted with the controversy he caused.
Andrade is a pressure fighter who grinds his opponents down, chopping away deliberately until they are left debilitated. Bute moved well around the ring, however, and while Andrade could rarely catch Bute, he caught plenty of beautiful, quick combinations. As time wound down, Andrade was left swinging with more urgency, searching for shots that would drop Bute in one fell swoop.
In the desperation of the last three minutes, Andrade finally closed the distance and trapped Bute within his grasp. The mauling left Bute with his arms down, falling forward, defenseless, holding on because he could no longer run so as to run out the clock. Those clinches would be broken with Wright inserting himself between the combatants far longer than required.
Yet with two seconds left, a right hand from Andrade landed flush on Bute’s chin, sending him crashing back into the ropes and onto his knees. Eight seconds after going down to the canvas, Bute staggered up to his feet. But Wright was nowhere near. Instead, he was midway across the ring, admonishing Andrade for leaving the neutral corner.
Never mind that Andrade was still in the vicinity of where he needed to be, that it was not he had not strayed too far, but Wright who was being too stringent. Wright returned to Bute 18 seconds after the knockdown and picked up his count at “six,” issuing the mandatory eight and then wiping Bute’s gloves without requiring him to walk forward.
The final bell rang some 22 seconds after the knockdown. Bute had survived, and he had done so with what appeared to be more than a little help from the ref. Andrade’s corner stormed the ring, reasonably upset, though his trainer, Howard Grant, should not be excused for shoving Wright in anger.
Was Wright in the right?
“Andrade cost himself a knockout win by leaving the corner,” Wright said in a post-fight interview. “He would’ve won by knockout. Bute would not have got up on time. He gave Bute enough time to recuperate, so it’s Andrade’s fault.”
The referee’s count must indeed stop when a fighter leaves the farthest neutral corner and should pick up when he returns. But Wright seemed to pay far too much attention to Andrade. The Association of Boxing Commissions, whose jurisdiction includes Canada, advises its referees not to “over concentrate on the scoring boxer in the neutral corner unless he or she exits the corner and forces you to stop the count.” Andrade was nowhere near Bute and Wright.
Bute was up, though, and would have beaten the count even had it not been interrupted. Whether he was in condition to continue is less certain. Wright never motioned for Bute to step forward, never looked to see if his legs were stable or his eyes glassy.
Had all that happened, should Wright have allowed the fight to go to the scorecards? History shows there to be other schools of thought.
Two seconds remained when Richard Steele waved off the classic 1990 battle between Julio Cesar Chavez and Meldrick Taylor. And all 36 minutes had passed when Shannon Briggs sent Sergei Liakhovich crashing out of the ring. Liakhovich should have had 20 seconds to return, but Robert Ferrara called for a technical knockout and took away any chance of the felled fighter escaping with a split decision win.
In this instance, the detailed regulations used by the Nevada State Athletic Commission provide a useful guideline. “The referee may stop a contest or exhibition at any stage if he considers it too one-sided or if either unarmed combatant is in such a condition that to continue might subject him to serious injury.”
Boxers may not be saved by the bell in any round. And Bute did not look to be fit to continue. But time was up. There was no chance of him suffering any serious injury. To rule the fight a technical knockout win for Andrade would have brought about an uproar of its own.
Where Wright erred was in the area of perception. His breaking of the count to warn Andrade, his failure to follow the rules when it came to Bute, each gave unnecessary weight to the notion that a referee from Montreal had worked to assist a fighter from Montreal with whom he was quite familiar. Wright was working his seventh Bute fight, and was in the ring with Bute for the fifth straight time.
Andrade said afterward that he expected the odds to be stacked.
“I didn’t come here to win a decision,” Andrade said. “I knew I had to come to knock him out. That was the only way. And I did it. I did my job.”
Andrade thought he had kept the fight from going to the cards. He went all in, only to end up with a bad beat.
The 10 Count
1. Wladimir Klitschko’s heavyweight title defense against mandatory challenger Alexander Povetkin has been postponed due to Povetkin suffering an injury during training camp.
Povetkin, an undefeated 29-year-old from Russia, had been set to face Klitschko on Dec. 13. But he tore a ligament in his left foot after tripping on a tree root while running through the woods in his hometown of Kursk, according to Agence France-Press.
In the meantime, Klitschko will face an as-yet-undetermined opponent. Povetkin will recuperate and should be ready to fight again in early 2009.
2. Why in the world was Povetkin running through the woods? Was O’Neil Bell chasing behind him with a hatchet?
3. Boxers Behaving Badly: Ron Siler, a flyweight who lost in the second round of the 2004 Olympics and has yet to box professionally, is apparently fighting in other venues.
Siler, 28, was arrested last week and charged with assaulting a police officer, according to Cincinnati television station WLWT.
Siler had been at the Hamilton County courthouse last week when he attempted to cut in line but was told to go to the back of the queue, prosecutors said. But he cursed and walked away, and that’s when a police officer confronted him and asked for identification.
Siler allegedly “became agitated,” the report said, and when the officer “grabbed Siler’s arm, Siler turned and punched [the officer] in the mouth.” Smooth move. As of last week, Siler remained in jail on $7,000 bail.
Siler avoided prison time earlier this year when prosecutors dropped charges of possessing and selling cocaine and heroin because police never dated their search warrant and because authorities were unable to locate an informer who was to have testified in the case.
Any prison sentence would have been tacked onto five years for violating probation. Siler was sentenced to probation in 2002 for felony attempted assault. He spent nine months in jail for a probation violation, but he was then released to train for the Olympics. He was convicted in 2006 on a charge of disorderly conduct but was again set free.
4. Boxers Behaving Badly update, part one: A Texas middleweight who was on trial for allegedly beating a man to death in June 2007 was found guilty last week on lesser charges and will likely be sentenced to probation instead of prison time, according to the Associated Press
Kurtiss Colvin, 22, was charged with manslaughter after allegedly punching and killing a 40-year-old man who apparently had been riding in a car that accidentally struck a child in east Austin. The child suffered minor injuries. The man and the car’s driver exited their vehicle, only to be attacked, police said. Colvin was accused of punching the man and leading the assault.
Colvin, who has yet to have his first professional fight, was found guilty of aggravated assault with serious bodily injury. The jury recommended he be sentenced to probation. He had faced up to 20 years in prison, but instead could spend up to 10 years on probation.
Colvin’s formal sentencing is set for Nov. 3.
5. Boxers Behaving Badly update, part two: Evander Holyfield will not spend time behind bars, but he will spend a considerable amount of money, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The former cruiserweight and heavyweight champion had failed to follow a legal agreement to pay $4,500 in attorney fees to the mother of one of one of his 11 children, who had taken “The Real Deal” to court earlier this year for late child support payment. He had also not set up a college trust fund or paid for the child’s private school tuition.
The woman’s lawyer was expected to ask at a court hearing scheduled for last week that Holyfield serve jail time. But both sides reached an agreement. Holyfield will need to put $100,000 into an education fund within three years, and will have to pay for private school and make his monthly $3,000 child support payments.
Here’s a telling paragraph from the newspaper report:
“Holyfield has grossed more than $248 million in ring purses over his career, including $107 million over a six-year stretch from 1996 to 1999. He’s been hit hard financially, however, by two divorces, several failed business ventures and child support payments believed to run as high as $500,000 annually for the nine of his 11 children that don’t live with him.”
Holyfield, who turned 46 on Oct. 19, last fought a year ago, losing a unanimous decision to then-heavyweight titlist Sultan Ibragimov. He is 42-9-2 with 27 knockout victories.
6. In SAT format, Evander Holyfield : World Boxing Association :: Shawn Kemp : National Basketball Association.
7. Poor Evander. Almost makes you long for the good old days, when heavyweight fighters emptied their nest eggs by feeding pigeons.
8. Two items from the same Atlanta Journal-Constitution article are quite hard to believe.
First:
“Holyfield said he plans to permanently retire from boxing at the end of 2009.”
Second:
“In the meantime, however, he said representatives of Lennox Lewis … had contacted him earlier this week about a possible fight.”
9. Dodgeball, an occasional update: Some six months after its last season ended, Aim Low returned to the court last week with much of its roster intact – and intent on sending a message to rival teams. Of the 12-member ragtag bunch of newspaper staffers and their friends, nine are holdovers from the previous season.
In last week’s opener, six veterans and one rookie showed their experience, jumping out to a 3-0 lead and continuing to dominate MFCO en route to a 6-1 victory. Team record: 1-0. This past week’s post-game beer of choice: Long Trail Triple Bag.
10. Going to the bar wearing an “Aim Low” team t-shirt. Nothing beats truth in advertising…
David P. Greisman is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. His weekly column, “Fighting Words,” appears every Monday on BoxingScene.com. He may be reached for questions and comments at fightingwords1@gmail.com
