By the sixth round of the Canelo Alvarez vs. Alfredo Angulo bout I had seen enough. There was no way Angulo had a chance to defeat Canelo. Wanting to get to the media room and not have to fight the crowd (14,000+), I packed my gear and hightailed it out of the MGM Grand Ballroom and made it back to the media room quick enough to see the final minute of round seven. It still looked hopeless to me.
Somehow Angulo won round eight on all three judges scorecards. I saw Canelo picking off most of Angulo’s shots in that round but it was Angulo’s most active round so give him one for effort…I guess.
Round nine was the beginning of the end and we all know what happened in round ten. Before the round the doctor and referee Tony Weeks were looking over the situation with extreme caution. Angulo was told by his trainer Virgil Hunter that he was not going to allow much more of this beat down. The bell rang and 47 seconds later Canelo launched an uppercut from left field (literally). Angulo could not see the telegraphed bomb coming his way. The blow nailed “El Perro” flush and it snapped his head back. Weeks jumped in, and rightfully so. The fight was over much to the dismay of Angulo. I was about to find out he was not the only one who disagreed with the stoppage.
The first wave of media members started filing into the press room while the fighters were still conducting their interviews in the ring. I could not believe what I was hearing from my peers! ” What was Weeks thinking? He stopped the fight to early,” they shouted. “This was a robbery! The fight should have been allowed to go on,” stated another.
What?
Did they all forget that it was just three months ago when Magomed Abdusalamov was allowed to fight on while suffering a beating at the hands of Mike Perez? Had they forgotten that Abdusalamov was put into a medically induced coma because of the injuries sustained and his quality of life will never be the same? Did they also forget that most of them were up in arms over this situation and were blaming the ref, the doctor and his corner from not stopping this fight before the inevitable happened?
Had they also forgotten that Oscar Gonzalez recently lost his life in the ring while suffering the same kind of beating?
And let’s not forget a fighter by the name of Angel Osuna was pummeled into a coma at the hands of Hugo Centeno in December?
Where is the compassion? Where is the consistency?
Either you want fighters to be protected by the powers that be or you want them to literally give their lives in the ring.
I will choose the former.
Of course fighters like Alfedo Angulo want to fight on to the death, that is their nature, they are warriors. No one will deny them of that. But sometimes discretion is the better part of valor and in this case let us make no mistake about it. Tony Weeks did the right thing by stopping this fight when apparently no one else was ready to throw in the towel.
Even though Weeks has placed himself in the center of a firestorm for his decision, at the end of the day he can hold his head up high for doing the right thing.
Alfredo Angulo will live to fight on another day and the only one he has to thank for that is Weeks. He may have been more than upset when the fight was stopped, but when all is said and done he can look back and be thankful for that possibly life saving stoppage.
Abdusalamov, Gonzalaez and Osuna are not so fortunate.
Put yourselves in their families shoes for one moment and then ask yourselves, which outcome would you prefer?
The answer to that question is easy.
How quickly your forget!
Written by William Trillo – www.Pound4Pound.com
