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Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Sayson: It’s OK: When you can’t sting like a bee, fly like a butterly
By
Homer Sayson
Second Overtime
CHICAGO – I hate to say this because he writes for a competing paper, but in Cebu’s widening alley of boxing reporting, Salven L. Lagumbay, to me, is the undisputed champion. And there are no serious contenders crawling beneath his feet.
Salven is thorough and resourceful, and he writes about the sweet science with a relentless, absorbing passion.
He knows every boxing manager in Cebu, he has sat ringside at every local fistic arena and he has visited every sweat shop from Mandaue to Cebu, Talamban to Bogo. He is warm and friendly to all the fighters, trainers and boxing’s other personalities, including most of the stiffs at the regional GAB office.
Salven can pull more strings than Jon Bon Jovi’s guitar. And wisely, he has parlayed that influence into several “scoops” for Cebu Daily News and the Philippine Daily Inquirer, where he is a regular contributor.
I am well aware of Salven’s clout in boxing because many times in the past, he has given my friends in Cebu wads of ringside tickets to whatever promotion there was to see.
But this piece isn’t about Salven’s philanthropy. And neither is this article intended to bore with you with how peachy Salven and I are, and how often we exchange text messages, vigorously pounding our thumbs into our tiny cellphones.
I’m writing this column to react on a piece that Salven posted in one of the few boxing websites where he also writes for.
“Philboxing Exclusive!!” yelled yesterday’s headline. And after explaining the great pains with which he went through to secure a tape of the Randy Suico-Javier Jauregui fight last Saturday, Salven then opined: “The verdict – Suico should have won the fight by a point or two.”
Salven wrote: “Jauregui, known as a banger, came to the fight with his track-and-field shoes, opting not to engage Suico in a fight. While he piled up points in the early rounds, he flubbed at getting respect and opted to run away from Suico for most of the second half of the fight.”
Like always, I respect Salven’s opinion. But at the same time, I am disappointed that in his declaration of a Suico victory, he didn’t articulate why, or which rounds were, to his estimation, poorly scored.
In the absence of a thorough analysis, Salven looked more like a cheerleader, not the seasoned international boxing judge that I know and respect him to be.
I saw that Suico fight live on TV. I watched every hook Randy missed, winced at every punch Jauregui made. I love Randy Suico to death, but even in my weakest moment, I couldn’t make the Mandaue slugger a winner over the experienced Mexican, who was more elusive than a fugitive.
Like Salven, I also hated the fact that Jauregui ran. But Jauregui did exactly what he had to do against a younger and oppressively more powerful foe. For reinventing himself, turning into a boxer from a brawler, Jauregui deserves to be praised, not ostracized.
On Dec. 13, 2003, Corey Spinks won the unified welterweight belts by wearing skates to speed away from the sledgehammers of Fernando Mayorga. Spinks never landed anything meaningful that night in Atlantic City, but the judges handed him a unanimous decision win.
Just last Sept. 10, Zahir Raheem borrowed the track shoes of Lydia De Vega, leaving Erik Morales in his wake. Although Rahem never hurt the hard-hitting Morales, who goaded him into a free-for-all, the judges decided that not being hit is just as good as knocking out the other guy.
Salven also took potshots at the jurors, writing: “Judges Ray Coronoa and Jack Reiss, who both scored 99-91 for Jauregui should be investigated,” adding that they “blatantly ignored the young Suico’s attempt to make a fight out of a snoozer which Jauregui had made out of the fight.”
I have been credentialed on-site to many world championship fights, most notably the Lewis vs. Tyson and the Dela Hoya-Vargas rumble in 2002, and most recently, the Pacquiao-Morales tiff last March 19.
But unlike my pal Salven, I’m not a licensed boxing judge. With what little I know, however, I can promise you all that there is no boxing judges’ manual in this planet which states that if one boxer wants to brawl, the other must oblige.
Boxing is an art, a sweet science that the immortal Muhammad Ali perfected in 1974 when he put wings on his shoes, “floated like a butterfly and stung like a bee” on the way to beating George Foreman inside eight fabulous rounds of their historic “Rumble in the Jungle” in Zaire.
In the garden of boxing Eden, Javier Jauregui is neither the most artful, nor the sweetest of them all. But his mastery over Suico was a clear triumph of skill over power. And for that, the Mexican deserves our nod, not our doubts.
P.S. Despite his intensely busy schedule, which sometimes takes him to Japan and Thailand to judge fights, Salven has amazingly found time to fall in love. He just got married to a very smart and beautiful banker and I wish them all the best.
Although he is immensely talented, Salven isn’t myopic, and he will absorb this piece with an open mind. If my ringside tickets to Cebu’s big-time promotions suddenly stop coming, that means my good friend took offense.
I hope not, ‘pre. Don’t forget, I’m a text message away or an email away.
(homsay@hotmail.com)
(September 28, 2005 issue)
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