Tuesday, June 17, 2008 Quijano: Play it again, Florante By Jingo Quijano Last Round
FLORANTE Condes tried valiantly, but alas, sometimes valor alone will not suffice especially when you’re up against a young, smart, and hungry challenger after an 11-month layoff.
Some highlight clips of the fight as shown on YouTube revealed that newly crowned IBF Minimum weight champ Raul Garcia was slightly taller and faster than Florante and backpedaled for most of the fight.
Also a southpaw like Condes, he utilized very good lateral movement, a pesky jab to keep Florante at bay and refused to be goaded into exchanges.
In the middle rounds Condes was caught leaning on the ropes and the fleet-footed Mexican landed a few good ones. Condes invited him to wade in, but Garcia wisely kept the fight at his comfortable range.
RUSTY. Condes loaded up too much at times, and didn’t look like he invested in the body early. Bull strong and eager for a fight after months of inactivity, Florante’s timing was noticeably off.
To his credit, he was never hurt and was in the fight for most of the rounds (at least from what I saw). Inevitably, when he got the rounds in, he found his range and distance. He nailed Garcia with a huge uppercut in the 11th and scored a knockdown in the 12th.
Sadly, it was too late and not enough to overhaul the early lead piled up by Garcia on the scorecards in the previous rounds.
Long layoffs are indeed a curse. Fighters can spar all they want and train as hard as possible, but the ring rust only wears off once your opponent hammers in those first few blows and you realize you are under the klieg lights, surrounded by a boisterous crowd who paid their way to see you fight.
Call it an adrenaline rush…call it the thrill of the kill, but not all the sparring in the world can make up for the real thing.
SHOUTOUTS. Last Rounder Paul Clarin e-mailed me to ponder on the possibilities why Floyd Mayweather Jr. is retiring so abruptly and unexpectedly.
According to Paul, it might be “a negotiating ploy to stay away from Top Rank” or Mayweather might be “scared to fight Miguel Cotto”
Thanks for your e-mail Paul. Yes, I definitely agree that it might be a scheme to wriggle himself out of his existing contract and this to me is the most plausible reason.
But by now, I’m sure Top Rank’s lawyers have acquired some measure of prescient knowledge of all the possible scenarios that a boxer may think of in order to unburden himself of his duties. As to whether or not a retirement liberates Mayweather, would depend on the stipulations on his contract.
As for Miguel Cotto—as awesome as he is—at best he stands a chance of scoring an upset, but not enough to scare off a multi-talented Mayweather.
There’s also this nasty rumor of him venturing into mixed martial arts and signing up with the UFC.
That’s a nice urban legend if you ask me, but Floyd who earned more than $10 million for his fight with Oscar del a Hoya would be risking a lot more for less money.
Such a rather puerile proposition becomes less appealing especially when you factor in the variable that Floyd is already 31 years of age, and doesn’t have enough time to learn additional skills to compete in the mixed martial arts arena.
If the fight were a purely stand-up striking affair using only one’s hands, nobody in the UFC in his weight class would stand a chance. Hell, in professional boxing, save for dela Hoya and Jose Luis Castillo, nobody even came close.
But then again, it would be stupid for any UFC fighter not take the fight to the ground. And when that happens, all I can say is goodbye pretty boy.
HE SAID IT. “Kung may panahon pa siguro..Di ko na-expect na 12 rounds na pala” -Florante Condes on his fight with Raul Garcia Through Sportschat (DZSR Sports Radio)
LAST ROUND. It’s on Jun Lanoy who celebrates his birthday this week as well as his officemates at C4U Credit Inc., who are avid readers of this column. Cheers guys!
