Friday Night Fights/Contender - January 11, 2008

If there was ever a question that it's a mistake to depart from the blueprint laid out by now-undisputed middleweight champ Kelly Pavlik for beating Columbian power puncher Edison Miranda, it was mooted this night. Watching the lead-in to this fight, the typical pre-fight interview with David Banks told the story. Banks effectively said, "I'm more of a slick fighter and I'm going to use my jab, move and stick..." I called out to my wife (who thankfully more than tolerates my obsession with the sweet science): "wanna come watch a guy get his block knocked off? He's won't last three rounds...." As God is my witness, I called this out to her. She declined, having more important things to do than to watch a fight where I thought a lamb was determined to dance to slaughter.

You might recall David Banks as the preening early attention-getter from the most recent Contender. He didn't last in the ring during the show and the Contender kept up it's dismal showing relative to the upper echelon of the divisions in which it's fighters have participated. In fact, if you'll forgive the digression, I think that Cornelius "K-9" Bundrage actually has acquitted himself best of all the fighters we've seen come out of the series when he took an 8 round beating on a FNF against the elite-looking (at least that night) Joel Julio outside the ESPYs last year. Sergio Mora has dodged elite fighters at every opportunity and continues to pad his record against mediocre opposition, clearly afraid of being exposed by the best in his division. That Mora was briefly ranked at the bottom of the Ring top ten was a testament to the lack of focus of the voting contingent on the effect of the short Contender fights and the talent gap between the assembled group and the upper echelon of the division. As for the popular and charismatic Alfonso Gomez, having a thoroughly shot Arturo Gatti as your signature win speaks for itself. With all due respect to the warrior's courage of Gatti, he was never better than a gatekeeper fighter later in his career and by the time he climbed in with Gomez, you could stick a fork in him. Gomez is a game undercard guy with a good chin, but he'll never do more than please the crowd and lose to good B level opposition. I'd tune in to see him fight, but only if I knew Gomez' opponent was not a guy who could crack the Ring top ten (mistakes like Mora notwithstanding). Let's not bother to discuss Peter Manfredo.

Now...back to David Banks and his disastrous strategy.... I should say first that saying that Kelly Pavlik laid out the blueprint to beat Edison Miranda (with the implication that every fighter who gets in the ring with Miranda should follow it) is like saying that a trigonometry problem should be a snap because Good Will Hunting solved it. In fact, following that blueprint to beating Miranda is probably still as disastrous for 95% of the fighters in the division as trying to dance your way to a decision. Nevertheless, there usually aren't too many proven ways to beat talented rough heavyhanded guys like Miranda, as long as their confidence hasn't been eroded by their having been effectively solved (and very much to his credit, it appears Miranda's confidence remains high). However, choosing so clearly to depart from the formula seems to be so likely to result in disaster that one wonders how a fighter with so little strategic sense got a shot against a legit contender like Miranda. Can you say television exposure?

Since I've not actually elucidated the blueprint yet, I will paraphrase Kelly Pavlik after his knockout of Miranda. It is of note that Pavlik speaks of himself in the third person using the royal "we" and manages still to come off humble: "we had a strategy coming in to keep him moving backwards because he doesn't fight well off his heels and we executed that strategy and it all worked out...." Pavlik was recounting a great strategy for moving a power puncher out of his comfort zone by not only never letting him get set to punch, but also refusing to allow him to move forward, gain momentum and confidence (see intimidate). There's no question it's a sound strategy against a power puncher. The problem in execution is that the power puncher is trying to set and throw the whole time and in the face of one punch knockout power like Miranda's, it's like charging machine gun fire. With machine gun fire, fear of the deafening roar of the fusillade and the anticipated effect of the bullets is as likely to cause you to get into the line of fire as the good aim of the gunner. David Banks decided that he would be able to dodge the bullets all night long.

To be fair, he mightn't have lasted a round aping Pavlik's approach, so maybe this was his only chance. So basically he had no chance. He did last the first two rounds, dancing side to side and sticking the jab as he'd predicted. He made Miranda look tentative and Teddy Atlas rightly observed that the movement was preventing Miranda from setting to punch. If Banks could have kept it up for 10 full rounds, he could have walked away with a decision. That would have required the kind of focus that Banks clearly lacked. Frankly, had he actually been more focused on preventing the inevitable he probably would have lasted to round 8 or so, when Miranda would have roughed him up and dropped him with body blows. Mercifully, it didn't last. Banks backed straight out with his left hand low in the middle of the third round and Miranda threw a straight right hand that put Banks literally through the ropes. Banks crumpled backward and to his right and managed to fall between the second and third rope and in doing so was laid perfectly splaid out and suspended so his heels bounced on the canvas as the patrons at the ring apron seemed to scramble to keep him from sliding out onto their laps. It was a highlight reel knockout. From that position (where he was allowed to stay for a few moments too long for my taste before the ref picked up the count), Banks actually managed to struggle to his feet at about the count of a rather slow ten. He was out on his feet and the fight was well stopped.

David Banks was no test for Miranda, but probably an excellent confidence builder as Miranda heads toward Jean Pascal, who decisioned a game but overmatched Philly fighter earlier in the night. He'll handle the undefeated Pascal by round 8 when they meet and get back into the real mix where he belongs soon enough. Pascal got stunned during the course of his decision win and he's posturing for Miranda post-fight, a sure sign that he's as intimidated as he should be. As for my opinion of Miranda, he belongs fighting at the top of the division. He's a rough and tumble fighter who fouls too much and is tough to like (and tough to watch) sometimes, but his will and punching power put him in an elite class of fighters. Even Pavlik, who is the best in the division right now (and not just because he has the belts), probably wouldn't look forward to fighting him again. I suspect he'll have to though, because Miranda doesn't look like he's going away. That's good news for fans of the big punch. Miranda will likely continue to expose every tentative, unfocused or even slighly flawed fighter he faces (and hopefully not foul and bore too much against the very best and bravest) and be around knocking out guys for another 5 or 10 years. Just ask Allan Green. I'll save my kudos for the FNF crew for another day, save to say that Friday Night Fights is the best show in television today and the appreciation I have for the effort that goes into it knows no bounds.