Live events again…
By Robert Przybylo
BPrzybylo@opubco.com
We made it. Those first two weeks of January are the toughest in the fight game as absolutely nothing is going on.
That all ends this weekend with several live and intriguing cards to follow. Starts Friday night in Tulsa with ShoBox.
Then Saturday, we get a dose of boxing and mixed martial arts. UFC 93 is from Ireland. And while the card itself isn’t anything special, Mark “The Hammer” Coleman brings me back to my MMA crash-course introduction in the late ’90s.
Coleman takes on Shogun Rua in the semi-main event. Coleman was one of the first people I ever saw use the ground-and-pound effectively. His rise in the UFC was crazy. His fall was just as fast.
I’ll be honest. I was floored when I found out Coleman was still fighting last year. I thought for sure he was done.
The main event features Rich Franklin and Dan Henderson. The fight still has some meaning in the current landscape. But this is a card I will be passing on even if I didn’t have to cover an Oklahoma City Blazers hockey game at night.
Boxing features the return of Andre Berto against Luis Collazo. As I said before, Berto has regressed as a fighter because of spotty matchmaking. This is his first real test, or is it?
I was introduced to Collazo when he “beat” Ricky Hatton. Hatton won the decision, but Collazo, ooh, if he had one more round. But then Shane Mosley handled him pretty easily.
Berto wins this one, but it’s going to be fun and entertaining.
And a Sugar Ray Leonard anecdote to close this out.
When I was, I think, 6 years old, I received a pair of Sugar Ray boxing gloves. I can’t tell you why I wanted them, but I know I loved those things.
I would take unnecessary cheap shots on my three older brothers all the time. I was/am a little guy. I’ll look for any advantage possible.
Funny thing is growing up, I wasn’t a huge Leonard mark. I was more of a Tommy Hearns guy. As I’ve gotten older, I don’t have a “my guy” from that era. I watch all the classics with Leonard, Hearns, Marvin Hagler and Roberto Duran and just enjoy an era of great boxing that I wish I could have been around for.
Be back Sunday with weekend fight thoughts.
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