JOSEPH AGBEKO-YONNHY PEREZ PREVIEW

Bruising Joseph “King Kong” Agbeko looks to continue his recent tear when he defends his KCRW bantamweight title against undefeated Yonnhy Perez tonight at the Treasure Island Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Both fighters are coming off of grinding scraps and it is likely that this bout will be no different. In fact, a brawl seems all but guaranteed. Agbeko, 27-1 (22), upset Armenian Wildman Vic Darchinyan via decision in July and Perez knocked out Silence Mabuza last May in the final round of a fight he was losing.

Despite smacking Darchinyan around in an ugly affair, Agbeko does not appear ready to assume a spot in the International Boxing Hall of Fame. Darchinyan, briefly on the revolving door carousel of several dopey “P-4-P” lists, was not as good as his cyber clippings suggested and there is the possibility of overrating Agbeko based on his performance against a fighter who throws punches like a man suffering from ergotism. His attributes—-stamina, hand speed, athleticism, and durability--are nearly equally counterbalanced by his flaws: a tendency to square up, poor balance, and negligible defense when on the attack. Still, Agbeko must be considered a proven commodity at this point, while Perez, 19-0 (14), has talent but perhaps does not yet have the resume to compete on the highest levels.

Compared to Vic Darchinyan, however, Perez, with his fluid combinations and amateur pedigree, resembles Benny Leonard. Agbeko, the Bronx via Accra, Ghana, will not be able to stymie Perez from the perimeter the way he did Darchinyan. On the outside Agbeko likes to nod, dip, and feint before rushing in with hard shots. He is fairly quick and often uses his speed to throw unorthodox punches, like perplexing double lead rights. For some reason this arcane weapon is a favorite of West African boxers based out of the South Bronx. Its delivery, which resembles that of a quarterback double-pumping, often leaves its hurler off-balance and susceptible to counters. Joshua Clottey also uses it regularly, as does Anges Adjaho, originally from Benin, but now living in upstate New York. In addition, Agbeko tends to square-up when on the attack with wide punches and Perez should be able to thread straight rights down the middle. Darchinyan could never really catch Agbeko coming in because Darchinyan, like a tipsy javelin thrower, often needs a running start before letting his arcing blows go.

Oddsmakers have installed Agbeko as the favorite. He is stronger, hits fairly hard, and is more experienced. To top it all off, his awkward style means trouble for anyone who steps in the ring against him. So what will it take for Perez to swing an upset? First, he will have to add some angles to his game; stationary targets allow Agbeko to get away with hurling junkballs all night; Perez has shown a talent for slipping punches here and there, but he needs to add footwork to keep Agbeko off-balance. Second, Perez has to try to break Agbeko down to the body. There were moments against William Gonzalez when Agbeko, 29, looked visibly distressed after taking some thumpers to the ribs. It is up to Perez, who holds sleight height and reach advantages, to consistently attack the body while throwing combinations. Eventually, Agbeko will be forced to give ground and Perez will go to work with straight rights and his relentless left. If Perez, 30, can manage to force Agbeko to fight on his back foot he will have an edge. Finally, Perez has to avoid headbutts and make Agbeko pay when he rushes in without caution.

For his part, Agbeko will have to replicate his fight with Gonzalez and kick up a fuss for all three minutes of each round. His tendency to reach when punching will be a liability against a precise sharpshooter like Perez, but his experience and chin will help him through some hard times. If Agbeko can make the fight a roughhouse affair he should be able to outwork Perez, who does not have the slickness to outmaneuver Agbeko on the inside. Perez is the more skilled fighter and throws snapping punches accurately and in combination. His left hand is particularly effective. To offset these strengths, Agbeko might have to turn into a grinder in the clinches and throw some junk at his opponent. Agbeko does have some clever moves--including a heat seeking missile of a forehead and a nifty shimmy--and will probably empty his entire bag of tricks or treats in order to unsettle Perez.

It is not clear whether Perez, given his relative inexperience, can hold up under a sustained assault. Judging from his dramatic KO of Mabuza, Perez, Santa Fe Springs, California via Cartagena, Colombia, is not the kind to wilt under pressure. He was behind on the scorecards when he lowered the boom on Mabuza and never looked discouraged despite the fact that he was down on points against the toughest opponent of his career. That poise, more than anything, is reason to like his chances against a fighter as careless as Agbeko often is.

If Perez stays busy, attacks the body, and keeps Agbeko on the perimeter with his snapping jab, he might be able to pull off the upset. In order to outpoint Agbeko--since a knockout seems unlikely--Perez will have to maintain his composure and fight with discipline. Of course, Agbeko will have his say in the matter, and will be there clawing until the final bell. Perez via close decision in a fight that can go either way.

CARL FROCH-ANDRE DIRRELL PREVIEW

Andre Dirrell faces the toughest test of his stalled career when he swaps leather with super middleweight titleholder Carl Froch at the Trent FM Arena in Nottingham, England, in the first round of the Super Six World Boxing Championship.

There is a general feeling that Dirrell, Bronze medalist at the 2004 Olympics, does not belong in the ring with Froch and may not belong in the Super Six Tournament at all. Against a limited assortment of odds and ends, Dirrell, 18-0 (13), has looked anywhere from mediocre to promising. He has an abundance of natural talent and the kind of athleticism that can make ordinary pugs look like Tough Man contestants. Unfortunately, Dirrell has fought nothing but ordinary pugs since turning pro in 2005.

Froch, 25-0 (20), made a name for himself in America by stopping Jermain Taylor in the waning seconds of a nifty slugfest but his style is one that Dirrell, in theory, should be able to exploit. He is slow, clumsy, and easy to hit, particularly with overhand rights. Every now and then Froch looks so artless in the ring that one has to remind himself that this is an undefeated prizefighter ranked near the top of his weight class. Dave Oakes, who covers the U.K. scene for The Boxing Bulletin sums Froch up in a nutshell: “He holds his hands too low for my liking, is one paced and doesn’t use his jab often enough. His strengths are his punch power, solid chin and great stamina. It’s also worth noting that his punch power is equally impressive late on in fights as it is early on, he seems to be able to retain his punch power for the full twelve rounds.” His unorthodox style is meant, perhaps, to be flashy, but Froch lacks the speed and reflexes to carry it off and often looks like a dropout from the Brendan Ingle School of Tomfoolery. Compared to Dirrell, who practically soars around the ring, Froch resembles a crippled auk.

Brash, confident, and witty, Dirrell views Froch as the perfect foil. He will most likely look to keep Froch off-balance with movement and by alternating between southpaw and orthodox stances. With his fast hands and footloose style, Dirrell, 27, can probably frustrate Froch early in the fight and, like Jermain Taylor, land plenty of shots along the way. Dirrell is not nearly as big a puncher as Taylor is, however, and it is difficult to see him stopping Froch, a sturdy fighter who took flush shots from Brian Magee, Jean Pascal, and Taylor without crumbling.

For his part, Froch, whose demeanor often resembles a character from an Angry Young Man play, believes that Dirrell is in over his head. He may be right. In addition to facing his toughest opponent to date, Dirrell will be fighting in only his second scheduled 12-rounder and will be doing so on the road. Intangibles may be the key to this fight. In that case, Froch is a cut or two above Dirrell. He has proven his endurance, heart, chin, and determination several times over the last few years and has faced a good mix of styles and opponents. In contrast, as recently as 2008 Dirrell, Flint, Michigan, was facing the likes of Shannon Miller, 23-38-8. Less determined fighters than Froch have rattled Dirrell, most notably Anthony Hanshaw and Alfonso Rocha, and Dirrell has looked uncomfortable in several bouts when pressured against the ropes. At times his habit of leaning away from punches leaves him vulnerable, and too often his herky-jerky movement seems to lack purpose. Not nearly as strong or as experienced as Froch, Dirrell will have to use his ring smarts to keep the fight at a distance.

In the end, only two scenarios seem likely. Either Froch, 32, will grind Dirrell down over the course of nine or ten rounds or Dirrell will win a monotonous footrace and cop a close decision. Oakes leans toward the former. “I don’t think the fight is a mismatch,” he said, “but I’m in agreement with the majority of British writers in thinking Froch will get the job done inside the distance. I believe Dirrell’s movement will cause Froch a few problems in the first three or four rounds but Froch will eventually start to close the distance down quicker and will take over from the midway point. I’ve also got doubts as to how well Dirrell takes a shot; we’ve seen him hurt before by a lot lighter punchers than Froch, that’s got to be a worry for Dirrell and his team.”

But Dirrell may not open up enough to have his chin seriously tested more than once or twice over twelve rounds. With at least two more big paychecks guaranteed by the tournament structure, Dirrell has a safety net in case he decides to stink out the joint in Nottingham. There is a good chance that he will try and that Froch will be a step or two behind early in the fight as Dirrell jabs and potshots from the outside. Then Dirrell will try to hold off a surging Froch, a superfit boxer, to hear the final bell. On paper, at least, it looks like a bad style matchup for the Englishman. Whether Dirrell has the chin, stamina, and heart to win is another matter. It will be up to Froch to find out. Dirrell, without confidence, in a close decision.

JERMAIN TAYLOR-ARTHUR ABRAHAM PREVIEW

The Super Six World Boxing Classic begins Saturday night when former undisputed middleweight champion Jermain Taylor meets Arthur Abraham at the O2 World Arena in Berlin.

Taylor, a 3 to 1 underdog on some books, enters the tournament having lost three of his last four fights. His only win during that stretch came against the pitifully shot Jeff Lacy in 2008. Just before signing to meet Bernard Hopkins for the middleweight championship in 2005, Taylor was built up to be the kind of dynamic superstar American boxing desperately needed. Over the next 4 1/2 years, however, Taylor, a Bronze medalist for the U.S. in the 2000 Olympics, has mystified the world with his steady decline. Two narrow decisions over Hopkins, a draw with “Winky” Wright, tepid bouts with smaller handpicked opponents Kasim Ouma and Cory Spinks, and three losses in his last four fights have left his career a fit subject for the production crew of MysteryQuest.

Nothing less than a spectacular performance in the Super Six Tournament will revitalize his career. And to do that, Taylor will have to go through a tough obstacle course, one that starts with undefeated Arthur Abraham, who recently vacated his middleweight title to compete in the tournament. Taylor certainly sounds like a man ready to turn his fortunes around. “Every fighter has to be ready to do battle and go to war,” he said recently. “I’m expecting a war and I’m prepared for it.”

Many see this fight as “Experience,” meaning Taylor, versus “Inexperience,” meaning Abraham. On the surface it might appear that way, but Taylor has gone 5-3-1 (0) in his last nine fights. That record could easily be 3-6 (0). Remove Ouma and Spinks--decidedly not "high level"--from the equation and Taylor might be 1-6 (0) against quality competition. Meanwhile Abraham, 30-0 (24), has beaten some good fighters in Europe: Ian Gardner, Kofi Jantuah, Kingsley Ikeke, Hector Velazco, Edison Miranda, and Howard Eastman. He suffered some rough spots against Eastman, Miranda, and southpaw terror Khoren Gevor, but fought through them to win. True, there are no future Hall of Fame inductees on his ledger, but Abraham has been tested by a variety of styles and has never been in a disputed decision. Only his first fight with Edison Miranda, who lost five points for fouls, might qualify as controversial. Another question is whether Abraham, 29, can be effective at a higher weight. A look at his record answers that one pat: Out of 30 fights, Abraham has been over 160 pounds 13 times.

Still, Taylor, a 6’ 1” and with a 74 ½” reach, is the bigger man. Lee Payton, editor of The Boxing Bulletin, thinks Taylor will use his size to his advantage. “He likes to stay at range,” Payton said, “poke a jab out there and set up hard right hands. I feel that this is the best way to negate what Abraham likes to do, which is to wait for the opponent to become aggressive and make him pay with crushing counters. If Taylor can maintain his distance most of the night, I really like his chances, because whether he is landing or not, he'll keep the German's hands busy on defense.”

In order to outwork Abraham, however, Taylor will have to be busier than usual, something his touchy stamina might object to. Judging from his dramatic knockout loss to Carl Froch last April, Taylor may no longer be able to withstand punishment over a long fight. It will take a very special kind of nutritionist to help him shake off the effects of hard left hooks and right crosses. At middleweight, Abraham had legitimate one-punch knockout power. He dramatically flattened Elvin Ayala and Khoren Gevor with crushing lefts, and, at a catchweight of 166 pounds, basically finished Edison Miranda with a single shot that turned their fight around completely in the fourth round. If he lands big punches against Taylor throughout the fight, the crowd in Berlin might not hear the final bell.

Defensively, Abraham is far superior, keeping a tight guard while allowing opponents to pound on his arms and gloves. In this posture Abraham is difficult to hit cleanly with more than one shot at a time. When he opens up and goes on the attack, however, he leaves himself open by throwing wide shots, particularly arcing left hooks. Like Taylor, Abraham gets away with this because he has fairly good hand speed. Nothing compared to other quick participants in the Super Six—Andre Ward and Andre Dirrell, for example—but adequate. In fact, Abraham appears to run a distant second to Taylor in speed. Taylor has fast hands and a quick counter left hook, but Abraham, an accomplished chess player, is more cerebral than given credit for and will use some of his ringcraft to offset his disadvantage in speed. Among his tricks are a variety of feints and a jab often used to disrupt rhythm. He also has good timing and is a patient fighter, one willing to wait to spot flaws and openings. This means Taylor might find himself countered after tipping his right hand or pursued by furies when he backs straight up in front of Abraham. Taylor, 31, also has a bad habit of languishing in front of his opponent without purpose and seemingly adrift. Often he swings his left arm--locked at a right angle--back and forth in front of him as if attempting to hypnotize his opponent. It never works.

In order to defeat Taylor, Abraham, Berlin via Armenia, might have to be more aggressive than he is used to, particularly early. Allowing Taylor, 28-3-1 (17), to sweep the first three or four rounds will make it less likely that Taylor will fade late through attrition. That would give Taylor his best chance to win.

By far the most plausible scenario for Taylor to win is by points. Although his right hand still has some sting to it, Taylor can no longer be considered a particularly hard puncher. When he cranks up double left hooks and uppercuts in combination he can still get anyone in trouble. Unfortunately, trouble is usually as far as it goes. As poor a finisher as has been seen in boxing recently, Taylor has not scored a knockout in over 4 ½ years. He had Kelly Pavlik, Jeff Lacey, and Carl Froch all hurt and let each of them escape. As for Abraham, it is unlikely that he will be stopped. One thing mouthy Edison Miranda can do well is punch, and he belted Abraham several times in their first match. Abraham suffered a broken jaw but he was never knocked down. In that case, Taylor will have to try to outbox the cagey Armenian. To do that, Taylor, who does not have much mobility, will have to be nearly perfect for 36 minutes against a difficult opponent. Does he have the discipline to stick to a jab and counter strategy or will he gradually unravel as the fight goes on?

After getting hammered to defeat in his last fight is it possible that Taylor might be suffering from the boxing equivalent of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder? “It's difficult to say where Taylor is mentally after such a disappointing result,” says Payton. “It must have ripped his heart out to know that he was so close to having the belt wrapped around his waist. That said, this tournament is a huge opportunity to erase that terrible memory, and from the sound of things, he's coming to give it his best effort. I think it's worth noting that this is a man who jumped in there with Hopkins twice and came back after getting knocked out to fight well against Pavlik.

Taylor, Little Rock, Arkansas, may have heart, but he is going to need more than that to get past Abraham. Eventually, Abraham will hurt Taylor, most likely when Taylor retreats in a straight line, and at that point it will be a question of whether or not “Bad Intentions” can take it. If he can, Taylor may still shut down completely and last the distance in losing a unanimous decision. If not, Abraham should be able to score a late TKO and earn three points in the Super Six tournament for his efforts.

"THE CURRENT SCENE"

MAGIC NUMBERS: KELLY PAVLIK & THE SEARCH FOR A JR. MIDDLEWEIGHT

Kelly Pavlik, not content with trouncing pacifist Marco Antonio Rubio and running out on poor Sergio Mora due to a phantom staph infection, would like to add another junior middleweight to his "Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Tour." Paul Williams and Sergio Martinez, who both began their careers as welterweights, are on the short list of opponents to face Pavlik in the fall.

Martinez and Williams are both good fighters, but they are also potential pieces in the curious mix n' match puzzle bouts so popular lately. Nobody, it seems, is willing to fight anybody else in an appropriate weight class. Over the years we have seen Winky Wright and Felix Trinidad fight at light heavyweight, Ricardo Mayorga at super middleweight, Cory Spinks fight at middleweight, Stevie Forbes fight anywhere a sawbuck might be found, and Oscar De La Hoya get whipped by a former junior lightweight and a flyweight. These are fighters two or three levels above their prime weight classes, not just a few pounds heavier like Juan Urango or Gerry Penalosa were for their walks on the gangplank against Andre Berto and Juan Manuel Lopez, respectively. Cory Spinks, for example, first established himself as a contender at junior welterweight, but no one at the Quality Control Center seemed to notice that when he was signed to fight Jermain Taylor for the middleweight title. (To his credit, Spinks is a capable fighter and made Taylor look inept--admittedly not as hard as splitting the atom--over twelve dull rounds in 2007.)

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It should be noted that all of these fights, actually closer to "Fantasy League" bouts put together by agoraphobic daydreamers, have taken place under the auspices of HBO, whose sole interest is in showcasing stars and not necessarily in broadcasting competitive matches, although the law of averages occasionally kicks in and a good fight breaks out now and then.

Nor does an end to this trend appear in sight: Pacquiao-Cotto, Malignaggi-Diaz, and the absurd Floyd Mayweather-Juan Manuel Marquez "event" are all scheduled to take place over the next few months.

For Pavlik, who will not fight unless he is guaranteed a magic number, a fight with either Martinez of Williams is an opportunity to face a small opponent for a big payoff. Proper middleweights are apparently just not cost-effective enough these days. Sergio Mora, despite having a signed contract, remains in limbo, and ESPN.com reported that Pavlik turned down $1 million to face Felix Sturm, a paper champion if there ever was one. Obviously, the magic number Pavlik is looking for is not $1 million, at least when it comes to fighting a middleweight.

One has to wonder exactly what the minimum wage is for Pavlik. Years ago, Sugar Ray Robinson would not fight unless his financial demands were met, too, but he was Sugar Ray Robinson. Kelly Pavlik gives the impression that he would like to spend the next two or three years bowling over backyard wrestlers at the Chevrolet Centre in Ohio. Over the last year Pavlik has given the shaft to Arthur Abraham, Sergio Mora, Felix Sturm, and reportedly declined a fight with Paul Williams based on a ludicrous 50-50 purse split proffered by Dan Goosen. Williams does not deserve parity with the recognized middleweight champion of the world, but now Pavlik has been put into the poor PR position of declining to fight a welterweight. Team Pavlik realizes this and negations have apparently re-opened.

Perhaps Pavlik feels, like many fighters, that he has paid his dues and it is now time to cash in on all the hard work it took to reach the top. This was the thinking with Gary Lockett, and it was also the thinking behind choosing Bernard Hopkins as an opponent. Team Pavlik thought that Hopkins, at 43 and coming off of a loss to Joe Calzaghe, would be a pushover. Obnoxious Jack Loew even predicted a knockout. Instead, it was Pavlik who was nearly stopped in a painful man-versus-child scenario. He has been increasingly finicky since the Hopkins fiasco.

Because he can draw 8,000 to 10,000 fans in Ohio, Pavlik has more leverage than most fighters, but he is in danger of overplaying his hand. With only a few HBO dates available--apparently with bargain basement budgets--Pavlik risks remaining idle for the rest of the year. Top Rank, with its "Latin Fury" and "Pinoy Power" shows already on tap, cannot put on a Pay-Per-View card every two or three weeks. So Williams and Martinez pop up for the second half of the "Magic Number" equation: weight. If the right figure can be reached--and it might take an alchemist to produce that--Pavilk will probably opt to fight Williams, who is not nearly as slick as Martinez is. Either way, it is another in a series of "asterisk" bouts that have taken place over the last few years. This is not to say that Williams (or Martinez, for that matter) has no chance to win, it is just that Pavlik has secured a significant edge before even stepping into the ring.

If the fight falls through, then maybe, just maybe, Pavilk will agree to fight a middleweight instead. Of course, HBO would have to approve of one first, and Pavlik will have to agree to a sum less than the mysterious figure he is currently seeking. If not, his "Magic Number" for the rest of the year might very well be 0.

"THE CURRENT SCENE"

THE SHORT END OF THE STICK CLUB

News that Rogers Mtagwa will enter the ring in October against junior featherweight titleholder Juan Manuel Lopez automatically grants membership to Mtagwa in the newly formed "Short End of the Stick Club," whose members are perpetually up against the wall, under the gun, between a rock and a hard place, behind the 8-ball, and any other dusty cliché about adversity you can cite while half asleep.

The patron saint of the Short End of the Stick Club is Steve "Two Pounds" Forbes, the talented ex-junior lightweight titlist who routinely fights larger opponents (who also enjoy the unique advantage of powerful corporate and promotional backing) in search of paydays elusive to 95 percent of professional boxers. Forbes even fought as a "junior middleweight" during the second season of the Contender series, facing Grady Brewer in the finals. Brewer had previously fought as high as 163 pounds in his career.

The Short End of the Stick Club is for fighters who are brought into the ring hogtied and blindfolded, with their shoes on backwards and their gloves worn upside down. They may be moving up in weight class, or coming off of multiple surgeries for detached retinas, or returning from extended layoffs or prison terms, or in their mid to late thirties, or full-time policemen, or completely shot, or marginally talented and 10 to 1 underdogs from the moment they sign a contract to trade blows with a marquee fighter. In short, they are meant to be fall guys and patsies.

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Sometimes Short End of the Stick members pull off extraordinary feats, but should they have to? And so often? When fighters have to consistently overcome obstacle courses, booby traps, carpet bombings, and moats filled with starving alligators during the ring walk, it is a testament to their skill and bravery. On the other hand, what does that say about the fighters who come into the ring 8 to 1 favorites? What does that say about boxing in general?

Rogers Mtagwa, God bless his courage and determination, is nothing more than a 21st century club fighter. He does the same thing club fighters of the 1930s and 40s did: provide raw excitement and honest efforts against similarly ordinary opposition, but, fighting only two or three times a year instead of every month, without the opportunity to make a decent living at it.

Mtagwa, 26-12-2, is as brave and as tough as they come. His brutal rise-from-the-grave KO of Tomas Villa last year was breathtaking in its ferocity, but the ultra-violence in the ring that night--as well as the remarkable bloodlust shown by both fighters--obscures the fact that their grand guignol was staged without a hint of skill. It was pure Cro-Magnon from bell to bell. Villa, whose defense actually appears to be modeled on that of Buster Keaton in "Battling Butler," should not fight again unless he is allowed to wear a suit of armor in the ring; Mtagwa, who throws punches the way Aborigines used to hurl woomeras, took the kind of punishment that should have earned him a lengthy suspension despite the fact that he won. Instead, he was back in the ring a few months later, struggling against Ricardo Medina, now 31-34-5.

In addition, Mtagwa has made 122 pounds only once in the last eight and a half years. This is as disgraceful a mismatch as can possibly be made and joins several other curious mismatches involving elite fighters recently. But this is also where the Short End of the Stick Club gets tricky. The only way for Mtagwa to be rewarded for the thrills he has provided over the years to hardcore Telefutura viewers and Philadelphia fight fans is, in a sense, retroactively. Mtagwa will be rewarded tomorrow--with a paycheck six or seven times larger than any he has ever received--for what he did yesterday. But it will be a painful reward indeed.

"THE CURRENT SCENE"

DARCHINYAN-AGBEKO PREVIEW

Unified super flyweight champion and thrill seeker Vic Darchinyan attempts to add another title to his trophy case when he takes on rugged Joseph Agbeko for the IBF bantamweight doodad tonight at the Bank Atlantic Center in Sunrise, Florida.

This fight has “unpredictable” written all over it. Darchinyan, 32-1-1 (26), is the more skilled and experienced fighter, but this will be his first major bout as a bantamweight and that might be the equalizer by the time the opening bell rings. Of course, when you are swapping punches with a fighter nicknamed “King Kong,” maybe there are other considerations. Agbeko has seen his potential dulled by long stretches of inactivity over the years, but he is without question a live underdog at about 2 ½ to 1 on most sportsbooks.

Both fighters are coming off of marquee wins. Except for a few brief moments, Darchinyan completely dominated former two-division titlist Jorge Arce for a grisly 11^th round TKO in February. Arce, however, is well past his best days. Even so, he had Darchinyan buzzed and holding on at one point before Darchinyan regained control to carry on a beating that started the moment the two fighters met at center ring.

Agbeko, on the other hand, is coming off of a taxing decision over Nicaraguan southpaw William Gonzalez last November in Newark, New Jersey. Gonzalez, well below Darchinyan in class, managed to wobble Agbeko several times throughout the fight and appeared to hurt the Ghanaian with bodyshots as well. Gonzalez was also hindered by three cuts incurred by headbutts over the course of the fight. It was an exciting slugfest, but not the kind of preparation you want going into the biggest fight of your life. Agbenko, 26-1 (22), showed heart, determination, and stamina against Gonzalez, but looked shaky several times after absorbing some stiff straight lefts and right hooks from Gonzalez.

Both fighters, in fact, appear vulnerable to big punches. The only real x-factor in this fight, it seems, is whether or not Darchinyan, 33, can take a shot from a fairly powerful natural bantamweight. Early in his career Darchinyan fought as high as 118 ¾ pounds, and his reign at flyweight was probably achieved by boiling down dramatically. Still, he is a one-punch KO victim at the hands of talented Nonito Donaire. He was also dropped by Z Gorres and rattled by a faded Jorge Arce, now in his 14^th year as a professional. In addition, Darchinyan may find his punch has less oomph against a bigger opponent, which may let Agbenko off the hook regarding concerns about his sturdiness.

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Agbeko, 29, is a solid fighter, one who can punch with either hand, but he does not appear to have the skills to offset Darchinyan. Some of his flaws--a tendency to square up in front of his opponent, poor balance, and, worst of all, a propensity to reach with his punches, leaving his chin dangling over his lead foot and exposed--are made to order for Darchinyan to pick out openings for his deadly left. Agbeko, in contrast, lacks the mobility and finesse to draw Darchinyan into making mistakes. He will come forward throwing punches while Darchinyan shifts and slides, pokes and prods, counters and cuffs, sidesteps and potshots.

For Agbeko to win, then, he must force a pace that will, in a sense, camouflage his shortcomings while simultaneously taking Darchinyan out of his game plan of measured destruction. Fighters who take the leisurely route with Darchinyan are doomed. Once Darchinyan is in control with his unwieldy style it is difficult to wrest momentum from him. He is a clever counter puncher, mixes his shots to the head and body, and knows how to use angles for some of the UFOs he launches with bad intentions.

Agbeko is a tough proposition, however, and Darchinyan will have to use all of his tricks to keep him at bay tonight. His shifty moves, combined with a powerful left cross and uppercut, have befuddled opponents for years. Some of his antics actually seem implausible at times, and it is shocking to see so many professional fighters falling for his sucker routines. This business, for example, of stretching out left arm and inverting it at a right angle to his body seems, inexplicably, to mesmerize opponents nine out of ten times he uses it. It reminds one of how Norman Rockwell used to hypnotize chickens--by rocking them slowly back and forth--in order to keep them still so he could paint their likenesses. Naturally, when a fighter sets his arm in such an odd posture his balance is compromised and, more importantly, he is completely unable to punch with the extended hand. Instead of stepping forward behind a jab and running off a combination when this curiosity presents itself, though, most fighters freeze and allow Darchinyan to slap them with his poised right like something out of a vaudeville routine. Only Nonito Donaire, who was one step ahead of Darchinyan at every turn, refused to be hoodwinked by Darchinyan. The question here is whether Agbeko will fall for these kinds of ruses or whether he is prepared to disregard them and go after Darchinyan with abandon.

Pressure, and only the whirlwind kind, will take Darchinyan out of his sneaky rhythm tonight. If this is the strategy that Agbeko employs, and from all accounts it seems likely he will, then Darchinyan is in for some duress. This will be a hotly contested fight and Agbeko will be in it until the final bell. In a bout that can go either way, Darchinyan should have enough of that strange guile at the ready to squeak by on points or possibly score a late TKO, but a visit to your local bookmaker to cash in on a potential upset might not be the worst idea you ever had.

"THE CURRENT SCENE"

TOMASZ ADAMEK-BOBBY GUNN PREVIEW

Bobby Gunn, who faces Tomasz Adamek Saturday night for the IBF cruiserweight watchamacallit, is probably aware that he does not belong in the same ring with Adamek. But he will do his best to prove otherwise at The Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, in a bout that can only be considered dubious.

Gunn, fighting out of Hackensack, has been kicking around the outskirts of boxing for twenty years now, and his short money/longshot opportunity is the end of the road for a fighter whose checkered background outstrips most in a sport that specializes in checkered backgrounds.

Gunn turned pro at 15 and amassed about a dozen fights from 1989 to 1993 before simply vanishing from the scene. Over the next decade Gunn fought on the underground fight club circuit--that distressing netherworld of unsanctioned bar brawls, backyard donnybrooks, and basement brouhahas--before returning to the “professional” boxing in 2004. But just how professional is professional? Gunn fought a slew of bouts in Tennessee, one of the top charnel houses for prizefighting in the United States, against the rigor mortised and somehow managed to qualify for an Alphabet title shot with Enzo Maccinarelli in Cardiff. He was stopped in the first round. Gareth Jones, of the BBC Wales, wrote that Gunn might be a top contender for the coveted 'worst-ever world title challenger' award, which is frightening when one considers that Maccinarelli could very well be one of the worst-ever Alphabet Soup champions.

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This means that for Gunn his match with Adamek is the equivalent of buying a single ticket for the Power Ball lottery: The odds are lopsidedly against him. Against Adamek, 37-1 (25), Gunn will have to come out swinging and hope to land a shot in the dark against a fighter whose poor defense is, in fact, a liability. One thing to note about Gunn is that he hits pretty hard and his rudimentary style can certainly make for some excitement. His 2006 free-for-all with Shelby Gross has to be seen to be believed. After dropping Gross twice in the first round, Gunn came out winging in the second and was stretched three times himself before the bout was stopped. The official result was overturned and declared a no-contest when Gross failed a post-fight drug test, but the violence of that fight is not easily forgotten. There is a real prizefighter somewhere inside Gunn, just not a skilled one. Gunn, 21-3-1 (18), showed incredible heart in getting up three times from knockdowns against Gross, but courage alone is not enough at the world-class level. Adamek, coming off a brutal KO of Jonathon Banks last February, is light years away from the likes of Shelby Gross.

Unable to get Showtime to loosen its purse strings for a proposed Adamek-Matt Godfrey bout, Main Events was forced to scale back its plans and bring in an opponent that only Rotten.com might possibly pay for. For Adamek, it is a chance to stay busy until something more meaningful materializes; for Gunn, by all accounts a likable fellow, it is a chance to make up for all the obscure years of toil and struggle. True, it is a slim chance, but a chance nonetheless. "I took this fight because I wanted to fight the best,” Gunn told ESPN.com. “Adamek is the best. I would have taken this fight for any amount of money they gave me. This is not about financial profit. This is about my chance to show everyone that I can be the best."

In the end, the chances of Gunn winning are always at least zero.

The Current Scene

MISUNDERESTIMATED! CHAMBERS W12 DIMITRENKO

The Tale of the Tape was thrown by the wayside when undersized Eddie Chambers scored a lopsided 12-round decision over undefeated Alexander Dimitrenko at the Color Line Arena in Hamburg, Germany, in an alphabet title “eliminator” for the right to face Wladimir Klitschko. Scores were 116-111, 117-109, and a peculiar 113-113.

Chambers, now 35-1 (18), overcame tremendous disadvantages in height, weight, and reach to outbox and outslug Dimitrenko with ease. Let it be noted right off the bat: Eddie Chambers looked spectacular. Let it also be noted that judge Paul Thomas, who turned in a scorecard of 113-113, is not an incompetent official. No, he is, in fact, a scoundrel. “Scoundrel” is as good a purple prose euphemism as any to avoid a libel suit. Boxing is a subjective sport when there is room for subjectivity, but what Paul Thomas was trying to accomplish, other than redefining the word “subjective,” perhaps, can only be darkly hinted at. If he is ever at ringside again, it should only be with a broom and a dustpan in hand.

The fight was no contest from the opening bell. Chambers, a trim 208, came out aggressively and immediately began to score with pinpoint jabs and rapid combinations. “Fast Eddie,” focused as never before, pulled out every knack available from his Acme Bag of Boxing Tricks, including shoulder feints, check hooks, catch and counters, and changeup combinations. At one point, Chambers went back 50 or 60 years and took potshots at the bicep of Dimitrenko, whose long, lazy jab often languished in mid air.

For the first four rounds Chambers pressured Dimitrenko, slipping and countering on the way in and alternating shots to the body and head. Dimitrenko, who falls to 29-1 (19), offered only a few flicking jabs and an occasional right in response. Surprisingly for such a big man, he also held Chambers shamelessly when the Philadelphian got too close.

In round five, Chambers doubled Dimitrenko over with a hard left hook to the beltline. Dimitrenko, foreshadowing what was to come, cried “foul” and was given time to recover by naive referee Gino Rodriguez. From that point on, however, Dimitrenko seemed dispirited and began to give ground more often and with greater ease.

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Over the course of the next seven rounds, a spirited Chambers threw every combination and punch known to exist and landed all of them with frequency: jabs, left hooks, right uppercuts, overhand rights, body shots, etc. His overhand right/right uppercut combination is a thing of beauty when it lands, and Dimitrenko had no answers but to hold and retreat. It was odd seeing Dimitrenko, at 6’ 7” and nearly 260 pounds, backpedaling and clinching at every opportunity against his much smaller opponent, but he was simply outclassed by the more skilful boxer.

Round six saw Dimitrenko pleading to the referee once more after a clean body blow landed. Another left to the body in round seven, this one closer to a kidney shot, had Dimitrenko, 26, practically blubbering, but instead of being fooled by his antics again, Rodriguez, full of chutzpah now, gave Dimitrenko a standing eight-count. When the bell rang, Chambers let out a triumphant war cry on the way back to his corner. By then the fight was over.

Chambers appeared to give away the ninth deliberately to pace himself and took a big right hand from Dimitrenko with about ten seconds remaining in the round. He shook it off and continued to exchange punches until the bell sounded. Chambers, 27, regained his momentum in the tenth round and blasted Dimitrenko to the canvas after punctuating a salvo of punches with a rattling left hook to the point of the jaw. Dimitrenko, who had his mouthpiece dislodged by the force of the blow, beat the count and managed to survive until the final bell. He was also staggered in the eleventh and twelfth rounds. Except for Paul Thomas, who probably arrived at Hamburg-Fuhlsbuttel airport direct from Gin Lane, the judges scored the bout widely in favor of Chambers.

As for Dimitrenko, he was a huge disappointment, at a loss for what to do against an opponent not of the lumbering European school of heavyweights variety, and his deportment in the ring was appalling. Developing character does not appear to be high on his list of things to do. Still, his physical advantages—along with the hometown edge—gave him a substantial head start, so to speak, against Chambers. Indeed, it seemed like folly for Chambers to play deja vu all over again in Germany after his poor showing against Alex Povetkin last year in Berlin, but by redoubling his dedication and training harder than ever, he scored an impressive upset over a ranked contender to stay in the heavyweight mix.

This version of Eddie Chambers, lean, busy, and aggressive, is hazardous to the health of any heavyweight who steps into the ring with him. He showed an improved workrate, surprising power, and plenty of grit. His masterful performance erases the stench of his blase fight with Sam Peter in March and most likely puts an end to high-risk bouts for short money on the road. If he keeps his focus, Chambers, who made a fool out of observers (this corner included) and oddsmakers alike, may someday watch others fight elimination bouts in far-flung lands for the right to face “Fast Eddie.”

THE LAST GOODBYE

THE LAST GOODBYE: ARGUELLO, CONFIRMED SUICIDE

Officials in Nicaragua have ruled the death of Hall of Fame great Alexis Argüello a suicide following an autopsy. The triple crown champion, who was 57, was found dead in his home just outside of Managua early Wednesday morning. Dr. Zacarias Duarte, Director of the Institute of Forensic Medicine, reported that Argüello shot himself in the chest with a 9mm pistol. No foul play is suspected.

Argüello, whose battles with depression and substance abuse were widely documented, lived a turbulent life outside of the ring. “Everybody has to go through their own hell in order to see if you are willing to come out of it,” he told The Nica Times in 2007. His last year of life was no less tempestuous than those that preceded it. In November 2008, Argüello was hospitalized for undisclosed reasons during his mayoral campaign. He was registered under a false name at Carlos Roberto Huembes Hospital in Managua where medical staff denied his presence to reporters on site. Argüello recovered and went on to win the mayoralty with only 51.3% of the vote in an election marred by accusations of fraud and corruption. Ballot rigging and intimidation were some of the methods allegedly used by Sandinista supporters to manipulate the election. In addition, polls were reportedly shuttered before official closing time.

The United States, along with several members of the European Union, suspended financial aid to Nicaragua because of voting impropriety. Riots and violent demonstrations broke out in the wake of the election results, with supporters of the defeated Conservative Liberal Party clashing in the streets with FSLN adherents. Despite international outrage, the Supreme Electoral Council, controlled by President Daniel Ortega, ratified the vote without a recount and Argüello was sworn in as mayor of Managua.

While in office, Argüello was accused of misappropriating 180 million cordobas (approximately $9 million) from public works projects, pushing through illegal pork barrel earmarks, and misusing municipal funds for private travel. Argüello was also under investigation for allegedly using a public loan of 1.8 million cordobas (approximately $90,000) to build a home in Valle de Ticomo while he was Deputy Mayor of Managua from 2004 to 2007. Argüello denied any wrongdoing. These ongoing investigations and accusations, however, painted his mayoralty as a continuation of historically crooked government practices. According to the 2008 Corruption Perception Index issued by Transparency International, Nicaragua is ranked as the most corrupt nation in Central America and is ranked 134th out of 183 nations listed on the Index.

Still, Argüello was an idol to Nicaraguans. His thrilling achievements in the ring, combined with a numinous grace and a genuine love of his country, gave Argüello a cultural status surpassed only by Augusto Cesar Sandino and, perhaps, Ruben Dario.

Thousands crowded the streets to say goodbye to Argüello in a chaotic procession on Friday. Sirens, whistles, and car horns pealed through the day and the hearse carrying Argüello to Memorial Gardens Cemetery was followed by motorbikes, bicycles, pickups, and stragglers on foot. “I cannot believe how much the people loved my father,” said Alexis Argüello, Jr.

With his good looks, charm, professionalism, and consummate skill, Argüello was one of the superstars of boxing during its last heyday in the 1980s and a symbol of opportunity to Nicaraguans. A crushing knockout of Ray Mancini in 1981 made Argüello a household name in America and his breathtaking first fight with Aaron Pryor, before a crowd of nearly 24,000 at the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida, was, like Argüello himself, the stuff of legends.