Tonight's Results

R. Marquez TKO10 Silence Mabuza

All credit to Slience Mabuza, who put in a surprisingly good performance before the power told and the wheels came off for him. I thought he won three rounds clearly and might have won 4 on some cards. This fight ultimately was a showcase for why Rafa Marquez is so special- even weight-drained and fighting at well below his usual standards, he had the power and the guts to use it to blow away a very, very good challenger. He'll never fight at 118 again and shouldn't, but this was a strong, entertaining fight that ought to have made a very clear case for bigger and better fights one class up for him.

Kassim Ouma UD10 Sechew Powell

Whenever, in future, I use the phrase "buried under leather" this fight is exactly the sort of thing I mean. From start to finish Ouma simply outworked a fighter who had little or no idea how to counteract what was happening to him. I thought Powell's best chance to win the fight was to back up, plant, throw the jab to freeze Ouma, throw a power shot, and step back and circle. He stepped back alright, but he abandoned his jab as a tactical weapon very early on and ended up throwing it infrequently and spasmodically for the length of the fight. The result was that what could have been creating space for his punches became getting on his bike, as he'd retreat without planting his feet all the way to the ropes, whereupon Ouma would get in his chest and land punch after punch without much cost. And as Larry Merchant pointed out on the broadcast, Powell lacked the power (which anyone who had seen him could have told you) to make Ouma change a single thing he was doing. Powell is a competent if unspecial boxer, but he's a mediocre puncher and if he wasn't able to use his boxing knowledge to control Ouma his power certainly wasn't going to save him.

JM Marquez TKO7 Terdsak Jandaeng

That's probably the most entertaining Marquez fight in many years, and a fine example of what he's capable of. He's an absolute technical master, brilliant at almost all the skills of the game- positioning, maintaining space, footwork, punch accuracy, punch selection, understanding and decoding an opponent, etc.- and moreover his talents are underestimated because his skills are so good. He doesn't quite have his brother's power, but he's not a rinky-dink puncher, and he can put that power behind almost any punch in his arsenal. Tonight it was mostly uppercuts; on another night it might be hooks or crosses, counterpunches or leads- and he can throw them all with startling handspeed. He can do it all, and the major question now is whether he can find someone competent to run his career so that he can do it all against someone who matters.

Jandaeng also deserves a measure of credit and respect out of tonight as well. I don't think he won a round, but he made a serious run at a win by going after Marquez's eye in an attempt to win, and he proved that he's double tough and a real fighter.

Vernon Forrest UD10 Ike Quartey

I have trouble calling this a jobbing since I had it close, but the Lampley, Lederman, and my card all had Bazooka Ike winning, and there's a reason the crowd began chanting "bullshit" after the fight. The fight wasn't entirely as I expected it to be- Forrest held less and Quartey threw less than I expected- but Vernon confirmed once again that he's basically a one armed fighter. His left is a placer now entirely, something to distract an opponent while he tries to find a home for his right. Watching him is a little like watching Arturo Gatti in any of the fights where he hurt his hand early. If he continues to fight on after this as I assume he will, he's going to get obliterated by the first serious opponent he runs into which is his right his right if he wants the money, but don't be surprised when it happens.

A mixed night of fights overall. The Marquez brothers did more or less what they had to and will come out of it with enhanced propects for their future, albeit with the same need to get things moving quickly. Sechew Powell has been exposed to a larger audience as exactly what he is for better or worse, and I think his future ultimately holds a move to middle weight in the near future. Kassim Ouma remains a going concern at 154 or 160, and would be a fascinatingly weird matchup with Cory Spinks if that fight could be put together. Ike Quartey is- sadly and unjustly- probably done. Vernon Forrest is on his way towards a payday somewhere, probably against Shane Mosley as a keep-busy for the sugar man while Floyd Mayweather and Oscar De La Hoya circle towards each other. All in all an enjoyable if largely predictable night of boxing.

Upcoming fights include James Toney vs. Sam Peter and Paul Williams vs. Sharmba Mitchell. More on those as they get closer.

The subtle genius of Mr. Jose Mourinho

On Wiliam Gallas' failure to show up for training:

"'He should have come in the same day as Michael Ballack and Mikel John Obi and he didn't. "

You mean John Obi-Mikel there, Jose? Your club wouldn't happen to be buying players you've never even heard of to keep them away from other clubs there, would it? I know, I know, crazy idea, that. So how's Shaun Wright-Phillips looking in training this year?

Welcome again

As promised, that redesign/renaming has finally been done. Apologies to everyone whose links I removed, but it had to be done- nothing personal. It's just time to narrow my focus if I want to have anything useful to say (though I do mean to get back to watching basketball soon- I miss it). Mostly, it's just nice to be back to writing for now.

Possible new feature: youtube boxing link of the day/week. I like that idea.

Tomorrow's fights

Two big events coming up tomorrow in the boxing world, as both HBO and Showtime run fairly important two fight cards. Here's a quick preview, with thoughts to follow after the fights.

On HBO:

The opener for this show will feature Kassim Ouma and Sechew Powell at 154 pounds. The set-up here is very simple: Ouma is a former champ looking to rebound from his worst professional loss by taking out a reasonably well-respected young prospect. Powell is that prospect, looking to bump off a respected former champ who his management likely regards as weak in order to make his bones as a championship-level name. Like the main event, it's very much a crossroads fight.

I've seen Powell fight quite a few times, and I must tell you I've never been much impressed. He does any number of things competently- a solid right jab (although somewhat mechanical), decent power (though untested against good chins), effective movement (but very standard in pattern), decent handspeed, reasonable accuracy, etc. He's totally solid, and utterly uninspiring. Frankly, I have a strong suspicion that he's partially a result of coastal bias. As boxing has become ever more reliant on Latin fighters and Latin audiences, its center of gravity as a sport in America has shifted substantially westwards in the last few decades, towards Las Vegas and the gyms of Southern California. Prospects- especially those who could become gate attractions- are much thinner on the ground in the East, and thus subject to a lot more frequently ungrounded hype. Remember the Chin Checkers? Remember how they both got knocked out in fights they were expected to win, long before they reached even contender status? Powell isn't that untested or that vulnerable, but he's also not head and shoulders above that level either. If you check his record you'll mostly see people you don't recognize; you'll also see Grady Brewer, probably the best fighter Powell's ever fought and the best 18-11 guy in the sport. Powell is listed with the victory, one he did not even remotely deserve as Brewer put him down and won the vast majority of the rounds. I've seen Powell two or three times since that fight; he's roughly the same guy now.

Which is why, because I think Powell can win tomorrow, that I have to give a tip of the cap to his management team for selecting Ouma as an opponent. Kassim is very, very good; but he's also got extremely overrated power which is unlikely to bother Powell's dubious whiskers. He's two inches shorter with three inches less of reach, and stands a very good chance of being stuck on the end of Powell's jab all night especially if Powell can effectively step back and avoid the large flurries Ouma can and often does throw. Ouma has vastly more talent than Powell does, but it's a potentially tough stylistic matchup for him. My inclination is to pick Ouma all the same on the theory that a B+ fighter beats a B- fighter most nights, but I wouldn't be shocked if the Iron Horse took an extremely boring jabfest over 12.

The HBO main events pits two-time Shane Mosley conqueror Vernon Forrest against Africa's answer to Fernando Vargas, Ike Quartey. The Viper is 35 with a bad recent injury history; Bazooka Ike is 36 with a 5 year layoff in his past. This is pretty much the end of the road for one of these guys, as neither has anything like the track record to fall back on to justify any further high profile fights. The winner probably gets one more high-profile moneys-spinning contest; Forrest might get Mosley, Quartey might get Vargas. Either one of those would likely be excrable and meaningless, but tomorrow's fight is oddly compelling. Forrest is naturally a bit larger and perpetually awkward; Quartey has fought the better recent opposition, most notably Verno Phillips. The deciding factor here is probably who's better preserved at this stage of the game, in which case I'd put all my money on Bazooka Ike. He's looked like a reasonable approximation of his old self during this comeback, and ultimately according to all accounts he made this comeback because he really wanted to box again. As I understand it he's a bit of a mogul in Accra, owns quite a bit of property and is very wealthy; he's not here because he has to be, the way Forrest is. He spent 5 years not taking punches as well, which can't hurt. Forrest, by contrast, hasn't really looked like a man who wanted to be in there since he was fighting Shane Mosley. He looked terrified and bewildered in the two Mayorga fights, and since then it's been a checkered tale of elbow and shoulder injuries which even he admits won't ever be 100% again. He was never the best athlete so it won't hurt him the way it does some fighters to lose that much of his athleticism, but it won't help him. He's not a huge puncher either, so he has less to fall back on.

If Forrest wins, it's because he figures out Quartey's jab-stalk-jab-body shot-jab-stalk routine and straight-up African-style defense very quickly, and is still capable of delivering the strong jabs and precise body shots to slow Quartey and break his momentum. But if he can't hit hard enough or accurately enough, if his body won't do what his mind tells it to do, he's either going to get steamrolled and run out of there or else reduce the contest to a long series of clinches to stop Quartey from working on the inside. Truthfully, as good as he was, I think the old Forrest is a lot less likely to show than the old Quartey, so I'll take Ike on a decision.

On Showtime:

Hey, remember the Marquez brothers? Of course you don't, because over the past several years they've been managed into the proverbial Bolivian by great trainer/incompetent manager Nacho Beristain. Juan Manuel Marquez was once the stirring, gutty champion who came back from 3 first round knockdowns to out-box P4P king Manny Pacquiao and secure a draw. Then he turned down a rematch for nearly $1 million to fight Orlando Salido and Victor Polo in small-money, excruciatingly boring contests as PPV openers (thus further restricting his public profile) and finally found himself taking $30,000 (not a misprint) to fly to Indonesia and take on hometown guy Chris John. He proceeded to lose a decision which most people have described as a half-step up from a full on jobbing, and now finds himself back in the states beltless at 32, and may think himself lucky to have a Showtime date against a fighter named, I shit you not, Terdsak. Rafael Marquez by contrast doesn't quite have the Shakespearean tragedy angle to his recent career, but since his career-defining wins in 2002 and 2003 against Mark Johnson and Tim Armstrong he's fought...well, he's fought Maricio Pastrana twice, and now he's fighting the awesomely-named Silence Mabuza again, and there's a few other guys, but...well. He's simply done nothing at all to leverage those wins, made no attempts to fight a Jhonny Gonzalez or an Israel Vazquez or a Fernando Montiel or, or, or. And unlike his brother who's technically superior but often so dull he's been nicknamed "Yawn" Manuel, Rafael should be a super-duper star for a small man. He hits as hard as anyone in the sport and does so with a weak enough chin to have been knocked out three times in his career- he should be a tiny version of Diego Corrales. But where Corrales has taken on one of the hardest recent schedules of anyone in the game with no sign of a let up anytime soon, Rafael's people have been content to let him make small money in small fights against small names. Thus, a rematch against a guy he ran in 4 rounds in his last fight.

I fully expect Rafael to demolish Mabuza again, and in about as little time; Silence just can't handle his power. I have no pick for JMM vs Terdsak Jandaeng, because I've never heard of the Thai fighter before much less watched him fight. The interest here is likely going to be, can the Marquezes look spectacular enough to draw interest to their cause and big names to their fighting schedules? As they hit their early 30's, what signs of slippage are present? Given that he's older, facing an unknown quality and much more naturally boring, these questions are all more pertinent for the elder brother. Rafael just needs someone in charge of his career to publicize him well and get him the big names he should be fighting; JMM, sadly, probably needs to prove all over again that he's still got enough in the tank to make him a real contender at 126, and not just a guy other managers will start calling with offers for short money to face their prospect- like Kassim Ouma.

Thoughts here, after the fights.

Cashhole

Pretty much all the reports agree, now- Ashley Cole is due out of Arsenal by Thursday at the latest in order to suit up for Champion's League qualifiers for his new blue or white employers. Meanwhile according to some reports he's keeping himself amused by flouncing out of training. What more can really be said? I think any Arsenal fan would rather see him go to Madrid even for less money than suit up for the bastards across London, but at this point either option looks better than dealing with any more of his will-I-or-won't-I vacillation. Last year was either or both a fantastic case of malingering on his part to miss games or else a conscious choice of the team not to play him until it was absolutely necessary, and that simply can't be repeated. Chelsea have the privilege of using Russian blood money to tell Didier Drogba that he can play or he can rot, but either way he won't be leaving; Arsenal just don't have the financial muscle, especially with stadium debt into the bargain, to stomach 25 million pounds worth of non-performing player. He's got to be moved, and that money transferred into assets who can perform on the pitch.

The question is, what happens once he is. The team is acting as though it expects to sign more players- young guys like Karrea Gilbert and Seb Larsson are going out on lengthy loans, and doing so after the team's been informed of all the various and sundry injury problems to hand like Phillipe Senderos' shoulder. The shopping list is also fairly clear: a ball-winning midfielder and some cover at center half. With Curtis Davis re-signing at West Brom, the only player Arsenal seem to be consistently linked with at the moment is...Yossi Benayoun. Who's nice and all, but is neither of the things most needed. Frankly, something smells here; either the team is in complete and total disarray behind the scenes, or as Arseblogger keeps half-sarcastically suggesting, they're playing their cards very close to the chest. Or there is the third possibility; that the team is in a financial straitjacket as a result of the stadium debt, and the return on sale of Cole will rapidly disappear into interest reduction. either way in a month or two we ought to know a great deal more about what Arsenal at the Emirates is likely to look like, and whether England's best new grounds will have a team worthy of their surroundings. The wisest thing would be for Arsenal to do what it takes to put a truly competitive team out there this year- as an investment in the product and a real push to move the team into the first class of European powers, which ought to at least partly pay for itself in all the usual ways (merch sales, etc.) The worry is that the club may believe that with the new stadium they can simply coast for a year or two, finishing 3rd or 4th in front of packed houses still admiring their surroundings

We'll see. But the thought of another season jousting with Spuds for 4th is not thrilling.

Normal service resuming- mind the gap

Right, I'm back, and like Barrington Levy and Philadelphia Flyers I'm broad, I'm broad, I'm broader than Broadway. Fact of the matter is that after getting through some real crap in my life I've realized I deeply miss writing about sports, and frankly I think my roommate is starting to be driven nuts by my constant analysis during the football and boxing. Best to get some of it out elsewhere, so here's how this works: I have not watched much baseball or basketball in a while and it's going to take a loooong time to get back to where I have anything useful to say about them, because both have such a wealth of statistical information to keep up on. I have, however, watched significantly more boxing and football/soccer than any person should of late (World Cup year! Yes, I'm the asshole who sat through all of Ukraine vs. Switzerland! It sucked!), so I have a great deal to say about those two, plus offseason moves in the NHL. For the near future what you'll get here is a lot of English football and boxing commentary, and the rest may come back as I start to figure out what the hell I'm talking about. Or not, who can say? Everytime I read about the Knicks I mostly want to cry, so it'll be a while before I have the heart to actually research and write about them.

More tomorrow, and perhaps that site redesign already. In the meantime, here's something I wrote about boxing recently:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ah, boxing.

I love this sport. It's venal, it's corrupt, it's stupid, it's violent, it's ridiculous, it's awful, and every so often it's the greatest thing on earth.

It's Mike Tyson gnawing off ears like the Brooklyn caveman that he is. It's Larry Merchant saying "this may be the end of Western Civilization as we know it" during Naseem Hamed's entrance for the Kevin Kelley fight, and it's the 6 knockdown in 4 or 5 rounds that followed. It's Meth and Red rapping Roy Jones to the ring, and it's Jones going down like someone removed his batteries against Antonio Tarver. It's angry old man Bernard Hopkins kicking people's asses far past his 40th birthday. It's Barrera/Hamed- "o rly? vs. ya rly: the boxing match", and it's Barrera slapping a half nelson on Hamed and banging him headfirst into the ringpost pro wrestling style. It's Hagler/Hearns- clash of the demigods. It's that completely unbelievable right hand Thomas Hearns annihilated living legend Roberto Duran with. It's the passion and glory and horror of Evander Holyfield's career. It's George Foreman's improbable comeback and heavyweight title win at age 45. It's Paul Williams, the 6'1, 147 pound southpaw who looks like he was assembled from random pages in a catalogue. It's that cutman no one knows the name of who always wears a ship's captain's hat in the corner, it's that other cutman who wears the Burger King crown and no one can say why. It's Barrera vs. Morales, it's Fan Man, it's the immortal Sugar Ray Robinson. It's James Toney and his eating disorder telling Don King to kiss his ass, he's going to Burger King (possibly with that cut man) after beating "Bodysnatcher" Mike McCallum.

It's the nicknames: Juan "The Hispanic Causin' Panic" Lezcano, Bodysnatcher McCallum, "Southern Disaster" Dominick Guinn, Sechew "The Iron Horse" Powell, "Hands of Stone" Roberto Duran, "Galaxy Warrior" Nate Campbell, Bonecrusher Smith, Stevie "Little But Bad" Johnson, Andrew "Six Heads" Lewis (no, there was no good explanation), Jean-Marc Momeck who held a poll of fans to give himself a nickname ("The Marksman" won), Almazbek Raiymkulov- "Kid Diamond". It's the Klitschko brothers and the doctorates they used to get into a business where you make money by being hit in the head a bunch. It's that time Hamed came to the ring on a flying carpet. It's Raymond Joval and that dyed-blond horizontal halo of hair he had when he fought Fernando Vargas. It's Arturo Gatti's entire career. It's Cory Spinks' baffling dance routine on the way to the ring, it's Leon Spinks' inexplicable win over Muhammed Ali, it's Michael Spinks the heavyweight champ. It's the Zab Judah Chicken Dance. It's Nicolay Valuev who looks like King Kong dipped in Nair. It's Diego Corrales vs. Jose Luis Castillo when it was great, and when it was a farce. It's Kostya Tszyu's Russia-to-Australia accent and his awe-inspiring power. It's Don King, Don King's hair, Don King's reputation, and Don King's manslaughter conviction. It's the bodyshot Roy Jones knocked Virgil Hill out with, still the best I've ever seen. It's Sithchatchawal vs. Monshipour, the best fight this year that no one's seen. It's the unified rules of the association of boxing commissions- JIM!!!

It's Arturo Gatti slipping and falling on his back, and then kipping up while wearing boxing gloves- during a fight. It's Ricardo "Finito" Lopez. It's the budybuilders in hoods with giant axes who used to follow Bernard Hopkins to the ring. It's Rocky Marciano retiring undefeated. It's all the spectacular fighters no one remembers these days, big names like Sam Langford and Henry Armstrong and smaller names, too small to even be recalled now. It's the unreprentant ethnic warfare of the sport, Ingerland vs. Mexico vs. Puerto Rico vs. the Irish vs. Jewish America vs. Italian Americans vs. African Americans vs. Africans vs. anyone else who shows up. It's the way cheating becomes an art form, until people call it "gamesmanship". It's the children of fighters becoming fighters, and Laila Ali maybe being the best of the current crop. It's the godawful beauty of watching a punch land so perfectly that the victim can be both unconscious and still standing all at once. It's Butterbean. It's people STILL booing Richard Steele 16 years after Chavez/Taylor. It's a Stadium Azteca crowd ripping their seats out en masse and filling the ring with them after a Chavez fight ended in a draw. It's Larry Merchant.

Boxing is the only sport unafraid to be as much of a ridiculous and glorious mess as the rest of life, and that's a huge part of why I love it. Baffling, insane things happen regularly; amazing, inspiring things do too. You never know week to week if tuning in for the fights will have you leaping from your seat in excitement or throwing things at the television or sitting there wondering why you have to sit through the same round 12 times, which is a lot like life as well. I love this goddamned sport in all its silliness and awfulness and wonder, because nothing else in athletics is quite so true. Stevie "Little But Bad" Johnston vs. "Vicious" Vivian Harris is on this weekend, and it all starts again. I can't wait.

(JIM!!!)

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Incidentally, I thought Harris looked the best he's looked in a long time in that fight. He used the left much more effectively than I recall him doing, frequently throwing a hook as a counter and doubling up with it, and generally looking less predictable. Stevie Johnston put in a gutty performance but was clearly overmatched, so it's a little hard to read too much into this about where Harris is at; nevertheless, it is encouraging. There's a huge amount of talent at 140-147 right now.

Arsenal turned down multiple 50 million pound bids for Henry

That's a lot of money. A loooooot of money. And while Arsenal certainly aren't now and may never be a club with the resources and size of Manchester United or Barca or the ridiculous institutional aid from outside the framework of the club proper of Real Madrid (municiple purchase of the training pitch) or Chelsea (who laugh at ever needing to make a profit), this does show and remind that they're a big enough club to compete for players on the highest level. When you can afford to tell Barca and Madrid to cram their 50 million because you're holding onto the world's best player, it says something about the financial health and heft of the club. There's been noises and talk here and there about the Gunners picking up one or two notable additions this offseason, and I'm ever more inclined to believe it- partly because I'm sure some sort of promises may have been made to Henry about team improvements if he elected to stay, and partly now because it's clear the club isn't exactly crippled by the Grove debt.

Further note

Conspiracy theory? In boxing, you can never say no for sure- if you follow the money, it all backs a Barrera win. It might be an innocent mistake and as it happens a narrow Barrera win fits my read of the fight, but...you wonder.

Note

Apparently, Barrera won on the cards by one point and the scores were added and read incorectly on air. It changes and matters little, but worth recalling. I think it's still fair, I had Barrera winning close.

Barrera DRAW Juarez

Well there you go, then- the rare draw which both guys are lucky to have. Juarez is lucky since Harold Lederman, me, my roommate, and probably most fans had Barrera winning close; Barrera is lucky because Juarez pushed him to his limit and if Juarez had either a second gear or some idea how to operate as a pressure fighter, he might have run Barrera out of there in the later rounds. As it is, the result resurrects Juarez's career in many respects, and allows Barrera to burnish his reputation as a fighting champion while preserving his career endgame against Pacquiao or Morales. What become most clear here is that at 32 after 66 career fights, it's about time for Barrera to head for that end game, since he's not likely to get past too many more of these competitive fights with divisional near-stars. Juarez probably wins a rematch with more experience against an older Barrera; Barrios wipes his ass with MAB just by being a much more dangerous and aggressive fighters; Juan Diaz and his ludicrous punch output are the older, slowing Barrera's worst nightmare. If Barrera can't track down Pac Man or Morales inside of a year, his future holds a loss in the manner of Morales-Raheem, except probably more devastating.

As for the fight itself, well- this is the difference between a great fighter and a very good one. Barrera, for all that his most famous bouts have been mostly brawls, is in tactical terms a near-genius of the sport. He uses distance, jabs effectively to create and maintain it, and moves and circles as well as anyone; when shit really goes down, he's still got the Mexican brawler style in him to switch to that dominated the early stages of his career. Juarez is very different. Technically, there's so much to love about him- tight compact punches, good power, effective work to the body, protects his head well despite a lack of movement, etc. etc. But if Barrera is the definition of a ring general, Juarez is a ring camp follower, not even a private. He's got fine natural ability and wonderful honed skills, but in ring terms he's just kinda stupid. Doesn't recognize openings, doesn't let his hands go when he can, never adjusts to an opponent in any way- he fought Barrera the same way he's fought generic nobodies, the same way he fought Zahir Raheem, the same way he fought Humberto Soto. It's a damn good fight he has, but if that's all he has- no second gear, no change of plans, no ability to adjust- then for the next ten years or however long, his career will be defined by matchmaking as much or more than by fighting. Personally, I think he needs a new trainer in the worst way.

Juarez had several punches open to him tonight which he rarely used. Right uppercut, left to the body (especially close during clinches). In general, he ought to have let his hands go more- nothing Barrera was throwing back was going to hurt him much, and he was clearly hurting and wearing Barrera down. Had he thrown more to the body early and the head late and consistently pressured Barrera in the style of a Hatton, Margarito or Juan Diaz, he wins this fight. MAB remains excellent but his excellence now is the excellence of a 32 year old fighter nearing the 70 bouts mark- he's still got the fire, the desire and the second gear, but he fights ever more in brief spurts, relies on his motion and technical skills, and can't physically match up with younger, stronger, faster fighters. Juarez is no Pacquiao, has a totally different set of skills; but he's a 26 year old powerful skilled body puncher who got a draw in LA fighting like an idiot. With a decent game plan he wins this.

So from here, if MAB is honest with himself, it's cash out time. He narrowly avoided a loss tonight that would have upset all his promotional plans, and it's probably best both for his wallet, his career, and his future mental health to grab that huge bout now and get while the getting's good. Morales IV, Pacquiao II, it almost doesn't matter; he stands a better chance of beating Morales again, but the money for Pac is probably better. Either way, his next bout should be his last. For Juarez...who can say? A draw with MAB is a huge career boost, and he's instantly a going concern and player at 130. I'd watch him against anyone, though I think he desperately needs a new trainer, someone to light a fire under him and teach him how to be a fighter and not just a boxer. Still, he's got options- he should, at the least, try and keep himself in the public eye with at least another HBO date.

Is it nuts to hope for Juarez-Barrios?

Tonight's fight

There's a chance, and probably a pretty good one, that I'll look like an asshole on this- but I give Rocky Juarez an even odds chance against Marco Antonio Barrera tonight. Barrera is clearly the favorite in skill level and the conventional read of the fight is Barrera using jabs and body shots to pick Juarez apart from long distance. Fair enough; but I've always liked Rocky's power, and I can see a scenario where if he can get into Barrera's chest, he can ring him up and put him down, and then it becomes a different sort of fight. Juarez had some trouble getting inside agaisnt Humberto Soto and he may have learned nothing from the experience- but he's always seemed a smart and motivated kid, and I'm betting he's learned something from his biggest loss that he can use in his biggest opportunity. The pick is Barrera; but if Rocky startches him in the 10th, don't say you weren't warned.

Quick thoughts

- Columns such as this baffle me. When you interview a top player on the pitch in his kit right after the final whhistle of a Europen final which by general admission of all concerned including the referee himself was badly officiated, what on earth do you expect to hear? By the sites I've read, I tend to be in tune with the general mood of Arsenal fans- the game was incompetently officiented but not in a biased manner, which Barcelona supporters would probably agree with. Is it a surprise that both teams probably thought they were hard done by under such circumstances, and thought they were getting the worse end of things? Is it a surprise that the losing team will be more vocal about it? If Arsenal, Arsene and Henry are STILL bitching about it this time next year like Mourinho about the goal Liverpool scored in the semi-final last year, then I'll join in and ask them all to shut it up already. But when the game is played on a Wednesday and the comments made shortly thereafter, Friday seems a little quick to suggest that it's "...long past time for north London voices to quieten down..."

That the above quote finishes with "....except, perhaps, for Tottenham voices, their owners clad in Barcelona shirts" says much. When it's more acceptable for fans of one club to cheer the loss of another in a game which has no bearing on them then for fans and players of a losing club to be put out for one day by a manifestly awful officiating job, there's something off in the general judgment. Let Spurs fans cheer the arrival of Dimitar Berbatov and tend their own yards, and columnists stop writing columns devoted to adhering to a standard of "sportsmanship" which largely amounts to protecting the incompetent.

- I'll really believe it when I see the press conference, but word is- Henry's staying. The best gift a fan could hope for, as Arsenal go into the offseason retaining their talisman, the world's best player, and the player who incidentally made me fall in love with this sport. Arsenal's year was always labled rightly a "transitional" one as Patrick Viera left and was replaced with not much (Cesc is marvelous, but Cesc was here already and is a very different sort of player), and next year is likely to be similar- Highbury yields to the Grove, Pires is probably out though not certainly, and Dennis Bergkamp retires. Ashley Cole may yet leave, Sol's future remains uncertain. What kind of changes Arsenal fully intend to make, what kind will be forced on them by other decisions, how much the Champions League run helped financial matters, what the transfer kitty is in practice, how well Abou Diaby recovers, all these and more remain in the questions-to-be-answered pile; having Henry around not only removes the biggest questions hanging over the team but it ensures that the team still knows who they're building around, what the general form of the team is (next year's club will probably look fairly similar to this year's), and allows them to concentrate on tweaking and improving rather than wholesale reinvention. Henry is the world's best player and on that alone the team is incredibly fortunate to retain him, but even more so his presence allows them to figure out where they're going with every other move they make.

- I'll probably be doing heated rumor-discussion all summer, but an initial shopping list for Arsenal has to focus on the midfield. The forwards situation will be interesting since RVP remains very streaky and Adebayor is still finding his feet (frequently in a literal sense), but that can be adressed in January if it comes to that especially since the 4-5-1 appears to work so well in Europe. If a new striker is cup-tied then, it doen't matter so much. The defense is largely sown up barring departures, with all sorts of depth and competition for places. As odd as it sounds, if possible I'd love to retain all three of Sol, Lauren and Cole. Flamini and Eboue both on at the back scares me over the long term as disciplinary risks, and it'd be nice to move Flam back to the midfield on occassion which would shorten the shopping list there. Clichy does not convince me yet. Cole, if healthy, is the #1; how often he'll be healthy is the question. Flamini and he also give very different looks- as do Lauren and Eboue. I love Double E as an attacking fullback, but he's undisciplined and young, prone to ugly challenges and mistakes in attack that experience will iron out of him- most look like errors in reading the situation, attempts to do too much, etc. One more year of balance with Lauren seems useful. We'll know more about Sol after the World Cup perhaps, but he looked much stronger Wednesday than at any time since his return and with so many other instrumental members of the old guard leaving it may be wise to keep him. That depends on his mental and physical wellbeing however, and is really a manager's decision not subject to much second-guessing.

Which leaves the midfield. Using Flamini more there as a physical compliment to Gilberto will help, but ultimately there remains a bit of a void. Ljungberg was massive down the stretch, Hleb came on as the season rogressed, Reyes remains solid if impossible to root for, Pires probably has one more reasonable year in him, nd Fabregas is one of the world's best young players- but none of them is a physical ball-winning tackle-making midfielder, and it shows. Part of why Arsenal's 4-5-1 worked so well in Europe I thought was that it allowed them to dominate the middle of the park without that kind of big physical defensive stalwart especially against European clubs playing various different styles. So much for the good; but anyone who watched Arsenal lose the ball over and over and get nothing going forward against Blackburn, Bolton and such likes has to recognize that to perform effectively domestically and away, they have to be able to switch gears and play the slogging physical English style at times. Wenger seemed to realize this with his play for Julio Baptista last year, and the need remains this year. I love Flamini, but I don't think he's the answer.

- And finally, Drogba wants out. Well I'm just shocked, Droggy- you admit to diving and intentional handball just one time in an interview and then immediately deny what you'd just said, then dive over and over in remarkably obvious fashion like Superman suffering repeated power failures all while playing for the most hated team in England, and the people just won't leave you alone? Man, my heart weeps bitter tears, man. It's so rough out there.

Off to Italy where you belong, you whinging, cheating sack of useless- to a league with so much tumbling and corruption it might as well be judged like Olympic gymnastics. I'm sure you'll get a ten from the Russian judge. Prick.

Barcelona 2-1 Arsenal

I'm far too gutted to say anything serious right now, but shall make a run at writing something substantial later. For now, first to say- fair play to Barca, they're a marvelous team which played beautifully and earned their cup. Secondly, a round of applause for the Arsenal side- under the hardest of circumstances after the early red they gave it a great run and nearly pulled it off. If nothing else there's that to take away from this game, that this Arsenal side is one you can be proud to root for, respect the effort of, love for the way they play. At their best they can be inspiring, this time even with their effort in defeat. I'd rather support a team of hard-working young players who give maximum effort than any of the alternatives anyday. Chelsea can have their mercenaries and United their arrogance.

Arsenal can go home with heads held high- they gave the best club in Europe all they wanted and came within a hairsbreadth of winning it all in their first Champions League final. They've secured Champions League play next year, and can take that next step. Yes, sometimes, sports are a metaphor for life; and if nothing else, this Arsenal team reminds you that you can take the hardest shots in life and go through the hardest times, and keep fighting- and win or lose there's honor and beauty in the fighting. Through all the injuries all year they kept fighting, against huge name clubs much larger than them, and finally against that early red- and even if they fell short at the end, the heart they showed to take it 75 minutes is what we watch sports to see. Good show, lads- we'll win it all next year.

Come on Gunners!

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General thoughts on the game in bullet point form, because I'm too tired for more:

- Henrik Larsson was the difference. He turned Barca's offense up three gears when he came on with his passing, especially against a tired 10 men for Arsenal.

- Part of why he was the difference was because Ronaldinho was terrible. Just terrible. Not just "bad for him", but actively bad as a footballer. He's an amazing player, but he's no Thierry Henry. Henry didn't have his best night tonight, but he didn't miskick over and over, botch free kicks into the wall, and dive repeatedly the way Ronnie did. Credit to Barca as a team that they won around their best player being awful.

- The refereeing was abominable. Incredibly inconsistent, seemingly random calls came out of nowhere with nasty fouls drawing no reactions and dives for both teams drawing calls. Chelsea supporters will no doubt agree given this same ref's performance for their tie against Barca. Frankly, it's just astounding how someone this bad can get repeated assignments at the highest level of club play. If he were Italian I'd be wondering about a replay.

- About the red card- yes, Jens deserved to be off for his challenge. But why on earth was advantage not played? Jens' tackle didn't stop a scoring opportunity/certain goal for Barca, only the ref's whistle did. He allows play to continue and it's 1-0 Barca on a fairly earned goal and we have 70 odd minutes of 11-11 football still to go. The red card was technically correct probably, but it represents a self-important official pointlessly imposing himself on the situation to completely change a game, instead of allowing the natural course of play to see justice done- which it clearly would have been since Barca had 2 players in on Lehmann, who stuffed the ball home immediately after his challenge.

- People will begin writing now about a Barca dynasty, and you can understand why given how they played today and have all year. But why on earth are they going after Thierry Henry? Yes, he's amazing, but Barca just won the big Cup with one of their three big offensive guns, Messi, missing most of the last stages of play. Why on earth are they going after another forward when they clearly need a lot more help on defense and in goal (witness Sol's header, totally unmarked)? They're great, but may not stay that way forever if they overplay their hand to attack.

- 'Nuff respect to Manuel Almunia. Te second goal he conceded was weak, but he was brilliant before that and did all that could have been hoped for from a reserve brought in on an emergency basis.

- I've called Lehmann a barking mad bag of monkeys before, and he is, but the sending off was not his fault. It's one of the very few times Arsenal's defense has been well and truly shredded this year, and he did what he had to.

- Sol Campbell went a long way towards redeeming himself. He was solid in defense, and his goal nearly won it.

There'll be much more to say about this, but that's all for now. Finals are over for me, so it's back to writing regularly- much to be said about the World Cup and boxing upcoming.

That day

With finals and such over I shall return to writing again now, starting later today- after the Champions League finals. 2:30 start ET, Arsenal vs. Barcelona.

Come on you Gunners!