Jacqui Snow's "K.O.'s"

Tuesday Report By "K.O." Jacqui Snow

Before I start this week's column, I'd like to offer an explanation to those who wrote me asking why I didn't review last Saturday's fight between Juan Manuel Marquez and Marco Antonio Barrera. I'll start with a confession of sorts. A few years ago, I made a special cable that allowed me to connect my computer's printer port to my satellite receiver's access card.  I'd program my card to "purchase" pay-per-view boxing matches (and Spice Network for my husband!) and it didn't cost me a cent. Back then, I never missed a fight, but now that sadly I have to cough up like everybody else, I think twice before ordering a PPV, especially after HBO stole fifty bucks from me for the Baldomir/Mayweather snoozer. This  time, with what I thought was the wisdom that comes from experience, I concluded that the Marquez/Barrera matchup might have been deserving of a $50 price tag five years ago, but not any more.

Now that I've seen it, though, I have to concede that the fans who were willing to pay for the privilege of viewing it live did get their money's worth--it was an entertaining fight. At this stage, a week later, there's no point going into a blow by blow postmortem, so I'll just place it on record that, in my opinion, yes, Marquez did do enough to win, although judge Doug Tucker's 118-109 scorecard is pretty hard to fathom. It was nice to see Barrera return to the brawling style that made him such a legend. Marquez, for his part, showed why he's one of the best, most avoided featherweights in the game and his performance warrants a return to the ranks of the ten best boxers, pound for pound. Bring on the rematch!

Following the rebroadcast of that fight, we were treated to coverage of Mikkel Kessler's WBA/WBC title defense against Mexican Librado Andrade, who went into the bout undefeated with 18 knockouts in 24 fights. Since this one was tape-delayed, you pretty much had to stay off the internet for the whole afternoon to avoid all the spoilers. Kessler's a big star in Denmark, although he's not too familiar to Americans because none of his fights have been televised here in their entirety. Still, HBO had been showing the highlight reel of Kessler's brutal third-round knockout of WBC beltholder Markus Beyer.

Kessler's choice of opponent for his HBO debut was a risky one--Andrade and his brother, Enrique Ornelas, are collectively nicknamed "Bash Brothers" due to their strength and knockout power. We knew Kessler could deliver shock and awe, based on the devastating power-punch combination that knocked out Beyer, but on Saturday we learned that the Dane can box, too. Kessler's hands are very quick, particularly when throwing his trademark left-right combinations, and he effectively used his head and body movement to minimize the effect of Andrade's punches, making it hard for him to land cleanly. Andrade may be a tough opponent, but he was simply outclassed by Mikkel Kessler, who scored a well-deserved 12-round shutout on all three judges' scorecards. His record improves to 39-0 (29 KOs).

Before agreeing to fight Andrade, Kessler had challenged WBO/IBF titlist Joe Calzaghe to a unification bout, but Calzaghe claimed that Kessler wasn't sufficiently well-known and chose instead to fight Contender series runner-up Peter Manfredo. Kessler jeered at Calzaghe's decision and has been taunting the Welsh fighter for his resume, saying it shows a lack of talent. Following Kessler's most recent performance it's going to be difficult for Calzaghe to continue to avoid meeting him in the ring.


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