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Now that everything important has taken place, thought it would be a good time to dole out some awards -- good and bad -- for 2006. Some of my awards are typical, some are unique. They're all juicy:
Hypocrite of the Year: Diego Corrales
This was probably the easiest pick to make. When Jose Luis Castillo weighed 139½ for what was supposed to be a third 135-pound fight with Corrales in June, the fight was canceled and a lot of people lost a lot of money. Corrales went off verbally on Castillo and his promoter (Bob Arum) for letting it happen. He said he loved his sport too much to ever do anything like that. Corrales also ripped the Nevada State Athletic Commission for being too soft in its punishment of Castillo, who was given the maximum fine of $250,000 and suspended the rest of the year.
So what did Corrales do? He weighed in at 139½ for his fight against Joel Casamayor in October -- the same 4½ pounds Castillo was over. Corrales lost his World Boxing Council lightweight belt on the scales. Asked the day of that weigh-in if he felt like a hypocrite for doing exactly what Castillo did in every way, Corrales said "No." He said that as long he was willing to accept his punishment, he didn't need to feel like a hypocrite. Wow!
It doesn't matter that after his loss to Casamayor the next night, he said he did feel like a hypocrite. By that time, he was smart enough to do some damage control. As far as I'm concerned, what Corrales said to me just after his embarrassing failed weigh-in is how he really felt.
Bush League Move of the Year
(Courtesy of the World Boxing Hall of Fame)
This organization just doesn't get it. It isn't enough that it has inducted scores of unworthy folks -- lightweight Joey Barnum and referee Gwen Adair are in it -- the World Boxing Hall of Fame really crossed the line when it had a Howard Cosell impersonator be emcee at its annual induction banquet in October.
Mind you, this wannabe comedian was doing most of the inducting. This is supposed to be a serious event, where people being enshrined into the Hall feel honored. A Howard Cosell impersonator? And he didn't even play it straight.
This banquet was so long, so drawn out, that I could not bear it and left before the fighters were inducted. But a good source told me that this Cosell dude made a "no mas" reference when he was introducing Roberto Duran.
Can you imagine that? Something tells me that's not going to happen when Duran is inducted into the very real International Boxing Hall of Fame next June in Canastota, N.Y.
Incidentally, the World Boxing Hall of Fame has been around longer than the International Boxing Hall of Fame, yet has no museum. The International Boxing Hall of Fame, of course, does.
Comeback Fighter of the Year: Oscar De La Hoya
The Golden Boy, who by the way stole his nickname from the original -- Art Aragon -- took one year, eight months off following his ninth-round knockout loss to Bernard Hopkins in September 2004.
De La Hoya signed to fight Ricardo Mayorga for his World Boxing Council super welterweight belt in May. During the promotion, Mayorga talked more trash than even Fernando Vargas did before he was knocked out by De La Hoya in September 2002.
Although Mayorga had been stopped in the eighth round by Felix Trinidad Jr. in October 2004, he has a very good chin. Most experts figured De La Hoya would just outbox and frustrate the awkward champion and come away with a decision. Some thought Mayorga would win.
Instead, De La Hoya took the fight to Mayorga. He decked him once in the first round and twice more in the sixth before stopping Mayorga at 1:25 of the round.
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