QUICK STOPS HIGHLIGHT HBO'S FINAL SHOW OF '98


TUA GETS CALL OVER RAHMAN

Having never been a fan of Hasim Rahman, his performance last night on HBO against David Tua did little to change my mind. While my scorecard had Rahman, now 29-1, (24 KO's) ahead by three, it was a performance that did not live up to the pre fight hype.

MERCHANT OVERSTATED" IMPORTANCE

Yeah, it was a major fight pitting two "prime" heavyweights against each other, but it wasn't the most important fight of the year as Larry claimed during his HBO lead in.

BUCK$

The only reason this fight was made was because HBO was willing to pay for it. It wasn't that either man decided that they wanted to put it all on the line.

THE STOP

Yeah, it was terrible. But, not because of the timing. It was the ruling that referee Telis Assimenios made. Instead of ruling Rahman was "down" when he was using the second, third, and fourth ropes as a reclining chair, and instituting a count, the referee instead stopped the fight.

LENNOX-OLIVER I

Remember all the bitching Lennox Lewis did after the referee stopped his first bout with Oliver McCall? Well, even if you find fault with the time of the stop, remember Lennox's legs after the contest was halted? Well, watch Rahman as he attempts to go after the referee after he stopped it. His legs were doing funny things.

REF TOLD THEM BOTH

Telis told them both in the dressing rooms before hand that if they were hurt, that they might want to go down to one knee because "there's no standing eight count."

Add that to Rock's hat dance afterwards, and his reclining position, and the ref's stop wasn't all that bad. Rahman falls to 29-1, (24 KO's), while Tua, behind on all three cards BIG, ascends to 34-1, (27 KO's).

IBF TITLE ELIMINATOR

That's what it was billed as. And it was definitely a step up in class for the #1 IBF ranking that has been held by the esteemed Vaughn "No Pork 'N" Bean (He's a Muslim). And not for one mandatory challenge, but (groan) two!

MANDATORY REMATCH COMING

President Bob Lee will hear the screaming for the match Monday morning in the New Jersey offices of the IBF.  And by the end of the business day, expect a rematch to be made.

ROCK CAN'T GO ROUTE, AND TUA NO LONGER "A KILLER"

Although the HBO crew thought Rahman was the second coming of Christ, he isn't. Slow, methodical, robotic, are all tags that you could put around his neck. And as for stamina, Hasim is not what one would call a "distance" fighter.

Tua is no longer the Samoan wrecking ball that he was 16 months ago.

LAS VEGAS BOOKS GET BEAT UP BAD

Everybody bet Floyd Mayweather as the odds had climbed as high as 4-1, favoring Floyd come fight time. And it was just last week when Fernando Vargas had all the cash bet come his way, thus the Nevada legalized bookies took a shellacking two weeks in a row.

In the Tua-Rahman scrap, Hasim was favored at fight time by a 7-5 margin.

MAYWEATHER, WORLD CHAMPION AT 130 LBS.

There are guys who hold titles and think that they are world champions, when in fact they are not. They got nice shiny belts, but most of these men are not the best in their particular weight class.

Last night, Floyd Mayweather, already the WBC champion did a quick number on Angel Manfredy, to become the world champion 130 lbs.

After rocking Angel in the first round, (who I think came into the fight too relaxed) Floyd was all over him some sharp shooting power shots that would prompt the referee to call at halt to matter just 13 seconds into round number two.

DIDN'T START SCREAMING UNTIL

Until his head cleared. Manfredy got rocked by a kid who I didn't think could punch much. And Angel asked for the ref's intervention when he wasn't throwing, just catching.

ANOTHER GAFF?

I thought the ropes had held Manfredy up at one point, thus yet another error by a Florida referee was noted as it should have been a knockdown. Floyd 19-0, (15 whacks) and Manfredy is no 25-3-1, (19 stops).

CHRISTY BEATEN BAD

Yes, it was I who said last week that Christy Martin in so tough, that she was going to get creamed by Sumya Anani on the United States Satellite Broadcasting card emanating from Florida on Friday night.

And when it was over, Martin was a battered majority decision loser (one jurist had it a draw). The Coal Miner's Daughter as she was billed, stayed around about three minutes too long. In other words, Christy wasted most of the time on the clock trying to out think Don King.

DON'T PISS DON OFF

Because anybody (except Shane Mosley) can be beat. And one has to remember that Martin has embarrassed the Don on a  number of occasions. There was the presence of Martin and her husband/manager/trainer in the offices of more than one of King's rivals, while she was still under contract to the Don. And on more than one occasion.

BIG CONTRACT

Martin got a contract that was FAT for any fighter, and a record for chicks. BUT there was the battle of nerve before resigning with King that pulled Martin off the Holyfield-Moorer card in November of 1997.

Eight months later, she was on the aborted Holyfield-Akinwande car which was canceled at the weigh in when Henry tested positive for Hepatitis. It was in between the second Holyfield-Tyson and Friday night that Martin grew old, fat, soft, and more debilitating than the three, she lost her zeal for the sport.

GIVE KING PROPS

The squares say Christy's a great fighter, a star. Wrong! Christy Martin was a product of Don King's promotional guile. But like Dr. Frankenstein, Don watched his creation become a monster.

Christy was a good little fighter who wore down the usually outclassed opposition King fed her down by being in great condition. But because she had a style that was easy to beat, Martin needed to keep fighting the hobo-ess'.

Just like some men, when she was left "unprotected" by the promoter and put in a real fight, Christy couldn't cut the mustard. Martin is now 38-2-1 Anani is now 13-0.

RIJKER MANAGER TURNS 67

I talked to Lucia Rijker's manager Huffin' Stan Hoffman yesterday in an attempt to get Lucia to appear on Ring talk and discuss Martin's loss. But she was on vacation in Holland, thus besides wishing Stan a happy 67th birthday, we talked about what Martin-Rijker would of meant.

$750 GRAND EACH!

That's what was offered the pair earlier this year. But Martin said no. And using a host of excuses, including that Lucia was a she-male on steroids, Martin said she would never fight Rijker.

WHAT WOULD IT TAKE?

Then I put her on the spot on Ring Talk. "If they put $750,000 on the table as their first offer, it'll go up. Besides, I'm not giving parity to Lucia. If they gave me $1.2 million, my name would be on the contract in a minute."

HOFFMAN GETS LUCIA EASY $25 K

The promoter wanted Lucia's name on a contract to fight Martin so bad that he gave her a no strings attached $25,000. If the fight didn't come off, she could keep the cash. Hoffman gave the lady phenom the entire bonus.

RIJKER MADE ALMOST QUARTER MILLION

For the year, Lucia grossed $225 K, something heavyweight prospects don't make in a year.

SHE'S A FREE AGENT

"If King wants to make Lucia his new star, I'm willing to listen to him talk money," said Hoffman.

LAMBECK CELEBRATES MARTIN LOSS

There is No Merit to the rumor that Oddsmaker Herb Lambeck celebrated Christy Martin's trouncing by spending time in a Japanese massage studio getting a full body massage. "I'm glad she got beat. $150,000 and a great champion like Ricardo Lopez makes $50 grand? Come on, what a joke. I hate women's boxing Pedro."

MGM LOOKING FOR SECURITY

Lambeck went on to say., "I hear the MGM is hiring NBA players to act as security during Tyson fights. So they help pick up the chips on the floor when they turn over a table."

POST "BITE" RIOT

Herb was referring to the story I broke last year that Shaq O'Neal, Dominique Wilkins, and Eldon Campbell, all reached restitution agreements with the hotel that prevented their being charged criminally.

In all, five former and current NBA players were caught stuffing gambling chips in their pockets on video tape.

LAMBECK CHIDES ME FOR BUTTERBEAN-SHAQ

"You better stop. People are going to think you're shilling for Arum. Announcing that possible fight, it's a joke Pedro."

I still think Shaq is seriously considering the match, but he wants more than the $2 million Top Rank promoter Bob Arum has offered his agent Leonard Armato.

What Herb doesn't realize is that I am doing new. Now, Shaq and Butterbean maybe a joke in a lot of people's minds, but they're news.

WOODS CHECKS IN ON WEIGHT GATE AND SCORING ATROCITY

Eddie Woods is the manager of lightweight Ivan Robinson, the feisty Philadelphian who beat former HBO poster boy Arturo Gatti last week for the second consecutive time.

THE WEIGHT

"Ivan was about 135, 135 1/2 before we came down. I was surprised he weighed that light. I can see your point now." This was after I pointed out that Fernando Vargas and Yory Boy Campas both expected to be around 154, only to have the two scale identically at three pounds under or 151.

LETTER TO MAYOR MC CHEESE

"I'm going to send a letter to (New Jersey boxing furor) Larry Hazard about the two judges. 95-94, they were trying to take it from Ivan. Most people think it was 7-3 in rounds. or 97-93 on points. Some feel that Ivan may have deserved one or two, 10-8 rounds."

IVAN IN CANCUN

Robinson is relaxing in Cancun, Mexico and returns to Philly on Tuesday. Ivan will be a guest next Saturday night on Ring Talk, with the aforementioned Fernando Vargas, and Michael Grant.

QUIET ON THE FOREMAN-HOLMES FRONT

There hasn't been much publicity of late about the George Foreman-Larry Holmes fight set for January 23, on Pay Per View. My Houston source says Roger Levitt has to come up with an additional $13 or so million by the 23rd" while Levitt says everything is already paid Hmmmmmmm.


Pedro Fernandez

The writer has his own site at www.fighters.com    This is in addition to being a syndicated talk show host with the Talk America Radio Network(s). He can be reached by electronic mail at flash@inow.com

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