Mosley-Vargas in the drink
Now that?s what I call a sticky situation.
?Sugar? Shane Mosley doesn?t find anything sweet about this little piece of irony. Mosley has a big pay-per-view fight on HBO this Saturday night in Las Vegas against Fernando Vargas, the man Mosley beat by TKO in the 10th round last February. But Vargas is going to have something new in his corner for the rematch: sugar. Nevada?s State Athletic Commission passed a series of rules changes Wednesday, including allowing boxers to consume sports drinks in between rounds. Vargas will be drinking Gatorade Saturday night; Mosley is staying with the usual water bottle.
This is bad news for Mosley, who goes into the bout as a ?180 favorite to Vargas? +150 odds. His promoter for this fight, noted boxer Oscar De La Hoya, has lodged a formal complaint to the Commission. ?You have that sports drink in the corner, it spills all over the fighter or it gets on the gloves. It?s sticky, it can get in the opponent?s eyes,? De La Hoya told reporters. ?It actually makes it dangerous because Gatorade actually gives you energy and it enhances your performance.?
Those are ?actually? two unrelated issues, but De La Hoya?s concerns are justified. Gatorade has a number of different sports drinks on the market. Their familiar line of Thirst Quencher beverages contains 14 grams of sugar per eight-ounce cup. Anyone who has been to a movie theater and stepped in a puddle of spilt soda pop knows how sticky those sugar-water drinks get after a while. Now imagine that stuff on Vargas? gloves, and then in Mosley?s eyes.
More importantly, Vargas is going to be consuming about 50 calories per cup of Gatorade that he drinks, and it?s in the form of sucrose, glucose and fructose. The folks at Gatorade say their beverage is absorbed more quickly into the bloodstream than any other. Should the fight get into the later rounds (the over/under in this 12-round fight is 11 ?), Vargas is going to have the extra energy to keep punching. Mosley, drinking water, is not.
The Commission can?t be faulted for its ruling. Mosley has every opportunity to drink the same beverage that Vargas will be consuming Saturday night. The fact that a foreign substance is being introduced to the ring may prove to be problematic, but that can be addressed later on should it indeed become an issue. The rule change is part of a package meant to protect all boxers in Nevada, including Mosley and Vargas. Another change that will be implemented Saturday will see three doctors at ringside instead of two.
Before the Gatorade variable came into play, it looked like Vargas was staring at the last relevant fight as a professional. His promising career seemed to hit a major speed bump in 2002 when he lost the light middleweight title to De La Hoya. It was just the second loss of his career, the first being to Felix Trinidad in 2000. Vargas blamed back stiffness for his De La Hoya defeat; one year later, he came up with a bulging disc after a fight against Tony Marshall. He wouldn?t return to the ring for nearly 16 months.
Vargas has tended to tire in the later rounds of his matches ever since. Last February, he got caught above the left eye in the first round with a powerful Mosley right, and although the bigger Vargas seemed to dictate the pace of the fight in the middle rounds, Mosley eventually got in enough shots over Vargas? eye to swell it shut and force referee Joe Cortez to stop the fight in the tenth. A more refreshed version of Vargas may have avoided a stoppage and won that encounter.
Mosley is already unhappy about having to face Vargas again. Plans for a big-money fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. were put on the shelf temporarily because of bad timing ? Mosley would need to drop a weight class too quickly for his liking, although he is more of a natural welterweight. Vargas lobbied hard for this rematch, claiming that it was a first-round head butt and not a stiff right that caused the eye to start swelling. The videotape tells a different story, although the two combatants did butt heads on several occasions.
Now Mosley has to get through Vargas if he wants a chance at an even bigger payday. He won?t have any Gatorade in his corner; the best he can do to counter that advantage (besides swallowing his pride, and then his own energy drink) is try to serve Vargas another cool, frosty right hand to the face. Better make it a double.
---Perry
BetWWTS.com
Now that?s what I call a sticky situation.
?Sugar? Shane Mosley doesn?t find anything sweet about this little piece of irony. Mosley has a big pay-per-view fight on HBO this Saturday night in Las Vegas against Fernando Vargas, the man Mosley beat by TKO in the 10th round last February. But Vargas is going to have something new in his corner for the rematch: sugar. Nevada?s State Athletic Commission passed a series of rules changes Wednesday, including allowing boxers to consume sports drinks in between rounds. Vargas will be drinking Gatorade Saturday night; Mosley is staying with the usual water bottle.
This is bad news for Mosley, who goes into the bout as a ?180 favorite to Vargas? +150 odds. His promoter for this fight, noted boxer Oscar De La Hoya, has lodged a formal complaint to the Commission. ?You have that sports drink in the corner, it spills all over the fighter or it gets on the gloves. It?s sticky, it can get in the opponent?s eyes,? De La Hoya told reporters. ?It actually makes it dangerous because Gatorade actually gives you energy and it enhances your performance.?
Those are ?actually? two unrelated issues, but De La Hoya?s concerns are justified. Gatorade has a number of different sports drinks on the market. Their familiar line of Thirst Quencher beverages contains 14 grams of sugar per eight-ounce cup. Anyone who has been to a movie theater and stepped in a puddle of spilt soda pop knows how sticky those sugar-water drinks get after a while. Now imagine that stuff on Vargas? gloves, and then in Mosley?s eyes.
More importantly, Vargas is going to be consuming about 50 calories per cup of Gatorade that he drinks, and it?s in the form of sucrose, glucose and fructose. The folks at Gatorade say their beverage is absorbed more quickly into the bloodstream than any other. Should the fight get into the later rounds (the over/under in this 12-round fight is 11 ?), Vargas is going to have the extra energy to keep punching. Mosley, drinking water, is not.
The Commission can?t be faulted for its ruling. Mosley has every opportunity to drink the same beverage that Vargas will be consuming Saturday night. The fact that a foreign substance is being introduced to the ring may prove to be problematic, but that can be addressed later on should it indeed become an issue. The rule change is part of a package meant to protect all boxers in Nevada, including Mosley and Vargas. Another change that will be implemented Saturday will see three doctors at ringside instead of two.
Before the Gatorade variable came into play, it looked like Vargas was staring at the last relevant fight as a professional. His promising career seemed to hit a major speed bump in 2002 when he lost the light middleweight title to De La Hoya. It was just the second loss of his career, the first being to Felix Trinidad in 2000. Vargas blamed back stiffness for his De La Hoya defeat; one year later, he came up with a bulging disc after a fight against Tony Marshall. He wouldn?t return to the ring for nearly 16 months.
Vargas has tended to tire in the later rounds of his matches ever since. Last February, he got caught above the left eye in the first round with a powerful Mosley right, and although the bigger Vargas seemed to dictate the pace of the fight in the middle rounds, Mosley eventually got in enough shots over Vargas? eye to swell it shut and force referee Joe Cortez to stop the fight in the tenth. A more refreshed version of Vargas may have avoided a stoppage and won that encounter.
Mosley is already unhappy about having to face Vargas again. Plans for a big-money fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. were put on the shelf temporarily because of bad timing ? Mosley would need to drop a weight class too quickly for his liking, although he is more of a natural welterweight. Vargas lobbied hard for this rematch, claiming that it was a first-round head butt and not a stiff right that caused the eye to start swelling. The videotape tells a different story, although the two combatants did butt heads on several occasions.
Now Mosley has to get through Vargas if he wants a chance at an even bigger payday. He won?t have any Gatorade in his corner; the best he can do to counter that advantage (besides swallowing his pride, and then his own energy drink) is try to serve Vargas another cool, frosty right hand to the face. Better make it a double.
---Perry
BetWWTS.com
