<<Home Niagara Falls Reporter Archive>>

BOXING WORLD KEEPS TURNING WHILE SUSPENSION KEEPS MESI SIDELINED

By David Staba

It only seems like boxing's clock stopped after a groggy Joe Mesi last raised his hand in victory more than six months ago.

The unbeaten Tonawanda heavyweight escaped with a one-point win despite getting dropped three times in the final two rounds by Vassiliy Jirov on March 13. Since then, what had been perhaps the hottest, fastest-rising star in the pugilistic sky has not only cooled, but for the moment at least, disappeared from view altogether.


JUMP TO STORY:
Taxpayers Sue
Hudson
Gallagher
Hanchette: Mt. Views
Staba: Citycide
Bradberry: Menagerie
Local History
Book Review
Theater
Boxing
Letters

You still see and hear him around Western New York -- appearing at charity fund-raisers, starring in sausage commercials and occasionally vowing to return to the ring, despite his ongoing suspension by the Nevada State Athletic Commission.

Mesi and his father and manager, Jack, have repeatedly promised to appeal the suspension, which kicked in after the Mesi camp blamed the horrific beating Jirov handed out in the 10th and final round on a concussion sustained after an unpenalized rabbit punch in the ninth.

While they prepare that appeal -- which would essentially require the commission or a court to overturn a policy forbidding fighters who have suffered a subdural hematoma, or bleeding brain, from ever fighting again -- the rest of the boxing world has moved on without them.

The most recent issue of "The Ring" magazine -- known as "The Bible of Boxing" for nearly a century -- hit the stands last week. It included the publication's annual ranking of the 100 best fighters in the world, regardless of weight class.

Mesi wasn't included. That wasn't particularly shocking, as only five full-time heavyweights made the cut -- James Toney (11), Vitali Klitschko (26), Chris Byrd (34), John Ruiz (58), and Hasim Rahman (89).

Since Klitschko, Byrd and Ruiz hold the three major title belts, Toney has continually proven himself one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world over the last decade and Rahman might be the most overrated heavy of his generation, it's not a shock that Mesi didn't make the list.

But one paragraph on a page explaining changes in the magazine's monthly rankings, widely considered the most comprehensive and objective in the world, indicates that he wasn't even considered.

"Joe Mesi (10th last issue) departs due to the fact that he is indefinitely suspended in all states because of his uncertain medical condition. He is replaced by previously unranked Danny Williams, who is coming off a kayo of Mike Tyson. If Mesi is eventually cleared to fight, The Ring will re-evaluate his status."

The heavyweight rankings themselves underscore the rapid shift in the boxing landscape. There's Williams, who knocked out the Tyson Myth the Mesis had long hoped to snuff, ranked No. 10. The real what-might-have-been comes five spots higher, where Monte Barrett occupies the fifth slot.

That's the same Monte Barrett who Mesi decisioned last December at Madison Square Garden. Barrett's stock actually rose after losing to Mesi. Despite clearly losing the first six rounds and hitting the canvas in the fifth, Barrett turned the fight -- and quite possibly Mesi's career path -- with a seventh-round knockdown. Though he was unable to overcome the early deficit or even come as close as Jirov, since Mesi regained his equilibrium enough to fight on more or less even terms by the 10th, the performance landed Barrett a shot against another unbeaten prospect.

Two weeks after Mesi's fateful meeting with Jirov, Barrett hammered out a clear decision over Dominick Guinn. Guinn, you might recall, won a dominant 10-round decision over Duncan Dokiwari at HSBC Arena last September.

Until Williams knocked off Tyson, Barrett was considered the likely opponent for Vitali Klitschko's next defense of the World Boxing Council title (he's also considered the overall world champion by "The Ring"). Klitschko understandably wants to cash in on the heretofore underachieving Brit's name recognition before he gets knocked out by someone else, but Barrett's spot in the rankings virtually guarantees him a shot at one of the title belts in the next six months or so.

Then there's the guy who Mesi fought in the main event on the night Guinn whipped Dokiwari -- DaVarryl Williamson.

Williamson came into HSBC Arena riding a 15-fight winning streak. He lasted 97 seconds, the victim of a devastating left hook that seemed to send Mesi on to bigger and better things and Williamson back to his job in sales for a Mexican-food maker in Colorado.

Instead, Mesi went on to two increasingly tenuous wins, while Williamson hit the comeback trail.

After stopping Kendrick Releford in nine in a tune-up fight in January, Williamson got up from an eighth-round knockdown to win a tough 12-round majority decision over fringe contender Elicier Castillo in April. At stake -- the North American Boxing Federation belt Mesi won with a first-round stoppage of Robert Davis at HSBC Arena in June 2003, but never defended.

Williamson is scheduled to fight again on Saturday against the other Klitschko, Vitali's younger brother Wladimir.

No doubt Williamson was chosen as Wladimir's most recent comeback foe due to his questionable chin. But the last two fighters to expose Wladmir's bizarre lack of endurance, Corrie Sanders and Lamon Brewster, each won the minor World Boxing Organization belt and put themselves in line for bigger title fights, and paydays, by doing so.

Then there's Jirov himself, who hasn't fought since quite possibly ending Mesi's career. Jirov was considered a potential next opponent for Tyson, if he got past Williams. Jirov-Tyson could still take place, given Mike's mountain of debt. Jirov has said he'd like to fight Tyson in Moscow ("like Rocky," the native of Kazakhstan said). A rematch with Toney, who won a close decision over Jirov at cruiserweight, is another possibility, with a title shot in the offing for the winner.

So while fighters Mesi beat either move past where he was or get the chance to do so, his promising career remains frozen in time.

Further evidence of how quickly the boxing landscape shifts came Saturday night. On the night Mesi fought Jirov, Roy Jones Jr. was still the consensus choice as the world's top pound-for-pound fighter, an incredible boxer-puncher who swept through the middleweight and light-heavyweight divisions before humiliating Ruiz for the WBA heavyweight belt in March 2003.

But in May, he got destroyed by a single punch from Antonio Tarver, who he had decisioned six months earlier. And Saturday night, in what was planned as a fairly easy match with unheralded Glencoffe Johnson for the IBF light-heavy title, it was Jones who looked overwhelmed, getting battered throughout until suffering a decisive knockout in the ninth.

While piling up his first 28 wins, 25 of them knockouts, against steadily improving opposition, Mesi got tantalizingly close to the top of the heavyweight ladder. The 29th victory, though, didn't just stop his ascent, it knocked him off the rungs altogether.

Should he score the biggest upset of his career by getting cleared to fight, he'll have to start climbing all over again.


David Staba is the sports editor of the Niagara Falls Reporter. He welcomes e-mail at dstaba13@aol.com.

Niagara Falls Reporter www.niagarafallsreporter.com Sept. 28 2004