Joe Mesi remains officially undefeated, but after Saturday night's stunning collapse in the final four minutes of his bout with Vassiliy Jirov in Las Vegas, please don't call him unbeaten.
And had the bell ending the 10th and final round come a few seconds later, the Tonawanda native would qualify as neither.
The clang, which must rank among the sweetest sound any member of Team Mesi has ever heard, rescued him from the ignominy of blowing a seemingly insurmountable lead and getting knocked out by a puffed-up cruiserweight. For those of you unfamiliar with boxing's technical terms, a cruiserweight is a fighter who is neither big nor strong enough to compete with the heavyweights.
For more than eight rounds, Jirov looked like exactly that -- an overmatched scrapper who had quite literally blown up, coming in 24 pounds heavier than he did for his cruiserweight title fight against James Toney one year and nine days earlier.
All three judges gave Jirov the opening round, but Mesi thoroughly controlled the next seven with ripping combinations to the head and body and a much busier work-rate. In the ninth, Mesi could have played it safe with a lead he could only waste by getting knocked out. Instead, just as he did in his unanimous decision over Monte Barrett in December, he employed a strategy perfect for someone looking to lose consciousness -- running wide open, launching punches while thoroughly disdaining Jirov's power.
While the Kazakhstanian seemed to gain strength throughout the ninth, the counter left-hook that turned the fight came in the closing seconds, wobbling Mesi and putting him in range for the right to the back of the head that pushed him to the canvas.
Mesi's father and manager, Jack, leaped out of his seat when his son hit the canvas moments before the bell ending the ninth. He'd get a lot more exercise in the 10th.
Whether he was trying to erase the memory of his late fade against Barrett or was simply too badly hurt to do much else, Mesi thoroughly disregarded boxing's basic rules of survival.
He didn't try moving away from Jirov, even though his stalker was smaller and slower. Nor did he clinch, even after it became obvious that a few seconds one way or another would decide the outcome.
Mesi kept trying to throw punches that had lost all their oomph, leaving himself wide open for vicious blasts to the head and body. Twice more, he slumped to the canvas.
Somehow, he made it back to his feet both times, remaining upright at that final bell, if only just. His huge early lead also survived, with each judge declaring him the winner by a single point.
Mesi does deserve credit for getting off the canvas, particularly from the final knockdown. But what already-skeptical boxing fans and analysts will remember was how he got there in the first place.
It would be one thing if Saturday's shocking turnaround were an isolated incident. But it was nearly an exact repeat of his last outing, except that Mesi didn't react as well as he did after Barrett dropped him, also with a counter left hook.
In the weeks leading up to the Jirov bout, Mesi conceded that he'd taken Barrett a little too lightly and that insufficient conditioning may have contributed to his late fade.
That didn't seem to be a problem Saturday, as Mesi came in at 227, 10 pounds lighter than he did against Barrett. He clearly wanted to reclaim his place as the rising star of boxing's most glamorous, and lucrative, weight class.
Instead, he established himself as The Come-From-Ahead Kid, capable of almost total disintegration under even the most favorable of circumstances.
The list of heavyweight contenders who got knocked down three times in the last two rounds of a fight without scoring a single knockdown himself and still won the decision is pretty short. In fact, such a list didn't even exist until last night at about 11 p.m.
In a post-fight interview with HBO's Larry Merchant, Mesi sounded surprisingly clear-headed and well aware of how fortunate he had been to escape with his 29th career victory. He also delivered the understatement of the night, if not the boxing year so far.
"He affected me," Mesi said when asked about the knockdown punches.
That's a nice way of putting it.
Another performance like that, and Mesi could find himself affected all the way into retirement.
While Saturday's fight was the most exciting or agonizing of Mesi's career, depending on your rooting and/or betting interest, seeing their most-favored-young-contender all but out on his feet couldn't have thrilled HBO executives.
The pay-cable network prides itself on competitive bouts, bit the manner in which Mesi made the last two competitive isn't exactly what they had in mind.
Against both Barrett and Jirov, Mesi displayed the qualities that appeal to his supporters and fuel his critics.
For more than half of each bout, he demonstrated good ring generalship and footwork, delivered a steady flow of punches carrying decent power with hand speed unmatched by most true heavyweights and presented a defense solid enough to build a huge lead.
In each case, though, he got sloppy, creating openings for knockdowns produced by a pair of opponents not known as devastating punchers at any weight class.
After the Barrett fight and again last night, Mesi blamed himself for the lapses, implying that if he had stuck to his game plan, the knockdowns wouldn't have taken place.
True enough. If you don't get hit, you won't get knocked down. While he possesses better defensive fundamentals and movement than most heavyweights, Mesi is no Muhammad Ali, or even IBF titlist Chris Byrd, currently the division's craftiest target.
At this level of the sport, even the most skilled, disciplined fighters are going to get hit flush with an opponent's best shot at some point. It's how you deal with that inevitability that sets true contenders, and champions, apart.
Seeing Mesi stumbling around the ring in the final two rounds on Saturday, pursued by the apparently beaten and bleeding Jirov, amplified questions about what would happen against a real heavyweight with real power. Would Mesi be able to avoid the punches of one of the Klitschko brothers or Mike Tyson, who he and his father have been calling out for months? And if not, would he be able to stick to some semblance of a game plan after being hurt?
HBO will want answers to those questions before extending its commitment to Mesi, regardless of his eloquence and marketability.
To date, he and his team have been afforded a level of input when it comes to choosing opponents usually reserved for world champions. That probably ended the second time Mesi found himself horizontal Saturday night.
Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko are each scheduled for title fights in the coming weeks, and whether Tyson will ever fight (in a boxing ring) again is a bigger question than when.
The most likely next test comes courtesy of a fighter Mesi, and fans in Western New York, saw up close in September -- Dominick Guinn.
Guinn (24-0, 17 knockouts) pounded out a unanimous decision over Duncan Dokiwari on the undercard of Mesi's first-round destruction of DaVarryl Williamson at HSBC Arena in September. He also owns a knockout victory over former top contender Michael Grant and is scheduled to fight Barrett on HBO on March 27.
Guinn carries questions of his own. In his last fight, he settled for a unanimous decision over Derrick Banks in November, whom Mesi obliterated in less than a round two years earlier. Banks barely qualifies as a journeyman, having lost six of his previous eight fights before facing Guinn, including a pair of first-round knockouts.
A Mesi-Guinn fight would go a long way to answering doubts about both, establishing the winner as the division's true rising star.
And after two straight outings that nearly ended in disaster, it's going to take a win over someone like Guinn to restore Mesi's luster.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | March 16 2004 |