Wilfredo Rivera Advises: Make Fights, not Wars
by Michael Katz
EL PASO, May 4 - It's the wrong time and the wrong place, but Wilfredo Rivera is pleading for peace. He is as close to Mexico as he can get without drinking the water. This is Cinco de Mayo and he's flown here six hours from Puerto Rico to fight an American kid who has locked himself into the Mexican flag.
Fernando Vargas of Oxnard, Calif., who is the boss fighter here, had determined that he wanted to return to the ring on Cinco de Mayo, the great Mexican holiday, and he wanted to get as close to his cultural homeland as possible without crossing the border.
So here we are in El Paso, a 700,000 person suburb of Juarez, with its 1.7 million residents, and Rivera has been making requests for fair play. Not in the ring. He'll handle that part, he said. In the stands at the Don Haskins Center.
At the ritual final press conference the other day, Rivera spoke in English about how grateful he is for another payday, but switched to Spanish when he implored the customers to remember "this isn't a war between countries, it's a fight between two men."
He said he was disappointed in seeing all the fights breaking out in the stands at the recent Oscar de la Hoya-Arturo Gatti bout in Las Vegas. Puerto Ricans will be heavily outnumbered in the stands. About three out of four of El Paso's citizens are Mexican descendents.
"Boxing is a sport, it's not a war," said Rivera in English later. "It's to put people together to celebrate, to have a good time. Every fan, every sport, is for people to enjoy, not to fight."
Boxing is also a business that has long encouraged racial and ethnic "pride." The Irish vs. the Jew, the Italian vs. Pole. The pandering to man's lowest tastes has resulted in many a riot. Riddick Bowe's fans and Andrew Golota's cheering squad almost turned Madison Square Garden into the host of a race riot. Boxing promoters would love an Arab vs. a Jew, a North Korean vs. a South Korean, anything to take advantage of and sell a few more tickets.
Nothing has succeeded like Mexicans and Puerto Ricans, who pound for pound have produced more good fighters than most groups. There have been Mexican-Puerto Rican classics - Wilfredo Gomez pounding Carlos Zarate, but in turn being stomped by Salvador Sanchez.
"Puerto Ricans and Mexicans have many big fans," said Rivera. "We can do a good show, a hard fight, and after the fight we say, 'hey, good friends.'"
Vargas blames himself for losing to Puerto Rico's best, Felix Trinidad Jr. He said he wanted to show the world how "real Mexicans" - a slap at Oscar de la Hoya, of course - fight. They don't run. So he got knocked down five times last year and is only now trying for a comeback against the highly respected Rivera.
Rivera seems to be one of those guys who's just good enough to give the best fits, but not good enough to beat them. His only four losses on a 32-4-1 mark were to future hall of famers - twice to Pernell Whitaker, once to de la Hoya, once to Sugar Shane Mosley.
He keeps getting invited back by HBO, he said, "because I do my best. People love the way I fight."
He argues that he was robbed both times against Whitaker (he wasn't; the first time, Whitaker fought with the flu and faded badly down the stretch, but still had won enough early rounds on my scorecard, and the judges').
"De la Hoya, I'm not really ready," he said, explaining his 1997 eighth-round stoppage against the then WBC welterweight champion. "I had a bad decision in court against my ex-wife."
He said the fight was stopped in the eighth because he won the sixth and seventh rounds and not because of the cut.
"The cut was pretty bad," said Robert Mittleman, his adviser. "It needed 50 stitches."
"No, that was another fight," said Rivera. "De la Hoya, it needed only five stitches."
His loss to Mosley was easier to explain. "Mosley is a great fighter," he said. But he said he was weak from making the weight.The contract for tomorrow night's fight at the Don Haskins Center called for 156 pounds and Rivera was so dry he needed almost a half-hour to pee away the sixteenth of an ounce he was over at first attempt.
It was Mosley's first fight as a welterweight and Rivera gave the former lightweight champion a tussle for nine rounds before being taken out in the tenth.
He said Whitaker was "the most difficult" to fight, but Mosley was the greatest. "You can't touch Whitaker," said Rivera. "But Mosley is a great fighter and more exciting."
He said "de la Hoya is a great fighter, too, but if I had the same condition I have now, I would beat him."
Rivera is no walk in the park. Vargas, who seems so subdued, has to shake the loss to Trinidad. It won't be easy. But I still believe Vargas may be special so I think he wins by decision, unless he cuts up Rivera.
There's a competitive semifinal on TV. Juan Lazcano, who I thought got a gift against Jesse James Leija, tries another solid veteran in John John Molina. The winner should get a lightweight title shot. I like Molina, but narrowly, in the 12-rounder. |
