32 years ago today: Rafael "Derby" Pineda vs. Roger Lee Trust "Black Mamba" Mayweather

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The first stoppage loss of the 1990s for the future Uncle Rog, and his fifth overall. This is really where his "glass cannon" label is firmly and irrevocably affixed. In the previous decade he was only stopped by a legend in JCC (twice), the respected and hard-punching Rocky Lockridge, and journeyman Freddie Pendleton. At first blush that last one may be the only seemingly unforgivable one, but there are mitigating factors even there: Pendleton was known to be a game competitor despite having won only half of his matches, a TV fighter audiences were familiar with and whose record belied his ability.

Pineda was a different story. The narrative was a familiar one for Colombian boxers - pad up a record at home crushing tomato cans and novices (a better record numerically than Pendleton's, but far lower quality stock) and then a disastrous failure in a world title opportunity abroad. In the case of Pineda, it was a domination by Mark Breland that saw "Derby" bail less than halfway into the contest. Often this is where the story ends for these contenders from Colombia who get themselves ranked on smoke & mirrors artifice. Maybe they go home and rack up some more insignificant victories, or maybe they're flown in as cannon fodder to a prospect somewhere.

Pineda got another chance, though. It was supposed to be against Julio César Chávez himself - but the Superstar balked and chose to give up the IBF strap rather than be ordered to make a defense versus a nominal #1 contender that he saw as unworthy. (people can say what they like about his early career in Culiacan and Tijuana; his level of competition during his super lightweight reign was pretty unimpeachable)

Enter the Mamba. Riding a streak of six middling victories since losing the Chávez rematch (and in the bargain losing the green belt that Chávez would later elect to retain and continue defending several times after binning the IBF) he needed to wash out the bad taste of laboring to a SD over a 7-6 ham-and-egger earlier in 1991. Pineda was an easy mark - ranked guy, belt on the line, sure thing - or at least he should have been.

You can skip the first eight rounds, honestly. They're not very good. Even the commentators and referee were pretty fed up with the minimal engagement of the dull affair, let alone the crowd.

Then comes what appears (from the original live camera angle) to be an innocuous grazing hook as Mayweather is backing into the ropes. And that's it, bam. Obliterated, staring up at the lights for several minutes. Very anticlimactic ending and the smoking gun in the case of the People vs. Roger Mayweather's punch resistance.

38:18 in the above-embedded YT video (which is from the HBO feed) shows a different angle whereby you can see how flush the gazelle hook did in fact land. Entire skull jerked around sharply.

Here's the ninth round with alternate commentary from - I'm not sure, maybe this was an international broadcast or something:

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This comment got me cackling:

"Lol this is the most milquetoast KO commentary I've ever heard."

It wasn't as though Lampley & Merchant on the HBO feed were losing their minds or anything, but their response was at least somewhat animated. This announcer just mumbles in a barbituate monotone a`la Joy of Painting's Bob Ross "and Pineda throws a left hand; that connects on Mayweather. Air is now escaping from the mouth of Roger Mayweather".

Pineda would actually manage one successful defense the following year, over a challenger of dubious merit ("Classy" Clarence Coleman, who entered 16-6-1, coming off a loss, and 3-5 in his previous eight) before Sweet Pea Whitaker relieved him of the championship burden in a stinker of a match that made Pineda vs. Mayweather rounds 1-8 seem like Gatti vs. Ward I. I think Pernell was overly respectful in light of that one-punch KO that did in Mayweather, but even in full-on negative pot-shotter mode he practically whitewashed the Colombian who (like his brother Hugo, stopped by Tszyu and Trinidad in world title opportunities in the latter half of the decade) never really belonged on the world class stage to begin with.

George Foreman 3.0, on the first leg of his comeback after losing to Evander Holyfield, stopped previously unbeaten Jimmy K. Ellis in the co-main event. That was actually the far more anticlimactic knockout, with Richard Steele jumping in to save a badly outclassed Ellis after he was rocked by a series of slow lumpy jabs.