Did it hint at a kind of stagnation to come in the lower weight classes, what with the plodding, war torn and depleted Michael Carbajal upsetting the apple cart in what was to be a passing of the torch kind of fight, and beating one of the more accomplished lower weight fighters of recent years in Jorge Arce. Despite the substantial age difference between the two, an ancient 31 years old in the 108 pound weight class for Carbajal to Arce's mere 20 years. Was Arce simply a little green and beaten by a game vet with lots of power? Is it not a damning implication of the beginning of a very real talent drain in the lowest weight classes? This content is protected
Compared with the previous era, yeah, decidedly a drop-off in overall quality in the weight range, but I think you might be selling Trumps () of Stone a little short. I understand wanting to resist the urge to romanticize the effort, but sometimes it just is what it is - much like with the whole "Tokyo Douglas" mystique (where some people do legitimately go a bit too far with the mythicizing, prompting a reactionary and equally irrational backlash in the other direction of people dismissing his performance that night and instead looking to denigrate that version of Tyson, or poke holes in the legend of young Tyson, period). He turned back the clock and, contrary to prevailing logic in the sport ("great young guy beats great old guy" being as reliable and time-tested a truism as "great big guy beats great little guy") managed to upset a genuine big talent in their prime. I'd say a good analogy would be Foreman vs. Moorer - the win didn't signify that Comeback Foreman still "had it" (as in universal h2h clout to reconquer the division; history bore out that he didn't), nor did it mean that Moorer was a bum (he wasn't; flawed, but still quite talented); nor did it mean the bathtub stopper had been unplugged on the HW division (contemporary malcontents did criticize the 90's division but oh how we miss it now). Sometimes a talented younger dude gets caught late in a fight with a mega-talented but significantly depleted (but still poised, wise, and patient) oldie. It is what it is. By ordinary fly-range standards, yes, Carbajal ought to have been in no condition to hang with Arce, given that he was a (ring age, like you said, not chronological) Methuselah, having logged a hard decade's work and having spent the last few years with his eye tissue continually eroded to about the consistency of cotton-candy - but the fact that he fought on so long and in his entire career only ever lost on cuts or via S/MD evinces that he was no ordinary fly-range athlete. So does pulling out the implausible (and for that all the more impressive) tortoise-vs.-hare style W from the jaws of defeat vs. the brash and flashy young Lollipop Cowboy. Let's indulge him the credit for that, I say, rather than spinning it to be an indictment of Arce or the vanguard he represented.
...and I do mean at HW specifically. Not a pimple on the ass of his LHW self, but he was still a very good heavy. That victory "meant something" for Big George, personally, in terms of bragging rights - but didn't "mean something" as in "look how dire the HW division is that an old man can stop an undefeated belt holder". **** just happens, that goes against the prevailing-logic script. Theater of the unexpected.
That win over Arce means that Carbajal was a hell of a good fighter. I only wish he and Ricard Lopez had squared off. Would have been an amazing battle.
