THE WAR ZONE II: Revisiting Classics, Revisited (V.7 - Floyd Joy Sinclair vs. Gustavo Fabián Cuello)

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"WTF is he doing featured in a series called 'the WAR ZONE', eh IB??" - perhaps the knee-jerk response of the unruly mob.

Bear with me, though. He wasn't always the sort of boxer whose style made large swaths of the crowd tune in exclusively for the outside chance of him being KTFO, you know.

Still working his way up to main event status, young Mayweather here played second fiddle on Univision Boxeo to José Antonio "Toño" Díaz (making the first of what might be considered an outstanding eleven defenses of the IBA light welterweight title, had the IBA ever gained traction; it still to date has failed to attain the respectability of the "big four" sanctioning bodies, although Díaz in his reign did post decision victories over the likes of Cory Spinks and Emanuel Augustus, both world class...), although he was already receiving higher billing than Oba Carr and Diego Corrales despite having less professional experience than either. He was faced with the first Argentinian opponent in his career, of what ultimately would be five total encounters (to be followed by Carlos Alberto Ramón "El Toro de Santa Fe" Ríos, Carlos Manuel "Tata" Baldomir, and Marcos René "El Chino" Maidana twice; all five would lose decisions to Mayweather, but in wildly different fashions. Maidana was perceived as having done at least enough to net a draw, if not the upset, in his controversial MD loss on Cinco de Mayo weekend in 2014 before losing a tad more clearly in the September rematch. Baldomir and Ríos were both shut out in dominant fashion, neither going down but each otherwise getting his ass handed to him. Cuello fared...somewhere in between those polar extremes of El Chino and their countryman named Carlos...)

This would also mark the first time an official penalized Mayweather for a foul in the pros. In the waning moments of round three, after having coasted behind the 1-2 and racked up enough points to edge out the awkward bobbing & weaving counter-puncher, decided to let rip with a mighty uppercut just as Cuello was at his most compromised, arms dropped & upper half ducked forward with his eyes averted downward, in the beginning stages of a withdrawal motion from an entanglement inside after Jon Schorle had called for a break. Mayweather probably didn't intend for it to be a cheap shot; he was just young & uncontrolled (relative to his future self would evolve into) and had worked himself into an offensive groove. He likely saw the opening for a "money" punch and completely blanked on the fact that Schorle had just instructed him to stop and separate. More of a brain fart attributable to inexperience than a premeditated thing, IMO - as why risk getting disqualified after you've demonstrated your superiority in the previous 8+ minutes of boxing? It was, however, a monster of a shot by Floyd for which Gustavo understandably was totally unprepared...and the point was docked from Mayweather was fairly deserved, as was the brief (yet needed) respite for Cuello.

You see, PBF was, at this point, believe it or not, something of a "killer". He was 15-0 (13) and in those late nineties halcyon days at super feather actually had the power (and mean disposition) to match his vaunted speed and make him a fearsome competitor. Nobody prior to Cuello had ever carried him a full ten rounds (four men had been scheduled to, but failed). "Demolición" may have been the first person in a long time (perhaps since Lorenzo Aragón in the '96 Olympics, which is Floyd's last amateur victory) successful in pushing Floyd onto the backfoot over any meaningful stretch of time. He was 20-7 (11), himself not a feather-fist but unlikely to be the one to force the ceremonies to an expedited closure, unless he landed something quite large on the button in a stroke of pure luck or a rare lapse in concentration on the part of the carefully groomed phenom. It would not come to pass, although Cuello did continue to apply pressure admirably in the second half, taking round 7 on the unofficial tarjeta (scorecard) of the Univision commentator. I happen to agree with this; below is my OCD, fine-tooth comb tabulation of the punch stats as I see them. Key: lowercase m is an outright missed or wholly picked off shot for Mayweather (primarily throwaway jabs, to be fair - but still not counting obvious feints), capital M is a hit, with a forward slash is a "graze". Likewise all the same rules for the letter C apply for Cuello.

m m c C m m m m C c C m m m m M/ m mm m c m m C cc C/ M m m m m m m C c c m c C c m M c m M m m m m C c M c C/ c c m m m M C/ m

(that makes 33 misses, 6 direct hits for PBF - good for a 15% connect percentage; 14 misses and 10 hits for Demolición, a robust 41% connect percentage... which I'm guessing has to be among the better single round stat lines against Mayweather; it has to be top 15, of his nearly 400 pro rounds boxed).

Funnily enough, all three judges awarded Mayweather the round, which may have been the first in the pros he legitimately deserved to lose (and might arguably be the first round he truly lost since Aragón).

Cuello would return to Buenos Aires later in 1998 to challenge Jorge Rodrigo "La Hiena" Barrios, unsuccessfully, for the South American super featherweight title - but after going the distance with Floyd would skid out with a run of just 3-13-2 in the remainder of his career (including a technical draw against compatriot and fellow Mayweather decision victim Carlos Ríos, the Bull of Santa Fe himself...) lowercase m is an outright missed or wholly picked off shot for Mayweather (primarily throwaway jabs, to be fair), capital M is a hit, with a forward slash is a "graze". Likewise all the same rules for the letter C apply for Cuello.

m m c C m m m m C c C m m m m M/ m mm m c m m C cc C/ M m m m m m m C c c m c C c m M c m M m m m m C c M c C/ c c m m m M C/ m

(that makes 33 misses, 6 direct hits for PBF - good for a 15% connect percentage; 14 misses and 10 hits for Demolición, a robust 41% connect percentage... which I'm guessing has to be among the better single round stat lines against Mayweather; it has to be top 15, of his nearly 400 pro rounds boxed).

Funnily enough, all three judges awarded Mayweather the round, which may have been the first in the pros he legitimately deserved to lose (and might arguably be the first round he truly lost since Aragón). In the next few, Cuello would attempt to build upon what had worked for him in the seventh: erratic, diving steps inside (thereby disallowing forward momentum on Mayweather's part), smack-parrying down at Mayweather's jab, a constant twitchy kinetic charge in his upper torso (limiting Mayweather's ability to read whether Cuello was reacting to feints), and left forearm-rams setting up overhand rights and undercutting body combos. These would all be tactics, interestingly enough, used by future Mayweather opponents in failed efforts to neutralize his reflexes and finely honed skills, but honestly with less efficacy than shown by this obscure Argie (in particular, I'm thinking of Victor Ortiz and Oscar De la Hoya) whom it could be said "laid the blueprint" for how to fight Mayweather in a way that at least caused him some discomfiture, if not any net loss in points. IMO, despite a good effort down the stretch and some meaty body shots peppered in, the 8th-10th were "closer but clear" and it wasn't possible to find another pity round for Gustavo, leaving him with a best case tally of 91 points to Sinclair's 98...but that is still a closer margin than anybody would impose upon him until Emanuel Augustus in 2000.

Cuello would return to Buenos Aires later in 1998 to challenge Jorge Rodrigo "La Hiena" Barrios, unsuccessfully, for the South American super featherweight title - but after going the distance with Floyd would skid out with a run of just 3-13-2 in the remainder of his career (including a technical draw against compatriot and fellow Mayweather decision victim Carlos Ríos, the Bull of Santa Fe himself...) serving merely to pad the records of prospects, contenders, and domestic small-potato lordlings. His greatest mark on the sport, despite being no more than a footnote, is being the first to push the man that would be known as "Money" the whole nine yards....or rather, ten rounds (then "deep water" for the hitherto knockout-minded speedster, albeit waters he would spend the next twenty years swimming in regularly) - and make him break a sweat to earn his pay. If you're going to be relegated to footnote status, however, what a manifest on which to find yourself in the margins!

 

As far as champs, south of welter:

the Hernándezes (Chicanito & Famoso)
Chico
El Temible (x2)
Jesús Chávez
prime Chop-Chop

Plus a slew of decent to very good contenders:

Augustus
Goyo Vargas
Thunder Gatti
Juuko
Topo Gerena
Bruseles
Manfredy
Pep
N'Dou