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The Little Rascal is Super Fly at Superfly
TUE September 26, BUSTER PARIS - I've got to quote TalkingBoxing's Frank Gonzalez as the opener to my take on Jorge "Travieso" Arce vs. Masibulele “Hawk” Makepula for their bout that took place on Saturday, September 23, 2006 at the Dodge Arena in Hidalgo, TX. Here’s what Frank says:
“Masibulele ‘Hawk’ Makepula looked in a trance. He sang a religious song as he marched very slowly to the ring. It felt like 20 minutes. That’s a great strategy if you aim to put the crowd to sleep.”
I haven’t been able to stop laughing about that since I read it – thanks Frank – and you’re right on – My GOD was that the absolute worst ring walk ever. I felt like punching myself out just to have something happen - even my cats left the room to watch something more exciting and interesting - I think it was the water evaporating from the kitchen sink.
There really should be a fine for utterly dreadful ring walks. I’m not saying that every entrance needs to be a Corey Spinks boogie woogie disco par-tay, but c’mon.
Anyway - the fight itself was enough to erase that bad taste from my eyes. It was interestingly fought – with Jorge Arce determining when the fight would become dicey and dangerous.
I felt that the first two rounds were pretty close – and actually scored them for Arce, but HBO’s great Harold Ledderman (one of the best unofficial scorers in the biz) had those two rounds scored for Makepula.
Masibulele was the busier fighter and was throwing more punches, but Jorge was landing the harder, cleaner and more effective blows – his overhand right was just an unstoppable weapon.
As a whole - a great example of the evenings flow was in round 2. The pace was medium – not fast, but not slow. Makepula was throwing groups of punches and was the busier man, but the punches didn’t have any significant weight and they lacked any real threat to ‘Travieso’ – then at about 1:49 into the round Jorge claps his fists together, blows steam out his nose like a cartoon bull ready to charge - and in that instant he reminded us as to why he’s compared to Roberto Duran as he tucked his head slightly stepped forward and came in slamming away.
The third round was clearly all Arce. He pressed the action and forced Masibulele to the ropes and knocked him all around the ring – everyone was shocked that ‘Hawk’ remained up right.
‘Travieso’ said that he’d knockout Makepula in the 4th and he kept his word. He chose interestingly enough to start the round slow, Masibulele was still on shaky legs from a tuff 3rd round and was tiredly poking out the jab until finally Jorge had enough, shook his head, crashed an enormous left hook into Makepula’s dome and once again came slamming in …
That was it – Masibulele went down and as he struggled to his feet he was clearly done – Referee Vic Drakulich mercifully waved it off.
It was a great and exciting victory for Jorce Arce and was his first time at Super Flyweight (115 lbs) as he just moved up from Flyweight (112 lbs). He was able to showcase his incredible boxing talent, his hungry and aggressive heart and was able to once again - before, during and after the fight - capture the attention and fascination of the USA with his playful, fun and massive charisma.
I think Jorge is already a super star and already super fly at Superfly. I love the way he fights and I dig his persona – pay attention to this one – he is truly captivating, unique and has a brilliant future ahead of him.
He is similar to some, but somehow like none that we’ve seen before -- the best way I can put it right now is that he’s Johnny Knoxville meets Ryan Seacrest … think about it … and keep watching him.
Buster Paris can be reached at: bparis@talkingboxing.com - and always enjoys receiving your thoughts, comments and questions
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