Notre Dame’s very own Mike Lee defeated Mexico’s Eliseo “El Negro” Durazo in a four round, err six round, fight on Friday night at The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. If you’ve quit on boxing or if you’ve never been a fan because the MMA or WWE puts out a better product, Lee versus Durazo gave you fifty reasons why you made the right choice and fifty reasons why you need to give boxing another chance. Lee is a compelling fighter, if only because he’s smarter than you and a more accomplished humanitarian than you. If Mayweather or Pacquiao haven’t captured your attention, maybe you should consider Mike Lee and his place in the boxing business.
And business is what gets people interested in Mike Lee. He’s featured in a Subway commercial (“what a combination!”) alongside Michael Phelps and other athletes you can’t imagine actually scarf down a six inch meatball marinara, toasted, with mozzarella before they do what they do. He’s a top-of-the-class finance graduate from ND (’09), too. If the business of America is business, Mike Lee stands a better chance than anyone else to claw the business of boxing back to a place of interest for the American sports fan.
Which is why Friday’s fight was so train-wreckish. Eliseo Durazo, frankly, looked like he could benefit from a few fat free meals, if not weeks of cardio. His 5’8″ frame was taxed by the 180 pounds he lugged around, causing the announcer to note at one point that “it doesn’t look like Durazo’s done a million sit ups.” Still, you’ve got to give Durazo credit, since he took the fight on short notice and he, the broadcast team (ESPN) and the promoter (Top Rank) THOUGHT IT WAS A FOUR ROUND FIGHT.
Just when you thought Mike Lee won an easy, unanimous decision, you got to see two more rounds. To quote the announcer, “boxing is where the incredible becomes the ordinary every day of the week.” Watching Durazo have to fight two rounds for which he was clearly not ready gave me more respect for his ability and I think he out-fought Lee in the fifth round, but the result was really never in doubt. Lee won both fights, the four round main event and, in a unanimous decision (59-54), the two round rematch.
Durazo never really challenged Lee, though he did get the better of him in the fifth round. Lee was much quicker, relatively. Given the Irish connection, though, I think of Barry McGuigan, and Lee’s just not that quick or deadly at this point. It’s maybe an unfair comparison, since the Irishman fought as featherweight and the NDman fights as a cruiserweight on Friday at 177 pounds. Still, Mike Lee came across as the much better fighter than Eliseo Durazo and earned the win.
Mike Lee’s a great story for boxing and for the University of Notre Dame. I’m always reluctant to make too much of any athlete’s transformative abilities on the world around him or her, but in Mike’s sense, there seems to be something real there. You don’t have the impression that he’s a guy who’s going to spin off the rails or for whom boxing is a temporary thing he’s doing to scratch an itch. Instead, Mike Lee’s a fighter and if you want to explore or get into what used to be the most compelling sport in America, Mike Lee’s probably the most compelling guy out there.
http://youtu.be/RY37QNygRdw
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NDtex
Durazo looked like he forgot to train for the fight. Pretty sure Mike was all “eh, whatever” by the (second) final round.
Either way, a good dominating win. Hope to see him climb up the ranks soon. Anything to get me interesting in boxing again will work. The sport is just a cluster right now.
Father Sorin
Lee is a fine lad. Very talented. But I could take him two rounds. Maybe four – depends on my gout.
NDEddieMac
The whole 4 becoming 6 rounds thing was absolutely bizarre. Fairly boring fight on the whole, but glad Lee took care of business. Dude looooooooooves the body shot. With 5 KOs to his name already, I would’ve expected some more convincing power shots, but he seemed pretty content to just take points.
HerringBoneSports
Pretty fair re-cap by someone that obviously knows fighting. For conversation’s sake, I wonder how Mike might have approached the fight differently if Pacquio-Bradley had been Friday and Lee’s fight Saturday. Mike clearly was the better fighter, but certainly didn’t overwhelm him throughout and didn’t press the issue when it seemed like he could have a few times. I also expected a little more power from him, especially as the fight wore on and his fitness level should have taken over. Sending it to judges who should be in retirement homes is a tricky business.
Kind of like CFB – when a team is 10-0 everyone forgets the 17-16 Week Two win over a 4-6 team, IF Mike Lee gets to 20-0, 25-0, this fight will be long forgotten.