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Here’s an advantage of being old.
When you see something that’s topical these days, you have enough memories stored away in between your wrinkles that you can adeptly connect it to something you saw a generation ago.
A new TV show reminds you of an old TV show. A new musical act reminds you of an old musical act.
And whaddya know? It works for boxing, too.
So when I tuned into ESPN for the latest Edgar Berlanga pre-fight love fest on Saturday night, I scanned back through the gray hairs and age spots to recall a fighter whose quick-strike hype mirrored his.
Within minutes, I had the ideal image. Jose Baret.
Or, for those glued to basic cable boxing in the early 1980s, make that Jose “The Threat” Baret.
And for those who were neither glued to the TV nor even born at that point, here’s the skinny:
Baret was a lanky power-hitter with Dominican roots who tore up the scene at the modern-day Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden – then called the Felt Forum – with a string of early finishes across a busy 19-month stretch, yielding 15 KOs in 16 wins.
He went the eight-round distance just once in that unbeaten run, violently ending each of the other unfortunate foes in nine minutes or less while racking up just 35 rounds of total ring time.
It was at that point the team behind him – MSG Boxing – decided to fast-track its prodigy into the wide world beyond midtown Manhattan, where he’d contested all but two of his 16 fights.
That meant a run from the city to the Jersey shore to meet Marlon Starling, who’d lost just once in 26 bouts of his own, albeit against a much better, or at least more recognizable, level of competition.
The folks in New York thought he was ready. Manager Howie Albert thought he was ready.
But as the star-making Saturday shot on CBS – complete with Tim Ryan and Gil Clancy on the mic and a recently-retired Ray Leonard in the studio – went live on Feb. 5, 1983, not everyone had bought in.
In fact, Randy Gordon, who’d called one of Baret’s fights and been in the building for 14 more thanks to his roles as editor-in-chief of Ring Magazine and color analyst on ESPN’s boxing shows, was playfully skeptical of the untested phenom.
“I constantly called him Jose ‘Not Yet’ Baret, which drove MSG Boxing President John F. X. Condon crazy,” Gordon said. “However, I knew that many of those 16 opponents were nothing more than that. Marlon Starling told me, ‘I will toy with this guy.’”
As Baret made his way to the Sands Casino ring, Clancy seemed unsure as well.
“He’s the most talked-about fighter to come out of the tough gyms in New York in many and many a year. His punching power in the gym is becoming legend,” he said.
“But I have to stress that his power is raw. He doesn’t have that much professional experience and it remains to be seen whether he can handle a guy like Starling.”
This just in. He couldn’t.
An eventual champion at 147 pounds and a near-miss at middleweight, Starling got off the deck from a bogus knockdown in the first, walked through a clean right hand in the second and ultimately beat Baret into a kneeling corner submission in the fourth after a barrage kick-started by a hard left uppercut.
Leonard, sharing the studio desk with Brent Musberger, sensed the next act coming.
“Your first loss is always a major blow,” he said. “When a guy loses for the very first time, you’ve taken something away from him: the thought of invincibility.”
This just in. The Sugar man was right.
A subsequent reach for the next level ended just as badly four months later, this time courtesy of high-profile patriarch Floyd Mayweather and the eighth-round TKO he laid on Baret at the Felt Forum.
And even an 18-month layoff, a trip to Puerto Rico and a soft touch named William Machado weren’t enough to reignite the mojo, instead ending in a sixth-round KO loss on a Don King show in San Juan.
Even the most vocal supporters walked away and Baret himself went silent for better than a decade before returning as a super middleweight to blow away an 0-4 Spencer Swope in mid-May 1995.
The jubilation was short-lived, though, as an appearance on a Billy Costello card later in the month ended with a career-halting stoppage loss to James Mason at the Civic Center in Raleigh, North Carolina.
A glorious 16-0 start yielded a desultory 17-4 finish back then.
As for Berlanga, though, today’s jury remains out.
The Top Rank-steered super middle went the distance for the third straight time in outpointing ex-Gennady Golovkin victim Steve Rolls – certainly exceeding the performance an uber-hyped Baret put on in his step-up opportunities but proving to precisely no one that a title parade is headed to Brooklyn.
Two judges gave Rolls three of 10 rounds, and the remaining judge gave him four in a bout that too often saw the prospect plodding forward in search of a single fight-changing shot while the veteran moved away from the power, landed well to the body, and clearly frustrated his 24-year-old foe.
“Berlanga showed many weaknesses, especially in facing an elusive opponent whom he blamed for not engaging,” Gordon said. “It was Berlanga to blame, not Rolls. Hopefully, he learned from the fight.”
Maybe.
But if he didn’t, the “Chosen One” may wind up as “Not Yet,” too.
* * * * * * * * * *
This week’s title-fight schedule:
IBF featherweight title – Leeds, England
Kiko Martinez (champion/No. 23 IWBR) vs. Josh Warrington (No. 4 IBF/No. 5 IWBR)
Martinez (43-10-2, 30 KO): First title defense; Held IBF title at 122 (2013-14, two defenses)
Warrington (30-1-1, 7 KO): Fifth title fight (4-0); Winless in two fights since 2019 (0-1-1)
Fitzbitz says: If you argued that Warrington is fortunate to be getting a title shot, you wouldn’t be wrong. And the fact that he’s in with a guy he’s beaten doesn’t hurt. Warrington by decision (90/10)
Last week’s picks: 2-0 (WIN: Edwards, Teraji)
2022 picks record: 6-2 (75 percent percent)
Overall picks record: 1,215-394 (75.5 percent)
NOTE: Fights previewed are only those involving a sanctioning body’s full-fledged title-holder – no interim, diamond, silver, etc. Fights for WBA “world championships” are only included if no “super champion” exists in the weight class.
Lyle Fitzsimmons has covered professional boxing since 1995 and written a weekly column for Boxing Scene since 2008. He is a full voting member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Reach him at fitzbitz@msn.com or follow him on Twitter – @fitzbitz.