Sunday, June 26, 2005

Macroeconomics, Mayweather, and the MCAT



So I went to see the first pay-per-view fight in a long time. Probably since the Lewis/Tyson fight so many years ago. I think I saw Gatti lose to Oscar de la Hoya a while back but that wasn't live on ppv. Boxing is one of the most entertaining sports to watch. Two guys, head to head, with nothing but a pair of gloves and a mouth guard, try to kill each other using their meathooks and occasionally their heads. If you haven't seen the fights and would like to without knowing details, skip these next few sections...

Fight #1: Calderon vs. Verde


Last night we witnessed a score of different fighters use their hands and heads in various ways. The first matchup was between a couple of minimumweights or "strawweights" weighing in at under 105 lbs. It was the southpaw Ivan Calderon, who looked like a miniature Mayweather, up against the Mexican native Gerardo Verde. They were so small compared to the ref, every time he came in to break them up it looked like a playground teacher going to two 8 year olds and lifting them both apart by the shirts saying "Alright boys, break it up. Box." Neither of them seemed to have the power to knock each other down so it went the full 12 rounds and ended up being a decision win for Calderon. He came out strong in the early rounds landing a lot of hits while Verde seemed to stand back. In the final rounds, Calderon was so far ahead on the scoresheet that Verde had no choice but to start swinging with haymakers for the KO. Decent fight but it wasn't as fast and furious as i expected for this weight class. I pictured these little guys flying all over the place...

Fight #2: Chavez Jr. vs. Galvan

The next fight was between two Junior Welterweights (140 lbs) Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Ruban Galvan. This was a hilarious bout to watch because of the way Galvan punched. JCC was quite a bit taller than Galvan and appeared to be the better boxer right off the start. Galvan starts throwing these panzy looking punches/slaps at JCC who I'm sure was trying hard to focus on the fight and not laugh. Just picture this boxer running at his opponent with both arms flailing in front of him like he was swating away a swarm of bees. It looked like he was hitting Chavez Jr. with his wrists. Ya, that was the fight. Chavez made quick work of him by sidestepping the slaps and landing numerous solid blows to the head. TKO.


Fight #3: Harris vs. Maussa


The third matchup was between Vivian Harris and Carlos Maussa for the WBA Junior Welterweight belt. Apparently Harris was heavily favoured to win and it appeared that way for the first minute of the first round. He came out swinging like crazy like he was trying to send Maussa's head via airmail to the nosebleeds. He connected on a couple vicious hooks and it looked like he was going to destroy Maussa. Then all of a sudden he just ran out of gas and stopped swinging for the rest of the round. The momentum swung over in Maussa's favour as he began to return shots on Harris. Harris didn't do much except move his head and keep his hands up. In fact, this was how it went for the next 4 rounds or so. Harris would come out with a mad flurry of haymakers for about 30 seconds and then he would be completely exhausted and end up on the defensive to the next bell. You could see his feet cemented to the ground and he was hardly moving at all as Maussa would come in and take his time landing shots. Finally, Maussa caught Harris offbalance with a left hook that sent him reeling. He stumbled backwards and fell to the ropes. The funny thing was that Maussa saw Harris was stunned and ran after him and tried to take his head off with a punch after Harris hit the ground. Lucky for both sides, the ropes got in the way and the ref grabbed him in the nick of time. I thought it was a pretty dirty move on Maussa's part. I mean, in a UFC match where grappling and stuff is allowed on the mat, you can hit a guy when he's down because you want to make sure he is KO'd. But in boxing after your opponent falls backwards and lands on his head you don't go to finish him off with one last punch. Part of Maussa's training must have involved playing Mortal Kombat and performing fatalities on his opponents. Oh, Maussa also head-butted Harris (i think it was the 4th round) and opened a huge cut on Harris' face.

Main Event: Gatti vs. Mayweather

So here was the matchup we'd all been waiting for. The fight of the year, maybe even the century. Thunder vs. Lightning, Heart vs. Skill, Strength vs. Speed, Brawler vs. Boxer. Who would prevail? I guess the odds were something like 3:1 or 4:1 in favour of Mayweather. He's been coined one of the best fighters pound for pound and the quickest and most talented boxer in the ring today. I heard a lot of cocky comments he made about going in there and destroying Gatti and that really turned me off. When they made their entrances, Mayweather was carried in on this red and gold chair, much like Caesar, by 4 Roman-esque guards in full armour. Very flashy, very arrogant (the fight was in NJ and Gatti's home), and very Mayweather. Gatti's entrance was much less spectacular but received loud cheers from his hometown fans.

So the announcers broke down the strategies of the two fighters. Gatti would have to use his strength and endurance to his advantage and take it to the body. There is no way he could match Mayweather's speed but if he can land some solid body blows or catch the top of "Pretty Boy's" head, he might be able to hurt him and slow him down. Mayweather on the other hand, would be looking to dance around and simply out-box Gatti. His quickness and skill will allow him to land blows with accuracy. It was predicted to go into late rounds.

And so began one of the most one sided fights I have ever seen. If you don't want to read any further, I can pretty much sum up the 5 or 6 rounds as "Balboa vs Creed".

Before the fight, Mayweather said "Gatti's the best at taking punishment; and I'm the best at givin' it out." And that's exactly what happened. Right from the start, Mayweather dished out the punches and took little to no damage. His speed was amazing as he would land 3-4 punch combos effortlessly before Gatti could back away. The big turning point was when the ref seemed to step in during the opening round to stop the fight but then he backed away after they broke up. Mayweather hit Gatti with an uppercut as he was backing up, then hit him with a left hook as they both backed away. Gatti dropped his hands and looked at the ref as if he was trying to say something but the ref didn't jump in. Mayweather also paused for a moment and after seeing that the ref wasn't stopping the fight, stepped up and nailed Gatti with a sweeping left hook right to the middle of the face. Gatti was just standing straight up with his hands at his sides when Mayweather hit him with full force. What I couldn't believe was that Gatti got right back up after going down momentarily and after a count of 8 resumed fighting.

Although Gatti didn't drop his hands like that again, it didn't seem to matter as Mayweather just destroyed Gatti round after round. By the end of 2nd round both of Gatti's eyes were basically swollen shut and his whole face was a mess. I couldn't believe how much punishment Gatti was taking and yet he still seemed to be determined to continue fighting. By the 4th and 5th rounds, it got to the point where Gatti wasn't even punching back. He was moving his head back and forth to dodge some of the blows but other than that, he wasn't doing anything. Mayweather would keep stepping in, unleashing a devestating 6 punch combo (of which 5 would connect) and then step back. Gatti didn't even attempt to counter. Finally, Gatti's trainer stopped the fight after Gatti returned to his corner in terrible shape. TKO for Mayweather with something like 160 punches landed at close to 60% accuracy compared to Gatti who had just over 40 connect.

I had heard Gatti normally takes a lot of punishment and manages to get in some late round KO's after his opponent gets tired of swinging at him. But this was just ridiculous. I'm pretty sure if the fight lasted any longer Mayweather may well have killed him. He's sure tough that's for sure.

They replayed a 12 round fight from a few weeks ago between Calgarian Dale Brown and defending IBF Cruiserweight Champion O'Neil Bell. I thought Brown won but the decision went to Bell. Very good fight between a couple of hard hitting, big guys. I was impressed that even by the 12th round they were still throwing some solid punches and moving around. Apparently Dale Brown was at the Bottom's Up Sports Pub that evening and I think we saw him smoking up a storm at one table. Might have been cool to get a picture with him. I guess we'll never know.


So that was my boxing experience for the weekend. Now I have to buckle down and study for my macroeconomics final tomorrow evening. I'm not too worried about it but I still need to put in the study time. No sense in doing lousy in an easy course. I also need to begin some serious studying for the MCAT in August. There is no looking back this time. I think starting July if i study diligently I can be ready come August 20th. Most everything else will have to be placed on the backburner.

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Monday, June 20, 2005

Summertime...

Once again, nearly a month has passed since I've last posted anything on this rather sad excuse for a blog. Life has been busy; just the way I like it.

Today I had a nice change of pace at work. My boss (an EP doc) was performing a pulmonary vein isolation on a lady in the cath lab. If you don't know what I'm talking about make use of these wonderful tools: and Anyway, apparently it is one of the more difficult procedures that they perform in the cath lab. This procedure is one of the current methods used to treat atrial fibrillation (AF). In many cases, electrically active cells in the four pulmonary veins stimulate the heart in an abnormal manner causing the atria to beat rapidly and uncontrollably. Unlike ventricular fibrillation (VF) or tachycardia (VT), you don't go into cardiac arrest and you can still function normally as long as the ventricles contract in a somewhat regular rhythm. However, patients do experience discomfort from AF and it can lead to VT.

Anyway, they insert this halo catheter into each of the pulmonary veins and locate the electrically active cells through the ECG's. The halo consists of 20 electrodes that are grouped in pairs to give a total of 10 signals from the walls of the pulmonary veins. This acts as a guide for the ablation catheter. Once they are located, they use an ablation catheter to inactivate these cells by essentially killing the cells using a radiofrequency. I was only there for about 4 hours of the procedure that probably took at least 6 in total.

Well, that's about the limit of my attention span. Here are a few pictures from my 21st birthday to top it all off...


Makin' a wish... Posted by Hello

Cheese! Posted by Hello

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