When I have a free afternoon time slice, I train boxing at a gym near Otuska station, JR Yamanote line. And this week it has been a madhouse over there each afternoon, as they prepare for the WBA Lightweight championship fight, to be held May 19. The current champ is Nicaraguan Jose Alfaro. The Japanese challenger (Kobori) is based at my gym there, so they have been holding all the pre-fight press conferences and interview/pic opps there. Resulting in hordes of over 30 reporters and an unspeakable array of photophilia hardware. Both the challenger and the current champ each did three demo rounds with a local Japanese sparring partner.
I will now risk my 24K Gold Tabbycat Precog Reputation (24KGTPR) by actually calling the outcome of this fight: The challenger Kobori will win. I will go further and say there's a 70% chance it will be a KO or TKO. I don't say this due to any favor of my home gym guy or any other reason other than (a) pure Tabby precogism; and (b) technical fight skills analysis.
Don't worry you don't need to follow boxing to check on my call, just dip your toe back in this blog on/around May 19th and I'll honestly report the result. Mind you I am really sticking my neck out here, as Alfaro has a great record with something like 95% of his wins being KO's. I won't give my tech analysis why I am confident making this call, right now. For now call it pure pre-cogism. But if I am wrong I know my precog rep will be dented. Egg will be smeared all over my beautiful striped feline face.
But I'll report back the result without fear or favor.
The local fighter, the challenger Kobori, is a very nice guy. And I met the champ and talked a bit to him and his entourage, in Spanish. Very nice guys. They seemed relieved to hear some Spanish from somebody other than their local interpreter here. Language is fun that way. Was a good oiling for my brain to call up the Spanish underneath all the C and J packed in there.
Why are humans so utterly hung up on single combat anyway (at least, when they can spare a moment from mass slaughtering one another)? That's a real primeval thing, I could feel the mindless genetic vibe to the whole affair these past couple of days. That's why these events can still make money. Because we are such absolute brutes.
