Mesi's back...but not in full effect...what's your thoughts?

Mesi's back...but not in full effect...what's your thoughts?


Mesi took his first step toward getting back in the mix with a tough eight-round decision victory against Bellamy. Mesi has spent the last two years fighting a medical suspension by the Nevada Commission. He suffered two bleeds in his brain during a match with Vassiliy Jirov on March 13, 2004 and was subsequently suspended. The suspension was lifted last December when a Nevada judge ruled that the suspension can survive past the license, which expired on Dec. 31, 2004.

The best you can say about Mesi is that he was rustier than a bucket of bolts at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. The good thing you can say is that he made it through the match relatively unscathed. He had a purple mouse (sounds funny, but it looked painful) under his right eye and he was icing a bruised right hand after the fight.

Dr. Robert Cantu, the respected neurosurgeon who took up Mesi's cause to get his license restored by Nevada, was at ring side. He acted as Mesi's cut man. Cantu monitored Mesi between rounds and talked to him. He watched Mesi during the fight to see if there were any problems. Cantu said Mesi never stumbled or staggered and didn't appear hurt from any of the punches that Bellamy landed.

"I think he showed that he's been away from boxing for two years,'' Cantu said of Mesi's performance. "Boxing is not the kind of sport you can stop and then pick up where you left off. I don't think the performance was anywhere near where it will be after a couple of fights. I also give Bellamy tremendous credit because he took a lot of shots and he didn't give up.''

Mesi wasn't happy with the performance either.

"I want to stay at this level of opponent because of my performance,'' Mesi said. "I don't want to go up too quickly because of my performance. I give myself a "C-C Plus.''

Mesi will have to get to his A-game before he's ready. That might not take very long, at least not in Mesi's mind. He believes he fights to the level of the opponent. So, he believes he fought down to Bellamy's level. The 41-year-old Bellamy, the half-brother of former Knicks standout Walt Bellamy, has no amateur background and took up boxing when he was 36. His previous pro athletic career was in basketball in Europe and New Zealand. Mesi took advantage of his inexperience, including his lack of punching power.

When Mesi was a top contender, he probably wouldn't even have considered Bellamy as a sparring partner because the work wouldn't have been adequate. But as a comeback opponent, Bellamy was perfect. He pushed Mesi's condition, which was poor, to the limits. Mesi weighed 237 pounds. At his peak he fought at 225-230 pounds. So, he's not too far off with his weight. But he wasn't toned and his stamina needs strengthening.

Jack Mesi, Mesi's father and manager, said he has had offers from at least five states in the U.S., which he won't name, that are willing to license Joe. He also said there has been contact with foreign countries. Word is that Mesi's next fight will be in Canada. Based on his performance and the controversy surrounding his comeback, Mesi will probably continue to fight under the radar - Saturday night's fight was available on DirecTV in Puerto Rico and will be available later on Mesi's website.

It could take Mesi three or four fights over the next 12 months to make a successful comeback to the level he had when he was suspended. It won't take him long to get back in the title picture. Remember that HBO loved him. He still has one fight left on his contract with the cable network.

Full article @ http://www.secondsout.com/USA/news.cfm?ccs=229&cs=19091



Personally...I find this disgusting. Mesi is a death waiting to happen. Fwock it...let 'em keep pushing this issue with this gent & his dad will be begging forgiveness at a graveside service.

Yeah I hate it... I mean what if he dies.. Its just terrible for boxing, but yet it wouldn't really surprise anyone who actually knew anything about boxing.

i dont know if he should be fighting but i think he could kick the shit out of chris RAPIDLY GAINING WEIGHT byrd

Is Byrd rapidly gaining weight? Seriously.. Anyways Mesi could NOT beat Byrd, or any top contender as much as the division sucks.. He went life or death with Barret and Jirov, now years later even RAhman could actually kill him. I dont want to see him in another meaningful fight ever again.

u dont think byrd has been getting fatter?

he looks alot bigger to me, in his last fight his body was like that of brewster

Someone needs to shoot the Doctor that told Mesi he could fight again.

If I'm proved wrong, they should still shoot him. I don't even want to take the chance of seeing this guy die in the ring.

you gotta figure that what caused bleeding of the brain was most likley caused by ONE round against JIROV...

thats not prommising

Mesi will be fine... The brainbleeds were mircoscopic... and probably the type of thing that EVERY boxer gets in ANY tough fight. He'll remain healthy, but i am not sure he's good enough to compete in with the top heavy's.

I dont think he is good enough to compete with the top of the division. I just hope everything stays healthy for him.

I think he's is better than given credit for, he dominated Jirov until the last couple rounds. I seem to remember James Toney going through a very tough fight with Jirov. Mesi's conditioning let him down a little bit, but he was a skilled fighter with good power and a good work ethic. His fights on HBO were entertaining and he definitely won them decisively on points.

Personally I don't put a whole lot of weight on what doctors say. They are wrong more often than right. Also as far as a doctors credibility. Who has the riskier call the one saying he shouldn't fight, or the one's saying it's the same risk as any other boxer? I think the doc saying he's ok to fight is doing so knowing it's a dangerous position for him if Mesi gets hurt. All the other doc's are just being safe. I lean towards the guy who's willing to put his butt on the line. Just my opinion.

i agree that he is underrated, he is looked at as a bum, he at least WASNT a bum before his layoff, dont know about now

Quote:

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Originally Posted by luvfightgame

I think he's is better than given credit for, he dominated Jirov until the last couple rounds. I seem to remember James Toney going through a very tough fight with Jirov. Mesi's conditioning let him down a little bit, but he was a skilled fighter with good power and a good work ethic.

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You should also seem to remember that Toney sucks ass as a heavyweight & Jirov was also unproven...or like Toney....sucks ass as a heavyweight.

Mesi needs to retire...

The thing is with money you can get "the best doctors" to say just about anything.. Look at Vitalis injury.. Bob Arum had a doctor clear him to fight lol, then Vitali went to the best knee doctors around and retired.

READ THIS

This cleared some things up for me:

"Buffalo News examines the medical details of Mesi’s injury: A subdural hematoma is a rupture of blood vessels, usually veins, between the brain and its outermost surrounding layer of tissue. The acute subdural hematoma, with severe bleeding and brain damage, is not a common occurrence in boxing but is the leading cause of boxing fatalities. The difficulty in judging Mesi’s case is that he falls into a different category. He had small amounts of bleeding with no apparent underlying damage. Since then, he appears to have fully recovered. The remaining question is whether the injury, however mild, places him at greater risk for another brain injury? Some doctors say he is at no greater risk, others say there simply is no way to know."

http://blog.thesweetscience.com/2006...m-rahman-more/

Mesi probably had a chronic subdural hematoma. "Chronic subdural bleeds develop over the period of days to weeks, often after minor head trauma, though such a cause is not identifiable in 50% of patients...Small subdural hematomas, those less than a centimeter wide, have much better outcomes than acute subdural bleeds: in one study, only 22% of patients with chronic subdural bleeds had outcomes worse than 'good' or 'complete recovery'"

The dangerous brain injury is acute subdural hematoma. "Acute bleeds develop after high speed acceleration or deceleration injuries and are increasingly severe with larger hematomas
...The mortality rate associated with acute subdural hematoma is around 60 to 80%."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subdural_hematoma

AFTER you read the whole thing let me know what you think about Mesi coming back. I was very much against him fighting again but after researching I'm not sure he shouldn't be allowed to box again.