The boxers who go toe to toe in the ring know that a knockout rarely comes from a lumbering haymaker. It’s the snappy one-two combination that floors a fighter.
Denver’s Mike Alvarado knows about quick. His boxing career surfaced in a blur.
Alvarado — now 21-0 with 14 knockouts as a pro — on Saturday will fight former world lightweight champion Cesar Bazan at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. The fight will be televised on HBO pay-per-view, as the undercard to the fight of the year between welterweights Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito.
Alvarado started as a wrestler at Skyview High School, where he went 97-0 in 1997-98, winning state titles at 112 and 135 pounds. He got a job. Trained. Started boxing as an amateur. He won two Colorado Golden Gloves titles. Soon enough, by 2004, Alvarado went pro. A contract with boxing heavyweight player Top Rank soon followed.
“I wasn’t doing anything after high school,” Alvarado said Thursday from Las Vegas. “I was working. One day I went in to the gym at 20th Street House of Pain and talked to the pros and got started.
“Since I was little, I always wanted to box. I was 20 my first day in the gym. And I thought, I’m gonna stick this out, see where it takes me. Give it the best I’ve got.”
The 33-year-old Bazan (47-10-1, 30 KOs) is attempting a comeback of sorts after seeing his career fade since its peak in the late 1990s and earlier this decade. It was Bazan who split two fights with Denver’s Stevie Johnston in 1998 and 1999, the second being the bout in which Johnston earned the WBC lightweight title.
“It’s going to be a tough fight,” Alvarado said. “He’s a veteran in the game. His experience is what he has over me. But it’s my time to shine. He had his time, in his prime. This is my opportunity to show the world what I really am.”
Alvarado, who trains with Henry Delgado at Delgado’s Boxing and Martial Arts in Arvada, most recently defeated Michel Rosales by TKO in the seventh round May 9 in Albuquerque. Less than three months before that, in February, Alvarado earned a 10-round decision over Jesus Rodriguez in Cicero, Ill.
“When he first showed up, he started knocking pros around right away,” Delgado said of Alvarado. “I knew he’d be good.
“I’d say he’ll win with a knockout in about the sixth or seventh, probably.”
AROUND TOWN
Miles and miles for a good cause.
How long would it take you to ride a bicycle from Seattle to New Jersey? For the group of more than 127 riders making that trip now — including Denver rider Steve Parker — it will take about two months. Not a record-breaking time, but, c’mon, they’re connecting two oceans on two wheels.
The Sea to Sea Bike Tour entered Colorado on Tuesday and will ride through Kremmling, Winter Park and Denver this weekend before going through Fort Morgan and Wray toward Nebraska next week.
The ride — which goes 3,881 miles — is raising awareness to battle global poverty. The cyclists will be at Denver Christian and Englewood high schools this weekend, with a stop at the Denver Rescue Mission on Saturday and an address from Denver mayor John Hickenlooper on Sunday.
Check for more information.
GET OFF THE COUCH
Getting down and dirty.
It’s a messy event, mountainboarding, made for people who enjoy eating dirt — sometimes literally. It goes with the territory when you compete in a sport that is like a cross between snowboarding and mountain biking.
For the sixth consecutive year, Snowmass Village near Aspen will host the U.S. Open Mountainboarding Championships, the sport’s pinnacle event, which continues today and ends Saturday.
Champions will be crowned in mass start downhill, dirt boardercross, dirt freestyle and slopestyle big air. Check and for info.
STAY ON THE COUCH
It’s a sportswoman’s world.
Sportswomen of Colorado is an organization supporting female athletes, with an awards banquet tabbing the best this state has to offer. And now, starting tonight, it’s a TV show.
Sportswomen of Colorado will debut at 9:30 p.m. on KDVR-31 with host Marcia Neville. Among the athletes featured on the docket for the first episode: Olympic skeleton racer Katie Uhlaender (left), the 2007 sportswoman of the year; 13-year-old Olympic swimming hopeful Missy Franklin; former area basketball standout Ann Strother; and former Broncos coach Red Miller.
Check for more information.
WHAT WE’D LIKE TO SEE
This no-no so nice-nice.
The Rockies may be six games out of first place in the NL West — the division no one wants to win — but not all news is bad news for the club.
Bruce Billings, a 22-year-old former standout at San Diego State, on Wednesday threw a no-hitter for the Rockies’ Single-A affiliate, the Asheville (N.C.) Tourists.
Billings allowed just two baserunners, one by walk and one by error, in the Tourists’ 10-0 win over the Lakewood (N.J.) BlueClaws.
WEAK IN REVIEW
Another snub in the works?
Rod Smith’s retirement from the NFL on Thursday reiterated a giant disparity in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. With just one Broncos player in the Hall (John Elway) and one en route (Gary Zimmerman), the Broncos have been entirely disrespected by voters.
This is clear, and it might get worse if Rod Smith doesn’t get in — his numbers are very similar to Hall member Michael Irvin’s, another former wide receiver — then they should burn the place down.
