Time for pro boxing to unleash the 'Mexican Monster'

May 22—Just when you think the powers that be in the game of professional boxing can't sink any deeper in stupidity, they find a way.

Stumbled onto Showtime Saturday night as I often do and found the main event between David Benavidez and David Lemieux for the "Interim WBA" 168-pound world championship.

Now, what an interim title is, I have no idea. The real 168-pound world champ is Canelo Alvarez. That is despite the fact Alvarez just lost, a couple weeks ago to the 175-pound world champ Dmitry Bivol.

But back to Benavidez for one second. If you have not seen this kid, take a look. He's 26-0 with 23 KOs, a fighter Mike Tyson called the "Mexican Monster." Benavidez is from Arizona of Mexican descent.

He's an absolute beast, but as they said on the broadcast many times, nobody wants to fight him.

That is why he was forced to pummel Lemieux on Saturday night. This is no knock on Lemieux. He's 33-year-old, former 160-pound world champion, with a ton of heart and character.

His best days are long past, though. and he's not a 168-pounder. He's at best a middleweight.

My beef, per usual, is not with the fighters. It's with the game. Why the heck is this kid Benavidez not being allowed to face the world's best? Where is Alvarez? Where is Bivol? Where is Gennady Golovkin or Jermall Charlo?

Boxing has to make fights. The powers that be have tried in the heavyweight division with Anthony Joshua, Deontay Wilder, Tyson Fury and now Ukrainian champ Oleksandr Usyk looking to gather interest by trading punches regularly. It's worked. Boxing has rebounded some.

But it's going to take more. It's going to take a kid like Benavidez. The time has come for the fight folks to let him be great.

BRUINS: REALITY CHECK

You have to give Bruins fans' credit this past week.

When the seventh-seeded B's were dumped in round 1 by No. 2 Carolina, there was much less indignation from the crowd, little groveling about officials, etc.

Fans understand. Boston just isn't that good. There is a reason the Bruins were the No. 7 in the East this season. That reason, of course, is talent, or a lack thereof.

The question now is how does Boston, or maybe even can Boston, pull itself from the abyss that is the NHL's middle of the pack?

Figure that Patrice Bergeron, now 36, and Brad Marchand, 34, are not part of this retooling here. Bergeron is fence-sitting when it comes to retirement and Marchand is at least deep into his back nine.

The backbone of this franchise is now David Pastrnak, Charlie McAvoy, Hampus Lindholm and Jeremy Swayman.

Is this Chara, Bergeron, Marchand, Rask 2.0?

We shall see. But here is where reality sets in.

Pastrnak, while dynamic and so fun to watch in the regular season, is +4 in 70 career playoff games. Seventy!

Marchand, who isn't exactly known as a playoff assassin (see the 2019 Stanley Cup Final vs. St. Louis), is +33 in 139 games as a contrast. He was +20 over his first 72 career playoff games. Can Pastrnak be trusted to lead this group?

You would hope that McAverage, sorry McAvoy, and Lindholm will be stable on the blue line. Lindholm was tossed into the fire with the late-season deal, and made a solid enough acquittal of himself. He's a true No. 2, first pairing guy. But what is McAvoy?

In 70 playoff games, he is +2. Not a misprint. The fact that he is -2 since taking over the lead spot from Zdeno Chara four years ago should scare the daylights out of you. Compare that to Colorado's Cale Makar, a true No. 1, who is +19 in just 42 playoff games.

The savior, of course, in all this could be Swayman, the rookie who delivered a solid, not spectacular performance, in his playoff baptism this spring. In five games (3-2), he posted a 2.63 goals against and a .911 save percentage.

Against the Canes, that wasn't good enough, but you have to think the 23-year-old is a foundational piece.

GET WELL MIKE!

News that former Channel 5 sports anchor Mike Lynch had suffered a stroke and the reports that followed that he was expected to make a full recovery hit Twitter this week.

"Lynchie," of course, has a slew of well-wishers. A huge supporter of Bay State high school sports, he's a heck of a nice guy and probably revolutionized the way that they are covered in these parts, not just with his creation of the weekly "High-5" feature but with his annual Thanksgiving football wrap-up show.

Great to hear he's back on the road to a complete recovery.

However, this does bring up my favorite Lynch story, one I've told or written about at least 100 times.

I get on the elevator in our New Orleans hotel the Saturday night before Super Bowl XXXVI back in February of 2002.

Yes, I may have had one or two drinks that night, and I saw Lynch step on the elevator heading down.

I said to him, "It was only 3 seconds!"

And without missing a beat, he responded, "Lawrence Central?!"

You see, Lynch happened to be one of the two basketball officials in February of 1983 when the Central Catholic Raiders were knocked off in the Division 1 North tournament by Lexington and the three Middleton Brothers.

It was a crushing loss. Our Central team was as good as that school had seen: Bobby Licare and Leo Parent were juniors, David Fazio was the senior captain. We had height with Kenny Muise, Dave Proulx, Doug Tilley and Chip MacDonald.

We were up five with 47 seconds left — there was no shot clock at the time — and suffered a heartbreaking loss, missing three front ends of the one-and-one (there was no double bonus either). But it was just a brutal five-second call on an out of bounds play — made by Lynch — that sunk Central that day, a call those of us there probably won't forget.

Neither did Lynch. The fact that he knew exactly what I was talking about 19 years later, without prompting, was just hilarious.

Just too good. Get well, man.

CELTICS TO ROLL IN GAME 4

If you follow me on Twitter (@mvcreature), you know I was confident in the Celtics during Saturday night's Game 3 loss at home to Miami. Boston was down 20 early, and it still felt to me that they would confidently rally to win it.

That didn't happen. The C's got as close as one point in the fourth and then again melted.

I know Boston is down 2-1 now. I know they need three wins in the final four games, two of which will be on South Beach.

The Heat can't beat Boston. Boston can beat Boston, for sure, but Miami can't. The Celtics proved it again Saturday night. They are their own worst enemy.

But it says here the C's put it together, roll in Game 4 and put Miami away in six, here at home, to advance to the NBA Finals.