Some easygoing messiness from the streets of South Texas

LAREDO, Tex. – A great Texas writer named John Graves once wrote a great Texas book named “Goodbye to a River” in which he described South Texas as “a piece of country with four or five different breeds of men and a consequent easygoing messiness of tone.” He got that right.

We honor Graves’ description with a stroll through this historic place and the prizefighting that happened in its confines Saturday.

You can’t start much better on the messiness of tone than with the climates you find in South Texas. There’s San Antonio – “Deep in the Heart” – that’s tropical as any city in the country. There’s Corpus Christi and Padre Island, which comprise some of Texas’ hundreds of miles of Atlantic coastline. And then there are the green and brown grasses and sturdy oaks that line the Rio Grande, a treacherous river that divides old Laredo from Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico.

It’s all Old Mexico, though, whatever arbitrary lines mapmakers eventually drew, whatever today’s overheated immigration debate says about it. A secret well-kept from legislators thousands of miles to the north: Laredo was here before there was a United States or Mexico; Laredo will be here whatever comes of them.

San Agustín de Laredo cathedral, a Catholic church a couple hundred meters from the Rio Grande, was founded in 1755 – 21 years before the American colonies declared their independence, 33 years before nine states ratified the Constitution and made ours a country of its own. The cathedral’s steeple still makes it Laredo’s second-tallest building.

Across Zaragoza Street sits something called the Republic of the Rio Grande Museum. It was closed three hours early, Saturday, locked up though its shudders were open. But the kindly concierge of the palatial La Posada Hotel next door knocked on the windows and insisted the proprietor must be round here somewhere.

That’s good a place as any to wade into the prizefighting that happened a few hours later in the Energy Center, a 10,000-seat edifice miles northwest of San Agustín, near the international airport. Its marquee had to compete for viewers with both a larger boxing telecast in Montreal and a local card from eight days before.

Energy Center’s director of marketing, Anissa Trevino, who deserves high marks for the hospitality she shows out-of-towners, said that local card bit into South Texans’ willingness and ability to support a second event in two weeks’ time.

Attendance was sparse – generosity said 2,000 folks were there – for “Top Rank Live,” a two-fight broadcast headlining a seven-fight card of mostly Texans. Among the visitors that acquitted themselves best, Oxnard, Calif.’s Mikey Garcia merits first mention.

Garcia went against Detroit southpaw Cornelius Lock, a man whose nickname could have become “Conquistador de Los Garcias” had he been able to handle Mikey well as he handled Juanito in 2008 and Jorge and Luis in 2002. Lock, you might remember, fought Juanito Garcia, a then-undefeated prospect out of Phoenix, on Telefutura’s “Solo Boxeo” program, on two-days’ notice, and starched him in the fourth round.

He had nowhere near so much luck with Mikey Garcia, Saturday.

Garcia appears to have every tool you look for in a prospect cum contender. At 22, he’s young. In 23 prizefights, he’s undefeated. And having now beat up Lock in an IBF featherweight eliminator, dropping him twice and making the referee stop the match early in the 11th round, Garcia’s 19 knockouts are validated. Keep an eye on him.

Writing of eyes, or perhaps views, we come to some of that South Texas messiness Graves told us about. “Top Rank Live’s” main event was a scrap for the vacant IBF lightweight title between Mexican Miguel Vazquez and South Korean Ji-Hoon Kim. The ringside judges scored the fight widely for the Mexican: 119-109, 120-108 and 118-110.

I wasn’t close to the action as they were, but my scorecard varied wildly from theirs. I had it 116-114 for Kim, and the Mexican beside me had the South Korean by an even wider margin. I scored rounds 1, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 12 for Kim. I had Vazquez winning rounds 3, 4, 6 and 11. And I made rounds 2 and 5 even.

Way I saw it, Vazquez was all head and shoulders and clinching, while Kim did the clean punching. If you haven’t seen him – and now, regrettably, you might not get the chance – Ji-Hoon Kim is fun to watch. He starts every round with a 1-2. He puts a light jab out there then launches a right cross. It’s thrown from the shoulder, correctly, and with so much intent that Kim’s right foot sometimes comes wholly of the mat. It takes some extra fortitude to expose yourself that openly time and again.

But Vazquez was bigger and stronger. He walked Kim 10 feet backwards in every extended clinch, as the South Korean unsuccessfully tried to free his arms and find space enough to punch. Vazquez wore Kim down, yes, but he didn’t land 20 consequential punches in 36 minutes of trying. And that 120-108 scorecard unfortunately says more about officials approved by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation than either fighter.

As someone who was in Energy Center Saturday, I can say I’d love to watch Kim fight again and will likely have to be reminded who Miguel Vazquez is when promoter Top Rank puts him in its upcoming lightweight tournament.

Which brings us back to the “Streets of Laredo” – old and Nuevo – and the Larry McMurtry novel that bears that famous title. You didn’t think I’d drive 150 miles each way without a literary soundtrack, did you? Augustus McCrae is dead by the time we get to the final audio book in McMurtry’s deservedly esteemed “Lonesome Dove” tetralogy. And Woodrow Call is an old man chasing a bandit through South Texas.

A bandit in Laredo, eh? Seems a good place to end things.

Bart Barry can be reached at bbarry@15rounds.com