A few weeks ago www.ringnews24.com asked unbeaten Heavyweight Deontay Wilder (24-0, 24) for an interview, sadly Wilder turned down the invitation and decided to show a lack of class in calling Ringnews24 a "second rate website". At first I, like many others, found this rather ironic as Wilder seems to love 4th and 5th rate opponents as he continues his 3rd rate career however having seen Wilder's next match up I no long see the irony.
The unbeaten, 6'7" "Bronze Bomber" is schedule to fight his 25th professional bout, and his 5th bout of 2012 against the unbeaten Damon McCreary (14-0, 10). Whilst it may have people going "well that's good isn't it? Unbeaten prospects colliding" it's sadly nothing more than a joke fight against yet another 5th rate opponent.
The 39 year old (yes 39!) McCreary may well be unbeaten but that is seriously his only selling point. He is not only 39 years old age, but has been out of the ring for almost 2 years having only fought once in the last 4 years and stands at a diminutive 5'11 (yes some 8 inches shorter than Wilder). In fact When McCreary made his debut way back in 1998 he weighed just 166lbs (effectively a Middleweight who hasn't tried to make weight) but last time out McCreary weighed in at an obese 230lbs!
Well done once again to those guiding Mr Deontay Wilder, a truly spectacular third rate Heavyweight. Someone should tell him that when he fights someone with a pulse the wider boxing public will care as many are now tired of this freak show that seems to be the career of Wilder.
Note-If any readers are overweight, in their 40's and fancy fighting an Olympic Bronze medal winner contact @BronzeBomber on twitter it's likely he'll be happy to give you a fight.
Monday, 3 September 2012
Muhammad Ali-The First Darts Champion Of The Word
Whilst doing research for a recent piece on a blog about the biggest sporting upsets I stumbled upon the name Alan Evans, a Welsh Darts player who was a biggish name in the late 1970's. As I'm always one to get side tracked (far too easily) I decided to read up a little bit on Alan Evans and discovered something very, very interesting.
In 1977 Muhammad Ali the then Heavyweight Champion of the World came over to Britain and spent some time in the North East. Whilst there Ali took part in an exhibition game of darts with the aforementioned Mr Evans at the Gypsy's Green stadium in South Shields. Evan's only allowed to score on the trebles was subsequently beaten by Ali who checked out on the bulls eye before crowing himself the Darts Champion of the World.
Sadly despite becoming the self proclaimed Darts Champion of the World Ali doesn't seem to have ever defended his title and the inaugural BDO World Darts Championship was held the following year in Ali's absence with Leighton Rees winning the title against John Lowe in the final.
As a bit of self advertising, to read the Sporting Upset article please read here.
In 1977 Muhammad Ali the then Heavyweight Champion of the World came over to Britain and spent some time in the North East. Whilst there Ali took part in an exhibition game of darts with the aforementioned Mr Evans at the Gypsy's Green stadium in South Shields. Evan's only allowed to score on the trebles was subsequently beaten by Ali who checked out on the bulls eye before crowing himself the Darts Champion of the World.
Sadly despite becoming the self proclaimed Darts Champion of the World Ali doesn't seem to have ever defended his title and the inaugural BDO World Darts Championship was held the following year in Ali's absence with Leighton Rees winning the title against John Lowe in the final.
As a bit of self advertising, to read the Sporting Upset article please read here.
Sunday, 1 July 2012
We're a peculiar lot us boxing fans...
...if you visit any boxing forum in the world you are almost certainly going to run into a number of "fan types" who are more fans of a certain fighter (or fighters) than they are of the sport. Whilst it's not a bad thing to be a fan of a fighter by any means (we all have our favourites) the fact they seem to care more about their fighter than the rest of the sport concerns me.
Boxing lives on it's "star attractions" the big names such as Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. Sadly over the past few years the number of star attractions has dwindled to only a handful of names a drastic difference to the 1990's when we had Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Oscar De La Hoya, Felix Trinidad, Roy Jones Jr, Julio Cesar Chavez Sr, Lennox Lewis, Prince Naseem Hamed and Sugar Shane Mosley to name just a few.
This is where the issue lies, the fans of fighters are almost cultist in their beliefs. For example Pacquiao fans are Pacquiao fans first, boxing fans second (if at all), when Pacquiao retires those fans will, on the vast part, retire with him. Likewise Mayweather fans will stop watching when Mayweather eventually turns his back on the sport. Then what?
The people watching our sport on an annual basis in the US is about to shrink, massively. When Mayweather and Pacquiao hang up their gloves their isn't likely to be someone ready to step into their shoes. Of course there is Canelo Alvarez who is being primed to take over their role but yet is completely unproven at Pay-Per View level, ditto Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.
Sadly when the fan base shrinks the TV slots will shrink, the money for fighters will become more limited and the opportunity for new break out fighters will diminish. Thankfully however we, as fans can do things to stop the sport from vanishing, we need to stick together. We need to tell the networks what we want, we need to help them. Rather than allowing us to force feed us rubbish (like the proposed Alvarez v Freitas fight) we need to stand up and demand things like Maidana v Matthysse, fights that will turn a sports fan into a boxing fan. We need to give exposure to unknown fighters, tell everyone about the hottest prospect you saw at the weekend, share the vicious knockouts and do all you can to get people watching our sport!
Boxing fans unite!
Boxing lives on it's "star attractions" the big names such as Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. Sadly over the past few years the number of star attractions has dwindled to only a handful of names a drastic difference to the 1990's when we had Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Oscar De La Hoya, Felix Trinidad, Roy Jones Jr, Julio Cesar Chavez Sr, Lennox Lewis, Prince Naseem Hamed and Sugar Shane Mosley to name just a few.
This is where the issue lies, the fans of fighters are almost cultist in their beliefs. For example Pacquiao fans are Pacquiao fans first, boxing fans second (if at all), when Pacquiao retires those fans will, on the vast part, retire with him. Likewise Mayweather fans will stop watching when Mayweather eventually turns his back on the sport. Then what?
The people watching our sport on an annual basis in the US is about to shrink, massively. When Mayweather and Pacquiao hang up their gloves their isn't likely to be someone ready to step into their shoes. Of course there is Canelo Alvarez who is being primed to take over their role but yet is completely unproven at Pay-Per View level, ditto Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.
Sadly when the fan base shrinks the TV slots will shrink, the money for fighters will become more limited and the opportunity for new break out fighters will diminish. Thankfully however we, as fans can do things to stop the sport from vanishing, we need to stick together. We need to tell the networks what we want, we need to help them. Rather than allowing us to force feed us rubbish (like the proposed Alvarez v Freitas fight) we need to stand up and demand things like Maidana v Matthysse, fights that will turn a sports fan into a boxing fan. We need to give exposure to unknown fighters, tell everyone about the hottest prospect you saw at the weekend, share the vicious knockouts and do all you can to get people watching our sport!
Boxing fans unite!
Wednesday, 20 June 2012
What in the world has happened to our sport!
I was with out internet for about 4 weeks due to a huge balls up at out nearest BT Exchange and it seems like whilst I've been gone this sport has gone tits up...
Exhibit A-
Scoring Bradley v Pacquioa
What were the judges watching here? I have now seen this bout and I have no idea how 2 of the judges scored the bout to Bradley, in fact I've not idea how the score cards are possibly as close as they are. Surely everyone who has seen the bout knows that Pacquiao won so what on earth were the judges doing?
Exhibit B-
Result Quigg v Munroe
Scott Quigg's recent WBA Interin Super Bantamweight title bout with Rendall Munroe was adjudged to have been a "3rd round technical draw". Whilst under the rules of the BBBofC (British Boxing Board of Control) this would have been the correct decision we need to remember that the WBA rules would have over-ridden the British rules. Under the WBA rules the bout should have been a No Contest or No Decision.
Exhibit C 1-
Drugs Larry Olubamiwo
British Heavyweight Larry Olubamiwo has confessed to having been on 13 different types of performance enhancing substances over the last 6 years. How he managed to go 6 years with out a positive test would be remarkable...had he actually been forced to give a test at any point in his career prior to his fight with Sam Sexton. His drugs test after the Sexton fight actually tested positive for EPO.
Exhibit C 2-
Can't piss in Texas Julio Cesar Chavez Jr
It appears that Julio Cesar Chavez has skipped another urine test (this is just a rumour as far as I'm aware though it deserves to be included here) in Texas. Maybe poor Julio just can't piss in Texas...or maybe there is more to this story. Sadly we won't know any time soon it seems.
Exhibit A-
Scoring Bradley v Pacquioa
What were the judges watching here? I have now seen this bout and I have no idea how 2 of the judges scored the bout to Bradley, in fact I've not idea how the score cards are possibly as close as they are. Surely everyone who has seen the bout knows that Pacquiao won so what on earth were the judges doing?
Exhibit B-
Result Quigg v Munroe
Scott Quigg's recent WBA Interin Super Bantamweight title bout with Rendall Munroe was adjudged to have been a "3rd round technical draw". Whilst under the rules of the BBBofC (British Boxing Board of Control) this would have been the correct decision we need to remember that the WBA rules would have over-ridden the British rules. Under the WBA rules the bout should have been a No Contest or No Decision.
Exhibit C 1-
Drugs Larry Olubamiwo
British Heavyweight Larry Olubamiwo has confessed to having been on 13 different types of performance enhancing substances over the last 6 years. How he managed to go 6 years with out a positive test would be remarkable...had he actually been forced to give a test at any point in his career prior to his fight with Sam Sexton. His drugs test after the Sexton fight actually tested positive for EPO.
Exhibit C 2-
Can't piss in Texas Julio Cesar Chavez Jr
It appears that Julio Cesar Chavez has skipped another urine test (this is just a rumour as far as I'm aware though it deserves to be included here) in Texas. Maybe poor Julio just can't piss in Texas...or maybe there is more to this story. Sadly we won't know any time soon it seems.
Wednesday, 9 May 2012
Haye v Chisora-Shameful
So the biggest boxing story this side of the Atlantic is that former 2-weight "World Champion" David Haye (I have always refused to accept his illegitimate WBA Heavyweight title reign) will be facing former world title challenger Dereck Chisora on a card licensed by the Federation Luxembourgeoise De Boxe. The card, dubbed "License to Thrill" may well excite some of the casual fans who two well known names, though sadly, from my point of view it's a disgusting cash grab by 3 men who have shame this sport numerous times over the years.
Firstly you have the public face of the bout and Chisora's "manager" Frank Warren. Warren has been described as a human fish and has seen many professional relationships fall apart including relationships with former IBF Light Welterweight champion Terry Marsh (who was tried for an assassination attempt on Mr Warren) and former 2-weight world champions Ricky Hatton and Joe Calzaghe. In fact in recent months alone we've seen former Olympic Gold Medal winner James DeGale and current Light Heavyweight contender Tony Bellew having soured relations with Mr Warren.
Whilst Warren won't technically be the promoter of the bout he appears to be the man at the fore front of the bout. He's the man who owns a major stake in the TV channel that will be showing the bout (Box Nation) and he's also the man who appears to be doing the promotional work for the bout, including the announcement and the press conference for the bout earlier this week.
In recent months there have been a lot of rumours about Warren being unable to pay fighters (or at very least unable to pay in a reasonable time frame) and he has in the past declared a company bankrupt when Joe Calzaghe sued him. Yet he has managed to maintain a BBBofC (British Boxing Board of Control) license much to the disgust of many in the sport.
Second you have Dereck "Del Boy" Chisora, a fighter who courts controversy like no other in Britain. Chisora has bitten opponents (Paul Butlin), kissed opponents at a weigh in (Carl Baker), slapped an opponent at a weigh in (Vitali Klitschko), spat an opponents second (Wladimir Klitschko) and came in hugely over-weight for one of the biggest fights of his career (against Tyson Fury). Chisora has also been found guilty of crimes and is a man who really needs to be "taught" a lesson by serving a lengthy ban, not by effectively being out of the ring for 6 months, the general time a fighter at this level is out of the ring.
Thirdly you have David Haye a man who bored the pants off fans by throwing only a handful of punches over 12 rounds against Nikolai Valuev then followed that performance up with 2 rounds of nothing against Audley Harrison who was visibly crapping his pants and then again bored us senseless with his bout against Wladimir Klitschko before complaining about a sore toe.
As well as Haye's embarrassing "sore toe" he's also embarrassed himself with his mouth, claiming he was "the saviour of the heavyweight division" (amongst others), with his shirts (the infamous one of him holding the Klitschko brothers severed heads) and of course his actions which included throwing a tripod at Chisora earlier this year.
Sadly whilst the media may be going crazy over this bout it's nothing more than a farce that may end up making boxing a bigger joke than it already is. The introduction of the Federation Luxembourgeoise De Boxe into Britain could well lead to a second "British title" which means we could end up effectively having a very messy British title scene (much like the current world title scene with the WBA, WBC, WBO and IBF titles). If we end up with multiple British titles and a split in professional British boxing, on your head be it Mr Warren, Mr Chisora and Mr Haye, it's an obvious cash grab by the 3 of you and you should all be ashamed.
Firstly you have the public face of the bout and Chisora's "manager" Frank Warren. Warren has been described as a human fish and has seen many professional relationships fall apart including relationships with former IBF Light Welterweight champion Terry Marsh (who was tried for an assassination attempt on Mr Warren) and former 2-weight world champions Ricky Hatton and Joe Calzaghe. In fact in recent months alone we've seen former Olympic Gold Medal winner James DeGale and current Light Heavyweight contender Tony Bellew having soured relations with Mr Warren.
Whilst Warren won't technically be the promoter of the bout he appears to be the man at the fore front of the bout. He's the man who owns a major stake in the TV channel that will be showing the bout (Box Nation) and he's also the man who appears to be doing the promotional work for the bout, including the announcement and the press conference for the bout earlier this week.
In recent months there have been a lot of rumours about Warren being unable to pay fighters (or at very least unable to pay in a reasonable time frame) and he has in the past declared a company bankrupt when Joe Calzaghe sued him. Yet he has managed to maintain a BBBofC (British Boxing Board of Control) license much to the disgust of many in the sport.
Second you have Dereck "Del Boy" Chisora, a fighter who courts controversy like no other in Britain. Chisora has bitten opponents (Paul Butlin), kissed opponents at a weigh in (Carl Baker), slapped an opponent at a weigh in (Vitali Klitschko), spat an opponents second (Wladimir Klitschko) and came in hugely over-weight for one of the biggest fights of his career (against Tyson Fury). Chisora has also been found guilty of crimes and is a man who really needs to be "taught" a lesson by serving a lengthy ban, not by effectively being out of the ring for 6 months, the general time a fighter at this level is out of the ring.
Thirdly you have David Haye a man who bored the pants off fans by throwing only a handful of punches over 12 rounds against Nikolai Valuev then followed that performance up with 2 rounds of nothing against Audley Harrison who was visibly crapping his pants and then again bored us senseless with his bout against Wladimir Klitschko before complaining about a sore toe.
As well as Haye's embarrassing "sore toe" he's also embarrassed himself with his mouth, claiming he was "the saviour of the heavyweight division" (amongst others), with his shirts (the infamous one of him holding the Klitschko brothers severed heads) and of course his actions which included throwing a tripod at Chisora earlier this year.
Sadly whilst the media may be going crazy over this bout it's nothing more than a farce that may end up making boxing a bigger joke than it already is. The introduction of the Federation Luxembourgeoise De Boxe into Britain could well lead to a second "British title" which means we could end up effectively having a very messy British title scene (much like the current world title scene with the WBA, WBC, WBO and IBF titles). If we end up with multiple British titles and a split in professional British boxing, on your head be it Mr Warren, Mr Chisora and Mr Haye, it's an obvious cash grab by the 3 of you and you should all be ashamed.
Friday, 4 May 2012
Sugar Shane the man with a golden name?
We all know that in boxing your name can mean more than your real worth and in the past few years it seems that for Sugar Shane Mosley that is all he has. The former 3 weight world champion started his career with an excellent run of 38-0 whilst also winning the IBF Lightweight and WBC Welterweight titles between 1993 and 2001. He had legitimately become one of the genuine pound-for-pound fighters of the era and whilst it's true that he was lucky to get the win over Oscar De La Hoya in 2000 he was competing with some of the best in the world.
In the following decade or so however Mosley has been unable to ever get near the sort of success he once had and has gone 8-7-1-1 since knocking out Adrian Stone way back in July 2001. Losses to the likes of Vernon Forrest (twice), Winky Wright (twice), Miguel Cotto, Floyd Mayweather Jr and Manny Pacquiao are nothing to be ashamed for but the manner of the losses, especially to Pacquiao and Mayweather showed that Mosley is a fighter that is there for the taking. In fact Mosley is so show I'd not be shocked to see the horribly over-rated Saul "Canelo" Alvarez stop Mosley who is 0-2-1 in the last 3 years!
Whilst it's not unheard of for former champions to be getting undeserved chances (Jose Antonio Aguirre being another notable example) this is merely taking the mick now a days. Since the victory over Stone Mosley is 2-7 in world title bouts (or 3-7 if you include interim title fights) and at 40 years old someone needs to stop giving him these chances. Maybe it will take a KO loss to Canelo to make him think twice. Saying this however I personally would love for Shane to land a bomb on Canelo and burst that hype bubble.
In a similar "story" we've read that Mikkel Kessler will be facing Allan Green in a bout for the WBC Silver Light Heavyweight title. As with Mosley we've no idea how Green is managing to get yet another title opportunity. Green was beaten in 2 of his last 4 bouts with 1 of those losses coming in a very undeserved world title bout (where Green joined the Super 6 and faced Andre Ward) and yet he's being "rewarded" with another world title bout at a higher weight? Sorry but when will this sport start taking it's self seriously again?
I've given up ranting about robberies (which we see on a weekly basis) but I won't stop ranting full stop.
In the following decade or so however Mosley has been unable to ever get near the sort of success he once had and has gone 8-7-1-1 since knocking out Adrian Stone way back in July 2001. Losses to the likes of Vernon Forrest (twice), Winky Wright (twice), Miguel Cotto, Floyd Mayweather Jr and Manny Pacquiao are nothing to be ashamed for but the manner of the losses, especially to Pacquiao and Mayweather showed that Mosley is a fighter that is there for the taking. In fact Mosley is so show I'd not be shocked to see the horribly over-rated Saul "Canelo" Alvarez stop Mosley who is 0-2-1 in the last 3 years!
Whilst it's not unheard of for former champions to be getting undeserved chances (Jose Antonio Aguirre being another notable example) this is merely taking the mick now a days. Since the victory over Stone Mosley is 2-7 in world title bouts (or 3-7 if you include interim title fights) and at 40 years old someone needs to stop giving him these chances. Maybe it will take a KO loss to Canelo to make him think twice. Saying this however I personally would love for Shane to land a bomb on Canelo and burst that hype bubble.
In a similar "story" we've read that Mikkel Kessler will be facing Allan Green in a bout for the WBC Silver Light Heavyweight title. As with Mosley we've no idea how Green is managing to get yet another title opportunity. Green was beaten in 2 of his last 4 bouts with 1 of those losses coming in a very undeserved world title bout (where Green joined the Super 6 and faced Andre Ward) and yet he's being "rewarded" with another world title bout at a higher weight? Sorry but when will this sport start taking it's self seriously again?
I've given up ranting about robberies (which we see on a weekly basis) but I won't stop ranting full stop.
Friday, 2 March 2012
Boxing's new unfortunate name?
Sometimes boxers for some reason just have names they shouldn't. The most obvious example is the always fun Eric Crumble whose record has become a thing of mockery on many boxing forums, though he was a man who lived up to his name and (excuse the pun)...crumbled. Now though he may have a rival in the form of American Cruiserweight D'Quan Morgan...yes his name starts with "DQ".
Although D'Quan Morgan has yet to be DQ'd in a bout (going 1-0-1, 1 so far) the headlines write themselves for all us boxing writers who are waiting for the day we can open up the treasure chest of puns based on his name.
http://boxrec.com/list_bouts.php?human_id=573103&cat=boxer
Although D'Quan Morgan has yet to be DQ'd in a bout (going 1-0-1, 1 so far) the headlines write themselves for all us boxing writers who are waiting for the day we can open up the treasure chest of puns based on his name.
http://boxrec.com/list_bouts.php?human_id=573103&cat=boxer
Saturday, 28 January 2012
Have Box Nation dropped the ball (again)
In Germany this evening we have one of the first stand out cards of the year with the following fights:
Ruslan Chagaev (27-2-1, 17) v Kerston Manswell (22-3, 17)
Denis Boytsov (29-0, 24) v Darnell Wilson (24-13-1, 20)
Rakhim Chakhkiev (11-0, 9) v Alexander Kotlobay (21-2-1, 15)
Juergen Braehmer (36-2, 19) v Jose Maria Guerrero (29-2-1, 11)
The card also features Ina Menzer, Vitali Tajbert, Firat Arslan, Marcel Meyerdiercks and the debut of Evgeny Tishchenko (a 6'5 Cruiserweight). To me this is a card that should be getting shown on British TV. Sky have a good excuse not to show it, they have Carl Frampton's card on instead (nowhere near as good but it does have British interest) though a "specialised" boxing channel which is instead showing repeats hasn't got an excuse at all.
Now I have been incredibly harsh (harsh but fair) on Box Nation since it started but for the "Home of Boxing" not to be picking up THIS card is a disgrace (a big disgrace). Boxnation promised it's subscribers 2 cards a weekend though this weekend has given it's loyal and paying customers NOTHING new (unless you count Steve Bunce's talk show "new", personally I can't stand the jumped up fat man). If you are a paying customer you must be annoyed that they haven't picked up this card, especially considering they didn't have anything on last Saturday either.
In fact (unless I'm making a counting error somewhere) Boxnation have only covered 3 shows all year (and we are 4 weeks into the year), that is less than 1 show a week..in fact rather than paying £1.25 a show as first advertised, the customers have paid £3.33 a show. So when one like this comes along why didn't they do everything they could to snap up the rights? A card like this is genuinely worth £3.33 to boxing fans, many other cards aren't. Here we have 4 interesting fights, a number of former world champions (Chagaev, Arslan, Braehmer, Tajbert and Menzer) and a number of future champions the card is genuinely stacked.
Last weekend Boxnation gave us a single card on Friday night with Derry Matthews facing unheralded Emiliano Marsili for the IBO. The main event was one of the best fights of January (genuinely good fight) but the under-card was a complete joke which saw the chief support being Steve Harkin v Jason Ball in a bout that looked like it could have been 2 drunks outside the Red Lion on a Friday night. I really cannot fathom how that Harkin v Ball fight ever made it's way near TV it was indefensible and shows all the skill levels of some untrained drunks (despite that it was entertaining for all the wrong reasons).
Thankfully it seems I'm no longer the only one sick of the channel promising the world but delivering nothing. Earlier this week James DeGale seemed to say (quite clearly) that he and Frank Warren were done, Frankie Gavin publicly complained about the money he had been offered to fight Jason Cook and the upcoming Tony Bellew v Danny McIntosh fight saw the purse bids won by Dave Caldwell instead of Bellew's promoter Warren. To say the least these have been interesting developments.
Ruslan Chagaev (27-2-1, 17) v Kerston Manswell (22-3, 17)
Denis Boytsov (29-0, 24) v Darnell Wilson (24-13-1, 20)
Rakhim Chakhkiev (11-0, 9) v Alexander Kotlobay (21-2-1, 15)
Juergen Braehmer (36-2, 19) v Jose Maria Guerrero (29-2-1, 11)
The card also features Ina Menzer, Vitali Tajbert, Firat Arslan, Marcel Meyerdiercks and the debut of Evgeny Tishchenko (a 6'5 Cruiserweight). To me this is a card that should be getting shown on British TV. Sky have a good excuse not to show it, they have Carl Frampton's card on instead (nowhere near as good but it does have British interest) though a "specialised" boxing channel which is instead showing repeats hasn't got an excuse at all.
Now I have been incredibly harsh (harsh but fair) on Box Nation since it started but for the "Home of Boxing" not to be picking up THIS card is a disgrace (a big disgrace). Boxnation promised it's subscribers 2 cards a weekend though this weekend has given it's loyal and paying customers NOTHING new (unless you count Steve Bunce's talk show "new", personally I can't stand the jumped up fat man). If you are a paying customer you must be annoyed that they haven't picked up this card, especially considering they didn't have anything on last Saturday either.
In fact (unless I'm making a counting error somewhere) Boxnation have only covered 3 shows all year (and we are 4 weeks into the year), that is less than 1 show a week..in fact rather than paying £1.25 a show as first advertised, the customers have paid £3.33 a show. So when one like this comes along why didn't they do everything they could to snap up the rights? A card like this is genuinely worth £3.33 to boxing fans, many other cards aren't. Here we have 4 interesting fights, a number of former world champions (Chagaev, Arslan, Braehmer, Tajbert and Menzer) and a number of future champions the card is genuinely stacked.
Last weekend Boxnation gave us a single card on Friday night with Derry Matthews facing unheralded Emiliano Marsili for the IBO. The main event was one of the best fights of January (genuinely good fight) but the under-card was a complete joke which saw the chief support being Steve Harkin v Jason Ball in a bout that looked like it could have been 2 drunks outside the Red Lion on a Friday night. I really cannot fathom how that Harkin v Ball fight ever made it's way near TV it was indefensible and shows all the skill levels of some untrained drunks (despite that it was entertaining for all the wrong reasons).
Thankfully it seems I'm no longer the only one sick of the channel promising the world but delivering nothing. Earlier this week James DeGale seemed to say (quite clearly) that he and Frank Warren were done, Frankie Gavin publicly complained about the money he had been offered to fight Jason Cook and the upcoming Tony Bellew v Danny McIntosh fight saw the purse bids won by Dave Caldwell instead of Bellew's promoter Warren. To say the least these have been interesting developments.
Wednesday, 4 January 2012
Speak out Steve!
I've never been a big fan of Steve Bunce and his over-hyper nature when he has been on TV or even his writing for that matter. At the moment Mr Bunce works basically as the face of subscription TV channel "Box Nation" hosting not only his own weekly magazine show but also featuring on near enough every live card the channel has so far shown.
Personally I feel that Steve often comes across much like a child who has been eating sweets all day then been told to sit on TV. His hyper-activity and crazy rants are often misconstrued as enthusiasm for the sport rather than one mans love affair with his own vocal chords and more tellingly his views are all to often see through. Be it Bunce's pro-British stance or negative views towards certain fighters (notably a rant on Ismayl Sillahk) his opinion is shouted out at the TV...much like a fan of the sport. In fact it's because Steve is a fan of the sport that I'm writing this entry on the blog. First and foremost Steve comes across as a genuine fan, he shares his views an awful lot and comes across as unprofessional as a result. If you will he's a fan and then a journalist, not a straight journalist.
Because Steve Bunce strikes me as a fan of the sport I need to make a public plea, can EVERY British Boxing fan urge Steve to speak out. Bunce is one of the men who has a solid voice on Box Nation and is also one of the fans of the sport, he of all people should know what WE, the fans want to see, we want to see the same thing he wants to see. WE boxing fans, want to see good, 50-50 fights, not mismatches, not cynical attempts to cash in on a fighter and no over the top hyperbole to sell a fight.
Recently we've all heard that unbeaten Nathan Cleverly (23-0, 11), the WBO Light Heavyweight Champion of the World will defend his title against the almost unknown Tommy Karpency (21-2-1, 14). Box Nation will be showing this fight live and yet EVERY boxing fan you can find is happy to tell you that this isn't a fight they want to see. The 25 year old Karpency has shown that he isn't the sort of quality that a world challenger needs to be, he has suffered losses to journeyman Rayco Saunders and former Cleverly victim Karo Murat as well as a draw with journeyman Demetrius Davis, he has yet to beat a fighter of any note at all. Now whilst it's fine for Frank Warren (Nathan Cleverly's promoter) to try and hype the fight, it would be awful for Bunce to push the fight as a good one. If Bunce attempts to pull the wool over our eyes we should just give up with the guy as he would sadly have proven he lacks the integrity that boxing fans deserve.
So again, I call on the boxing world to tell Bunce to Speak out!
Personally I feel that Steve often comes across much like a child who has been eating sweets all day then been told to sit on TV. His hyper-activity and crazy rants are often misconstrued as enthusiasm for the sport rather than one mans love affair with his own vocal chords and more tellingly his views are all to often see through. Be it Bunce's pro-British stance or negative views towards certain fighters (notably a rant on Ismayl Sillahk) his opinion is shouted out at the TV...much like a fan of the sport. In fact it's because Steve is a fan of the sport that I'm writing this entry on the blog. First and foremost Steve comes across as a genuine fan, he shares his views an awful lot and comes across as unprofessional as a result. If you will he's a fan and then a journalist, not a straight journalist.
Because Steve Bunce strikes me as a fan of the sport I need to make a public plea, can EVERY British Boxing fan urge Steve to speak out. Bunce is one of the men who has a solid voice on Box Nation and is also one of the fans of the sport, he of all people should know what WE, the fans want to see, we want to see the same thing he wants to see. WE boxing fans, want to see good, 50-50 fights, not mismatches, not cynical attempts to cash in on a fighter and no over the top hyperbole to sell a fight.
Recently we've all heard that unbeaten Nathan Cleverly (23-0, 11), the WBO Light Heavyweight Champion of the World will defend his title against the almost unknown Tommy Karpency (21-2-1, 14). Box Nation will be showing this fight live and yet EVERY boxing fan you can find is happy to tell you that this isn't a fight they want to see. The 25 year old Karpency has shown that he isn't the sort of quality that a world challenger needs to be, he has suffered losses to journeyman Rayco Saunders and former Cleverly victim Karo Murat as well as a draw with journeyman Demetrius Davis, he has yet to beat a fighter of any note at all. Now whilst it's fine for Frank Warren (Nathan Cleverly's promoter) to try and hype the fight, it would be awful for Bunce to push the fight as a good one. If Bunce attempts to pull the wool over our eyes we should just give up with the guy as he would sadly have proven he lacks the integrity that boxing fans deserve.
So again, I call on the boxing world to tell Bunce to Speak out!
Tuesday, 6 December 2011
Fight of the year? More like Year of the Fights
2011 has been a treat for boxing fans, and seriously you may have seen some stinkers, or felt slightly ripped off about certain things (Wladimir Klitschko v David Haye for example, or the judging in a number of notable fights) but you'll almost certainly have seen some amazing fights. Part way through the year there was a thread on the amazing Budweiser Boxing forum that started talking about the best fights of 2011...I took the thread a bit further than a short list and did more of a...long list...and since then have added more fights, and here is the long list for 2011's fight of the year:
Acosta v Rios
Arce v Vazquez Jr
Berto v Ortiz
Concepcion v Marquez
Lee v McEwan
Lopez v Salido
Maidana v Morales
Odom v Omotoso
Robles v Silva
Rodriguez v Wolak
Berto v Zaveck
Ceda v Narvaez
DeMarco v Sanchez
Murat v Campillo II
Froch v Johnson
Iwasa v Yamanaka
Lujan v Melligen
Mitchell v Murray
Macklin v Sturm
Appleby v Walsh
Aaron v Webb
Diaz v Kennedy
Miranda v Viloria
Chavez Jr v Zbik
Geale v Sylvester
Guerrero v Katsidis
Jamoye v McDonnell
John v Yordan
Lopez v Lundy
Robinson v Sexton I
Chisora v Fury
Conyers v De La Rosa
Antillion v Rios
Crolla v Watson
Gonzalez v Sierra
Gutierrez v Palacios
Hovhannisyan v Marquez
Hernandez v Keb Baas
Lara v Molina
Robinson v Sexton II
Barrett v Tua II
Coleman v Paris
Cotto v Mayorga
Arce v Nongqayi II
Frankel v Molina
Gomez v Granados
Huck v Nakash
Huerta v Martin
Lemieux v Rubio
Martirosyan v Roman
Firtha v Fury
Hasegawa v Gonzalez
Cleverly v Bellew
Molitor v Gauthier
Theron v Cote
Angulo v Kirkland
Aspera v Silvestri
Vincente v Gonzalez
Porpramook v Yaegashi
Arce v Angkotta II
Helenius v Chisora
Martinez v Castaneda
Murray v Sturm
Murray v Rios
If you've missed any of these, make you sure you try to catch them, they are full of action, bombs and in some cases a fair bit of controversy. If you are a fight fan you need to have watched at least half of these!
Acosta v Rios
Arce v Vazquez Jr
Berto v Ortiz
Concepcion v Marquez
Lee v McEwan
Lopez v Salido
Maidana v Morales
Odom v Omotoso
Robles v Silva
Rodriguez v Wolak
Berto v Zaveck
Ceda v Narvaez
DeMarco v Sanchez
Murat v Campillo II
Froch v Johnson
Iwasa v Yamanaka
Lujan v Melligen
Mitchell v Murray
Macklin v Sturm
Appleby v Walsh
Aaron v Webb
Diaz v Kennedy
Miranda v Viloria
Chavez Jr v Zbik
Geale v Sylvester
Guerrero v Katsidis
Jamoye v McDonnell
John v Yordan
Lopez v Lundy
Robinson v Sexton I
Chisora v Fury
Conyers v De La Rosa
Antillion v Rios
Crolla v Watson
Gonzalez v Sierra
Gutierrez v Palacios
Hovhannisyan v Marquez
Hernandez v Keb Baas
Lara v Molina
Robinson v Sexton II
Barrett v Tua II
Coleman v Paris
Cotto v Mayorga
Arce v Nongqayi II
Frankel v Molina
Gomez v Granados
Huck v Nakash
Huerta v Martin
Lemieux v Rubio
Martirosyan v Roman
Firtha v Fury
Hasegawa v Gonzalez
Cleverly v Bellew
Molitor v Gauthier
Theron v Cote
Angulo v Kirkland
Aspera v Silvestri
Vincente v Gonzalez
Porpramook v Yaegashi
Arce v Angkotta II
Helenius v Chisora
Martinez v Castaneda
Murray v Sturm
Murray v Rios
If you've missed any of these, make you sure you try to catch them, they are full of action, bombs and in some cases a fair bit of controversy. If you are a fight fan you need to have watched at least half of these!
Thursday, 1 December 2011
Canelo the fraud?
When it comes to boxing superstars it's obvious that both Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao and Floyd “Money” Mayweather are by far the two biggest names. The third most popular fighter in the world however is quite likely to be Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, the 21 year old Mexican who currently holds the WBC Light Middleweight title and has an unbeaten record of 39-0-1 (29KO's). Whilst the young, red headed fighter is popular and a real emerging star of Mexican boxing, he has left some fans with real doubts.
“Canelo” turned professional aged just 15 and won his debut via 4th round TKO and in fact would pick up a number of KO's early in his career despite struggling against Miguel Vazquez (the current WBC Lightweight champion) and scoring a draw against Jorge Juarez. Between 2005 and 2008 Canelo would pick up a number of easy wins before stepping up his opposition and beating guys like Gabriel Martinez, Raul Pinzon and Larry Mosley.
It was maybe in 2010 that the major first questions were asked of Canelo as he beat up the much smaller Jose Miguel Cotto. It wasn't just that Canelo had effectively been matched with a guy several weights smaller than himself but he was also visibly shaken when Cotto caught him in the opening round and seemed to open up questions regarding Canelo's chin. Although Canelo would weather the storm and eventually stop Cotto it was a worry that he was even shaken.
In 2011 however bigger and more revealing questions have been asked about both Canelo's opponents and his out of the ring character. Whilst Canelo has won a world title, he did face the smaller Matthew Hatton to win the title, and in 2 of his 3 defences since he has faced smaller men (both Alfonso Gomez and Kermit Cintron are natural Welterweights). It seems to be a bit of a pattern of Canelo's career, facing smaller men. To date his “best” wins have all been against smaller men (Vazquez, Cotto, Hatton, Gomez, Cintron) though it seems that it's not just in the ring that he likes to pick on the little man.
If stories are to be believed then Alvarez, a man who fights at 154lbs beat up the much smaller Ulises “Archie” Solis (who fights at 108lbs) due to Solis getting close to Canelo's ex girlfriend. This resulted in Solis suffering a broken jaw (broken in 3 places), losing several teeth and having bruises. Whilst this case does seem to be heading towards court Canelo has denied the attack (pointing the finger at one of his brothers), if found to be guilty the long term damage to Canelo's career may be massively damaging. The worrying thing about the story though is that WBC president Jose Sulaiman is quoted as saying “We at the WBC will pay the expenses on the damages that Ulises ‘Archie’ SolÃs has received not knowing who caused these damages”, a bit strange that the WBC would offer to pay Solis' damages regardless of whether they knew who caused it or not. If the WBC are making this payment, do they maybe know something that Saul Alvarez isn't telling us?
Whilst Canelo has the world at his feet, he may end up being one of the fighters who becomes a true “bad boy” of the sport, or gets a reputation as either a hot head (something we've seen from him in a number of fights) or a man who will only fight smaller men. Until Canelo faces a true threat (and there is a number of them out there) such as Carlos Molina, Erislandy Lara, Lukas Konecny, James Kirkland or even Javier Maciel there has to be doubts about his ability to fight someone who isn't smaller.
Is Canelo a fraud? It's hard to say either way, though it's obvious that he's yet to really face a solid threat his own size. Whilst I'd lean towards him being over-rated it's hard to say just how long he will remain at the top. If he continues to face relative nobodies and smaller men he could easily remain at the top until he grows grey and WBC president Jose Sulaiman passes away due to old age. If he however fights the best fighters out there I'll be honest, I don't see his reign lasting long at all.
“Canelo” turned professional aged just 15 and won his debut via 4th round TKO and in fact would pick up a number of KO's early in his career despite struggling against Miguel Vazquez (the current WBC Lightweight champion) and scoring a draw against Jorge Juarez. Between 2005 and 2008 Canelo would pick up a number of easy wins before stepping up his opposition and beating guys like Gabriel Martinez, Raul Pinzon and Larry Mosley.
It was maybe in 2010 that the major first questions were asked of Canelo as he beat up the much smaller Jose Miguel Cotto. It wasn't just that Canelo had effectively been matched with a guy several weights smaller than himself but he was also visibly shaken when Cotto caught him in the opening round and seemed to open up questions regarding Canelo's chin. Although Canelo would weather the storm and eventually stop Cotto it was a worry that he was even shaken.
In 2011 however bigger and more revealing questions have been asked about both Canelo's opponents and his out of the ring character. Whilst Canelo has won a world title, he did face the smaller Matthew Hatton to win the title, and in 2 of his 3 defences since he has faced smaller men (both Alfonso Gomez and Kermit Cintron are natural Welterweights). It seems to be a bit of a pattern of Canelo's career, facing smaller men. To date his “best” wins have all been against smaller men (Vazquez, Cotto, Hatton, Gomez, Cintron) though it seems that it's not just in the ring that he likes to pick on the little man.
If stories are to be believed then Alvarez, a man who fights at 154lbs beat up the much smaller Ulises “Archie” Solis (who fights at 108lbs) due to Solis getting close to Canelo's ex girlfriend. This resulted in Solis suffering a broken jaw (broken in 3 places), losing several teeth and having bruises. Whilst this case does seem to be heading towards court Canelo has denied the attack (pointing the finger at one of his brothers), if found to be guilty the long term damage to Canelo's career may be massively damaging. The worrying thing about the story though is that WBC president Jose Sulaiman is quoted as saying “We at the WBC will pay the expenses on the damages that Ulises ‘Archie’ SolÃs has received not knowing who caused these damages”, a bit strange that the WBC would offer to pay Solis' damages regardless of whether they knew who caused it or not. If the WBC are making this payment, do they maybe know something that Saul Alvarez isn't telling us?
Whilst Canelo has the world at his feet, he may end up being one of the fighters who becomes a true “bad boy” of the sport, or gets a reputation as either a hot head (something we've seen from him in a number of fights) or a man who will only fight smaller men. Until Canelo faces a true threat (and there is a number of them out there) such as Carlos Molina, Erislandy Lara, Lukas Konecny, James Kirkland or even Javier Maciel there has to be doubts about his ability to fight someone who isn't smaller.
Is Canelo a fraud? It's hard to say either way, though it's obvious that he's yet to really face a solid threat his own size. Whilst I'd lean towards him being over-rated it's hard to say just how long he will remain at the top. If he continues to face relative nobodies and smaller men he could easily remain at the top until he grows grey and WBC president Jose Sulaiman passes away due to old age. If he however fights the best fighters out there I'll be honest, I don't see his reign lasting long at all.
Sunday, 20 November 2011
99 not out for Yori Boy Campas
Luis Ramon Campas is well known to boxing fans, he was, at one point, a genuine world champion (IBF light middleweight champion 1997-1998)., he rubbed shoulders with some of the best fighters of the 1990's. In fact in a career that goes back to 1987 Campas has faced the following well known names: Felix "Tito" Trinidad, Raul "El Diamante" Marquez, Fernando "El Feroz" Vargas, Daniel Santos, Oscar "Golden Boy" De La Hoya and Daniel "El Pillin" Santos as well as a huge number of title challengers.
Campas however seems to be unhappy with his career and wants to achieve more than just rubbing shoulders with some of the best fighters of his era, he wants to have win #100. At the moment Campas' record stands at a rather amazing 99-16-1 (78). Sadly however his most recent fight as a loss, coming this morning at the hands of Mexican prospect Jorge Cota (11-0). Cota managed to score an 8th round TKO over the increasingly shop worn Campas who was stopped for just the 9th time in 116 fights.
Whilst Campas will likely fight on in search of win #100 the loss to Cota is the 4th loss in a little over 2 years for Campas who has gone 7-4-1 in a little over 2 years. Amazingly between 1987 and 1994 Campas started his career with 56 straight wins (prior to his first loss at the hands of Felix Trinidad). Whilst it took just 7 years to rack up 56 wins it has now taken Campas more than 17 years (and counting) to get the next 44 wins.
Sadly for Campas the reasons for continuing may not be win #100 but money, the tough man with fighting blood flowing through his veins has never managed to get the career defining paydays to match up with his who's who record. Whilst Campas was never going to be a brain surgeon or a scientist working at CERN over 100 fights will take their toll on someones motor ability and with the lack of big paydays he may find himself, like many faded stars, looking at the gutter through damaged eyes and slurring whatever words he wishes to say. I'd like to think someone will "offer" themself up to be #100 just to cross the milestone then someone in boxing needs to take him by the hand and offer him another role rather than let him continue to be a human punchbag. Hopefully someone out there manages to get Yori boy out before it's too late.
Campas however seems to be unhappy with his career and wants to achieve more than just rubbing shoulders with some of the best fighters of his era, he wants to have win #100. At the moment Campas' record stands at a rather amazing 99-16-1 (78). Sadly however his most recent fight as a loss, coming this morning at the hands of Mexican prospect Jorge Cota (11-0). Cota managed to score an 8th round TKO over the increasingly shop worn Campas who was stopped for just the 9th time in 116 fights.
Whilst Campas will likely fight on in search of win #100 the loss to Cota is the 4th loss in a little over 2 years for Campas who has gone 7-4-1 in a little over 2 years. Amazingly between 1987 and 1994 Campas started his career with 56 straight wins (prior to his first loss at the hands of Felix Trinidad). Whilst it took just 7 years to rack up 56 wins it has now taken Campas more than 17 years (and counting) to get the next 44 wins.
Sadly for Campas the reasons for continuing may not be win #100 but money, the tough man with fighting blood flowing through his veins has never managed to get the career defining paydays to match up with his who's who record. Whilst Campas was never going to be a brain surgeon or a scientist working at CERN over 100 fights will take their toll on someones motor ability and with the lack of big paydays he may find himself, like many faded stars, looking at the gutter through damaged eyes and slurring whatever words he wishes to say. I'd like to think someone will "offer" themself up to be #100 just to cross the milestone then someone in boxing needs to take him by the hand and offer him another role rather than let him continue to be a human punchbag. Hopefully someone out there manages to get Yori boy out before it's too late.
Wednesday, 9 November 2011
CompuBox...the ones who can't count?
If you were one of the many, many people who watched HBO's card last Saturday night you'll have seen one of the best rounds of slugging this year as Alfredo "El Perro" Angulo and James "The Mandingo Warrior" Kirkland slugged it out, traded knockdowns and threw 177 punches...or did they?
The official Compubox figures had Angulo throwing 73 punches in the opening 3 minutes whilst they had Kirkland throwing 104. Having watched that opening round a number of times I'm still asking myself how they got to those numbers. Angulo, by my count went not only over 100 but nearly DOUBLE of the official numbers, and Kirkland, whilst throwing a lot himself, certainly DID NOT throw 30 more than Angulo (in fact, from just watching the fight and not counting I'd have said he actually threw less than Angulo).
Rob Day, friend of mine working for the Boxing Tribune, made a very similar point at the start of the year in his article "Compubox – Fact or Fiction?" Rob stated "it should always be remembered that the live figures aren’t completely accurate due to very likely human error". Problem is that human error is only part of the issue, lets be honest for a Compubox judge to miss around 50% of Angulo's punches is more than just human error, it's...somewhat disgraceful.
Dave Allen, another friend posted on a forum posted an excellent point explaining some of the issues with the system:
"Compubox is not 100% correct,it would be more reliable if you had four counters on each side of the ring.But also there are times when the referee would obstruct your view,so as far as i am concerned as long as it do not effect the decision carry on if thats what floats your boat.
I never take any notice of the punch stats,its what i see with my own eye's which makes up my mind who won the bout.Never had them when i first started my passion for the sport,standing out in the cold watching Tom Sawyers swing his bare fist." (Talking Boxing with Billy C)
And maybe Dave gets it spot on, the referee can get in the way, though their is so many other issues. Did you know CompuBox regards anything other than a jab as a "power punch"? Did you know that each fighter has 1 man counting "thrown and connected" on what is no more than a glorified amateur scoring system?
The well established Billy C (see the above link) actually got asked to stop talking the system when he was giving it a hard time on his radio show but sadly for CompuBox they seemed happier in saying "shut up we're right" rather than "we'll try to improve we see we have problems". Maybe this is the biggest issue, they don't want to improve, they have a cushty deal with HBO to provide "official figures" and lets be honest whilst HBO are paying them for a half assed job, why would they want to put money into creating an ACCURATE system? It seems obvious when Jim Lampley or Mex Kellerman state the CompuBox numbers as fact they they are happy with them being "official" which is just a giant shame.
Whilst it seems unlikely that CompuBox will take their head out of the sand it's be nice if more people did begin to question them.
The official Compubox figures had Angulo throwing 73 punches in the opening 3 minutes whilst they had Kirkland throwing 104. Having watched that opening round a number of times I'm still asking myself how they got to those numbers. Angulo, by my count went not only over 100 but nearly DOUBLE of the official numbers, and Kirkland, whilst throwing a lot himself, certainly DID NOT throw 30 more than Angulo (in fact, from just watching the fight and not counting I'd have said he actually threw less than Angulo).
Rob Day, friend of mine working for the Boxing Tribune, made a very similar point at the start of the year in his article "Compubox – Fact or Fiction?" Rob stated "it should always be remembered that the live figures aren’t completely accurate due to very likely human error". Problem is that human error is only part of the issue, lets be honest for a Compubox judge to miss around 50% of Angulo's punches is more than just human error, it's...somewhat disgraceful.
Dave Allen, another friend posted on a forum posted an excellent point explaining some of the issues with the system:
"Compubox is not 100% correct,it would be more reliable if you had four counters on each side of the ring.But also there are times when the referee would obstruct your view,so as far as i am concerned as long as it do not effect the decision carry on if thats what floats your boat.
I never take any notice of the punch stats,its what i see with my own eye's which makes up my mind who won the bout.Never had them when i first started my passion for the sport,standing out in the cold watching Tom Sawyers swing his bare fist." (Talking Boxing with Billy C)
And maybe Dave gets it spot on, the referee can get in the way, though their is so many other issues. Did you know CompuBox regards anything other than a jab as a "power punch"? Did you know that each fighter has 1 man counting "thrown and connected" on what is no more than a glorified amateur scoring system?
The well established Billy C (see the above link) actually got asked to stop talking the system when he was giving it a hard time on his radio show but sadly for CompuBox they seemed happier in saying "shut up we're right" rather than "we'll try to improve we see we have problems". Maybe this is the biggest issue, they don't want to improve, they have a cushty deal with HBO to provide "official figures" and lets be honest whilst HBO are paying them for a half assed job, why would they want to put money into creating an ACCURATE system? It seems obvious when Jim Lampley or Mex Kellerman state the CompuBox numbers as fact they they are happy with them being "official" which is just a giant shame.
Whilst it seems unlikely that CompuBox will take their head out of the sand it's be nice if more people did begin to question them.
Friday, 4 November 2011
James Toney is looking fa....bulous
So we are literally just a few hours from James Toney v Denis Lebedev (the show starts on Boxnation on Sky Channel 456, from 3PM which is currently being shown for FREE!) and when this fight was first mooted few really expected Toney to ever get near the 200lbs Cruiserweight limit. A number of forum users openly stated that for Toney to make the weight he'd have to lose a limb or get some liposuction. Toney's weight has always been an issue but some how he has sorted himself out...for at least this fight.
Aged 43 Toney has lost 38lbs since he faced Randy Couture back in his UFC debut (August 28th 2010) though more impressively Toney has come in at his lowest weight since 2003 when he faced Vassiliy Jirov in an IBF Cruiserweight fight. The Jirov fight was a classic with combined punch stats of over 1800 punches thrown with Toney landing 380 of his 811 punches (an amazing 47% connect rate). Since then however Toney's size has increased significantly, most obviously in his last fight when he came to the ring weighing 257lbs against Damon Reed back in February of this year.
Toney looked not only trim at the weigh in but looked healthy as well as slim. The loss of 58 lbs in 9 months seems to have been from a dedicated effort and the veteran of 84 fights seems to be taking his 85th incredibly seriously. Whilst I wouldn't declare Toney to be the fighter he once was, this is no longer looking like the 1 sided beat down it originally appeared. Amazingly it is just over 20 years since Toney last fought outside of his native USA and that was in Monaco against Francesco Dell'Aquila, a fight Toney won by 4th round TKO, he'll certainly be trying to make it 2-0 for his career outside of the US.
Lebedev meanwhile looked like his usual self, weighing in at a very average (for him) weight of 197.5 lbs. I'd expect the Russian to win though it now appears that this could be a more interesting fight than any of us expected.
Aged 43 Toney has lost 38lbs since he faced Randy Couture back in his UFC debut (August 28th 2010) though more impressively Toney has come in at his lowest weight since 2003 when he faced Vassiliy Jirov in an IBF Cruiserweight fight. The Jirov fight was a classic with combined punch stats of over 1800 punches thrown with Toney landing 380 of his 811 punches (an amazing 47% connect rate). Since then however Toney's size has increased significantly, most obviously in his last fight when he came to the ring weighing 257lbs against Damon Reed back in February of this year.
Toney looked not only trim at the weigh in but looked healthy as well as slim. The loss of 58 lbs in 9 months seems to have been from a dedicated effort and the veteran of 84 fights seems to be taking his 85th incredibly seriously. Whilst I wouldn't declare Toney to be the fighter he once was, this is no longer looking like the 1 sided beat down it originally appeared. Amazingly it is just over 20 years since Toney last fought outside of his native USA and that was in Monaco against Francesco Dell'Aquila, a fight Toney won by 4th round TKO, he'll certainly be trying to make it 2-0 for his career outside of the US.
Lebedev meanwhile looked like his usual self, weighing in at a very average (for him) weight of 197.5 lbs. I'd expect the Russian to win though it now appears that this could be a more interesting fight than any of us expected.
Thursday, 13 October 2011
It's funny what a loss can "earn" you
In one of Britain's best fights of 2011 John Murray, the popular brawler from Manchester was stopped by former world title challenger Kevin Mitchell. Murray had ran up a record of 31 straight wins prior to that loss and had built a very solid local fan base. Whilst Murray was calling for the bigger fights he had ended up some what stuck in a rot defending either the British title (which he held from 2008-2010) or the European title (which he held for around a year prior to the Mitchell fight).
As a reward for "losing" to Mitchell he's now finally got the big fight he had been asking for, though it's one of the toughest assignments a Lightweight could possibly have, he'll have to travel to America to fight the WBA champion Brandon "Bam Bam" Rios. Rios is one of the most fearsome and heavy handed punchers in the division and has run up an impressive string of victories in recent fights to move his record to 28-0-1 (21). Rios has stopped all but 1 of his last 10 opponents early (the only one he didn't stop was Anthony Peterson who got himself disqualified after repeated low blows) and those wins including stopping the excellent Miguel Acosta and the teak tough Urbano Antillon.
Whilst it might fair to say that a loss has earned Murray a title fight, it may also be fair to suggest that a loss has earned Murray the most painful night of his life. Rios is, in many ways, very similar to Murray, both are in your face and both throw a lot of punches with neither man caring too much if they take 2 to land 1. The differences however are enormous. Rios really has a chin of granite as well as much more power on his shots, he's also craftier than the Englishman and much more able to enforce himself on a high calibre of opponent.
For Murray it may be his big chance, but he also had a big chance against Mitchell just months ago and was beaten at his own game, Rios will do what Mitchell did, just much quicker. Funny how a loss gets you a big chance though isn't it.
As a reward for "losing" to Mitchell he's now finally got the big fight he had been asking for, though it's one of the toughest assignments a Lightweight could possibly have, he'll have to travel to America to fight the WBA champion Brandon "Bam Bam" Rios. Rios is one of the most fearsome and heavy handed punchers in the division and has run up an impressive string of victories in recent fights to move his record to 28-0-1 (21). Rios has stopped all but 1 of his last 10 opponents early (the only one he didn't stop was Anthony Peterson who got himself disqualified after repeated low blows) and those wins including stopping the excellent Miguel Acosta and the teak tough Urbano Antillon.
Whilst it might fair to say that a loss has earned Murray a title fight, it may also be fair to suggest that a loss has earned Murray the most painful night of his life. Rios is, in many ways, very similar to Murray, both are in your face and both throw a lot of punches with neither man caring too much if they take 2 to land 1. The differences however are enormous. Rios really has a chin of granite as well as much more power on his shots, he's also craftier than the Englishman and much more able to enforce himself on a high calibre of opponent.
For Murray it may be his big chance, but he also had a big chance against Mitchell just months ago and was beaten at his own game, Rios will do what Mitchell did, just much quicker. Funny how a loss gets you a big chance though isn't it.
Friday, 30 September 2011
Big night? Oh yeah, a real big night! And the UK...and the US
We've already looked at how big Saturday is in Germany but it's not all for the Germans both the UK and the US have a great day in store. The UK has a number of fascinating fights, which is headlined by a European Lightweight title fight. Then of course we are off to one of the craziest nights in US boxing this year.
Firstly the UK fight sees Gavin "The Rock" Rees (35-1, 16) a former WBA Light Welterweight champion defending the European Lightweight title against "Dirty" Derry Matthews (29-5, 15). Whilst I personally favour Rees to win Matthews has been on a sensational run as of late and has won 8 of his last 9 (including out pointing both Scott Lawton and Choi Tseveenpurev). Both men are flawed but they are both hugely entertaining and well worth a watch.
In the US it's a matter of "where do we start?"
Lets start with Atlantic City and with the deep card headlined by Middleweight champion Sergio Gabriel Martinez (47-2-2, 26) facing off against unbeaten British fighter "Dazzling" Darren Barker (23-0, 14). In the past I've been critical of Barker who has been "guilty" of talking himself up though it's that same talking, as well as a lack of challenger for Martinez and good management from Matchroom Sports that have helped to land Barker the biggest chance of his professional career. Martinez is a huge favourite whilst Barker is being given the chance to really put himself on the boxing map.
The same card has an exciting rematch between Andy Lee (26-1, 19) and Brian Vera (19-5, 12). Vera previously stopped Lee to give the Irishman his first professional loss, and now a few fights on Lee attempts to avenge it. The undercard includes a number of prospects including Isaac Chilemba, Alex Perez, Sean Monaghan, Steve Martinez, Magomed Abdusalamov (a heavyweight power puncher) and J'Leon Love.
At the same sort of time Las Vegas has an equally interesting card with a number of good looking fights. The headline act there is a WBC Super Bantamweight title bout in which under-rated Japanese fighter Toshiaki Nishioka (38-4-3, 24) defends his title against the legendary Rafael Marquez (40-6, 36). I'm favouring Nishioka here but it should be both technical, exciting and entertaining. Whilst both men are highly skilled they are also powerful and fun.
The same card also brings to America the ultra talented Roman "El Chocolatito" Gonzalez (29-0, 24) of Nicaragua who defends his WBA Light Flyweight title against Omar Soto (22-7-2, 15). I'd expect Gonzalez to defend his title with relative ease, though hopefully it'll be a good enough fight to help alert the boxing world to Gonzalez.
This same card also includes some top unbeaten fighters including the excellent Christopher Martin and Yoshihiro Kamegai.
Where ever you turn you are promised some amazing fights.
Firstly the UK fight sees Gavin "The Rock" Rees (35-1, 16) a former WBA Light Welterweight champion defending the European Lightweight title against "Dirty" Derry Matthews (29-5, 15). Whilst I personally favour Rees to win Matthews has been on a sensational run as of late and has won 8 of his last 9 (including out pointing both Scott Lawton and Choi Tseveenpurev). Both men are flawed but they are both hugely entertaining and well worth a watch.
In the US it's a matter of "where do we start?"
Lets start with Atlantic City and with the deep card headlined by Middleweight champion Sergio Gabriel Martinez (47-2-2, 26) facing off against unbeaten British fighter "Dazzling" Darren Barker (23-0, 14). In the past I've been critical of Barker who has been "guilty" of talking himself up though it's that same talking, as well as a lack of challenger for Martinez and good management from Matchroom Sports that have helped to land Barker the biggest chance of his professional career. Martinez is a huge favourite whilst Barker is being given the chance to really put himself on the boxing map.
The same card has an exciting rematch between Andy Lee (26-1, 19) and Brian Vera (19-5, 12). Vera previously stopped Lee to give the Irishman his first professional loss, and now a few fights on Lee attempts to avenge it. The undercard includes a number of prospects including Isaac Chilemba, Alex Perez, Sean Monaghan, Steve Martinez, Magomed Abdusalamov (a heavyweight power puncher) and J'Leon Love.
At the same sort of time Las Vegas has an equally interesting card with a number of good looking fights. The headline act there is a WBC Super Bantamweight title bout in which under-rated Japanese fighter Toshiaki Nishioka (38-4-3, 24) defends his title against the legendary Rafael Marquez (40-6, 36). I'm favouring Nishioka here but it should be both technical, exciting and entertaining. Whilst both men are highly skilled they are also powerful and fun.
The same card also brings to America the ultra talented Roman "El Chocolatito" Gonzalez (29-0, 24) of Nicaragua who defends his WBA Light Flyweight title against Omar Soto (22-7-2, 15). I'd expect Gonzalez to defend his title with relative ease, though hopefully it'll be a good enough fight to help alert the boxing world to Gonzalez.
This same card also includes some top unbeaten fighters including the excellent Christopher Martin and Yoshihiro Kamegai.
Where ever you turn you are promised some amazing fights.
Thursday, 29 September 2011
Big night? Oh yeah, a real big night! Firstly Germany
When we think of big nights in boxing we generally seem to talk about 1 big fight. For example this year we've had "big nights" including Wladimir Klitschko v David Haye, Shane Mosley v Manny Pacquiao and most recently Floyd Mayweather v Victor Ortiz. The problem with these being regarded as "big nights" is that we suffer big time if the main fight end up as a bit of a flop and sadly all 3 have. This coming Saturday however is that other kind of "big night", the one we simply can't lose on thanks to quality fights happening literally everywhere you look.
If we turn our attention to Germany first we have an enthralling card, just look at the highlights below:
Steve Cunningham v Yoan Pablo Hernandez (IBF Cruiserweight title)
Grzegorz Proksa v Sebastian Sylvester (European Middleweight title)
Karo Murat v Gabriel Campillo (IBF Light Heavyweight Eliminator)
The card also features Dustin Dirks and Edmund Gerber. Can we just say that this is a great card before breaking down the actual matches?
Cunninham v Hernandez is a real toss up for me. Over the last 5 years Cunningham has been one of the premier Cruiserweights, he's beaten the likes of Krzysztof Wlodarczyk, Marco Huck, Wayne Braithwaite and Troy Ross whilst suffering to, pretty controversial losses to Wlodarczyk and Tomasz Adamek. Hernandez however has been one of the emerging talents of the division with size, power, skill and youth all coming together. The 26 year old originally of Cuba is a 6'4" southpaw who is taking his first step up since suffering a reverse to Wayne Braithwaite back in 2008 and Hernandez has certainly improved since then. This bout is a genuine toss up.
Proska v Sylvester is another toss up, though I've got to favour the Pole who is coming into the bout on the back of 10 straight early wins. Whilst Sylvester is a clever fighter his work rate (or rather lack of) can be costly, and in fact it was with his recent loss to Daniel Geale. Although Proska at 5'8" is tiny for a middleweight he's actually taller than the former IBF world champion and this bout could well be the most entertaining of the night. Sylvester is fighting for his career whilst Proska is fighting to keep his unbeaten record.
I the other fight of the card (Murat v Campillo) I think we have the "second chance" saloon for both men. Campillo is arguably the most under-rated fighter in the Light Heavyweight division, a slippery, skilled, intelligent fighter who was completely robbed of his WBA title in January 2010 by Beibut Shumenov. Murat is a good fighter, and already holds a controversial win over Campillo (a majority decision back in 2008) but he's never really been able to take that leap into the next level. I fancy this one to be controversial probably with Murat winning another hotly contested decision.
We shall be looking at the other noteworthy cards over the following few days just to show you how great Saturday is going to be!
If we turn our attention to Germany first we have an enthralling card, just look at the highlights below:
Steve Cunningham v Yoan Pablo Hernandez (IBF Cruiserweight title)
Grzegorz Proksa v Sebastian Sylvester (European Middleweight title)
Karo Murat v Gabriel Campillo (IBF Light Heavyweight Eliminator)
The card also features Dustin Dirks and Edmund Gerber. Can we just say that this is a great card before breaking down the actual matches?
Cunninham v Hernandez is a real toss up for me. Over the last 5 years Cunningham has been one of the premier Cruiserweights, he's beaten the likes of Krzysztof Wlodarczyk, Marco Huck, Wayne Braithwaite and Troy Ross whilst suffering to, pretty controversial losses to Wlodarczyk and Tomasz Adamek. Hernandez however has been one of the emerging talents of the division with size, power, skill and youth all coming together. The 26 year old originally of Cuba is a 6'4" southpaw who is taking his first step up since suffering a reverse to Wayne Braithwaite back in 2008 and Hernandez has certainly improved since then. This bout is a genuine toss up.
Proska v Sylvester is another toss up, though I've got to favour the Pole who is coming into the bout on the back of 10 straight early wins. Whilst Sylvester is a clever fighter his work rate (or rather lack of) can be costly, and in fact it was with his recent loss to Daniel Geale. Although Proska at 5'8" is tiny for a middleweight he's actually taller than the former IBF world champion and this bout could well be the most entertaining of the night. Sylvester is fighting for his career whilst Proska is fighting to keep his unbeaten record.
I the other fight of the card (Murat v Campillo) I think we have the "second chance" saloon for both men. Campillo is arguably the most under-rated fighter in the Light Heavyweight division, a slippery, skilled, intelligent fighter who was completely robbed of his WBA title in January 2010 by Beibut Shumenov. Murat is a good fighter, and already holds a controversial win over Campillo (a majority decision back in 2008) but he's never really been able to take that leap into the next level. I fancy this one to be controversial probably with Murat winning another hotly contested decision.
We shall be looking at the other noteworthy cards over the following few days just to show you how great Saturday is going to be!
Tuesday, 23 August 2011
Saul Alvarez v Julio Cesar Chavez Jr
The title of this entry reads like the biggest money fight outside of Pacquiao v Mayweather though it's not an entry about the two men facing off, well not directly anyway. Saul "Canelo" Alvarez is seen as Mexico's darling of boxing, he is a young, charismatic ginger haired kid who at just 21 years old holds a record of 37-0-1 (27) and is the current WBC Light Middleweight champion. Canelo is seen by some in the sport as the next big Pay Per View name and the guy that could help reinvigorate the fans.
Julio Cesar Chavez Jr is seen as the complete opposite, to Canelo, despite similarities including an unbeaten record (43-0-1, 1NC (30)) a WBC title (Middleweight) and also being Mexican, he's largely disliked. Whilst Alvarez is seen as the next big thing, Chavez Jr is seen as a bit of a fraud, a fighter who is living on his father's great name in the sport and doing little to deserve his chances on HBO.
I have for a while, been a JCC Jr defender, feeling that he's taken a lot of stick from fans for being over-hyped despite being described as "useless" and "clueless" yet he's a funny one. JCC Jr certainly has entertaining fights, his fight with Sebastian Zbik was exciting and really fun to watch and at least beat a fighter in their division for his title. If pushed it would seem the fraud is Canelo.
I know some readers may now be fuming but lets just look at it fairly.
Canelo managed to get a vacant "world title fight" against Matthew Hatton, in a division that Hatton wasn't campaigning in, whilst Chavez had to beat reigning title holder Zbik. (1-0 Chavez, I'm sure you agree)
Chavez will be making his next defence against former world title challenger Ronald Hearns whilst Canelo will be facing former title challenger Alfonso Gomez. The difference is that Gomez challenged for the Welterweight title and will be challenging for the Light Middleweight title, Hearns lasted 7 rounds with Felix Sturm at Middleweight, the same division he will be challenging Chavez. (Another for Chavez)
An often said comment about Chavez is that he was lucky to beat Carlos Molina though this is the Molina who just gave Kermit Cintron a whooping and was unlucky to only get a draw with Erislandy Lara. More recently Canelo was lucky to beat Francisco Villanueva, a guy who was 5-17-2. In fact Canelo also struggled to beat Lightweight (yes, Lightweight) champion Miguel Vazquez in Miguel's debut (3-0 Chavez)
When you look at things a bit more than simple their name and physical traits it seems pretty obvious, that Chavez is a bit more of a real deal than "Canelo".
Julio Cesar Chavez Jr is seen as the complete opposite, to Canelo, despite similarities including an unbeaten record (43-0-1, 1NC (30)) a WBC title (Middleweight) and also being Mexican, he's largely disliked. Whilst Alvarez is seen as the next big thing, Chavez Jr is seen as a bit of a fraud, a fighter who is living on his father's great name in the sport and doing little to deserve his chances on HBO.
I have for a while, been a JCC Jr defender, feeling that he's taken a lot of stick from fans for being over-hyped despite being described as "useless" and "clueless" yet he's a funny one. JCC Jr certainly has entertaining fights, his fight with Sebastian Zbik was exciting and really fun to watch and at least beat a fighter in their division for his title. If pushed it would seem the fraud is Canelo.
I know some readers may now be fuming but lets just look at it fairly.
Canelo managed to get a vacant "world title fight" against Matthew Hatton, in a division that Hatton wasn't campaigning in, whilst Chavez had to beat reigning title holder Zbik. (1-0 Chavez, I'm sure you agree)
Chavez will be making his next defence against former world title challenger Ronald Hearns whilst Canelo will be facing former title challenger Alfonso Gomez. The difference is that Gomez challenged for the Welterweight title and will be challenging for the Light Middleweight title, Hearns lasted 7 rounds with Felix Sturm at Middleweight, the same division he will be challenging Chavez. (Another for Chavez)
An often said comment about Chavez is that he was lucky to beat Carlos Molina though this is the Molina who just gave Kermit Cintron a whooping and was unlucky to only get a draw with Erislandy Lara. More recently Canelo was lucky to beat Francisco Villanueva, a guy who was 5-17-2. In fact Canelo also struggled to beat Lightweight (yes, Lightweight) champion Miguel Vazquez in Miguel's debut (3-0 Chavez)
When you look at things a bit more than simple their name and physical traits it seems pretty obvious, that Chavez is a bit more of a real deal than "Canelo".
Sunday, 26 June 2011
I love this sport...
...I honestly do, I mean that. Whether we're talking about the good times, the bad times, the happy times or the sad times I love this great sport of ours. It's the truest sport. No fighter can lie for long in this sport and get away with it. Sadly though fighters can lie and get lucky a time or two.
Whilst Felix Sturm won what I felt was a close decision against Matthew Macklin (in what was genuinely a fantastic fight full of action) in a fight that could genuinely have gone either way, neither fighter lied. They both put it on the line in a fantastic fight. Tonight though one man lied and got very lucky. Devon Alexander "The lucky" was out landed, out punched, out thrown and dropped against exciting Argentine Lucas Matthyse. I had the fight clearly to Matthyse, so did many others on Fightjudge and a number of forums, even the commentators seemed to have felt Matthyse had won the fight. Odd I actually believe all 3 judges must have felt Matthyse won, yet 2 of the 3 judges scored the fight to Alexander. Was it the crowd who swayed their views? Was it the fact that Don King was in charge of the event? Was it that St Charles, where the fight was held, was just down the road from St Louis, the home town of Alexander? Was it because Alexander is an American?
I'm not sure what it was but seriously, Alexander did not deserve to win that fight. Even the most blinkered of fans cannot possibly have seen the fight being a win for Alexander. Sadly as much as I love boxing, I hate the garbage that comes with it. These sorts of decisions aren't just bad, they sickening. It's no wonder our great sport is falling further and further into the depths of "nobody cares". No one will be brought into our great sport watching decisions like I saw in St Charles tonight. In fact people like myself may even turn away from the sport, it's disgusting things like this that will see people walk away for good.
The crowds in the US have been dropping and the reason isn't that the US have no good fighters, instead it's because we know that the sport is somewhat fishy. Fighters like Tavoris Cloud (who was on the same card), Andre Ward, Steve Cunningham, Timothy Bradley and Brandon Rios are all very talented US fighters and if they are marketed well the people will come, they do not need their names tarnishing with the despicable decisions we've seen.
Whilst Felix Sturm won what I felt was a close decision against Matthew Macklin (in what was genuinely a fantastic fight full of action) in a fight that could genuinely have gone either way, neither fighter lied. They both put it on the line in a fantastic fight. Tonight though one man lied and got very lucky. Devon Alexander "The lucky" was out landed, out punched, out thrown and dropped against exciting Argentine Lucas Matthyse. I had the fight clearly to Matthyse, so did many others on Fightjudge and a number of forums, even the commentators seemed to have felt Matthyse had won the fight. Odd I actually believe all 3 judges must have felt Matthyse won, yet 2 of the 3 judges scored the fight to Alexander. Was it the crowd who swayed their views? Was it the fact that Don King was in charge of the event? Was it that St Charles, where the fight was held, was just down the road from St Louis, the home town of Alexander? Was it because Alexander is an American?
I'm not sure what it was but seriously, Alexander did not deserve to win that fight. Even the most blinkered of fans cannot possibly have seen the fight being a win for Alexander. Sadly as much as I love boxing, I hate the garbage that comes with it. These sorts of decisions aren't just bad, they sickening. It's no wonder our great sport is falling further and further into the depths of "nobody cares". No one will be brought into our great sport watching decisions like I saw in St Charles tonight. In fact people like myself may even turn away from the sport, it's disgusting things like this that will see people walk away for good.
The crowds in the US have been dropping and the reason isn't that the US have no good fighters, instead it's because we know that the sport is somewhat fishy. Fighters like Tavoris Cloud (who was on the same card), Andre Ward, Steve Cunningham, Timothy Bradley and Brandon Rios are all very talented US fighters and if they are marketed well the people will come, they do not need their names tarnishing with the despicable decisions we've seen.
Saturday, 11 June 2011
Argentina...the new hot bed?
It's amazing to think that of all the countries in the world Argentina is one of the dominant forces in world boxing. The country is current tied in 4th place for most amount of "champions" (they have 5 titles, the same as Germany and UK). The current champions are:
Sergio Martinez (Ring Middleweight)
Marcos Maidana (WBA "interim" Light Welterweight)
Jonathan Barros (WBA Featherweight)
Omar Andres Narvaez (WBO Super Flyweight)
Juan Carlos Reveco (WBA "interim" Flyweight)
Last night Reveco added his name to this list by defeating Jean Piero Perez with a vicious body shot (the write up of the fight can be read here) and tonight we will see Narvaez facing off against the pretty unknown William Urina. In all honesty a loss for Narvaez is almost unthinkable (he's a huge 1/33 favourite) though it's the 3rd fight for Narvaez this year showing that the veteran is staying active and keeping the ring rust off.
The future is a good one though at the moment Argentina seem to be one of the rising forces in the sport ob Boxing.
Sergio Martinez (Ring Middleweight)
Marcos Maidana (WBA "interim" Light Welterweight)
Jonathan Barros (WBA Featherweight)
Omar Andres Narvaez (WBO Super Flyweight)
Juan Carlos Reveco (WBA "interim" Flyweight)
Last night Reveco added his name to this list by defeating Jean Piero Perez with a vicious body shot (the write up of the fight can be read here) and tonight we will see Narvaez facing off against the pretty unknown William Urina. In all honesty a loss for Narvaez is almost unthinkable (he's a huge 1/33 favourite) though it's the 3rd fight for Narvaez this year showing that the veteran is staying active and keeping the ring rust off.
The future is a good one though at the moment Argentina seem to be one of the rising forces in the sport ob Boxing.
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