I keep losing gimme a title fight!

This sports a funny sport. One day you could have lost 7 of your last 9, you could have lost 4 world title fights in those 7 losses, you could be 35 as well, and yet tomorrow you could have made it 7 losses in 10 and be the world champion. Don't ask me how Jose Antonio Aguirre managed to get his recent WBC Light Flyweight title fight and we, as boxing fans need to feel a little bit relieved he's not going to wake up tomorrow as the champion but what were the WBC thinking?

Aguirre,who fell to 35-10-1 challenged Gilberto Keb Baas, now 35-20-4 for the title. Aguirre had some how been ranked #8 by the WBC in a weight class he hadn't made since May 2007 and hadn't scored a win in since August 2006. Not only had he gone 2-7 entering the bout but he'd been fighting at a higher weight class, his wins had come fighters with terrible records (4-5-1 and 8-16-3) and he'd fought only once in 2 years.

Although Keb Baas has a much worse record his recent form has genuinely been half decent. His previous 9 fights had been 6-1-2 including a brilliant win over Omar Nino Romero for the title. Most of his career losses were to decent fighters, guys like Pongsaklek Wonjongkam, Victor Zaleta and Omar Salado and he was in the form of his life, he was active, he was tick all the right boxes as a fighter. Don't get me wrong, he's nothing more than a title holder waiting for a challenger to come along and take his belt away, but he's an active fighter over the past few years on a run. Aguirre is an inactive fighter, who has been on the receiving end of a lot of recent beatings and should NEVER have been world ranked. Only the WBC ranked Aguirre which says it all.

Aguirre had, once, almost a life time ago (2000-2004) been the WBC's Minimumweight champion, maybe this is what helped lift him to such an over-inflated ranking, though it's stupid if it was and would allow fighter 5 years deposed to challenger for titles a division up. What may be the worst problem though is that this is the 3^rd attempt at the same title that Aguirre has had since 2005. His first attempt was a loss to Eric Ortiz (TKO7), his second was a 12 round decision to Brian Viloria. He would also challenge Roberto Vasquez (WBA champion) and Ulises Solis (IBF champion) for the title during his 2-7 run.

Imagine if tomorrow, Monte Barrett stood at #8 in any of the heavyweight rankings and the slaughtering a fighter would get for facing him. Oddly Barrett would, on paper, not me a much worse challenger. Barrett is 4 years older (39 to Aguirre's 35), with 1 draw more on his record (34-9-2 to Aguirre's 34-9-1) but 3-4-2 in his last 9. This really is the scandalous world of boxing rankings folks. A real joke.

Oh and just to test a theory. Manny Pacquiao.

Bloody fake records

Boxing fans often complain about “padded records” in boxing, where a fighter fights no one to create an artificially deep looking record. Although the term is often unfairly used against fighters who fight average opponents when they, themselves, are supposed to be world class it's more annoying when young you find fighters with around 20 fights who has never faced any sort of a test at all. I've been ultra critical of Deontay Wilder, a fighter who some Americans are cheering on as their future heavyweight champion and saviour. Wilder is a major case of a fighter with a padded and “perfect” record but he's far from the worst offender. In fact with out trailing through boxrec.com with a fine comb it's impossible to be sure who actually does have the most padded record.

One man that does need to be mentioned as a probably contender though is the 18-0 (17) Dzmitry Lubachkin from Belarus. You maybe asking what makes Lubachkin's record so padded? Well just take a look here:
He has faced 13 debutants
He has never faced a fighter who was better than 1-1-1 (his 14^th opponents-Aliaksandr Kuryanovich)
His opponents have a combined 1 win amongst them
The combined record of his 18 opponents have a record of 1-6-2

I've also complained a little about the likes of Nenad Borovcanin who also has a very padded record (27-0 with 19KO's) but even his is record isn't this poor.

The problem isn't that fans are asking too much of fighters, but that Lubachkin's record will be seen seriously by those outside of the sports actual fans. If Lubachkin was to meet a half decent fighter he'd be on paper an “impressive” opponent, though everyone would expect him to be badly beaten by any sort of semi-decent professional fighter. It's not fair on the fans and it's not fair on the guys he fights.

The WBA, oh the loveable WBA and their bizarre decisions

The WBA have again gone and done it, they've made even the most knowledgeable of boxing fans scratch their heads wondering what happened. British fighter Amir Khan has been made “The Super Lightweight Super champion”. The reasons for this are business, the WBA are wanting their title to be fought for between Marcos Maidana and Erik Morales. That fight has all the ingredients of a short lived but very exciting war as an ageing veteran faces off against a powerful punching but limited prime opponent. Though the fight it really not one I can agree with that's a completely different matter. What I want to look at is the WBA title policy. No not the one in the rule book (sorry but I can't be bothered to read 72 pages of “rules” that can be found on here http://www.wbaonline.com/) but the one that appears to be made up as they go along.

The WBA has no less than 29 fighters walking around claiming to be “world champion” (be it “super”, “regular”, “interim”). They have 3 Middleweight “world champions” and now have a vacant world title at Super Lightweight (thanks to Kahn's title being upgraded). The “super” title rule was generally thought to have been brought in to allow unified champions some leeway in facing mandatory WBA challengers, though now appears to be nothing more than another way for the organisations to collection sanctioning fees. Current “Super” champions include not only Khan but Juan Manuel Marquez (Lightweight), Chris John (Featherweight) Miguel Cotto (Super Welterweight), Felix Sturm (Middleweight)and Andre Ward (Super Middleweight) with some boxing fans (who have read the WBA's rules) also calling Yuriorkis Gamboa a Super champion.

From the WBA's website:

WBA SUPER CHAMPIONSHIPS

(by WBA - Feb 11, 2009 - 11:12:37 AM)

DEFINITION

The SUPER WORLD CHAMPION CATEGORY OR UNDISPUTED WORLD CHAMPION was created for those World Champions who hold the title of two or more organizations recognized by the WBA, like the World Boxing Council (WBC), the International Boxing Federation (IBF) and the World Boxing Organization (WBO).

Gamboa currently holds the WBA's belt and the IBF's belt at Featherweight though on the website is classed as a “Unified” champion and not “Super” whilst John is the WBA's “Super” champion.


We all know boxing awarding bodies like to make things up as they go along but the WBA's proliferation of “World” titles is beyond a joke. It's due to the WBA's title policy, joke rankings and bizarre mandatory defences that have left me creating my own championship, the Scott Graveson is Awesome title. I have declared myself the Super Duper Awesome Champion for eternity at everything ever...can't be much more of a joke than the WBA's world title.

Not a blog but an interview...kinda

As a boxing writer an exclusive is pretty much the thing we hunt down, no matter how big or small. On a very drunk night I managed to, via the brilliance of the internet, secure myself one with a local fighter, Cumbrian based Heavyweight/Cruiserweight Lee Kellett. Lee's record of 4-5-1 (3) may not be impressive, though his honesty and openness is something that has to be valued.

Having done the interview after a very heavy drinking session in late December I first need to thank Lee for deciphering my drunken ramblings and secondly I need to thank you, the readers who are still there sat here reading this.

Firstly we started off with a few general questions, just something to get started on. Knowing Lee somewhat I've gathered that he has problems with the BBBofC, he was happy enough to indulge my curiosity over those problems. His views were that they didn't give everyone a fair shot, and went on to say they didn't know enough about the actual sport. Having followed the sport for a while it seems fairly obvious that the BBBofC (British Boxing Board of Control) are behind the times, they are slowly catching up to the rest of the world, though sadly it's too slow and Lee's view that they “Couldn't do a round of toast” seems rather apt, it'd just be burnt bread by the time they realised what they were doing.

When asked what the biggest problem of his career was again Lee was frank and honest, admitting he was an “underachiever”, though sadly the reasons for this is where he lives. Cumbria lacks the sort of options a fighter needs, local gyms don't have the facilities and with so few pros in the local area he's had to do most things solo openly admitting that “training alone is not a good way to do it”. Though even despite the limitations in regards to where he lives he recalls his first win (a 44 second KO over Gary Neville of Irvine, Scotland) as his favourite fight. A fight that was mentioned in one of the local papers in Paisley, giving Lee some acknowledgement north of the border. Sadly that same acknowledgement hasn't been found locally. The local press basically ignoring him, openly stating a rather obvious and blatantly annoying fact about the North West Evening Mail. “The media are shit, I box get nothing or few lines yet if you fly birds or are an OAP doing bowls (no disrespect) you get a full page spread”. It seems quite blatant that if you ask the local population who Lee was they'd sadly not know, yet ask them about the local Darts, Bowls, Pool or Cricket and you'd fancy them to have some clue. This comes as an annoyance, though is sadly proof that the local media (run by Cumbrian News) aren't that interested in helping a local guy go about making a name for themselves. It's said that any new is good news, and some publicity could help Cumbria unearth some real boxing talent, sadly one of the few professionals in the county is being totally ignored.

When asked about who did help, Lee mentioned one name of someone who stood out for him, Stan Dewhurst. Stan let Lee train at his gym in Barrow. The Flexappeal Gym was where Stan, a former Mr Universe made his name as one of the worlds premier body builders, was one of the few people who helped out and yet had others offered a helping hand Lee would almost certainly have had a better record than he currently does. Lacking the clout of a fighter promoted by someone like Frank Warren or Frank Maloney means that Lee hasn't had the best of luck in match making. With questionable stoppage losses to John Anthony and Joe Smyth being probably the two stand outs. However Lee the humility you may not expect of a boxer, admitting “Smyth I may not of beat but I'd of made it a fight if not weight drained, I had nothing in me.” Also admitting, and being very complimentary of Matty Askin, saying “he'll be British champ maybe Euro then who knows”.

The interview ended with a few more general questions:
Mayweather or Pacquiao?-”Mayweather, he just has everything, I can only sum it up as a gifted one above everyone else”
Haye or a Klitschko?-”If Haye lands its over but Klitschko will box his ears off”
View on Carl Froch?-”Froch has everything he just doesn't show how good of a boxer he is as he always has wars but the guy with the right head on can do it all.”
Fights you'd like to see in 2011?-”Froch against the other champions in his division or Amir Khan v the champions at 140.”

Again I'd like to say thanks to Lee for answer the questions asked.

Just a short one courtesy of the UFC

I'm sat here watching UFC 125 and currently it's Gomi v Guida, I'll admit I don't follow UFC that much and only watch it when no boxing is on. Now the interesting character here, for me, is Guida, he's reminding me of two fighters, firstly his none stop movement seems a little bit like the dancing of a guy like Emmanuel Augustus, the hugely popular journeyman who's antics set the boxing world into fits of laughter. Though more sadly Guida, with his scruffy long hair, tattooed body and wild, wide punching reminds me of a man very much missed by the boxing world. Edwin Valero.

Edwin is a guy I've pretty much chosen not to write about since his untimely passing and the mess he had made for himself before then. It seemed obvious he had problems, his marriage seemed, in the months leading up to him killing his wife and himself, as though it was heading straight for tragedy. The reports were too numerous and too sporadic to all be rumours, someone needed to step in and sadly they didn't. Though for boxing fans it's nice to hear that his brother, Luis Valero 3-0 (3) is following in on Edwin's legacy with 1^st round KO's coming to him. It'd be a nice ending to the Valero story if Luis' success can over shadow the circumstances behind Edwin's...downfall.

A new year is fast approaching...so can we avoid somethings?

We know boxing fans don't get the fights they really want, well not that often anyway. 2010 was a year of what could have been, of course Pacquiao v Mayweather, Klitschko v Wlad, Gamboa v Lopez, Huck v Cunningham II, Ward v Bute and any number of other pretty obvious looking fights. As obvious as it is to complain about those not happening, it's a horse that has been flogged to the point of no longer being relevant, in fact we are beating the dead horse to even mention them, however, we don't need to accept crap. 2011 should be OUR (the fans) year!

This year we've had major fights ignored for the likes of:
Haye v Harrison (and over 1/2 a million people paid for this one)
Vitali v Briggs and Sosnowski
Wladamir v Peter II
Adamek v Maddalone
Povetkin v Firtha
Pacquiao v Margarito
Mayweather v Security guards
Huck v Richards, Minto and Godfrey
Lopez v Concepcion

Maybe whats been worse however have been the poor (in some case terrible) decisions made by those in charge of the sport, the judges, the commissions, the awarding bodies et al. Here are some of those examples I'm talking about:
Campillo v Shumenov II-What were the judges watching? (honestly what fight was Patricia Morse Jarman watching? Jerry Roth's score card was questionable too)
Tua v Barrett-Barrett won that and we all know it.
Minto v Huck-How did Minto qualify for a world title fight?
The WBA in general-How they manage to hand out upto 3 titles in some weights is a mystery, though they seem to enjoy it. Can someone please force this to stop?
The WBC V Bradley-Come on WBC GROW UP! If he beats Alexander accept him as your champion, it's only fair.
The IBF-What was their logic behind stripping Alexander for not fighting Mabuza (and instead unifying)?

One thing that does seem like it's about to change is the BBBofC, who although I'm no cheer leader for, I'm incredibly happy to hear they are changing their "accidental headbutt" rule that saw the recent Edwards v Bayaar fight ending in a farce. Though will they force a rematch or just sit on the result as if it was a legitimate stoppage?

Also just a few more quick complaints, can we finally see the end of Joe "I'm bent" Cortez. Yes that would be verging on slander but time and time again he proves he's not on a level. He let Gamboa off with a cheap shot that was very little different to the shot he DQ'd Humberto Soto for a few years ago, like wise he allowed Khan's constant holding with out a warning (but with out allowing any inside work by Maidana), the opposite to what he allowed in the Hopkins v Calzaghe fight. The sooner Cortez is out of the sport the better, much like dodgy officiating and scoring. We need rid of this or our sport will remain a minor sport where it can be "who you know" rather than "what you do" that decides the result.

Anyway hope to see some of you guys next year folks.

I'm Jesh Lashy I shink I get hit too much shir

So Jeff “Left Hook” Lacy loses once again, never has a one punch wonder fallen apart quite like Jeff. A fighter who promised much, he said he'd beat “Calslappy”, then found out that Joe Calzaghe slapped bloody hard, he promised to unify the Super Middleweight division, yet only ever held the IBF's trinket and now he must be thinking what happened to his career.

Lacy was a stocky, muscular powerful fight, who had been mowing through journeymen and has-beens. The likes of Robin Reid, Scott Pemberton, Rubin Williams, Syd Vanderpool and Omar Sheika were beaten once after the other in fact all 5 of the afore mentioned fighters were beaten in a 13 month streak of destruction with only Sheika lasting the distance. Lacy though wasn't actually a capable boxer, more a limited powerhouse, he, at the time, had the intimidation factor, freezing opponents at times, and over powering them at other times. It's worth noting Sheika was only 2 points (1 round) down on 2 cards) Vanderpool equally close prior to being stopped in the 8^th.

Although it's often said that Calzaghe broke Lacy, there were cracks already well inside the Lacy machine, he was power hungry, feeling over-confident in his left hand and when Calzaghe thoroughly beat him questions arose. Lacy had had the myth exposed, he was nothing special, in fact he was made to look distinctly average by an amazing Calzaghe who put in one of the greatest performances seen by a British boxer in history.

Since losing to Calzaghe Lacy won just 4 of 7 fights, scoring no stoppages and most noteworthy, every decision was controversial and disputed. Vitali Tsypko was flat out robbed, Peter Manfredo Jr could honestly claim to have been stitched up whilst Epifanio Mendoza could conceivably of won and ditto Otis Griffin. Tsypko failed to score any notable victories in his 4 fights following, Manfredo, after getting stopped by Sakio Bika, has dropped down to Middleweight, Mendoza has become a journeyman and Griffin, who was knocked out in his next fight, is now on a run af beating journeymen.

Though it's not who Lacy did beat, but his losses, being completely out boxed for almost the entire fight by Jermain Taylor, being out landed and stopped by the shell of Roy Jones Jr and now, the most embarrassing loss of his career, he was out boxed and out pointed by journeyman Dhafir Smith. Within 5 years Lacy has gone from being the American fighter with the world at his fingertips, to being a fighter who could well have gone 0-8 in his last 8 fights. The power, confidence, swagger and intimidation has completely gone the guy who was 21-0 (17) and viewed as a KO machine has fallen to 25-4 (17).

Whether it was the confidence beaten out of him, or he wasn't that good to start off with, any number of other problems, the 33 year really needs to hang them up having failed to win the UBO title, there is nothing left in the sport for a fighter who has nothing to give. If Lacy wishes to be turned into a slurring wreck then he can feel free to remain in the ring, if he wants to keep his senses he needs to walk away now!