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.
Sunday, 20 November 2011
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".
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