Juan Manuel Marquez/ Juan Diaz rematch is this Saturday at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, on Pay per View. I’m not sure if this fight warrants a Pay per View, but it definitely has the potential to be a good one. I think it comes down to how much Marquez remembers about Diaz’s style, and how much, if any, Diaz has changed.
I’m hearing a lot of people say that Marquez has lost a step, but when you look at his last five fights, Floyd was the only one that completely out classed him. I think that since Floyd beat him the way that he did, people just assume he has lost something, but you have to realize that Floyd just might be that good!
I have not seen any sign that Marquez has lost a step, so that’s out the window for me, but Diaz has not shown that he’s gotten any better, so why would anyone think this fight will be any different than the last one?
Marquez Last 5 fights:
Rocky Juarez, Marquez wins by Unanimous Decision
Manny Pacquio, Marquez loses by Split decision in a very controversial fight
Joel Casamayor, Marquez wins by TKO in the 11th
Juan Diaz, Marquez wins by 9th round TKO
Floyd Mayweather, Marquez loses by Unanimous decision.
Juan Diaz Last 5 fights:
Nate Campbell, Diaz loses by Split Decision
Michael Katsidis, Diaz wins by Split Decision
Juan Manuel Marquez, Diaz lost by 9th round TKO
Paul Malignaggi, Diaz gets a gift decision from his home town in the first fight and loses by Unanimous Decision in the rematch.
Looking at those fights that they both have had, I do not see how Diaz can be strongly considered to win this fight. Now I know that Marquez very well could have lost a step, but until I see proof, it’s not in my thought process, because if I add that, then I have to add all the other speculations.
This could be a good fight, like the first one, but could end in the same fashion, but quicker. I hope Diaz comes in with a good game plan, because unless he has somehow inherited Floyds skill set, or Pacquio’s relentlessness, then he will be in for a long night.
Marquez does not have this fight 100%, because in the beginning of their first fight, Diaz continued to land his left hook, which would’ve made an early night of a lot of other fighters, but Marquez has a heart the size of a Uconn. If he gets in there and allows Diaz to land shots like he did the first fight, and when he adjusts, and Diaz changes his fight, you could have Diaz winning by decision, off of the early rounds won.
I guess we’ll see Saturday night!!
Zab Judah defeated Jose Armando Santa Cruz by 3rd round TKO on Friday Night Fights.
Judah displayed his hand speed, his quick reflexes, and good footwork. He took his time and waited for the perfect moment, which came in the 3rd round, when Cruz leaned in to throw a punch, and ran right into a perfectly thrown left uppercut. Judah has always had a great uppercut, which he showed he still possesses. Zab Judah came into this fight with a purpose, and that purpose was to show the world that he is a new man. He says he has a new outlook on life, a new dedication to the sport, and will work his way back to the top. It only puts one question in my mind: “Is Judah back?”
I personally will have to see him fight again, against tougher opposition. Not that Cruz is a push over, but styles make fights, and Cruz’s style played right into Judah’s plan. I will wait before I give my judgment on him, but this was a good way to start a comeback. This fight sold me on the next, so we’ll see if Judah is indeed BACK!?!
I personally look at the state that boxing is in right now, and I fear that after the older fighters retire, there won’t be a substantial amount of new guys to take their place. You have Timothy Bradley, Devon Alexander, Juan Manuel Lopez, Andre Ward, Andre Berto, Andre Dirrell, to name a few. I think that these fighters can all become superstars, but the list is not large enough to keep the boxing world exciting and competitive. I hope we reveal more good up and coming fighters within the next couple of years, because if not, there will be a gigantic hole in the sport
Sources say that the fight between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquio is almost finalized. November 13th at the MGM Grand is where and when this fight is supposed to take place, but I am not excited. I will not be excited until they step in the ring across from each other with Michael Buffer saying: “LET’S GET REEAADDYY TOOOO RUUUUUMMMMBBBLLLEEEEEE!
After the first time the fight fell through, I told myself that I would never underestimate the size of Floyd and Arums egos again. With those two not getting along, the fight will always be in jeopardy in my eyes. I have my fingers crossed, but I will not hold my breath.
Playing catch up!!!
So much has happened in the boxing world since our last log, so where to start?
Do I go for the gusto and speak about the Machine (Floyd Mayweather Jr.) that systematically broke down Sugar Shane Mosley?
I could mention Paulie Malignaggi going into a fight with Amir Khan and not running? (WTF?)
Bernard Hopkins VS Roy Jones Jr. fight was watched by few (Roy didn’t even get paid?).
Jermaine Taylor was knocked out of the Super Six Tournament, Literally, and will be replaced by Allen Green.
John Ruiz was beat up by David Haye which sent him into retirement.
Sergio Martinez beats Kelly Pavlik, the hero of Youngstown, HA!
Miguel Cotto beat Yuri Foreman tonight for his Jr middleweight belt.
There has been more news than that, but I just selected a few I wanted to post. I’m curious to see what big fights get made in the next 3 to 4 months. We have a lot of big named fighters out there that can make some interesting fights happen. I know everyone wants to see Floyd vs Pac, but it might not happen, so let’s look beyond that.
I personally think that the Jr welterweight division is heating up, and could start producing some very lucrative fights here pretty soon. I think Bradley and Alexander would pull in a decent payday if they both keep their zeros in their loss columns, and both beat a top jr welter. We will have to see what happens, but I WILL REPORT WHAT I THINK, SO STAY TUNED TO HEAR THE BOTTOM LINE, NO SUGAR COATING REVIEW OF THE LARGEST BOXING NEWS OUT.
Andre Dirrell out boxed Arthur Abraham for 11 rounds until Arthur was disqualified for hitting Dirrell while he was down from a slip. Arthur’s excuse was that he didn’t see that Andre was down, but Andre was clearly down for at least a couple seconds before he swung.
Dirrell seemed to be knocked out by the shot, and was immediately looked at by the ringside physician. Once he was standing, he seemed confused as to what happened, at one point he seemed to think he was KO’d and lost the fight.
The Physician said that he might have bleeding on the brain and he would be taken to the hospital.
Wladimir KO’d Chambers in the 12th round to retain WBO and IBF heavyweight titles.
Powell -VS- Latimore 1
Sechew Powell -VS- Deandre Latimore 2
This a pretty good fight, as these 2 stepped in the ring for the second time.
The first time they met, Powell was on his way to getting a title shot, and simply looked at this fight as his last step. Latimore had other plans, as he won by TKO in the 7th round.
He then went on to face Cory Spinks for the IBF Light Middleweight Title.
Powell looked at this fight as a way to get redemption from the first fight. He wanted to do in this fight what he should’ve done in the first fight, and he did just that.
Latimore seemed as if he was going to grind out another win, but Powell pulled it together, and by the 3rd or 4th round, he was pot shotting, and jabbing his way to a win.
Powell won by majority decision, in a fight that screams three peat, depending on where the two fighters go from here.
Manny Pacquio -VS- Clottey wasn’t what it was supposed to be, but both fighters fought how they usually fight. Everyone got caught up in the hype of this being a big fight and Clottey is a bigger guy, but did we forget that he doesn’t throw punches?
Clottey got in there and fought his fight, but he was fighting a guy that throws, and throws, and throws. This was kind of similar to the Paul Williams -VS- Winky Wright fight. Clottey landed the harder, cleaner shots, but this Welterweight Pacquio doesn’t get hurt easily anymore, like he did against lighter opponents, like when he fought Marquez.
Every round in this fight was like the others, and it turned out to be a boring fight. Everyone kept watching simply because you have a great puncher who could land something big, and a bigger guy, that should be able to hurt the little guy, but nothing ever happened.
This was the worst fight I’ve seen Pacquio in in a long time, but it wasn’t his fault, he came to brawl, like usually, but he was fighting a guy that has perfected his defense. Clottey didn’t, or felt he couldn’t, open up and throw more punches, so Pacquio won every round simply because he was busier.
I predicted this fight would end like this ( Pacquio winning by unanimous decision), but never thought it would be a boring, stale fight. I thought we would get more from Clottey, like a late since of urgency.
This fight is in the books now, but to say the least, it will not be remembered, nor will it be up for fight of the year, as many has stated before the fight. Now the anticipation for the May 1st fight between Shane Mosley and Floyd Mayweather grows larger. This will be the better, more entertaining fight, simply because Floyd can punch while applying his defense.
I’m going to sum everything up into one word: BORING!
Devon Alexander (20-0-0-13KO) -VS- Juan Urango (22-3-1-17KO) turned out to be a pretty good fight, not that I thought it wouldn’t be. This fight was a very good display of two good Jr. Welterweights with determination and a plan. Other than a few minor changes, both fighters stuck to their original game plans from beginning to the 8th. I thought this was a good fight, simply because it could’ve gone either way, until the knock out.
Urango is a one dimensional fighter, so everybody expected him to do exactly what he did, which was; go forward with looping power punches, constantly applying pressure. It doesn’t matter if he’s losing rounds, because he puts so much into his punches; one well landed hook can give him a win.
Devon Alexander, in my eyes, was a good young fighter with good boxing skills, speed, and decent power. Even though Urango has problems with fighters with good foot movement and a good jab, I was unsure if Alexander could withstand the stalking Urango would display, as well as the hard punches.
Alexander won with an uppercut in the 8th round, giving Urango his first KO lost. He just jumped up the ladder in the Jr. Welterweight division. I see a fight against him and Shawn Bradley being very explosive and entertaining. A must see fight, to say the least.
Vic Darchinyan (33-2-1 27KO) -VS- Rodrigo Guerrero 13-1-1 9LO) in a fight for Vic’s WBC Super Flyweight/WBA Super World Super Flyweight titles.
There’s a rumor going around that Tyson will attempt a comeback this year?
I don’t know how to feel about this since it’s a rumor, so I’ll address this as it materializes.
Cotto is scheduled to fight Yuri on June 5th at the Yankees stadium. Bob Arum is convinced that this will be a historic event. He was the promoter of the Ali vs. Norton fight in 1976, which was the last fight at Yankee stadium.
Yuri vs. Cotto should be a good fight and a lot is at stake for Cotto. He’s trying to get back to his top stasis he had before his defeats to Margarito and Pacquio.
Cotto can make a statement with a clear cut win on June 5th.
The 41 year old James Toney signs multi fight deal with UFC.
I read that a writer said that he wouldn’t be missed, but I disagree. James Toney isn’t the best fighter out there, but he made everybody he fought fight. I’m not talking about him fighting an old Evander Holyfield, I’m talking about him fighting a prime Roy Jones Jr. He lost but a rematch had potential of being a very good show.
The writer that posted that Toney wouldn’t be missed must have been speaking on his inactivity because with his hand speed, attitude, and will to win, there is no way that a boxing fan would celebrate his exit of the sport.
James Toney is one of those fighters that didn’t quite become the top guy but was never the tune up fight. His attitude was excellent for the sport and hopefully we see more fighters like him.
We had a great fight between Antonio Escalante (23-2, 14KO‘s) and Mickey Roman (28-7, 20KO‘s) at the Don Haskins Convention Center in El Paso, Texas.
Antonio’s story of being bullied by Mickey and his friends back when he was nine was a good shot of anticipation. It had me ready to see a bullied kid face his bully on live TV, and I can‘t lie, I was pulling for the bullied. Either way, both fighters showed up to fight and it ended up being the best Friday Night Fights Main Event this year.
The fight started off fast, as everyone expected, and Escalante’s speed was evident early, as well as Mickey’s relentless pressure. They both battled to try and control the pace as they traded shots. Escalante being the more versatile fighter had more to work with than the, I’m coming straight forward all the time, style of Mickey. Both fighters landed big shot throughout the fight with Escalante scoring a knockdown in the 8th round.
Escalante won by unanimous decision in a fight that tested his stamina, his reflexes, as well as his chin.
The under card between Danny Garcia (16-0, 10KO‘s) and Ashley Theophane (25-4-1, 7KO‘s) ended by split decision with Garcia’s hand raised.
Welterweight Champ Andre Berto is set to defend his title against Carlos Quintana on April 10th.
Ji-Hoon Kim has defeated Tyrone Harris by TKO in Round 5. Harris started off fast, controlling the first two rounds, but Kim got comfortable and took the fight to the stationary Harris. Kim knocked Harris down and when he got back up, he was blocking punches with his back to the ropes, trying to regain his composure, and the referee stopped the fight. Harris was outraged, thinking the stoppage was premature.
Tomasz Adamek wins a unanimous decision over Jason Estrada in their Heavyweight fight.
The champ Edwin Valero (27-0, 27KOs) retained his belt by way of 9th round TKO of Antonio DeMarco.
In the second round, Valero got a deep gash on the right side of his forehead, when Demarco accidentally hit him with his elbow. Blood covered the right side of Valero’s face, but it didn’t stop the champ from applying pressure the whole 9 rounds of the fight.
Demarco quit on his stool after the 9th round. I had Valero winning every round at the time of stoppage.
Glen Johnson defeated Yusaf Mack by TKO in round 6 on Friday Night Fights main event. The 41 year old Johnson walked Mack down and continued to apply pressure. Mack put himself on the ropes many times in the fight, which I don't understand why, and ultimately lead to his defeat.
Jesse Brinkley (35-5, 23KO’s) -VS- Curtis Stevens (21-3, 15KO’s)
ended with Brinkley out punching Stevens on the way to a unanimous decision.
Stevens predicted he would knock Brinkley out in the first round, within 50 seconds, but the fight didn’t go his way.
Curtis went in to this fight with the thought of knocking this guy out, and in the process, Brinkley, knowing Stevens was trying to knock him out quickly, prepared for what he knew was coming.
This was an upset, simply because the style match up was tailor made for Stevens, but he didn’t fight how he should’ve. Body shots would’ve helped tremendously, but since he was going for the KO, it made him one dimensional.
Floyd and Shane could finally square off against each other since Berto had to pull out of his fight against Mosley, which was scheduled for 1/30/10. This opens the door for a much anticipated fight between the two. There’s been trash talk going back and forth for some time now.
Floyd called Mosley out, and Shane talked about getting a tooth fixed and taking a vacation. Mosley more recently called Floyd out and Floyd said that Mosley wasn’t a big PPV attraction.
This will be a very good fight if it’s made, because we all know what happens when we get our hopes up, someone gets accused of using steroids and they run from accurate testing. I’m calling it how I see it!
May 1st is the date that’s looking like the fight will happen in Las Vegas, since Golden Boy already has that date booked.
Former World Champ Erik Morales is scheduled to fight Jose Alfaro on March 27th in Mexico. The fight is said to be within the Welterweight division weight boundaries.
Riddick Bowe says he’s ready to get back in the ring, and he has is eyes set on Juan Carlos Gomez. The 42 year old, 2 time World Champ, is even willing to go to Germany for the fight.
“I want to get back in the ring as soon as I can and Gomez would be a good fight for me,” says Bowe from his Maryland home. “He already fought Vitali Klitschko and now it’s his last chance to prove he belongs with real world class fighters. I’m even ready to come to Germany for him if that’s what he wants. My legal advisor in Germany, Roman Kolaczek, is ready to set it up for me.”
Undefeated Yuriorkis Gamboa Goes to 17-0 after knocking out Roger Mtagwa in the second round.
Juan Manuel Lopez defeats Steven Luevano by TKO in the 7th round, to win a title in his 2nd weight class. His goal is to win titles in four weight divisions.
Andre Berto, of Haitian decent, pulls out of his title fight with Shane Mosley, do to the disastrous earthquake (7.0) that hit Haiti.
Shane says he’s disappointed the fight is off, but he understands why. He keeps Berto, his family, and the people of Haiti in his prayers.
No one can blame Berto for this cancellation. Due to it being so close to the fight date, a replacement for Berto would be close to impossible, so the entire event was cancelled.
A Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Kermit Cintron fight is being thrown around.
This would be a good fight for Floyd and a nice pay day for Cintron. I’m talking on the outcome of Floyd winning. This would be a fight against a bigger opponent, which will help him prepare to fight bigger guys, and it’ll help his persona, which he’s known to fight smaller guys.
Cintron isn’t the strongest fighter, physically or mentally, but he’s not a push over. He can be beat, but he does demand to be beaten, and he’s looked pretty good lately.
Floyd needs a fight of this caliber or better, because a fight with a Paulie Malignaggi or against Nate Campbell doesn’t help him in progressing his career. If he wants to remain in the talk of the tops of this era, he’ll need to fight the best guys in his division.
I personally want to see Floyd vs. Miguel Cotto, it just makes sense. They’re both at the top of the division, and they both need fights, Cotto is in the talking stage of a fight with Yuri Foreman, but I’m sure if Floyd calls, he’ll drop that fight to arrange one with the former P4P King.
Since Joshua Clottey took Floyd’s spot on March 13th, to fight Manny Pacquio, he really needs to schedule a fight that will keep him on top. Anybody lower than Kermit Cintron won’t suffice, and hell, Cintron might not either!
It’s said that Pacquio will be facing Joshua Clottey at the Cowboys Stadium on March 13th. So the fight is supposedly off, as of right now.
No papers have been signed, but Clottey is supposed to be back in the U.S. on Monday, which is when the signatures will be made, I suppose.
So if nothing changes in the next couple days, we’ll have went from a mega fight against the top two best, to the P4P king fighting a guy that lost to Cotto, who he just murdered? Hmmm?
This is all because they asked for random drug tests up to 14 days before the fight and Pac will only agree to 24 days before the fight. There was 30 million on the table and Pacquio is walking away from it, because of blood tests. I understand to a certain degree about not letting a fighter alter the tradition of boxing, but when there’s suspicion someone is doing something illegal, people start watching them to see if they are. Whether its police, FBI, school principle, sports referee, they all check for suspicion, in this case it’s Mayweathers camp. I’d check him too, and if I was Pacquio, I’d take the test, prove I’m clean, and then beat the hell out of Floyd. What I wouldn’t do is walk away from my biggest payday, unless I was dirty, and know I would ruin my career, because no amount of money is worth that.
I don’t know if he’s using or not, but he sure is acting like he is. It’s said that his camp emailed the Mayweather camp asking what the penalty was if their fighter tested dirty, and then sent another email asking if he does test dirty would they keep it secret.
You form your own opinion, but this one is overwhelming.
Cotto recently joined Berto, Malignaggi, and, Kermit Cintron, among fighters who have doubts about Pacquiao.
"I am in complete awe with Manny's reaction to this matter. He has always been a great athlete and a gentleman. Why in the world would he require restrictions or conditions for the tests?," said Cotto on Fightnews.com.
"It is a golden opportunity for him to dissipate all worldwide rumors surrounding his figure and the use of enhancement drugs," said Cotto. "His refusal to commit to the tests without conditions raises questions."
Yet another question about Pacquiao was raised in a Christmas Day article written by New York Daily News columnist, Tim Smith, a boxing scribe for more than two decades and a 2005 winner of The Boxing Writer's Association of America's prestigious Nat Fleischer Award for excellence in fight coverage.
Citing "a source familiar with the talks," Smith wrote that "Pacquiao's representatives asked what penalties Pacquiao would face if he tested dirty, and also if a dirty test result could be kept secret so that the integrity of the fight wouldn't be ruined in the public eye."
"Those are disturbing requests," wrote Smith. "It could just be due diligence on the part of the attorneys negotiating the contract or it could be that Pacquiao has something to hide."
Manny Pacquio has contacted his promoter Bob Arum and told him to start the paperwork for a defamation lawsuit he wants to file against Floyd Mayweather.
This whole situation has gone too far in my opinion. I understand why Floyd wants it done, and I understand Manny’s view, but it does have me suspicious, because of the caliber of fight he’s walking away from.
If Manny was walking away from a fight with Malignaggi because of this, then I’d say ok, but this isn’t Malignaggi. This is a fight that’s going to make him over $40 million. This fight alone can get his name etched in with the greatest of all time, and he’s walking away from it because of testing?
Floyd wanting Olympic style testing is reasonable to me because there’s a rumor going on that Pac has been using steroids. It’s only a rumor, but I would have to know, without a shadow of a doubt, that it was just a rumor, before I stepped foot in a ring with him, putting my life and career on the line.
Bob Arum says they are prepared to fight Paulie Malignaggi on March 13th if this fight doesn’t get made. Malignaggi was one of the people saying that Pac was on steroids, so I’d like to see how that works out. Paulie would probably be so happy for the biggest payday of his career that he wouldn’t care. Pac on the other hand would be taking a really big pay cut, because I’m not paying to see him chase Malignaggi around the ring.
I hope this fight works itself out, which I believe it will, since so many will make so much from this single event.
Golden Boy and Bob Arum are still in the works to get this fight finalized, but until then, I’ll keep my ear tuned to the boxing world, and bring all the information I get to you.
It seems Pacquio has a phobia for needles and is scared of having too much blood drawn, because it makes him weak.
Bob Arum (Pacquio’s promoter) said that they can go to hell, including Richard Schaefer of Golden Boy, who is representing Floyd in this fight.
Is it not funny how when Pacquio makes people jump through hoops, no one says anything, but now that Floyd has demands, the world stops. Now I don’t know if this is a direct shot at Pacquio, since he has a phobia of needles, but it does raise one question; did Floyd know that before he made the demands?
This could all be part of one big marketing scheme to make us all buy tickets, order it on pay per view, and go out and talk about it…. Wait….that is what we’re doing isn’t it!
This fight will be as big as any one fight could ever be. You have the world’s famous villain in Floyd Mayweather and the Worlds greatest Peoples champ in Manny Pacquio, and now they’re adding drama and controversy? The anticipation of this fight will be bigger than the actual fight, and it’ll break every record there is to break when it comes to highlighted prizefighting.
All this hoopla over Olympic style testing? Well, over needles? Or is it a power struggle?
Whatever it is, this fight is going to be bananas. They are selling it to people with the least amount of interest in boxing. I got people who won’t watch boxing with me asking me about this episode.
All you entrepreneurs out there take notes, watch how this whole situation single turns slowly and makes us hate and then love. I can see the fight exploding at the sound of the first bell and everybody standing in the ring hugging afterwards. Well I’m not sure there will be hugging, but you get the point!
Have yaw fun with this back and forth stuff, just make the fight happen is all I ask. If we find out later that all this stuff is real, and a blood test actually stopped the happening of a shift in power, a fight that would surpass all other sporting events, it’ll be a sad day for boxing, it’s fans, and everyone who’s involved.
I received a text earlier today stating that the mega fight between Manny Pacquio and Floyd Mayweather Jr. might be in jeopardy, because Pacman won’t agree to Olympic style drug testing?
I wasn’t for sure what that was exactly so before I formed any type of opinion, I waited until I had the chance to look it up. I thought I would find some hideous, grueling, painful procedure, but no. It’s basically seems to be a more thorough testing. It has the people tested randomly and closer to the performance time, so it’s harder to sneak something in.
I started thinking, is this a way out of the fight for one of the fighters? Is this a way to not follow the substance rules? It makes no sense for these prize fighters to ruin there chance at making more money then they have ever made for a fight. So why?
I did a little more research and on Fanhouse.com I ran into an interview, dated 12/17/09, that they had with Freddie Roach, and he said he has no problem with Olympic style drug testing because he has nothing to hide. So why is it an issue now? Was he just saying that, hoping the thought would go away?
Roach is now saying that he won’t allow them to draw blood from his fighter so close to the fight, and yadda yadda yadda. He just said not to long ago that it didn’t matter to him.
Floyd and his camp wants this done to ensure that all the speculation that has been going around, about him being on steroids are not true. I understand why you’d want to have the test done, but on Pac’s part, I don’t understand why you wouldn’t accept it, and be a part of the biggest fight ever?
The sad thing about the whole situation is, since Floyd is the hated one and Pac’s the fan favorite, it’ll all be blamed on him. This will turn into Floyd trying to find a way out of the fight, but if you stop and think to yourself, it’s easy for Pac to accept the testing and go on with the fight rather than scrap it.
If I’m Floyd, I stick to my guns on this, imagine if there is some discrepancy? Would you risk being the victim of a juiced up mad man, wielding weapons on both hands? Imagine if Nasim Richardson would’ve stopped his rant about Margarito’s gloves, what would’ve happened to Shane Mosley that night? I wouldn’t take that risk, especially when it’s so easy to make sure everything is how it’s supposed to be. I’m on Floyd’s side with this one, and I know Cotto, and all the others that have been victims of illegal substances are too, even if they don’t know it.
Did anybody think he was going to lose? He hand picked a tomato can and won. Good for him I guess.
Kelly Pavlik defeated Miguel Espino by TKO in the 5th round to retain Ring/WBC/WBO Middleweight Titles.
I for one think he needs to defeat a real contender to prove to his fans and the critics, that are saying he ran from Paul Williams. After a lost to Old man Hopkins, he needs to establish himself again, and he didn't do it in this fight. He could've at least KO'd him in the first to make a statement.
From being schooled by Bernard Hopkins, to seemingly avoiding Paul Williams, to fighting Miguel Espino, Mr. Pavlik needs to really prove that he's still the fighter that defeated Jermain Taylor, and made the world acknowledge Youngstown.
2010 will make or break him, only time will tell.
Fernando Guerrero -VS- Jesse Nicklow (Guerrero by TKO in the 4th)
Lanard Lane -VS- Said El Harrak (Lane by TKO in the 2nd)
Shawn Porter -VS- Jamar Patterson (Porter by TKO in the 4th)
Pacquio agreed to meet Floyd in the ring on March 13th…………..You read correctly! The fight finally has a date, the fight the world wants to see is finally on the table.
There’s not much else to say other than; if there’s any other sport or event out there, for your sake, please don’t schedule anything on March the 13th, there will be no one watching!
The rest of the fight details are being ironed out, so hopefully everything will be written in stone in the upcoming weeks.
Floyd/Pac negotiating a fight that I guarantee will break the bank. This is the fight that must happen to clear the air. There’s too much debate about who’s the best for this fight not to happen.
Pacquio is the biggest friendly boxer since Oscar and Floyd has out shined Roy Jones Jr. as the sports most arrogant, self proclaimed greatest. So we have the good guy bad guy thing going on, because I bet there will be as many people watching that like Floyd that hates him.
Good guy bad guy worked for Floyd and Oscar which lead to them breaking the record, but Oscar was never at the level of competitiveness that Pac is at. Oscar lost every big fight that he was in after his 2002 fight against Fernando Vargas. So a fight between an undefeated bad guy, who is as slick as they come, and a good guy that has literally decreased his opponents to punching bags, should make the world stop and watch.
I’ll be watching this fight strictly because we’ll see one of the best technical fighters vs. an offensive beast. There’s history with the P4P title being transferred to Pac after Floyd’s leave of absence all the way to their common foes.
This is thee fight to see in 2010 and the winner will be the biggest boxer fighting. Pac vs. Cotto was called fire power, what should Floyd vs. Pac be called?
This will be Berto’s (25-0-19KO’s, WBC Welterweight Champion) stiffest competition of his career. Even though Mosley (46-5 39KO’s, WBA Welterweight Champion) is getting older as we speak, he still has a lot in the gas tank. I’m not saying that because he dominated Margarito, sending him into suspension, and handing him his ass as a parting gift, but because Mosley’s heart is the size of one of Shaq’s shoes.
There’s been speculation that Berto’s corner has been playing it safe with him, keeping his opponents fairly easier than they should be. But this is not the case with this fight, unless they believe that Mosley has aged enough to where he is easier to beat now. If they believe that, they’re in for a long miserable night. I see this being a highly active fight, that will be decided by who wants it more.
Berto’s last two fights were against Luis Collazo, which a lot of people believed he lost, and Juan Urango, who came up from Jr. Welterweight and had a very bad style match up. This fight will expose how big Berto’s heart is or isn’t. It’s a good fight for him, win or lose, because if he wins, he propels himself right in the middle of the best welterweight discussion. If he loses, then he can assess what flaws he need to tweak, while he’s still young, and losing to Mosley isn’t career ending, since he’s a shoe in for a hall of fame spot.
Mosley has been waiting….well looking for a big money fight, and Berto definitely wasn’t his first choice, hell, not even his second. He stalked the two best fighters in the division for about all of 3 or 4 months, before realizing they wouldn’t fight him. He kissed Manny Pacquio’s ass, saying he’ll fight at whatever weight and will take a smaller share than he deserved. That didn’t work so he shows up to Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s sparring match with Juan Manuel Marquez, that was on PPV, and interrupts the post fight interview. At this point, the desperation was apparent on Mosley’s part. He clearly wanted a big PPV fight, that could fill his pockets, so he could retire with comfortably.
He’s settled to fight Andre Berto on the 30th of January on HBO championship boxing. He had the chance to fight Paul Williams, but he stated he wanted no part of that, like a lot of other fighters. Mosley just might show up for this fight with a chip on his shoulder. He just might want to show the world that he deserves one more PPV fight. If he goes out there and convincingly beats Berto, he’ll earn that chance.
There will be a lot on the line in this fight, especially for Mosley. If he loses, he retires, and becomes a full time Golden Boy employee. I suspect he’s not ready for that yet.
“Iron” Mike Tyson was at LAX with his wife and 10 month old daughter when he got into an altercation with the paparazzi. He allegedly struck one of the photographers.
The photographer says that he was struck once by Tyson. He was treated for a cut on his forehead.
Tyson says he was attacked by an overly aggressive Photographer and was simply acting out of self defense.
Both Tyson and the photographer want to press charges for misdemeanor battery.
Kelly Pavlik (35-1, 31 KO’s) the middleweight champ has been nursing a staph infection on his left hand these past couple of months. He’s finally to the point where him and his corner believe he’s recovered enough to be able to schedule a fight for Dec 19th with Miguel Espino (20-2-1, 9 KO’s).
Kelly postponed two fights with Paul “The Punisher” Williams while trying to recover from the staph infection. He tried to postpone the Dec 5th date and push it to the 19th and Williams decided to keep the date and find another opponent, being frustrated with the first two postponements. Williams is scheduled to fight Jr. Middleweight titlist Sergio Martinez in a Middleweight bout.
Many have been speculating that Pavlik really didn’t want a fight with Paul and used the staph infection as an excuse to postpone the bout, and now that he’s clear of the “The Punisher” he’ll take an easier fight with a reality star, who lost. To add to the insult, the fight will take place in Pavliks hometown of Youngstown, Ohio, at the Beeghly center on the campus of Youngstown State University.
David Haye is coming off a majority decision win over 7’0” Nikolay Valuev, to win the WBA Heavyweight belt. The fight took place this past Saturday in Germany. The WBA let it be known that Haye must defend the belt against the mandatory challenger John Ruiz, who is a former two time WBA champion.
“I don’t think he is the most entertaining. He has won the world title before and you don’t do that by being a bad fighter,” Haye said. “I will be way too fast, I will knock him out.”
Haye was scheduled to fight both Klitschko brothers (Vladimir & Vitali), but pulled out of both bouts. He blames both instances on the Klitschkos trying to trap him into multi-fight contracts.
“Anyone who has a belt is in my sights now, definitely the Klitschkos. “The Klitschkos tried to lock me down in a crazy contract. I am free now to fight who I want to,” Haye says.
John Ruiz lost a split decision to Nikolay Valuev August of 2008 in Germany.