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Two of the World’s best Welterweights will step into the ring on Saturday, June 13th when Puerto Rican superstar Miguel Cotto will fight against Joshua Clottey. The main fight will be televised on ESPN.
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In ten days, on December 8th, an excellent year of boxing will end with perhaps the biggest event of the year. Many boxing fans have been concerned that MMA was beginning to gain more popularity then boxing, hence boxing will become obsolete. But, after an amazing year where PPV records broke all-time records, boxing fans can breathe early. This fight here should be a hit from Las Vegas, where it is taking place, to all the way across the Atlantic in England, home of Ricky Hatton. This fight features two fighters with a combined record of 81-0 with 55 knockouts. What more can we ask for as boxing fans.
Floyd Mayweather Jr (38-0 24 KO’s) has already had a major fight this year against PPV king Oscar De La Hoya, winning a split decision. While he made more money in that fight then he will versus Ricky Hatton (43-0 31 KO’s) you can make a solid argument that this fight has more significance. While De La Hoya was still considered a top-notch opponent he had lost two out of his last four fights before his decision loss to Mayweather. The Hatton fight will feature two fighters in their absolute prime and will also set the pace for the rest of the welterweight division for years to come. There are many great fights for the winner of this fight. In fact, there are many solid fights for the loser of this match as well, that’s how stacked the division is. If Mayweather wins though, he may not choose to accept anymore fights. He has suffered from hand injuries ever since his amateur days, and recently he has been experience shoulder and elbow pains. These pains can be expected from a person who has been in a ring since barely after he learned to walk.
One of Mayweather’s downfalls, when asking his detractors, is his resume. He does have a few good wins on his resume, but against opponents who were either past their prime, or not yet in it. His closest fights date back to a pair of 2002 fights against Jose Luis Castillo. Both fights were highly competitive, with many feeling Castillo won the first match up. Mayweather has also fought, and beat decidedly former champions and championship challengers DeMarcus Corley, Arturo Gatti, Sharmba Mitchell, and Zab Judah, and Carlos Baldomir. Mayweather’s resume, when looked at a subjective point of view doesn’t look that bad. In fact, it’s the ease of which he has dispatched these opponents that has been the most impressive thing. However, a Ricky Hatton on his resume is more impressive then any of those opponents, including De La Hoya.
While Mayweather is known for keeping in shape 365 days a year, Hatton has become equally as famous for blowing up in weight between fights. When Hatton is back in his native Manchester he likes being one of the “boys.” What that means is he enjoys going to the pubs, drinking multiple pints, and playing darts. He also enjoys his fast food. While that isn’t exactly a recipe for success, it does allow Hatton time to relax between fights, and that’s just fine with his handlers. Unlike Mayweather, Hatton does have a legitimate all time great fighter on his resume. Kosta Tszyu came into the Hatton fight undefeated in his last eight years. Tszyu is considered to be among the top welterweights of all-time, but that didn’t stop Hatton from keeping Tszyu from entering the 12th round of their match-up. However, in Hatton’s only other fight at 147 he struggled to beat the underrated Luis Collazo, being rocked in the final round. While this fight is being held at 147, Mayweather’s natural weight isn’t 147 either, so any apparently size advantage could actually go towards Hatton. Since the Collazo fight, Hatton has fought twice, including a fourth round destruction of the same fighter that gave Mayweather trouble so many years ago, Castillo. To be fair to Mayweather, Castillo was probably more past it when he fought Hatton, but to be able to knock out Castillo the way he did, a shot to the liver, is impressive anyway you slice it. Castillo’s best work came in between the Mayweather and Hatton defeats, so it’s hard to say where his prime even started.
Hatton is about a 2-1 underdog, which is probably just about right. Although the fight is in Las Vegas, it is expected that Hatton will actually have more fans in attendance. Hatton has made jokes concerning Mayweather’s drawing power, but it is true Mayweather has turned many fans against him, making it seem that they go to see him lose as opposed to cheering him on. Mayweather is the best boxer in the world today, a thought shared by many. Hatton isn’t known for his boxing skill, but will come forward the entire fight, and is a relentless body puncher. Fights of this magnitude generally fail to live up to expectations, but this one has all the makings to live up to expectations and more.
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Three years ago Wladimir Klitschko (48-3 43 KO’s) took on a fighter that seemed to most to be little more than a warm-up and a confidence building for the Ukrainian fighter who goes by Dr. Steelhammer. After all, Lamon Brewster (33-0 29 KO’s) had troubles in the past with the same types of fighters Klitschko routinely dispatches of in just a couple of rounds. Many boxing experts said Brewster only had one chance of winning this fight, and that was a “punchers chance.” “Punchers Chance” is a term that is thrown around fairly easily in the fight game to describe the chances of a considerable underdog, and that fighter with the “punchers chance” hardly ever comes up on top. The same can’t be said for Brewster, who took advantage of his opportunity by knocking Klitschko out at the end of the 5th round.
Many rumors have swirled around this defeat for Klitschko, ranging from high blood sugar, to poison. It’s true that Klitschko did seem unusually tired for only the 5th round of the fight, and did appear to fall on the canvas more from exhaustion then anything Brewster had to offer. But, Brewster did land some heavy shots in the 5th round, that probably had something to do with it.
Brewster should be commended for the amount of punishment he took from Klitschko in the first four rounds. Klitschko landed at will on the heavyweight out of
Since their fight on
Fast forward to 2004, and Klitschko has seemed like the fighter most always thought he was capable of. He’s defeated then undefeated knockout artist Sam Peter, Chris Byrd, for the second time, and undefeated prospect Calvin Brock. Most recently, 4 months ago, he defeated spoiler Ray Austin in a mismatch. In the Byrd fight he won the IBF heavyweight title, and is now considered to be the number one rated heavyweight in the world.
Brewster on the other hand hasn’t been quite as successful. In his first fight after the Klitschko upset he took unheralded Australian heavyweight Kali Meehan. Surprisingly Brewster had to fight tooth and nail, and appeared to be out on his feet a couple of times, just to earn a split decision. Many ringsiders thought Meehan deserved the victory. Meehan proved to be a fluke, when just a few months later he was knocked out by former Lennox Lewis conqueror Hasim Rahman. Brewster bounced back beautifully though when he defeated Andrew Golota in
In his last outing, which will be 15 months prior to his July fight, Brewster would lose to Sergui Lyahkovich in a fight of the year candidate by unanimous decision. To his credit, Brewster fought nearly the entire fight with a detached retina and still forced Lyahkovich to take a knee in the 7th. Lyahkovich would go on to lose his next fight in dramatic fashion when Shannon Briggs knocked him out, and out of the ring, with seconds remaining in the fight.
The questions to this fight are just as fun to answer as the fight itself is going to be. Will Brewster be able to bounce back after over a year away from the ring, and a serious eye injury? Will Klitschko be able to shake the memory of being defeated by the foe standing across the ring from him? The bookies think so, and they have instilled Klitschko as over a 3 to 1 favorite. The brutal nature of Brewster’s last handful of fights probably helped added to their decision.
The Summer of exciting fights continues on July 7th in
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“Super” Zab
In his last outing against Ruben Galvan, the fight ended basically before it started when the two fighters collided heads and left Galvan a bloody mess. Even the easiest of opponents are starting to be a chore for
Cotto has not fought great competition, but the way he has defeated them has been in stellar, bone crushing fashion. Since he won the vacant WBO Light Welterweight title in September of 2004 he has knocked out, or caused his opponents’ corner to throw in the towel, in every fight but one. His last handful of fights has told the most about him.
In June of 2006 he defeated Paul Malignaggi in which Malignaggi showed great heart, but in the end the firepower of Cotto was too much and he lost a fairly lopsided 12 round decision. In his second to last fight he forced the corner of Carlos Quintana to stop the match after five one-sided rounds. Quintana was coming off the best win of his life, a 12 round decision over hot prospect Joel Julio. Quintana is a skilled and slick southpaw boxer who would probably give most other welterweights trouble. Not Cotto.
So, with all these impressive wins there are still people who call Cotto one dimensional. His body attack has been called the best in the game, and has put more than one opponent on his knee gasping for a small breath of fresh air. He is a straight forward fighter who will take a punch to get punched, but up until this point his punches have had much more effect. If he is a one dimensional fighter, then it is a very good dimension.
People think
But, as far as it seems Zab
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Shannon Briggs (48-4-1 42 KO’s) has definitely had a roller coaster kind of career. As a young up and coming knockout specialist of a heavyweight boxer, he was unexpectedly TKO’ed by Darroll Wilson, just as he was moving up the top ten list. But, just five fights later, he reached the ultimate peak, as he defeated then heavyweight champion of the world, George Foreman. You can say what you want about that fight as far as questionable decisions are concerned, but the truth remains that Briggs went into that fight as a big underdog and did enough in the eyes of the judges to walk away with a majority decision, and the heavyweight championship. The roller coaster came tumbling down though in his very next fight when he was defeated by future hall of famer Lennox Lewis in five very exciting rounds of boxing. Briggs has Lewis hurt in the first two rounds, but Lewis then found his groove, and sent the champion tumbling to the canvas a few times before the referee waved off the fight.
A draw with Francois Botha, and an unexpected loss to Sedrick Field seemed to put a crashing halt to the career of Briggs. But, then as he had done so many times, he started the ride back up to the top. He Ko’ed four fighters before taking on his first real test in Jameel McCline. McCline defeated Briggs, but it showed that Briggs may have enough for one last chance.
Briggs took full advantage of that shot, and with a new management team, and trainers, he once again regained the world championship in one of the most exciting fashions ever. Down on the scorecards heading into the final round of his WBO championship fight with Sergui Lyahkovich, he rallied to knockout the champion with just two seconds remaining in the contest.
It’s that above experience that would seem to put him at a huge advantage coming into his title defense against Sultan Ibragimov (20-0-1 17 KO’s). Ibragimov, as noted, has only fought 21 times. It’s not necessarily a given that the fighter with more experience will win, but in this case you have to look at who they’ve fought and how they’ve faired. Briggs has hung in with top fighters like Foreman, Ray Mercer, Lennox Lewis, and most recently Lyahkovich. Ibragimov’s toughest fight was against Ray Austin, the same Ray Austin who was just blown out in two rounds against Wladimir Klitschko.
One of Briggs’ major weaknesses is his stamina. As he has moved up the rankings he has also moved up in weight. The muscle has appeared to force him to lose energy quicker, and being a life long asthmatic, that doesn’t fair well. But, he was able to last 12 rounds moving at a lumbering pace against Lyahkovich, and chances are he won’t need to go half that against Ibragimov.
If Ibragimov chooses to come out fighting fast against Briggs, the counter punching of Briggs will come into effect. Briggs, despite maybe losing some speed do to size and age, is still one of the quickest fighters in the game. Many of his KO’s have been due to punching a guy while they were in the process of trying to get to him. Also, the height advantage, nearly four inches in favor of Briggs, will come into play because of the subsequent reach advantage it will give me. The way to beat Briggs, as McCline showed is to try to outbox him. That is not something that Ibragimov has in his game plan. He likes to get inside and try to knockout blow. While that provides a lot of excitement for the fans on TV and the fans at ringside it also could possibly provide a short night for the challenger.
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Jermain “Bad Intentions”
His two fights at the 154 pounds were so-so. In July of last year he defeated the tough Roman Karmazin by a majority decision. Spinks, 29, seemed to tire down the stretch, and looked out on his feet as the final bell rang. Many ringsiders thought Karmazin deserved the win, but others thought the work Spinks did early in the fight was enough to earn the victory. His other fight at 154 was against Rodney Jones. Jones had been clamoring for a big fight for a long time, but came up flat against Spinks, losing every round on two scorecards, and winning only one on the other. Winning those two fights have left some wondering why he deserves a shot at the middleweight title, but Spinks hopes to take advantage of the opportunity.
Something
Everything says to pick
The under card also provides a nice fight with the winner potentially getting a middleweight title shot from the victor of the main event.
Pavlik has in impressive record as well and has been on a tear of late, knocking out his last seven opponents. This fight has the potential of stealing the show, as both fighters have KO power and it is the first real test for both. Miranda is currently the slight favorite.
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The “Super Bowl” of Boxing: Oscar De La Hoya vs. Floyd Mayweather
On May 5th the world’s most popular boxer will square off against the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. It is easy to see, this fight markets itself. The tickets for the event at the MGM Grand in
This fight has the ability to do something that hardly any other fights do, and that is to make boxing fans out of people who normally do not watch it. That reason, and the fact it is getting so much press in the main stream, is the reason it is being compared to the annual NFL football championship, the Super Bowl.
Skeptics, which there are a few, but not many, will tell you that neither fighter has fought anyone that good for a few years. For “Pretty Boy” Floyd Mayweather (37-0 24 KO’s), the critiques have had a field day. Despite being undefeated, and hardly ever being in trouble in a fight, boxing experts are upset with Mayweather’s resume, or lack thereof.
It has been four years since Mayweather has really been tested. In his first fight against Jose Luis Castillo he won what was a comfortable decision on the scorecards, but appeared much closer than they indicated. This outcry caused a rematch just four months later, where Mayweather appeared to have an easy time with Castillo, but the results on the scorecards were even closer than the first fight. Since then, Mayweather’s toughest opponent was last year against Zab
One of Mayweather’s toughest opponents to date has not come in a boxing ring but rather it is his own family. His father, Floyd Mayweather Sr., used to be De La Hoya’s trainer. After De La Hoya did not match Floyd Sr.’s contract request he was no longer his trainer and was replaced by the much respected Freddie Roach. After a short stint in jail, the elder Mayweather was greeted with open arms to his son’s training camp, but just as an advisor, not a trainer. Doing the training already was Mayweather’s uncle, Roger (Are you following?). Recently Floyd Sr. and Roger have been bickering in the press, mainly because Dad wants a bigger role in his son’s training, but Roger wants no part of it. One would think this would be a distraction in Mayweather’s camp, but it probably is not. Mayweather has been used to this tremulous feeling for a long time growing up in the Mayweather house.
For only the second time in his career, “The Golden Boy” Oscar De La Hoya (38-4 30 KO’s) will be entering the ring as an underdog. The last time he did was also his last loss, a ninth round KO to former middleweight king Bernard Hopkins. While Mayweather has been criticized for his resume for light competition, De La Hoya has fought decent fighters, but has looked vulnerable in some of those fights. In his fight before the Hopkins KO, he fought German Felix Sturm and squeaked away with a decision. In his last fight, which will be over a year ago from when he steps into the ring May 5th, was against Ricardo Mayorga. De La Hoya stopped Mayorga in six rounds, but by all accounts Mayorga has been damaged goods for quite a bit.
Overall though, De La Hoya has had the most impressive resume since perhaps Muhammad Ali. De La Hoya has fought numerous former champions in numerous weight divisions, including
With that resume, and the fact that De La Hoya is the naturally bigger and stronger man, it is hard to imagine why this fight is not a pick’em. De La Hoya is easily the best fighter Mayweather has ever fought, but the same can possibly be said for De La Hoya. Mayweather’s boxing ability is unmatched and the way he can change his style based on opponents, or even during a fight, is quite remarkable. The guess here is that a lot of late money will go on De La Hoya. One reason is because he is the biggest name in the sport today, and another reason is that it seems like a good value to bet on, as we said, the bigger stronger man.
However you view it, this is the biggest event in boxing in a long time, and has a chance to break all boxing box office records. At 55 dollars, it is the most expensive Pay-Per-View of all time, but is expected to be bought by the most people ever, with the possible exception of heavyweight title fights.
The Current Odds:
Floyd Mayweather JR. -220
Oscar De La Hoya +170
Over 11.5 rounds -265
Under 11.5 rounds +205
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WBA heavyweight champion Nikolay Valuev has a record of 46-0 with 34 knockouts, yet he still can’t get any respect, especially from American fans. The overwhelming fear of many of these fans is the thought that a 7-footer from
So far the Neanderthal, freak show, and circus act has done nothing but win, and in pretty convincing fashion. On April 14, from the Porsche-Arena in Stuttgart, Germany, Valuev, 33, will look to continue his unprecedented ride to the top when he takes on WBA #1 challenger, Ruslan “White Tyson” Chagaev (22-0-1 17 KO’s).
Chagaev, 28, was born in
He gained the nickname “White Tyson” for the way he was knocking out all challengers much the same way a young Mike Tyson did. His only draw came on his record by way of a fight with Rob Calloway in 2002. In what should have been a TKO victory,
Chagaev earned his title shot by beating former three time WBA champion John Ruiz in a title elimination shot. It has been said that it is impossible to look good against Ruiz in a fight, and the same thing happened to Chagaev. Much of the boxing world was thinking, and maybe some even hoping, that Chagaev would be able to knockout the fighter who is more known for clinching than his three titles. Ruiz actually came out more active than usual, but still did not stray too far away from his clutch and grab style. At the end Chagaev walked away with a hard earned split decision and a chance to meet Valuev for his title.
Valuev has come under fire of late, particularly for his outing against John Ruiz. Ruiz once again found a way to make the fight close all the way down to the wire, but this time he lost a majority decision to Valuev. In a fight that was hard to score, Valuev did the most damage, which was evident by the swelling of Ruiz’s face. Valuev was also able to hurt Ruiz late in the 12th round with a counter right hand, something many Ruiz opponents can’t do despite their best efforts.
The Ruiz fight was at the end of 2005 and since then Valuev has looked much more effective. He has beat American fighters Owen Beck, Monte Barrett, and Jameel McCline, not exactly a” murderer’s row” of challengers, but he defeated them all in a manner he should have.
The only questionable result of these three fights came against McCline in his last fight this past January. Valuev had won the first two rounds, but McCline started coming on strong before tripping over the foot of Valuev in the closing seconds of the round. McCline had suffered a serious knee injury which could cause him to be out of action for a year. The fight was awarded a TKO victory for Valuev, but under WBA rules, and I’m paraphrasing, a fight should be ruled a no-contest if a fight is ended by a result other than a punch thrown. Either way, it is impossible to tell what would have happened if the fight would have continued, but as it stands, Valuev is still the champ, and still undefeated.
The bettors are putting their money on Valuev, and that is probably a fair choice. Despite Chagaev’s impressive ride to a title shot, he is still virtually unknown to many fans outside of
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(UPDATE: Henry Maske shocked the boxing world by returning to the ring and beating Virgil Hill by a fairly wide unanimous decision. Scores were 116-113 and 117-110, twice. Maske said after the fight that he has no desire to set up a third match with Hill, and will now go back into retirement.)
The date was November 23, 1996 and Henry Maske had just lost to Virgil Hill. In a close battle, Hill was granted a split decision. It wasn’t so much the Hill victory that surprised the boxing world, it was the fact that Hill traveled to
It is unclear if Maske was contemplating retirement before the Hill fight, but by all accounts, it was the bitter taste left in his mouth that helped make his decision that much easier.
Hill on the other hand continued fighting, even winning the WBA cruiserweight championship in the process. Hill has only fought an average of one time per year since the Maske fight, but at least he was never too far away from the gym. Maske appeared to be in good shape during his 10 years away from the ring, but he has been mostly concentrating on his business affairs, including being the owner of four McDonald’s restaurant franchises in
When Maske announced he was interested in returning for a single fight against Hill, the boxing world rolled their eyes. Only once in history has a fighter made a successful comeback after being away from the ring for an extended period of time, and his name was George Foreman. But, when Maske announced his trainer would be Teddy Atlas, the critics reappraised their thoughts and thought Maske may be serious about making a run. Atlas has trained multiple world champions, including Michael Moorer and Shannon Briggs.
Atlas, who has been enjoying his gig as blow-by-blow announcer for ESPN 2’s Friday Night Fights, had to be talked into returning, but after a little prodding from
The Maske camp will tell you that it was nothing against Atlas, it was just that Wolke has expressed interest in training his former fighter, after declining initially. If you listen to Atlas, which most people seemed to do, he said that Maske was in no way ready to fight on the level he needed to be able to match up with Hill. Atlas said there were periods in camp where he seemed lackadaisical and unfocused.
Maske’s last win came against John Scully in May of 1996. Before losing the controversial match to Hill, he had defended the IBF Light Heavyweight championship 10 times. Despite the loss, Maske still had a long profitable career ahead of him had he decided to continue on with his career.
Many fans have joked that this bill should be titled “Retirement Party,” or something of that nature. This match is not about future greatness, or future world championship bouts. Plus, not even the WBA could find a way for this to be a championship match for Hill’s cruiserweight title, a title he won 14 months ago but has yet to defend. This fight is about a chance for redemption for Maske. He gets a chance to beat the man who ended his career, in the very same arena where he lost nearly 11 years ago.
Virgil Hill is a big favorite, as well as he should be. Perhaps Hill’s work rate has declined over the last couple of years, but the long lay off and the many concerns coming out of camp seem to justify Maske as a big underdog.
Maske built a giant fan base during his career because of his dominance in the ring and his good will out of it. At the time of his retirement he was one of the most recognized German athletes. Maske will need all the help he can get from the partisan crowd, because he may just be a little too far over his head for this one.
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(UPDATE: Marquez won a controversial 12 round decision and with it took Barrera’s WBC Super Featherweight Championship. Scores were 118-109, 117-111, and 117-111. A rematch was requested immediatly after the fight and is expected to take place in Las Vegas in the middle of September.)
This Saturday night, live from MGM Grand in
Marquez’s only loss in this decade was to Indonesian Chris John back in winter of 2004. Ringside observers have said that Marquez was repeatedly deducted points for low blows that weren’t even occurring during the later rounds of what had been a close fight. This wasn’t the first or last time that questionable things have happened during a Chris John bout, so one can almost look past this fight as a true loss for Marquez. To find a truly legitimate loss for Marquez you must go all the way back to 1999, when he lost a title shot to Freddie Norwood.
One would think that the 33 year old Marquez is close to losing a step, but just last year he knocked out two formidable opponents in Terdsak Jandaeng and Jimrex Jaca. Speaking of slowing down though, everyone is wondering when his opponent will.
Barrera is actually the same age as Marquez, but has fought 18 more bouts than Marquez, and most of those have been against hall of fame type material. Barrera has fought fellow Mexican legend Erik Morales three times, Naseem Hamed, Johnny Tapia, and Pilipino superstar Manny Pacquiao, just to name a few of the bigger names on his resume. There comes a point in every great fighter’s career when you begin to wonder if his time is running out, but Barrera has already proved us wrong before.
In 2003, Barrera’s last loss, Pacquiao beat him from ring post to ring post en route to an 11th round TKO. Everyone in the boxing world was half expecting to hear the great Barrera give a retirement speech sometime shortly after, but instead he has gone on to win his next six fights. Paulie Ayala, Morales, Mzonka Fana, Robbie Peden, and Rocky Juarez will all tell you that Barrera doesn’t need to retire quite yet.
Pacquiao has actually fought both of these warriors. Of course he beat Barrera, but he actually fought to a draw with Marquez in a sensational battle back in May of 2004. Marquez was actually on the ground three times in the first round, but won enough of the remaining 11 rounds to pull off in improbable draw. Some even said he should have been awarded the victory. A few days ago a member of the boxing media asked Pacquiao who he is favoring in Saturday’s fight and surprisingly he said Barrera, despite having an easier time with him of the two.
Who should you put your money on? That’s a very tough question. Marquez is a slight underdog, sitting at +120, while Barrera is currently at -145. A lot of times in boxing, the question comes down to, “what have you done for me lately?” What Marquez has done is probably a little more enhanced than what Barrera has done over the last few years. As mentioned, if it wasn’t for a dubious loss in
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