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.

Austin is a fighter who has served as Briggs’ sparring partner, not exactly the type of fighter you want to have problems with heading into a championship fight. Ibragimov walked away with a draw in that match, after being knocked down in the tenth round. True, Ibragimov was able to knockdown Austin two times prior to the tenth, but he was unable to hurt him enough to finish him when he had the chance. In his most recent outing he knocked out the woefully out of shape Javier Mora in one round. Mora is usually rugged, but decided to come out and slug it out with Ibragimov. The fight was over before it started.

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.

Boxing Betting Odds Sign-up Betting

Boxing Betting Bonus

 Email This Post |  Print this post

Jermain “Bad Intentions” Taylor (26-0-1 17 KO’s) will defend his middleweight championship for the fourth time when he takes on challenger Cory “Next Generation” Spinks (36-3 11 KO’s) this Saturday. The fight will take place at the FedEx Forum in Memphis, Tennessee, just a short ride away from Taylor’s hometown of Little Rock Arkansas. The hometown atmosphere will obviously be a big advantage for the champion, but that’s just where the advantages start.

Taylor will hold at least a four inch height advantage and at least a four each reach advantage. Taylor is also the natural middleweight while this will be Spinks first fight at that weight. In fact Spinks has only fought twice at the 154 limit. There is no more daunting task then fighting the champion at your first fight at the highest weight of your career. Spinks’ best work came in the 147 pound division, where he captured the linear welterweight championship when he defeated Ricardo Mayorga in August of 2004. Spinks defended that title twice, before losing to Zab Judah by 9^th round TKO in February of 2005.

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 Taylor has been accused of is taking advantage of lighter fighters. Since Taylor has been in the limelight he’s only fought one legitimate middleweight. It helps that middleweight was one of the best ever in Bernard Hopkins, but the fact remains he is fighting smaller sized opponents. As his tenure as middleweight champion he has fought Winky Wright and Kassim Ouma, not including the Hopkins rematch. Wright and Ouma have both done their best work at 154 pounds. That didn’t stop Wright from nearly upsetting the champion last June. Wright got hit more then he ever did before, but so did Taylor. The fight ended in an unsatisfying draw, which saw Wright leave the ring, and refuse a rematch because he thought he won the first fight. Ouma didn’t have a much success, falling behind early on the scorecards, despite throwing a large amount of punches.

Everything says to pick Taylor in this one, including the bookmakers who have Taylor at nearly a 6 to 1 favorite. Fighters have risen to the occasion before, and recent history will tell us that weight advantages don’t always equate to victory. For example, Bernard Hopkins moved up to 175 pounds to beat champion Antonio Tarver after losing to Taylor. More recently Floyd Mayweather Jr. moved up to 154 pounds and beat Oscar De La Hoya.

The under card also provides a nice fight with the winner potentially getting a middleweight title shot from the victor of the main event. Edison “Pantera” Miranda (28-1 24 KO’s) takes on Kelly “The Ghost” Pavlik (30-0 27 KO’s) in the co-feature. Miranda has drawn quite a following for his brawling skills and has beat Allan Green, a solid contender. Before that Miranda lost a decision to Arthur Abraham in a fight that say Abraham suffer a broken jaw. Many feel that the German crowd and officials helped determine the outcome of that fight, and that it could have been stopped when Abraham suffered a broken jaw in the fifth round.

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.

Boxing Odds Sign-up Boxing

Boxing Betting Bonus

 Email This Post |  Print this post

The “Super Bowl” of Boxing: Oscar De La Hoya vs. Floyd Mayweather

On May 5^th 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 Las Vegas have sold out weeks ago, and some tickets are selling from various other outlets for more than ten times their face value.

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 Judah, and Judah was coming off of a loss. The person Judah lost to, Carlos Baldomir, ended up being the welterweight champion, and was then defeated by Mayweather in 12 lopsided rounds. One would think that you would get credit for embarrassing the welterweight champion of the world, but Baldomir had nine losses to his ledger and won the championship in an upset to begin with.

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 5^th, 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 Hopkins, Mayorga, Sturm, Shane Mosley, Fernando Vargas, Felix Trinidad, and a handful more. That is a virtual who’s who in the world of boxing. Mayweather says he is the best boxer ever, but he never tested his theory against the same fighters De La Hoya has.

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

Islandcasino Boxing Live Odds Boxing Betting Bonus

 Email This Post |  Print this post

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 Russia could beat all-American boy Rocky Marciano’s record of 49-0 and then retire. Valuev has been called everything in the book, including “Neanderthal, freak show and circus act.”

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 Uzbekistan but now lives in Hamburg, Germany. Chagaev had quite an interesting start to his boxing career. In 1997 he took two fights in America against less than stellar opponents, but won them both and they were credited to his professional record. He successfully had these fights changed to “exhibition” fights so he could go back to the amateur ranks, yet these fights are still listed on his official overall record. Because of his professional fights, he was stripped of an amateur title in which he beat the legendary Cuban heavyweight Felix Savon to win the title. He was officially reinstated as an amateur in 1998, where he continued to find success, winning a slew of national and world titles before officially turning pro in 2001.

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, Camp Calloway said the cut he had sustained had been from a head butt and they had the result changed to a technical draw. Chagaev would get his KO victory over Calloway in 2006, this time no questions asked in a TKO 3 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 12^th 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 Europe. Besides that though, Valuev has about a foot height advantage, and could have upwards of a 100 pound weight advantage come fight night. Chagaev may have his moments early, even testing Valuev’s chin a couple of times, but it is not hard to imagine a scenario where Valuev’s size eventually wears down the much smaller man. This is nothing against Chagaev; he clearly has the skills to still make a good run at other championship belts in his career, but he more than likely is not wrestling the strap away from Valuev.

Boxing Betting Odds Islandcasino Boxing Signup

Boxing Bonus

 Email This Post |  Print this post

(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 Germany, where Maske is adored and idolized, and some how was given a decision, a split decision no less.

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 Germany.

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 camp Maske, he announced he would be his trainer. Everything seemed to be going smooth at first, but then the rumors started to fly. Atlas was worried that Maske was progressing too slowly, and if you know anything about Atlas, he likes to work his fighters in camp. Then reports started surfacing that Maske was being shown up in camps against sparring partners that were brought in for the purpose of making Maske look good. Finally, in the middle of December, Henry Maske announced that Atlas would step down as trainer and he would be replaced by former and long time Maske trainer, Manfred Wolke.

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.

Islandcasino Boxing Live Lines Islandcasino Boxing Signup

 Email This Post |  Print this post

(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 Las Vegas, Marco Antonio Barrera (64-4 42 KO’s) will defend his WBC super featherweight title against challenger Juan Manuel Marquez (46-3-1 35 KO’s).

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 11^th 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 Indonesia, Marquez could be looking at an eight year undefeated streak. But since Barrera’s loss to Pacquiao, he has beaten his lifelong foe Morales, again. Where he hasn’t looked stellar is in his last two fights against Juarez. In their first fight in May of 2006, Juarez nearly escaped with Barrera’s title, losing a split decision many thought he deserved to get. In that fight Barrera looked lethargic. However, he easily won the rematch four months later. At that time, Juarez looked lethargic. At times Barrera has been accused of not being able to get up for the smaller types of fights. That shouldn’t be a problem for this fight though, because this is about as big a fight as you can get.

Islandcasino Boxing Live Lines Islandcasino Boxing Signup

Barrera VS Marquez Bonus

 Email This Post |  Print this post