BoredomBoxingMMA

archiving pt 4

2010-02-13T20:13:00.000-08:00

Ouma/Martirosyan was a great fight. Shame the co-main was cancelled when one of the fighters didn't get on the plane, but the opener was more competitive than the shutout on the cards shows. Ouma at 147 looked better and will be a stiff task for any young prospects or even title level guys

Paul Williams vs. Sergio Martinez

round 1 10-9 Martinez
round 2 10-9 Martinez
round 3 10-9 Martinez
round 4 10-9 Williams
round 5 10-9 Williams
round 6 10-9 Williams
round 7 10-9 Williams
round 8 10-9 Martinez
round 9 10-9 Williams
round 10 10-9 Martinez
round 11 10-9 Martinez
round 12 10-9 Williams

114-114

Same scorecard as the previous two posted. Would love to see this as an undercard to Pacquiao/Mayweather to help drum up interest.

Stuff I've put off watching forevah:

Tarvis Simms/Allan Green

Round 1: Green
Round 2: Green
Round 3: Green
Round 4: Green
Round 5: Green
Round 6: Simms
Round 7: Green
Round 8: Simms
Round 9: Green
Round 10: Green

98-92, Green. I thought rounds 7 and 3 were the closest in the fight, and I ended up giving both to Green. Simms won round 6 and 8 as a southpaw, but abandoned it in round 9 and returned to it in round 10. Odd choice to wait till the 6th round to give Green the look he's most uncomfortable with.

Malignaggi/Diaz I

Round 1: Malignaggi
Round 2: Diaz
Round 3: Malignaggi
Round 4: Diaz
Round 5: Diaz
Round 6: Malignaggi
Round 7: Malignaggi
Round 8: Malignaggi
Round 9: Malignaggi
Round 10: Malignaggi
Round 11: Malignaggi
Round 12: Malignaggi

117-111 Magic Man, I thought 5, 6, and 12 were closest. Really surprised rewatching this because I went in looking for Diaz rounds and found very, very few. Totally out of his element after the 5th. From that point on, even rounds in terms of effective punching (and there were a couple) had to go to Paulie; He was controlling the pace of the fight, the location, when engagements happened, etc. It was the very essence of ring generalship.

Watched this fight in my hotel room last weekend. Great scrap, actually. Erdei is woefully underpowered and undersized for this weight class and this fight showed it. Even with Adamek, Mormeck, and Haye gone, there's at least 4-5 guys at the weight who will blow him away.

I like Antonio DeMarco. He does a lot of things right and very few wrong. He's also getting to the top end the right way; eliminating the fractional contenders and doing so in impressive fashion. And let's be honest; 135 is a mess with lots of old guys hanging on and a lot of young guys who haven't really stepped forward. He's beaten guys every bit as good as the people Katsidis and Valero have beaten.

Meanwhile, the main event. I am fine with the 116-111 card due to the crappy headbutt call. Its probably what I'd have down as well. Montiel/Perez would be great, but my expectations are naturally very low about that happening.

Also, off TV: Williamson looks to finally be done in by Ray Austin. God only knows what we'll have to see now with Austin being a mandatory.

archiving pt 3

2010-02-13T20:08:00.001-08:00

Watched a ton this weekend:

-Derric Rossy/Carl Davis Drummond: A better fighter than Rossy stops Drummond easily. He was landing practically at will. I'm not sure that it was Rossy having developed technically as much as it was Drummond not being any good. Speaks volumes of the Chagaev Wlad beat.

-Victor Cayo/Julio Diaz: Diaz looked like the bigger man here, and significantly so. That's no good for Cayo over the long term. Guys who can't punch and run a little are not gonna become fan favorites here and sad as that is to say for Cayo, he's definitely running uphill if he wants to get a title shot against someone like Bradley or Alexander. I don't think he can be really competitive with either too. Diaz is washed up, which we already knew. Too bad.

-Henry Buchanan/Andre Ward: Man, Ward just roasted this guy. Embarassing that he couldn't put him away, but total domination. Sugar Poo was never in the fight.

Brock is going to go down, historically, as part of a crop of prospects that basically sunk the division. You look at the guys who began to emerge at that time frame, and its stunning:

-Sam Peter: ate his way out of the division

-Sergei Lyakhovich: Showed up woefully in his first title defense, basically gone

-Sultan Ibragimov: Whatever happened in the leadup to that eliminator fight destroyed his interest in the sport and ultimately his career

-Ruslan Chagaev: Hep and ultimately total failure

-Joe Mesi: Brain damage

-JC Gomez: Like you hear so often on the streets of Amsterdam, "coke coke coke coke".

The odds were desperately against Fast Eddie Chambers to rise to where he is now, and yet he's arrived. Part of that, admittedly, is the failure of others.

That's a list of international guys. I don't consider Sultan a US Heavyweight. Those guys basically failed and providing a generational gap when there should have been one. What happened as a result was that guys like Rahman stuck around 2-3 years longer on the scene than they should have.

still mowing through these old cards on the DVR:

Leon Bobo/Ira Terry: This was chief support to Carlos Molina/Danny Perez earlier in the summer (6/5?), probably the worst ESPN card this summer. Bobo was a former prospect who had appeared a few times on ESPN2. and Terry was an former prospect appearing for the first time in memory. Both had two losses, and its not hard to imagine how they got them. Bobo lacked heart and interest in fighting, along with possessing no power. Terry is a younger fighter and has better speed, but is small, not a particularly hard hitter himself, and not terribly good coming forwards.

Bobo ends up running virtually the entire fight from Terry any time Terry jumps in. When he stays put, its with his hands up defending against the ropes, absorbing blows. Terry wins all but maybe the 5th in my book, but Teddy gives him more and one judge has it a draw. Doesn't really matter. Watched it more as busy work.

Bobo IS horrible. No doubt about it.

Also watched the main event last night; Carlos Molina vs. Danny Perez. I watched some of this fight from a flat screen in a casino while gambling, so I didn't pay much attention. Forgot who both men were, but the announcers helped that fast; Perez was on the undercard for that Casamayor/Marquez PPV last year and beat up on Julio Garcia. He followed it up with a win over Eric Mitchell; not too bad. Molina's an interesting story though - the draw with JCC Jr. and loss in the rematch, then some tough opponents added a few more Ls to his record. Recently, he has wins over Camarena, Ed Paredes, and Alexis Camacho. Basically, he's a guy who wasn't babied and now he's a tough guy capable of competing with at least middle of the road opposition. He came in as a late replacement in this fight for Carlos Quintana, as well.

Anyhow, the fight; Molina basically runs the table against Perez, giving up two rounds out of 12 on my card. He was inside, outside, jabbing, landing body shots. Perez was completely lost, and while Teddy Atlas warned that it would be likely for Molina to gas, Perez's mouth was open from about the 5th round forward. Total demolition.

Jesus, even more watched the last couple days:

-Leonildo Miranda/Orlando Cruz (Shobox, 1/15/09): Edison Miranda came over and suddenly promoters lined up to grab these new Columbians who had monster KO records. And since Edison, they've all been total frauds. No diss on Cruz, because he weathered the early storm that Miranda brought, but after about the 3rd round, Miranda was shocked to see Cruz and his brace face still hanging around, and never adjusted. Cruz then nearly decapitated him with a KO of the year candidate.

-Jorge Barrios/Mike Anchondo (ESPN2, 2005): This was replayed on ESPN Classic, and since for whatever reason my original has disappeared, I recorded it. Mighty Mike was hot shit, but came in waaaaaay over the limit (by 5 lbs!) and then promptly was obliterated by Barrios. I can't say I feel bad that he got demolished by Darling Jimenez either. Barrios had all the reasons in the world to be the guy coming in at a different weight class with the death of his child and best friend, and instead he showed up 1 1/2 under. Barrios is one of the best action fighters of his generation. Shame he never got to be more than he turned out to be.

-Chris Byrd/Shaun George: (ESPN2, 2008): Finally got around to watching this, since I was out of town when it was originally on last year. A lot of people thought Byrd looked bad because he dropped. No, not at all. This is the Chris Byrd that's been at heavyweight for years, except with slower reflexes and handspeed. It was amazing to see George do what McCline and Oquendo had done in backing Byrd up in spite of massive size differences compared to those guys, but once he had, it was no shock that he took Chris out. What McCline lacked in talent and stamina, George had. Byrd needed to retire a very, very long time ago to "protect" himself and now with his divorce, that won't happen

Watched a terrible Telefutura show that's been languishing on my DVR for nearly a year (11/28/0:

-Joaquin Zamora/Jose Luis Gonzalez: Gonzalez made a name for himself among the really, really hardcore fans by getting cheated out of a win against Jason Lehoullier and fighting competitively with Carson Jones. Zamora had, himself, done a shockingly good job destroying fraud Ray Sanchez on Telefutura's air a couple months prior. The 8 rounder they were booked in was a pretty decent war and actually featured technique and skill. Quite a solid little fight. While Zamora went down in the first and was hurt several times in the fight, he ended up getting the nod with some pretty questionable scores. I felt Gonzalez got screwed again. Oh well.

-Jesus Soto Karass/Hicklet Lau: Lau comes in at 20-17. Why on earth is this on TV? A joke: Lau is over powered from the 1:00 in mark and ends up stopped in the 2nd. Karass is a great fighter to watch with the right guys (Buendia, Estrada), and this wasn't that. Horrid.

-David Proa/Ricky Vasquez: Proa comes from the Valero school of fighting, which means he is all KOs, no defense, and probably not good. Vasquez tags him a few times but goes down 4 times in the first and still needs to be counted out by the ref. Ridiculous.

-Arturo Crespin/Daniel Gonzalez: Closing out the show, this, a 4 rounder with a very in shape 30 year old nobody and a soft 18 year old prospect. Crespin is wild and goes for it in 1 and 2, then tires and slows, but wins the fight because Gonzalez (who is larger and just all cut up) does nothing but bounce.

Another Telefutura show from the DVR's archives, this from 12/5/08:

-Rock Allen/Humberto Tapia: I cannot, for the life of me, remember a prospect like Rock Allen. A member of the 04 Olympic team, he was eliminated long before winning a medal, and has been a pro now for over 5 years. In that time frame, he has fought no one. Not a single mildly relevant opponent. Tapia proves no different, as Allen defeats the .667 fighter with an array of relatively nondamaging combination punching and avoids most, though not nearly all shots. He is so standard, so boring, so...there. And the lack of a test only hurts him more in my eyes. What would happen if Rock fought any halfway decent fighter? Supposedly he has had a litany of injuries that have only further hampered things.

-Mike Jones/Luciano Perez: Unlike Rock, Jones took his decent amateur record and immediately split for the pros. He's a big dude at welterweight and is physically cut up. Perez is small for the weight and not particularly good; most memorably ran close with Carlos Baldomir a couple years ago. Jones controls most of this fight with the jab but gets caught leaning back in the third by the soft Perez. Jones does recover and ends up smashing Perez in the same round, dropping him twice, and forcing a ref stoppage. This was by no means a perfect fight; you could see the flaws in terms of Jones' inside game (or lack thereof) and ability to be hit moving straight back. But he's got incredible KO power and does actually have some technique. I'm more impressed with him than many.

-Jason Cintron/Pascali Adorno: Cintron played the part of slick boxer puncher up until he knocked Adorno out cold in the second. I noticed that he kept dropping his right hand when he'd duck down and Adorno landed a couple of hooks; I wonder if it played into Cintron's defeat earlier in the year against Henry Lundy. I actually liked the kid too in terms of what he showed.

More spanish language boxing! Jesus, how wasn't I watching this? Oh, that's right. Most of it was terrible.

Telefutura 12/12/09:

Brian Viloria/Benjamin Garcia: The Brian Viloria story is something else. 2 years ago, he fights Omar Nino and loses on Versus at the peak of his career. The rematch is a NC after Nino wins again, thanks to a positive piss test for meth. Viloria still does not rebound, losing again to Edgar Sosa and starting his run at the top of the division. But from then on? Lots of nobodies to get him back together. This was the last of them. Garcia shows the lack of depth at this weight by being blown out of the water in every aspect and taken out in the 2nd. Viloria, of course, stuns everyone by beating longtime title holder Ulises Solis and is now a 2 time champ.

Urbano Antillion/Juan Ramon Cruz: Another total walkover; Cruz was down like 10 seconds in, eventually stopped in the 4th. Two things were apparent, though - Antillion has no defense (Cruz landed at will, just had no power) and was being bred to lose. He had total confidence that Cruz couldn't do anything to him, and his smile throughout the bout reflected it. No wonder he got demolished recently.

TELEMUNDO 12/5/08

Saul Alvarez/Raul Pinzon: Can't remember seeing Alvarez before, but his record reminds me of JCC Jr.; lots of great records, no one I recognize. Just demolishes his Colombian opponent with two knockdowns in the first. I see though that Pinzon went 10 with Ricardo Torres. Maybe there's something to this kid?

Leon Bobo/Orlando Gonzalez: SD, I had it for Gonzalez along with one judge. The other two picked Bobo. I say this first because the fight was by far the worst 6 rounder I've seen in a long time. Bobo either ran or hugged. Gonzalez was the only one throwing punches in most rounds. Not even counters or anything from Bobo. The worst.

Amaury Torres/Derrick Moon: I specifically mention this unlike all the other jobber fights I watched on these two cards because it was a strange jobber/tomato can fight. Torres was 4-6. Moon was 12-25. Moon was the best damn 12-25 I've seen in a long time though; His hands were by his waist but he was fast, looks like he knows how to defend blows, and catches Torres with a great combination in the third to end it. Torres is a jobber to the jobbers: I see a draw to another famed journeyman, Jean Petit Homme, on his record.
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TYC 12/19:

Cesar Cuenca/Pablo Godoy: Is there anyone in history with a record like Cuenca? 34-0 entering, 1 KO. One. He doesn't look like he can't punch either. Stocky body, fairly wide shoulders.

A couple things are obvious. One, he can punch a little. Two, he doesn't try to finish at all. If he stuns his opponent, he just backs off and waits again. His defense isn't necessarily impregnable, but its solid. Not a slickster, more of a Winky Wright type who you just can't seem to hit anywhere but the arms. Doesn't hold at all. I mean, those are typical things you expect with this kind of KO ratio. That said, he's not necessarily enthralling. The lack of killer instinct means you know the fight is going 10 once he starts to roll. And roll he does. He's briefly shook up in the 6th, but that's it. I ended up fast forwarding past the 10th.

Rodolfo Martinez/Sergio Benitez: Apparently a rematch between the regional contender and the nobody journeyman. Martinez has a glorious 36-2-1 record built against lots of nobodies. Benitez is horrible; slapping looping shots are all he throws. He lands on occasion (which is sad), but otherwise absorbs jabs. Martinez hurts him in the second and gets a 8 count as Benitez holds onto the ropes to stay up. Benitez survives awhile longer, but at the end of the round, he is hit with an uppercut and starts stumbling. Ref just stops it for the technico technico technico. The classic "nothing is learned" fight.

archiving pt 2

2010-02-13T20:03:00.000-08:00

The problem with that is Grant could still be really good if he had interest in fighting. Physically, he's a cut above almost everyone at heavyweight, even now past his "prime", whenever one may debate that having been. He still looks fantastic in that respect. I mean, go back 7 years: If you had to pick who would have the better career, Oleg Maskaev or Michael Grant, who would you have picked?

As for Wlad fighting Haye or Arreola, yeah, I think we all agree that it sucks. Right now, who else is there with a belt? Chagaev is apparently being given a chance to defend against Carl Davis Drummond, which leaves you with "interim" champ Valuev. Obviously Valuev would be choice in that situation. I'm also debating whether to rank Valuev over Povetkin overall.

I watched a lot of boxing today. I'll recap all of it at boredomboxingmma.blogspot.com later but for you guys, a shortened version of what "matters".

I talk about the magical DVR a lot. Picks up everything. Well, 5 John Duddy cards appeared around Christmas thanks to MSG, and I've not seen him fight since he fought Yori Boy. I watched all of them in one day, and as you might expect, it was a long day. My Day of Duddy:

-JOHN DUDDY vs. SHELBY PUDWILL (3/16/06): Pudwill was a lousy fraud and got beaten violently, dropped early in round one with a left hook to the chin and he never recovered. Between the Pierre and Campos fights, so people were still somewhat willing to buy into Duddy.

-JOHN DUDDY vs. DUPRE STRICKLAND (5/18/07): Strickland had an impressive record (as did many Duddy opponents) but it lacked any substance. He was knocked down on an off balance shot in the first and lost every single round of the fight on my card and that of the judges. A horrible fight in which Strickland ran and Duddy's lack of actual punching power made it impossible for him to slow down Strickland. Strickland did nothing to win.

-JOHN DUDDY vs. ALESSIO FURLAN (7/24/07): Duddy's return to Ireland, a necessary move to remotivate him and keep him from going stale with the NY fanbase. A lot is said by the RTE announcers to hype him, and he lives up to it in some sense. Duddy drops him in the first and then out throws him most of the fight, with Furlan winning only the 5th. Furlan was given a ton of credit for a career journeyman, and much was made of his survival for 11 rounds against Sylvester. Duddy stops Furlan with less than 20 seconds remaining in round 10 after the second knockdown of that final round. Furlan made sure to land a few solid rights on Duddy, but being a weak puncher, nothing truly came of it.

-JOHN DUDDY vs. PRINCE ARRON (10/20/07): Simply no way Nevada or NY would ever accept this fight. Arron is beyond overmatched and while he lands a pretty decent combination in round 1, Duddy simply piles over the stringbean with a few knockdowns. Arron is really looking for a soft spot on the canvas in round 2 when a solid slap on the inside puts him down and forces a ref stoppage.

-JOHN DUDDY vs. HOWARD EASTMAN (12/8/07): Eastman looked good here, which is perhaps not the strongest complement to Duddy's skills. Lots of right hand uppercuts landed clean and Eastman as counterpuncher seemed to have the answer to Duddy's forward movement all night long. Earlier in his career, Eastman obliterates Duddy. At 37, it is a close fight due to Duddy's ability to soak up punches while throwing his own. I had it Eastman 96-94 but the ref scores it that way for Duddy. Eastman really ran out of gas in the 6th and just sorta coasted in from there. The announcers again put over Duddy's success and popularity in the US (hah!) as well as Eastman's ability.

My thoughts with Duddy is that he probably gets a bad wrap. He didn't look bad with Eastman, who is very awkward. Alternately, a 37 year old Eastman shouldn't be competitive with a guy constantly brought up in world title bout talks. What I found most hilarious was watching these shows, you see several prospects as good or better than Duddy (Macklin, Quillin, Moore), and whatever momentum you imagine building for Duddy gets blown up. Duddy is what he is, which is Mickey Ward with good management.
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Saw Reed/EE last night as part of the Contender finale. Reed is an interesting name in the cruiser mix. I think people will sleep on him because of the Contender aspect, but he's stopped some decent small heavyweights/cruisers during the production of that show. I'd like to see him in with Godfrey or BJ Flores. Either is competitive.

Stuff I casually watched thus far this weekend apart from the live cards:

-Beltran Jr./Roman from two weeks ago. Roman might have deserved the nod here in a really competitive and entertaining fight. Another really good one in the books for ESPN2 this year. Providnikov is still way too vertical; reminds me of Tsurkan. Andrade looked his usual sparkling self against some nobody.

-Strange card that sat on my DVR for months: Headliner was Jason Naugler/Jean Paul Mendy. Mendy's been MIA ever since that 168lb Shobox tourney he drew in the finals of, and you see why here. Scorecards read domination but it was anything but, with Naugler constantly on the offensive and hurting Mendy with shots over and over and over. Really good scrap that while Mendy clearly won was way, way more competitive than the scorecards read being. Undercard featured Marcus Oliveria stopping an embarassing Kelvin Davis in 3 (though Davis had not gone down, he also didn't complain), and Shawn Hawk blowing out midwestern bum-to-be Joshua Green in 2.

Watched a bunch of stuff to catch up before I get married and head on my honeymoon in the next week:

-Kendall Holt/DHop Shobox card: Missed this because my free Showtime ran out the day before. Downloaded it, deleted it, never watched it. Got Showtime again and recorded it on the DVR about 2 months ago, still didn't watch it. Now, 4 months later, I finally viewed it expecting the worst. My thoughts? Its always a bad sign when I liked the Yuri Foreman fight more. Probably my favorite Foreman fight to date other than the Tsurkan fight. Holt/DHop was horrible to sit through. Little to no action from Demetrius, Holt would come forward, throw a few shots, and lots of posing from both. Just ugly as hell. DHop made it closer than I thought he would taking the late rounds but god almighty, no offense to that dude that works with him, but I have no interest in seeing Demetrius again.

-ESPN2 from 4/10: I was with everyone else in thinking that Corley won that fight. I agree that he's shot but there's a place for him still in the sport based off what I saw here. Not an elite place, mind you, but he's a solid test and can still punch. Main event was lacking: David Lopez being the#6 ranked middleweight according to Ring Magazine is nothing but further proof of the GBP connections working wonders. Dude has never beaten anyone good and struggled with the eminently beatable journeyman Duran. Rock Allen was on this card and didn't make TV. WTF?

-ESPN2 from 2/13: Strange show I skipped at the time and finally got around to watching. I liked the matchmaking for Jiles/Robinson a lot but can't say I like Robinson in victory. Came across as a second tier Quillin to me with the wild repeated headshots. Carlos Molina solidified himself as an excellent test disposing of Camacho, and I was somewhat stunned to learn on Boxrec that he beat Ed Paredes a week ago off TV. Not too bad. Again, he'll never be anything special but stylistically he's someone I'd like to see hot welterweights put in with. Camacho is just shitty. There's a hundred guys in Argentina just like him.

Watched a couple things from the DVR last night:

Balzsay/Inkin: Looked like a sparring session with Balzsay being the only one willing to load up with anything. He had Inkin in all sorts of trouble in the 10th but couldn't put him down nor never really pursued him the rest of the fight. Inkin's pitty pat scoring shit went nowhere. Not the most thrilling bout, since Balzsay won the vast majority of rounds.

Toygonbaev/Tsurkan: God, what an undervalued war. These dudes just went at it for all 10 rounds. I had it closer than the announcers at 96-94, but the right guy definitely got the nod here. The missed knockdown by the ref at the very end was a bit unfortunate, because it would have locked it up for Toygonbaev lock stock and barrel, but he didn't end up needing it. Shame Toygonbaev never really did anything else in the US, losing to Keith Holmes and Ian Gardiner.

Bunch of stuff recently:

Lauro Salas/Jimmy Carter II: Extremely close decision that went the way of Salas. The problem I had scoring is that ESPN eliminated round 8 and 9 from TV, so I can't properly score. In spite of that, I sorta felt that Carter deserved the win. Even in the later rounds that Salas was trying to pour it on during, he would connect with cleaner blows and dictated the majority of those rounds.

Joe Greene/Francisco Mora: Greene is a miserable finisher. Mora was there to be taken out in round 2 and he instead went for rounds. Now he lost that HBO date and he hasn't been in the ring since August of last year. By the time he comes back he will definitely be a sacrificial lamb.

John Duddy/Wallid Smichet: Close, close fight. Smichet was just smashing up Duddy and then Duddy went boxer/puncher. I still think Duddy as a Gatti-Lite is acceptable. He's in entertaining fights more often than not and seems to be able to box on some minimal level.

I watched some ESPN stuff I'll bring up later too.

Watched a bunch of stuff, but what sticks out most was the ESPN card with Escalente/Stark headlining and Jacobs/Varela on the undercard. Escalante has a hell of a yo-yo career going right now, but the swing is back northward. Banging out Oliver and Stark one after another is impressive IMO. Meanwhile, Daniel Jacobs needs to be talked about. He demolishes Varela with one punch and A WEEK LATER fights Michael Walker and wins a unanimous decision, pitching a shutout. That's better than David Lopez' performance against the same guy a year before.

Also watched Jonathan Oquendo/some guy. Oquendo is on the road to being handicapped the way he waits for people to come in and hit. Some mexican with like 15 losses was tagging him repeatedly.

Pt1: Archiving thoughts from the past

2010-02-13T19:58:00.000-08:00

Gotta do this somehow. From BWBS:

Alright then....

With the boxing, which I'm woefully behind on and almost giving up on catching up, I watched the Holyfield/Oquendo card on DVD, which I had in my hands 3 days after the fight, but never watched. As a $10 PPV, I may have bit. At $44.95, there was no chance here.

Golden Johnson/Oscar Diaz got no love last year, but it was damn entertaining. Oscar gave it a lot of effort and really came close a few times to stopping Johnson. However, Diaz just fell apart piece by piece at the end until there was basically just a body barely able to stand on an injured leg, taking a beating. Oquendo/Holyfield was a waste of time, but being a waste of time, it was a clear Oquendo win. Holyfield landed chopping rights to the body and nothing else. I had Oquendo winnin 116-111. Not even competitive, IMO. Holyfield gained the opportunity to get bodied in a fight with someone decent.

Alright, that Versus show was just on and I watched it. Neither fight was very gripping. Fields is utterly horrible in every way and can't beat a single fighter in the top 50. The main event was just pathetic. It demonstrated for the final time that Grigsby was an awful boxer who just happened to be mildly athletic and a midget capable of making the weight. He came in to lose and didn't even really give serious effort in the 8 rounds it went, losing all of them and getting stopped for no other reason than that he was losing and obviously didn't care enough to try to win. Solis is still champion in a division where he's a weak titlist among many.

Cazares right now is numero uno at 108, even with Kameda around. I'd put him #2.

You know, in recent boxing history, there's been some pretty amazing reclamation projects. Guys like Glen Johnson, Oleg Maskaev, and even Wladimir Klitschko have all been totally written off by some only to return to greater success than they had previously enjoyed. I say this because I recently paid witness to such an attempt at a reclamation project.

When touring through my upcoming programs, I noted with shock and surprise that Michael Grant's most recent fight against Paul Marinaccio was to be televised on some of the FSN affiliates. Naturally, I recorded it, and unlike so many of the other events that are shown in two hour blocks, actually viewed it (Jean Paul Mendy/Jason Naugler is among the others, to give you some idea). I skipped over the opener and got right to the meat and potatoes. By round 8 I fell asleep, but I reconvened the next day and picked it right back up again.

What's been so apparent about those other comebacks is that the guys involved showed aspects that were entirely missing from earlier parts of their careers. Maskaev found the focus he needed just before his physical gifts fell totally apart. Johnson learned enough about how to not get killed coming in and was better than ever doing so, getting him to elevate from being lumped up by Derrick Harmon to knocking out Roy Jones. Wladimir Klitschko stowed away his offense and instead became robotically consistent with his piston jab and right hand combinations. Michael would probably need to show something along the lines of what Maskaev had, matching his brain to his physical abilities here at the end of the line physically for him.

Instead, Grant is more gunshy than ever. You have to wonder how long it'll be before his promoters cash him out on ESPN2 fighting one of the lower end prospects in the game like Cedric Boswell or Donnell Holmes. To say that a guy who was, just a few short years ago, the HBO heir apparent is in such a position is disheartening but entirely accurate. The undersized southpaw he fought, a guy stopped by CHRIS BYRD, easily walked through Grant's limited arsenal and actually appeared to win at least 4-5 rounds. He might have won 6 of the 12 en route to losing, in large part due to knockdowns created by rabbit punching.

That motivation, that want to win, that need to be better than his opponent: All of it was vacant. There was simply nothing that made him want to win. He's destined for something along the lines of Abraham/Taylor, IMO, and since Arreola's management is apparently claiming that Klitschko/Arreola is already set in stone for May 12th of next year, I guess using Grant in the capacity of punching bag isn't the worst idea in the world to hype the fight up. Looking at the rankings, I suppose I could get behind the fight along with a February setup card with both men in separate bouts (Klitschko would probably need a tomato can too: why not Maskaev or Chambers?), pull off the May fight, and then have Wlad take that fight with Povetkin in the fall, as they've both apparently been talking about now.

MOAR Lousy Boxing: Detroit, MI 9/19/08

2009-03-07T08:06:00.000-08:00

Cornelius Bundridge and an annoying white man announce this card full of crappy mismatches featuring Darryl Cunningham and Rich "White" Power. Power's opponent is described by Bundridge as "looking like the Big Show". Hmmm. Cunningham is fighting a victim of Tavoris Cloud and former K.I.C.K. kickboxing champ in the main event.

----LARRY VENTUS (3-0) vs. ERIC RICKER (DEBUT): 4 Rounder in the 140 lb weight class.

SCORECARD: KO Rnd 2

Ricker is probably a natural featherweight, honestly. He's small for these guys. Lots of head movement on his part and some Hamed like power punching. He actually hurts Ventus in round 2, but apparently Ricker's never been hit to the body. Some uppercuts land to the kidney and he can't take them. Fight is stopped in round 2.

----JAMES LESTER JR. (4-2) vs. RAMON GUEVARA (8-17-2): Lightweights. Lester was 6-2 when I last saw him. So, lemme guess what happens here....

SCORECARD: Lester KO 3

Guevara is going for pressure and Lester is superior as a boxer, so its an interesting stylistic matchup in that sense. Guevara is a much bigger guy overall, and he's actually somewhat effective for much of the first two rounds and even the early part of the third, but Lester switches gears and begins tearing up Guevara with combination punching and the fight is stopped. The announcers are trying to sell it as a great war, but, c'mon. Lester was a decent amateur and Guevara is a low end journeyman.

----ANDREW GORGES (2-0) vs. JAMAL KHAN (0-3): 140lbers

SCORECARD: Gorges KO 1

Khan is hopeless. Gorges lands everything he throws. Quality midwestern matchmaking.

----DAN WALLACE (9-5) vs. ALEXIS HLOROS (6-2-2): Middleweights. Hloros ain't too bad.

SCORECARD: Hloros TKO 6

Wallace is trying to be all slick and stuff but he's not really good enough to pull it off. He just looks like a sloppy James Toney wannabe instead. Hloros is more or less orthodox and, guess what? He's landing the effective blows. Wallace has heart and not much else. That Hloros can land super clean over and over and not drop Wallace after 5 is amazing. The ref finally steps in during the 6th to end this charade after Wallace finally goes down.

----RICH POWER (2-0) vs. TONY PHILLIPS (4-5): Well, I actually skipped ahead and had watched this several weeks ago. I mean, hey, an undefeated heavyweight? That's my bag! Power is kinda, well, not good. Mike Mollo #2.

SCORECARD: Power KO 1

Phillips almost went over the top rope as he got smashed up with power shots. Phillips was pathetic.

----DARRYL CUNNINGHAM vs. DOUGLAS LAFONTSEE: MAIN EVENT~

SCORECARD: Cunningham TKO 4

Cunningham is a octopus inside. I mean he is getting beat up by a karate based kickboxer there in the second. Lafontsee spits out the mouthpiece to get some extra time in the third when he's knocked down by a hard right hand, but he's gassed. Cunningham reacts by just running at him and being wild, and he's utterly ineffective in terms of finishing him. The fight slows down again and Lafontsee is hurt by a knockdown and he gets a standing 8 card or something? I have no idea. The fight goes to a fourth round, which surprises me greatly. Lafontsee starts leading with the head, the ref goes to warn him, and then decides he's too hurt to continue? What the fuck?

Stuff from SNY: w/Glen Johnson!

2009-03-03T19:12:00.000-08:00

Shobox announce team in effect for Dibella's desperation boxing programming.

Carlos Diaz (10-15-4) vs. Dat Nguyen (13-1): Nguyen was a hot prospect on ESPN once. Once. Featherweights.

SCORECARD: 79-73 Nguyen

Nguyen lands a overhand right early and I'm thinking this is probably not gonna last too long. Diaz is 7 1/2 years removed from his last win? Yikes. BTW, most interesting thing about this fight: its "Bam Bam" vs. "Dat's Dat". Oh I crack myself up. The announce tema would like to remind you that while Diaz has lost all his fights in the last 5 years, at least they were to good fighters. Diaz's problem is that while he's bigger, he is slow enough to be timed with a sundial and wide open when he throws. He squares up when he's on the run, his defense is so bad.

Wild brawl when the second opens and its kidna fun to watch. Then it slows back down to where it was with Nguyen landing a lot of punches and none of them really affect Ruiz. Nguyen is able to be punched by the lesser fighter, but Ruiz doesn't have the sort of pop to keep Nguyen off him. He's cut badly in the third round of the fight, but Nguyen doesn't jump on him while Ruiz is standing around squinting, leading to some criticism of his killer instinct. In fact, as the 4th continues on, they note that Nguyen's balance is off, he's not body punching enough, he's not snapping his jab, and a rash of other issues. Diaz actually lands a decent left hook that wobbles the prospect but he ends up backing off. Nguyen's defense is abyssmal, and as his hands have slowed down, offense as best defense isn't a working strategy. Diaz miraculously wins the round.

The bout marches on and Diaz isn't any more effective because the slaps from his smaller opponent have been enough to slow him as well. The fight devolves into a sloppy mess of tangled fists and clinching. Some shining hope before Round 7 that the fight is over due to the cut, but I and the 500 people or so watching at the Hard Rock in FL aren't so lucky. Diaz is begging to be stopped, but Nguyen doesn't even really try. He lands a couple shots, pushes him into the ropes, and then moves away, allowing Diaz to retake the center of the ring. This fight goes an unfathomable 8 rounds, with Nguyen not showing the panache or the power to put away a man desperately wanting to be KOed. Diaz hilariously lands the best punch of the 8th with the only punch he lands. Unanimous decision for Nguyen.

Sebastian Hamel (8-14-1) vs. Kenny Galarza (7-0): Galarza is undefeated with all KOs. Hamel lost his last fight by first round KO.

Galarza is looking for power punches but isn't setting them up, really. Hamel is looking to run. This is going to be the story of the fight, I'm sure. The whole first round is abjectly boring and barely watchable. The pace continues at this rate and the crowd is booing. This lasts the whole second round, but Hamel is dropped hard at the very end of the second with a single left hook and survives the longest 10 count in history. The fight is stopped by the doctor in between rounds. Galarza looks horrible.

Glen Johnson vs. Aaron Norwood (26-10-2): Whoo boy. Norwood is the rare older than Glen Johnson opponent.

Johnson starts in the first with some soft sparring. I mean, you can tell that is what Glen is after early on because he is fighting a slow old guy and isn't pressuring him at all. Again, more of that in the second with Glen only throwing the occasional hard shot and not really following up. Towards the end of the third, Glen begins to pour it on, and he decides to end it in the fourth. Nothing really to see.

BOXEO - Something that was on Fox Sports En Espanol

2009-03-02T17:17:00.001-08:00

This was sitting on my DVR and I'm like "hey what the fuck". Pavel Miranda vs. Alex Viramonte! Thompson Promotions! Corona, CA! I know nothing about either guy. Welterweights? Viramonte is like 9-5-3. What the hell is this doing on TV? Miranda is 18-1. Oh boy.

SCORECARD: 78-72 Miranda

Viramonte walks forward and is a sucker for body punches. He ceases being the aggressor after a minute or so. Miranda is throwing right hand leads, and my expectation is that I will get to see another fight on this one hour show. Viramonte again comes forward in round 2 and again eats lots of offense. Like, consistently. Everything thrown seems to land. If Miranda shows any negatives in this fight, its that he is way too willing to fight inside. Not that Viramonte can do anything about it, but someone who is better very easily could. He's actually a lousy inside fighter, to be honest.

Viramonte looks more impressive in the 3rd than in prior rounds because he is landing some slappy punches. He is still being outlanded 2-1, if not worse. But because Miranda is letting him inside so easily, he's getting the shots off to possibly land. Viramonte actually gets off a few power shots in a row in the 4th to start with. Is Miranda gassed? His mouth keeps opening, so I suppose that answers that. Viramonte is about as willing to clinch on the inside too now. I hope this is only a 6 rounder.

Round 5! I am surprised to be here. Viramonte is inside but now he is inactive there and eating uppercuts. Miranda seems to have a problem: He can't punch. I mean, he's more accurate and better trained and stuff, but he can't crack. No pop. That's all that keeps Viramonte in this. He's actually cutting off the ring well (because Miranda now cannot move) and throws some hooks when he does get him against the ropes. Miranda usually counters though and spins off before the episode repeats itself. I've got it 49-46 after 5.

In Round 6 Miranda continues to back straight up, continues to land better punches, continues to....you know. Round 7 and Miranda is bleeding from the nose! Exciting! He is still landing better shots but he is immobile and letting Viramonte in this in the 8th. Miranda is hurt halfway through by a flurry against the ropes and keeps on him for most of the round. Too bad he lost the fight. Somehow this is a split decision and Miranda gets the nod.

BOXING: 11/14/08 Royal Oak, MI

2009-02-26T18:32:00.000-08:00

Steve Munisitri (I think) and Frank Garza are announcing this less than amazing card from the Royal Oak Theater near Detroit. The main event is Darryl Cunningham (an 11-2 fighter) facing 7-0 light heavyweight Patrick Wesson. ALSO: Heavyweight pseudoprospect from mid-Michigan with Rich Power fighting the 1-3 John Smith. Jaime Costillano is fighting, and I've seen him getting his ass beaten on numerous MMA events locally.

1) JAIME COSTILLANO vs. GUY PACKER: This is epic matchmaking. Packer is 2-20-2. Costillano is 4-18.

SCORECARD: 39-37 Packer

Costillano is clearly the smaller man. He is hit with a right hand early in the fight and is stunned. Costillano begins to wild swing and hold. The first is mildly entertaining, albiet largely devoid of talent, with both men landing clean punches. The second is where it begins to go downhill, turning into a sloppy clinch and hook fest. I give Costillano the second because he lands some left hooks at the bell, but other than that, its all Packer. He wins a unanimous decision.

2) DABOE THOMAS vs. JAMES LESTER JR.: Thomas is 0-1, Lester 6-2.

SCORECARD: 39-36 Lester Jr.

Both guys are playing it off as if they are defensive Floyd Mayweather wannabes and neither actually is. Lester is closer to one though and hurts Thomas in the first round on a couple different occasions. Thomas lands a right hand that hurts Lester early in round 2, and Lester holds on until he's wrestled down. And then they brawl out as the ref picks up Lester and drags him away. Oh, Detroit. The promoter is in the ring and the corners are in there, and so, uh, the fight is over? Or it is not. There's a point deduction? The fight continues? Really?

So back to round 2, and they throw down. Thomas is dropped with a right hand that looked to be to the back of the head. Lester lands some nice clean left hooks but its clear he has no power on that punch. Lester is hurt with a right hand at the bell to boot. Lester took the 3rd off assuming that he was safely ahead, which he was. Wild final round in this one where both men just trade like all get out and are each hurt repeatedly. Unanimous decision to Lester.

3) ANDRE GORGES vs. JOSHUA RODRIGUEZ: Gorges is hella thin. Welterweight bout, set for 4.

SCORECARD: KO 1

Easy stoppage win for Gorges, who just mows over Rodriguez with sheer volume. Gorges doesn't punch properly though: He's landing more with the inside of the glove and wrist than with the knuckles, otherwise he might have ended this earlier.

4) ALEXIS HLOROS vs. CORY PETERSON: Peterson has some wild facial hair; like the upper lip is shaved but not the corners. Hloros is trained by the guy who trained Booker Ward, apparently. 6 round welterweight bout.

SCORECARD: KO 1

Hloros knocks Peterson down with the first punch of the fight. Peterson gets up and then is dropped for the final time after some wild combinations.

5) JOHN SMITH vs. RICH POWER: Power is an undefeated heavyweight prospect of sorts fighting Michigan nobodies in the vein of a Kevin Montiy. Smith is garbage. Interesting note: Thomas Hearns joins on the announce team.

SCORECARD: KO 2

Power is a big strong dude but he moves slow in the ring and the ultra wild and aggressive Smith is able to land, however his punches have virtually no effect. Power covers up when swung at, even by somoene as garbage as Smith. Hearns, by the way, sounds retarded.

6) DARRYL CUNNINGHAM vs. PATRICK WESSON: Cunningham is the guy who has been headlining many of these shows. Why? No idea. Wesson is undefeated and from Grand Rapids, MI.

SCORECARD: KO1

Wesson is knocked down with a straight right after a double jab about 1:10 in. Cunningham just keeps doing the same thing to set up another right and Wesson seems unable to adapt. He is KOed on the ropes with about :15 seconds left, and it was fairly brutal. He's caught by the ropes as he falls and takes a few extra punches, his hands still up by his face as he slowly tips over forwards.

Herman Ngoudjo vs. Juan Urango

2009-01-30T23:39:00.000-08:00

Woooooh I got motivated to post tonight and this happened to be on my television screen. It should be in English on Friday Night Fights with ole scarface Teddy Atlas but Radio Canada has the Canadian rights so ill have to catch this in French. Off we go.

Round 1:
First round is pretty standard. Urango walked Herman down and try's to land while Herman uses the jab to keep Urango a a distance. as the round progresses Urango closes the distance and shows his superior punching power. He def lands more power shots and i feel he takes the first round Urango 10-9.

Round 2:
Urango with some nice body work to start the round. Herman drops his hands and pays a lil later in the round eating a combination he probably should have been able to defend. He answers back and there are some nice exchanges. Another round i fee was controlled by Urango despite Herman finishing a little stronger than the first round 10-9 Urango

Round 3:
Herman back to using the jab more this round. seems like a wise decision.huge uppercut from Urango and he drops Herman hard. He makes it but its not looking good. Urango is throwing everything now but Herman is surviving. Urango should be careful not to blow his wad. Down again and he answers the count. Herman looks to survive and he does. 10-7 Urango. Hes just straight overwhelming Herman

Round 4:
Urango is an angry man. hes stalking the hurt Herman and hes going to make it tough for him to survive. Herman gets caught when he shouldn't IMO. Hands are too low.Herman is doing well for the 2nd half of this round penetrating Urango's defense to arguably steal the round. Urango throws some bombs at the end but Herm catches them all on the gloves. 10-9 Herman

Round 5:
Herman using his hand speed to land crisp combos on Urango. He needs to stay off the ropes if he wants to win. Urango is getting wider and Herman seems to be finding his groove finally. Urango lands a few power shots but overall Herman controls where the fight is fought and lands some crisp combos to take the round. Herman 10-9

Round 6:
Another tough round to score. Herman is backing up as usual but he does slip shots and land his nice combos. Hes gonna have to do this for the rest of the fight. Urango is always coming forward landing thudding shots that even if blocked will accumulate I'm sure. 10-9 Herman

Round 7:
Urango working hard to the body now. Smart move. if you take Herms gas tank from him he cant run away. Urango goes back to head hunting a lil. Herman makes a mini comback towards the end of the round but its not enough. they have a nice exchange at the end of the round. Urango 10-9

Round 8:
These rounds are all pretty similar. Urango plods forward and throws heavy shots to the body and head while Herman tries to fend him off and fire back. He doesn't land enough in return to win the round in my opinion. 10-9 Urango

Round 9:
Again much the same. Urango works the body hard this round and chases Herman. Near the end Herman lands some hard shots and may hurt Urango a little but not anything to stop the Urango onslaught. The round ends. Urango 10-9

Round 10:
Herman is looking a little stronger this round. Urango looks like he may be losing a little steam on his movement and punches. Lots of holding going on this round. Heavy body shots from Urango. Herman is landing cleaner shots now. Urango def losing a lil zip. But he keeps coming and winning the round. Herman is looking much better than i thought he would at this point in the fight. 10-9 Urango.

Round 11:
Herman looks very worn down now. Urango coming forward as usual. Again lots of holding and inside fighting. Both guys are very tired. Urango 10-9

Round 12:
Herman needs to knock him out to win this. Urango needs to just hold on and survive for 3min and he has this in the bag. You never know what the judges will say but i don't see any way Herman is winning this. Urango coming hard now really pushing his punches but he wont stop. More holding from both guys. Herman getting off good
on the inside towards the end. You could maybe give that to Herman but too little too late. 10-9 Herman

A day of catch-up

2009-01-10T19:04:00.001-08:00

I, like most people, cannot watch boxing every day. Or MMA, for that matter. Need to throw different activities into the mix lest I destroy my life. However, because I skip so many shows, I often need a "catchup day" to start watching many of them, often in repetition. The snow gave me good reason to do just this. The basic theme? John Duddy. No, really.

-JOHN DUDDY vs. SHELBY PUDWILL (3/16/06): Pudwill was a lousy fraud and got beaten violently, dropped early in round one with a left hook to the chin and he never recovered. Between the Pierre and Campos fights, so people were still somewhat willing to buy into Duddy.

-JOHN DUDDY vs. DUPRE STRICKLAND (5/18/07): Strickland had an impressive record (as did many Duddy opponents) but it lacked any substance. He was knocked down on an off balance shot in the first and lost every single round of the fight on my card and that of the judges. A horrible fight in which Strickland ran and Duddy's lack of actual punching power made it impossible for him to slow down Strickland. Strickland did nothing to win.

-JOHN DUDDY vs. ALESSIO FURLAN (7/24/07): Duddy's return to Ireland, a necessary move to remotivate him and keep him from going stale with the NY fanbase. A lot is said by the RTE announcers to hype him, and he lives up to it in some sense. Duddy drops him in the first and then out throws him most of the fight, with Furlan winning only the 5th. Furlan was given a ton of credit for a career journeyman, and much was made of his survival for 11 rounds against Sylvester. Duddy stops Furlan with less than 20 seconds remaining in round 10 after the second knockdown of that final round. Furlan made sure to land a few solid rights on Duddy, but being a weak puncher, nothing truly came of it.

-JOHN DUDDY vs. PRINCE ARRON (10/20/07): Simply no way Nevada or NY would ever accept this fight. Arron is beyond overmatched and while he lands a pretty decent combination in round 1, Duddy simply piles over the stringbean with a few knockdowns. Arron is really looking for a soft spot on the canvas in round 2 when a solid slap on the inside puts him down and forces a ref stoppage.

-JOHN DUDDY vs. HOWARD EASTMAN (12/8/07): Eastman looked good here, which is perhaps not the strongest complement to Duddy's skills. Lots of right hand uppercuts landed clean and Eastman as counterpuncher seemed to have the answer to Duddy's forward movement all night long. Earlier in his career, Eastman obliterates Duddy. At 37, it is a close fight due to Duddy's ability to soak up punches while throwing his own. I had it Eastman 96-94 but the ref scores it that way for Duddy. Eastman really ran out of gas in the 6th and just sorta coasted in from there. The announcers again put over Duddy's success and popularity in the US (hah!) as well as Eastman's ability.

My thoughts with Duddy is that he probably gets a bad wrap. He didn't look bad with Eastman, who is very awkward. Alternately, a 37 year old Eastman shouldn't be competitive with a guy constantly brought up in world title bout talks. What I found most hilarious was watching these shows, you see several prospects as good or better than Duddy (Macklin, Quillin, Moore), and whatever momentum you imagine building for Duddy gets blown up. Duddy is what he is, which is Mickey Ward with good management.

OTHER STUFF:

-Peter Quillin had two fights on these shows. He was outrageous wild against Willie Cruz, just throwing shit everywhere. Fast forward to the Victor Paz fight and he's much, much more controlled. Viewing him versus Duddy, there's a marked difference in technique, hand speed, movement, hell, everything. He deserves some accolades.

-I might have seen Pawel Wolak/Troy Browning but forgot about it. He made Anthony Little look horrible with nothing but sheer offense, but I can't say I'm shocked to know that he lost to Ishe Smith in the last year. Zero pretense of defense.

-I've seen plenty of Paul McCloskey now. Good fighter with all the punches, but a lack of head movement means he probably won't progress beyond the Commonwealth level. He's beaten Garnica, and that deserves some respect in my eyes. Not much power, though.

-Haughian/Grassellini I is a tough ass fight to score. I actually had it wide for Haughian and was surprised as hell to see the italian winning the fight. Very competitive bout with both men throwing and blocking everything coming back. Kinda liked it. Haughian looked good against O'Connell as well.

-Can someone explain why anyone likes Joe Greene? One punch at a time, slow, inactive, holds. He's beaten nobody good. Here against Brian Norman he gave away the first two, and he ain't superman.

-Haven't seen Macklin in a minute but boy oh boy did he look good against Furlan. Just bashed him in. Great body punching.

2008-12-21T08:47:00.000-08:00

CHAMP: Rules for me filling this are: A) unify three belts OR B) #1 and #2 fight. This is similar to The Ring’s rule, except that I’m not gonna bend to HBO’s demands to make guys champ (see also: Klitschko, Vitali)

1 ) Wladimir Klitschko : A win over Rahman does little for Klitschko other than give him another W.

2 ) Alexander Povetkin

3) Vitali Klitschko

4 ) Ruslan Chagaev

5 ) Juan Carlos Gomez

6) Samuel Peter

7 ) Nicolay Valuev: I drop him a little because, hey, if there was funny business, he still looked bad and you couldn't give a guy credit for being worse than you think he really is.

8 ) John Ruiz

9 ) Sultan Ibragimov

10 ) Eddie Chambers

11 ) Vladimir Virchis

12 ) Tony Thompson

13) Chris Arreola: First big mover for the month.

14 ) Oleg Maskaev

15 ) Taras Bidenko

16) Fres Oquendo: Another big mover north off a "loss".

17 ) Alexander Dimitrenko

18) David Haye: How much does a KO win over Barrett mean? Answer: Not much unless you are crazy.

19 ) James Toney

20 ) Lamon Brewster

21) Ray Austin

22) Matt Skelton

23) Shannon Briggs

24 ) Kali Meehan

25 ) Jameel McCline

26 ) Kevin Johnson

27 ) Sergei Lyakhovich

28 ) Hasim Rahman

29 ) Odlanier Solis Fonte

30) Jason Estrada

31 ) Monte Barrett

32 ) Andrew Golota

33 ) Timor Ibragimov

34 ) Malik Scott

35 ) Travis Walker

36 ) Luan Krasniqi

37 ) Davarryl Williamson

38) Dominck Guinn

39) Cedric Boswell

40 ) Chazz Witherspoon

41) Friday Ahunanya

42) Zuri Lawrence

43) Evander Holyfield

44) Brian Minto

45) Francesco Pianeta

46) Sinam Samil Sam

47) Manuel Quezada

48) Oliver McCall

49) Albert Sosnowski

50) Michael Sprott

ANOTHER RBR: Guzman/Diaz

2008-12-20T17:18:00.000-08:00

I've got Television Dominica, so here goes a RBR of this event.

Event starts really suddenly. No idea who is even fighting in this first fight and we are starting uh, midway through a mystery round. I don't speak Spanish, so no help here. Arena is empty too. No note as to who is who (one guy is wearing blue, another black) and all I know is that neither is Guzman. Given my complete inability to find out what the hell is going on, I fast forward to the end of the bout without watching, but listen to the announcer. Oh, wait, he's inaudible. Oh well.

Wait! Now I can figure it out thanks to the interview. Kendal Mena is being interviewed after beating Rafael Romero. Maybe I'll watch it another day.

Long interview with some dude who I think was that guy who won a medal for them at the Olympics. Note: I have an internet feed of Canal 4 open and its way, way ahead of the one on DirecTV. Like a minute ahead.

Yup, it was indeed Felix Diaz. Expect him to turn pro sooner rather than later.

Jose Amaro Guzman/Cristian Martinez is next on the card.

ROUND 1:

Facially, looks similar to Joan because, hey, its his brother. Martinez decides to push him into the ropes and take him out and being a horrible fighter, fails miserably. Lesser Guzman is able to get him against the ropes and eradicate the 2-15 fighter with body shots about a minute in.

Guzman, just for the record, has fought opponents with a combined record of 7-62-1.

Next fight is up! And I don't know who is fighting here. I decipher it as Melvin Betancourt and Eduardo Mercedes.

ROUND 1:

Betancourt is in the red shoes I think. Both have gold trunks. The announcers can't tell, honestly. Whoever has the red shoes has a good jab. Wild punching by the dark skinned dude. Nothing really landing hard by either man.

Red Shoes 10-9

ROUND 2:

The guy with the red shoes is putting on a clinic right now. He's got more dimensions, can jab, move, etc. Hurt his opponent later in the roung with a nice combination. Only major flaw from the person I believe is Betancourt is the lack of a body assault.

Red Shoes 20-18

ROUND 3:

I can understand enough to know that Betancourt is wearing the red shoes now. Hooray for my ever increasing Spanish vocabulary. He's able to cut down the ring and force Mercedes into the ropes pretty regularly. He does markedly little with that though. All head hunting too. Nearly drops Mercedes with some shots that throw him into the ropes but is forced to clinch in a resulting flurry.

Betancourt 30-27

ROUND 4:

Betancourt lands a hard combination and Mercedes almost goes out of the ring. KO win for the kid, bringing him to 4-0 with 2 KOS.

Next fighters are in the ring now, and honestly, I have no idea who it is again. Oh, wait: Argenis Mendez/Arturo Gomez!

ROUND 1

Mendez is much bigger physically and they start swinging early in the round after Gomez is bothered by a punch. Good exchanges in the first with Gomez often working off the ropes. Lots of head hunting here. Monster right hand turns Gomez's head but doesn't drop him. Right now its looking like either Mendez will have a short night or that Gomez will drag him into deep waters and smash him. Good comeback for Gomez at the end of the 1st and Mendez returns with a near knockdown of Gomez.

10-9 Mendez

ROUND 2

Gomez is taking a beating and then suddenly makes a short comeback over and over again in the span of merely seconds. Good action in the early parts of the round. Mendez gets Gomez against the ropes and is looking for a stop. Lots of fast hands from Mendez, but Gomez has heart. Gomez is dropped with a right hand but the ref doesn't jump in fast enough and doesn't count it. Both men are trading almost the entire round. It only slows near the bell.

20-18 Mendez

ROUND 3

This is definitely not HBO production as the start of the round sees a long shot being left on waaaay too long.

The two have slowed greatly and that's in Gomez's favor. Mendez may actually be punched out. Gomez is on offense in this round and looks effective. Hooks to the body are landing and Mendez is letting himself get pushed around. Mendez is getting a little wild with his punching, but almost turns the fight around with one crazy counter. Gomez weathered the early storm and he's landing now. Crowd is pretty quiet.

29-28 Mendez

ROUND 4

Gomez returns to offense in this round, pushing Mendez into the ropes and body punching. Good uppercuts inside too. Mendez gets off the ropes and starts moving a little with the jab and is somewhat effective with it, and again gets Gomez into the ropes. Mendez is getting better blocking stuff against the ropes but he's not really countering when in that position. He's letting Gomez look good doing it and when he does land its enough to basically hand the round to the guy. Mendez turns his back at one point and you get the feeling that he's taking a beating.

38-38, draw

ROUND 5

Gomez is briefly affected in this round by Mendez's power advantage but otherwise its another Gomez round. Mendez looks bad constantly ending up in the ropes and flat our running from the journeyman mexican. I mean, Gomez is literally springint after him in the ring at times. Mendez might not make it the distance.

48-47, Gomez

ROUND 6

Better round thus far for Mendez. He's staying off the ropes in this one and not holding as much, so he's able to use his handspeed and reach. Gomez is still able to force his way inside more often than not and land shots. Final minute is all Mendez.

57-57, draw

ROUND 7

Gomez is rocked on a few occasions in this round by right hands thrown by Mendez, who looks like he's got his second wind. He's really establishing the middle of the ring. Second half of the round and Gomez is nearly dropped with a monster right hand and fights his way back off the ropes.

67-66, Mendez

ROUND 8

Another really good round. Gomez is trying to spark another comeback in this round and Mendez is letting it happen by sticking around on the ropes. Gomez is just going to town when that happens with combination punching. Its generally just shoe shining but looking good is half the battle.

76-76 Draw on my card. Apparently we're going to the official cards.

No surprise, Mendez gets the win in his hometown. Couldn't hear the cards.

Long interlude before what I assume is the main event. Meanwhile boxing is now suddenly on the DirecTV schedule. Figures they just throw it out there randomly when I finally change the channel.

Carlos Fulgencio vs. Francis Ruiz is next up.

ROUND 1

Fulgencio has the nicer record but is way smaller. At least I think he's the dude in the silver. Oh, no, he isn't. Ruiz throws more but you'd swear these are different weight classes.

Ruiz 10-9

ROUND 2

Lots of static from the mics. That is the major news here. Good thai clinch from Fulgencio. Didn't know that was legal here.

19-19

ROUND 3

Ruiz knocks down Fulgencio twice really, really hard in this round early on. I'm surprised the ref let it continue after a rubber legged Fulgencio got up the first time. Fight is stopped after the second knock down.

Its time for the main event! Finally.

ROUND 1

Guzman clowns poor Diaz. All sorts of Roy Jones channelling.

10-9 Guzman

ROUND 2

Guzman is landing some power punches here and there but its a lot of style and flash with not nearly as much actual substance. In other words, I smell decision.

20-18 Guzman

ROUND 3

The highlights are generally good enough to watch. Diaz comes forward being much bigger, Guzman gets super low and is gone after landing a couple pitter pat shots. Repeat over and over and over.

30-27 Guzman

ROUND 4

AND1 boxing, thanks to Joan Guzman. Diaz is putting in effort, sure, but that's about it. My stream is cutting in and out now and the TV is about 5 minutes behind, sadly, so I am not getting the best look at this, but I don't know that its really necessary. Guzman has his hands by his knees by the end of the round.

ROUND 5

Guzman was a monster at 122 because he was so big and powerful for that weight. At 135, he's got feather fists that happen to be fragile to boot. It sucks because you want to see someone like him be able to actually stop someone and no matter how clean he's landing, it seems far out of reach. Diaz actually lands a punch that forces Guzman back but Guzman is able to recover on the ropes and land about 5 counters with the right hand.

50-45 Guzman

ROUND 6

Big update: Guzman's tape was coming loose. Other than that, more of the previous 5 rounds. Less flash, perhaps.

60-54, Guzman

ROUND 7

I remember watching Guzman's fight with Antonio Davis some time ago. It was boring. This is not much better. Sure, it was impressive to see him use his talents but the lack of competition was such that you were lured to sleep.

70-63, Guzman

ROUND 8

I'm basically gonna stop scoring because I've honestly lost interest in this fight. Guzman will win a decision and we can spend another year wondering when he'll rise to the top of whatever division he's in.

LIVE BLOG: Holyfield/Valuev

2008-12-20T12:38:00.001-08:00

I came to the party late on this show and missed the tail end of Pianeta's exhibition of mediocre skills. At the moment, Its Mads Larsen against some Italian kickboxer I've never seen before with 0KOs. Yeah. Not too exciting. Right now its 3-0 for Larsen in terms of rounds. I'll pick it up in Round 4.

Round 4:

Larsen is handling Cocco in pretty much all respects here. Cocco wants to press and his best bet at the moment is to just headbutt the former contender. Its kinda funny to watch Cocco because he fights like a Filipino: Very compact, arms in, big looping rights.

40-36 Larsen

Round 5:

The reason people hate buying PPVs like this is because the undercards are generally so rough. Cocco is throwing one jab at a time and has no real defense for a right hook lead to the body. I repeat: no defense for lead right hooks to the body. I don't care if Larsen's a southpaw, you shouldn't land that under any circumstances. Even guys who lead with hooks like Wladimir Klitschko at least hook off the jab.

50-45 Larsen

Round 6:

Cocco looks like a second rate journeyman against Larsen, who is definititely a second rate journeyman. I think that speaks volumes of the quality of bout presented here. Maybe Larsen could fight a guy like Lacy? That wouldn't be half bad as far as faded ex contenders go.

Cocco is soldiering on and he's just getting tore up. Around the 1:15 mark in the round he takes about 4 body shots in combination, with nothing coming back. His plan is clearly to withstand the punishment and, uhh, do something afterwards. Thing is, Madsen isn't really using up lots of his energy. The announcers (Al Bernstein and Nick Charles) then discuss Jeff Lacy and his overreliance on physical talent over actual skills. Maybe it was good matchmaking too, you know.

60-54 Larsen

Round 7

They're really putting over Larsen as a legitimate contender and while I suppose there's worse things to happen, does anyone really want to see Larsen/Froch? Honestly?

Cocco is "probably losing this fight" which is an understatement to say the least. Larsen knocks down Cocco and the ref decides not to count it. Cocco is getting ruined in this round with uppercuts and is sent stumbling and stops the bout. Not a bad performance for Larsen. On second thought, forget Lacy. We know he has nothing left. Bute would be good. Kessler should be fighting better but its probably a money fight.

And we get something on tape! Oh joy! Too bad its women's boxing for some flyweight title.

Eileen Olzsewski is from Hawaii by way of NYC and is 40. Nadia Raoul apparently is German and good or something.

Round 1

Olzsewski is fighting tall and has a pretty impressive right hand. Raoul is pretty wild coming in, but the fight is, uh, okay. Passable, I suppose. I give the first to the American.

Olezsewski 10-9

Round 2

Bernstein and Charles talk about how great women's boxing while alternately talking about how there are no decent fighters but that the crowd seems to like it. In other words, they say nothing about the fight. I try to pay attention but my cat is trying to climb into my christmas tree. I'll let it do its thing. Meanwhile, Raoul(e?) is dominant in the round as the American can't seem to deal with the always challenging advanced technique of jab/right hand.

19-19

Round 3

Wild swinging that reminds one of low level MMA. Talk of the Sanders/Holm PPV that 5 people bought. Raoul is just brawlin' away and damaging her American foe with relative ease. Olezsewski's jab is useless.

29-28, Raoul

Round 4

Olezsewski's just not capable of handling the pressure fighting style of her German foe. She lacks the technical skill to keep Raoule off her and is caught with all sorts of looping shots as she pulls straight back. Mr. Sauerland gets some TV time. I am thinking about reheating pizza.

39-37, Raoul(i? e?)

Round 5

Good 'ol Willy Sauerland is credited by the announcers for helping make boxing huge in Germany and Europe as a whole in recent years. How nice of them.

Olezsewski's counter punching is so light but she's got a pretty good chin. She pushes all her punches while the German girl at least puts her body into them. Additionally, Raoule is landing at a far better rate.

49-46, Raouley

Round 6

Olezsewski is trained by her husband who she met while she was apparently a dancer for the Knicks. Also: She would be the ugliest Knicks dancer EVER.

Olezsewski is now circling a little and trying to use movement to gain the advantage after being outworked the last 5 rounds. Every exchange is won by Raoule. Olezsewski's hands are way down, a stark contrast to the beginning of the fight. She's wearing down.

59-55, Rauoli

Round 7

Apparently Maskaev has been promised a shot at the winner of Vitali Klitschko/Gomez. I think that would matter more if I believed Gomez/Vitali Klitschko was ever gonna happen. I say this because its more important than a P4P for this fight.

Raoule is starting to grunt when she punches. That's the next piece of news I can reasonably give. Also: Raoule is still outlanding and hitting harder.

69-64, Reuli

Round 8

Olezsewski ends up taking a bunch of punches to the grill the second the round starts. You know, that pugilist nose is not something this girl needs to look her best. Her punches are hella slow and she doesn't seem to land them unless she is timing Raoul. Some nice uppercuts from Raoul in this round when she gets inside. Honestly, Olezsewski's husband/corner should think about packing this up.

79-73, Raeouli

Round 9

Somewhere in the background, the Simpsons theme plays. Sounds like a cellphone. Fight is at a good clip, sez Charles, and I agree. Its pretty one sided though.

89-82 Reyouli

Round 10

10th and final round! Hooray! Admittedly, this will be better than Valuev/Holyfield unless it turns out to be a fixed fight, which there's some signs pointing to it perhaps being in favor of Commander 'Vander.

Good action in this round with both just throwing bombs and Raoul being much more effective. Actually not a bad fight. Raoul wins on my card 99-91 in a blowout.

96-95 for Olezsewski

96-96 Draw

98-92 for Raoul

Bizarre scorecards, honestly. Among the worst of the year.

Now they're prepping for the main. Lots of talk about how Evander keeps talking about how he can't get off and has been doing that for like, I dunno, a decade.

Grandiose entrance time and the string group doing the anthems. Oh, Germany.

Round 1

Valuev has thrown next to nothing early on, which is like the opposite of his reputation. Just sayin'. Holy is moving pretty decently. Nothing on Valuev's shots either. Holyfield with round 1.

10-9 Holyfield

Round 2

Valuev is on the take, folks. He is giving this fight away. No effort whatsoever.

20-18 Holyfield

Round 3

More of Valuev doing nothing. Best punch is a Holyfield right hand. I think Valuev is gonna end up "koed".

30-27 Holyfield.

Round 4

Case study, kids. Case study. You'll talk about this for years for the wrong reasons.

40-36, Holyfield

Round 5

I'm sitting here considering what's going on. Switzerland has no commission and some interesting banking rules. Valuev hates boxing and a big payday from this would allow him to retire. Sauerland wants Chagaev to hold onto his belt for as long as possible, and Holyfield/Chagaev would do lots fo help that. Don King wants one more payday for Holyfield. All around, this is crap. Holyfield won this round off a single right hand.

50-45, Holyfield

Round 6

Awful.

60-54, Holy

Round 7

Valuev's best round. Holyfield lands about 2-3 overhand rights though that are better than anything done by Nikolay.

70-63, Holyfield.

Round 8

Holyfield maybe throws 5 punches, so Valuev wins.

79-73, Holyfield.

Round 9

There are people who believe this is legit. LOL. How deluded.

89-82, Holyfield

Round 10

Nick Charles: "Valuev has done nothing to win it, and done everything to lose it."

99-91, Holyfield

Round 11

Charles and Bernstein haven't broached the question of whether or not something illegal was at play, but they've done a great job of burying Holyfield. At least there is some honesty. Valuev wins the round thanks to Holyfield throwing less than ten punches.

108-101, Holyfield.

Round 12

No urgency from Valuev. Holyfield gets cornered easily when Valuev seems to not even try, which tells you everything you need to know.

117-111, Holyfield.

116-112, 115-114, 114-114 for Valuev? LOL. Oh my god.

Holyfield can't form a coherent sentence and you come away from this fight thinking that Carl King must be furious dealing with someone even better at "the game" than he. If you buy into the idea that Valuev was legitimately trying to win, then it was the worst performance of his life. If you think it was all fraudlent, you're wondering where the time went.

TIME DELAY LIVE BLOG: TYC Sports 12/19/08

2008-12-19T17:41:00.001-08:00

I have decided to watch this tonight because there is so desperately little on TV. Tonights bouts are from some place in Buenos Aires with a blue and white paint job that is just darling. It is also hella empty. Lots of ads during this telecast for Whitfield/Narvaez already, which is coming in February. Its actually a really good fight.

Carlos Baldomir video on right now, and it says something about an exclusive tomorrow. Oh, wait, holy shit he's fighting in Belgium tomorrow. Wait, I get to watch Baldomir/Bonsu tomorrow? Hooooooly fuck TYC. It'll probably be highlights only though.

PABLO GODOY/CESAR CUENCA

Godoy is 16-4-1 and I don't have any idea how good he is, though his name is mighty familiar. Cuenca has been pro 6 years like Godoy and has a record of, get this, 34-0 with ONE knockout.

As one might expect, Cuenca is on the outside sorta boxing but he's not like some amazing slickster. He just looks sorta small for the weight he's at. Additionally, he's the one jumping in pretty much all the time. This is a tough as hell round to score also just because both guys are not landing with anything. The best show in the opening round is a low blow by Godoy. Solid uppercut splits the guard of Godoy, and its effectiveness is added to by a headbutt.

2nd round sees the difference in hand speed being apparent. Another thing that is apparent is that no dude I've ever seen hits as soft as Cuenca. Its like Godoy's face/body are trigger pads and as long as he taps it and registers the hit, it counts as much to him as if he was smashing the shit out of it while everyone in the crowd thinks he's a pussy.

From this point on, we enter a comfortable rhythm for all: Cuenca circles, throws punches on occasion, lands, Godoy does nothing or flails. Repeat that over and over again. Things change starting in round 7 with Godoy learning to time Cuenca and landing shots in 7 and 8 that actually rock the little man version of Zuri Lawrence. Its just not enough though and Cuenca just keeps on truckin with his game plan in the final two rounds. I think he won by a truck load and so does everyone else. Cuenca wins the Argentine light welterweight title as a result by UD.

VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS! Klitschko/Rahman is shown to the stirring sounds of Symphony of Destruction. Boxeo De Primera lurves Megadeth. They show long ass highlights too, like 5 minutes worth. Adamek/Cunningham is also shown.

RODOLFO MARTINEZ/SERGIO BENITEZ is next. Benitez is from PR and has a not so stunning record of 11-18-3 with only 2 KOs. Martinez is 31-2-1 with 11KOs and comes out to No Sleep Till Brooklyn. I have my pick here.

Martinez just walks down his opponent and beats him up. He's cut up like crazy but still way too wild. Visions of Julio Cesar Garcia rush toward me. Some dude is interviewed briefly and I have no idea who it is or care. Shows over, hooray.

Michael Grant: The Present

2008-12-17T19:15:00.000-08:00

fuck you, fat james toney

2008-12-15T07:56:00.001-08:00

that is all

We return! Versus 12/11 w/Adamek-Cunningham

2008-12-12T11:09:00.000-08:00

Joseph Agbeko Vs William Gonzalez

SS: Alright. I missed the airing of this due to my ungodly sleep pattern (this come along with working nights, like a creep) so I'm watching a digital copy. I was informed this is a really good card so i look forward to watching the two fights that aired. I know nothing of either guy really but the small guys almost always deliver.

AC: Two nondescript little guys fighting for a title. ESPN and the like have ignored these fights for years for reasons I simply do not emotionally understand. Then I remember how they're all run and it comes back to me in spades. Gonzalez was on HBO Latino a couple years back getting murdered by Jhonny Gonzalez. Agbeko was beyond a no-name when he gought Luis Perez over a year ago and stopped him en route to winning a belt. Both guys have huge KO ratios too.

SS: Agbeko controls the first round with his right hand. Gonzalez is landing some body punches and one ends up straying low but Agbeko barely takes any time to recover. That seemed to slow Agbeko down a little. This turns into a nice little war at the start of the 2nd. This is a really good fight but the momentum is mostly going to Agbeko after round 2. hes landing the bigger more powerful shots. Gonzalez is more than just a live body though. Godbless little guys that beat each other into early death for our entertainment. Things pick way up again in round 9. Gonzalez making a big comeback in this round, arguably winning it. Agbeko is starting to fade at the end of round 10 and things are looking like they are making a turn in favor of Gonzalez. Gonzalez looks way better in the second half of the fight but i don't think he did enough to take Agbeko's title. Agbeko rightfully keeps his title.

AC: I will rewatch this show soon because A) it was great and B) I want to score the rounds. I was too captivated to do that here and I think tht Wally Matthews announcing sorta affects the mentality of some to both fights. Gonzalez comes on very strong in 10 and 11 after we hear forever that he is "wearing down" even as he often out throws Agbeko. Both guys soak up tons of punishment in this. Gonzalez's face is a mess and I really wouldn't mind a rematch given the way 118 looks in the post Jhonny era. Penalosa/Agbeko on the undercard of the next Pacquiao fight would be awesome and entirely plausible.

Steve Cunningham vs. Thomas Adamek

SS: I've been looking forward to seeing Steve Cunningham fight ever since i saw him as a guest on Friday Night Fights this past year. He's a guy that has essentially been forced to fight abroad because of the lack of a cruiser weight division in the US.

AC: About 2006, the Cruisers were red hot. There was a champion again and Showtime was televising numerous events featuring these hard punchers like Braithwaite, Mormeck, Bell, and Jones. Then, as suddenly as it came, it ended. The much demanded Bell/Guillermo Jones showdown was cancelled repeatedly due to problems with Jones, and the division ended up in free fall. Bell and Mormeck rematched in France on a telecast carried by MSG that probably cost them about $5 and some string. Great fight, by the way, especially through 8.

Mormeck soon lost to some British guy who in turn beat a Welsh guy and became a bit of a sensation overseas. Maybe you've heard of that chap? His departure to heavyweight after big game has left a hole in the division and for once in its history, it was immediately filled. Think about that: A new Ring champ was crowned in a few months of the old one bouncing. There were 20 years between Bell and Holyfield.

SS: This is an incredibly hot crowd and all for the Polish fighter Adamek. Cunningham is a man who enjoys jabbing as he should considering Adamek doesn't move his head much. Adamek knocks Cunningham down as round 2 ends and Versus inexplicably goes to commercial. As we come back from commercial it would appear he survived to fight another round. Cunningham keeps his hands very low. its like watching Roy Jones without the talents that allow someone to fight like that. Cunninghanm hurts Adamek bad at the start of the 4th but he wont go down. Adamek knocks Cunningham down again at the end of the round. WOW. This is crazy and awesome. Adamek hammers Cunningham untill the bell ends the round. Adamek knocks him down again near the end of round 8. Cunningham is going to go out on his sword if this is it. But he somehow survives. Adamek has a Margarito chin or something. He eats big shots but never stops. Cunningham is really starting to put the pressure on in round 10 carrying over into 11 but again Adamek manages to come back and hit Cunningham and even things out. Round 12 is another awesome back and forth round. Incredible fight that i feel went to Adamek. Two of the judges agree with me. Split decision victory.

Everyone needs to see this. A definite fight of the year candidate. This is the kind of boxing you show to MMA fans who think boxing can't be exciting or compelling.

AC: Like the last fight, the announcing is way too much in favor of one fighter, in this case Adamek. Cunningham actually outthrows and lands him by a pretty big margin in the fight and thus it'ss as close as it was, though hardly ridiculous to score it for Cunningham in my opinion. Still, it was a great fight and there's little doubt about who the best cruiserweight in the world is. Rematch or Guillermo Jones fight to follow, good things will happen either way.

A new post! Semi-liveblog of TyC Sports Boxing 11/29

2008-11-29T20:20:00.000-08:00

I'm doing this on the fly as I watch it post HBO boxing high.

DIEGO LEDESMA is in the ring in our opening bout. He is 6-3 and came in to some Iron Maiden song I don't recognize. If I don't know it, that means it is new, and I fear change, so it is bad. His opponent has a hype video even and some funny tattoos. He is Hugo Chavez, I am told. I think. Or that's someone else's name. People in the crowd clap during a fast cut. He has bad highlights. Oh, it is DIEGO CHAVES, pro one year, 22 years of age. Record is 4-0 with 4KOs. I have a feeling about this one.

REPLAY OF GLOVES BEING TOUCHED. TYC SPORTS IS YOUR HOME FOR ACTION

Chaves lacks defense and throws really nice left hooks to the body. I would like to see more of him already. They are those glorious kind of left hooks that you only ever see in kick boxing when like Lebanner throws them. You know the kind, with all the leverage and stuff. He does, however, lack Lebanner's wonky and disgusting nose. My fiancee hates his nose. Even I find it physically repulsive. As great a figure as he is, I can never root for him to win the GP unless he gets it fixed. Or maybe if he promised to retire and have plastic surgery?

While I typed, the guy who is supposed to lose was knocked down into the ropes and given a standing 8. Oh well. I can rewind it. I have the powar (holla dude on kaiju that was "fat powar" you were my fav that was not andrew). Upon closer inspection, it was a standing 8 count. God I hate that. Figures Argentina still has it. Second round starts after some fastforwarding and the guy drops the mouthpiece even before getting hit. This is a part of the world where they whistle for displeasure. I think I like it more than happy whistling. This fight annoys me because it continues to exist, and as I type that sentence, the dude who should lose is dropped and can't beat the count. KNOCK OUT KNOCK OUT KNOCK OUT says the announcer man who is losing his shit while everyone in the gymnasium is just okay with it. Diego Chaves has t-shirts with a very simple glove logo and some sort of cartoonish bubble font. Low overhead means low costs to the commoners.

I admit interest as to how TyC Sports pays their bills. There are never commercials for anything but TyC programming. Apparently they are big in their homeland. MOLITOR/CABALLERO highlights. My compadre here is cry. TYC suggests I watch Sportiva, which is some sort of poor Sportscenter or something. I shall pass. I am reminded that I did watch TV Peru's election night coverage. There were two people in a small studio with a black curtain and a flat screen TV looking at like electoral-vote.com. Seating is shown on the floor: It is white plastic lawn chairs. The stackable kind. PROMO VIDEO for Casanova/Acosta. I will go on a limb and say that is the main event.

And it is! Hector Casanova and Ruben Acosta is the headliner (?). RUBEN ACOSTA prefers the sound of new AC/DC it seems. Pro 6 years, he's 19-3-5 with 5 KOs. Oh, he's about 165lbs, so I guess this is a super middleweight fight. I didn't bother trying to do conversions with the prior fight but I think it was featherweights or something. HECTOR CASANOVA comes in second and has a title belt making him super middleweight champion of Argentina. Pro 12 years, his record is a more lengthy 22-11-0 with 9KOs. Having seen Argentine 168lb fighters previously (notably Valentin Antonio Ochoa), I expect little.

The fight starts and Acosta almost falls over on the ring canvas. It is because the corner is wet. Clearly, needs more Shamwow. Casanova is like twice as big as this dude. I'm guessing Acosta's weight is all a old school steel hip implant. This fight is also boring. It resembles a heavyweight bout in the speed and activity of the combatants. Naturally, a win here probably makes one a top contender to fight Joe Calzaghe (zing!). The basic underlying issue with this thus far is that Casanova's jab is controlling the action to the pont where his opponent is afraid to do anything, and so Casanova can't counter. So there is staring. Casanova lands something and Acosta fires back and hurts his opponent. The last 90m seconds feature a lot of both men throwing hyper wild and missing. Its like watching a pair of dudes from D-League see who can sink the most half court shots.

ROUND 3! I forgot to not use shift and so it came out as "ROUND #" the first few times I typed. The ref looks like the dad from Addams Family. MOAR swinging and missing. Acosta lands and Casanova goes back into the ring. Half of the effectiveness of his attack now involves rushing in after his wild right hand punches with the crown of his head. Mouthpiece falls out of Acosta's mouth due to the heavy duty clinching. Casanova tries to do something approximating combination punching. Acosta is throwing haymakers like all get out. It is like watching someone play Fight Night Round 3 in slow motion. Casanova with some solid shots at the bell. My ass hurts from sitting in one place.

Round 4 and no one is still reading. Acosta moves his head and the announcer is calling jabs that are not there. He is still excited, perhaps because someone is paying for his input re: this event. Acosta's wild swinging has been dulled by punches to the face in repetition. Not that there were tons, but apparently he doesn't have enough in him to continue with such a game plan. Casanova plods some more and wins the round.

Round 5:

Acosta, no jab

'Nova inept, on canvas

bedsore on my ass?

There is excitement! Casanova has no defense and is hurt by a counter left hook thrown by an off balance Acosta, who follows it with a short right uppercut. My hope that the fight would end is dashed by the minimal time remaining in the round. Casanova is warned of headbutts in round 6 even though the other guy is leading with his head. Acosta is still throwing Street Fighter 2 punches, and a right hand/left arm throw drops Casanova again. Another set of haymakers leads to a standing 8. Acosta is all sorts of wild. Big left hook drops Acosta again and its TECHNICO TECHNICO TECHHHHHNICO. Oh thank god. I've been in the car for like 5 hours today and sitting at slot machines and tables for another 2. Being this inert just loses value after feasting like I and everyone else in the country had.

Stretching/Fast forwarding/drinking some water: swing bout time! FABIO SASTRE SILVA is pro two years going, 5-3-1, 3KOs, and hails from the boxing hotbed of, uh, Montevideo, Uruguay. He promotes subaltur.com, which apparently sells houses for tourist rental. Well. WELLLLLLLL. Right up my alley, fo sho. Next dude is very popular. He is JAVIER MACIEL, is reppin' Florida and has a record of 8-0 with 4 KOs. Why is he in Argentina? No idea.

Maciel may have actually lost the first because he didn't do anything. He fights with the fluidity of C-3PO. Seriously, I wonder if the names given were wrong. Maciel fights like this is points fighting. He is better skilled and more athletic but seems to lack connecting his movements to fighting. Silva probably scraps for free at his local pub or cantina or whatever. Round 3 starts and all I can think is that Maciel raped someone and is avoiding capture. He begins to do things that enthrall as this round starts to end, landing some nice uppercuts. The sorta white guy is hurt with such an uppercut about midway through round 4 but hangs tough. INSERT POP REFERENCE.

JESUS TE DA LORD says a ringpost. Separation of church and sport? Apparently not here. This is a god that's an awesome god because he's way into pugilism. TRADING OF PUNCHES! LACK OF DEFENSE! Dana would tell you that if boxing wasn't broken, this is what would excite the masses. Then again, I think the masses don't give a shit about Nate Quarry. Could be just me. Meanwhile, the rapist is walking down the guy who can't really box well and then just drops his hand and gets hit and then backs off before reestablishing the chase (which is, unlike what some would claim, is not necessarily better than the catch). Its not that this is bad, just wholly ordinary.

In the 6th, the punches of the floridian land with graet accuracy. Pretty much everything makes contact, but the second the Uruguian throws punches, Machiel stops. Fight ends because apparently it was only a 6 rounder. Thank goodness. Maciel wins a unanimous decision, crowd is happy.

Heavyweight Top 50

2008-10-12T18:47:00.001-07:00

I'm doing this somewhat privately. There will be one probably almost exactly like this posted on Total-MMA prior to the Wladimir Klitschko/Alexander Povetkin bout.

CHAMP: I haven’t had one listed in years. Rules for me filling this are: A) unify three belts OR B) #1 and #2 fight. This is similar to The Ring’s rule, except that I’m not gonna bend to HBO’s demands to make guys champ (see also: Klitschko, Vitali)

1 ) Wladimir Klitschko (-): No change.

2 ) Alexander Povetkin (+1)

3) Vitali Klitschko (NEW): To be honest, I hate doing it this way. I find it difficult to justify anything else though. Here is why:

-Vitali Klitschko beat a guy ranked one higher than Povetkin, and did so in splendid fashion....but its his first win over a top ten ranked fighter since I saw the Sanders fight in a hotel room in Kileen, TX. That was April 2004. Furthermore, its only his third win over a top ten ranked heavyweight ever in his 12 year (w/4 year layoff) career.

-While Povetkin has not faced a fighter that was ranked as high as Peter, he has beaten a pair of top 50 heavyweights (Donald and Ahunanya), a top 15 heavyweight (Byrd) and a top 10 heavyweight (Chambers) in the last 2 years. Combining all that, its far more impressive than a single win.

-Peter is deeply flawed. Yes, he beat McCline, but did he look good? Sure, he beat James Toney twice on my card, but was it impressively done the first time? Does it matter anymore now? Chambers, Donald, and Byrd may all be flawed, but Byrd beat Vitali Klitschko during their meeting, Donald went ten rounds with him (not to mention the Valuev fight), and Chambers has looked fairly solid since.

4 ) Nicolay Valuev (+1)

5 ) Ruslan Chagaev (-1) This is an enormously tough choice as well. Chagaev beat Valuev and was pretty decisive about it, to boot. Valuev then went and looked horrible against Bergeron and it looked all over for the giant. Wins over John Ruiz (the #6 heavyweight last time I did the list) and Sergei Lyakhovich (who was somewhere in the top 20) are far better than Chagaev's comparative resume of numerous cancelled fights and Matt Skelton.

6 ) Juan Carlos Gomez (+7): You know what beating a top 10 heavyweight does for you? A lot. Gomez beating Virchis shocked some, but I wasn't in that boat at all. He's 35 and grossly over his best fighting weight of about 200-205, and yet he's smoking a lot of the guys he's fought. He's the WBC mandatory for Vitali Klitschko but I can't imagine that fight actually happening. Defines "risk/reward" in the sport and everything. Maybe he can fight Peter for a vacant belt?

7 ) Samuel Peter (-5): If Gomez is talent and potential realized, Peter is the opposite. He argurably lost three of his last five.

8 ) John Ruiz (-2): You may be surprised to see Ruiz still here. Its not as if Valuev smoked him in their second fight (though it was a better fight for Valuev) and he's still a threat to anyone at the upper end.

9 ) Sultan Ibragimov (-2): Where is this guy?

10 ) Eddie Chambers (-): Eddie recently beat Livin Castillo at some card at the Blue Horizon. I'm not really sure what his career has in store but he's sadly one of the best this country has for the weight.

11 ) Vladimir Virchis (-3)

12 ) Tony Thompson (-3): Both recently picked up Ls against better fighters. Thompson's performance was as much impressive as it was depressive about Wladimir Klitschko. Virchis ended up fighting someone who's basics are far improved.

13 ) Oleg Maskaev (-2): Beat Robert Hawkins since the Peter loss. Nothing I can say because I've not seen it. Hawkins isn't a bad fighter though and to come back and take a good placeholder like that makes it appear that Maskaev has some sort of future. Not a bright one, mind you.

14 ) Taras Bidenko (+1)

15 ) Lamon Brewster (+3): Wait, Alan...Lamon Brewster is finished! You keep saying that, right? Well, I did. But:

-his record in the last 4 years is pretty damn good outside of, you know

-he stopped Batchelder, even if he was getting outboxed virtually the whole fight.

16 ) James Toney (-)

17 ) Hasim Rahman (-)

18) Shannon Briggs (-4) : Heavyweight graveyard.

19 ) Alexander Dimitrenko (-)

20 ) Chris Arreola (-): Neither man has stepped up at all. Arreola's next big fight is against Travis Walker. Honestly, if Walker can do what he's capable of, Arreola is fuuuucked. Problem is that Walker can easily be outworked.

21 ) Matt Skelton (-)

22 ) Kali Meehan (-)

23 ) Jameel McCline (-)

24 ) Fres Oquendo (-)

25 ) Sergei Lyakhovich (-)

26 ) Kevin Johnson (-)

27 ) Monte Barrett (-)

28 ) Andrew Golota (-)

29 ) Odlanier Solis Fonte (-)

30 ) Travis Walker (-)

31 ) Ray Austin (+1)

32 ) Luan Krasniqi (-1)

33 ) Jean Francois Bergeron (-): Virtually no significant wins among this pool. Ray Austin beat Domonic Jenkins and Solis has beaten Chad Van Sickle and Chauncey Welliver in the closest everyone from #21 to #32 had to beating others since July.

34 ) Jason Estrada (-): Wasted talent.

35 ) Danny Williams (-): Notable, as he has two opponents in November. He hopes to KO John McDermott quickly so he can fight Frans Botha with no ill effects.

36 ) David Tua (-)

37 ) Davarryl Williamson (-)

38 ) Timor Ibragimov (-)

39 ) Malik Scott (-): More mediocrity.

40) Cedric Boswell (NEW): For a good portion of his fight with McCline, looked like the future. Then he was KOed. Recently was brought in as a sacrifice for Roman Greenberg and ruined that dude in 2.

41 ) Michael Sprott (-1)

42 ) Denis Boystov (-1)

43 ) Francesco Pianeta (-1)

44 ) Chazz Witherspoon (-1)

45 ) Sinan Samil Sam:

46 ) Oliver McCall

47 ) Friday Ahunanya

48 ) Michael Grant

49 ) Brian Minto

50) Evander Holyfield (NEW) : Again, very few changes.

Juan Manuel Lopez vs. Cesar Figueroa (WBO Junior Featherweight Title) 10-04-08

2008-10-05T06:35:00.001-07:00

Lopez is a guy i first saw on the under card of that fucking pointless Lockett/Pavlik PPV. He absolutely obliterated Ponce De Leon inside of 1 round. I have been looking forward to seeing him fight again ever since. Epic intro from Lopez complete with pyro straight from 1998 WCW. I know nothing about Figueroa (bare with me here). I'm going to assume hes been brought in to give Lopez an easy win.

Round 1: ohhhhhh man, jab followed by a big right hand and Figueroa is down. first punches of the fight. I don't think hes getting up. And he doesn't. WOW. Dude has some serious power in his hands. 47 seconds of the first round. KO Victory for Lopez and he didn't take one punch.

Content...

2008-09-29T04:34:00.000-07:00

Or lack of it on my part. I'm going to start picking up the pace here soon and adding more content to this, the only way for me to get better is to watch and write more about both sports. I think Alan has a few things in the works as well, if I'm not mistaken.

Telefutura: 8/29 & 9/5/08

2008-09-17T21:21:00.000-07:00

Okay, I actually watched these last week, but I take notes, you know? One of these days, I'll sit with the laptop in front of the TV. I prefer to be as unencumbered as possible though when watching boxing these days.

8/29:

Latif Mundy vs. Rudy Cisneros: Rudy's only professional loss was to Norberto Bravo over 5, whereas Mundy is a guy who's gotten decent TV time this year out of Philly. Good even fight on paper, and it was that way in reality also. Each round was extremely close, and I was often scoring rounds on single blows that appeared to be the best of their respective rounds. Cisneros won the 2nd, 4th, 5th, and 7th in the 8 rounder to win the fight on my card 76-75. The deciding factor was a point deduction in the 8th round against Mundy due to a low blow. Following that, Mundy sensed something was needed to secure a win, and he attacked Cisneros with everything he had. It simply wasn't enough. Cisneros won a unanimous decision, officially.

Pedro Martinez vs. Reshawn Scott: Two nondescript fighters at the cruiser limit.

Scott was taller and had slightly better skills than Martinez, but was hurt in the first round during an exchange. In round 2, he was dropped hard and the fight was waived off. Not a great TV debut for him.

-CALDERON/CAZARES HYPE TIME!-

WHO? Mike Jones vs. Juliano Ramos: Jones has been given a slew of pretty easy opponents thus far in his young career. His 14-0, 12KO record displays this. Its not at all outlandish to say that his prior two opponents were the best fighters that he had faced in his career (Germaine Sanders & Gilbert Venegas). Ramos, on the other hand, is a young 15-1 fighter from Brazil, hardly a hotbed of boxing. He lost to Jonathan Tubbs, which generally isn't a good sign.

The first 3 rounds were a pretty horrible sight: Jones treated this as a sparring session, merely doing just enough to win but nothing to try and bring the fight to an end. Ramos did nothing, on the other hand. Jones finally began to put the pedal down a little in the 4th, hurting Ramos and keeping him offbalance most of the last minute. Ramos went to try and win it in the 5th, landing a good right hand of his own on Jones' chin, and found that it had no effect whatsoever. Ruh-roh. Jones took it out on Ramos in round 6, hurting him early on and putting him away in brutal fashion as Ramos tried in desperation to hold on. A good one for a highlight reels, but what I'll remember most is Jones' workman like attitude early on. It reminded me of Jermain Taylor and his terminal inability to push the pace offensively in all the wrong ways.

9/5:

I was really excited for this card. It was headlined by a favorite prospect of mine and had an interesting collision on the undercard.

Ray Sanchez III vs. Joaquin Zamora: Sanchez is a huge fraud, with a glossy record, close calls against the Patrick Thompsons of the world, and a stoppage loss to Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. Zamora seems like a perfect Sanchez opponent, with a loss to a totally nondescript opponent, then a draw later to an equally noteworthy foe, and then a second loss to Elco Garcia, a fairly well known journeyman/tomato can. He has racked up most of his wins in New Mexico, like Zamora, and had built up a fairly decent 15-2-1 record. My crack research also tells me he was ranked by the WBC for a second or two prior to this bout.

The opening round was close and competitive, but went to Sanchez on my card. It was totally overshadowed by round 2, in which Sanchez was nearly stopped as Zamora began to use the jab to set up his right hand. Sanchez suffered a cut that would cause the fight to be stopped in the following round. A bit unfortunate, but Zamora's win was totally legit. Sanchez, hilariously for a guy who's been on Telefutura numerous times, has middle school level spanish skills. He looks paunchy however, and given his last few performances, he may want to find another career.

Marcos Acosta/Ricky Vasquez: Local boys with records that don't inspire in a 4 round fight. The two men fouled each other numerous times, especially with headbutts and use of the shoulders, as well as displaying little defense or significant offensive skill. Vasquez won the decision.

Daniel Attah vs. Urbano Antillon: Antillon really hit the scene when he bombed out Bobby Pacquiao in a mere round. He's a strong puncher with great offensive skills and tight defense. Attah is a product of Nigeria, and he's fought for a world title on Showtime many moons ago agaisnt Acelino Freitas. He's not done very well in recent years, and was coming back from a long layoff following his loss to Mario Santiago.

Antillon and Attah just go on offense against one another right away, and Attah pays the price. Antillon was true to his form in the Pacquiao fight, forcing Attah to a knee in the third and to a ref stoppage in round 4. Attah was just outgunned by the larger man, who used a full array of punches to put him down and out.

Robert Marroquin vs. Gino Escamilla: I think I've seen Marroquin before on Telefutura in a similar role of being the swing bout. He was on the undercard of two different events they've televised this year. Escamilla I know nothing about and his 5-3-1 record indicates I need to do no serious research.

Marroquin won every single round of the fight on my card and was a clean 59-54 sweep on the judges cards. Escamilla was down in round 3, but Marroquin couldn't take him out. He looked like a poor finisher, to be frank.

Yutaka Niida vs. Roman Gonzalez (WBC Minimumweight Title)

2008-09-16T19:17:00.000-07:00

Yutaka Niida vs. Roman Gonzalez (WBC Minimumweight Title 09-15-2008)

I haven't heard of either guy. This popped up on the boxing torrent site i use and i decided to give it a download seeing as how the little guys usually deliver in a big way. I also needed to kill time before the Arce/Conception Solis/Samudio torrent was finished downloading.

Round 1: Roman shows his power early and has Niida backing up for most of the round. Niida counters here and there but Gonzalez is lighting him up with clearly more powerful punches. 10-9 Gonzalez

Round 2: A hard right hook from Gonzalez gets Niida's attention early. Niida again is mostly on the defense here. Nice ripping shots to the body from Gonzalez. Niida doesn't land much of anything and his face is getting marked up already. 10-9 Gonzalez

Round 3: Gonzalez turning the pressure up very early and they start trading punches, Niida is up for it it seems. Things slow down after the initial flurry from both. Niida on his bike now avoiding Gonzalez. Gonzalez is an animal always coming forward landing big body shots and uppercuts. Nidda is not looking good at all. 10-9 Gonzalez

Round 4: Gonzalez must know Niida is ready to go. hes chasing him all over the ring, Niida letting a few combos off but it does little to discourage Gonzalez. Niida is really getting beat up now, his corner should think about stopping it. They stop it to check on a cut above Niidas eye and the Dr halts the bout in round 4.

Niida looked overmatched and Gonzalez showed why he's 21-0 with 19ko's.

BOXING: Free TV Wrapup 9/12-13

2008-09-14T21:34:00.000-07:00

Telemundo, Telefutura, TYC Sports, and Showtime all showed free cards this weekend of varying quality, and I've actually found enough time in between dealing with our new pets (3 cats!) to watch them all.

8/12:

TELEFUTURA -

Here was a show with two undefeated prospects with Oscar paying their bills, and so there's some hope there that we'll have a decent show. Bzzzz. Wrong. Ex-Olympian Rock Allen was first out there and he drew another no hoper in a long line of them with Contender Season 3 competitor Brian Vera's brother Gilbert. This is year 4 of him being a prospect and he's still fighting guys that are 9-2 in 8 rounders. I mean, c'mon, what does that say about the faith his team has in him? Anyhow, Vera provides ample competition and forces Rock Allen to really try and work to win. Rock simply doesn't have the power in his punching to actually do lots of damage to Vera and thus stop him. So what we have in this fight was a one sided domination by Rock Allen where he does nothing to make the crowd believe he can stop Vera and gives Vera ample opportunites to fight back, as ineffective as it generally was.

The main event was between 22-0, 21 KO Argentinian Lucas Martin Matthysse in a bout with journeyman Rogerio Castaneda Jr. Castaneda has been in against, well, a ton of dudes. In fact, he was recently on Versus against one of the Peterson Bros. in a dull affair. This was actually pretty interesting because Castaneda provided some resistance until an accidental headbutt cut him and ended the fight in the 3rd. Bah.

Also making the show was a bout between 0-0 local boys Edgar Portillo and Pedro Sanchez won early in the 1st by Portillo. Fun and harmless. Karl Dargan/Jose Lozada showed up minus round 1 on the telecast as well after being taped early in the night. I barely paid attention to that, to be honest. Not the best show in Telefutura's history.

TELEMUNDO:

Adolfo Landeros has lost to plenty of good fighters and not so good fighters, so that a fighter such as him was brought in for the young Wilfredo Vasquez Jr. is no big surprise. He's the best guy Vasquez has ever fought but was nowhere near good enough. Solid back and forth for the first two rounds but Vasquez' athleticism, power, and size was far too much. Landeros ended up getting hurt repeatedly before finally getting stopped in round 8.

Also making TV was Roberto Lopez/Jonathan Robles. Robles ended up getting KOed brutally in round 3 after looking like garbage pretty much the whole bout. I think Michael Mendez/Jean Petit Homme may have made TV but I stopped paying attention around this point.

TYC SPORTS:

Opener for the night is Billi Godoy/Pablo Cortes. Cortes has a bunch of tats, Godoy doesn't. Also, Godoy is 11-0 and Cortes is 6-7. So, you'd think with differing records like that, Godoy is likely to win. And you'd be right. Cortes comes straight forward all night and in spite of never going more than 6 before, goes the distance of 10 rounds. He also didn't win a single round. Godoy has not much pop and for being a boxer/puncher type, he lacks the lateral movement and hands to do something.

Main event saw Aldo Rios take on Nazareno Ruiz for the Argentinan Lightweight title. Rios has fought only 4 times out of 49 fights outside of Argentina. Guess where he got his four losses? Ruiz is 26-11 and lost to Rios back in 2003. Good fight with Ruiz having moments of serious offense but Rios was generally able to beat Ruiz to the punch and win most of the rounds and begin to wear him down towards the end of the bout. No stoppage though in this fight, and the event left TV late.

SHOWTIME:

Oh man, I was so bummed when I heard that Guzman/Campbell was off due to weight issues with the former super bantamweight Guzman. But the card wasn't cancelled, so there was still something to watch.

Timothy Bradley/Edner Cherry, like the other bouts, wasn't one I really wanted to keep a scorecard over. Seemed pretty pointless with the fight being almost a total washout for Bradley. Cherry only won the 4th cleanly and got knocked down in the 7th (?) from a picture perfect right hand counter. Cherry recovered quickly and performed well down the stretch, but it was nowhere near enough to win. Timothy Bradley's win helps his case at 140 for validity, most certainly. He basically copied the success of Paulie Malignaggi, and given that he's a top 3 fighter at 140, that's a very good thing. However, there's a lot of deeply underrated talent at the weight that can pose a threat in the future should he get matched up with them (Naoufel Ben Rabah, Ricardo Torres, Randall Bailey, Kid Diamond, Willy Blain, etc).

BOXING: TYC Sports 9/6/08

2008-09-09T10:04:00.000-07:00

Oh, how I love the dish and all its programming. It seems almost infinite in volume and it is all so great. TYC Sports is a great example of this. They're a sports channel from Argentina that has boxing almost weekly, and there's even world title bouts on the network that are not otherwise televised.

SERGIO SANDERS vs. CLAUDIO SOLIS: Of the three fights on the show, this is the one that interested me most. Sanders is 15-0-1. Solis is 8-6.

Sanders is clearly the larger man and tries to dictate the fight's distance with his reach, while Solis wildly rushes. Sanders has some good body punches but lacks head movement and looks very robotic and stiff. Its a total shut out in the first 4 rounds, then Sanders drops Solis twice in round 5. Early in round 6 Solis' corner tosses in the towel. I'm not impressed with Sanders. He's gonna get brutally KOed someday soon.

Interesting note: Round 11 of Juarez/Barrios is shown here. Wonder how HBO feels about that?

DAVID PARED vs. LUCAS AYOROA: Pared is 9-0-1 and Ayoroa is 2-3-1. Standard Argentinian matchmaking.

Pared knocks down Ayoroa with a left hook to the head in round one but can't finish. As the fight goes on, his defense is clearly not very good, his offense lacks in numerous departments, and frankly, he's not all that good a fighter. Ayoroa actually lands some blows in the 4th that bother Pared but he loses every round to a 40-35 card from me and similar ones from the judges at ringside.

GUMERSINDO CARRASCO vs. LUIS NIETO: Carrasco is making his pro debut. Nieto is a 2-1-1 fighter of no real note. Carrasco did participate in a couple international tourneys but didn't do that well.

Nieto is dropped early in the first and the ref is late in stepping in. As a result, Carrasco lands an uppercut to a downed Nieto that puts him out cold. Towel is thrown in and Carrasco wins.

Telefutura: 8/15 & 8/22/08

2008-09-08T20:54:00.000-07:00

Time to enter the blog, and why not do it the classy way? Everyone loves their reviews of spanish language TV boxing. Both of these cards were televised on Telefutura, which I pick up with my wonderous spanish package (which alternately prevents me from getting Big Ten Network, go fig). Being that DirecTV is getting this as a digital signal like it does local affiliates, Telefutura has chosen their Fresno affiliate as the national station.

8/15:

HARRISON CUELLO vs. JAVIER CASTRO: Castro is a pretty decent young prospect at 16-1 and Cuello is loser of three of his last 4. You may remember Randall Bailey KOing him brutally last year on ESPN.

Cuello actually won the first round on my card and that was it for him. Cuello ended up knocking him down impressively in Round 3 and the ref waived it off. I wish beating Cuello was really meaningful, but Castro didn't do anything to make me get amped.

IVAN POPOCA vs. BRIAN CARDEN: Carden I saw just a couple days later when I decided to breeze through a card shown on some midwestern FSN affiliate headlined by Rob Calloway. Popoca was 7-0-1, Carden barely above .500 and a look like a meth dealer.

Unnecessary beating taken here by Carden in the first round stoppage win for Popoca. He had a lot of heart, but the ref was late in stopping as he was in the late getting torn to shreds. It wasn't as if it wasn't obvious, and Carden had already been dropped twice. Gotta protect these guys if you're gonna allow the fights.

In between bouts, an interview with Antonio Escalante and a replay of his loss to Pastrana in January 2007. I'm guessing a rematch is coming or something?

CARLOS "EL FAMOSO" HERNANDEZ vs. HECTOR ALATORRE: Hernandez was a great crowd pleasing fighter in early part of this decade. Always gutty, even in losing efforts, Hernandez had good fights with Erik Morales and Floyd Mayweather, and against lesser but still world class fighters, he made for near classics. You can't go wrong with his fights against Jesus Chavez, Bobby Pacquiao, Kevin Kelley, or Juan Carlos Ramirez. Alatorre is exactly the kind of guy you put an aged minor draw in with to try and revive his career and get him a money fight; a mediocre journeyman.

Ugly fight, close for most rounds, but this was against far lesser competition. Hernandez was out there fighting for self respect and for his very career, and in a way, that was as impressive as any fight he's ever been in before. Lots of close "could go either way" rounds right from the start, where a single uppercut by Alatorre won him the round on my card. Hernandez was cut in round 4, gassed by round 6, and his right eye closed by the 9th. My final card had Alatorre winning rounds 1,2,9, and 10, and Hernandez winning everything in the middle. It was a split decision, but two of the judges agreed with me and gave it to Hernandez. Whether or not Hernandez should ever fight again is a different question entirely.

----------------------------------

8/22:

The scene shifts to Puerto Rico here, and its Miguel Cotto co-promoting this show.

HECTOR MUNOZ vs. IRVING GARCIA: Munoz has a mohawk and some of the hardest tattoos this side of Alexander Emelianenko. I have a feeling he doesn't have them because of an interest in prison tats. He's clearly the prospect here at 18-1. Garcia drew in a fight for the interim WBA welterweight title against Nuzhnenko overseas in his last fight out, so this is actually an interesting fight. Argurably better than the main event.

Garcia wins round 1 and then there's a headbutt in the second round that causes the fight to be stopped. Booourns. No contest.

RAY RIVERA vs. JAYSON VELEZ: Velez is 3-0 with 3 KOs and Rivera has a losing record.

Velez knocks down Rivera in round 2 with a body shot and out in round 3 with a monster right hand. Velez got a nice result but looked amateurish and wild.

Miguel Cotto is interviewed here. I bet they ask what the hell happened against Margarito. Can I tell? Not really.

SHAMIR REYES vs. DANIEL JIMENEZ: I don't conceal my dislike of bad fights, and this is one. Reyes hasn't beaten anyone good since he beat Ivan Valle eons ago. Jimenez isn't that good either.

Good back and forth early with Reyes fighting adeptly off the back foot and countering. Some close rounds early on, but Reyes had enough engaging by the 6th and started running. Jimenez nearly took him out in the 10th, but instead won a wide and well deserved decision. Not really worth going out of your way for.

GCM: Cage Force 6

2008-09-08T12:28:00.000-07:00

GCM: Cage Force 6 (04/06/08)

So i guess this will be the first MMA entry in this blog. I've been pretty high on Cage Force in the last year or so. They put together some great tournaments (albeit with some disappointing outcomes) that ended up landing Yoshiyuki Yoshida and Dan Hardy UFC contracts. I can get behind those two signings. It's a shame Yoshida didn't get to prove to the general MMA viewing public this past weekend that he is a real threat (Karo is a man of panic attacks and last minute "back injury's"). But I digress. Here we have the 6th Cage Force show. The opening video package rolls and we are treated to Soon by My Bloody Valentine as background music. Weird. Even more strange is the Emninem/Disturbed mash up Cage Force theme. Anyway, onto what we came here to see. Fights!

Masahiro Oishi vs Paul McVeigh
Round 1: McVeigh comes out to the Dropkick Murphy's and with a haircut/style that Nick Diaz surely would not approve of. Oishi is a guy I know I have seen in the past but I have no recollection of his talent level. This fight doesn't last in a standing position for long. Oishi makes a half hearted take down attempt and McVeigh locks in a standing guillotine to secure a takedown of his own, he follows that up with a few elbows. Oishi scrambles back to his feet. This appears to be a clipped fight ughhhhhhh. Oishi has taken McVeigh down a few times but can't hold him and hes losing the battle standing. McVeigh is hurting him and drops him but gets too sloppy and anxious trying to finish and ends up on his back. Armbar attempt from McVeigh but Oishi's arm isn't in deep enough to secure a tap out. Standing again but not for long, Oishi takes him down and lands some G'nP to end the round. McVeigh controlled the round for the most part and nearly finished Oishi with that punch. 10-9 McVeigh.

Round 2: Mcveigh lands some nice knees to start the round, Oishi is fighting back but he hasn't landed much of any significance. McVeigh slips throwing a knee and falls to his back. Oishi quickly takes his back and works for a rear naked. Oishi cant sink it but he is softening McVeigh up with punches. He turns it on and McVeigh has no defense for the strikes and the ref jumps in to stop the fight. Good stoppage. Winner by TKO Masahiro Oishi

Taiyo Nakahara vs Ryota Uozomi

Round 1: RYOTO makes a statement right off the bat with a solid leg kick. But he gets hit and pulls guard right away. They fast forward to a min or so later and Taiyo is still in the guard but landing some massive strikes on RYOTO. Another clip again and the ref is standing them up. Round ends standing and would appear to be all Taiyo. 10-9 Taiyo. Screw clipped fights.

Round 2: 2nd round is started with 2:50 or so left just in time to see RYOTO take a shot to the groin. I like that they don't clip some of the post nut shot downtime but chose to clip actual fight footage. Back to the fight. Ryoto gets a take down but gets up kicked in the face (Which is illegal). More downtime and then were shown the last 3 seconds of the 2nd round. Ok, the towel is thrown in by RYOTO's corner in between rounds. Whatever. Taiyo by TKO Corner stoppage.

Next a little video package and interview is shown of Yoshiyuki Yoshida and his path of destruction in Cage Force. I still cringe at the beating he laid on Akira Kikuchi.

Daichi Fujiwara vs Tetsu Suzuki
Round 1:Ok Suzuki is definitely a character. He has a very strange entrance costume and mannerisms to match. Things start fast and end up on the mat. Daichi is caught in an omoplata but it goes no where and gets stood up. Daichi with a take down into half guard. Scramble ensues and Suzuki ends up back on the bottom and against the cage. He is a slippery one for sure. Dueling leg lock time. That goes no where and Suzuki ends up with his back being taken. He uses the fence to roll out and transition to side mount, but he is quickly swept the same way by Daichi. More dueling leg locks and we end the round. good stuff. Id give it to Daichi based on his positioning and takedowns. 10-9 Daichi

Round 2: WOAH, huge high kick from Suzuki to start the round. They clinch against the cage and Suzuki falls to his back. Now working a rubber guard, transition to omoplata. Daichi defends well and is landing some elbows to the ribs, he gets out and lands in a perfect position to execute an armbar. Suzuki defends well and we end up in some more nice ground and positional changes you should see for yourself. Daichi on top now. In side control takes his back ending in another scramble. Daichi locks in a sick kimura and the fight is called. Nice work. This is worth a look for grappling fans. Daichi by Submission (Kimura)

Now we are treated to highlights of some of the featherweight tournament fights from earlier this year.

Mizuto Hirota vs Tomonari Kanomata
Round 1: Main event time. Hirota. Finally a name I know. The same guy that KO'd IFL standout Ryan Schultz a few weeks ago at Sengoku 4. Also, he supposedly he didn't start wrapping his hands until he entered Cage Force last year. Wow. Kanomata thinks hes Genki Sudo, he's doing all kinds of funky moves till Hirota smashes him in the face. He falls to his bacl and is in a world of trouble. Hirota is an animal and quickly finishes him with vicious ground and pound. Quick and brutal victory for the rising Cage Force star. I assume this is the fight that got him into Sengoku. Hirota by KO (Strikes)

Overall a fun show that is hurt by the clipping but i guess Cage Force is limited in their TV time so I shouldn't complain too much. Worth seeing for the brutal main event and the fun grappling fest put on by Fujiwara/Suzuki

Cristian Mijares vs. Chatchai Sasakul

2008-08-31T15:15:00.000-07:00

Cristian Mijares vs. Chatchai Sasakul (WBA & WBC Superflyweight Title)

Mijares is a guy who handily beat Jorge Arce and holds two title belts at superflyweight. So you know he is for real. Sasakul is a guy who got beat up by Manny Pacquiao in 1998 and hasn't done a whole lot since.

Round 1: Mijares establishes a right jab fairly quickly and adds a straight left at the end of it. Sasakul is throwing but really not landing much of anything. He's a little overwhelmed by Mijares workrate and accuracy. 10-9 Mijares

Round 2: Ok these rounds are clipped. this is retarded. Hopefully i can track down a complete version. Mijares throttles Sasakul with a left at the end of the round and Sasakul stumbles back and falls down. hes up and his trainer is in the ring trying to bring him back to the corner before the ref can ever start a count. this should probably be an automatic DQ but the ref essentially tells him to get lost. He gives Sasakul a standing 8 but it's obvious he is in no condition to continue as he stumbles around the ring and looks lost. He eventually makes it back to his corner and is allowed to continue. 10-8 Mijares

Round 3: Mijares lights him up about a minute into the round. he lands a left uppercut followed by a right that sends Sasaku to the mat. The ref makes the call he should have made a round earlier and waves the fight off. Sasakul looked like he had no chin and no business being in the ring with Mijares. I'd like to see Mijares in a more competitive fight next time out. Hopefully a fight with Darchinyan is in the cards.

Steve Molitor vs. Ceferino Dario Labarda

2008-08-31T03:45:00.000-07:00

Steve Molitor vs. Ceferino Dario Labarda (IBF Jr Featherweight Championship)

Molitor is another guy who i have heard much about, being from my home and native land (Canada). But i have never seen him fight. He is the IBFJr Featherweight champion which is a 122lbs weight limit. This is supposed to be a gimmie bout for Molitor on the way to a unification bout with Celestino Caballero the WBA champ.

Round 1: Labarda comes out quick and has Molitor on the defense, but hes not landing much. Molitor lands a nice jab. Molitor is letting him get off but he is blocking most of the shots. Molitor has nice defense. Defnitely Labarda's round though. He was very active and landed some decent punches. Very much a feeling out process. 10-9 Labarda

Round 2: Again Molitor is on the retreat, Labarda coming forward but he's reaching with his punches. no major damage being done by either guy yet. Molitor landing more effective punches now. Using his jab well, making Labarda miss and landing a left. Labarda is the more active fighter, but Molitor landing the cleaner punches 10-9 Molitor

Round 3: Labarda missing a lot. Molitor catches him with a right while he is off balance and knocks the Argentinian back a few steps, which in turn wakes up the crowd for a moment. Nice shot to the body from Labarda. Nice crisp left from Molitor but it doesnt phase Labarda much. Right, left from Labarda that gets Molitor to stop laying on the ropes. 10 seconds to go Molitor finishes strong with another solid left. 10-9 Molitor

Round 4: Labarda hits the gloves a lot. Molitor with very solid defense. Molitor counters him well on the ropes this round. He's clearly the faster fighter but he hasn't shown it too much. Molitors workrate is picking up, putting together more combinations. Not a thrilling round but i think Molitor did enough to take it from the often missing Labarda 10-9 Molitor

Round 5: Molitor nails Labarda with a nice check hook which resurrects the crowd. he follows it up with a right, left up stairs. later on Labarda is trying to work Molitor on the ropes and Labarda eats a big left that stuns him for a moment. Molitor is lighting him up now. Labarda on the retreat. He looks a little gun shy to throw with Molitor. Clearly a Molitor round. 10-9 Molitor

Round 6: Molitor looks good but it feels like hes holding back, he could prob do much more damage but hes sitting back instead and playing it safe. Labarda's offense is really nothing at this point. Stiff left from Molitor and moments later an uppercut. This is all Molitor 10-9 Molitor

Round 7: Molitor is teeing off on Labarda about a min into the round. he is not taking full advantage of the situation but he is still hurting Labarda . Nice counter right from Molitor off a Labarda combo. Molitor landing some more good shots after a clash of heads. Labarda complains but the referee ignores. another Molitor round 10-9 Molitor

Round 8: Molitor controlling the action and he hurts Labarda half way through the round but he wont let his hands go and finish him. the crowd is saying it as are the commentators. Molitor round again. Nothing that significant. Its obviously Molitor's fight, he can end this soon if he wants and hopefully he does. 10-9 Molitor

Round 9: Labarda is complaining about more supposed headbutts but the ref waves the fight on. Molitor finally starting to pick the pace up backing Labarda up and forcing him to cover up. Molitor takes a little break but opens up big time near the end of the round and forces Labarda to take a knee. Labarda barely survives the round. 10-9 Molitor

Round 10: It's time to put this guy away, he should have no problem doing so here. Molitor starting slow, but he picks things up and starts landing the right hook at will. Labarda is wobbly and ready to go. ref should think about stepping in. Molitor continues to punish Labarda. ref lets it continue too long but finally steps in and mercifully saves Labarda from more punishment.

My first time seeing Steve Molitor and you can definitely see the talent but i can't help but think he waited too long to pull the trigger and i can't see him being the best guy in a division that houses Israel Vazquez

Ivan Calderon vs. Hugo Cázares 2

2008-08-30T20:42:00.000-07:00

Calderon is a guy I have heard a lot about. He's basically a Jr flyweight Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Round 1: I missed most of this round trying to get my stream to work. Calderon is always backing up and fighting defensively, rolling beautifully with the punches.

Round 2: Calderon backing up and making Hugo miss. Solid left from Ivan. he gets in and out nicely. avoiding damage. Hugo tries to measure with the jab but hes hitting air. A jab and a right from Calderon. Landing the jab more and more as the round progresses. Calderon has beautiful defence, making Hugo look silly with how he avoids his punches.

10-9 Calderon

Round 3: Calderon with two nice right hands in the first 30 seconds. right to the body left up top for Calderon. Hugo just cant land much. Hes always coming forward but no damaging punches being landed as a result of Ivan's defense. 10 seconds to go and Calderon knocks an off balance Hugo back and almost down to end the round.

10-9 Calderon

Round 4: Hugo trying to turn up the pressure, really swinging for the fences now, but again can't connect with anything significant. Calderon hits him with a right to keep his respect. Calderon tags him twice with the right jab. Hugo swinging with all his might but he cant connect. when he does land they are not powerful punches. Calderon lands a left right combo and another right to end the round. In the replay shots you think may have landed on Calderon breeze by his face. unreal.

10-9 Calderon.

Round 5: Hugo again comes out almost literally running after Calderon. two nice lefts from Calderon and one from Hugo. Calderon getting hit with the most significant punches of the fight so far. Stiff left hand from Calderon snaps Hugo's head back. Hugo gaining some confidence landing some good punches. He taunts Calderon by putting his hands up and coming forward. Very close round.

10-10 Even

Round 6: Hugo lands a body shot or two but eats a right. Calderon switching up his stance a lot here. Hugo with two solid punches. he remains unfazed by Calderon's defensive fighting style. he comes forward and lands some good shots this round.

10-9 Hugo

Round 7: Calderon with the gloves up but hes letting Hugo land punches. Hugo landing the jab. Calderon jabs him right back . oh boy accidental headbutt. ugly gash int he middle of Calderon's head. they are stopping the fight. that's a shame. this was shaping up to be an interesting fight as it went into the second half.

This will go to the scorecards and surely Calderon will get the nod. An unfortunate way to end the night though. Calderon gets the win. Not much more for me to add to this. It was an okay fight that was stopped on a cut and went to a technical decision for Mr. Calderon. Calderon was kind of fun to watch defense wise but I'm not sure I'd be excited to watch a career DVD set of his anytime soon.

Jorge Arce vs. Michael Carbajal (07-31-1999)

2008-08-04T03:59:00.000-07:00

Jorge Arce vs. Michael Carbajal (07-31-1999)

Both of these guys are well known to hardcore boxing fans. They were also two of the many great names mentioned by Alan Conceicao in his beginners guide to boxing 127lbs and under in the "DVDVR Random Boxing Thread". I have seen a handful of Arce fights up to this point and hes already a favorite of mine. A typical all action never retreat Mexican ring warrior with an interesting personality to match. Carbajal is equally awesome but in a different way. He seems very calculated and calm but is just as effective. He was a retired fighter for 18 months until he decided to make a comeback at the age of 31. After 3 tune up fights he landed this shot at Arce's WBO Jr Flyweight title.

Round 1:
Things start slowly, both men measuring each other until Carbajal hits Arce with a right hand. Things open up a little from here. Arce answers with some quick lefts and rights. Arce lands a nice short uppercut and is starting to step inside more and throw some combinations. Nice body shots from Arce. Carbajal doesn't get much done here. Arce is much more active. 10-9 Arce

Round 2:
Arce again with some nice body shots, but he is hitting south and gets a warning. Not a huge round so far. Carbajal is still not very active. Arce landing the right hand a bunch of times in this round. Carbajal is showing more life in the last ten seconds with some combos but Arce backs him up with punches of his own to end the round. 10-9 Arce

Round 3:
Arce is turning it up, he backs Carbajal into a corner and lands a nice left hook to the head. Arce with a beautiful combo in the middle of the ring on Carbajal. Carbajal lands some counter shots on Arce along with a nice right hand. Things are livening up. Arce letting his hands go more. Carbajal has landed some nice counter punches. Arce with more nice body shots near the end of the round. Carbajal is looking better but Arce is still controlling the fight for the majority of the round. 10-9 Arce.

Round 4:
Arce lands a nice left on carbajal and steps out. More nice body work from Arce. Carbajal continues to walk forward and counter some but just looks a step behind Arce. Arce poppin that jab now. Arce a lil lazy with the left and Carbajal landing some counter rights. More good action from both men. I still feel like Arce is doing more but Carbajal is looking better towards the end of each round. 10-9 Arce

Round 5:
Nice left, right landed by Arce. He seems to land the one two almost at will. Tapping Carbajal with the jab now. Carbajal with a nice right hand, pinning Arce against the ropes for a moment, Arce fights out of it. Carbajal becoming more active now but Arce is un-phased and keeps coming back at him. another 10-9 for Arce

Round 6:
More quick combos to start the round for Arce, he gets in and out nicely. Stiff right from Arce. Carbajal back with a nice left hand though. More body work for Arce. Huge right from Carbajal buckles Arce. Arce down but he quickly rises to his feet. Carbajal is turning it on now feeling more confident. Landing nice left hooks to Arce's head. Arce back with lefts and rights and body shots towards the end of the round. Good round for Carbajal. He is starting to land that right hand more and more, perhaps a sign of things to come. 10-8 Carbajal

Round 7:
Stiff right from Carbajal to start the round. He knows what he has to do now. Nice series of rights from Arce now backs Carbajal up. Arce tagging him with lefts and rights again. Arce is turning it on. Carbajal's face is starting to look rough. More combos from Arce. A stiff right from Carbajal near the end of the round. Commentators are talking about low blows by Arce but Carbajal hasn't reacted to one of the low punches so it seems to be a moot point. Arce lands the clean and more effective blows again. 10-9 Arce

Round 8:
Arce pinning Carbajal on the ropes for a moment landing some nice lefts and rights. Arce is dominating so far this round. more low blow talk from the announcers. Arce is landing nice combos at will finishing with a left hook to the body. A right back from Carbajal. thats seems to be his money punch. Nice exchange from both fights at the end of the round. This is all Arce though. 10-9 Arce

Round 9:
Arce is firmly in control of the fight at this point. Carbajal is landing here and there but Arce is always a step ahead. Using the jab on Carbajal again, finishing with a nice right hand. Carbajal's right eye is now almost closed. backs Carbajal into the corner hurting him and forcing him to clinch with Arce. Arce is all over him staying on the inside. Beautiful right hand from Arce that snaps Carbajals head back. Carbajal answers with a left/right at the end of the round but its too little too late to win this round. 10-9 Arce.

Round 10:
Arce feeling comfortable lossening up a little, right hand from Arce. He steps inside and throws a slick combo that ilicits cheers from the mexican crowd. Uppercut from Carbajal. Carbajal coming forward now, lands a right hand. Arce teeing off on Carbajal now backing him up. Carbajal holding on, looks like hes close to being finished. Arce landing crisp punches to finish the round. 10-9 Arce

Round 11:
Slow round so far, Not much happening. Arce staying on the outside. Arce throws a right and before it can land Carbajal lands a crushing right of his own. Arce is hurt bad, Carbajal goes in for the kill landing punch after punch and throws Arce down. Arce is up and wobbles back into the ropes and the ref steps in and stops the fight. WOW. Im surprised. They were very quick to stop the fight in Arce's backyard. Props to Micheal Carbajal though. What a great way to end an already great career.

Kirilov/Darchinyan

2008-08-02T21:55:00.000-07:00

Here we have the main event of the Showtime card from tonight. Two guys who I am familiar with but have never seen fight. Darch is a favorite coming into this fight. Let's see if this is justified. Kirilov comes out slow and looking like shit to be quite frank. Darch is having his way early. Landing his big left hand an setting it up well with the jab. I should also note as i watch this im playing Streetcleaner by Godflesh in the background. 10-9 round for Darch

Round 2:
More of the same to start, Darch measuring with the jab and landing his left hand. Kirilov is landing nothing and eating plenty for his troubles. Kirilov finally throws a hook to the body. Kirilov continues to eat Darchs big left straight. This is still all Darch. all about that left straight to the head. 10-9 Darch

Round 3:
Freddie Roach asking Kirilov to throw combos. he starts of with two hooks to the body. not much else. Darch is looking very strong landing with the left almost at will. he hurt Kirilov with a big left and is hurt right back by Kirilov. Finally he has an answer for Darch's left. But one nice punch is not enough for Kirilov to win this round or any other round for that matter. 10-9 Darch

Round 4:

Darch is tagging him more but Kirilov is looking more alive now. Darch is getting comfortable now and seems to not respect Kirilov's power. Unless something changes with 30 seconds this is another round for Darch. Kirilov seems to have nothing to offer. He can't seem to do anything Freddie Roach is asking of him. 10-9 Darch

Round 5:
Darch comes out strong again and both men trade leading to Darch dropping Kirilov at the end of a crisp combination. He answers the count. Darch is on him right away. He drops him again. Kirilov is finished and wants no more of this beating. Ohhhh good ole Gary Shaw is in the ring. I will miss him in the background at Elite XC shows audibly telling fighters exactly what to say in their post fight interviews. KO 1:05

Well this is the first I've seen of Kirilov and I was not impressed. He looked slow and like he didn't want to be there. Darchinyan on the other hand looked like a little beast with lots of power. I will definitely try and track down more of his fights...Kirilov not so much.

Cotto/Margarito: A Live Account

2008-08-02T21:28:00.000-07:00

So I decided to start this blog on a whim aka utter boredom. I've never really written and that's more than likely going to show at first. But hopefully my writing acumen will improve as well as my analytical ability in regards to boxing.

In the past 6 months I've started to immerse myself in the sport of Boxing. It's given me a well needed break from watching MMA all the time. Which allows me to appreciate it more when a big show comes around. I used to watch all the MMA I could but that has really burnt me out this year. Basically I'm no Jordan Breen (but who is really other than the man himself). Anyway, I have really come to appreciate the sport of boxing this year. When i heard the Cotto/Margarito fight was signed I immediately began pondering a trip to Las Vegas to witness what would probably be a fight of the year candidate live. I contacted Total-MMA boxing savant and all around sweet dude Alan Conceicao. He basically booked the whole damn thing for me. So off i was to Las Vegas on my own.

This was my second sojourn to Vegas. The first being Pride's 2nd show in America and 2nd to last show ever. It was a whirlwind of a trip. This time around I would be spending 3 nights in Vegas at the Excalibur. Let's fast forward to the fight. I slept way late that day and ended up missing a bunch of the preliminary bouts. Oops. Turns out Kid Diamonds fight was cancelled so i didn't feel too bad. I'm going to skip right to the main event because well everything else was fairly forgettable with the exception of the flyweight bout which outside of round 1 was a complete domination by Cesar Canchila of Giovanni Segura.

Now it was time for the main event. It felt like we were all about to witness something really special, . From the moment Micheal Buffer took the mic and started the festivities everyone was standing until the opening bell. Then everyone took their seats and watched contently as the fight slowly unfolded before our eyes. The guy sitting in front of me who was a veteran boxing fan turned to me before the start of the fight and gave me the "here we go" look. Things started slowly as both men felt each other out. It was obvious from the beginning Cotto was the Boxer and Margarito was the Pressure fighter who would never retreat. I won't give a round by round account because I'm sure mst of you have seen it and don't need one from an admittedly novice boxing fan. The early rounds belonged to Cotto. Anytime Margarito woul pin him and throw punches he would land crisp 2 and 3 punch combo's violently snapping the Mexicans head back. Margarito never relented and as the fight went on momentum would start to change hands. It became very apparent in round 7 when Margarito hurt Cotto badly which forced Miguel to smartly clinch and save himself from a knockdown. This really revived the predominantly Mexican crowd who were getting fairly nervous this was becoming a one sided decision in favor of the Puerto Rican fight Cotto.

Cotto recovered in rounds 8 and 9 and returned to his retreat and land clean combo's counter style. But you could feel he was becoming more and more desperate for the fight to be over, as Max Kellerman pointed out on the HBO broadcast. In round 10 Margarito began to light Cotto up and hurt him again towards the end of the round. Cotto who was essentially saved by the bell that round came out in the 11th looking like a man ready to be put away. Sure enough Margarito would continue to come forward as he had the entire fight and you could feel the end was near. He pinned Cotto on the ropes and landed body and head shots until Cotto took a knee. The arena erupted in celebration of what ha just occurred. Cotto answers the count but is finished. He won't survive for much longer in this state. Cotto retreats to a neutral corner and before Margarito can hit him takes another knee. He looks towards his corner, his uncle/trainer is now on the apron and waves the towel. Everyone overwhelmed with what they just saw happen before our eyes. Boxing's newest star had been mentally and physically broken by a man who only last year had lost his title belt to Paul Williams in a fairly clear cut decision. A career was revived and surely saved on this night. I'm glad to say this was the first boxing card i have ever attended and i will make a point to make it out to every Antonio Margarito fight from here on out.