Mundine-Wood rematch stinker inspires writing comeback

I haven’t written anything since UFC 110, the UFC’s debut in Australia, last February. I half lost interest in writing my thoughts about boxing and MMA without anyone really reading them and the other half was me not having the time. I now have the time and I just needed the inspiration which is the one thing I got out of the stinker of a fight tonight. The rematch between Garth Wood and Anthony Mundine tonight was the worst display of ‘boxing’ I’ve ever seen (the only thing that edged it out from the first fight was the fact that I got to see one of them lose consciousness at the end) on what was meant to be such a big stage. This is/will be the biggest domestic fight in the calendar year of 2011 for Australian boxing (until the inevitable rubber match) and these two fought like a pair of bums fighting for loose change. That isn’t the thing that pisses me off though; what pisses me off is that people actually enjoyed it.

Basically the fight went as the first one did except without the knockout. Garth Wood would get on his toes and try to make out like he has footwork with his goofy stance while Mundine would look at him with utter confusion as he, techinically, doesn’t have much of an idea of what he’s doing either. Then one of two things would happen; Mundine would lead at which Wood would tie him up and they’d start exchanging lowblows, rabbit punches, shoulders and elbows or Wood would lead then tie him up no matter what was happening in the exchange and then the fouls would start again. Rince, repeat (add boredom, nausea and migraine like symptoms) and that was the fight. (Mundine scored two knockdowns in the last two rounds to get the win, but I’ll get to that later). Anyone who saw the fight as anything different or enjoyed it in the slightest is either uneducated in the sport of boxing (what the majority of the people would fall into) or has a good sense of boxing but has serious short term memory problems/selective eyesight. The fight was TERRIBLE. If someone sits a bucket next to me to help with the vomitting I’ll go through it tomorrow with a stopwatch and see how much was spent clinching and how much was spent boxing and I’d be very susprised if there was 5 minutes of acceptable boxing in the whole contest. Garth Wood flat out has the worst style for a fighter with a winning record I’ve ever seen. He doesn’t box, he tackles and rabbit punches (and if I don’t want to hear anymore shit about his style being good for MMA, if he fought MMA not only would he have to learn the stand-up part, when he tied the guys up as his way of handling their better stand-up then he’d have to deal with someone who knew how to fight in the clinch or on the ground, at least in boxing he has some sort of niche market he can exploit with his disgusting style) and quite frankly I can think of multiple methods of masochism that would be more pleasurable then watching him ‘box’ again.

Now I’m sure by now if you hadn’t seen the fight you’d think that if the fight was as bad as I was making it out to be, the referee would have done something? I’m not sure who the referee was, but he was highly incompetent. I thought he did well early on trying to gain respect from the fighters, but it seemed he got tired of trying to break the fighters up and just let them do their own thing and it went downhill from there. For such a dirty fight, to not have a single point deduction is just laziness. In a ten round fight using the ten point must system, fighters usually score between 90-100 points for a fight that goes the full distance (as was tonight with Mundine winning 96-92, 96-92, 95-93). If I was refereeing this piece of shit fight I would have taken so many points off these two for their crude, primitive, rough-house fighting that those two would have been lucky to score 50! Sure that’s an exaggeration but the referee has to do more then just warn them, he has to do something extra if they ignore the warnings. Instead he did the opposite, he stopped physically breaking them and let them fight like a pair of bums. Then we get to the knockdown in round nine. Mundine landed (well, half landed) a left hook which caught Wood while he was off balance. Wood went down and the referee, not wanting to get between the two fighters incase he got sandwiched by Wood’s relentless clinch game, called a knockdown from the other side of the ring and started counting. Wood bounced back up and started punching which resulted in the referee giving him the mandatory eight count two punch exchanges and about 5-6 seconds after the Wood got up from the knockdown! If the referee can’t even handle a knockdown right (and if you want to argue it wasn’t a knockdown which I don’t really care about one way or the other because the fight was so shit to argue a single point of it would be to sink to it’s level, this was the only fight I’ve ever watched where I gave up keeping score about 30 seconds in because I wasn’t sure I was watching the right sport) then what can he do right?

And as usual we had tweedle dee and tweedle dum (Andy Raymond and Barry Michael) commentating. I had trouble hearing exactly what they were saying the whole time as I’m not a moron and I didn’t pay $50 for this shit, but from what I got they were saying the fight was a ‘war’ and were just laughing it off when Garth Wood would initiate a clinch and start rabbit punching or when Mundine would elbow him and push him into the ropes. This is probably the main problem with Australian boxing, the people who have a say about this aren’t getting angry when you have the biggest national fight of the year turn into a piece of shit. You need commentators who call a spade a spade and who call a piece of shit fight a piece of shit fight and not try to make it out like the viewing public got their moneys worth. Australian boxing needs their internal critics; thats how things get changed. You need people who know the sport to a) be commentators/analysts (yes that’s right, I just said Andy Raymond doesn’t know the sport of boxing) and b) to criticise how the sport is run down here. Boxing is facing a very serious threat in MMA and while I don’t see boxing ever being obsolete on aglobal scale, in Australia where boxing isn’t a first rate sport it has the potential for the scene in Australia to slip into a very poor state and that’s what will happen if shows like this are the pinnacle of the sport in this country!

I’m not in a position of power in the sport and I have no intention of being a commentator or anything other then the keyboard warrior that I am, but after the disgusting card I saw tonight (I didn’t even mention that the undercard was a piece of shit also) I feel that as someone who loves the sport of boxing and (and I don’t mean to toot my own horn, I only ever started writing on here because I was encouraged by numerous people I know in the industry who tell me I know what I’m talking about) has a solid knowledge of it that I need to write more about it. I need to write articles on the fox sport shows and critique the judges who score rounds with a knockdown 10-9 because they thought the round was even outside of the knockdown or score a six round fight 60-59 because they’re too incompetent to judge who won five of the rounds. I need to write articles about the piss poor matchmaking that goes on on local shows and how fighters like Lenny Zappavinga, a fighter who I think has the talent to be a world class fighter, needs to fight better ranked European and North American fighters instead of fighting a few good local fighters then stepping it up for a title shot without bridging the competitive gap first. If I’m going to let myself get as pissed off as I did tonight watching that horrible excuse for a pay per view card (and once again I DID NOT PAY FOR IT I watched it at the local) then I should try and do something about it, if not for the sport of boxing then for my own sanity. So this is me, officially restarting to rant about combat sports. I think someone has to be the mad prophet of the airwaves and if no one else is going to do it then it’ll have to be me. And if you enjoyed the fight tonight and don’t like what I’ve said about it, well I’ve given you one reason to be pissed off about it; it’s inspired me to start writing again!

Why MMA will take over Boxing in Australia

How well would the boxing kangaroo fight off it's back?

With one night to go until the UFC makes it’s much anticipated Australian debut, everything in this country is set up for MMA to finally push boxing into the past and emerge as the future of combat sports down under. With the shoddy state of boxing in Australia at the moment, about the only thing that will stop MMA from moving past boxing would be an ugly incident either in the Octagon or in the crowd at next Sundays event. With even the head honcho’s involved with boxing not caring about it’s future, but rather trying to milk every last cent out of it right now, yet the people in charge of MMA trying to build the sport’s long term future it’s only inevitable that boxing be taken over by the new sport.  

With the small coverage MMA has received in Australia it has a cult following among the people who know about it. The guys who know lots about it get their friends into it, albeit at a much smaller level. The effect of this is like that of a trail of gun powderand the UFC 110 card in Sydney tomorrow is the spark that will explode MMA into a more mainstream sport in Australia. Tomorrow’s show sold out inside of a week with probably 90% of the tickets selling before they were open to the public meaning that there will likely be a second show sometime in the not to distant future (likely next year around the same time). With hardly any big boxing fights taking place in Australia (Australia’s main promoter Angelo Hyder is stuck in the late 90s thinking that big names that Australians want to see are Roy Jones jnr, Evander Holyfield and Mike Tyson, three men ten years past their best), an annual UFC event will only help the sport grow. The fact that One HD has scrapped it’s “Super Boxer” series and shows next to no current boxing, yet they will show UFC 110 live tomorrow for free is also a big sign of what is to come in the future. 

The bottom line is that Boxing in this country is a joke. The fact that Australians will go to the pub or fork out $50 to watch a Mundine pay per view to see him fight some fringe South American contender while some Rugby League star has a pub brawl with a guy who wouldn’t even be club level material anywhere else in the world yet they couldn’t tell you who the heavyweight champion of the world is is of major concern. Nothing is done to push boxing back into the spotlight or develop some of the upcoming fighters. Even the recent Australian version of ‘The Contender’ left out decent prospects like Jamie Pittman, a man who has the skills to be a threat on the world stage but lacks the exposure that a show like ‘The Contender’ would have given him to be able to build a following in this country. There are plenty of guys out there like Jamie Pittman who are talented boxers but just can’t build the following down here that they would have otherwise done if boxing was taken seriously. Sure Pittman is very well known to the boxing public, but do you really think the Captain of the Australian Olympic Boxing team would be struggling to get televised or even get decent fights in England or the USA? Yet guys like Sonny Bill Williams and Carl Webb get main support fights on what is probably the biggest stage in Australian boxing (the Mundine shows) and probably earn just as much!  

The production value of boxing shows is also a major problem with boxing in Australia. The fact that  MORON like Andy Raymond, who is a Rugby League commentator with no clue about anything boxing is the voice of the sport down here is nauseating. The ring announcers have no idea how to properly announce a show, and yes there is a proper and improper way of doing things. For one, you don’t announce the rules of the bout while the fighters are in the ring waiting to get it on (see the Green-Jones prelims for an example). You don’t announce a close decision in favour of ”the red corner” in the biggest domestic fight of the year (see Mundine-Geale decision) when no one pays any attention which corner they’re fighting out of. It’s painful watching a high profile boxing card in Australia because you can tell that the people in charge of running it have no idea what they’re doing. I rarely watch local Fox Sports boxing shows anymore because of how bad it is (that and the mismatches that they often have). You don’t need four or five ring girls dancing in the ring between rounds with dance music playing (you didn’t see this on say the Pacquiao-Cotto card for example did you?). You don’t need to show the Australian rankings after every fight and you definately don’t need to show random rounds out of insignificant fights from past local shows when you’ve got nothing else to do. One of the main strengths of the UFC is the production value. They do an amazing job of hyping up the fights with pre fight interviews, a highly energetic ring announcer and the right amount of tits and arse between rounds with the focus being more on the fighters which is what the people watching paid to see. 

Should the UFC 110 card deliver tomorrow, expect to see a rise in regional MMA shows and an even further drop in local pro-am boxing cards. With more and more people already turning to kickboxing or jiu jitsu, there’s bound to be an emergence of competitors willing to try their luck with 4oz gloves instead of the 12oz gloves and headgear that amateur boxers use. There are already a number of good fighters from Australia and New Zealand (two of them fight tomorrow night on the main card) and if some of them can increase their celebrity down here to a slightly mainstream audience, something that say a victory for George Sotiropolous over Joe Stevenson tomorrow night would do, it’s only going to help the MMA cause down under. Boxing has been on a slow decline in this country since the late 80′s when we had our last batch of Australian contenders who actually fought one another. Sure there’s been a slight resurgence with the likes of Anthony Mundine and Danny Green and Daniel Geale, but our best fighters (Vic Darchinyan and Michael Katsidis) both fight overseas and have a bigger following in the USA then they do down here. No longer are the days of TV ringside where contenders were brought up through the tough local circuit and had to earn their status when fighters like Hector Thompson, Tony Mundine and Paul Ferreri gave the world champions of the day, men who are among the greatest to have ever entered a boxing ring in their respective divisions, some of the toughest fights of their career. The state of boxing today is one of prospects not learning their craft through overprotection and mismatches who end up taking the massive step up in class that they aren’t ready for and when they lose those that were paying attention to them no longer do while the rest of Australia who aren’t as into boxing as someone like me is go on watching their Mundine cards and having a laugh when the two heavyweights start trading arm punches with their chin in the air. MMA has slowly been taking over in America, and although boxing is run pretty badly over there, it’s not nearly as bad as it is down here. All that is needed to start the MMA frenzy is for the biggest promotion in the world to bring one of its shows down here to get some mainstream attention.

Geale was Robbed!

I rewatched the controversial Mundine-Geale fight of last Wednesday earlier today in peace and quiet without the biased commentary team in my ear or a bunch of drunk morons shouting shit like ‘farrrrken killllllimmmm!’ The result, a fairly one sided scorecard for Daniel Geale. I still think a lot of the rounds were close, but I still think Geale was the aggressor for the entire fight, as well as landing the cleaner punches and doing the better job of blocking punches out of the two of them. It really is a different fight to watch without the moronic ramblings of Barry Michael and Andy Raymond (and to a much lesser extent Paul Upham). I suggest it to everyone who has an interest in this fight to rewatch the fight with no sound and to write each round score on a different sheet of paper and then fold it up and tally your scorecard up at the end of the fight and see how it comes out. Here is how I scored the fight:

Now there’s a couple of rounds that could swing either way, but I really find it hard to score that fight for Mundine. Geale basically outworked him and outpunched him for the majority of the 12 rounds and while Mundine had his moments, they were smothered in Geale’s workrate throughout the entire fight. If there’s a round you disagree with me on, please feel free to flame me in the comments section and I’ll be more then happy to respond and if you hate my scoring that much please post it on a message board somewhere, I could do with the extra viewers.

(Jun 09) Angry Fight Fan World Boxing Rankings

The longest reign as #1 in boxing was ended in just two rounds by Manny Pacquiao this month as he destroyed the four year champion Ricky Hatton at the start of the month to solidify his number one pound for pound status. The win drops Ricky Hatton from my pound for pound top ten for the first time since the win over Tszyu in 2005, marking the entrance of Chad Dawson into the top 10. Dawson enters over the likes of Celestino Caballero, Miguel Cotto (who’s current spot in most peoples top tens still baffles me), Tomasz Adamek (who Dawson beat), Chris John and Ivan Calderon based on an ever increasing impressive resume. A win over someone like Bernard Hopkins will propel Dawson into the top five. In what was otherwise a pretty quiet month for the sport, the bantamweights got some new blood into the top five with Yohnny Perez’s knockout win over longtime top contender Silce Mabuza last weekend. Perez is a young, exciting fighter who will likely give the winner of this months Darchinyan-Agebeko fight a good scrap.
The rankings are based on all fights that happened before May 1st 2009, so if there’s a result that happened on March 1st (I’m using boxrec’s calender) then it’ll be included next month. These rankings are my own work and have absolutely no reflection on any ABC rankings or anything else but my own opinion. Please feel free to flame me in the comments section.

Weight Division (weight limit)
(Last Month) Ranking- Fighter (Record)

Pound for Pound 
(1) 1- Manny Pacquiao (49-3-2)
(2) 2- Juan Manuel Marquez (50-4-1)
(3) 3- Paul Williams (37-1-0)
(4) 4- Bernard Hopkins (49-5-1)
(5) 5- Israel Vazquez (43-4-0)
(6) 6- Shane Mosley (46-5-0)
(7) 7- Rafael Marquez (38-5-0)
(9) 8- Kelly Pavlik (35-1-0)
(10) 9- Vic Darchinyan (32-1-1)
(NA) 10- Chad Dawson (28-0-0)

Active- Manny Pacquiao, Rafael Marquez, Chad Dawson
Out- Ricky Hatton (loss)

Heavyweight (no limit)
(1) 1- Wladimir Klitschko (52-3-0)
(2) 2- Vitali Klitschko (37-2-0)
(3) 3- Ruslan Chagaev (25-0-1)
(4) 4- Nicolay Valuev (50-1-0)
(5) 5- Alexander Povetkin (17-0-0)
(6) 6- David Haye (22-1-0)
(7) 7- Alexander Dimitrenko (29-0-0)
(8) 8- Cristobal Arreola (27-0-0)
(9) 9- Sultan Ibragimov (22-1-1)
(10) 10- Eddie Chambers (34-1-0)

Active- None

Cruiserweight (200lbs)
(1) 1- Tomasz Adamek (37-1-0)
(2) 2- Guillermo Jones (36-3-2)
(3) 3- Steve Cunningham (21-2-0)
(4) 4- Marco Huck (25-1-0)
(5) 5- Jean Marc Mormeck (33-4-0)
(6) 6- O’Neill Bell (26-3-1)
(7) 7- Firat Arslan (29-4-1)
(8) 8- Vadim Tokarev (26-1-1)
(9) 9- Kryzstof Wlodarczyk (41-2-1)
(10) 10- Giacobbe Fragomeni (26-1-1)

Active- Marco Huck, Kryzstof Wlodarczyk (draw), Giacobbe Fragomeni (draw)

Light Heavyweight (175lbs)
(1) 1- Bernard Hopkins (49-4-1)
(2) 2- Chad Dawson (28-0-0)
(3) 3- Glenn Johnson (49-12-2)
(5) 4- Zsolt Erdei (30-0-0)
(4) 5-  Antonio Tarver (27-6-0)
(6) 6- Clinton Woods (42-4-1)
(7) 7- Hugo Garay (32-3-0)
(8) 8- Roy Jones jnr (52-5-0)
(9) 9- Adrian Diaconu (26-0-0)
(10) 10- Tavoris Cloud (19-0-0)

Active- Chad Dawson, Antonio Tarver (loss)

Super Middleweight (168lbs)
(1) 1- Mikkel Kessler (41-1-0)
(2) 2- Lucian Bute (24-0-0)
(3) 3- Carl Froch (25-0-0)
(4) 4- Librado Andrade (28-2-0)
(5) 5- Karoly Balszay (21-0-0)
(6) 6- Sakio Bika (27-3-2)
(7) 7- Jermain Taylor (28-3-1)
(8) 8- Dennis Inkin (34-1-0)
(9) 9- Jeff Lacy (25-2-0)
(10) 10- Andre Dirrell (18-0-0)

Active- None

Middleweight (160lbs)
(1) 1- Kelly Pavlik (35-1-0)
(2) 2- Arthur Abraham (29-0-0)
(3) 3- Paul Williams (37-1-0)
(4) 4- Felix Sturm (32-2-1)
(5) 5- Winky Wright (51-5-1)
(6) 6- Anthony Mundine (36-3-0)
(7) 7- Khoren Gevor (30-3-0)
(8) 8- Randy Griffin (24-2-3)
(9) 9- Sebastian Sylvester (29-3-0)
(10) 10- Amin Asikainen (25-2-0)

Active- Anthony Mundine

Junior Middleweight (154lbs)
(1) 1- Vernon Forrest (41-3-0)
(2) 2- Sergei Dzinziruk (36-0-0)
(3) 3- Daniel Santos (32-3-0)
(7) 4- Kermit Cintron (30-2-1)
(4) 5- Verno Phillips (42-11-1)
(5) 6- Cory Spinks (36-5-0)
(6) 7- Sergio Manuel Martinez (44-1-1)
(8) 8- James Kirkland (25-0-0)
(9) 9- Sergio Mora (21-1-1)
(10) 10- Jamie Moore (31-3-0)

Active- Kermit Cintron

Welterweight (147lbs)
(1) 1- Shane Mosley (46-5-0)
(2) 2- Miguel Cotto (32-1-0)
(3) 3- Andre Berto (25-0-0)
(4) 4- Joshua Clottey (35-2-0)
(5) 5- Carlos Quintana (26-2-0)
(6) 6- Luis Collazo (29-4-0)
(7) 7- Zab Judah (37-6-0)
(8) 8- Mike Jones (17-0-0)
(9) 9- Sebastian Lujan (31-5-2)
(10) 10- Rafal Jackiewicz (33-8-1)

Active- Andre Berto

Junior Welterweight (140lbs)
(NA) 1- Manny Pacquiao (49-3-2)
(1) 2- Ricky Hatton (45-2-0)
(2) 3- Timothey Bradley (24-0-0)
(3) 4- Andreas Kotelnik (30-2-0)
(4) 5- Kendall Holt (25-3-0)
(5) 6- Paulie Malignaggi (26-2-0)
(6) 7- Ricardo Torres (32-2-0)
(8) 8- Junior Witter (37-2-2)
(9) 9- Victor Ortiz (24-1-1)
(10) 10- Vivian Harris (29-3-1)

Active- Manny Pacquiao, Ricky Hatton (loss)
Out- Juan Urango (moved up)

Lightweight (135lbs)
(1) 1- Juan Manuel Marquez (50-4-1)
(3) 2- Edwin Valero (25-0-0)
(4) 3- Juan Diaz (34-2-0)
(5) 4- Joel Casmayor (36-4-1)
(6) 5- Joan Guzman (29-0-0)
(7) 6- Ali Funeka (30-2-2)
(8) 7- David Diaz (34-2-1)
(9) 8- Anthony Peterson (28-0-0)
(10) 9- Breidis Prescott (21-0-0)
(NA) 10- Amir Khan (20-1-0)

Active- None
Out- Manny Pacquiao (moved up)

Junior Lightweight (130lbs)
(1) 1- Humberto Soto (48-7-2)
(2) 2- Jorge Linares (26-0-0)
(3) 3- Roman Martinez (22-0-1)
(4) 4- Malcolm Klassen (23-4-2)
(5) 5- Robert Guerrero (22-1-1)
(6) 6- Cassius Baloyi (36-3-1)
(7) 7- Mzonke Fana (28-4-0)
(8) 8- Nicky Cook (29-2-0)
(9) 9- Alex Arthur (26-2-0)
(10) 10- Sergey Gulyakevich (26-1-0)

Active- Humberto Soto

Featherweight (126lbs)
(1) 1- Chris John (42-0-2)
(2) 2- Cristobal Cruz (38-11-1)
(3) 3- Ricardo Juarez (28-4-1)
(4) 4- Steve Luevano (36-1-1)
(5) 5- Jorge Solis (37-1-2)
(6) 6- Takahiro Aoh (17-1-1)
(7) 7- Yuriorkis Gamboa (15-0-0)
(8) 8- Guty Espadas Jnr (45-7-0)
(9) 9- Thomas Mashaba (20-2-4)
(10) 10- Mario Santiago (19-1-1)

Active- None

Junior Featherweight (122lbs)
(1) 1- Israel Vazquez (43-4-0)
(2) 2- Rafael Marquez (37-5-0)
(3) 3- Celestino Caballero (32-2-0)
(4) 4- Juan Manuel Lopez (25-0-0)
(5) 5- Poonsawat Krattindaenggym (38-1-0)
(6) 6- Daniel Ponce de Leon (36-2-0)
(10) 7- Toshiaki Nishioka (33-4-3)
(7) 8- Gerry Penalosa (54-7-2)
(9) 9- Steve Molitor (28-1-0)
(NA) 10- Bernard Dunne (28-1-0)

Active- Rafael Marquez, Toshiaki Nishioka
Out- Jhonny Gonzalez (loss)

Bantamweight (118lbs)
(1) 1- Hozumi Hasegawa (26-2-0)
(2) 2- Fernando Montiel (39-2-1)
(3) 3- Anselmo Moreno (24-1-1)
(8) 4- Yohnny Perez (18-0-0)
(6) 5- Abner Mares (17-0-0)
(4) 6- Silence Mabuza (22-2-0)
(7) 7- Joseph Agebeko (26-1-0)
(5) 8- Wladimir Siderenko (21-1-2)
(9) 9- Nehomar Cermeno (17-0-0)
(10) 10- Simone Maludrottu (29-2-0)

Active- Anselmo Moreno, Yohnny Perez, Abner Mares, Silence Mabuza (loss), Wladimir Siderenko (loss)

Junior Bantamweight (115lbs)
(1) 1- Vic Darchinyan (32-1-1)
(2) 2- Alexander Munoz (32-3-0)
(3) 3- Nobuo Nashiro (13-1-0)
(4) 4- Z Gorres (29-2-2)
(5) 5- Jorge Arce (51-5-1)
(6) 6- Jose Lopez (39-7-2)
(7) 7- Hugo Cazares (29-6-1)
(8) 8- Dimitri Kirilov (29-4-1)
(9) 9- Jose Navarro (26-4-0)
(10) 10- Kohei Kono (23-4-0)

Active- Kohei Kono

Flyweight (112lbs)
(1) 1- Nonito Donaire (21-1-0)
(2) 2- Denkaosan Kaovichit (46-1-1)
(3) 3- Daisuke Naito (34-2-3)
(4) 4- Omar Narvaez (28-0-2)
(5) 5- Pongsaklek Wonjongkam (72-3-1)
(6) 6- Koki Kameda (20-0-0)
(7) 7- Takefumi Sakata (33-5-2)
(8) 8- Bernard Inom (19-1-1)
(9) 9- Moruti Mthalane (23-2-0)
(10) 10- Jose Cesar Miranda (29-4-1)

Active- Denkoasan Kaovichit, Daisuke Naito

Junior Flyweight (108lbs)
(1) 1- Ivan Calderon (32-0-0)
(2) 2- Edgar Soto (35-5-0)
(3) 3- Brian Viloria (24-2-0)
(4) 4- Giovanni Segura (19-1-1)
(5) 5- Ulises Solis (28-2-2)
(6) 6- Brahim Asloum (24-2-0)
(7) 7- Juan Carlos Reveco (19-1-0)
(8) 8- Cesar Canchila (27-1-0)
(9) 9- Juanito Rubillar (46-11-7)
(10) 10- Omar Nino Romero (27-3-1)

Active- Brahim Asloum

Minimumweight (105lbs)
(1) 1- Roman Gonzalez (23-0-0)
(2) 2- Oleydong Sithsamerchai (31-0-0)
(3) 3- Raul Garcia (26-0-1)
(4) 4- Florante Condes (23-4-1)
(5) 5- Donnie Nietes (24-1-3)
(6) 6- Juan Palacios (25-2-0)
(7) 7- Milan Melindo (18-0-0)
(8) 8- Nkosinathi Joyi (19-0-0)
(10) 9- Manuel Vargas (26-3-1)
(NA) 10- Katsunari Takayama (23-3-0)

Active- Oleydong Sithsamerchai
Out- Muhammad Rachman (loss)

Mundine defeats Geale

I should have had this up sooner, but I’ve yet to find the time to re-watch the fight in a more sober and quiet area. This fight was one of the best in recent times for Australian boxing. I scored the fight for Geale 115-112, but in the situation I was in watching the fight I find it hard to believe that my scoring was 100% accurate. First of all, I had money on Geale. Secondly, the idiot commentators and the idiots at the pub I was watching it made the fight hard to watch without being biased. Basically, I’m going to sit down and rewatch the fight in the coming days with no sound on and without anyone else watching it and rescore it and I’ll post my scorecard up then. However, there’s a few things I have to talk about that I can’t wait any longer or they won’t be nearly as relevant.

Barry Michael should be removed as the on-air scorer. There were rounds that were clear one way or the other yet Michael always seemed to score them the other way (and not just for Mundine). The guy has absolutely no idea how to score a boxing match and thats a fact. On top of that, the guy’s inability to see the bleeding obvious in a fight continues to astound me. It’s got to the stage where he can’t tell a right hand punch from a left one, and a body punch from a headshot. Combine him with that moron Andy Raymond who hasn’t got the faintest idea when it comes to boxing, and Paul Upham, who I have tremendous respect for although I think he sells himself short to make Raymond look good, and it makes for very unpleasant listening to say the least.

Next there is the obvious one, Sonny Fucking Bull Williams. That was the worst excuse for a professional fight I’ve ever seen in my many years watching this great sport and things like this only bring boxing down more and more in this country especially when the media covers the likes of him and not the likes of Alex Leapai who scored a devastating knockout win over a much better opponent then the retard they brought in to fight Williams. Williams looked like he’d got himself in shape like he would for a Rugby League match, then watched how Mundine does it and tried to impersonate him. His jab was pathetic, his right hand even more so, his stance was garbage and he looked winded after the first round.

It was just lucky that his opponent didn’t know his right foot from his left leg or his ear from his arsehole when it came to boxing. If that guy knocked out bouncers in New Zealand I have to wonder whether he did it with his hands or if he slipped something into their drinks while they weren’t looking. I’ve seen better punches in pub brawls then what that guy was throwing. The thing that really pisses me off about this is the media coverage though and the praise for Williams’ performance. Let’s call a spade a spade here and this is where I lose a bit of respect for Paul Upham. If Upham was as serious about Australian boxing, then he’d be calling this what it was which was a freakshow. This fight was more of a freakshow then the baseball player Jose Canseco vs 7’2 Korean Kickboxer Hong Man Choi on the night before. The boxing watcher will always get entertainment out of this sort of garbage but for the media to approve of it, especially someone like Upham who is the top boxing journalist in this country makes me sick!

You know what, I was going to end it there but I’m on a roll right now. I’m going to attack the production of the shows while I’m at it. Would it be so hard for the ring announcers to do a decent job on an Australian boxing show? For example, with the split decision in the Geale-Mundine fight was announced, the first score was scored for ‘the blue corner’ and the 2nd for ‘the red corner.’ I seriously had no idea which fighter was out of which fucking corner when they said this. Would it be that hard to say the fighters name instead? Also, while I’ve got absolutely no objection to the National Anthem being played before a fight, could they do it before the fighters get in the ring instead of after the boxers have been introduced like they do it everywhere else but here?

I have to say, if boxing wasn’t coming back to free to air shortly, I’d be really depressed about the current scene after that night. Anyway, my scorecard and views on the fight itself will be up in the next week or so.

(May 09) Angry Fight Fan World Boxing Rankings

Most of the action this month coming at 122 and 168lbs, the big win of the month was Paull Williams domination over Winky Wright. Due to the one sidedness of this fight, I’ve moved Williams into the top three pound for pound behind Marquez and Pacquiao. Both Hopkins and Vazquez have been sort of inactive and a win by either of them will likely be enough to move Williams down the list, but on current form Williams’ wins over Wright (who had not been dominated like that ever even by Hopkins) and Margarito puts him right up there in my opinion.
The rankings are based on all fights that happened before May 1st 2009, so if there’s a result that happened on March 1st (I’m using boxrec’s calender) then it’ll be included next month. These rankings are my own work and have absolutely no reflection on any ABC rankings or anything else but my own opinion. Please feel free to flame me in the comments section.

Weight Division (weight limit)
(Last Month) Ranking- Fighter (Record)

Pound for Pound 
(1) 1- Manny Pacquiao (48-3-2)
(2) 2- Juan Manuel Marquez (50-4-1)
(7) 3- Paul Williams (37-1-0)
(3) 4- Bernard Hopkins (49-5-1)
(4) 5- Israel Vazquez (43-4-0)
(5) 6- Shane Mosley (46-5-0)
(6) 7- Rafael Marquez (37-5-0)
(8) 8- Ricky Hatton (45-1-0)
(9) 9- Kelly Pavlik (35-1-0)
(10) 10- Vic Darchinyan (32-1-1)

Active- Paul Williams

Heavyweight (no limit)
(1) 1- Wladimir Klitschko (52-3-0)
(2) 2- Vitali Klitschko (37-2-0)
(3) 3- Ruslan Chagaev (25-0-1)
(4) 4- Nicolay Valuev (50-1-0)
(5) 5- Alexander Povetkin (17-0-0)
(6) 6- David Haye (22-1-0)
(7) 7- Alexander Dimitrenko (29-0-0)
(8) 89- Sultan Ibragimov (22-1-1)
(9) 910- Eddie Chambers (34-1-0)
(NA) 8- Cristobal Arreola (27-0-0)

Active- Alexander Povetkin, Cristobal Arreola
Out- Samuel Peter (10)

Cruiserweight (200lbs)
(1) 1- Tomasz Adamek (37-1-0)
(2) 2- Guillermo Jones (36-3-2)
(3) 3- Steve Cunningham (21-2-0)
(4) 4- Marco Huck (24-1-0)
(5) 5- Jean Marc Mormeck (33-4-0)
(6) 6- O’Neill Bell (26-3-1)
(7) 7- Firat Arslan (29-4-1)
(8) 8- Vadim Tokarev (26-1-1)
(9) 9- Kryzstof Wlodarczyk (41-2-0)
(10) 10- Giacobbe Fragomeni (26-1-0)

Active- None

Light Heavyweight (175lbs)
(1) 1- Bernard Hopkins (49-4-1)
(2) 2- Chad Dawson (27-0-0)
(3) 3- Glenn Johnson (49-12-2)
(4) 4-  Antonio Tarver (27-5-0)
(5) 5- Zsolt Erdei (30-0-0)
(6) 6- Clinton Woods (42-4-1)
(7) 7- Hugo Garay (32-3-0)
(8) 8- Roy Jones jnr (52-5-0)
(9) 9- Adrian Diaconu (26-0-0)
(10) 10- Tavoris Cloud (19-0-0)

Active- Adrian Diaconu

Super Middleweight (168lbs)
(1) 1- Mikkel Kessler (41-1-0)
(2) 2- Lucian Bute (24-0-0)
(4) 3- Carl Froch (25-0-0)
(5) 4- Librado Andrade (28-2-0)
(7) 5- Karoly Balszay (21-0-0)
(6) 6- Sakio Bika (27-3-2)
(3) 7- Jermain Taylor (28-3-1)
(8) 8- Dennis Inkin (34-1-0)
(9) 9- Jeff Lacy (25-2-0)
(10) 10- Andre Dirrell (18-0-0)

Active- Carl Froch, Librado Andrade, Karoly Balzsay, Jermain Taylor (loss), Jeff Lacy

Middleweight (160lbs)
(1) 1- Kelly Pavlik (35-1-0)
(2) 2- Arthur Abraham (29-0-0)
(NA) 3- Paul Williams (37-1-0)
(3) 4- Felix Sturm (32-2-1)
(4) 5- Winky Wright (51-5-1)
(5) 6- Anthony Mundine (35-3-0)
(6) 7- Khoren Gevor (30-3-0)
(7) 8- Randy Griffin (24-2-3)
(8) 9- Sebastian Sylvester (29-3-0)
(10) 10- Amin Asikainen (25-2-0)

Active- Paul Williams, Felix Sturm, Winky Wright (loss)
Out- Javier Castillejo (draw)

Junior Middleweight (154lbs)
(2) 1- Vernon Forrest (41-3-0)
(3) 2- Sergei Dzinziruk (36-0-0)
(4) 3- Daniel Santos (32-3-0)
(5) 4- Verno Phillips (42-11-1)
(6) 5- Cory Spinks (36-5-0)
(7) 6- Sergio Manuel Martinez (44-1-1)
(8) 7- Kermit Cintron (30-2-1)
(9) 8- James Kirkland (25-0-0)
(10) 9- Sergio Mora (21-1-1)
(NA) 10- Jamie Moore (31-3-0)

Active- Cory Spinks
Out- Paul Williams (moved up)

Welterweight (147lbs)
(1) 1- Shane Mosley (46-5-0)
(2) 2- Miguel Cotto (32-1-0)
(3) 3- Andre Berto (24-0-0)
(4) 4- Joshua Clottey (35-2-0)
(5) 5- Carlos Quintana (26-2-0)
(6) 6- Luis Collazo (29-4-0)
(7) 7- Zab Judah (37-6-0)
(8) 8- Mike Jones (17-0-0)
(9) 9- Sebastian Lujan (31-5-2)
(10) 10- Rafal Jackiewicz (33-8-1)

Active- None

Junior Welterweight (140lbs)
(1) 1- Ricky Hatton (45-1-0)
(3) 2- Timothey Bradley (24-0-0)
(2) 3- Andreas Kotelnik (30-2-0)
(4) 4- Kendall Holt (25-3-0)
(6) 5- Paulie Malignaggi (26-2-0)
(5) 6- Ricardo Torres (32-2-0)
(7) 7- Juan Urango (20-1-1)
(8) 8- Junior Witter (37-2-2)
(9) 9- Victor Ortiz (24-1-1)
(10) 10- Vivian Harris (29-3-1)

Active- Timothey Bradley, Kendall Holt (loss), Paulie Malignaggi

Lightweight (135lbs)
(1) 1- Juan Manuel Marquez (50-4-1)
(2) 2- Manny Pacquiao (48-3-2)
(NA) 3- Edwin Valero (25-0-0)
(3) 4- Juan Diaz (34-2-0)
(4) 5- Joel Casmayor (36-4-1)
(6) 6- Joan Guzman (29-0-0)
(8) 7- Ali Funeka (30-2-2)
(9) 8- David Diaz (34-2-1)
(10) 9- Anthony Peterson (28-0-0)
(NA) 10- Breidis Prescott (21-0-0)

Active- Edwin Valero
Out- Antonio Pitalua (loss), Julio Diaz (loss)

Junior Lightweight (130lbs)
(3) 1- Humberto Soto (47-7-2)
(4) 2- Jorge Linares (26-0-0)
(5) 3- Roman Martinez (22-0-1)
(8) 4- Malcolm Klassen (23-4-2)
(6) 5- Robert Guerrero (22-1-1)
(2) 6- Cassius Baloyi (36-3-1)
(7) 7- Mzonke Fana (28-4-0)
(9) 8- Nicky Cook (29-2-0)
(10) 9- Alex Arthur (26-2-0)
(NA) 10- Sergey Gulyakevich (26-1-0)

Active- Malcolm Klassen, Cassius Baloyi (loss)
Out- Edwin Valero (moved up)

Featherweight (126lbs)
(1) 1- Chris John (42-0-2)
(2) 2- Cristobal Cruz (38-11-1)
(3) 3- Ricardo Juarez (28-4-1)
(4) 4- Steve Luevano (36-1-1)
(5) 5- Jorge Solis (37-1-2)
(6) 6- Takahiro Aoh (17-1-1)
(10) 7- Yuriorkis Gamboa (15-0-0)
(8) 8- Guty Espadas Jnr (45-7-0)
(7) 9- Thomas Mashaba (20-2-4)
(9) 10- Mario Santiago (19-1-1)

Active- Yuriorkia Gamboa, Guty Espadas Jnr

Junior Featherweight (122lbs)
(1) 1- Israel Vazquez (43-4-0)
(2) 2- Rafael Marquez (37-5-0)
(3) 3- Celestino Caballero (32-2-0)
(4) 4- Juan Manuel Lopez (25-0-0)
(5) 5- Poonsawat Krattindaenggym (38-1-0)
(6) 6- Daniel Ponce de Leon (36-2-0)
(NA) 7- Gerry Penalosa (54-7-2)
(7) 8- Jhonny Gonzalez (40-6-0)
(8) 9- Steve Molitor (28-1-0)
(9) 10- Toshiaki Nishioka (33-4-3)

Active- Celestino Caballero, Juan Manuel Lopez, Poonsawat Krattindaenggym, Gerry Penalosa (loss)
Out- Bernard Dunne (10)

Bantamweight (118lbs)
(1) 1- Hozumi Hasegawa (26-2-0)
(3) 2- Fernando Montiel (39-2-1)
(4) 3- Anselmo Moreno (24-1-1)
(5) 4- Silence Mabuza (22-2-0)
(6) 5- Wladimir Siderenko (21-1-2)
(7) 6- Abner Mares (17-0-0)
(8) 7- Joseph Agebeko (26-1-0)
(9) 8- Yohnny Perez (18-0-0)
(10) 9- Nehomar Cermeno (19-0-0)
(NA) 10- Simone Maludrottu (29-2-0)

Active- None
Out- Gerry Penalosa (moved up)

Junior Bantamweight (115lbs)
(1) 1- Vic Darchinyan (32-1-1)
(2) 2- Alexander Munoz (32-3-0)
(3) 3- Nobuo Nashiro (13-1-0)
(4) 4- Z Gorres (29-2-2)
(5) 5- Jorge Arce (51-5-1)
(6) 6- Jose Lopez (39-7-2)
(7) 7- Hugo Cazares (28-5-1)
(8) 8- Dimitri Kirilov (29-4-1)
(9) 9- Jose Navarro (26-4-0)
(10) 10- Kohei Kono (22-4-0)

Active- Nobuo Nashiro

Flyweight (112lbs)
(1) 1- Nonito Donaire (21-1-0)
(2) 2- Denkaosan Kaovichit (46-1-1)
(3) 3- Daisuke Naito (34-2-3)
(4) 4- Omar Narvaez (28-0-2)
(5) 5- Pongsaklek Wonjongkam (72-3-1)
(6) 6- Koki Kameda (20-0-0)
(7) 7- Takefumi Sakata (33-5-2)
(8) 8- Bernard Inom (19-1-1)
(NA) 9- Moruti Mthalane (23-2-0)
(9) 10- Jose Cesar Miranda (29-4-1)

Active- Nonito Donaire, Pongsaklek Wonjongkam, Jose Cesar Miranda (loss)
Out- Brian Viloria (moved down)

Junior Flyweight (108lbs)
(1) 1- Ivan Calderon (32-0-0)
(2) 2- Edgar Soto (35-5-0)
(NA) 3- Brian Viloria (24-2-0)
(4) 4- Giovanni Segura (19-1-1)
(3) 5- Ulises Solis (28-2-2)
(5) 6- Brahim Asloum (23-2-0)
(6) 7- Juan Carlos Reveco (19-1-0)
(7) 8- Cesar Canchila (27-1-0)
(8) 9- Juanito Rubillar (46-11-7)
(9) 10- Omar Nino Romero (27-3-1)

Active- Edgar Soto, Brian Viloria, Ulises Solis (loss)
Out- Nelson Dieppa (10)

Minimumweight (105lbs)
(1) 1- Roman Gonzalez (23-0-0)
(2) 2- Oleydong Sithsamerchai (30-0-0)
(3) 3- Raul Garcia (26-0-1)
(4) 4- Florante Condes (23-4-1)
(5) 5- Donnie Nietes (24-1-3)
(6) 6- Juan Palacios (25-2-0)
(7) 7- Milan Melindo (18-0-0)
(8) 8- Nkosinathi Joyi (19-0-0)
(9) 9- Muhammad Rachman (62-7-5)
(10) 10- Manuel Vargas (26-3-1)

Active- Raul Garcia

(Apr 09) Angry Fight Fan World Boxing Rankings

The interesting thing I found this month is how stacked the Bantamweight division is becoming. Last month both Fernando Montiel and Cristian Mijares made their move there to join the likes of Hasegawa who just made the 8th successful defence of his WBC belt with a 1st round KO of Vusi Malinga. The division is that stacked that long time 115lb #1 Mijares lost his 118lb debut (which could be down to ill-effects suffered in the Darchinyan beatdown though. The thing though is that the 115lb division which six months ago was one of the strongest is now probably the weakest after Darchinyan cleaned out all of the top contenders bar Montiel. Now that Darchinyan will face Joseph Agbeko at 118lbs, the division will be a wasteland come July.
The rankings are based on all fights that happened before April 1st 2009, so if there’s a result that happened on March 1st (I’m using boxrec’s calender) then it’ll be included next month. These rankings are my own work and have absolutely no reflection on any ABC rankings or anything else but my own opinion. Please feel free to flame me in the comments section.

Weight Division (weight limit)
(Last Month) Ranking- Fighter (Record)

Pound for Pound 
(1) 1- Manny Pacquiao (48-3-2)
(2) 2- Juan Manuel Marquez (50-4-1)
(3) 3- Bernard Hopkins (49-5-1)
(4) 4- Israel Vazquez (43-4-0)
(5) 5- Shane Mosley (46-5-0)
(6) 6- Rafael Marquez (37-5-0)
(7) 7- Paul Williams (36-1-0)
(8) 8- Ricky Hatton (45-1-0)
(9) 9- Kelly Pavlik (35-1-0)
(10) 10- Vic Darchinyan (32-1-1)

Active- None

Heavyweight (no limit)
(1) 1- Wladimir Klitschko (52-3-0)
(2) 2- Vitali Klitschko (37-2-0)
(3) 3- Ruslan Chagaev (25-0-1)
(4) 4- Nicolay Valuev (50-1-0)
(5) 5- Alexander Povetkin (16-0-0)
(6) 6- David Haye (22-1-0)
(8) 7- Alexander Dimitrenko (29-0-0)
(9) 8- Sultan Ibragimov (22-1-1)
(NA) 9- Eddie Chambers (34-1-0)
(7) 10- Samuel Peter (30-3-0)

Active- Vitali Klitschko, Eddie Chambers, Samuel Peter (loss)
Out- Oleg Maskaev (10)

Cruiserweight (200lbs)
(1) 1- Tomasz Adamek (37-1-0)
(2) 2- Guillermo Jones (36-3-2)
(3) 3- Steve Cunningham (21-2-0)
(4) 4- Marco Huck (24-1-0)
(5) 5- Jean Marc Mormeck (33-4-0)
(6) 6- O’Neill Bell (26-3-1)
(8) 7- Firat Arslan (29-4-1)
(9) 8- Vadim Tokarev (26-1-1)
(10) 9- Kryzstof Wlodarczyk (41-2-0)
(NA) 10- Giacobbe Fragomeni (26-1-0)

Active- None
Out- Enzo Maccarinelli (loss)

Light Heavyweight (175lbs)
(1) 1- Bernard Hopkins (49-4-1)
(2) 2- Chad Dawson (27-0-0)
(3) 3- Glenn Johnson (49-12-2)
(4) 4-  Antonio Tarver (27-5-0)
(5) 5- Zsolt Erdei (30-0-0)
(6) 6- Clinton Woods (42-4-1)
(7) 7- Hugo Garay (32-3-0)
(8) 8- Roy Jones jnr (52-5-0)
(9) 9- Adrian Diaconu (25-0-0)
(10) 10- Tavoris Cloud (19-0-0)

Active- Roy Jones jnr

Super Middleweight (168lbs)
(1) 1- Mikkel Kessler (41-1-0)
(2) 2- Lucian Bute (24-0-0)
(3) 3- Jermain Taylor (28-2-1)
(4) 4- Carl Froch (24-0-0)
(5) 5- Librado Andrade (27-2-0)
(6) 6- Sakio Bika (27-3-2)
(7) 7- Karoly Balszay (20-0-0)
(8) 8- Dennis Inkin (34-1-0)
(9) 9- Jeff Lacy (24-2-0)
(10) 10- Andre Dirrell (18-0-0)

Active- Lucian Bute, Andre Dirrell
Out- Markus Beyer (10)

Middleweight (160lbs)
(1) 1- Kelly Pavlik (35-1-0)
(2) 2- Arthur Abraham (29-0-0)
(3) 3- Felix Sturm (31-2-1)
(4) 4- Winky Wright (51-4-1)
(5) 5- Anthony Mundine (35-3-0)
(6) 6- Khoren Gevor (30-3-0)
(7) 7- Randy Griffin (24-2-3)
(8) 8- Sebastian Sylvester (29-3-0)
(9) 9- Javier Castillejo (62-8-0)
(10) 10- Amin Asikainen (25-2-0)

Active- Arthur Abraham

Junior Middleweight (154lbs)
(1) 1- Paul Williams (36-1-0)
(2) 2- Vernon Forrest (41-3-0)
(3) 3- Sergei Dzinziruk (36-0-0)
(4) 4- Daniel Santos (32-3-0)
(5) 5- Verno Phillips (42-11-1)
(6) 6- Cory Spinks (36-5-0)
(7) 7- Sergio Manuel Martinez (44-1-1)
(8) 8- Kermit Cintron (30-2-1)
(NA) 9- James Kirkland (25-0-0)
(9) 10- Sergio Mora (21-1-1)

Active- James Kirkland
Out- Alex Bunema (10)

Welterweight (147lbs)
(1) 1- Shane Mosley (46-5-0)
(2) 2- Miguel Cotto (32-1-0)
(3) 3- Andre Berto (24-0-0)
(4) 4- Joshua Clottey (35-2-0)
(5) 5- Carlos Quintana (26-2-0)
(6) 6- Luis Collazo (29-4-0)
(7) 7- Zab Judah (37-6-0)
(8) 8- Mike Jones (17-0-0)
(9) 9- Sebastian Lujan (31-5-2)
(10) 10- Rafal Jackiewicz (33-8-1)

Active- Mike Jones, Sebastian Lujan

Junior Welterweight (140lbs)
(1) 1- Ricky Hatton (45-1-0)
(2) 2- Andreas Kotelnik (30-2-0)
(3) 3- Timothey Bradley (23-0-0)
(4) 4- Kendall Holt (25-2-0)
(5) 5- Ricardo Torres (32-2-0)
(6) 6- Paulie Malignaggi (25-2-0)
(7) 7- Juan Urango (20-1-1)
(8) 8- Junior Witter (37-2-2)
(NA) 9- Victor Ortiz (24-1-1)
(9) 10- Vivian Harris (29-3-1)

Active- Victor Ortiz
Out- Marcos Rene Maidana (10)

Lightweight (135lbs)
(1) 1- Juan Manuel Marquez (50-4-1)
(2) 2- Manny Pacquiao (48-3-2)
(3) 3- Juan Diaz (34-2-0)
(4) 4- Joel Casmayor (36-4-1)
(5) 5- Julio Diaz (36-4-0)
(6) 6- Joan Guzman (29-0-0)
(7) 7- Antonio Pitualua (46-3-0)
(8) 8- Ali Funeka (30-2-2)
(9) 9- David Diaz (34-2-1)
(10) 10- Anthony Peterson (28-0-0)

Active- None

Junior Lightweight (130lbs)
(1) 1- Edwin Valero (24-0-0)
(2) 2- Cassius Baloyi (36-3-1)
(4) 3- Humberto Soto (47-7-2)
(3) 4- Jorge Linares (26-0-0)
(10) 5- Roman Martinez (22-0-1)
(5) 6- Robert Guerrero (22-1-1)
(6) 7- Mzonke Fana (28-4-0)
(7) 8- Malcolm Klassen (23-4-2)
(8) 9- Nicky Cook (29-2-0)
(9) 10- Alex Arthur (26-2-0)

Active- Humberto Soto, Roman Martinez, Robert Guerrero (No Contest), Nicky Cook (loss)

Featherweight (126lbs)
(1) 1- Chris John (42-0-2)
(2) 2- Cristobal Cruz (38-11-1)
(3) 3- Ricardo Juarez (28-4-1)
(4) 4- Steve Luevano (36-1-1)
(5) 5- Jorge Solis (37-1-2)
(NA) 6- Takahiro Aoh (17-1-1)
(6) 7- Thomas Mashaba (20-2-4)
(7) 8- Guty Espadas Jnr (44-7-0)
(8) 9- Mario Santiago (19-1-1)
(10) 10- Yuriorkis Gamboa (14-0-0)

Active- Takahiro Aoh
Out- Oscar Larios (loss)

Junior Featherweight (122lbs)
(1) 1- Israel Vazquez (43-4-0)
(2) 2- Rafael Marquez (37-5-0)
(3) 3- Celestino Caballero (31-2-0)
(4) 4- Juan Manuel Lopez (24-0-0)
(5) 5- Poonsawat Krattindaenggym (37-1-0)
(7) 6- Daniel Ponce de Leon (35-2-0)
(8) 7- Jhonny Gonzalez (40-6-0)
(9) 8- Steve Molitor (28-1-0)
(10) 9- Toshiaki Nishioka (33-4-3)
(NA) 10- Bernard Dunne (28-1-0)

Active- Bernard Dunne
Out- Ricardo Cordoba (loss)

Bantamweight (118lbs)
(1) 1- Hozumi Hasegawa (26-2-0)
(2) 2- Gerry Penalosa (54-6-2)
(NA) 3- Fernando Montiel (39-2-1)
(3) 4- Anselmo Moreno (24-1-1)
(4) 5- Silence Mabuza (22-2-0)
(5) 6- Wladimir Siderenko (21-1-2)
(6) 7- Abner Mares (17-0-0)
(8) 8- Joseph Agebeko (26-1-0)
(9) 9- Yohnny Perez (18-0-0)
(NA) 10- Nehomar Cermeno (19-0-0)

Active- Hozumi Hasegawa, Fernando Montiel, Nehomar Cermeno
Out- Vusi Malinga (loss), Simone Maludrottu (10)

Junior Bantamweight (115lbs)
(1) 1- Vic Darchinyan (32-1-1)
(4) 2- Alexander Munoz (32-3-0)
(5) 3- Nobuo Nashiro (12-1-0)
(6) 4- Z Gorres (29-2-2)
(7) 5- Jorge Arce (51-5-1)
(NA) 6- Jose Lopez (39-7-2)
(NA) 7- Hugo Cazares (28-5-1)
(8) 8- Dimitri Kirilov (29-4-1)
(9) 9- Jose Navarro (26-4-0)
(NA) 10- Kohei Kono (22-4-0)

Active- Z Gorres, Jose Lopez, Hugo Cazares
Out- Fernando Montiel (moved up), Cristian Mijares (moved up), Pramunsak Posuwan (loss)

Flyweight (112lbs)
(1) 1- Nonito Donaire (20-1-0)
(2) 2- Denkaosan Kaovichit (46-1-1)
(3) 3- Daisuke Naito (34-2-3)
(4) 4- Omar Narvaez (28-0-2)
(5) 5- Pongsaklek Wonjongkam (71-3-1)
(6) 6- Koki Kameda (20-0-0)
(7) 7- Takefumi Sakata (33-5-2)
(8) 8- Bernard Inom (19-1-1)
(9) 9- Jose Cesar Miranda (29-3-1)
(10) 10- Brian Viloria (24-2-0)

Active- Koki Kameda

Junior Flyweight (108lbs)
(1) 1- Ivan Calderon (32-0-0)
(2) 2- Edgar Soto (34-5-0)
(3) 3- Ulises Solis (28-1-2)
(7) 4- Giovanni Segura (19-1-1)
(6) 5- Brahim Asloum (23-2-0)
(8) 6- Juan Carlos Reveco (19-1-0)
(5) 7- Cesar Canchila (27-1-0)
(9) 8- Juanito Rubillar (46-11-7)
(10) 9- Omar Nino Romero (27-3-1)
(NA) 10- Nelson Dieppa (25-5-2)

Active- Giovanni Segura, Juan Carlos Reveco, Cesar Canchila (loss)
Out- Cazares (moved up)

Minimumweight (105lbs)
(1) 1- Roman Gonzalez (23-0-0)
(2) 2- Oleydong Sithsamerchai (30-0-0)
(3) 3- Raul Garcia (25-0-1)
(4) 4- Florante Condes (23-4-1)
(6) 5- Donnie Nietes (24-1-3)
(7) 6- Juan Palacios (25-2-0)
(NA) 7- Milan Melindo (18-0-0)
(8) 8- Nkosinathi Joyi (19-0-0)
(5) 9- Muhammad Rachman (62-7-5)
(9) 10- Manuel Vargas (26-3-1)

Active- Oleydong Sithsamerchai, Milan Melindo, Muhammad Rachman (loss)
Out- Katsunari Takayama (10)

‘Bad Blood’ in Campbelltown tonight

I’m not sure what the name suggests but there’s an Australian boxing pay per view on tonight that’s being billed as bad blood for some unknown (?) reason. The card is a terrific one (still not worthy of PPV if you ask me, PPV should be saved for the elite world class fighters) with three well matched fights as well as Daniel Geale fighting. The Geale fight was meant to be against US veteran James Obede Toney (not James Obese Toney), but that fight fell through and he’ll now take on Canadian Ian MacKillop. I’m not sure what the main event of this card is anymore, but any of the four main fights would easily be a main event on a typical fox sports Friday night card.

Gairy St Claire vs Leonardo Zappavinga
A good test for the fast rising Zappavinga (who will now be referred to as Zappa) as St Claire is yet to be stopped and is a former IBF Junior Lightweight champion. The thing I’m happy with here is that the fight is being fought over 12 rounds so St Claire has every chance to take him into the deep water and wear him down. St Claire’s defence and awkward style will likely prove difficult to deal with which is what Zappa needs to further his abilities. I think Zappa takes this one over 12 rounds though. St Claire will make things difficult early for Zappa but the workrate and size advantage will prove too much over the 12 rounds and Zappa will take a clear unanimous decision I think. Zappavinga on points.

Daniel Geale vs Ian MacKillop
Rumour has it that Geale will take on Mundine should he win this fight (actually the fights more likely to take place if he loses). I don’t know anything about how MacKillop fights but I’m hoping he’s a rugged customer because that’s what Geale needs to be fighting to improve. His boxing skills are great, but he needs some hard professional rounds under his belt where he’s forced to fight on the inside a lot because that’s where the top guys in the division are going to beat him. Geale should prove too skilled for MacKillop but I’d like to see him sit down on his punches and look for a stoppage in this fight. This isn’t the amateurs anymore and he won’t be able to outlast everyone over 10 or 12 rounds without putting some hurting on them sooner or later. Geale on points.

Solomon Haumono vs Colin Wilson
I’ve got a lot more respect for Haumono then I do Hopoate. Haumono is out testing himself everytime he steps in the ring lately and Wilson is a good opponent for him. Wilson should extend Haumono a few rounds, maybe even the distance and will be in there to beat him. He probably has a good chance if he can get a few shots in early as he may come over the top of Haumono in the later rounds. I think Haumono takes him out mid rounds though. Solomon Haumono by 6th round knockout.

Davey Browne vs Billy Dib
Browne is still fairly inexperienced and I think Dib’s recent competition will give him a big edge in this fight. Browne will be game, but Dib should have way too much skill for the 22 year old. Dib might come out looking for the stoppage and sit down on his punches, but then again he’ll probably play around too much and drag it out longer then it should. Dib on points.

(Mar 09) Angry Fight Fan World Boxing Rankings

There are two big absentees from the pound for pound rankings. First of all there was the suspension of Margarito. Due to his suspension, I’m removing him from my rankings until he is either cleared or his suspension is up. The other is Joe Calzaghe who announced his retirement last month and thus will no longer appear in the rankings (until he gets bored and comes back that is). This paves way for Pavlik to re-enter the top ten and I’ve filled out the list with Darchinyan who I think deserves it after effectively cleaning out one of the more competitive divisions in boxing.
The rankings are based on all fights that happened before March 1st 2009, so if there’s a result that happened on March 1st (I’m using boxrec’s calender) then it’ll be included next month. These rankings are my own work and have absolutely no reflection on any ABC rankings or anything else but my own opinion. Please feel free to flame me in the comments section.

Weight Division (weight limit)
(Last Month) Ranking- Fighter (Record)

Pound for Pound 
(1) 1- Manny Pacquiao (48-3-2)
(3) 2- Juan Manuel Marquez (50-4-1)
(4) 3- Bernard Hopkins (49-5-1)
(5) 4- Israel Vazquez (43-4-0)
(6) 5- Shane Mosley (46-5-0)
(7) 6- Rafael Marquez (37-5-0)
(8) 7- Paul Williams (36-1-0)
(9) 8- Ricky Hatton (45-1-0)
(NA) 9- Kelly Pavlik (35-1-0)
(NA) 10- Vic Darchinyan (32-1-1)

Active- Juan Manuel Marquez, Kelly Pavlik, Vic Darchinyan
Out- Joe Calzaghe (retired), Antonio Margarito (suspended)

Heavyweight (no limit)
(1) 1- Wladimir Klitschko (52-3-0)
(2) 2- Vitali Klitschko (36-2-0)
(3) 3- Ruslan Chagaev (25-0-1)
(4) 4- Nicolay Valuev (50-1-0)
(5) 5- Alexander Povetkin (16-0-0)
(6) 6- David Haye (22-1-0)
(7) 7- Samuel Peter (30-2-0)
(8) 8- Alexander Dimitrenko (29-0-0)
(9) 9- Sultan Ibragimov (22-1-1)
(10) 10- Oleg Maskaev (35-6-0)

Active- Ruslan Chagaev

Cruiserweight (200lbs)
(1) 1- Tomasz Adamek (37-1-0)
(2) 2- Guillermo Jones (36-3-2)
(3) 3- Steve Cunningham (21-2-0)
(4) 4- Marco Huck (24-1-0)
(5) 5- Jean Marc Mormeck (33-4-0)
(6) 6- O’Neill Bell (26-3-1)
(7) 7- Enzo Maccarinelli (29-2-0)
(8) 8- Firat Arslan (29-4-1)
(9) 9- Vadim Tokarev (26-1-1)
(10) 10- Kryzstof Wlodarczyk (41-2-0)

Active- Tomasz Adamek

Light Heavyweight (175lbs)
(2) 1- Bernard Hopkins (49-4-1)
(3) 2- Chad Dawson (27-0-0)
(4) 3- Glenn Johnson (49-12-2)
(5) 4-  Antonio Tarver (27-5-0)
(7) 5- Zsolt Erdei (30-0-0)
(6) 6- Clinton Woods (42-4-1)
(8) 7- Hugo Garay (32-3-0)
(9) 8- Roy Jones jnr (52-5-0)
(10) 9- Adrian Diaconu (25-0-0)
(NA) 10- Tavoris Cloud (19-0-0)

Active- Clinton Woods, Glenn Johnson
Out- Joe Calzaghe (retired)

Super Middleweight (168lbs)
(1) 1- Mikkel Kessler (41-1-0)
(2) 2- Lucian Bute (23-0-0)
(3) 3- Jermain Taylor (28-2-1)
(4) 4- Carl Froch (24-0-0)
(6) 5- Librado Andrade (27-2-0)
(7) 6- Sakio Bika (27-3-2)
(8) 7- Karoly Balszay (20-0-0)
(9) 8- Dennis Inkin (34-1-0)
(10) 9- Jeff Lacy (24-2-0)
(NA) 10- Markus Beyer (35-3-1)

Active- None
Out- Anthony Mundine (moved down)

Middleweight (160lbs)
(1) 1- Kelly Pavlik (35-1-0)
(2) 2- Arthur Abraham (28-0-0)
(3) 3- Felix Sturm (31-2-1)
(4) 4- Winky Wright (51-4-1)
(NA) 5- Anthony Mundine (35-3-0)
(5) 6- Khoren Gevor (30-3-0)
(6) 7- Randy Griffin (24-2-3)
(7) 8- Sebastian Sylvester (29-3-0)
(8) 9- Javier Castillejo (62-8-0)
(9) 10- Amin Asikainen (25-2-0)

Active- Kelly Pavlik, Anthony Mundine, Sebastian Sylvester
Out- Daniel Geale (10)

Junior Middleweight (154lbs)
(1) 1- Paul Williams (36-1-0)
(2) 2- Vernon Forrest (41-3-0)
(3) 3- Sergei Dzinziruk (36-0-0)
(4) 4- Daniel Santos (32-3-0)
(6) 5- Verno Phillips (42-11-1)
(7) 6- Cory Spinks (36-5-0)
(5) 7- Sergio Manuel Martinez (44-1-1)
(NA) 8- Kermit Cintron (30-2-1)
(8) 9- Sergio Mora (21-1-1)
(9) 10- Alex Bunema (30-6-2)

Active- Sergio Manuel Martinez (draw), Kermit Cintron (draw)
Out- Joachim Alcine (10)

Welterweight (147lbs)
(1) 1- Shane Mosley (46-5-0)
(3) 2- Miguel Cotto (32-1-0)
(4) 3- Andre Berto (24-0-0)
(5) 4- Joshua Clottey (35-2-0)
(7) 5- Carlos Quintana (26-2-0)
(8) 6- Luis Collazo (29-4-0)
(9) 7- Zab Judah (37-6-0)
(10) 8- Mike Jones (16-0-0)
(NA) 9- Sebastian Lujan (30-5-2)
(NA) 10- Rafal Jackiewicz (33-8-1)

Active- Miguel Cotto, Rafal Jackiewicz
Out- Antonio Margarito (suspended), Kermit Cintron (moved up)

Junior Welterweight (140lbs)
(1) 1- Ricky Hatton (45-1-0)
(2) 2- Andreas Kotelnik (30-2-0)
(3) 3- Timothey Bradley (23-0-0)
(4) 4- Kendall Holt (25-2-0)
(5) 5- Ricardo Torres (32-2-0)
(6) 6- Paulie Malignaggi (25-2-0)
(7) 7- Juan Urango (20-1-1)
(8) 8- Junior Witter (37-2-2)
(9) 9- Vivian Harris (29-3-1)
(10) 10- Marcos Rene Maidana (25-0-0)

Active- Andreas Kotelnik, Marcos Rene Maidana (loss)

Lightweight (135lbs)
(3) 1- Juan Manuel Marquez (50-4-1)
(2) 2- Manny Pacquiao (48-3-2)
(4) 3- Juan Diaz (34-2-0)
(5) 4- Joel Casmayor (36-4-1)
(6) 5- Julio Diaz (36-4-0)
(7) 6- Joan Guzman (29-0-0)
(9) 7- Antonio Pitualua (46-3-0)
(8) 8- Ali Funeka (30-2-2)
(10) 9- David Diaz (34-2-1)
(NA) 10- Anthony Peterson (28-0-0)

Active- Juan Manuel Marquez, Juan Diaz (loss), Ali Funeka (loss)
Out- Nate Campbell (moved up)

Junior Lightweight (130lbs)
(1) 1- Edwin Valero (24-0-0)
(3) 2- Cassius Baloyi (36-3-1)
(4) 3- Jorge Linares (26-0-0)
(5) 4- Humberto Soto (46-7-2)
(6) 5- Robert Guerrero (22-1-1)
(7) 6- Mzonke Fana (28-4-0)
(8) 7- Malcolm Klassen (23-4-2)
(9) 8- Nicky Cook (29-1-0)
(10) 9- Alex Arthur (26-2-0)
(NA) 10- Roman Martinez (21-0-1)

Active- None
Out- Ricardo Juarez (moved down)

Featherweight (126lbs)
(1) 1- Chris John (42-0-2)
(2) 2- Cristobal Cruz (38-11-1)
(NA) 3- Ricardo Juarez (28-4-1)
(3) 4- Steve Luevano (36-1-1)
(4) 5- Jorge Solis (37-1-2)
(5) 6- Thomas Mashaba (20-2-4)
(6) 7- Guty Espadas Jnr (44-7-0)
(7) 8- Mario Santiago (19-1-1)
(8) 9- Oscar Larios (63-6-0)
(9) 10- Yuriorkis Gamboa (14-0-0)

Active- Chris John (draw), Ricardo Juarez (draw), Cristobal Cruz, Yuriorkis Gamboa
Out- Bernabe Concepcion (10)

Junior Featherweight (122lbs)
(1) 1- Israel Vazquez (43-4-0)
(2) 2- Rafael Marquez (37-5-0)
(3) 3- Celestino Caballero (31-2-0)
(4) 4- Juan Manuel Lopez (24-0-0)
(5) 5- Poonsawat Krattindaenggym (37-1-0)
(6) 6- Ricardo Cardoba (34-1-2)
(7) 7- Daniel Ponce de Leon (35-2-0)
(8) 8- Jhonny Gonzalez (40-6-0)
(9) 9- Steve Molitor (28-1-0)
(10) 10- Toshiaki Nishioka (33-4-3)

Active- Poonsawat Krattindaenggym

Bantamweight (118lbs)
(1) 1- Hozumo Hasegawa (25-2-0)
(2) 2- Gerry Penalosa (54-6-2)
(3) 3- Anselmo Moreno (24-1-1)
(4) 4- Silence Mabuza (22-2-0)
(5) 5- Wladimir Siderenko (21-1-2)
(6) 6- Abner Mares (17-0-0)
(7) 7- Vusi Malinga (18-2-1)
(8) 8- Joseph Agebeko (26-1-0)
(9) 9- Yohnny Perez (18-0-0)
(10) 10- Simone Maludrottu (29-2-0)

Active- Gerry Penalosa

Junior Bantamweight (115lbs)
(1) 1- Vic Darchinyan (32-1-1)
(2) 2- Fernando Montiel (38-4-1)
(3) 3- Cristian Mijares (36-4-2)
(4) 4- Alexander Munoz (32-3-0)
(6) 5- Nobuo Nashiro (12-1-0)
(7) 6- Z Gorres (28-2-2)
(5) 7- Jorge Arce (51-5-1)
(8) 8- Dimitri Kirilov (29-4-1)
(9) 9- Jose Navarro (26-4-0)
(10) 10- Pramunsak Posuwan (45-1-1)

Active- Vic Darchinyan, Jorge Arce (loss)

Flyweight (112lbs)
(1) 1- Nonito Donaire (20-1-0)
(2) 2- Denkaosan Kaovichit (46-1-1)
(3) 3- Daisuke Naito (34-2-3)
(5) 4- Omar Narvaez (28-0-2)
(4) 5- Pongsaklek Wonjongkam (71-3-1)
(6) 6- Koki Kameda (19-0-0)
(8) 7- Takefumi Sakata (33-5-2)
(9) 8- Bernard Inom (19-1-1)
(10) 9- Jose Cesar Miranda (29-3-1)
(NA) 10- Brian Viloria (24-2-0)

Active- Omar Narvaez
Out- Rayonta Whitfield (loss)

Junior Flyweight (108lbs)
(1) 1- Ivan Calderon (32-0-0)
(2) 2- Edgar Soto (34-5-0)
(3) 3- Ulises Solis (28-1-2)
(4) 4- Hugo Cazares (26-5-1)
(5) 5- Cesar Canchila (27-1-0)
(6) 6- Brahim Asloum (23-2-0)
(7) 7- Giovanni Segura (19-1-1)
(8) 8- Juan Carlos Reveco (19-1-0)
(9) 9- Juanito Rubillar (46-11-7)
(10) 10- Omar Nino Romero (27-3-1)

Active- None

Minimumweight (105lbs)
(1) 1- Roman Gonzalez (23-0-0)
(2) 2- Oleydong Sithsamerchai (29-0-0)
(3) 3- Raul Garcia (25-0-1)
(4) 4- Florante Condes (23-4-1)
(5) 5- Muhammad Rachman (62-6-5)
(7) 6- Donnie Nietes (24-1-3)
(6) 7- Juan Palacios (25-2-0)
(8) 8- Nkosinathi Joyi (19-0-0)
(10) 9- Manuel Vargas (26-3-1)
(9) 10- Katsunari Takayama (22-3-0)

Active- Roman Gonzalez, Donnie Nietes, Manuel Vargas

March Schedule
7th- Joel Julio vs James Kirkland (154lb)
7th- Juergen Brahmer vs Rachid Kanfouah (European 175lb)
7th- Robert Guerro vs Daud Cino Yordan (130lb)
12th- Hozumi Hasegawa vs Vusi Malinga (WBC 118lb)
12th- Oscar Laios vs Takahiro Aoh (WBC 126lb)
13th- Lucian Bute vs Fulgencio Zuniga (IBF 168lb)
13th- Juan Carlos Reveco vs Wilson Simao (WBA Fedalatin 108lb)
14th- Arthur Abraham vs Lajuan Simon (IBF 160lb)
14th- Nicky Cook vs Roman Martinez (WBO 130lb)
14th- Cristian Mijares vs Nehomar Cermeno (WBA interim 118lb)
14th- Marco Antonio Barrera vs Amir Khan (135lb)
14th- Oleg Maskaev vs Rich Boruff (Heavy)
14th- Enzo Maccaranelli vs Ola Afolabi (200lb)
20th- Celestino Caballero vs Jeffrey Mathebula (WBA/IBF 122lb)
20th- Junior Witter vs Gianluca Branco (European 140lb)
21st- Vitali Klitschko vs Juan Carlos Gomez (WBC Heavy)
21st- Ricardo Cordoba vs Bernard Dunne (WBA interim 122lb)
21st- Roy Jones Jnr vs Omar Sheika (175lb)
22nd- Ulises Solis vs Brian Viloria (IBF 108lb)
22nd- Nonito Donaire vs Raul Martinez (IBF 112lb)
24th- Roberto Vasquez vs Hugo Cazares (115lb)
27th- Kryzstof Wlodarczyk vs Giacobbe Fragomeni (WBC 200lb)
27th- Samuel Peter vs Eddie Chambers (Heavy)
27th- Yasutaka Kuroki vs Junichiro Kaneda (OPBF 105lb)
28th- Humberto Soto vs Albert Davis (WBC 130lb)
28th- Fernando Montiel vs Diego Oscar Silva (WBO interim 118lb)

Cotto and Pavlik score KO wins in comeback bouts

World Middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik scored a 9th round TKO win over WBC #1 contender Marco Antonio Rubio in his comeback fight after losing to Bernard Hopkins last October in a catchweight bout. Pavlik never looked like losing his WBC and WBO belts in front of his hometown crowd in Youngstown, Ohio. The fight was fought in typical Pavlik fashion, with ‘the Ghost’ firing unanswered combinations as Rubio tried to ride out the never ending storm that is Pavlik. Rubio showed a granite chin as well as some useful blocking but could offer little in the way of return fire as Pavlik repeatedly used his jab, cross and left uppercut to great effect. Rubio rallied in the 7th round, but Pavlik shifted up a gear in the 8th, rocking Rubio with a laser-like right hand. The champion continued to batter his overmatched challenger through until the end of the 9th round when Rubio wisely remained on his stool.

This fight should answer any questions as to what weight division Pavlik belongs in. He always looks like a beast when he’s fighting someone his own size. There’s some decent fights for him at this weight division as well. With Arthur Abraham demolishing all challengers and the likes of Winky Wright and Paul Williams as well as Felix Sturm and Anthony Mundine set to face off later this year, there’s some good fights that can be made. The good thing is that Pavlik is expected back in the ring come June or July instead of just sitting on his belts like some of the other fighters around. Overall, a successful comeback for Pavlik and I await his next opponent.

Also on the PPV, former WBA Welterweight Champion Miguel Cotto made his comeback from the devastating loss to Antonio Margarito last year a successful one with a 5th round TKO win over Michael Jennings. The win earns Cotto the WBO Welterweight belt and could set up a rematch with Shane Mosley, who is coming off the win over Margarito and who Cotto beat by unanimous decision in 2007. Cotto took his time early as Jennings moved well although didn’t land anything significant. However, as soon as Cotto caught Jennings it was just a matter of time. In the 4th round Cotto twice dropped Jennings with left hooks to the body although Jennings was game and took as many of the ten count as he could in order to recover. Jennings looked fine at the start of the 5th, although once Cotto caught him it was a different story. A barrage on the ropes dropped Jennings again and after rising at nine, the referee saved Jennings from further punishment. With Mosley and Cotto clearly the top two guys in the division (especially with Margarito suspended) that rematch is a must and would be one of the biggest fights of the year. Hopefully it gets made as none of the other fights at this weight have the same excitement.

I have to give full credit to the Sky Channel in Australia for taking time out of their 24 hour horse racing coverage to show this card. There was two of the biggest names in boxing fighting on the card and while the opponents weren’t great, the fights were entertaining and definately worth being shown down here. Hopefully Sky can pick up more of the fights that Main Event don’t and continue to give a decent coverage of the sport. Maybe a weekly news show run by Australians wouldn’t be a bad idea? Or how about Canvas Classics once a night? (okay that last part wasn’t going to happen but one can dream can’t they?)