Boxing Breakdown: Khan-McCloskey, Berto-Ortiz, Juanma vs Salido

A fairly quiet weekend ahead this weekend with no overly marquee matchups in either boxing or MMA. HBO is running a show featuring two of its younger champions fighting in two main events in different countries. The main fight sees Amir Khan taking what is essentially a keep busy fight against Paul McCloskey before he takes on Timothy Bradley mid this year for the unified Junior Welterweight championship. In the other main event, Andre Berto defends his WBC Welterweight title against Victor Ortiz. Also this weekend we have featherweight titlist Juan Manuel Lopez defending his title against Orlando Salido in Puerto Rico.

Amir Khan vs Paul McCloskey
Khan ended up settling on opponent Paul McCloskey for his hometown fight. I’ll be honest, I know nothing of McCloskey, I’ve had to “boxrec” him to find anything about him out at all. He’s the current European champion and there’s no one on his record who’s name I’m overly familiar with. Combine that with the facts; this is an optional defence for Khan and the promoters have been having lots of trouble selling TV rights to anyone in the UK and I don’t think McCloskey is going to cause Khan any serious threat. Khan seemes to get better with every fight under Freddie Roach, and he seems to take guys like McCloskey out quickly. The one thing I notice with Khan is that he has a significant loss in power aftter the first 4-5 rounds of a fight, somethindg I don’t think will be a problem in this fight but something I wanted to say to make it seem like I put a bit more into this fight then I actually did.
Amir Khan by knockout round 4.

Andre Berto vs Victor Ortiz
This is a fight that I think a few years ago no one would have predicted taking place, well at least not in this situation. Ortiz was being built up for a while as the next De La Hoya, until Marcos Maidana derailed him in their 2009 war. Ortiz was always featured on the marquee shows and there was hype around his fights, even when he fought the likes of Carlos Maussa and Jeffrey Resto. He headlined his own card fighting Mike Arnaoutis. Even after his loss to Maidana he was built back up; HBO wanted a four man tournament with Bradley-Alexander in one bracket and Khan-Ortiz in the other. The only problem was Ortiz had to get through Lamont Peterson on the Khan-Maidana undercard and he didn’t, they drew making the matchup unmarketable.
Andre Berto on the other hand was always fighting on the undercards of the lesser shows and he wasn’t given easy matchups. He fought David Estrada in what wasn’t a gimme fight on the Pavlik-Taylor I undercard. He fought Steve Forbes on the Mosley-Margarito undercard. They put him against Luis Collazo, a guy who had given both Ricky Hatton and Shane Mosley awkward nights. Berto is a fighter who has come up as old school as you can in the new age of boxing without taking a loss, he’s fought in hard fights that weren’t a guarantee he’d win against guys with different styles who were going to test him and he’s come through. Now they’re essentially feeding their failed pin-up boy to him to showcase their new up and coming star.
Ortiz has a chance in this fight. Despite what people say about his heart the kid comes to fight. He’s got knockout power in his hands and good boxing skills. But against Berto I think he’s going to be shut down by about the 4th round. Berto has an ability to shut guys down with his hand speed and Ortiz’s biggest problem is his lack of adaptability. He was winning his fight with Lamont Peterson handily and then Peterson made some adjustments and Ortiz couldn’t figure them out. Berto is every bit as skilled and quick and adaptable as Peterson, except his bigger, more experienced and battle tested. Ortiz is going to need everything to go his way for him to win this fight, and even then I think he’ll also have to hope Berto has a bad night.
Andre Berto on points.

Juan Manuel Lopez vs Orlando Salido
Lopez had a solid 2010, taking out WBO featherweight champion Steve Luevano in his 126lb debut then defending twice against Bernabe Concepcion in a two round war and closing the year out with another war against Rafael Marquez, stopping him after 8. Salido is a step down from those three, but has been around for a while having fought Juan Manuel Marquez and Roberto Guerrero a few years back (he actually beat Guerrero before he failed the drug test) and is coming off a closish points loss to Yuri Gamboa, the  man people have been calling for Juanma to fight. I guess thats why this fight has been made, Gamboa last year took Rogers Mtagwa out in two rounds after Mtagwa nearly took Juanma out in his previous fight. Now Juanma is looking to do the same I guess. Salido has a good chin, so he’ll probably hang around for a while, but he won’t pose a serious threat for Lopez who’ll score a late stoppage or a wide decision win. Hopefully this sets up the much hyped fight with Gamboa, a fight I like the Cuban in by knockout. Also in action is junior lightweight prospect Luis Cruz who takes on Martin Honorio.
Juan Manuel Lopez by knockout round 11.

Boxing Breakdown: Lopez vs Luevano/Gamboa vs Mtagwa

Two very exciting fights make up the first decent TV show of the new decade. Steve Luevano puts his WBO Featherweight belt on the line against former WBO Junior Featherweight champ Juan Manuel Lopez, who moves up in weight for the first time. Also on the card (I’m actually not sure which one is the main event) WBA Featherweight champion (well one of the two Featherweight titlists the WBA has) Yuri Gamboa puts his title on the line in his toughest test today against iron willed Roger Mtagwa. Both fights have the potential to be wars and we should get an early fight of the year candidate out of the card.

Lopez vs Luevano pits boxer against puncher in the classic style matchup. I don’t think Luevano is going to have the skills or power to keep Lopez at bay for long and I think Juanma is going to get into him early and batter him. Luevano will do well to last the distance as Lopez is just too powerful and will likely end this fight inside of 10 rounds. Gamboa-Mtagwa is one of those fights that has the potential to be something special or could just end up a one sided blowout. Gamboa has serious speed and power and if he boxes smart he’ll have an easy night of it but the trouble is that he never boxes smart. He likes to throw lots of hard punches and opens himself up in doing that. Mtagwa has an iron jaw, but I don’t think he’s fought anyone with Gamboa’s power. Yuri to make a statement tonight with a crushing knockout inside of six rounds.

Mayweather-Mosley pencilled in for May 1st

Floyd Mayweather seems to be skipping the March 13 head to head battle with Manny Pacquiao and will instead fight Shane Mosley in May. There is an obstacle before this fight can be made (well, with the same hype around it anyway).  Mosley has a tough task ahead of him in Andre Berto next weekend. It will be Mosley’s first fight in over a year since the destruction of Antonio Margarito and Berto definately has the tools to cause an upset should Mosley come in rusty. Still, Mayweather has been known to take on the name opponent even if they have lost their last fight, I mean everyone remembers the Judah fight back in 2006 when Mayweather fought Judah anyway after he lost his mandatory defence against Carlos Baldomir. Mosley lives a pretty clean lifestyle though and he should get past Berto which sets up a fight that has intruiged a lot of people over the years.

Mosley is one of the few guys who can match Floyd with his hand speed, even now in his late 30s he has tremendous hand speed but he also has world class power and an iron chin. Mayweather would probably be the favourite as his defence will be a big challenge for Mosley, but I think we should get to see Mayweather’s chin tested on a few occasions in this fight. This fight, while not being on the level of the Pacquiao bout, is the next best thing and is easily the toughest fight of Mayweather’s career. If Mosley looks good against Berto and comes into the fight with some good rounds under his belt compared to the Mayweather sparring session with Juan Manuel Marquez (his only rounds since he fought Hatton back in 2007) then you could see Mosley pulling off the upset. Mosley, in my opinion, is one of the more underrated fighters of the decade and while I really wanted to see Pacquiao-Mayweather like the rest of the world, I kind of wanted to see Mosley get his crack first. This is more reason to not go for Andre Berto next weekend.

I’m Back (again)

Apologies for the lack of anything over the last few months, my personal life got in the way and I just didn’t have the motivation to write anything on here. I’m back now and will make time to do what I usually do on here. Anyway, over the last few months:

- Dynamite was awesome as usual. I particularily enjoyed the extended MAX fight in the main event between Masato and Andy Souwer. Usually these guys have trouble getting warmed up over three rounds and to see them fight over five was very special. Main Event or someone should really pick this shit up and show it down here because its an awesome show and now with Sengoku’s roster available this is going to be a yearly highlight much like Shockwave was back in the day.

- The UFC slump appears to be over with some good fights coming up. The real highlight over the recent events was BJ Penn’s schooling of Diego Sanchez. Fuck fighting Frankie Edgar, this guy should vacate and earn a third fight with GSP by fighting Matt Hughes a third time (Hughes did beat him in their last fight) and then someone like Fitch.

- Pacquiao was awesome against Cotto and it’s extremely irritable that Mayweather came up with special demands in order to make the fight, demands that Pacquiao didn’t come to terms with. Mayweather is in no position to ask for procedures outside of what is required by the NSAC and the fact that the fight fell apart because of this really pisses me off. Pacquiao is not to blame here, he’s not some 2nd rate chump sho has to dance by Mayweathers tune. He’s the draw right now with his string of impressive KO wins while Mayweather is riding the momentum of outpointing a man three weight divisions below him. Hopefully Mosley makes mince meat of Berto and then him and Mayweather get it on, that’ll at least give me something to look forward to in the world of boxing.

- As for Danny Green, full respect for the win and full respect for chasing Bernard Hopkins, but Holyfield and Tyson? Seriously this shows the lack of boxing coverage down here if they want to sell these fights to us. No one gives a shit about those two anywhere else in the world anymore. Green needs to call out Chad Dawson if he wants to prove he is the best. And one more thing, Green is not a cruiserweight despite what his ‘world title’ suggests. He’s a light heavyweight who didn’t bother losing the 5lb to make it official in his last fight who picked up a belt that not many people care about in order to try and sell the Jones fight as something other then a 40 year old has been vs a decent contender. To go even further, Green is definately not the 2nd best Cruiserweight in the world which certain Australian boxing publications would have you believe.

Boxing Breakdown: Super Six Round One

The much anticipated Super Middleweight ‘Super Six’ series starts this weekend with two of the three first round matches taking place. For those of you not in the know, pictured above are the six competitors (from L-R Arthur Abraham, Mikkel Kessler, Carl Froch, some promoter, Andre Ward, Jermain Taylor and Andre Dirrell). I’m not sure how the entire format will work, but these men will fight off over the next year to see who is the best. The only top 168lbers not in this tournament are Lucian Bute and Librado Andrade who will fight their rematch later this year. Fighting this weekend are Arthur Abraham and Jermain Taylor as well as Carl Froch vs Andre Dirrell with Kessler-Ward taking place next month.

 This is the first time in a while I’ve gone back and forth so much on not one fight in a weekend, but two big fights. Both of these matchups are even and there’s a lot of variables to take into place such as the fight locations, the fighters weights and their recent results. It’s hard to make any sort of confident prediction with these two fights.

Arthur Abraham vs Jermain Taylor
When these two held their respective belts at 160lbs I always thought Taylor would beat Abraham should they meet. My tune has changed over time and now, especially at 168lbs, I think Abraham is the strong favourite but I’m not at all confident in that prediction for a number of reasons. Abraham is still yet to face someone in the league of a Jermain Taylor. Most of his wins have been over 2nd rate Middleweights with the odd exception (mainly being Edison Miranda who was a dangerous contender when he fought Abraham the first time). However, Abraham has to be the more confident of the two going in with Taylor losing his last fight by knockout to Carl Froch and losing two fights not long before that to Kelly Pavlik. Taylor’s been saying that he has fixed his conditioning problem but if this fight gets to the 6th and 7th rounds again I’m sure we’ll see Taylor revert back to fighting only 30 seconds of each round as he’ll start to question his conditioning again. Abraham has said for a while that he’s been struggling to make 160lbs and this can be backed up by the performance in his one fight north of middleweight in the rematch with Edison Miranda. Another factor to take into account is that this fight is in Germany and will be the first time that Taylor has fought outside of the USA. Taylor should dominate early with his jab and Abraham is a slow starter who likes to get his defence set before launching his offence, but I think come the 4th and 5th round Abraham will take over and his punching power should be too much for a fatigued Taylor around the 10-11 round mark. Arthur Abraham by 11th round knockout.

Andre Dirrell vs Carl Froch
I’ve been scratching my head about this fight for the last few weeks. Froch is such an ugly fighter to watch with his hands down, chin in the air lunging style of his but he’s so effective at it. His defence is horrendous early in a fight but he seems to figure out his opponents angles and adjusts his defence as the rounds go on as he did against Jean Pascal and Jermain Taylor. Dirrell is your typical ex-amateur star who has excellent footwork, handspeed and combinations without the devastating one punch power. There’s no doubt who the more experienced of the two is and it’ll be interesting to see how Dirrell makes the adjustment from fighting guys like Anthony Hanshaw and Victor Oganov to fighting one of the big names in the division. The other big factor here is that Dirrell is fighting in Froch’s backyard which is good to see from a young prospect, especially an American one as the US fighters tend to like to fight in their country. I think two big questions that could decide this fight are how Froch deals with Dirrell from the southpaw stance as his awkward defensive approach could spell trouble against a straight left hand from a southpaw and how Dirrell’s conditioning will be in the second half of a tough fight against a world class fighter like Froch. I’ve been leaning towards Dirrell to pull off the upset and I’m going to stick with it. I think his handspeed and footwork combined with the youth and hunger that Jermain Taylor didn’t have against Froch will see Dirrell be able to repeatedly hurt Froch throughout the fight and score a stoppage in the mid-late rounds. Andre Dirrell by 8th round knockout.`

Tua jump starts career with KO victory over Cameron

 

 

David Tua pushed himself back into heavyweight contention yesterday. Sure the fight with New Zealand rival Shane Cameron only lasted 13 seconds into the 2nd round, but the head movement and hand speed that got boxing fans excited back the late 1990′s that suddenly disappeared just as he reached the top appeared to be back as well as the always devastating punching power that led to three knockdowns inside a 50 second period. Even if Tua turns out to only have the gas tank to fight like this for a few rounds (it’s better then the few minutes he had been fighting like that the last time we saw him) if he can explode on heavyweights like he exploded on Cameron for the first few rounds that single handedly makes him the most exciting heavyweight in the game right now.

I’ve heard people calling for him to get a title shot right off the bat. That’s crazy talk and it should be met with a backhander as far as I’m concerned. Tua needs to get back in the ring in the next two months and fight again and he needs at least three or four more fights before he’s ready to go against one of the Klitschko’s. The Klitschko’s both have nearly a foot in height over Tua and have been fighting regularily so Tua’s going to have to work to get inside and if he doesn’t have more then three minutes of fight time in the bank he’s going to struggle against the Klitschko’s when they start spearing him with their jab and taking him to deep water like they do. Give Tua Rahman or give him McCline. Just give him guys who could take him rounds but guys who have looked right for the taking in recent times. If he can’t beat these guys he doesn’t deserve a title shot. I’d rather not see Tua get another title shot then see him get one when he’s under done. Still it’s good to see Tua back fighting as a headliner rather then on some shitty card in the States. All the years that John Ruiz has stunk the place out (actually I’d pay to see a rematch with him and Tua) the thought of Tua’s 17 second destruction has kept me hopeful that someone else will do the exact same thing to him. The Heavyweight division got a little better with last nights main event.

Not only was the return of Tua great, but the riddance of John Hopoate just made me smile. Finally a good domestic fighter did what should have always been done to Hopoate. I admit I was starting to buy into a little bt of the hype but deep down inside I knew this guy couldn’t be the best Heavyweight boxer in this country and when Wilson dropped him I jumped out of my seat the way I did when Kostya Tszyu decked Zab Judah to win the Undisputed Junior Welterweight title back in 2001. Hopoate just had no skill level, he was a strong fit guy who could throw a right hand but his jab is limp dick, his head movement is non existant and he couldn’t counter punch his way out of a wet paper bag. I always like Colin Wilson as he was your typical blue collar worker who just got in there and always had a good crack at it and this only made me a bigger fan. Hopefully Wilson can get a good payday out of this (and hopefully it’s not against Bob Mirovic).

The undercard also saw two excellent battles in the Cruiserweight and Junior Middleweight divisions. Daniel Ammann outpointed Lawrence Tuassa over six rounds in one of the earlier bouts of the evening. Tuassa had his moments early in the fight but Ammann’s workrate was just too much. I have no idea what Jeff Fenech and Bob Sheridan were watching because anything less then a 59-55 card in favour of Ammann (let alone a fucking draw) would have been criminal. Ammann appears to be a strong and tough customer as he manhandled Tuassa in the clinches and took some bombs without flinching. His skills aren’t top notch by any means but from what I’ve been told he had few amateur fights and has fought most of his career as a pro so they’re going to improve. It will be interesting to see how far he goes. The third fight between him and Dominic Vea has to happen. The other fight on the card worth noting was the opening fight of the evening between Steve Heremaia and Frank Laporto. Heremaia dropped Frank twice in the opening round and showed excellent head movement and punching power but La Porto fought back to take the middle rounds and looked to have Heremaia out on his feet in the fifth only for Steve to rally and win the final round and the decision. I’d love to see a rematch between these two over ten rounds.

Vernon Forrest killed in robbery

Former World Welterweight Champion and current WBC Junior Middleweight titlist Vernon Forrest was murdered yesterday during an attempted car jacking. From what I’ve read Forrest was at a gas station filling his tires when a man robbed him. Forrest was armed himself and pulled out his gun when a second man shot him in the back with a semi automatic gun eight or nine times. With the recent deaths of Arturo Gatti and Alexis Arguello, this is more sad news for the boxing public. Forrest wasn’t a great fighter, but he was certainly a good one who’s career was shortened by injuries.

I was going to write up a bio of Forrest’s career, but I don’t think I can top the one at ‘Bad Left Hook’ so here it is:

http://www.badlefthook.com/2009/7/27/964081/styles-make-fights-the-career-of

I will say that Forrest-Mosley I was one of my favourite fights even though I’m a huge Mosley fan. I was also a big fan of Forrest but lost a little hope in him when he fought sparingly between the loss to Mayorga in the rematch and his 2nd stint as a top fighter. I was glad to have watched his final fight against Sergio Mora in which he dominated and I’m sad that he didn’t get to further defend his belt and maybe go out with another big fight down the line. Hopefully the scumbag cunts that did this are brought to justice.

Rest in Peace

Combat Sports over the weekend

A lot happened during my recent absence and I can’t be fucked writing seperate articles for everything so here it is in brief format:

Hopoate outpointed Mirovic at Super Boxer last Thursday. This was by far the worst card so far with the main event somehow managing to eclipse the first fight in terms of being boring as all fuck. Mirovic did alright early but once Hopoate started landing he went into his shell and resorted to holding. He lost a point in the 9th round for repeated holding (a call I can’t dispute because I actually fell asleep in the 8th). The undercard was pretty ordinary with a bullshit stoppage for Ben Edwards (the guy maybe deserved an eight count and he was outclassed, but you’ve got to let him fight I mean it’s professional boxing, I’ve seen amateurs more outclassed then that and allowed to continue), a decent fight between Erin McGowan and Angie Parr in which McGowan won on points and a mismatch n the first fight that went the distance.

Fox Sports however gave me some more fuel for the fire I’ve lit in terms of referees sucking in this country. The Rob Medley fight was a disgrace by the referee. He took a point off for holding when the guy was punching back and doing alright even though he was losing. He repeatedly warned the import for nothing and even when Medley fouled he warned the import for doing nothing. The stoppage and the footwear was bizzare, but the other guy quit because the referee was that bad. Something seriously has to be done about refereeing in this country because we’re starting to get the reputation that Germany had a few years ago in terms of bad places to come and fight the home town fighter. If I was an overseas fighter I wouldn’t come to Australia to fight based off the recent performances. Australian officiating is that far behind the rest of the boxing world that it’s become serious.

Now for the big MMA news, Affliction: Trilogy is off and Affliction is dead as a fight promoter. They were gonna merge with Strikeforce, but Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker is on holidays and they couldn’t make the deal. So now Affliction has been bought out by the UFC with from what I understand the UFC getting the fight library, some of the contracts and first crack at signing the rest of the fighters under contract. The big possibility here is that Fedor is signed and the fight with Lesnar made, but I’m skeptical. Fedor and his management won’t have changed their tune and will want a co-promotion with M-1 Global for the fight to be made and still probably want an open contract. Vitor Belfort is likely to be signed and will be a nice addition to the middleweight picture. Affliction will now act as a major sponsor for the UFC and fighters will be allowed to wear Affliction T-shirts in the Octagon again (not when they fight of course).

Also news is that Tito Ortiz could be returning to the UFC and could be facing Rich Franklin instead of the Franklin-Henderson rematch at the main event of UFC 103. A press release has been scheduled for Saturday for some ‘big announcements.’

Cotto vs Pacquiao November 14!

Bob Arum today announced that WBO 147lb champion Miguel Cotto and World 140lb champion Manny Pacquiao have come to terms and will fight November 14th in Las Vegas. Details on which weight division the fight will be held in as well as what titles are on the line will come out shortly, but if all goes to plan this should be a mega fight. Cotto brings the huge Puerto Rican fan base while Pacquiao is probably the name fighter in boxing right now. I’m hoping this fight takes place at 147 and not some catchweight as I’d like to see Pacquiao fight a bigger guy without making him drop below a weight that is comfortable. Either way, Pacquiao’s firepower should be too much for Cotto and I expect a stoppage before the 10th round. More soon…..

Boxing Breakdown: Super Boxer (23rd July)

The first batch of the Super Boxer series peaks tomorrow night with the long awaited rematch between Bob Mirovic and John Hopoate for the Australian Heavyweight title. I’m actually looking forward to this rematch a lot more then I did the first fight because I don’t have to go out to watch it and we know a bit more about Hopoate (11-3)since before the first fight. He’s had two stern tests since he stopped Mirovic (29-20-2) in battering US journeyman Cliff Couser and being battered by former WBC champion Oliver McCall. I really fought Bob fought a terrible fight the first time they met. He usually controls center ring but he gave it up against Hopoate and didn’t once try and back him up. I think Bob can win this fight if he can back Hoppa up, but whether he can at his age and the ring rust he’ll have from 10 months out of the ring is the big question. Hopoate has no doubt improved since that fight and I think this fight is his to win. I think this one goes the full ten rounds with Mirovic doing well early, but not having the speed to keep Hopoate off him or the conditioning to handle his rushes. Hopoate by unanimous decision.

The undercard had the explosive fight between kickboxing star Ben Edwards (who holds a first round knockout over Hopoate) and Royce Sio (who knocked out Solomon Haumono in one before ground and pounding his way to a DQ loss), but it’s apparently been scrapped. In the first Super Boxer women’s fight, undefeated Erin McGowan (10-0) takes on Angie Parr (2-1 plus a heap of kickboxing fights) over six rounds. Rookies Ged O’Mahny (pro debut) and Bruce MacFie (0-4) battle over four at Middleweight and Heavyweight Steve Ciappara (4-2-1) returns for the first time in over a year against Arnold Pelman (2-0-1) in a four rounder.