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?)

Boxing Breakdown: Pavlik vs Rubio, Cotto vs Jennings

I’ve got no need to go into these fights anymore then they need to be gone into. Let’s call a spade a spade; these two (Rubio and Jennings) are being fed to Pavlik and Cotto who are border line top ten pound for pounders if not just inside the ten. Both Cotto and Pavlik are coming off losses and these are two highly ranked (ABC rankings anyway) contenders for them to work off any effects from the losses against.

Kelly Pavlik vs Marco Antonio Rubio
(World Middleweight Championship)
Prediction- Pavlik by 3rd round KO
Pavlik is coming off the half schooling/half beating he took from Bernard Hopkins at a higher weight and is fighting at his natural weight. His opponent, Marco Antonio Rubio, is the WBC mandatory but definately isn’t one of the top contenders in this division. The last fight I remember seeing of him before he earned his mandatory on the Pavlik-Hopkins card, he got iced by Kofi Jantuah in 33 seconds. That fight was nearly five years ago, and he’s gone 16-2 since with decision losses to Kassim Ouma and Zaurbek Baysangurov.
Still, in his last fight against Enrique Ornelas, he appeared to still carry the slow starting habbit. Rubio will definately be a chance if he can take Pavlik past six rounds and if Pavlik isn’t in tip top shape, but it’s likely if the fight goes that long that Rubio will be too  busted up to rally anyway. I think Pavlik will batter him from the start and I’ll be surprised if Rubio sees it past the first four rounds. Pavlik has too much firepower for someone with limited defence like Rubio and I think that unless he is gun shy after failing to land any significant punches on the Executioner last October, that he’ll find his range quickly and make an example of Rubio.

Miguel Cotto vs Michael Jennings
(WBO Welterweight title)
Prediction- Cotto by 5th round KO
I have never seen Jennings and I know very little about him other then he’s British. I very much doubt Cotto’s handlers are after anything other then a workout before the then proposed rematch with Margarito took place, so I don’t expect Jennings to be up to much of a standard. Cotto will break him down with body shots and probably drop him a handful of times before Jennings can’t take anymore. Jennings will likely be tough and game, but Cotto will prove to be a few levels too far for him.

Undercard Action
Two good matchups on the undercard featuring two good prospects. Lightweight contender Anthony Peterson takes on recent World title challenger and always handy Edner Cherry. This will be a good test for Peterson and one I expect him to pass with flying colours if he is to at all impact the packed 135lb division. Also fighting is John Duddy, who has fallen off the radar somewhat after his rumoured fight with Kelly Pavlik for early last year fell through following the complete lack of defence he showed on the Pavlik-Taylor II undercard last year. Duddy’s opponent is Matt Vanda, who always comes to fight and will give Duddy a good workout but shouldn’t cause the upset.

This week in fight sports (February 14)

No this isn’t a new segment and I won’t be doing this very often if ever again, but there’s been a whole bunch of things go on the last few days and I’ve been bust at work so I thought I’d address as many of them as I can in one article.’

Mundine decisions Taylor, calls out Sturm
Mundine won a boring 12 round decision over Shannan Taylor again showing that he isn’t anywhere near a world class puncher as Taylor has been knocked out by smaller opponents before. Taylor resorted to fouling Mundine in the later rounds and probably should have been DQ’d. Mundine boxed well but didn’t take any chances and complained to the ref everytime Taylor mounted an offence. After the fight Mundine decided that since Green has come out of retirement, all of a sudden he doesn’t need to fight him (after he’s called him out ever since Green retired) an said he’ll be fighting Felix Sturm in Germany to ‘avenge his loss to Ottke.’ Hopefully Sturm cleans his clock.

Tank Abbott and Ken Shamrock score wins, set up super fight
Tank Abbott and Ken Shamrock showed yesterday that their recent losses were all flukes by dominating quality opposition yesterday. Tank scored a 29 second KO win over PRIDE veteran Mike Bourke, dropping him with a right hand and finishing him off with ground and pound. The performance was in the league of Rampage Jacksons win in the third fight against Wanderlei Silva although it’s debatable which knockout was more impressive. Ken Shamrock gave up 180lbs in weight but dominated submission specialist Ross Clifton. In a fight that made Arlovski’s first win over Tim Sylvia look normal, Shamrock dropped his opponent with a right hand before finishing with an armbar from side control. The pair are expected to fight in the middle of this year. Shamrock promised to end Tanks career if he doesn’t ‘put his beer down and get in the gym’ while Tank said he wished it was Ken Shamrock who was eating his right hand instead and told the fans to have a beer for him.

Margarito gets one year ban
Antonio Margarito has been suspended for one year for the plastering of the hands incident in his fight with Shane Mosley. This whole thing sucks to be perfectly honest. While I don’t think Margarito should be punished for something that his corner did, the whole incident puts a question mark on some of Margarito’s best performances. While a lot of precaution is taken by officials before the fights and I’m sure that if he had tried it before hand he would probably have been caught, you can’t help but wonder if Margarito has cheated before. If Margarito’s ban doesn’t get overturned I don’t think we’ll see him fight on US soil ever again. The fight puts an end to a likely rematch with Miguel Cotto that was set up for mid this year but could also pave the way for the Mosley-Cotto rematch we all want to see.

Canadian officials ask UFC to bend over for April event
UFC 97: Redemption is in jeopardy after the Quebec governing body that deals with combat sports wants the UFC to change their rules in order for the event to comply with their standards. The changes include no knees, no elbows and the referee checking on a fighters condition in the event of a knockdown before the fight continues. So basically, they want some fucked up hybrid sport with punching, kicking and grappling like a slightly more violent version of Pancrase. Dana White should remind them what the UFC will do for their economy and if he doesn’t budge then tell them to go shit in their hat and pull it over their ears and take the event to Vegas.

Nate Campbell loses titles on scale
Instead of losing his titles in the ring to Ali Funeka, Campbell weighed in at 138lbs, 3lb over the 135lb Lightweight limit and forfeited his belts. The titles are still on the line for Funeka should he be victorious but it further frustrates fans as what is the most talent rich division in boxing again gets put on hold from fighters not making weight. Hopefully Funeka tears Campbell a new one and then doesn’t take the titles back to South Africa and instead does what Campbell would have and fight the winner of Juan Manuel Marquez and Juan Diaz. Still, Campbell moving up sucks because there was a few good fights involving him including a rematch with Juan Diaz. Maybe Campbell and Guzman can try and fight each other again (Guzman failed to make weight for their clash last September) at 140lbs with a 5lb allowance.

Mosley turns back clock; stops Margarito

‘Sugar’ Shane Mosley turned back the clock yesterday and put on the best performance of his 16 year career scoring a one sided 9th round TKO win over WBA champion Antonio Margarito. Mosley dominated the fight with his blistering hand speed, landing solid right hands frequently throughout the fight. Margarito showed his trademark toughness as he took many bombs every round yet walked through them. However, Mosley proved that no matter how tough the boxer, everyone has their limits and Margarito finally went down after eight rounds of brutal punishment. Margarito bravely answered the bell for the 9th round, but Mosley pounced and cornered Margarito delivering unanswered shots that forced Magarito’s corner to throw in the towel after he went down a second time.

The performance quite simply was unbelievable. Mosley’s firepower looked the best it had since before he lost his ’0′ to Vernon Forrest back in 2002. His handspeed made Miguel Cotto look sluggish in his fight with Margarito last year. The big factor in the fight in my opinion was the ease with which Mosley both stayed off the ropes and tied Margarito up after he’d land his combinations. Margarito looked like an amatuer as he followed Mosley around and took heavy shots. Credit must go to Margarito for lasting until the 9th round because there wouldn’t be another fighter in history who could take that sort of punishment for nine rounds. Still, Mosley looked the best he’s ever looked. His gameplan was perfect as he attacked Margarito instead of trying to outbox him and once he got him backing up the fight was his. He countered Margarito’s attacks with heavy right hands throughout the contest which managed to slow down Margarito’s output and didn’t let up at all in any round.

This leaves the Welterweight division in an interesting state. No doubt after this performance that Mosley is the top dog, but not too long ago the division was all about Miguel Cotto and Paul Williams after Mayweather retired. Williams had just beaten Margarito and Cotto had beaten Shane Mosley. Williams has now moved up after splitting fights with Carlos Quintana (the 2nd of those he won with a brutal first round KO) and is out of the picture as I can’t imagine him making 147lbs again. Cotto then lost to Margarito who just lost to Mosley. So you have the top three guys all having split fights with one another. I think the best way to sort this out is to go ahead with Cotto-Margarito II and give the winner a rematch with Mosley. The winner of that fight would leave no doubt as to who the real champion is. Maybe Mosley-Berto or Mosley-Clottey could be made in the mean time to keep Sugar Shane busy?

As far as this fight goes for Mosley’s legacy, it’s freakin’ huge! I’ve always thought Mosley was a great fighter and an underrated fighter in the modern era. Sure he dropped two decisions to both Vernon Forrest and Winky Wright, but those are two guys that no one else in their division would fight. Wright was naturally bigger then Mosley being a fully fledged Junior Middleweight and Forrest just had the style to beat Mosley. The facts are, Mosley was the best Lightweight in the World for a few years, he was the best Welterweight in the World for two years and is the best again now and he held titles at Junior Middleweight as well as the linear title (I’ll refrain from calling him the best fighter at that weight because the decision over De La Hoya was controversial and he lost his titles to the other titlist Wright in his first defence). Then you’ve got the guys he beat; Oscar De La Hoya twice, Antonio Margarito, Fernando Vargas twice, Ricardo Mayorga, Luis Collazo and Jesse James Leija. Considering most of those fights came at Welterweight and above that’s a serious resume’ for a guy who started as a Lightweight.

The fight was not without controversy as Mosley’s trainer called a member of the California State Athletic Commission over to examine a ‘plaster like substance’ on Margarito’s handwraps. Margarito’s hands were re-wrapped and the CSAC took the ‘plastered’ handwraps as evidence and will conduct a full investigation into the incident. This is a very serious allegation as it’s cheating but to the point where it endangers another fighter in the ring. Boxers have been given life bans in the past for this offence and I hope Margarito hasn’t tainted what should be a memorable fight with a controversy like this.

Note- normally I’d make up my scorecard and post it on here, since this takes less effort (it’s Australia day after all), I scored every round for Mosley.

Boxing Breakdown: Antonio Margarito vs Shane Mosley

The first big fight of the year takes place this weekend with consensus #1 World Welterweight Champion defending his WBA (and rightful IBF) World title against Ring Magazine #3 Welterweight and former three weight World Champion ‘Sugar’ Shane Mosley. Despite Mosley being a heavy underdog in a lot of peoples eyes, I find it hard to make someone as great as Mosley who hasn’t shown completely obvious signs of slowing down a 4-1 underdog against anyone. While I think Margarito is definately the favourite in this fight, Mosley should never be counted out against anyone. The guys who have beaten him in the past have outboxed him. No one has ever had success trying to trade punches with Mosley as he is tough as nails and has carried his power to every weight division he’s ever fought in. That is what makes this fight interesting.
There are a few normally big factors that in this fight I find completely irrelevant. For one I don’t think it matters who hits harder in this fight. Both guys can take a punch and I think both guys will take a lot of punches in this fight. I think Mosley has a slight edge in one punch power but I doubt very much that this fight will be decided on a flash knockout. I also don’t think Margarito’s inability to block any punches with anything but his face will play a big part in this fight because that’s the way he fights. However, there’s a few factors that will play a big part in who wins this fight.

Speed
Obviously the speed advantage in this fight has to go to Mosley. Mosley has moved up all the way from lightweight and he was quicker then probably everyone at that weight class as well. Margarito puts his punches together well on the inside, but he lacks the blistering speed of a Mosley or a Mayweather. Mosley can put together large numbers of hard punches with great speed and it’s something he’ll need to be able to do in this fight to keep Margarito at bay.
Advantage- Mosley

The Jab
This is a very interesting factor in this fight. Both guys have never had great jabs. Mosley flicks his jab out more as a distraction to set up his power shots and Margarito uses his jab more as a measuring stick to get himself on the inside. Both guys are very inaccurate with their jabs and often get into a habbit of not throwing enough of them. In Mosley’s last fight against Mayorga he threw very few jabs (183 in 12 rounds according to Compubox) which is something he can’t afford to do against Margarito. Margarito also has the same problem as often he gets lazy and doesn’t throw his jab. In his losing effort against Paul Williams, Margarito threw just 61 jabs in 12 rounds! In his recent fights where Margarito has arguably looked the best of his career, he threw 340 jabs against Miguel Cotto (even though he only landed 30 thats how Margarito uses his jab), and against Kermit Cintro in the rematch he threw 160 jabs (landing 50) in just over five rounds. It’s obvious that both guys have a lot more success when they throw punches, but I give the edge in jabbing in this fight to Margarito. Mosley has the quicker, harder jab and it’s better technically, but Margarito’s jab does it’s job and if he throws it in large numbers it’ll make it that much harder for Mosley to keep him off.
Slight Edge- Margarito (big edge if he uses it)

Workrate/Stamina
Margarito is the workrate king. He holds the compubox record for most punches thrown in a fight (1,675 in 12 rounds). Margarito usually throws over 100 punches per round and when he doesn’t, he gets himself in trouble. Again, against Paul Williams in the last fight he lost, Margarito threw just 650 punches in 12 rounds. Still, since then Margarito seems to have found his form again and his workrate could prove too much for the passive by comparison Mosley. Mosley throws between 30-70 punches a round and will need to be at the high end of that to stand a chance in this fight. In his fight with Mayorga he threw just 400 punches in the entire fight. That sort of work rate will not be enough against Margarito. Mosley also had some noticable conditioning problems against Cotto and seemed to have trouble keeping the pace up. He finished the fight strong, but he was tired in the middle rounds and against Margarito he won’t be able to show any sort of conditioning weakness.
Big Edge- Margarito

Boxing Ability
Mosley has a big edge in this department. Margarito is crude compared to your classic boxer but what he does is extremely effective. Mosley on the other hand is an accomplished amatuer boxer who uses good defensive moves and counter punchers very effectively. I really don’t think there’s a fighter out there who could hang with Margarito in a war, but plenty of guys have shown they can outbox him. Williams did it and Cotto was doing it for the first six rounds of their fight. Mosley’s boxing skills give him a good shot at outboxing Margarito over 12 rounds or even to set up what would be an unlikely stoppage win.
Big Edge- Mosley

Durability
To my knowledge (I can’t be fucked checking boxrec to see if Margarito has been KO’d before), neither guy has ever been KO’d. I’d be surprised if Margarito has ever been knocked down. Mosley has been down twice in the one fight against Vernon Forrest in their first encounter although he had come off on the wrong end of a nasty headclash moments before the knockdowns. Both guys are as tough as they come, but I have to give the edge here to Margarito. He’ll take Mosley’s punches better then Mosley takes his. If both guys land equally Margarito will be the one who comes out on top.
Edge- Margarito

Ring Rust
Mosley hasn’t been fighting that much lately, although all of his last three fights have gone at least to 2:59 of the 12th round. Still, those three fights have taken place over the last 24 months. Margarito fought twice last year as well as late 2007 and in July 2007 against Paul Williams. Margarito has a big edge here especially with the style of fight he brings. If Mosley has trouble going the 12 rounds at a solid pace because of a lack of ring time, Margarito is going to punish him as soon as he slows down.
Big Edge- Mosley

Physical Strength
Mosley is definately a strong guy for his weight. I’ve heard stories that he can bench press over 400lbs! However I feel Margarito is the stronger man out of the two. Mosley has had troubles with stronger guys in the past like his recent fight with Ricardo Mayorga where he had trouble keeping the Nicaraguan away from him due to his physical strength. Also in his first fight with Fernando Vargas, Mosley had a lot of problems keeping Vargas on the end of his punches in the middle rounds. I think a big part of Mosley’s game is his ability to outmuscle guys who try and get inside to nullify his speed advantage and when he doesn’t have that strength advantage he doesn’t look like the same fighter he is otherwise. He may be able to handle Margarito on the inside, but I find it unlikely and if he can I doubt he’ll handle him a the fight gets older.
Big Edge- Margarito

Prediction
As much as I like Mosley, I have to go with the ‘Tijuana Tornado’ in this fight. He’s too young, too strong, too aggressive and too active for the ageing Mosley. I think Mosley will get the better of the fight early, but will be broken down by Margarito’s body work and will tire in the middle rounds. Once he tires, Margarito won’t let him back in the fight and will batter him until the final bell or until he falls down. I don’t think I could pick anyone over Mosley by stoppage until it’s already been done because he’s such a tough bastard, but I think if anyone can finish him, Margarito is the man to do it. I think Shane will gut it out but lose big on the cards. Antonio Margarito by unanimous decision.

Miguel Cotto vs Antonio Margarito

This could very well have been fight of the year had one of the greatest fights of all-time (in this writers opinion anyway) already happened earlier in the year. I don’t think anything will top the third fight between Rafael Marquez and Israel Vazquez. The best any fight will do is come a close second to that amazing fight. Honestly, that fight is up there among my all-time greatest fights list and if you haven’t seen it you need to do so.

Before I get into this fight, I’m going to have an obligatory bitch about the sanctioning bodies, this is just a warning in case you want to skip to the next paragraph. Why the fuck did the IBF strip Antonio Margarito of his title for fighting the best welterweight in the World? When a fighter of Mayweathers stature retires, you need the top guys fighting and unifying the titles. It takes a lot of credibility away in the eyes of the uneducated fans when the winner of this fight walks away with just one of the major titles and some other lesser fighter pops up and takes the title that rightfully belongs to the winner of the unification bout, and then starts claiming they’re a world champion. It’s just so retarded and petty that these idiots who run the sanctioning bodies can’t get along for the greater good (that being making boxing a more credible sport). As long as boxing keeps this way, it won’t ever come close to reaching the heights it once reached.

Enough politics, onto the fight. This should be a war, both guys like to throw punches and both guys like to do it for 12 rounds. I give both the edge in power and durability to Antonio Margarito, but I give a big edge in boxing ability to Miguel Cotto. In the past Cotto has looked shaky when he takes a good shot on the chin, well in this fight he’ll be up against the hardest puncher he’s ever faced. Margarito has murderous power and if he lands solidly on Cotto, especially early in the fight before Cotto adjusts to his power, he could win this fight by knockout. In saying that though, Cotto’s shaky chin could very well be down to the enormous amount of weight he used to have to sweat out in order to make 140lbs, because since he moved to 147lbs he hasn’t had that problem. He also hasn’t faced someone of Margaritos power.

Margarito has a granite chin, and I think Cotto will have to break him down if he’s to win this fight inside the 12 rounds. The only other fighter out there who can break a man down like Cotto in my opinion is Kelly Pavlik. Cotto is the quintessential pressure fighter, as he seems to get stronger as the fight goes on. His body shots just kill people and he doesn’t let up his pace throughout the 12 rounds. I give the edge in stamina to Cotto and I think the longer this fight goes on, the less chance Margarito has of finding the punches to put Cotto away. Margarito has good stamina as well, but he seems to struggle with the pace more against Cotto-esque opponents then he does with movers like Paul Williams. The way Cotto works the body and the pace he fights at, Margarito will have trouble keeping up as the fight gets into the later rounds.

There’s really two extremes in this fight in terms of which way it will go. Either Margarito will catch Cotto cold in the first 4-6 (at most eight) rounds before he’s adjusted to Margaritos power, or Cotto will break him down and punish him in the later rounds to either take a hard fought points decision or score a late stoppage (sometime after the 6th round). I can’t see Margarito being able to handle Cotto in the later rounds unless he lays down an almighty beating early on (which I can’t see Cotto being able to stand up to) that renders him useless in the later rounds. I also can’t see Cotto being able to take a fresh Margarito out early in the fight, Margarito is as tough as they come and he’ll take a beating before he goes down. My prediction- Cotto to win by 11th round stoppage, although I have a funny feeling that Margarito will chin him in the 5th.