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?)

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.