2008 Angry Fight Fan Boxing Awards

These are a little late compared to a lot of other sites, but I wanted to wait until the year was officially over before I put these up. My MMA ones will be up in a week or so. These are entirely my opinion and feel free to have a go at me in the comments section and I’ll happily debate any of my picks.

Fight of the Year- Israel Vazquez SD12 Rafael Marquez (March 1st).
Round of the Year- 4th- Israel Vazquez SD12 Rafael Marquez.
Seriously if you haven’t see this fight go and see it. It’s one of my personal all-time favourite fights and considering that I’m very old school in my opinions and don’t let new fads change my picks too much that’s saying something. There’s only three fights in the last ten years that I consider up there with some of my more classic choices and this is one of them (along with Barrera-Morales I and Castillo-Corrales I). A lot of people overlook this trilogy because therse guys are only 122lbs which is complete crap. A lot of ‘fans’ say they don’t like the little guys, but seriously, where do you draw the line? If you will watch Featherweights whats the big deal with the 4lbs less for the Junior Feathers? Whats the big deal with the 21lbs to Minimumweight?
You’d all think I was crazy if I said I don’t watch anything below Cruiserweight because the next division is 25lbs smaller when those fights are usually the best yet people draw the line at other places and it’s crap. These guys in the lower classes fight just as hard, if not harder then the other guys and get little credit and anyone who has seen this fight knows exactly what I mean. These guys left it all in the ring and the action see-sawed throughout every round. Marquez got the better of the first six rounds including knocking Vazquez down in the 4th round only for Vazquez to get up and rock Marquez in return. The two then exchanged hard blows until the bell with both men getting rocked again in the final 30 seconds (youtube clip provided below). Vazquez came back to steal the fight with a 12th round knockdown, winning a split decision. There was about six or seven rounds that could have gone either way (if you scored all of them for one fighter you’re a moron I might add) and everytime I’ve watched this fight I’ve scored a few rounds different. This truly was one of the greatest fights of all-time and if you haven’t watched it, go find someone who has a copy of it and check it out. Here’s a taste and my pick for round of the year:

Honourable Mentions (Fight of the Year)- Antonio Margarito TKO11 Miguel Cotto (July 26th), Manny Pacquiao SD12 Juan Manuel Marquez (March 15th), Joel Casmayor TKO10 Michael Katsidis (March 22nd).
Previous Winners- Israel Vazquez TKO6 Rafael Marquez (2007), Somsak Sithchatchawal TKO10 Mayhar Monshipour (2006), Diego Corrales TKO10 Jose Luis Castillo.
Honourable Mentions (Round of the Year)- 1st- Kendall Holt KO1 Ricardo Torres, 12th- Israel Vazquez SD12 Rafael Marquez, 2nd- Antonio Margarito vs Miguel Cotto.
Previous Winners- 3rd- Rafael Marquez TKO7 Israel Vazquez (2007), 10th- Somsak Sithchatchawal TKO10 Mayhar Monshipour (2006), 10th- Diego Corrales TKO10 Jose Luis Castillo (2005).

Fighter of the Year- Manny Pacquiao
Performance of the Year- Manny Pacquiao TKO8 Oscar De La Hoya (December 6th).

I have to admit, I was setting this article up in late November and I had Calzaghe pencilled in to the Fighter of the Year slot expecting De La Hoya to be too big for ’The Mexecutioner’ (sorry to any Mexicans reading this but I just love that name) and Pacquiao’s performance against David Diaz down for Performance of the Year (although that was a toss-up between it and Hopkins schooling of Pavlik). Even though I made a big deal that his fight with Oscar would do nothing to his legacy should be lose, a SD over Marquez that I thought he lost and a TKO over David Diaz who I don’t rate and a loss aren’t enough to outdo Calzaghe’s downing of two legends despite one of them being more shot then Oscar. Despite plenty of people calling Oscar shot after their fight, Pacquiao definately shouldn’t have won that fight in such a one sided fashion unless he was the real deal. Despite Marquez giving Pacquiao all he could handle in their March thriller, Pacquiao proved that making 130lbs probably had something to do with it  after twice moving up in weight and one sidedly knocking out two very capable fighters. So for winning new World titles in two weight divisions in 12 months and for completely dominating two very good fighters (one of them a legend) and beating a fellow top five pound for pound fighter, Pacquiao wins two of my awards this year.
Honourable Mentions (Fighter of the Year)- Joe Calzaghe, Antonio Margarito, Juan Manuel Marquez.
Previous Winners- Floyd Mayweather Jnr (2007), Manny Pacquiao (2006), Jermain Taylor (2005).
Honourable Mentions (Performance of the Year)-  Manny Pacquiao KO9 David Diaz, Bernard Hopkins UD12 Kelly Pavlik, Vic Darchinyan KO9 Cristian Mijares.
Previous Winners- Ricky Hatton KO4 Jose Luis Castillo (2007), Joe Calzaghe UD12 Jeff Lacy (2006), Floyd Mayweather jnr TKO6 Arturo Gatti (2005).

Knockout of the Year- Juan Urango KO4 Carlos Vilches
When it comes to knockouts, I find it best to explain it by just showing it! Enjoy!

Honourable Mentions- Antonio Margarito KO6 Kermit Cintron, Shane Mosley KO12 Ricardo Mayorga, Manny Pacquiao KO9 David Diaz.
Previous Winners- Nonito Donaire KO5 Vic Darchinyan (2007), Daniel Ponce de Leon KO1 Sod Looknongyangtoy (2006), Allan Green KO1 Jaidon Codrington (2005).

Upset of the Year- Nate Campbell SD12 Juan Diaz
No one seemed to be able to touch Diaz in the lightweight division and not many expected him to be beaten until he moved up a weight division. This fight was somewhat overshadowed with David Haye’s unification fight with Enzo Maccarinelli as well as Oleg Maskaev’s defence of his WBC Heavyweight strap against dangerous contender Samuel Peter (the fight was on the undercard of this bout). Campbell had won three in a row in his hot and cold career that has seen him look like one of the World’s most dangerous fighters one day and look like a complete fool the next (see Campbell-Peden I). Diaz seemed to be taking over as he usually does by the midway point of the fight with his high output of punches although Campbell stayed in the pocket with him and traded hard leather. Everything changed with one punch in the 6th round. Campbell landed a left that opened a massive cut on Diaz’s left eye and although the referee incorrectly ruled it a headbutt and docked Campbell a point, Diaz wasn’t the same fighter after that. His punch output slowed down while Campbell was spurred on by the cut and the rare weakness that Diaz ever shows in the ring. Campbell dominated the later rounds as Diaz’s eye closed shut and he took a split decision as well as Diaz’s WBA, WBO and IBF Lightweight titles.
Honourable Mentions- Carlos Quintana UD12 Paul Williams, Vic Darchinyan KO9 Cristian Mijares, Breidis Prescott KO1 Amir Khan.
Previous Winners- Nonito Donaire KO5 Vic Darchinyan (2007), Carlos Baldomir UD12 Zab Judah (2006), Zahir Raheem UD12 Erik Morales. 

Event of the Year- Manny Pacquiao vs Juan Manuel Marquez
(By this I basically mean the biggest fight of the year without taking into account what actually happened in the ring. For example there were far better fights in 2002 then Lewis-Tyson, but that one was the highlight event of the year).
I really didn’t buy into De La Hoya-Pacquiao (as many who have read this site for a while will tell you) and I really can’t think of another fight that was as good a match-up as this one. I tend to go more for a hardcore fans perspective when picking these unless there’s an obvious pick like Lewis-Tyson or De La Hoya-Hopkins. This fight pitted the two best fighters in the 130-126lb division in a fight that had a long build up after their controversial draw in 2004. It was the culmination in a series of big fights between these two plus Erik Morales and Marco Antonio Barrera that saw this fight as the Finale after Marquez defeated Barrera (Pacquiao also defeated him after Marquez) and Pacquiao had defeated Morales. It was sort of like Hagler-Leonard of the 80′s rivalry of those two plus Duran and Hearns although over a shorter period of time. There were plenty of big fights and one’s that received a lot more attention then this fight, but this was the fight I looked forward to the most this year. It was two top five pound for pound fighters squaring off and the fight didn’t disappoint.
Honourable Mentions- Antonio Margarito vs Miguel Cotto, Kelly Pavlik vs Jermain Taylor II, Vic Darchinyan vs Cristian Mijares. (I don’t rate Calzaghe-Hopkins because even though it was a big fight, I knew it’d be as boring as all fuck as it actually was).
Previous Winners- Ricky Hatton vs Floyd Mayweather jnr (2007), Joe Calzaghe vs Jeff Lacy (2006), Ricky Hatton vs Kostya Tszyu (2005).

That’s the big ones out of the road, a few I think I should touch on:

Prospect of the Year- Leonard Zappavinga
First of all, I think this award is stupid. It’s not like in other sports where it’s easy to determine what a prospect is because they’ve only been playing a year. Boxing is a different sport. A prospect could be a three fight rookie or a guy with 30 fights who’s taken his time on the way up and is about to crack the big time. Second of all, I’m clearly biased. I don’t take this award that seriously so I’ll probably always pick an Australian. Zappavinga ended his year with a knockout over former two time world title challenger Tommy Browne in a fight he looked excellent in. Zappa is only 22, he is undefeated and will definately be one to watch in the new year.

Australian Fighter of the Year- Vic Darchinyan
Darchinyan totally dominated two world champions with absolute ease in his new weight class and became the first Australian since Kostya Tszyu to be near the top 10 pound for pound in the World. After a controversial draw in February against Z Gorres, Darchinyan got a shot at Dimitri Kirilov’s IBF strap and won by one sided 5th round knockout. After that came a unification bout with (at least by my list) Cristian Mijares, who held the WBC and WBA titles and had wins over Jorge Arce and Alexander Munoz. Not many (I wasn’t one of them) gave Darchinyan a chance, but he brutalised Mijares over nine rounds with a great mixture of boxing and punching before knocking him out with an overhand left in the 9th. I just hope Darchinyan receives more credit and attention down here instead of joke ‘fighters’ like Anthony Mundine and John Hopoate who rob the public blind with their overpriced PPV sideshows.

One to watch in 2009- Beibut Shumenov
This guy is only 7-0, but he has already beaten Montell Griffin (yes, the same one with a win over Roy Jones jnr) and Epifanio Mendoza (who gave Jeff Lacy all he could handle for 12 rounds).

And some lighter ones:

Arthur Mercante Award for Best Refereeing- Pat Russell (Vazquez-Marquez III)
This was by far the best fight of the year and it could have been one of the most controversial if referee Pat Russell was having a bad night. There were several tight calls in the fight that the fight road on, and he got them all right. Russell deducted a point from Marquez for a low blow which ultimately cost Marquez a draw in the fight, however he had previously warned Marquez a number of times and had to take that point off. Had he let Marquez off the hook there it would have been unfair to Vazquez as he had warned him a few times previously and most of the shots were pretty low. The other call was the 12th round knockdown. Russell very well could have made the mistake that many a referee would have made in that situation and stopped the fight. Marquez was taking punishment on the ropes and taking a lot of it yet he wasn’t going down. He staggered into the ropes and would have fallen if they weren’t there and instead of stopping the fight he gave Marquez a count. These calls are still controversial parts of the fight, but they would have been a hell of a lot worse if Russell had say jumped in and saved Marquez in the 12th with a few seconds left.

Jersey Joe Walcott Award for Worst Refereeing- Joe Cortez (Francisco Lorenzo DQ4 Humberto Soto)
(If you don’t get the reference it’s not because I hate Walcott, it’s because he refereed one Heavyweight title fight and lost complete control of the Ali-Liston rematch therefore he gets my award named after him. I actually am a big fan of Walcott so this is no cheap shot at him about his fighting, just thought I’d point that out).
Humberto Soto battered Franciso Lorenzo for three and a half rounds before dropping him in the fourth round. While going down, Lorenzo grabbed Soto’s legs prompting Soto to continue to hit him, landing a grazing shot to the back of his head. Instead of counting, Cortez ruled that Lorenzo had been hit while he was down at which point Lorenzo started faking like he was in more serious trouble as a result of the blow. Actually, Lorenzo was ready to go and all the damage was done by legal blows from Soto during the action. After viewing several replays, Cortez disqualified Soto and ruled Lorenzo as the new WBC interim champion. The WBC however would right the wrong and strip Lorenzo of his belt (one of the few controversial decisions from an ABC group that I agree with).

Eugenia Williams Award for Worst Judging Card- Doug Tucker (Cristian Mijares SD12 Jose Navarro)
(Reference again is to Eugenia Williams who scored the Holyfield-Lewis first fight to Holyfield after he won maybe three rounds).
Tucker scored this fight 120-108 for Navarro. The other two judges both saw it for Mijares in a close fight. Seriously Doug, what fight were you watching? Maybe Navarro won the fight (I agreed with the other two judges) but he didn’t win every round.

George Foreman Award for Comeback of the Year- Vitali Klitschko
If you come back from four years of inactivity and totally dominate one of the top contenders in your division then there’s no denying you this award. Vitali Klitschko did just that. It almost made my performance of the year honourable mentions but missed out. Klitschko came back from numerous injuries and totally dominated someone who was a very, very dangerous opponent with absolute ease. As much as I don’t like the Klitschko brothers, it was hard not to be impressed by that.

Andy Raymond Award for Worst Commentator of the Year- Andy Raymond (Fox Sports Australia)
I seriously hate Andy Raymond and it’ll be a task for anyone to win this award any year apart from him. He just talks and talks and talks without ever saying anything with the slightest bit of meaning. The only Raymondism I can remember this year (if I remembered anymore I’d probably get cancer) is this:
‘Boxing under the Nitro Format this evening’
WTF does that mean?!?!?!?! At the time he was referring to the promotion as being called Nitro Fight Night or some shit, but what he actually said has zero meaning to anyone with an IQ above 50! Maybe it’s just me who gets irritated by things like this, but seriously if you’re on TV and your job is to talk you really need to know how to do it. Another thing that annoys me about him is his constant comment everytime a boxer from New South Wales fights a boxer from Queensland he calls it state of origin. On some cards when this happens four or five times he says it every fucking time. Its no wonder that boxing is seen by a lot of people in Australia as a sideshow sport that Rugby League players play to keep themselves fit in the off season when you have some moronic Rugby League commentator who knows fuckall about the sport making absolutely no sense with anything he says except when he says something that he can relate back to Rugby League like the state of origin shit.

John Ruiz Award for Worst Fight of the Year- Wladimir Klitschko UD12 Sultan Ibragimov
Now this isn’t exactly the worst fight of the year, but it’s the worst one I saw that I went out of my way to watch. Ibragimov ran for dear life and Wladimir was too shit scared of being knocked out to do anything about it. The result was Wladimir winning the fight on his aggressive pawing of his jab. Valuev-Holyfield sounds worse, but you’ll have to pin my eyes open A Clockwork Orange style to get me to watch that. Bringing me to my next award:

Ruiz-McCline Award for Worst Matchup of the Year- John Ruiz vs Jameel McCline
This award was originally going to be called the Ruiz-Holyfield Award out of respect for the worst boxing trilogy of all-time, then I remembered he fought McCline this year and the award will be now known as Ruiz-McCline. Now I didn’t see this fight (which is why I haven’t gouged out my eyes with a toothpick) but oh my God, who ever thought these two would make for attractive viewing needs to jab themselves in the eye with a screwdriver. Has there ever been two more boring Heavyweights? At least Wladimir Klitschko has punching power that can sometimes be exciting. These two not only have extremely boring styles, but they’re very ineffective fighters who often resort to holding. If I was managing Ruiz, after I committed suicide I’d do everything I could to keep him away from the likes of McCline who is just a fat waste of space with enough gas to punch for maybe three rounds. Matching these two up only shows the full range of boredom they can produce. Luckily I didn’t have to sit through this bout as Haye-Maccarinelli was live on one channel and by the time it had finished so had this piece of shit bit of matchmaking.

Joe Jacobs ‘We was Robbed ‘ Award for Robbery of the Year- Nicolay Valuev W12 Evander Holyfield
(Joe Jacobs managed Max Schemling in the 1930s and had a famous quote ‘We was robbed, we shouldda stayed in bed’ after Schmeling lost the title to Sharkey).
I haven’t seen the fight and I don’t want to, but the whole thing is just cruel. Here’s a legend of the ring who’s battled way past his prime in a quest to re-capture the Heavyweight title before he retires and after years of not getting anywhere near it he finally gets a shot and by all accounts should have won the fight and they rob him. Now it’s probably for the good of the division that Holyfield doesn’t win the fight and ends up being killed in the ring if he puts it against one of the Klitschko’s, but to rob a man of being the first five-time champion as well as the oldest champion in history is just cruel.

And on a sadder note:

Gone but not forgotten
(pictured in order below, if I left anyone out leave a comment and I’ll edit it)
Yo Sam Choi- Former WBC 108lb Champion (1999-2002), lost his title to Jorge Arce in 2002. Died from injuries sustained in a fight he won in December 2007 a week later.
Duilio Loi- Two-time World Junior Lightweight Champion (1960-62 and 1963), bested the great Carlos Ortiz 2-1 in their series of fights. Lost the title to Eddie Perkins in 1962 then regained it in his next fight and retired with a 115-3-8 mark. Died in January of Alzheimers.
Ralph Dupas- Former World Junior Middleweight Champion (1963), also challenged Emile Griffith for the Welterweight Championship and Joe Brown for the Lightweight Championship. Defeated former World Middleweight Champion Joey Giardello and lost a disputed decision to  Sugar Ray Robinson. Died in January of dememtia.
Mando Ramos- Former Undisputed Lightweight Champion (1969-70) who regained the WBC title in 1972 but lost it the same year. Lost his undisputed title to Panamanian great Ismael Laguna. Died in July of natural causes.
Mate Parlov- 1972 Olympic Light Heavyweight Champion, 1974 World Amateur Light Heavyweight Champion, WBC Light Heavyweight Champion (1978). First Croatian to win a World title in Boxing. Died in July 30 of lung cancer.
Vic Toweel- Former World Bantamweight Champion (1950-52). First South African to win a World Championship in Boxing by defeating Manuel Ortiz. Lost his title to Australian Jimmy Carruthers in 1952. Died in August at age 80.
Joey Giardello- Former World Middleweight Champion (1963-65). Fought Dick Tiger four times (winning twice) and also beat Sugar Ray Robinson and Rubin Carter to name a few. Died in September of heart failure.

Yo-Sam Choi (1972-2008)

Duilio Loi (1929-2008)

Ralph Dupas (1935-2008)

Mando Ramos (1948-2008)

Mate Parlov (1948-2008)

Vic Toweel (1928-2008)

Joey Giardello (1930-2008)

Pacquiao destroys De La Hoya

Manny Pacquiao moved up from lightweight and battered six weight world titlist Oscar De La Hoya, forcing him to quit after eight rounds of brutal punishment. Right from the opening bell Pacquiao was on his toes using his superior hand and foot speed to frustrate De La Hoya and land with his powerful left hand. De La Hoya was unable to get off with any sort of effective offence throughout the fight as Pacquiao repeatedly scored and retreated out of harms way. In the 7th round De La Hoya was battered from one corner to the other and twice looked like going down, however he showed heart and came out for the 8th round firing. Pacquiao soon took over in the 8th though and was back to battering ‘The Golden Boy’ come the end of the round. After a brief conversation with his corner, De La Hoya seemed to decide that fighting on was futile against the brilliance of ‘Pacman’ and surrendered on his stool.

Pacquiao deserves all the credit in the world for his performance. De La Hoya was the much bigger man and I thought was the better technical fighter, but Pacquiao keeps improving. He’s constantly adding dimensions to his game and has transformed from being the banger who destroyed Marco Antonio Barrera back in 2003 to a puncher who has among the best boxing skills in the game. While De La Hoya seemed lacklustre probably from weight loss, it’s hard to imagine what he could have done differently going on his recent form even if he didn’t have to lose the weight. No one’s done that to De La Hoya. Hopkins didn’t do it, Mayweather didn’t do it, Mosley or Trinidad didn’t do it. De La Hoya just 18 months ago took Mayweather to a split decision so for Pacquiao to do that to him cements him as an all-time great.

The obvious fight that is to be made now is Ricky Hatton vs Manny Pacquiao and it would be a blockbuster. Hatton again is the bigger guy and could smother Pacquiao and make him work for his punches, but then again Pacquiao’s power is that big that he could drop Hatton if Hatton leaves himself unprotected the way he does at times. De La Hoya should definately retire, there’s absolutely nothing left for him to do now. His skills have diminished due to inactivity and there’s no big fights to be made that are really worth being made above welterweight. The man has made millions and has plenty of businesses going and should concentrate on them and leave the fighting to the fresher men.

Boxing Breakdown: De La Hoya vs Pacquiao

I’ve put this off about as long as I can. For those of you who haven’t read this blog much, I’m not in the slightest looking forward to this fight. I don’t think it’s a bad fight or not a big, I just think it’s about 1% as good as everyone thinks it is. Anytime the pound for pound best boxer in the world fights it’s going to be a big fight, and this is a real challenge for Pacquiao and in that sense this is a good fight. But the fact remains, De La Hoya has chosen a much smaller opponent who suits him stylistically to try and make himself look better then he is and the public are buying into it and that pisses me off. This isn’t the biggest fight of the year, let alone the biggest fight of all time. The simple fact is, De La Hoya is a fighter who has had some success at junior middleweight and has challenged for the middleweight title and he’s fighting a guy who is coming up from lightweight having never fought above 135lbs (and only fought at 135lbs once) who originally came all the way up from flyweight. I don’t care what anyone says, De La Hoya gets nothing added to his legacy should he win this fight. If Pacquiao wins it’ll be a different story altogether although in my opinion it’ll be more of a detraction from Oscar’s greatness then an addition to Manny’s. Anyway, enough bitching, onto the fight!

Oscar De La Hoya
As of the last few years De La Hoya’s been more of a businessman then a boxer. He’s fought three times in about four years, scoring a knockout over Ricardo Mayorga (who deserved every bit of punishment he took in that fight for the way he carried on beforehand), dropping a split decision to Floyd Mayweather and winning a 12 round unanimous decision against Steve Forbes in his last outing in May. De La Hoya’s inactivity is probably Manny’s biggest advantage in this fight. Oscar has shown he still has the handspeed even in his later years, his main problem is when he is forced to work more then he wants to like when he fought Mayweather last year. One of the biggest strengths for De La Hoya in this fight is the fact that he’s never been seriously hurt from a punch to the head, which is a key fact as Pacquiao relies on his power a lot yet De La Hoya has faced much bigger men who hit much harder yet taken their best shots.
For Oscar to win this fight he has to put some hurting on Manny early and make him respect the fact that he’s the bigger man. He has to take advantage whenever Manny lunges in like he does and counter with heavy punches. He has to have some control over what pace the fight goes at because you can’t beat Manny Pacquiao if he’s controlling the pace. Juan Manuel Marquez gave Pacquiao such trouble in their two fights because he was able to make Manny fight his fight for the most part. Erik Morales also showed this in their first fight. If De La Hoya takes a few rounds to get going he might find Pacquiao too hard to keep up with in the later rounds.

Manny Pacquiao
Pacman moves up in weight yet again for this super fight after claiming the WBC 130lb and 135lb titles in his last two fights. After besting Erik Morales in their three fight series (2-1), Pacquiao beat another Mexican legend for the second time in Marco Antonio Barrera before challenging Juan Manuel Marquez for the title at 130lbs. In what was one of the best fights of the year, Pacquiao scored a somewhat controversial 12 round split decision (I scored the fight 114-113 for Marquez but it could have gone either way) to take the title. Pacquiao then moved up in weight and destroyed David Diaz in what was probably the most dominant display since Mayweather whipped Gatti to take his WBC 135lb title. The main things that Pacquiao has going for him in this fight are his conditioning and his handspeed. Where Pacquiao is likely to have trouble is the fact that not only is De La Hoya the bigger man, but he’s got the better boxing skills as well.
For Pacquiao to win this fight he needs to draw Oscar into exchanging with him and then he needs to make sure he’s not trading evenly in the power shots department. For once Pacquiao isn’t the harder puncher in a fight and it’ll be interesting to see how this affects him. Manny has to limit the amount that he lunges in because Oscar can counter punch very effectively and Oscar’s power is something Manny will never have tasted before. Manny also has to avoid getting tagged too often too early or else when Oscar tires he won’t be in any condition to take advantage of De La Hoya’s lack of ring time. The gameplan for Pacquiao should be to feel Oscar out in the opening rounds and try and steal the odd round here and there and then explode on him in the second half of the bout and either stop Oscar late or win on points. One thing Manny will have to exploit is when Oscar stands flat footed and thats when he’ll need to explode on him and land his left hand.

Prediction
There’s a saying in boxing; ‘a great little man will always lose to a great big man’ and if that ever rang true it’s here. De La Hoya should simply be too big and too skilled for Pacquiao. Where a guy like Marquez was able to give Pacquiao trouble, a guy like De La Hoya should also be able to exploit Manny’s recklessness and have the chin to stand up to Manny when he does land. Another key factor in this fight is that De La Hoya may actually have the quicker hands of the two. De La Hoya has incredibly fast hands and while Pacquiao is the smaller guy, Oscar’s speed may be slightly better. In my opinion if De La Hoya loses this fight it will show that he was overrated in the past because he shouldn’t lose to someone who matches up this well with him and is that much smaller then him. Pacquiao has his chance if he can exploit De La Hoyas ever slowing footwork and make his lunges successful but I see this fight like a slightly more competitive version of the Gatti fight with Oscar, where Oscar has his way with Manny but takes the odd shot in return to make things interesting before Pacquiao is knocked out in the middle rounds. It will probably be an entertaining fight, and people will probably disagree with me on this forever, but I’m looking forward to the K-1 much more then this sideshow. Oscar De La Hoya by 7th round knockout.

K-1 World Grand Prix 2008 Final Preview: The Finalists

 

Next weekendwe have one of the bigger weekends for fight fans. With the De la Hoya vs Pacquiaofight that everyone (bar me) is really looking forward to taking place on the Sunday, the real focus of the weekendshould be on the night before when the K-1 crowns it’s annual Grand Prix champion. So instead of doing what everyone else is andfocusing on what is apparently the best boxing match of the year, I’m going to focus on the K-1 World Grand Prix (which will now be abbreviated to K-1 WGP). I won’t completely ignore the De la Hoya-Pacquiao fight, I’ll definately put my predictions for the fight up the day before it takes place anddo a re-cap the day after, but as far as I’m concerned the biggest event of the weekend takes place the day before anddeserves the credit. This will be the first of three preview articles on the K-1 World Grand Prix Final.

For those of you who don’t know how K-1 works, here’s it in a nutshell. K-1 holds four Qualifying events throughout the year where eight fighters compete in a one night tournament. The four winners of these tournaments join the eight men who made the Quarter Finals the year before in the Final 16. The final four spots are decided by the fans witha vote on the K-1 website. After the Final 16 is announced, they are paired up to fight on the same night withthe eight winners advancing to the Final Event. The eight fighters then each put their names up onto an empty slot in the bracket to decide the make-up of the Final Event (there are eight slots, with fighter 1 fighting fighter 2, fighter 3 fighting fighter 4, 5 v 6 and7 v 8 withthe winners of 1 v 2 to face 3 v 4 in the semis etc), with the easiest winners (ie the ones who won by the quickest knockout) getting to go first down to the guy who just squeaked by in his fight.

After the Final 16 Event in September, we were left with the following eight fighters:

Ruslan Karaev
K-1 Record:11-6-0 (6 KOs)
K-1 History:2006 K-1 WGP Quarter Finalist
2008 K-1 Taipei GP Champion, 2005 K-1 Las Vegas Champion
Record against other Finalists:Badr Hari (1-1)
Final 16 Result: KO2 vs Chalid Die Faust
The first of the four Qualifiers who won his way into the Final event this year, Karaev looks to make his 2nd appearance in the final event a better one then his last effort. After knocking out Badr Hari in the 2006 Qualifying event in under a minute, Karaev lasted only 71 seconds against Glaube Feitosa; being caught by his famous ‘Brazilian Kick.’ Karaev then dropped a rematch via 2nd round KO to Badr Hari in March of last year before being destroyed in 31 seconds by Melvin Manhoef later in the year.
However, Karaevbounced back with a win early this year before knocking out three opponents in one night to take win the Taipei Qualifying event and earn his spot in the Final 16. Facing dangerous puncher Chalid Die Faust, Karaev was caught early and dropped, but bounced back to floor the German three times in the 2nd round and book a place in the Final event. Because he scored the only knockout of the night, Karaev got to be the first man to put his name on the bracket and he chose the 6th fighter slot, or to be in the third fight of the night.

Remy Bonjasky
K-1 Record:33-8 (15 KOs)
K-1 History:2003, 2004 K-1 WGP Champion
2005, 2006, 2007 K-1 WGP Semi Finalist
Record against other Finalists: Badr Hari (1-0), Peter Aerts (0-1), Jerome Le Banner (0-1)
Final 16 Result:MD3 vs Paul Slowinski
The ‘Flying Gentleman’ appears in his sixth consecutive K-1 WGP Final Event, after winning his first two and making the semi finals of the last three. Bonjasky was one of four newcomers to qualify for the 2003 Final 16 event and once there he made it to the Final 8 after his opponent Bob Sapp was disqualified for hitting him while he was down. Bonjaskythen knocked out both Peter Graham and Cyril Abidiin the first round before winning a unanimous decision over Musashi to win his first crown. Bonkasky continued his winning ways in K-1 the following year defeating four time champion Ernesto Hoostafter one extra round in the Quatrter Finals, former World Heavyweight Boxing champion Francois Botha by unanimous decision in the semi finals and then again defeating Musashi in the final, this time by decision after two extra rounds making Bonjasky the only man to go 12 rounds in one night to win a K-1 WGP event.
In 2005 Bonjasky looked to become the first fighter to win three K-1 WGP’s in a row, but after defeating Hong Man Choi in the Quarter Finals he was knocked out by eventual winner Semmy Schilt in the first round of their semi final meeting. After some poor form early in 2006, Bonjasky defeated Mighty Mo and Gary Goodridgeto qualify for the Final 8 again. In his quarter final match with Stefan Leko, Bonjasky was twice kicked in the groin and was unable to continue. However, K-1 officials postponed the match until later in the evening to allow Bonjasky to recover. Bonjasky defeated Leko by unanimous decision but was unable to continue in the tournament. Bonkasky and Leko again met in 2007, this time in the Final 16 andafter a wild first round, Bonjasky knocked Lekoout with a flying knee with 10 seconds remaining in the opening stanza. Up and comer Badr Hari was his quarter finals opponent andafter a three round war with both guys delivering punishment to each others legs, Bonjasky took a close decision. The fight with Hari took a lot out of Bonjasky, and despite going the distance with Peter Aerts in the semi final, he didn’t have much to offer the three time former champion, losing a unanimous decision.
With his spot in the Final 16 already secure after a rule change allowed last years Final 8 a guaranteed spot in the Final 16, Bonjasky needed not defeat anyone to qualify this year. Still, Bonjaskystayed busy competing in super fights with Melvin Manhoef and Volk Atajev at the Amsterdam andTaipei Qualifying events, winning both fights by 3rd round knockout. In the Final 16, Bonjasky faced Paul Slowinski anddespite looking a little sluggish, he won the fight with a majority decision after three rounds. Bonjasky was the second fighter to put his name on the board and chose the 7th fighter slot meaning he would compete in the fourth fight against an opponent to be named.

Errol Zimmerman
K-1 Record: 5-0 (3 KOs)
K-1 History: 2008 K-1 Amsterdam GP Champion
Record against other Finalists: None
Final 16 Result: UD3 vs Glaube Feitosa
One of three fighters who have just emerged on the K-1 scene this year in the Final 8, should the 22 year old Zimmerman win he’ll break Peter Aerts’ record and become the youngest man to win the K-1 WGP. ‘The Bonecrusher’ was an underdog going into the Amsterdam qualifying event this year, but scored stoppage wins over Attila Karacs and 6’7 Swiss monster Bjorn Bregy before scoring a close majority decision over Zambit Samedov to earn his spot in the Final 16. Facing feared Brazilian Glaube Feitosa, a man who had come second in the 2005 K-1 WGP, Zimmerman came out firing, dropping Feitosa in both the first and second rounds andearning a wide unanimous decision. With the options of facing either Bonjasky or Karaev or taking his chances with one of the other fighters, Zimmerman chose to fill in fighter slot 3 and wait for an opponent.

Gokhan Saki
K-1 Record:7-1 (4 KOs)
K-1 History: 2008 K-1 Hawaii GP Champion
Record against other Finalists: Badr Hari (0-1)
Final 16 Result: UD4 vs Ray Sefo
Another youngster in the K-1 WGP Final this year, Gokhan Saki went to the Hawaii Qualifying event as an alternate. However the day before the event, Saki was promoted to the main card when Chalid Die Faust couldn’t get a Visa. With other well known fighters like Mighty Mo Salinga and sideshows like the fight between Butterbean and former UFC fighter Cabbage Correira in the event, Saki was very low profile going into the event. Three fights and under 10 minutes later Saki was one of the dark horses in the K-1 WGP Final 16. After destroying his first opponent with brutal leg kicks in the first fight of the night, Saki knocked out Rich Cheek and Randy Kim to earn his spot in the Final 16. There, Saki faced veteran fan favourite Ray Sefo andafter a close three rounds the fight was declared a draw. In the extra round Saki proved the fresher fighter andoutworked his opponent to take the judges decision. With fourth choice in the Final 8 fight selections, Saki with the choice of one of three opponents or the option of letting one of the other four choose him, he chose to face Ruslan Karaev in the Quarter Finals.

Ewerton Teixera
K-1 Record: 5-0 (2 KOs)
K-1 History: 2008 K-1 Japan GP Champion
Record against other Finalists: None
Final 16 Result: UD3 vs Musashi
The third of the young guns making their first appearance in the Final event this year. Little was known of the Brazilian karateka before this year and still not much is known of him now. The Fukuoka qualifying event was basically set up for Musashito earn his spot into the Final 16 but with the focus on the Schilt-Le Banner and Hari-Feitosa fights no one really cared. However, Musashi was defeated by 22 year old novice Keijiro Maeda in the quarter finals. Teixera in the other bracket won his first two fights with ease and then also defeated Maeda comfortably to qualify for the Final 16. In the Final 16, Teixera faced Musashi who had been voted into the Final 16 by the fans. In what was an extremely lacklustre affair, Musashi didn’t appear willing to fight and was uneventfully outpointed by the young Brazilian. Teixera had the next choice on the Finals board, and with the options of Bonjasky, Zimmerman or one of Le Banner, Aerts or Hari, he chose Zimmerman, effectively leaving the four big names in the tournament to battle each other for a semi finals spot.

Peter Aerts
K-1 Record: 62-21 (28 KOs)
K-1 History: 1994, 1995, 1998 K-1 WGP Champion
2006, 2007 K-1 WGP Runner-up
1997, 2000, 2003, 2005 Semi Finalist
1993, 1996, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2004 Quarter Finalist
Record against other Finalists:Remy Bonjasky (1-0), Jerome Le Banner (3-1)
Final 16 Result:MD3 vs Semmy Schilt
If I was to go through the former three time champions past history in K-1 this article would double in size. Aerts has been there from the beginning and won titles in 1994, 1995 and 1998. In 2006 he took Remy Bonjasky’s spot in the semi finals after competing as an alternate and stopped Glaube Feitosa in the 2nd round to earn a spot in the final with reigning champion Semmy Schilt. Aerts had defeated Schilt earlier in the year by majority decision in a superfight at an Auckland qualifying event. In what was a classic battle, a 2nd round knockdown against Aerts was the difference in a hard fought fight and Schilt won his 2nd consecutive K-1 WGP.
After destroying Bob Sapp and Nicholas Pettas in super fights early in 2007, Aerts chopped down Ray Sefoin the Final 16 with vicious leg kicks, stopping him when Sefo’s corner threw in the towel between the first and second rounds. Aerts then destroyed Japanese up and comer Junichi Sawayashiki at 1:29 of the first round in the quarter finals and outworked a battle-worn Remy Bonjasky in the semi finals to set up a second consecutive final with Semmy Schilt. History was to be made whoever the winner would be with Aerts looking to tie Ernesto Hoost’s record of four K-1 WGP titles and Schilt looking to become the first man to win three K-1 WGP’s in a row. In a disappointing final, halfway through the first round Aerts was caught by a jab from Schilt while in an awkward position injuring his knee and leaving him unable to beat the count. This made Schilt the first man to win three K-1 WGP Finals in a row.
At the Amsterdam qualifying event this year, Aerts called out Semmy Schilt to a fight in the Final 16 qualifying event. Aerts was willing to put his record of appearing in every K-1 WGP Finals event on the line in order to eliminate Schilt from winning four consecutive titles. Aerts claimed that Schilt was bad for the sport because he lacked personality and won due to his size (roughly 7’0, 300lbs) rather then his skills. Schilt accepted and the last two year’s finalists were to fight for a spot in the Final 8. Aerts bulled Schilt around the ring, landing numerous right hands and constantly keeping Schilt on the backpedal, earning him a three round majority decision and eliminating the three time defending champion Schiltfrom the Final. With the option of facing Remy Bonjasky or competing in the first fight of the night against either Jerome Le Banner or Badr Hari, Aerts decided to choose to fight first to allow himself as much recovery time as possible should he win.

Jerome Le Banner
K-1 Record: 43-16-2 (28 KOs)
K-1 History: 1995, 2002 K-1 WGP Runner-up
1999, 2007 K-1 WGP Semi Finalist
1997, 2005, 2006 K-1 WGP Quarter Finalist
2000 K-1 Nagoya GP Champion
Record against other Finalists: Peter Aerts (1-3), Remy Bonjasky (1-0)
Final 16 Result: UD3 vs Junichi Sawayashiki
Considered the greatest K-1 fighter to never win the WGP, Le Banner is one of the most inconsistent professional fighters around. Despite winning only five of his last 10 fights in K-1, Le Banner is still considered one of the most dangerous fighters on the circuit. After losing in two consecutive quarter finals at the K-1 WGP Finals in 2005 and 2006 to Aerts and Schilt respectively, Le Banner retired from tournament fighting. He then lost in a major upset to unheralded Junichi Sawayashiki early in 2007 in a fight where he badly injured his knee. Despite retiring from tournaments, Le Banner recovered in time for the 2007 Final 16 event and won his way into the Final event with a 54 second knockout over Yoon Soo Park. Le Banner was forced to face the World’s largest professional fighter in Hong Man Choi in the quarter finals andwon a unanimous decision. In the semi’s after Le Banner had a solid first round against reigning two time champion Semmy Schilt, Schilt injured Le Banners bad right knee with a low kick which forced his corner to stop the fight.
Le Banner and Schilt squared off again early in 2008 for the K-1 Super Heavyweight title at the Fukuoka qualifying event. Despite giving Schilt one of his toughest fights in years, Le Banner fell short on the judges cards anddropped a unanimous decision. With an offer to fight Tim Sylvia in MMA, Le Banner turned down the fight and elected to fight in this years Grand Prix. His Final 16 opponent was Junichi Sawayashiki, the man who had defeated him 18 months prior. Le Banner bulled the young Japanese fighter around the ring for the full three rounds, never allowing him in the fight and scoring a wide unanimous decision. With the choice of Aerts or Bonjasky in the quarter finals, Le Banner chose Bonjasky, a man he had defeated in a controversial 2006 fight over his long time nemesis Aerts who he was 1-3 against over a period of 12 years.

Badr Hari
K-1 Record:11-3 (10 KOs)
K-1 History: 2007, 2008 K-1 Heavyweight Champion
2007 K-1 WGP Quarter Finalist
Record against other Finalists: Remy Bonjasky (0-1), Gokhan Saki (1-0), Ruslan Karaev (1-1)
Final 16 Result: TKO4 vs Hong Man Choi
The reigning K-1 100kg champion this year makes his 2nd run for a K-1 WGP title. After losing two of his first three appearances in K-1 to Peter Graham and Ruslan Karaev, Hari fought as an alternate in the 2006 K-1 WGP, defeating Paul Slowinski. He avenged the loss to Karaev in 2007 via knockout before later that year he became the first fighter to win the newly created K-1 100kg title by knocking out Yusuke Fujimoto in less then a minute. Hari then avenged his loss to Peter Graham by unanimous decision before knocking out another Australian Doug Viney to qualify for the K-1 WGP 2007 Final. His opponent in the quarter finals was former two time champion Remy Bonjasky. Both men exchanged vicious low kicks throughout their fight and the fight was very close going to the scorecards. One judge scored the bout a draw and the other two scored it for Bonjasky and Hari was eliminated.
Hari made short work of Ray Sefo in his first appearance this year and then defended his 100kg title against Glaube Feitosa at Fukuoka. Hari battered Feitosa, knocking him out at 2:26 of the first round to retain his title and establish himself as one of the favourites for the 2008 K-1 WGP. ‘The Golden Boy’ was matched with man mountain Hong Man Choi in the Final 16, giving away over 100lbs in weight to the Korean. Hari was in complete control of the fight apart from a dubious knockdown in the 2nd round against him which cost him the decision victory with the judges scoring the bout a draw. However, due to the punishment Hong Man had taken throughout the fight, he couldn’t continue in the fight and Hari earned a TKO victory and a spot in the Final 8. With the other three matchups already decided, Hari will face former three time champion Peter Aerts in the first quarter final.

This leaves the Final 8 Bracket looking like this:

Predictions and other stuff to come later in the week.

This week in Boxing (6th September)

Results from last weekend
I haven’t seen any of these fights yet. If anyone has a link to a youtube clip or something like that please let me know via comment or Email (angryfightfan@hotmail.com). Ivan Calderon defended his title with a technical decision win over Hugo Cazares. From what I understand Calderon was having a much easier time of things this time around and Cazares just couldn’t mount any sort of consistant attack on him.
In the other good matchup of last weekend, Cristian Mijares defended his WBA/WBC 115lb titles against Chatchai Sasakul with a 3rd round knockout. I really want to see Mijares in the ring with Fernando Montiel or Vic Darchinyan (I’d say it’ll be Montiel) and I’m sure that a fight between him and one of those guys could be made. Hopefully the sanctioning bodies are man enough to let the fight be for all of the titles instead of doing what they normally do and stripping them for fighting other titlists.
John Ruiz lost to Valuev again, thats all I’m going to say on the fight because thats all the mention it deserves.

Lightweight Matchups start this weekend
Former WBO, WBA and IBF lightweight champion Juan Diaz returns from his shock loss to Nate Campbell to take on former WBO interim lightweight champion Michael Katsidis this weekend. This fight should be a barnburner and if it weren’t for the UFC being on this weekend I’d be watching it live. I think Katsidis will be in the fight for 4-5 rounds but Diaz has a lot more boxing skill and that should be the difference. Katsidis is tough though and I think this fight will go the distance (at 3.5-1 I’m hoping it does as well) but Diaz will be the clear winner.
There’s an interesting fight on the undercard between junior lightweight contenders Rocky Juarez and Jorge Barrios. This is another fight that could be a war. Both guys like to come forward and mix it up on the inside and this is a tought fight to call. I’m leaning towards Barrios though because he’s the bigger, stronger man and I think it will play a big factor in the later rounds. Barrios to win this fight on points in a highly entertaining battle.
Also in action this weekend in the UK is a fight for the WBO (interim?) with British fighters Alex Arthur and Nicky Cook doing battle. Arthur should be the favourite in this fight. He’s more experienced and he has a size advantage, however Cook looked good early in his career and could have something to prove after losing to Luevano last year for the vacant WBO Featherweight title. I think Arthur will retain his title on points. Amir Khan is on the undercard against some Colombian up and comer.

Edwin Valero moving up to lightweight
The lightweight division is getting more interesting by the day with the news that WBA 130lb titlist Edwin Valero has relinquished his title and will fight for the WBC interim Lightweight title against the winner of the Antonio Pitalua-Jose Armando Santa Cruz bout. With boxers like Manny Pacquiao (assuming he comes back down after he fights Oscar), Juan Manuel Marquez, Joel Casamayor, Nate Campbell, Juan Diaz, Michael Katsidis, Joan Guzman and David Diaz already in this division, Valero is an unnecessary but more then welcome addition to the most exciting division in boxing right now.

Joey Giardello passes away
Former World Middleweight Champion Joey Giardello passed away on Thursday at the age of 78. had a twenty year professional career and defeated such great fighters as Sugar Ray Robinson, Dick Tiger and Rubin Carter just to name a few. After previously splitting fights with Dick Tiger and drawing with Gene Fuller in 1960 (in his first shot at the championship), Giardello won the third fight with Tiger and the Undisputed Middleweight Title in 1963. Despite what the movie ‘The Hurricane’ says, Giardello beat Rubin Carter in his one and only defence of the title in 1964 via 15 round decision before he lost the title to Dick Tiger in 1965. Giardello is a very underrated fighter who was among the best middleweights of all-time. RIP.

This week in Boxing (30th August)

Oscar De La Hoya takes on Manny Pacquiao on December 6th
The fight was announced yesterday. Manny Pacquiao will move up to welterweight to take on Oscar De La Hoya. I’ve made my opinions very clear on this fight so if you want to know how much of a mismatch I think this pointless fight is, check out these posts:
http://angryfightfan.wordpress.com/2008/08/23/this-week-in-boxing-23rd-august/
http://angryfightfan.wordpress.com/2008/08/16/this-week-in-boxing-16th-august/
For the record anyway, all of my frustration is aimed towards the De La Hoya team for this fight. I have tremendous respect for Pacquiao for taking such a hard fight and I really hope he can find a way to knock De La Hoya out. If he can there’s no one who can really question that this man is an all-time great. I just don’t see how he can do it and don’t see at all why this is such a big fight. I’d much rather see Margarito take on Paul Williams or Cristian Mijares take on Fernando Montiel then watch this fight.

Olympic Boxing Results
Well for the first time in who knows how long the Cubans didn’t win a Boxing Gold Medal in an Olympics they competed in. The Chinese and Russians topped the Boxing Medal Tally with two gold medals each. The United States continued their fall in Amateur Boxing by securing only one Bronze Medal this Olympics.
Here’s the full results of the Gold Medal fights:

Junior Flyweight
Gold: Shiming Zou (China)
Silver: Serdamba Puredjorj (Mongolia)
Bronze: Paddy Barnes (Ireland), Yampier Hernandez (Cuba)

Flyweight
Gold: Somjit Jongjohor (Thailand)
Silver: Laffita Hernandez (Cuba)
Bronze: Georgy Balakshin (Russia), Vincenzo Picardi (Italy)

Bantamweight
Gold: Badar-Uugan Enkhbat (Mongolia)
Silver: Yankiel Leon Alarcon (Cuba)
Bronze: Bruno Julie (Mauritius), Veaceslav Gojan (Moldova)

Featherweight
Gold: Vasyl Lomachenko (Ukraine)
Silver: Khedafi Djelkhir (France)
Bronze: Shahin Imranov (Ajerbaijan), Yakup Kilic (Turkey)

Lightweight
Gold: Alexey Tishchenko (Russia)
Silver: Daouda Sow (France)
Bronze: Yordenis Ugas (Cuba), Hrachik Javakhyan (Armenia)

Junior Welterweight
Gold: Felix Diaz (Dominican Republic)
Silver: Manus Boomjumnong (Thailand)
Bronze: Alexis Vastine (France), Roniel Iglesias Sotolongo (Cuba)

Welterweight
Gold: Bakhyt Sarsekbayhev (Kazakhstan)
Silver: Carlos Banteaux Suarez (Cuba)
Bronze: Silamu Hinati (China), Jungjoo Kim (South Korea)

Middleweight
Gold: James Deagle (Great Britain)
Silver: Emilio Correa Bayeaux (Cuba)
Bronze: Vijender Kumar (India), John Sutherland (Ireland)

Light Heavyweight
Gold: Xiaoping Zhang (China)
Silver: Kenny Egan (Ireland)
Bronze: Yerkebulan Shynaliev (Kazakhstan), Tony Jeffries (Great Britain)

Heavyweight
Gold: Rakhiem Chakhkiev (Russia)
Silver: Clemente Russo (Italy)
Bronze: Deontay Wilder (United States), Osmai Acosta Duarte (Cuba)

Super Heavyweight
Gold: Roberto Cammarelle (Italy)
Silver: Zhieli Zhang (China)
Bronze: Vyacheslav Glazkov (Ukraine), David Price (Great Britain)

Medal Tally
Countey (Gold-Silver-Bronze)
1. China (2-1-1)
2. Russia (2-0-1)
3. Italy (1-1-1)
4. Mongolia (1-1-0)
5. Thailand (1-1-0)
6. Great Britain (1-0-2)
7. Kazakhstan (1-0-1)
8. Ukraine (1-0-1)
9. Dominican Republic (1-0-0)
10. Cuba (0-4-4)
11. France (0-2-1)
12. Ireland (0-1-2)
13. Armenia (0-0-1)
14. Ajerbaijan (0-0-1)
15. India (0-0-1)
16. Mauritius (0-0-1)
17. Moldova (0-0-1)
18. South Korea (0-0-1)
19. Turkey (0-0-1)
20. United States (0-0-1)

Cazares-Calderson II, Mijares returns this weekend
The big rematch between the top two Junior Flyweights (108lbs) in the World takes place this weekend. Ivan Calderson puts his undefeated record and WBO 108lb title on the line against former champion Hugo Cazares in Puerto Rico. I think Calderon will be much more adjusted to the weight (for guys this small that extra kilo makes a difference) and I also think Cazares is struggling to make weight. Calderon should win the rematch more comfortably.
Also in action this weekend is the top Junior Bantamweight (115lbs) in the World Cristian Mijares. Mijares is one of the few titlists who is willing to fight other guys with titles and fight top fighters on a consistant basis. This is one of the reasons I think he deserves a spot in the top ten Pound for Pound best fighters in the World. Recently he’s beaten Jorge Arce, Katsushige Kawashima and Alexander Munoz and not only that, he fights every few months so he can stay sharp. Other champions could learn a lot from this guy! Mijares takes on former WBC flyweight titlist Chatchai Sasakul (64-3).

Big two weeks of Lightweights starts next weekend
All of the top lightweight contenders (bar Manny Pacquiao) will do battle over a period of eight days starting next weekend when Juan Diaz and Michael Katsidis fight to try and get back in the title picture. This is then followed by a fight for the Linear Lightweight title between Champion Joel Casamayor and two weight titlist and top pound for pound fighter Juan Manuel Marquez. Also on the same day, multi alphabet belt holder Nate Campbell gives Joan Guzman a chance to win his third world title. Two of the junior welterweight titles go up for grabs on the same day with Timothy Bradley and Andreas Kotelnik defending their respective belts. Despite the few weeks without a big fight, September 13 is doing its best to make up for lost time!

This week in Boxing (23rd August)

Olympic Boxing Gold Medal Matches
I bitched about the scoring last week so I’ll leave my opinions of that out this week. The Romanian boxing judge though has been suspended for ‘suspected foul play’ which is a big blow for any chances of Olympic boxing taking place at London. Something will have to change for boxing to have any chance at remaining in the Olympics. The Gold Medal matches will take place over the remaining games at the Olympics. Here’s how they shape up:

Junior Flyweight
Shiming Zou (China) vs Serdamba Puredjorj (Mongolia)
Bronze: Paddy Barnes (Ireland), Yampier Hernandez (Cuba)

Flyweight
Laffita Hernandez (Cuba) vs Somjit Jongjohor (Thailand)
Bronze: Georgy Balakshin (Russia), Vincenzo Picardi (Italy)

Bantamweight
Yankiel Leon Alarcon (Cuba) vs Badar-Uugan Enkhbat (Mongolia)
Bronze: Bruno Julie (Mauritius), Veaceslav Gojan (Moldova)

Featherweight
Khedafi Djelkhir (France) vs Vasyl Lomachenko (Ukraine)
Bronze: Shahin Imranov (Ajerbaijan), Yakup Kilic (Turkey)

Lightweight
Daouda Sow (France) vs Alexey Tishchenko (Russia)
Bronze: Yordenis Ugas (Cuba), Hrachik Javakhyan (Armenia)

Junior Welterweight
Felix Diaz (Dominican Republic) vs Manus Boomjumnong (Thailand)
Bronze: Alexis Vastine (France), Roniel Iglesias Sotolongo (Cuba)

Welterweight
Carlos Banteaux Suarez (Cuba) vs Bakhyt Sarsekbayhev (Kazakhstan)
Bronze: Silamu Hinati (China), Jungjoo Kim (South Korea)

Middleweight
Emilio Correa Bayeaux (Cuba) vs James Deagle (Great Britain)
Bronze: Vijender Kumar (India), John Sutherland (Ireland)

Light Heavyweight
Xiaoping Zhang (China) vs Kenny Egan (Ireland)
Bronze: Yerkebulan Shynaliev (Kazakhstan), Tony Jeffries (Great Britain)

Heavyweight
Clemente Russo (Italy) vs Rakhiem Chakhkiev (Russia)
Bronze: Deontay Wilder (United States), Osmai Acosta Duarte (Cuba)

Super Heavyweight
Zhieli Zhang (China) vs Roberto Cammarelle (Italy)
Bronze: Vyacheslav Glazkov (Ukraine), David Price (Great Britain)

De La Hoya vs Pacquiao still in negotiations
The De La Hoya camp has reduced their proposed 70-30 split to a 67-33 split for their fight against Manny Pacquiao. It sounds like De La Hoya really wants to beat up on another smaller fighter. Why would he face someone of Antonio Margarito’s caliber when he can fight a guy who fights the same way but is 15lb lighter? If De La Hoya is to lose to Pacquiao, it’ll seriously tarnish his legacy in my eyes and if he wins, anyone who knows jack about boxing will know it’s no career defining win.

Pound for Pound Rankings
There’s that little going on in boxing this week that I decided to share my current Pound for Pound Rankings. I was planning on putting a monthly ranking set up at some point including all divisions, but thats been put off for now. Here’s my pound for pound list though:

1- Manny Pacquiao
2- Joe Calzaghe
3- Juan Manuel Marquez
4- Israel Vazquez
5- Kelly Pavlik
6- Bernard Hopkins
7- Rafael Marquez
8- Ricky Hatton
9- Cristian Mijares
10- Antonio Margarito

A lot of people rank Margarito higher, but everyone above him on that list deserves to be there. Margarito only recently lost to Paul Williams which in my opinion keeps him down on the list behind these other guys who are above him. Should he avenge that loss, Margarito is likely sitting in the top five. The Pavlik-Hopkins winner will likely take third place behind Calzaghe, it all depends on how clear cut the victory is as well though.

Ruiz takes on Valuev next week
There is so little going on this week that I’m going to talk about a fight thats happening next week (I also don’t wanna waste a slot in a good week of boxing talking about John Ruiz, actually it really shows how little is happening in boxing when I have to talk about John Ruiz the week before he fights to fill up a post). This fight should be your typical God-awful heavyweight title fight filled with lots of holding (from Ruiz’s part anyway), not much punching and the taste of vomit in everyone’s mouth after its over. Valuev should win the rematch as well, he seems to have improved from their last fight.

This week in Boxing (16th August)

I decided to start a new feature on this site. Each Saturday I’ll post a wrap-up of what happened during that week in boxing (outside of the really mega stories which I’ll post as they happen/when they happen) and give my take on it. I read quite a few different sites as well so I’ll comment on the odd article that I find to be stupid and put crap on the author. I’m hoping this segment will actually get someone to comment on the site because I’m feeling a little lonely. I might also do an MMA version of this segment, although right now I’ll keep it to boxing because there aren’t a lot of good boxing matches happening over the next few weeks.

Olympic Boxing Results
Not really results, I just wanted to vent my frustration about the scoring. I really don’t think there will be boxing at London 2012. The scoring system has somehow managed to break the rock bottom it hit at Athens 2004 and get worse. The way they do it just isn’t logical. These fighters sacrifice so much to get there, only for their dreams to rest on whether or not three judges react to a punch within a second of each other in order to score a point. Not only do they have to worry about scoring with their shots and making the other boxer miss, they have to hope that their point is scored by this completely random scoring system. Go back to round-by-round scoring if you have to and make it three-three minute rounds instead or let the judges keep their own cumulative score over the four rounds based on punches landed on the target area and then score it for the fighter who the majority of the judges think won. Anything will work better then the current method!

Jorge Arce returns in September
Again this isn’t really about Arce, it’s about what the WBA are doing with this fight. Okay try and follow this; Cristian Mijares unified the WBC and WBA titles with a points win over Alexander Munoz. The WBA do what they always do and make Mijares ‘super champion’ because he holds the WBA belt plus another title which is their fucked up policy. Now get this, without even filling the ‘regular’ WBA title, the WBA have announced Alexander Munoz will fight for the regular title, and Arce will fight for the interim title. How fucked up is that? To make matters worse, both guys are fighting average fighters. Why don’t the WBA just make these two fight because the winner will definately be the next top fighter behind Mijares and Montiel. That would be an excellent fight and something that boxing needs to happen more often; two top fighters fighting each other for the right to face the champion. Sanctioning bodies suck and as long as organisations like the WBA are allowed to do shit like this boxing will always be a second rate sport!

Joe Calzaghe to retire should he defeat Roy Jones jnr
I’m a bit pissed off by this. There are plenty of good fights for Calzaghe to take part in (well there’s at least one and possibly two). The winner of Dawson vs Tarver would make an excellent opponent for Calzaghe as would Kelly Pavlik should he defeat Bernard Hopkins (I really couldn’t sit through a rematch between Calzaghe and Hopkins). Jones jnr won’t test Calzaghe, he’s old and washed up. Calzaghe’s got plenty of fight left in him if he wants to keep going, and a win over who I think will be a top pound for pound fighter in boxing for the next five or so years will add enormous amounts to his legacy. Pavlik has to get by Hopkins first and I’m really not sure he can at the higher weight. Hopkins spoiling style and physical strength will make things ugly for Pavlik who will be forced to fight at a lower pace then he likes to. I’d love nothing more to see Pavlik mop the floor with both Hopkins and Calzaghe in his next two fights though.

Vic Toweel passes away
Arguably South Africa’s greatest boxer (I don’t know a lot about their boxing history but no other names came to mind) and former Undisputed World Bantamweight champion Vic Toweel passed away yesterday at age 80. Toweel went 298-2 as an amatuer (one of those losses came in the form of a disputed decision at the 1948 Olympics) before turning pro. He won the World Bantamweight Championship in 1950 with a 15 round points win over Bantamweight great Manuel Ortiz. ‘The Benoni Atom’ made three defences of his title before losing it to Jimmy Caruthers in 1952. During his reign he had troubles making the weight and had many fights above the Bantamweight limit. Toweel retired with a 28-3-1 record (14 knockouts) and lived the last 20 years of his life in Australia. RIP.

De La Hoya vs Pacquaio likely off
The ‘mega’ fight between top ranked junior middleweight Oscar De La Hoya and top ranked lightweight Manny Pacquiao is likely off after both parties couldn’t come to an agreement. Good Riddance! I really don’t know why people were so keen to see De La Hoya beat up a man who is 20lbs naturally smaller then him no matter how good he is in his weight division. The last thing I needed to hear on the occasions I visit message boards is how much greater De La Hoya is after a knockout win over Pacquiao. It’s bad enough as it is that people think he’s up ther with guys like Ray Robinson and Henry Armstrong (I personally don’t think he’s the greatest welterweight or lightweight of the last 15 years) without this overhyped mismatch taking place. Pacquiao will instead fight Humberto Soto, who is a good fighter but will likely test the pound for pound king Pacquiao. De La Hoya will probably make Felix Trinidad saw his leg off to make welterweight and avenge that loss in his farewell fight which might infact be worse.