Klitschko vs Chagaev; who cares?

What a pisser! I was very much anticipating how Klitschko was going to handle David Haye’s speed and power as well as his ability to actually throw punches, but instead we get to see Klitschko fight another midget southpaw. Klitschko has a bad history with lefties; being knocked out by Corrie Sanders has made him fear them to the point that he doesn’t throw a right hand. We all remember his fight with Ibragimov last year, and Chagaev is basically the same fighter. The one thing that this fight has going is that Klitschko hasn’t been preparing for a southpaw for the full camp, so Chagaev may cause an upset. Still, I think we’re going to get a repeat of the Ibgragimov fight with Klitschko pawing for dear life with his jab while Chagaev is too afraid to take chances and will stay on the outside for 12 rounds. This fight somehow is for the Ring Magazine belt I believe which is complete horse shit considerin Chagaev hasn’t fought a decent opponent in years. Everyone knows Vitali and Wladimir are the two top fighters in the division and until they meet we don’t have a proper champion.

100 years since Rushcutters Bay

Forget Danny Green vs Anthony Mundine or Lester Ellis vs Barry Michael. Those fights are nothing compared to what happened at Rushcutters Bay 100 years ago. Only then has the boxing World truly focused solely on what was going on in the squared ring all the way down here in Australia. At 11am on Boxing Day of 1908 (exactly 100 years ago), Tommy Burns stepped into the ring at Rushcutters Bay to give an African American the first shot at the World Heavyweight title. It’s been 100 years since the most significant event in Australian Boxing History took place when Jack Johnson became the first black man to win the World Heavyweight title. Other black fighters had previously fought for and won World Championships at lower weight divisions including George Dixon (Bantamweight and Featherweight), ‘Barbados’ Joe Walcott (Welterweight) and Joe Gans (lightweight), but it was way too risky for the white public to risk their ‘superiority’ by even giving a black man a chance at claiming he was the best fighter in the World, let alone someone as ahead of his time in terms of boxing skill as Jack Johnson.

Jack Johnson made his way up the same way that all black boxers of the time did; by fighting other top black boxers. After having fought the likes of Sam McVey four times and Joe Jeanette eight times as well as defeating the great Sam Langford, Johnson had proved himself to be the ‘Coloured Heavyweight Champion’ as it was back then. Johnson was the first black heavyweight to get top white boxers into the ring with him, knocking out both ‘Fireman’ Jim Flynn and former Heavyweight Champion Bob Fitzsimmons in 1907 making him easily the top contender for the title.

Tommy Burns had won the vacant Heavyweight Championship of the World by decisioning Marvin Hart in a fight that recently retired Heavyweight Champion Jim Jeffries assigned as being for the vacant crown. Burns was probably the most active Heavyweight Champion of all-time, defending against literally all comers in making 10 defences of his crown in just two and a half years. Burns travelled around the World to fight these fighters, but when Jack Johnson started publicly calling him out he travelled the World for different reasons; hoping that Johnson wouldn’t follow him so he didn’t have to fight him.

Burns toured Europe, fighting some of the best fighters over there including Irish champion Jem Roche who he knocked out in the first round and British champion Gummer Moir who lasted ten. After fighting Australian champion Bill Squires in Paris, Burns heard that Johnson was making his way there to challenge him so he fled to England. Johnson followed him there only for Burns to ship off to Australia. The British Board of Boxing sold Burns out on the condition that Johnson meet Sam Langford in a title fight should he defeat Burns in Australia (a promise which Johnson later broke). In Australia, the fight was promoted by caterer Hugh McIntosh who built a stadium at Rushcutters Bay (which later became the site for Sydney Stadium where most of the great domestic Australian bouts took place before the mid 60s) for the fight to take place.

Burns built up interest in the fight by first defending his belt against top local fighters Bill Squires (again) and Bill Lang, knocking both of them out. Both fights took place within ten days! The fight finally took place almost four months after Burns’ last fight. The fight attracted 16,000 fans (with many more unable to get a ticket) earning over a £26,000 live gate for promoter McIntosh. Burns was made the favourite but probably more out of hope then knowledge and it didn’t take long for the much bigger, more skilled Johnson to take command. Johnson toyed with Burns throughout the fight mocking and playing with him while punishing the Heavyweight Champion. Johnson seemed to be prolonging the beating in order to punish Burns for the years of drawing the colour line on him in regards to the two meeting in the ring. The end finally came in the 14th round when Burns could take no more pubishment and the local police intervened, shutting off the cameras which were recording the bout and saving Burns from being knocked out.

The aftermath of the fight was huge in many areas. Johnson was forced to defend against numerous ‘Great White Hopes’ a term coined by Jack London who referred to Johnson as a ‘subhuman ape’ who needed to be ‘put in his place.’ After Johnson dispatched a number of these white hopes, former champion Jim Jeffries came out of retirement to take on Johnson and had his perfect ring record spoiled, leading to numerous riots around the United States in which over 20 people (mostly African Americans) were killed. Johnson’s victory and the arrogant way in which he held the title was the reason why no black boxer was given another title shot until Joe Louis won the crown in 1937.

This fight was arguably the most important boxing match of the 20th century and it took place on Australian soil. It’s hard to imagine that there will ever be a fight of that magnitude in the Heavyweight division ever again, let alone one in Australia.  That fight was the peak of interest in boxing on Australian soil and one of the countries most significant sporting moments, yet I haven’t heard anything about it’s centennial on the news or anything like that. That is the reason for me writing this article, because I felt that it’s a moment that should at least be recognised. If anyone can tell me of anything that did actually happen to recognise this historical moment in Australian sport and World boxing, please let me know in the comments. I’ve hit up a few guys I know on other forums to spam some Australian boxing sites with this article at exactly 11am (the time the fight started 100 years ago), anyone else who would like to do the same please do so.

Just because I’m still in the Christmas spirit, heres some footage of the fight:

Boxing Breakdown: Klitschko vs Rahman

On Sunday IBF/WBO Heavyweight titlist Wladimir Klitschko defends his belts against former undisputed Heavyweight Champion Hasim Rahman in Germany. Rahman is coming in as a replacement after IBF mandatory challenger Alexander Povetkin injured his ankle in training and had to pull out of the fight. This will be the Klitschko’s 5th defence of his IBF belt that he took from Chris Byrd in 2006 and the 2nd of his WBO belt that he took from Sultan Ibragimov in February of this year. Unlike Klitschko’s last four bouts, this one on paper could be an exciting fight with both guys showing in the past that they have big knockout power and are also susceptible to being knocked out themselves. The winner of this fight is likely to meet former undisputed Cruiserweight champion David Haye in what would be the biggest heavyweight fight since the much hyped Mike Tyson vs Lennox Lewis fight in June 2002.

For Rahman he knows this could likely be his last shot at the big time and you would think would be on his game. Rahman has a history of being extremely inconsistant and should the Rahman who fought Holyfield, Ruiz or Maskaev show up he’ll likely be disposed of before the midway point of the fight. However, should Rahman come out firing his jab like he did when he fought Lennox Lewis, David Tua or Kali Meehan then we could see an upset. Sportstab in Australia have listed Rahman at 7-1 which are very generous odds considering Wladimir is very suspect to a fighter with good power who backs himself to attack.

Klitschko on the other hand basically has the fight in his hands. If he fights like he can and dominates the pace with his jab and follows it up with solid crosses and hooks he’ll make easy work of Rahman. If he fights like he did in his last two fights where he gave his overmatched opponents way way too much respect then Rahman has as much chance as anyone in there. The big difference is that unlike Ibragimov and Thompson, Rahman has proven one punch knockout power that will take Klitschko out if he’s given the oppurtunity. Klitschko cannot fight scared in this fight or he will no longer hold his belts. Hopefully (for his sake anyway, I’d love to see him lose) he’s visited the Wizard of Oz recently and been given his courage.

Prediction
With 7-1 odds, I make Rahman a huge favourite and I’ve laid some money down on him. However, I think Klitschko will beat Rahman after a shaky first or second round. The fact that Rahman has taken this fight as a replacement and that he hasn’t looked that good of late lead me to believe that Klitschko will take over this fight as soon as he makes Rahman feel his power. Rahman has to back himself if he wants to cause the upset and be willing to go out on his shield trying to land his power shots. Klitschko though will likely beat the fight out of Rahman with his jab and then finish the job in the middle rounds. Wladimir Klitschko by 7th round knockout.

Quick Predictions- Koscheck v Yoshida, Adamek v Cunningham etc

These are events that really don’t deserve me writing an entire article on them right now seeing that I’m flat out and can’t be bothered, but I’ll at least throw my picks up:

UFC Fight for the Troops
Koscheck vs Yoshida- Koscheck on points
Swick vs Goulet- Swick by 1st round KO
Creduer vs Loughran- Creduer by 2nd round submission
Wiman vs Miller- Wiman on points

Boxing
Tomasz Adamek vs Steve Cunningham- Adamek on points
Kendall Holt vs Demetrius Hopkins- Holt on points
James Toney vs Fres Oquendo- Oquendo on points
Nicolay Valuev vs Evander Holyfield- Valuev by 8th round KO

I’ll still be covering the UFC 92 event, maybe K-1 Dynamite and the Klitschko-Rahman fight in full before the end of the year. Also there’ll be an end of year awards thread going up on New Years Day or January 2nd, depending on how hungover I am.

Boxing Breakdown (October 11th)

Well I got my first piece of hate mail this week. ‘Mr Jones’ as he calls himself told me that my headlines suck and recommended that instead of using ‘Mayorga vs Mosley Predictions’ I should use something catchier like ‘Boxing Breakdown.’ Now normally I’d flame this idiot but I was tired and he was probably right so if you read this Mr Jones, there you go I changed the name. If anyone else would like to send me hate mail or any other kind of non-virus mail send it to this E-mail address (you’ll have to remove the space because my E-mail gets enough junk as it is) angryfightfan@ hotmail.com.
There’s two good fights on this weekend, and the kind people in charge of what gets shown in Australia have opted to show neither of them. For some reason some gaming PPV has been shown instead. In my opinion its bad enough that Professional Wrestling gets shown on the same PPV channel that the boxing and MMA get shown on (well I actually think its bad enough that most boxing is on PPV but thats another story for another day), but then throw in moronic shows like Jerry Springer Uncut and this crap thats on instead of the boxing this weekend and it really makes me wonder who’s in charge? The thing that really pisses me off though is that Sky hasn’t picked either fight up when there are plenty of people who would be interested in watching this fight. Anyway enough bitching, more boxing.

Vitali Klitschko vs Samuel Peter
(WBC Heavyweight Title)
Vitali Klitschko comes out of a three year retirement and a four year absence from the ring to take on WBC heavyweight Champion Samuel Peter. Klitschko hasn’t fought since butchering Mike Tyson conqueror Danny Williams in December of 2004. The WBC were kind enough to let give Vitali another shot at the title when he came back despite him pulling out of his last four fights with injuries (three of them being mandatory defences against their #1 contender Hasim Rahman).
This fight basically boils down to what Klitschko has left. He hasn’t fought in four years and he’s had numerous injuries in that time. The thing that concerns me about picking Vitali is that I wonder how many shortcuts he’s had to take in training to not get injured for this fight? Add to that his already questionable stamina (not as questionable as Wlad’s but its still been dodgey in the past) and I’m not sure what Vitali will be able to do if Peter makes this the fight he wants.
The Vitali of 2004 would have killed Peter in my opinion. He’d just spear him with those long straight punches of his until he falls down. If Vitali can turn back the clock he’ll win this fight. I don’t think he can. It’s been four years since he fought and he’s jumping in with someone as dangerous as Samuel Peter. His reflexes will have diminished and I don’t think he’ll take a punch as good as he did those years ago. I think it’ll be a competitive fight for 2-3 rounds before Peter just starts teeing off on him and wins either a lopsided decision or a late stoppage. For the sake of heavyweight boxing I hope Peter knocks him out. By that I mean that the division is in a worse state then we thought if a fighter can comeback after a four year retirement and whip one of the top guys in his first fight back.

Chad Dawson vs Antonio Tarver
(IBF Light Heavyweight Title)
IBF champion Antonio Tarver defends his belt against former WBC champion Chad Dawson in this interesting Light Heavyweight matchup. Dawson had his title stripped for fighting one of the best fighters in the division and not fighting Adrian Diaconu. Now this wasn’t the worst decision in the World, but the sanctioning bodies really have to work out some sort of agreement in terms of unification fights. Boxing will remain in a mess as long as they strip their champions every time a unification fight takes place. Instead of moving one step closer to finding out who the best in the division is, we end up back at square one.
This fight is youth vs experience. Tarver has looked hot and cold in his recent fights but this is a fight that I think stylistically suits him. Tarver has had his most problems with guys who he couldn’t hit cleanly like Bernard Hopkins and Glenn Johnson. Dawson I think will be there for him to hit and he can use his ring generalship to frustrate the younger man and wear him out much like Glenn Johnson did. On the other hand, if Dawson can get his punches off without getting countered too often early on, he’ll drag Tarver into the sort of fight tarver doesn’t like and wear him down. I’m again going with the underdog in Tarver (who for some reason is 3-1 down here) and I think he’ll frustrate Dawson on his way to a wide points win. Whoever wins this fight, I think either of them owes Glenn Johnson another fight.

Couture vs Lesnar at UFC 91

This week the UFC announced that their Heavyweight Champion Randy Couture will defend his title against former pro wrestling star Brock Lesnar in what could be the biggest fight in UFC history. In my opinion its certainly not the biggest fight, but financially it probably will be. The fight will take place at UFC 91 in Las Vegas in November.
As I previously said in my last post, the first time Couture gets Lesnar on his back (and I’m 100% sure it will happen at some stage in the fight) he’ll pass his guard and submit him. I doubt Lesnar has any ability off his back. I also doubt Lesnar will be able to bully Couture on the feet like he did with Mir and Herring and get an easy takedown. Mir and Herring have zero takedown defence, infact Mir wanted the fight to be fought with his back on the mat.
I really think Couture will be way too experienced and he’ll submit Lesnar sometime after the first two rounds. The only way I see Lesnar winning this fight is on a cut.

Affliction: Banned Predictions

I’m really looking forward to this event! This has to easily be the single greatest event (on paper) that isn’t either a PRIDE or UFC event. Fedor vs Sylvia puts two of the top five heavyweight fighters in the world against each other, plus the undercard has a number of top fighters on it. Arlovski vs Rothwell is a great fight, as is the Barnett vs Rizzo rematch. Big props to Main Event for showing this fight to Australian fans, and I don’t even care that this is Pay Per View because the main event alone is worth the price! Anyway, onto the fights.

Main Card
Fedor Emelianenko vs Tim Sylvia
(WAMMA Heavyweight Title)
Prediction- Emelianenko by 2nd round submission
A lot of people (especially American fans who have only seen American promotions) are yet to see the phenom that is Fedor Emelianenko. I’ve seen all but 2 or 3 of his fights, this guy is for real! His stand-up is explosive (although sometimes not overly technical), his takedowns are up there with the very best in MMA, he has the best top game out of any fighter I’ve ever seen, and he has nasty submissions and in my opinion the best sweeps from his back out of anyone in MMA.
However, I give a slight edge to Sylvia in the stand-up because of his reach. Fedor is yet to fight someone this tall with the takedown defence Sylvia has. In saying that though, Fedor will only need one takedown to win this fight. He’ll either pound Sylvia unconscious or pass his non-existant guard and end the fight with an arm lock. I’m not convinced Sylvia can keep the fight standing for 25 minutes when lesser wrestlers have gotten him down easier. If Fedor gets on top once in this fight and has a minute to work with he’ll end the fight. In saying that, I’m not 100% confident that Fedor wins this fight. His lack of quality opposition in recent years as well as Sylvia’s awkward style gives Big Tim a chance in this one, but I’m convinced Fedor will be at his best and he’ll announce his presence in the USA with a dominating display. I’ll be interested to hear Dana White’s comments on Fedor after he destroys Sylvia.

Andrei Arlovski vs Ben Rothwell
Prediction- Arlovski by 1st round knockout
Arlovski hasn’t looked himself in his last few fights, but I think that has more to do with his opponents then his skills. In his last three fights he’s fought two pure BJJ fighters who had an inability to get the fight to the ground which made Arlovski look bad, and a wrestler who does nothing but lie on people until the final bell rings. Rothwell will stand-up and fight with Arlovski and it should be an entertaining fight. Rothwell has dangerous stand-up, but I think he’ll have a lot of trouble with Arlovski’s speed. I don’t think this fight will go a round whichever way it goes, but I think Arlovski will use speed and angles and punch holes in Rothwell, knocking him out in the first.

Josh Barnett vs Pedro Rizzo
Prediction- Barnett on points
This fight is a rematch of a UFC 30 fight that was a war. In that fight both fighters exchanged heavy punches until Rizzo knocked Barnett out with a pair of right hands in the 2nd round. Since that fight both guys have gone in different directions. Rizzo suffered two losses to Randy Couture for the UFC title and has been inconsistent since, while Barnett beat Couture (he later tested positive for steroids and was stripped of the title) and then went on to have a successful PRIDE career. Barnett should win this fight, he’s the more consistent fighter and has improved a lot since their 2001 fight. I think Barnett will give as good as he gets in the stand-up and control the ground fighting, winning a clear unanimous decision.

Matt Lindland vs Fabio Negao
Prediction- Lindland on points
I’m not sure why this fight made the main card, there’s three better fights on the preliminaries involving bigger names in the sport. Matt Lindland is boring and I’m not sure he has any friends either. I hope Negao beats him but I doubt it, Lindland to win with lay and prey.

Renato ‘Babalu’ Sobral vs Mike Whitehead
Prediction- Sobral on points
This should be a good fight, and will really test where Mike Whitehead is as a fighter. I was a big Babalu fan but his antics at UFC 74 turned me off him a bit. Babalu has a big edge in submissions and striking, but Whitehead is the better wrestler of the two and thats where I think he could give Babalu trouble. However, Babalu is also a good wrestler and should be able to control where the fight goes. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a finish in this fight, but I think it will probably go the distance with Babalu winning clearly.

Preliminary Fights

Paul Buentello vs Aleksander Emelianenko
Prediction- Emelianenko by 1st round knockout
Aleksander should take him apart. Once he finds his range in this one Buentello will be reduced to a punching bag. Buentello has a strong punchers chance in this fight, but Aleksanders game is on a different level. Aleksander to kick Buentellos legs out from under him and end the fight towards the end of the first round with some strong punches.

Edwin Dewees vs Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
Prediction- Nogueira by 1st round submission
I would have preferred to see Vernon White in this fight because he at least has the size to compete with Little Nog. Dewees has been submitted by smaller guys in the past, and those guys aren’t anywhere near as technical as Nogueira is. This fight will be like the Dan Henderson-Big Nogueira rematch without the submission defence.

Vitor Belfort vs Terry Martin
Prediction- Belfort by 1st round knockout
Both fighters have had some real highlight reel knockouts in the past. Belfort has spectacularily knocked out Tank Abbott, Tra Telligman, Wanderlei Silva and Marvin Eastman just to name a few. The trouble that Terry Martin has is that he’s always the one getting knocked out in the highlight reel. I expect this to be no different. Belfort to come out with hands blazing and catch Martin inside the first few minutes. However, if Martin can impose his wrestling on Belfort we could see sad Vitor come out and do all he can to survive a storm of nothing.

Mark Hominick vs Savant Young
Prediction- Hominick by 1st round knockout
I’ll admit, I don’t know anything about Young. My rule with predicting unknown fighters though is never expect too much out of them. Hominick to go through Young pretty quickly.

JJ Ambrose vs Mike Pyle
Prediction- Pyle by 2nd round submission
I always like a battle of submission guys (as long as it doesn’t end up being decided on the feet). Pyle should be too experienced, and I think he will catch Ambrose with a rear naked choke in the second round.

Justin Levens vs Ray Lizama
Prediction- Levens on points
Two guys on losing streaks. Levens has been in with the much better opposition despite a five fight losing streak, so I’m picking him based on that.

Boxing back on Free to Air in Australia

In three hours time, Australian free to air channel ‘Channel Ten’ will show Wladimir Klitschko defending his two heavyweight belts against Tony Thompson live. This is the first time since (well this is coming from a pretty unreliable source) Jesse Ferguson challenged Riddick Bowe for the title back in 1993 that a free to air Australian TV channel has shown a live Heavyweight title fight. Even though this fight is a total mismatch, this is a huge step in the right direction for Australian boxing. If enough people watch this fight, channel Ten will show more of these, which will lead Seven and Nine to rival Ten meaning we will get more boxing on free to air.

Anyway, I think Klitschko goes through Thompson pretyy quickly. I’m not going to totally rule anyone out against Wladimir Klitschko because he’s always been shaky around the whiskers, but I think Thompson will have to catch Klitschko on an off night to win this fight. Klitschko will start slow, but once that left hook finds it’s mark it’ll be a matter of time before Thompson goes to sleep. Klitschko to win by fourth round knockout.