Mayweather-Mosley pencilled in for May 1st

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

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

I’m Back (again)

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

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

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

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

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

Cotto vs Pacquiao November 14!

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

(Jun 09) Angry Fight Fan World Boxing Rankings

The longest reign as #1 in boxing was ended in just two rounds by Manny Pacquiao this month as he destroyed the four year champion Ricky Hatton at the start of the month to solidify his number one pound for pound status. The win drops Ricky Hatton from my pound for pound top ten for the first time since the win over Tszyu in 2005, marking the entrance of Chad Dawson into the top 10. Dawson enters over the likes of Celestino Caballero, Miguel Cotto (who’s current spot in most peoples top tens still baffles me), Tomasz Adamek (who Dawson beat), Chris John and Ivan Calderon based on an ever increasing impressive resume. A win over someone like Bernard Hopkins will propel Dawson into the top five. In what was otherwise a pretty quiet month for the sport, the bantamweights got some new blood into the top five with Yohnny Perez’s knockout win over longtime top contender Silce Mabuza last weekend. Perez is a young, exciting fighter who will likely give the winner of this months Darchinyan-Agebeko fight a good scrap.
The rankings are based on all fights that happened before May 1st 2009, so if there’s a result that happened on March 1st (I’m using boxrec’s calender) then it’ll be included next month. These rankings are my own work and have absolutely no reflection on any ABC rankings or anything else but my own opinion. Please feel free to flame me in the comments section.

Weight Division (weight limit)
(Last Month) Ranking- Fighter (Record)

Pound for Pound 
(1) 1- Manny Pacquiao (49-3-2)
(2) 2- Juan Manuel Marquez (50-4-1)
(3) 3- Paul Williams (37-1-0)
(4) 4- Bernard Hopkins (49-5-1)
(5) 5- Israel Vazquez (43-4-0)
(6) 6- Shane Mosley (46-5-0)
(7) 7- Rafael Marquez (38-5-0)
(9) 8- Kelly Pavlik (35-1-0)
(10) 9- Vic Darchinyan (32-1-1)
(NA) 10- Chad Dawson (28-0-0)

Active- Manny Pacquiao, Rafael Marquez, Chad Dawson
Out- Ricky Hatton (loss)

Heavyweight (no limit)
(1) 1- Wladimir Klitschko (52-3-0)
(2) 2- Vitali Klitschko (37-2-0)
(3) 3- Ruslan Chagaev (25-0-1)
(4) 4- Nicolay Valuev (50-1-0)
(5) 5- Alexander Povetkin (17-0-0)
(6) 6- David Haye (22-1-0)
(7) 7- Alexander Dimitrenko (29-0-0)
(8) 8- Cristobal Arreola (27-0-0)
(9) 9- Sultan Ibragimov (22-1-1)
(10) 10- Eddie Chambers (34-1-0)

Active- None

Cruiserweight (200lbs)
(1) 1- Tomasz Adamek (37-1-0)
(2) 2- Guillermo Jones (36-3-2)
(3) 3- Steve Cunningham (21-2-0)
(4) 4- Marco Huck (25-1-0)
(5) 5- Jean Marc Mormeck (33-4-0)
(6) 6- O’Neill Bell (26-3-1)
(7) 7- Firat Arslan (29-4-1)
(8) 8- Vadim Tokarev (26-1-1)
(9) 9- Kryzstof Wlodarczyk (41-2-1)
(10) 10- Giacobbe Fragomeni (26-1-1)

Active- Marco Huck, Kryzstof Wlodarczyk (draw), Giacobbe Fragomeni (draw)

Light Heavyweight (175lbs)
(1) 1- Bernard Hopkins (49-4-1)
(2) 2- Chad Dawson (28-0-0)
(3) 3- Glenn Johnson (49-12-2)
(5) 4- Zsolt Erdei (30-0-0)
(4) 5-  Antonio Tarver (27-6-0)
(6) 6- Clinton Woods (42-4-1)
(7) 7- Hugo Garay (32-3-0)
(8) 8- Roy Jones jnr (52-5-0)
(9) 9- Adrian Diaconu (26-0-0)
(10) 10- Tavoris Cloud (19-0-0)

Active- Chad Dawson, Antonio Tarver (loss)

Super Middleweight (168lbs)
(1) 1- Mikkel Kessler (41-1-0)
(2) 2- Lucian Bute (24-0-0)
(3) 3- Carl Froch (25-0-0)
(4) 4- Librado Andrade (28-2-0)
(5) 5- Karoly Balszay (21-0-0)
(6) 6- Sakio Bika (27-3-2)
(7) 7- Jermain Taylor (28-3-1)
(8) 8- Dennis Inkin (34-1-0)
(9) 9- Jeff Lacy (25-2-0)
(10) 10- Andre Dirrell (18-0-0)

Active- None

Middleweight (160lbs)
(1) 1- Kelly Pavlik (35-1-0)
(2) 2- Arthur Abraham (29-0-0)
(3) 3- Paul Williams (37-1-0)
(4) 4- Felix Sturm (32-2-1)
(5) 5- Winky Wright (51-5-1)
(6) 6- Anthony Mundine (36-3-0)
(7) 7- Khoren Gevor (30-3-0)
(8) 8- Randy Griffin (24-2-3)
(9) 9- Sebastian Sylvester (29-3-0)
(10) 10- Amin Asikainen (25-2-0)

Active- Anthony Mundine

Junior Middleweight (154lbs)
(1) 1- Vernon Forrest (41-3-0)
(2) 2- Sergei Dzinziruk (36-0-0)
(3) 3- Daniel Santos (32-3-0)
(7) 4- Kermit Cintron (30-2-1)
(4) 5- Verno Phillips (42-11-1)
(5) 6- Cory Spinks (36-5-0)
(6) 7- Sergio Manuel Martinez (44-1-1)
(8) 8- James Kirkland (25-0-0)
(9) 9- Sergio Mora (21-1-1)
(10) 10- Jamie Moore (31-3-0)

Active- Kermit Cintron

Welterweight (147lbs)
(1) 1- Shane Mosley (46-5-0)
(2) 2- Miguel Cotto (32-1-0)
(3) 3- Andre Berto (25-0-0)
(4) 4- Joshua Clottey (35-2-0)
(5) 5- Carlos Quintana (26-2-0)
(6) 6- Luis Collazo (29-4-0)
(7) 7- Zab Judah (37-6-0)
(8) 8- Mike Jones (17-0-0)
(9) 9- Sebastian Lujan (31-5-2)
(10) 10- Rafal Jackiewicz (33-8-1)

Active- Andre Berto

Junior Welterweight (140lbs)
(NA) 1- Manny Pacquiao (49-3-2)
(1) 2- Ricky Hatton (45-2-0)
(2) 3- Timothey Bradley (24-0-0)
(3) 4- Andreas Kotelnik (30-2-0)
(4) 5- Kendall Holt (25-3-0)
(5) 6- Paulie Malignaggi (26-2-0)
(6) 7- Ricardo Torres (32-2-0)
(8) 8- Junior Witter (37-2-2)
(9) 9- Victor Ortiz (24-1-1)
(10) 10- Vivian Harris (29-3-1)

Active- Manny Pacquiao, Ricky Hatton (loss)
Out- Juan Urango (moved up)

Lightweight (135lbs)
(1) 1- Juan Manuel Marquez (50-4-1)
(3) 2- Edwin Valero (25-0-0)
(4) 3- Juan Diaz (34-2-0)
(5) 4- Joel Casmayor (36-4-1)
(6) 5- Joan Guzman (29-0-0)
(7) 6- Ali Funeka (30-2-2)
(8) 7- David Diaz (34-2-1)
(9) 8- Anthony Peterson (28-0-0)
(10) 9- Breidis Prescott (21-0-0)
(NA) 10- Amir Khan (20-1-0)

Active- None
Out- Manny Pacquiao (moved up)

Junior Lightweight (130lbs)
(1) 1- Humberto Soto (48-7-2)
(2) 2- Jorge Linares (26-0-0)
(3) 3- Roman Martinez (22-0-1)
(4) 4- Malcolm Klassen (23-4-2)
(5) 5- Robert Guerrero (22-1-1)
(6) 6- Cassius Baloyi (36-3-1)
(7) 7- Mzonke Fana (28-4-0)
(8) 8- Nicky Cook (29-2-0)
(9) 9- Alex Arthur (26-2-0)
(10) 10- Sergey Gulyakevich (26-1-0)

Active- Humberto Soto

Featherweight (126lbs)
(1) 1- Chris John (42-0-2)
(2) 2- Cristobal Cruz (38-11-1)
(3) 3- Ricardo Juarez (28-4-1)
(4) 4- Steve Luevano (36-1-1)
(5) 5- Jorge Solis (37-1-2)
(6) 6- Takahiro Aoh (17-1-1)
(7) 7- Yuriorkis Gamboa (15-0-0)
(8) 8- Guty Espadas Jnr (45-7-0)
(9) 9- Thomas Mashaba (20-2-4)
(10) 10- Mario Santiago (19-1-1)

Active- None

Junior Featherweight (122lbs)
(1) 1- Israel Vazquez (43-4-0)
(2) 2- Rafael Marquez (37-5-0)
(3) 3- Celestino Caballero (32-2-0)
(4) 4- Juan Manuel Lopez (25-0-0)
(5) 5- Poonsawat Krattindaenggym (38-1-0)
(6) 6- Daniel Ponce de Leon (36-2-0)
(10) 7- Toshiaki Nishioka (33-4-3)
(7) 8- Gerry Penalosa (54-7-2)
(9) 9- Steve Molitor (28-1-0)
(NA) 10- Bernard Dunne (28-1-0)

Active- Rafael Marquez, Toshiaki Nishioka
Out- Jhonny Gonzalez (loss)

Bantamweight (118lbs)
(1) 1- Hozumi Hasegawa (26-2-0)
(2) 2- Fernando Montiel (39-2-1)
(3) 3- Anselmo Moreno (24-1-1)
(8) 4- Yohnny Perez (18-0-0)
(6) 5- Abner Mares (17-0-0)
(4) 6- Silence Mabuza (22-2-0)
(7) 7- Joseph Agebeko (26-1-0)
(5) 8- Wladimir Siderenko (21-1-2)
(9) 9- Nehomar Cermeno (17-0-0)
(10) 10- Simone Maludrottu (29-2-0)

Active- Anselmo Moreno, Yohnny Perez, Abner Mares, Silence Mabuza (loss), Wladimir Siderenko (loss)

Junior Bantamweight (115lbs)
(1) 1- Vic Darchinyan (32-1-1)
(2) 2- Alexander Munoz (32-3-0)
(3) 3- Nobuo Nashiro (13-1-0)
(4) 4- Z Gorres (29-2-2)
(5) 5- Jorge Arce (51-5-1)
(6) 6- Jose Lopez (39-7-2)
(7) 7- Hugo Cazares (29-6-1)
(8) 8- Dimitri Kirilov (29-4-1)
(9) 9- Jose Navarro (26-4-0)
(10) 10- Kohei Kono (23-4-0)

Active- Kohei Kono

Flyweight (112lbs)
(1) 1- Nonito Donaire (21-1-0)
(2) 2- Denkaosan Kaovichit (46-1-1)
(3) 3- Daisuke Naito (34-2-3)
(4) 4- Omar Narvaez (28-0-2)
(5) 5- Pongsaklek Wonjongkam (72-3-1)
(6) 6- Koki Kameda (20-0-0)
(7) 7- Takefumi Sakata (33-5-2)
(8) 8- Bernard Inom (19-1-1)
(9) 9- Moruti Mthalane (23-2-0)
(10) 10- Jose Cesar Miranda (29-4-1)

Active- Denkoasan Kaovichit, Daisuke Naito

Junior Flyweight (108lbs)
(1) 1- Ivan Calderon (32-0-0)
(2) 2- Edgar Soto (35-5-0)
(3) 3- Brian Viloria (24-2-0)
(4) 4- Giovanni Segura (19-1-1)
(5) 5- Ulises Solis (28-2-2)
(6) 6- Brahim Asloum (24-2-0)
(7) 7- Juan Carlos Reveco (19-1-0)
(8) 8- Cesar Canchila (27-1-0)
(9) 9- Juanito Rubillar (46-11-7)
(10) 10- Omar Nino Romero (27-3-1)

Active- Brahim Asloum

Minimumweight (105lbs)
(1) 1- Roman Gonzalez (23-0-0)
(2) 2- Oleydong Sithsamerchai (31-0-0)
(3) 3- Raul Garcia (26-0-1)
(4) 4- Florante Condes (23-4-1)
(5) 5- Donnie Nietes (24-1-3)
(6) 6- Juan Palacios (25-2-0)
(7) 7- Milan Melindo (18-0-0)
(8) 8- Nkosinathi Joyi (19-0-0)
(10) 9- Manuel Vargas (26-3-1)
(NA) 10- Katsunari Takayama (23-3-0)

Active- Oleydong Sithsamerchai
Out- Muhammad Rachman (loss)

Pacquiao demolises Hatton

Manny Pacquiao made light work of World Junior Welterweight Champion Ricky Hatton, scoring a stunning second round knockout to end Hatton’s four year reign. Hatton was aggressive in the first minute, but once Pacquiao found his range he began to score frequently with a lightning fast lead right hook that ‘The Hitman’ had no answer for. Towards the end of the first round one of these hooks, a counter to a wild Hatton left hook, put Hatton down face first. The punch was so quick it was hard to pick up in real time and although Hatton beat the count, he was clearly hurt. A further barrage from Pacquiao put the wobbly Hatton down again at the end of the round but time ran out before Pacquiao could move in for the kill.

Hatton seemed to recover a bit between rounds but was still on rubber legs. He continued to press the fight until Pacquiao began to score at which point Hatton was backed up for maybe the first time in his career. Pacquiao’s hand speed and timing were too much for Hatton, who seemed to have adjusted to the power although he was taking plenty of shots. Then in the final moments of the 2nd round, Pacquiao lowered the boom and landed an overhand left over Hatton’s right hand right on the button knocking Hatton unconscious before he hit the canvas. The referee stopped the count early as it was clear Hatton was not going to beat the count, and he didn’t rise for another few minutes.

With the victory, Pacquiao adds the Ring 140lb Championship to his Ring 130 and 126lb Championships as well as the WBC 112lb and 135lb belts and the IBF 122lb belt. Not only does he do that, but in my opinion anyway he moves past Floyd Mayweather jnr as the best fighter of the modern era (in that, I’m saying roughly the last 20-25 years). Pacquiao’s resume is unbelievable and unlike Mayweather he’s cleaned out divisions and sought the best fighters time and time again and with the exception of Marquez, dominated all of them. With the news of Mayweather returning to fight Marquez at 143lbs (this will save me an extra post, I think Floyd is being his typical self by throwing that much money at Marquez that he has no choice but to come up the extra weight. Let’s be realistic, Marquez would still be champion at 126lbs if there was anyone for him to fight there, he’s a big name and Floyd’s using that name and making him fight at his weight class to put himself back in the picture. I’d much rather have seen him take on Cotto or Mosley, but there’s risk in those fights and the reward isn’t that great so he’s picking on the Featherweight) it’s likely that we’ll see the blockbuster between Pacquiao and Mayweather at the end of this year. Then again, Mayweather might reconsider coming back after seeing that.

(May 09) Angry Fight Fan World Boxing Rankings

Most of the action this month coming at 122 and 168lbs, the big win of the month was Paull Williams domination over Winky Wright. Due to the one sidedness of this fight, I’ve moved Williams into the top three pound for pound behind Marquez and Pacquiao. Both Hopkins and Vazquez have been sort of inactive and a win by either of them will likely be enough to move Williams down the list, but on current form Williams’ wins over Wright (who had not been dominated like that ever even by Hopkins) and Margarito puts him right up there in my opinion.
The rankings are based on all fights that happened before May 1st 2009, so if there’s a result that happened on March 1st (I’m using boxrec’s calender) then it’ll be included next month. These rankings are my own work and have absolutely no reflection on any ABC rankings or anything else but my own opinion. Please feel free to flame me in the comments section.

Weight Division (weight limit)
(Last Month) Ranking- Fighter (Record)

Pound for Pound 
(1) 1- Manny Pacquiao (48-3-2)
(2) 2- Juan Manuel Marquez (50-4-1)
(7) 3- Paul Williams (37-1-0)
(3) 4- Bernard Hopkins (49-5-1)
(4) 5- Israel Vazquez (43-4-0)
(5) 6- Shane Mosley (46-5-0)
(6) 7- Rafael Marquez (37-5-0)
(8) 8- Ricky Hatton (45-1-0)
(9) 9- Kelly Pavlik (35-1-0)
(10) 10- Vic Darchinyan (32-1-1)

Active- Paul Williams

Heavyweight (no limit)
(1) 1- Wladimir Klitschko (52-3-0)
(2) 2- Vitali Klitschko (37-2-0)
(3) 3- Ruslan Chagaev (25-0-1)
(4) 4- Nicolay Valuev (50-1-0)
(5) 5- Alexander Povetkin (17-0-0)
(6) 6- David Haye (22-1-0)
(7) 7- Alexander Dimitrenko (29-0-0)
(8) 89- Sultan Ibragimov (22-1-1)
(9) 910- Eddie Chambers (34-1-0)
(NA) 8- Cristobal Arreola (27-0-0)

Active- Alexander Povetkin, Cristobal Arreola
Out- Samuel Peter (10)

Cruiserweight (200lbs)
(1) 1- Tomasz Adamek (37-1-0)
(2) 2- Guillermo Jones (36-3-2)
(3) 3- Steve Cunningham (21-2-0)
(4) 4- Marco Huck (24-1-0)
(5) 5- Jean Marc Mormeck (33-4-0)
(6) 6- O’Neill Bell (26-3-1)
(7) 7- Firat Arslan (29-4-1)
(8) 8- Vadim Tokarev (26-1-1)
(9) 9- Kryzstof Wlodarczyk (41-2-0)
(10) 10- Giacobbe Fragomeni (26-1-0)

Active- None

Light Heavyweight (175lbs)
(1) 1- Bernard Hopkins (49-4-1)
(2) 2- Chad Dawson (27-0-0)
(3) 3- Glenn Johnson (49-12-2)
(4) 4-  Antonio Tarver (27-5-0)
(5) 5- Zsolt Erdei (30-0-0)
(6) 6- Clinton Woods (42-4-1)
(7) 7- Hugo Garay (32-3-0)
(8) 8- Roy Jones jnr (52-5-0)
(9) 9- Adrian Diaconu (26-0-0)
(10) 10- Tavoris Cloud (19-0-0)

Active- Adrian Diaconu

Super Middleweight (168lbs)
(1) 1- Mikkel Kessler (41-1-0)
(2) 2- Lucian Bute (24-0-0)
(4) 3- Carl Froch (25-0-0)
(5) 4- Librado Andrade (28-2-0)
(7) 5- Karoly Balszay (21-0-0)
(6) 6- Sakio Bika (27-3-2)
(3) 7- Jermain Taylor (28-3-1)
(8) 8- Dennis Inkin (34-1-0)
(9) 9- Jeff Lacy (25-2-0)
(10) 10- Andre Dirrell (18-0-0)

Active- Carl Froch, Librado Andrade, Karoly Balzsay, Jermain Taylor (loss), Jeff Lacy

Middleweight (160lbs)
(1) 1- Kelly Pavlik (35-1-0)
(2) 2- Arthur Abraham (29-0-0)
(NA) 3- Paul Williams (37-1-0)
(3) 4- Felix Sturm (32-2-1)
(4) 5- Winky Wright (51-5-1)
(5) 6- Anthony Mundine (35-3-0)
(6) 7- Khoren Gevor (30-3-0)
(7) 8- Randy Griffin (24-2-3)
(8) 9- Sebastian Sylvester (29-3-0)
(10) 10- Amin Asikainen (25-2-0)

Active- Paul Williams, Felix Sturm, Winky Wright (loss)
Out- Javier Castillejo (draw)

Junior Middleweight (154lbs)
(2) 1- Vernon Forrest (41-3-0)
(3) 2- Sergei Dzinziruk (36-0-0)
(4) 3- Daniel Santos (32-3-0)
(5) 4- Verno Phillips (42-11-1)
(6) 5- Cory Spinks (36-5-0)
(7) 6- Sergio Manuel Martinez (44-1-1)
(8) 7- Kermit Cintron (30-2-1)
(9) 8- James Kirkland (25-0-0)
(10) 9- Sergio Mora (21-1-1)
(NA) 10- Jamie Moore (31-3-0)

Active- Cory Spinks
Out- Paul Williams (moved up)

Welterweight (147lbs)
(1) 1- Shane Mosley (46-5-0)
(2) 2- Miguel Cotto (32-1-0)
(3) 3- Andre Berto (24-0-0)
(4) 4- Joshua Clottey (35-2-0)
(5) 5- Carlos Quintana (26-2-0)
(6) 6- Luis Collazo (29-4-0)
(7) 7- Zab Judah (37-6-0)
(8) 8- Mike Jones (17-0-0)
(9) 9- Sebastian Lujan (31-5-2)
(10) 10- Rafal Jackiewicz (33-8-1)

Active- None

Junior Welterweight (140lbs)
(1) 1- Ricky Hatton (45-1-0)
(3) 2- Timothey Bradley (24-0-0)
(2) 3- Andreas Kotelnik (30-2-0)
(4) 4- Kendall Holt (25-3-0)
(6) 5- Paulie Malignaggi (26-2-0)
(5) 6- Ricardo Torres (32-2-0)
(7) 7- Juan Urango (20-1-1)
(8) 8- Junior Witter (37-2-2)
(9) 9- Victor Ortiz (24-1-1)
(10) 10- Vivian Harris (29-3-1)

Active- Timothey Bradley, Kendall Holt (loss), Paulie Malignaggi

Lightweight (135lbs)
(1) 1- Juan Manuel Marquez (50-4-1)
(2) 2- Manny Pacquiao (48-3-2)
(NA) 3- Edwin Valero (25-0-0)
(3) 4- Juan Diaz (34-2-0)
(4) 5- Joel Casmayor (36-4-1)
(6) 6- Joan Guzman (29-0-0)
(8) 7- Ali Funeka (30-2-2)
(9) 8- David Diaz (34-2-1)
(10) 9- Anthony Peterson (28-0-0)
(NA) 10- Breidis Prescott (21-0-0)

Active- Edwin Valero
Out- Antonio Pitalua (loss), Julio Diaz (loss)

Junior Lightweight (130lbs)
(3) 1- Humberto Soto (47-7-2)
(4) 2- Jorge Linares (26-0-0)
(5) 3- Roman Martinez (22-0-1)
(8) 4- Malcolm Klassen (23-4-2)
(6) 5- Robert Guerrero (22-1-1)
(2) 6- Cassius Baloyi (36-3-1)
(7) 7- Mzonke Fana (28-4-0)
(9) 8- Nicky Cook (29-2-0)
(10) 9- Alex Arthur (26-2-0)
(NA) 10- Sergey Gulyakevich (26-1-0)

Active- Malcolm Klassen, Cassius Baloyi (loss)
Out- Edwin Valero (moved up)

Featherweight (126lbs)
(1) 1- Chris John (42-0-2)
(2) 2- Cristobal Cruz (38-11-1)
(3) 3- Ricardo Juarez (28-4-1)
(4) 4- Steve Luevano (36-1-1)
(5) 5- Jorge Solis (37-1-2)
(6) 6- Takahiro Aoh (17-1-1)
(10) 7- Yuriorkis Gamboa (15-0-0)
(8) 8- Guty Espadas Jnr (45-7-0)
(7) 9- Thomas Mashaba (20-2-4)
(9) 10- Mario Santiago (19-1-1)

Active- Yuriorkia Gamboa, Guty Espadas Jnr

Junior Featherweight (122lbs)
(1) 1- Israel Vazquez (43-4-0)
(2) 2- Rafael Marquez (37-5-0)
(3) 3- Celestino Caballero (32-2-0)
(4) 4- Juan Manuel Lopez (25-0-0)
(5) 5- Poonsawat Krattindaenggym (38-1-0)
(6) 6- Daniel Ponce de Leon (36-2-0)
(NA) 7- Gerry Penalosa (54-7-2)
(7) 8- Jhonny Gonzalez (40-6-0)
(8) 9- Steve Molitor (28-1-0)
(9) 10- Toshiaki Nishioka (33-4-3)

Active- Celestino Caballero, Juan Manuel Lopez, Poonsawat Krattindaenggym, Gerry Penalosa (loss)
Out- Bernard Dunne (10)

Bantamweight (118lbs)
(1) 1- Hozumi Hasegawa (26-2-0)
(3) 2- Fernando Montiel (39-2-1)
(4) 3- Anselmo Moreno (24-1-1)
(5) 4- Silence Mabuza (22-2-0)
(6) 5- Wladimir Siderenko (21-1-2)
(7) 6- Abner Mares (17-0-0)
(8) 7- Joseph Agebeko (26-1-0)
(9) 8- Yohnny Perez (18-0-0)
(10) 9- Nehomar Cermeno (19-0-0)
(NA) 10- Simone Maludrottu (29-2-0)

Active- None
Out- Gerry Penalosa (moved up)

Junior Bantamweight (115lbs)
(1) 1- Vic Darchinyan (32-1-1)
(2) 2- Alexander Munoz (32-3-0)
(3) 3- Nobuo Nashiro (13-1-0)
(4) 4- Z Gorres (29-2-2)
(5) 5- Jorge Arce (51-5-1)
(6) 6- Jose Lopez (39-7-2)
(7) 7- Hugo Cazares (28-5-1)
(8) 8- Dimitri Kirilov (29-4-1)
(9) 9- Jose Navarro (26-4-0)
(10) 10- Kohei Kono (22-4-0)

Active- Nobuo Nashiro

Flyweight (112lbs)
(1) 1- Nonito Donaire (21-1-0)
(2) 2- Denkaosan Kaovichit (46-1-1)
(3) 3- Daisuke Naito (34-2-3)
(4) 4- Omar Narvaez (28-0-2)
(5) 5- Pongsaklek Wonjongkam (72-3-1)
(6) 6- Koki Kameda (20-0-0)
(7) 7- Takefumi Sakata (33-5-2)
(8) 8- Bernard Inom (19-1-1)
(NA) 9- Moruti Mthalane (23-2-0)
(9) 10- Jose Cesar Miranda (29-4-1)

Active- Nonito Donaire, Pongsaklek Wonjongkam, Jose Cesar Miranda (loss)
Out- Brian Viloria (moved down)

Junior Flyweight (108lbs)
(1) 1- Ivan Calderon (32-0-0)
(2) 2- Edgar Soto (35-5-0)
(NA) 3- Brian Viloria (24-2-0)
(4) 4- Giovanni Segura (19-1-1)
(3) 5- Ulises Solis (28-2-2)
(5) 6- Brahim Asloum (23-2-0)
(6) 7- Juan Carlos Reveco (19-1-0)
(7) 8- Cesar Canchila (27-1-0)
(8) 9- Juanito Rubillar (46-11-7)
(9) 10- Omar Nino Romero (27-3-1)

Active- Edgar Soto, Brian Viloria, Ulises Solis (loss)
Out- Nelson Dieppa (10)

Minimumweight (105lbs)
(1) 1- Roman Gonzalez (23-0-0)
(2) 2- Oleydong Sithsamerchai (30-0-0)
(3) 3- Raul Garcia (26-0-1)
(4) 4- Florante Condes (23-4-1)
(5) 5- Donnie Nietes (24-1-3)
(6) 6- Juan Palacios (25-2-0)
(7) 7- Milan Melindo (18-0-0)
(8) 8- Nkosinathi Joyi (19-0-0)
(9) 9- Muhammad Rachman (62-7-5)
(10) 10- Manuel Vargas (26-3-1)

Active- Raul Garcia

Boxing Breakdown: Ricky Hatton vs Manny Pacquiao

I really wanted to do a few posts on this fight, but I’ve been reduced to one because of time constraints. This fight is the biggest fight of the year and will be hard to top unless Pacquiao wins and fights Mayweather later in the year. Here you have the pound for pound number one fighting the dominant four year reigning champion at a weight higher then he’s competed for a title at. Both men have balls for taking this fight and it’s one of those fights that you can sit back and enjoy (unless your Phillipino or British).

Pacquiao is currently riding an incredible (incredible in terms of who he’s beaten, not the number of wins) nine fight winning streak that has included wins over Oscar De La Hoya, Juan Manuel Marquez, Marco Antonio Barrera and two stoppage wins over Erik Morales. Last year alone he captured two world titles in two different weight divisions and then dominated and stopped Oscar De La Hoya to cap off what was an amazing year. Prior to the titles he won at Junior Lightweight and Lightweight last year, Pacquiao has held the Linear Featherweight title (Pacquiao beat Barrera who beat Hamed who held all four belts at some stage during his reign), the IBF Junior Featherweight title and the WBC Flyweight title. This win would make him a legitimate three weight Linear Champion (140, 130, 126) (maybe even four as some claim he was the Linear Flyweight champion) and a six weight world title holder putting him basically in a league of his own unless you’re a De La Hoya fanboy who counts his WBO Middleweight and Junior Lightweight titles.

Pacquiao’s offensive capabilities are almost second to none. He punches with a ferocity that ranks along some of the all-time greats combining a monsterous workrate with explosive speed and devastating power. Lately Pacquiao has added solid defensive skills to his arsenal over the course of his recent five or six fights making him as dangerous a puncher as they come. Pacquiao has shown a weakness to good counter punchers like Marquez (and Barrera in the rematch for a short period) and guys who can control the range and punish him when he lunges in like Erik Morales. Hatton isn’t really either of those so you would think that he’d be able to dominate Hatton with his offense and punish Hatton’s sometimes lack of defence. However, Hatton’s in-fighting combined with his size is something we’ve yet to see Pacquiao have to deal with.

Ricky Hatton was often criticised on his way up for fighting over the hill fighters and soft touches while building up his record, but his 11th round stoppage over long time Junior Welterweight king Kostya Tszyu in 2005 will go down in British boxing history alongside great wins by British fighters like Turpin-Robinson I and Honeyghan-Curry. Hatton then moved up and won the WBA Welterweight title, before vacating it to make now six defences of his Light Welterweight crown. Jose Luis Castillo is the big name on his record since the Tszyu win, with Hatton stopping the Lightweight powerhouse with a body shot in the 4th round. The lone loss on his record came in a 2007 super fight with Floyd Mayweather Jnr when Hatton moved up to Welterweight to challenge the pound for pound king. Mayweather outboxed the Mancurian, stopping him in the 10th round.

Hatton’s style is overwhelming. While he takes punches early in the fight his aggression and physical strength especially at 140lbs are very hard to match without an impregnable defence. While Hatton has slowed down in recent fights, he always rises for the big fights as he showed in the Tszyu and Castillo wins as well as glimpses of in the Mayweather fight. Hatton’s big weapon is his foot speed as he cuts the danger zone for getting caught down rapidly allowing him to work on the inside and smother his opponents offence with his physical strength. Two things that could get Hatton in trouble are his tendancy to cut and his face first style which could spell badly if Pacquiao starts well and scores with some solid shots early on.

I’m really on the fence with this one, but I’m going for the upset and picking Hatton to win by late stoppage. I think his physical strength and body punching (should he use it) will hurt Manny in the late rounds and he physicality of the fight will be too much for the smaller Pacquiao. Hatton in my opinion has to start well to win this fight as he did against both Castillo and Tszyu. If Pacquiao starts strongly and builds a lead on the cards or causes some serious early damage on Hatton I believe he’ll ride that confidence to a one sided victory. One thing I’ve noticed with Pacquiao is that he isn’t a big fan of being hit in the body and thats going to have to be a key part of Hatton’s gameplan if he wants to win. Still, the combination of size and aggression that Hatton brings to this fight I think will cancel out Pacquiao’s speed and power and he’ll wear Pacquiao down and stop him late. Ricky Hatton by 10th round knockout.

Oscar De La Hoya Retires

Ring Legend Oscar De La Hoya today announced his retirement from boxing after a sixteen year professional career. He had set the press conference up to announce his further plans and chose retirement as he felt he could no longer compete at the elite level. De La Hoya was an Olympic Gold Medalist at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics before turning pro with an amateur record of 220 wins and 6 losses. Right from the start of his pro career Oscar was a big name and has probably fought a higher percentage of his career on televised cards then any other boxer in history. De La Hoya’s pro career took off fast and afterjust 22 fights (he’d won all but two of them by knockout), he was already a champion in three weight divisions having won the lightly regarded WBO Junior Lightweight title, the WBO and IBF Lightweight titles and the WBC and Linear Junior Welterweight titles when he became the first man to stop Julio Cesar Chavez.

De La Hoya defended the title just once before moving up and defeating WBC and Linear Welterweight Champion Pernell Whitaker. The fight was razr thin with both fighters being on the canvas, but De La Hoya took a split decision to earn him world titles in four weight divisions after just 24 professional fights. After five successful defences which included a rematch with Julio Cesar Chavez and a win over former multi time world champion Hector Camacho, De La Hoya met WBA champion Ike Quartey in the first blockbuster fight of his career. Sure the Chavez fights and the Whitaker fights were big, but this fight matched him up with a fighter of his generation and an extremely dangerous one at that. Both men fought an even first five rounds before the fight exploded in the sixth. Within seconds of the sixth, De La Hoya dropped Quartey with a left hook. De La Hoya went on the attack and the two traded for the first time in the fight. One minute into the round, Quartey dropped Oscar with a counter left hook. Both men tried to get the advantage for the remainer of the round, but it was Quartey’s jab that was starting to take over. Quartey took control of the fight and seemed to have a slight lead going into the final round. Oscar stormed out at the start of the 12th and put Quartey down for the 2nd time. Sensing he had his man hurt, De La Hoya fired barrage after barrage on Quartey on the ropes. The beating would have dropped most men and arguably could have been stopped there and then. Quartey survived and Oscar punched himself out leaving the fight to go to the cards where De La Hoya prevailed by split decision.

Seven months later De La Hoya faced the other champion in the division, long time IBF champion Felix Trinidad. Trinidad had held the belt since De La Hoya turned pro and had made 14 defences of the title including a one sided decision win over Pernell Whitaker. The fight was, at the time, the richest non Heavyweight fight of all-time and while there was a lot of hype around the fight, the action was sporadic. De La Hoya appeared to get the better of the early rounds before putting on a boxing clinic during the middle rounds. Trinidad was unable to find De La Hoya to connect on his power shots and was being thoroughly outboxed. Then De La Hoya did something that has defined his career in many critics eyes, he stopped fighting thinking he was ahead and let Trinidad back in the fight. Trinidad’s aggression dominated the final three rounds and with a few close rounds early on which the judges saw his way, he took a majority decision and De La Hoya’s zero.

Despite some big wins late in his career, De La Hoya was over his peak after the Trinidad fight. That’s not to say that he didn’t improve or what not, but achievement wise his later career hardly matches up to the early part of his career. He lost pretty comfortably to Shane Mosley in a bid for the titles Trinidad left behind before moving up to 154lbs and defeating Javier Castillejo. His greatest win was probably the 11th round stoppage of Fernando Vargas in 2002 after Vargas had called him out for years. Vargas worked Oscar over in the first six rounds before Oscar took the fight over with his jab, opening up a cut under Vargas’ right eye. Vargas came back in rounds 9 and 10 before De La Hoya rocked him badly at the end of the 10th with a left hook. ‘The Golden Boy’ then finished off the younger, bigger man in the 11th round of what was a masterful performance of skill and determination. Oscar looked to be making a revival in his career until he dropped a controversial decision to Shane Mosley a year after the Vargas fight. In a fight that De La Hoya seemed easily in control of, he was reluctant to dominate a Mosley who clearly couldn’t match him on the night and the judges thought that Oscar didn’t do enough. A run at Middleweight ended with his first stoppage loss via a body shot against long time Undisputed Champion Bernard Hopkins in 2004. After 18 months out of the ring he returned with a sixth round knockout over WBC 154lb ‘champion’ Ricardo Mayorga who had made Vargas’ trash talking on De La Hoya seem like he wanted to make friends. A super fight with Mayweather then took place in 2007, with Oscar putting in a valiant effort although he dropped the close split decision. His last big fight (and it turns out his last fight) came against Manny Pacquiao where De La Hoya tried (foolishly) to make 145lbs and suffered badly as a result, losing a one sided 8th round TKO.

It’s good to see that Oscar got out at the right time and thats a very rare thing you can say when it comes to boxers retiring. He’d been past his best for a while but still able to compete with the top guys. Pacquiao was the first guy to really beat him up and he did the right thing by getting out now and not seeing if he had anything left one or two more times. It’s a little sad to see him go out on his stool like that, but it’ll be a hell of a lot better then seeing him choke on his “s’s” when he’s 40 years old because he’s punch drunk. The big question that always pops up when a great retires is his legacy, and for De La Hoya it’s a controversial one. I usually leave it a few years before I go ahead and give a fighter his standing among the greats as judgment is often clouded around the time when the man is still fighting. He was one of the best fighters of the 90′s no doubt but as to where he stands among other great fighters in the same weight, I find it had to class him. His welterweight reign was very strong, but there was Trinidad nipping at his heels and it’s hard to rate him above Tito when Tito’s reign was more destructive and then he beat Oscar while they were both at their best (even though I thought Oscar won). Then there’s the fact that Mosley beat him twice, once at Welterweight, which makes his resume’ on par with guys of his own era, rather then the greats of all-time. The other option would be to rate him as a Lightweight, but his career there was so short and he was so green that it’s hard to imagine a young De La Hoya locking horns with Roberto Duran or Ike Williams.

The one thing that I think will always hurt De La Hoya’s legacy is the Trinidad fight and the second Mosley fight. There was no shame losing to Mosley the first time, or Hopkins, Mayweather or Pacquiao as Mosley was unheralded (as far as pound for pound entrants were concerned) and the other three were arguably the best pound for pound of the day that De La Hoya fought them. But he really should have beaten both Trinidad and Mosley convincingly enough that the judges couldn’t have screwed him over if you’re of the opinion that they did. The fact is, he left both of those fights to be closer then they needed to be because he didn’t have the guts to take the fight to them and risk losing. He has the guts as he showed in the Vargas fight, but using them when it matters is part of being a truly great fighter and in those two circumstances Oscar didn’t show guts. Had he dominated both of those guys and been a bit more active during his career, he’d be a shoe-in all-time great for sure. As it stands (and please don’t go on about his 10 world titles or whatever, fact is he was legitimate champion in three of those weight divisions, and in two of them he held the titles for less then a year and he never unified a division, WBO at 130 and 135 don’t count as far as I’m concerned and he definately did not prove he was the best 135lber in the game when he was at that weight class) Oscar is one of those fighters who sits below the true legends of the sport although at his best he’d be a handful for anyone. Although I see him as more of a media star then a fighter in the later part of his career, I’ve enjoyed the De La Hoya ride and I wish him all the best in retirement!

(Apr 09) Angry Fight Fan World Boxing Rankings

The interesting thing I found this month is how stacked the Bantamweight division is becoming. Last month both Fernando Montiel and Cristian Mijares made their move there to join the likes of Hasegawa who just made the 8th successful defence of his WBC belt with a 1st round KO of Vusi Malinga. The division is that stacked that long time 115lb #1 Mijares lost his 118lb debut (which could be down to ill-effects suffered in the Darchinyan beatdown though. The thing though is that the 115lb division which six months ago was one of the strongest is now probably the weakest after Darchinyan cleaned out all of the top contenders bar Montiel. Now that Darchinyan will face Joseph Agbeko at 118lbs, the division will be a wasteland come July.
The rankings are based on all fights that happened before April 1st 2009, so if there’s a result that happened on March 1st (I’m using boxrec’s calender) then it’ll be included next month. These rankings are my own work and have absolutely no reflection on any ABC rankings or anything else but my own opinion. Please feel free to flame me in the comments section.

Weight Division (weight limit)
(Last Month) Ranking- Fighter (Record)

Pound for Pound 
(1) 1- Manny Pacquiao (48-3-2)
(2) 2- Juan Manuel Marquez (50-4-1)
(3) 3- Bernard Hopkins (49-5-1)
(4) 4- Israel Vazquez (43-4-0)
(5) 5- Shane Mosley (46-5-0)
(6) 6- Rafael Marquez (37-5-0)
(7) 7- Paul Williams (36-1-0)
(8) 8- Ricky Hatton (45-1-0)
(9) 9- Kelly Pavlik (35-1-0)
(10) 10- Vic Darchinyan (32-1-1)

Active- None

Heavyweight (no limit)
(1) 1- Wladimir Klitschko (52-3-0)
(2) 2- Vitali Klitschko (37-2-0)
(3) 3- Ruslan Chagaev (25-0-1)
(4) 4- Nicolay Valuev (50-1-0)
(5) 5- Alexander Povetkin (16-0-0)
(6) 6- David Haye (22-1-0)
(8) 7- Alexander Dimitrenko (29-0-0)
(9) 8- Sultan Ibragimov (22-1-1)
(NA) 9- Eddie Chambers (34-1-0)
(7) 10- Samuel Peter (30-3-0)

Active- Vitali Klitschko, Eddie Chambers, Samuel Peter (loss)
Out- Oleg Maskaev (10)

Cruiserweight (200lbs)
(1) 1- Tomasz Adamek (37-1-0)
(2) 2- Guillermo Jones (36-3-2)
(3) 3- Steve Cunningham (21-2-0)
(4) 4- Marco Huck (24-1-0)
(5) 5- Jean Marc Mormeck (33-4-0)
(6) 6- O’Neill Bell (26-3-1)
(8) 7- Firat Arslan (29-4-1)
(9) 8- Vadim Tokarev (26-1-1)
(10) 9- Kryzstof Wlodarczyk (41-2-0)
(NA) 10- Giacobbe Fragomeni (26-1-0)

Active- None
Out- Enzo Maccarinelli (loss)

Light Heavyweight (175lbs)
(1) 1- Bernard Hopkins (49-4-1)
(2) 2- Chad Dawson (27-0-0)
(3) 3- Glenn Johnson (49-12-2)
(4) 4-  Antonio Tarver (27-5-0)
(5) 5- Zsolt Erdei (30-0-0)
(6) 6- Clinton Woods (42-4-1)
(7) 7- Hugo Garay (32-3-0)
(8) 8- Roy Jones jnr (52-5-0)
(9) 9- Adrian Diaconu (25-0-0)
(10) 10- Tavoris Cloud (19-0-0)

Active- Roy Jones jnr

Super Middleweight (168lbs)
(1) 1- Mikkel Kessler (41-1-0)
(2) 2- Lucian Bute (24-0-0)
(3) 3- Jermain Taylor (28-2-1)
(4) 4- Carl Froch (24-0-0)
(5) 5- Librado Andrade (27-2-0)
(6) 6- Sakio Bika (27-3-2)
(7) 7- Karoly Balszay (20-0-0)
(8) 8- Dennis Inkin (34-1-0)
(9) 9- Jeff Lacy (24-2-0)
(10) 10- Andre Dirrell (18-0-0)

Active- Lucian Bute, Andre Dirrell
Out- Markus Beyer (10)

Middleweight (160lbs)
(1) 1- Kelly Pavlik (35-1-0)
(2) 2- Arthur Abraham (29-0-0)
(3) 3- Felix Sturm (31-2-1)
(4) 4- Winky Wright (51-4-1)
(5) 5- Anthony Mundine (35-3-0)
(6) 6- Khoren Gevor (30-3-0)
(7) 7- Randy Griffin (24-2-3)
(8) 8- Sebastian Sylvester (29-3-0)
(9) 9- Javier Castillejo (62-8-0)
(10) 10- Amin Asikainen (25-2-0)

Active- Arthur Abraham

Junior Middleweight (154lbs)
(1) 1- Paul Williams (36-1-0)
(2) 2- Vernon Forrest (41-3-0)
(3) 3- Sergei Dzinziruk (36-0-0)
(4) 4- Daniel Santos (32-3-0)
(5) 5- Verno Phillips (42-11-1)
(6) 6- Cory Spinks (36-5-0)
(7) 7- Sergio Manuel Martinez (44-1-1)
(8) 8- Kermit Cintron (30-2-1)
(NA) 9- James Kirkland (25-0-0)
(9) 10- Sergio Mora (21-1-1)

Active- James Kirkland
Out- Alex Bunema (10)

Welterweight (147lbs)
(1) 1- Shane Mosley (46-5-0)
(2) 2- Miguel Cotto (32-1-0)
(3) 3- Andre Berto (24-0-0)
(4) 4- Joshua Clottey (35-2-0)
(5) 5- Carlos Quintana (26-2-0)
(6) 6- Luis Collazo (29-4-0)
(7) 7- Zab Judah (37-6-0)
(8) 8- Mike Jones (17-0-0)
(9) 9- Sebastian Lujan (31-5-2)
(10) 10- Rafal Jackiewicz (33-8-1)

Active- Mike Jones, Sebastian Lujan

Junior Welterweight (140lbs)
(1) 1- Ricky Hatton (45-1-0)
(2) 2- Andreas Kotelnik (30-2-0)
(3) 3- Timothey Bradley (23-0-0)
(4) 4- Kendall Holt (25-2-0)
(5) 5- Ricardo Torres (32-2-0)
(6) 6- Paulie Malignaggi (25-2-0)
(7) 7- Juan Urango (20-1-1)
(8) 8- Junior Witter (37-2-2)
(NA) 9- Victor Ortiz (24-1-1)
(9) 10- Vivian Harris (29-3-1)

Active- Victor Ortiz
Out- Marcos Rene Maidana (10)

Lightweight (135lbs)
(1) 1- Juan Manuel Marquez (50-4-1)
(2) 2- Manny Pacquiao (48-3-2)
(3) 3- Juan Diaz (34-2-0)
(4) 4- Joel Casmayor (36-4-1)
(5) 5- Julio Diaz (36-4-0)
(6) 6- Joan Guzman (29-0-0)
(7) 7- Antonio Pitualua (46-3-0)
(8) 8- Ali Funeka (30-2-2)
(9) 9- David Diaz (34-2-1)
(10) 10- Anthony Peterson (28-0-0)

Active- None

Junior Lightweight (130lbs)
(1) 1- Edwin Valero (24-0-0)
(2) 2- Cassius Baloyi (36-3-1)
(4) 3- Humberto Soto (47-7-2)
(3) 4- Jorge Linares (26-0-0)
(10) 5- Roman Martinez (22-0-1)
(5) 6- Robert Guerrero (22-1-1)
(6) 7- Mzonke Fana (28-4-0)
(7) 8- Malcolm Klassen (23-4-2)
(8) 9- Nicky Cook (29-2-0)
(9) 10- Alex Arthur (26-2-0)

Active- Humberto Soto, Roman Martinez, Robert Guerrero (No Contest), Nicky Cook (loss)

Featherweight (126lbs)
(1) 1- Chris John (42-0-2)
(2) 2- Cristobal Cruz (38-11-1)
(3) 3- Ricardo Juarez (28-4-1)
(4) 4- Steve Luevano (36-1-1)
(5) 5- Jorge Solis (37-1-2)
(NA) 6- Takahiro Aoh (17-1-1)
(6) 7- Thomas Mashaba (20-2-4)
(7) 8- Guty Espadas Jnr (44-7-0)
(8) 9- Mario Santiago (19-1-1)
(10) 10- Yuriorkis Gamboa (14-0-0)

Active- Takahiro Aoh
Out- Oscar Larios (loss)

Junior Featherweight (122lbs)
(1) 1- Israel Vazquez (43-4-0)
(2) 2- Rafael Marquez (37-5-0)
(3) 3- Celestino Caballero (31-2-0)
(4) 4- Juan Manuel Lopez (24-0-0)
(5) 5- Poonsawat Krattindaenggym (37-1-0)
(7) 6- Daniel Ponce de Leon (35-2-0)
(8) 7- Jhonny Gonzalez (40-6-0)
(9) 8- Steve Molitor (28-1-0)
(10) 9- Toshiaki Nishioka (33-4-3)
(NA) 10- Bernard Dunne (28-1-0)

Active- Bernard Dunne
Out- Ricardo Cordoba (loss)

Bantamweight (118lbs)
(1) 1- Hozumi Hasegawa (26-2-0)
(2) 2- Gerry Penalosa (54-6-2)
(NA) 3- Fernando Montiel (39-2-1)
(3) 4- Anselmo Moreno (24-1-1)
(4) 5- Silence Mabuza (22-2-0)
(5) 6- Wladimir Siderenko (21-1-2)
(6) 7- Abner Mares (17-0-0)
(8) 8- Joseph Agebeko (26-1-0)
(9) 9- Yohnny Perez (18-0-0)
(NA) 10- Nehomar Cermeno (19-0-0)

Active- Hozumi Hasegawa, Fernando Montiel, Nehomar Cermeno
Out- Vusi Malinga (loss), Simone Maludrottu (10)

Junior Bantamweight (115lbs)
(1) 1- Vic Darchinyan (32-1-1)
(4) 2- Alexander Munoz (32-3-0)
(5) 3- Nobuo Nashiro (12-1-0)
(6) 4- Z Gorres (29-2-2)
(7) 5- Jorge Arce (51-5-1)
(NA) 6- Jose Lopez (39-7-2)
(NA) 7- Hugo Cazares (28-5-1)
(8) 8- Dimitri Kirilov (29-4-1)
(9) 9- Jose Navarro (26-4-0)
(NA) 10- Kohei Kono (22-4-0)

Active- Z Gorres, Jose Lopez, Hugo Cazares
Out- Fernando Montiel (moved up), Cristian Mijares (moved up), Pramunsak Posuwan (loss)

Flyweight (112lbs)
(1) 1- Nonito Donaire (20-1-0)
(2) 2- Denkaosan Kaovichit (46-1-1)
(3) 3- Daisuke Naito (34-2-3)
(4) 4- Omar Narvaez (28-0-2)
(5) 5- Pongsaklek Wonjongkam (71-3-1)
(6) 6- Koki Kameda (20-0-0)
(7) 7- Takefumi Sakata (33-5-2)
(8) 8- Bernard Inom (19-1-1)
(9) 9- Jose Cesar Miranda (29-3-1)
(10) 10- Brian Viloria (24-2-0)

Active- Koki Kameda

Junior Flyweight (108lbs)
(1) 1- Ivan Calderon (32-0-0)
(2) 2- Edgar Soto (34-5-0)
(3) 3- Ulises Solis (28-1-2)
(7) 4- Giovanni Segura (19-1-1)
(6) 5- Brahim Asloum (23-2-0)
(8) 6- Juan Carlos Reveco (19-1-0)
(5) 7- Cesar Canchila (27-1-0)
(9) 8- Juanito Rubillar (46-11-7)
(10) 9- Omar Nino Romero (27-3-1)
(NA) 10- Nelson Dieppa (25-5-2)

Active- Giovanni Segura, Juan Carlos Reveco, Cesar Canchila (loss)
Out- Cazares (moved up)

Minimumweight (105lbs)
(1) 1- Roman Gonzalez (23-0-0)
(2) 2- Oleydong Sithsamerchai (30-0-0)
(3) 3- Raul Garcia (25-0-1)
(4) 4- Florante Condes (23-4-1)
(6) 5- Donnie Nietes (24-1-3)
(7) 6- Juan Palacios (25-2-0)
(NA) 7- Milan Melindo (18-0-0)
(8) 8- Nkosinathi Joyi (19-0-0)
(5) 9- Muhammad Rachman (62-7-5)
(9) 10- Manuel Vargas (26-3-1)

Active- Oleydong Sithsamerchai, Milan Melindo, Muhammad Rachman (loss)
Out- Katsunari Takayama (10)

Marquez KOs Diaz in war

In a fight that stands head and shoulders above the rest of the field for 2009 fight of the year, World Lightweight Champion Juan Manuel Marquez made his 1st defence a successful one with a 9th round KO win over Juan Diaz. Diaz attacked with his trademark relentless aggression from the bell and continualy backed Marquez against the ropes. Marquez used his excellent counter punches to keep Diaz honest, but it was the former WBA/WBO/IBF champion Diaz who was in control early. Midway through the 2nd round Diaz rocked the champion with a peach of a left hook that would have dropped lesser men and then followed it up with a four punch combination that landed flush on Marquez’s head. Marquez showed the chin and determination of a ring legend and fired straight back, ending the round on even terms. Still, Diaz was in front in a fight that had both men firing away with nearly (sometimes over) 100 punches a round each!

Marquez started to find his range more frequently in the 3rd and 4th rounds. Using a left uppercut to follow his cross, Marquez found his mark whenever Diaz was on the outside. Diaz still had plenty of success by backing up Marquez but the champion seemed to be landing the harder blows. Marquez appeared to either slow down or just take the round off in the 5th, as Diaz outworked the older man. Marquez fought well off the ropes, but was struggling to match the pace of the 23 year old challenger. Diaz cut Marquez over his troublesome right eye in the 6th round and continued to launch a two fisted assault against the champion on the ropes but Marquez never looked in trouble or weakened by the younger mans assault and continued to land heavily with his own right crosses and left uppercuts.

With the scorecards getting wider in favour of Diaz, Marquez stepped up a gear in the 7th and began catching Diaz with incrediblly accurate combinations in the 7th round. Countering Diaz’s jab with his right hand, Marquez used the punch to set up three and four punch combinations that were catching ‘the Baby Bull’ more and more. In the 8th round, Marquez opened a cut on Diaz’s right cheek before rocking Diaz with a blistering right hand towards the end of the round. With Diaz hurt for the first time in the fight, Marquez jumped on him and let his hands go, scoring with combinations to the head and (sometimes) body. Diaz survived the round, but the momentum was with Marquez heading into the late rounds.

Marquez didn’t give Diaz a chance to recover and jumped on him early in the 9th. A counter right hand midway through the round off a Diaz jab again rocked the challenger. Marquez threw and landed a five punch combination which forced Diaz to the deck for the first knockdown of the night. Diaz beat the count but his legs didn’t appear there and Marquez was ready to finish him. Two combinations, the second ending with a flush uppercut put Diaz down and out. The referee didn’t bother with the count and crowned Marquez at 2:40 of the 9th round. With the win, Marquez adds the WBA and WBO titles to his Ring Magazine belt (Casamayor previously held the WBC title but was robbed of it, the man he beat, Diego Corrales, previously held the WBO title as well and the man he beat, Jose Luis Castillo, previously held the IBF belt as well) after former titlist Nate Campbell lost the titles at the scales.

The win also puts Marquez in strong contention for the number one pound for pound spot. While I don’t agree with the ranking, I think it’s definately plausible as I thought Marquez won the fight against Pacquiao as well as his solid competition since the split decision loss to the Phillipino last March. Still, I feel you have to count the fight on the basis of the judges decision, plus Pacquiao had a solid resume’ before Marquez which seems to be forgotten by a lot of his haters. Should Pacquiao dethrone Hatton I don’t think there’ll be any question as to who the top fighter is. Still, a third fight between the two makes huge sense at this point. Can anyone remember anytime where the top two pound for pound fighters in the sport fought one another?

I’m yet to watch the Chris John-Ricardo Juarez fight. It may not happen for a while but when it does I’ll put up my scorecard as I hear it was quite a debatable decision.