This week in fight sports (February 14)

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Feb 09) Angry Fight Fan Boxing World Rankings

I’ve managed to set this up with a system that will allow me to update these monthly without too much trouble. Some interesting action this month; Mosley cracked the pound for pound list for the first time since he lost to Winky Wright back in 2004. The Welterweight division is very interesting now with the top three guys all having split wins over another. Hopefully, if Margarito gets cleared of his hand wraps incident (any suspension and I’ll probably drop him from the rankings completely), Margarito takes on Cotto and Mosley fights Clottey like what has been proposed and the winners meet later in the year. Whatever fight comes out of that series of matches will be great. I’ve also included a schedule of what significant fights are on next month and the lightweights again are all fighting in the same month which should move the rankings around a lot.

Could someone do me a huge favour and tell me how to turn off emoticons in my posts. It looks really fucking stupid having a sunglasses smiley in my rankings because the guy was ranked 8th in last months rankings.

The rankings are based on all fights that happened before February 1st 2009, so if there’s a result that happened on February 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- Joe Calzaghe (46-0-0)
(3) 3- Juan Manuel Marquez (49-4-1)
(4) 4- Bernard Hopkins (49-5-1)
(5) 5- Israel Vazquez (43-4-0)
(NA) 6- Shane Mosley (46-5-0)
(6) 7- Rafael Marquez (37-5-0)
(7) 8- Paul Williams (36-1-0)
(9) 9- Ricky Hatton (45-1-0)
(8) 10- Antonio Margarito (37-6-0)

Active- Shane Mosley, Antonio Margarito (loss)
Out- Kelly Pavlik (10)

Heavyweight (no limit)
(1) 1- Wladimir Klitschko (52-3-0)
(2) 2- Vitali Klitschko (36-2-0)
(3) 3- Ruslan Chagaev (24-0-1)
(4) 4- Nicolay Valuev (50-1-0)
(5) 5- Alexander Povetkin (16-0-0)
(6) 6- David Haye (22-1-0)
(7) 7- Samuel Peter (30-2-0)
(8) 8- Alexander Dimitrenko (29-0-0)
(9) 9- Sultan Ibragimov (22-1-1)
(10) 10- Oleg Maskaev (35-6-0)

Active- None

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

Active- Marco Huck

Light Heavyweight (175lbs)
(1) 1- Joe Calzaghe (46-0-0)
(2) 2- Bernard Hopkins (49-4-1)
(3) 3- Chad Dawson (27-0-0)
(4) 4- Glenn Johnson (48-12-2)
(5) 5-  Antonio Tarver (27-5-0)
(7) 6- Zsolt Erdei (30-0-0)
(6) 7- Clinton Woods (41-4-1)
(8) 8- Hugo Garay (32-3-0)
(9) 9- Roy Jones jnr (52-5-0)
(10) 10- Adrian Diaconu (25-0-0)

Active- Zsolt Erdei

Super Middleweight (168lbs)
(1) 1- Mikkel Kessler (41-1-0)
(2) 2- Lucian Bute (23-0-0)
(3) 3- Jermain Taylor (28-2-1)
(4) 4- Carl Froch (24-0-0)
(5) 5- Anthony Mundine (34-3-0)
(7) 6- Librado Andrade (27-2-0)
(8) 7- Sakio Bika (27-3-2)
(NA) 8- Karoly Balszay (20-0-0)
(6) 9- Dennis Inkin (34-1-0)
(9) 10- Jeff Lacy (24-2-0)

Active- Karoly Balszay, Dennis Inkin (loss)
Out- Markus Beyer (10)

Middleweight (160lbs)
(1) 1- Kelly Pavlik (34-1-0)
(2) 2- Arthur Abraham (28-0-0)
(3) 3- Felix Sturm (31-2-1)
(4) 4- Winky Wright (51-4-1)
(5) 5- Khoren Gevor (30-3-0)
(6) 6- Randy Griffin (24-2-3)
(7) 7- Sebastian Sylvester (29-3-0)
(8) 8- Javier Castillejo (62-8-0)
(9) 9- Amin Asikainen (25-2-0)
(10) 10- Daniel Geale (20-0-0)

Active- None

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- Sergio Manuel Martinez (44-1-1)
(6) 6- Verno Phillips (42-11-1)
(7) 7- Cory Spinks (36-5-0)
(8) 8- Sergio Mora (21-1-1)
(9) 9- Alex Bunema (30-6-2)
(10) 10- Joachim Alcine (30-1-0)

Active- None

Welterweight (147lbs)
(3) 1- Shane Mosley (46-5-0)
(1) 2- Antonio Margarito (37-5-0)
(2) 3- Miguel Cotto (32-1-0)
(5) 4- Andre Berto (24-0-0)
(4) 5- Joshua Clottey (35-2-0)
(6) 6- Kermit Cintron (30-2-0)
(7) 7- Carlos Quintana (26-2-0)
(8) 8- Luis Collazo (29-4-0)
(9) 9- Zab Judah (37-6-0)
(10) 10- Mike Jones (16-0-0)

Active- Shane Mosley, Andre Berto, Antonio Margarito (loss), Luis Collazo (loss)

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)
(8) 7- Juan Urango (20-1-1)
(7) 8- Junior Witter (37-2-2)
(9) 9- Vivian Harris (29-3-1)
(NA) 10- Marcos Rene Maidana (25-0-0)

Active- Juan Urango
Out- Herman Ngoudjou (loss)

Lightweight (135lbs)
(1) 1- Nate Campbell (32-5-1)
(2) 2- Manny Pacquiao (48-3-2)
(3) 3- Juan Manuel Marquez (49-4-1)
(4) 4- Juan Diaz (34-1-0)
(5) 5- Joel Casmayor (36-4-1)
(6) 6- Julio Diaz (36-4-0)
(7) 7- Joan Guzman (29-0-0)
(8) 8- Ali Funeka (30-1-2)
(9) 9- Antonio Pitualua (46-3-0)
(10) 10- David Diaz (34-2-1)

Active- None

Junior Lightweight (130lbs)
(1) 1- Edwin Valero (24-0-0)
(2) 2- Ricardo Juarez (28-4-0)
(3) 3- Cassius Baloyi (36-3-1)
(4) 4- Jorge Linares (26-0-0)
(5) 5- Humberto Soto (46-7-2)
(NA) 6- Robert Guerrero (22-1-1)
(6) 7- Mzonke Fana (28-4-0)
(7) 8- Malcolm Klassen (23-4-2)
(8) 9- Nicky Cook (29-1-0)
(9) 10- Alex Arthur (26-2-0)

Active- Robert Guerrero
Out- Roman Martinez (10)

Featherweight (126lbs)
(1) 1- Chris John (42-0-1)
(3) 2- Cristobal Cruz (37-11-1)
(4) 3- Steve Luevano (36-1-1)
(7) 4- Jorge Solis (37-1-2)
(5) 5- Thomas Mashaba (20-2-4)
(6) 6- Guty Espadas Jnr (44-7-0)
(8) 7- Mario Santiago (19-1-1)
(9) 8- Oscar Larios (63-6-0)
(NA) 9- Yuriorkis Gamboa (13-0-0)
(NA) 10- Bernabe Concepcion (28-1-1)

Active- Jorge Solis, Yuriorkis Gamboa
Out- Robert Guerrero (moved up), Hiroyuki Enoki (10)

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 (36-1-0)
(6) 6- Ricardo Cardoba (34-1-2)
(7) 7- Daniel Ponce de Leon (35-2-0)
(8) 8- Jhonny Gonzalez (40-6-0)
(9) 9- Steve Molitor (28-1-0)
(NA) 10- Toshiaki Nishioka (33-4-3)

Active- Toshiaki Nishioka
Out- Wethya Sakmuangklang (loss)

Bantamweight (118lbs)
(1) 1- Hozumo Hasegawa (25-2-0)
(2) 2- Gerry Penalosa (53-6-2)
(3) 3- Anselmo Moreno (24-1-1)
(4) 4- Silence Mabuza (22-2-0)
(5) 5- Wladimir Siderenko (21-1-2)
(6) 6- Abner Mares (17-0-0)
(7) 7- Vusi Malinga (18-2-1)
(8) 8- Joseph Agebeko (26-1-0)
(9) 9- Yohnny Perez (18-0-0)
(10) 10- Simone Maludrottu (29-2-0)

Active- None

Junior Bantamweight (115lbs)
(1) 1- Vic Darchinyan (31-1-1)
(2) 2- Fernando Montiel (38-4-1)
(3) 3- Cristian Mijares (36-4-2)
(4) 4- Alexander Munoz (32-3-0)
(5) 5- Jorge Arce (51-4-1)
(6) 6- Nobuo Nashiro (12-1-0)
(7) 7- Z Gorres (28-2-2)
(8) 8- Dimitri Kirilov (29-4-1)
(9) 9- Jose Navarro (26-4-0)
(10) 10- Pramunsak Posuwan (45-1-1)

Active- None

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- Pongsaklek Wonjongkam (71-3-1)
(5) 5- Omar Narvaez (28-0-2)
(6) 6- Koki Kameda (19-0-0)
(7) 7- Rayonta Whitfield (22-0-0)
(8) 8- Takefumi Sakata (33-5-2)
(9) 9- Bernard Inom (19-1-1)
(10) 10- Jose Cesar Miranda (29-3-1)

Active- Pongsaklek Wonjongkam

Junior Flyweight (108lbs)
(1) 1- Ivan Calderon (32-0-0)
(2) 2- Edgar Soto (34-5-0)
(3) 3- Ulises Solis (28-1-2)
(4) 4- Hugo Cazares (26-5-1)
(5) 5- Cesar Canchila (27-1-0)
(6) 6- Brahim Asloum (23-2-0)
(7) 7- Giovanni Segura (19-1-1)
(8) 8- Juan Carlos Reveco (19-1-0)
(9) 9- Juanito Rubillar (46-11-7)
(10) 10- Omar Nino Romero (27-3-1)

Active- None

Minimumweight (105lbs)
(1) 1- Roman Gonzalez (22-0-0)
(2) 2- Oleydong Sithsamerchai (29-0-0)
(3) 3- Raul Garcia (25-0-1)
(4) 4- Florante Condes (23-4-1)
(5) 5- Muhammad Rachman (62-6-5)
(6) 6- Juan Palacios (25-2-0)
(7) 7- Donnie Nietes (23-1-3)
(8) 8- Nkosinathi Joyi (19-0-0)
(9) 9- Katsunari Takayama (22-3-0)
(10) 10- Manuel Vargas (25-3-1)

Active- None

February Schedule
6th- Chris Henry vs Yusef Mack (NABA/NABF 175lb)
6th- Andre Ward vs Henry Buchanan (NABF 168lb)
7th- Vic Darchinyan vs Jorge Arce (IBF/WBA/WBC 115lb)
7th- Andreas Kotelnik vs Marcos Rene Maidana (WBA 140lb)
7th- Ruslan Chagaev vs Carl Drummond (WBA Heavy)
7th- Omar Narvaez vs Rayonta Whitfield (WBO 112lb)
7th- Almazbek Raiymkulov vs Antonio DeMarco (135lb)
11th- Anthony Mundine vs Shannan Taylor (160lb)
14th- Nate Campbell vs Ali Funeka (IBF/WBO 135lb)
14th- Sergio Gabriel Martinez vs Kermit Cintron (WBC interim 154lb)
14th- Cristobal Cruz vs Cyril Thomas (IBF 126lb)
14th- Manuel Vargas vs Walter Tello (WBO interim 105lb)
14th- Alfredo Angulo vs Ricardo Mayorga (160lb)
14th- Clinton Woods vs Elvir Muriqi (175lb)
20th- Breidis Prescott vs Humberto Toledo (135lb)
21st- Kelly Pavlik vs Marco Antonio Rubio (Ring/WBC/WBO 160lb)
21st- Miguel Cotto vs Michael Jennings (WBA 147lb)
21st- Matt Skelton vs Martin Rogan (Commonwealth Heavyweight)
21st- Anthony Peterson vs Edner Cherry (135lb)
27th- Tomasz Adamek vs Jonathon Banks (Ring/IBF 200lb)
27th- Glenn Johnson vs Daniel Judah (175lb)
27th- Rendall Munroe vs Kiko Martinez (European 122lb)
28th- Juan Manuel Marquez vs Juan Diaz (Ring 135lb)
28th- Chris John vs Rocky Juarez (WBA 126lb)
28th- Roman Gonzalez vs Francisco Rosas (WBA 105lb)
28th- Donnie Nietes vs Erik Ramirez (WBO 105lb)
28th- Cesar Canchila vs Giovanni Segura (WBA interim 108lb)
28th- Sebastian Sylvester vs Gaentano Nespro (160lb)
28th- Rafal Jackiewicz vs Luciano Abis (European 147lb)

Mosley turns back clock; stops Margarito

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

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

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

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

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

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

Boxing Breakdown: Antonio Margarito vs Shane Mosley

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Boxing Breakdown: Berto vs Collazo

2009 for Boxing fans officially kicks off on Saturday (Sunday for us Aussies) with a clash for the WBC Welterweight title. With the Boxing World awaiting next weekends bout between Shane Mosley and Antonio Margarito for the right to call themself the top fighter at 147lbs, an interesting fight takes place this weekend in the same division with WBC Champion Andre Berto will put his title on the line against former WBA champion Luis Collazo. There’s a lot of hype around Berto and some are predicting this to be his coming out party where he will announce himself as one of the top dogs in one of boxings glamour divisions. However, Collazo should not be underestimated as he gave both Shane Mosley and Ricky Hatton (especially Hatton) hard fought fights in losing efforts in his only two big fights of his career.

Andre Berto
Berto had an accomplished amatuer career where he won the National Golden Gloves titles twice, won a bronze medal for the United States at the 2003 World Amatuer Championships and represented Haiti in the 2004 Athens Olympics. Berto quickly rose up the ranks as a young prospect, winning his first 15 fights inside his first two years as a professional. After some good wins early in 2007, Berto faced his first real test against tough veteran Cosme Rivera. After surviving a 6th round knockdown, Berto again took control of the fight and pounded out a 10 round unanimous decision against the rugged Rivera.
Next up was another tough fighter in David Estrada on the Pavlik-Taylor I undercard. Estrada had taken Shane Mosley the distance and gone 10 rounds with Kermit Cintron prior to this fight. After a hard fought fight in which Berto was in control of, he ended the fight with a barrage of punches in the 11th round making him the mandatory challenger for Floyd Mayweather’s WBC title and Kermit Cintron’s IBF title. Nine months later he got his shot at Mayweather’s title (not against Mayweather as he had retired) taking on and defeating Miguel Rodriguez for the vacant title. In his last outing, Berto defeated durable veteran Steve Forbes over 12 rounds to retain his title, bringing his record to a perfect 23-0-0 (19 KOs).
Berto is still a young fighter and has plenty of room to improve which is credit to his natural ability that he can win a world title without reaching his full potential. Berto carries quick hands, has decent reflexes and above average power. There really isn’t anything that Berto does that I would call ‘special’ in terms of what great boxers have done in the past. His handspeed can be blistering and his power can look to be deadly but he doesn’t have the speed that a Mayweather has that dazzles you or the power that a Pavlik has that makes you think ‘oh fuck!’ Basically, Berto does everything well but not to the point where he really stands out in one particular area.

Luis Collazo
Luis Collazo won the WBA ‘regular’ title back in 2005 with a split decision win over Jose Rivera. After battering Miguel Angel Gonzalez in his only successful defence of the title he was picked as a sort of ‘stay busy big fight’ by Ricky Hatton and took his oppurtunity. After getting dropped in the opening seconds, Collazo outboxed the 140lb champion for much of the very evenly fought contest and even had Hatton hurt a few times in the later rounds. After 12 close rounds Hatton was awarded a controversial split decision and Collazo’s WBA title (which by then was elevated to the normal title after the sanctioning bodies tried to fuck Carlos Baldomir up the arse and ended up with their dicks covered in shit). Collazo then dropped a 12 round decision to Shane Mosley in a fight that was a lot closer then the judges scored it (although Mosley was the clear winner) for the WBC interim title in February of 2007. Since then he has had a lot of trouble getting decent opposition in the ring, fighting only twice in the last two years.
Collazo is one of the more underrated fighters in boxing today. For someone who gave Mosley and Hatton as much trouble as he did, he really doesn’t get the credit he deserves. It might be the fact that he has an awkward style which is further awkwafied by the fact that he’s a southpaw. It might be the fact that he has a long reach as far as welterweights go which makes him one of those pricks who people don’t want to spar let alone fight. Either way, Collazo is a good boxer with decent power (a lot better then his 14/29 KO ratio suggests) who is hard to hit cleanly and makes anyone he fights look bad.

The Gameplans
Berto has to fight patiently in this fight. If he tries to rush and get Collazo out of there quick he’s going to play right into his hands. He has to make Collazo throw punches to open him up and not let him sit back and counter punch. Berto will have a big edge in speed and power in this fight but with Collazo’s reach advantage and awkward southpaw style a lot of it will be negated so Berto will have to show patience and pick his shots. The other thing Berto should do is work the body early in the fight to make Collazo’s later rounds harder then they’ll already be because of his ring rust.
Collazo has to do his best to frustrate his inexperienced opponent. Despite being the challenger, Collazo has been in with the far better guys and this will work to his advantage if Berto has trouble with his long arms and southpaw jab. Collazo has to make Berto miss and counter him and put some doubts into his mind if he’s going to win this fight. Collazo will definately have to start fast in this fight because logic suggests with his lack of ring time that he’ll fade down the stretch whereas Berto will be in good shape for 12 rounds.

Prediction
First of all I have to say Berto has shown kahunas the size of bowling balls for taking on someone like Collazo. He’s on the verge of really entering the big time and a guy like Collazo could make him look very bad which will take some of the shine off him or even beat him so win, lose or draw, full credit to Berto for taking on Collazo. Despite my high thinking of Collazo, I think Berto will win a close but comfortable enough unanimous decision in an awkward fight. The simple facts are Berto has the better handspeed and has fought 14 times in the last three years as opposed to Collazo’s five fights. I don’t think it will be pretty and I think Berto will look ordinary at times but his edge in speed and Collazo’s likely ring rust will be the deciding factors down the stretch. After an even first six-eight rounds, Berto should take over and run away with the fight on the cards. Andre Berto by unanimous decision.

2009 looking good for Boxing fans

A number of good fights are currently in negotiations for later in 2009 to add to the already impressive lineup of quality boxing matches we’ve got on so far this year. Pound for Pound king Manny Pacquiao will indeed face Ricky Hatton for the Brit’s legitimate claim to being the World Champion at the Junior Welterweight limit. The fight will take place on May 2nd in Las Vegas after earlier talks of the fight taking place in Dubai were squashed. It really would have been interesting to see what sort of an appearance Hatton’s fans would have made if they had to travel to Dubai.

Another quality fight that is in the works is the return of former undisputed Junior Middleweight Champion Ronald ‘Winky’ Wright who will return to the ring for the first time since July 2007 to face pound for pound ranked fighter and current WBO interim Junior Middleweight Champion Paul Williams. The fight is set to take place on April 11th at the Middleweight limit. Wright really has his work cut out for him facing someone as dangerous as Williams in his first fight for nearly two years but with his impregnable defence he could frustrate Williams and outbox him if he can fight near his best.

The other good fight I’m hearing about is Kendall Holt vs Timothey Bradley for the WBC and WBO Junior Welterweight titles. This is a great fight between two youngish fighters and will likely determine who the next legitimate challenger is for Ricky Hatton (that’s if Hatton gets by Pacquiao). This fight is currently set to take place in April, probably the 4th although I haven’t heard whether or not this fight has been officially signed. All three of these fights are quality matchups, and so far the boxing lineup looks good through til early May with quality fights happening every other weekend:

17th January- Andre Berto vs Luis Collazo (WBC 147lbs)
24th January- Antonio Margarito vs Shane Mosley (WBA 147lbs)
7th February- Vic Darchinyan vs Jorge Arce (WBA-WBC-IBF 115lbs)
14th February- Nate Campbell vs Ali Funeka (WBA-IBF-WBO 135lbs)
21st February- Pavlik v Rubio/Cotto v Jennings (Ring 160lbs/WBO 147lbs)
28th February- Juan Diaz vs Juan Manuel Marquez (Ring 135lbs)
14th March- Chad Dawson vs Antonio Tarver (okay, not all of them are good)
15th March- Fernando Montiel vs Nonito Donaire (WBO 115lbs)
4th April- Timothey Bradley vs Kendall Holt (WBC-WBO 140lbs)
11th April- Paul Williams vs Winky Wright
2nd May- Ricky Hatton vs Manny Pacquiao (Ring 140lbs)

So basically there’s boxing every week from January 17th right through until March 15th minus two weekends (Jan 31st and March 7th). The good thing about those two weekends is that there’s UFC PPV cards on those dates and one of those weekends is BJ Penn vs Georges St Pierre. Throw in the odd K-1 event and DREAM card plus the odd not so major boxing match and I might have to change my name to Aroused Fight Fan.