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…..

Boxing Breakdown: Miguel Cotto vs Joshua Clottey

This is a fight between WBO titlist Cotto, who won the vacant title after Williams moved up and now former IBF titlist Clottey, who won the title that the IBF took off Margarito for fighting Cotto and now they are taking the title off Clottey for the same thing because apparently whoever bought their #1 ranking recently makes a better fight then fight Miguel Cotto. Just thought I’d get that out of the way before I got onto the actual fight.

Miguel Cotto defends the WBO Welterweight title that he won in February against the IBF titlist Joshua Clottey tomorrow in what should be a very interesting fight. It marks Cotto’s first real test since since the stoppage loss to Margarito and his 2nd outing this year. Clottey hasn’t fought since his technical decision win over Zab Judah last August after a fight with Kermit Cintron fell apart at the start of the year.

I’m intruiged by this fight. Clottey is one of the tougher guys out there with only Margarito having a better ability to take a punch. He also has a high workrate and above average power which are two things needed to deal with Cotto. Clottey only has two losses on his record, one being a decision loss to Margarito in 2006, a fight which Clottey fought admirably but lost fairly. His other loss is nearly ten years ago to former Welterweight Champion Carlos Baldomir where Clottey was DQ’d in the 11th round while ahead on the scorecards. It was his loss to Margarito and then his domination over former Lightweight Champion Diego Corrales that put Clottey on the map in terms of being a top contender and he’s had trouble getting marquee names into the ring since then.

Cotto has never been one to turn down a hard fight. This guy has been fighting guys who could test him since about his 10th pro fight and has been dominating most of them with his only loss coming to Margarito last year in what was Ring Magazines fight of the year. He fought and beat Mosley when Mosley was struggling to get quality opponents to face him. He fought Margarito when no one would touch him with a 10 foot pole. He’s fought Paulie Malignaggi, Miguel Torres, Carlos Quintana, Lovemore N’Dou, Zab Judah and DeMarcus Corley. Sure those guys aren’t Mayweather or Pacquiao, but at the time of each fight they were dangerous opponents for Cotto and he stopped all but two of them.

I think the big key in this fight will be speed. Cotto has plenty of it, especially in his feet, while Clottey relies more on his ruggedness. Judah gave Clottey problems in their fight with his speed early before Clottey started to break him down. Cotto has shown, especially early in a bout, that his foot speed is among the best in the business. I think Cotto will dart in and out of range and use Clottey as target practice for the first half of this fight before Clottey will finish strong which could make for an interesting back end to the fight. I think Cotto will have this fight won by the 8-9 round mark and survive a shaky moment or two in the championship rounds to win this one on points. Miguel Cotto by unanimous decision.

(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)

(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

(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)

(Mar 09) Angry Fight Fan World Boxing Rankings

There are two big absentees from the pound for pound rankings. First of all there was the suspension of Margarito. Due to his suspension, I’m removing him from my rankings until he is either cleared or his suspension is up. The other is Joe Calzaghe who announced his retirement last month and thus will no longer appear in the rankings (until he gets bored and comes back that is). This paves way for Pavlik to re-enter the top ten and I’ve filled out the list with Darchinyan who I think deserves it after effectively cleaning out one of the more competitive divisions in boxing.
The rankings are based on all fights that happened before March 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)
(3) 2- Juan Manuel Marquez (50-4-1)
(4) 3- Bernard Hopkins (49-5-1)
(5) 4- Israel Vazquez (43-4-0)
(6) 5- Shane Mosley (46-5-0)
(7) 6- Rafael Marquez (37-5-0)
(8) 7- Paul Williams (36-1-0)
(9) 8- Ricky Hatton (45-1-0)
(NA) 9- Kelly Pavlik (35-1-0)
(NA) 10- Vic Darchinyan (32-1-1)

Active- Juan Manuel Marquez, Kelly Pavlik, Vic Darchinyan
Out- Joe Calzaghe (retired), Antonio Margarito (suspended)

Heavyweight (no limit)
(1) 1- Wladimir Klitschko (52-3-0)
(2) 2- Vitali Klitschko (36-2-0)
(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)
(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- Ruslan Chagaev

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- 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- Tomasz Adamek

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

Active- Clinton Woods, Glenn Johnson
Out- Joe Calzaghe (retired)

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)
(6) 5- Librado Andrade (27-2-0)
(7) 6- Sakio Bika (27-3-2)
(8) 7- Karoly Balszay (20-0-0)
(9) 8- Dennis Inkin (34-1-0)
(10) 9- Jeff Lacy (24-2-0)
(NA) 10- Markus Beyer (35-3-1)

Active- None
Out- Anthony Mundine (moved down)

Middleweight (160lbs)
(1) 1- Kelly Pavlik (35-1-0)
(2) 2- Arthur Abraham (28-0-0)
(3) 3- Felix Sturm (31-2-1)
(4) 4- Winky Wright (51-4-1)
(NA) 5- Anthony Mundine (35-3-0)
(5) 6- Khoren Gevor (30-3-0)
(6) 7- Randy Griffin (24-2-3)
(7) 8- Sebastian Sylvester (29-3-0)
(8) 9- Javier Castillejo (62-8-0)
(9) 10- Amin Asikainen (25-2-0)

Active- Kelly Pavlik, Anthony Mundine, Sebastian Sylvester
Out- Daniel Geale (10)

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

Active- Sergio Manuel Martinez (draw), Kermit Cintron (draw)
Out- Joachim Alcine (10)

Welterweight (147lbs)
(1) 1- Shane Mosley (46-5-0)
(3) 2- Miguel Cotto (32-1-0)
(4) 3- Andre Berto (24-0-0)
(5) 4- Joshua Clottey (35-2-0)
(7) 5- Carlos Quintana (26-2-0)
(8) 6- Luis Collazo (29-4-0)
(9) 7- Zab Judah (37-6-0)
(10) 8- Mike Jones (16-0-0)
(NA) 9- Sebastian Lujan (30-5-2)
(NA) 10- Rafal Jackiewicz (33-8-1)

Active- Miguel Cotto, Rafal Jackiewicz
Out- Antonio Margarito (suspended), Kermit Cintron (moved up)

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)
(9) 9- Vivian Harris (29-3-1)
(10) 10- Marcos Rene Maidana (25-0-0)

Active- Andreas Kotelnik, Marcos Rene Maidana (loss)

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

Active- Juan Manuel Marquez, Juan Diaz (loss), Ali Funeka (loss)
Out- Nate Campbell (moved up)

Junior Lightweight (130lbs)
(1) 1- Edwin Valero (24-0-0)
(3) 2- Cassius Baloyi (36-3-1)
(4) 3- Jorge Linares (26-0-0)
(5) 4- Humberto Soto (46-7-2)
(6) 5- Robert Guerrero (22-1-1)
(7) 6- Mzonke Fana (28-4-0)
(8) 7- Malcolm Klassen (23-4-2)
(9) 8- Nicky Cook (29-1-0)
(10) 9- Alex Arthur (26-2-0)
(NA) 10- Roman Martinez (21-0-1)

Active- None
Out- Ricardo Juarez (moved down)

Featherweight (126lbs)
(1) 1- Chris John (42-0-2)
(2) 2- Cristobal Cruz (38-11-1)
(NA) 3- Ricardo Juarez (28-4-1)
(3) 4- Steve Luevano (36-1-1)
(4) 5- Jorge Solis (37-1-2)
(5) 6- Thomas Mashaba (20-2-4)
(6) 7- Guty Espadas Jnr (44-7-0)
(7) 8- Mario Santiago (19-1-1)
(8) 9- Oscar Larios (63-6-0)
(9) 10- Yuriorkis Gamboa (14-0-0)

Active- Chris John (draw), Ricardo Juarez (draw), Cristobal Cruz, Yuriorkis Gamboa
Out- Bernabe Concepcion (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 (37-1-0)
(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)
(10) 10- Toshiaki Nishioka (33-4-3)

Active- Poonsawat Krattindaenggym

Bantamweight (118lbs)
(1) 1- Hozumo Hasegawa (25-2-0)
(2) 2- Gerry Penalosa (54-6-2)
(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- Gerry Penalosa

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

Active- Vic Darchinyan, Jorge Arce (loss)

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

Active- Omar Narvaez
Out- Rayonta Whitfield (loss)

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 (23-0-0)
(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)
(7) 6- Donnie Nietes (24-1-3)
(6) 7- Juan Palacios (25-2-0)
(8) 8- Nkosinathi Joyi (19-0-0)
(10) 9- Manuel Vargas (26-3-1)
(9) 10- Katsunari Takayama (22-3-0)

Active- Roman Gonzalez, Donnie Nietes, Manuel Vargas

March Schedule
7th- Joel Julio vs James Kirkland (154lb)
7th- Juergen Brahmer vs Rachid Kanfouah (European 175lb)
7th- Robert Guerro vs Daud Cino Yordan (130lb)
12th- Hozumi Hasegawa vs Vusi Malinga (WBC 118lb)
12th- Oscar Laios vs Takahiro Aoh (WBC 126lb)
13th- Lucian Bute vs Fulgencio Zuniga (IBF 168lb)
13th- Juan Carlos Reveco vs Wilson Simao (WBA Fedalatin 108lb)
14th- Arthur Abraham vs Lajuan Simon (IBF 160lb)
14th- Nicky Cook vs Roman Martinez (WBO 130lb)
14th- Cristian Mijares vs Nehomar Cermeno (WBA interim 118lb)
14th- Marco Antonio Barrera vs Amir Khan (135lb)
14th- Oleg Maskaev vs Rich Boruff (Heavy)
14th- Enzo Maccaranelli vs Ola Afolabi (200lb)
20th- Celestino Caballero vs Jeffrey Mathebula (WBA/IBF 122lb)
20th- Junior Witter vs Gianluca Branco (European 140lb)
21st- Vitali Klitschko vs Juan Carlos Gomez (WBC Heavy)
21st- Ricardo Cordoba vs Bernard Dunne (WBA interim 122lb)
21st- Roy Jones Jnr vs Omar Sheika (175lb)
22nd- Ulises Solis vs Brian Viloria (IBF 108lb)
22nd- Nonito Donaire vs Raul Martinez (IBF 112lb)
24th- Roberto Vasquez vs Hugo Cazares (115lb)
27th- Kryzstof Wlodarczyk vs Giacobbe Fragomeni (WBC 200lb)
27th- Samuel Peter vs Eddie Chambers (Heavy)
27th- Yasutaka Kuroki vs Junichiro Kaneda (OPBF 105lb)
28th- Humberto Soto vs Albert Davis (WBC 130lb)
28th- Fernando Montiel vs Diego Oscar Silva (WBO interim 118lb)

Cotto and Pavlik score KO wins in comeback bouts

World Middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik scored a 9th round TKO win over WBC #1 contender Marco Antonio Rubio in his comeback fight after losing to Bernard Hopkins last October in a catchweight bout. Pavlik never looked like losing his WBC and WBO belts in front of his hometown crowd in Youngstown, Ohio. The fight was fought in typical Pavlik fashion, with ‘the Ghost’ firing unanswered combinations as Rubio tried to ride out the never ending storm that is Pavlik. Rubio showed a granite chin as well as some useful blocking but could offer little in the way of return fire as Pavlik repeatedly used his jab, cross and left uppercut to great effect. Rubio rallied in the 7th round, but Pavlik shifted up a gear in the 8th, rocking Rubio with a laser-like right hand. The champion continued to batter his overmatched challenger through until the end of the 9th round when Rubio wisely remained on his stool.

This fight should answer any questions as to what weight division Pavlik belongs in. He always looks like a beast when he’s fighting someone his own size. There’s some decent fights for him at this weight division as well. With Arthur Abraham demolishing all challengers and the likes of Winky Wright and Paul Williams as well as Felix Sturm and Anthony Mundine set to face off later this year, there’s some good fights that can be made. The good thing is that Pavlik is expected back in the ring come June or July instead of just sitting on his belts like some of the other fighters around. Overall, a successful comeback for Pavlik and I await his next opponent.

Also on the PPV, former WBA Welterweight Champion Miguel Cotto made his comeback from the devastating loss to Antonio Margarito last year a successful one with a 5th round TKO win over Michael Jennings. The win earns Cotto the WBO Welterweight belt and could set up a rematch with Shane Mosley, who is coming off the win over Margarito and who Cotto beat by unanimous decision in 2007. Cotto took his time early as Jennings moved well although didn’t land anything significant. However, as soon as Cotto caught Jennings it was just a matter of time. In the 4th round Cotto twice dropped Jennings with left hooks to the body although Jennings was game and took as many of the ten count as he could in order to recover. Jennings looked fine at the start of the 5th, although once Cotto caught him it was a different story. A barrage on the ropes dropped Jennings again and after rising at nine, the referee saved Jennings from further punishment. With Mosley and Cotto clearly the top two guys in the division (especially with Margarito suspended) that rematch is a must and would be one of the biggest fights of the year. Hopefully it gets made as none of the other fights at this weight have the same excitement.

I have to give full credit to the Sky Channel in Australia for taking time out of their 24 hour horse racing coverage to show this card. There was two of the biggest names in boxing fighting on the card and while the opponents weren’t great, the fights were entertaining and definately worth being shown down here. Hopefully Sky can pick up more of the fights that Main Event don’t and continue to give a decent coverage of the sport. Maybe a weekly news show run by Australians wouldn’t be a bad idea? Or how about Canvas Classics once a night? (okay that last part wasn’t going to happen but one can dream can’t they?)

Boxing Breakdown: Pavlik vs Rubio, Cotto vs Jennings

I’ve got no need to go into these fights anymore then they need to be gone into. Let’s call a spade a spade; these two (Rubio and Jennings) are being fed to Pavlik and Cotto who are border line top ten pound for pounders if not just inside the ten. Both Cotto and Pavlik are coming off losses and these are two highly ranked (ABC rankings anyway) contenders for them to work off any effects from the losses against.

Kelly Pavlik vs Marco Antonio Rubio
(World Middleweight Championship)
Prediction- Pavlik by 3rd round KO
Pavlik is coming off the half schooling/half beating he took from Bernard Hopkins at a higher weight and is fighting at his natural weight. His opponent, Marco Antonio Rubio, is the WBC mandatory but definately isn’t one of the top contenders in this division. The last fight I remember seeing of him before he earned his mandatory on the Pavlik-Hopkins card, he got iced by Kofi Jantuah in 33 seconds. That fight was nearly five years ago, and he’s gone 16-2 since with decision losses to Kassim Ouma and Zaurbek Baysangurov.
Still, in his last fight against Enrique Ornelas, he appeared to still carry the slow starting habbit. Rubio will definately be a chance if he can take Pavlik past six rounds and if Pavlik isn’t in tip top shape, but it’s likely if the fight goes that long that Rubio will be too  busted up to rally anyway. I think Pavlik will batter him from the start and I’ll be surprised if Rubio sees it past the first four rounds. Pavlik has too much firepower for someone with limited defence like Rubio and I think that unless he is gun shy after failing to land any significant punches on the Executioner last October, that he’ll find his range quickly and make an example of Rubio.

Miguel Cotto vs Michael Jennings
(WBO Welterweight title)
Prediction- Cotto by 5th round KO
I have never seen Jennings and I know very little about him other then he’s British. I very much doubt Cotto’s handlers are after anything other then a workout before the then proposed rematch with Margarito took place, so I don’t expect Jennings to be up to much of a standard. Cotto will break him down with body shots and probably drop him a handful of times before Jennings can’t take anymore. Jennings will likely be tough and game, but Cotto will prove to be a few levels too far for him.

Undercard Action
Two good matchups on the undercard featuring two good prospects. Lightweight contender Anthony Peterson takes on recent World title challenger and always handy Edner Cherry. This will be a good test for Peterson and one I expect him to pass with flying colours if he is to at all impact the packed 135lb division. Also fighting is John Duddy, who has fallen off the radar somewhat after his rumoured fight with Kelly Pavlik for early last year fell through following the complete lack of defence he showed on the Pavlik-Taylor II undercard last year. Duddy’s opponent is Matt Vanda, who always comes to fight and will give Duddy a good workout but shouldn’t cause the upset.

(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.