Williams and Arreola announce their presence

That had to be one of the most one sided fights I’ve seen in a while especially considering Wright is the one who has made a habbit of dominating good fighters in big fights (ie Mosley I, Wright). Williams is certainly the real deal and no one is safe from him from 147-160lbs. That’s not to say I’d pick him over Abraham or Pavlik (because I wouldn’t) but he certainly is one of the top contenders at 160lbs as well now. The other contenders at 160 like Mundine and Gevor I think he’d have an excellent chance at beating. His workrate is simply unreal considering he throws as many hard shots as he does.

The fight really was a bad matchup stylistically for Wright but the man deserves credit for a) staying in there and taking his beating like the man that he is and b) taking on Williams in the first place. I still think there’s guys out there that Wright could beat but he might have a hard time getting them in the ring because his draw power will have dropped from yesterday. That’s not saying he fought a bad fight or anything but the facts are that he was never that popular to begin with and a loss like that will make it harder for him to get back in the upper echelon of boxing.

As for Williams, he has to be in the top five pound for pound now. I mean he’s come up from 147lbs and beaten Wright a hell of a lot more easier then Bernard Hopkins did and Hopkins is a fucking light heavyweight. I still think he’s a little open at times and thats where someone like Pavlik or Abraham could capitalise on him and catch him. We’re not sure yet how he takes a solid punch at 160lbs and there’s two of the biggest punchers in the sport pound for pound in this division in Pavlik and Abraham. I think if he fought either of them he’d probably have his chin tested at some point and it’d probably fail as most chins do when Pavlik or Abraham hit them. Then again, he might just be too fast and busy for them and bust them up.

As for the undercard, I’m thrilled to have some new blood in the division. When we had that first part of this mediocre period post Lewis, I’ve been waiting for some new guys to KO the Chris Byrd’s, John Ruiz’s and Jameel McCline’s of the division. Povetkin announced his arrival with the beatdown of Byrd and Arreola did it yesterday by dominating McCline. McCline took Byrd to a close decision, he took Peter to a close decision, he went 10 rounds with Wladimir Klitschko. For all his short comings, the guy could hang around and was a solid opponent for some of these top contenders and Arreola took him out like the trash that he is which is what we want to see from the young contenders.

As for whether or not he’d beat the Klitschko’s….. I dunno. Vitali I think couldn’t tailor an opponent better then Arreola. He’ll stand in front of Vitali, his defence isn’t particularly good and despite his power, he doesn’t have enough to dent Vitali’s chin. I give him a solid punchers chance against Wladimir though. The thing I like about Arreola is that he’s prepared to throw his punches, force the action and fight at a pace which could work well against Wladimir who tends to panic under fire. Whether or not he’d fight that way when taking Wladimir’s jab is a different story, but if he landed some of the shots that he landed on McCline he’d put Wlad on his arse pretty quick.

Boxing Breakdown: Paul Williams vs Winky Wright

 Some Easter boxing for us Australians again this year and it’s a very interesting matchup. Last year we had the Casamayor-Katsidis clash on Easter which was your typical stylist vs slugger matchup, this year we’ve got two of the more awkward southpaws facing off. IBF interim 154lb champion and pound for pound contender Paul Williams moves up to Middleweight to take on the often avoided Ronald ‘Winky’ Wright. This really is a big test for Williams who apart from the win over a pretty flat Margarito is lacking big names on his record. A win over Wright, especially a dominating one, really puts Williams up there with the elites in the game today. He’ll have come up from welterweight and done what only Bernard Hopkins has done in recent time by beating Wright and even Hopkins did it at 170lbs, a weight that really doesn’t suit Wright at all.

One of the big issues in this fight is the size of the two men as Williams was fighting at 147lbs just a few fights ago and Wright’s last outing was at 170lbs. Williams was always a huge welterweight, almost on the side of Thomas Hearns huge for the division. Williams stands at 6’1 and has an 82 inch reach, which is amazing for a Heavyweight let alone a guy fighting between 147-160lbs. So while Wright has been fighting in the higher weight divisions of late, he’s going to ge giving up around three inches in height and a whopping 10 inches in reach. The thing with Wright as well is that he’s also come up from 154lbs in the past so Williams has all the size advantages here and may even be the heavier of the two fighters by the time they’re in the ring, but then again the fact that he came in at 157lbs suggests that he didn’t have to drop much if any weight for this fight (Wright came in at 159).

The fact that both of these guys are southpaws is going to make this fight interesting. Carlos Quintana was a southpaw and he gave Williams fits in their first fight which was Williams’ only professional loss. However, Williams dispatched of him in just over two minutes in the rematch suggesting that maybe he doesn’t have problems with them. Wright’s one of the most technically awkward fighters I’ve ever seen. By that I mean you have your awkward fighters throughout history and most of them are awkward because they’re not at all textbook but they’re damn effective. Gene Fullmer is maybe the best example of this or someone like Harry Greb (if we go by what guys who have fought him say as there’s no film of him) and there’s Ricardo Mayorga in todays era. Wright is as awkward as those guys but for completely different reasons. He’s textbook to almost a ridiculous level. He has one of the best jabs in the business in terms of accuracy and effectiveness and his defence is unreal for a guy who doesn’t use a whole lot of head movement or evasive tactics. He can basically stand there and make you miss with everything and then win the fight on his jab alone.

How William’s approaches Wright’s style will be interesting. The thing Williams has that guys like Mosley or Trinidad don’t is size. Both Trinidad and Mosley we shorter or around the same height as Wright and this is where I think Williams will win the fight. His assaults can be machine gun like and coming from his range it makes countering him very difficult. Quintana had a lot of success using lateral movement and I think that’s how Wright should approach the fight because Williams’ footwork isn’t the best although it seems to improve every fight. I think Wright will have a lot of trouble getting his jab going and will be under constant fire from Williams. Wright will probably defend against the assaults well, but he won’t be able to mount any significant offence back at him and his one punch power isn’t that great so I don’t see him breaking down Williams. Williams will keep it at the range he wants it and win handily on the scorecards I think. Paul Williams by unanimous decision.

On the undercard is an interesting heavyweight matchup as Chris Arreola takes on his biggest test to date against former title challenger Jameel McCline. I don’t think I’ve let my readers know how much I hate McCline before, but I really can’t stand him at all. He’s got decent skills for a big man, but his fitness is that poor it usually lets him down. It did against Chris Byrd and it did against Samuel Peter and whether or not it let him down against John Ruiz I have no idea because I’d rather give myself a paper cut and pour lemon juice on it then watch those two fight each other I mean it’s bad enough that we have to watch them fight other opponents let alone each other. If Arreola wins this fight big, he’ll put himself into the upper echelon of the Heavyweight division behind the Klitschko’s and give boxing fans a bit of hope that there’s a saviour out there. I think he wins, but in pretty lacklustre fashion. McCline will probably do well early on, and then tire and the fight is likely to be a sloppy boring affair as are all of McCline’s fights but Arreola should come out on top due to his superior firepower and stamina (I’m assuming he has more stamina then McCline). Chris Arreola on points.

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?)

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.