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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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)
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.
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)
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)
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.
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.
These are a little late compared to a lot of other sites, but I wanted to wait until the year was officially over before I put these up. My MMA ones will be up in a week or so. These are entirely my opinion and feel free to have a go at me in the comments section and I’ll happily debate any of my picks.
Fight of the Year- Israel Vazquez SD12 Rafael Marquez (March 1st).
Round of the Year- 4th- Israel Vazquez SD12 Rafael Marquez. Seriously if you haven’t see this fight go and see it. It’s one of my personal all-time favourite fights and considering that I’m very old school in my opinions and don’t let new fads change my picks too much that’s saying something. There’s only three fights in the last ten years that I consider up there with some of my more classic choices and this is one of them (along with Barrera-Morales I and Castillo-Corrales I). A lot of people overlook this trilogy because therse guys are only 122lbs which is complete crap. A lot of ‘fans’ say they don’t like the little guys, but seriously, where do you draw the line? If you will watch Featherweights whats the big deal with the 4lbs less for the Junior Feathers? Whats the big deal with the 21lbs to Minimumweight?
You’d all think I was crazy if I said I don’t watch anything below Cruiserweight because the next division is 25lbs smaller when those fights are usually the best yet people draw the line at other places and it’s crap. These guys in the lower classes fight just as hard, if not harder then the other guys and get little credit and anyone who has seen this fight knows exactly what I mean. These guys left it all in the ring and the action see-sawed throughout every round. Marquez got the better of the first six rounds including knocking Vazquez down in the 4th round only for Vazquez to get up and rock Marquez in return. The two then exchanged hard blows until the bell with both men getting rocked again in the final 30 seconds (youtube clip provided below). Vazquez came back to steal the fight with a 12th round knockdown, winning a split decision. There was about six or seven rounds that could have gone either way (if you scored all of them for one fighter you’re a moron I might add) and everytime I’ve watched this fight I’ve scored a few rounds different. This truly was one of the greatest fights of all-time and if you haven’t watched it, go find someone who has a copy of it and check it out. Here’s a taste and my pick for round of the year:
Honourable Mentions (Fight of the Year)- Antonio Margarito TKO11 Miguel Cotto (July 26th), Manny Pacquiao SD12 Juan Manuel Marquez (March 15th), Joel Casmayor TKO10 Michael Katsidis (March 22nd). Previous Winners- Israel Vazquez TKO6 Rafael Marquez (2007), Somsak Sithchatchawal TKO10 Mayhar Monshipour (2006), Diego Corrales TKO10 Jose Luis Castillo. Honourable Mentions (Round of the Year)- 1st- Kendall Holt KO1 Ricardo Torres, 12th- Israel Vazquez SD12 Rafael Marquez, 2nd- Antonio Margarito vs Miguel Cotto. Previous Winners- 3rd- Rafael Marquez TKO7 Israel Vazquez (2007), 10th- Somsak Sithchatchawal TKO10 Mayhar Monshipour (2006), 10th- Diego Corrales TKO10 Jose Luis Castillo (2005).
Fighter of the Year- Manny Pacquiao
Performance of the Year- Manny Pacquiao TKO8 Oscar De La Hoya (December 6th). I have to admit, I was setting this article up in late November and I had Calzaghe pencilled in to the Fighter of the Year slot expecting De La Hoya to be too big for ’The Mexecutioner’ (sorry to any Mexicans reading this but I just love that name) and Pacquiao’s performance against David Diaz down for Performance of the Year (although that was a toss-up between it and Hopkins schooling of Pavlik). Even though I made a big deal that his fight with Oscar would do nothing to his legacy should be lose, a SD over Marquez that I thought he lost and a TKO over David Diaz who I don’t rate and a loss aren’t enough to outdo Calzaghe’s downing of two legends despite one of them being more shot then Oscar. Despite plenty of people calling Oscar shot after their fight, Pacquiao definately shouldn’t have won that fight in such a one sided fashion unless he was the real deal. Despite Marquez giving Pacquiao all he could handle in their March thriller, Pacquiao proved that making 130lbs probably had something to do with it after twice moving up in weight and one sidedly knocking out two very capable fighters. So for winning new World titles in two weight divisions in 12 months and for completely dominating two very good fighters (one of them a legend) and beating a fellow top five pound for pound fighter, Pacquiao wins two of my awards this year. Honourable Mentions (Fighter of the Year)- Joe Calzaghe, Antonio Margarito, Juan Manuel Marquez. Previous Winners- Floyd Mayweather Jnr (2007), Manny Pacquiao (2006), Jermain Taylor (2005). Honourable Mentions (Performance of the Year)- Manny Pacquiao KO9 David Diaz, Bernard Hopkins UD12 Kelly Pavlik, Vic Darchinyan KO9 Cristian Mijares. Previous Winners- Ricky Hatton KO4 Jose Luis Castillo (2007), Joe Calzaghe UD12 Jeff Lacy (2006), Floyd Mayweather jnr TKO6 Arturo Gatti (2005).
Knockout of the Year- Juan Urango KO4 Carlos Vilches When it comes to knockouts, I find it best to explain it by just showing it! Enjoy!
Honourable Mentions- Antonio Margarito KO6 Kermit Cintron, Shane Mosley KO12 Ricardo Mayorga, Manny Pacquiao KO9 David Diaz. Previous Winners- Nonito Donaire KO5 Vic Darchinyan (2007), Daniel Ponce de Leon KO1 Sod Looknongyangtoy (2006), Allan Green KO1 Jaidon Codrington (2005).
Upset of the Year- Nate Campbell SD12 Juan Diaz No one seemed to be able to touch Diaz in the lightweight division and not many expected him to be beaten until he moved up a weight division. This fight was somewhat overshadowed with David Haye’s unification fight with Enzo Maccarinelli as well as Oleg Maskaev’s defence of his WBC Heavyweight strap against dangerous contender Samuel Peter (the fight was on the undercard of this bout). Campbell had won three in a row in his hot and cold career that has seen him look like one of the World’s most dangerous fighters one day and look like a complete fool the next (see Campbell-Peden I). Diaz seemed to be taking over as he usually does by the midway point of the fight with his high output of punches although Campbell stayed in the pocket with him and traded hard leather. Everything changed with one punch in the 6th round. Campbell landed a left that opened a massive cut on Diaz’s left eye and although the referee incorrectly ruled it a headbutt and docked Campbell a point, Diaz wasn’t the same fighter after that. His punch output slowed down while Campbell was spurred on by the cut and the rare weakness that Diaz ever shows in the ring. Campbell dominated the later rounds as Diaz’s eye closed shut and he took a split decision as well as Diaz’s WBA, WBO and IBF Lightweight titles. Honourable Mentions- Carlos Quintana UD12 Paul Williams, Vic Darchinyan KO9 Cristian Mijares, Breidis Prescott KO1 Amir Khan. Previous Winners- Nonito Donaire KO5 Vic Darchinyan (2007), Carlos Baldomir UD12 Zab Judah (2006), Zahir Raheem UD12 Erik Morales.
Event of the Year- Manny Pacquiao vs Juan Manuel Marquez (By this I basically mean the biggest fight of the year without taking into account what actually happened in the ring. For example there were far better fights in 2002 then Lewis-Tyson, but that one was the highlight event of the year).
I really didn’t buy into De La Hoya-Pacquiao (as many who have read this site for a while will tell you) and I really can’t think of another fight that was as good a match-up as this one. I tend to go more for a hardcore fans perspective when picking these unless there’s an obvious pick like Lewis-Tyson or De La Hoya-Hopkins. This fight pitted the two best fighters in the 130-126lb division in a fight that had a long build up after their controversial draw in 2004. It was the culmination in a series of big fights between these two plus Erik Morales and Marco Antonio Barrera that saw this fight as the Finale after Marquez defeated Barrera (Pacquiao also defeated him after Marquez) and Pacquiao had defeated Morales. It was sort of like Hagler-Leonard of the 80′s rivalry of those two plus Duran and Hearns although over a shorter period of time. There were plenty of big fights and one’s that received a lot more attention then this fight, but this was the fight I looked forward to the most this year. It was two top five pound for pound fighters squaring off and the fight didn’t disappoint. Honourable Mentions- Antonio Margarito vs Miguel Cotto, Kelly Pavlik vs Jermain Taylor II, Vic Darchinyan vs Cristian Mijares. (I don’t rate Calzaghe-Hopkins because even though it was a big fight, I knew it’d be as boring as all fuck as it actually was). Previous Winners- Ricky Hatton vs Floyd Mayweather jnr (2007), Joe Calzaghe vs Jeff Lacy (2006), Ricky Hatton vs Kostya Tszyu (2005).
That’s the big ones out of the road, a few I think I should touch on:
Prospect of the Year- Leonard Zappavinga First of all, I think this award is stupid. It’s not like in other sports where it’s easy to determine what a prospect is because they’ve only been playing a year. Boxing is a different sport. A prospect could be a three fight rookie or a guy with 30 fights who’s taken his time on the way up and is about to crack the big time. Second of all, I’m clearly biased. I don’t take this award that seriously so I’ll probably always pick an Australian. Zappavinga ended his year with a knockout over former two time world title challenger Tommy Browne in a fight he looked excellent in. Zappa is only 22, he is undefeated and will definately be one to watch in the new year.
Australian Fighter of the Year- Vic Darchinyan Darchinyan totally dominated two world champions with absolute ease in his new weight class and became the first Australian since Kostya Tszyu to be near the top 10 pound for pound in the World. After a controversial draw in February against Z Gorres, Darchinyan got a shot at Dimitri Kirilov’s IBF strap and won by one sided 5th round knockout. After that came a unification bout with (at least by my list) Cristian Mijares, who held the WBC and WBA titles and had wins over Jorge Arce and Alexander Munoz. Not many (I wasn’t one of them) gave Darchinyan a chance, but he brutalised Mijares over nine rounds with a great mixture of boxing and punching before knocking him out with an overhand left in the 9th. I just hope Darchinyan receives more credit and attention down here instead of joke ‘fighters’ like Anthony Mundine and John Hopoate who rob the public blind with their overpriced PPV sideshows.
One to watch in 2009- Beibut Shumenov This guy is only 7-0, but he has already beaten Montell Griffin (yes, the same one with a win over Roy Jones jnr) and Epifanio Mendoza (who gave Jeff Lacy all he could handle for 12 rounds).
And some lighter ones:
Arthur Mercante Award for Best Refereeing- Pat Russell (Vazquez-Marquez III) This was by far the best fight of the year and it could have been one of the most controversial if referee Pat Russell was having a bad night. There were several tight calls in the fight that the fight road on, and he got them all right. Russell deducted a point from Marquez for a low blow which ultimately cost Marquez a draw in the fight, however he had previously warned Marquez a number of times and had to take that point off. Had he let Marquez off the hook there it would have been unfair to Vazquez as he had warned him a few times previously and most of the shots were pretty low. The other call was the 12th round knockdown. Russell very well could have made the mistake that many a referee would have made in that situation and stopped the fight. Marquez was taking punishment on the ropes and taking a lot of it yet he wasn’t going down. He staggered into the ropes and would have fallen if they weren’t there and instead of stopping the fight he gave Marquez a count. These calls are still controversial parts of the fight, but they would have been a hell of a lot worse if Russell had say jumped in and saved Marquez in the 12th with a few seconds left.
Jersey Joe Walcott Award for Worst Refereeing- Joe Cortez (Francisco Lorenzo DQ4 Humberto Soto) (If you don’t get the reference it’s not because I hate Walcott, it’s because he refereed one Heavyweight title fight and lost complete control of the Ali-Liston rematch therefore he gets my award named after him. I actually am a big fan of Walcott so this is no cheap shot at him about his fighting, just thought I’d point that out).
Humberto Soto battered Franciso Lorenzo for three and a half rounds before dropping him in the fourth round. While going down, Lorenzo grabbed Soto’s legs prompting Soto to continue to hit him, landing a grazing shot to the back of his head. Instead of counting, Cortez ruled that Lorenzo had been hit while he was down at which point Lorenzo started faking like he was in more serious trouble as a result of the blow. Actually, Lorenzo was ready to go and all the damage was done by legal blows from Soto during the action. After viewing several replays, Cortez disqualified Soto and ruled Lorenzo as the new WBC interim champion. The WBC however would right the wrong and strip Lorenzo of his belt (one of the few controversial decisions from an ABC group that I agree with).
Eugenia Williams Award for Worst Judging Card- Doug Tucker (Cristian Mijares SD12 Jose Navarro) (Reference again is to Eugenia Williams who scored the Holyfield-Lewis first fight to Holyfield after he won maybe three rounds).
Tucker scored this fight 120-108 for Navarro. The other two judges both saw it for Mijares in a close fight. Seriously Doug, what fight were you watching? Maybe Navarro won the fight (I agreed with the other two judges) but he didn’t win every round.
George Foreman Award for Comeback of the Year- Vitali Klitschko If you come back from four years of inactivity and totally dominate one of the top contenders in your division then there’s no denying you this award. Vitali Klitschko did just that. It almost made my performance of the year honourable mentions but missed out. Klitschko came back from numerous injuries and totally dominated someone who was a very, very dangerous opponent with absolute ease. As much as I don’t like the Klitschko brothers, it was hard not to be impressed by that.
Andy Raymond Award for Worst Commentator of the Year- Andy Raymond (Fox Sports Australia) I seriously hate Andy Raymond and it’ll be a task for anyone to win this award any year apart from him. He just talks and talks and talks without ever saying anything with the slightest bit of meaning. The only Raymondism I can remember this year (if I remembered anymore I’d probably get cancer) is this: ‘Boxing under the Nitro Format this evening’
WTF does that mean?!?!?!?! At the time he was referring to the promotion as being called Nitro Fight Night or some shit, but what he actually said has zero meaning to anyone with an IQ above 50! Maybe it’s just me who gets irritated by things like this, but seriously if you’re on TV and your job is to talk you really need to know how to do it. Another thing that annoys me about him is his constant comment everytime a boxer from New South Wales fights a boxer from Queensland he calls it state of origin. On some cards when this happens four or five times he says it every fucking time. Its no wonder that boxing is seen by a lot of people in Australia as a sideshow sport that Rugby League players play to keep themselves fit in the off season when you have some moronic Rugby League commentator who knows fuckall about the sport making absolutely no sense with anything he says except when he says something that he can relate back to Rugby League like the state of origin shit.
John Ruiz Award for Worst Fight of the Year- Wladimir Klitschko UD12 Sultan Ibragimov Now this isn’t exactly the worst fight of the year, but it’s the worst one I saw that I went out of my way to watch. Ibragimov ran for dear life and Wladimir was too shit scared of being knocked out to do anything about it. The result was Wladimir winning the fight on his aggressive pawing of his jab. Valuev-Holyfield sounds worse, but you’ll have to pin my eyes open A Clockwork Orange style to get me to watch that. Bringing me to my next award:
Ruiz-McCline Award for Worst Matchup of the Year- John Ruiz vs Jameel McCline This award was originally going to be called the Ruiz-Holyfield Award out of respect for the worst boxing trilogy of all-time, then I remembered he fought McCline this year and the award will be now known as Ruiz-McCline. Now I didn’t see this fight (which is why I haven’t gouged out my eyes with a toothpick) but oh my God, who ever thought these two would make for attractive viewing needs to jab themselves in the eye with a screwdriver. Has there ever been two more boring Heavyweights? At least Wladimir Klitschko has punching power that can sometimes be exciting. These two not only have extremely boring styles, but they’re very ineffective fighters who often resort to holding. If I was managing Ruiz, after I committed suicide I’d do everything I could to keep him away from the likes of McCline who is just a fat waste of space with enough gas to punch for maybe three rounds. Matching these two up only shows the full range of boredom they can produce. Luckily I didn’t have to sit through this bout as Haye-Maccarinelli was live on one channel and by the time it had finished so had this piece of shit bit of matchmaking.
Joe Jacobs ‘We was Robbed ‘ Award for Robbery of the Year- Nicolay Valuev W12 Evander Holyfield (Joe Jacobs managed Max Schemling in the 1930s and had a famous quote ‘We was robbed, we shouldda stayed in bed’ after Schmeling lost the title to Sharkey).
I haven’t seen the fight and I don’t want to, but the whole thing is just cruel. Here’s a legend of the ring who’s battled way past his prime in a quest to re-capture the Heavyweight title before he retires and after years of not getting anywhere near it he finally gets a shot and by all accounts should have won the fight and they rob him. Now it’s probably for the good of the division that Holyfield doesn’t win the fight and ends up being killed in the ring if he puts it against one of the Klitschko’s, but to rob a man of being the first five-time champion as well as the oldest champion in history is just cruel.
And on a sadder note:
Gone but not forgotten (pictured in order below, if I left anyone out leave a comment and I’ll edit it) Yo Sam Choi- Former WBC 108lb Champion (1999-2002), lost his title to Jorge Arce in 2002. Died from injuries sustained in a fight he won in December 2007 a week later. Duilio Loi- Two-time World Junior Lightweight Champion (1960-62 and 1963), bested the great Carlos Ortiz 2-1 in their series of fights. Lost the title to Eddie Perkins in 1962 then regained it in his next fight and retired with a 115-3-8 mark. Died in January of Alzheimers. Ralph Dupas- Former World Junior Middleweight Champion (1963), also challenged Emile Griffith for the Welterweight Championship and Joe Brown for the Lightweight Championship. Defeated former World Middleweight Champion Joey Giardello and lost a disputed decision to Sugar Ray Robinson. Died in January of dememtia. Mando Ramos- Former Undisputed Lightweight Champion (1969-70) who regained the WBC title in 1972 but lost it the same year. Lost his undisputed title to Panamanian great Ismael Laguna. Died in July of natural causes. Mate Parlov- 1972 Olympic Light Heavyweight Champion, 1974 World Amateur Light Heavyweight Champion, WBC Light Heavyweight Champion (1978). First Croatian to win a World title in Boxing. Died in July 30 of lung cancer. Vic Toweel- Former World Bantamweight Champion (1950-52). First South African to win a World Championship in Boxing by defeating Manuel Ortiz. Lost his title to Australian Jimmy Carruthers in 1952. Died in August at age 80. Joey Giardello- Former World Middleweight Champion (1963-65). Fought Dick Tiger four times (winning twice) and also beat Sugar Ray Robinson and Rubin Carter to name a few. Died in September of heart failure.
