My pugilistic preview piece got picked up by the folks over at No BS Boxing, a boxing news site and on-line forum. For fight fans, this is a huge showdown between two of the biggest stars in the sport.
From my article...
The current age of boxing sells the paying public on the concept of super fights. Titles don’t matter and weight classes don’t matter. Even a fighter’s recent poor performance or lack of activity can be overlooked, so long as he can be properly packaged into something that fans are willing to pay for. A case in point would be 2007’s version of “The Fight to Save Boxing,” featuring Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather. Coming into the fight, De La Hoya had been in the ring a mere 6 times in the last 5 years, going 4-2 during that span. The fight was held at 154 pounds, a weight that Mayweather had never fought at before, and has not since. Despite the fact that many more “relevant” fights could have been made, none could have been as profitable, and the Cinco De Mayo showdown set records for revenue and PPV buys. Other examples include the Roy Jones Jr. and Bernard Hopkins farce, Manny Pacquiao vs. De La Hoya, and many others.
In a break from the norm, this Saturday features a true super-fight. Floyd Mayweather (40-0) and “Sugar” Shane Mosley (46-5) have been engaged in a cold war for over a decade. Despite call-outs from each camp over the years, the fight never materialized. Until now.
The middleweight division has arguably been the best and deepest weight class throughout the sport’s rich history. At 160 pounds, the division doesn’t lose too many of its top athletes to high reward-low risk sports like basketball or football. The division approximates the size of the average man, and as such, has always had a deep mine of talent to choose from. Middleweights are still fast and loose enough to run off fluid combinations, but they are also big enough to have concussive power in their left hooks and straight right hands.
More than just being talented, the sheer number of serious contenders at 160 pounds has always required that a champion defend his title against legitimate threats. Over the years, middleweight champions have come up hard, and have had to stay hard once they got to the top. This has led boxing’s middleweights to be well-represented when listing the sport’s greatest warriors of all time.
I have had the pleasure of knowing the founding members of No BS Boxing for years now, and they are some of the most knowledgeable boxing fans that you can find. It is a real honor to have been given the opportunity to work with them on some of their new plans, including an updated media and article section.
Definitely check out their forum for intelligent discussion on the sweet science, and if you get a chance, check out my preview for this Saturday's middleweight showdown between Kelly Pavlik and Sergio Martinez.
If boxing was to be cleaned up once and for all, one would be hard-pressed to pick a better place to start than the dismantling of the various sanctioning bodies. It doesn't take incredible insight to trace many of boxing's biggest problems to the officials in charge of alphabet organizations like the WBA and WBC. Illegitimate champions? Check. Tampering with official rankings? Check. Stripping rightful champions of their titles? Check. Obvious and blatant favoritism to certain promoters? Attempting to legitimize "catch-weight" fights? Interim champions? A criminal disregard for the safety of the fighters they are responsible for? Check, check, check and check.
Dealing with these governing bodies has often been compared to working with international crime cartels, with the WBA and WBC widely considered to be the worst of the worst. Only here can a fighter get elevated four spots in the rankings following a knockout loss, like FresOquendo did in 2002 after suffering a 9th round TKO at the hands of David Tua. Then you have the case where GracianoRocchigiani upset Michael Nunn for the WBC championship in 1998, only to be stripped of the belt when former champion Roy Jones Jr. decided that he "changed his mind" about vacating the belt. The case was a clear-cut violation of the WBC's own rules, and in a rare case of boxing justice, Rocchigiani was awarded $30 million in damages by a U.S. Federal Court. Then there is the disgusting love affair between WBC "President for Life," Jose Sulaiman and Promoter Don King. Sulaiman, truly one of the slimiest characters in a sport that has it's share of them, is less a president, and far more a lackey of Don King's Promotional company. Under Sulaiman's august leadership, the WBC has stripped fighters like Leon Spinks of their title for being signed to fight a rematch with Muhammed Ali instead of a Don King-promoted fighter. Years later, King persuaded Sulaiman and the WBC to refuse recognition of James "Buster" Douglas as world heavyweight champion, following Douglas's defeat of Don King's cash cow Mike Tyson, in their 1990 bout in Las Vegas, Nevada. Despite the WBC's requirement that their champions defend the title against a mandatory challenger at least once a year, Don King fighters are often allowed to ignore this rule. Examples include Alexis Arguello and Carlos Zarate. The list goes on and on, and only gets more and more ridiculous.
As such, it is not hard to believe the latestsputterings from the WBC camp. Shortly after St. Louis's Junior Welterweight Devon Alexander defended his WBC belt against Juan Urango, Alexander dared call out the best fighter in his division, Tim Bradley. Taking personal offense that Alexander would be interested in fighting the WBO champion, Sulaiman responded with an e-mail to the Alexander camp, threatening his status as the WBC champion, and requesting his resignation as titleholder. Sulaiman was soundly called out by ESPN's Dan Rafael for his actions, displaying a beat-down that rivaled Alexander's own knockout victory over Urango on March 6th. The best part of all of this is that Alexander first won the WBC title in 2009 after defeating Junior Witter for a vacant belt. Of course, the title was vacant because the former champion, one Tim Bradley, had recently been stripped of the belt by Jose Sulaiman. Bradley had shown grit and toughness in getting up from two knockdowns at the hands of then-WBO titlist Kendall Holt to take a unanimous decision victory. As Bradley already owned the WBC trinket, his triumph over Holt allowed him to unify the WBO and WBC belts, a feat rarely seen in the sport today. Sulaiman, in his incredible wisdom, decided that Bradley could not effectively represent both organizations, and demanded that Bradley choose which belt he would keep. Bradley chose to keep the WBO title, setting the stage for Alexander to receive similar 5-star treatment from Sulaiman and company 2 years later.
With half a dozen "champions" per weight class, it is no surprise that even dedicated fans fail to keep up with or pay attention to minor title fights. The cheapening of the word "Champion" is perhaps the greatest contributor to the recent trend for the true superstars of the sport to completely ignore the various titles and chase the dance partners that can line their pockets most effectively. This has led to the multitude of "super-fights" being contested in between what is already an overabundance of weight classes. Sulaiman likes to refer to the winner of these artificial "catch-weight" fights as "Diamond Belt Champions." This would all be laughable if Sulaiman wasn't absolutely serious. Of course, this being boxing, fans should not expect any reprieve when the 78 year old Sulaiman finally kicks the bucket. In the type of nepotism that occurs regularly in the sport, Sulaiman's son Mauricio is being well-groomed to take over right where his father left off. Boxing fans can look forward to similarly ridiculous rulings for years to come.
HBO's BAD series showcases a decent night of fights out of the Bank Atlantic Center in Sunrise, Florida. Starting things off with the televised undercard will feature the Ring's #1 Jr. Featherweight contender, the 5'11", Panama-based, Celestino Caballero. Caballero (33-2) has languished in relative obscurity during his impressive career, partly due to fighting in the 122 pound weight class, and partly due to only fighting in the United States a handful of times. Freakishly tall for his division, Caballero seems to have finally tired of calling out Puerto Rico's star featherweight, Juan Manual Lopez, and will square off against the undefeated Indonesian fighter, Daud Yordan. Yordan was first introduced to the American audience in 2008, in a majority decision victory over Antonio Meza, but is best known for his brief appearance in the ring with Northern California's Robert "The Ghost" Guerrero. Brought in as the opponent in a Guerrero showcase, Yordan (25-0) displayed a slick boxing style and surprising power in the two rounds that he was given. Unfortunately, a clash of heads opened a deep gash over Guerrero's right eye in the second stanza, and the bout was stopped and ruled a "no contest."
Yordan appears to be more than just another Asia-based fighter with an inflated record, but Caballero is on another level. Yordan will most likely have some moments, especially in the first few rounds, but will eventually get chopped down by the long reach and distance that Caballero brings to the 126 pound division. Look for a referee stoppage in the 8th-10th round after Yordan absorbs a shellacking from "Pelenchin."
In the main event we will see the return of the WBC welterweight champion, Andre Berto (25-0), in against slick and crafty southpaw, Carlos Quintana. Quintana (27-2) is best known for defeating Paul Williams, the first to do so, and then getting starched in the rematch. Before that, he had played spoiler to HBO's plans by handing the then-undefeated Joel Julio his first loss over 12 rounds. He stepped up in levels again shortly after that success, only to be crushed by Puerto Rican star, Miguel Cotto. Despite similar looking records, Quintana is the more experienced and battle-hardened of the two, and has been in with much higher levels of competition.
The verdict is still out on the Florida-based Berto, who, despite his gaudy record, has yet to make believers out of the hardcore fan base. Berto possesses eye-popping hand speed, along with the ability to throw hard and impressive combinations, but he has yet to truly live up to HBO's heavy marketing of his name. Berto came out the victor in a very close decision against another slick southpaw, Luis Collazo, in what has been his one serious step up to the elite of the division. Berto displayed heart and courage in that fight, if not the best ring smarts, as he often played into the hands of the veteran Collazo.
Berto returns to the ring after nearly 11 months of inactivity, as the disaster in Haiti forced him to pull out of a January 30th bout against "Sugar" Shane Mosley. Berto lost 7 family members in the powerful earthquake that destroyed the city of Port-Au-Prince. He has dedicated this and future fights to the people of Haiti, and will most likely enter the ring in excellent mental and physical condition. Quintana has quite a few tricks up his sleeve, but he will have a huge disadvantage in the speed department, and will get countered with straight right hands and Berto's signature uppercuts throughout what will be a very long night for the Puerto Rican native. It remains to be seen if Berto will become the star that HBO is banking on, but he will remain undefeated for at least a little longer, and will take a wide unanimous decision over the southpaw Quintana.
