The clip below is the Promo for the big fight this weekend between Joe "the Welsh Dragon" Calzaghe and Mikkel "The Ghost" Kessler. I found it while reading the very promissing Bad Left Hook blog, which is the lone boxing blog in the SBNation. Sports Blog nation is a collective of blogs including Every Day Should be Saturday and DawgSports.
The guys at Bad Left Hook had this to say about the gravity of this fight
There is not a more important, more necessary fight on the schedule, and I count Cotto-Mosley and Mayweather-Hatton in that statement. This one will prove, definitively, who the best is in this weight class. It's been Calzaghe for a long time. Mikkel Kessler could go one of two ways against Joe: He could be the dragon slayer, or he could just be another Jeff Lacy.
They are using the words "important" and "necessary" the way I used the word "meaningful", and therfore I heartedly agree.
I also mentioned a while back that I hate Floyd´s propensity for blather. When I wrote that I felt like I should give him credit for speaking more plainly than some others, like Vivian Harris, but now I am not so sure. Vivian presumably speaks English as a second language, and took a few beatings for having a woman´s name. Meanwhile, Floyd remains the kind of guy who gives himself a nickname. Check out his latest incomprehensible inanity here, as he responds to a question about his experience on Dancing with The Stars.
People were nice. And actually, I was the only one on the show that was the best at what he do because I don't really know the race car driver, but he's not the best race car driver. Some of the people were actresses weren't the best. And you had like Mark Cuban, he's not the richest billionaire. So, I was the best at what I do. Obviously, I'm in the sport of boxing and what I do.
There is something depraved about multi millionaires who speak like twelve-year-olds. Makes me sad. And not just in the "that moron is rich and I ain´t" sort of way either. Somewhere along the line he made a choice to behave like amoron, and everybody around him either encouraged him or bit their lip.
soco in bed a sunny sunday watching john mclaughlin
If you guys can catch the Diaz vs. Diaz replay on HBO, do it. Wow, Diaz fights just like Hatton used to. If Hatton wern't looking to cash out, he could have tried to clean up his division by beating the winner of Malinaggi vs. Witter, and then take on the winner of Diaz vs. Casamayor. (Ambiguity is intentional. Go watch the fight!)
As bad as the state of boxing is, which is really depends on how you look at it, it is far better than the state of Boxing WRITING. There are a few good blogs that masquerade as crappy online magazines (EastSideBoxing), but there is really only one place with professional writers. That place is Ring Magazine. And boy are they good. It's available only on Dead Tree, but you can get an update onling every week.
This had me cracking up:
To everyone who e-mailed in response to my comments in last week’s column questioning the legitimacy of Joe Calzaghe’s 10-year reign as the WBO champion: You can question the legitimacy of a governing body without questioning the authenticity of the fighter. That was my intent. It wasn’t to disparage Calzaghe. I would never do that.
By the way, there is absolutely no truth to the rumor that Frank Warren is screening members of the London Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra for the opponent Calzaghe will face if he pulls out of the Mikkel Kessler fight with a strained areola.
I am in Santiago. I just fought off a cold. Zooloretto, China, Lost Cities, Ricochet Robots, Rumbis, Nimmtz, Citadels, St. Petersburg, and Trias. Yeah, that about sums it up.
Wow, I just locked up a bunch of geek hits.
I get back this Saturday Morning. Don't know what the plan is for the week that I am back. I'm hoping for a sunny sunday.
A NOTE ON A RELATED MATTER: After referee Steve Smoger gave Kelly Pavlik his instructions in the dressing room prior to Taylor-Pavlik, Mauricio Sulaiman came into the room. Mauricio is the son of WBC president Jose Sulaiman. In recent years, he has assumed an increasingly active role within the sanctioning body. He is now the WBC’s executive secretary and is in charge of the organization’s executive office in Mexico City.
In the dressing room, Mauricio approached veteran cornerman Miguel Diaz and told him, “If Kelly wins, I would like his trunks to present as a gift to my father.” Diaz relayed the request to Mike Pavlik, who responded, “No way.”
After the fight, Mauricio returned to the dressing room and renewed his request.
“Oh, man,” Kelly said. “These are my trunks. Next fight, maybe; but not this one. I just won the championship in these trunks. My blood is on them.”
More people were drawn into the conversation. One-on-ones followed. Some words were exchanged regarding the discretionary powers of WBC officials and their ability to make things easy or hard on WBC champions. Mauricio Sulaiman left Boardwalk Hall with Kelly Pavlik’s bloodstained trunks. In the wee small hours of Sunday morning, he was confronted regarding the matter and the trunks were returned.
“It was a misunderstanding,” Mauricio told this writer. “I was led to believe that Kelly wanted the trunks to be presented as a gift to my father because of his respect for my father and the WBC. When it was brought to my attention that Kelly wished to have the trunks back, I arranged quickly to return them.”
Federal law states, “No officer or employee of a sanctioning organization may receive any compensation, gift, or benefit, directly or indirectly, from a boxer [other than a sanctioning fee].” Violation of this law is a crime punishable by up to one year in prison and a fine of $20,000.
When a powerful WBC official makes a request such as the one Sulaiman made of Pavlik, there’s an inherent coercive factor at work. That’s why there’s a law against it.
Craig Hamilton (the foremost boxing memorabilia dealer in the United States) estimates that Pavlik’s trunks from his championship-winning fight could be worth as much as $25,000. The WBC received a substantial sanctioning fee for Taylor-Pavlik. That should suffice for everyone’s purposes.
This isn’t the first time that Mauricio Sulaiman has made a request of this nature. One hopes it’s the last.
Anyone can pump out one article, true, but if the Ring is recommending this guy, he's probably good. My appologies Thomas.
Barrera, Morales, Frietas, Castillo, Corrales, Gatti...... 2007 has retired more fighters than Michael Vick. There are some young guys fighting on HBO this Saturday. Diaz vs. Diaz (No Relation). Lots of punches will be thrown. Earlier in the year everyone was talking about how MMA was going to retire Boxing.
Boxing, indeed, has a ton of problems. Still, it´s been a great year, and it´s only getting better. The fight of the year, Mosley vs. Cotto, is still to come, and I am of course looking forward to Hatton vs. Mayweather in December. Unfortunately the Hatton fight is something of a farce. Mayweather came out of ´retirement' to fight Hatton because Hatton 'disrespected' him. Or so he says with every other breath. And in every OTHER breath he says he took the fight because it was the biggest payday out there (Mayweather has requested that his nickname be changed from 'pretty boy' to 'money'. Seriously. I´ve seen him on Dancing with stars where he is neither Money nor Pretty). Anyone with any perspective knows that Hatton talks less trash than anyone else in the fight game. Hatton has quipped that Floyd is a boring fighter, but only recently, after a steady stream of blather from Floyd, commented that Floyd´s partner in Dancing with the Stars will probably have to do all the leading (Floyd has fought in a decidedly negative fashion lately, back peddling constantly and throwing crisp but isolated counter combination). Contrast that with the smack coming out of virtually any other boxer´s mouth, or contrast that with Floyd's own "Vicky Fatton" jibes, and you realize that Floyd´s 'he disrespected me ' explanation for his 'return' to the sport is brazenly dishonest. That he expects us to buy it, is simply offensive.
Yes, Hatton represents the biggest payday for Floyd, but Floyd could have made similar money fighting against any of the fighters in his own Welterweight division. Mosley, Cotto, Williams, Margarito, or Cintron all would have been huge. I am not a Boxing history buff, but I wager that no division has ever been deeper than Floyd´s. But instead of fighting one of these guys, who better approximate Floyd´s own natural fighting weight, he has decided to fight the much smaller Ricky Hatton. Now, Ricky is no slouch, he is dominate in the Jr Welterweight division just seven pounds south, but he looked decidely average when he moved up in weight to fight the talented Collazo, who later got owned by Mosley, who is fighting the undefeated Cotto in November. Mayweather vs. the winner of THAT fight, is a fight that everyone wants to see. That´s a fight that will truly secure Floyd´s legacy as a Pound For Pound giant.
Maybe that fight will still happen. There is a good chance it will, but then again, why should we be asked to have faith that the meaningful fights will come, when there are already rumblings of an Oscar vs. Floyd rematch. Floyd vs. Hatton is not completely meaningless, but really only one thing can happen: Hatton wins. Oh, he is likely to lose the fight and his undefeated record, but he is so much smaller, and so obviously weaker at Welterweight, that his reputation will remain unscathed. In short, the fight only matters if Hatton wins, which is an outcome that Floyd clearly hasn't considered. Which is why he is on Dancing with the Stars, which is we must all watch it and we must hope he comes in dead-second every week. Humiliated, but unable to quit, like the second Karate Kid.
Fights like Floyd vs. Hatton are to be applauded when both men have dominated their own divisions, NOT when so many issues remain unresolved. Roberto Duran´s step-up in weight to fight Sugar Ray Leonard is the obvious comparison (A fight Duran won. Their rematch ended with Duran famous "no mas" forfeiture). That fight made sense because Sugar had already fought the best in his division, and Leonard had dominated the lower divisions like like no one else before or since. Floyd hasn´t fought the best at Welterweight, and he didn´t fight the best at Jr. Welterweight, yet he brandishes those belts as if they mean something. Had he dropped down to jr. welterweight to fight Hatton this article would be singing his praises.
While Hatton gets credit for taking this fight, he doesn´t get out of this scott free: Win or lose, Ricky is looking to fight De La Hoya after Mayweather, in a retirement fight that will probably have the largest attendance of any fight since since Tyson, but otherwise will mean NOTHING. Ricky should instead fight the number one contender in his own weight class, either Malignaggi or Witter. This would solidify his legacy at Jr. Welterweight, and bolster the division that made him famous. No, that fight would not be as popular, but it represents an investment into the sport of boxing. A flashy but meaningless fights against Oscar amounts to little more than cashing in.
Floyd vs. Hatton, and Hatton vs. Oscar aren´t bad fights. But in this day of age when the sport itself is against the ropes, and marque boxers only fight twice a year, every marque fight should mean something, no matter who wins. Scheduling fights based on their popularity, at a time when Boxing´s popularity is historically low, seems logical, but is ultimately a dead end strategy. Half the time the wrong guy wins, and much of the time they do nothing to develop meaningful followup contests. Oscar vs. Mayweather hurt boxing because the wrong guy won. So it goes with pure popularity based match-ups. The popular fights need to be made, true, but that well will dry up if popular fighters aren´t also made. That which makes a fighter popular is the same as what makes any contestant popular, being the best. By divorcing the term ´champion´ from any real qualifications, boxing has found itself in a similar pericament as American Soccer, one that is not traceable to the mechanics of sport itself and is not salvageable by the popularity of David Beckham. The problem is a lack of meaningful contests.
When World Cup rolls around, everybody watches because win or lose the Americans are fighting the best competition. American football is our most popular sport because each game is crucial. Meaningful fights draw a audience, and result in fighters that people can get behind. This simple rule should be especially easy to follow in boxing since boxing is secretly everyone´s favorite sport. As Max Kellerman pointed out: If you are walking down the street and come to an intersection where on one corner there are two people playing tennis, on the other they are playing soccer, on the other two teams are playing football, and on the last corner two people are fighting, which contest are you going to watch?
Saturday evening me and a couple of guys went out for some curry, then we had a couple of drinks. When I got back to the apartment I turned on the TV and caught the last half of the Barrerra-Pacqiauo fight. I was pretty stoked to accidently stumble upon something that would have cost a bunch of money in the states. The fight was really good, by most standards--The aged legend relying on ring smarts to keep the ferocious young lion at bay-- but most commentators were disapointed that it wasn´t a typical Pacqiauo slugfest. Manny still won and Barrerra retired gracefully in a respectable loss. Just like Morales did a few months back. Morales-Barrerra are the boxing equivalent of grumpy old men. No doubt they will be inducted into the hall of fame on the same day, and then fight on the podium. That´s no joke, it´s almost a sure thing.
I don´t know if I commented on the Taylor-Pavlik fight. I only saw it on you-tube. Taylor beat the snot ot of pavlik in round two. For most of the round Pavlik was dancing with the stars. He didn´t bother to defend against a barage of power punches. Had the fight been stopped no one would have argued. Eventually Taylor got tired of throwing uncontested bombs and then the round ended. Then, Pavlik won round three. And in round six he hit Taylor so hard I thought Taylor was going to puke. Instead he crumpled to the ground, like one of those beaded toy figurines that, where when you hit the button on their base, the slack goes out, making the figure stand upright, but when you release the botton it colapses as if it just got hit by Pavlik. Just like one of those.
