Two Times The Stupid, In Just One Day!

Stupid declaration #1:
“Floyd [Mayweather] has fought the best, and he has beaten them all. He fought Oscar (De La Hoya), when everybody thought that Oscar would murder him‚Ķand he beat him.” — Jose Sulaiman, WBC president
Um, no. Nobody thought Oscar would murder Floyd. Floyd was the heavy betting favorite. We’ve all come to expect better from Hall-of-Famer Jose Sulaiman, haven’t we?
Stupid declaration #2:
“Our first fight was daylight robbery, they stole it from me,” Lovemore Ndou said of his loss to Paulie Malignaggi last year. “The referee didn’t let me fight but this time we are fighting on neutral ground and with a good referee, Mickey Vann. I feel I will get a fair crack this time.”
Um, no. Nobody thought that fight was “stolen” from Ndou, except for some hometown press in Australia. Two judges couldn’t even find a round to give to Ndou. Not one. Heck, Ndou even got knocked down by perhaps the softest-punching top fighter in boxing today. He was completely and thoroughly dominated. The ref was hard on Ndou’s mauling tactics, but he let him get away with constantly stepping on Malignaggi’s feet illegally to try to make him a more stationary target. Even then, it was as comprehensive a defeat as one fighter can deliver to another short of a knockout. It was a fantastic performance by Malignaggi.
(More on that rematch, and the Ricky Hatton-Juan Lazcano fight, later this week….)

About Tim Starks

Tim is the founder of The Queensberry Rules and co-founder of The Transnational Boxing Rankings Board (http://www.tbrb.org). He lives in Washington, D.C. He has written for the Guardian, Economist, New Republic, Chicago Tribune and more.

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