There’s Ricky Hatton, Fattoning it up as he’s prone to do and being pretty amusing as he’s prone to do, this time as a participant in a WWE event this week. He’ll become important again later, per the headline.
There’s more going on in the world than Manny Pacquiao-Miguel Cotto. Here’s some of it, in a very special Saturday edition of Quick Jabs.
Quick Jabs
The saddest thing happening is that bantamweight contender Z Gorres is in a coma after a fight Friday night that he won. If you’re a boxing fan, you really ought to be trying to send good vibes — whatever your religion or superstition or anything — Gorres’ way. We’ll know more in the coming days…
The Gorres fight was one of the biggest of the weekend, but there are a couple other things happening or that have happened. If you want to watch the untelevised undercard to Pacquiao-Cotto, you can do it here, starting at 7 p.m. (h/t friend of the site Irvin Ryan). Showtime is airing its Fight Camp 360 show for the super middleweight fight between Mikkel Kessler and Andre Ward Saturday night at 10:40 p.m. during Pacquiao-Cotto, and I can’t imagine why. If I were them, I’d air it right before the Pacquiao-Cotto card begin, when anyone who’s a boxing fanatic will be itchy and jonesing to watch any boxing-related thing they can. But it’ll re-air frequently. The other major event was that Matthew Hatton, brother of Ricky, fought to a draw against welterweight Lovemore Ndou. Now, I’m not saying that means all that much. Matthew isn’t very good and probably never will be. But I thought he was a straight-up bum, and he was on even terms with a fringe contender, so I suppose that means Hatton can be upgraded to about that turf…
Mike Tyson has been arrested for punching a paparazzi. He says it’s self-defense, that he’d been attacked himself. I personally have my doubts that a photographer would try to beat up Tyson, but it’s sad to see Tyson in the news again this way. He’s just not going to get a chance to become the boxing analyst I think he can become if he is viewed as unstable…
Light heavyweight Zsolt Erdei, who has a legitimate claim to the lineal light heavyweight championship of the world, has vacated his strap in the division to move up to cruiserweight, and with that, there is no longer a dispute over whether the next man to win the light heavyweight championship of the world via Ring magazine is the “real” champion. And hey, look! Ring finally found room in its pound-for-pound top 10 for middleweight Paul Williams and light heavyweight Chad Dawson!…
We’ve talked a good deal here about the dirty fighting of Victor Fonseca in his bout against junior featherweight Al Seeger a few weeks ago. There are some who, strangely, didn’t see much dirty happening. But I have to tell you, I’ve followed boxing for a while and I’ve never seen anybody break somebody’s skull in half with a punch. Seeger now has a titanium plate in his head, and I’m 100 percent sure it’s because of Fonseca’s persistent head butts. Be forewarned: The image here of Seeger’s new titanium plate underneath his skin is not for the faint of heart. But I share it because this kind of dirty fighting ought to turn more stomachs than it does…
The WBC is cracking down on taking a percentage fighters’ purses. Where’s this idea come from that the WBC is the “most respected” sanctioning organization? They’re all money-grubbing punks…
The organizers of the split Zab Judah/Joel Casamayor card last weekend claim it did 100,000 pay-per-view buys. There are two possibilities: 100,000 boxing fans came down with ergot poisoning and just went straight crazy, a la the Salem witch trials; or the organizers are lying. I’m going to go with it being a lie. I don’t think Judah, a welterweight, or Casamayor, a junior welterweight, have that many fans these days. I think they’re making it up so they can make it seem like Judah and Casamayor have more appeal than they actually do, so as to help them get bigger fights…
The below fight is of little significance, but it does feature a rare double knockdown that I wanted to pass along. (h/t BLH)
Round And Round
Remember how skeptical so many people were that Floyd Mayweather might actually go to Mexico to fight a green welterweight prospect named Saul Alvarez? No, they said, that won’t happen. Mayweather will fight somebody real next, the people we all want him to fight, like Shane Mosley or the winner of Pacquiao-Cotto or Williams. But the idea of Mayweather fighting in Mexico was as part of this “world tour” concept Golden Boy Promotions had. And now, again, that idea has surfaced. Steve Kim reports that Mayweather is looking at taking a fight in England as part of a “world tour” idea. And it won’t be ANY of the men we want him to fight, that’s guaranteed. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was Ricky Hatton. Don’t forget, in his famous debate with RA the Rugged Man, Mayweather threw out Hatton’s name as someone he would be willing to fight, drawing scoffs from RA — after all, Mayweather had already stomped Hatton, then when Pacquiao stomped him harder, Mayweather said Pacquiao was just taking his “leftovers.” At any rate, if it isn’t Hatton (Hatton says he wants to fight again and delusionally mentioned Cotto as a potential oppponent) it definitely won’t be anyone elite. And then what excuses will Mayweather’s fans make? “Oh, Mosley and all them were busy?” (No, they’ll be available by spring.) “Hey, he’s just making money.” (OK, but he’ll make more against Mosley et al.) “He’ll fight somebody who’s a top fighter in his division after that.” (Really? How much faith can a fan have?)
David Haye, newly bestrapped with a heavyweight title, is talking about the following fight sequence: John Ruiz, his mandatory challenger; one of the Klitschko brothers, whose team, despite being left hanging twice by Haye, are surprisingly willing to talk about that fight as though it might happen; then Nicolay Valuev, who had a rematch clause I wasn’t aware of. Valuev says he doesn’t want to fight tiny, quick heavyweights anymore, which makes sense because they give him fits, so who knows if Valuev-Haye II ever happens. Cruiserweight champion Tomasz Adamek, who’s fighting again at heavyweight in February in Newark against an opponent to be named later, also wants a shot at Haye. That’s a helluva fight, but it’ll have to wait. Likewise with Odlanier Solis-Haye, with Solis calling out Haye and saying he’ll knock him out like he did in the amateurs.
Valuev isn’t the only one who wants bigger opponents — Glen Johnson is talking about moving up to cruiserweight, where his lack of speed won’t be as big a problem. I wish him luck if he makes the move. It’s not far-fetched, but I worry he’s on the decline and if the cruiserweight move doesn’t work out well, I hope he’ll hang them up.
Sticking with the big boys, Chris Arreola’s Dec. 5 opponent will be heavyweight Brian Minto. Minto is tough but doesn’t stand much of a chance, and as such he’s the right comeback opponent for Arreola in the wake of his bad beating at the hands of Vitali Klitschko.
Featherweight Rafael Marquez said he offered to fight Juan Manuel Lopez, but Top Rank, Lopez’ promoter, said that Lopez’ year was set. I know Lopez is doing a January showdown with Steve Luevano and summer showdown with Yuriorkis Gamboa if all works out well, but the whole year? Likewise, I don’t know what Jackson Asiku is doing calling out Gamboa. That’s fall, at the earliest, Jackson.
Flyweight Moruti Mthalane, last seen on a major level giving a competitive showing against Nonito Donaire, is now in line to fight for Donaire’s vacated title against Julio Cesar Miranda. Two things: 1. Glad to see Mthalane getting another go at it; and 2. How many “Julio Cesars” and “Mirandas” are there in boxing? Putting those two monickers together makes me skeptical, like someone got stumped trying to come up with a boxer’s name and just threw out a couple common boxers’ names.
(Round And Round sources: RingTV; Maxboxing; BoxingScene; The Sun; news releases)
