The blog’s technical woes persist. Please continue to show patience.
But neither rain nor slow nor sleet nor hail can stop the Jabs that are Quick. Besides the subjects in the headline, we have a little “rest of the weekend action” (not including the Super Six tournament, although I’ve updated one of my pieces on that); some fights in the works for Winky Wright and Alexander Povetkin, among others; and much more.
Quick Jabs
Not much else happening this weekend besides the Super Six. Junior featherweight Rey Bautista has already gotten back to his winning ways in a weekend fight that just happened earlier today. Exciting lightweight Antonio Pitalua headlines a Telemundo card tonight, which also goes up against a GoFightLive card. Alexander Povetkin was supposed to have a stay-busy fight in Baltimore this evening, but he pulled out for reasons we’ll get to later. Tomorrow night, there’s an Azteca card focused on prospects; Vassiliy Jirov makes his return to cruiserweight against a soft touch; and Billy Lyell, the middleweight who toppled John Duddy recently, gets nothing much out of it, fighting back in Ohio again, but it’s all part of a bigger plan, apparently…
Reports out of the camp of Manny Pacquiao are that much-loathed (by most Pacaquiao fans and other Pacquiao team members) adviser Michael Kocnz got beat up by yet another person he allegedly tried to fire, conditioning coach Alex Ariza. Koncz, he denies it. My first reaction was to take the opportunity to make a joke, per the headline above; the sense is that Koocnz is not a “boxing” person so much as a sycophant, so maybe now he gets the fight game. But my second reaction was that this was kind of uncool. I take no pleasure in Koncz being attacked, because I think physical violence should be left to the professionals. Furthermore, it’s been obvious for a long time that Koncz is more of a distraction than an asset, and it should be more obvious now. Commenters on this blog have responded to an allegation made elsewhere, apparently, that Pacquiao is stupid and easily manipulated in keeping Koncz on board, when, these commenters say, Pacquiao knows exactly what he’s doing by keeping Koncz around. I don’t think either is exactly the case. I think Pacquiao is a person who has a hard time saying “no.” If he gets offered a giant suitcase of money by Golden Boy Promotions, he takes it, or if there are people on the streets of the Philippines who need something from him, he buys it. Koncz is the kind of person who’s going to try to take advantage of that. Tellingly, when told of the dispute, Pacquiao reportedly sat with a blank look on his face. But it’s time Pacquiao says “no” to Koncz now, because eventually this camp drama is going to get him, and Miguel Cotto on Nov. 14 is the kind of fighter who can take advantage of a distracted Pacquiao…
I haven’t written a single word about this whole Mike-Tyson-on-Oprah streak, despite having a keen interest in boxing-in-the-mainstream, because I’m all Tysoned out. I saw his movie, and while I appreciate all the friends who have let me know Tyson would be on Oprah, it continues to bother me that the guy sucks so much attention away from current boxers; I also can’t tell you how many times someone has said they stopped watching boxing after Tyson bit off Evander Holyfield’s ear. I’m sure I’ll be up for some Tyson stuff at some point again in the near future, but I’m too exasperated about it all right now…
What happened with junior lightweight phenom Jorge Linares getting knocked out in the 1st round, it may or may not be a fluke, as I’ve said. But it looks less fluky if reports are true that Linares got knocked out in sparring. I’m just sayin’….
Heavyweight Vitali Klitschko recently got punched during a city council standoff. What politician has the nerve to punch Klitschko? Maybe he thought Klitschko would respond to getting hit by running around in circles for 45 minutes…
I was thinking ESPN Classic or somebody like that ought to pick it up, as they seem to like to pick up foreign heavyweight fights, but Integrated Sports is making Nicolay Valuev-David Haye available here on pay-per-view for $24.95. I expect I’ll buy it come Nov. 7, since it’s at 4 p.m. and as much as Haye has disappointed me with his antics, he’s still a fighter worth watching…
Really, I don’t get how junior featherweight Celestino Caballero keeps moving up Ring mag’s pound-for-pound rankings. He’s at #8 this week. Compare his resume to fellow beanpole Paul Williams’: wins over Daniel Ponce De Leon, Steve Molitor and Somsak Sithchatchawal compared to wins over Antonio Margarito, Verno Phillips and Winky Wright. Yet Williams (fighting at middleweight Dec. 5) isn’t in the top 10 at all. And it has nothing to do with Golden Boy Promotions, conspiracy theorists, as they don’t factor into either fighter…
I’m a big fan of boxers having unorthodox excuses for losing fights, with “I got knocked out by the cameraman” and “I wasn’t able to eat enough Big Macs” among the recent highlights. Add another, maybe even better one: “My dad told me he loved me.” That’s what happened with David Tua just before he contended for Lennox Lewis’ heavyweight championship a few years back, and since Tua’s pop had never before told him he loved him, the Tuaminator broke down and cried and lost focus. Fantastic. Keep the excuses coming, boxers…
I wish Thailand gave half a shit about boxers’ safety. But it doesn’t.
Round And Round
I could write something every single day on whether Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao will ever happen, but there was a crack in the “I want better than 50-50” “No I want better than 50-50” egomania. Richard Schaefer of Golden Boy — effectively Mayweather’s promoter , no matter how much Mayweather insists he’s his own promoter — said that if Pacquiao-Cotto at 145 pounds does a million pay-per-view buys, MAYBE 50-50 can happen. I count this as progress.
I’d thought Jean Pascal-Adrian Diaconu II, a rematch of a great light heavyweight fight from earlier this year, was a done deal a long time ago, but it’s certainly a done deal now. December 11, fans of slugfests.
There was some talk that Povetkin would rematch Eddie Chambers for a chance at an interim heavyweight title of some kind, but if I were Chambers I’d hold on to my spot as a mandatory challenger against Wladimir Klitschko for early 2010. Instead, we may get Povetkin-Sam Peter Jan. 23, which could be paired on Showtime with a second-round fight in the Super Six, Arthur Abraham-Andre Dirrell.
Apparently Alfredo Angulo’s Nov. 7 bout against Harry Joe Yorgey is a WBO junior middleweight title eliminator. I’m not sure how that would work. Would he fight regular “champion” Sergei Dzinziruk, or interim “champion” Paul Williams? Anyway, keep it in mind. Those are both interesting fights.
Winky Wright is taking on Grady Brewer down in Puerto Rico Dec. 11. Sounds like a style nightmare to me, but Brewer is kind of what Wright needs right now — he’s a junior middleweight who’s fought at Wright’s middleweight before, and he’s live, but he’s not super-dangerous. Wright just needs to stay in the ring, really, until he gets another big fight.
Latin Fury lineups change 8 million times before they’re made and always collapse at the last minute, but the current plan for the next one is to feature the previously-discussed but dateless lightweight bout between Humberto Soto and Miguel Acosta on Dec. 19. It’s a good fight whenever it happens. Bob Arum is talking about putting on middleweights Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. and John Duddy in separate fights, but I doubt Chavez will be ready since he’s fighting on the Pacquiao-Cotto undercard. Another Pinoy Power card is due January or February, Arum says, a month back from the original plan, and it would feature junior bantamweight Nonito Donaire against somebody and possibly a bantamweight doubleheader pitting Fernando Montiel against Gerry Penalosa and Z Gorres against Eric Morel. Don’t get excited about that lineup until the day before the card airs, good as it may be.
On Nov. 28, thrilling lightweight John Molina is due for a step up on ShoBox against Martin Honorio. Honorio did get knocked out in one round at a lighter weight by Robert Guerrero, but Molina’s not fought anyone as good as him. A prudent fight with an element of risk.
(Round And Round sources: ESPN; The Canadian Press; BoxingScene)
