Quick Jabs: Bernard Hopkins Vs. Roy Jones II Doesn’t Do Boffo Business; Adam Carolla Apologizes; Timothy Bradley Takes On Marcos Maidana; More

(Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales, circa 2002)

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(Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales, circa 2010)

The news conference punch, the bad blood spilled in the ring, the Mexico City/Tijuana rivalry… it’s all gone. Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales say they’re pals now (per BoxingScene, usual warnings apply about clicking on links). I know time heals a lot of wounds, but this is one of those feuds I thought would never die. It fills one with optimism for humanity.

It’s one of the week’s events I couldn’t get to with an individual blog entry, and the rest is compiled below.

Quick Jabs

Besides the HBO doubleheader, here’s what’s on tap for the rest of Saturday, which is where all the action is concentrated. The HBO 24/7 series for Floyd Mayweather-Shane Mosley May 1 begins. On ESPN2, there’s a welterweight fight in Cali between unbeaten and unproven welterweight Orlando Lora fights the always-tough David Estrada, and why it’s on Saturday I don’t get. Also on the card is dirty dirty fouler Victor Fonseca, the junior featherweight who head butted and elbowed Al Seeger into the hospital and probably to the end of his career last year, but this time he’s fighting outside his home state of Texas so maybe he won’t get away with that detestable junk. On Fox Sports Net, Filipino welterweight prospect tries to bounce back from his first loss against Noberto Gonzalez, last seen getting upset by Antwone Smith. On Integrated Sports PPV, Evander Holyfield and Francois Botha duel in a heavyweight fight absolutely no one wanted. Odds and ends: Smith is in action, as is junior welterweight Lamont Peterson; Francisco Arce and Cristian Mijares fight in a bantamweight eliminator; and Souleymane M’Baye and Antonin Decarie fight for some welterweight interim title or the other…

Things look exceptionally grim for the financial performance of Bernard Hopkins-Roy Jones II. Steve Kim reported there were fewer than 1,000 tickets sold, with the rest giveaways. Dan Rafael and Kevin Iole said it may have done about 100,000 pay-per-views, or even less. Hopkins afterward went on a delusional rant, and I’d say it was from the rabbit punches if it wasn’t typical Hopkins bull. Once upon a time, Hopkins was an outcast for doing it “his way.” Now when he gets shunned it’s because he can’t get 1,000 people to pay to see him live against a shot opponent in a rematch no one wanted so late and a repeat of a first fight that sucked, with the rematch sucking perhaps harder. And he sat on the sidelines for so long as a result of insisting on bizarre purse splits. It’s not because of racism, dude. It’s called the market speaking. (And I caught up to the fight, by the way. I don’t think Hopkins looked terrible, but he didn’t look great, either, and he’ll be dropped from my pound-for-pound list when I update it next for spending a year and a half fighting opponents he should have blown away but never did)…

Trainer Freddie Roach’s stable has undergone some drastic changes of late. Out: junior featherweight Guillermo Rigondeaux, who has a chance to be a special pro but felt he was getting neglected by Roach and being forced to spar with too many junior middleweights. Both claims sound somewhat legit, with Roach having so many fighters, but Rigondeaux ought to recognize that sparring with bigger fighters can help him — so I think the key would be to determine if he was inordinately fighting men 30 pounds bigger. Roach, though, reportedly wasn’t happy with Rigondeaux’s conditioning for a fight he was supposed to be in this weekend but pulled out of citing an injury, so that’s a spot of concern for Rigondeaux’s potential. In: Roberto Garcia, fighting disgraced welterweight Antonio Margarito next; Omar Chavez and his brother, Julio Cesar, Jr., the latter of whom is fighting John Duddy next; and maybe even a spot of middleweight Anthony Mundine. The Garcia thing is interesting — makes you wonder if Roach suspects Margarito is ripe for the picking. JCC Jr. strikes me as fairly hopeless but he’s had trouble with motivation and if Roach can help him with that, he’d be doing the best thing he could do for the kid. And Mundine’s stay with Roach will mean nothing unless he starts fighting top opponents again…

Comedian Adam Carolla has apologized, as well he should have, for his insulting remarks toward Manny Pacquiao and the people of the Philippines. If he’d left it at “cultural differences aren’t a good enough excuse to turn down blood testing,” I would have agreed with him — I’m no relativist — but the “worshipping chicken bones” stuff (I’m paraphrasing it all) was extremely uncool. I gather his apology was sincere, and that his explanation about trying to be provocative was true; what comedian hasn’t gotten in that kind of trouble before? That said, I’m surprised anyone cared that much. Carolla has a popular podcast but it’s not as if he’s some major figure…

Anyone who hasn’t seen the latest episode of Fight Camp 360 on Showtime needs to do it. It’s highly dramatic, watching how everyone reacted to the controversial Andre Dirrell-Arthur Abraham fight. It’s airing on Showtime and SHO2 frequently over the next couple weeks, so check your schedule, or you can watch it on Showtime’s YouTube page here. In other news about the super middleweight tournament, Abraham’s people have filed a lame-ass protest about the disqualification, with the only new valid point — referee Laurence Cole wasn’t in any position to prevent the foul from happening — having no impact whatsoever on whether the DQ call was accurate or whether Abraham should have stopped himself from fouling. The protest will die a quick, quick death. Meanwhile, Abraham-Carl Froch is booked for Aug. 21, per BoxingScene. It might be in Nottingham, or maybe Berlin if Froch loses his next fight. And there’s still a dispute, also per BoxingScene, over where Dirrell-Andre Ward should be, with Dirrell promoter Gary Shaw refusing to do it in Ward’s Oakland and wanting it instead in Ward’s native Michigan…

Back to Hopkins: The junior lightweight undercard fight between Jason Litzau and Rocky Juarez looks to me like it was stopped improperly. It’s hard to tell 100 percent, but it looks like a punch, not a head butt, caused Litzau’s eye so much damage, which meant Litzau should have lost by knockout rather than won by technical decision…

One of the lineal championship vacancies I mentioned last week got solved by the Hopkins fight, so that’s good news. Ring magazine finally downgraded Bernard Hopkins in the light heavyweight division, a decision I agree with even if it’s late, so Dawson-Jean Pascal will be for the light heavyweight championship of the world. Pascal’s a worthy #3, and since Dawson has already beaten #2 Glen Johnson twice, no point saying he would have to win a trilogy fight to get the belt…

The WBA may not have ordered a second rematch of Beibut Shumenov and Gabriel Campillo, and Shumenov may have hypocritically passed on giving Campillo the rematch Campillo once gave him, but at least the WBA gave Campillo its #1 slot light heavyweight, setting him up for a potential shot at the belt again. Per BoxingScene. And if you need to know why you should care about the Ring belts more than the alphabet belts, consider the respective “problems” of how the WBA is handling its light heavyweight belt versus how Ring is, and whether you think the Shumenov is the real “champion” (definition: first place) or whether the winner of Dawson-Pascal should be…

Back to Mosley: Mosley has been getting drug-tested plenty for his welterweight bout against Mayweather, three times and counting. He also has a giant new tattoo, which doesn’t strike me as very “Mosley,” but Miguel Cotto did the same thing a while back and how his giant tattoos are part of who he “is”…

Shiro Kameda, father of Koki and Daiki needs to knock off the antics

The boxing Simms brothers recently got into some hot water with the law for getting into a sibling brawl. Wrong set of brothers fighting. It’s the Klitschkos we want to see go at it…

Check out some highlights of David Lemieux knocking out Walid Smichet in a super middleweight fight from last weekend. Lemieux is so explosive. He wins more exchanges than anyone these days. I’m becoming a really big fan, and the short work he made of Smichet is really telling. I can’t wait for him to begin fighting the top guys at 160 and 168.

Round And Round

It’s a fantastic fight, nearly as good a fight as can be made in the loaded junior welterweight division: Timothy Bradley vs. Marcos Maidana, signed for June 19, a fabulous present for my birthday. Bradley stole Maidana as an opponent from Devon Alexander, the #2 man in the division to Bradley’s #1. Maidana is dangerous for Bradley, who was down against Kendall Holt, but maybe not as dangerous as it would seem — Holt’s speed was part of the problem, and Bradley’s a much better fighter now than he was against Holt. Anyway, it’s a helluva fight on paper and Bradley has about the biggest cojones in boxing as far as his opponent choices. If Bradley beats Maidana, and Alexander wins his summer fight against whomever, I will be fiending like a drug addict for Bradley-Alexander.

Wladimir Klitschko’s next opponent is a big mystery — it could be David Haye, if Alexander Povetkin can be persuaded to step aside from his mandatory challenge (which he could be, as trainer Teddy Atlas rightly doesn’t think Povetkin is ready for Wlad yet). Another option is a rematch with Samuel Peter, who’s in position for his own mandatory. Haye was maybe going to have to give Nicolay Valuev a rematch, but there’s also talk of Odlanier Solis and Valuev fighting in an eliminator for the right to meet Vitali Klitschko — unless Ray Austin, who was originally positioned against Solis, can do some legal wrangling. Silly stuff here. Wlad-Haye, please, with Vitali getting Haye if he wins.

There’s another fight booked for the Mayweather-Mosley undercard, besides Saul Alvarez-Jose Cotto (welterweight): Ponce De Leon-Cornelius Lock (featherweight). It’s a decent enough fight, both stylistically and meaningfully, and I’m cool with a “prospect in tough test fight” like Alvarez-Cotto, too, although I’d like to see one good solid fight of even greater meaningfulness than De Leon-Lock before I consider it a good undercard.

But there is a solid undercard fight likely for the next weekend, May 8’s junior welterweight clash between Amir Khan and Paulie Malignaggi. Junior middleweight Kassim Ouma is getting another decent bout after the injustice done to him on the scorecards against Vanes Martirosyan, against Ishe Smith. Both men are at about the same point in their careers — some recent losses but also still some juice left. The winner should be nicely positioned for a bigger fight.

I’d wondered whether Ivan Calderon was taking on the best challenge in once-anticipated opponent Jhonriel Casimero, but now he’s doing another fight first, as is Casimero, which is lamer. On June 12 on Fox Sports Net, Calderon is slated to fight Jesus Iribe, who’s not much to speak of in the junior fly division. Casimero, meanwhile, will be fighting Ramon Garcia on the same card. Calderon is cruising for a docking in my P4P rankings his damn self, because he already was on the verge of a drop by drawing with then barely beating Rodel Mayol in 2009.

Thrilling featherweight Antonio Escalante fights Carlos Ricardo Rodriguez next on ESPN2. Rodriguez once quit against Jonathan Victor Barros, last seen getting comprehensively beaten by Yuriorkis Gamboa, and he doesn’t have much of a knockout record, but after Escalante’s punishing war against Miguel Roman, he’s due an easier fight.

If Melligen wins this weekend, he wants Alfonso Gomez. Reasonable fight for both men.

(Round and Round sources: ESPN, Fightnews, news releases, BoxingScene, Houston Chronicle)

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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