(Above are a couple panels from my brother’s web comic running now at kylestarks.com. It depicts a big ol’ punch, which is the thinnest reed I need to use it as an excuse to promote my little bro, who’s suddenly getting well-deserved widespread attention on sites like io9 and ComicsAlliance for his work.)
When it comes to Showtime’s Super Six, like the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy says, “Don’t Panic!” It was big news this week when Mikkel Kessler dropped out of the tournament due to an eye injury, but like almost every single bump the tourney has encountered, I’m confident the event will manage just fine. At every point there’s been a bit of misfortune in the tournament — Jermain Taylor’s departure, a fight being pushed back, etc. — a bunch of people flip out and become convinced that this whole thing is on the verge of cataclysm. Instead, what looks more likely to happen is that Allan Green simply gets left out of the final round-robin leg of the event to be rewarded later with a Showtime date, then Andre Ward-Andre Dirrell and Arthur Abraham-Carl Froch moves up to the semi-final, which approximates the current seeding anyway. Bam! That’s still three more intriguing fights, including the finale, and one sure-fire Fight of the Year candidate in Abraham-Froch. Hell, there’s a case this is GOOD for the tournament (assuming Kessler is going to be OK, which might not be the case despite his pronouncements of such).
Let’s say that path somehow falls apart; Prince Albert II rejects Abraham-Froch, and the rumors of Dirrell having cold feet about fighting his buddy Ward are true and he pulls out. I doubt both things will happen — at worst, I suspect both fights just get pushed back a little — but it would be the end of the tournament. It would be disappointing, sure, and leave a sense of what might have been. But didn’t we get some good fights out of it, some dramatic bouts featuring most of the best fighters in one of boxing’s best divisions? Even in that far-fetched worst case scenario, wasn’t it all worth it anyway?
Now, to the rest of your Quick Jabs, a day early:
Quick Jabs
We already explored Ivan Calderon-Giovanni Segura, but there is a little more boxing going on this week. Tonight, it’s Fight Night Club on Fox Sports Net and RingTV.com, and the card has lost some of its already-limited appeal with featherweight Gary Russell dropping out. But junior lightweight Ronny Rios (almost named by his father “Rum” and the too-good-to-be-true “Presidente” — I’m not kidding) headlines against Leivi Brea, an “opponent” type with experience against names like Juan Manuel Lopez (2nd round KO loss) and Gary Stark, Jr. (unanimous decision loss), so probably about right for him at this stage in his career. Tomorrow night, it’s a TeleFutura Solo Boxeo show featuring junior welterweight Lucas Matthysse and welterweight Sebastian Lujan against opponents that will keep them busy while they figure out how to take advantage of their respective “borderline contender” statuses. And on GoFightLive.tv, former top lightweight Zahir Raheem makes his return…
Schedule, part two: Saturday, ESPN2/ESPN Deportes airs another irregular Friday Night Fights program. The card has been revised to death, but we’ll end up with Canadian junior welterweight prospect Omri Lowther against recently-KO’d prospect Hank Lundy, bravely stepping in as a late replacement. The highlight of the Calderon-Segura undercard is the Arroyo brothers. Junior welterweight Marcos Maidana stays busy off U.S. television by fighting DeMarcus Corley, a minor TQBR favorite; as much as I want to see Amir Khan fight Maidana, I wouldn’t be too upset if Corley pulled this one out of his ass. On GoFightLive.tv, heavyweight Chazz Witherspoon fights for the first time since his knockout loss last year to Tony Thompson. And off TV in Fallon, Nev., light heavyweight Otis Griffin and Jeff Mayweather-trained middleweight prospect Brandon Gonzales do battle in separate bouts…
The cruiserweight Super Six sounds like it’s shaping up nicely, save one fighter: Ring’s #4-ranked Troy Ross. Ross owns a controversial loss to #1 man Steve Cunningham, and absolutely belongs in any tournament. His omission would hover over the tourney the way Lucian Bute’s omission has hovered over the super middleweight Super Six. Plus, he’s exciting and offers some geographic diversity to interest, say, a Canadian television station, maybe?…
Speaking of cruiserweights, here’s footage of Marco Huck’s stoppage of Matt Godfrey from last weekend. The main thing I noticed about it that for three rounds, every time Godfrey moved forward, he had some success; and every time Huck feinted, Godfrey immediately began moving backward, automatically, like Huck pressed a button. Overall, though, impressive performance by Huck:
HBO’s in the middle of quite a dry spell, offering a total of one show from Aug. 14 to November. Similarly, last year, they offered only two shows over that span, but in 2008, they had several more. I guess they’ve decided this is their vacation period, but it is a touch saddening, and probably no good for a televised boxing program to virtually disappear for three months…
Light heavyweight Chad Dawson and “adviser” James Prince have apparently set aside their differences, at least according to Prince. This will go GREAT for Dawson. They’ve got one lawsuit between them, Prince has a shady incident with Floyd Mayweather in his past and that’s really the tip of the iceberg with the guy…
Jack Woodburn, the boxing judge who was in contention for worst active judge, said it was all a mix-up that he scored the 11th round of Jean Pascal-Dawson for Pascal, a round that everyone in their right mind saw Dawson winning. I’d like to think that’s a big vote of confidence in the guy, except “writing stuff down correctly on a scorecard” strikes me as an important qualification. Still, I guess it’s better than outright blindness, which he showed evidence of with his scorecard for Taylor-Froch…
A few media recommendations: Check out how friend of the site and contributor Alex McClintock now has written a piece for Ring, about the interesting subject of the media’s role in exacerbating name-calling during the Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao dispute. Give him a big hand, too. Then, check out this other Ring piece about how the debate over immigration in Arizona is affecting fighters in that region. It’s got interesting details. Then, take note that Thomas Hauser is now writing some for BoxingScene. Then, check out this fascinating tale of featherweight Steve Luevano’s premature retirement…
Want to wish your friends “Shabbat Shalom” on Facebook, but can’t figure out a way to get junior welterweight Dmitriy Salita to do it for you? The need has been filled, friend. Check it out here via a new start-up called Cameo Stars (as called to my attention by a representative of the company)…
Gary Andrew Poole, who has been penning nice pieces at The Atlantic on boxing, has a release date for his biography of Pacquiao. It’s due out Nov. 2…
Junior welterweight Amir Khan is going to be doing some fundraising for the floods in Pakistan, following on the recent national solidarity in the wake of tragedies shown by heavyweight Tomasz Adamek to Poland and welterweight Andre Berto to Haiti.
