The above ad may or may not be running in Boxing Digest and other places. PETA was kinda weird about answering my questions about it, saying it was a PSA that would run wherever publications had space for it, since PETA is a non-profit and was hoping pubs would run it for free, although I see they also have paid PSAs.
Whatever. I’m happy to show it to you all. It’s a topic I’ve long cared about, and I think it’s a point well-made. I’ve always rejected arguments that boxing and dogfighting are in any way morally equivalent, and it’s cool of Shane Mosley to use his fame to make the same case. It’s also free publicity for him in advance of his Jan. 30 welterweight fight against Andre Berto, so it’s win (for dogs) win (for Mosley) win (for me).
This edition of Quick Jabs avoids any discussion of a certain recent collapsed megafight. Besides the headline, it’ll take a look at what’s next for the likes of Erislandy Lara, Randall Bailey and Michael Katsidis, and plenty more on top of that. I should like it if they give you satisfaction, these Jabs, thrown Quickly.
Quick Jabs
Your weekend boxing schedule, ladies and gents: First up is Friday Night Fights. Not a good card tonight. In a battle of Juan Carloses, Burgos — who’s on the verge of an alphabet title shot despite never having really fought anyone — fights Martinez, who’s lost of his last nine. Talented 2008 Olympian junior middleweight Demetrius Andrade is on the card after a bit of a scare in his last fight, so I doubt his opponent tonight will put up much of a fuss. Then, Saturday, we get the debut of Top Rank’s regular show on Fox Sports Net, and a fine debut it is. Rising contender Vanes Martirosyan faces what should be the last test of his career before he steps up to a big, big challenge in Kasim Ouma. We’ve seen Martirosyan demolish sturdy journeyman, and now, in Ouma, he’s facing a former alphabet title-holder. I hate that someone with Ouma’s tragic personal history has been reduced to this, but since he’s accepted the role, Martirosyan can prove a lot by handling him — Ouma’s a tough cat, and doing a number on him would say Martirosyan is ready for the likes of Sergio Martinez, Paul Williams, Alfredo Angulo and the other names his team is boldly throwing around. I’ m a recent convert to Martirosyan, who’s exciting and, I keep forgetting, was the last man to beat Timothy Bradley, in the amateurs, and also beat Andre Berto in the amateurs. On the undercard, featherweight Miguel Angel Garcia, of whom I am a skeptic, takes on Joksan Hernandez, who once lost to Bernabe Concepcion, although it’s noteworthy that Hernandez kept it fairly close on the cards. [UPDATED: I originally mentioned a Brian Viloria fight here that’s not until next weekend. Oops. Also, there’s another update below]…
It was most encouraging to see Jermain Taylor announce that he was removing himself from the super middleweight tournament on Showtime. I can’t help but like Taylor, and that’s why his decision is a meaningful one to me. He delivered good fights more often than not — see his Fight of the Year-caliber battles with Kelly Pavlik, Winky Wright and Carl Froch — and he fought a consistently high caliber of opposition. Plus, he just came off as a nice, humble, polite fellow. At the same time, he was getting knocked out too often and too viciously, and it would have pained me greatly to see him badly hurt. His ongoing presence in the tournament was going to be a stain on said tournament, because many people were wincing at the prospect of Taylor taking another beating. He left open the door to returning to boxing, but if he’s going to do it, he needs to ease back into it to see if he can again fight at the elite level, and the tournament wasn’t a place for easy fights. I’d just assume see him retire, though. Taylor took a lot of heat for his middleweight championship reign, and he’s been criticized far and wide, even in his home state of Arkansas, for a variety of deficiencies. But I wish boxing had a lot more people who had Jermain’s good traits: sportsmanship, fearlessness and a ferocious fighting spirit. Whatever you do next, Jermain, I thank you for what you’ve given us, and fare the well with the money you’ve made, the family you’ve nurtured and, maybe with the passage of some time, a spot in the hearts of boxing fans and a place amongst the pantheon of Arkansas sports fans as one of the most accomplished athletes the sport has had in a long time…
In another tale with elements of loss and warm regard, a 104-year-old former boxer died this week after being struck by a van. He was a colorful figure: Coney Island strong man, daily consumer of oatmeal, neighborhood institution. I recommend reading up on “Kid Dundee”…
This week, in a play about boxing, an actor was concussed while sparring in said play. There are a few things interesting about this. The actor he was sparring with was Liev Schreiber, who happens to do voiceover work for HBO’s “24/7” series, so Schreiber doesn’t just talk a good boxing game — he can hurt you in the ring. I’m also fascinated by the idea of a boxing play where people hit each other hard enough to hurt each other. That’s some realism right there; I should point out that my headline basically stole the gag from the lede of the Times article on ths subject to that effect. And lastly, Scarlett Johansson was in the play, too. You know what that means? I’ve got an excuse to post a picture of ScarJo in my blog. I used to think this was a cheap sports blog trick, but I dunno, every now and then it spices things up, just to have a hot chick in the middle of one of my blog entries. My digital camera is mostly filled up with pictures of men in underwear during weigh-ins, so it’s a nice change of pace, you dig?…
I got a couple flattering “mentions” this week: One by Michael Marley, another by Gawker. I used to be harder on Marley, but I’ve learned over time that more often than not the guy gets it right, and he’s a real scoop artist. Plus he’s colorful, a real quipster. I’m not saying nice things about Marley just cuz he’s mentioned me a couple times recently. I’m speaking my honest opinion. Also, I read Gawker every day. It’s great to see a blog I enjoy picking me up. Thus ends the “talking about how great I am” section of this blog entry…
I’d talked recently about how the trainer firings by super middleweight Mikkel Kessler and featherweight Rafael Marquez made a certain degree of sense. But in both cases, all Kessler and Marquez (per BoxingScene) have done in hiring new trainers is to hire their old trainer’s assistant trainer. How does that make any sense? How are you going to get better by getting rid of your trainer and replacing him with the guy who was learning to be a trainer from your old trainer? Did anybody not see how that kind of cockamamie stunt worked out for welterweight Miguel Cotto?
The whole Great Universum-Sturm Schism continues unabated. It’s a shame that Felix, a top middleweight who wants to get a fight with the Pavliks of the world, is stuck in this limbo as Universum, a promotional outfit that is suffering from attempted defections, attempts to hold on to a valuable commodity. I hope someday we can have the Final Universum-Sturm Reconciliation, so I can stop worrying about Felix Sturm. Although I do like saying “Universum-Sturm” aloud, a la Zippy the Pinhead…
Celestino Caballero has threatened to go down to Puerto Rico and smack rival Juan Manuel Lopez “like a cheap whore,” per BoxingScene. It seems like whores aka prostitutes get a bad rap in boxing. Somebody’s always calling somebody a prostitute or whore, which is funny, but after a while I get to feeling sorry for them. Has Caballero smacked a whore before? And do you smack an expensive whore differently than a cheap whore? I imagine it all involves the back of one’s hand. Also, I would never smack a trained boxer. He might hit you back while you’re in your backswing…
Bing And King! I’m just saying.
Round And Round
I suppose I should have a section of my blog where I say “fight so-and-so is still under discussion.” I don’t see a need to constantly revisit what’s happening with Vitali Klitschko-Nicolay Valuev (at heavyweight); Ricky Hatton’s comeback (at welterweight — there’s something different!); Chad Dawson-Jean Pascal (at light heavyweight, most likely on my birthday, June 19 — Why is Pascal always fighting on my birthday?); Ali Funeka-Rolando Reyes (at lightweight); or Steve Cunningham-Matt Godfrey (at cruiserweight, and now, maybe, for free at DonKingTV.com); an an April doubleheader with Tomasz Adamek-Chris Arreola (at heavyweight — a great brawl if it happens) and Angulo-Joel Julio (at junior middleweight — probably a good action fight, if not a one-sided one). So that covers that.
With Taylor pulling out of the Super Six tournament, the winner of Allan Green-Sakio Bika Feb. 5 gets to replace him. There’s nothing I don’t like about this fight. You can say, “Green beat Jaidon Codrington easily and Bika struggled with him,” or you can say, “Green is wildly inconsistent and Bika’s only gotten better.” Either way, it’s a good scrap.
I’m also liking the bold choice to put junior middleweight prospect Erislandy Lara in against former “Contender” winner Grady Brewer Jan. 29. Lara’s ready for a challenge like this, I think, and Brewer can get himself in the mix by beating Lara. I don’t know if it’ll be a good fight, but it’s definitely an interesting concept.
Lightweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez seems to have ruled out a Hatton clash for the first part of 2010, looking instead at Michael Katsidis, Edwin Valero and Amir Khan. Katsidis, entertaining lunatic that he is, actually called out Anthony Mundine, his fellow Australian who fights 25 pounds heavier.
In other Australian boxing news, junior bantamweight Vic Darchinyan appears lined up to fight Raul Martinez March 6, whom rival Nonito Donaire blasted out with ease early last year. I’m not sure what the point of that is, unless Darchinyan wants to prove he can knock out Martinez faster, as some kind of psychological edge for his rematch with Donaire. [UPDATED: Raul Martinez says on his Twitter page this fight is off.] Also, cruiserweight Danny Green, left holding an empty bag because Bernard Hopkins decided he’d rather fight the guy Green knocked out in one round than Green himself, is maybe looking at Antonio Tarver.
Alphabet title-y fight rundown, part one! Luis Collazo and Selcuk Aydin are set to fight for an interim belt March 27. Based on the amount of money available. I’m mildly interested in seeing it, but since it’ll be in Germany or Turkey, I’ll have to find a stream. Cory Spinks is doing a mandatory junior middleweight title defense against Cornelius Bundrage that same month, but Spinks’ trainer left him because he’s too fat. I’m not kidding — check out Dan Rafael’s notebook this week at ESPN.com. Hugo Garay and Chris Henry are set to fight for a vacant interim light heavyweight belt on Feb. 27, in a pay-per-view headlined by Marvin Sonsona-Wilfredo Vazquez, Jr. at junior featherweight. I’d buy it for $10, but not $35.
And part two! Junior bantamweight Jorge Arce is getting an alphabet title shot against Angky Angkota, Jan. 30, despite losing two of his three 2009 fights; only a sanctioning organization could consider the winner of that fight a “champion.” At least he’s fighting someone who has a cool name. Randall Bailey and Jackson Bonsu are set to fight in an alphabet title eliminator at welterweight March 12. Bailey’s had one total fight at welter, and Bonsu has lost a couple fights recently, so I’m not sure why they’d be in line for a title eliminator. Other than that the sanctioning organizations blow.
(Round and Round sources: News releases; ESPN; BoxingScene)
