It’s a new year(ish), so what better time to bring back Quick Jabs, everybody’s formerly favorite round-up of various boxing news(es)?
We start with the pic above of the Friars’ Club, because Lennox Lewis is about to get roasted. Lewis’ championship reign has aged well, and now that he’s no longer a hilariously milquetoast regular HBO commentator, his periodic observations have gotten better, too. That said, getting KO’d by Hasim Rahman and being mealy-mouthed back in the day offer some fodder.
Other Quick Jabs material, aside from what’s in the headline: Adonis Stevenson, Gennady Golovkin, Lucas Matthysse, Joe Gallagher, etc.
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Hey, that’s a nasty knockout by David Haye in his comeback, below. He looks a little bigger, approximately as fast, admittedly against an opponent made for him to look that way. He can complain all he wants about Tyson Fury being scared of him, but Fury’s probably mainly scared about Haye pulling out of the fight, given his track record…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ds0FPgmuXi4
Middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez still wants a Gennady Golovkin fight at 155, which makes sense from a certain standpoint vis-a-vis who has the economic leverage, but still comes off kinda lame. Lamer still is Oscar De La Hoya, Canelo’s promoter, saying Canelo deserves a 90-10 split. Look forward to a year-plus of this kind of disingenous plotting from each side about fairness, etc., while the fight probably doesn’t happen…
The ever-tooth-pulling experience of finding an opponent for Andre Ward has lived up to its usual business, with Marco Antonio Periban seemingly out of the running (thankfully) and Sullivan Barrera (OK ) still in said running…
Speaking of fussy fight-making, Juan Manuel Marquez-Miguel Cotto is just the right kind of fight: Two legends of their era, both near the tail-end of their careers, both plenty still capable yet vulnerable. Except Marquez is making all kinds of demands, like not only a welterweight limit but also a rehydration clause. If we can get this fight at about 150 or lower (assuming Cotto, a smallish junior middleweight can get there), without excessive conditions, it could be damn good…
We probably should’ve given Joe Gallagher at least an honorable mention for Trainer of the Year. Let this note serve as a tribute to our failure…
Lucas Matthysse plans to return in 2015 at 147 lbs., and let’s hope it gives his flagging career a boost. We have gotten a lot of action hero miles out of Matthysse, and it’s fair to wonder whether the mileage has gotten too profound. But fighters like him have found rejuvenation in new weight classes, and that option is better than him getting pounded out of the sport…
Bernard Hopkins still plans one more bout in 2016. It’s rare that I pine for mediocre opponents, but that’s what I want for 51-year-old B-Hop…
Assuming light heavyweight champ Adonis Stevenson doesn’t get Sergey Kovalev next (absurd assumption… hahahahaha) Eleider Alvarez could be on deck. Fair enough.
Quick Jabs sources: BoxingScene; RingTV)
