Because I haven’t had too many ganders at Manny Pacquiao’s hoops game, I was pleased to watch this video — even though that Elie Seckbach guy and his film “crew” (in this video and others) spend a bit too much time for my tastes asking people what they think of Elie Seckbach. Pacquiao’s got a hitch in his jumper with that little kick, and I’m not sure why he was overdribbling so much on the perimeter in that one scene, and I’m guessing he doesn’t take it to the basket that often because he’s worried about rolling an ankle, but it’s clear he can hit those threes. I’d want him on my team, although I’d prefer him to pass it to me every now and then, and that’s clearly no guarantee. Anyway, good fun.
That’s that, then. There are other Quick Jabs that await, like some news about the trainer carousel, an update on the TQBR App, fights in the works for Ivan Calderon, Joseph Agbeko and others, plus a bit more besides.
Quick Jabs
Your weekend highlights, in order of appearance: Exciting and talented junior middleweight prospect Shawn Porter gets a showcase fight on ESPN2’s Friday Night Fights, going up against Russell Jordan, who’s lost five fights by knockout, including his last in August of 2008 to light-hitting Luis Collazo, but who also has knocked out Larry Mosley, cousin of Shane. On Telemundo tonight, there could be a nice bantamweight scrap featuring William Gonzalez — who’s been in at least two terrific fights that I know of, the last being a hard-fought loss to Joseph Agbeko — against little-known Jesus Vazquez, who brings 17 knockouts in is 19 wins. On Fox Sports Net Saturday, entertaining junior flyweight Giovanni Segura and entertaining lightweight Urbano Antillon take on sub-par opponents (Antillon’s foe, Luis Arceo, has lost eight of his last 11, while Segura’s opponent, Walter Tello, is non-descript and a replacement for Cesar Canchila). It’s defensible in Antillon’s case, as he’s rebounding from a knockout loss, but that doesn’t make it a good show. The best televised card of the weekend is probably the one on HBO Plus Saturday, which, again, no one seems to have. Hard-hitting featherweight contender Daniel Ponce De Leon takes on Orlando Cruz, last seen suffering his first loss in September in a competitive and good fight against Cornelius Lock, while shot-ish junior welterweight Vivian Harris takes on Lucas Matthysse, a South American with a typical gaudy knockout record (23 in 25 wins) against unknown opposition. In the most noteworthy non-televised fight, featherweight titlist Elio Rojas fights veteran Guty Espadas, Jr., who’s won seven straight against lackluster opposition since coming back in 2007 following losses in the earlier part of the decade to the likes of Rocky Juarez and Erik Morales, among others…
I can’t go into too much detail, so maybe it was a tease to suggest this was any kind of real update on our App, but I did want everyone to know that Bloguin is very much focused on making it so people can post comments via the App. I hope it will be weeks, not months, before you have the capability…
Returning to Pacquiao: Both sides of the Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather feud have entrenched themselves deeper into their positions in a way that suggests the welterweight fight gets far less likely all the time. Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach says their side won’t agree to any blood testing whatsoever going forward. Mayweather says he won’t compromise on a blood testing cutoff window, and if his fight with Shane Mosley outperforms Pacquiao’s fight with Joshua Clottey on pay-per-view, he won’t agree to a 50-50 revenue split. Both sides, again, are being totally ludicrous about this. Pacquiao, meanwhile, could fight Mosley if Mosley beats Mayweather — that’s an easier fight to make — and Pacquiao promoter Bob Arum has sickening designs on a November bout with disgraced glove-loader Antonio Margarito (who gets a hearing about his suspended license in California on Monday). Really, best-case scenario for the best fights happening is that Pacquiao and Mosley both win, then Arum gets over his Margarito fixation. I’m not saying that I hope Mosley will win out of any hostility toward Mayweather, whom I’m not crazy about — only that if Mosley wins, Pacquiao-Mosley becomes THE fight, and it’s not as hard to make or undesirable as some of the other options…
It’s remarkable that less than a month out from Pacquiao-Clottey, Clottey still has no trainer. I’m really not sure who’s running the show for Clottey, but whoever it is, they’ve really never done that good a job, save for getting the big Pacquiao payday. (HBO’s mini-doc on the fight, “Road to Dallas,” premieres March 6, per a news release from the network.) In other trainer carousel news, junior middleweight Yuri Foreman has acquired the services of acclaimed trainer Emmanuel Steward, which I’m guessing can’t hurt for his June fight with Miguel Cotto…
As for Cotto-Foreman, there’s all this hubbub about whether the fight will move to Yankee Stadium and whether a bar mitzvah scheduled for the stadium the same night will get in the way. I like the idea of a big fight in Yankee Stadium as much as anyone, but come on, does Arum have to talk about every single fight happening there? Right now he’s 0 for 3,764. Let’s not get worked up about it until it happens, no matter how promising it sounds…
Heavyweight Tomaz Adamek almost got snuffed out in an eerie near-miss plane crash incident. He turned down the flight, and now he’s alive. Very strange…
More Cuban boxing defectors? I say this without any tinge of opinion whatsoever about Cuba-United States relations: The more the better. They don’t win all those gold medals because they lack in talent…
Super middleweight Andre Dirrell has a back injury, so his scheduled March 6 fight with Arthur Abraham has been pushed back. Too bad. I’m so hungry for high-level boxing after such a drought in January and February that I’m going to be like a withered plant sopping up every drop of the first rain of spring, and I’m thirsty for each and every ounce of top boxing I can get. Oh well — there are a couple other good fights that night…
A few fighters have offered excuses for recent KO losses that warrant mentioning. As always with this kind of thing, I start off skeptical, but I thought I’d pass them along. Ciso Morales reportedly had to lose a lot of weight to get to the bantamweight limit prior to his 1st round dismissal by Fernando Montiel, and we all know how body shots affect boxers struggling with weight. Meanwhile, light heavyweight Yusaf Mack’s team said it wasn’t Mack’s characteristic late fade due to stamina, but a shoulder injury that resulted in Mack tailing off against Glen Johnson. Do with the information what you will…
I personally suspect bantamweight Gerry Penalosa is going to fight on, despite getting the short end of a close decision yet again, this time against Eric Morel. There were questions after the beating from junior featherweight Juan Manuel Lopez whether Penalosa should continue his career, and there was some noise about Penalosa retiring if he lost the Morel fight. But I think Penalosa showed he still has some gas left in the tank against Morel, and if he can get over his latest judicial woes, he loves the sport enough that I don’t see why he should call it quits at age 37…
Can we impose a moratorium on printing the remarks of British promoter Frank Warren about fighters who leave his stable? The latest to face his wrath is junior welterweight Amir Khan, who left him for Golden Boy. Everyone goes from the greatest thing since sliced bread to a terrible P.O.S. who’s going to lose his next fight no matter what — and if the fighter does lose, as all of them do eventually, there’s Warren, years later, poised with his “I told you so” routine. It’s not that there isn’t room for criticism of the Khan-Golden Boy deal — Reported (click on BoxingScene link if you like spyware) $1 million guarantees? What kind of sense does that make? — it’s just that we know why Warren’s criticizing.
Round And Round
On any given day of the week, an Arum fighter could be set to fight two or three different fighters. Earlier in the week, Montiel was in talks with Hozumi Hasegawa, although the weird Japanese regulatory refusal to recognize the WBO complicated that, as Montiel is the WBO titlist. As of now, it looks like it’ll be Morel on a May 8 pay-per-view. Check back next week. It might be somebody or multiple somebodies different.
The April 10 HBO doubleheader featuring Andre Berto vs. Carlos Quintana at welterweight and Tavoris Cloud vs. Johnson at light heavyweight is looking likely, and it’s a very nice doubleheader. Very nice.
What was I just saying about Arum fighters? Now the talk for Edwin Valero, after a brief and aborted flirtation with Timothy Bradley in a fight that everyone wanted to see, is more likely to fight Lamont Peterson, perhaps in D.C. in June. It’s not a bad fight, and my interest in a fight in D.C. is high, since I live here; it makes sense, too, to have a Peterson brother fighting in his native D.C., as it’s a pretty good, neglected fight market. It’s just a bit of a drop-off from Valero-Bradley. I like both Peterson and Valero, and it’s a good test of how Valero might fare as a junior welter, but sooner rather than later, I’d like to see Valero fight a proven top-notch opponent, instead of borderline top-10 opponents.
A Kevin Mitchell challenge for Michael Katsidis’ lightweight belt is no longer theoretical. It’s in talks to happen in the U.K. Given Katsidis’ HBO date falling through, and given the style match-up, it’s a good little fight on paper.
Another boxer who’s had a prospective fight fall through, junior flyweight Ivan Calderon, is without an obvious opponent since Brian Viloria lost his most recent outing. Enter Johnriel Casimero, the power-punching Filipino who’s been installed as the mandatory challenger to his belt. Calderon-Segura would be a more meaningful bout, but I don’t suppose Calderon has any option but to fight Casimero now.
Joseph Agbeko is set to fight Vusi Malinga April 16 to become the mandatory challenger to the bantamweight belt held by Yonnhy Perez, against whom Agbeko lost a memorably fantastic fight in 2009. Malinga doesn’t figure to be a major hurdle to that rematch.
Cruiserweight Danny Green tried his damnedest to make a fight with a big name, like Bernard Hopkins and Antonio Tarver, but it didn’t work out, so now it looks like he’s going to do battle with… Manny Siaca. April 25. That’s a steep drop-off. Too bad. It’s not like I’m some raving Green fan, but I do like to see a boxer who scores a big upset win (as Green did of Roy Jones, Jr.) move on to bigger things.
On the Mayweather-Mosley undercard May 1, welterweight prospect Saul Alvarez might fight Matthew Hatton. Sounds about right.
Jorge Linares and Carlos Hernandez have had an uninteresting war of words in the media over who’s to blame for them not fighting each other, but the bottom line is that the talented Upset of the Year victim Linares has no opponent lined up, so he’s turning to Kevin Kelley or Francisco Lorenzo, each of whom would be a good deal less appealing opponents than Hernandez.
Another war of words I don’t care about? The one between the teams of heavyweights Alexander Povetkin and Dominick Guinn over their fight falling through. Do you know why I don’t care? Because I could care less about the fight.
(Round and Round sources: Fightnews; BoxingScene; Fanhouse; The Boxing Bulletin)
