Margarito cheated once for sure and most likely many more times than that and he gets called a warrior?
Eff that.
A warrior is Arturo Gatti, Micky Ward, Juan Manuel Marquez, Marco Antonio Barrera, Erik Morales, Miguel Cotto, among others.
Calling Margarito a warrior does a massive disservice to those in boxing who actually deserve it. To those that poured their heart and soul into this sport without having to resort to the sort of thing Margarito has done (more than once, in my opinion).
So lets just save the warrior talk for the actual warriors and leave Margarito with the legacy he created for himself; cheater.
TomBoxingAsylum (Tommy Allan)
None of Margarito’s haters have 1% of his nuts or guts. He will always be more man than every one of you #TrueWarrior
Well, that’s that for a possible (going on 4 years) Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather Jr mega fight.
Since the fight that would be on (should have been on) everyone’s “Fight I want to see this year” list is destroyed with a superbly timed counter punch KO, it’s time to leave that fight in the past.
There are plenty of other fights to whet your appetite this year, and I’m sure some you want to see happen.
The moment the dominant giants known as the Klitschko brothers retire from the sport of boxing is the day the heavyweight division begins its march back towards relevance.
I don’t mean that negatively towards the brothers Klitschko, I mean it as a compliment. They have been dominant for so long (Wladimir hasn’t lost since 2004, Vitali since 2003) that they are all anyone can think of at the mere mention of the heavyweight division. They have crushed all competition and they have beaten anyone and everyone that has stepped into the ring with them over the last 8 years.
The moment that both brothers are retired, I think, will be the beginning spark that is needed to bring the division back into being relevant.
Remove the Klitschko’s and you now have a very level playing field with multiple challengers for the right to be called the best heavyweight in boxing.
It may seem bleak thinking about the division without the two, but it’s really just a beginning. A beginning of a new era where there is no dominant figure, where there’s basically a level playing field.
Assuming Vitali retires later this year and Wladimir sometime in 2014 there will still be a good group of fighters available to pair up and have exciting fights.
Seth Mitchell, Johnathon Banks, Tyson Fury, Alexander Povetkin, Kubrat Pulev, David Haye, Chris Arreola, etcetera all will clamor for their piece of the heavyweight crown.
After the Klitschko’s are gone it goes from a division of two to a division of many.
Eleven and a half rounds or 95% of the fight, that was how long Sergio Martinez dominated, thoroughly dominated, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.
The last half of that last round was a hell of a ride.
I openly admit to rooting for Martinez in this fight. It’s hard for me to not root for the serf over the prince or David over Goliath. I understood Martinez and his teeming, seething anger. I understood his feeling slighted by not only Chavez Jr, but the belt Chavez Jr held and who handed him that belt.
Sergio Martinez fights on HBO and so it would stand that HBO would have final say on who he fights. Martinez held the WBC title and his mandatory defense was Sebastian Zbik who HBO did not approve of as an opponent for Martinez.
Martinez now having HBO decline a fight with Zbik, the WBC then stripped Martinez of his title. The president of the WBC is Jose Sulaiman.
Jose Sulaiman is Julio Cesar Chavez Jr’s godfather. No matter who your allegiance lies with that’s fishy (to say the least).
Sergio Martinez and his crazy eyes.
Martinez saw all of this for what it was, the boy with the silver spoon having that spoon upgraded to gold. It wasn’t fair and he let everyone know how he felt about the situation and Chavez himself.
He said all through the promotion that he was going to destroy Chavez. That Chavez was going to need his teeth replaced because after the fight Martinez would make sure they’d be missing. That Chavez would need a doctor to identify his remains.
I believe nothing I read about any possible Manny Pacquiao vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr fight happening. My reasons are simple enough and probably no different from most everyone else’s. Quite simply, we’ve been here before.
Multiple times over the last several years a fight between the top two fighters on the imaginary pound-for-pound list has been dangled over our collective heads. Then just as soon as everyone was good and riled up at the possibility, it was unceremoniously yanked away.
I want the fight to happen, but my days of yearning for it are gone. I put a lot of metaphorical energy into what turned out to be nothing more than another excuse not to face each other.
It’s maddening.
So I turned any attention away from the super ultra mega fight and towards good fights being made and actually happening now.
According to Bob Arum of Top Rank (who spoke with BoxingScene.com/Manila Standard), the fight will happen next year. It would take place in April to be exact.
The reason I give this a smidgen more credence than any of the other times the fight has been rumored to go, Bob Arum is the one sounding optimistic. All along it’s been Arum against Golden Boy Promotions (GBP), Arum against Floyd Mayweather Jr, Arum against anyone and everyone that seemed to be for the fight.
“Stop if Fiddy, that’s my ticklish spot!”
Another reason I feel positive about the fight going down is Arum won’t be in negotiations with GBP, but with Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson’s new TMT Promotions. The new promotional company headed by Floyd Mayweather’s good friend, 50 Cent, has no bad blood with Bob Arum and Top Rank.
The fact that any new negotiations begin fresh and with no brick wall already in place before they begin, they just may have a chance of coming to fruition.
Let’s just say if I put a percentage a week ago on the fight happening, I’d of said 10%.
Today? I’ll give it an “I’m feeling optimistic” 75% chance.
Hell, Floyd even said something nice about Manny. That has to mean something, right?!
Personally, I hope not, but according to The Manchester Evening News it’s true. Although an official announcement has yet to be made from Hatton.
Hatton last fought May 2, 2009 against Manny Pacquiao. The Congressman from the Philippines completely obliterated him. In the second round of a scheduled 12 round championship fight this happened;
And a little under a year and a half earlier this happened (head to the 1:15 mark, for those of you who are impatient); Continue reading “Ricky Hatton return?”→
So many times you see a fight between two good fighters (Amir Khan – Danny Garcia, for example) taking place in a venue it has no business being in. Whether it’s the size of the venue, the city it’s held in, or both.
As a result of this, again using Khan-Garcia as a prime example, you have a fighter from England (Khan) taking on a fighter from Philadelphia (Garcia) at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.
No local connection whatsoever, no large crowds breaking down the doors for a chance to see a talent rich Amir Khan taking on a fighter that the laymen couldn’t pick out of a lineup (Garcia).
Common sense leads you to believe that this particular fight should have been held in Atlantic City, the Theatre at Madison Square Garden, or in England. Those venues would have yielded far better sales.
The Khan-Garcia fight at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas sold 3,147 tickets
for a gate $426,150. The problem with those numbers is that in addition to the tickets sold, 737 were left unsold, 3,364 were comped (free) and the gate for the event was less than the purse for either fighter (Khan made $950,000, Garcia $520,000).
Doesn’t seem like good business sense, does it? To actually give away, for free, more tickets than you sold for the event just strikes me as, well…stupid.
Placing a fight in Las Vegas should almost strictly be for big time, big money fights. Everything else is basically a let down.
Amir Khan’s promoter, Golden Boy Promotions (GBP), showed extremely poor foresight when planning out the city/venue for this fight to take place.
I’m not jumping on GBP alone. Many other promotional companies hold fights between fighters with little build up and place the fight in Vegas or some other location with bright lights and avoid placing the fight where it should be because they are blinded by shiny things.
Main Events has Tomasz Adamek as one of their main event fighters (no pun intended). Adamek is from Poland and lives in New Jersey. When Adamek is in the main event of one of their events they place the card at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ, a city with a large Polish population.
Adamek draws large crowds in New Jersey, so that’s where they put him to fight. It makes sense.
Top Rank puts Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. (a Mexican) in Mexico and Texas. It makes sense.
Maybe Golden Boy overestimated Khan’s star power? Maybe they thought the British throngs would fly over to see one of their own, as they are known to do?
Whatever the reason, it was not well thought out.
If a fight is placed in the right city/venue/section of the country (and at a semi-reasonable price) people will come to watch.
Hell, you might not get a sell-out, but you won’t be giving away more tickets than you sold for the fight, that I promise you.
I took video of nearly his whole acceptance speech, but this short ending to his induction speech is where the gravy is. Head to the 1:15 mark for the phrase that made him famous.
According to RingTV.com Shane Mosley has officially retired from boxing.
I’ve watched Shane for many years. Since he fought and defeated Philip Holiday for his first world title in 1997. The man was an absolute beast as a lightweight (135 lbs), going 32-0, with 30 knockouts.
Hell, before he lost his first fight in 2002 to Vernon Forrest he had ran his record to a ridiculous 38-0, 35 KO’s.
Simply incredible.
The last few years of his career aren’t something he wants to remember, considering he finished his career 2-4-1 in his last seven fights. Granted those losses were to the likes of Miguel Cotto, Floyd Mayweather, Jr., Manny Pacquiao, and the young stud, Saul Alvarez. Not too shabby, except the last four fight against Floyd, Sergio Mora, Manny, and Alvarez were bad-to-terrible performances.
Being a fan, I will choose to remember him as the warrior he always was. He may have looked those last fights, but it wasn’t for lack of effort.
Shane always brought everything he had to the ring with him. Never lacked effort or motivation.
I will block out his fights against Mayweather, Mora, and Pacquiao in favor of his efforts against Oscar De La Hoya (twice), Antonio Margarito, John John Molina, Jesse James Leija, and Fernando Vargas (twice). All victories.
Mosley finishes his career as a multiple time champion in three different weight classes and with a record of 46-8-1, 39 knockouts.
The boxing world was rocked by not one, but two devastating stories.
Johnny Tapia, 1967-2012
First, late Sunday night came word that former multiple time champion (in three different weight classes) Johnny Tapia was found dead at his home in Albuquerque, NM. He was 45.
Tapia had a rough life, some of which was out of his control and some of which wasn’t.
His father was murdered while his mother was pregnant with him. Then he was orphaned at just 8-years-old after his mother was kidnapped, raped, hanged, repeatedly stabbed, and left for dead. She died four days later in the hospital without regaining consciousness. It was after all this that he turned to boxing at the age of nine.
He also battled his own demons which usually manifested itself in the form of a cocaine addiction. One instance was in 2007 when he apparently, purposely, overdosed on cocaine and was hospitalized. Just days later his brother-in-law and nephew were on their way to see Tapia in the hospital and while on the way they were killed in an automobile accident.
Tapia had a stellar amateur career with two National Golden Gloves championships (1983 & 1985).
His pro career was just as impressive. He was at different times champion at 115 lbs, 118 lbs, and 126 lbs. Before losing his first fight to Paulie Ayala, Tapia had run his record to a sparkling 46-0-2, with 25 knockouts.
His two exciting fights with Paulie Ayala (their first bout in 1999 was Ring Magazine’s Fight of the Year) and victory over rival Danny Romero were career highlights.
Don't Kid Yourself (sports edition) 