Articles of 2010
The Story Of 0–What Does A Perfect Record Mean?
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Boxing is not a sport that readily lends itself to statistics, but one set of numbers is as elemental as a left-right combination: a fighter’s wins, losses and draws. We often overvalue a good record and misinterpret a mediocre one; there are dozens of 10-loss veterans who are better than young fighters with only one or two defeats.
Nothing, however, catches our eye like a perfect record and when one or both undefeated fighters square off, you can count on either the ring announcer or the TV commentators declaring, “Somebody’s ‘0’ has got to go! or “Maybe tonight his ‘0’ might just go!
Yet the fascination with a fighter who’s never lost remains strong. For instance, the appeal of Floyd Mayweather, who’s “0 is on the line against Sugar Shane Mosley on May 1 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and live on HBO Pay-Per-View®, can be attributed to his sustained excellence and his star power, but there’s something more. Over the course of his 15-year career, Mayweather’s engaged in 40 fights, and each time he’s proven himself the better man.
Maybe we focus on a perfect record more than the fighters do…
“I don’t think about the ‘0’, said Mayweather, whose last loss came on July 22, 1996, at the Olympic Games in Atlanta. “I think about winning. Everything takes care of itself if you win.
“Of course it’s a great thing to be undefeated, but I don’t consciously think about it when I’m preparing for the next fight.
The record against which all others are judged is former heavyweight champion Rocky Marciano’s mark of 49-0. In September 1985, then-WBC titlist Larry Holmes was 48-0 when he lost to Michael Spinks.
“I was always tying records, breaking records; it didn’t mean [expletive] to me, Holmes said. “I didn’t care. What was important was making money, keeping the title, and proving people wrong.
“The undefeated record meant I wasn’t getting beaten up, and that meant a lot to me.
In November 2008, super middleweight/light heavyweight champion Joe Calzaghe fought for the last time. He retired with a record of 46-0. What made Calzaghe different from most unbeaten fighters is that his toughest tests, vs. Jeff Lacy, Bernard Hopkins and Mikkel Kessler, came toward the conclusion of his hall of fame career.
“I never really dwelled on the ‘0’ until close to the end, when I realized I had only a couple of fights left, I was undefeated and I could retire that way, Calzaghe said. “I always hated to lose, and when I did so as an amateur, it burned me up inside and created my motivation for winning.
“Taking big fights wasn’t a risk for me because I believed in myself and went for it. I can say, however, that it was a relief when it was all over and I finished undefeated and ahead of the game.
Calzaghe certainly fought the best available opposition, as did unbeatens Marciano and Ricardo Lopez (51-0-1), but in today’s boxing world, there are four major titles per division and, as a result, champions can protect their records more easily than in the past. That’s largely why alphabet titlists like junior welterweight Terry Marsh (26-0-1), welterweight Michael Loewe (28-0) and junior featherweight Ji Won Kim (16-0-2) were able to retire without having lost. Marsh and Loewe defended their respective titles only once each.
The question remains…is a perfect record a sign of perfection or does an imperfect record reveal anything at all? Consider the following:
*Ninety-nine percent of boxing historians rank Sugar Ray Robinson as the best fighter in history. He lost 19 times.
*Muhammad Ali was “The Greatest despite losing five fights. In fact, he arguably gained more respect in his first loss, to Joe Frazier, than in building a record of 31-0.
*Since 1900, eight world champions have retired—and stayed retired—without having lost a fight. Even at their respective peaks, five of them never made the pound-for-pound top 10.
*Among today’s elite, Bernard Hopkins lost his professional debut and Manny Pacquiao lost to an opponent who went 2-4-1 in his next seven fights.
THEIR FIRST LOSSES
Fighter |
Record |
Date |
Result |
Julio Cesar Chavez |
89-0-1 |
1-29-94 |
L 12 Frankie Randall |
Nino Benvenuti |
65-0 |
6-25-66 |
L 15 Ki Soo Kim |
Ruben Olivares |
60-0-1 |
10-16-70 |
KO by 14 Chucho Castillo |
Larry Holmes |
48-0 |
9-21-85 |
L 15 Michael Spinks |
Carlos Zarate |
52-0 |
10-28-78 |
KO by 5 Wilfredo Gomez |
Ricky Hatton |
43-0 |
12-8-07 |
KO by 10 F. Mayweather |
Marco A. Barrera |
43-0 |
11-22-96 |
L DQ 5 Junior Jones |
*Sugar Ray Robinson |
40-0 |
2-5-43 |
L 10 Jake LaMotta |
George Foreman |
40-0 |
10-30-74 |
KO by 8 Muhammad Ali |
Felix Trinidad |
40-0 |
9-29-01 |
KO by 12 Bernard Hopkins |
Sugar Shane Mosley |
38-0 |
1-26-02 |
L 12 Vernon Forrest |
Mike Tyson |
37-0 |
2-11-90 |
KO by 10 Buster Douglas |
Muhammad Ali |
31-0 |
3-8-71 |
L 15 Joe Frazier |
Oscar de la Hoya |
31-0 |
9-18-99 |
L 12 Felix Trinidad |
Sugar Ray Leonard |
27-0 |
6-20-80 |
L 15 Roberto Duran |
*Robinson’s only loss in his first 132 bouts
In evaluating recent champions, then, we must look at their body of work, and not just their records. The resume of five-division titlist Mayweather is impressive, making his perfect record all the more eye-popping. Maybe, just maybe, remaining undefeated and keeping his “0 means more than he’ll acknowledge.
“No one wants to lose their ‘0’, said Floyd Mayweather Sr., a top trainer and Mayweather’s father. “I’m sure he thinks about it and it motivates him. Fortunately for my son, it’s so far so good and I don’t see anyone taking that ‘0’ away from him either.
WORLD CHAMPS WHO RETIRED UNBEATEN
Note: In no particular order
Fighter |
Years |
Division |
Record |
Rocky Marciano |
1947-1955 |
Heavyweight |
49-0 (43) |
Ricardo Lopez |
1985-2001 |
Strawweight Junior Flyweight |
51-0-1 (38)
|
Joe Calzaghe |
1993-2008 |
Super Middleweight Light Heavyweight |
46-0 (32) |
Jimmy Barry |
1891-1899 |
Junior Flyweight |
59-0-10 (40) |
Jack McAuliffe |
1884-1897 |
Lightweight |
34-0-7 (22) |
Sven Ottke |
1997-2004 |
Super Middleweight |
34-0 (6) |
Terry Marsh |
1981-1987 |
Junior Welterweight |
26-0-1 (10) |
Pichit Sithbangprachan |
1988-2000 |
Flyweight |
24-0 (18) |
Ji Won Kim |
1982-1986 |
Junior Featherweight |
16-0-2 (7) |
Michael Loewe |
1991-1997 |
Welterweight |
28-0 (10) |
Boxing superstar and six-time World Champion Floyd Money Mayweather and welterweight mega-star, five-time World Champion and current WBA Welterweight World Champion Sugar Shane Mosley, are set to meet on Saturday, May 1 at MGM Grand in Las Vegas in a spectacular bout which will be produced and distributed live on HBO Pay-Per-View® beginning at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT.
Tickets, priced at $1,250, $1,000, $600, $300 and $150 not including applicable service charges, are on sale now and limited to 10 per person and ticket sales at $150 are limited to two (2) per person with a total ticket limit of 10 per person. To charge by phone with a major credit card, call Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000. Tickets also are available for purchase at www.mgmgrand.com or www.ticketmaster.com.
HBOs fast-moving reality series 24/7 Mayweather/Mosley returns with an all new episode on Saturday,April 17 at9:30 pm ET/6:30pm PT. The four-episode series chronicles the preparations and back stories of both fighters as they train for theirMay 1 pay-per-view showdown. Episode one is available on HBO ON DEMAND.
TheMayweather vs. Mosleypay-per-view telecast, beginning at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT, has a suggested retail price of $54.95, will be produced and distributed by HBO Pay-Per-View® and will be available to more than71 million pay-per-view homes.The telecast will be available in HD-TV for those viewers who can receive HD.HBO Pay-Per-View®, a division of Home Box Office, Inc.,is the leading supplier of event programming to the pay-per-view industry. For Mayweather vs. Mosley fight week updates, log on to
Articles of 2010
Judah To Fight Mbuza March 5 In NJ
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Totowa, NJ – Kathy Duva, Main Events CEO, announced their promotional firm won the purse bid held at IBF headquarters in East Orange, NJ, Thursday. The bid was for the right to hold the IBF's junior welterweight title fight between Zab Judah of Brooklyn, NY and Las Vegas, and South Africa's Kaizer Mabuza.
IBF Championships Chairman, Lindsay Tucker explained, “It is a 50-50 split of the earnings between the two fighters. Kaizer is ranked No. 1 by the IBF, and Judah is No. 2. Where the fight will be held is up to the winning bidder.”
Judah (39-6, 26 KOs) is promoted by Main Events and his own firm Super Judah Promotions, and Branco Milenkovic, of South Africa, promotes Mabuza (23-6-3, 14 KOs).
Kathy Duva confirmed the fight will take place at Prudential Center in Newark, NJ, late February or early March this year as part of Main Events' Brick City Boxing Series. (Saturday Update: the fight is March 5th, in NJ at the Pru Center. The bout will be part of a PPV card.)
“We are very happy that Zab has the opportunity to fight for the IBF Junior Welterweight title right here in New Jersey. Winning this fight will put Zab right in the mix with the winner of Bradley-Alexander and Amir Khan.” Duva elaborated, ” Zab will work very hard to win this fight so that he will be one step closer to his ultimate goal of unifying all of the Junior Welterweight titles by the end of 2011!”
Articles of 2010
UFC 125 Preview: Frankie Edgar Vs. Gray Maynard
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Few predicted Frankie Edgar would grab the UFC lightweight championship last year but he did. Most felt he would eventually win it but Edgar not only took the title, he beat one of the best mixed martial artists in history to do it.
Edgar (13-1) has emerged from the milieu of nondescript MMA fighters to become one of the more brilliant performers for Ultimate Fighting Championship. Next comes a rematch with Gray “The Bully” Maynard (11-0) tomorrow at the MGM Grand Casino in Las Vegas. UFC 125 will be televised on pay-per-view.
All it took was not one, but two victories over BJ Penn.
If you’re not familiar with Penn, he’s one of the most versatile fighters in MMA history and had been nearly unbeatable in the 155-pound lightweight division. That is until he clashed with Edgar. Until he met New Jersey’s Edgar, the Hawaiian fighter chopped down lightweight opponents with ease. It was only the heavier welterweights he had problems against. Namely: Canada’s Georges St. Pierre.
Edgar showed poise, speed and grit in defeating Penn in back-to-back fights. The world took notice.
“You know, if I keep winning fights, the respect will come eventually,” said Edgar during a conference call.
Now Edgar will find out if he can avenge the only loss on his record.
“I just think I grew as a fighter. You know, mentally, you know, physically I, you know, possess differently skills, increased – you know, I think I boxed and got better, my Jiu-Jitsu got better and, you know, just have much more experience now,” Edgar says.
Maynard seeks to find out if Edgar has added any more fighting tools to his repertoire. Back in April 2008, the artillery shelled out was not enough to beat the Las Vegas fighter.
“It’s a perfect time. He had the chance and, you know, he took it and the time is now for me and I’m prepared,” said Maynard (11-0). “Any time you’re going up against the top in the world, you evolve and change and so I’m prepared for a new fight, so it will be good. I’m pumped for it.”
Though Maynard’s record indicates he is unbeaten that’s not entirely true. He did suffer a defeat to Nate Diaz during The Ultimate Fighter series and subsequently avenged that loss last January.
The UFC lightweight title is in Maynard’s bull’s eye.
“Looking to take the belt for sure,” said Maynard. “We’ll see on January 1.”
Edgar versus Maynard should be a good one.
Other bouts:
Nate Diaz (13-5) faces Dong Hyun Kim (13-0-1) in another welterweight tussle. Diaz is the only fighter with a win over Maynard. Anyone watching TUF remembers Maynard tapping out from a Diaz guillotine choke. The Modesto fighter has a tough fight against South Korea’s Kim.
Chris Leben (21-6) fights Brian Stann (9-3) in a middleweight fight. Leben is a veteran of MMA and if an opponent is not ready for a rough and tumble fight, well, that fighter is not going to win. Stann dropped down from light heavyweight and we’ll see if the cut in weight benefits the Marine.
Brandon Vera (11-5) meets Thiago Silva (14-2) in a light heavyweight match up. Vera is trying to rally back to the promising fighter he was tabbed several years back. Silva is a very tough customer and eager to crash the elite. A victory by either fighter could mean a ticket to the big time.
Clay Guida (27-8) versus Takanori Gomi (32-6) in a lightweight bout. Guida has become one of the most feared fighters without a title. No one has an easy time with the long-haired fighter. Gomi lost to Kenny Florian but knocked out Tyson Griffin. Can he survive Guida?
Marcus “The Irish Hand Grenade” Davis (22-8) clashes with Jeremy Stephens (18-6) in another lightweight fight. Davis is a go-for-broke kind of fighter and is looking to get back in the win column after a tumultuous battle with Nate Diaz last August. Stephens needs a win too. In his last bout he lost to Melvin Guillard.
Articles of 2010
Borges Looks Back, And Forward With Hope
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As the end of another year approaches, there’s no need to invoke Charles Dickens to describe what went on in boxing. It was neither the best of times nor the worst of times. It was just too much time spent on The Fight That Never Took Place.
For the second straight year the sport could not deliver The Fight, the only one fans universally wanted and even casual fans craved – the mix between Floyd Mayweather, Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao. No one has to be singled out for blame for that failure because this time there’s plenty to go around on both sides. The larger issue is what does it say about a sport when it cannot deliver its top event?
What would the NFL be without the Super Bowl? Where would major league baseball be without the World Series? Golf without the Masters? College basketball without March Madness?
They would all be less than they could be and so it was with boxing this year. Having said that, the sport was not without its signature moments. It was not bereft of nights that left those of us with an abiding (and often unrequited) love for prize fighting with good reason to hope for the future.
Three times promoter Bob Arum took the sport into massive stadium venues just like the good (very) old days and each time boxing drew a far larger crowd than its many critics expected. Twice those fights involved the sport’s leading ambassador, Pacquiao, who brought in crowds of 40,000 to 50,000 fans into Cowboys Stadium against inferior opponents Joshua Clottey and Antonio Margarito. Imagine what he might have done had Mayweather been in the opposite corner?
While both fights were, as expected, lopsided affairs, they showcased the one boxer who has transcended his sport’s confining walls to become a cultural icon and world celebrity. Pacquiao alone put boxing (or at least one boxer) on the cover of TIME and into the pages of such varied publications as Esquire, GQ, The Wall Street Journal, the American Airlines in-flight magazine and even Atlantic Monthly.
As history has proven time and again, that is what happens when boxing has a compelling personality to sell it and Pacquiao is that. Mayweather is such a person as well, but for different reasons.
The one night he appeared in a boxing ring, he set the year’s pay-per-view standard against Shane Mosley while also leaving a first hint of dark mystery when he was staggered by two stinging right hands in the second round.
Mayweather was momentarily in trouble for the first time in his career but the moment passed quickly and Mosley never had another. By the end he had been made to look old and futile, a faded athlete who’d had his chance and was unable to do anything with it. So it goes in this harsh sport when the sands are running out of the hour glass.
As always there were some surprising upsets, most notably Jason Litzau’s domination of an uninterested and out of shape Celestino Caballero and Sergio Martinez’s one-punch demolishment of Paul Williams. The latter was not so much an upset as it was a stunning reminder that when someone makes a mistake against a highly skilled opponent in this sport they don’t end up embarrassed. They end up unconscious.
SHOWTIME did all it could to further the future of the sport, offering up a continuation of its interminably long but still bold Super Six super middleweight tournament as well as the launching of a short form bantamweight tournament which already gave fans to two stirring and surprising finishes with Joseph Agbeko decisioning Jhonny Perez and Abner Mares upsetting Victor Darchinyan in a battle of contusions.
While the Super Six has had its problems – including several of the original six pulling out – it also lifted the profile of former Olympic gold medalist Andre Ward from nearly unknown to the cusp of universal recognized as the best super middleweight in the world this side of Lucian Bute. If Ward continues winning he’ll get to Bute soon enough because that’s why SHOWTIME signed a TV deal with the Canadian and America may get its next boxing star if Ward proves to be what I think he is – which is still underrated and underappreciated.
HBO and HBO pay-per-view put on 23 shows, few of them compelling and many of them paying big money to the wrong people while doing little or nothing to grow the sport that has helped make their network rich. But they did have the knockout of the year – Martinez’s second round destruction of Williams – and some fights in the lower weight classes that were left you wanting more.
Two new names popped up who are causing the kind of fan reaction that also gives us hope for 2011 – American Brandon Rios and Mexican Saul Alvarez. They are two of the sport’s brightest young prospects because each comes to the arena the old-fashioned way – carrying nothing but bad intentions.
Aggression and knockouts still sell boxing faster than anything else and each exhibited plenty of both this year and left fans wanting to see more. Alvarez is already a star in Mexico without having yet won a world title and Rios is the definition of “promise.’’ Whether the star will continue to shine and promise will be fulfilled may be answered next year and so we wait anxiously to find out.
Backed by Golden Boy Promotions, there is no reason 2011 shouldn’t be Alvarez’s year and if it is people will notice and remember him because he has a crowd-pleasing style that is all about what sells most.
That is what boxing needs more of – fresh faces and new stars… so as fans we should root for guys like Alvarez, Ward, Rios and young Brit Amir Khan, who is a star in England but still a question mark with a questionable chin but a fighter’s heart here in the U.S.
Those guys and others not yet as well known are the future of boxing, a sport that for too long has been recycling the likes of Mosley (as it will again in May for one last beating against Pacquiao in a fight that's a joke), Bernard Hopkins (who can still fight although it is unclear why he bothers or where it’s all headed), Roy Jones and, sadly, even 48-year-old Evander Holyfield, who continues to delude himself but not many other people into believing he will soon unify the heavyweight title again.
If fighters like Ward, Alvarez, Rios, Khan, WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto and middleweight king Sergio Martinez continue their rise they could be the antidote for the art of the retread that Arum and Golden Boy have been forcing fans to buy the past few years at the expense of what boxing needs most – fresh faces.
The heavyweight division, which many believe determines the relevancy of boxing to the larger world, remains a vast desert of disinterest here in the US. The Klitschko brothers, Vitali and Wladimir, hold 75 per cent of the title belts but few peoples’ imaginations in the US, although to be fair they are European superstars and don’t really need U.S. cable TV money to thrive economically.
Each defended their titles twice this year, Vitali against lame competition (Albert Sosnowski and Shannon Briggs) and Wladimir against better fighters (Sam Peter and Eddie Chambers) but not competitive ones. Sadly, there is no American on the horizon to challenge them, a comment on the division and on our country, where the athletes who used to be Joe Louis or Muhammad Ali now opt for the easier and frankly safer road of the NFL or the NBA. Who can blame them considering all the nonsense a fighter has to go through to just make a living these days?
The one heavyweight match that would be compelling and might lift the sport up for at least a night would be either of the Klitschkos facing lippy WBA champion David Haye. The fast-talking Brit claims to not be ducking them but he’s had more maladies befall him after shouting from the rooftops how much he wants to challenge them that you have to wonder if Haye is simply a case of big hat no cattle syndrome.
For the sake of the sport, we should all be lighting candles each night in hopes our prayers will be answered and Haye will finally agree to meet one of them. It may not prove to be much of a fight but at least it will give us something to talk about for a few months.
Whatever Haye and the Klitschkos decide the fighter with the most upside at the moment however seems to be Sergio Martinez. He has matinee idol looks, a big enough punch to put Paul Williams to sleep with one shot and a work ethic second to none. The Argentine fighter had a year for himself, starting with a drubbing of Kelly Pavlik followed by his demolishment of Williams. Those kinds of victories, coupled with his Oscar De La Hoya-like looks, are the type of things that if HBO or SHOWTIME would get behind him could allow Martinez to capture the attention of both fight fans and more casual ones.
In general, Hispanics fighters continued to dominate much of the sport’s front pages with Juan Manuel Marquez’s two victories in lightweight title fights leading that storyline. His war with Michael Katsidis is a strong candidate for Fight of the Year and his technical skill and calm demeanor make him the uncrowned challenger to Pacquiao. The two have unfinished business that should be settled this year if Arum stops standing in the way.
Two other fighters who gave us moments to remember in 2010 were Juan Manuel Lopez, who knocked out three solid opponents including highly respected Mexican warrior Rafael Marquez, and Giovani Segura, who won four times (that’s three years work for Mayweather) in 2010, all by knockout. Along the way, Segura defeated one of the great minimum weight fighters in history, slick Ivan Calderon, to win the belt on Aug. 28.
Lastly, boxing gave us another magical cinematic moment as well with the release of “The Fighter,’’ a film based on the life and hard times of junior welterweight scrapper Micky Ward. The film has won rave reviews and many awards and seems likely to have several of its actors nominated for Academy Awards, most notable Christian Bale for his sadly humorous portrayal of Ward’s troubled half brother, former fighter Dickie Ecklund.
Boxing has a long history of providing the framework for memorable movies and it did it again with “The Fighter,’’ a film that did more for boxing than any promoter did all year.
All in all, it wasn’t the best of years for boxing but it was a good year that picked up speed in the final months and, like that great golf shot you finally hit out of the rough on the 18th, left us with reasons to hope for a better year in 2011. If somehow it gives us Mayweather-Pacquiao, the emergence of Alvarez and Rios, the ascension of Martinez and Haye vs. the best available Klitschko in addition to the kind of solid performances that always come along, it could be a year to remember.
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