Articles of 2010
Floyd Mayweather Runs Over Shane Mosley
LAS VEGAS-Floyd “Money” Mayweather predicted he would be too fast and too confusing for Sugar Shane Mosley (46-6, 39 KOs) and served right hands with regularity on the Pomona fighter’s head on Saturday.
Mayweather hit Mosley so many times I got a headache watching.
Mayweather (41-0, 25 KOs) proved in front of a packed arena at the MGM Grand and an arena full of celebrities that all his talk has substance. Oh does he have substance.
The first two rounds didn’t give a hint of the domination that would ensue by the flashing punches and the ability of Mayweather to literally hold off Mosley’s continuous attacks.
After a tenuous first round Mosley unleashed a terrific overhand right that forced Mayweather to hold as he seemed shocked by the punch. Mosley then attacked the body. Mayweather seemed a little hurt but weathered the second round with holding and moving.
“It’s a contact sport and you’re going to get hit. When I got hit I continued fighting,” said Mayweather who spent most of the 12 rounds right in front of big punching Mosley. “I did what the fans came here to see a toe-to-toe battle. That’s not my style and I wanted to give that kind of style I knew I could do it.”
Mosley’s only chance came in that second round, but like a speeding car, the moment was gone in an instant.
“After I landed the right hand I tried to take him out sooner than later,” Mosley said. It was the only round he won on two judges score cards.
Mayweather rallied back in the third round with a left and right combo that landed on Mosley’s head. Both had moments but Mayweather landed the cleaner shots.
The Mayweather counter right hand connected several times in the fourth round. Mosley attempted to attack but was met with some stiff jabs to the head and body. Mosley was having problems getting within range.
Mosley used a jab in the sixth round to find his distance. By going to the
head and body he stymied Mayweather’s attack. But a crisp one-two counter from Mayweather won the round for the Las Vegas fighter.
Mayweather traded big right hands with Mosley in the seventh round, then the fighter known as Money continued the assault and landed another right hand crushing blow that snapped Mosley’s head back.
“Mosley was a warrior. He has problems with fast guys,” Mayweather said.
Indeed.
The Pomona fighter paid the price for chatting with Mayweather about a foul in the eighth round and ate right hands. Mayweather again landed a jolting right hand that snapped Mosley’s head back. The Pomona fighter tried to rally but was unable to score much.
“He was too quick and I was too tight,” Mosley said. “I couldn’t adjust and he did.”
Mosley entered the ninth round on his toes with a little bounce. The change seemed to freeze Mayweather who took time to figure out new strategy. A withering right uppercut by Mayweather followed by a right hand snapped Mosley’s head back again as Mayweather tried to shove him to the ground.
The look on Mosley’s face during the rest period showed a dejected fighter.
Nothing seemed to work for Mosley in the 10th round. Though he landed a big left hook he ate several punches in return from the ultra quick Mayweather who smiled. At the end of the round Mayweather feinted and Mosley jerked back.
The last two rounds were like most of the previous fight. Mosley just couldn’t move in for his left hook or uppercuts. The only thing that seemed to work was the jab and every time he landed he was countered with big shots from Mayweather who fired punches like a laser.
Mosley had no answer for Mayweather. It was a clear cut victory for the chatty Las Vegas boxer. The judges scored it 119-109 twice and 118-110 for Mayweather. That was as one-sided as Mosley had ever loss.
“I think the long layoff hurt me. I was too tight. He was too quick and I was too tight.
I couldn’t adjust and he did,” said Mosley.
Next up for Mayweather seems to be Manny Pacquiao who is deemed the current pound for pound best fighter in the world. But Pacquiao scuttled an earlier fight in order to avoid a Olympic style blood test that is not required by Nevada State Athletic Commission.
“If Manny Pacquiao took the blood and liver test we can make it happen,” said Mayweather.
Other fights
Newly signed Saul “Canelo” Alvarez of Mexico survived a shaky first round after getting clipped from Puerto Rico’s Jose Miguel Cotto’s counter left hook, but after that he seemed to cruise for the remainder of the fight with pinpoint punching and menacing uppercuts.
The end came for Cotto at 2:59 of the ninth round after Alvarez unloaded about 18 punches. Though not all landed referee Tony Weeks ended the junior middleweight contest.
“The first round was a little scary. It was just a matter of time,” said Alvarez who was raised in Guadalajara. “Fighting in Vegas was a great atmosphere.”
Mexican former world champion Daniel Ponce De Leon (39-2, 32 KOs) started quickly against fellow southpaw puncher Cornelius Lock (19-5-1, 12 KOs) and it paid off. Good work in the first three rounds by the former junior featherweight titleholder enabled him to hold off Lock’s rally in the latter rounds. The scores were 96-94 twice and 97-93 for Ponce De Leon.
“I feel like I did enough to win the fight. He wasn’t hurting me at all,” said Lock who trains at Floyd Mayweather’s gym. “I just couldn’t get off. I hurt him a couple times.”
Ponce De Leon absorbed some big blows toward the end of the fight but survived.
“He was a very difficult fighter but I did my best on all the rounds in the beginning and I stayed composed in the end,” Ponce De Leon said. “I got hurt a little in the end but I stayed composed.”
NABO junior lightweight titleholder Eloy Perez (17-0-2, 4 KOs) needed a couple of rounds to measure the jab of the much taller Gilberto Leon (23-8-2, 7 KOs) of Mexicali. Once he figured it out, he poured on the speed to offset the Mexican fighters jab to win a majority decision 95-95, 97-93, 96-94. That one score of 95-95 by Dick Houck seemed to be pretty off as Perez landed combos at will while Leon could only manage jabs.
Las Vegas welterweight Said Ouali (27-3, 19 KOs) needed only 1:47 of the first round to end his fight with Argentina’s Hector Saldivia (31-2, 24 KOs). A left hook dropped Saldivia a second time and the fight was stopped by referee Russell Mora.
Young pup Jessie Vargas (10-0, 5 KOs) was matched with Mexican veteran Arturo Morua (25-14-1, 14 KOs) a veteran of big fights but was able to use his youth and energy to land bigger punches to the head and body. Morua was crafty and never stopped punching but a long right cross found the mark and sent Morua across the ring. Referee Tony Weeks stopped the fight at 1:20 of the sixth round for a technical knockout win for Vargas.
Southpaw Luis Ramos (15-0, 8 KOs) used his jab effectively in the first round and seemed to surprise Allen Litzau (13-5, 7 KOs) with the quickness of the jab in the first round. The younger brother of Jason Litzau seemed to be attempting to gauge the speed and distance of Ramos punches but didn’t last long enough to test the Southern California fighter. In the second round a one-two dropped Litzau for the count. The lightweight fight resumed and Ramos hit Litzau with a three-punch combination that forced referee Russell Mora to halt the fight at 55 seconds of the round. Litzau was incensed and shouted his disagreement.
“I just took my time and softened him up with the jab,” said Ramos who hails from Santa Ana.
From the get-go Michigan’s Dion Savage (8-0, 5 KOs) was looking to punch Philadelphia’s Tommie Speller’s head off. Though bloodied and often on the end of some vicious blows Speller (5-4, 3 KOs) remained upright against the big punching Savage. No knockdowns were scored but all three judges handed the decision it to Savage 80-72 after the eight-round super middleweight bout.
Articles of 2010
Judah To Fight Mbuza March 5 In NJ
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
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
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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