The Daily Bread Mailbag returns with Stephen "Breadman" Edwards tackling topics such as Saul "Canelo" Alvarez, Conor Benn's fight with former champion Chris Algieri, Gervonta Davis vs. Isaac Cruz, Devin Haney, Teofimo Lopez vs. George Kambosos, and much more.
Dear Bread,
Hope you are well. I know you fancy intelligence and how it plays out in a career. Just watched the 22 min Off the cuff Conor Benn episode. I think he’s one of the smartest and most charismatic and intelligent young boxer I’ve ever heard talking. I know you will enjoy it. I don’t know about his ceiling. He got hurt, lacks amateur pedigree, and I know he’s being protected and built up perfectly. But I see major improvements, passion, dedication, high IQ, entertainment value and very solid surrounding - something you like. What do you think of him vs Algieri?
And if you had to give him two more fight before the top 5 WW, who would that be?
Best, Diego
Bread’s Response: I have heard Conor Benn speak, he’s a bright young man. But like you, I don’t know about his upside. Welterweight is simply stacked and I don’t know if you can break through at welterweight with his limited background. But I want to be fair and assess him more. When I initially saw him, I didn’t see the upside of say Tim Tszyu. But let’s see how he does vs Aligieri. I have no idea what will happen, because I don’t know how much Aligieri has left. I do suspect Ben will win because Algieri was picked for a reason and someone in power, pulling strings for Benn, picked him. But that’s not a guarantee. Cherry picks go wrong all the time in boxing.
Two more fights before the top 5….I would say Adrien Broner and Josesito Lopez would be good fights before the top5. But who knows….if he will even be ready after that. The top 5 is Murderer’s Row. Spence, Crawford, Ennis, Ugas and Ortiz are all killers and they are 5 best welters in the world at the current moment.
Hey Bread,
Had a question regarding the visuals of a fight. Watching Crawford vs Porter, seeing Buds reaction to “being down on points” made me wonder about what judges actually see or look for. Clearly, Crawford felt like he was winning comfortably. To a lot of people, it seemed like this wasn’t the case. My point is, do fighters know how to or practice on what judges “look for”? Crawford may have been up more than what the scorecards were at the time up stoppage, but it didn’t look like it. Could this be that Porter knew how to impress the judges and he looked better than he was doing? I felt it was a close fight. Canelo is visually impressive. His form and fluidity is on point. I’m a close fight where he may be losing, does his ascetics become an important factor in the eyes of judges or viewers? I was having some trouble putting my thoughts on to paper, I hope I got my point across. Thanks for repping my home state of PA well!
Mark Stoy McCahill
Bread’s Response: Scoring a fight is subjective but there are guidelines. A fight is scored on separate rounds with NO CARRY OVER EFFECT. Meaning if a fighter does great in the 1st round, that shouldn’t have an effect on the next round and so on.
A fight is scored on 4 criteria. 1. Clean Punching 2. Affective Aggressivenes 3. Defense 4. Ring Generalship. All of those things are self explanatory. Then you have a common sense criterion of who you would rather be for that 3 minute stanza. You can’t make up your own criteria by saying, you have to take the title from the champion. Or one guy was coming forward. Or one guy threw more punches. Those aren’t part of the criterion. That being said, good coaches tell their fighters how to impress judges. I assume Shawn Porter knows how to win rounds. He was a stand out amateur and he was a 2x world champion as a pro. I also thought it was a close fight. Very close. Crawford was in the fight, he wasn’t scoring it. He felt he was in control, which he turned out to be. But being in control and being comfortably up in points is not the same thing. Again, it’s subjective.
Canelo has electricity in his punches. They’re hard, flashy and loud. He’s a gifted offensive fighter. He always seems to be in control with his body language. Canelo gets it and he’s very hard to beat on points because of this. I have been live to a few of his fights, and he really knows how to command the crowd. For example, live at the fight I thought Canelo was outboxing Trout. But once I read the articles, I figured it was controversial from a TV stand point. They did live scoring at the fight, but mostly everyone I sat near, had Canelo up…
Bread,
We had a nice weekend of fights and I actually liked a Sunday evening fight night! It was different but enjoyable and really we spent Sunday nights watching basketball or football year around, so why can't this become the norm? WWE used to put their PPVs on Sunday with the line of thinking of everyone being home getting ready for work. Makes sense!
Anyways, I want to touch on the two main fights we saw. First, Haney vs Diaz. I thought it was a good, impressive performance by Haney. Daiz is no punk and is a tough out for anyone as he was a former Olympian who has great fundamentals. Kenny Porter said from the 2012 class, Diaz had by far the best technical skills at that time. He lacks some footspeed and explosiveness, but he is game and will make you work for the win and he did just that. I thought Haney went to the body well and landed some nice counters but he has a tendency to get lazy defensively when he is in close. I don't know if he's just worried about getting his shots off, but he had no defense for the overhand lefts coming from Diaz. Against a bigger puncher he would have been in big trouble.
Haney is a very good athlete but needs to learn when to move and when not to move as Ben Davidson even pointed out that he moved far too much at times giving the look to the judges that Diaz was controlling the fight. But for a 23 year old he is doing some great things and he should not get criticized too much for beating a legitimate top 5-8 LW. Now onto Tank vs Cruz. I noticed right from the beginning that Tank was having some difficulties with his attack. He just couldn't quite figure out the punches that were going to work for him but he used his legs well and his defense was mainly sharp.
Cruz, to Tank's surprise, was very intelligent with his pressure and that really threw Tank off. Cruz defended the uppercuts well and went to the body more than any prior Tank opponent. Around the 5th or 6th round, Tank started to push Cruz back and started to go to the body a little more and started landing the straight lefts and hooks around the guard. Those were his money punches and he piled up a big enough lead to hold off Cruz's surge in the later rounds as he was a one handed fighter at that point. I thought the 12th round showed just how talented Tank was as he out boxed Cruz with using just his right hand and hardly took any punches in return.
While most will downgrade Tank for this performance, I think these are the types of fights top level fighters have to pull through. Not everyone just walks through all their opponents. Cruz looked like a legitimate top 10 LW and as you know, any top 10 fighter can give you hell on any given day. Not to say that was Tank's best performance but good enough to keep the train moving. Take care.
Bread’s Response: I loved the idea of boxing on a Sunday night. I believe fights should be on different nights, instead of the same ol Saturday night. When I was a kid, big fights used to be on week nights. I also think they should come on earlier. Fights are coming on between 11pm and 1230am EST. It’s really not fair to the East Coast.
Haney vs Diaz was a good scrap. I know a few people who were picking Diaz. I thought he was LIVE but I told the people that Diaz is an ex 126lber. He’s not a super athlete and he doesn’t have superior physicality. But boy can he fight. Rarely do you see a fighter in his 3rd weight class, who isn’t the better athlete and is smaller, win that fight. I picked Haney. I was impressed with Haney also. He showed his overall game. He punched well. He showed good stamina. His jab and body punching was on display. The only issue and this is not Devin’s fault. Some people label Devin as SLICK. That label usually gets put on southpaws who are boxers or athletic black fighters. But it’s often misappropriated. I don’t view Devin as slick. I think he has a world class jab. Maybe the best in boxing. He’s huge for 135lb. He’s fast and he’s talented. But I don’t see a slick fighter. Devin is solid defensively but he’s not elite defensively. Devin has much better timing offensively than he does defensively. Diaz was able to set traps and crack Devin with some nice shots consistently. But Devin responded like a champion. I’m a fan of both and I look forward to see where both go.
Tank vs Cruz was also a good fight. They both performed well in my opinion. Cruz had a really good gameplan. He came forward but he didn’t give Tank a big target. He kept his hands up, chin down and elbows on his cup. There was really nothing for Tank to hit, and it’s why he hurt his hand. Tank also did well. I saw him grimace when he hurt his hand and by the end of the fight, I can tell he was in pain. But he performed well if not lights out. He boxed well and his defense was on point. The only thing I can critique is I don’t think Tank used his jab enough. Jabbing and hooking off of the jab would’ve open Cruz up slightly more. Tank’s counter uppercut is money and he fell in love with that set up all night. But he could’ve controlled Cruz a little better had he jabbed him more. Other than that Tank did well. It was a good fight and good experience for him to fight a determined opponent who he couldn’t stop. Tank doesn’t appear to be a front runner and he gets stronger as the fight goes on. That’s a good thing moving forward.
Good Morning Coach,
I was pleasantly surprised and impressed with Isaac Cruz! He was extremely durable and rugged. They say the eyes are "the window to the soul," that young man had the look of a stone cold killer. He showed no fear and remained relentless through out the fight. I do not believe that Rolly Romero would have fought against Tank as well as Cruz did. Tank, unquestionably is a beast but Cruz was in that fight. Here is my question to you, did Cruz fight "over his head" or did Tank, from your perspective over look Cruz? Coach, if you can elaborate, please address the issue of why Floyd inserts himself completely in "all things Gervonta Davis.? Floyd was one of my favorite boxers of this era, however he is nerve wracking with continuously revolving everything around himself and what he did. During the post-fight press conference he was asked a question to compare Davis's fight with Cruz to his first fight with Castillo, due to the closeness of the fight and some people believing that Castillo beat him, as some said Cruz did enough to eke out the win. He answered with some bizarre statements about how people have always been jealous of him.
Also, I wonder if he is showing some ill affects of a long boxing career in some of his answers. While in the ring prior to the fight, he's in Gervonta's ear, in the dressing room, he is in his ear, at the post-fight press conference, same thing. Barry Hunter and Calvin Ford seem to be in the background while Floyd appears to take center stage. On another note, I got Lomachenko out working and out boxing Commey. Loma will put on a master boxing clinic, even though he's beginning to get a bit "long in the tooth." Loma stops him late.
Greg
Bread’s Response: Isaac Cruz was locked in. He fought the fight of his life vs a more talented fighter. His expression never changed no matter what. He remained determined and disciplined. He rarely reached. He brought his feet with him. And that helped him not get caught too often by uppercuts, which is the punch Tank was trying to clip him with. I won’t say Tank took him lightly. Cruz is a legit top 10 type of threat and he came to win. So did Tank. Cruz is short, powerful and he’s aggressive. He’s not an easy out. We have to give him credit.
I like Loma over Commey also. Not sure if he stops him but I think he wins. It wouldn’t surprise me if Loma stopped him late though. Loma touches you consistently enough to pull late stoppages. I can see it but I wouldn’t bet it.
Hi. I'm a fan of the Four Kings era. Wilfred Benítez fought three out of four. In your opinion, how would a fight between Marvelous Marvin Hagler and Benítez (before his tragic decline) have turned out? Also, if Ryan Garcia, Gervonta Davis, Devin Haney and Teofimo Lopez ever actually fight each other instead of just trading insults, who would get the most wins in your opinion? Finally, in an all time greats perspective, where would you rate Tyson Fury and Canelo Alvarez at this point in their careers, like over this fighter but below that fighter? Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Stefan
Bread’s Response: I believe Hagler would have beaten Benitez but I think Benitez would have extended him. Hagler was not as fast or sharp as Hearns and Benitez extended a prime Hearns the distance in 1982. Duran extended Hagler in 1983. Had they fought in between that time I feel that Benitez would have drove Hagler nuts because of his built in radar on punches. The issue would have been when Benitez tried to score, that’s where the heavyhanded Hagler would have gotten to him. I say Hagler by late stoppage or competitive but clear decision. But anything after 1983, Benitez loses badly. His drop off was scary.
If Haney, Garcia, Lopez and Davis all fight. Who gets the most wins…..Right now I say Davis or Haney. Garcia seems to have out of the ring issues. He’s the only one who hasn’t fought for a title. That counts as far as development. Lopez seems to have more than meets the eye type of issues. I wish the young man the best but that loss won’t be easy to come back from. I don’t like the energy of indifference around Lopez. Haney and Davis seem to have the best chances to get the most wins right now but all are close in ability. I can answer this differently after one of their next fights.
Canelo is over Fury at this current moment. He’s simply done more for a longer period. I love Fury but he can’t be rated over Canelo. Canelo is an ATG. Top 75 level fighter and ascending. I think Fury is a HOF but I’m not sure he’s as ATG yet. I don’t even know if he’s a top 10 heavyweight ATG.
Hi Bread,
Hope you and your family are all safe and well. What do you consider to be boxing’s greatest “what if”, e.g Ali not having to miss out on prime years of his career, Salvador Sanchez not passing so young etc?
Thanks for your time.
Bread’s Response: Sal Sanchez is the answer. Although Ali missed 3 years. He still turned out to be the best heavyweight ever and consensus top 10 fighter ever. How much higher could he have gone? You have to remember in the 1970’s once a fighter reached his 30s he was considered old. So while Ali lost a step after his layoff, he was also more preserved. So if he fought from 1967-70, I think we would have seen a higher peak, but the drop off would’ve came sooner. Ali was a busy fighter and he fought often. He would’ve fought at least 12x going by his average, had he fought during his 3 year layoffs. That’s a lot of punches taken in the ring, in the gym and in camp. So Ali is what he is.
If Sanchez doesn’t die in 1982. There was a unification with Eusabio Pedraza a fighter who is equally as great at 126lbs. There is the emergence of Julio Cesar Chavez who won his 1st world title at 130lbs just two years later. There was Alexis Arguello who was at 135lbs. Maybe Arguello doesn’t move up to fight Pryor if Sanchez is available to move up to 135lbs. There is the emergence of Jeff Fenech who was moving through the ranks in the mid 80s. There is also Barry McGuigan who emerged in 1985 at featherweight. Azumah Nelson had established himself as an ATG fighter at 126 and 130 and would have deserved a rematch. And Pernell Whitaker who was a 1984 Olympian and a lightweight stand out. Would have been a viable opponent by the end of the decade. Sanchez would have only been 29 by 1989. Last but not least Hector Camacho won his first title at 130lbs.I suspect that Sanchez would have moved up at some point to at least 130. The list of opponents go on and on in a Golden Era. If Sanchez can win more of those fights than he loses, he had a chance to go down as the greatest fighter ever. Just think about it.
Ssup Bread,
Lightweight is definitely on fire right now. I think people are being very disrespectful towards Kambosos by treating him like he is just keeping the belt warm for the likes of Tank, Loma and Haney. If he performs like he did against Teofimo, he might just beat them all. One thing that I observed was that Haney is nowhere near as slick as people make him out to be. There is a tendency to prematurely label all out fighters slick. His defense is not as smooth and he doesn't have iron chin. Shakur is slick but somehow, I feel he is tad slow. Incidentally, there is another name out there that people are ignoring - William Zepeda. The kid might be the best of them all. Oscar is somehow much more focused on Ryan and I am telling you, Zepeda is the best lightweight that he has in his stable. If you were to bet, who would you bet your money on to eventually come out on top?
Regards, Saurabh
Bread’s Response: Funny you said this about Haney because I feel the same way. He’s an outside fighter. He has a great jab. Super fast hands. He’s very talented. But I don’t view him as slick either. I don’t like off labels of fighters. And this is no knock on Devin. I really like him as a person and fighter. I just don’t think he’s slick. For example Canelo, Rigo, Boots, Loma and Shakur are fighters I think of as SLICK. Chocolatito even has some slickness to his game. He rides, rolls and counters. Devin has not developed that part of his game yet. He can become SLICK, but I don’t think he is right now.
I like Kamobosos. I think he’s going to beat 1 more of the top guys. But I don’t think he’s going to run the entire table without a loss. That would be really hard to do. I’m not sure if any of them is that good.
Yes I saw William Zepeda, he’s a darkhorse. I want to see more. High volume guys, with iron chins are nightmares for anybody that can’t hurt them. I won’t bet yet because I think some of these guys will start to move up. I don’t think they will all fight each other. It’s too hard to say at the moment because matchmaking will play a big part. Who’s made to fight who is the most important factor.
Mr Breadman,
Happy holiday season! No one in your last mailbag asked anything about Brook vs Khan. That's a sad indication of where the fight currently is. At one time when they were both top 10 welterweights in the world this could have sold out a stadium and hit big ppv numbers in the UK, such is the nature of domestic rivalries here. But now, we have to be real that they are both war-torn and quite far from championship ratings, and as such, the fight is a shell of what it was, in my opinion.
What do you think of the fight at this stage? Who do you think is more war-torn, especially considering this is set for 149lb catchweight for Brook? Is there any historic precedence of big rivals only ever meeting at such a late stage in their careers and if so how did that go? Reminder on this point, they had their first ever media face-off which seemed to be a build up towards their fight in 2013!
With rivalries like this in mind, I remember the Brandon Rios-Victor Ortiz fight that seemed to have all the ingredients to be a fantastic clash but it never happened. Any other real rivals that never fought you can tell us about? Finally, give us your end of year 1) Fighter of the year, 2) KO of the year, 3) Fight of the year, 4) Round of the year, 5) Up-and-comer of the year and if you're feeling festive gift us who you think can take up such accolades next year too. Have a good Christmas and New Year sir!
Jasveer Singh
Bread’s Response: Brook and Khan simply waited too long to fight. But it’s cool they will make some money though. This is prize fighting. Lot’s of fights never happen. Um… I wish Tito vs Shane would have happened.
1) Fighter of Year- Canelo Alvarez
2) Ko of the Year – Valdez over Berchelt or Ajagabe over Howard. Those are some devastating kos.
3) Fight of the Year-Fury vs Wilder III or Choc vs Estrada II
4) Round of the Year- One of the Fury vs Wilder rounds. Not sure which one. There were like 3 to pick from.
5) Up and Comer- Jaron Ennis
6)Performance of the Year- I think Performance of the Year should be an award. We skip over this and I hate it that no one acknowledges the year’s best performance. Usyk vs Joshua , Kambosos vs Lopez and Valdez vs Berchelt were master classes and deserve recognition. I can’t decide between the 3 but I’m leaning Valdez. He was on fire that night….
Hope all is good with you and yours. I'm seeing cats in boxing say your name more and more, so you must be doing something right. Anyways, I'm writing because I love talking boxing with cats of all stripes, but the one thing that it seems that even the most die-hard boxing guys I know and talk to don't really do is support women's boxing. Now, I know the women haven't been doing it as long and therefore there's not the depth in the divisions as there are with the men, but some of these chicks can legit fight. Claressa Shields, Amanda Serrano, Katie Taylor, and Mikayla Mayer can legit fight, and you got younger chicks who are coming up after them who will be even better. What I wanted to ask you is are you fan of women's boxing? Have you ever trained a woman? And if say a high profile fighter like a Mikayla Mayer or Claressa Shields came to you and wanted you expertise, would you help 'em out?
And do you support women fighting 3 minute rounds like the men? Some MMs - Floyd Mayweather vs. Tito Trinidad at 147, Floyd Mayweather vs. Emile Griffith at 147, Manny Pacquiao vs. Tito Trinidad at 147
Bread’s Response: Thank you my friend. But we can’t call female boxers, chicks. Most would find it insulting.I admit I don’t watch enough women’s fights. I need to watch more. But I do watch Mikayla Mayer, Claressa Shields, Katie Taylor, Jessica McCaskill and Alicia Baumgardner. All of them can really fight. Baumgardner just landed one of the best counter right hands I’ve ever seen by a man or woman. I have never trained a woman’s boxer but I would be open to do it. Yes I support women boxing 3 minute rounds.
Mr. Edwards, I am 47 (and if I didn't know your age I would know we are about the same age since you have a hotmail account like me) and have been watching boxing for as long as I can remember. I have been reading your column on boxingscene.com for years and I saw your interview on Barbershop Conversations. Great interview, even a bigger fan of yours after that. I thought you were 100% right in stopping the fight. I thought your boy Kyrone got hosed against Dirrell and after the Benavidez fight I look forward to seeing him fight at 160. I like Davis attitude. My question and interest in your opinion is Michael Moorer at Light Heavyweight.
I saw him on t.v. when he was early in his career before he won a title. I remember how methodical he was and went to the body when he had his guy hurt and after that he became one of my favorite fighters. If Moorer could have maintained his weight discipline for a few more years how do you think he would have been remembered as a light heavyweight? I think he could have unified the titles in the late 80's to early 90's at that weight and could have been remembered as one of the best at light heavyweight. How do you think he would have fared against Bernard Hopkins, Canelo Alvarez, Virgil Hill, Roy Jones Jr., and James Toney? And lastly, one of the best fights I think never to have happened due to injury and tragedy was Roy Jones Jr. vs. Gerald McLellan? How do you feel that one would have turned out? Keep up the great work and I will cheer for any fighter you train.
Sincerely, Travis Eggleton
Bread’s Response: Thank you. Yes I felt Kyrone beat Dirrell also. Hopefully he can back down to 160 and make some noise. That’s the plan.
Michael Moorer was an excellent fighter. He actually has a HOF case being the 1st southpaw heavyweight champion, winning the title a few times, coupled with his run at 175lbs.Moorer was the WBO champion and in the late 80s the WBO was not widely recognized but Emanuel Steward had the inside track on the WBO belt and his fighters often for the that title when it first came about. Unfortunately for Moorer, when he was WBO champion it wasn’t as highly regarded and it sort of hurts his legacy. He won the vacant title and defended in 9x. If that was the WBA, WBC or IBF during that time his title reign would be viewed better. I think he had a chance to unify in the late 80s for sure but nothing came about. As a light heavyweight Moorer seemed to be a monster with superior physicality. But I don’t have a big body of evidence because most of his opponents were not as well known. I thought Moorer was better at light heavyweight. He changed at heavyweight.
I can’t explain it but there was a drastic change in his demeanor and ring presence. Moorer was sort of tall and he had a nice reach but he was an inside and mid range fighter. It’s weird but I can’t tell if he would have beaten any of the guys you named. It’s really hard to rate Moorer, he fought for the title in like his 10th fight and his opponents were unknown at the weight. Moorer and Hill were at the same weight at the same time. I think Hill may have edged it because Moorer had slower feet. Both were heavily reliant on their jabs but Hill had more range and better feet.
Gerald McClellan beat Roy Jones in the amateurs in a very big fight for amateur standards. They fought in the National Golden Gloves semi finals and McCllelan won. I think McClellan long right hand and alpha demeanor would have always given RJ problems. Jones pulled straight back off of straight power shots. He took to the ropes. McClellan had a deadly right hand. He would have had a real chance to ko Jones. But I wouldn’t pick him to beat Jones because McClellan didn’t have great defense. He was sort of easy to hit. He just made his opponents so defensive they couldn’t open up. McClellan was also very frantic and as competitive fights go along, frantic shows up. Jones may have been too patient for him in a 12 round fight, where as in a 3 round fight it doesn’t show up as much. Unfortunately for McClellan it’s hard to tell because right as he ascended to the top level, he got injured so we don’t know everything we need to know about him.
Bread,
Watch the Fulton/Figueroa fight, I just kept thinking of how these guys are both 27 years and younger and the type of will they had to fight through adversity. It showed the types of fights we can get from the young LWs who get a lot of attention but we are yet to see one match up between them. It also made me think of Kenny Porter's comments regarding his son and how Shawn even admitted that he wasn't willing to go through the fire in training camp and how it may have affected him in the fight. I have mentioned a few times that Jaron Ennis is READY for anyone and I truly believe that. He's not going to give in to Crawford or Spence and is young and hungry and will give it his all from the opening bell. To beat the truly elites, you have to be in a certain state of mind and have to be willing to dig deep. I don't care who thought Fulton won or Figueroa won because as fans we were the REAL winners!
On to Lopez/Kambosos, this is why you fight the fights! Kambosos said in a post-fight interview that he is a very STUBBORN man and was not going to accept anything less than a win. Fighters like that are extremely difficult to beat and he proved that on Saturday night. Lopez on the other hand clearly thought Kambosos was going to fall from the first punch he landed and he went in there firing shots with no regard to what was coming back at him. This loss is definitely a momentum breaker and a setback, but he can come again and maybe this will make him a better fighter. Do you think not having Joey Gamache this camp led to the loss since Teofimo credited him for coming up with the game plan to fight Lomachenko? I wonder if he just did not want to pay him his split since he was having money issues? If so, that was costly mistake!
Take care
Bread’s Response: Yes sir! Taking big fights in your early to mid 20s says a lot in my opinion. It’s one thing to take big fights when you have to and you’re about to retire and you want severance pay. But it’s different when you’re young and you don’t have too. Props to Fulton and Figueroa. That’s was BIG TIME!
George Kambosos is a very stubborn. Being stubborn can be a good thing if it’s channeled correctly. Kambosos didn’t buy into the talk that Lopez was better, more talented, hit harder or was supposed to win. When Lopez made his push and dropped Kambosos, Kambosos came back and won the last two rounds after he was dropped. That’s a fighter who does not submit to resistance. That’s not accepting the will of your opponent. Not accepting a loss. Andre Ward has that. Tim Bradley has that. Juan Manuel Marquez has that. Chocolatito, Estrada and Fury have that in this era.
Kambosos has won 3 straight SPLIT DECISIONS. That’s 3 times where the fight was close and competitive but he found a way to convince 2 out of 3 judges that he’s the better fighter that night. That’s telling. I was just talking about fighters ACCEPTING defeat. A fighter has to be stubborn in the face of losing. Kambosos is but let’s see if he can stay that way. Joey Gamache is a really sharp dude and excellent trainer in my opinion. But I have no idea what happened with him and Team Lopez, so I won’t speculate.
Hi Bread, Interested to get your rapid fire thoughts (quick/short) on some current boxing topics; • Would you sub in any different modern selections for the 2022 IBHOF class (Jones jr., Toney, Cotto, Holm, Halmich)?
• If you were in AJ’s camp do you encourage him to take “step aside” money and let Usyk fight Fury next? • Does Loma have the 135 RING belt on Dec 31 2022? • Will Gervonta Davis be able to successfully campaign at 135 or above? • Will Crawford successfully employ a free agent model to line up a series of big fights in 2022? Hopefully some fun grist for the mill! You and Dougie are the best in the game.
Thank you sir. Adam – Whitby, Canada
Bread’s Response: Jones, Cotto and Toney are the choices. I’m not sure on the women because I don’t know the other possible candidates.
No I would let AJ do what he wanted to do. If he wanted to fight Usyk immediately again, then so be it. Sometimes fighters have to just be fighters and not always try to finesse everything with business decisions.
Yes, Loma gets the RING belt at 135 in 2022. Shocker!
Yes Gervonta Davis has already successfully campaigned at 135 and above. He’s not going back to 130, so 135 and 140 are his weight classes.
Yes Crawford will employ a successful free agent model in 2022.
Hello Breadman,
I have been reading your daily breadman mailbag almost every Saturday for the past few years because you sound like a wise man within boxing :) I'm from Denmark and keep up the good work! When it comes to Canelo I think you're a bit biased against him and also your so-called 'eyeball test' in putting someone like Terrance Crawford above him. I'll try to explain: What I like about Canelo is that he's very explosive and his punch combination (which is very fluid and almost instinctive) is awesome and he got me hooked on boxing back in 2012 when he fought Austin Trout (and that makes me biased). But he's not very active compared to other fighters such as TC and very economical in his punches, and I suppose that's why he doesn't pass the eyeball test for most people when making a P4P list.
Personally I think the eyeball test is nonsense when measuring really good fighters because you dont know how hard someone hits or how hard their chin or other factors. If I were to make a p4p list based on my eyeball test I would choose Ryan Garcia #1 because he's super fast and Israil Madrimov #2 because he's very talented and has a unique style, but this is not a good list in reality.
I dont live in America but from the outside it seems to me that some salty fans and media dont really appreciate Canelo. I'm not saying you dont appreciate him. The media should praise him to the high heavens despite his drug suspension. He's fighting, or at least trying, to fight all the tough challengers and not waiting 6-7 years to make a big fight, because he's not driven by greed (like some boxers) and also fighting in different regions and stadiums which is good to make boxing more mainstream. I mean if he was an American fighter I'm pretty sure we would be seeing a Mayweather style career, fighting 1-2 times per year in Las Vegas, not really challenging himself, and placing limitations on the opponent. I'm of course generalizing about American boxers, not saying everybody acts this way, but most do and that's my eyeball test. I'll just leave it at that.
Kessler vs Canelo at 168 - break it down.
Regards, Jesper
Bread’s Response: You lost me. You generalize, you admit you’re bias for Canelo. And you call my eye ball test, “so called”. You sound absolutely ridiculous. Maybe in need of some counseling. Everyone has their own eye ball test. I don’t see the world from your eyes. I see them from mine. The only two eyes I’ve ever seen the world from.
It’s unbelievable that I say that Canelo and Crawford are 1a 1b type of close and Canelo’s fans get mad. They don’t get mad that I speak highly of Inoue, who I think would be considered the best if he were bigger. They don’t get mad that I include Usyk. They seem strangely fixated on Crawford.
Seriously I have been doing a mailbag for about 12 years. I was doing through the Mayweather vs Pacquiao debates. I was doing through the rise of GGG. I’m telling you Canelo fans are the worst.
There is no way you read your email before you sent it in. I think Crawford is equal to, or slightly better than Canelo. Despite Canelo’s superior resume. Until further outcomes that’s my opinion and I’m not changing it. I don’t care what you guys think or say. I know what I see. I know who’s allowed to take certain fights. And I know some things you guys wouldn’t be able to stomach behind the scenes that I never say publicly.
Canelo vs Kessler would be a great fight. Kessler is HOF worthy. He only lost to great fighters. Calzaghe, Ward and Froch would all give Canelo tough fights or beat him. Kessler’s peak of around 2003-07 was very underrated. He was classic boxer. Hard puncher. Elite jab. Elite toughness. Big heart. Solid chin. And he always fought hard. This is a pick em fight! Kessler was no joke.
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