By Dr. Peter Edwards
This week's edition of "Who's Hot and Who's Not" takes a look at last week's controversial cruiserweight battle between O'Neil Bell and Dale Brown, this weekend's debacle with Andrew Golota and so much more.
Who's Hot
Oscar De La Hoya - The man earned bathtubs full of money during his career as a prizefighter and is quickly rising to the top of the mountain as a promoter. De La Hoya's stable includes featherweight king Marco Antonio Barrera, middleweight king Bernard Hopkins, unbeaten Demitrius Hopkins and WBO champion Jorge Barrio. Just when you thought Oscar was going to sit back and relax, the man is doing the opposite and locking down more top talent. The word going around the boxing world is that Oscar has signed IBF junior middleweight champion Kassim Ouma to a promotional contract. This a major coup for Oscar who picks up the hottest star at 154 pounds. Since Winky Wright moved up to the middleweight division, Ouma has been appointed as the best fighter at junior middleweight. It will interesting to see if Oscar can get Ouma in the ring with the returning Ricardo Mayorga, WBO champion Daniel Santos or Fernando Vargas.
Lamon Brewster - Finally one of the good guys in the sport of boxing gets a break. Brewster has had a rough career and never got respect from the boxing public. This past Saturday night, Lamon showed the world that he deserves to be called champion by knocking out the heavily favored Andrew Golota in 53 seconds of the first round. Brewster not only got a huge TKO win, but he got the victory before 20,000+ fans in Golota's hometown of Chicago. In my opinion, Brewster's next bout should be a rematch against rebounding Wladimir Klitschko. Both men recently picked up big TKO wins and a rematch is warranted to settle all the post fight conspiracies that transpired following their first encounter. It's a good thought, but I have a feeling that Brewster is hoping to land a fight with brother Vitali because a much bigger bag of green is involved.
Ricky Hatton - The young undefeated fighter from Manchester is facing the biggest test of his entire career in a few short weeks and does not appear to be affected by the enormous pressure. Hatton will step up in a big way when he challenges IBF junior welterweight champion Kostya Tszyu on June 4th. The bout will take place before a crowd of 18,000 screaming fans at the MEN arena in Hatton's hometown of Manchester, England. Tszyu is regarded as one of the greatest fighters to ever compete in the junior welterweight division, some experts regard him as the best ever at 140 pounds. Tszyu is also regarded as one of boxing's best pound for pound fighters in the world by most experts and boxing publications. Hatton says that he is not intimidated by the high regard Tszyu commands or what he accomplished in his career. Hatton is ready to battle with Tszyu in war like fashion. Hatton seems very confident to dethrone the reigning junior welterweight king and is even predicting a stoppage. I think Hatton will pick the wrong fight if he plans to go to war with Kostya, but you have to admire this kid's courage.
Who's Not
Andrew Golota - What more can one say about this guy? Just when you think Golota turns his career around, he manages to do something that drops his stock back to the bottom. I have never before seen a fighter gain three consecutive heavyweight title shots in my entire life of watching boxing, especially when the fighter was not successful in his last two outings. Golota did not deserve a shot at Chris Byrd, he did not deserve a shot at John Ruiz and he did not even deserve a shot at Lamon Brewster. Golota has done absolutely nothing to deserve championship bouts against any of these men. Can someone please explain to me how a fighter like Monte Barrett is unable to land a title shot, but Andrew Golota can land three in a row? Apparently, there is some justice in the boxing world because Lamon Brewster knocked out Golota in 53 seconds and likely retired the man regarded as the "Foul Pole" from the sport.
O'Neil Bell vs. Dale Brown - Talk about a horrible decision. Last Friday's cruiserweight battle for the IBF championship left a bad taste in the mouths of everyone who watched the bout. Brown outworked Bell in a majority of the rounds, rocked Bell on several occasions with hard right hands and appeared to be well on his way to victory. The scorecards were announced and everyone was sure that Brown got the unanimous decision. We all learned once again that nothing is ever a sure thing when it comes to boxing. A stunned live crowd and television audience was bewildered as On'Neil Bell was announced the winner. The scores were 115-113, 116-112 and a ridiculous 117-111. I scored the fight 116-112 in favor of Brown. The IBF needs to step up to the plate and order that an immediate rematch take place.
Bernard Hopkins - The man is back to his old tricks. Hopkins watched an 8 figure payday go down the drain as Winky Wright dominated Felix Trinidad two weeks ago. Rather then issue a future challenge to the winner, he went on the record to state that a fight with Winky Wright will not happen because there is not enough money in the bout. I like Bernard, but this is a bunch of baloney. Does Bernard think the boxing public is stupid enough to believe that there is more money in a bout against an untested and still relatively unknown Jermain Taylor then there is against Winky Wright, one of the hottest fighters at this moment. Bernard claims that upon beating Taylor, he wants the winner of the upcoming light heavyweight battle between Antonio Tarver and Glen Johnson. If there is one thing that I can guarantee, Bernard Hopkins will never step in the ring with Antonio Tarver. A fight against Wright is a much bigger fight then Hopkins facing Tarver, Johnson or Taylor. Tarver has lost two of his last three bouts and Johnson has lost numerous times in the last few years. Winky has been undefeated for several years, regarded as one of boxing's pound for pound best and has been dominating world class competition. If Bernard doesn't want to end his career wrong, he needs to make the Wright decision before retiring.