I was wondering if I can get some info on him. I know very little about him and never heard of him until tonight when he was mentioned on FNF. So he has an amazing amateur record but couldn't cut it with the elite pro's? Whats the story on this guy?
I was/am a huge Breland fan. Most of his fights were avialable on regular TV through ABC's Wide World of Sports, so there's lots of us older folks who got a good dose of Breland.
I was always nervous watching him throw. It seemed like some part of the stickman was eventually going to snap! He defintely had a physique fashioned after the Hearns model, but slimmer.
Paul Williams & Berto have just as much right as Margarito to claim they are the best WW right now.
Actually, Williams has a more credible claim of Welter Champ, by beating one of the other reigning Champs.
If Miguel Angel Cotto boxes all night, or to a casual ran "runs" all night, is he or will he be considered a coward if this leads to a decision for him?
If Cotto boxes for 12 and wins, that's all that matters.
If he boxes for 12 and loses, he get called every name in the book, including coward.
He was like a snake in the ring. I loved his style. He is one of my ALL TIME FAVORITES!!!
I suppose if you liked conventional and highly technical boxing skills, you couldn't love Hamed.
Greatness includes avenging losses. When a truly great fighter is dealt a humbling loss, he doesn't disappear from the fight scene like Hamed did. Hamed's own actions revealed his mental softness and he lost any chance of ever being considered Great.
Its not just the Barrera humiliation, Augie sanchez and Kevin Kelly basically exposed him, those fights proved that Hamed couldnt box but also that he did have tremendous power which ultimately saved him. Some people also had little Wayne Mcoullough a winner v Hamed too. My point has always been that Hamed beat some good fighters but no great fighters therefore cant be considered a grest himself
Yeah, can't deny the guy held some belts and should be referred to as Champ, it's afact. But, it's also fact that he demonstrated he lacked the skills required to be considered Great.
Each time I see these guys standing side-by-side, I don't see Cotto getting through those long arms of Margarito's.
This is probably the most hyped I've been for a fight since Pac-Morales I.
Why I think Cotto will win is because in the Williams fight, we saw that movement and a jab can inhibit Margarito's ability to let his hands go. I just like to go with the guy who can do more things, and I see Cotto being able to do more things than Margarito. Margarito's job is to bring heavy metal. If he does what he said in the past, which is to try and box behind his jab, he has no chance. He'll get picked off from a distance.
I don't expect either of these guys will abondon his plan early, or will suddenly start fighting stupid, but, I do expect to see both guys try to impose themselves early. I think that's one of the most interesting aspects of this fight - who will be able to get control early, if either.
That said, my expectation is that the "heavy metal" you refer to (and which I will use for myself) will be evident quite early in this fight and we'll see Cotto on the floor, more than once. I respect your choice to pick the guy with more stuff, but Margarito won't need much more than his ability to hit hard and in numbers.
It's so close on so many different levels. How anyone can predict a winner with any degree of certainty is beyond me.
I think the two things that we can be certain of are that Margarito needs to come forward to win and Cotto has to avoid leaning in on the inside where he can be susceptible to uppercuts.
As Margarito showed in the Lujan fight, he is considerably less effective when he tries to use movement. His game is to bring it and bring it all night. His best bet is to crank up the volume and make it a war.
Cotto should box some, but he can't run. Look at the second Daniel Santos fight. Margarito was walking into counter punches whenever Santos stood his ground. Whenever he gave it up, Margarito was given the room to uncoil his long arms and move forward with impunity. The way to fight Margarito is to counter inside of his long, looping punches and keep him from getting set. The faster you run from him, the faster he chases you.
I believe Cotto has what it takes to get the job done with Margarito, but by no means is this a walk in the park. Cotto's ability to adapt should be the difference, but with Margarito's punching power and durability you can never be sure of anything. A lot of questions will be answered by both guys, and I think the fans' anticipation for the fight will prove to be justifiable.
This is a smart post. In response, I say Margarito will expose Cotto's least asset, which is his chin. One can argue I'm full of shit, but when it's Margarito throwing, you know he's gonna' connect at some point and your chin had better be there because Margarito will following it up in numbers.
difference of opinion.
My remarks were reserved for Naseem Hamed, who has a very distinctive place in boxing history. His name will NEVER be recalled with regularity in discussions of truly Great Fighters, because of the way he left the fight game. The question of his greatness would not be so eaily contested if he'd at least remained at least interested in fighting, after such a one-sided loss to an 3-1 underdog in Barerra. But, Hamed seemed to tuck his tail and walk away to never fight at the top-tier again. For that very compelling reason, Hamed's legacy will be that of a Champion with truly great skills, but not a Great Champion. That was the original post question.
I wanted Naseem to go away and get re-set for rematch with Barerra. I think Hamed realized he'd lost his committment to the game and just wasn't ready to face Barrera again, or finally agree to a Marquez matchup, which would require a complete re-dedication to the game. It was Hamed's mental weakness and lack of work ethic that undid him, which is stuff that only Great Fighters possess. It's not like Hamed was old and getting outgunned, he simply gave up, nothing more than gave up.
I'm sad watching this version of Mike. He's young, focused and still being groomed by old Cus and he's got Rooney guiding him straight ..... everything he lacked when he started collecting straps and making money that other people spent or took.
It annoys the fucking hell out of me when the media (maybe it's only in Britain that it happens) talk him up like he's the dogs bollocks, referring to him such ways as "one of Britain's greatest", "an all-time great" etc.
Gotta' give you this one. I had high hopes for Ricky, but he can't quite seem to deliver at the top tier.
He makes a great story line though.
I actually think Manny has a good shot to beat DLH. Forbes has a horrible KO% (9 out of 33) and was hitting DLH all night. If Manny hits him like that DLH is getting KOTFO.
100% agree that Manny has real chance of delivering DLH floorward.
God you fucking whining crybabies never stop do you.
Remember when Cortez did this?
Fight inside? More like wrestle inside.
Everytime I see this KO, I think the voice in Hatton's head said something like ..... "OK May, just stand in front of me, while I telegraph this left hook and keep my right hand down".
to the OP horrible scorecard! just because a boxer lands some the cleaner punches that doesnt mean they are hurting the opponent more than the other one is. not one punch or combination of Cotto hurt margarito while margarito's body punching and upper cuts were clearly hurting and slowing Cotto down after every round. i had it margarito 6-4 going into the 11th and im glad that 2 of the official judges agreed with me while the other had it a tie...
I guessing Cotto actually hurt Tony with a few of his more flush counters, but Tony just tightened up, sucked it up and marched forward. Cotto just didn't manage to hurt Tony with the accumulation of well placed punches, just single well placed shots that brought some serious pain. I expect Margarito's brain simply interprets pain differently than most other humans.
http://www.fightjudge.com/user/Warp/364/scorecard.png
This was my card. Cotto I think was winning this fight easy in my opinion. I couldn't believe people had this a draw going in. Cotto was landing clean effective blows ......
Effective? Must have been watching another fight!
Cotto didnt fight the way he could/should have. He made mistakes in regards to his approach, and most of all his pace.
Cotto has the skill and ability to outclass Margarito (as he did for 2/3 of the fight) but he didnt take the right approach.
Please tell us more. I couldn't disagree more with what you said.
One thin I'm laughig is at how the mexicans are acting like as if Marg was winning the whole fight, yea Cotto tired out and then got KO'd but speak the truth about the fight, cuz in the mid rounds when margarito was getting a boxing lesson his face was discouraged..till later on when he landed that body shot and took care of business from there
I give full credit to Cotto for his top-tier exhibit of skill and heart. But it doesn't matter how many rounds you win by boxing, when you eventually fade and are a target for Margarito's heavy hands. It's the exact same reason why Oscar will now avoid Margarito.
I think Mexicans weren't too concerned by Cotto's "boxing lesson" because they know their fighter Margarito. They saw their guy wasn't showing any signs of fading and was walking through most of Cotto's best stuff. They were satisfied with those first 6 rounds because they are smart fight fans and understood that Cotto couldn't sustain his "boxing lesson" for 12 rounds, which was exactly what Cotto needed to beat Margarito.
One thin I'm laughig is at how the mexicans are acting like as if Marg was winning the whole fight, yea Cotto tired out and then got KO'd but speak the truth about the fight, cuz in the mid rounds when margarito was getting a boxing lesson his face was discouraged..till later on when he landed that body shot and took care of business from there
Seems you watched the fight and saw Cotto's amazing boxing display. It deserves recognition.
But you didn't see Margarito getting frustrated.
Sure, you might have seen him something in his face, but he did not show frustration in the way that Cotto had hoped, which would be for Margarito to change his fight plan. Instead, Margarito was a model of discipline and he didn't stray from his fight plan at all. He didn't need to. Things unfolded exactly as his team has prepared for, a late stoppage after chasing the guy most of the night.
Credit to Margarito last night this guy has an amazing chin/workrate, he has a never say die attitude but i still cant get over how SLOW margarito is, Why is he that slow??? is it because his a big guy fighting at 147 or what..
True that he does not possess Mayweather's reflexes, but it's easy to see he has attributes that more than makeup for any deficit in speed.
Margarito will say pretty much say anything to secure his place as Oscar's last opponent. Nothing wrong with that. I say give DLH shit and call him out everyway you can, cause Margarito-DLH is a fight I'dike to see.
Also, for the first time in his career, Margarito is positioned to "make" fights of his choice, and not just "take" fights that are available.
this is a true statement lets see how it plays out but the intention of this thread is simply to state a fact that Antonio has maintained a rep of being a no nonsense, very large welter, who has fought his way to the top. I am glad he is taking on Clottey who like Williams is the only welter to have a claim at beating him(until his hand injury) We all know that Margarito is a more natural jr middle but has a knack for boiling down to 147 and while I understand his tactics for calling out DLH he should maintain the high road instead of being a hypocrite in this regard. I would love to see Margarito move up take on Santos again and go for a title at jr middle or even someone at middle weight. DLH did even tho I thought Sturm probably should have gotten the draw or slight points victory, DLH was brave enough to try.
I get it, really. But, don't challenge Margarito with "be a man" talk. It makes you look like you don't understand the road he's travelled and that you don't appreciate his unique combination of toughness and skills. You gotta' give the guy his due, he's been calling-out Cotto before there were belts on the line. Margarito's camp isn't exactly familiar with the leverage ($$) their guy now wields, which now gives them the right to be a bit cocky.
He's gonna do it again even easier this time. The result, a pretty boring but dominant performance. In no way should that be compared to the best three rounds in history.
This probably sums it all up, nothing more to be said. Good Take.
Don't you all love how UFC is biting off boxing in the lead up to this BJ Penn fight. Frankly, it's pissing me off. First they try to copy 24/7 with thier weekly hype show which IMO is a failure. Now they are comparing GSP-Penn to one of the greatest match-ups in Boxing history, WTF. Dana White is a fukkin asshole.
GSP-Penn is ‘Hagler-Hearns’URL]
Hearns and Hagler could both go 15 rounds and still be dangerous. Penn has a history of gassing-out badly if he doesn't get the win within 2 Rnds. I'm not talking about his recent wins at LW, because he's not being tested much there. I'm talking about his record at Welter or Openweight, where he has looked like a slow burning fire.
Neither Hagler or Hearns jumped down a weight division, like Penn did after back-to-back losses to GSP then Hughes, just so he could beat up on little guys at Lightweight.
If Penn truly believes wins over an old little Pulver, a second-tier Stephenson and stubby-armed Sherk (all True Lightweights), will translate to success at Welter, he's wrong. Sure, Penn is brining better cardio, no question about it. But, he can't match GSP's conditioning, which might be improved since their first meeting.