Jury's still out until he fights the best, so saying he can "trouble' them is hype.
If they fought today, Loma would download his **** and upload the hurt.
But a year from now? Two years?
That's why we watch the fights.
I love that Floyd-Nelo classic. One of the funniest mismatches ever staged. Floyd was doing standup that night — he was Chappelle in there, clowning the future multi-division champ.
Shakur has some proving to do and it’s going to make great watching, whatever happens.
That was another poor Teo outing. Rolling with the old man is his Achilles Heel. Get a real trainer, fool.
But Martin protests too much. His sharp check hooks were outlanded, he had to get on his bike because of the nose, and he wasn’t above some dirtiness. The right man won, in hesitant fashion, as the crowd booed. What a way to screw up a career…
Deontay found his level years ago smashing also-rans, old guys and cans. Against Fury, his first real challenge, he came close—and then was pounded into a new docility across two life-changing defeats.
Now little’s left. Remember: the robotic Joe Joyce was able to punch through Parker’s technique. Even an overweight, sloppy Dillian Whyte did it, too. Wilder, with as much power as both men put together (but none of their skill), was too timid to try. Game over, man, game over.
At 39 and universally admired, Nonito has nothing left to prove. He also has nothing to lose at this point but his brain cells. Oafish of Frampton to want him to “take some punishment” in order to win—that’s dumb bravado talk, when what Donaire has to do is move and outbox the Monster. Good luck to both men, expecting a thriller.
If Hearn thinks rebuilding Joshua is going to keep the lights on at DAZN, he’s dreaming. Nobody’s paying to see AJ blow past easy opponents.
Now, if he manned up to fight a Joyce or Jared Anderson, that would be another story.
The task for Bivol is to float like a butterfly and sting like a bee.
He’s a monarch,
beautiful to behold. But where’s the sting? 11 KOs, the last one five years ago…
And the floating part isn’t flawless, either. If Craig “Spider” Richards, a domestic-level talent, could lay hands on Bivol, the much more adept serial killer Beterbiev can.
This is a serious fan’s dream fight: 50-50.
Dubois is tough yet basic. With a half-asleep roll of cookie dough called Trevor Bryan in front of him, he needed four rounds of intense effort to land anything meaningful.
Whyte is nuanced and tough yet nearly shot. He just doesn’t have much punch resistance left. He never had any legs. Being a gatekeeper to fighters like Dubois is all that’s left for the Porkiesnatcher.
He’ll be a stationary target, but he’ll lay some big hurt on if Dubois isn’t careful. Fun matchup, make it!
IMO 60-40 for nuclear Artur. Some big risks (age, cuts, knee). But the athleticism and IQ of Bivol aren't necessarily constants the whole fight long. The more he's hit, the more this great matchup becomes the familiar mushroom cloud.
How did Taylor’s fight land on the half-assed ESPN+ platform in the US? Where is DAZN when it should be securing the rights to rebroadcast one of the best P4P fighters?
Fury’s legacy rests on spazz-dancing and feinting dull Wlad Klit to sleep, and engaging in a bonfire of the brain cells with Deontay. Those rounds, at least, were fun to watch. And lest we forget: he also beat Del Boy about twenty times.
Has he made a lot of moolah? Bravo—it is prize fighting, in the end. But like a lot of people who used to find his antics amusing until the antics took over and the boxer receded from view, I couldn’t give AF if he disappeared tomorrow.
I like Dillian, but he is a good step below the A-list.
Against AJ, a spot of early success soon soured.
Against Parker, a dominant win was nearly pissed away carelessly in the final minute.
The sturdy yet very predictable Chisora nearly out-hustled him.
Each of these fights points to the vulnerabilities in Dillian that the old Russian locksmith was able to pick.
The takeaway is that if you can withstand Dillian’s power, you are likely to catch him. Now we wait to see in what shape mentally the KO has left him.
Keith Thurman ain’t gonna lie to you, son. Keith Thurman’s liver has been screaming in Keith Thurman’s ear. Keith Thurman asked Keith Thurman’s liver what was the matter and you know what it said? “You never take me anywhere. You never buy me flowers.” Now, Keith Thurman refutes all that. Keith Thurman knows how to treat a liver like a lady. And he will be showing that class, that liver love, in his next $79.99 PPV.
“There's no love lost.”
Heh. Somebody, maybe a ring girl, can explain this cliché to Tank later. To see just how little love there is between him and Floyd, Inc., watch what happens next if Tank tries to go out on his own or, worse, signs with one of their rivals.
The Dream likes a fast pace with flash and daring. There’s some recklessness in his style, for example those Street Fighter II hooks. He may leap into the path of a timed Bud bomb, and regret it.
Before that happens, Madrimov’s going to be throwing a lot and landing a few. A few at 154 starts getting costly quickly for a 37 year-old former lightweight. The sooner Bud finds an edge, the better—and the longer we fans can keep enjoying these last days of his artistry.
I like both fighters, two skilled technicians who for different physical reasons are pretty much shot. Age and refrigerators, respectively, have done them in.
Here’s hoping old man Ortiz makes it out of boxing with his marbles intact. For Luis and Andy to be set up and living life well, that’s my wish.
Hats off to Canelo for having giant balls. This was his second Mayweathering. But where Floyd did it with superior skill, Bivol did it with size that amplified every fine attribute in the Russian’s arsenal.
The fight was a lot better than I hoped and Bivol made a believer out of me — I expected him to be out-pointed, fairly or not. But he bossed the former P4P king. The half-assed judges should all be forced to explain which lumps and bruises on Canelo earned him five rounds on their silly cards.
“...but Tyson Fury is one of the greatest heavyweights of all time.”
If this is true, he’s way, way down on the list.
Out-wiggling the aged, robotic Klitschko in a fight from which most people can’t remember a single exchange was more of a polite changing of the guard than one for the ages. Credit to him anyway.
Getting up from an uncountable number of knockdowns by Wilder and battering the American was good, sloppy fun — Tyson a Sisyphus in trunks, pushing his own ragged jaw uphill, until the other guy’s fortunately gave out first. Credit to him, and gratitude for the rollercoaster thrills.
Yes, “mental health, long layoff, arduous comeback,” etc: cry me a river exactly as deep as Fury’s cocaine habit.
He’s really good. He’s fought exactly two people who have any kind of serious record. Is that “greatest”?
Mungia vs. Charlo is a fan-friendly matchup.
Boxing is dying because it doesn’t stage such fights enough. The average weekend is one dull mandatory and ten pointless record-padders after another.
And now here’s Jake Donovan, sounding like he’s on retainer to the WBO, to complain about a good fight because the parasitic sanctioning body is unhappy.
Get your priorities straight. Fans first, then legacy bureaucracies.
After the crushing defeats to Usyk, AJ's lo-cal diet in his past four fights was no preparation for Dubois.
Ngannou, Wallin, Helenius and Franklin Jr. were, at best, rebuilding snacks. At worst, they were props in the "AJ's back!" narrative that allowed Hearn and Joshua to cash out for a final time.
He was running on fumes, though. And the fumes, well. . .like Elvis, the fumes have left the building.
Congrats to Dubois.
Love is like an upgraded version of Blair Cobbs: better clothes, better skills.
In his DAZN debut he shoved his kid out of the way so he could hug his absurd tiny dog after winning. Kid was like, Whaaaa...?
He beat the man who beat the man, which has to count for something.
But nobody who isn’t named Haney thinks he’s the best lightweight in the world. With the arrival of Shakur, the game of keeping all this talent from fighting each other now gets a whole lot more complicated — how will the SOBs running boxing pull it off?
Another easy night for Mr. Jab ‘n Hug.
Kambo doesn’t get it: he’s ruined his brand. First by having no clue and no ambition last time out. Now by insisting on boring us all again.
This is Bud’s equivalent of fighting Danny Garcia or Yordenis Ugas, two wheel-spinning bouts from Spence where the outcome was never in doubt.
When cynical “advisors” and promoters control the sport we get every fight except the ones we want to see.
...he has so many different styles. He spins a lot of plates...
Which "style" is Josh using while he runs around the ring for 1/3 of the fight? Roadrunner style? Don't Stick, Just Move?
I like Booth, one of the more honest and thoughtful characters in boxing. But he's got tunnel vision when it comes to the twitchy, once-hyped Kelly.
Flashes of high level stuff come and go. Then tedium sets in. Think Andrade... It's maddening.