hitmanhomey

This coward shite is ridiculous, but I don't think MAB wants any more of Manny. It's guy-on-the-way-up vs. guy-on-the-way-down, and MAB isn't going to find any more energy next time, another couple years older. Let the guy rest on his (very impressive) laurels.

I don't think boycotting PPV will help boxing. The reason that they moved boxing to cable and then PPV in the first place was that the fan base / ratings weren't high enough to attract advertisers. They aren't going to give up on this model unless it looks like they can make money through advertising, and that looks very unlikely. That said, I advise all the cheap bastards out there to do what I do: watch it the following week for free.

i can't believe people are taking this seriously! We should debate whether Lennox Lewis will be considered a great first, since Wlad is like ten rungs beneath him at present. Maybe they could dual for the "most boring heavyweight champions of all time" or something. Otherwise, Wlad's best chance at the hall of fame is "first Ukrainian heavyweight champion" or something... Oh, wait, Vitali has that one, right?

As a journalist, I can say with some confidence that this story -- whether or not it is true -- does not meet the standards of proof/fairness of the profession. The fact that the writer allegedly called Pacquiao's people and they declined to comment doesn't give him free rein to print anything he wants about the guy. You gotta at least print something from the other side, in the absence of any corroborating evidence, especially if you're going to go down that "heartwarming photos of the mom & kid" route, which they obviously did. This is piss poor and reflects badly on me and my colleages. If he's not the dad, Manny should sue for libel.

That's a good idea about a single boxing association - or maybe just two reputable ones -- and you're right to point out that micro issues like weight classes have nothing to do with lack of interest in the sport. The league system is how the NFL works, how the NBA works, how the various soccer leagues work, etc. The trouble, though, is how to convince the guys who are running the game to change. What would it take to convince King, Arum, Goosen et al to form a league like with voting "owners" like the other sports franchises? And yeah, Katz is a fat old windbag, but Kenny and Kellerman are young slim windbags, aren't they? My question for them is why Ring? Why not Ring, Maxboxing, Boxingscene, Boxing Monthly etc, etc. plus the big-time trainers, newspaper writers and so forth. A real poll has to generate fairer rankings than relying on one source.

I met Holyfield in Beijing before his canceled fight with John Ruiz. I was surprised that he was actually pretty funny. Most media reports focus on either (1) his too earnest Christianity or (2) his delusional insistence that he's going to fight on and get a title. He did say those things, but he cracked me up with some smart analysis of how Don King was negotiating with the Chinese partners in the deal. (You may recall this was the fight where Ruiz came up with a phantom neck strain that everybody attributed to a dispute over who was going to "make the money appear" as Don would say).

Yeah, the "he needs to throw more punches" analysis is right up there with "they have to score here" and "they can't afford to turn the ball over" -- both made famous by NFL luminaries like John Madden. We should start another post for the best lines in boxing commentary. My vote would go to Brian Kenny for his description of Emmanuel Burton's "peformance worthy of Drunken Master."

"Compubox" is retarded, and not "computerized scoring" at all. It's exactly the same thing as three guys sitting there with pen and paper and tallying up the punches. Moreover, they miss half the shots. Maybe somebody could develop software that really did look at the digital feed and count the punches, but it ain't happened yet so it's false advertising to call this "computerized scoring." On another note: I'm not sure how they do it now, but if--and that's a big if--they could get impartial guys to count punches, they should have two sets of three and have each set count the scoring punches landed by one of the fighters. (I've noticed that it's damned hard to count the scoring blows landed by both guys at the same time).

I haven't seen Chavez but I watched Barrera-Morales I, Barrera-Pacquiao and Pacquiao-Morales II over the past couple weeks, and I have to say that it doesn't look like Manny has much to worry about from these guys in rematches. Remember Emmanuel Steward? He pretty much said "I don't think MAB/Morales is going to want a rematch after this." Maybe they'll convince themselves otherwise when the money grows, but I think Manny's work rate in the first couple rounds will put either or them into deja vu mode. I'd rather see Manny in with a couple other threatening guys first - Marquez especially. RE Hamed - Don't you think that Iole misses the point about MAB's shutout? It wasn't sticking the jab in his face that made it happen. It was footwork.

I don't think undertraining is Pac's big worry--at least in terms of fitness. The guy's nonstop energy is unbelievable, and he was in pretty good shape when he lost to Morales the first time. That said, he needs to stay focused and make sure that he sticks to a gameplan, sets up his right hand with other punches, etc. To me, the big differences between the first and second fights were (1) Morales looked like he'd lost a little bit and (2) Pac kept his head and didn't start looking for one big shot too early. I love Morales, but I don't see that he has much hope in the rubber match unless he finds a new source of energy somewhere. I look for this one to be a mirror image of Morales-Pacquiao II or Barrera-Pacquiao. Not a knockout but a "wearout."

Thanks for the input guys. I'd love to see some of the other Liston fights. There MUST be something behind everybody's awe about this guy, and regardless of ability he has to be the coolest fighter of all time. Those stories about him skipping rope to Night Train are just too hepcat. RE "bums" I assume you're referring to my "great or shite" headline. That was just to fire you guys up to respond. Liston is obviously up there, or we'd never have heard of him.

Hamed v Hatton Hamed came in with more hype and less proven skills than Hatton, who's beaten Kosta Tszyu. Provided Hatton wins this week, I wonder whether PBF and Dela Hoya will start thinking of him as an opponent instead of each other. My guess is that they would both feel more confident against Hatton due to his style and size. That's provided Dela Hoya can still get down to 147, which I'd say he can and probably would have to if he wants PBF anyway.

race made tyson a star, sadly It seems to me that the very reason that Tyson became the most popular and profitable fighter in the post-Ali era was the clever (if cynical and reprehensible) way that he was marketed. Like Sonny Liston, Tyson was portrayed as the "white man's nightmare"--the big, criminal, animalistic black man. White people ate it up, making King and Tyson rich. Unfortunately, Cashill's point about Tyson blaming race for his rape conviction and other problems--Cashill implies that being black isn't a problem in America--is an oversimplification. Obviously, not every black man turns out to be a rapist or felon, so in that sense Cashill is correct that Tyson was foolish (and self-pitying) to blame race for his plight. However, the fact of his blackness, and the way that promoters and the media pushed him into a box defined by his color, no doubt contributed to his demise. He obviously has a screw loose, and would have had problems anyway, but his handlers and the media made his meltdown a lot more baroque than it might have been. I think the most telling commentary on his rape conviction came from Tyson himself, when he said, "Everybody expected me to act like an animal, so I did," or something to that effect. It is a sad statement about boxing that the Jack Johnson-Sonny Liston-Muhammad Ali-Mike Tyson storyline about cementing racial stereotypes and playing on white fears is still far more compelling to the fans than the Joe Louis-Sugar Ray Robinson-Sugar Ray Leonard storyline about transcending race and "crossing over." (Yes, I realize that Muhammad Ali moved from one storyline to the other as his career progressed).