Kovalev looking very impressive, as he has done in all his bouts but the first Boone fight, & he certainly corrected that in the rematch.
Great poise for an up & coming fighter, looking more like a seasoned top pro than most champions.
Also very impressive for a puncher is that Kovalev can shorten his punches up on the inside; he sets up his punches extremely well, & is always working intelligently for position.
Probably lucky he's got NBC behind him now, as I don't see many promoters willing to risk their guys against the likes of Kovalev otherwise - that first right hand he nailed Thampson with was a shocker, & I'm surprised he made it back to his feet.
That said, I would still like to see him face another couple of good fighters before going for the championship quality fighters.
Yusaf Mack is pretty much the gatekeeper in the division, & that would be a good test for his next bout.
Other likely make-able fights for his next outing if Mack is unavailable would be
Fulgencio Zuniga or Cornelius White;
or if they want to take more of a risk, Isaac Chilemba or Chris Henry.
I think he'd already beat Karo Murat & Beibut Shumenov...
Gabriel Campillo will likely still out for a bit - back injuries take a bit of time, & they'll likely want a softer bout than Kovalev for his first fight back.
A lot of it depends how well they do their coverage, but from what I've seen they're doing an excellent job, gearing it towards the 'blue-collar' audience who are not going to fork out $40 for a PPV, but still appreciate a good boxing 'fight'.
The kind of casual fan that these days will check out your icehockey & NFL games if it looks like being a good match, follow how their local team are doing & have their favourite players, without necessarily really following the sport.
Or the people who used to be the mainstay of boxing audiences in the 50's & 70's but overpriced PPV's & ticket sales drove them away.
NBC are featuring some good solid contender matchups, building up fighters with an exciting style, as well as featuring some local fighters that people will tune back into to find out how they are doing.
ESPN mostly does a great job, but it's focused more on the hardcore fan. NBC is a welcome addition to the US boxing lineup in bringing back the blue-collar casual fan, while serving up some really good fights.
If you ate pork in China between 2007 & 2011 you were likely ingesting clenbuterol.
If you ate veal in the US before about 2005 you likely ingested clenbuterol.
Veal production dropped in the US dropped from over 3.4 million in 1986 to under 1 million due to campaigns against clenbuterol use & factory farm conditions.
The factory farms just moved south.
The Chinese have had to ban their athletes that compete in international tournaments from eating meat at all when they're training because of the still rampant use of clenbuterol in factory farms, inspite of it's banning in pig farms in 2011.
"WADA issued a warning last November regarding clenbuterol-tainted meat, particularly in China and Mexico."
http://www.ibtimes.com/ban-meat-athletes-raising-olympic-concerns-china-721311
As to it's use as a PED, it's a rather unlikely drug to use for most professional athletes as it has a great many side-effects, & it's results are apparently a little extreme.
It is of most interest to body-builders for its ability to improve the lean muscle to fat ratio.
In addition to the cardiovascular complications, Clenbuterol may also be toxic to the liver leading to life impacting health complications if this drug is abused...
..When using Clenbuterol, athletes and dieters commonly report their appetites increase as the ephedra-like effects set in. Headaches, tremors and insomnia were also quite common.
There are better ones on the market for similar effects if you are looking to cut weight, increase stamina, etc.
http://voices.yahoo.com/clenbuterol-overview-banned-weight-loss-130542.html?cat=51
Big difference from a natural puncher & guys that need technique & leverage to punch.
A natural puncher always has that in the bag, where as a guy that needs technique can generally only get off his big punch from a particular position. Throw them off their game & their power tends to evaporate, but a natural is generally at his most dangerous when things are falling apart.
Current natural punchers out of the list:
Lucas Matthysse
Gennady Golovkin
Randall Bailey
Manny Pacquaio
Arthur Abraham
Magomed Abdusalamov
& I'd probably add Denis Boystov, who might be the hardest short puncher the heavyweight division has seen a while.
Depends how much Kim has left...
He took a brutal pounding from Rahimov in his last big fight - amazingly he just kept coming & ended up outworking Rahimov, but I thought he was looking in serious danger.
When you add up how much punishment he's taken in previous fights, it might be best for Kim's management to be looking at much lighter punchers than the likes of Provodnikov.
Ivan Popoca would make a good matchup; also think he'd make a good comeback bout for Herrera after his loss to Alvarado.
Thought Chakhkiev did enough to edge it, but wouldn't call it a robbery by any means.
Tough, close fight & I'm surprised Wilder did as well as he did against Chakhkiev, even with the natural size advantage.
Add to the fact Chakhkiev is a natural brawler, not a style suited to amateur scoring, the very narrow decision is not a real surprise.
PS. did check out the example you mentioned - Chakhkiev hit him twice on the way in as you said, with Wilder getting the point for hitting Chakhkiev in the back of his head after Wilder threw him down. But this was a very scrappy fight, & stuff like that happens, especially in amateur scoring.
By the way, this might be the only time the last 5 years that a US fighter has actually beaten a Russian in one of these cross-country matchups, even if Wilder did seem to get the benefit of the doubt. Probably should be celebrated, because it was atleast pretty close.
Was Chavez officially drug tested after the fight, & who ran the testing?
Can't seem to find a definitive answer or a solid report on the procedure...
NOTE: now that Martinez is in the drivers suite regarding a rematch(!!?), he can demand an independant full-array drug-test as well as a pre-fight weigh-in. Many in the boxing world would be very interested in the answers.
Even with youth on his side & a top professional team behind him, Chavez is clearly on the outer limits of what should be possible, & Roy Jones estimate 190lb's looked to be on the money. Previously I was thinking youth & his very expensive team may of explained it, but am now having some real doubts.
I like Grachev - a tough, gutsy guy who is almost impossible to discourage. Against the right fighter he'd make for some great matchups, & there's plenty of suitable opposition around his weight.
That said, he also has a pretty limited toolset to work with - not real quick, not particularly mobile & not particularly slick.
See Bute winning this one & mostly looking good in the process.
Hopefully this will start pushing countries into not recognizing the WBC as a legitimate sanctioning body.
In Japan, the IBF and WBO are not recognised - will this push them into dropping the WBC & recognizing the IBF instead, which seems to the best out of the lot.
And what happens when the WBC try to strip one of the big, popular German champions because of this? - the Germans are not likely to be impressed.
And what happens if they try to strip one of the Klitchko's??
I see a lot of court cases in the WBC's future in they try such stunts Europe, with a possibility of them being referred to one of the higher EU courts, with their future as a recognized santioning body in Europe at stake.
Also the Russians are finally getting their stuff together in the pro game - watch how unimpressed they are likely to get if it happens a few times to some of their guys...
Or maybe we should just hope that the corrupt piece of garbage that is Jose Sulaiman will finally just f*cking die, & leave the boxing world atleast a slightly better place...
His fight with Holyfield was simply astonishing.
Hell, most heavyweights these days would probably collapse after one round of what these guys were dishing out to each other.
Hell of a fighter.
Vitali is 41 now & now playing politics - Haye might have a decent shot.
Boystov maybe, in the next couple of years against Wlad - very heavy short puncher, & if he can close the distance...
David Price maybe sometime down the track.
Actually don't think there is much difference resume wise:
With Tyson, Holmes & Spinks were coming out of retirement, & both past their best (quite a way in Larry's case, although he impressively got in shape for a 2nd career as a solid fringe contender) so barely count;
so his real resume of best wins was Tony Tucker, Pinklon Thomas, Tony Tubbs, Frank Bruno, Trevor Berbick & 'Bonecrusher' Smith; some pretty solid championship level fighters, but even the best of them had 'issues'.
Wlad's best are probably: David Haye, Ruslan Chagaev, Lamon Brewster, Sultan Ibragimov, Chris Byrd, & Tony Thompson.
Tyson had the much better 1st part to his career, but unlike Wlad never avenged any of his losses, whereas Wlad avenged 2 out of 3 & has had the greater longevity.
I'd be putting them about equal in the all-time list.
4 classic fights from the days when 15 rounds separated 'the men from the boys', all involving one of the greats:
Alexis Arguello vs Ruben Olivares (78-4-1) :- W KO 13
Alexis Arguello vs Ruben Castillo (46-0) :- W TKO 11
Alexis Arguello vs Ray Mancini (20-0) :- W TKO 14
Aaron Pryor (20-0) vs Alexis Arguello :- L TKO 14
And you could probably add a few more of Arguello's fights, one of the greatest fighters of all time in expertly breaking down his opponents as the fight progressed.
Good news for Main Events, & think that are well placed along with Banner promotions to be pretty major players, due in large part by the Top Rank/Golden Boy cold war.
Think a lot of Eastern European fighters will now look to sign with these guys along with Gary Shaw (Provodnikov put Banner on the map), as well as guys who don't want to get caught up in the 'cold war' bullsh*t & just want to fight.
In my opinion, good for boxing, & good for the fans.
Stevenson has a punchers chance, but Kovalev is the superior fighter.
Kovalev by mid-rounds KO is my pick.
As for Stevenson having the better opposition, his best opponent prior to Dawson was Don George!
And Dawson was coming off of a KO loss, had been patchy for years, and the stuff coming out of his training camps during & after the Ward fight seemed to indicate he had simply lost the plot.
My take on Stevenson is that he is a very heavy handed slugger with some solid basic boxing skills, but tends to be predictable & doesn't put his punches together very well - jab, jab, bomb; jab, jab, bomb, etc.
Kovalev is a pure boxer puncher & looks like he could be the new Bob Foster (although it's still early days).
Haven't seen a light-heavy put together punches like Kovalev does in years, & will be following his career with great interest.
how good was Jones-Lebedev?
I haven't seen it yet, just grotesque pictures lol.
Might of been the brutal fight I've ever seen & was tossing up whether to choose it over Bradley-Provodnikov, but put it as number 2 for fights so far this year.
Absolute savage fight, & I'm still a little shocked at how many brutal shots were landed by Lebedev to little avail, but ultimately Jones was the smarter in his approach, making his count more effectively & pulling a lot of veteran moves...
Sven Ottke's fights with Mitchell & Brewer are still called robberies but were very close fights, & the two I scored for myself I had Ottke winning. Boring fighter but he was very hard to hit cleanly & had good timing. The Reid bout was a robbery, but the referee probably more to blame than the judges.
Sergio Martinez's bout with Kermit Cintron - heard over & over about how big a robbery it was - finally downloaded & watched it & wondered what the hell everyone was going on about. Martinez had all sorts of problems getting his timing down against Cintron but might of pulled it out in the late rounds - but had no problems with a draw. Not a good performance from Martinez, & I'm a bit of a fan of his.
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Think a lot of how various fights get mythologized into blatant robberies is due to HBO riding some fighter they're promoting, or some 'story' they are selling.
Ruben Castillo deserves a mention - won 69 (KO 37) + lost 10 + drew 2.
First title shot was against Alexis Arguello above his natural weight - he was ahead after 8, but got stopped in the 11th.
Next title shot was against Salvador Sanchez - pulled ahead in the middle rounds, but Sanchez closed the gap in the late rounds & won a very hard fought decision.
Got a little patchy after that & was stopped by Julio Cesar Chavez, then lost most his remaining fights before retirement, but Castillo was a very good fighter & would of likely been a solid champion in a lesser era.
PS. agree that Sam Langford was the best.
Some of Golovkin's victories & the reason so many people rank him so highly:
Lucian Bute ; Andre Dirrell ; Daniel Geale ; Matvey Korobov...
Golovkin's amateur record was 345-5, over a time period where there were a lot of extremely good fighters & they fought each other frequently - Golovkin was the guy who came out on top more than any other fighter of the time (although he never got past the incredibly tricky Gaydarbek Gaydarbekov to my knowledge).
While he hasn't yet managed to get any of the marquee names in the pro ranks into the ring yet, it doesn't seem from lack of trying - he chased Sturm for years when they were both promoted by the same people & Golovkin ended up splitting with them over their unwillingness to make the fight - and he has repeatedly stated his desire to fight anyone in the division.
He has however managed to get a pretty solid crop of fighters to face him and his performances against them shows everything you want to see when an up & coming supposedly elite fighter faces good competition, ie. genuinely dominant performances.
Everything in his career so far says Golovkin is the genuine article...
Golovkin is a relatively small natural middleweight compared to many of the others in the division - Rosado was the slightly bigger guy & he was supposed to be a big Jnr. middleweight.
Whereas Ward is a natural light-heavy who has no problems making the 168lb limit due to his discipline & excellent training habits.
He competed at the olympics at light-heavy, & there really isn't any excuse for him to not move up & face guys at his natural weight apart from trying to squeeze a little more money out of the division in some showcase bouts (ie. Chavez Jr).
Ruslan does look vulnerable to the uppercut, which is probably Rios's best punch...
But as a number of people have been saying, Rios has just been in too many tough fights recently to go against an incredibly tough punishing fighter like Ruslan who looks to be the better all-round fighter anyway.
Rios is a genuinely popular fighter and taking a couple of easier fights to build himself back up should be the plan by his management.
A Provodnikov fight now would likely finish his career.
Had some amateur fights on the undercards of professional promotions with a view to maybe trying out the pro game, & one of my trainers was a promoter.
Decided it was too much hard work/risk....
You've got to spend years building up in small shows/undercards with little reward and no guarantee you are ever going to make it to the serious stakes. & make a decent living out of it.
Lot of admiration for the guys that keep at it, but the constant training was too tough for me, so it's more of a hobby these days to keep in shape.
Genuine 50/50 fight - I picked Uchiyama by KO but anything could happen in this one.
HBO should feature Uchiyama in a double-bill with Garcia to get this fight the attention it deserves.
Middleweight was a very deep division with a lot of good fighters that would have likely made champion if Hagler wasn't around, & this went on for a very long time -
Hagler ruled the division for 6 years & was the uncrowned champion for probably 3 before that.
Check out fights with top contenders like Eugene Hart, Kevin Finnegan, Willie Monroe, Bobby Watts, Fulgencio Obelmejias, Mustafa Hamsho, & Tony Sibson.
The utter destruction of Alan Minter, Caveman Lee & others.
Then realize how long Hagler was doing this for.
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Hagler is one of the most complete fighters to ever step in the ring.
Big problem with ground techniques in a street fight?
I was state Judo champ as a junior.
One night I was coming home half sloshed when I was jumped by 2 guys hassling for money.
Automatically threw one, then locked him up on the ground.
The other guy stepped over & repeatedly kicked me in the head.
Street fights are rarely one on one...
Mayfield did an effective wrestling job with Herrera - immediately locked him up, leaned on him & muscled him around, then threw the occaisional shot off the break.
It was very effective in shutting Herrera down, & Herrera didn't respond that well by making adjustments to try & stay on the outside.
Dempsey vs Willard.
Almost a century ago now, but every new generation of fight fans goes digging into the vault of great fights, & every generation goes "Damn, that was most savage thing I've ever seen!"
I have no doubt that fight fans 100 years from now will be saying exactly the same thing...