I'm sorry but LMAO at Shamone Alvarez. Please. Berto is getting crucified by Fatty Rafael for facing V. Ortiz yet Jones gets praised for facing another Canadian farce like Decarie?
As an up and coming fighter when you have as many fights under your belt as M. Jones you should improve your competition with each fight. Decarie is NOT a step up from Soto Karass. Not even close.
To answer your question no I am not going to list my top 75 welters but rest assured that if I did S. Alvarez would not be in the top 50. Maybe the top 75, but not the top 50.
Jones is to the point that he should be looking to really raise his level of comp to make a statement and facing some creation from Canada is not going to do that. Yet Fatty Rafael eats it up with a spoon.
I can't wait until Andre gets another Euro in this tourney and beats his @$$ just like he did Kessler. Then the Euros can come on here and cry even more than they are now.
The blueprint seems fairly simple to me:
1)Beat Cloud
2)Beat Pascal
3)If Pascal lost to Bute, then beat Bute
Game over. He either does it or he doesn't. Regardless, his destiny is still in his hands. If Bute does beat Pascal, and Chad beats Cloud AND Pascal, then Bute is going to have to fight Chad or come off as looking like a ducker deluxe.
he just keepss it real
So every fight they show sucks and involves bum fighters? What is the point then? He lost all credibility with me when he was talking up Mosley's chances pre-fight against Floyd then when Floyd owned his @$$ he started saying Floyd had beaten a shot fighter. You can't have it both ways.
I agree with other comments, I just don't understand why Merchant has to be so damn negative. What purpose does it serve to have Merchant tell the audience after every fight that the fight sucked and so did the fighters? Is that really going to help keep the casual fan coming back for more??
You have toremember..dude has seen some fights that we could not imagine..Ali-Frazier, Hagler-Hearns, Duran-Leonard...you name it he is not going to let the HBO hype blind the truth...this guy has been in the boxing scene long before most of us were even born..he knows when things are changing for the sake of money and he knows when fighter aren't living up to their billing...dude has paid dues we, as fans, could not imagine.
That's all well and good, but at what point does it become counter productive? That's like an NFL color guy watching a Vikings game and saying that Adrian Peterson will never be as good as the great Jim Brown. What purpose does that really serve?
Pascal was getting his @$$ handed to him on a platter in the 11th and anyone that says differently is a complete fraud. Chad has no one to blame for this loss but himself because he had the guy hurt on several occasions (particularly in the 11th) but then would just stop fighting.
Oustanding. Agree 100%. People need to see through Arum's Top Rank exhibition fight BS and stop shelling out their hard earned money to reward him for it.
My humble newbie opinion is that the tax issue could play a big part in this. If he fought Pac in November he would have a MASSIVE tax bill for 2010. But he needs to come out and say something, anything, because he is taking a massive PR hit right now. But perhaps he is the unique type of person that truly does not care what anyone thinks about him. I don't think that's true, however, because he seems to be borderline obsessed with his "0" and his legacy.
I'm not sure why people, including the boxing press, are in such a hurry to write off fighters these days. I'm constantly hearing that this guy is shot or this guy is past it, and most often those labels are applied after 1 poor showing. Cotto got beat up by Pac but then again a lot of people have. The only other fight he's lost was to Plaster Boy. Cotto will dominate this fight.
The difference is Tim is a midget compared to his comp and he ducks to avoid punches while Andre buries his head in the other guy's chest all the time. Headbutts = a part of Tim's stature/height while headbutt's = part of Ward's style and method of winning.
I can see where you're coming from. I will admit that there was one headbutt in the Kessler fight that was a bad one, the one in which Andre ducked his head and charged straight forward into Kessler's dome. However I think to say that Andre doesn't win that fight decisively without that happening is a stretch. There have been quite a few top fighters over the years that have been labeled as chronic head-butters...it's really just a part of the game.
From what I have seen thus far the only way I see anyone other than Ward winning this tournament is if Ward ends up having to fight one of the Euros in Europe. Otherwise, I think Ward takes it home.
As Andre headbutts his way to victory against Dirrell...............
The difference is I won't be paying $50 to see that. And we shall see. People love to cry about head butts. They do the same thing to Tim Bradley.