Archive for September, 2009

Have you ever witnessed a boxing match, watched round after round of punch after brutal punch only to find out that in the end, the fighter who you thought won actually lost on points?  Have you ever asked yourself how a fighter who’s face that after the course of twelve grueling rounds looked more like an over ripe tomato, could actually have gotten the better part of a close split decision?  In 2004, one of my favorite fighters of all time, the left handed beast of the east Manny Pacquiao, after scoring 3 knockdowns in the first round alone, drew even with his opponent on the judge’s official score cards.  I remember the fight vividly, I was a casual boxing fan back then and I recall screaming curses at my TV after the decision was read.  With my heart broken I couldn’t accept it, how could the judges see it differently than I did?  I was convinced Manny had done enough to win the fight, so I grabbed a pen, tore a piece of paper off my college notebook, scribbled the numbers 1 to 12 from left to right and watched the fight replay.  When I was done, I shut off the TV, took a moment to process what I had just witnessed – and understood.  This is when I added the 2^nd fighter to my “favorite fighters list”, Juan Manuel “Dinamita” Marquez. 

Read the rest of this entry »

The heavyweight division in America has fallen off in recent years.  I took a stroll to my local rec. center in San Diego this past weekend and found about 50 men and woman on 4 different courts playing pickup games in basketball.  I walked over and asked if I could get next but they were running 2 games behind so I figured I would just shoot around and chat with a group of 12 old friends I used to go to school with.  We started to talk about sports and the first sport was basketball.   All of the players could more than hold their own when it came to a conversation regarding Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Kobe Bryant, Wilt Chamberlin, etc. The conversation shifted to the coming opening week in the NFL and again all the players could hold their own in a conversation about football.  After an hour or so of talking to them about different sports I decided to bring up boxing and some of the recent & future events, as well as some notable name fighters. Now all of them could tell you who Oscar De La Hoya, Manny Pacquiao, Ricky Hatton, Floyd Mayweather Jr, Roy Jones Jr and a few of them even knew who Sharmba Mitchell is.  One guy tried to convince us all that Joe Calzaghe is going to come back and dominate the Light Heavyweight division.  I knew he didn’t know where he was going with his argument when he said Roy Jones Jr was still the man to beat at LHW since Joe retired.  After talking boxing with the basketball players for an hour or so I realized something…WE HAD NOT TALKED ABOUT ONE HEAVYWEIGHT FIGHTER THIS WHOLE TIME!

Read the rest of this entry »

The heavyweight division has gone down hill as of late. In the post Tyson and
Lewis era the level of competition has fallen to an all time low. Maybe the
heavies have decided to partake in other lucrative sports with less risk and
fewer politics. The quality of fighters is just not there anymore, the Ali’s, Foreman’s, Frazier’s or Tyson’s. Today’s heavies are a crop of mediocre talented, unconditioned, out
of shape fighters looking for a fast ticket to the top and big paydays. No longer
are the heavyweights with beautiful physiques, well conditioned and with the
stamina to go fifteen rounds. No more spectacular knockouts or all out wars .Fighters
today don’t want to, or don’t have to work their way up the ranks for a shot at the
title.

Read the rest of this entry »

We now have just about a week and a half left for what is a much anticipated match. Former pound for pound best Floyd “Money” Mayweather (39-0) will meet Juan Manuel “Dinamita” Marquez (50-4) at MGM Grand in Las Vegas come September 19^th.

Read the rest of this entry »

After reading several articles and blogs in regards to Freddie Roach’s
comments on his fighter Manny Pacquiao I must say that everything counts when you’re in a
highly competitive situation. What most fight fans don’t realize is how the most
competitive part of the fight can actually be the fight negotiation itself.
Manny Pacquiao is currently considered the pound for pound best based on his
performances against two fighters already beaten by Mayweather. He is currently
in a higher profile and anticipated fight against Cotto. However, here’s the
difference. Manny has his own trainer questioning how serious he’s taking the
fight as well as going as far as to saying “This will be the toughest fight of
his life. Mark my words.” (Freddie Roach). His trainer is also saying that in a
fight where most people have him winning by a blowout early, the fight will go
the distance and be extremely competitive.

Read the rest of this entry »

Not anymore, the last few days have been difficult for Freddie Roach, his
younger brother Joey recently passed away and he is dealing with the emotional
pain of the loss. But he is also dealing with a big dilemma, he hasn’t been
able to speak with his #1 fighter for 2 months now and that is a great concern.
The fact that Pacquiao is about to have one of his most challenging fights yet
and Roach has not been able to talk about his training with Pacquiao is
something that all his fans should be worried about.

Read the rest of this entry »