(Photo via)

As an evangelical boxing writer and fan, I'm often looking for gateway points wherein people might perk up their interest in their sport, and there's at least a chance -- based on the mainstream news coverage it's been getting -- that the boxing card being put on by Snooki (of "Jersey Shore" fame) this weekend is drawing eyes to the sport that might not otherwise be paying attention.

Within boxing circles, the response to "Team Snooki Boxing" has been largely as a jumping-off point for jokes, and it's hard to blame anyone for that approach. Snooki is kinda silly.

BUT. I thought it was still worth writing a blog post about the quality of the card she's putting on, for those who aren't as familiar with the boxers involved. Consider this something of a preview, written for boxing outsiders.
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Like poor old Jilted John, boxing fans don't have much to do this week. Come to think of it, being a committed follower of the sweet science is a bit like having a girlfriend. Both tend to take up your Friday and Saturday nights. When they're there, you think about how much free time you'd have if they weren't around, but once they're gone you don't know how to fill the hours. Oh well, what are you going to do? “Cry all the way to the chip shop?”

It's not that there's nothing on this week, there's just not very much. Russian junior welterweight fun machine Ruslan Provodnikov is fighting on ESPN, along with Korean fun machine Ji-Hoon Kim. Big night for fun machines. BJ Flores and Cory Spinks are bothing fighting in a mosque in Missouri and Brian Minto is fighting on gofightlive.tv. So in this stretched and twisted boxing/relationship analogy, it's not a week for deep and meaningful conversations, but rather shallow and meaningless fun. That'd probably be the best prescription for Jilted John as well.

• Ruslan Provodnikov vs. David Torres, Friday, ESPN2, Airway Heights Washington. After a loss to Mauricio Herrera and what was generally reported as a gift victory over DeMarcus Corley in Russia, most of us have got used to the idea that junior welterweight Provodnikov will never be anything better than a Friday Night Fights level fighter. That's cool, I'll still tune in to watch you, Ruslan! Probably for the same reasons that you'll never get to that next level; you have no defence to speak of but you always come to throw down. David Torres (21-2-2) has only won one of his last five fights, so you'd have to suspect that this is being set up as a heroic return for Provodnikov (20-1), who was originally meant to be facing Joel Diaz. On the undercard, Korean lightweight puncher Ji-Hoon Kim (22-7) is fighting Ghana's Yakubu Amidu (20-2-1). Amidu is a lengthy, awkward boxer puncher whose main claim to fame is being managed by Vince Vaughn. He might be able to outbox Kim, but carries his hands very low. Kind of a dumb thing to do around a guy with Kim's kind of power. Might be a firefight.
• The Rest. Thanks to alphabet sanctioning body craziness, former lineal welterweight champ Cory Spinks (38-6) fights Sechew Powell (26-3) at the Shrine Mosque in Springfield, Mo. for a shot at Cornelius Bundrage's junior middleweight belt on Saturday. Powell just got KOd by Bundrage so that makes sense, right? Cruiserweight pretty boy B.J. Flores (26-1-1) is on the undercard, fighting a typical B.J. Flores opponent in the form of Hugo Pineda (39-5-1), who last fought in 2008... Cruiserweight brawler turned small heavyweight brawler Brian Minto (35-4) faces Tony Grano (35-4) on Saturday night. It could be a nice little scrap and can be caught on gofightlive.tv... Erik Morales protege Jackie Nava (25-4-3) fights Chanttall Martinez (15-4) in Tijuana on Saturday... Possibly less of a female role model, Snooki of "Jersey Shore" fame is involved with a boxing promotion firm, Team Snooki Boxing, which is doing its first ever show at Resorts Casino in Atlantic City on Saturday. The pay-per-view is only ten bucks, and you can watch it at behindthering.com. So there's that... The second episode of HBO's “On Freddie Roach” documentary series debuts on Friday night.

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NEW YORK CITY -- Lou DiBella kicked butt in the launch of his ninth year of Broadway Boxing. Saturday night at The Roseland Ballroom in New York was one of the best nights of boxing I've seen in a long time. The Roseland is next door to the Broadway house where "Jersey Boys" is playing. So I expected punches punctuated by strains of "Who Loves You" coming through the walls. But the house was reportedly sold out (2,000 or so seats), so it was just as likely the more urbane histrionics next door would be drowned out by howls from the Roseland, and a few HooYahs!! as the audience includes a contingent of West Point cadets in full uniform there to cheer on Boyd Melson (more on this later).

There were two draws, incredible displays of heart, and at least three fights in which one fighter seemed to take more punishment than seemed possible but kept coming anyway. Yes, at least half, if not more of the bouts were one-sided, at least they should have been, but the blue corner came to fight on Saturday night, and remarkably, there was only one stoppage. Club fights are back in 2012.
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David Price made light work of the heavy-set John McDermott on Saturday. In a bout which resembled the type of video nasty available on YouTube (local tough picks fight which trained fist-fighter) McDermott entered the Olympia in Liverpool with a roar and went out with a whimper, chastened by a series of right hands which had him standing sideways three times and rendered him a beaten man within 73 seconds.

McDermott rounded on Price at the bell and tossed a hopelessly optimistic overhead right at his taller foe, a punch which would bring about the beginning of the end only seconds later. As he tried it again, hurling aimlessly with his head down as though in a pillow rather than a prize fight, Price met him with a short counter uppercut that dumped McDermott onto his backside.

After a standing eight count, the pair engaged in a brief skirmish, one which culminated with a clubbing right from Price that landed behind the long shot’s left ear and had him rolling around on the canvas once more. Up again and clear-eyed, McDermott invited referee Howard Foster to pull him out by means of a juddering quickstep, a dance he’d had success with once before in his rerun with Tyson Fury.

No such luck here, though. Foster waved them together again, tempting Price to unleash his old faithful, a textbook one-two which flattened McDermott for a third time. The Horndon man wisely elected to sit out the count, rising at the point it reached 10 and holding out his arms in the most unenthusiastic of protests. Or perhaps he was just looking for a cuddle?

It was a fine win for Price, yet the Merseyside climber desperately needs rounds in order to progress. Social networking forum Twitter exploded in the aftermath with Price’s key rival, Tyson Fury, the main focus. Many shared the opinion that Price would perform a similar demolition on his more celebrated domestic rival; however, say what you will about the garrulous traveller with the questionable technique, the man exhibits character under fire. We still don’t know how Price will respond when he, too, faces retaliation. In that regard, a fight with Fury would be perfect.

Price rolls on to 12-0 (10) while McDermott, tastes his eighth defeat in 34. no comments

(Photo: Tom Casino, Showtime)

Early on in the Guillermo Rigondeaux-Rico Ramos non-fight on Showtime Saturday, the crowd got to booing. They clearly hadn't done their homework if they expected big-time action. Or maybe they got their expectations up after an undercard that had plenty of the stuff.

What they got instead was a main event that began hot and ended with a big body shot by Rigondeaux, and a whole lot of nothing inbetween.

Rigondeaux, the only fighter of the two junior featherweights who could be bothered with even a moment of aggression, came out fast and scored a knockdown that was a semi-push on the back end of a flurry, but whether it was a true knockdown or not is academic: Ramos was hurt, and he wobbled his way out of the 1st round.

After that, the already-tentative Ramos was even more tentative, and Rigondeaux spent the next four rounds himself waiting, waiting, waiting. For what? For Ramos to throw punches so he could revert to his natural counterpunching style? Wasn't going to happen. Ramos managed to land only 15 punches over six rounds.

The 6th round saw this anemic contest come to a close, set up by an odd sequence. Rigondeaux was holding down Ramos' head when he caught him on the top of the forehead with a shot, and Ramos reacted poorly to it, wandering away from the action until the referee instructed him to continue. It wasn't clear if it affected his equillibrium or if the foul bothered him or if he was looking for a way out. Later, he'd say he was dizzy from being hit on the back of the head, but it couldn't have been that, because that's not true.

Rigondeaux went after the discombobulated Ramos at that point, finally scoring a left hook to the body that put Ramos down for the count. Ramos didn't have that pained look on his face so many have when a body shot finishes them off, which means either that he saw this as a chance to end his frustrating night by taking the 10 count or he's the stoic type. But the shot looked legitimately hard to me, too, so maybe "stoic" is the right answer.

Ramos ought to be done with appearing on television after this. He's got some talent and has had his shining moments, but more often than not he's exceedingly dull, never more so than this weekend.

Rigondeaux can, perhaps, be salvaged. He's probably never going to be a hungry, salivating predator, but with the right opponent he can feed off their aggression and at least flashes moments of predatory behavior on his own accord. He's also, clearly, very good, to beat a highly-ranked junior feather in just his ninth pro fight and after amassing a record as one of the best amateurs ever. But as an audition for a fight with Nonito Donaire -- the man he called out afterward -- this wasn't enough to get him the part. no comments

LAS VEGAS -- Keep coming back for updated undercard results, from ringside.
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Derry Matthews wasn’t at the races at Liverpool’s Olympia on Friday. On his big night and in front of his home fans, Matthews was rendered a blood splattered mess after being dropped in round 5 and then stopped against the ropes in round 7. His assailant, Emiliano Marsili, was a far sturdier proposition than anyone had previously imagined. A 5-1 shortender with bookmakers, Marsili set a scorching pace from the off and barely let up all night.
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A Disney PR outreach has made it so this blog (like others) is able to give away a free copy of the "Real Steel" Blu-ray/DVD combo pack -- a film I reviewed mostly warmly here -- to one of its readers. How can you snag your copy via TQBR?

A poetry contest. Yes, a poetry contest. Write a poem about anything "Real Steel"-related. Maybe you write a poem about Hugh Jackman. Maybe you write a poem about Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots. Maybe you write a poem about the movie itself. Basically, whatever I deem the best poem -- whether it rhymes or not is up to you, although I suspect it'll increase your chances of winning if it does -- gets the combo. You have from now until the end of the day Sunday, EST. I'll announce the winner in this space, and that person will then have to give me his or her contact information so I can get the package delivered.

If you don't win the contest, you can buy your copy of "Real Steel" at the stores Jan. 24.

If you want to skip the poetry contest and get right to the news of the week -- from the latest, ceaseless, fruitless Floyd Mayweather, Jr.-Manny Pacquiao posturing to the conundrums posed already by NBC Sports' new boxing series -- that's after the jump.
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Rico Ramos-Guillermo Rigondeaux Friday on Showtime potentially sizes up as an artful, technically adept posefest, punctuated by moments of sudden and extreme violence. It very well could be the "Drive" of boxing. Or maybe it will be one of those things -- a posefest -- or the other -- violence in the extreme. But those are the rhythms of Ramos and Rigondeaux, two ultra-quick and explosive junior featherweights who have a tendency at times to wait for their opponents to seize the initiative, and capitalize off what they do wrong. And then they'll each suprise you with those rare moments where they are supremely aggressive out of nowhere.

We might not know what we'll get out of this oft-rescheduled fight in terms of its tenor, but we know that it is the hardest professional fight of both mens' lives. We know that they are two of the most talented men in a division that could could soon become relevant with the addition of Nonito Donaire. And whether they know it or not, both need to make a statement about how thrilling they can be -- even if their impulses are to defend and counter.

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(David Price, left; John McDermott, right)

The Olympia in Liverpool has a busy schedule on its hands this weekend, playing host as it does to a succession of fight nights commencing Friday. Heavyweight colossus David Price and battle-torn lightweight “Dirty” Derry Matthews will be hoping to make it into the winner’s enclosure surrounded by friends, a feat which has proven problematic for the red half of Merseyside of late. In fact, so blunted has their cutting edge been in recent games, acerbic critics of the city’s most famous football club have suggested that their terrace anthem be amended to “You’ll Never Win At Home.”
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