| 24 September 2010
Turn that frown upside down, kiddo. Showtime's super middleweight tournament is back on solid footing, with Andre Ward-Andre Dirrell and Arthur Abraham-Carl Froch booked for Nov. 27 and, for some inside-baseball reasons, Allan Green staying in the tourney against someone or the other, giving the winner of that bout a knockout's chance of advancing to the semifinals. What will we panic about now????
Actually, once November and December come, things are looking up for the ol' tempermental beast that is boxing, as a whole. You got your Ward-Dirrell and Abraham-Froch, which, dang, Showtime, why you gotta put that on the same date as Juan Manuel Marquez's lightweight championship defense against Michael Katsidis on HBO? But, OK, better to have three killer fights on one night than none, the way we've had lately. Anyway, also coming up before year's end we have the Paul Williams-Sergio Martinez rematch on HBO on Nov. 20 for the middleweight championship of the world, rightly deemed the second-best fight that can be made in boxing behind only Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather. We got another network duel on Dec. 11, with Showtime airing its bantamweight tournament kickoff with Yonnhy Perez-Joseph Agbeko II and Abner Mares-Vic Darchinyan, plus HBO airing the premium junior welterweight clash between Amir Khan and Marcos Maidana.
Thass a nice stretch of boxing, homes. Too bad it's September.
Let's Quick Jab this out.
Quick Jabs
Alfredo Angulo. Genius pill overdose. Only explanation. He's become so smart he's lapped smart and come back around to not smart. First the junior middleweight turned down a career-high payday for no good reason. Now he has been illegal immigrating all the time, and his American boxing career is in serious jeopardy because of it, according first to Michael Marley and then to Steve Kim. I feel for the guy in a way, because he keeps screwing up. And I love watching him fight. Let's get this one sorted out, huh? Even if it's impossible, and it sounds bad, just do it...
Golden Boy and Top Rank hate each other and this week they hate each other more than before. First Golden Boy filed a lawsuit against Top Rank alleging that it was keeping some of that sweet Manny Pacquiao money from Golden Boy, and while the lawsuit has some compelling details, we don't really have a solid answer from Top Rank yet so let's not rush to judgment. Then, Golden Boy's Oscar De La Hoya made some remarks about Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. maybe being a promotional free agent, which Top Rank's Bob Arum says is not true, so now he's threatening to send some lawyers after that "moron" De La Hoya, which, what De La Hoya said doesn't sound like it crosses that legal line to me, but Arum's right that it's moronic. I'd care more about where all this legal threatening goes and who's right or wrong if my primary emotion about it all wasn't "total annoyance." My frown, on the verge of being turned upside down, just took a halt on its way up there...
The aforementioned Paul Williams got off the devastating line of the week on Floyd Mayweather, currently facing charges of beating up his baby momma (and previously convicted for physically assaulting some other women): "I guess Floyd won't fight me because I don't have a vagina." Ouch. Wow. Way ouch. Nasty. Savage. Vicious. That's a heavy shot landed by P-Will. If you weren't on his team before then, and you're a Mayweather hater, you just got everything you needed...There's a bit more promoter business to attend to here. Heavyweight Odlanier Solis has switched from Top Rank to Don King, just because Top Rank said it doesn't do much heavyweight business these days, so, rare amicable split. We can look forward to Solis not fighting but once a year now and insisting on $1 billion to fight a Klitschko brother, though, because of the way King operates these days. And former 140-pound Ricky Hatton got his boxing license stripped because of his documented coke-snorting but gets to keep being a boxing promoter, which is fine by me; his career is effectively over, anyway, and I support him being able to keep making a living in the sport as a promoter. You'd be surprised to learn that Frank Warren, who turns on everyone who ever dares leave his promotional stable, thought this was a disgrace or something...
The aforementioned Sergio Martinez won't be sparring with Antonio Margarito for Margs' junior middleweight bout with Pacquiao. How'd that get any legs? Martinez would love to get a piece of Margarito to avenge his loss, and there's no reason on Earth that he'd suddenly decide to be a sparring partner for him...
Earlier this week, junior bantamweight Tomas Rojas finally got a win against a top-ranked opponent by decisioning Kohei Kono. I like things like this. Rojas has fought and lost to Vic Darchinyan, Jorge Arce, others. He put up some resistance and flashed some talent, but couldn't get over the hump. Now he's over it. That's great stuff, man...
This weekend ain't got nothin' much going on, boxing wise. Boxing360 debuts its first card this evening, so if you're in New York City, go check it out. On Fox Sports en Espanol Saturday, junior flyweight Roman Garcia (Hirales), who recently upset Johnriel Casimero, fights Manuel Vargas, who got stomped moving up several divisions to face Nonito Donaire, but otherwise has held his own with top guys from 105 to 112. Not a bad scrap. Also not a bad scrap, but not televised: Joey Gilbert vs. Kassim Ouma Saturday in Reno at middleweight. There are a couple GoFightLive cards Saturday, too, with the one featuring middleweight Dominic Wade, featherweight Gary Russell, Jr. and heavyweight Deontay Wilder being the more eye-catching. Lastly Saturday flyweight Daiki Kameda defends his belt and cruiserweight Krzysztof Wlodarczyk defends his belt and his right to only have three vowels in a 19-letter name, five vowels if you sometimes count "y"...
Here's how I'm pretty sure there's nothing to the latest gossip about Khan in the gossipy gossip rags they have over in Great Britain. Look at the first two girls below, Leanne Crow and Katie Price, two girls Khan was supposedly romantically involved with, then look at the third girl, Jennifer Robinson, and tell me how she's not like the others. Most importantly, how crappy are the British tabloids, anyway? Does anyone really care if retired boxers snort coke or if Khan likes girls? I guess it gives me a chance to run these pictures and make jokes, but I really am making them at the expense of the crappy tabloids.
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