Because I haven't had too many ganders at Manny Pacquiao's hoops game, I was pleased to watch this video -- even though that Elie Seckbach guy and his film "crew" (in this video and others) spend a bit too much time for my tastes asking people what they think of Elie Seckbach. Pacquiao's got a hitch in his jumper with that little kick, and I'm not sure why he was overdribbling so much on the perimeter in that one scene, and I'm guessing he doesn't take it to the basket that often because he's worried about rolling an ankle, but it's clear he can hit those threes. I'd want him on my team, although I'd prefer him to pass it to me every now and then, and that's clearly no guarantee. Anyway, good fun.

That's that, then. There are other Quick Jabs that await, like some news about the trainer carousel, an update on the TQBR App, fights in the works for Ivan Calderon, Joseph Agbeko and others, plus a bit more besides.

What's the best heavyweight fight you've seen lately? Chris Arreola-Brian Minto, maybe, in December? Martin Rogan-Matt Skelton, perhaps, back in March? Fun fights, both. But of negligible consequence.

Consequence in the heavyweight division -- we've had a little of that, too. Wladimir Klitschko-Ruslan Chagaev last summer for the Ring magazine lineal championship had meaning. Klitschko-Sultan Ibragimov in 2008 had some meaning, if you care about alphabet title unification fights. But both fights were boring to the point of catastrophe.

So it's mildly good news that for the first time since Lamon Brewster-Sergei Liakhovich in 2006 -- by my memory's tally -- we'll get a heavyweight fight that shapes up on paper as having both meaning and thrills. Arreola is set to rumble April 24 with Tomasz Adamek, with the official announcement expected Friday. Arreola is the #6 heavyweight in the Ring rankings, and Adamek is the cruiserweight champ who's won two good fights as a heavy. Each of them have skill, and each of them are action stars who have been in wars that warranted Fight of the Year consideration.

I say mildly good news because... think of it this way: Is heavyweight the only division where you can get both good and meaningful fights once every four years? Admittedly, that's not quite the rate -- Lennox Lewis-Vitali Klitschko was in 2003, so let's round it up to once every 3.5 years -- but it's not encouraging. Run down the divisions mentally and I bet you can think of meaningful action fights in every division, except maybe strawweight, at least once a year or once every other year.

Dan P. and Scott Kraus recently convinced me in a discussion in the comments section that the heavyweight division is probably on an upward arc more than a downward one. Yes, the Klitschko brothers both still rule the division with a ruthlessly numbing albeit efficient use of exceptional height and the know-how for employing it, and there's no evidence that they'll stop mowing down everyone in the weight class anytime soon. But there's a second tier of pretty good heavyweights who aren't so giant-sized and often are quite fun to watch, like Arreola, Adamek, David Haye, Alexander Povetkin and some others. Many of them are young and have their best years ahead of them.

So as happy as I am to have a good fight like Arreola-Adamek lined up, and as much as I'm tempted to think, "Maybe this is the fight that starts the turnaround of the division," I'm not going to. For one, maybe it doesn't end up being as good as it looks on paper -- Adamek's relatively untested at heavyweight, and he may want to play keep-away from Arreola's power, for instance. But for another thing, every time I've gotten optimistic about the heavies, they've let me down.

For now, I'm simply going to be happy that the big boys are hosting a corker of a bout between quality boxers. Sometimes, a good and meaningful fight is nothing more than a good and meaningful fight, however rarely it may come in the division that once was almost synonymous with the sport.

It's been a slow start to 2010 as far as meaningful fights go, but it's hot on the knockout front.

For your viewing pleasure, I provide you the following:

Kevin Mitchell-Ignacio Mendoza (lightweight) -- Observe how Mitchell over the weekend lifted Mendoza off the ground with that right hand/left hand combo.

Nonito Donaire-Manuel Vargas (junior bantamweight) -- A mismatch, but I love the hippity-hoppity move, followed by the left uppercut, also from this past weekend, on the Top Rank pay-per-view. Not so hot quality footage.

Freddy Hernandez-DeMarcus Corley (welterweight) -- Corley's collapse was epic. From two weekends ago on Showtime's ShoBox.

Ed Paredes-Joey Hernandez II (welterweight) -- Everyone's favorite so far, I think. From ESPN2's Friday Night Fights, Feb. 5.

Guillermo Rigondeaux-Adolfo Landeros (junior featherweight) -- Another mismatch, which makes it less awesome, but I love body shot KOs. Same night as Paredes-Hernandez II.

Roman Karmazin-Dionisio Miranda (middleweight) -- The late-fight comeback made it stand out, but it was pretty solid out of context, too. From FNF on Jan. 8.

There we have it. Our prediction game's trial run has ended just as it began: with Team Spidershark doing a little of what Paul Williams trainer George Peterson would (creepily) call the "spank butt business."

I promised the winner of the trial run a (very) small prize. Besides the big name in the headline, I've decided to make that prize one of the highest honors one can obtain at TQBR: The picture below, which also happens to have a tie-in to TSS' team name.

So everyone congratulate Team Spidershark.

Also, everyone ought to throw some congrats out to the man who won 2nd place -- Alexmac, who came within 100 points of tying for the #1 spot. By my tally, only TSS and AM went six for six in their predictions.

A "congrats of the week" ought to go to The Queensberry Fools, as team captain Eugene Dammrod got the maximum possible points -- 1300 -- for accurately calling the precise manner in which bantamweight Eric Morel and featherweight Bernabe Concepcion would defeat Gerry Penalosa and Mario Santiago, respectively, PLUS he got the upset call for picking Concepcion.

I went with Graham Houston's numbers on who the underdogs were, and this was a good week to pick up upset bonus points, since both fights were very evenly matched. Nineteen people picked Concepcion for the successful bonus points hookup; only four people got the exact results right for either of the fights, though.

So here's the deal going forward: The prediction league idea was enough of a success that we'll do it again -- although from the standpoint of ongoing viability, it was worrisome to me that some people made predictions sometimes and not others -- only we'll do it for 12 fights instead of six. That'll give everyone more time to play catch-up if they get behind, or to screw up if they're one of the geniuses who got every call right this time 'round.

We'll also modify the points structure just a little, to give, say, 50 points to anyone who accurately calls whether it'll be a KO or a decision. And I expect the winner of the 12-rounder will get an actual, real, substantial prize. (Chris, I ain't forgot you on that Ali poster from the contest you won -- I just am slow in delivering.)

When things start up again -- probably for the Feb. 27 Marvin Sonsona-Wilfredo Vazquez, Jr. junior featherweight bout -- I'll remind you of all this stuff. Any other suggestions on how we can make this all more fun?

For now, here are your final standings; alert me to any errors, please, and I'll adjudicate:

It was a tale of two nights in the four fights on the split Pinoy Power/Latin Fury pay-per-view Saturday. In the main events, featuring the two top fighters of the evening, junior bantamweight Nonito Donaire and bantamweight Fernando Montiel, said featured fighters slaughtered the two opponents who didn't belong in the ring with them.

In the two most evenly-matched fights of the night, between bantamweights Eric Morel and Gerry Penalosa and featherweights Bernabe Concepcion and Mario Santiago, Morel and Concepcion pulled out close fights that were closer than some of the scorecards indicated (although all four fighters could've afforded to put their foot on the gas in a bid to make the fights less close). Boxing loves itself some "defensible result/indefensible scorecards" these days. It's hooked on it. I can't understand why. It makes me want to buy a hammer and hammer my head until I'm so stupid I don't care anymore.

Final score between the Pinoys and the Latins: 2-2.

Mr. Tyrone Harris (left) is back on the teevee tonight, coming off his upset knockout win over lightweight prospect Marvin Quintero (right) in 2009. His team says Harris finally found his focus, so let's see if it carries over on ESPN2's Friday Night Fights this evening when he takes on another 23-year-old, power punching Ji Hoon Kim. Other than the Pinoy Power/Latin Fury pay-per-view, it's about the only thing happening over the next few days, although the next episode of Showtime's documentary series on its Super Six tournament debuts Monday night, too.

That leaves us with the Quick Jabs in the headline, plus others besides. Like the ongoing saga of the boxing kangaroo flag, the latest news of trouble for Antonio Margarito, Evander Holyfield and Jorge Barrios, what Manny Pacquiao and Sen. Dianne Feinstein have to do with one another and all sorts of other fights that are in the works. And more.

We spend a lot of time in this space commenting on how HBO is using or should be using its considerable power in boxing. I think we can safely tuck its serial counterprogramming of Showtime's innovative Super Six tournament under "shouldn't be using its power that way."

I get it; HBO and Showtime are in competition. But they are players in the same sport. And contributing to the overall health of that sport helps both networks. So while the attention received by Showtime's super middleweight tournament upstaged HBO, and it surely stung in HBO headquarters, it does HBO no good to put on boxing shows on the same night of Super Six fights. Which it is doing each of the next two occasions that present themselves.

Make mistake: HBO is cannibalizing the sport in order to make a bully move. It's cannibalizing its own audience, in fact. There's no way its March 6 show pitting Devon Alexander against Juan Urango in a junior welterweight fight will get the ratings going against Showtime's Arthur Abraham-Andre Dirrell that it would if it was going against lesser competition Feb. 27 or March 20, the nearest available dates where neither network has any programming.

It's pulling the same bully move April 17, when it plans to put on a middleweight fight between Kelly Pavlik and Sergio Martinez teamed with a super middleweight fight between Lucian Bute and Edison Miranda. That'll go against the long-scheduled Showtime Super Six doubleheader of Carl Froch-Mikkel Kessler and Andre Ward-Allan Green -- unless Showtime moves its show one weekend later to avoid the HBO doubleheader, to April 24, when HBO is planning to put on a heavyweight fight between Chris Arreola and Tomasz Adamek. Either way, HBO's ratings will suffer for competing against the Showtime offering.

It's not that I don't think HBO has a valid interest in winning some kind of competition against Showtime. I just happen to think there's a better way to do it. HBO could instead offer on a different weekend its doubleheader hyping the idea of the winner of Bute-Pavlik being the true boss at super middleweight, not the winner of the Super Six tournament. Does it undermine the Showtime tournament? If it's a good show, yeah, it does. If Bute and Pavlik prove they're better than anybody in the Super Six tournament, yeah, it does. It tells people that no matter what happens at Showtime, HBO is the joint to subscribe to for boxing. What's sad is that the Bute/Pavlik show is a good show, and it might be a better show than the Showtime offering that night. It could just the same upstage the Showtime offering the week before as it could the week of. Instead, it's going to kill the audience for both shows, or, at minimum, kill the audience for both shows on April 24.

And it's not like HBO just plays this game with Showtime. It has a history of doing this counterprogramming stunt with the UFC, too, even though there are plenty of dates to go around for both mixed martial arts and boxing, as it's doing May 1 with the Floyd Mayweather-Shane Mosley welterweight pay-per-view, a date the UFC had reserved for a while. Given the option between luring a diehard UFC fan to boxing on a night when there's no UFC show or going head to head with the UFC and forcing said UFC fan to side with his or her historical allegiance, HBO has opted to put a show on the same date as the UFC. Rather than lifting all fight sports' ratings, it chose to diminish ratings for both boxing and MMA. (The UFC moved its show to the next weekend in response. Increasingly, I find myself agreeing with UFC boss Dana White: "We were trying to not go the same night as boxing but these [expletive] guys can't get out of their own way," White told Cagewriter. "I have never seen anything so unorganized, selfish and dysfunctional as boxing. It's a joke!")

HBO's real goal here is to scorch the earth to the degree that Showtime doesn't try anything ambitious like the Super Six again, its own ratings be damned. In boxing, there's just too much "I'm going to piss all over everything rather than get ahead on my own merits" going around these days. This bullying hurts everyone, including HBO, Showtime and most especially the boxing fan who has to choose between two shows. It's not brilliant. It's idiotic.

I can tell you what I'm going to do in response to these shenanigans: DVR the HBO shows on both nights and watch the Showtime offerings live. I'm not sure my little drop in the ocean will do much to sway HBO from pulling this junk, but it's all I can do. Maybe you'll consider doing the same.

(Information for this entry pulled from a BoxingScene article that I caution you not to click on if you hate getting computer viruses, and from ESPN's boxing schedule.)

(Boxing is afraid of an event where people alternate between skiing and shooting rifles.)

There ain't jack happening in boxing because HBO is scared of the Winter Olympics. However, there are a ton of plans being made for the days when pugilism no longer cowers in fear at the thought of competing against curling, luge and biathlon. (Kudos to Jake Donovan on a great column on that, but visit BoxingScene at the risk of acquiring more spyware than you wanted.)

So instead of saving it all up for Friday's Quick Jabs column, what say we go Round and Round right now to look at fights in the works. Besides the folks in the headline, we have news on Andre Berto, Glen Johnson, Ali Funeka, Steve Molitor, Erislandy Lara, Victor Ortiz and others.

This weekend's Pinoy Power card features in its main event one of the two finest Filipino boxers in the world, junior bantamweight Nonito Donaire (second only to Manny Pacquiao), but alas, he's in something of a mismatch on paper. Gerson Guerrero is a heavy hitter, but he doesn't have a single win of note and he's lost to the only highly-ranked fighters he's fought. Donaire, three years after his star-making performance against Vic Darchinyan, hasn't had a marquee fight since then yet, and by that I mean a fight against a fellow elite boxer or against a boxer who has a big name -- and while Donaire's team is talking about fighting Jorge Arce and a sequel with Darchinyan in 2010, we've heard that all before.

Fortunately, the undercard of Pinoy Power 3 -- technically, the card is named Pinoy Power 3/Latin Fury 13, what with Pinoy fighters going up against Latin fighters -- features at least two significant, competitive fights on paper. Eric Morel and Gerry Penalosa are two elder statesmen bantamweights, with Penalosa holding a title strap in the division until last year. Mario Santiago is rated #6 at featherweight by Ring magazine, and Bernabe Concepcion has the potential to be a top-10 talent. Morel-Penalosa stacks up as a meeting of sharp boxers on the verge of one last title shot. Santiago-Concepcion stacks up as the better scrap of the two, and the winner gets a second chance at a title shot. (I'm not sure if Fernando Montiel-Ciso Morales at bantamweight will be competitive, given Montiel's periodic shakiness and Morales' inexperience.)

Hey boxing, let’s see some upsets, huh? Four fights into the Prediction Game at TQBR and we haven’t seen an underdog prevail yet. Keeping with that theme of winners winning, Spidershark continued his run of impressive prescience, holding onto the top spot in the rankings for the second update in a row.

(The Mayans may ultimately be correct about the outcome of the world but I suspect it will happen much later in the fight, so no bonus points.)

While Spidershark got the winners right this week, he was less accurate in his exact predictions. Alexmac and Arthur Billette both saw the finish of the Edwin Valero fight coming in round 9, enough for Alexmac to move into a tie for second place with BigMaxy. Arthur went with Yusaf Mack over Glen Johnson, leaving him tied for fourth.

Irvin Ryan was closest to predicting the Johnson knockout by anticipating an eighth-round stoppage, as most saw the fight going into the late rounds. However, he stands tied with Arthur for fourth as he expected Antonio DeMarco to provide a stiffer test for Valero.

The 22-player logjam for third place that we saw in the last standings update has cleared significantly. Eight players now stand tied for third, having predicted the winner correctly in each fight without the precision of those at the top of the list.

If you opt to use a team name, please use it every time. I am personally guilty of not doing this once, so no hard feelings, but compiling the scores is exponentially more difficult if names are confused. Also, please note the time stipulations for submitting your picks. Picks need to be in by 11:59 PM EST the day before the fight to assure no funny business.

Your standings below; if you see any tabulation errors, notify me and we can adjudicate:

no comments