Boxing, anyone?

[FoodNetwork]

Anybody catch the "Thunder From Down Under" beat the crap out of Sharba Mitchell on Saturday? The real, undisputed 140lb champ is back!

[PlsDontTearDownY.S.]

I didn't see the fight, how did it go? Was it an all out a** woopin?

[RIyankee]

I love boxing. Unfortunately, I don't get a chance to watch it as much as I used to.

[English Yankee]

Yep. He battered him. I want to see Tszyu, Gatti, Mayweather and Hatton matches made now. Miguel Cotto is on this level at 140 too. 140 pounds seems to have the most world class performers of any of the divisions right now.

[JeffWeaverFan]

I love boxing but missed that match.

[FoodNetwork]

Tszyu v. Gatti will not happen. Kostya is tied to Showtime and Gatti to HBO, and the only time two rival network fighters have fought were Tyson and Lennox, which apparently was a financial and logistical mess for all parties concerned.

Mayweather has a contract with HBO, but I think he only has a fight left on the deal.

Everything seems to point to either Vivian Harris, which wouldn't be a mega-fight, or Hatton, which could be if it took place In Manchester England.

Tszyu could cement his legacy by moving up to 147 and beat on Cory Spinks and become the undisputed welterweight champion; Cory isn't tied to any network.

[PlsDontTearDownY.S.]

Originally posted by English Yankee
Yep. He battered him. I want to see Tszyu, Gatti, Mayweather and Hatton matches made now. Miguel Cotto is on this level at 140 too. 140 pounds seems to have the most world class performers of any of the divisions right now.

Miguel Cotto, the next great Puerto Rican champ. I love the way he fights. He's a bull.

[PlsDontTearDownY.S.]

Anyone see the Wright/Mosley fight? It was good. No knockdowns, but lots of punches. Shane should have never left 135, his punching power doesn't register as a middleweight. He would have gone down as one of the all time greats if he would have stayed fighting at 135.

[JeffWeaverFan]

Originally posted by PlsDontTearDownY.S.
Anyone see the Wright/Mosley fight? It was good. No knockdowns, but lots of punches. Shane should have never left 135, his punching power doesn't register as a middleweight. He would have gone down as one of the all time greats if he would have stayed fighting at 135.

Yep, I watched the fight. I was actually somewhat impressed with Mosley in this fight although I definitely think he lost. My friend lost $100 betting on Mosley getting 2 to 1 odds. He wasn't pleased. I'm excited for Barrera Morales III.

[PlsDontTearDownY.S.]

I got Morales in this fight, I hope it's like the first one, what a fight that was. So far, the wrong guy won both fights. Let's see what happens.

[English Yankee]

Barerra/Morales three was good but nothing like the first except for a moment or two here and there. Pleased to see Barrera back again. Looks like there'll be a fourth and fifth now.

[English Yankee]

Klitschko versus Williams tomorrow night. Intriguing fight that I'm looking forward to. I'm going to predict a massive upset here, with Williams winning, just because Klitschko is such an overwhelming favourite and it's all been big upsets lately.

[PlsDontTearDownY.S.]

No way. Vitali took the era's greatest heavyweight to the limit, Lennox Lewis was getting smacked against Klitchko, those cuts saved him.

[English Yankee]

Almost certainly Klitschko will win. I just have a feeling for the other guy for some reason.

[PlsDontTearDownY.S.]

The heavyweight division needs a unification tournament in the worst way. That and a couple of rivalries and personalities like you have in the lower weight classes.

[English Yankee]

Oh well, looks like we have a charisma free zone as heavy weight champ for a while.

[FoodNetwork]

Originally posted by English Yankee
Oh well, looks like we have a charisma free zone as heavy weight champ for a while.

His English may be poor, but his fists and the way he pummels people are entertaining as hell!

I find it odd that Lennox Lewis was at the Corrie Sanders fight as a spectator and tonight's fight as an analyst for HBO. While he's publicly stated he's retired, I think he's coming back next year to fight Vitali in a huge PPV event. Most likely a pipe-dream, but who knows...

While needed, a heavyweight tournement that includes Vitali won't happen because Don King has no promotional control over him. I could see Hasim Rahman fight Lamon Brewster for the WBO title, then take on Vitali in the fall of '05.

[PlsDontTearDownY.S.]

He's the uncharismatic champ of one boxing organization. The other two are still out there...and if you ask a casual New York sports fan who the heavyweight champ is, he won't know. It used to be, everyone knew who the champ was. The heavyweight division needs to get back to that in the worst way.

[English Yankee]

Some observations.

Lewis is past it. He spends most of his time getting stoned on his homegrown on his Jamaican estate. He's got a hundred million in the bank. He was a fat out of condition forty year old who nearly lost to Klitschko when he fought him last time, and the odds haven't improved on a Lewis victory with the passage of time. He isn't coming back ever.

Klitschko will flatten any of the other guys out there right now. There's no one else in his class and you won't see people queuing up to try and get past that gigantic reach advantage he has, especially when they're almost all relative midgets like Byrd/Holyfield. It would be an act of cruelty to put someone like Ruiz in with him.

His English is pretty good, he just has the most boring safety first style that makes Lewis look adventurous. Because he has such a massive reach advantage, he can just jab on the back foot and avoid all trouble. When anyone tries to get close to him, he has an accurate wrecking ball right. He holds the legitimate linear version of the title and will hold it as long as he wants, judging by the competition right now. This is bad for all boxing, as the heavyweight division is the flagship, and if it's poor, which it really is right now, then all boxing suffers as a consequence. Here's hoping at least one outstanding heavyweight comes along, and soon.

[RhodeyYankee2638]

Originally posted by English Yankee
Klitschko versus Williams tomorrow night. Intriguing fight that I'm looking forward to. I'm going to predict a massive upset here, with Williams winning, just because Klitschko is such an overwhelming favourite and it's all been big upsets lately.

I was watching the PPV previews for the fight. They are REALLY hyping Williams cause he knocked out Tyson. Does anyone really think he is that good

[FoodNetwork]

Originally posted by English Yankee
Some observations.

Lewis is past it. He spends most of his time getting stoned on his homegrown on his Jamaican estate. He's got a hundred million in the bank. He was a fat out of condition forty year old who nearly lost to Klitschko when he fought him last time, and the odds haven't improved on a Lewis victory with the passage of time. He isn't coming back ever.

Klitschko will flatten any of the other guys out there right now. There's no one else in his class and you won't see people queuing up to try and get past that gigantic reach advantage he has, especially when they're almost all relative midgets like Byrd/Holyfield. It would be an act of cruelty to put someone like Ruiz in with him.

His English is pretty good, he just has the most boring safety first style that makes Lewis look adventurous. Because he has such a massive reach advantage, he can just jab on the back foot and avoid all trouble. When anyone tries to get close to him, he has an accurate wrecking ball right. He holds the legitimate linear version of the title and will hold it as long as he wants, judging by the competition right now. This is bad for all boxing, as the heavyweight division is the flagship, and if it's poor, which it really is right now, then all boxing suffers as a consequence. Here's hoping at least one outstanding heavyweight comes along, and soon.

Good point about Lewis; it just seems odd that whenever Vitali fights, Lewis is sitting in the front row. Yet I wouldn't characterize Vitali as having a boring style. He was aggressive against Lewis, Kirk Johnson, and Corrie Sanders, and has shown the courage to take a punch in order to give one in return.

There are a couple of fights out there that I'd want to see. Vitali v. Rahman would be a decent one, since Hasim has regained form and was the last to legitimately beat Lennox. If Glen Johnson gets past Antonio Tarver, he looks like he could bulk up a bit and give it a go.

Nonetheless, boxing seems to be healthier than its been in some time. Kostya Tszyu and Tito Trinidad are back, Arturo Gatti fights next month, along with Floyd Mayweather. Jermain Taylor showed that he's ready to fight for a championship. A rematch between Pac-man and Marquez should happen in March, along with a return of Fernando Vargas. If the money's right, something will give in the heavyweight division, and we'll find out who the true champ is.

[English Yankee]

Originally posted by FoodNetwork


Good point about Lewis; it just seems odd that whenever Vitali fights, Lewis is sitting in the front row. Yet I wouldn't characterize Vitali as having a boring style. He was aggressive against Lewis, Kirk Johnson, and Corrie Sanders, and has shown the courage to take a punch in order to give one in return.

There are a couple of fights out there that I'd want to see. Vitali v. Rahman would be a decent one, since Hasim has regained form and was the last to legitimately beat Lennox. If Glen Johnson gets past Antonio Tarver, he looks like he could bulk up a bit and give it a go.

Nonetheless, boxing seems to be healthier than its been in some time. Kostya Tszyu and Tito Trinidad are back, Arturo Gatti fights next month, along with Floyd Mayweather. Jermain Taylor showed that he's ready to fight for a championship. A rematch between Pac-man and Marquez should happen in March, along with a return of Fernando Vargas. If the money's right, something will give in the heavyweight division, and we'll find out who the true champ is.

But his style doesn't sell tickets or PPV and that's because the potential boxing public want to see someone who tries to take his opponent's head off with every punch, like Tyson. They want their heavyweights to be more gladiatorial, and safety first styles like Lewis and Klitschko send them to sleep. The rest of the boxing scene is pretty good, but the heavy weight division needs to be good for boxing to maintain its overall public interest. Unfortunately no one really cares who's the best out of the current bunch, as the big empty spaces on Saturday night showed. When Tyson was in his prime, tickets were hard to get. Now they practically give them away for some heavyweight fights.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/13/sp...3anderson.html
Don is going to try and make a silk purse out of the current bunch, good luck to him.

[FoodNetwork]

I'll look forward to the fight between Klitschko and Rahman in April. If Hasim wins, then we'll definitely see a tournament, because Don will own the paper of all 4 champions.

I'll be interested to see what the PPV number is for this weekend's card. It seems most unusual to have a bunch of PPVs bunched up as we've had lately. HBO is banking on Vitali being a decent PPV draw, but if the seats were empty like you said, then it doesn't look good.

I guess I'm more easily entertained by the heavyweight division than most fans.

[PlsDontTearDownY.S.]

You have to check out the Arturo Gatti/Jesse James Leija welterweight title fight. Two warriors, and two of the classiest fighters in the sport. You will like this one, it's not heavys, but I guarantee you there will be way more action than any heavyweight fight. January 29 on HBO.

[FoodNetwork]

You have to check out the Arturo Gatti/Jesse James Leija welterweight title fight. Two warriors, and two of the classiest fighters in the sport. You will like this one, it's not heavys, but I guarantee you there will be way more action than any heavyweight fight. January 29 on HBO.

I agree! Gatti never fails to entertain and Leija looked good against Ponchito Bojado. Should be a good fight in arguably the best weight class in boxing.

There are some good fights to look forward to in 2005:

Spinks/Judah II
Johnson/Tarver II
Diego Corralez/Jose Luis Castillo
Floyd Mayweather's return
Tszyu/Hatton??
Lennox/Vitali II???
Hopkins/Tito II
Oscar back at 147lbs
Pac-man/Marquez II