Boxing updates

By Boxing News - 05/12/2015 - Comments

1-CaneloKirklandFiesta_Hoganphotos6By Bill Gabay: It’s been over a week since the so-called “Fight of the Century” where Floyd “Money” Mayweather defeated Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao via unanimous decision. Many were disappointed with the lack of fireworks in the match. Perhaps even more were disappointed with the outcome as the “People’s Champ” was beaten, and convincingly, by the “bad guy”.

For anyone who follows the sport of Boxing, it was well-known that Mayweather was not going to engage Pacquiao but instead use his superior technical skills and strategy to get the win.

Unfortunately for the viewers at the MGM, at home or at the sports bars, this involved several evasive maneuvers including clinching and moving away from the action frequently.

The blame cannot be put on Mayweather, however, if the fight turned out to be a huge disappointment. He did what he had to do to win. That was the goal. Team Pacquiao – Freddie Roach most of all – knew that Mayweather would “run” and yet, were not able to make the necessary in-ring adjustments to change the direction of the fight. Manny was supposed to “cut the ring” and trap Floyd in the corner. The loss was due to poor strategy or a failure to execute strategy. Or perhaps you simply have to agree with the Vegas oddsmakers and the predictions of most of the celebrities and sports figures before the fight: Mayweather, 47-0 then, held the advantage in size and skill.

To his credit, simply watching replays of his left hand hitting Mayweather flush and backing him up – something that you would rarely see in the sport – Pacquiao demonstrated his quickness and power as well as the fighting spirit that the masses have admired in him. To the public’s dismay, it was probably best not to have divulged a shoulder injury after losing the biggest boxing match in history. A sore loser he appeared to be even in his fans’ eyes. We all wanted and waited (for 12 rounds) to see the footwork, the volume power punches from different angles, the never-ending stamina… and while there were glimpses of his strengths on May 2nd, they were few and far between which resulted in a loss by points.

This past weekend, another superstar was back in the ring. Saul Canelo Alvarez. Touted as the next king of boxing and was headed that way until Mayweather jabbed him back to reality. Alvarez knocked out James Kirkland in the third round.

The fight was definitely action-packed from the moment the bell rang. The excitement was electric. And both fighters did what the promised: go for the KO. It appeared to be what the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight was not: competitive. It was in a position to satisfy the hunger of boxing fans who were disappointed the previous weekend.

But if you knew that Kirkland has been knocked down/out by Nobuhiro Ishida and Alfredo Angulo, you knew that Canelo would bring him down. Canelo was by far the more superior technical fighter and the fight was what it was in the beginning: a great marketing job.



Comments are closed.