Mythical Middleweight Madness Part I

By DominatorGavetron - 05/22/2015 - Comments

1-golovkin3 (1)By Denominator Gavetron: As we are now three weeks removed from the epic letdown of the Floyd Mayweather Jr. v. Manny Pacquiao fight, we have had the pleasure of watching some great fighters in equally great fights. If Saul “Canelo” Alvarez’s 3rd round “go to sleep” knockout of James Kirkland wasn’t enough to convince fight fans to keep tuning in, then WBA middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin’s 6th round methodical annihilation of Willie Monroe Jr. resulting in a “No Mas” response to the referee surely did.

Despite these entertaining fights, Mayweather and Pacquiao continue to dominate many of the headlines around the boxing world. Just yesterday there was an article titled “Mayweather still has doubts about Pacquiao’s shoulder injury” that received 200 comments on this very website.

Well at that point I just couldn’t take it anymore. No offense to the author of the story or the sick fans who can’t get enough Mayweather/Pacquiao, but for a fight fan like myself who is a fan of both Floyd and Manny, something had to change. If the same boring, regurgitated stories keep coming up, why not make up some cool stuff. Because of this I decided to combine two of my favorite things, Boxing and March Madness to create the Mythical Middleweight Madness.

Now this story is not completely fictional and there is some history to back it up with the Super Six World Boxing Classic that took place over about 2 and a half years from 2009 to 2011. The tournament ended with Andre Ward 28-0 (14 KO) being elevated to superstar status and unified the WBA, WBC and Ring Magazine Super Middleweight titles. The tournament was such a springboard for Ward’s career that despite only fighting 2 times in the last 4 years since defeating Carl Froch 33-2 (24 KO) in 2011 finale, he is still regarded as one of the most feared fighters and a P4P elite. I chose the middleweight division not only for its list of high profile fighters, but also for its devastating punchers and their entertaining fighting styles. So here we go, the committee of one, after locking himself in a room for hours and hours has come up with the seeding for the Elite Eight.

# 1 Seed:

Canelo Alvarez 45-1-1 (32 KO) from Mexico is one of the most popular boxers in the sport and gave boxing fans the satisfaction they desired after Floyd and Many debacle with his 3rd round knockout of James Kirkland. Alvarez is the former WBC and WBA Light Middleweight Champion. Under the promotion of Oscar De La Hoya, he has risen to the top of the boxing world at the young age of only 24 and is deserving of the top seed. After Alvarez’s 12 round unanimous decision loss to Mayweather he rebounded by finishing off Alfredo Angulo 22-5 (18 KO) in the 10th round and a won a split decision over Erislandy Lara 20-2-2 (12 KO). Canelo’s next fight is unknown, but many believe he is setting himself up for a fight with Miguel Cotto (# 2 Seed) if Cotto is able to defeat Daniel Geale 31-3 (16 KO).

# 2 Seed:

Miguel Cotto 39-4 (32 KO) from Puerto Rico is 34 years old and a 4 division world champion and a Hall of Fame caliber boxer who deserves the top seed but gets the # 2 seed because of his age and inactivity over the last two years. He is currently the WBC lineal and Ring Magazine middleweight champion and by far has faced the stiffest competition of any boxer in the bracket. In his most recent fight, nearly a full year ago, Cotto dismantled Sergio Martinez 51-3-2 (28 KO) and sent him into retirement by knocking him down 4 times (3 in the first round) before Martinez decided not to come out of his corner after the 10th round. Before Martinez, Cotto knocked out Delvin Rodriguez 25-7-4 (16 KO) in the 3rd round after suffering back to back unanimous 12 round decision losses to Floyd Mayweather 48-0 (26 KO) and Austin Trout 29-2 (16 KO) in 2012. Cotto’s next real fight is against Daniel Geale n early June.

# 3 Seed:

Gennady Golovkin 33-0 (30 KO) from Kazakhstan is forcing his way into the discussion of P4P elites with his impressive victories and fan friendly fighting style is the # 3 seed. I only rank him behind Cotto and Canelo because both of them have more big fight experience as professional boxer. Currently Golovkin is the WBA, IBO and WBC (Interim) middleweight champion. Golovkin who had a long amateur career and didn’t turn pro until he was 24 is now 33 years old which makes him the second oldest boxer in the tournament. GGG’s latest victims include Willie Monroe Jr. 19-2 (6 KO) who was knocked out in the 5th round two weeks ago and an 11th round knockout of Martin Murray 29-2-1 (12 KO). If Golovkin could survive the mythical tournament and remain undefeated, he would easily replace Mayweather on boxing’s throne.

# 4 Seed:

Peter Quillin 31-0-1 (22 KO) a 32 year old Cuban, American boxer who fights out of Chicago, Illinois is a former WBO middleweight champion and one of only three other undefeated boxers in the field. In Quillin’s last fight he dropped Andy Lee (# 7 seed) a couple of times early in the fight, but Lee recovered to knock him down later in the fight which ultimately ended in a split decision draw. “Kid Chocoolate” as he is called has a good amount of power and has regularly been able to put other fighters on the mat. He has only fought 4 times in the last 3 years and needs to get in the ring more often to cement his name as one of the middleweight elites.

# 5 Seed:

Erislandy Lara 20-2-2 (12) a 32 year old southpaw who defected from Cuba in 2008 is highly regarded as a slick boxer in the traditional Cuban style and is the current WBA light middleweight champion. Lara was able to remain undefeated through his first 16 fights before suffering a controversial loss to Paul Williams in 2011. Since his loss to Paul Williams he has gone 5-1-1 with a technical decision draw against Vanes Martirosyan 34-2-1 (21 KO) and a split decision loss to Canelo Alvarez (#2 Seed) in the summer of 2014. The fight against Canelo was a competitive one and some believe that Lara should have won, but ultimately he lost because most of his power punches were to the body while Canelo’s power shots were to the head. Lara’s next real fight is against Delvin Rodriguez 28-7-4 (16 KO) in June.

# 6 Seed:

Andy Lee 34-2-1 (24 KO) 30 years old from London, England and representing Ireland is a southpaw with good punching power and a big heart who is the current WBO Middleweight champion. Lee’s only 2 losses were both 7th round TKO’s to Brian Vera 23-9 (14 KO) back in 2008 and to Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. 48-2-1 (32 KO) in 2012. As mentioned earlier, Lee was knocked down by Quillin (# 4 Seed) in the 1st and 3rd rounds only to regain momentum and drop Quillin in the 7th round. The entertaining fight ended in a split decision draw with most people feeling Lee won 7 of the 12 rounds, but the score cards were evened up since he was suffered two knock downs compared to Quillin’s one.

# 7 Seed:

David Lemieux 33-2 (31 KO) a 26 year old fighter from Canada and the former WBC International middleweight champion may be the second biggest puncher in the tournament after Golovkin (# 3 seed) with a knockout percentage of over 88%. After back to back losses in 2011, a 7th round TKO loss to Marco Antonio Rubio (59-7-1 (51 KO) followed by a majority decision loss to Joachim Alcine 35-7-2 (21 KO) Lemieux has not lost. Since those losses, Lemieux has knocked out 7 of his last 8 opponents with those fights lasting an average of just over 4 rounds. In his last fight he beat up Gabriel Rosado 21-9 (13 KO) for 10 rounds before the referee stopped the fight. His next real fight is against Hassan N’Dam 30-1 (17 KO) for the vacant IBF Middleweight title in June.

# 8 Seed:

Demetrius Andrade 21-0 (14 KO) is the second youngest fighter in the field at the age of 26 and the only one in the Mythical Middleweight Tournament who was born in the United States. Although Andrade’s has not faced any other top middleweights, his amateur career is highly decorated. Andrade amateur career was highlighted with back to back titles at the US Amateur Boxing Championship in 2005 and 2006 and National Golden Gloves in 2006 and 2007. He also won the gold medal at the World Amateur Boxing Championships in 2007. On his way to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing he scored a convincing victory of Keith “One Time” Thurman 25-0 (21 KO). Andrade entered the Olympics as a gold medal favorite before losing a controversial fight in the quarterfinals against a fighter from Korea. Andrade last fought in June of 2014 when he finished of Brian Rose 26-3-1 (8 KO) in the 7th round.

So there you go. Analyze the fighters, fill out your brackets and predict your winner. Tune in next week for the result and to find out who will become the Mythical Middleweight Madness Champion of the World.



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