These are exciting times for boxing. There is so much too talk about. Here’s a list of items of what I’ll speak about:
– Haye/Klitschko’s
– Super Six Tournament
– Pacquiao/Mayweather/Mosley
– Pavlik/Martinez
– Light welterweight division
These five things seem to be hot topics within boxing. As usual, I will try to stick to fact and will make it obvious when I’m offering opinion, unlike others who try to offer opinion as fact. I will also try to offer an unbiased opinion.
Haye/Klitschko’s
Firstly, I don’t care what anyone says, David Haye has relit the flame of the heavyweight division. He has created a buzz on the scene, one that’s been missing for years. The good thing about him is he is charismatic, talks some trash, plays mind games, builds up his fights and delivers in them. Don’t’ agree? How many American contenders have we seen they are the man? Chambers, Arreola, Johnson, Rahman to name a few. Critics say he has had four fights at heavyweight, and that these four aren’t the best. He had to beat Valuev to get a title, then had to have his mandatory against Ruiz. Now the world’s his oyster. The best thing about Haye is he is so vunerable and a vunerable champion is better to watch. Haye might be more vunerable, but unlike the Klitschko’s, his fights are exciting to watch because you know that he has that suspect chin he even admits too. Sure, he has flaws, he knows it too, but it helps makes him the most attractive champion out of the three. Against Ruiz, he got hit by shots he shouldn’t have, but this just adds to the excitement and he’s not the safety first fighters the Klitschko’s are.
The Klitschko’s get very little stick for choosing weaker opposition. People are saying Haye should fight big punchers like Solis, Arreola and Peter, but Solis is unproven and the latter two fluffed their chances when they froze and were outclassed against Vitali. Personally, the next fight I want to see for Haye is Ruslan Chagaev because I think it would give us a better indication of how good Haye is in terms of the Klitchsko’s.
I’d like to see the mega fight happen early next year, it will be a huge fight when it happens and a couple more defences for Haye will improve his experience at heavyweight and his credibility as a champion, and this heightens the size of the event. When it happens, and I’m convinced it will, it will be the biggest event since Klitschko vs Lewis.
Super Six Tournament
Things have really spiced up in the tournament. Abraham’s somewhat shock loss to Dirrell has made the tournament very interesting and proves nobody is safe. Certain writers on here have often talked about Dirrell’s flashy hand speed, quick footwork n good timing of punches. These can’t be denied, but what was evident that will perhaps have an effect on his popularity is how unreal the ‘knockout’ of Dirrell was and perhaps sensing he was tired and starting to get hit more, took the easy way out. As a fan, I was highly disappointed because Abraham was coming on strong and the question was could Abraham get Dirrell before it ended. Abraham was very stupid for what he did, but rumour has it that Dirrell is up for a prestigious Oscar for Best Male Actor. The only fact we can take from this is that Dirrell might need to take a second look at his stamina because he was clearly running out of wind.
We look ahead to the Green-Ward fight and the Froch-Kessler fight. Since the upset of Kessler, something I personally didn’t find an upset, I have a feeling Froch might nick this. I see it being very similar to the Froch-Pascal fight, a good, old, 12 rounds of brutual action. I hope so, as much as I appreciate the skills that slick fighters like Dirrell possess, I like to see fighters put heart and chin on the line. As for the Green-Ward fight, I see a 12 round UD for Ward being the most realistic option.
Providing my predictions were correct, that would guarantee Froch and Ward are through. Green fights Kessler in which would be a match for either fighter needing a KO to progress, which still might not be enough if Dirrell overcame Ward and Abraham beats Froch in Nottingham. The only way it would be good enough is if Dirrell lost to Ward and Green or Kessler got the KO which would eliminate Dirrell and the receiver of the KO. If the KO doesn’t come, then a points win would cause a tie. According to Showtime, they say ‘In the event of a tie on points, a tie-break mechanism is in place’ which I can only presume means a fight for the last place in the semi’s.
Pacquiao/Mayweather/Mosley
The three best welterweights in the division now. I don’t think we can include Cotto because since his first loss to Margarito, he’s looked a shadow of himself. Personally, I think we would all like to see a triangle of fights between these three and they would create huge money. As it stands, that could happen, kicking off with Mayweather vs Mosley. Mosley looked great in the ring against Margarito and upsetting the critics. However, that was over a year ago and I’d like to have seen him take a warm up fight before this, just to rid some ring rust.
Mayweather looked great beating the smaller Marquez, making it much more one sided than we all thought it would be. However, in Mosley, he has arguably his biggest opponent since De La Hoya, a fighter that took him the distance and was unlucky not to get the nod in that fight with Mayweather scrapping a split decision.
Pacquaio’s last couple of fights have been good, albeit you could make an argument in every fight. De La Hoya was weight drained, Hatton had wrong tactics and arguably not the same since Mayweather, Cotto hasn’t looked good since his first loss and Clottey claims he had toilet worries during the fight and that’s why he couldn’t do much. However, certainly in the last fight with Clottey, it exposed some Pacquaio’s faults. He got hit far too much, but has a good chin at welterweight. However, if a bigger puncher than Clottey can exploit that, it could be a problem.
I predict a Mayweather win against Mosley, in similar fashion to the De La Hoya fight, I expect Mayweather to feel Mosley’s approach out to begin with before showing his flashy boxing skills to turn the fight and win by a unanimous decision. Will he fight Pacquaio? We hope so, but it doesn’t look likely just yet. If not, why not throw Paul Williams into the mix?
Pavlik v Martinez
This is going to be such an explosive fight! Pavlik has that awesome power coming forward, stand in front of him and he’ll drop you. Sergio Martinez has become one of the most exciting fighters in the light middleweight division and moving up to middleweight.
Pavlik really has a point to prove to most people, since he beat Taylor, he fought Lockett who was well out of his depth, before getting severely outclassed by a forty something Bernard Hopkins, who’s boxing skills and fast hands proved far too much to the point Hopkins was allowed to showboat in what was his most impressive performance for sometime. It is also worth mentioning that when Taylor held the title, he defended it against Winky Wright, Pavlik has come back since then with a neat win over Rubio, but really needs a fighter in his class to look good against. Enter Martinez.
Martinez was on the back burner, always showed potential and unlucky in some fights, but not more than his previous fight against Paul Williams with some feeling he deserved to get the win. What is certain is he gained the recognition for a very good showing of himself. Martinez is a fighter who will get into a very good fight and shows plenty of heart, also showing some good power.
This will be an interesting one, I see either a Pavlik stoppage or a Martinez points win. It’s going to be a great battle that will establish at least one fighter.
Light welterweight Division
So many good stars in this division, Amir Khan, Timothy Bradley, Marcos Maidana, Devon Alexander, Paulie Malignaggi, Victor Cayo, Victor Ortiz, Nate Campbell to name a few. Should a tournament be set up? I hope so, HBO have been interested in making one and I think the time is right to do it.
Some people think perhaps a knockout tournament should be done, but to be honest, I favour what Showtime have done and think a league is better. It’s brilliant that you can watch Dirrell beat Abraham and then look at the league to see how it affects the standings, plus you can then think about how good a fight between Dirrell and Ward is going to be. If the tournament was a knockout, Froch would have advanced and Dirrell goes out. That would have created some controversy to say the least so it was good Dirrell got a second chance to prove himself and some of the fights being made, you can only dream about if it would have happened sooner. Now replace the super middleweights with the light welterweights and I defy any true boxing fan not to drool!
With that said, it appears Timothy Bradley will be fighting Maidana next. This will be a very good fight. I have a lot of faith in Bradley’s boxing abilities, but I feel his chin could be suspect. The man to put my claim to the test could be more tailored for the job. I was impressed with Victor Cayo against Maidana, gave it a real good go and he’ll come back.
Campbell fights Ortiz in what really is a crossroads fight. Ortiz has the potential to do well, but since that Maidana fight, he has been questioned. Campbell is starting to age but we shall see what he can still bring.
Khan fights Malignaggi in his first fight in America. A much tougher fight for Khan than people give him credit for. Khan is very confident about this, but judging Mallignaggi since the Hatton fight, I’ve a feeling this could be very controversial and extremely close. We shall see.
And the man people are now avoiding, Devon Alexander. I’m very intrigued to see his next move now he holds two belts. There are plenty of great fights in this division, but what concerns me is I feel a tournament maybe required to match them up. I hope I’m wrong, but we shall see what happens after all the previously mentioned fights. Ceratinly the best potential of match up lies in this division.
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