Mayweather-Cotto, Gamboa-Rios – Big fights coming up

By Boxing News - 03/05/2012 - Comments

Image: Mayweather-Cotto, Gamboa-Rios - Big fights coming upBy Jake Headland: With the summer fast approaching us fight fans the world over are looking forward to this years mega-fights. Ok, they’re looking at Floyd “Money” Mayweather and Manny Paquaio to see if they are at last fighting one and another………with the answer of course being no. I am one who still believes this fight will never happen, the problem is that success breeds egotism and when you have the 2 best fighters on the planet there is a lot of success and therefore a lot of egotism!

And if there’s one thing we know about egotistical people it’s that they don’t like to be told what to do, in this case it means that neither fighter (ego) will want to give any ground in the negotiations and both will be looking to gain the edge and the win of the mini battle that is the purse split (Money has already stated that Manny won’t get 50-50). Therefore with the difficulty in the negotiations, Floyd’s imminent jail time and Manny’s increasing interest in politics (not to mention Bob Arum’s lack of desire to put his cash cow in a fight he could and probably would lose) I just cannot see this fight happening.

In fairness to both fighters they have both got a good challenge this year, First we have Floyd on May 5th against Puerto Rican hero and 3 weight world champion Miguel Cotto, one of my absolute favourite fighters and the one fighter (pre-Margarito) who I felt could dethrone Mayweather. However since that fateful night in Las Vegas Cotto has not been the same animal that ripped through 2 weight divisions with sublime hand skills and devastating body punching. Let’s be honest here, we all think Margarito had loaded gloves that night as well and Cotto has since gained revenge but he still looks like someone who’s now slightly afraid to be hit cleanly, and since Floyd hits you cleaner and more accurately than any other fighter on the planet this spells trouble for Miguel.

Moving on to Manny who is finally fighting someone with a winning record and hasn’t already been beaten by Floyd in Timothy Bradley (as much as I love Manny if you look at his record there hasn’t been many fights he’s had recently where the opponent hasn’t lost one of the last 3-4 fights and in many occasions in on a losing streak coming into the ring against him), unbeaten in 28 fights and the former WBC and WBO light welterweight champion of the world, a fighter with great skills and defensively very good (some say the perfect pre-Floyd opponent) he comes to the ring with lots of confidence, I do believe however that “Desert Storm” will not have the punching power to keep the Pac Man at bay and will therefore be on the back foot the whole fight and in Vegas against a guy who throws as many punches as Manny that will a very hard fight to get a decision in (just ask Juan Manuel Marquez).

So we move on (even though the fight is before them 2) to what I believe will be the fight of the year, 2 prime, unbeaten, hard hitting, genuine bad ass knockout artists collide on 14th April in a fight that surely can’t go 12 rounds! I am of course talking about the extremely intriguing Yuriorkis Gamboa and Brandon “Bam Bam” Rios clash for the vacant WBA Lightweight title (yes this is Rios’s title that he lost on the scales against John Murray in his last outing). Gamboa comes to the ring at 21-0 with 16 KO’s and a former Olympic gold medallist and WBA and IBF Featherweight world champion, a fighter with sensational speed and power in both hands. Standing on the other side of the ring you have Brandon Rios, 29-0 with 22 KO’s, former WBA Lightweight champion and again a fighter with great punching power.

There are 2 conflicting opinions about this fight, one being that Rios will be too big for Gamboa as the Cuban will be moving up not 1 but 2 weight divisions and Rios is a big Lightweight who may even struggle to make the weight (again). The other opinion is that Gamboa’s hand speed and superior boxing skills will counter the weight difference and make him the favourite, which is the opinion I also share.

I believe that Floyd and Manny will both win quite comfortably and have everyone again wondering just what if they sign to fight only to disappoint us all again, however they will both be good fights and along with the Rio vs Gamboa fight and not to mention Froch vs. Bute, Khan vs Peterson and the possibility of David Haye getting a fight against Vitali Klitschko, we are in for a great summer of boxing.

Jake.headland@yahoo.co.uk



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