By Matthias Predonzan: The very good news for boxing fans is that we saw a very good fight last Saturday night between Saul Canelo Alvarez (49-1-2, 34 KOs) and Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KOs) that lived up to expectations. Emotionally I was very surprised to see Golovkin proclaimed to keep his titles with a 12 round draw against Canelo at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
By Matthias Predonzan: I admit, with no problem, that when I first heard about the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Conor McGregor’s fight, it sounded to me like a joke. Maybe because it is a joke, meaning something not real, something whom purpose is different from what it appears to be.
By Matthias Predonzan: Getting close to Saturday’s night fight between Miguel Angel “Mikey” Garcia (36-0, 30 KOs) and Adrien “the Problem” Broner (33-2, 24 KOs), there is quite a lot of buzz in the media and fans and experts are giving their prediction for their fight on Showtime Boxing at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
By Matthias Predonzan: As could be expected, in their rematch fight, Andre Ward and Sergey Kovalev started from where they had left, with Ward controlling the fight and Kovalev having lost his confidence.
This is quite the standard, when 2 fighters fight a rematch: the best boxer, the one with better boxing IQ takes control of the fight in a more convincing way than in the first fight.
By Matthias Predonzan: FIRST ANTECEDENT: on March 26th 2016, after 12 rounds of emotionally intense and physically harsh fighting, Nick Backwell lost his British middle-weight title to Chris Eubank Jr. The fight was intense but not very competitive, because Nick Blackwell was overwhelmed by his contender’s superior boxing skill.
Unfortunately Nick collapsed just after the final bell and was rushed into the hospital where a bleed in the skull was diagnosed.
By Matthias Predonzan: Modern boxing is – a more than 100 years old sport- and punching contests were fought as early as 5000 years ago, in ancient Iraq.
I guess the same controversies about fights’ results are, therefore, old like the activity itself and probably, they are one of the reasons why this beautiful sport still, beside all, well alive and popular.
By Matthias Predonzan: Miguel Angel “Mikey” Garcia is now definitely back on track to become a top list – lb for lb- fighter, after the brilliant performance he put together in his fight against the Montenegrin puncher Dejan Zlaticanin.
If on one side Mikey’s brother Robert was right, saying that the new Lightweight World Champion was stronger and faster than ever in the new weight class and the two and half years long forced inactivity were not a problem – because Mikey actually never stopped training and sparring – on the other hand it is hard to completely agree with these statements because the level of his opponent was not at elite one.
By Matthias Predonzan: Just a few hours from the fight against WBC Lightweight World Champion, Dejan Zlaticanin, Miguel Angel “Mikey” Garcia is on the verge to regain his spot in the elite level of professional boxing at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
His past promotional issues that kept him away from fighting for more than two years were, similarly to Andre Ward, risking compromising the fighter career and equally important, risking to deprive the sport of boxing of one of his best assets.
By Matthias Predonzan: When I first heard about Ronda Rousey, it was when she was calling out Floyd Mayweather Jr. for a fight. I genuinely believed she was a male fighter. Then I discovered she is an MMA female star and gradually, I became a bit familiar with the sport. I do not know much about MMA. Coming from boxing, I cannot understand the complexity of all the martial arts involved in this specialty and I do not like the way MMA fighters box.
By Matthias Predonzan: Approaching the end of 2016, it is the time for the traditional practice to determine the best and more unique moments in boxing, during the closing year.
This year we didn’t have a “fight of the Century”, like in 2015, with the long waited for – Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao – match.