|
|
|
||
|
|
|
|
| |
|||
| Friday, December 19 |
|||
| Looking ahead to 2004 By Steve Kim Maxboxing.com | |||
|
By the time Bernard Hopkins had put the finishing touches on his tortuous 12-round decision over William Joppy in the very early hours of Sunday morning, long after Ricky Hatton had out-hustled Ben Tackie, the doors officially closed on 2003 when it comes to fights on the premium networks.
But as we close the book on this year, we can open up another and look ahead to how the first quarter of 2004 is shaping up. And some of the events of this past weekend had a direct effect on what we'll be seeing in the upcoming months:
This is the first of Showtime's new foray into 'one-offs' where they show fights with no multi-fight agreements and promise of future fights to those involved. But it is ironic that Freitas-Grigorian is actually the last off a multi-fight agreement between 'Popo' and Showtime that has seen the Brazilian and his promoter Artie Pellulo milk Showtime dry with a succession of uninteresting match-ups.
Perhaps it was this deal that spurred Jay Larkin into his networkıs new philosophy: great fights, no rights. This bout is nowhere near great but in comparison to what Freitas has faced post-Casamayor, Grigorian (a longtime WBO champion) is by far his most accomplished foe. But this isn't even the best fight on this telecast.
That honor would go to Candelo-Ouma, a battle of world-class jr. middleweights looking to position themselves for title shots. Candelo is one of the sportıs most improved performers and Ouma is an undefeated prospect who has steadily gotten better and makes for good fights.
HBO will tell you that they don't care about these supposed bogus world titles but then why are they accepting the unknown Branco if not for the vacant WBC jr. welterweight title being at stake? Regardless, Gatti always makes for great television no matter who he fights and perhaps he does deserve a 'gimme' after his brutal trilogy with Micky Ward.
Bojado seems to have bounced back nicely since his shocking loss to Juan Carlos Rubio in February of 2002, and he just recently avenged that loss last month. Now, he takes on the veteran Leija who has put together a modest winning streak.
Some in the biz are dubbing this show 'White Guys Can't Fight' and you'd have to think that Bob Arum will be going 2-0 against King's men on this night in Phoenix, Arizona.
Both Margarito and Marquez are among the best at their respective divisions, their opponents however are not and look over-matched.
OK, this is what Larkin had in mind with his new plan. This is probably the most intriguing doubleheader of the new year so far. First from Moscow, Russia we have Tszyu making his annual appearance and defending his jr. welterweight crown against a guy who gave him one of his toughest fights in February of 2001. That fight was even until Mitchell had to call it quits with a bum knee. Tszyu has continued to rack up wins but has fought sporadically the past few years since winning the undisputed title. Mitchell, with his knee healed up has looked impressive in working his way back. Look for another highly competitive bout.
That bout will be shown on same-day tape-delay basis with the Toney-McCline fight taking place in Detroit. I guess 'Lights Out' is now a full-time heavyweight, having given up his cruiserweight belt and taking on the gargantuan 'Big Time' McCline. In certain respects, if Toney can stop McCline, it'll be more impressive than his stoppage win over Evander Holyfield this past October.
With Vargas' predictable win over Tony Marshall this past Friday night on Telefutura, it set the stage for this bout against the durable Spaniard for the mandatory position in the WBC to Shane Mosley. Judging by Vargas' performances since his loss to Oscar De La Hoya, this bout with Castillejo figures to be a tough fight for 'El Feroz' because the bottom line is that for Vargas, every fight, from here on out is a tough one.
Expected to be on that undercard are featherweight prospect Rocky Juarez and lightweight scrapper Juan Diaz.
Believe it or not, this is the first time in a couple of years that 'El Terrible' has been on HBO's regular airwaves, which is interesting since Morales is one of the gameıs best and grittiest fighters who always gets into a good scrap.
Morales is going for a championship in his third weight class when he faces Chavez for the Texanıs WBC jr. lightweight belt. This looks to be a very tough fight. Yes, Morales may have superior one-punch power and perhaps he's a bit sharper, but Chavez is the naturally bigger fighter with a decent jab. This is no soft touch for Morales.
On the undercard, hot prospect Cotto will be taking on former lightweight title challenger, Sosa, who went the distance with Floyd Mayweather last April. This looks to be another carefully, calculated risk made by Top Rank in developing their young Puerto Rican star.
The main event is a rematch of one of the most exciting fights of 2003, a bout won by Casamayor when the bout was halted due to excessive bleeding from 'Chico's grill. The question here is: can Corrales deal any better with the movement and southpaw style of 'El Cepillo' this time around? And can the Cuban stylist do a better job of staying within his style and not slugging with Corrales? Once again, it should be an intriguing contrast of styles and talents.
Jeff Lacy, coming off his tough win over Donnell Wiggins this weekend, will be opening the show.
IDES OF MARCH Cory Spinks' well-deserved win over Ricardo Mayorga to capture the undisputed welterweight championship had some severe ramifications in 2004. What do they say about the best laid plans of mice and men?
With the slick southpawıs win over Mayorga, the eagerly anticipated HBO Pay-Per-View bout between the wild-swinging Nicaraguan and Shane Mosley on March 13th on come off the boards.
The plan was for HBO to show the rebroadcast the next week on a card featuring Vernon Forrest. Who knows what happens now?
Why, oh, why did King put Mayorga in there with Spinks?
On March 27th, HBO features a doubleheader of Arkansas natives Jermain Taylor and Dominick Guinn from the Alltel Arena.
KINGDOME CRUMBLING
It was a rough week for Don King, not only was he KO'd by Terry Norris and Judd Burstein to the tune of $7.5 million, Mayorga's loss kills a Mosley fight, John Ruiz beat Hasim Rahman in a dreadful bout, when he needed a 'Rock' victory and then Bernard Hopkins announced he was bolting DKP although we're not sure if that's good news or bad news.
Also, do you get the sense that based on what Norris received from King, that one Michael Gerard Tyson is absolutely salivating at what he might get from King? A well-placed source tells me that Tysonıs case is much stronger than that Norris brought to the table.
PAC MAN FEVER
I was working the phones on Thursday when someone from Top Rank told me that they were working on a fight between Juan Manuel Marquez and Manny Pacquiao. Later that night at the Olympic Auditorium, a member of 'Golden Boy Promotions' told me that they were working on their guy, Oscar Larios, facing 'Pac Man'. It looks like the race is on to face Pacquiao in 2004.
Those are both attractive fights for the whirlwind Filipino and sizable paydays for him, well, at least for Murad Muhammad, that is.
BUSY WEEKEND
On Thursday night the MaxBoxing crew headed down to the Olympic Auditorium to see Urbano Antillon win a hard-fought 10-rounder against Adan Hernandez and Mike Anchondo out-box Goyo Vargas in a dime. 'Mighty' Mike was thought to be in over his head but put on a smart display of boxing to out-class the ex-world champion.
Anchondo surprised me and many others, and his stock rose with his surprising performance.
On Friday night there were two shows, first, on 'Friday Night Fights', which is becoming more and more of a chore to watch each week, Audley Harrison took out Brian Nix in three. 'Fraudley', as he has deservedly been called by the British media, has built his record on has-beens and never-weres. How bad was Nix? Well, it looks like he's being nixed by the Nevada State Athletic Commission who put him on indefinite suspension from what I hear and this was a supposed step up from Quinn Navarre.
On Telefutura, which has clearly passed 'FNF' in '03, Kermit Cintron eventually stopped the game Hicklet Lau. Cintron is heavy-handed and Puerto Rican, but please, no comparisons to Felix Trinidad should ever be made.
The main event that night was Fernando Vargas' butchering of the well-worn Tony Marshall. It's hard to tell if Vargas was any better than he was in July against Fitz Vanderpool since Marshall offered up almost no resistance. However, it's hard not to notice the difference in sharpness and hand-speed from his fights pre-Trinidad. But his son does have a pretty good set of lungs.
Then on Saturday night, from 5 p.m. to almost midnight, from Don King's pay-per-view marathon to Showtime's telecast, it was all boxing, all the time. Yeah, it's a tough job, but someone's gotta do it.
| |
||
|
|
