187 Boxing

This week’s episode of Bad Left Hook Radio is chopped down to about 40 minutes with no breaks, as I got on a little rush after watching Antonio Tarver give Danny Green the business this morning and decided to do a one-take. I think I cough a little at one point. I didn’t edit it. I’m a rebel. DIY MFers. Lo-fi. The real nitty gritty.

This week I extensively and somewhat deliriously tip my cap to Pawel Wolak and Delvin Rodriguez for their great fight last Friday, and talk a little about the rest of the results from last weekend, including the Ricky Burns vs Nicky Cook fiasco, the Juan Manuel Marquez card in Mexico, and Kevin Mitchell’s great comeback win over John Murray.

The show starts with a recap and some thoughts on Green vs Tarver and what Antonio Tarver might do next. Also, previews and picks for Amir Khan vs Zab Judah and Dereck Chisora vs Tyson Fury this weekend. I’m more confident about one than the other, BUT WHICH ONE IS IT?

Enjoy.

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We’ve got three fights on this weekend’s lineup, including a big junior-welterweight clash and a much hyped heavyweight grudge match.

The big one takes place Saturday night on HBO, with junior-welterweights Amir Khan and Zab Judah going at it in Las Vegas.  Khan is a considerable favorite, though Judah certainly has the power to threaten an upset.  Plenty to choose from in this one, as we’ve added an over/under to the normal straight winner and method of victory options.

Earlier in the day, British heavyweight talkers Dereck Chisora and Tyson Fury meet in a 12 rounder at Wembley Arena.  Chisora’s British and Commonwealth titles are on the line, with a a much bigger fight against Wladimir Klitschko potentially awaiting the winner.  On the undercard is Ashley Theophane’s British light-welterweight title defense against Jason Cook, with the latter coming in as a sizable underdog.

For those that haven’t played before, welcome to the best pick’em game going.  Please join right in and start playing (just make sure to check out the rules - we promise they are very simple).

An explanation of how to fill out your selections appears at the bottom of this post - please follow these instructions as it makes it easier for us to tabulate the results quickly each week.

You can check out last week’s standings here.

Let’s get to the week 7 line-up…

**** Remember you do not need to make a selection on every fight.  If you are unfamiliar with any of the fighters, and don’t want to risk points, you are free to PASS on any pick.   You must make at least one selection to receive the 10 point participation bonus****

A. Pick the winner - Amir Khan vs Zab Judah (Saturday, July 16)

1. Khan to win – risk 11.5 points to win 2.5.
2. Judah to win – risk 2.5 points to win 11.5.

B. Method of victory - Amir Khan vs Zab Judah (technical decision counts as decision, DQ counts as stoppage - Saturday, July 16)

1. Khan by stoppage – risk 4.5 to win 4.5.
2. Khan by decision – risk 3 to win 6.
3. Judah by stoppage – risk 1 to win 8.
4. Judah by decision – risk 0.5 to win 8.5.

C. Over/Under - Amir Khan vs Zab Judah (Saturday, July 16)

1. Over  6 1/2 – risk 7 points to win 3.
2. Over 9 1/2 – risk 5 points to win 5.
3. Under 6 1/2 – risk 3 points to win 7.
4. Under 9 1/2 – risk 5 points to win 5.

D. Pick the winner - Dereck Chisora vs Tyson Fury (Saturday, July 16)

1. Chisora to win – risk 5 points to win 4.
2. Fury to win – risk 4 points to win 5.

E. Method of victory - Dereck Chisora vs Tyson Fury (technical decision counts as decision, DQ counts as stoppage - Saturday, July 16)

1. Chisora by stoppage – risk 3 to win 6.
2. Chisora by decision – risk 2 to win 7.
3. Fury by stoppage – risk 2.5 to win 6.5.
4. Fury by decision – risk 1.5 to win 7.5.

F. Pick the winner / Method of victory - Ashley Theophane vs Jason Cook (technical decision counts as decision, DQ counts as stoppage - Saturday, July 16)

1. Theophane to win (any method) – risk 8 to win 2.
2. Theophane by stoppage  – risk 1.5 to win 8.5.
3. Theophane by decision – risk 6.5 to win 3.5.
4. Cook (any method) – risk 2 to win 8.

Please fill out your selections as follows:

Enter the LETTER of the fight first, then whether it’s a single (1), double (2) or triple (3) followed by the NUMBER of your pick and the NAME of the FIGHTER and METHOD of victory (where applicable).

**** You have 10 doubles and 5 triples to use over the 10 week season ****

For Selection A,  if you want to use one of your doubles on Khan to win…

A.  (2) – 1 – Khan

For Selection B, if you wish to pick Judah by decision without using a double or triple…

B.  (1) – 4 - Judah by decision

For Selection C, if you wanted to use a triple on the fight going over 9 1/2…

C.  (3) – 2 - Over 9 1/2

For Selection D, if you wish to pass…

D. Pass

Good luck!

Here’s the teaser for the upcoming Floyd Mayweather Jr vs Victor Ortiz “Face Off” segment with HBO’s Max Kellerman:

Of all the “Face Off” promos we’ve seen, this one looks like it’s shaping up to be the most scripted and goofy. Neither man can really help it — both love to act, but clearly weren’t part of their high school’s drama club, and have never done any community theater. But they are confident in their abilities, and willing to go the extra mile to put emphasis on a single line or point.

For instance, I like how Victor Ortiz holds up his index finger to hammer home his quote, “Not this one.”

But let me tell you something. (Serious business.) When I was nine years old, I always knew that someday I would see this “Face Off” promo for Victor Ortiz, who was five at the time, defending his welterweight belt against Floyd Mayweather Jr, who was 15. I just knew it. The wind spoke to me, as it did to King Terenas Menethil II when he named his son Arthas. I was also in the forests of Lordaeron when I felt this come upon me, as Terenas was.

But like I always say, they put 41 jokes about Victor Ortiz being nine years old in front of me, and all 41 make it to this blog.

(HT: xFenixKnightx)

42-year-old Antonio Tarver was absolutely dominant today in Australia, battering Danny Green and stopping him after nine rounds when the corner pulled Green out of the fight. The ninth round had ended with a massive flurry from Tarver, with Green reeling badly and basically out on his feet.

Tarver (29-6, 20 KO) looked fresh and strong at cruiserweight, where he was fighting officially for the first time. The former two-time light heavyweight world champion had taken a pass at the heavyweight division last year, where he was clearly too heavy to fight well, but it looks like the 200-pound limit suits him just fine physically. He was quicker, stronger, and better than Green (31-4, 27 KO), whose brief run of notoriety as a perceived top cruiserweight comes to a rather crashing end with this defeat.

Tarver won the first six rounds of the fight with relative ease, until Green made a charge in the seventh round and hurt Tarver with some good body work. After the seventh round, Tarver looked a little tired in his corner, but got back to business in the eighth and took control of the fight back. When he found an opening in the ninth round, he made it count, and wailed on Green to break the home fighter’s will and force him out of the contest.

Does this make Antonio Tarver a true top cruiserweight? That’s hard to say. It does make him a top 10 cruiserweight, but Green’s wins in the division of Roy Jones Jr, Manny Siaca and Paul Briggs were iffy at best and downright lousy at worst. He did get a legit win over BJ Flores last year, but Tarver just plain took him to school. The difference in class between the two fighters was as evident as it was surprising.

This is Tarver’s best win in years, and his best performance since at least the Clinton Woods bout in 2008. I’d even say it was his best performance since 2005, when he defeated Glen Johnson. Tarver was full of confidence today, and Green just couldn’t do anything about it. Green, 38, was out of his depth, and the fight played out as a mismatch in Tarver’s favor. In all but the seventh round, Green simply had no answer for the American.

The win nets Tarver the IBO cruiserweight title, which is not among the “big four” that are recognized by most, but will allow him to say he’s a two-division champion. And for those who watched this fight outside of Australia: You get a gold star, because I think we all watched this on a stream that was simply a webcam pointed at a television.

Trainer Freddie Roach tells Rick Reeno that he’ll push Manny Pacquiao to knock out Juan Manuel Marquez when the two meet for a third time on November 12:

“[Marquez] will get ready for Manny and he will fight us and he won’t go into a shell - like some other people have done in the past. … I’m going to plead with [Manny], ‘Do your job and knock him out and don’t let him off the hook.’”

The main selling point of this fight is quickly becoming clear, and it’s not that Marquez has fought Pacquiao tooth-and-nail over 24 rounds in 2004 and 2008. It’s that even if this is a mismatch now — and many feel it is — Marquez is going to come to fight. I figured that’s how many of us would convince ourselves to pay for the fight as all but a foregone conclusion, but to see the involved parties actually sell it that was is a bit surprising.

I guess they realize that it’s going to be really difficult after the May 7 debacle with Shane Mosley to convince the public that Marquez is a viable threat, and it makes sense. Here are facts: Marquez is a 38-year-old lightweight who was last seen by superfight-only casual fans getting embarrassed by Floyd Mayweather Jr in 2009. Many of them are wondering what makes this fight good. The way to sell it is by promising, all “cross my heart and hope to die”-style, that Marquez will at least come to fight Manny in a way that Joshua Clottey and Shane Mosley absolutely did not in two of Pacquiao’s last three bouts.

On the new Boxing Lab Radio show, current top lightweight Brandon Rios said that Michael Katsidis and Kevin Mitchell are the leading candidates to be his next opponent, and that he’s going to fight on the Pacquiao vs Marquez undercard on November 12, which should give diehard fight fans another good reason to buy the show, and will hopefully expose Rios to some casual fans who just might have to see him again.

Rios (28-0-1, 21 KO) has become a favorite of many, or at least a favorite to watch fight, ever since he got a chance last year on HBO to face Anthony Peterson. Going in, I had seen both fight before, and cautiously picked Rios. Here’s what I said at the time:

What I like about this fight for Rios is I think he’s just more ready to be truly aggressive, and he’ll eat shots to get to Peterson. Peterson is quicker, probably a better pure boxer, and could use his jab to dominate from the outside, backing the jab’s play enough power that maybe Rios won’t want to rush in on him. But I think Rios is going to rush in on him anyway. I do think this is, in all reality, a pick’em that might on paper slightly favor Peterson. But I like Rios in this one because I’m not convinced that Peterson is ready to keep his cool under Rios’ pressure … if Rios can get that pressure going, anyway.

That couldn’t have turned out to be more true. Peterson could not handle the pressure, but it wasn’t even nearly as close as I thought it would be. Rios just demolished Peterson, eventually earning a DQ win when the flustered DC-based fighter couldn’t keep his cool at all and kept punching Rios in the groin. I knew Brandon Rios was a pressure fighter who was willing to take shots. What I didn’t know before that fight was how good he was at that style.

Since then, we’ve seen Rios pick up a title belt and defend it in two extremely entertaining fights this year, wins over top 10 guys Miguel Acosta and Urbano Antillon. He’s without question one of the true must-see fighters in the sport, and the best news is that he and his team are no longer targeting faded Marco Antonio Barrera, which had beatdown written all over it. Kieran Mulvaney of ESPN noted in this week’s Heavy Hitting podcast that after the Rios vs Antillon fight, Barrera (who was ringside doing commentary) seemed to have no interest in facing Rios.

Frankly, I think both of the fights mentioned now have the same thing written all over them, but Katsidis is still tougher than a two dollar steak and Rios isn’t exactly hard to find, which is exactly what Katsidis likes in a fight. And as good as Mitchell looked last weekend, we’ve seen him busted up in the past by Katsidis, and while he did beat a good pressure fighter in John Murray last Saturday, Murray is no Brandon Rios, who punches harder, has way more variety in his punches, and has better defense, too. Rios is sort of like a super-charged version of Murray.

Still, I like both ideas well enough, and the fact that either fight is grossly better than Barrera is a nice thing, too. When’s the last time we saw a top fighter take on three top ten guys in his division in one year, and potentially have three terrific action fights at the same time?

Most of you probably know Jared Shaw (a.k.a. Jared Ryan Shaw, “$kala”) as Gary Shaw’s son, or the man behind the pro fighting career of Kimbo Slice. Jared has been there every step of the way with Kimbo, overstating his ability, his earning potential, and his level of fame.

But the younger Shaw is not just the pro fighting mouthpiece for Kimbo Slice — a job he still has as Kimbo heads into boxing, sort of. He’s also an entertainer. A rapper…or at least I think so. Here’s a brief teaser for his first “single”:

What we have here is a revealing look at how a man can frequently reposition his ballcap while standing by a microphone. As for the song, it is pretty clearly disposable club mediocrity, a soundalike song that might could play harmlessly over anyone’s night out and you probably wouldn’t notice it sucks, because those songs all suck, and they’re all pretty much the same. It is what it is. It’s not for me. But a lot of things that people like are not for me, so who knows? Truth be told, he could probably make it with this. Why not?

His official Facebook page (as a Musician/Band) has this short bio:

Jared Shaw: Mouthpiece for What Woman Want.

Conditioning coach Alex Ariza, who notably works alongside trainer Freddie Roach with Manny Pacquiao, Amir Khan, and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, has absolutely slammed Roger Mayweather after Mayweather accused Khan and Pacquiao of using steroids yesterday.

Ariza had this to say when speaking with Rick Reeno of BoxingScene.com:

“The guy is a failure as a trainer. The only fighter that he has is Floyd. Every fighter that we have is winning. [Julio Cesar] Chavez is now with us and he’s winning. Amir is winning. Manny is blowing through everyone. The only person that he has is Floyd, so he’s not really a trainer.”

… “If he only knew the difference between vitamins and steroids. It’s a tricky issue if you never completed high school. Nouns, verbs….all of those things can be confusing for someone who never finished high school and that’s by his own admission.”

Ariza and Roger do have one thing in common, which is an outspoken nature that has at many times turned off boxing fans. And usually I would say that Ariza should leave the personal stuff out of it, but, well, Roger has sort of asked for this, hasn’t he? Roger’s repeated accusations have seen him sued (the defamation case is ongoing), and he just never seems to learn that he probably shouldn’t say this stuff. So if he’s going to continue to make the accusations, he has to expect to be ripped in return, and Ariza has answered the call. He’s defending his fighters, and himself.

Fort Worth, Texas

• Brian Vera SD-10 Sergio Mora: If any fight was going to finally put the nail in the coffin of anyone’s idea that Sergio Mora had actual potential to be a name fighter, this should be it. Mora fought tough, actually, but he lost to Vera on scores of 96-94 (twice) and 94-96. Since beating the late Vernon Forrest in July 2008, Mora has gone 1-2-1, with a win over blown up, semi-retired club welterweight Calvin Green and losses to Forrest and Vera, plus that draw with Shane Mosley that might well have been the worst televised fight of 2010. There’s always been an X-factor lacking in Mora. It’s not skill — Mora is perfectly skilled. He’s never seemed able to max his talent, and his inconsistent schedule, bad fights, and ego problem reputation, combined with this loss, should pretty much end his career as even a fringe contender. He might bounce back, but the patterns of his career don’t suggest that will happen. His best bet might be to do his damnedest to play the role of spoiler against someone now.

Osaka, Japan

• Tomas Rojas UD-12 Nobuo Nashiro: I’m sure Sidney Boquiren will have more details on the Japanese card, but we’ll give you the results now. Early this morning on American time, Tomas Rojas retained his WBC super flyweight title with a decision victory over Nobuo Nashiro in Osaka, winning on scores of 116-111, 116-113 and 114-113. Rojas (35-12-1, 23 KO) and Nashiro (14-3-1, 9 KO) are both more impressive than their records might indicate, and have both fought high levels of competition. Nashiro is probably best-known for his two fights with current super flyweight on-paper king Hugo Cazares, while Rojas may unfortunately be best known to most as a guy who ran into a nasty Vic Darchinyan shot and was knocked out on Showtime.
• Malcolm Tunacao TKO-6 Daigo Nakahiro: Tunacao (28-2-3, 17 KO) has really come into his own during his reign as OPBF bantamweight champ. About ten years ago (March ‘01) he lost a fight to Pongsaklek Wonjongkam, but since then he’s been on a tear, losing just once by technical decision to Rolly Matsushita. He also drew with Kohei Oba in 2006, but defeated Oba last year. Nakahiro falls to 21-4-1 (8 KO).
• Hirofumi Mukai UD-10 Sonny Boy Jaro: Hopefully Sidney will have more info on Mukai (5-0, 0 KO), because this is a real good win for someone’s fifth pro fight. Jaro (31-10-5, 20 KO) is no world-beater and he’s past his best days, but he’s been a fringe contender at 108 and 112 for years.

Santa Ynez, California

• Lateef Kayode UD-10 Nicholas Iannuzzi: Lotta folks saying that Freddie Roach’s puncher prospect cruiser Kayode (16-0, 14 KO) got a gift against Iannuzzi (16-2, 9 KO). Kayode won on scores of 98-91, 97-92 and 95-94. Iannuzzi lost a point for hitting after the bell, but it wouldn’t have mattered anyway with those first two scores. Kayode has always been raw and possibly overhyped. There are times he reminds me a lot of Victor Oganov.
• Luis Franco SD-10 Leonilo Miranda: Another one where plenty are wondering if the showcase prospect didn’t get lucky. Franco is now 9-0 (5 KO), while Miranda drops to 32-3 (30 KO). Scores were 97-93, 96-94 and 94-96 for Franco.