Golden Boy Rushes and Fails

So Golden Boy have done it again, no not put on a good card but thrown their young hugely hyped prospect to the wolves, again they see their fighter stopped in the 5th round and once more a clear warning to youngsters who are thinking of signing with Golden Boy Promotions. In June of last year the boxing world was “shocked” when the the explosive and exciting “Vicious” Victor Ortiz (24-1-1 with 19KO's going in) was stopped in the 6th round by the monstrously hard punching Marcos Maidana. Ortiz had had some early success in dropping the 25-1 (24) Argentine 3 times in the opening 2 rounds though Maidana's power, heart and experience out did the speed and inexperience of Ortiz who at 22 wasn't ready. Maidana had fought 4 months earlier in Germany losing a close split decision to Andriy Kotelnik in a shot for the WBA Light Welterweight title, tellingly he had seriously wobbled Kotelnik later in the fight and it had been obvious he had chilling power, yet Golden Boy were happy to through Ortiz in with him. Ortiz's early success turned to horror as he seemed to “quit” after being dropped in the 6th and broken mentally.

Fast forward a little over a year and Golden Boy's next prospect, Daniel Jacobs was thrown into a “World” title fight (WBO Middleweight title that had been controversially stripped from Sergio Martinez). Jacobs had entered with a perfect record of 20-0 (17), he was fresh faced and just a year older than Ortiz had been, he was seen by many as the champion of the future and the future champion in the Golden Boy stable. Just as Ortiz had been. Jacobs was matched with unbeaten Russian Dmitry Pirog (16-0 13KO's), a fighter who had been matched tough from the start with a notable win against Kofi Jantuah that over shadowed anything Jacobs had on his. Despite Jacobs having fought 4 more fights he had fought only 57 rounds as a professional (to Pirog's 87) and had been fed a series of tomato cans to pad his record with only Ishe Smith acting as a solid test (which accounted for 10 of Jacobs' 57 rounds).

Much like Ortiz the previous year Jacobs had some early success, winning the 3rd and 4th rounds clearly and probably pinching the 1st though the second bore the warning signs of the difference between the two fighters. Jacobs was was hurt through out the 2nd round by Pirogs hard, accurate shots, whilst in return the best Jacobs could muster seemed to be powerless jabs, that landed but had no real effect. The Russian took the centre of the ring and saw Jacobs running, using his legs to try and get away, though like Ortiz the previous year he couldn't keep his hard hitting rival away. A deadly straight right in round 5 put Jacobs out for the count, another Golden Boy Prospect had been stopped in his biggest fight to date.

Although Golden Boy Promotions are often praised for their shows, questions again need to be asked about how they treat their youngsters. Jacobs just wasn't ready for this sort of test, a close win (96-93 on 2 cards) over Ishe Smith doesn't prepare you for a fighter like Pirog, likewise wins over Carlos Maussa and Mike Arnaoutis don't prepare you for a Marcos Maidana.

For the likes of Deontay Wilder, Craig McEwan, Jermell Charlo, Frankie Gomez, Jamie Kavanagh and Ronny Rios this is the time to take note. Golden Boy MAY be good for you, though their match making leaves a lot to be desired for young fighters, who perhaps need to have the guts to tell Schaefer and Oscar to slowdown and let them progress properly. Rather than going straight from facing Journeymen to facing Contenders, their should be some tough former champions, smaller former title contenders and relatively safe learning fights.

Tony "Jaffa Cakes" Jeffries

An Olympic medal was once the fast track to professional success, a who's who of champions have won medals of various colours. Although you may not expect a lot of bronze medal winners some top current fighters who “only” won bronze include Floyd Mayweather Jr, Jermain Taylor and Andre Dirrell...however Britains Tony Jeffries doesn't seem likely to emulate them in terms of professional success from looking at his recent fights.

Although a popular north eastern lad from Britain who has a relatively large following and was a very solid amateur with good basic skills his professional careers seems to be more of a failure than many would have thought just 12 months ago. Jeffries in July '09 was 3-0 having stopped all his opponents and looking relatively impressive in doing so, it appeared he had turned over well and that the professional game was suited to him at the early novice stage. Though since then, when he's faced fighters unwilling to just fall over he's generally struggled to impress the fans that had come out to see him.

First was a lacklustre points victory over Artsiom Salomka, but that was fine, Jeffries was only fighting in his 4th contest and Salomka was experienced, durable and hard to look good against. Having not been stopped in around 4 years Salomka was no push over and managed to test Jeffries' stamina over 6 rounds. A confidence building blow out over Andrejs Tolstihs helped to again get the public behind Jeffries, though Tolstihs just didn't look like he wanted to be there, dropped 3 times in the opening round it seemed to be a badly made match (though on paper Tolstihs looked durable enough, he turned out not to be). Though since then Jeffries has failed to shine in 2 of his 3 contest being pushed hard by British journeyman Nathan King over 6 rounds in which “Jaffa” seemed to fade and was cut late on the cheek in the 6th. Though he deservedly got the win he'd been given a tough test against against a fighter that wasn't meant to be a solid test but “just another win”. King had been beaten in 6 straight going in (stopped in 2 of them) and had generally been tough but not one to be scared of, his record of 12-15 said it all, he was a win some-lose some type, but a fighter as touted as Jeffries should have won easier than he did.

Matt Hainy was another confidence builder lasting into the second round though in Jaffa's most recent fight he was lucky to escape with a draw as Michael Banbula hammered him for the final 2 rounds and seemed to split the opening 6 rounds pretty fairly. Banbula's 10-25-3 record going in seemed to look very unimpressive going in though he proved to be better than those numbers as he was arguably robbed of a win. Though the fight was Jeffries first 8 rounder (and he claimed he had only trained for 6) it showed up more flaws in the bronze medal winner who was again given a cut. Jeffries seemed to have terrible stamina huffing and puffing for the final 2 rounds in a relatively casual paced fight, he was defensively open and shaken badly by Banbula, a fighter who had never scored a stoppage. More tellingly though was that he appeared to lack the mental attitude to fight the final 2 rounds.

Having turned over with plenty of hype behind him he's been exposed as a flawed fighter who appears, at this point, to lack the tools he'll need to really make a mark on the professional scene.

What is in a name...?

God is this ever a bad week for boxing, Paul Green makes his comeback to face Danny Green in a bout that should NEVER have been allowed to happen. If Briggsy gets hurt heads need to roll. Other than that oddity the only other “major” talking point seems to be the meeting of Kazakh born US based Light Heavyweight Beibut Shumenov and Ukrainian Vyacheslav Uzelkov in the US. Although Shumenov (9-1) is the current WBA champion at 175lbs I've yet to speak to anyone that felt he deserved the decision over Gabriel Campillo in their rematch (in fact at one point the commentator said “Shumenov didn't do much in that round other than get punched in the face an awful lot”). The fight was described by a friend as “Worst decision of the last two centuries.”I'd expect Uzelkov to stop Shumenov inside 8.

So with that done and the only 2 fights worth talking about done I need something else...so what's in a name?
Just because theirs not any great fights this week it doesn't stop nicknames and real names being fun and interesting, this weeks sees the following fight:
Brad Pitt (Australian Cruiserweight)
Rich “Super” Power (American Heavyweight)
Yodchanchai Nakornloung Promotion (Thai Super Flyweight)-Although Thais often take the Gym name, never seen one taking the promoters name
Ocean Sor Jitty gym (another Thai Super Flyweight)
Leonardo Zappavigna (Australian Lightweight better known as Lenny Zappa)
Angel Estrada (American Light Welterweight)-Scary name that Angel...
Vashon Living (American Super Middleweight, female)-Not sure why but the name made me giggle
Kentaro Maimongkol Promotion (Thai Flyweight)
Johnson McLumpha (British fight debuting on Friday)-Sorry but that really is a fantastic name
Xavier Tolliver (American Welterweight who's nick name is “The X Man”)
Adonis Inman (American who debuts against Christian Hamlett)
Willie Fortune (American Middleweight)-Bet he's a rich Dick.

And I kid you not here Lane Staal is fighting Guy Packer...imagine the puns that a better writer would give you...

Not necessarily funny but Steve Collins fights...he's not a ginger Irishman but an American Heavyweight

If the Klitschko's wore Red White and Blue

Boxing has 3 heavyweight champions right now with 1, David Haye, being hyped for the past year or so as the divisions “saviour” though it's been the other two, the Ukrainian brothers Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko that have dominated and fought the best over the years as they've stood out as the best amongst a very dire division. Though recently comments by HBO Sports President Ross Greenburg have made it obvious that Ukrainians aren't welcome on HBO any time soon. With Wladimir about to face the highly regarded Russian Alexander Povetkin in just months HBO have basically gone on to say they have no interest in the fight. Though what is it actually with the Klitschko's that Geenburg has a problem with?

The general opinion points to the Klitschko brothers being “dull” and “boring” as fighters, though many are willing to accept they are hugely talented it's this “boring” slur that seems to have stained the fighters. Though the idea in all sports is to win, if you can look good doing it then that's a bonus, whilst fighters like Floyd Mayweather, Cory Spinks, Bernard Hopkins, Winky Wright, Jermain Taylor and even Ricky Hatton late in his career were dull, choosing to either run or spoil they managed to remain on TV and generally avoid the slur. In the case of all those just mentioned apart from Hatton the fighters were all American (and even Hatton wore red, white and blue in the form of the Union Flag) and more importantly fighting on US TV. It's also worth noting that not one of them had truly concussive KO power.

In the Klitschko's you have two fighters who dominate lesser opponents with ease, rarely losing a round between them, much like Mayweather has done, using a safety first style to pick opponents apart. The brothers accurate powerful jabs often sending opponents into shells they refuse to come out of, making fights turn out to be one sided beat downs with Wladimir often sparking the opponent out late on whilst Vitali just beats the fight out of an opponent. Between the 2 fighters they have stopped 86 fights early (from 94 wins) with 5 losses, all of those coming by stoppage as well (by KO/TKO or Retirement). From 99 fights only 8 have managed to reach the final bell, if you compare this to ANY heavyweights in history it turns out favourably, just look at these records:

Muhammad Ali 56(37)-5(1)-0
Joe Louis 66(52)-3(2)-0
Floyd Patterson 55(40)-8(5)-1
Rocky Marciano 49(43)-0(0)-0
Larry Holmes 69(44)-6(1)-0
Lennox Lewis 41(32)-2(2)-1
Joe Frazier 32(27)-4(3)-1
Sonny Liston 50(39)-4(3)-0
Mike Tyson 50(44)-6(5)-0
George Foreman 76(68)-5(1)-0

Those 10 above are from Boxrecs top 25 all time list, every fighter apart from Frazier, Tyson and Marciano has more distance fights despite fighting less than the Klitschko's. Not one fighter has matched the amount of KO's the brothers have between them and even those described as “dull” weren't turned away from TV. Lennox Lewis, the “last great” heavyweight was often slurred with the “boring” tag, like both Klitschko's he was a top level amateur (like Wladimir Lewis was an Olympic gold medal winner) who relied on his elite jab to dominate opponents. Although Lewis could be explosive in fights when he wanted to he was at his best as a clever calculating type of fighter who broke opponents down, a lot like the Klitschko's do.

Those that are eagled eyed, will notice that Lewis stands out for the fact he's not actually “American”, though like Hatton he was British, another fighting under the “Red, white and blue”. Though others may prefer to draw their eyes to Rocky Marciano, the last great white heavyweight to be world champion. Although since then there has been white heavyweight title holders such as Tommy Morrison no white fighters has dominated the division, the once desperate search for a white heavyweight champion. A Great White Hope for decades was boxing's holy grail, the fighter that could make a promoter stupid money and be sold to the sports biggest fans. Now add in a massive punch and a perceived fragility and a promoter could have a field selling the fighter, sadly, like Ingemar Johansson the Klitschko's don't count as “Great White Hopes” having been born in Europe. Instead of being sold as master boxers with KO punches they are being sold as “boring” fighters with silly names.

Funny that HBO's Greenburg has recently admitted that the fight between Povetkin v Wladimir “doesn't register” when he then adds “on delay”. Is the reason HBO are wiping their hands of the Klitschko's less down to the fact that the brothers are “boring” but more that HBO are unable to compete with the every growing power of both German based fights and, more importantly the internet? Boxing fans in this day and age see things “live” via the internet, they know the results hours before HBO would be showing the fights. Do HBO really expect boxing fans to wait?

If the Klitschko's wore red, white and blue they'd be shown live, they'd be sold as great white hopes and their dominance would be the telling factor not their “dull” style of fighting. Funny that a birth place turns a marketable pair of fighters into something HBO can't be bothered to show live to make boxing a tea time sport rather than a night time niche sport.

Briggs v Green a dirty brown stain

On my Prospect Scotting blog I've made a passing reference to some upcoming fights, one of which I'm actually against. Danny Green v Paul Briggs which takes place in Australia in just a few weeks for the IBO Cruiserweight title is one of those few fights I genuinely don't like the look of for a host of reasons. Despite the fact it's almost certainly the biggest fight likely to take place in Australia that doesn't involve Anthony Mundine or Kostya Tszyu making a comeback that doesn't mean it should take place it's self.

Late last year it was difficult to avoid Green's name when he exploded out of obscurity inside a round by beating Roy Jones Jr into what many assumed would be retirement. Since the Green has failed to really build on it and it seems he failed to strike when the iron was hot instead seeing possible fights with Bernard Hopkins fall through and no movement onto the likes of Steve Cunningham and Marco Huck. Green's career stalled. Instead of cashing in he stumbled into a match with the one time Super Middleweight title holder Manny Siaca and had an easy nights work in an obscure battle that, to be frankly honest, no one outside of Australia seemed to care about that saw Green move to 29-3.

With attempts to lure the aforementioned Mundine into a rematch from their 2006 battle failing Green would end up luring out of retirement the ever popular all action tough guy Paul “Hurricane” Briggs. Briggs hasn't fought since February 2007 when he out pointed Rupert van Aswegen in a battle at Light Heavyweight and had seen several comeback attempts foiled by medical issues that now seem to have magically vanished. The fight takes places just weeks before Briggs (26-3) turns 35 and after weeks away from active fighting and moving up a division it just looks odd.

As a younger fresher faced fighter Briggs was a true blood and guts warrior, his two fights with the exciting Tomasz Adamek were certainly amongst the best fights of 2005 and 2006 even if Briggs was the loser on both occasions. It seemed as if the Hurricane was on the way to being a fan favourite, all action, boundless energy and the heart of a champion though he just vanished as he was on the cusp. Since his last fight he has worked for Australian TV for most of their major fights and on the Australian Contender show as well as seeing several comebacks fall through, though now it seems like this ones going to happen.

If we're happy to accept Briggs as a true blood and guts type of fighter, we also need to accept his defence wasn't the greatest (he had a very solid chin however) whilst in Green we find a fighter with 26KO's in 29 wins a true power puncher who had Roy Jones down the first time he landed a shot of note. Green has 7 stoppage wins in his last 8 contests with only the iron chinned Stipe Drews from Croatia managing to survive the schedule in over 4 years. Oddly Drews has been beaten by both men on points, with the loss to Green being the final fight of Stipes career. If Briggs wants to be a warrior and go toe to toe Danny Green isn't the sort of fighter you want to do it against, especially not in the circumstances.

No warm up, no fights in years, medical problems, going up a weight, facing a hard puncher the IBO trinket on the line, how can this be allowed? Although Briggs was someone I looked up to and have enjoyed looking over the career of, I can't help but think that this is going to be a painful night for a man that has always been a fighter. I would love it if Paul could do the job, but I can't see it, I see the fight lasting as long as the referee lets it and yet the fight will do huge numbers (as far as Australian boxing goes).

Shame really that Mundine has ran away down the divisions going from a 2 time WBA Super Middleweight champion to the Light Middleweight chump hiding from true challenges.

General Boredom...

Having spent most of this week getting the sister blog formed and using it as a column for the excellent RingNews24 it's now time to just spot some boxing oddities stupidities and generally different things.

So lets start with the Yankee Stadium controversy (it's still fresh). What Mercante did was a brave and correct decision for me, about the Juanito Rubillar crap last year someone needs to be not only 100% certain it's THE RIGHT TOWEL but also that it's in the interest of the fighter. Yes Foreman was in pain but he could have refused to come out for the next round or told the referee he was unable to continue. Some have explained Mercante's actions being similar to that of “a little league coach”, what a load of crap. Mercante didn't want to stop an exciting fight that was, despite heading one way, going to be ended indecisively. We hate indecisive endings in our sport at the best of times.

Secondly, the big stories of the week.
Mayweather's rumoured 2 year retirement...funny if he does that and again walks away from major fights (Pacquiao...duh) he'll till keep some supporters. More annoyingly when he comes from this supposed sabbatical he'll be nigh on 36... Sugar Ray Leonard-”The Return”?

David Haye is to fight Fraudley Harrison...The world rejoices, finally the talk of the “Hayemaker” being a breath of fresh air is proven to be as much garbage as that of which Fraudley has been spreading. Good good as long as we know the British heavyweights only want to face each other, we can have another “merry go round” (a'la the Williams/Sprott/Skelton/Audley one of a few years back)

So what about more amusing stuff?
Well plenty (not most but plenty) will have heard of Chinese female rising star Wang Ya Nan (great name) but what about Middleweight “Viktor Dick”, he deserves to be mentioned up their with the sports personalities with the stupidest names ever. No offence Viktor but your names stupid, and I'd fancy my chances against you too if you do take this as offensive ;-)

Finally, old folk, we're all fed up of old heavyweights right? We'll sadly we hardly know half the story. Holyfield is the high profile one but what about Juan Carlos Gimenez Ferreyra?

Who? Well Ferreyra started his career in 1982, has fought Juan Roldan (1986), Roberto Duran (1987), Mauro Galvano (1992), Chris Eubank (1992), Nigel Benn (1994), Joe Calzaghe (1998), Zsolt Erdei (2002), and yet aged 49 Ferreyra beat 43 year old Nicasio Moray Martinez in a card in Paraguay. Funnily enough 41 year old Rafael Orlando Espinola continued his losing streak falling to 0-9...theres a match up made in heaven.

On the same subject I think we saw one of those good old father son tricks (although I'm not sure). Danny and David Thomas both fought on a card in Indiana last Saturday, Thomas is a normal enough name right? Well yeah fair enough. Though it's worth noting both live in Evansville and David is 27 Danny is 48, father and son? I'm guessing so. Both won by KO in the opening round as well (in case your interested)

And finally to the last age related item...and boxrecs stupid rankings. The NEW heavyweight #1 on boxrec (female) is 40 year old Gwendolyn O'Neil 15-6-1. Yes she has a winning record and beat the previous #1, though she has beaten 2 opponents in the last 2 years, their combined record 7-7 (4-3 and 3-4) having been previously KO'd in 1 by Laila Ali. Though ho did the 3-4 Veronica Blackman ever get given the Boxrec #1 ranking? Included in Blackman's record is 3 fights (2-1) with Sharon Ward and 2 fights (0-2) with Shelly Gibson. Oh Boxrec you do crack me up.

Like boxing to the Yankee Stadium, I am back

Having had things popping up recently I've not managed to update this in a while which is a shame as I've managed to reel off work all week despite having things going on. Though it's with Yankee Stadium in mind and the recent Miguel Cotto v Yuri Foreman fight that brings me to thinking about the home of the great American game, that, like boxing, you stole from us Brits. Sadly one thing we Brits can't claim is the greatest heavyweight of all time, that was Joe Louis. So what happens when you put Joe in the home of baseball? Well...

It was against Primo Canera that Louis would make his debut in the stadium, scoring a 6th round TKO. He would follow this up by beating Max Baer  in 4 rounds in what was the first fight for Baer since losing his title. Louis made the former champion pay, as he established the stadium as his own home stadium, it could well have been renamed "Bomber Stadium" after the Brown Bomber destroyed Jack Sharkey there in 1936 having suffered his first career loss at the hands of Max Schmeling.

Having won the title at Comiskey Park against James J Braddock  his first defence was at home of the Yankees where he out pointed the fine Welshman Tommy Farr before extracting revenge against Schmeling in their rematch a year after winning the title was vicious and painful for the German though others were treat  to a similar fate. Tony Galento would put Louis down before being stopped in the stadium that Louis ruled with Arturo Godoy being the last defence Louis would have there before the war.

After the War Louis was back on the hallowed turf and knocking opponents out of there, with Billy Conn lasting into the 8th round whilst Tami Mauriello put on one of the most exciting brawls with Louis even if it was short lived. Louis would score his last defence there against Jersey Joe Walcott in 1948 before losing in his comeback to Ezzard Charles and not fighting there again having run up a 9-2 record in the venue.

Like many Louis fights there their Cotto v Foreman fight was a good watch and well worth chasing down if you've not already seen it.

For those interested in Louis' fights:
The Schmeling rematch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6StIjEli_vU

The Galento fight:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdpZQHZlSWQ (pt 1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQhaI21fS-c&feature=related (pt 2)

The Mauriello fight:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUzJaokX_N8

Withe others available.