I hope that everyone has got their Christmas shopping done and have beaten the crowds. My wife saw two men get into a fist fight at a Walmart over some electronic gadget, and that my friends, is NOT the Christmas spirit. This is my last “Geno’s Boxing Corner” of the year, and it has been a good year for boxing, and the best fight that I saw all year was a bout between Willie Gibbs and Lenord Pierre, which brings me to Edison Miranda.
MIRANDA WARNING
Boxing has been a hurting business in more than one way for the longest time. Oscar De La Hoya carried the load on his shoulders as a big attraction for the game, but his time has come and gone. The Mike Tysons, Evander Holyfields, and George Foremans have also ran their course and are gone from the game, or probably should be gone in the case of Holyfield. The boxing world now turns to the Filipino Superstar, Manny Pacquiao for their excitement fix, and outside of “The Pacman,” there hasn’t been a guy that generates the excitement, until now.
Edison Miranda is a knockout machine in the spirit of a Mike Tyson or John Mugabi, and has now had two featured bouts where he looked fantastic. On ESPN, he destroyed the capable Howard Eastman, and last weekend, on HBO’s Boxing After Dark, he annihilated “The Gladiator” Willie Gibbs in one round. Gibbs had only one loss in his career, and I have personally seen him stand up to true firepower from other middleweights and not falter, but Miranda is of abnormal punching power for the middleweight division and takes a good punch. One thing that I noticed that he did in the Gibbs bout as well was to be patient. He is a smart fighter that saw a scared and jittery foe, and allowed him to make the mistakes that made him open for the knockout punch that eventually ended it. Jermain Taylor, the current Middleweight Champion, will really have his hands full with this fighter.
If you look at Miranda’s one loss, it is more than forgivable. He fought Arthur Abraham for the IBF Middleweight Title, broke the champion’s jaw in two places, and lost five points for different infractions, which was the difference in the fight. So any fighter that says: “Well, he was beaten before,” has to realize that Miranda lost the decision, but it was Abraham that was beaten to a pulp. Anyone that steps into the ring with this knockout menace is exceptionally brave, and I look forward to seeing him fight again.
SHOWTIME DOUBLE HEADER
The January 6th, double header, presented on Showtime, has to get the boxing world excited. In the Main Event, we have the mandatory rematch, which is another WBC Heavyweight Title Eliminator between James Toney and Sam Peter. The rule has to be: They fight until James Toney wins. This time around, it will be different. Toney has employed Tae Bo instructor, Billy Blanks as a conditioning coach. I hope that he’s a conditioning coach. If he’s been hired as an acting coach, Toney may have gotten ripped off. Blanks has been in a lot of stinkers, but the movie “Showdown” was the bomb…so maybe he won’t be that bad as an acting coach.
The thinking with this rematch is that an in shape Toney boxes circles around Peter, which he should have done the first time, but the age and weight fluctuation may mean that it will be “Lights Out” for James Toney. I just hope that they both come into the ring in shape. Sam Peter was a marshmallow when he faced Toney the first time, and needs to be in top shape in order to win again, although if he does, I assume that we will see Peter-Toney III, where the WBC will give Toney five points on the scorecards right out of the gate, to make sure that he wins this time.
The under card bout has a lot more drama than the main event. Jose Antonio Rivera, the defending WBA Super Welterweight Champion and RSR Feature Writer, goes against the former champion, Travis Simms. Simms never lost the belt in the ring, and that is where the drama is. Simms made a court case out of it, suing the WBA and forcing their hand to make this match. Amazingly, at one time, the WBA was thinking about reinstating Simms as the champ, and making Rivera the Interim Champion, but it didn’t go through. They probably didn’t want another lawsuit on their hands.
Jose Rivera has been on the shelf since May of this year, and has had this fight date set, re-set, and then set again, keeping him out of the ring, and out of action. Simms has been away from the ring for a long time, and with no tune up fights, has taken on this tough assignment. Rivera will be bringing in a lot of frustration into this contest, and rightfully so. The WBA seems to make up their rules as they go along and here we are with Simms, who I’m sure feels like he was mistreated, against Rivera, who is being held to not one, but two mandatory defenses. The big money that Oscar De La Hoya, Shane Mosley, and Fernando Vargas could bring to the champion will have to wait and by the time that he gets beyond Simms and his next defense against Joachim Alcine. It’s pretty amazing that Nicolay Valuev is granted three optional title defenses (Owen Beck, Monte Barrett, Jameel McCline) and Rivera gets zero.
Whatever the case, I think that we will see Rivera rise above these two worthy challengers and then get ignored by the big names yet again. Showtime has to be given credit however for airing a great doubleheader and realizing that Rivera-Simms is a good bout on paper, and that there is a story there that will attract people to the screen.
A BIG DRAW
The “people’s champ,” or “the true champ,” or “the best heavyweight in boxing today,” Wladimir Klitschko is defending his IBF Heavyweight Crown against (are you ready for this) Ray Austin. Now I cannot fault “Dr. Steel Hammer” totally on this one. The IBF has ordered that Ray Austin get a title shot. It must have been that close win over Owen Beck that pushed him over the top…or perhaps the draw with Sultan Ibragimov, or the draw with Larry Donald. I know, it had to be the draw with Lance Whitaker. The IBF must have said: “Wlad likes easy ones. Give him another easy one!” This Klitschko-Austin bout is, on paper, the worst and most lopsided heavyweight championship bout in the last five years. You could argue Nicolay Valuev-Owen Beck as a worse match up, but I would have to disagree. This bout stinks and shame on the IBF for ordering it.
Where are all of these title challengers coming from? Ray Austin, Sultan Ibragimov, Jameel McCline, Monte Barrett, Owen Beck, and Peter Okhello have not collectively earned a title shot, but have gotten one, or are getting one apiece. I know that the first title defense is an optional one, but isn’t the rule that the challenger that you pick HAS to be from the top ten? Peter Okhello was ranked, what…1000th? Oleg Maskaev took no chances with his opponent, and that’s the trend nowadays. The heavyweights are taking the easy way out as much as they can, and Wlad hasn’t complained too loudly about this mandatory defense.
Ray Austin is a mediocrity at best. He has heart and he is a gritty fighter, but he has in no way earned a crack at the heavyweight title, but then again, this is the trend that is ruining boxing. We have NO heavyweight champion. We have four guys, all holding onto a piece of the crown, and the upcoming matches do not show that we will have closure and an undisputed champ any time soon. We have Shannon Briggs facing the unproven, Sultan Ibragimov for the WBO Title, Ray Austin is the lamb led to slaughter against Wlad for the IBF Title, Jameel McCline is the most capable out of the challengers as he goes against the WBA Champion, Nicolay Valuev, but is still not in a position to truly merit a challenge, and finally, we have Oleg Maskaev, the WBC Champion, who is more interested in fighting a middleweight than unifying the title. What a big mess this division is…
So boxing fans, gear up for a HUGE mismatch when Wladimir Klitschko is forced to face Ray Austin for the IBF Heavyweight Championship. I guess that they could use the line: “Can Austin Get Another Draw?” to sell the fight.
