Happy Holidays boxing fans! Yes it is officially the holiday season so let me tell you from experience, get your Christmas shopping done early (if you celebrate Christmas) or you will regret it later. There is nothing worse than trying to find a parking spot and then crowd-surfing over people in an overcrowded mall trying to pick up a last minute gift.
Actually, that is not true. There are worse things than having to deal with last minute shopping. Take Antonio Tarver?s opponent last Saturday. Danny Santiago was one of the worst fighters that I have ever seen in a Showtime main event. There were a lot of notable boxers in action over the weekend but all of them took part in mismatches of the standard confidence boosting, record padding variety. Nobody asked for these fights and not many cared. I expect more from guys like Vernon Forrest and Antonio Tarver who are trying to pass themselves off as legitimate fighters again.
On an unrelated note, former top ranked heavyweight contender ?Baby? Joe Mesi said that Sam Peter is not a threat anymore because he was ?exposed? by Jameel McCline. Joe went on to say that he would beat Peter easily among other trash talk. For the record, Peter was knocked down and hurt by McCline but picked himself up and went on to win a clear decision. Funny that Joe Mesi is calling that exposed because if that is the criteria for such a label, then Mesi has been ?exposed? at least twice. Once against Monte Barrett and then against Vassiliy Jirov, where he was battered around so much in the later rounds that his brain became ?exposed? to the air as it leaked out of his ears. Fight somebody or retire Joe, please.
On the front page of RSR there is a poll question asking whom readers think is going to win the December 8th superfight between Ricky Hatton and Floyd Mayweather. Surprisingly, Hatton has the edge as of the writing of this article. Not only is Ricky in the lead with the popular vote, almost 40% of the voters think that Hatton will not only win, but that he will knock out the Pretty Boy. I had no idea that RSR had so many readers from Manchester. This week?s mailbag starts off with someone who disagrees with English fans.
Picking Mayweather By KO
I got Floyd Mayweather by KO in the 8th round. He has got something to prove since people are saying he is slowing down because he is getting old. Left hook to the temple, right upper cut to the chin and its over. Anyways, I know little about boxing so, it?s just an opinion thrown up in the air. I will add that I have learned a great deal more about the sport from reading your articles and the answers to your readers questions and/or opinions. I also just wanted to ask why your Mailbox is all the way down at the bottom of the web page? It seems as if you are one of the more popular writers of the group and your opinions seem to be fair and interesting as well as educated. If I were the manager of this site I would feature you, Brian Wilbur, as the headliner, the heavyweight bout. Keep up the good work and I hope your making some $$$$ for all this knowledge your spitting out.
-Stephen Balls
Stephen,
I noticed how you put a bunch of $$$?s instead of typing out the word money. Is that what the cool kids are doing these days? Because I dig it man.
Your pick of Mayweather by 8th round KO is not a bad prediction. Vegas odds makers are tabbing Mayweather as a 2 to 1 favorite to beat Ricky Hatton on December 8th, so the smart money agrees with you. I only disagree with your assessment on two counts. First, Floyd is 30 years old and I haven?t seen him slowing down at all yet. Mayweather does have a lot to prove still, but if you asked him if he did he would say no! For that, I don?t think that Floyd is more motivated for this fight than any other of his fights. He is a consummate professional though that is always in shape and always ready no matter who the opponent.
Second, the prediction of a knockout is a bold one because Mayweather does not have much punching power anymore. He is an average puncher at welterweight and it will take more than an average puncher to put down Ricky Hatton in my opinion. I see this one going the distance, unless Mayweather completely outclasses Hatton and forces a stoppage or corner retirement.
My column being at the bottom is likely due to the day of the week that you visit the site. My mailbag is usually posted on Sunday night or on Monday on the top and as new columns come out in subsequent days my story gets pushed down. Thank you for looking out for me though, I need my face time!
A New Challenge
So I am sitting at Thanksgiving dinner last week and as I wrap my mouth around a leg of turkey and sucked the meat off of it in one single deep throat, I realized I hadn’t got to my mailbag question in a while. So after I sucked the bone dry and licked my fingers (all the while thinking about what bit of knowledge I would like to gather from you), I worked my way over to the computer and opened up my browser that goes directly to your mailbag page.
In tradition with the challenge that was offered to you a couple weeks ago, here is my challenge for you. If someone wins a fight this weekend in any division then you have to quit your job and move to an island somewhere. If nobody wins a fight this weekend then every single fan of boxing will never challenge your boxing knowledge again.
I speak for everyone in the world.
What a butt hole that guy was. I can’t believe you didn’t sign up for that bet.
Now for my question. How much money would it take for you to let Mike Tyson hit you in the kids one time? He would have a nice big sparring glove on, but no cup for you.
I love you and your bags. They make me smile 🙂
-Big Nips Andrew
Andrew,
Wow, my readers love to come up with wacky, zany challenges for me. How?s this for a deal: if I win you have to send me $1000, but if you win, I will receive $1000 from you. I will fax you a contract for you to sign ASAP.
But before I leave you, I will entertain your question about Mike Tyson. My answer is that I would not let Mike hit me in the junk for any amount of money (unless we are talking billions here). I imagine that getting hit in the jolly?s would be painful and money is only money, I am doing fine without it now.
Floyd Says He?s The Best Ever
Can you please assess Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s claim that he is the best prizefighter that has ever live. How would you rate him against the likes of Sugar Ray Robinson, Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano, Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard, and Marvin Hagler. For me, he is not even in the same league as the above mentioned fighters. I have seen him in a couple of fights and should I say that he is so boring to watch. He constantly brags of his greatness, where in fact boxing aficionados should be the one telling him if he really is great. Can you please enlighten us boxing fans? Thanks and more power to your column/mailbag.
-RSS
RSS,
As of right now, Mayweather is not in the same league as the fighters you mentioned. But Floyd?s career is not over yet. It is conceivable that Mayweather is considered the best fighter of his generation if he continues to fight and beat the top boxers. Let?s say that Floyd beats Ricky Hatton, Miguel Cotto, and Paul Williams in his next three fights. I would probably put him in the Marvin Hagler/Rocky Marciano class although he would still fall short of guys like Ali and the Sugar Rays.
He does have some things in common with Ali though. The way they constantly talked trash rub some people the wrong way. They believe in the concept that if you tell everyone that you are the greatest enough times people will start to believe you. For Ali that actually worked too! Ali and Mayweather fight the type of fight, and are good enough to pull it off, that if an opponent does very well, the fight will still go the distance and the verdict will be a very close decision; close enough to be controversial. In other words, no one would ever blow out a prime Ali or a prime Mayweather, and good luck convincing the judges that you out-boxed the great Muhammad Ali or the untouchable Floyd Mayweather. Now I?m not saying that Mayweather is as great as Ali, I am pointing out that they have some similarities.
Joan Guzman vs. Edwin Valero Anyone?
Hi Brian, Golden Boy Promotions looks like they are planning a Guzman/Valero fight. What are your thoughts on this fight? Do you think there is a possibility that the winner of this fight could be Pacman’s opponent after Marquez?
I want to see Valero how will handle a tougher opponent like Guzman. Right now, Valero proves nothing to me because all of his victims are unknown and he was just recognized because of his outstanding record. I predict that Guzman will win via unanimous decision over Valero just like the same outcome he won over Humberto Soto. Valero will have a problem connecting his power punches against the very slick Guzman. And in my opinion, Soto is better than Valero. Anyways, I hope this fight happens and we see more exciting fights. Thank you and more power to you.
-Sac
Sac,
That would be an awesome match up. Edwin Valero gets hyped up a lot because his record is 22-0 with all 22 wins coming by way of knockout, and only three of his opponents managed to not get knocked out in the first round. That kind of knockout streak is fun and good for the sport. Does it mean that Valero is a top notch fighter? No, not necessarily. Valero has beaten some soft opposition on the way up the ladder. The only two opponents on his record that I consider real fighters, (as opposed to someone who was knowingly getting paid to lose) were Vicente Mosquera, who he won the title from, and the Japanese fighter Nobuhito Honmo from his last match. No surprise that these two stretched Edwin to the 10th and 8th rounds and gave him his toughest fights. Still, his ability to knock out both men impressed me.
Like you, I want to see how Valero will do against A-level competition. His style is pretty wild, throwing haymakers and gunning for the knockout, so conventional wisdom says that an accomplished, slick veteran like Guzman will eat him up and make him pay for his mistakes. However, I have heard that Valero used to have some pretty decent boxing skills but has been abandoning strategy and fighting extremely aggressive in his recent fights because he wants to keep his knockout streak alive. If that really is the case then Guzman vs. Valero becomes a much more interesting and competitive fight.
Valero will have problems hitting Guzman and that is not a knock out Valero because just about everyone has a problem hitting the crafty Dominican. This fight makes sense so I hope that it does happen. Valero needs this fight to establish himself as a legitimate threat and not just a novelty. Guzman needs this fight to increase his name recognition because his market value does not currently match his skills. The winner certainly deserves to fight Pacquiao, but everything is pointing to the likelihood that Manny will move up to lightweight after the Marquez rematch.
Casual Fans Being Left Out
Hey Brian, I am not a huge boxing fan, I am more into team sports like basketball and football but I used to enjoy the occasional heavyweight championship fight. Mike Tyson was a good watch and the fights between Evander Holyfield and Riddick Bowe were epic. I haven?t seen much from boxing in years. Is that because there are no good heavyweights around or is it because the media doesn?t cover boxing like they used to?
-Rob
Rob,
It is a combination of both really. The mainstream media in the United States entirely ignores the sport of boxing to the point where you probably wouldn?t even know it if there was a great heavyweight champion in his prime. But it does not help that the crop of heavyweights right now is not that good. Wladimir Klitschko is pretty good, the best heavyweight that we have right now, but he is not on the same level as the fighters you mentioned like Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, and Lennox Lewis. Klitschko doesn?t have the same aura that those fighters had, probably because he has been knocked out multiple times and does not have a great opponent that he can beat to redeem himself. Wladimir is scheduled to fight IBF champion Sultan Ibragimov in his next fight, so maybe if he unifies the belts and becomes the undisputed champion people will start paying attention.
More Glory For Pacman
Hi Brian! First I’d like to give my appreciation to your brilliant comments here in your mailbag. I’ve never read or even looked at this kind of column before but now I’d say I’m a fanatic! My questions are these: first, what will people say about Pacman if let’s say he would fight and beat Juan Manuel Marquez or David Diaz? For Marquez, surely he will be appreciated but for the critics they would say he can only beat up washed up and old boxers. Thus what more if he loses, what would do you think the people would say then?
If it is Diaz, what benefit he would get if he wins, and what would it be if he loses? I hope you can give your personal opinion about these questions. Thanks and more power to you!
-Adrian Agawa
Adrian,
Juan Manuel Marquez is not that old in terms of his boxing age. He has shown no signs of slowing down so far so Pacquiao would get full respect from me. If he lost I would say that he lost to an excellent fighter so there is no shame in that, similar to when he lost to Erik Morales.
Now if he defeats David Diaz I will not be as impressed. All it will mean is that Pacquiao can handle an average lightweight. On the flip side, if he lost to Diaz he has a built in excuse that lightweight is too heavy for him and he could not handle the punches from a full sized lightweight like Diaz. But all of the glory is in a Marquez fight so I am glad that team Pacquiao made the correct decision in taking Marquez over Diaz as his next opponent.
When Crazy Pacquiao Fans Attack
Obviously you are not a not a Pacman believer. Just like Max Kellerman, who under-estimated PacMan years ago, you will be proven wrong. How dare you say that Pacquiao?s wins against Erik Morales were a fluke because he was near retirement! I bet you will say similar things if Pacman beats your man Juan Manuel Marquez.
-Prima Vera
Prima,
You say that I am not a Pacquiao believer but I wholeheartedly disagree. I believe in Manny Pacquiao, meaning that I believe that he exists. I have seen him on TV before so he must be real.
But to get to your arguments, I never said that his wins were a fluke but in the context that you use the word I don?t think you know what it means. A fluke would mean that Pacquiao got lucky in winning those fights. I don?t think he got lucky at all. He out fought Morales and beat him clearly in the second and third fights. What I said was that maybe that was not the best version of Erik Morales. Perhaps it was Morales at his best, and I give Pacman tons of credit for those fights giving him the benefit of the doubt, but if you look at the track record you have to wonder. Before those losses to Pacquiao, Morales lost a near shut-out decision against non-elite Zahir Raheem. After the losses to Pacquiao he dropped a decision to the mediocre David Diaz. With those results, you are in denial if you are not even considering the possibility that Morales had seen better days.
And who says JMM is “my man”? I am a big fan of Pacquiao and have him as my #1 pound for pound boxer in the world above both Marquez and Floyd Mayweather. But I look at each fight without bias and with complete objectivity. I feel that Marquez has a style that will give Pacquiao troubles. You are obviously unable to give unbiased predictions because of your insatiable love for Pacquiao. I suggest not getting so upset when someone disagrees with your opinion next time, but thanks for the email.
Marquez vs. Pacquiao Too Late
When Manny Pacquiao defeated Barrera in 2003 and Morales in 2006, I started to tell my friends that I believed Juan Manuel Marquez is the most likely to beat Pacquiao in a definitive fashion among the Mexicans his size. But lately I really don?t know why I lost interest for a Pacquiao-Marquez part 2. Maybe because it should have been made in late 2004, or early 2005, or even, mercifully, sometime in 2006.
I mean it?s too late, plain and simple. Ever since they fought on May 8, 2004 and an immediate or not-so-immediate rematch failed to materialize all these years, I find myself happy and content to know that Pacman should have won had Clemens known that he could have given Pacquiao 10-6 and not 10-7 since he dropped JMM three times in the first round. But as they say, strange things happen in boxing and since it was declared a draw, I?m already happy that Manny dented Marquez? overarching confidence by demonstrating that he had the power and ability to put the tough Mexican champ on the canvas several times. I?m satisfied that Pacman proved to Marquez that Manny Pacquiao was competitive enough to be regarded as a serious threat had he not opted to box more and counterpunch Pacquiao for the rest of the night.
I can live with the fact that the formerly raw, one-dimensional slugger Manny Pacquiao was clearly out-boxed by JMM; and that the Pinoy broke Marquez?s nose and sent him to bleed profusely but JMM remained undaunted, or Pacman dropped him three times but nevertheless got up so quickly in each occasion without wobbling and appeared far from being unable to continue fighting.
Either guy can boast a win against each other, either one can have a win over the other. Now a rematch looms in the horizon but I think we have reached the point where almost anyone can say, ?So what if Pacquiao (or shall we say Team Pacquiao?) and Marquez are finally going for a rematch next year.? Because on the one hand, so what if Marquez proves next year that he can out-box Manny to win a comfortable decision? He had already done that and almost won the decision. And on the other hand, so what if Pacman proves convincingly next year that he can beat Marquez, J.M. is already old in the first place and he already defeated (technically speaking) Marquez when he was younger.
In my opinion, there?s no longer a ?score? to be settled between the two because they have allowed too much a time lapse between the first fight and the second one next year. We should move on to see Marquez fighting/unifying with Guzman/Valero and retiring very soon. And Pacquiao should continue fighting in whatever superfights that can be made for him, or he should be matched up with credible but fresher opponents at least.
I liken Pacquiao-Marquez 2 to Pacquiao-Barrera 2 in that I wasn?t euphoric when it was announced and even when it finally came into fruition. Not that I counted out MAB completely to score an upset (he made a serious mistake by refusing to take the risk necessary to beat Pacman) but the rematch was practically ANTI-CLIMACTIC, suspended in the air for almost four years. At that point in time, nobody needs Pac-MAB rematch to happen except for the few people who made lots of money out of it.
Just as I watched the delayed telecast, greedily chopped, ridiculously stretched (can you imagine a 12-rounder bout spanning about 3 hours to unfold?), frustratingly advertisement-driven ?Will to Win? headliner for free on TV last Oct. 7 (Manila time); similarly, I guess I won?t go to a movie theater here in Manila to pay 500 pesos to watch Pacquiao-Marquez part 2 live and/or commercial-free.
Anyway, thank you for another very interesting mailbag. More power.
-PinoyGlad
PinoyGlad,
Well said. I am a bit more optimistic than you are. I say better late than never regarding Marquez vs. Pacquiao 2, although this one definitely should have happened a couple years ago.
Take care everyone and keep sending in those questions! I look forward to answering them in next week’s mailbag. Enjoy the Mayweather ? Hatton fight this weekend.
