Evander Holyfield Wants Another Title Shot
Nikolay Valuev, after his WBA Title winning effort over former 2-Time Champ, John ?The Quietman? Ruiz, is looking for a first defense and the name that comes up far too much has arisen again: Evander Holyfield. This is a man that claims it is his destiny to become undisputed champion again and wants to acquire a title against the gigantic WBA Champ.
There would have to be some trickery going on for Evander to get a title shot, considering that he wasn?t in the WBA?s top 15 the last time that I checked, and he lost his last fight very badly to the then WBO Champion, Sultan Ibragimov. Holyfield is rocketing right into the next boxing tragedy by continuing his career and his speech has slowed down over the years. The lights are dimming, and he wants to face a 350 pound monster that won?t just knock him out. He will most likely give him a 12 round beating and Holyfield probably doesn?t have a chance to win this one because Nikolay is too tall to head butt.
It has been customary for the newly crowned champions to have an optional defense the first time out and for Nikolay, this fight makes sense. People know Holyfield and most people that support him forget the last ten years of his career and focus on his glory days and then you combine that with the people that consider Valuev a joke and very beatable, people will start to believe that we are going to see a competitive fight and we may even see many favoring the old former champion coming out on top.
This fight would really do nothing for Valuev or the sport. A lot of younger champions feast on the older ones and make easy work of them, most of the time. The exception would be George Foreman, who defeated Michael Moorer for the heavyweight title, but Foreman had a lot more left than Holyfield and Valuev, if nothing else, can take a great punch. That may squash any chance that Evander can pull the rabbit out of the hat.
If Valuev is looking for a reasonable but not terribly dangerous challenge that would bring attention to his career, James Toney wouldn?t be a bad option. He?s smaller and doesn?t pack a wallop, but he is incredibly skilled and would talk this fight up to the point that it would bring attention to it on a rather large scale. Perhaps we would see it on American television. Shannon Briggs is another guy that wouldn?t be a bad choice with his huge punch and bravado.
Fortunately, Team Valuev is dismissing the challenge, or lack thereof, of Holyfield at this time, and are looking elsewhere. Perhaps Toney or Briggs is on the list, and we also have Brian Minto out there looking for a crack. The fact that they are refusing this fight says a lot about the heart of Valuev?not willing to administer a beating to an old man for money.
With the upcoming heavyweight showdown between Vitali Klitschko and Sam Peter, and David Haye making his heavyweight debut taking on Monte Barrett, the division is generating some excitement. When Valuev gets beyond the necessary challenges, he will probably come face to face with a Klitschko or maybe even Sam Peter.
Can Vitali Take a Peter in His Face?
The time is upon us people. Vitali Klitschko, the former WBC Heavyweight Champion is making his long awaited return to the ring and has, thus far, not been injured forcing him to pull out again. It has been nearly four years since we last saw Vitali pound Danny Williams into mush and now he wants to do the same to defending WBC Heavyweight Champion, Sam Peter. This is one of the most exciting heavyweight showdowns in some time, and Showtime is putting this on for free to its subscribers. With the onslaught of HBO Pay Per Views (Kelly Pavlik ? Bernard Hopkins, Roy Jones, JR. ? Joe Calzaghe, Oscar De La Hoya ? Manny Pacquiao), it?s nice to see a great fight on regular cable.
For the longest time it seemed that Vitali didn?t want to face Sam Peter and was trying to screw him out of his title shot by jumping in there with this ?Champion Emeritus? distinction to take on Oleg Maskaev, the then champion. The WBC did the right thing, sort of. They made Peter fight and win two Eliminators to get his title shot against James Toney. After he beat Toney the first time, you get the sense that they said: ?We don?t want him! We want Toney to win!? Well, they gave ?Lights Out? another chance and Peter left no doubt and was ready to challenge for the crown and finally got his shot against Oleg Maskaev, stopping him midway through the fight. Now, this is not a guy that is going to give up his title easily. Not only did he beat James Toney twice, he got off the floor to defeat Jameel McCline, stopped Maskaev, and has a lot of momentum going into this Saturday?s brawl.
The winner in this situation is the fans. Chris Byrd and John Ruiz were great champions, but they were not exciting. Wladimir Klitschko looks good when he lowers the boom, but you have to sit through his clinch-fests to get to it. The fans want excitement and the heavyweights haven?t really delivered, but they will on Saturday night. Vitali will try to keep Peter at bay and I don?t think that he can. There are so many things that can and will probably happen that it?s hard to predict. If McCline was able to drop Peter on several occasions, what will a Vitali Klitschko punch do? With four years away, how will Vitali deal with an aggressive power-puncher?
Just in case you weren?t chomping at the bit to see this broadcast, Showtime sweetens the pot and adds a light heavyweight showdown that has been a couple of years in the making. Antonio ?Magic Man? Tarver, the most noteworthy light heavyweight will be trying to fend off the challenge of the youngster, Chad Dawson in an IBF/IBO Light Heavyweight Title fight. This is another one of those fights that you don?t know what will happen but you have to expect fireworks early and often.
Boxing fans: this is your night. Showtime has done the right thing for the sport and the fans and is giving away a double-header that could have easily carried a fifty dollar price tag. I know what my plans are this Saturday night.
Oscar De La Hoya ? Manny Pacquiao: Size Matters?
Either everybody is buying into the hype or I?m wrong. This Oscar De La Hoya-Manny Pacquiao ?Dream Fight? is getting a lot of attention and many boxing writers are picking the Filipino sensation to win or at least make it competitive down the stretch. After seeing various pictures of the two standing side by side, the size difference immediately jumps out at you. Oscar is much bigger and he has made a great point about timing versus speed.
The emphasis in this fight has been on Manny?s speed and how that will be the deciding factor in this fight should he win, but De La Hoya knows when to throw and can time his opponent. He did it in the first thirty seconds of his bout with Ricardo Mayorga, something that took Shane Mosley twelve rounds to do. I have no doubt that Freddie Roach will put out the best game plan possible to defeat De La Hoya, but what happens when Oscar lands? De La Hoya has feasted on smaller guys his entire career, destroying Arturo Gatti, Jesse Leija, John Molina, Troy Dorsey, Julio Cesar Chavez and many more. He does a good job pounding these smaller guys to the floor and that will be on the agenda when he faces Pacquiao.
It?s obvious that De La Hoya wanted to leave the sport beating the pound for pound best in the game and when he dropped out (Floyd Mayweather, JR.), he went for the next best thing, despite the size disparity. From what I have seen, De La Hoya still has a great deal left and that is going to be hard to survive being so much smaller. Manny has never faced a guy that can punch as hard as De La Hoya and ?The Golden Boy? has been in with power-punching welterweights and light middleweights. He took some shots from a great puncher in Felix Trinidad, fended off a 160+ pound Fernando Vargas, and plowed through another middleweight in Mayorga. He should have no problem taking on the punching power of Manny.
The excitement around this fight is another example of how popular De La Hoya still is and how he can manipulate the press and turn an average fight into an event. He knows how to sell and this fight will sell. He will make money hand over fist for sure, but I don?t see it going very long. The timing that De La Hoya spoke of is spot on. That will be the deciding factor in this fight. A Manny victory seems like an incredible long shot.
