In this weeks email bag, we’ve got some questions from name brand gloves to the who’s who in boxing heavy-handed hitters. We have a newer converted Pac Man fan, to another boxing fan a bit irate on Vitali Klitschko’s forth delay which caused him his championship belt by default. A fan asks about a Hector Macho Camacho Vs Sweet Pea Whitaker dream bout. We’ve got Naz devotees out there curious for his return, and another Manny Mania aficionado figuring him fighting better back as a featherweight fighter.
Do you think its better for pacman to go back to the featherweights? I think he’s more dangerous in the featherweight
Ron Bariuan
Ron,
I only talk that he could fight at two weights should he decide to do so, and nothing about where I thought he’s more dangerous at. He very well does the job at both weights I think. As a super featherweight or a lightweight he’ll be judged performance wise.
Georgio,
How’s it hanging cat? Digging your email bag. Who da man at 130 and 190 in your mind? Who is the biggest puncher today? Who is the Naseem Hamed today?
G Money Don Dada
G Money Don Dada,
GDS says Hamed returns again. Whether or not he’ll be as effective as he was remains to be seen.
Biggest punchers right now are heavyweights Lamon Brewster and Samuel Peter, twenty-year-old light middleweight Joel Jair Julio, and light welterweights Jose Luis Castillo and Miguel Cotto. Super featherweight Marco Antonio Barrera is the best. And at Cruiserweight you haven’t been the best until you’ve beaten France’s Jean-Marc Mormeck.
George, what are the chances for Carlos Maussa pulling off the upset against Ricky Hatton?
Jorge Fernandez
Jorge,
He’ll need air support power in the upswing to sustain that pace against Ricky Hatton; and on the grounds of warfare; he has a confidence level to knock Ricky down. If he can get by the earlier to middle rounds having a good supply of lungs, Hatton may get more than he bargained for because Maussa believes in his punch. Nobody gave him a snowball’s chance in hell to defeat Vivian Harris, and I don’t see this being any differently in his psyche going into this fight. Look for this to be a very explosive fight, one that could potentially very well serve to be a barometer of sorts at 140. This PPV buy is what I’m talking about.
George,
What similar comparisons does Macho Camacho have to his son? And who would have won if Camacho fought Sweet Pea Whitaker? Don’t tell me Camacho wouldn’t have rabbit punched him.
Bo
Bo,
There is no plausible explanation as to why that match wasn’t made, anymore than a batch of matches that didn’t materialize. Both fighters were heralded as the world’s best at the time for me. You also had to consider the wave of fighters who took to setting their sights on as many titles as they could possibly find in different weight categories during the ’80’s, something the very popular SRL had a penchant for doing himself, although he did drop back down to welterweight to then jump to middleweight. Macho had some resurgence in 1995-97 with his junior welterweight and super welterweight campaigns to my recollection.
There is nothing that shows me that the son was anything remotely close to the fighting style of his father. As a junior lightweight you couldn’t see the blazing speeds Macho possessed to making his opponents look inferior in every aspect of the game. Pernell Whitaker, Alexis Arguello, Roger Mayweather, Bobby Chacon, or Sammy Serrano couldn’t have laid a glove on him as a Super Featherweight. He was just too damned fast and inventive to beat. Whitaker and him as lightweights fighting would’ve been a toss up and a pick ’em fight. Rabbit punching goes whenever the referee doesn’t see it coming too.
George,
Hi, I’m an avid fan of your columns and it’s credible. Hope you answer my questions. I’m now beginning to like pacman’s style, unpretty, sluggish, unpredictable (some experts says his predictable but to me he’s not), and exciting (in my own opinion he’s one of the top 3 most exciting fighters in the world today but few experts says he had only Filipino fans, for the record his last 4-5 fights was a hit and fight of the year contender, and I think he is more appealing and exciting to watch than Mayweather, Winky, Morales, Barrera etc..)
What do you think on my opinion, and my main question is, is there any other fighter in boxing history who has the same pacman style? Or let say pacman is unique? I think there are few boxers who have unique style.
latino_rule
Latino _Rule,
Well, I’ll have to disagree with one thing about Manny Pacquiao being limited only inside of the archipelago region; especially with the amount of fans he thus far has here in the United States. Just like what was articulated as good cultural exotic foods yesteryear; is now everyday mainstream groceries in American food markets; and isn’t unusual anymore seeing companies buying in the name to go carrying along with zeal for the acquired tastes Americans everywhere have for foreign foods. Manny cooks, and no doubt has his own style working.
Pacquiao’s overall penchant in hardly ever being in bad fights just grows, as does his popularity. PBF will be exciting by virtue of no one being able to beat him yet, and Erik Morales, win, lose, or draw, will always have appeal. Of course Winky got exciting seemingly overnight with his victory over a come backing Felix Trinidad, when not too many looked toward him as being Mr. Excitement.
I’d have some reservations about Barrera however, because Marco Antonio Barrera is still very exciting to watch anywhere. It’d be good squared off solid company for most of them to fight up to the lightweights.
Can you believe it!
I just read that Vitali cancelled again!
As a fan…. I am not happy…. and I am a big fan of the 6’6′ Ukrainian! This…. this I do have to say really does test me.
This is not the second or third… but is the fourth time something has happened. Man-o-man…I mean I am, or soon to be was, a big supporter of his. If you ask me the WBC has been more than patient with the Champ.
I’m on my soapbox about this I know…but in my humble opinion this just hurts the name of the fight game.
Hell…. back in the 70’s, and heck even in the early 80’s, champions at least defended their titles a couple of times a year.
This is outrageous…. absolutely ridiculous…. if Vitali cannot stay healthy…. he needs to hang it up! If he can not stay healthy… then step aside…let a young up and coming fighter step up to the plate…someone who wants to fight…. who is hungry!
Heck…. even over paid baseball players play hurt…so should fighters; especially when they string along the public for almost a year. Ali fought hurt…even Roy Jones claims to have fought with a broken hand…. so too should Vitali!
Four times…. four times…doesn’t this dude have professional trainers who teach him how to stretch his legs before workouts or what?!?!?!?!?!?
What is your scoop on this?
Sorry for all of my excitement.
Thanks for letting me vent…but I’m just sick about this. I was really… I mean really looking forward to this fight. Who do you believe will be the next heavyweight champ?
Your input is greatly appreciated on this.
Later
Felzien
Felzien,
It could be inconceivable that an injury mishap had taken place this time worked against him, and I’m not rubbing any salt on wounds by saying if indeed a strategy had backfired from another time wanting to have delayed the fight.
I’m in total agreement with what the former champion Vitali Klitschko did in doing the honorable thing by being disengaged from the fight; as well as publicly retiring; and having awarded the belt by the WBC given onto Hasim Rahman. I read somewhere that the WBA Heavyweight Champion John Ruiz himself stated days earlier that the WBC should have done that in effect too.
I would only guess up until now that had that been in the ’70’s or ’80’s with heavyweights making five and six defenses yearly for another organization; the WBC wouldn’t have stood for so many delays. These are completely different times. As of this moment there are no heavyweights above another. So to name one would be meaningless under these extreme circumstances, which could continue to befuddle the heavyweight category.
The brand of gloves being the issue in the last Pacquiao-Morales bout, is it possible for a boxer to wear 2 different brands of gloves in a fight? For example, one brand for the left hand and another brand for the right. Is it allowed?
Ultimate Boxing Fan
Ultimate Boxing Fan,
I do know about having shoe colors unmatched in tones worn before in the ring.
Who really knows what lurks behind in the changing of two or even four distinctly different name brand items? Right?
What isn’t clear to me however in what you say is whether the opponent manages or not to want to wear his own imported brands on himself. Now you’ve got four distinctly diverse name brands worn in a multiple advertisement for really confusing what the fighter prefers to show as the leader of brands of sorts. Does that mean that all brands are really of the same caliber or not? So long as the ounces match the criteria in equal gloves for the fight, I don’t see a problem. However, when it comes for a fighter to wear one brand glove on one hand with another for the other hand, I haven’t seen that for me to really say. My gut feeling says that it’s a matter of the commissions to allow those things or not.
Could you say something about a pro fighter who made the most title defenses in boxing?
Steven
Steven,
I’d say that it’d have to be the World Boxing Federation’s Super Flyweight Champion, Thailand’s Samson 3K Battery, or better known as Samson Dutch Boy Gym. Samson made something like 38 or 39 of his own title defenses, and then retired undefeated as champion.
What we all really missed out on was seeing more of him here in the States, beholding 1992-2004 boxing career, 43-0, 36 KO’s. He had but one lone fight here in 1996 at the Great Western Forum, Inglewood, kayoing Sergio Sanchez (TKO 2), us having bypassed his illustrious career entirely. It was a big miss for the networks forming a smaller Super Star.
