It’s Monday. Welcome back for another edition of Observe and Fight, The Boxing Observer’s compilation of observations and random thoughts from the week that was in boxing. Get caught up on some of the most recent events you may have missed out on, including Kelly Pavlik’s decision to pull out of his fight this past Saturday, Floyd Mayweather’s pursuit of free agent Devon Alexander, Antonio Tarver’s next move, and much more. Without further ado, check out the latest observations from The Boxing Observer.
Kelly Pavlik’s logic for pulling out of this past Saturday’s fight was acceptable, but not realistic. Any athlete who goes through personal problems (Plaxico Burress, Donte Stallworth, etc.) needs to prove they are ready to move on or else we could get another situation like Mike Tyson. Pavlik is a star, but one big fight could put his life straight back into a tailspin of disaster.
Oscar De La Hoya is apparently giving tips to Ortiz on how to beat Mayweather? Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t Mayweather beat Oscar? I know the fight was a split decision, but go back and really watch that fight with no bias and a boxing education. There is NO WAY it should have been so close. It may have been a boring fight, but Oscar barely won 4 rounds. If Oscar’s blueprint is to hit Mayweather on the gloves and throw punches that graze off the shoulders, then sign me up because I’m pretty sure I can do that too. Didn’t De La Hoya give some advice to Juan Manuel Marquez before he fought Floyd too? How did that work out?
Floyd Mayweather doesn’t seem to be taking Victor Ortiz lightly. In an interview with Ben Thompson, Mayweather took a minute from his 3-times-per-day training schedule to speak with Fighthype. Seems like Floyd wants to get back in the ring more than NFL players want to get back on the field. If NFL players were practicing 3 times a day, they wouldn’t have to worry about not being in shape for the start of the season.
Victor Ortiz is training for real as well. The WBC welterweight champ just completed a triathlon as part of training for the Mayweather fight. Sounds like a great way to get in shape for boxing considering it’s non-stop conditioning for almost 2 hours, but I have one question…who are Victor’s sparring partners for “Money” Mayweather? Seems like that’s more important than completing a triathlon. No one in the sport is more well-conditioned than Mayweather and Ortiz needs to figure out how to bully Floyd to win this fight. No disrespect to Victor, but I still don’t see any way he wins this fight. The two are on completely different levels.
Vernon Paris definitely took care of business. I’m still not sold on him being a legit 140-pound contender yet. He still needs about 2 or 3 more fights before he will be ready for the likes of Khan, Maidana, Morales, Matthysse, etc.
“Star Power” on Sept 17th is the best fight card in years. I know I said last week I wasn’t excited about the pay-per-view, but the addition of Morales vs. Matthysse has changed my thinking 100%. This is now a card to remember. Former welterweight titlist Luis Collazo is also now fighting on the undercard (most likely on the non-televised portion). His opponent is still TBD, but this adds another big name to the big night that includes Mayweather vs. Ortiz, Alvarez vs. Gomez, and Jessie Vargas vs. Josesito Lopez.
