The Famine Before The Feast
It’s quiet this weekend, the famine before the feast. The new boxing decade really kicks into life next weekend, with the NY Juanma Lopez-Yuriorkis Gamboa double-header serving as an appetiser before the Shane Mosley-Andre Berto main course seven days later. In a bid to stave off your hunger, here are a few random ramblings I’ve rustled up for you to nibble on in the interim.
Good news for George Groves fans this week, with Boxing News reporting that the Hammersmith prospect has landed a slot on the Mosley-Berto show in Vegas. Groves must come through a fight in Brentwood on Friday unscathed (against that fearsome opponent TBA) to ensure he takes his place on what looks a very good undercard. I always see it as a good sign if fighters are willing to learn some of the early ropes Stateside, with men such as Ricky Hatton, Scott Harrison, Wayne McCullogh, Chris Eubank and Steve Collins benefiting from the experience. Groves needs to be careful here however. His quote, “Oscar said he’d get me a tough Mexican” scares the bejesus out of me as one who’s like to see Groves remain unbeaten.
More optimism for Groves fans comes with news that he’s been drafted in to spar Super Six combatants, Arthur Abraham and Mikkel Kessler. Adam Booth has also expressed an interest in George having a crack at British super middleweight champ Paul Smith……….this summer!! Smith (who appears at number 20 on my list of Britain’s best fighters) has had more than four times the amount of fights Groves has, although at the rate George is motoring, he could be into double figures by summer. Reading this stuff (and seeing him fight), you’d assume ‘Saint’ George was a badass but he actually comes over as a happy go lucky fella, which makes me like him even more.
Frank Warren’s latest column (my flatmate left his tabloid in the netty, honest) has the headline ‘a real weighty old problem’ and as usual, leaves a bit of a bad taste in the mouth. Warren, in his own inimitable way, explains that our superfight failed due to Mayweather’s demands for drug testing. He continues:
“Although I can’t remember a fight falling through for similar reasons, it could become more common in the future. In the States, fighters seem to move through the divisions more freely than Europe. That could provoke suspicions in certain camps. Interestingly, the best British fighters of the last 20 years or so have tended to stay in and around the same division. Naseem Hamed, Joe Calzaghe, Nigel Benn, Steve Collins and Ricky Hatton never went much above the weight they made their debuts at. It’s not quite been the same for the outstanding American fighters of the last decade. Oscar De La Hoya and Mayweather began at super-featherweight before meeting at light-middleweight. Roy Jones Junior and James Toney both started out below middleweight but wound up contesting versions of the heavyweight world title. Toney has been caught taking performance enhancing drugs while Jones has also been involved in a drugs controversy. Shane Mosley has gone from lightweight up to light-middleweight, while Pacquiao has gone from being a flyweight to glory at welterweight.”
Thanks for that Frank, that’s almost as bad as Oscar’s recent quip:
“Wow. Those Mosley punches, those Vargas punches and those Pacquiao punches all felt the same.”
Good game fellas. Warren also gets in his usual kidney punch at David Haye, which is great for those of us who hate change.
What else have I picked up? Hmmm. Well here’s one of those fabulous HBO ‘face off’ snippets between Mosley and Berto:
I like these. I like to think I’m perceptive when I see a couple of fighters come face to face. They say that every picture tells a story and more often than not, when I see a snap of two guys facing off at the final presser, I can pick the winner. I’ve long felt that there’s a great angle here for an article so I’ll not proceed, my point really being that these clips can act as an extended version of the familiar head to head pic.
The recent Manny Pacquiao-Miguel Cotto clip showed Pac happily sizing up Cotto up like a lion eyes a gazelle. This one here has me veering towards a Berto win. Andre appears genuinely confident around the great man and is speaking sense, whilst Shane looks a tad battle scarred to me. For those who like to get on a bet early, Berto on points (I can’t ever see Mosley being stopped) can be picked up at 11/4.
I’m constantly checking the Hennessy Sports website to obtain dates for John Murray-Anthony Mezaache and Carl Froch-Mikkel Kessler, two fights I intend to be front and centre for. I’m also excited at news that David Haye-John Ruiz will be in London, possibly featuring Joan Guzman and Michael Katsidis on the undercard. I’m having to back heel Warren’s stacked Wembley card to accommodate, which is a bummer.
Elsewhere there are now a trio of fighters looking for 140lb-ish opposition. Floyd Mayweather has no viable options on the table as far as I’m concerned, other than Paul Williams and I’ll be expecting to see ‘Dancing on Ice’ live from Hades before I see that one.
Amir Khan has been presented with Marcos Maidana as his next opponent, yet may reject this proposition for more marketable and more winnable fights. Rumours are abound that Amir is looking to make a Malignaggi fight, although Lou Dibella doesn’t seem keen due to Khan’s low profile in the States. Khan’s been linked with more men than Lindsay Lohan in the past few weeks, one of which is the third of our single men, Ricky Hatton.
Incidentally, does anyone else see a similarity between Ricky in his present state and Janette Krankie?
Where was I? Oh yes, trying to second guess who’ll land money gigs with our three amigos. Paulie Malignaggi has been talking up his chances as one would expect, yet I personally, don’t want to see him in with any of them. Michael Katsidis is popular too, he bleeds a lot, can be outboxed yet makes for good fights, which makes a Hatton-Katsidis battle an attractive one. Unfortunately, Ricky has himself nominated a ‘world champion or pound for pounder’ which could rule out Khan (if he relinquishes his belt) and would bring in Juan Manuel Marquez for a moderately intriguing battle between two of boxing’s good guys.
Back to Khan, who’s next step is a mystery yet will tell us much about his future intentions. His contract situation appears to have changed as I write, with reports coming in that he’s signed with Golden Boy (beware of the GBP first fight curse). If this is true, Warren has a new heavy bag to wail away on.
Maybe Khan and Hatton can fight each other in a highly lucrative domestic showdown which has me thinking of Joe Bugner-Henry Cooper for some reason.
As for Floyd, who knows? He’s stymied himself, which serves him right really and helps make my boycott of his next fight all the more easy. He needs one hell of an angle, like Apollo Creed did in ‘Rocky’. Just don’t look for him to fight a ‘snow white underdog’ in a gimmick fight dressed as Uncle Sam. He’ll probably fight a Mexican on Cinco de Mayo or a Puerto Rican during their annual parade weekend and play the man in the black hat all the way to the bank if fans let him.
