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Thanks for the save mods   Tonight – Boardwalk Hall, Atlantic City (HBO): Bernard Hopkins vs. Sergey Kovalev, 12 rounds, IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight unification; Luis Carlos Abregu vs. Sadam Ali, 10 rounds, welterweights  In maybe the third or fourth phase of his career since losing to Chad Dawson in 2012 he’s reeled off victories against Tavoris Cloud, Karo Murat and Beibut Shumenov capturing the IBF and WBA light heavyweight belts in the process and proving that there may indeed be life on Mars. Still as cantankerous and self-assured as ever, a large part of Hopkins’s success come from the mind games he plays with opponents both at the podium and in the ring.  Alternately a teddy bear outside the ring and a terrifying force inside it, Sergey Kovalev has taken on the “Krusher” persona given to him by promoter Main Events like a fish to water. Rampaging through the second tier of the division such as Gabriel Campillo and Nathan Cleverly the same as he does to Cedric Agnew and Blake Caparello, Kovalev began the year on a collision course with WBC champion Adonis Stevenson. Stevenson fall under the Al Haymon spell and went to Showtime with designs on fighting Hopkins himself. Ultimately Stevenson was unimpressive in the ring and Al Haymon suffered a rare defeat at the negotiating table when Hopkins went to HBO after negotiations for a Stevenson bout faltered. It may not be against who he expected at first but Kovalev now has his opportunity to get his signature win. Everyone who has gotten the better of Hopkins did so because they were able to get off first due to having a pure speed advantage (Chad Dawson, Roy Jones, Joe Calzaghe) and actually using that advantage to get off first and not let Hopkins get comfortable enough to make the contest a battle of will-which is something maybe no one on Earth can best him in-rather than a battle of skill. Kovalev is a brutal power puncher but so were Kelly Pavlik, Felix Trinidad and Antonio Tarver and none of them ever got in position to execute their strategy and make their strength count. However that could end up working in Kovalev’s favor as he’s shown that his strategy is simply to throw. His affinity for body work especially could turn the odds. Prior competition doesn’t say much either as the light heavyweight division is ruled by three fighters: Hopkins, Stevenson and Kovalev with everyone else being fairly clearly way below (hard hitting Russian Artur Beterbiev is a long way from proving he belongs in the elite at just 6-0) so while Kovalev’s wins can be talked away as him knocking out inferior competition as he is supposed to, Hopkins as well could be thought of as taking advantage of a weak fighters to make history and that when faced with a puncher of Kovalev (or even Stevenson)’s caliber he will finally have bitten off more than he can chew and be stopped, presumably ending his career. I personally have a soft spot for action fighters and it would be a pretty sad commentary on the state of boxing’s future if such a great young fighter were to be frustrated into inactivity by man two months shy of 50 years old but in the end I simply am sick of picking against Bernard Hopkins and while I don’t think he’ll get by without some nervous moments tonight will be a close mirror of his 2nd fight with Jean Pascal: not a blowout, but just enough to keep father time at bay just a little bit longer. Predicition – Bernard Hopkins wins via split decision. Rest of 2014 Highlights  November 15th-O2 World Arena, Hamburg(HBO/Eurosport/RTL): Wladimir Klitschko vs Kubrat Pulev, heavyweights, 12 rounds, for Klitschko's IBF, WBA, and WBO titles.  November 22nd –Cotai Arena, Macau (HBO PPV): Manny Pacquiao vs. Chris Algieri, 12 rounds, for Pacquiao's WBO welterweight title; Zou Shiming vs. Kwanpichit 13 Rien Express, 12 rounds, WBO flyweight eliminator; Vasyl Lomachenko vs. Chonlatarn Piriyapinyo, 12 rounds, for Lomachenko's WBO featherweight title; Jessie Vargas vs. Antonio DeMarco, 12 rounds, for Vargas' WBA "regular" junior welterweight title  November 29th – Centurylink Center, Omaha (HBO): Terence Crawford vs. Raymundo Beltran, 12 rounds, for Crawford's WBO lightweight title; Evgeny Gradovich vs. Jayson Velez, 12 rounds, for Gradovich's IBF featherweight title  ExCeL London, London (BoxNation): Tyson Fury vs. Dereck Chisora, rematch, 12 rounds, WBO heavyweight eliminator/for Chisora's European title; Billy Joe Saunders vs. Chris Eubank Jr., 12 rounds, WBO middleweight eliminator/for Saunders' British, Commonwealth and European titles  December 6th-Barclays Center; Brooklyn, N.Y. (HBO): David Lemieux vs. Gabriel Rosado, 12 rounds, middleweights; Thomas Dulorme vs. Hank Lundy, 10 rounds, junior welterweights; James De La Rosa vs. Hugo Centeno, 10 rounds, middleweights Dec. 13  MGM Grand Garden Arena; Las Vegas (Showtime): Devon Alexander vs. Amir Khan, 12 rounds, welterweights; Keith Thurman vs. Leonard Bundu, 12 rounds, for Thurman's WBA interim welterweight title; Demetrius Andrade vs. Jermell Charlo, 12 rounds, for Andrade's WBO junior middleweight title; Abner Mares vs. TBA, 10 rounds, featherweights; Victor Ortiz vs. TBA, 10 rounds, welterweights; Yoshihiro Kamegai vs. TBA, 10 rounds, welterweights  The Chelsea at The Cosmopolitan; Las Vegas (HBO): Timothy Bradley Jr. vs. Diego Chaves, 12 rounds, welterweights; Matt Korobov vs. Andy Lee, 12 rounds, for vacant WBO middleweight title; Mauricio Herrera vs. Jose Benavidez Jr, 12 rounds, for Herrera's WBA interim junior welterweight title; Jose Ramirez vs. TBA, 8 rounds, junior welterweights The SituAsian fucked around with this message at 19:32 on Nov 15, 2014 |
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Nov 9, 2014 02:21
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2014 in review   2014 began with Showtime threatening HBO’s place as the king of premium network boxing. Floyd Mayweather was justifying his unprecedented 6 fight deal with Showtime/CBS on the heels of a 2.4 million buy performance against Canelo Alvarez in September 2013 and Canelo (who despite being shutout would not be blemished by the loss) was about to make a jump to Pay-per-view headliner. Danny Garcia was coming off a gritty performance over the feared Lucas Matthyse and with Keith Thurman and Shawn Porter formed a trio of 140/147 pounders who had hopes of taking over Floyd’s place as the sport’s economic bell cow. Even the hard-hitting Deontay Wilder provided the possibility for the first American heavyweight breakthrough star in a generation. Canelo would stop the completely shot Perro Angulo in a very successful pay-per view debut, predictably scrape by against Erislandly Lara with somewhat less financial success as well and ultimately leave for HBO. Where he would sign a multi-fight contract and then subsequently pull out of a December 6th date with Joshua Clottey due to an “ankle injury” and almost certainly straight for a blockbuster vs Miguel Cotto next year. Danny Garcia would win dubiously in March over Mauricio Herrera. His handlers responded to the setback by reaching a new low, matching the ostensible true junior welterweight champion with fringe lightweight contender Rod Salka who-despite being brave to even be there in the first place- was clobbered in two rounds in what can only be described as a complete disgrace. Keith Thurman has battled injury and Shawn Porter put in a tepid performance and lost his IBF trinket to the highly skilled Kell Brook. To his credit, Brook could find himself not only the biggest boxing star in the UK due to Carl Froch’s impending retirement and Amir Khan’s shaky chin but could breakthrough globally as well if a possible bout with the legendary Juan Manuel Marquez is able to come together. Deontay Wilder is supposed to face Bermane Stiverne for the WBC belt vacated by Vitali Klitschko but, in addition to the titanic struggle the negotiation is proving to be between fighters represented by Don King and Al Haymon respectively, with 30 knockouts over journeymen it’s hard to say how he would fare against a higher-caliber opponent such as Stiverne or Bryant Jennings let alone Wlad Klitschko. Additionally, Showtime was able to lure Adonis Stevenson from HBO in the hopes of matching him up with Bernard Hopkins. He would go on to be referred to as a piece of poo poo by Sergey Kovalev in a postfight interview, suffer a knockdown in a lukewarm win over the tough but unspectacular Andrezj Fonfara and most importantly of all see Hopkins go back to HBO to make his mega fight with Kovalev leaving the lineal 175 lb. champ out in the cold. Stevenson returns on the 19th of December (not even Saturday night) against Dmitry Sukhotsky. Rising light heavyweight Artur Beterbiev is on the undercard and it’s easy to imagine him getting a big knockout only for Stevenson to try to avoid him as well. In bringing Hopkins-the biggest star which he actually has under contract-to Golden Boy to HBO, Oscar De La Hoya reasserts control of the company which, while thriving under the direction Richard Schaefer, was never “his” company and seemed to belong more and more to Al Haymon to the point where Schaefer was almost certainly engineering a takeover on behalf of Haymon and other investors such as AEG before being forced out only 2 weeks after Mayweather-Maidana 1. While there is cause of celebration that a significant barrier to making fights has been breached there’s certainly cause to worry that this could go horribly wrong as Oscar’s lack of business acumen, not to mention his myriad personal troubles, could derail everything and without significant backup his company could fall apart. Perhaps most importantly all of Al Haymon’s fighters remain on a de facto HBO ban which seems to have no possibility of ending. But it isn’t just Golden Boy signed fighters-with the exception of Canelo-going to HBO is what’s keeping Stephen Espinoza up at night. With Kathy Duva’s Main Events NBC deal expiring at the end of the year the reports have been flying that Al Haymon-who has established his own promotional/management (?) company recently-will be taking his fighters to NBC for a multi-fight commitment that will have his fighters not only on NBC Sports Network but also NBC proper. If this is done correctly Garcia, Thurman, Porter, Peter Quillin, Danny Jacobs and more could become household names and sport begins its long climb back to mainstream American respectability. But if the status quo prevails it’s hard to imagine the average sports fan sticking around for what will amount to glorified sparring sessions once the novelty of boxing back on primetime network TV has worn off. All of this has left Espinoza, who has become a fixture in the boxing mainstream due to his active social media presence, turning from self-promoting and boisterous to defensive and bitter. Talking away the Garcia-Salka card of disastrous mismatches as having to buy unappealing fights to get appealing ones (as if Garcia-Lamont Peterson was some Hagler-Hearns epic) and responding to bad news of Canelo and Haymon by very openly disparaging his former partners. With constantly disappointing return on their investment it is hard to imagine Viacom (parent of CBS/Showtime) will be willing to let Espinoza hold onto to his position much longer if events continue to play out. Termina la maravilla  It took only 1 minute for the June 7th middleweight championship bout between Sergio Martinez and Miguel Cotto to be decided. Though the fight would officially end between the 9th and 10th rounds with trainer Pablo Sarmiento telling him “You’ll always be my champion” before refusing to send his man out for more punishment, a Miguel Cotto left hook that sent Martinez staggering and took away little chance he had was truly the end of the fight. There was no way Martinez could find the movement that would enable to him to dance around with his hands down and beat his opponent to a bloody pulp or land a perfect knockout punch as he had once done to Kelly Pavlik and Paul Williams respectively. In the end perhaps it was Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. who had been the victor of this saga as Sergio’s decline can be traced pretty easily from the 12th round of their September 2012 fight where Chavez sent him in to survival mode on unsteady legs and accelerated the damage to knees which had no life at all by the time he faced Cotto. Though he officially remains undecided on his career it is hard to imagine Sergio ever stepping foot in the squared circle again. That is not to take away from Cotto who became the lineal middleweight champion and not just a beltholder. His brief alliance with Freddie Roach has borne fruit although against Delvin Rodriguez and Sergio Martinez it’s hard to say Cotto is fulfilling what was once a career which seemed to have no ceiling until he took a knee to Antonio Margarito (and his almost certainly loaded gloves), was manhandled by a prime Manny Pacquiao and taken to boxing school by Austin Trout. Though, like Bernard Hopkins, his career arc is heading to inspiring new heights what may come next for Cotto is a lot more business as usual. A former lightweight champion, he’s small for junior middleweight and would be dwarfed if he stepped in the ring by legitimate middleweights, let alone the division’s boogeyman Gennady Golovkin. While his skills and Roach’s tutelage could make up the difference against the rest, a fight with Golovkin is more likely to be a career ending annihilation than defining moment of glory against the odds. As such he is being steered to Canelo Alvarez and regardless of how we may feel about Golovkin again being denied recognition as the best middleweight in the world a fight with the Mexican superstar is the biggest fight that can be made in boxing now (mods please make it a ban able offense to mention Mayweather-Pacquiao other than as a joke tia) It will be a classic matchup with many factors in play. Future vs present, Mexico vs Puerto Rico and most importantly a bout between a reborn champion and a rising star who have both shown admirable willingness to not always take the path of least resistance, something so rare in the sport today. All that money in one night, $1,904,840 for one fight. That boxing has fallen so far from the mainstream can be traced largely to the incredible array of business interests all trying to get a piece of an ever shrinking pie. Between the numerous sanctioning bodies, ineffectual state athletic commissions and promotional companies, the boxing business is corrupt in a way that would make the IOC and FIFA blush. However, the business is capitalistic at its core and like an free market has a pretty low barrier of entry if one has the stomach to swim among filth. Still it was quite a surprise when the WBO mandated purse bid for Peter Quillin’s middleweight belt defense against Matt Korobov was won by Roc Nation sports (which had only established a boxing division some 24 hours before making the bid) for $1,904,840; more than 700 thousand more than Golden Boy was willing to pay. Even more confusing was Quillin’s subsequent dropping off the belta and the career high payday that would have come with it with laughable references to doing so in order “to give fans the fights they deserve”. Whether or not this is Quillin attempting to take the path of least resistance to holding onto a belt-made possible with Jermain Taylor’s maddening win over Sam Soliman as well as Danny Jacobs WBA interim belt-some third dimensional chess being played by Al Haymon to keep Jay-Z out of the boxing business or even a personal grudge given that Beyonce sued Haymon while he was a concert promoter with Live Nation; Roc Nation sports stands on the outside of a very closed world looking to get in. Even more troubling for them, Roc Nation has offered multi-million dollar deals to Keith Thurman and Deontay Wilder only to be rebuffed with claims that they can’t yet be trusted to make fighters money. With Andre Ward, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., Mikey Garcia and Guillermo Rigondeaux in various states of promotional discontent, Roc Nation seems likely to sign onto a big name or two soon but will still need to find a companies who are willing to do business with the emergent power. Chocolatito Reign  For many a large part of the appeal of combat sports is not only watching violence itself but the voyeuristic knowledge that the people you are watching could kill you with their bare hands with relative ease. It’s why higher weight classes-all else equal-generate more interest and of course the inverse holds for lower weight classes. Nicaraguan flyweight champion Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez is on the verge of breaking this trend (and he could probably beat the poo poo out of you and me to boot). The best fighter that even boxing fans hadn’t heard of, his star-making performance against Akira Yegashi in September is one of those rare “you have got to see this” fights. Exciting as hell, perfect at 40 and 0 and a true lineal champion; he was most recently honored as number 1 on Jim Lampley’s pound for pound list during the most recent episode of “The Fight Game”. Another example of when there are great fighters are we will follow them, no matter where from or how small. The SituAsian fucked around with this message at 00:21 on Nov 30, 2014 |
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Nov 9, 2014 02:22
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Boxing media http://www.blogtalkradio.com/queensberryrulesradio Queensberry Rules boxing radio. Very entertaining but can be plagued by technical issues as it is literally two guys talking on Skype. Also has a tendency toward "beat a dead horse"ism toward the end of shows. https://soundcloud.com/hbo-boxing - The HBO Boxing Podcast. Good but infrequent, also they obviously can only talk about a small sliver of what's going on in the sport. https://www.youtube.com/user/HBOsports - HBO sports Youtube channel. Has most (if not all) episodes of 24/7 as well as select full fights and greatest hits highlights. https://www.youtube.com/user/shosports - Showtime sports Youtube channel. Has more full fights than HBO other than that pretty much the same type of content. http://www.boxingscene.com/forums/ - Boxing Scene. Best for breaking news. Also hosts the biggest forum dedicated to boxing and as such is a horrible cesspool but at least you'll get a laugh when you see your dozenth "GOLOVKIN IS A BUM, KHAN WOULD WORK HIM!" thread. http://www.badlefthook.com/ - Bad Left Hook. The best boxing news source by far, I especially recommend Scott Christ's "For Your Consideration" series. Some of 2014's better fights Roman Gonzalez - Akira Yegashi (9/5/14) Props to the uploader as this is the best quality of an easy fight of the year contender and if Gonzalez proves to be as special as he looks, historically very significant as well. Miguel Cotto - Sergio Martinez (6/7/14) Whether or not this is the rebirth of legend of just Miguel Cotto being in the right place at the right time has yet to be seen. The last few seconds of the fight where Sarmiento gave his speech to Martinez are pretty heartbreaking. Floyd Mayweather - Marcos Maidana I (5/3/14) The biggest test in Floyd's career, since Jose Luis Castillo at least, an excitingly unexpected night that's been a bit tainted by the tepid rematch. Terence Crawford - Yuriorkis Gamboa (6/28/14) That Gamboa is really a blown up featherweight should not diminish from Crawford's win as he overcame Gamboa's explosiveness, survived a scare in the 9th round and was able to make his size count in a way that has him on the radar as a possible crossover star. Lucas Matthysse - John Molina (4/26/14). Warning: Terrible quality . Though he ultimately succumbed to Matthysse's power, lightweight Molina gave everything he had in the likely fight of 2014. Artur Beterbiev - Tavoris Cloud (9/27/14) Beterbiev ran through the former IBF champion in a way that neither Hopkins nor Adonis Stevenson had done and could be the new boogeyman of the division, especially if Kovalev falters. Harold Lederman says "Ok Jim!" for 20 seconds - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgBi7fpbYk8 - Harold Lederman says "Ok Jim" for 20 seconds The SituAsian fucked around with this message at 05:14 on Nov 9, 2014 |
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Nov 9, 2014 02:22
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thanks for all those good words on boxing man. good work. also, thank you for bringing gonzalez to my attention. i'll have to check him out.
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Nov 9, 2014 02:36
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Go Popkins.
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Nov 9, 2014 02:52
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Dang sexy ohpee. In how many hours is the main event from now live? Is HBO (Canada) in the west tape delaying the broadcast? The website lists http://www.hbocanada.com/details/?id=83827 Schedule Saturday Nov. 8 10:45PM ET / MT and TV guide says it starts at 22:45 here in the prairies. That would be almost 1am in the east, no? Is my brain ok? vvvv huh, the box must be wrong, thanks duder vvvv Ninja PD fucked around with this message at 04:17 on Nov 9, 2014 |
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Nov 9, 2014 04:05
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the main event will be roughly between 11:30-12 eastern live
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Nov 9, 2014 04:14
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this undercard fight better end in a round
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Nov 9, 2014 04:45
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I love that a 49 year old man shows up to work in an alien mask.
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Nov 9, 2014 04:50
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Haha Michael Buffer telling the ref how to do his job
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Nov 9, 2014 05:02
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HBO picked up a Wlad fight? Didn't they learn anything from the Povetkin debacle? Maybe they're hoping for Shannon Briggs shenanigans.
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Nov 9, 2014 05:08
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It'll be a shame if Abregu goes out like this, but... Oh wow. Well I was about to say he wasn't winning either way but that doesn't help at all.
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Nov 9, 2014 05:22
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Jesus Christ that knockdown. Yeah go ahead and stop it.
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Nov 9, 2014 05:34
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Awesome knockdown there!
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Nov 9, 2014 05:36
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Ali earned that W tho. Both knockdowns were beautiful.
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Nov 9, 2014 05:37
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Very impressive performance by Ali. Looking forward to seeing more.
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Nov 9, 2014 05:39
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Did RJJ just call B-Hop what I think he called him?
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Nov 9, 2014 05:48
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doctor thodt posted:Did RJJ just call B-Hop what I think he called him? was just about to ask this. i was wondering if there's another meaning lost in translation
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Nov 9, 2014 05:49
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hopkins needs to counter kovalev's jab with right hands and follow them up with headbutts imo
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Nov 9, 2014 05:50
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That loving mask is cracking me up way more than it should.
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Nov 9, 2014 05:54
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i am hype
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Nov 9, 2014 05:55
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The best was when he was wearing it for the prefight health tests on 24/7.
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Nov 9, 2014 05:56
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Swim without getting wet.
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Nov 9, 2014 05:56
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im nervous ngl
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Nov 9, 2014 05:57
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50 year old boxer still kicking rear end
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Nov 9, 2014 05:57
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It's absolutely incredible that this fight is actually happening
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Nov 9, 2014 05:58
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Ohhh
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Nov 9, 2014 06:01
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no loving way already edit: fight's turning out dirty Mr. Belpit fucked around with this message at 06:03 on Nov 9, 2014 |
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Nov 9, 2014 06:01
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OH YEAH
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Nov 9, 2014 06:03
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Mr. Belpit posted:no loving way already I am shocked that a Bernard Hopkins fight isn't squeaky clean
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Nov 9, 2014 06:04
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Holy poo poo
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Nov 9, 2014 06:07
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgBi7fpbYk8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmM1pRVeFP0
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Nov 9, 2014 06:14
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Reminds me of the Jermain Taylor fights where Hopkins was content to not punch and trying to look clever instead.
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Nov 9, 2014 06:14
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I seriously doubt B-Hop will win at this rate but goddamn if he isn't making it more competitive than any 49-year-old has any business making it.
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Nov 9, 2014 06:30
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I honestly don't even know how to react to this fight. Hopkins is losing badly but poo poo he's still alive and fighting back at 800 years old.
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Nov 9, 2014 06:31
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Have any of you guys given him any rounds at all? I have it as a shutout so far.
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Nov 9, 2014 06:33
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CommonShore posted:Have any of you guys given him any rounds at all? I have it as a shutout so far. lol, no
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Nov 9, 2014 06:34
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A 50 year old man is forcing a knockout king into the final rounds.
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Nov 9, 2014 06:34
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I guess this is the last bit of good orange juice 
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Nov 9, 2014 06:35
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CommonShore posted:Have any of you guys given him any rounds at all? I have it as a shutout so far. That one round he caught Kovalev flush a couple of times, 7th or 8th maybe? I still gave it to Sergey but I could see someone scoring it the other way. e: But still this NutritiousSnack posted:A 50 year old man is forcing a knockout king into the final rounds.
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Nov 9, 2014 06:36
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