the Peter/Chambers fight was extremely dissapointing. Peter was in terrible shape and looks like he's lost his love of fighting. And with his performance I don't think Eddie Chambers got anything out of that victory. He really should of been able to stop Peter late in that fight but didn't seem to care. He just seemed happy to come out of the fight with a decision victory. I don't think Showtime or HBO will be banging down his door anytime soon.
Sons of Peter McNeeley- Boxing Thread
- Thread starter BGrif21125
- Start date
All this time it was Mexican-on-Mexican violence. Who knew.Neither looked good, but Sam Peter needs to have his heart checked nevermind his head. A pathetic performance, and is becoming another sad, sad footnote in a deathly purgatory known as the heavyweight division.
Can't disagree there - was never a Margarito fan but this just kills his chances at any other big fights nor big purses. Like the steroids saga, he's damned if he wins and damned if he loses. Just unbelievable that he tried to pull that trick (twice, it now seems like.)
That should be fun for as long as it lasts. Of course, if Haye wins, the Klitschko-Haye show will run well into next year...
I don't give Haye much chance of winning this fight. Wlad is still bigger and stronger and the far more disciplined boxer. Wlad has also proven that he's not worried about making a boring fight if he feels at all threatened in the ring. So if Haye manages to get close to Klitschko at all without getting hammered, expect Wlad to make this a jab-and-grab-fest.
Still, the most interesting fight for Klitschko since his sort-of comeback against Sam Peter. But in light of Peter's recent performances, even that win for Wlad looks less impressive than it did at the time.
Hopefully Hae can land one of those Hayemakers and make this an actual fight.
Did anybody watch Golden Boy's "Lightweight Lightning" PPV? While it certainly lacked marquee names, I heard the fights were mostly entertaining.
It wasn't available in HD (at least not on Comcast), so I skipped it. There was also the free Showtime card last night to distract me. Andrade won an eliminator on the undercard, which I believe earns him a mandatory against Bute in a rematch of their first fight (hopefully they'll get a different ref this time).
Showtime is really invested in the 168-pounders right now, and there are a lot of interesting matchups that could happen there. Taylor-Froch is at Foxwoods in a couple weeks and that should be a pretty good fight. The downside is that the most talented guy in that weight class (Kessler) seems intent on not fighting anyone.
Tim Bradley beat Kendall Holt by decision to win the main event and unify 2 belts at 140, although the belts don't mean a whole lot since Hatton is the real champ at 140.
I'm looking forward to next Saturday. There's the Thrilla in Manila documentary, followed by episode 1 of Hatton-Pac 24/7, followed by Arreola-McCline and Williams-Winky. ~4 hours of free boxing coverage, that doesn't happen often. HBO documentaries are almost always great, although I wonder how much new ground they could possibly cover on Ali-Frazier.
Brandon Jacobs' reaction to the first knock was awesome. I know I'm not the only one who thought it was over after that. Bradley got his clocked cleaned and on the way down looked to be in sleep mode. The fact that he recovered from that to dominate the fight (save for the 1st and 12th round) is a testament to his determination and training. Dude has to be in the top 5 boxers in ridiculous shape category.
Don't know if any of you caught this on FNF, brutal knockout by Randall Bailey:
http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=4041454&a...egoryid=2491554
Griff, Gene, Seoul, regulars... who do you guys like next week? Logically, there is no way in HELL an inactive and rusty Winky Wright could beat Paul Williams who is rolling with a chip on his shoulder. But we seem to be in this new movement of old fighters coming up with great performance.
Don't know if any of you caught this on FNF, brutal knockout by Randall Bailey:
http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=4041454&a...egoryid=2491554
Griff, Gene, Seoul, regulars... who do you guys like next week? Logically, there is no way in HELL an inactive and rusty Winky Wright could beat Paul Williams who is rolling with a chip on his shoulder. But we seem to be in this new movement of old fighters coming up with great performance.
Anything is possible, but it's not looking good for Winky next week.
The way I see it, there are 3 ways to beat Williams:
1. Outwork him.
No one has been able to do this. Even Margarito couldn't keep up with Williams' workrate, and Margarito is one of the busiest fighters around. So there's no way Winky does it.
2. Hurt him with something big.
Winky hasn't knocked out a name fighter in at least a decade. He always goes to the scorecards. So this isn't happening either.
3. Give him a ton of side-to-side movement and kill the tempo.
This is what Quintana did when he beat Williams. He was up on his toes, moving side-to-side, which prevented Williams from throwing a lot of punches. Quintana would jump in, land a couple quick punches, then jump back out.
Winky hasn't been up on his toes in ages, so I don't see how he does it at 37 coming off a long layoff. He's a flat-footed fighter.
Winky's a great defender, so he'll give Williams some problems, but it's going to be tough for him to do enough to win. I think Williams will be throwing twice as many punches as Winky. So even if Winky blocks 75% of what Williams throws, some of them will still get thru, and that will be enough to win rounds for Williams.
I gotta agree. I think even the prime Winky would have trouble with P-Will. But the old, inactive Winky is going to find himself largely overmatched. And if I remember the HBO "Countdown" show leading up to Winky-Hopkins, they showed Winky going out for midnight Krispy Kreme runs during training. That didn't help against Hopkins and it REALLY won't help against Williams.
I enjoyed the Showtime card this weekend. Timothy Bradley's conditioning is absolutely sick and he's going to be a problem for most 140-pounders for that reason alone. Also, he's still a developing fighter. It was just through one of those flukes of the boxing business that he vaulted from ShoBox-level prospect to a title shot against Junior Witter and to his credit, he made the absolute most of that title shot. But in bypassing the "contender" phase of his career, he skipped the important developmental process of fighting a series of "gatekeeper" type fighters and undercard-level "contenders." In reality, Holt is one of those -- pretty good, but not a world-elite fighter.
But Bradley needs a few more fights at that level before he steps in against a Hatton, or a Nate Campbell or certainly against a Pacquiao or a Mayweather. Bradley's a young fighter with tremendous dedication and a lot of potential. I'm just worried that with two "World Championships" to his credit now, he'll be thrown in against someone much better than he is and his career will be derailed.
Andre Ward is going to fight Edison Miranda next month on Showtime. That's a good crossroads fight.
I'd like to see both Ward and Dirrell step it up this year and start fighting legit guys. If you add them to Kessler, Bute, Taylor, Froch, Andrade... that's a fun weight class.
I'd like to see both Ward and Dirrell step it up this year and start fighting legit guys. If you add them to Kessler, Bute, Taylor, Froch, Andrade... that's a fun weight class.
And as a result, not surprisingly, Cotto finally fired his uncle:
This has been coming for a long time. There was an altercation at ringside a couple of years ago when Cotto's brother, Jose Miguel, was fighting. Even the HBO "Countdown" show, which usually steers clear of anything too controversial, dwelled on the rift before the Margarito fight.
I'd bet all of the big name trainers will be lining up to get into Cottos' camp. The question is, who scores the big prize?
It'll be interesting. On one hand, I feel like Cotto's trainer isn't that important, because he's basically a finished product in terms of skills/style, and by all accounts he's a very disciplined and self-motivated type of guy.
OTOH, he has to have some mental demons leftover from the Margarito fight, and whether he hated his uncle or not, there had to be a certain comfort level and familiarity with him in the corner, since they've been thru lots of tough fights together. I was already looking at the Clottey fight as a big challenge for Cotto, and these distractions will only make it tougher.
From what I read, Cotto wants to train for this fight in Tampa, so I'll throw out a darkhorse candidate.... Dan Birmingham. His gym is in St. Pete, and after Winky's fight on Saturday, he should be available to take on a new guy. I'm sure we'll also hear the usual suspects like Roach, Steward, etc. If I were Cotto, I'd stay the hell away from Steward, that guy has been kryptonite to every non-heavyweight he's worked with recently.
I'm really looking forward to tonight's fight. With so much talk about how neither guy is a major draw I expect both of them to try and put on an entertaining fight. It's sad that the building will be about 80% empty. It reminds me of the first fight between Corrales and Castillo. Both that fight and tonights fight look good on paper but do not belong in Vegas.
Also, I read on HBO's website that the Pacquao/Hatton 24/7 will be on Saturdays instead of the usual Sunday night.
Also, I read on HBO's website that the Pacquao/Hatton 24/7 will be on Saturdays instead of the usual Sunday night.
The "too many fights in Vegas" thing has been a pet peeve of mine for a long time. Vegas is great for the big fights (like Pac-Hatton), but it's the wrong place for a lot of other fights. I remember Dawson-Tarver was in Vegas last year, and I think there were about 10 people in the stands.
Yes, first episode is tonight, right before the live card, and it marks the long-awaited return of Floyd Sr. to 24/7.
You know alot of people are giving credit to Top Rank and Golden Boy for moving their cards out of the casinos, but the truth is that the casinos have a part in that as well. As of late they've been really cautious with paying site fees to hold fights. I just don't get why they would put money into tonights fight.
McCline really showed the heart of a champion trying to beat that 10 count! Talk about a guy who just showed up for one last paycheck...
Main event went as expected, although I thought it would've been a little closer. I thought Winky would land a much higher percentage of his punches, but he was down in the low 20s. Probably a combination of an old Winky not being as fast as he used to be, and Williams being a little shiftier than expected.
The broadcasters all seemed really emotional over that guy's death. Lampley didn't surprise me because he cries a couple times a year on-air, but Merchant, Steward and Buffer were all emotional too.
Main event went as expected, although I thought it would've been a little closer. I thought Winky would land a much higher percentage of his punches, but he was down in the low 20s. Probably a combination of an old Winky not being as fast as he used to be, and Williams being a little shiftier than expected.
The broadcasters all seemed really emotional over that guy's death. Lampley didn't surprise me because he cries a couple times a year on-air, but Merchant, Steward and Buffer were all emotional too.
Here is a piece by Thomas Hauser that gives at least some idea of why they were all so visibly choked up. Sounds like Arthur Curry had really overcome a lot and was one of the good guys.
Here is his obituary from the New York Daily News. Just 49 years old. Sad.
As for the fights, even though Winky basically got dominated, that was probably the most exciting fight I've seen him in. And ironically, it'll probably make it easier for him to get opponents now. Not necessarily big money fights, because Winky doesn't bring much of a fan base with him. But I think a lot of top contenders will be lining up to fight him. It wouldn't even surprise me to see Shane Mosely, who has nothing on his schedule at the moment, take a fight with Winky to extract a measure of revenge for the two losses Wright put on him a few years back. That would actually make a pretty intriguing "free HBO" fight. (Though Mosely would presumably have to go back up to 154 for it.)
Williams, on the other hand, is still going to find himself avoided by the big names. I won't be at all surprised, however, to see him take on James Kirkland at 154 before the year is out. And frankly, that might be the most fan-friendly fight out there for him. I'd be excited about that one.
Chris Arreola is fun to watch, but he still hasn't sold me on the notion that he's the Great American Hope of the heavyweight division. He's got a great chin and a big heart and he obviously can punch, but I have the feeling that if and when he gets his shot against either one of the Klitschkos, he's going to get exposed as Sam Peter II (though admittedly he's a better fighter than Peter, who was the definition of undisciplined).
The other good Winky fight would be the Middleweight title fight with Jermain Taylor three years ago. It really was a pretty good action fight that was razor close. That was the fight Winky started showing a tiny bit of defensive holes as Jermain clocked him a number of times. Winky gave it back to Jermain just as harshly and had the lead going into the 12th Round, but he didn't fight the 12th Round aggressively at all. Winky did nothing, Jermain did next to nothing which was good enough to win the round. Winky basically sunk his career from that point forward thinking he received a hometown job and then refusing a big money rematch with Taylor because he thought he was too good for another Taylor fight.
I re-watched the Arreola fight yesterday. While he seems to be from the James Toney/Sam Peter school of conditioning, he did impress me with his skills. He's very aggressive, but I was glad to see that he's not just a wild brawler in there. He jabs, he punches to the body, he throws combinations (how many heavyweights do that anymore?)... you can see his amateur background on display.
I don't think he can beat either of the Klitschkos, but I think he at least has enough ability to make it a decent fight. And at this point, my expectations of the heavyweight division have sunk so low that a decent fight is all I'm looking for. Put a Klitschko-Arreola fight in LA, and that could draw a good-sized crowd.
I don't think he can beat either of the Klitschkos, but I think he at least has enough ability to make it a decent fight. And at this point, my expectations of the heavyweight division have sunk so low that a decent fight is all I'm looking for. Put a Klitschko-Arreola fight in LA, and that could draw a good-sized crowd.
Oscar De La Hoya has officially retired.
http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/boxing/ne...tory?id=4068202
Say what you want about the guy, but he did his best to carry the sport the last decade and was never one to duck from a challenge.
http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/boxing/ne...tory?id=4068202
Say what you want about the guy, but he did his best to carry the sport the last decade and was never one to duck from a challenge.
Ya, whether you were a fan of Oscar or not (I never really was), you have to respect him for his list of opponents.
Chavez, Whitaker, Trinidad, Mosley, Quartey, Vargas, Hopkins, Mayweather, Pacquiao.... he fought just about every major guy from his era. That's really impressive, considering how cautious a lot of other fighters are when it comes to picking opponents.
Yup. Great fighter? Maybe, maybe not. But, great career? Absolutely. Great story? Always.
Truth be told, he should've retired after the Mayweather fight. Yeah, he lost, but the fact is, he gave Mayweather more trouble than ANY fighter Floyd ever faced, except for Floyd's first fight against Jose Luis Castillo. Retiring at that point would've been going out on a high note. But that rarely happens. Coming that close to beating Mayweather led Oscar to believe he had more left in the tank than he did.
On the other hand, if he'd simply set his business activities aside and spent the past two years as a full-time professional boxer, who knows? He may have at least given a better show against Pacquiao than he did and cemented his legacy as a fighter, not just as a personality.
And speaking of Mayweather, looks like, possibly, he'll be fighting Juan Manuel Marquez on July 18. If that happens, THAT could be Mayweather's toughest test, and given that he'll be coming off an 18-month layoff, it could even be an even-money fight.
I'm looking forward to the HBO/Showtime cards tonight. Next week's undercard is pretty weak, so I'm looking at tonight as the de facto Pacquiao-Hatton undercard. I'd like to see impressive wins by Lopez and Taylor, leading them to bigger fights later in the year.
On another note, I was disappointed to see that if a Mayweather-Marquez fight is put together, Erik Morales is planning to comeback and fight on the undercard. Morales is one of my favorite fighters of all-time, but he's completely shot and shouldn't fight again.
On another note, I was disappointed to see that if a Mayweather-Marquez fight is put together, Erik Morales is planning to comeback and fight on the undercard. Morales is one of my favorite fighters of all-time, but he's completely shot and shouldn't fight again.
I think Taylor will win, but Froch is somewhat similar to Kelly Pavlik, in a way, and we know how Jermain's fights with Kelly went. I don't think a JuanMa win against Penalosa, who's a borderline Hall of Famer, is a given. If Lopez wins in convincing fashion, he proves he's ready for superstardom (as much as anyone can be a star in those lower weight classes). But Penalosa should give him his toughest fight BY FAR. If I had to predict, I'd say Lopez by close, possibly hometown-flavored decision. But who knows? This should be a very interesting matchup.
Speaking of the Pac-Hatton undercard, James Kirkland, the Tyson-like 154-pounder who was supposed to fight on that bill is in some pretty serious legal trouble. Caught with a firearm while still on probation from an earlier armed robbery conviction. He's in jail and obviously will not fight on May 2. In fact, unless the legal system gives him some (probably undeserved) slack, he may be looking at the end of his highly promising career. What a waste. A 154-pound matchup between Kirkland and Paul Williams, which I believe would have been inevitable, was a fight I was realy looking forward to.
I cannot believe Taylor faded AGAIN and got knocked out. Froch is a damn bum. How the hell is this guy undefeated? What kind of bums do they have in the UK? One of his "go to" punches is a winding, diagnol and slow uppercut. God what a bum.
If I'm Taylor, i'm thinking about retirement right now.
If I'm Taylor, i'm thinking about retirement right now.
This Lopez/Penalosa fight is incredible.
Good stoppage by Roach. Lopez is a precise assassin. He was pummeling Penalosa in all areas of the face and body. Penalosa is gutty. I don't think Lopez looked like he was going to fade badly in the final 3 rounds. Having this stopped after 9 was the right thing to do.
Good stoppage by Roach. Lopez is a precise assassin. He was pummeling Penalosa in all areas of the face and body. Penalosa is gutty. I don't think Lopez looked like he was going to fade badly in the final 3 rounds. Having this stopped after 9 was the right thing to do.
Yeah, Froch aggravates me, too. I was rooting hard for Taylor in this one. I thought his comeback would make a great story, but this fight just emphasized everything that's frustrating about Jermaine Taylor. He seems like his talent is far greater than his performance. He's just not as good as he should be. Just as he could have and should have finished off Kelly Pavlik in their first fight, in this one, all he had to do was avoid getting hit for the last round and he wins the fight. But he couldn't manage that. Sad, and annoying! Good fight, overall, though. Best of the night's four matches, easily.
It was also irritating to hear Froch calling Calzaghe out of retirement. First of all, Calzaghe would make easy work of a lumbering guy like Froch. Second, there's a whole, big, talented super-middleweight division to clean up. And there's Chad Dawson at light-heavy. How about setting your sights there, instead of on an obvious payday that's basically a pointless fight at this stage?
I'm a big Taylor fan, so last night was a disappointing result.
Taylor has all the tools, but there's just something missing there. I think someone in this thread (may have been you, Gene) made the comment once that Taylor is like a 5-tool baseball player who for whatever reason never puts it all together. That's Taylor in a nutshell.
He's got one of the best jabs in boxing, yet he never uses it enough. He's got a great right hand, but once he lands it, he starts telegraphing it and getting wild with it. He's got good defensive skills, but that falls apart once his stamina issues show up. When he's on his game for brief stretches, he looks like he can beat anyone. Then there are stretches where he does absolutely nothing, and you think to yourself, "How did this guy ever beat Bernard Hopkins?".
Credit to Froch for surviving the early knockdown, but he doesn't seem to do any one thing exceptionally well. He's just a solid contender. The more fights I watch at 168, the more I'm convinced that Kessler is the clear class of the division. Which makes it all the more frustrating that he's not fighting anyone of note. He should be cleaning out the division right now!
I didn't get to watch the HBO card yet. I'll have to check that out today.
Taylor has all the tools, but there's just something missing there. I think someone in this thread (may have been you, Gene) made the comment once that Taylor is like a 5-tool baseball player who for whatever reason never puts it all together. That's Taylor in a nutshell.
He's got one of the best jabs in boxing, yet he never uses it enough. He's got a great right hand, but once he lands it, he starts telegraphing it and getting wild with it. He's got good defensive skills, but that falls apart once his stamina issues show up. When he's on his game for brief stretches, he looks like he can beat anyone. Then there are stretches where he does absolutely nothing, and you think to yourself, "How did this guy ever beat Bernard Hopkins?".
Credit to Froch for surviving the early knockdown, but he doesn't seem to do any one thing exceptionally well. He's just a solid contender. The more fights I watch at 168, the more I'm convinced that Kessler is the clear class of the division. Which makes it all the more frustrating that he's not fighting anyone of note. He should be cleaning out the division right now!
I didn't get to watch the HBO card yet. I'll have to check that out today.
Steve Kim wrote an article on MaxBoxing today in which eh made the point that, even before Taylor seemed to slow down physically, he slowed down mentally. He seemed to run out of ideas in there. I have to agree with that take. On one hand, i thought Taylor did the right thing in not repeating his mistake against Pavlik, when he wasted a lot of energy trying to finish Pavlik off after a knockdown. But the problem was, wehn Taylor had Froch down and hurt, he conserved his energy, but later in the fight he seemed to have no idea how to hurt Froch again. I don't know if it's a trainer thing. He fired Pat Burns after beating Hopkins and I never figured out why. But he needs someone who can give him a plan and also come up with new ideas as the fight goes on, because he can't do it on his own.
If Mayweather hasn't lost much during the layoff (a huge "if" that will not be answered until fight night), then I think this is a bad matchup for Marquez. As great as Marquez is, I just can't see Mayweather getting outboxed by someone who is older, smaller, and slower.
It's a great matchup though. Hopefully Pacquiao-Hatton and Mayweather-Marquez will be treated like semifinals, with the winners meeting up in a huge fight in the fall. Of course, this is boxing we're talking about, so it's never that simple and a million things could go wrong.
Although I'm a huge Mayweather fan (the guy has some damn personality, watching Manny the last few weeks has been boring), I'd be thrilled if Marquez pulled it out. I think this is going to be a GREAT fight not good. Marquez is not afraid to mix it up and will go to war if he feels he is losing (ask Diaz, Juan). That in combination with Mayweather's vulnerability from his layoff = fireworks.
According to this report, the two sides finally agreed at a catch weight of 143. That single pound may not seem like much, but it is. Mayweather is always in top condition, but will needing to drp that extra pound be a factor, the way the low weight was a factor for De La Hoya against Pacquiao. I don't think it will, but you have to at least consider the possibility.
It's basically impossible to pick against Floyd Mayweather, but Marquez is the best all-around boxer Mayweather has fought since, well, ever. And Mayweather has the X-factor of a 20-month layoff coming into this fight. In the end, I think Mayweather is just too defensively slick and has too many skills and ring smarts to lose, but I'd rate Marquez as a very live underdog. If he wins, it owuld be an upset, nut not really a shocker.
With the winner of tonight's fight slated to take on the winner of Mayweather-Marquez, this is shaping up a good year for big fights. I'm really looking forward to al of these.
I really think that Marquez can pull this off. I know Mayweather is a very intelligent and defensive boxer (a la Pernell Whitaker) and may not allow himself to actually be drawn into a fight. I think Mayweather may win this on a decision as he will pick and choose his times to fight and that, in my opinion, is the best way for him to win this fight,
None the less, the next 10 weeks have the potential to answer a lot of questions for fans of these boxers.
Very nice Cinco de Mayo boxing marathon on ESPN Classic last night. They showed the entire Vazquez/Marquez trilogy from 9 to 11 PM. Prior to that, there was Castillo/Casamayor and a Juan Diaz fight.
Pavlik-Mora is off, Pavlik has some type of staph infection in his hand. Can't say I'm losing sleep over this one being cancelled...
And I found this interesting:
Floyd has signed Zab Judah to his promotional company and insisted that Zab be on the undercard for the Marquez PPV. And the speculation is that Floyd signed him because Zab is a southpaw with lightning-fast hands, and therefore he would be the perfect sparring partner to help Floyd prepare for Pacquiao.
And I found this interesting:
Floyd has signed Zab Judah to his promotional company and insisted that Zab be on the undercard for the Marquez PPV. And the speculation is that Floyd signed him because Zab is a southpaw with lightning-fast hands, and therefore he would be the perfect sparring partner to help Floyd prepare for Pacquiao.
Looks like the July 18th ppv might be stacked with big name fighters on the undercard. You know Judah will be fighting and ESPN reported over the last couple of weeks that there is a chance Eric Morales and Jorge Linares might also fight on the undercard. Of course all this means nothing to me unless they take on some decent competition, which I doubt they will.
Last night went as expected. Decent fight, but nothing great. Sometimes HBO is guilty of over-hyping young guys like Dawson who they have a vested interest in, but I thought Lampley, Max, and Steward did a good job of pointing out his flaws as well last night.
I liked Dawson's "Condom Depot" advertisement on the back of his trunks.
Tarver by unanimous decision in the wife department.
I liked Dawson's "Condom Depot" advertisement on the back of his trunks.
Tarver by unanimous decision in the wife department.
I don't know Grif. I thought the HBO crew did Dawson an injustice by bad mouthing him from about the 3rd round on. Especially Kellerman's "Dawson is a B+ fighter in a C division" comment. Tarver is a tough SOB and knew last night was his last big fight. No way was he going to get outclassed.
They just seemed too salty last night. Like they were mad Dawson's last 2 recent fights (which both featured great performances) were on Showtime and they got stuck with what we saw last night.
Someone should tell Dawson that HBO hates Mayweather. Any association with him will get you dubbed overrated and boring.
They just seemed too salty last night. Like they were mad Dawson's last 2 recent fights (which both featured great performances) were on Showtime and they got stuck with what we saw last night.
Someone should tell Dawson that HBO hates Mayweather. Any association with him will get you dubbed overrated and boring.
I didn't really take it as bad-mouthing, though. I thought they were honestly pointing out that while Dawson was clearly winning the fight, he needed to win spectacularly if he wanted to create the type of buzz that would put pressure on someone like Hopkins or Calzaghe to fight him. And he didn't do that.
I agree with you though that it's almost impossible to look really good against a guy like Tarver.
I just got around to watching this fight. I haven't re-watched any of Dawson's previous fights, but he didn't seem as good as I remembered him. "B+ fighter" might be slightly harsh given that Tarver showed he had a bit more left in the tank than anyone expected. Maybe he's a marginal A-. But in any case, I wasn't blown away. I might have had him on my pound-for-pound list before this, but I wouldn't now. Not that Dawson did anything wrong, exactly. His hand speed seems to be his best asset and his defense was somewhat improved over earlier fights. I just saw a guy who does a lot of things well, but no one thing great.
This was a more entertaining fight than I, or I think anyone, would have anticipated (though the bar was set pretty low). Still, I didn't see Dawson do anything that would elevate him to "big money fight" status. Given that HBO has been, to its great credit, much stricter in insisting on quality matchups lately, I don't see how Dawson gets back on HBO without fighting the Glen Johnson rematch. I'm not sure ever Showtime would be interested in matching him against a lesser fighter.
It's a tough position for Dawson to be in. He hasn't shown anything, including an ability to draw fans, that would lure a big name opponent into taking him on. But at this stage in his career, anything less than a quality, name opponent is just a waste of his time and would have to count as a career regression.
I think at this point, without an obvious big-name fight out there, Dawson will have to prove his ability/worth by putting together a streak of successful defenses, and then hope a big name opponent emerges from the lower weights. Similar to what Hopkins had to do at middleweight for several years in the late 90s.
There might not be a lot of money in that route, unfortunately.
He's promoted by Gary Shaw, who is one of the less imaginative promoters out there. But if I were promoting Dawson at this point, I'd take him on a world tour. Challenge the other belt-holders on their home turfs (well, maybe not the Argentenian guy; boxing in South America can be a little on the crazy side). Dawson pulled out of a fight with Adrian Diaconu once already. We've seen how Canadians will turn out for local fighters and Diaconu, like Lucien Bute, is a Romanian based out of Canad. That fight would draw a big crowd and do good TV in Canada. The Hungarian Zsolt Erdei, well, I confess I know next to nothing about him. But he sems to fight often in Germany where boxing is riding a wave of popularity right now.
Who knows if either of those fights would be attractive to HBO. I kind of doubt it. But Dawson could probably make some money from the foreign TV and gate receipts, and return home as the "undisputed" champion (or not, I guess). I think that alone would give a boost to his marketability, and if he could accomplish this in the next year, a Hopkins fight might still be a possibility.
So that's my go at "You Be The Promoter -- Home Edition." I rather doubt that Shaw and Dawson's management will follow that route and unless he fights Glen Johnson, which we know he doesn't want to, I think it's back to Showtime for Dawson.
We all knew this day was coming. The Ricky Hatton ExcuseFest 2009 has begun.
His dad says he should've pulled out of the fight, but soldiered on because he didn't want to hurt his fans. Whatever.
Link
EDIT:
P.S. According to this article by Dan Rafael, the final PPV tally for Pacquiao-Hatton is around 850K buys. Arum is refusing to release the official numbers, I assume because he doesn't want to admit that Mayweather-Hatton drew slightly better numbers (915K).
His dad says he should've pulled out of the fight, but soldiered on because he didn't want to hurt his fans. Whatever.
Link
EDIT:
P.S. According to this article by Dan Rafael, the final PPV tally for Pacquiao-Hatton is around 850K buys. Arum is refusing to release the official numbers, I assume because he doesn't want to admit that Mayweather-Hatton drew slightly better numbers (915K).
That's still astounding given the non-American fighters involved, and the economic climate. Most of us were predicting 500k+ as a good showing.