Billy’s Boxing Blog

On Wednesday morning I got the press release from Golden Boy stating Oscar De La Hoya would make his big announcement on Thursday. I quickly got on the horn to see if I could verify what the big news would be. After a few well placed calls I got the info I was looking for and relayed the message via email to our biggest fan Frank Boff. I then went to the other websites to see if anyone had a bead on the story and much to my dismay ESPN’s Dan Rafael already had the news locked in. I let Boff know and expressed my disappointment that I was beaten to the punch. Boff quickly wrote back with these kind words, “Fat Dan gets stories because ESPN is the most “legit” website and has a big readership. Promoters use him like a toilet to funnel what ever sh*t they want out there.”

With those words of wisdom I was able to swallow my pride and realize, if nothing else I was on the right track and could be happy that I was able to dig out the same info, even though I wasn’t spoon fed the news.

Throughout the remainder of the day I received calls that all came to the same conclusion, this was an event for the almighty dollar and had nothing to do with Oscar going out with a belt, there was no one who was pleased with his apparent opponent, Manny Pacquiao. To every man and woman, Pac appears to be just too small of a task for The Golden Boy.

The announcement will come today and if it is in fact Manny I have no doubt it will be a huge cash cow of an event, but will it seal Oscar’s legacy?

The jury is still out on this one.

Sometimes it’s just best to say what you feel and let the chips fall where they may. Yesterday we gave our views on a few topics and it looks like our readers not only agree with us but they are glad we have the intestinal fortitude to let it all hang out. Here’s what our readers had to say;

Competitors

There is no competition out there for you guys punching Billy and the boys are the only ones who tell it like it is with no agenda. I’ve been in this business for a while now,and seen too many so called experts in this game blow smoke up fighters,trainers promoters asses,that seem to serve a certain agenda whether its getting interviews or whatever. There are a few good ones out there such as yourself,but too many kiss asses.im a throwback kind of guy call a spade a spade and don’t be afraid to give credit when it is due and don’t be afraid to criticize someone.this is boxing if you cant take criticism your in the wrong business,people (fans) deserve the truth. Sometimes I read certain interviews or press releases and think Im watching an advertisement.

                                                Gus

Thanks Gus. It’s no big secret that many only tell what they are “supposed” to and really don’t have any real views on the game. None that they are willing to post, that’s for sure. We took a stand to say what we feel and we are glad our efforts have not gone by unnoticed. It’s readers like you that keep us motivated to tell it like it is.

Sulaiman

Hey I read your article on Manny Vs Oscar and I agree with Suliman that fight is a complete mismatch.The fight should not even take place regardless of how much money is involved. Manny is 5′ 6 and does not posses great defensive skills. He stands in front of his opponents and exchanges blows. He had trouble with Marquez not to mention he has never been tested at that weight limit. The media should really be discouraging this fight. If Oscar truly wants a great fight as he often mentions why not fight Margarito for the title. However after watching Margarito dominate Cotto, Oscar would most likely want to stay away from him.

You would be surprised how many in the media feel exactly like you and Sulaiman, too bad most of them won’t say it. We found the quotes from Sulaiman this weekend and felt they needed to be addressed. Hopefully the powers that be will take these views to heart, and then maybe, just maybe, Margarito will get his much deserved shot at Oscar.

This weekends fight between Antonio Margarito and Miguel Cotto went far and above anyone’s expectations and that’s what made it so easy to bring you the coverage we gave you, it was a great night and we wanted to share it all with you.

Apparently you enjoyed everything we did and we thank you in advance for the kind words.

Wrap

GOOD story on the fight. You and Steve Kim were only guys to recognize what Margarito was doing early, But your story was much more emphatic about it. I gotta laugh at Arum saying he might make a rematch somewhere down the line. As you pointed out, what on earth could Cotto do any better?

Frank Boff

Hey thanks Boff!

Normally I would dump (edit out) any comparison to any other writer but Steve and I cross each other paths often and I think we see eye to eye on more than a few things and get along pretty well. Now if you would have compared me to some east coast JERK and his Jerry Springer website…then the gloves come off.

If Cotto ever gets back into a place where he can fight Tony again he had better take the game plan he brought into this past fight and throw it away and get a new one. 

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Margarito–Cotto

Boxing fans, go to Pound4Pound.com  William Trillo wrote an ‘on the money’ account of the big fight between Cotto and Margarito, complete with great photos of the fight taken by Bret “The Threat” Newton.  It is truly a great boxing article, William nailed it perfectly.  I could not have written it any better… William Trillo broke the fight down just the way I knew it would go, Cotto early, with Margarito closing the show with his constant pressure and his overpowering power. If you watch the replay Saturday night, keep the sound off, Lampley’s observation of the fight bordered on absurdity. 

Johnny Ortiz

Thanks Johnny!

For those of you who don’t know him, Johnny is a Los Angeles boxing legend & icon and has more boxing knowledge than most can ever dream to have. When Johnny co-signs with me that Lampley is a
know nothing shill you can go ahead and take that to the bank. Keep the sound down on the replay.

Thanks for the kind words Johnny. It’s always great to hear from you.

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What a fight!

Hey Will,

It’s me Daniel, I use to work at the Credit Union.  Man, I really miss talking boxing with you.  What a good fight huh?  Where were you sitting for the fight?  I still visit your site and enjoy it every time.  Just curious, did you have Cotto winning the early rounds because of his remarkable precision? I know Tony pressed the fight, but I think it was hard to ignore the punches he took, even though they didn’t phase him.  Anyways, thanks for the great site and hope to hear from you.

Daniel Rodriguez

p.s. What did Elvis say in his crystal ball?  I couldn’t see it, I have a cheap computer monitor. haha

Moments later this came in:

Too Funny!!

I just read the mail bag and now that I notice, it is a Tornado.  hahaha Well, there you go.

Daniel Rodriguez

That’s a lot of questions Daniel my man. Let’s see, I think I was in the seventh row of the media tables, dead center, had a real nice view. My scorecard was similar to the judges who had Tony ahead at the time of the stoppage. Having seen Tony spar prior to this bout I knew he was going to keep coming forward and not be fazed in the early going so I paid close attention to the punches he was landing, something many people did not see while Cotto was landing his early blows.

Yes the Elvis Crystal ball is all about The Tornado!

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I never thought Cotto to be anything but above average.

I told you long before that Cotto was  not as good as many thought he was, after all,  it was shown he could be hit and hurt. I for one knew Antonio Would beat him simply because he has the heart of a lion and he trains the right way, a lot of this fighters (except Pretty boy and Hopkins) don’t  seem to understand the importance of proper training they think because they are the Champ that they will get the close decisions or for some special reason they earned the belt and it’s theirs forever.  Nope, you have to be hungry and stay hungry and train and then train some more.  Mark my word Cotto is done. Oh another fighter who everyone thinks is so great, Pac Man, Nope he’s just Average, his fights are picked for him and he can only slug nothing more about his boxing other thing slugging is worth watching. some average fighter would give manny more trouble then he can handle.  IF he fights outside those old and ex-champions he will get hurt.  Again Mark my word.

BEBLACK 99

Well you certainly are all over the place with this and I would say I agree with about 50% of your takes…maybe…..maybe not!! 

Yes Cotto’s chin was suspect but it seemed okay once he moved up to 147, until he ran into Tony, and that will shorten anyone’s whiskers. Tony trains old school like Hopkins and that’s why he kept coming forward and never stopped. Mayweather is not even worthy of mention here, unless of course you want to talk about him quitting ( ran like a chicken) before he was forced into fighting Tony. Floyd ran away scared, never bring him up to me again unless he comes out of retirement to fight Tony…NEVER!

Cotto is far from done and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him wearing a belt within the next year.

And as to your assessment of Manny… ARE YOU INSANE?

Barrera, Morales, Marquez!!  Defeating those guys makes him just a tad better than average my friend.

And if my prediction comes true Oscar will decide he wants no part of the man left standing from this past Saturday night, that being Margarito, and now will do everything he can to get the fight with the smaller Manny signed , sealed and delivered. And if that fight does go down don’t be surprised if…ummm…wait a minute……………….Manny will defeat Oscar

Will you think he is better than average then?

Thanks for all your cards and letters boys and girls. It’s great to hear from all of you!!

Will wonders never cease, not only do people get my lame sense of humor but some actually think I am not a bad a writer as many would like you to believe.

Elvis Prediction

Hey Will, I saw what you’ve seen in the crystal ball. It’s a Tornado coming to vegas and it destroyed A great boxer in Cotto. I was rooting for Tony myself for a KO win in the 9^th but it took him a few more rounds To get the job done. Anyways ‘twas great fight, probably the fight of the year. Props also to Cotto for taking this fight! These are the type of fights that promoters should be making.

More power!  -alan

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Will,

after seeing the tornado in the crystal ball you should have bet the house!  Too funny. 

Roy

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Antonio Margarito, the new King of Welterweights.

Hello William Trillo:

Your fine description and report of last night’s bout between Antonio Margarito and Miguel Cotto leaves actually little to be desired. Nicely crafted  and fun  to read. Well done. I liked it.The weeks leading up to the meeting were exciting and rife with speculation. Not so for me. Most friends’ money was on Miguel Cotto.For years  my belief was that  Antonio Margarito is the king of welterweights, the Paul Williams bout notwithstanding. Well, it was fascinating to watch how Antonio took Miguel apart, beginning with round one.Ring generalship, subtle defense,  effective offense and power decided for the winner.

Cheers and good wishes

Dietrich, fight fan.

Thanks one and all!

From soup to nuts this was about a good a fight weekend in Las Vegas as I have ever spent and I am glad I could share some of it with all of our readers!

Sincerely, Will…William…Billy..???      Dang, I have a serious Identity crisis!

It’s been a bit since we had any worthy reader mail but this letter commenting on our piece with Delvin Rodriguez is more than worthy to get some run.

Nice Story

Rodriguez sounds like a class act and a fighter that other fighters should try to emulate as a person, Oscar (Diaz) and his family are in my prayers, and having the pleasure of getting to know Oscar fairly well and being at quite a few of his fights I can honestly say you don’t get much of a nicer person than him.        

Gus

I couldn’t agree with ya more Guster, Delvin proved to be a straight up class act and boxing does need more like him. Here this kid is in a very difficult situation and the last thing on his mind is what he has to gain from the victory. In a day and age where seemingly everyone in boxing is a self serving egotist it’s great to have had the time to listen to what this fine young man had to say. We too here at Pound4Pound send our thoughts and prayers out to the Diaz family and we hope that Oscar will be coming home soon.

William Trillo

Once again I have taken a hiatus from the blog scene, but c’mon, can ya blame me? Pacquiao fought Diaz followed the next week by the Holt vs. Torres minute not too mention a night at Playboy Mansion and a local fight or two thrown in for good measure, it was all I could do to keep up with that, but here I am chiming in while I can come up for air on this “off” weekend.

Hmmm, well all I can think of is the fact that every time I turn around Golden Boy Promotions has locked up yet another part of the boxing world. First it was the article they are in cahoots with HBO, follow that up with a report that they have secured almost every and all dates in Las Vegas at The MGM & Mandalay Bay. Mix in a teaming up with Team U.S.A. Boxing and …well….you get my drift! 

Does the word Monopoly come to mind?

Without question of all the fights this weekend the one that had the most attention was the rematch featuring Arthur Abraham and Edison Miranda, and with just cause. The first fight was a bloodbath and when the dust settled from that one it was clear that they needed to do this again. After Saturday nights affair I think it is just as clear, Abraham has Miranda’s number.

One of our readers thinks so too:

Hello William Trillo:

William, we need now an elimination round of the world’s best middleweights. Felix Sturm first and foremost to fight and beat Arthur Abraham.Then Kelly Pavlic vs. Sturm.
What say you?

Dietrich, fight fan

Hello Dietrich!

What say me?

I say Felix Sturm is a very worthy Champ, but King Arthur didn’t come all the way over to American soil to set up a fight with Sturm. His eyes are on the big prize, Kelly Pavlik.

I think Sturm would like a shot at King Arthur but Felix is comfortable fighting on his own turf and it may be a while before we see that unifier.

As Confucius say, “Man who take sleeping pill and laxative on the same night will wake up in deep doo doo.”

Speaking of taking drugs, is it just me or did it appear Miranda my have been taking some muscle enhancing supplements during his recent training camp?

I’ll be looking forward to his post fight urinalysis test results.

Looking over the fights on this huge fight weekend has me thinking…not only is there plenty of action over the next 2 nights, but to me, there are some battles that may not go according to plan.

Andre Ward vs. Jerson Ravelo
Andre Berto vs. Miguel Rodriguez
Chris Arreola vs. Chazz Witherspoon

These are 3 fights that could end up being a bit of a surprise, and if the favorites don’t give this their full attention, they may come up on the short end.

Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

On another note…One of the fights this weekend features Mikkel Kessler in his return bout after his first loss suffered at the hands of Joe Calzaghe.

You would think he would get a bit more fanfare than what he has currently received, but then again, Palle’s PR man in the states has never done the Dane any favors and has once again dropped the ball and the return of one of the best fighters in the game has all but flown under the radar.

Kessler is a great guy and he deserves way better than his American flak is giving him at the present time

I just got an email from L.A.’s local sports radio station with the subject:

“What A Season!”

 Dang it…yeah I guess.  At the start of the year my biggest worry was what the heck were we gonna get if they traded Kobe, now my biggest concern is what enforcer are we gonna deal for and what is it gonna cost to get him? Well whatever it takes I can hardly wait for next year. Who knows, maybe next year Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. will join us for a game.

Has anyone taken a peek at this weekends fight schedule?

Holy cow…..how can I squeeze all that in?

Hey Lakers, It’s Payback Time For The Celtics

By William Trillo

It was Game 4 of the 1984 NBA finals.The Celtics were trailing in both the game and the series when the hated Kevin McHale delivered a hard foul to Kurt Rambis as the Lakers’ forward raced to the basket. The physical play touched off a bench-clearing scuffle. Boston came back to win the game in overtime and that win tied the series up. Boston eventually prevailed in seven games to win the franchise’s fifteenth championship.

The shoe is now firmly on the other foot and it’s The Lakers who need that “extra edge” to get them over the top in this series.

The Lakers have struggled in this series but they gave themselves hope last night in Los Angeles. It’s time to go old school guys and a nice hard foul in The Garden may be exactly what the Doctor ordered. And as I recall, that hard foul delivered by McHale was perpetrated on Los Angeles turf.

It’s time to show Boston how that tastes.

The Celtics have cheap shot their way through this series and now it’s time do give them a dose of their own medicine. I personally will expect nothing less.

In case you forgot just how hard that foul was I ask you to take a look at this footage.

YouTube - Kevin McHale Clotheslines Kurt Rambis

Feel free to pass this story along to anyone on The Lakers staff or team…Thank You