Billy’s Boxing Blog

Photos By William Trillo & Marlene Marquez

As the great Alexis Arguello passed this week there have been countless stories about the fine boxer and great man, and rightly so. If any fighter truly epitomized what class in boxing is all about it was Arguello.

As an avid collector of fight posters and memorabilia one of my collections is fight posters that date from now to back further than I care to mention. With that said, I have most of my posters in storage and some hanging in the garage. And then there are the only two that I have framed and hanging in my house.

Of course one is the then Cassius Clay and the other is my Arguello vs. Pryor Rematch poster. There is no coincidence that Arguello’s image has always been a part of my home decor.

I have loved this fighter since the first time I saw him fight. It was late 1974, my Dad who was an avid fight fan took me to see his favorite fighter Ruben Olivares face Arguello for the WBA Featherweight title. After going down twice Olivares succumbed to Arguellos attack and was stopped in round 13…aahh the good ol’ days.

Even my Father was enamored with Arguello and from that point on we made sure never to miss him. Whether it was on TV or live it was a treat to watch this true master craftsman and even a greater thrill to hear him speak after each fight, he just had a way about him.

I recall when he defeated Ray Mancini and made sure to bring Ray in front of the cameras after the fight and tell the young BOOM BOOM that he was a great fighter and one day he would be Champion.

Even when this man was taking on fighters from my home like Bobby Chacon and Ruben Castillo I could not root against him. Arguello had my full support and I was one of his biggest fans.

Then came the Pryor fights and needless to say both fights ripped my heart out.

2 fights, 24 rounds of agony for Arguello and everyone who followed his career.

Even in defeat there was something about Arguello that lifted the human spirit and as it was obvious his time in the ring was coming to an end I knew it would be difficult for any fighter to fill the void that he was going to leave both inside and outside the ring.

It was such a joy to see him in Los Angeles for Oscar De La Hoya’s Homecoming bout against Steve Forbes.

His warm smile was as big and brimming as ever and he still carried himself with the class of a true gentleman. 

To hear of the tragedy this week really set me back. None of it makes sense and I will always find it impossible to believe he took his own life.

So long ”El Flaco Explosivo”…and thanks for the memories.

Photos By William Trillo & Marlene Marquez

After his loss to Marcos Maidana on Saturday night Victor Ortiz told Max Kellerman in front of the Staple Center crowd and an HBO BAD audience, “I’m young, but I don’t think I deserve to get beat up like this. So I have a lot of thinking to do.” 

Inevitably his thinking will turn to the weight of being labeled as ”Next Golden Boy” and whether or not he can handle the pressure of filling those shoes.

As for The Golden Boy himself, Oscar De La Hoya, who said after the fight, “Yeah, he went down but he’ll get right back up and fulfill his dream”, you have to wonder if he isn’t concerned about this turn of events in the Ortiz career and if he will be able to overcome the ever growing pressure that is being heaped on the young fighters shoulders.

A more than candid Ortiz admitted after the fight that he was caught off guard by the fan support as he entered the ring. “I heard people chanting my name,” he said. “That’s never happened to me before. It just messed with me.”

And again you have to wonder what Oscar makes of that statement. In his prime De La Hoya thrived and flourished off that kind of pressure. Having just retired you have to assume Oscar may very well have been thinking how different things might have been if it was him in the ring on Saturday night.

Considering Saturday nights outcome, it’s not an enviable task to put yourself in either man’s shoes.

For Ortiz, who is the nicest and most honest kid in boxing, it’s very likely the punches he took on Saturday night will pale in comparison to the amount of blows he is going to take from the media over the coming days if not weeks.

For Oscar and everyone at Golden Boy for that matter this was a pretty big blow to the gut. Saturday night was supposed to be the night to show off their new prized pupil.  But all you had to do was look at all the brass sitting ringside to know the wind had just been taken out of their sails. >From Oscar to Richard Schaefer and from Shelly Finkel to Rolando Arellano it was obvious not one of them saw this coming.

The bottom line is Ortiz now has come to grips with Saturday night’s outcome and move on. The whispers that maybe he didn’t posses the strongest set of whiskers can now be heard loud and clear.

At the post fight press conference Ortiz flashed that million dollar smile that for a moment made many forget about the shiner he was sporting as he openly and honestly said “I didn’t listen to my corner, we planned to box, to do everything to stay away from his power.” Ortiz tuned a deaf ear to the game plan.

Now Victor will have to listen to his heart and decide where he and his boxing career will go from here.

The huge gust of wind that came from the North East on Saturday afternoon was the collective sigh of relief from the HBO Brass as they were most surely relieved by their decision to drop the Heavyweight Title telecast from Germany. After being second guessed by many in the media for scraping the telecast after David Haye pulled out and drug through the mud by yours truly, the Wladimir Klitschko vs. Ruslan Chagaev bout was little more than a snoozefest as Klitschko safely pounded Chagaev into quitting on his stool after ten rounds of eating straight left and right hands.

Not much more can be said.

Klitschko stayed out of harms way with his robotic performance and Chagaev did little if anything to get inside the new Ring Champion’s guard.

Forget about the huge live gate and the giant television numbers in Europe. Those who watched the fight in America were bored to tears and the little known Chagaev will remain that way,(little known), on American soil.

As for Klitschko, he needs to find a way to capture the hearts of boxing fans and his safety first performance on Saturday will do little to win fight fans over.

TGIF

The weekend was not a total loss for fight fans as the Versus Network aired the Light Heavyweight title fight between Adrian Diaconu and Jean Pascal on Friday night from Montreal. This was a very entertaining bout that saw Pascal lift the crown from Diaconu in a thrilling 12 round decision.

Down once in round 5, Diacanou came off the canvas and had Pascal on wobbly legs before the round finished. Pascal displayed an arrogant confidence throughout the slugfest and he is sure to be looking for some big money fights amongst the 175 pound elite.

Montreal is a great fight town, the 12,000 plus in The Bell Center was evidence of that and we should expect more to come out of the Great White North in the near future.

Photo-Chop: Bret “The Threat” Newton
 
 
 The Golden Boy Promotions press release simply stated, The highly anticipated July 18 fight between Floyd Mayweather and Juan Manuel Marquez has been postponed due to a rib injury sustained by Mayweather while training. The next paragraph had a statement from Mayweather saying, “I am extremely disappointed that this fight has to be postponed, I was training very hard and looking forward to getting back in the ring on July 18th.”
 
 Horse crap! Or in this case, (Ticket Selling) Goat Crap!
 
 It seems pretty obvious that the real reason this fight was CANCELLED, (it will never get rescheduled), is because the truth is ticket sales were abysmal and Pretty Boy’s return to the ring was going to be more than Pretty Embarrassing for the self proclaimed “Cash Cow” of Boxing.
 
 That’s right, ticket sales were in the tank, no one was interested. A quick check of ticket availability on Ticketmaster minutes after receiving the press release told me the same information it had the week tickets went on sale. Blocks of tickets could be bought in almost any section of The MGM Arena add infinitum. And as we have said before, that is a very accurate gage on how PPV buys are going to go and all signs pointed to Mayweather vs. Marquez becoming a promotional catastrophe on every level.
 
 Do you think HBO is just a tad upset?
 
 Between the press conferences and cost of promotion up to this point you can go ahead and assume the tightly budgeted network took a pretty big hit to their wallets. It’s also pretty clear Golden Boy was willing to cut their losses short. It’s highly likely they funded the costs for the HBO produced 24/7 on the fight. With the premiere to be aired this weekend and more footage in the can, it’s pretty safe to assume Golden Boy will lose out on that investment.
 
 The Network and the Promoter must be livid. Meanwhile all Floyd has to do is tuck his tail behind his hind legs and run and hide for a while in the hopes boxing fans will forget this miscue.
 
 They won’t and I am sure the suits are taking notes as well.
 
 I doubt it’s a coincidence of this happening the day after Cotto drew 18,000 to MSG and raised his star status above anybody in the 147 pound division. Mayweather so believed he is now a box office star based on Oscar/Hatton numbers, he blindly overestimated the drawing power of his return. Not a chance in hell he ever fights Marquez, and I supremely doubt, based on the early numbers and the nonsense Floyd has just put Bob Arum through, that he will ever get a sniff of Cotto or Pacquiao. Arum who was more than surprised by the rare Sunday press release has already been quoted as saying that Manny, who was ringside for the Cotto fight, told Arum that he wants Cotto. Arum said that fight will go down on November 14th of this year in Las Vegas and since Arum holds both of those fighters in the palm of his hand, you can go ahead and put that down in ink on your calendar.
 
 After seeing what went down in New York on Saturday night you know Floyd is thinking, if not slobbering all over himself and Leonard Ellerbe, that a fight with Cotto would be the perfect fit and he could claim he was the one who put the butts in the seats. But Arum is way to savvy for that and he won’t allow Floyd to stake that Puerto Rican claim. Not now and most probably not ever!
 
 And again, since you can forget about Floyd vs. Marquez ever seeing the light of day, Mayweather has put himself in a pretty uncomfortable position. Not only are his true colors being exposed to the fans but it shouldn’t surprise him to be on the receiving end of Golden Boy’s Gucci footwear that may get firmly planted on his hind end as he is shown the door.
 
 As to the injury…how in the world did he hurt his rib? There is no way that Mayweather would use a sparring partner who worked the body that hard and those pity pat punches he throws on the heavy bag couldn’t pull taffy, let alone rib cartilage. This entire story appears as nothing more than blatant BS.
 
 Along with the afore mentioned phone call I placed after receiving the Mayweather Press Release I made another properly placed call and found out that members of Mayweather’s own management team were shocked and surprised that Floyd pulled out of the fight. They didn’t know! What does that tell you?
 
 That tells me that with the exception of Goldey Boy, Floyd didn’t tell anyone that he was going to bail out of the fight, which shows his complete disdain for anybody except himself, but there is really no surprise there.
 
 No surprise at all!

American boxing fans can breath a sigh of relief as ESPN Classic will air the Heavyweight title fight between Wladimir Klitschko and Ruslan Chagaev on June 20th. According to manager Shelly Finkel the fight will be telecast live in the States which means it will hit out airwaves about 1pm PST. This is a fight that is not to be missed…and thanks to ESPN, you don’t have to.

I have to wonder why Mr. Spoon Fed himself over at ESPN did not know that his own network was going to broadcast the fight? Maybe it was because he had his nose so firmly planted in HBO’s(and/or Golden Boy’s) backside the only thing visible to him was the monkeys butt cheeks. Dude has no excuse shilling for other promoters and networks while his own network just picked up broadcast rights on a huge Heavyweight title fight. How did that get by him?

And can we please stop trying to give HBO a pass on their horrible maneuver on dropping the Klitschko fight and using budget as an excuse? They would have plenty of cash if they didn’t drop every nickel they posses on Floyd vs. Marquez. Between the fighters purses and the 24/7 they have to produce, HBO has made one of the biggest financial mistakes of the year and now they want us to believe that dropping the Klitschko fight just made good financial sense…..PLEASE!

Speaking of Floyd vs. Marquez, one of our readers gave us this update: 

Just an update! There are still tickets available for this fight. You can still get 10 tickets for the least expensive available seats ($300). If the rumor of PBF getting $15 mil for this fight is true, then somebody is going to get screwed. This fight might not draw enough to cover $15 mil.

Yes, and you still can get blocks of 10 in the high priced $1,000 seats as well…blocks and blocks! And if ticket sales is indicative of the PPV buys,(which they oft times are),then yes somebody is gonna get screwed.

So HBO has 15 mil to waste on Floyd but they cant keep a fight they already had budgeted for. Who is running that circus over there?

Finally, the irrepressible WBA decided to yank Chagaev’s belt and name Nicolay Valuev as there lone Champion. Excuse me if I am mistaken but isn’t that the same belt that Lennox Lewis tossed in the rubbish bin years ago because they wanted Lewis to fight their guy John Ruiz?

Again…PLEASE!! 

Whether or not you think any of it amounts to a hill of beans there has been more talk about the Heavyweight division over the last couple of weeks since Mike Tyson went Donner Party upside Evander Holyfield’s dome.

First there was the last minute halt to Nicolai Valuev vs. Ruslan Chagaev in a unifying rematch.

There seems to be some miscommunication here so just to clear this up because some of you don’t know what you are talking about, Chagaev did not pull out due to illness. The day after the weigh in so called Medical Experts said Chagaev was not healthy and therefore could not fight.

Whatever!

Take a look at the weigh-in photos. Chagaev looks to be in pretty darn good shape and it’s Valuev who appears to look a tad anemic. I think he was on the De La Hoya Kangaroo meat diet.

So with that fight in the rubbish pile it was up to Wladimir Klitschko and David Haye to give us our heavyweight fix, but as we know Haye chickened out…ahem…I mean pulled out due to either a hand or back injury and would be on the shelf for either 8 or 3 weeks (choose whichever excuse makes you feel best). Haye tried some last minute nonsense to “try to save the fight” but Klitschko has had enough of the pompous Brit’s babble so he moved on.

Waiting in the wings was a ready Ruslan Chagaev but before he was chosen to take on Klitschko the roaches started piling out of the woodwork and they all deemed themselves as worthy challengers to the throne.

Kevin Johnson, Brian Minto, Odlanier Solis, John Ruiz and more did their best version of “La Cucuracha” but thankfully Team Klitschko had a large can of Raid on hand and disposed of the unwanted vermin.

After you cut through all that nonsense what you end up with is a pretty darn good fight. In fact this may very well be the best fight the Heavyweight division has to offer. Two Champions with all their belts on the line and the Ring Magazine Belt thrown in for good measure. It’s hard to argue that this is anything but a very meaningful fight. Unless of course you are employed by HBO, then you have no choice but to scoff.

But then again…what do I know? I am just a stupid Billy Goat.

Hats Off

Over the past year or two I have been very very hard on Ruslan Chagaev for his so called health issues, but now that I understand the facts I congratulate him for not letting the shenanigans pulled on him only days earlier deter him from his mission to fight the best.

On the other hand we have Wladimir Klitschko. I don’t think it’s any big secret I am pretty big on both Klitschko’s. Over the years I have got into some heated arguments with a good friend about Wlad’s merits. My friend insisted Klitschko was ducking the big names at every turn. That same friend told me that he has changed his tune on Klitschko and actually is very impressed that he is willing to take on the undefeated southpaw Chagaev on very short notice.

There…you see! It’s not always piss and vinegar spewing from my blog. Sometimes there is even a little love to spread around.

Sometimes. 

Oh Yeah I Almost Forgot

Somehow David Haye and his team got their feet out of their mouths long enough to say that now they wanted to fight the other Klitschko, Vitali.

David, David, David! 

You have pranced around with photos of you holding the brothers severed heads and even wore those distasteful shirts to press conferences. You have called them every name in the book and then when it was time for you to prove yourself you tucked your tail between your legs (or smashed your finger in the door) and ran.

Trust me, you ain’t getting a sniff of either brother for a long long time.

But I am hearing chatter that maybe a fight between you and Chris Arreola has already been discussed. Believe it or not I am down with this fight and hope it ends up in my neck of the woods.

It’s a fight that should have always been the springboard to the Klitschko’s. It’s always been a mystery to me why either one of these guys got to leap frog over the division and challenge the good Doctors when all they have ever beaten is bums and washed up has beens.

 Photo-Chop: Bret “The Threat” Newton

 
 Now that David Haye has been rightfully pushed to the back burner, the battle between Wladimir Klitschko & Ruslan Chagaev will put Klitschko’s 3 belts up for grabs along with Chageav’s WBA belt. To add to the importance of this fight Ring Magazine has determined this fight will also be for their now vacant Championship Belt.
 
 Yet in their infinite wisdom, HBO, the so called “Heart & Soul of Boxing” has decided this fight has no reason to live on American TV so they have unceremoniously pulled the plug on the broadcast.
 
 HUGE MISTAKE!
 
 This is by far one of the worst decisions HBO World Championship Boxing has ever made and the reasons are so numerous I don’t know where to begin.
 
 For starters, as I mentioned, Klitschko holds the IBF, WBO, and IBO Heavyweight Champion belts and Chagaev is in possession of The WBA version. Other than a big mouth and an over inflated ego, David Haye brought nothing even close to the table.
 
 And oh yeah, Ring Magazine has decided the winner of this fight will pick up their now vacant belt. This is a true unifier in every sense of the word and if memory serves me correctly HBO has whined on and on about how there is no clear cut Champion at Heavyweight. I have to wonder aloud why they yanked this fight.
 
 HBO was willing to broadcast a fight against a yet to be proven Haye but have no interest in the undefeated Chagaev who happens to be the only man to defeat the giant Nicolay Valuev, but in the “keen” eye of HBO brass…that’s not good enough.
 
 Some will argue on HBO’s behalf that Chagaev is an unknown commodity but that is a poor argument at best. HBO has travelled to Europe to televise Klitschko taking on the likes of Ray Austin…who? Obviously opponents’ credentials are not always the deciding factor when HBO is making programming decisions.
 
 Others will tell you Chagaev is infected with Hepatitis but the truth is he has been found to have the Hepetitis B antigen in his blood. Have you had the Hepatitis inoculation? Then you have it too, and so does Klitschko who had been inoculated and he is not worried at all about infection.
 
 Like with Haye, it’s just one lame excuse after another. HBO is truly missing the boat on this one and I can only hope one of the American networks will pick this battle up because it stands to be much better and way more competitive than Klitschko vs Haye. Wlad was going to dispose of Haye in quick order and anyone who thinks otherwise is as delusional as the HBO suits.
 
 On the other hand, Klitschko vs. Chagaev has all the makings of a classic and the late sub has a very good chance on pulling off the upset.
 
 Chagaev had been training hard for his rematch with Valuev which means he has had a lot of big right handed sparring getting him ready so Ruslan won’t have to make too many training camp adjustments.
 
 Klitschko has been training hard as well but he has been focusing on big cruisers or small heavies for sparring who fight from the orthodox stance. Did I mention Chagaev is a southpaw? Well he is. In other words with time running out Klitschko will have to bring in true heavyweights who are left handed. It’s a big adjustment to make. If anyone can do it, Wladimir can, but it’s not an enviable task. Once inside the squared circle on fight night things are going to get very interesting.
 
 Come fight night the house in Germany will be rocking with 30,000 plus fans and the atmosphere will be more electric than anything Germany has seen in a while…and they put on some fantastic shows.
 
 One interested person that night will be WBC Champion Vitali Klitschko who will most likely be in his brother’s corner. Anyone who knows boxing is aware that it is the dream of The Klitschko boys to hold all the title belts at one time and lock up the Heavyweight division. If Wladimir wins their dream will become reality and it will be the first time in the history of boxing that brothers hold all the heavyweight titles.
 
 It’s history in the making and HBO has decided they don’t want to be there.
 
 The Heart & Soul of Boxing, huh?
 
 Well I guess I understand…HBO needs to get ready for that barley registering a blip on the radar screen fight at Staples on June 27th, (quick name the fighters in The Main Event), and heaven forbid they are in Germany and miss the premier of the 24/7 for the ticket selling catastrophe called Number One/Numero Uno, Mayweather vs. Marquez. With ticket sales at a near crawl I have already predicted a PPV flop of epic proportions here.
 
 I digress.
 
 The bottom line here is that Klitschko vs. Chagaev has the potential to be everything the anemic heavyweight division has been looking for but in their aforementioned infinite wisdom HBO has decided to turn a deaf ear and a blind eye to the entire proceedings.
 
 I believe it’s another in a list of recent decisions that they will soon come to regret.
 
 How does that advertisement go?
 
 HBO…Destroying Their Legend One Fight At A Time
 
 Something like that.

Photo-Chop: Bret “The Threat” Newton

After months of shooting off his mouth at every turn, former Cruiserweight Champion David Haye got himself a shot at IBF, WBO, and IBO Heavyweight Champion Wladimir Klitschko. Haye then proceeded to go on a campaign of belittling both Klitschko brothers and was popping off how he was going to shock the World by destroying both of them.Fast forward to the first week of June when a very nondescript press release gets sent out telling us that Haye had some mysterious injury and he would not be able to fight as scheduled for June 20th on the HBO televised fight from Germany.

Within hours everyone’s favorite Fat Man at ESPN announced it was a hand injury that Haye suffered and it would be some 8 weeks before he could fight again.

With those announcements in mind Team Klitschko made it clear to the media that they were going to do everything in their power to keep the June 20 date alive and I was told first hand that opponents were already being sought. The obvious names like Valuev and Chagaev were thrown out but nothing official had been set.

In less than 24 hours the Fat Man at ESPN changed his tune and said it was Hayes back that was injured. Press releases from Haye followed that were basically begging Klitschko to give him 3 weeks, not 8, to heal and he would be ready to fight.

All of a sudden Haye is a nice guy with the manners of British Royalty.

Gimmee a break.

First of all I believe the spoon fed Fat Man was reporting a scoop that was given to him through Hayes team when he first announced the hand injury, and I believe it was the same team that shoveled up some more dung, that being the back injury, for Fatty to regurgitate to the masses. Which of course he did, because as everyone knows, puking up what promoters want the public to think and believe is his job.

Hand Injury? Back Injury? Pick an ailment and go with it!

8 weeks? 3 weeks? Pick a time frame and go with that too!

In an effort to protect their investment on American shores, Golden Boy Promotions sent out a press release that amongst other things claimed Haye was “defiant” and then stated, “Unfortunately David has sustained a back injury which means he is unable to continue training for a short period.  We’re heading back to the UK for some aggressive physiotherapy.”

Defiant? I think Haye should throw in a little psychotherapy as well!

I mean really, here is a guy who has been blowing his horn as loud as can be and somehow even though he hadn’t really proven a thing outside of the talent depleted Cruiserweight division he somehow managed to loud mouth his way into a fight with arguably the best Heavyweight in the World and now he pulls out and wants to get a pass because he has a Doctors note.

Get out of here! It’s back to the end of the line for Haye if you ask me.

If Klitschko goes on with the date as planned on June 20th and fights either Valuev or Chagaev there is a real possibility that Wladimir could lose his crown as both those fighters pose real threats. And if Wlad loses his belts Haye is left out in the dark, hence his sudden change in injury and the time frame for healing (in my ever so humble opinion).

The moral of the story here is simple, Shut-up and fight!

No one likes a fighter with a big mouth who when it’s time for the rubber to meet the road pulls up lame and then defiantly begs for some more time to get ready.

No one!!

With the surprise pull out of David Haye due to a reported hand injury the Wladimir Klitschko heavyweight title fight and HBO date of June 20th is in serious jeopardy right now. According to a press release from Klitschko’s management, it appears the champion and his management team will be looking for a suitable replacement. Considering the fight sold some 30,000 tickets and is getting international exposure from HBO finding the right sub is not going to be easy.  

Thinking out loud, here is my personal list of fighters who could fill that void.

1. Nikolai Valuev: Valuev is in shape and should be ready to fill in on the June 20 date. Not sure what exactly is the truth about all the Chageav uproar but if ever there was a unifying fight that could easily become a marquee event it would be Klitschko and Valuev in Germany. The 30,000 ticket holders would be in for a real battle of the giants here. The problem is Valuev’s promoter, Sauerland, is going to ask for a huge chunk of change and it doesn’t appear likely they could get this one done in 2 weeks.

2. Ruslan Chagaev: If what Chagaev says is true and he is in fact healthy then he could step in and fill the void as well. Again this would be a so called unifier with Klitschko and although it is not near as attractive as a Valuev fight, it would be another fight that most would accept as a late replacement. 

3. Eddie Chambers: The only reason Eddie makes this list is because he is currently training to fight Alexander Dimentrenko on July 4th which theoretically means he should be in shape. Given how Chambers looked against Sam Peter you have to take the term “in shape” with a grain of salt.

4. Alexander Dimentrenko: Again, here is a guy who is currently training and would be in shape. The problem here is outside of Europe, Dimentrenko is an unknown commodity and it’s very unlikely HBO would approve the fight. 

5. Alexander Povetkin: Wouldn’t it be nice to see this match up? It almost came off in the past but like the Haye fight it fell out due to injury. The problem here is Povetkin was recently seen crowning beauties for some girly magazine and there is no way he could not foot the bill in 2 weeks. 

6. James Toney: I know I know. Just say a little bird told me he is actually in the mix…don’t say i didn’t warn you. 

So as I see it, that’s it.  

6 possibilities, some viable and some not so, but with just 2 weeks to work something out anything can happen. Hopefully all parties will get the job done and find a decent replacement for the first heavyweight bout in a long time that had fans very excited and actually looking forward to.

Photo By Naoki Fukada

WBC Welterweight Champion Andre Berto successfully defended his crown on Saturday night when outclassed tough challenger Juan Urango and took a lopsided unanimous decision. Yet, even though Berto was in complete control and was never anywhere close to being in trouble the HBO broadcast team was not willing to give Berto a standing ovation and even wondered aloud if he had proved himself as a true talent in the ravenous and loaded 147 division.

These comments come from the same network who somehow are willing to bend over backward for one Floyd Mayweather Jr. even though Berto displays much the same talent and sometimes even style as The Pretty Boy. Andre is fast as lightning with both his hands and his feet and at times looks bored with his competition and like Floyd, Berto is undefeated. Heck, they even have the same advisor.

Okay, I admit the holding Berto was doing on Saturday night was very annoying and I am glad he stopped grabbing in the later rounds. But let’s not forget that Mayweather’s fights at times can become very annoying as well. So annoying that his own fans were leaving the building in the 10th round of his battle with Carlos Baldomir. Yes, even the people who call Floyd Jr. King couldn’t sit through another 9 minutes of that nonsense. You didn’t see any of Andre’s fans leaving early on Saturday night.

Personally, I think the problem was the level of competition and no disrespect to Urango who holds a belt one division lower but he was made to order for Berto…probably even hand picked.

It’s time for Berto to take the next big step up and lock horns with any of the 147 pound elite. I think when put to the test Berto will show that he is just not another flash in the pan and he should garner a little more respect from HBO talking heads.

Cintron Puts A Leash On “Perro” Angulo

What do you get when you take a former champion who has a lot to prove in with a tough but yet untested fighter?

Wait…before you answer that question take into account that the former champion had twice as many fights as the young upstart and an even better KO ratio.

We saw the answer on Saturday night as Kermit Cintron took a tough unanimous decision over the never say die Alfredo Angulo. For Cintron this was his chance to get back some respect he may felt he had lost when he was KO’d by Margarito twice and then fought 154 champ Sergio Martinez to a draw.

With the victory Cintron gets a chance to redeem himself against Martinez and with the loss Alfredo Angulo can chalk this one up to experience and come back with a vengeance in his next battle…Angulo will be just fine and won’t let this stumble fully derail him.

Box Office “Goat” Floyd Gets Some Attention

My blog from last week raised a few eyebrows and many felt the need to chime in on my speculation that Mayweather vs. Marquez PPV could be destined for failure based on the low ticket sales. Most readers were in agreement with me but there were plenty who took up for Floyd as well…that’s a good thing. I certainly don’t want a bunch of lemmings regurgitating my babel and sucking up to everything I say or do. That would make life pretty dull.

With that said a quick check of the ticket sales for the fight on the Ticketmaster website tell me that if you and 6 to ten of your buddies want to make a purchase in the 300 dollar seats all the way up to the 1000 dollar ringsiders all you have to do is place a call…..there are still plenty-o-tickets.

Interest in the July Number One/Numero Uno card has yet to generate.

Don’t be surprised if you see this guy outside the MGM on fight night.