Billy’s Boxing Blog

By William Trillo

While rocker Prince found a way to get through the technical snafu’s at Los Angeles’ Nokia Theatre on Saturday night the same could not be said for the main event on Friday night in the same venue as both Eddie Chambers and Sam Peter lumbered behind excess girth that made their battle darn near unwatchable, and no I am not talking about the poor sight lines in that venue, I already touched on that, and there is really no reason to beat a dead horse….much.  

While everyone was blasting Peter for coming in 12 pounds higher than he ever fought before, no one was taking into account that Fa(s)t Eddie Chambers was one pound shy of his all time high and easily 12 pounds north of his best fighting weight.

Well, if anyone was paying attention to that fatfest, and apparently no one was, just look at all the scores and reports, it was gravely apparent that both guys couldn’t put together a string of punches without sucking for precious gasps of air…or maybe they were hoping someone would toss a doughnut their way. Whatever the case may be….awful fight.

PERIOD!

Coming off this display alone hear me loud and clear:

Neither one of these guys deserve a sniff at a belt…not now…not ever.

But Right Down The Freeway…

Between the horrible main event and an undercard that was nothing more than an embarrassment of mismatches I left beautiful Downtown L.A. with a pretty foul taste in my mouth. Thank goodness that on my way home I got to stop into the All Star Boxing card at Montebello’s Quiet Cannon. What I found in there was a refreshing night of local fights that reminded why I love the sport of boxing so much. Young tough fighters in evenly matched bouts where every round was thrilling and every kid I watched was giving every ounce of talent,sweat and grit he had.

I had to stop and wonder why the California Commission will bust local promoters balls anytime they want to put on fights with guys who may not have similar records or talent, yet on the same night in the same town they will let the big time promoter put on mismatches of Titanic proportions and never blink an eye.

Doesn’t seem fair…does it?

What really isn’t fair is that Down Town high rollers where shelling out big bucks to see crapola when only a stones throw away fight fans got an up close and personal look at some real fights for a mere $50.

Chavez Jr. Calls Out

Duddy, Oscar & Manny

Photo By Ray Flores

Well actually I think it was his promoter Bob Arum who went from the ridiculous to the sublime here.

Thoughts:

Duddy…even match up that might actually be a decent scrap.

Oscar…hate to say it but I am worried that Jr. might beat Oscar and then we would never hear the end of it.

Manny…HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!  Please for the love of all that is good make this match now so Manny can lay Jr. to rest and we never have to hear his name uttered North of the Tijuana border again.

Mail Pouch

Tests Show Plaster Of Paris Ingredients
Photo-Chop: Bret “The Threat” Newton

Hey Will,
 
When I was watching the Margarito fight with Cotto I was blown away at how he beat the crap out of him. I had always liked Margarito and was a fan, even though I was picking Cotto to win. I just thought that Cotto had more boxing ability. With the win I became a bigger Margarito fan. Coming into the Shane Mosley fight I thought there was no way he would beat Margarito. I told a friend of mine that if Mosley beats Margarito they are going to have to test him for steroids again. Then watching the fight the situation of the whole handwraps came up. Since then more things came up with the the suspension and then his license is revoked. Now the test results are in. I must say I have lost all respect for Margarito and I believe like Luis Resto he should be banned from boxing for life. I know you are a Margarito supporter and are probably disappointed but this is a serious situation and I can’t believe that this has even happened. He must have done this before. I just wonder how long.

                                                                           Francisco

Disappointed does not begin to express how I feel about this entire situation. You are expressing pretty much the sentiment of everyone out there and it pains me to have to nod my head and say I can not disagree with you.

I am still holding out on completely dismissing Tony until I hear from him personally that he was unaware and that he is very very sorry for all the trouble this has caused. The first true act of contrition will be for Margarito to stay away from boxing until the commission gives him his license back. I believe that if he does fight in Mexico or anywhere else itwould be a huge slap in the face to all parties concerned.

With that said, none of this looks very good at all.

At 265 pounds Sam Peter is over 11 pounds heavier than he has ever been when he steps in the ring tonight and at 223 pounds Eddie Chambers has only tipped the scales by more than that one time. Excuse me if I get the impression that neither one of these guys took the fight very seriously. You got to love a weigh in picture where both fighters still got their shirts on. They say the camera adds 10 pounds so if the fighters look bigger than that on ESPN tonight don’t come crying to me.

Margarito Hand Wrap Results Are In

According to the Los Angeles Times the test results done on the hand wraps that were confiscated moments before his loss to Shane Mosley are in and if you are a “Tony” fan…it’s not good news.

Simply put the State Department of Justice says Margarito’s wraps contained plaster elements.

The Times went on to say, A Department of Justice senior criminalist who inspected the wrappings under stereomicroscope and X-ray flourescence spectrometer reported calcium and sulfur were discovered, noting the elements make plaster of Paris with the addition of oxygen. The report was dated March 19.

Pound4Pound has always been one of Margarito’s biggest supporters and the findings still leave this reporter speechless. At the same time I must say that the exposed tampering is a blatant violation and can by no means be tolerated or condoned.

Hopefully now that all the cards are on the table the suspended fighter and trainer will sit down with the media and tell us exactly what went on that night and who is truly responsible and if this is an isolated incident.

I know that’s a lot to ask and may even be extremely far fetched, but until someone comes completely clean this license revocation may last a lot longer than one year.

Thank goodness that ESPN Classic televised the WBC Heavyweight Title fight between Champion Vitali Klitschko and his Challenger Juan Gomez because the rest of the weekends televised bouts were simply dreadful and I have no plans on mentioning any of them.
 
How great was it to sit back early on a Saturday afternoon and watch a pretty decent battle of the big boys? How much better was it that it was on basic cable? I doubt many of us really thought Gomez had any chance at all to beat Vitali, but in defeat Gomez looked a lot better than most of the guys who have recently “challenged” either Klitschko. That’s Sam Peter, Tony Thompson, Hasim Rahman etc etc.
 
You gotta love them fights from Germany, it’s obvious that everyone in attendance is having a blast.
 
On the other hand whether it was PPV garbage from Florida or High Rollers in The Hollywood Hills the rest of the boxing weekend was deplorable and if you didn’t watch any of it, trust me, you are much better off.
 
The future landscape is looking a lot better and over the next few weeks we may get some pretty interesting matchups…we just need to get past this weekends upcoming South of The Border fare.

Photo-Chop: Bret “The Threat” Newton

Like any good thief after pulling off a heist, Amir Khan was brimming with confident quotes after his less than impressive 5th round technical decision over the cut, bloodied and over the hill Marco Antonio Barrera. “Today I proved everyone wrong,” Khan quipped after his victory.
 
Excuse me?
 
Would someone care to explain to me how Khan proved anyone wrong, because I must have missed something.
 
As I recall Khan was taking on a fighter who was years away from his best fighting days. In fact Barrera had just come off a fight with the 1 win and 6 loss Freddie Rojas. In like fashion that fight ended early because of a headbutt which opened up a wound on Barrera’s head and Marco was given the early nod. They still call him “The Baby Faced Assassin” but apparently Marco’s skin is as brittle as an old catchers mitt.
 
Craggly skin and eroding skills, Barrera still managed to last 5 rounds with Khan before the fight was conveniently brought to a halt. Had the fight been stopped earlier it would have went into the books as a No Decision but by waiting the hometown Brits secured Khan a victory via Technical Decision.

Nice attempt mates but the Con Job is bound to get exposed as soon as Amir’s chin gets a real test against the best at 135 pounds. 

Today I received a press release from one of boxing’s most diligent Publicists, Mario Serrano. In the defense of his client Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero, Serrano’s release was to speak about the cut Guerrero suffered on Saturday night and the fact that “The Ghost” is not a quitter. The release was complete with pictures of Guerrero’s visit to the Doctor and his pre plastic surgery cut. It was not pretty to look at.

Look, boxing is a brutal sport and it can get nasty both inside and outside the ring, everyone involved knows that. What took place on Saturday night was a shame. As I said earlier, I think Guerrero’s fight with Yordan was going to be the fight of the night. But the headbutt ensued and Robert chose not to fight on.

Those are the facts.

In all honesty I don’t know that many of us reading this article right now would have chose to fight on either, in fact I am guessing most of us would not have. Then again most of us did not choose prizefighting as our profession.

For whatever reason boxing fans and writers hold fighters to a different set of standards and whether it’s barbaric or not we want our heroes to fight on through the blood, cuts, contusions and bruises. That’s just the way it is…I did not make the rules. 

From Vitali Klitschko begging the referee to allow him to fight one more round against Lennox Lewis while his eye looked like it was ripped open by a chainsaw to Evander Holyfield fighting through Mike Tyson chomping off the tip of his ear, boxing fans have come to expect super human efforts when it comes to the men they watch inside the squared circle. 

It was no different on Saturday night and when Robert chose not to fight on the collective gasp of disappointment could be heard loud on clear from the HBO crew and that sentiment reverberates through the media as we speak.

I’ll tell you what no one is questioning and I want to make this perfectly clear…no one has questioned that Robert Guerrero is one of the nicest and most stand up young man in boxing today, that fact remains perfectly clear.

Robert has always been a stand up man with good Christian God fearing values and what he has been through with his wife is something we all must look back on with respect and admiration. Robert has proven to us all that he is a man in every sense of the word.

The decision he made in the ring on Saturday night was his decision and there will no doubt be questions until he climbs back in the ring again. It will be up to Robert and Robert himself to answer the questions. No amount of press releases or interviews can do that for him.

When Robert does step back into the ring we wish him all the best, but until that time the road will most likely be a bumpy one for him. Considering all he has been through I think ”The Ghost” should be able to handle it. 

As I was weeding through my daily press releases I came across one from Goossen Tutor Promotions that was somewhat out of the ordinary. The release stated that the Press conference/luncheon to announce the fight for WBC Continental Americas and NABF Heavyweight Champion Cristobal “The Nightmare” Arreola vs. Jameel McCline had been postponed until further notice.

My first thought was, “Hmm, I wonder what’s going on, I think I will give Team Goossen a call.” I placed several calls to Team Goossen but all the calls kicked over to voice mail.  

Immediately the Trillo Stinkometer signaled a mild alert and with each and every passing hour going by without a return phone call the Stinkometer’s needle got closer and closer to the Red Zone.

With the proverbial pressure rising I figured it was time to make a few inquisitive if not well placed phone calls. It was then that I got what I was looking for.

“Don’t believe what you may be hearing elsewhere,” said the voice on the line, “The negotiations between Wladimir Klitschko and David Haye are about to disintegrate!”

Bzzz! Bzzz! Bzzz! RED ALERT……Warning! Warning!

As usual my Stinkometer had again correctly picked up the foul stench of some Major League B.S.

Stay Tuned!

Photos By Ray Flores

There were huge expectations for Saturday night’s HBO broadcast but it was somewhat of a mixed bag when the night in San Jose was over. Max Kellerman closed the show by saying there were 3 bright prospects going into the nights show but only two of them truly shined when all was said and done. Max’s point was well taken.

In the Main event  undefeated Jr. Middleweight James Kirkland came out like gangbusters against his tough Columbian foe Joel Julio. From the opening round Kirkland was on top of Julio and was absolutely relentless. Before the first round was over Julio was cut over his right eye and things did not look good. Over the next few rounds Kirkland put on the same relentless pressure but had his moments of being careless and he was caught by Julio with some pretty sharp punches.

The finely conditioned Kirkland weathered the storm and by round 5 Julio’s eye was closing fast. It was around that time while blood was streaming down his face that Kellerman asked, “Do you think if Kirkland was cut over his eye that he would tell the ref he couldn’t see and have the fight stopped?” Co-host Bob Papa chuckled at the rhetorical question and said, no.” (Save that statement for future use). It was after the sixth round that the ref took a look at the well worn Joel Julio and decided he didn’t need to see any more.

Kirkland looked very good but he still was taking some unnecessary punches. When he gets back to the gym he needs to work on his defensive skills, or lack thereof.  Grade B

In the semi-main event the highly touted Jr. Welter Victor Ortiz went up against a very skilled and experienced Mike Arnaoutis. The first round was somewhat uneventful but the ensuing round was where Vicious Victor showed his power. A single right hand from Ortiz buckled Arnaoutis and the groggy fighter stumbled into the corner. Ortiz showed he knows how to close the show as he jumped on Arnaoutis and threw punches in bunches until a solid uppercut put his foe on queer street and the referee jumped in and stopped the onslaught at the 1:27 mark of 2. 

 Ortiz has a Million dollar smile and he’s got some dang good skills as well. The 140 pound class better take notice, Victor is on the rise.  Grade A

The opening fight of the triple header saw Super Featherweight Robert Guerrero going up against the an unknown and undefeated Indonesian fighter by the name of Daud Yordan. Although I had never seen Yordan I knew that Indonesia has some pretty decent fighters, for instance there is Chris John who we saw last week. I am also aware that fighters from Indonesia have been accused of questionable tactics (read dirty).

Whatever the case may be it didn’t take long for Guererro to see he was in for a long hard night. Yordan forced “The Ghost” to work pretty hard in round one and in between being held and getting tagged a few times Guerrero may have done enough to squeak that round out on the scorecard.

Round 2 was more of the same as Yordan was forcing the action and doing a lot of jab-n-grab. That’s when a nasty clash of heads occurred and “The Ghost” came out with a wicked gash in his eyebrow. With blood dripping into his eye Guerrero looked at the referee and said, “I can’t see!” (review above). To that the ref brought the fight to a halt and asked the Doc to take a look. Guerrero again told of his vision problem and the bout was stopped and called a No Decision. Without so much as giving his cut man one shot at closing the cut Guerrero turned what may have been the best bout of the night into the most disappointing one. The HBO crew wondered aloud and mentioned that many fighters would trudge ahead and try to get to the 4th round so a decision could be rendered, especially if they thought they could win on the scorecards.

Guerrero chose to do otherwise.  Grade C

By William Trillo

It was only a week ago that Juan Manuel Marquez handily defeated Juan Diaz and then in his post fight interview promptly called out Floyd Mayweather Jr. It was from that point on subtle hints began being dropped that this fight would happen.

First it was Mayweather advisor Leonard Ellerbe saying “Marquez better be careful what he asks for.” That was followed up by Floyd Sr. who when asked about his son on a mid-week conference call said, “He’s trying to get a fight right now, as we speak. He’s gonna fight again.” Next it was Golden Boy’s Richard Schaefer who stated, “I think it’s a good fight for him (Mayweather Jr.) and a big challenge for Marquez.”

Then we got the kicker, a highly placed industry source placed a call to Pound4Pound on Friday night and told me, “Trillo, I got a scoop for you, Floyd Mayweather Jr. is in the gym and he is sparring as we speak!” When I asked who he was sparring with, the source said they didn’t know but with our long reaching bevy of reporters we got on the horn and got one of our ace photographers to get to the gym quickly and snap a pic of the action. We wanted to see who Floyd was bringing into the gym for sparring, maybe that would tip us off as to the direction he was going. Our photographer got the shot and this is something you won’t see anywhere else.Check out our exclusive Mayweather sparring photo:

First off I want to say I mean no disrespect to Juan Manuel Marquez whatsoever.

Marquez has more than proven himself as one of the best with his recent KO victories over both Juan Diaz & Joel Casamayor. But let’s be realistic, the thin framed Marquez started out as a Featherweight and anything past the 135 pound limit will be a huge task for him.

In the meantime we have Floyd Mayweather Jr. who has held a title at 154 pounds and is sure not to take that fight with Marquez any lower than 145 pounds.

The so called Pound4Pound King Mayweather has gone far and above the call of duty to duck anyone of value at the Welterweight limit or above and the list speaks for itself:

Shane Mosley

Antonio Margarito

Paul Williams

Miguel Cotto

I seriously doubt he had any plans of taking on Manny Paqcuiao any time soon either.

But you and I know as soon as Juan Manuel called out Floyd Jr. it was only minutes before Pretty Boy was calling his advisors saying “Make that fight now!”

It’s a good thing Ivan Calderon didn’t call out Mayweather first or…well…you know.

Look…2009 has started out as a very good year for boxing and the last thing we need is this Mayweather Jr. vs. Marquez fight shoved down our throats this September as the true Pound4Pound title in boxing…it’s not!

By the time that rumored bout takes place in September, Mayweather will be 3 months shy of having 2 years of inactivity in the ring, in my book he doesn’t qualify for Pound4Pound anything. And it’s not just my opinion talking here, I have already spoken to a number of my peers and they are all equally amused at the prospect of Floyd Jr. coming out of retirement to fight a lightweight.

If the promoters that be insist on putting on Mayweather vs. Marquez in September then so be it. The Mexican Holiday needs a good Hispanic fighter to rally around that month and right now there is none better than Juan Manuel Marquez, he is a true class act and one helluva fighter. Just don’t try to sell me that this is “The World Awaits” Part 2 and please don’t tell me this is set to be a Pay-Per-View event. Between the economy and Floyd’s inactivity this one should be a freebie. I think ESPN Classics and Fox Sports West 2 has open dates in September.

And for the record, if this fight does happen I will be silently rooting for Marquez like no other!

Maybe you already knew that!  

By William Trillo
Photo-Chop: Bret “The Threat” Newton

Nothing could have made Detroit resident Johnathon Banks happier than to be wearing the famous Kronk Gym Gold trunks when he entered the ring to give it a shot for the Cruiserweight title against Thomasz Adamek on Friday night.

Well, come to think of it, he may have been happier had Emanuel Steward, Banks trainer and founder of The Kronk Gymnasium was there to help him get through what turned out to be the toughest fight of his life. But alas, Steward had another commitment the following night with HBO as part of the broadcast team and the trainer gone commentator chose to spend his time in front of the microphone.

That’s right, while Banks was trying to figure out how to get past Adamek’s crushing body attack in New Jersey, Steward was probably relaxing in his room, maybe watching the fight after a “grueling” day of fighters meetings in Houston.

Never mind that Steward could have caught direct flight from Houston to Jersey and made the fight and then got back to Houston the next day in plenty of time for his commentator gig.

From what we understand the first time Banks knew his coach would not be in the ring to help him was Thursday after the weigh-in, apparently Steward told them as he was saying goodbye!

“That’s a fine how do you do!”

This was a disgrace. The kid, no matter how good Manny thought Banks is or was, and no matter if he had a chance to win or not, he deserved to have the trainer in his corner he has had since the amateur days on the biggest fight night of his life.

You have to wonder if given the same set of circumstances if Steward would have went “Invisible Man” on Wladimir Klitschko?

After another stellar weekend of boxing on both HBO & Showtime it’s time for all of you UFC & MMA honks who have been trying to say boxing is dead to pack your bags and get out of town on the next train to Palookaville.

Boxing may have had a lull for a while, and yes it was most certainly went on life support. That’s about the time the MMA cronies started shouting from the rooftops that they were the new kid in town. What the MMA guys were essentially doing was kicking a guy while he was down, that’s what they do best. But now boxing has been taken off life support and all indications point to them restaking their rightful claim as number one in the manly art of self defense.

After a great start in January when Shane Mosley and Antonio Margarito had the Los Angeles Staple Center filled to capacity while down the Freeway an MMA card was put on in front of disappointing numbers at Anaheim’s Honda Center, it’s been obvious to see that boxing is here to stay and UFC/MMA is a decent sideshow but not capable of taking over the center stage.

You can either watch Juan Manuel Marquez and Juan Diaz go “Mana a Mano” in all time classic war, or you can watch 2 guys in Speedos as they roll around on the ground and apply sweaty crotch locks to each others face all night………..I rest my case.

Speaking of Marquez and Diaz….DANG!

Was that Lightweight title fight well worth the wait or what?

That fight had everything we were hoping for and more. A young determined Diaz who just kept coming forward and the cagey veteran Marquez who although seemingly was getting beaten early was actually slipping and sliding his way through many of those Diaz punches until he figured “Baby Bull” out and then gored him with a series of uppercuts and hooks that stopped the Bull in his tracks. It was a thing of beauty to watch.

My hope is Marquez, who has solidified himself the best at 135 pounds,  will get his much needed rest and then get the winner of Hatton vs. Pacquiao. In my mind that would be the true Pound4Pound battle.

I don’t know about you but I’m sick of hearing Mayweather’s name even being brought up in that conversation anymore. Pretty Boy hasn’t been in the ring since 2007, he doesn’t deserve a sniff.

No one will ever confuse him for a Pound4Pound great but Cruiserweight champ Thomasz Adamek certainly has to be on the top of everyone’s granite chin list.

Holy Cow!

Did you see the punches that Banks was dropping on his jaw? How anyone can withstand that type of punishment is…well it ain’t human…that’s for sure.

And don’t count Adamek as a tough guy without much finesse, or at least I won’t. His switching up to some nice bodywork in the mid rounds was very impressive and that’s what took Banks out of his game and eventually left him sprawling into the ring post.

Oh, by the way, the undercards on both those FREE broadcasts on the HBO & Showtime were pretty darn good too. Boxing is on a roll and hopefully this early hot start in 2009 is a preview of good things to come.