Billy’s Boxing Blog

Photo-Chop: Bret “The Threat” Newton


 

Photo-Chop: Bret “The Threat” Newton

In my previous Blog I took a “little” dig at Max Kellerman for not having the cajones to answer Paulie Malignaggi’s seemingly simple question about how HBO scored the fight.“Slapsie” Maxie parried that shot as well as all the blows Paulie deflected on Saturday night from Juan Diaz and merely stated, “Harold had it 7-5.”Max would not confirm that score was in Paulie’s favor until he was pressed, and even then Max went Pontius Pilate and washed his hands of the score.That was minor compared to what Kellerman also said on HBO. Check this almost incomprehensible diatribe out:

Going into this NABO/WBO Jr. Welterweight title fight with Juan Diaz, Paulie Malignaggi knew that the deck was heavily stacked against him, yet he chose to take the fight against all odds.

What odds you ask?

Well if you don’t already know, allow me to break it down for you.

The fight took place in Diaz’s hometown of Houston,Texas.

The fight was promoted by Diaz’s promoter Golden Boy. Not that I am claiming anything seedy, although Paulie did question out loud the appointment of Raul Caiz as one of the judges because Caiz hails from the same hometown as Golden Boy.

Speaking of judges the other two were from…you guessed it…deep in the heart of Texas.

The referee of choice…Laurence Cole, who it has been *reported happens to be the son of Dick Cole, the boxing director for the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. It was also *reported that The Coles also sell insurance to promoters doing business in the Lone Star state, a business practice long considered by many as a conflict of interest.

And oh yeah….the fight was for the Jr. Welterweight belt which the last time I checked usually allows a fighter to top out at 140 pounds but Paulie was forced to sign a contract to come in at no more than 138.5 pounds. Another bone thrown clearly in the direction of Diaz who normally fights at no more than 135 pounds.

Now as if that wasn’t enough the ring for this fight might as well have been a phone booth. Again more deck stacking as this small ring would inhibit the moblie Mallignaggi from moving the way he likes and help the slower footed Diaz who does his best work in close quarters.

You had to feel for Paulie when the ring introductions were being made as Oscar De La Hoya, Bernard Hopkins and Shane Mosley all stood alongside Diaz as he was announced to a house full of his peeps.

Unfazed, Maligaggi came out in round one and set the stage for the battle by peppering Diaz with jabs and keeping him at bay with some pretty nice footwork. In the next round Diaz closed the gap a bit and landed shots of his own but in the next round we saw a rapid fire pace with Paulie leading and landing at a slightly higher rate.

The fight went in that fashion for the remainder of the night. Both fighters were cut above the eyes, but it was Diaz who showed the ill effects as blood covered his face for most of the latter rounds.

And yes, it was a close fight but it was Paulie who landed the most punches, NO ONE CAN ARGUE THAT!

Yet, when the fight was over and the scores were read it was a unanimous decision GIVEN to Juan Diaz, and really the scores were not even close. Judge Gale Van Hoy had it 118-110! Caiz 115-113 and David Sutherland 116-112.

118-110? 116-112? Are you kidding me?

Even HBO leaned heavily to the side of Diaz and when Paulie asked Kellerman after the fight how they scored it, Max would only say, ” We had it 7 rounds to 5.” To which Paulie retorted, “You had it for me…right?” It was only then that Max would say HBO had Paulie winning. What’s wrong Max? Afraid to go against the grain? Congratulations! You get an A+ in Jim Lampley Journalism 101, also known as How to Be Shills and Not Be Afraid or Ahamed To Admit It.

What really sucks is the fact that this was a pretty darn good fight but because of all the B.S. that went on before during and after, this fight will always have a taint. A foul smelly taint!

Meanwhile Diaz is already talking about a rematch with Juan Manuel Marquez (please?) and you can be damn sure Malignaggi will never see Diaz inside the ropes again.

As for Paulie, he now has to pick up the pieces. After dumping No-Buddy McGirt as his “Trainer”, Paulie looks like he has regained his flash and although he is very frustrated, and rightly so, I expect to see him and Lou DiBella getting his career back on track and headed in the right direction.

In closing I have a quick question for the Promoters, Judges and Referee as well as The Texas State Athletic Commission…

How Do You Sleep?

* as reported by Braggingrightscorner.com

Check out www.Pound4Pound.com for more up to date boxing news.

One Step Forward
 
 As I was driving home from the Klitschko vs. Arreola press conference on Thursday I was beaming! Finally, after all the trash talk from haters and all their MMA is taking over rhetoric I was certain that boxing had finally got it right. I mean, what could possibly be wrong with the Heavyweight Champ of the World returning to the home of his 2 most historic battles taking on the young undefeated slugger who just happened to have been brought up only minutes down the freeway. Throw in the fact that the home town challenger just happens to be of Mexican heritage and no one with south of the border roots has ever claimed the heavyweight title, and what you have here is very possibly boxing history in the making.
 
 There is nothing wrong with that.
 
 Oh sure, Dan Goossen got up on the podium and proceeded with some “Dog and Pony Show” list of guys Klitschko has defeated and then told you about other guys who beat that foe quicker in some ill conceived strategy to belittle Vitali, but most snickered at that because this fight doesn’t need any lame comparisons. Had the other side followed suit they could have pointed to one Travis Walker who was steam rolled by Manuel Quezada in one round while it took Arreola 3 rounds to stop Walker, and oh yeah, Walker dropped Arreola and had him in a serious world of hurt . With a packed house of media at Staples on Thursday, it’s a lock that this fight is going to garner some major league interest. Most experts see Klitschko breezing by in this one but not one of them will tell you that Chris doesn’t have the proverbial punchers chance.
 
 Again…There is nothing wrong with that.
 
 Two Steps Back
 
 The Staple Center Security guards and Goossen had barely dropped their Red Blazers off at the Dry Cleaners the next day before boxing somehow managed to take two giant steps backwards.
 
 That’s right sports fans, no more than 24 hours later in Las Vegas, WBA Super Flyweight Nonito Donaire hit the scales on the mark at 115 pound and was set to defend against Rafael Concepcion. The problem was Concepcion hit the scales at darn near 120 and the fight for the title was turned into a almost meaningless charade that would proceed regardless of the weight discrepancy.
 
 Do you think Bob Arum has seen enough overweight fighters ruin his cards yet?
 
 That same night we had a hodgepodge of Vivian Harris getting head butted and writhing around until a No Contest was declared and then another head butt fight that helped Brian Minto win a useless Technical Decision.
 
 As if that wasn’t bad enough we had Saturday to go and it didn’t get any better.
 
 First you have the other Concepcion, Bernabe that is, who was in a close battle with WBO Featherweight Champ Steve Luevano and the fight could have gone either way. The one way nobody saw it going was win via DQ but that’s what went down, and so did Luevano who was cold cocked by Bernabe after the bell to end round seven rang. Give Luevano the win by DQ.
 
 And then there was “Crook” City.
 
 Can anyone on the planet tell me why Roy Jones Jr. is getting any attention at all? He is picking on has beens and then parades around in the ring paying less attention to the bum in the ring, this time it was Jeff Lacy, and more time talking to his future opponent and the fans.
 
 Roy, no one with one ounce of boxing knowledge is buying into this act and you are tarnishing your legend way beyond the point of no return.
 
 Saturday night also played host to Strikeforce on Showtime and in all honesty, this was the card that I has penciled in as can’t miss TV.
 
 No, I am not an MMA fan by any stretch, but with Gina Carano taking on that Cyborg broad and all the hype surrounding the battle, I made sure to tune in.
 
 Truthfully, I have to say the battle of those two woman wasn’t that bad. I thought Gina was going to get destroyed right away but she made a pretty good go of it before Cyborg ultimately did destroy her by the end of round one.
 
 Even more truthfully, after trying to watch the entire card I can say I am not an MMA fan and probably will never will be. Yeah, Yeah, I know there is an art to it and no doubt those guys and gals would toss me to the ground and snap my vertebrae before I knew what hit me, but to me, no matter how hard I tried, it looked like the fights after school in 7th grade to me. Two ”hard guys” rolling around on the ground for a few minutes until one got pummeled beyond repair.
 
 Yawn.
 
 Been there done that!
 
 The moral of the story is simple. Boxing proved that it can have its shining moments. Klitschko vs. Arreola is exactly the shot in the arm the sport most assuredly needed. There is no reason why the manly art of self defense should be kicked to the curb. Not for some Johnny come lately wrestling hybrid. And if we can somehow stop promoting and supporting washed up fighters whose best days have long gone by, I believe the sport can live on for decades and decades to come.

Photo: Bret “The Threat” Newton

Who would have thunk it?

After a summer of Heavyweight disappointment there is relief just around the bend as Vitali Klitschko and Chris Arreola held a “little” press conference Thursday at The Staples Center to announce their September 26th appointment at the same venue.

Truth be told, it was a packed house of Media in the Staples Center concession area and if this is a precursor to what to expect that night my suggestion is to pick up tickets as soon as they go on sale this weekend. And oh by the way, ticket prices start at $500….and that’s the top dollar seats. Tickets get as low as $25 and well over 50% of the house will be priced around 100 bux. Fans who cant make it to the arena don’t have to worry about what the PPV will cost because this one is on regular HBO World Championship Boxing.
Talk about a stimulus package.

And feel free to stay away from any cash for clunkers jokes, Vitali is more than worthy of the WBC Belt he wears and Arreola may get his fair share of Fat jokes, but come fight night you can expect him to be ready for war.

It’s going to be a lot of fun and you can thank both K2 Promotions and Goossen Tutor Promotions for hammering this one out in quick fashion. After David Haye left everyone swinging in the breeze it didn’t seem possible to get any type of Heavyweight battle done, but with the help of HBO and some creative bargaining we have a battle of the big boys that should be exactly what the Doctor has ordered.  

I had to laugh when the first topic of the Q & A was that picture of Arreola that somehow has been circulated around the internet. You gotta give it to Chris for not getting upset about the candid shot and his willingness to chuckle along with everyone else.

Who posted that pic anyway’s?

And oh by the way, there was no Photoshop applied to that picture.

The WBC Heavyweight Championship battle between Champ Vitali Klitschko and Challenger Cristobal Arreola is very close to becoming reality, but according to sources close to Pound4Pound it’s not quite done yet. Oh sure, everyone has announced the HBO televised September 26th Staple Center bout is as good as done, but don’t stick a fork in it just yet.

Apparently a few more Benjamin’s on Goossen’s fork will get the job done, but until then the battle of big men is not quite “official”.

Speaking of HBO…it also appears we are very very close to a Middleweight match up between WBC 160 pound Champion Kelly Pavlik vs. WBO 154 Champ Paul Williams. The bout is tentatively set for October 3rd and is likely to end up in Atlantic City.

That will end all the chatter about Bob Arum and Al Haymon not being able to negotiate. It will also be one less excuse Floyd Mayweather Jr. will have in his Rolodex when he is hunting for reasons not to fight Pacquiao.

Speaking of Floyd Jr….now that Uncle Roger has done it again, got incarcerated that is, who is going to get Floyd Jr. ready for Marquez? Floyd Sr.? After seeing what Sr. did to Hatton it may not be a bad idea to put some money down on Marquez before the bookies figure it out, assuming they already haven’t.

Okay, quick quiz:

Which fight do you think HBO is willing to invest more money in?

a. The Heavyweight Championship of The World featuring the European Champion vs. the undefeated American fighting for the title on the challengers home turf. 

b. The Middleweight Championship of the World featuring an exposed and in dire need of a convincing test Champion against a fighter who can fight from 147 to 160 at the blink of an eye and has been waxing opponents just as fast? 

Think you know? 

I’ll bet you’re wrong!

Check out more boxing news at www.Pound4Pound.com  

It all started pretty innocently on Thursday night here in Los Angeles. Another Golden Boy card at Club Nokia was meant to highlight 3 of Oscar’s newest prospects. But things didn’t quite go as planned.

First a pair of Behemoths got into the small ring and their combined weight alone was enough to literally buckle the turnbuckles and with one loud crack the ring post snapped and the night almost came to a premature end.

In hindsight the formerly undefeated Charles Huerta must be wishing the Golden Boy Brass had not rolled up their sleeves and help put the ring back together again that night. With his first round blowout at the hands of Derrick Wilson, Huerta has just dropped down a notch or two in the ever coveted, “Who Is The Next Golden Boy” contest.

Just one night later and a little farther South in California at The Pechanga Resort and Casino another upset was in the making. This one was also a televised Main Event. I guess if you gotta lose you might as well do it for all the World to see…right.?  

Well everyone saw a pretty good fight but they also saw favorite Martin Quintero get stunned and hurt by a do or die fighter by the name of Tyrone Harris. After a fine display of grit and punching power by both men Harris put the finishing touches on Quintero who was stopped in the eighth round of a pretty entertaining battle.

On Saturday night the Champion and favorite Timothy Bradley was not upset, but everyone who witnessed the fight should be. We know Nate Campbell is.

An unintentional but blatant head butt occurred in round 3 and the fight was stopped soon thereafter. The referee did not see it as a butt and Bradley was declared the TKO winner.

Anyone who saw the fight knows Nate Campbell got jogged. He should not have this TKO on his record. Hopefully the California Commission will see fit to overturn the decision and perhaps we can try this one again….PERHAPS.

I didn’t hear any strong commitments about a rematch from either Bradley or his promoter in the television interview.

It also didn’t help matters that the post fight press conference was unceremoniously canceled. I know we in the media had a ton of good questions.

I just feel like no one had any real good answers.

Check out more boxing news at www.Pound4Pound.com  

Pound4Pound.com underwent a transformation over the past month and the main page has been fully updated with the new layout, along with the rest of the site. Please share your thoughts and suggestions on the new look by commenting below.