Enjoyable few rounds but I felt Cox could’ve beaten the count easily if he wanted to.
The RedCafe Boxing Thread
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Groves-Eubank will be a cracker. Not sure who to pick but probably siding with Groves for now. Both have looked better than Smith did in the tournament thus far but I still fancy Smith to take the whole thing.
Pulev is injured and it now seems like the Joshua fight is off.
Nightmare. If indeed it's off massive shame for Joshua (unless he can get a replacement) and for Pulev who won't see that type of money again and probably loses his #1 ranking.
I wonder if Whyte is willing to step in on 12 days notice.
Probably would be but not sure Hearn would go for that. I can't think of who else would come in but also can't see them scrapping the event entirely.
They could just delay it by a month, surely?
Carlos Takam confirmed as the replacement.
Shame. Joshua will beat Takham comfortably. Lost to Parker last year.
I really hope that after this match, AJ will try to unite the divisions. Beat Parker in a few months, and then a match with Wilder to get all the belts. And then hopefully, a supermatch with Fury for the Ring title.
I like him a lot and think that he can do it, but he is far from an unbeatable fighter. Shame that there aren't many good heavyweights nowadays.
I like him a lot and think that he can do it, but he is far from an unbeatable fighter. Shame that there aren't many good heavyweights nowadays.
Honestly I think Takam while being a lesser opponent makes for the more intriguing fight. Way too short notice for him to be ready for this though, even if he was on standby.
Fury is being stripped of the Ring title they have confirmed.
If I am Joshua I want Wilder asap. I think Wilder is a loss waiting to happen and it's a great opportunity to be the one that takes it along with his WBC title.
He still is their champion: https://www.ringtv.com/ratings/?weightclass=272
I think beating Parker is much easier than Wilder, but obviously, Wilder match will generate more money. He should really fight them though, after this nonsense fight.
He is - for now. But as of last week they have said if he doesn't have a fight scheduled in November he will be stripped since it's 24 months since his last bout. He will be stripped on November 28th.
He has been talking that he is planning to return though. A fight with Parker would be a good fight for him. A good opportunity to get a title and to keep his Ring title.
Btw, anyone else find interesting that there are only two champions who hold 3 titles (GGG and Crawford) not counting the Ring one (which for some weird - or better say, political - reasons have Canelo as their middleweight champion)?
It's difficult nowadays to hold two or more belts for the following reasons : -
Too many promoters that won't work together. Top Rank, Golden Boy and Al Haymon basically don't do business together. You've also got so much cherry picking now and side stepping of certain fighters meaning a fighter will change his division to not fight a guy and he'll get a title shot if his promoter can deliver. With how shit the organizations are it's easy to make them bend. That can force unnecessary stripping of titles also.
Crawford has already been stripped of the IBF and is moving up so he's back to 0. GGG is a rare breed of a fighter since he's set out on a mission to unify middleweight, take on all comers and has a promoter that's easy to work with. Weight hopping and cherry picking titles isn't my style because like I said it's a way to get out of certain matches and opponents but it also creates this myth that if your a 2-3 division "champion" by just winning a title gifted to you you get more respect than a guy dominating a division from ill-informed fans. Think Broner, who's a 4 division title holder - first title was a vacant title against a bang average opponent, second one was legit but didn't attempt to unify and then just moved up, third one was a cherry pick of the weakest title holder and his 4th was a joke vacant title against another chump. He just collected easy title created by the promoter and moved along. Give me GGG style of sticking to a division and taking down the champs one by one. Crawford did the same.
Canelo beat the man (Cotto) who beat the man (Martinez) so he is Lineal
I'd be surprised if Fury returned to fight any top fighter except Joshua. The guy is done really so I'd be surprised if that fight happened but it's a massive pay day so if he fights anyone it's him. I've moved on from the Fury stuff really, wish him well with his personal problems and everything like that but I don't think he fights again especially not at the level he was.
The fight didn't even happen at 160 though, and GGG already had 3 out of 4 belts, which IMO should count more than beating the man (at catchweight) who beat the man.
Being Lineal and beating ‘the man’ usually counts for the most. If Golovkin could beat Canelo, he’d be Lineal, but he couldn’t.
He kind of did though. Shitty judging aside, GGG won.
The Canelo winning the Ring belt is a strange one and it's sort of the reason I don't really pay attention to lineage and all that. Martinez was already breaking down and was avoiding GGG like the plague. He even got what I considered a hometown decision over Martin Murray before Cotto killed him at catch weight. Catch weights have historically always been non-title fights* and rightly so -if you can't fight at the limit you don't deserve the title. Canelo had never even fought at the weight class until the GGG fight.
* Catch-weight fights in title fights that I can think of - Sugar Ray Leonard-Donny Lalonde (a joke for two titles in two divisions), Bernard Hopkins-Oscar De La Hoya (157), Manny Pacquaio-Miguel Cotto (145 that was Freddie Roach idea and really unnecessary), Floyd Mayweather-Canelo (152 basically rendered the fight inconsequential since Canelo was already killing himself making 154 and even failed to make 154 for his next bout).
Whilst I'm not disputing the opinion that GGG won the facts remain he didn't actually win...so he didn't kind of win. He drew.
I know it. Just that I find it a bit weird because:
a) The fight didn't even happen in 160lb. Essentially, the Ring champion at 160lb, had never fought at 160lb.
b) Canelo beat Cotto, who beat Martinez. At that time, Martinez had one belt, while GGG had three belts. Canelo gets Cotto's belt and then vacates it, but still holds Ring title.
c) GGG is actually Ring's best p4p and has three belts, but not Ring's belt.
Regardless, GGG really should have the next two fights against Canelo and Saunders. If he wins both of them, I think that he will be the first boxer to have all four belts, in addition to Ring's title and be their top p4p boxer. Which should be more than enough to make him fighter of the decade (though I think he would be by far, the least inspiring fighter of the decade ever).
Actually when Cotto beat Martinez, GGG had just one belt (WBA). He picked up the IBF belt one month before Cabelo-Cotto and Canelo dropped the WBC belt rather than fight him about 3 months later. I do agree he was the best Middleweight in the World even back in 2013.
Terrence Crawford just accomplished the bolded bit. He won all four titles plus the Ring title (at junior welter). He was the third man to achieve that accolade after Bernard Hopkins and Jermain Taylor (who "beat" Hopkins to win the titles). It was only really possible to do from 2004 onward because the WBC had a silly rule that you can't own their title and the WBO so essentially chose one or the other. Only the power of Oscar De La Hoya and his relationship with both the WBO and WBC brought them together (for the Hopkins fight).
He is not Ring's top p4p though.
Ah, well in that case Hopkins was the last to own that accolade in 2004. There isn't a clear pound for pound right now IMO. Hasn't been for a few years (I never subscribed to Andre Ward being one of the best), but I'd say Crawford is probably closer to earning it than GGG. All subjective I guess. Ring and ESPN side with GGG, BWAA sides with Crawford, the eye test perhaps says Lomachenko. That's a hell of a top 3 and can have any combination of 1-2-3 depending on what you look for - my criteria is overall skills, recent form, resume and how their future looks usually in that order.
Yeah, I would have those three as my top 3 p4p (in that order), with Rigondeaux becoming the new top p4p if he manages to defeat Lomachenko (highly unlikely IMO).
I also don't buy Ward being top p4p for the last year or so. He robbed Kovalev in the first fight, and probably should have been disqualified in the second one. Roman Gonzales was great, but I am not the biggest fan of very low weight boxers.
Mayweather is the last true p4p king IMO.
Really? Why not? I think the sub-bantam's have been producing some of the most consistently memorable fights of recent times - Gonzalez, Estrada (one of my favorite fighters), Cuadras, Sor Runvisai, Inoue, Viloria, Segura etc; some of the best action of recent times. Throw Yafai in the mix and the upcoming Estrada-Rungvisai match on February 24th. Great action. Bantamweight (118) is one of my favorite divisions of all-time from a historical perspective.
Regarding Ward - I agree. He lost easily in the first Kovalev fight and the 2nd should have been a DQ or a NC. He didn't win that fight - he should have been down 2-3 points and he did hurt Kovalev and rather than go for the legit win he took advantage of a biased ref and deliberately went low as he has made a career of. I never really gave him credit for the Kessler win in 2009 either as he landed way too many deliberate headbutts for my taste. All of his fights were marred by illegal tactics and way too much clinching. If he was a foreign fighter from say Europe or Mexico he'd have had an average career IMO.
Very good match. Lemieux has serious power, Saunders the more skilled boxer.
feck. I was hoping for Saunders vs GGG in December.
Excellent fight. I'll back Saunders in this one, but it's a pick em.
Cruiserweight tournament final lands in Saudi-Arabia
The semifinals are due to take place in the second half of January at locations to be determined. World titleholders Oleksandr Usyk (13-0, 11 KOs), 30, of Ukraine, and Mairis Briedis (23-0, 18 KOs), 32, of Latvia, are due to meet in a title unification bout in one semifinal.
The other semifinal will match titleholder "The KO Doctor" Yunier Dorticos (22-0, 210 KOs), 31, a Cuban defector based in Miami, against the winner of the fight between titleholder Murat Gassiev (24-0, 17 KOs), 24, of Russia, and former titlist Krzysztof Wlodarczyk (53-3-1, 37 KOs), 36, of Poland, who meet in the last quarterfinal bout on Saturday at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.
Well deserved nickname.
What an amazing tournament. Four undefeated titleholders unifying their belts and the never-ending boxing is dying moaners from the US networks are nowhere to be found, but wait till McGregor fights Horn. They´ll be all over this fight, cause it´s exactly what boxing needs.
The semifinals are due to take place in the second half of January at locations to be determined. World titleholders Oleksandr Usyk (13-0, 11 KOs), 30, of Ukraine, and Mairis Briedis (23-0, 18 KOs), 32, of Latvia, are due to meet in a title unification bout in one semifinal.
The other semifinal will match titleholder "The KO Doctor" Yunier Dorticos (22-0, 210 KOs), 31, a Cuban defector based in Miami, against the winner of the fight between titleholder Murat Gassiev (24-0, 17 KOs), 24, of Russia, and former titlist Krzysztof Wlodarczyk (53-3-1, 37 KOs), 36, of Poland, who meet in the last quarterfinal bout on Saturday at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.
Well deserved nickname.
What an amazing tournament. Four undefeated titleholders unifying their belts and the never-ending boxing is dying moaners from the US networks are nowhere to be found, but wait till McGregor fights Horn. They´ll be all over this fight, cause it´s exactly what boxing needs.
^^^ I don't know any of those boxers, but it would be good to see an undisputed champion in a boxing category. Who is the last to have done that in cruiseweight? I think that Holyfield united all the belts, before he jumped in heavuweight division and then did the same there.
Usyk is a great fighter. It's been a long time since I've seen a fighter above light heavyweight that is as good with his movement and feet as him. No surprise he grew up with Lomachenko and was trained by his dad. I think it will be Usyk vs. Gassiev and Usyk will be comfortably favored. Quite a lot in the line in that final 4 world title belts, the Ring belt, the WBSS trophy and big prize money and probably fighter of the year (since the winner will have won two unifications).
Holyfield and I think Usyk will prove to be the best since Holyfield in that division.
Was excellent at a cruiserweight and obviously a massive puncher but not nearly as good as Usyk technically and athletically.David Haye?
Usyk is a right beast but unlike most Eastern Europeans around that weight and at heavyweight, he can move as well. Very skilled boxer, he should win this tournament despite the others being very good boxers. Durticos KO over that fella who had a very good KO ratio too was a great punch, and I think he will get through to the final.
Dorticos vs. Gassiev will be a great match provided Gassiev wins this weekend (he will).