No division in boxing includes a more diverse bunch of high quality fighters than the super bantamweight division. It’s like a stew of sorts—or to be more refined, a bouillabaisse of mixed and spicy ingredients.
Toshiaki Nishioka, the current WBC super bantamweight champion, is one of the very best in the world. At 39-4-3, he has not lost since 2004. The 36-year old-Japanese fighter has won 17 bouts in a row against the very best opposition available. Thai bomber, Veeraphol Sahaprom (66-4-2), may have had his number as he went 2-0-2 against the streaking Nishioka—amazingly all in Japan—but that was then and this is now. Sahaprom, age 44, has not fought in almost two years.
In 2009, Nishioka stopped KO artist Jhonny Gonzales (51-7) in three rounds and he did it in Mexico no less. But Jhonny has not lost since as he has won 11 in a row all by KO and most coming early (seven were in two rounds or less). In 2011, he stopped the great Hozumi Hasegawa in four stanzas. Jhonny is the current WBC featherweight champion.
Meanwhile, former WBO bantamweight title holder Jorge "Travieso" Arce has gone nine straight without a loss, while WBA champion Guillermo "The Jackal" Rigondeaux is undefeated at a deceptive 9-0—deceptive because he has the typical lengthy amateur career of a Cuban defector.
Arguably the best of them all, Nonito "The Filipino Flash" Donaire (28-1) recently beat tough and game Puerto Rican Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. (21-2-1) to capture the vacant WBO super bantamweight crown but "The Flash" did carry the power he had when he was a bantamweight. Throw in former WBA super bantamweight champion Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym (45-2) and add Panamanian Ricardo "Maestrito" Cordoba (38-3-2) to the tasty mix.
Finally, IBF super bantamweight champion South African Takalani Ndlovu (33-6), former champion and Canadian Steve Molitor (34-2), Panamanian Anselmo "Chemito" Moreno (32-1-1), and well traveled and still very dangerous Celestino "Pelenchin" Caballero (36-4) add to a composite for great matches.
Former two-time super-middleweight world champion Carl Froch has admitted deliberately prolonging fights so members of his family could benefit from betting.
Froch claims he could have stopped Ruben Groenewald earlier than he did during a Commonwealth title defence in 2005.
The Nottingham fighter said he allowed the South African to survive in the fourth round because members of his family had bet on him winning in the fifth.
Froch told the BBC: "I've done it more than one occasion and it was round five but that's not illegal.
http://www1.skysports.com/boxing/news/12183/7533287/Froch-prolonged-fights-
"Every time I fight, when good fighters fight, they often make predictions. It's all part of the media hype beforehand," he said. "On that particular occasion I made a prediction that I would win the fight in a certain round.
"But the comments made about prolonging the fight were a throwaway comment that, in hindsight, I shouldn't have said. I shouldn't have said that because I have never done that.
http://www1.skysports.com/boxing/news/12183/7534056/Froch-rues-throwaway-comment
So Froch has "done it on more than one occasion", but he has also "never done that".
His first statement sounds a whole lot more truthful than his second one, on first inspection.
Pakistani cricketers have been incarcerated for things that are contextually similar to this, albeit in a different sport.
I'd be interested to know where Froch stands legally now. It looks as though he's been told to make the second statement, to cover his own ass.
Another question is: even if this isn't illegal, how does this admission (for that's what it sounds like, regardless of his withdrawal) make him look morally and ethically? Fighters aren't saints, and it would be silly to assume them to be so, but the image of a fighter as an honest guy who gives his all is looking a little shaky after recent developments and news stories.
"He is from Great Britain, but he’s lacking appropriate manners."—Vitali Klitschko after being slapped
"The hardest thing I have ever done was not break his face."— Wladimir Klitschko after being spat upon
Dereck "Del Boy" Chisora has a reputation for pre-fight weirdness having once planted a wet and meaningful kiss on the lips of hardly fetching opponent Carl Baker in a weigh-in situation. His behavior almost sparked a mini riot. More importantly, it was a prelude of things to come.
Chisora was suspended for mistaking the ear of limited Paul Butlin for a McNugget during their 2009 contest at the York Hall in Bethnal Green. As a result, the hungry but financially-challenged Chisora missed out on his fight for a British title against Danny Williams. He was also fined £2,500.
For the more recent Vitali slap heard ‘round the world and perpetrated while wearing a Union Jack mask, the weirdness continued as WBC president José Sulaimán described the slap as "an absolute disgrace." Thanks, Jose, for your salient point.
Seemingly intent on finding a bottom to his behavior, Del Boy then spat a rather large amount of liquid (hopefully water) into Wladimir’s face before the Vitali fight. Just when you thought Chisora couldn’t reach any lower, he did.
Oh yes, the lowbrow behavior from this loose British cannon is all quite apart from his being convicted of beating up a girlfriend.
But the madness had legs. On Saturday night, after Vitali Klitschko’s 10th successful defense of his WBC heavyweight title ended, chaos erupted when Chisora brawled with fellow loon and former WBA champion David Haye during the post-fight news conference. Chisora made fun of Haye’s toe. The brawl was witnessed by the Klitschko brothers who stood at the dais in wonderment. Del Boy still faces a charge of simple assault but he is allowed to return to England for now," police spokesman Gottfried Schlicht told AP on Sunday. British Boxing Board of Control general secretary Robert Smith indicated the governing body would launch an investigation.
The Slap: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccBFTTYxyts
The Kiss: www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIp-NjaRUoY
The Bite: www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-3My1Lb0kA
The Spit: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1071492-klitschko-vs-chisora-video-watch-del-boy-spit-in-dr-ironfists-face
The Brawl: www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWQs8nMsZNg
I can’t find the butt, but it was a beauty. Del Boy launched a billy goat that would make Holyfield blink.
The pre/post fight scraps, slaps, and spits that we witnessed this weekend between Chisora, Klitschko, and Haye have produced a range of opinions about their value to the sport. Some say this is exactly the kind of excitement/stimulus package boxing needs. Others disagree, arguing that it hurts the sport.
These points have been articulated and debated quite thoroughly here on BLH. In the interest of organizing opinions into a snapshot view, what is your position on this issue?
Well, here we are again, barfing over another really egregious robbery. Maybe not quite Lara vs Peterson, but really close to it, I believe, and the third time Campillo has been robbed, of which one was too many. Dealing with Texas is likely hopeless, a tilting-at- windmills-behavior, but then again, when do they ever have to open e-mails suggesting they should do something about what went wrong? Might at least be a bracing experience for them, so here's that set of addresses:
Texas Combative Sports Program
PO Box 12157
Austin TX 78711
800 803 9202
and even better still
ATTN: DICKY COLE, Dick.cole@license.state.tx.us , 3936 Amherst, Dallas, TX 75225 (Home Address)
More likely to get some results is writing to the sanctioning body in charge, namely the IBF, which has a history of actually living up to its commitment on a number of past occasions; here, one more time, is their contact info:
International Boxing Federation
Office:
899 Mountain Ave., Suite 2C
Springfield, NJ 07081
Phone: 973-564-8046
Fax: 973-564-8751
Main Contacts:
Daryl J. Peoples, President
Lindsey E. Tucker, Championships Chairman
It can't hurt to write, and we have reason to believe that our two cents has made a difference in the past: LET'S GET IT ON
We live in an era where great expectorations have supplanted great expectations as the lead-in to a heavyweight championship fight. Dereck Chisora, the trash talking, bitch slapping challenger to Vitali Klitschko's WBC heavyweight crown augmented his arsenal this evening in Munich when he stepped into the ring and spat an unsavory stream of water into the face of Vitali's brother, Wladimir, before ring announcer Michael Buffer could assemble the throng to rumble.
It was the latest in a series of contrived and tedious pre-fight antics ginned up by fighters lacking the skill and gravitas to sell a fight on its own merits. That said, Chisora put up a game, albeit outgunned, effort against the 40-year-old Klitschko, who, despite fighting one-handed, dominated in the eyes of the judges (118-110, 118-110, and 119-111), scoring a unanimous decision that appeared closer than the scorecards indicated. Speculation abounded as to whether or not Klitschko had sustained an injury that rendered his jab M.I.A., a matter that was rendered clear as mud by Freddie Roach during the Epix webcast when he declared, "Definitely it might be."
That was as dramatic as it got. Chisora kept his end of the bargain by moving forward and pressing Klitschko throughout the fight, occasionally getting through, but his hands were not nearly as busy as his feet. The final stats showed Klitschko outhustling the challenger by over 250 punches, enabling him to methodically pile up the points as he parried and smothered most of Chisora's shots.
The real star of the show was the Epix webcast, which streamed very nice quality video to my tablet, allowing for spa-side viewing that guaranteed an enjoyable experience regardless of the quality of the bout. The commentating, which was done remotely, was, for the most part, serviceable and unobtrusive (a compliment), though it left the audience clueless about the results of the open scoring announced in the arena after the 8th round, which would have been interesting to hear . . . heinous as it is.
When all was said and done, Chisora, still deluded that anyone cared whether or not he fancied himself a tough guy, paraded around the ring like a bantam rooster, talking smack and calling out the Klitschkos until his promoter stepped in front of him and, speaking for those in attendance and the millions watching around the world, mercifully scolded, "Enough already!"
Last year, Britain's 3 best middleweights all fought for world titles, Matthew Macklin and Martin Murray fought for Felix Sturm's WBA Super version of the title and Darren Barker matched up against Sergio Martinez for the WBC Diamond and The Ring titles. While Darren Barker gave Martinez a good fight, he was outclassed by the Argentine Middleweight king. As for Macklin and Murray, both their outcomes can be debated, with them both putting on fight-winning performances only to see Sturm go home with his belt still around his waist.
So what I'm asking is whether the British middleweights do have the class to be world champions or whether they will forever be lingering in the gap between being to good for domestic and European glory but not quite there in terms of being top class, world level fighters?
So, Kevin Mitchell stepped back into the ring on Saturday, facing the somewhat formidable Felix Lora. Emphasis on somewhat here. Lora is by no means a fantastic boxer. A record 14 wins and 8 losses (coming in) doesn't exactly ooze success. Upon closer examination it becomes evident that Lara has fought no body of note at all. He's not a contender.
Thus I feel that given these circumstances, and given the fact the Mitchell failed to shine in the way that a world class fighter should against such an inferior opponent, that he in no way has the right to say “I’ll be a world champion in the summer, I promise you.”
I think Ricky Burns is a great fighter, he has no gaping weaknesses, he has fought at world class level for sometime now, he handled Katsidis well unlike Mitchell and has in my opinion, proven himself as a top level boxer.
Therefore, although i welcome Mitchell's comeback to the ring, I do not feel that he is nearly ready to compete at Burn's level, given his most recent performance. Give Mitchell at least 2 more fights before a stab at Burns and I'll reassess my position on the matter then.
This quote from Hopkins got me thinking - What fighters could compete in any era?
Certainly skill-wise, I believe Mayweather could have competed in any era, but to make it to 100 fights? To fight every few weeks? Never. Any fighter that can't stay in boxing shape 365 days of the year is also out of the mix. Fighters like ODLH would struggle to be stars in an era with 15 minute rounds. So who could compete? The Klitschkos? Hopkins? Mayweather? Pacquiao? Martinez? Ward? Etc.
I wish I could say i’m shocked that there are rumours of a Chavez jr. Margarito fight but unfortunately not. I know even if this fight doesn’t go ahead, there is no doubt that one of the governing bodies will magically manage to sanction another fight for Margarito, circumstances which will no doubt be shrouded in mystery. I’m not going to lie; I’m not a big Margarito fan and never have been. I have never seen any palpable talent emanating from him other than his in built Mexican ability to take a hell of a lot of punishment. The man is too tough for his own good. If only his skill set matched his hardiness. However, his last two brutal defeats to Pacquiao and Cotto reinforced the reality of the situation. The pictures from aftermath speak for themselves. The former destroyed his eye socket, the latter nailed the final bolt in the coffin that is Margarito’s career; at least the successful part of it. Anyone who now fights Margarito has a blue print for defeating him. He might as well have a giant target painted on his right eye.
Sure, he could radically change his fighting style and focus on his defense and really work on protecting that eye but we have to bear in mind again at who we’re talking about here. This isn’t a young fighter, nor a fighter who has ever been defined as master of defence, not even a defensive fighter full stop. Nor are we talking about a fighter who has been blessed with astounding speed or finesse. No, Margarito - the stalker, the pressure fighter, the brawler with not a shred of respect for his own safety, the over the hill 33 year old who’s slowly racking up defeats. Just a few descriptions which come to mind. It makes for entertaining fights but now I think it’s time to call it quits.
Margarito has already accomplished what most fighters only dream of, albeit under questionable circumstances but let’s not get into that. Sadly he’s also going to accomplish what many fighters also manage to achieve in fighting past his sell by date. Unfortunately, Margarito being the warrior that he is will no doubt let his willingness to take punishment cloud his judgement in making his next decision. And what’s even more unfortunate is that the governing bodies will no doubt let their financial desires cloud their better judgement and thus the demise of Marco Antonio Margarito will continue.
What are your thoughts on Margarito’s future? Is there any hope for the career of El Tornado de Tijuana?
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