Saturday Notes: Chris John a "super champ" for missing fight

by Scott Christ on Jun 27, 2009 8:27 AM EDT

Omar Narvaez made his record 16th defense of the WBO flyweight title last night in Argentina. (via d.yimg.com)

WBA featherweight titlist Chris John is going to be elevated to the status of "super champion" in a ceremony at the Staples Center that will feature Golden Boy promoter Oscar de la Hoya, odd timing considering John pulled out of tonight's card with an illness. Super prospect Yuriorkis Gamboa, who holds the interim title (which wasn't necessary, but hey, it's boxing), will now become "full champion," so that perhaps the WBA can sanction a few more interim title fights. Let's all take money! John's canceled rematch with Rocky Juarez is being talked about for the fall. Hey, put it on the Mayweather-Marquez show. Or more likely, don't.
Danny Jacobs easily routed George Walton in the main event of Friday Night Fights last night when Walton essentially quit in the middle of the eighth round. It was a phenomenal performance from Jacobs, who landed 286 punches (mostly power shots, too) in less than eight full rounds. Walton was knocked down earlier, but it was more of a shove than a good shot.
Last night in Canada, former 122-pound titleholder Steve Molitor survived a test from Heriberto Ruiz, escaping with a split decision (116-112, 116-112, 112-116). Molitor was cut and struggled mightily with the veteran in his first fight since being completely dominated by Celestino Caballero, which was his first loss. But it's not any great shame, either; Ruiz is a good fighter, better than his 41-8-2 record, and frankly Molitor probably isn't as good as his 29-1 mark.
In Buenos Aires, WBO flyweight titleholder Omar Narvaez made his record 16th defense of the title with a dominant win over Omar Soto. The fight was stopped in the 11th after Soto was knocked down, though he did beat the count. With Nonito Donaire flying the coop to 115 pounds, Narvez has as good an argument as anyone for being the world's best 112-pound fighter right now.
Former strawweight titleholder Florante Condes took what is being reported as a hell of a beating from South African Nkosinathi Joyi in an IBF 105-pound eliminator in East London, losing on unanimous decision scores of 120-107 (twice) and 119-108.
If anyone's around Anderson, Indiana, Stevie Forbes will be at a local show tonight, and there were only about 100 tickets left as of this article's publishing. Forbes isn't competing, but he's one of the sport's truly good guys. Also in attendance will be Bob Sanders and Gary Brackett of the Indianapolis Colts.
Jesus Chavez did an interview with Austin360, saying he's retired but considering coming back. Chavez last fought this April when he was mauled by Michael Katsidis. Again: Do boxers actually know what retirement is? That's not a "boxers sure do come out of retirement a lot, huh?" joke, I legitimately wonder if in boxing "retirement" just means something entirely different. Is it like when a man retires from a specific fight? RTD-8 and the like? And they just come back next time? Anyway, it's a good article, and I remain a Chavez fan.
The U.S. Senate is really trying to get President Barack Obama to pardon Jack Johnson, who you likely know went to prison almost 100 years ago because he had an affair with a white woman and violated the Mann Act. As nice as I think it would be to have a Johnson pardon on the record books officially and all that, just do it and get it over with. The world has more pressing matters than this. And that's about as large a glimpse as you'll ever get into anything remotely close to my feelings on politics.
If you missed the stunning turn of events, Evander Holyfield is again in danger of losing his ridiculously lavish Georgia mansion. He has defaulted on a $10,000,000 loan. He received $600,000 officially for his December fight with Nikolai Valuev, which doesn't account for his manager, promoter, entire corner team, etc.
BJ Flores noted on FNF last night that he will be in, erm, action on the August 15 Jones-Lacy PPV. Try to contain your excitement, everyone.
HBO currently has a poll up asking what the deepest division in boxing is, and they include both featherweight and middleweight, which aren't even close. Missing is super middleweight, probably the best division in the sport right now, but since HBO features none of those fighters, it doesn't exist. Thanks to HBO's ridiculous propaganda, welterweight is winning with a robust 76% of the vote.

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The WBA are a joke. What’s the point in having “super”, “regular” and interim champions? I know they earn more sanctioning fees but they must not care one bit about the sport as a whole. They still have 3 122lb champs, Dunne the regular, Caballero the super, and Kratingdaenggym the interim. It’s crazy

" Man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but not defeated "
- Hemingway

by Hellsing on Jun 27, 2009 10:39 AM EDT reply actions

The choices on that poll are ridiculous

Junior lightweight? Really??

I really really want to get my hands on some tape of Joyi. Everything I’ve read about him makes it sound like he’s just phenomenal. Nobody’s ever come close to completely dominating Condes before, and he’s fought as tough of comp as anyone in the little weights.

Bad Left Hook - The SB Nation boxing blog
"Baseball is played on the field, not on a calculator."

by Brickhaus on Jun 27, 2009 10:40 AM EDT reply actions

Also, another one for the comments

I don’t want to make a story on this, because I don’t have a reputable source on this yet, but there are rumblings that Andriy Kotelnik has pulled out of his fight with Amir Khan and is to be replaced by John Murray.

Bad Left Hook - The SB Nation boxing blog
"Baseball is played on the field, not on a calculator."

by Brickhaus on Jun 27, 2009 10:43 AM EDT reply actions