Bad Left Hook: An SB Nation Community

Navigation: Jump to content areas:


Sports blogs for fans, by fans.
Around SBN: Follow the @sbnation NFL Twitter List

Tomato Cans: A Slow Week, Approaching a Big Weekend

Miguel Cotto and Joshua Clottey meet in a marquee welterweight title fight this Saturday at Madison Square Garden. (via www.boxingfanatics.com)

Miguel Cotto and Joshua Clottey meet in a marquee welterweight title fight this Saturday at Madison Square Garden. (via www.boxingfanatics.com)

Coming off of what has definitely been a pretty slow week for action but a fairly big week for heavyweight switcheroos, here are some thoughts bouncing around in my brain right now.

This weekend's Miguel Cotto-Joshua Clottey fight is the first truly marquee fight since Hatton-Pacquiao on May 2, and it feels like longer. After a May that failed to thrill anyone so far as American TV fights go (Dawson-Tarver II, Berto-Urango and Ward-Miranda were all one-sided and lacked drama), June was shaping up quite nicely before the death of Klitschko-Haye. Cotto-Clottey is now easily the month's biggest fight and its most interesting. It could be a really good, possibly even great fight -- but it could also turn into a bit of a stinker if Clottey has his way. I'm not slamming Clottey when I say that, but he's really not that exciting of a fighter and his best option will be using his defense to shut down Cotto. Neither has huge KO power and can be quite methodical. We'll have much more on the fight in the coming days, and round-by-round coverage on Saturday.

As far as a fight between Vitali Klitschko and David Haye goes, I'm totally on board. Haye would have to avoid the big shots and hope Vitali comes out cold as he did against Juan Carlos Gomez, but it's a good fight. I also think we'll wind up seeing it.

Andrei Arlovski's 22-second knockout loss to Brett Rogers at Saturday's Strike Force event was shocking to many, and while I hesitate to ever compare MMA boxing to what we know as boxing, it told me that Arlovski probably needs to focus on, you know, MMA, which he's been good at for years. Though he's not on a hot streak by any stretch right now, I figure part of that might just be that he didn't really train to fight Brett Rogers. This BS about his boxing career should stop unless he wants to totally ruin his combat sports career. A KO loss in boxing to some journeyman or can -- hardly a stretch, really -- would really damage his stock. As it is with his MMA career, he'll have to take some lower-tier fights (Rogers was considered lower-tier but proved out in emphatic fashion) and get back some mojo. Or not, I guess. But his boxing career should be put on ice for good.

Speaking of MMA-to-boxing heavyweights, Tim Sylvia is pondering doing it for good: "I would love to fight some of the heavyweight champs, you know? I mean the paydays are ridiculous!" Sylvia has as much chance of landing a heavyweight title fight as I do.

(Well, OK, he's much closer than me. I figure I could last a solid seven seconds against Ray Mercer and Sylvia will undoubtedly stay in longer than that.)

How much interest do you have in an Andre Berto-Luis Collazo rematch? While I think one is surely deserved, is that really a big enough fight for those that want to see Berto truly step it up into the elite ranks? Collazo is a tough cookie, but he's a second-tier welter, and statistically speaking, the first fight victor almost always wins the rematch. Still, there are only so many top 147 pounders out there, and Collazo might really be the best fight Berto can get.

Anyone going to drop a few coins down on Matthew Hatton upsetting Zab Judah? The more I think about it, the less preposterous it sounds. If Hatton isn't destroyed early, I think he just might be able to get something done on Judah and score the upset that would essentially end Judah's career.

Do you think HBO would air a fight between WBA titlist Felix Sturm and Winky Wright? That's not a rumor or anything, but Wright is familiar to overseas rings, there isn't much depth at middleweight, and he wants to keep fighting. Sturm is better than his reputation, which to be fair has been earned.

If Bernard Hopkins wants to fight again, go after Nikolai Valuev. Screw it, why not?

I wish HBO would get over their small man bias. The Ivan Calderon-Rodel Mayol fight on Saturday is more than worth a TV slot, especially given some of the undercard crap they've fed us both on PPV and their World Championship Boxing/Boxing After Dark shows. The economy may be slightly to blame, I suppose, but HBO hasn't shown any interest in many of the world's best fighters below 122 pounds.

I hope Bernard Dunne can get some U.S. TV exposure sometime.

I like watching Edwin Valero, but who is he that he gets to dictate he'll only accept "big fights"? He has little name, can only fight in Texas or out of the U.S., and I'd like to see him in against good opponents before I wind up spending $50 on him fighting Manny Pacquiao or something, which he believes he deserves. For the record, I still think Pacquiao would annihilate Valero.

I was happy to see Alfonso Gomez return with a TKO win on May 1. Now with Top Rank, Gomezis one of the sport's most likable characters, and there are few fights I've watched where I felt worse for the loser than the one-sided beating he took from Miguel Cotto last April. Gomez had no business in the ring with Cotto, and Cotto knew it. So did everyone else.

Admittedly, I'm sort of psyched for the July 11 fight in South Africa between Lovemore N'dou and Phillip N'dou. That's just good old-fashioned fun.

0 recs  |  Comment 16 comments |

Story-email Email Printer Print

Comments

Display:

Phillip N’dou is still fighting? I thought he retired because of injuries….

"Boxing is dirty," said Casamayor. " The day I’m not ready to be a dirty fighter is the day I don’t fight anymore because it will mean that I have no heart for it anymore."

by Zocalo on Jun 9, 2009 12:37 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

He did

Coming out of retirement now…

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

by Brickhaus on Jun 9, 2009 9:47 AM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

I want to see Berto/Collazo II. Fun fights deserve repeats, and lets remember that a few points on a few scorecards go differently, and Collazo is the guy who handed Hatton and Berto their first losses. I’m not saying Collazo was robbed in either fight, I’m just saying that if he had gotten the W instead of the L, neither Berto nor Hatton could have claimed to be robbed either.

by schraubd on Jun 9, 2009 1:55 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Good point about Collazo and his near-miss legacy

Boxing writer: "Iran, what are you going to do when you retire?"
Iran Barkley: "Rob your house"

by Matt Miller on Jun 9, 2009 5:41 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

this reads like

larry kings random thoughts that norm macdonald used to do the skits on.

way too much to comment on so ill just pick two things.

i remember phillip n’dou was the hottest prospect in the world back in 97-98. espn even did a segment on him during the fnf. he then got caught and knocked silly by a journeyman from england named anthony cambell then was sorta was forgotten till he fought floyd. to his credit he bounched back well from that and continued knocking people out. he was still a damn good fighter eventhough he didn’t live up to the hype. will be interesting to see what he has left, i haven’t seen his comeback fight online anywhere.

also, still loving clotty in this the fight saturday. should be fun regardless. its the same day as ufc 99, thankfully its in germany and playing 3pm local time so i wont have to multitask all night.

by sonofapsycho on Jun 9, 2009 3:25 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

clottey by KO, berto-collazo II would crush, vitali by KO, judah KO 2 (:p), pacman by KO, and i enjoyed the gomez beatdown.

The Dude Abides

by battle axe of doom on Jun 9, 2009 3:52 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Hopkins

Carl Froch is making a lot of noise about wanting a fight with Hopkins. Froch has really grown on me in past 12 months and he does want names which is always excellent but be careful what you wish for. At his age Bernard is still a championship level fighter and a crafty bastard to beat.

When you dream ,anything is possible. People can fly. Theres a moment when you wake and become slowy aware of your surroundings..but you are still dreaming. You may think you can fly but you better not try...

by dinkman on Jun 9, 2009 5:10 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Any news on Dunne’s next fight? I know Rendall Munroe, the EBU champ, is pushing big time for a fight in Dublin.

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

by Hellsing on Jun 9, 2009 7:00 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

I'm a big fan of Munroe

His last fight was against a really tough bastard, who just kept coming and coming. Munroe had trouble working him out at first, but took control mid-rounds. It was a really good fight, better than either fight with Martinez in my opinion.

I think he’d beat Dunne, but after the gargantuan effort Dunne put in against Cordoba, I wouldn’t want to rule him out.

Boxing is the beginning of all sports. I'm willing to bet that the first sport was a man against another man in a fight. (Omar Epps)

by Chaos100 on Jun 9, 2009 7:22 AM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

I’d say Dunne could outbox him handily enough. Munroe is big and strong but he has little or no power. He hasn’t really beaten anybody of note bar Martinez, who stopped Dunne but that was a one in a million kind of fight. His last opponent was tough but he was very crude, with a 3-2-1 record.

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

by Hellsing on Jun 9, 2009 7:41 AM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Dunne

Dunne has been looking for Israel Vazquez but aint he moving to Feather? Besides there is Vazquez-Marquez 4 to happen yet so nothing else matters :)
I did read somewhere that Dunnes manager has mentioned the just beaten Gerry Penalosa.

Dunne-Munroe would be the sensible choice for a first defence. Munroe has the skills to outwork Dunne but the power to keep him away? Interesting…I want to see it.

When you dream ,anything is possible. People can fly. Theres a moment when you wake and become slowy aware of your surroundings..but you are still dreaming. You may think you can fly but you better not try...

by dinkman on Jun 9, 2009 9:58 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Yeah Vasquez’ next fight is at 126.

"Penelosa is not human." -Max Kellerman on Gerry Penelosa during the Juan Manuel Lopes-Gerry Penelosa bout.

by Sickle on Jun 9, 2009 1:17 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

I just finished reading this article… I turned on my TV… HBO is on with the BUZZ. They are still promoting the Klitschko-Haye fight. LOL.

"Penelosa is not human." -Max Kellerman on Gerry Penelosa during the Juan Manuel Lopes-Gerry Penelosa bout.

by Sickle on Jun 9, 2009 1:20 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

you have been buzzed

The Dude Abides

by battle axe of doom on Jun 11, 2009 1:14 AM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Comments For This Post Are Closed


User Tools

Welcome to SB Nation's Bad Left Hook, covering boxing 365 days a year.
Start posting on Bad Left Hook »

Join SB Nation and dive into communities focused on all your favorite teams.

FanPosts

Community blog posts and discussion.

Recommended FanPosts

Small
Which Boxer Would You...: A 10-Question Survey For Kicks
Tyson-bruno_small
R.A. The Rugged Man gets to tell Floyd what a lot of boxing fans wish they could

Recent FanPosts

Small
Most irritating decision....
9018_185776360922_747385922_4256197_5272137_n_small
Off-Topic: Music
Family_small
Freddie Roach puts Edwin Valero at number 4, could be number 1 in 2010
Small
Is the Super Six one bad decision away from becoming a mega mess?
Photo_4_small
Johnny Knoxville, Idiot
Small
Gary Shaw interview: I had Dirrell by one ... he should have fought differently .. don't want to say  robbery
Cassiusclay_small
I fell in love with boxing...all over again
18_clippers_small
Dan the Shill

+ New FanPost All FanPosts >


Managers

9018_185776360922_747385922_4256197_5272137_n_small SC

Editors

Box_marquez_vazquez_275-707948_small Brickhaus

Boxing_icon_small Matt Miller