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Scheduled Event

Pavlik v. Rubio / Cotto v. Jennings (PPV)

Feb 21, 2009 9:00 PM EST
Chevrolet Center - Youngstown, OH / Madison Square Garden - New York, NY
Pavlik RTD-9 / Cotto TKO-5

CompuBox Punch Stat Reports for the Top Rank PPV

I know a lot of people love sports where there are a lot of stats (I know I do), and boxing has stats that aren't always widely discussed. For those interested as I am, here are the CompuBox punch stats from last night, with their short written summaries included.

Thanks to CompuBox for providing the numbers.

A few things to take from this:

1. As dominant as Pavlik was against Rubio, you could call it a mild mirage, because Rubio just didn't fight. Pavlik was really inaccurate.

2. Cotto destroyed poor Jennings.

3. Duddy's jab was not a mirage last night -- he threw 449 of them in ten rounds and connected quite well. But as we said before, his defensive improvements are mostly centered on the fact that the jab kept Vanda from punching as often as he might have. The jab was the key. Now they work on shoring up that still-spotty D. He's never going to be Winky Wright, but guys willing to go through the jab to get to him more frequently are still going to give him a lot of trouble.

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CompuBox PunchStat Report

Kelly Pavlik KO 9 Marco Antonio Rubio
02/21/2009 YOUNGSTOWN,OH

The comebacking Pavlik threw twice as many punches as the unwilling Rubio, who got off just 39 punches per round. Pavlik really turned up the heat in rounds eight and nine, averaging 94 punches thrown- outlanding Rubio 40-17 in total punches. Pavlik also mixed in 38 jabs per round, keeping Rubio at bay.

Total Punches Landed / Thrown

Round 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Pavlik 13/62 8/62 15/83 11/70 20/73 20/81 19/78 21/96 19/90
21% 13% 18% 16% 27% 25% 24% 22% 21%
Rubio 2/16 5/23 12/48 6/23 8/40 21/69 11/40 10/50 7/42
12% 22% 25% 26% 20% 30% 28% 20% 17%

Jabs Landed / Thrown

Round 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Pavlik 2/19 4/27 8/40 5/34 12/33 11/46 13/50 9/43 12/47
11% 15% 20% 15% 36% 24% 26% 21% 26%
Rubio 1/10 3/14 5/24 6/16 5/19 12/41 9/28 3/21 6/24
10% 21% 21% 38% 26% 29% 32% 14% 25%

Power Punches Landed / Thrown

Round 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Pavlik 11/43 4/35 7/43 6/36 8/40 9/35 6/28 12/53 7/43
26% 11% 16% 17% 20% 26% 21% 23% 16%
Rubio 1/6 2/9 7/24 0/7 3/21 9/28 2/12 7/29 1/18
17% 22% 29% 0% 14% 32% 17% 24% 6%

Final PunchStat Report

Punches Landed / Thrown

Total Punches Jabs Power Punches
Pavlik 146 / 695 76 / 339 70 / 356
21% 22% 20%
Rubio 82 / 351 50 / 197 32 / 154
23% 25% 21%

Continue reading this post »

1 comment  |  0 recs |

Pavlik and Cotto win easy in comebacks

D4e3a90ad6f486193db6b55223de8ea5-getty-84271171ct005_miguel_cotto__medium Middleweight world champion Kelly Pavlik and welterweight star Miguel Cotto won easily in their comeback fights on tonight's Top Rank pay-per-view, recovering with no trouble after their first career losses in 2008.

Cotto (33-1, 27 KO) won the vacant WBO welterweight title with a five-round slaughter of England's Michael Jennings (34-2, 16 KO). Jennings stayed away from Cotto for three rounds, but was caught and knocked down twice in the fourth. He survived the round and came out for the fifth, showing real heart, but was knocked down again in that round, and the referee stepped in to rightly call it off. When it became a fight, Cotto outgunned Jennings with ease.

In the Youngstown main event, Pavlik (35-1, 31 KO) destroyed Marco Antonio Rubio (43-5-1, 37 KO) in nine rounds, after which Rubio broke down nearly to tears in his corner and surrendered. After the fight, Rubio said he felt very tight and just couldn't throw. He offered Pavlik almost no resistance whatsoever, but his chin showed up for sure. He took some good shots and was only clearly rocked once, though he was hurt a few times.

On the Madison Square Garden undercard, a new and improved John Duddy showed up and outboxed -- yes, outboxed -- Matt Vanda for nine full rounds before Vanda wobbled him and unloaded in the tenth. Vanda's 10th round was the only round of the night I gave to the underdogs. Duddy won a wide decision (99-91, 99-91, 97-93). Bad Left Hook scored it 99-91 for Duddy, who improves to 26-0 (17 KO). Vanda is now 39-9 (22 KO).

Duddy's performance was quite impressive and showed much more boxing than ever before. He and trainer Pat Burns are clicking nicely, though there's still much to improve upon. Duddy's defense was still leaky (Vanda landed nearly 40% of his shots), but he was able to stop any big rallies and fought the urge to war all night.

In the night's opener, top prospect Matt Korobov improved to 4-0 with his fourth knockout, boxing tentatively against Cory Jones (4-5, 1 KO) the whole way until landing a perfect right hook counter at the tail end of the fourth and final round. It was the shot of the night, and redeemed a fight that was being intensely booed by the New York crowd.

We'll be back tomorrow with much more on the card, and on Monday we'll update the picks competition. Thanks to everyone who joined us for a great round-by-round thread tonight!

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Bad Left Hook Fight Night: Pavlik v. Rubio and Cotto v. Jennings

If you aren't ordering tonight's pay-per-view, Bad Left Hook is the place to be for live, round-by-round coverage and scoring of the fights.

The round-by-round will be updated live in the comments -- you won't need to refresh, and our coverage is the fastest online. You will know how a round went seconds after the bell rings.

Join us tonight at 9pm ET for coverage of all four PPV fights!

Pavlik-rubio_20weights4_medium

via i705.photobucket.com

KELLY PAVLIK
World Middleweight Champion (160)
WBC/WBO Titlist
  MARCO ANTONIO RUBIO
Ring Magazine No. 8 Contender
 
34-1 Record 43-4-1
30 KO 37
Youngstown, OH Hometown Torreon, Mexico
26 Age 28
6'2 1/2" Height 6'1 1/2"
75" Reach 76"
Jermain Taylor (TKO-7, UD-12)
Edison Miranda (TKO-7)
Fulgencio Zuniga (TKO-9)
Notable Wins Enrique Ornelas (SD-12)
Jose Luis Zertuche (TKO-7)
Grady Brewer (TKO-8)
Bernard Hopkins (UD-12) Notable Losses Zaurbek Baysangurov (UD-12)
Kassim Ouma (SD-12)
Kofi Jantuah (KO-1)

Capt

via d.yimg.com

MIGUEL COTTO
Ring Magazine No. 2 (147)
  MICHAEL JENNINGS
 
32-1 Record 34-1
26 KO 16
Caguas, Puerto Rico Hometown Chorley, Lancashire, UK
28 Age 31
5'7" Height 5'9 1/2"
67" Reach 69"
Shane Mosley (UD-12)
Zab Judah (TKO-11)
Carlos Quintana (RTD-5)
Notable Wins Ross Minter (TKO-9)
Mehrdud Takaloo (UD-12)
Rafal Jackiewicz (PTS-8)
Antonio Margarito (TKO-11) Notable Losses Young Muttley (SD-12)

Capt

via d.yimg.com


JOHN DUDDY
 
MATT VANDA
25-0 Record 39-8
17 KO 22
Derry, Northern Ireland Hometown Saint Paul, MN
29 Age 30
5'11" Height ??
74" Reach ??
Howard Eastman (PTS-10)
Dupre Strickland (UD-10)
Yori Boy Campas (UD-12)
Notable Wins Yori Boy Campas (SD-12)
Notable Losses Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. (SD-10, UD-10)
Sebastien Demers (UD-12)
Andy Kolle (UD-8)

Also featured: Matt Korobov (3-0, 3 KO) v. Cory Jones (4-4, 1 KO)

474 comments  |  0 recs |

All make weight for Top Rank PPV

From the weigh-ins:

Middleweight Championship
Kelly Pavlik 159
Marco Antonio Rubio 160

WBO Welterweight Title
Miguel Cotto 146
Michael Jennings 146.5

Middleweights
John Duddy 162
Matt Vanda 162

Everyone on weight, everything good to go.

For those wondering about the commentary tomorrow night, it's pretty solid. The MSG portion of the show (Cotto-Jennings, Duddy-Vanda, Korobov-Jones) will be handled by Charley Steiner and Al Bernstein, while Nick Charles and Youngstown's own Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini will call the Pavlik fight, according to Dan Rafael's chat. I'm just glad Barry Tompkins won't be there, though I fear he will be there all night for Lightweight Lightning.

4 comments  |  0 recs |

Official picks thread for Saturday's Top Rank PPV

Last week we did the HBO triple-header, this week we're going to do the Top Rank PPV. This should have been a four-fight picks card, but instead is just a three. I'm not going to include Matt Korobov's showcase against Cory Jones because it could end in 20 seconds or three rounds and it's pretty much the same deal. We all know Korobov is going to smash him to pieces.

If you posted picks in the results thread yesterday, please re-post them in this thread so I'll remember to count them. Also remember to be specific. Pick the fighter to win by KO/TKO and the round it will happen, unanimous decision, split/majority decision, or you can pick a draw if you want to take the risk.

Jermain-taylor-kelly-pavlick2_medium Kelly Pavlik v. Marco Antonio Rubio (Middleweights - Pavlik's Ring Magazine world championship and WBC/WBO titles on the line)

This is Pavlik's first fight at his hometown arena in Youngstown, Ohio, since he bashed Lenord Pierre on Vs. in 2006. Since then he's fought in Anahem, Memphis, Las Vegas and Atlantic City (three times). He's becoming a "hometown" guy in AC. But there's really no place like home.

The Chevrolet Center isn't a big venue (about 7,500 are expected for the fight, which is essentially a one-fight card with local boys and the like on the undercard, with the rest of the PPV taking place at Madison Square Garden). But it will be 100% filled with Kelly Pavlik fans. He'll have a great atmosphere for his comeback.

Rubio (43-4-1, 37 KO) can punch and take a shot, but make no mistake. Pavlik hits harder than Enrique Ornelas, and Rubio took some flush, nasty shots from Ornelas last October.

This should be a trench war. I see Pavlik and Rubio coming up with some glorious exchanges, but I also see Pavlik establishing his long jab and working that deadly straight right behind it. It won't be another Gary Lockett, but it sure as hell isn't Bernard Hopkins, either.

I'm gonna take Kelly to retain in lucky number seven -- the same round he stopped both Taylor and Miranda. Pavlik TKO-7

Miguel Cotto v. Michael Jennings (Welterweights - vacant WBO title on the line)

This is where we'll get to see if Miguel Cotto has any remaining ill effects from the brutal loss last July to Antonio Margarito. If you've never seen Jennings fight, you're definitely not alone, and I've seen very little. What I have seen was not impressive. He's 31 years old, an orthodox fighter, he has little power, decent fundamentals, average quickness, and he's padded his record with so-so regional fighters. It's not his fault, it's just that's what there has been for him fighting in the UK, with zero aspirations of going international before this fight was signed.

Jennings was made mandatory challenger to Paul Williams when Williams held this title, which was yet another pathetic display of favoritism from the WBO. Jennings has no business fighting for a world title. The regional titles in Britian really don't mean much, and making them play a role at all in world rankings is rather preposterous.

Jennings is pretty much exactly the stereotype you might be imaginging in your head. If Cotto is healthy and ready to go, he's going to demolish him. I don't think Jennings is going to be any more a challenge for Cotto than Alfonso Gomez or Oktay Urkal were. Cotto TKO-5

John Duddy v. Matt Vanda (Junior Middleweights? Middleweights?)

I'm not exactly certain if they'll be fighting this at 154 or 160, or an agreed-upon weight in the middle. Both have fought middleweight, though Duddy has been aiming at coming down to 154 for a while now.

Vanda was involved in one of the most exciting fights of 2008 when he pushed Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. to the limit in Mexico, only to lose by split decision, including one absurdly transparent and bogus card from judge Francisco Mouret, who scored it for Chavez, 100-90. Vanda took one card 96-95, and lost the other 97-93. In the rematch, JC Jr. won more convincingly.

Vanda's a knockaround guy (39-8, 22 KO) who has only been stopped once, against Armando Velardez in 2004. Duddy is putting his unbeaten record on the line against a guy that can give him trouble, because a lot of guys have given him trouble. I thought Walid Smichet beat him last February, but Duddy got the nod. Duddy has also been out of the ring since a June win over Charles Howe in Boston, thanks to promotional squabbles.

Duddy is a great guy, and I'm happy he's getting back in the ring because all he wants to do is fight. He'll be around forever. Scuttlebutt is that Top Rank wants him to challenge Pavlik next. That's why I'm hoping my prediction is true, because Pavlik would bust Duddy up something God awful. It would not be pretty. I think this will be a war, and that cuts may well play a factor. I'm gonna go ahead and do it: Vanda TKO-9

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Is Kelly Pavlik ripe for the picking as middleweight king?

Pavlikrubiofarina410nf1_medium When the calendar turned and 2008 began, Kelly Pavlik was king of the world, the toast of the boxing universe.

He was three months removed from his stunning, epic win over Jermain Taylor, a comeback seventh round knockout of the undefeated middleweight champion of the world. He wasn't supposed to be athletic enough to do it, and it certainly looked as if he was out of his league in the second round, when champion Taylor rocked, floored, and assaulted the Youngstown underdog.

He was just a one-dimensional slugger from a steel town in Ohio, the fight city that produced Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini, Greg "The Flea" Richardson, Harry Arroyo and Jeff Lampkin, among others.

With his instant classic KO of Taylor, he became a star, and he became middleweight champion of the world. The lanky power-puncher had reached the top of the sport in one of its most celebrated divisions. A February 2008 catchweight (164 pounds) rematch with Taylor produced another victory, and his first title defense against Gary Lockett was a cakewalk.

It was such a cakewalk, in fact, that Pavlik and his promoters at Top Rank probably knew that they couldn't hang around and take another easy fight, mandatory challenger or not. So they booked a date with a living boxing legend, Hall of Famer-to-be Bernard Hopkins.

It could not have gone worse.

Hopkins2_medium Hopkins, one of history's great middleweight champions, fought Pavlik at a 170-pound catchweight, five pounds below where Bernard had been campaigning during his stint as light heavyweight champion of the world, and 10 pounds above Pavlik's usual fighting weight.

The old man, 43 on fight night, took 26-year old Pavlik to school. Various ailments have been brought up, chief among them a legitimate elbow injury suffered in training, and the fact that Pavlik may have been a bit under the weather. But I don't think there's anyone that blames the loss on that. Perhaps Pavlik's dead performance, but not the loss.

The loss was because Hopkins picked Pavlik apart, and Kelly could have been 110% that night and the same thing would have happened. Hopkins took away the straight right hand, Pavlik's deadliest weapon, and beat him from every angle. He was faster, he even appeared to be stronger than the young bull, and he mentally slaughtered Kelly in the ring that night. Kelly Pavlik, simply put, was no match for Bernard Hopkins.

Hopkins offered post-fight advice once he was done staring down media row after proving himself to be one of the all-time greats yet again. He wasn't supposed to beat Pavlik. He was too old. Period.

Since the loss, Pavlik has been out of the ring and almost totally quiet. As expected, he will move back to middleweight this Saturday night to take on another mandatory challenger, the little-known Marco Antonio Rubio of Mexico.

Rubio (43-4-1, 37 KO) last fought the same night that Pavlik did, beating fellow rugged Mexican Enrique Ornelas in a grueling 12-round split decision for a shot at the WBC title, one of the two (along with the WBO) alphabet trinkets Pavlik holds in addition to recognition as the true champion of the division.

The 28-year old from Torreón started his career in 2000 and has fought the vast majority of it in the Mexican rings, gaining very little notoriety in the United States or anyone else. The first time he lost was against Saul Roman in 2001, a loss he avenged in 2003 and one that has over the years proven to not be so bad, as both have gone on to respectable careers.

It was New Year's Day 2003, in fact, that Rubio evened the score with Roman. In 2003 alone, the slugger fought eight times, winning each fight. By the time he got to Kofi Jantuah in September 2004, he'd added four more wins. Jantuah knocked him out in 33 seconds.

Box_g_rubio_300_medium Pavlik's corner has talked a good game about putting the Hopkins fight behind them. They've apparently put it so far in the past that they essentially refuse to discuss the fight, feeling it's unnecessary. On some level, they may be right. It was not a middleweight fight, and they found out that for the time being, Pavlik is better off working his tail off to get to 160 than dropping just a few pounds and fighting at 170 (Pavlik says he walks around at about 175).

They learned that, but the worry could be whether or not they take the beating as a sign that there are flaws in the young man's game and his offensive arsenal. Pavlik is a dynamite puncher and an underrated boxer. He knows how to set up his big shots with an overlooked, stiff jab, and he knows how to press a fight exactly where he wants it to go. And Marco Antonio Rubio is no Bernard Hopkins.

But now that the boxing world has seen a blueprint on how to not only beat but dominate Pavlik, trainer Jack Loew and everyone else associated with "The Ghost" damn sure know that everyone will try to incorporate at least pieces of Hopkins' gameplan into what they do against Pavlik.

Rubio may be no Hopkins, or even close to it, but he's not without danger, even fighting in Pavlik's hometown. Rubio can punch, as his 86% knockout rate will attest. He can also take a good shot, as he's only ever been stopped by Jantuah, who could bang and caught Rubio at the exact right moment with that left hook, and Roman, which came very early in his career. We saw him absorb and dish out a lot of punishment in the Ornelas brawl.

There are a lot of factors at work before and during every fight, especially on the championship level. Worse fighters than Rubio have beaten better fighters than Pavlik for various reasons. Kelly Pavlik cannot look past Rubio, and he cannot let himself become a victim of thinking he's in against an inferior opponent. Yes, he's a better fighter than Rubio, but that's assuming they're both at their best.

Pavlik has been dealing with not just the first loss of his career, but an embarrassing rout of a loss at that. When put into a big money fight against one of the living legends of the sport, he was outclassed. The Kelly Pavlik that picked himself up off the canvas against Jermain Taylor and wiped out that man's middleweight championship reign will manhandle Rubio this Saturday.

The Kelly Pavlik that was obliterated by 43-year old Hopkins? He might have some real problems with a gritty, tough guy like Rubio who has nothing to lose by going in there and going for the gusto.

Who's gonna show up?

RELATED VIDEOS:

Kofi Jantuah knocks out Marco Antonio Rubio

On the same night (untelevised portion of Hopkins-de la Hoya PPV), a young Kelly Pavlik stops Carlton Holland

3 comments  |  0 recs |

Peterson pulls out, Korobov bumped to PPV

Matvey-korobov5_medium Lightweight contender/prospect Anthony Peterson has pulled out of his upcoming PPV bout with Edner Cherry due to a knee injury suffered in camp, and Russian middleweight prospect Matt (Matvey) Korobov will be bumped onto the televised portion of the card from Madison Square Garden, reports Dan Rafael of ESPN.com.

Korobov (3-0, 3 KO) will be taking on Brooklyn's Cory Jones (4-4, 1 KO) in a four-round bout. And yes, it's the same Cory Jones you saw getting smashed on the February 6 Friday Night Fights against Shawn Porter. Jones also has a no-contest on his record, the result of his pro debut changed from a unanimous decision win after he failed a post-fight drug test.

Korobov won the 2005 and 2007 World Amateur Championships, as well as the 2006 European championship. In the 2008 Olympics, he lost in the round of 16 to 2004 welterweight gold medalist Bakhtiyar Artayev.

The pay-per-view does lose a small amount of sizzle as it originally had four legitimate fights, even if Peterson-Cherry was nothing to get too excited about, and Duddy-Vanda is just a slugfest between a couple of guys that aren't exactly headed for the Hall of Fame. With Korobov-Jones replacing the Peterson-Cherry fight, you're talking about a Friday Night Fights opener kicking off the pay-per-view, but it's just one of those things that happens.

Top Rank's pay-per-view, headlined by Pavlik-Rubio and Cotto-Jennings, is going to cost $44.99 this Saturday night, too, which is a bit over what the original rumors for pricing were, and the exact same cost as Pacquiao-Barrera II, for the record. So as far as this being an economy-priced show, not really. Top Rank is hoping there's enough legitimate interest in seeing this show; I don't know that there really is.

5 comments  |  0 recs |

HBO cutting back on pay-per-views, boxing not

Bobarum_medium When HBO Sports said that they would be cutting back on the number of boxing pay-per-views, which had to be at least somewhat influenced by a brutal American economy and the massive flops of Calzaghe-Jones (November) and Pavlik-Hopkins (October), I took it with a grain of salt. Or an economy sized box of Morton's kosher salt. Whichever.

I'm sure most did. We've heard that line before, but then here it comes, pay-per-view after pay-per-view. HBO even planned to put a fight between Shane Mosley and Zab Judah on PPV last May, which was bizarre. Mosley has never been a PPV draw besides his fights with Oscar de la Hoya, and has never drawn much period as the A-side of a fight. Great fighter? Yes. Money in the bank? No. And Judah has been teetering on professional opponent for a while now.

Luckily Judah fought a shower door for free and the PPV was scrapped, which led to Mosley facing Ricardo Mayorga -- another fight HBO had slotted for pay-per-view before putting Pavlik-Hopkins on instead -- and Judah facing Joshua Clottey on Boxing After Dark.

The sheer volume of pay-per-views and the lack of quality coming out of them for the price demanded ($44.95 to $54.95 for a top shelf main event, not in HD) has been a complaint for years.

HBO, to their credit, has no PPV scheduled unless they wind up as the producers and distributors of the May 2 Hatton-Pacquiao fight, which is likely. But that doesn't mean boxing as a whole isn't gearing up to fire off a series of five, count 'em, five pay-per-view shows in February and March.

What are we looking at here?

Today, for instance, a viewer with iNDemand pay-per-view might choose to order Ruslan Chagaev's heavyweight title defense against little-known, lightly-regarded Carl Davis Drumond. "Why would anyone pay to see that?" you might ask. Good question. For $24.95, it's a "bargain" (coughcough), and here in the lean sporting months there's little to watch sports-wise at two o'clock in the afternoon eastern. So maybe you're up for Chagaev-Drumond!

Hey, I'm not, but whatever floats your boat.

Is Bad Left Hook Gonna Cover It?: Not unless I stumble upon a stack of cash sometime between now and 1pm.

Jermain-taylor-kelly-pavlick2_medium On February 21, Bob Arum's Top Rank brings us a double main event, two-site pay-per-view extravaganza live from both Youngstown, Ohio, and Madison Square Garden in New York City. Youngstown's Kelly Pavlik defends the middleweight championship of the world against Marco Antonio Rubio, and in the hallowed halls of the Garden, Miguel Cotto main events against Brit welter Michael Jennings. Both are rebound fights; let's not get it twisted. But there's also a useful undercard, with John Duddy facing off against Matt Vanda and Anthony Peterson matching up with two-time title challenger Edner Cherry.

What's that? Four watchable fights? Get out of here, Bob. That's not how boxing pay-per-view works.

$39.95 figures to be the going rate for the Pavlik and Cotto Show, and it sounds like a keeper.

Is Bad Left Hook Gonna Cover It?: Signed, sealed, delivered -- we'll be here for this bad boy.

Then we come to March 14, and another overseas show headed to American television sets by the wonder of point and click ordering. Offensive phenom Amir Khan will battle faded veteran Marco Antonio Barrera in a fight that could bring out the sleeping warrior in the Mexican legend, and could spell doom for the chinny Brit, whose "top prospect" tag was getting shaky enough before Breidis Prescott knocked his block off.

This one, though, is pretty much good news all around. Khan-Barrera could be a heck of a good fight, plus with Nicky Cook defending his 130-pound title against Roman Martinez and cruiserweight Enzo Maccarinelli facing ...well, Ola Afolabi, there's another actual undercard going on. Afolabi is a substitue for Argentina's Victor Ramirez, and not a very good one, either.

Also, this is likely to be another $24.95 card given the timeslot (American afternoon) and the fact that there's not a single American draw on the show, which might sound insulting to Barrera who still has his fans, but this ain't the Barrera of years ago and everyone knows it.

Is Bad Left Hook Gonna Cover It?: We're in it to win it.

March 21. Roy Jones. Omar Sheika. MMA on the undercard. Pensacola, Florida, are you ready?

Questions to ponder:

1. Will Jones and Square Ring try to pay Michael Buffer to be there?

2. Can Sheika, who turns 32 in February and hasn't fought since September 2007, muster up enough sock to knock Jones out and finish Roy's career?

3. If Jones wins, will he talk about how he wants to fight Antonio Tarver again? Remember, Tarver is a near lock bet to lose to Chad Dawson for the second time on March 14.

4. If Jones wins, will he try to call out Hopkins again?

5. If Jones wins, will he try to lure Calzaghe out of retirement, feeling that boxing fans simply must see the two legends square off in another exciting contest?

6. If Jones dominates, how many minutes (yes, minutes) will it take for the first article to pop up online that Jones looks "better than ever" at 40 years of age?

Is Bad Left Hook Gonna Cover It?: My utter mocking of this card and total non-belief in the idea that people have to mix boxing and MMA on the same card might lead you to think we're not coming within ten feet of this stinker. But chances are we're gonna do it. I'll cover Jones-Sheika and whatever other boxing fight(s?) are on the card, and if they actually do the MMA portion (color me skeptical, by the way), my good friend Brent Brookhouse of Bloody Elbow will be handling those fights, because even though I'm an MMA fan, my knowledge of the game is rudimentary in comparison, and when you've got the better option, hey, do it.

On March 28, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. headlines his umpteenth "Latin Fury" card, which Mexican fans keep buying in enough numbers that Arum keeps happily shoving them into the marketplace, despite the fact that he all but flat-out admits, "Hey, for someone people buy this junk, so I'm gonna keep peddlin' it!"

Chavez will face an untested guy with a fluffed up record that no one's ever heard of, and on the undercard Fernando Montiel will face Eric Morel. I actually like Morel for the upset in that fight.

Is Bad Left Hook Gonna Cover It?: I have never and will never pay for a show Chavez Jr. main events. I can say that with full confidence, because he will never be good enough to main event a show truly worth buying. I don't begrudge him his financial success as the go-to "Latin Fury" guy, nor do I have any intense dislike of him. But I wouldn't pay to see Edner Cherry main event, either. If Chavez ever fights anyone worth a crap, it's the same career.

Poll
Will you be ordering any of these PPVs?
The Pavlik/Cotto double-header
85 votes
Chagaev-Drumond (explain in comments, please)
0 votes
Khan-Barrera
18 votes
Jones-Sheika
13 votes
Latin Fury XXXVI
8 votes
All of 'em!
1 votes
None
58 votes

183 votes | Poll has closed

9 comments  |  0 recs |

ESPN: Arum talks February 21 pay-per-view, including Clottey-Cintron

Joshua_clottey_240x230_062005_medium Dan Rafael of ESPN has a lot of news in this weekend's Notebook (as always), but the most interesting to me is discussion regarding the February 21 Top Rank pay-per-view

Arum also laid out his plans for the rest of the Feb. 21 split-site doubleheader. The telecast will open in New York with heralded 2008 Russian Olympic middleweight Matvey Korobov (2-0, 2 KOs) in a four-rounder. "Then we’re looking to do an Anthony Peterson fight, maybe against [former lightweight titlist] Julio Diaz," Arum said. "If Diaz doesn’t take the fight, we’ll do Peterson against another good opponent." Also on the New York portion of the card, Arum might try to do welterweight titleholder [and New Yorker] Joshua Clottey’s mandatory defense against ex-titleholder Kermit Cintron. That bout would be followed by Cotto-Jennings. Then, Arum said, the telecast "will magically shift" to Youngstown, Ohio, for the main event of the telecast, middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik’s mandatory against Marco Antonio Rubio. "We’ll have five fights on the broadcast and not a lot of talking," Arum said. Pavlik opens training camp in Youngstown this week, manager Cameron Dunkin said.

So after a couple years worth of complaining that UFC's pay-per-view cards have more complete lineups than boxing's -- and that it wasn't even close in comparison -- here's this, and this is about as good as it gets. To recap:

World Middleweight Championship: Kelly Pavlik v. Marco Antonio Rubio
Vacant WBO Welterweight Title: Miguel Cotto v. Michael Jennings
IBF Welterweight Title: Joshua Clottey v. Kermit Cintron
Anthony Peterson v. Julio Diaz
Matvey Korobov v. TBA

Not bad, huh? There are four legit fights on there, even though Cotto-Jennings is an obvious "comeback fight" for Cotto against an opponent likely overmatched.

Of course, I'd still bet at least a small sum of money it won't quite come off this way, that Peterson won't fight someone as good as Julio Diaz, or that Clottey-Cintron simply isn't fiscally possible to throw on with the rest of the purses, but it'd be great if it did happen. Talk about your bargain PPVs at 30 bones.

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Pavlik/Cotto pay-per-view looks like a go for Feb. 21

Cottomargarito023_medium Source: El Nuevo Dia via BoxingScene.com

Following their first career losses, middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik and welterweight contender Miguel Cotto look as though they'll return to the ring in a co-main evented pay-per-view from Atlantic City (Cotto's fight) and Ohio (Pavlik's fight), if we are to believe the rumors.

Cotto (32-1, 26 KO) will be facing the UK's Michael Jennings (34-1, 16 KO) for the WBO welterweight title that Paul Williams recently vacated. Jennings has been the WBO mandatory for a good while now, and though he's barely a blip on the international radar, he...um...hmm. Nah, I can't really try to hype this up. On paper, Cotto-Jennings is a mismatch.

In the other headliner, Pavlik (34-1, 30 KO) will look to come back from his one-sided loss to Bernard Hopkins when he makes the second defense of his middleweight crown against mandatory challenger Marco Antonio Rubio (43-4-1, 37 KO), who impressed with a rugged win over Enrique Ornelas on the Pavlik-Hopkins undercard.

HBO passed on the doubleheader, which is kind of surprising given the fact that it's a legit world championship fight and then a star feature co-main event, but it probably just didn't fit into the budget. If the El Nuevo Dia report is to be believed, Cotto will make about $3 million to fight Jennings. Given the current economy and the two disappointing pay-per-view buyrates Pavlik has done in 2007, this just might not have made financial sense.

Arum's pretty much doing the only thing he can with the show, which is take it to self-produced PPV. Hopefully, he'll not overshoot and try to charge 50 bucks for this, because if he does, it'll crap out and hard. It's not a bad double-header, but it's also pretty much for diehard fans only.

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