WE ARE LIVE TONIGHT. The Mayweather/Baldomir fight coming up shortly will be scored and covered round-by-round. Stick around with BLH, where you don't have to pay to see the round-by-round coverage. Hope you enjoy the fight.
BONUS: I should be able to score the Liakhovich/Briggs fight on Showtime as well. Big night for boxing. I'm calling Liakhovich TKO in the seventh.
Floyd Mayweather (36-0, Las Vegas, NV by way of Grand Rapids, MI)
versus
Carlos Baldomir (43-9-6, Los Angeles, CA by way of Santa Fe, Argentina)
for the WBC, IBO and IBA Welterweight Championships
Mayweather steps into the ring for the first time since April, when he beat Zab Judah easily in a 12-round decision, after months of talk about just who his next opponent would actually be, and when. We're here, and it's Carlos "Tata" Baldomir, the Cinderella story of 2006, who sent Judah into that April fight reeling from a huge upset victory in January. Baldomir proved his mettle by destroying Arturo Gatti in July, but this is a whole new ballgame.
I have talked some mild jive about Pretty Boy Floyd on this site, but I'm not denying that he's one of the elite fighters in the game. To do so would be absolutely ridiculous. There's a very good argument that he's the best, and that it's been that way for a while now. Maybe he hasn't fought the best competition he could have, but he's dominated everyone he's gotten into the ring with since his hard-fought victories over Castillo in 2002. Victoriano Sosa, Phillip N'dou, DeMarcus Corley, Henry Bruseles, Gatti, Sharmba Mitchell and Judah have all failed to present Mayweather with any real challenge.
Baldomir comes in riding a 21-fight undefeated streak, but the vast majority of that talent doesn't even come near the guys Floyd has fought. They share two opponents in Judah and Gatti, and both handled those two fighters with relative ease. And, hey, Mayweather's riding a professional career winning streak. He's never lost, never drawn.
I don't think, using my brain and not my heart, that there's any logical reason for that to stop now. There's the outside chance that Mayweather doesn't take Baldomir seriously, and didn't train up to snuff for this fight, but that's a pipe dream for Baldomir supporters. Mayweather is smarter and a better fighter than that. He'll be ready. Baldomir will, too.
I'm picking Floyd, and I don't think it's going to be all that close. But I will be rooting for Baldomir in a big way. How can you not, unless you're a really big Floyd fan? Any non-partisan fight fan rooting against Carlos Baldomir tonight is like the guy in the back of the crowd in 1935 pulling for Baer over Braddock. This time, though, I don't think the Cinderella Man can do it.
We most likely will have live, round-by-round scoring and coverage tonight, so I hope you join us for this card.