- Last night's 154-pound title fight between former welterweight champions Vernon Forrest and Carlos Baldomir turned out a lot better than most expected, with a sharp Forrest taking a very entertaining, lopsided unanimous decision victory. My BLH card had Forrest a 117-110 winner, with Baldomir winning two rounds, one of which had an extra point in his favor thanks to a low blow from Forrest. Official scores were 116-111, 118-109, and 118-109. The crowd in Tacoma (another thing about the fight that people were making light of in the build-up) was outstanding, and genuinely excited about having a championship fight in their city. Over 6,000 turned out for a fight that most of us smartass (or halfass) analysts kind of went ahead and wrote off months ago. Well, Forrest was on his game, Baldomir fought well in the loss, and we all got a good show. Shows us.
- How about this November from HBO? On November 3, we'll see the long-awaited showdown between the top two 168-pounders in the sport, Joe Calzaghe and Mikkel Kessler, in front of 60,000 strong in Cardiff. On November 10, HBO goes to pay-per-view for a huge welterweight title battle between Top Rank's Miguel Cotto and Golden Boy's Shane Mosley. Then, on November 17, we take a step down in star power for a fight between Humberto Soto and Joan Guzman. What in the hell has gotten into boxing lately? Fights we want to see being made? Top guys fighting each other? Truces between the two big American promotional companies?
- Some more thoughts on Cotto/Mosley: That is a great matchup. It's like a (far) superior version of Hatton/Mayweather. The difference between the two is that Cotto has proven his strength at both 140 and 147, while Hatton has only done so at 140, and too often against suspect competition, which I don't honestly think is Ricky Hatton's fault. For a lot of his career, there hasn't been a ton of talent at 140. Hatton fought and beat Tszyu, fought and beat Castillo (washed-up or not, Castillo was considered among the division's best no more than a month and some change ago), and he has stepped up to the plate to sign off on a Mayweather fight. But Cotto is as good as you can get at that bully style of boxing, and Mosley is a slick, powerful fighter who has been great in his last three bouts. The style matchup is great on paper, and we know both of those guys bring the fight. We also know that Madison Square Garden will be rocking for that one.
- Favorite quote of the year, from Ricardo Mayorga: "I had a dream last night that I threw a rotten orange at Fernando Vargas and hit him in the chin and he went down, and he didn't get back up."
- There is now talk that a Chad Dawson/Antonio Tarver light heavyweight title fight will take place on September 29, during Showtime's free preview week, which would go head-to-head with HBO's presentation of Taylor/Pavlik. In my view, Showtime loses out almost every time they try to go head-to-head with HBO, with exceptions this year being only the Marquez/Vazquez fights. To be fair, their Margarito/Clottey and Cotto/Quintana double-header last December did smoke HBO's Wright/Quartey fight.
- I touched on it briefly last night, but having watched the replay of Wright/Hopkins, I thought the fight was much closer than the scores would have indicated if you didn't see the fight. But I don't think the scores were off-base or anything. Hopkins won the fight, and so many of the rounds were pick 'em-types that I could have seen that fight go either way. Manny Steward said on Boxing After Dark that he doesn't think Hopkins or Wright have the stuff left to beat young fighters, but I'm not terribly sure about that. One notable thing was that Winky Wright did gas late in the fight, but he was fighting well out of his true weight class at 170 pounds against Bernard, too. At 42, I would give Hopkins a good chance at beating Jermain Taylor if the two were to fight again. But I am starting to wonder about what Wright has left. Truthfully, the more he's tried to punch, the worse he's been.
- Still trying to figure out why the average joe would pay $50 to see Manny Pacquiao obliterate Marco Antonio Barrera again. That fight is going to be sold on Barrera's immense popularity with Mexican fans, Pacquiao's popularity, and whatever they can possibly milk out of the ill-conceived revenge factor. I think you can sell those fighters, but I don't think you can sell that fight to anyone that saw the first one. The outcome is in no way in doubt.
- I have never met a single person in my entire life who has any interest in boxing that would rather pay for Diaz/Morales than watch Marquez/Vazquez II on Showtime.
- Consider this $24.95 PPV: David Tua taking on Saul Montana, Joe Mesi versus Sherman Williams, and Jeremy Williams against Gary Gomez, all from exciting Salt Lake City, Utah. Gosh, where do I sign up? I wouldn't pay $25 to go to that show.
- With Hatton busy against Mayweather, I have to wonder what the plans are now for Oscar de la Hoya. He's going to fight again, as a once-a-year attraction, and he plans to finish his career out at 147 pounds. Will he just wait for whatever's left of Hatton's marketability after the Floyd fight? That's very possible, since Hatton could turn around and be ready for a spring 2008 fight in England with Oscar. Given that de la Hoya only wants big money fights, it's hard to find opponents for him. Antonio Margarito would still love to take a crack at Oscar, but he can forget it, especially after the loss to Williams. And now that he's said he'll be returning to welterweight, that rules out a fight with Winky, too, which was not going to happen in the first place.
- ESPN has found Zab Judah a dance partner for his September 7 appearance on Friday Night Fights, scheduling 35-year old Edwin Vazquez (22-10-2) to put a notch in Judah's win column. Vazquez fought and lost a rough bout with Matthew Hatton on the undercard of Hatton/Castillo in June.
- A site note: We'll be updating the P4P top 10 after the August 4 fights, as we will have seen most of the fighters in action since the last update (April 27). We're also changing the system this time, all four of us turning in top 20 ballots, which expands the possible field.
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