This isn't nearly as creepy and weird as the Wladimir Klitschko vs David Haye extended staredown, but man, nobody in boxing stares quite like Vitali Klitschko. Wladimir has been light-hearted and even funny during the Haye build-up. Vitali isn't mean or scary, really, he's just clearly a man not to be trifled with.
Fight Chatter
- Ricky Burns' July 16 super featherweight trinket defense will be against Nicky Cook. It's almost as if Burns and Frank Warren are purposely avoiding a tough challenge.
- In case you happened to miss the news, Showtime will air the Mikkel Kessler comeback against Mehdi Bouadla on tape delay on June 4, which means you'll sit through that before they get to Froch vs Johnson. I'd rather just see the Zsolt Erdei vs Dawid Kostecki fight on that undercard personally. Also on the NJ undercard: Allan Green vs Dhafir Smith (the nobody who beat Jeff Lacy in December), Edison Miranda, and J'Leon Love.
- A proposed June 4 fight between Marco Antonio Rubio and Jairo Jesus Siris is every bit as big a joke as the Colombian boxing commission says, and that's why they're asking the WBC to cancel the fight. Rubio (50-5-1, 43 KO) is in line for a middleweight title shot with the WBC, but Siris (19-15-1, 18 KO) hasn't fought since 2009, isn't any good, and doesn't have a license to box because of health reasons. The WBC has really got to intervene here.
- Former British super middleweight champ Paul Smith wants to fight Darren Barker or Martin Murray.
- Michael Grant is looking for "courageous" heavyweights to fight him.
Tuesday was Bob Dylan's 70th birthday. He is in my opinion the greatest songwriter of all time. Here are three of my favorite Bob Dylan covers.