Sunday Night Quick Takes: Garcia-Matthysse, Wilder-Solis, Shafikov, Lucas Browne, more

Hey, you! Get off of my cloud! You may be wondering to yourself, why was there no excellent Quick Takes piece on Saturday night? It's because Saturday night's alright for fighting, you guys, and though we had no live coverage to fill the voids in your lives last night, that is generally not the case on Saturdee, so expect no seventh day Quick Takes ever, because man, it just gets in the way of the action, Jackson.

AWAY!

Danny Garcia still thinks Lucas Matthysse sucks

This has been a recurring theme in the build-up to this fight, even before it was signed. Garcia, who holds the WBC and WBA junior welterweight titles, does not consider Matthysse, who holds no world titles, an elite fighter, because he does not hold world titles. Moreover, Garcia believes that Matthysse's two highly debatable losses to Zab Judah and Devon Alexander are concrete proof that Matthysse isn't all he's cracked up to be.

Danny might be right, and he damn well might win on September 14 when they meet on the Mayweather-Canelo undercard (it's the REAL main event if you're in love with yourself and your own boxing fandom!!!), but Matthysse is without question one of the two best junior welterweights in the world right now. "How can you say that, " the question may be, "when Matthysse lost to Judah?" Tim Bradley's not better than Manny Pacquiao, either. Take that to the bank and smoke it!

Ahmet Oner sends out double dog dare for Wilder-Solis

Ahmet Oner promotes Odlanier Solis, and for the most part, he has been stuck with a dud professional heavyweight. I mean, Solis is talented, as advertised when he defected from Coo-bah, but he's also constantly out of shape and hasn't actually done anything, though some swear to all that is holy that they saw him execute the absolute perfect game plan with which to rout Vitali Klitschko before Solis' knee gave out from being too heavy.

Basically, Oner doesn't have a lot to do with Solis, who isn't really on anyone's radar anymore and seems disinterested in doing anything significant other than lazing his way into another shot at one of the Klitschko brothers. Oner wants Solis to fight Deontay Wilder -- "U.S. power vs Latino power!" -- and is making out like it's some natural showdown that the world wants to see. It's not, and nobody cares, but, I mean, sure, it'd be a good fight to make. Solis is a much better boxer than Wilder, who is making improvements as he gets more experience, and hits like a demon from the very armpit of hell, and could be serious trouble for Wilder. That and a lot of other reasons are why you won't see this fight.

Top Rank likely to sign Denis Shafikov

Big Bob Arum is getting pretty into signing international fighters who don't traditionally sign with American promoters, be they Olympians like Zou Shiming, Vasyl Lomachenko, and Ryota Murata, or veterans like Khabib Allakhverdiev and next, apparently, Denis Shafikov, who is said to be nearly done with a deal to fight for Top Rank. First, though, he'll beat up a dude who hasn't fought in about two years. Shafikov (32-0-1, 17 KO) is a 28-year-old lightweight contender who was previously the European champion at 140. He dominated Albert Mensah last December, ending the brief flirtation with the idea of Mensah being a contender because he can beat the rusted frame of Michael Katsidis.

Australia: Heavyweight paradise!

There is talk of a big domestic showdown in Australia between heavyweights Lucas Browne and Alex Leapai, following Leapai's win over Felipe Romero. Browne (17-0, 15 KO) is a 34-year-old project with real power, and he cleanly beat James Toney earlier this year, in what had to be the most depressing fight of Toney's career to date. Leapai (29-4-3, 24 KO) can also bang a bit, and has been around the block with wins over such stalwarts as Travis "Freight Train" Walker, Darnell "Ding-a-Ling Man" Wilson, and Owen "What the Heck?" Beck. The fight would probably make some decent money and I could see it being an entertaining enough slugfest if it happens. Seems fun enough to me. Let's do it, you guys.

I'm from Dallas, that's my home, I'll show YOU where the buffalo roam

YOU WILL WATCH THE WHOLE THING AND LIKE IT!