It has been a long while since I’ve posted here on the blog so I’ll journey down memory lane for the past two months.
“The World Awaits” stunk. Plain and simple. The best part of this fight was HBO’s documentaries 24/7 which chronicled the daily workouts and lives of Mayweather and Delahoya. I thought it was draw. Clearly Delahoya could have won if not for his usual late round fade. What is up with that guy? He’s wound up soooo tight, its no surprise he fades in the latter rounds and has throughout his career. As for Mayweather Jr., no one really cares about who he fights or when he fights. Poor guy has no personality and seeks to piggy back on other celebrities’ notoriety (example, hanging out with “Fiddy” and some other rap stars I’ve never heard of.)
Delahoya needs to retire even though he won’t. My prediction? He’ll fight *Contender* star Sergio Mora if the "Snake" wins a title anytime soon (although the rumor is that he’ll be fighting Shane Mosley again…Ugh..)
Mayweather? I don’t buy the crap that he’s retiring (and neither does anyone else.) My take is that he’ll fight another Golden Boy alum Mosley…But for the record and if he’s as smart as he claims I do think he’d outbox the robotic Jermain Taylor rather easily.
Speaking of Taylor, I cannot recall ever seeing a fighter regress so badly during his prime athletic years. Other *web writers* state that he has suffered a decrease in confidence from back to back nail biters versus Bernard Hopkins and Winky Wright. I think it is *guilt* from firing Pat Burns.
Burns was the jockey behind Taylor for his wins against Hopkins and it didn’t seem like he was regressing until the reins were turned over to Emanuel Steward. I think the Burns trained Taylor could have handled Wright (albeit barely) and would have knocked out Ouma and Cory Spinks.
Taylor was simply awful against Spinks. What was more appalling than the decision was the blatant cheerleading by HBO company man Lampley. I mean, come on…Spinks WON that fight handily. He made Taylor fight his fight, limited the exchanges and did what a little man was a supposed to do. They say he ran but, what the hell else did they expect??? Did they expect a guy who began his career at 140 lbs to stand and slug with the 6’1”, 160 pound Taylor!!!?? Spinks executed his game plan and Taylor couldn’t do anything with him. Taylor LOST even though two of the judges saw otherwise. After the decision was announced Lampley defamed Judge Flaherty who had his scorecard misread by the ring announcer, calling it 111-07 which in fact should have read 117-111 Spinks. Lampley stated to both Lewis and Merchant that “Flaherty should not be allowed to judge a major fight on that basis”. Yeah, right, why don’t you try calling a fight squarely, Jim?
Not to berate the talent of Lampley, he is the best color man in the business and he knows how to bring excitement with his call…But, last night’s effort was bad.
The word is that HBO is replacing Larry Merchant with (shudder) Max Kellerman. I am assuming they are no doubt trying to bring in a younger demographic or at least trying to make boxing appear more hip by having a young guy like Kellerman in the booth. I think Merchant’s reference to the Southern hip-hop phrase “crunk” or is it “krunk” during the broadcast was his way of saying he can use new and hip references to his commentary. He really does not need to do that.
Merchant is an institution to boxing and should be allowed to stay in that job for as long as he wants.
Kellerman has his merits when it comes to his unmatched enthusiasm for the sport but he talks in non-sequiturs and often leaves me scratching my head. I don’t think he’d be the right guy to replace Merchant.
Kelly Pavlik? The next middleweight champion of the world…Maybe…Taylor would be *up* to fight him…Maybe…Obviously it would be a completely different bout than Taylor-Cory Spinks. I do favor Pavlik. I do not think the current version of Taylor could have handled Miranda the way Pavlik did. Look for Taylor to avoid Pavlik and go up to fight Calzaghe. His reign will be short-lived from here on in.
“The World Awaits” stunk. Plain and simple. The best part of this fight was HBO’s documentaries 24/7 which chronicled the daily workouts and lives of Mayweather and Delahoya. I thought it was draw. Clearly Delahoya could have won if not for his usual late round fade. What is up with that guy? He’s wound up soooo tight, its no surprise he fades in the latter rounds and has throughout his career. As for Mayweather Jr., no one really cares about who he fights or when he fights. Poor guy has no personality and seeks to piggy back on other celebrities’ notoriety (example, hanging out with “Fiddy” and some other rap stars I’ve never heard of.)
Delahoya needs to retire even though he won’t. My prediction? He’ll fight *Contender* star Sergio Mora if the "Snake" wins a title anytime soon (although the rumor is that he’ll be fighting Shane Mosley again…Ugh..)
Mayweather? I don’t buy the crap that he’s retiring (and neither does anyone else.) My take is that he’ll fight another Golden Boy alum Mosley…But for the record and if he’s as smart as he claims I do think he’d outbox the robotic Jermain Taylor rather easily.
Speaking of Taylor, I cannot recall ever seeing a fighter regress so badly during his prime athletic years. Other *web writers* state that he has suffered a decrease in confidence from back to back nail biters versus Bernard Hopkins and Winky Wright. I think it is *guilt* from firing Pat Burns.
Burns was the jockey behind Taylor for his wins against Hopkins and it didn’t seem like he was regressing until the reins were turned over to Emanuel Steward. I think the Burns trained Taylor could have handled Wright (albeit barely) and would have knocked out Ouma and Cory Spinks.
Taylor was simply awful against Spinks. What was more appalling than the decision was the blatant cheerleading by HBO company man Lampley. I mean, come on…Spinks WON that fight handily. He made Taylor fight his fight, limited the exchanges and did what a little man was a supposed to do. They say he ran but, what the hell else did they expect??? Did they expect a guy who began his career at 140 lbs to stand and slug with the 6’1”, 160 pound Taylor!!!?? Spinks executed his game plan and Taylor couldn’t do anything with him. Taylor LOST even though two of the judges saw otherwise. After the decision was announced Lampley defamed Judge Flaherty who had his scorecard misread by the ring announcer, calling it 111-07 which in fact should have read 117-111 Spinks. Lampley stated to both Lewis and Merchant that “Flaherty should not be allowed to judge a major fight on that basis”. Yeah, right, why don’t you try calling a fight squarely, Jim?
Not to berate the talent of Lampley, he is the best color man in the business and he knows how to bring excitement with his call…But, last night’s effort was bad.
The word is that HBO is replacing Larry Merchant with (shudder) Max Kellerman. I am assuming they are no doubt trying to bring in a younger demographic or at least trying to make boxing appear more hip by having a young guy like Kellerman in the booth. I think Merchant’s reference to the Southern hip-hop phrase “crunk” or is it “krunk” during the broadcast was his way of saying he can use new and hip references to his commentary. He really does not need to do that.
Merchant is an institution to boxing and should be allowed to stay in that job for as long as he wants.
Kellerman has his merits when it comes to his unmatched enthusiasm for the sport but he talks in non-sequiturs and often leaves me scratching my head. I don’t think he’d be the right guy to replace Merchant.
Kelly Pavlik? The next middleweight champion of the world…Maybe…Taylor would be *up* to fight him…Maybe…Obviously it would be a completely different bout than Taylor-Cory Spinks. I do favor Pavlik. I do not think the current version of Taylor could have handled Miranda the way Pavlik did. Look for Taylor to avoid Pavlik and go up to fight Calzaghe. His reign will be short-lived from here on in.
