by Chris Milton
Gale Van Hoy has finally entered a decent scorecard for a boxing match. Van Hoy scored Mike Jones and Soto Karass 94-94. Well done Mr Hoy, although we expect normal services to be resumed as soon as possible.
PPV numbers for the mismatch last weekend are starting to float around, it seems as though 1.4 million households bought the Manny Pacquiao Antonio Margarito PPV. A sure sign the fans are getting what they deserve.
PPV numbers from the other mismatch last weekend between David Haye and Audley Harrison are also floating around. 800k seems to be the number, but with the Box Office ordering center crashing it is estimated to have cost Sky another 150k buys. it’s a sad day when an Audley Harrison fight gets close to a million buys.
Speaking of Audley Harrison, there seems to be quite a lot of hate flying around over the internet over his performance. I don’t quite understand why, the fight was a mismatch from the start and Audley did what he does every fight– nothing.
Brandon Rios put on another great performance on the Pacquiao v Margarito undercard, despite the now infamous video of him, this guy can fight and I hope HBO will recognise that Rios is an all action fighter and someone who should be on HBO, win lose or draw for years to come because he is exciting and HBO badly need some exciting young American fighters.
My favourite podcast is back up and running, For some reason Lance “Bigswa” Williams has a silly fascination with the NFL, but he is back with a bang this week, check it out at http://whatchatalkinbout.com/?p=1676 .
It looks like Devon Alexander and Timothy Bradley will go head to head in Alexander’s home town of St. Louis. People need to remember this will not be the first time Bradley has gone into an opponent’s backyard in search of a big fight. Bradley is as old school as it gets these days.
Staying with Timothy Bradley, he has refused to pay the sanctioning fee for the WBC belt in his matchup with Alexander. Well done Desert Storm, if anyone out there can explain to me why Bradley should have to give away part of his purse in order to fight for a trinket he has already been stripped of once, please do so. Oh I forgot to mention should Bradley win the fight, he would be forced to choose between the WBO and WBC trinkets. The WBC are banking on Bradley winning and vacating for a quick easy cash injection. Bradley has just given Sulaiman the two fingered salute that many Boxing fans would like to do themselves. Thanks Tim!
The Ring magazine has decided to raise Pacquiao to number one in the welterweight division after his win over Antonio Margarito last weekend. They feel that the performance in that fight wasn’t worthy of a ranking at 154, so instead elevated him to top spot at 147. Here is the thing, the fight was a 150 catch weight contest fought for a 154 belt. How the hell can a fight for a 154 belt affect the ratings at 147?
Lastly it seems as though Tomasz Adamek has agreed to fight Roy Jones Junior sometime early next year. I hope common sense prevails, as if this happens, Adamek will not just retire him, he will seriously harm his health.
Lets get to the fights
Paul Spadafora takes on Diego Ponce this weekend. Spadafora may not be able to crack an egg but in his prime, he was an amazingly skilled, pure boxer.
Prizefighter is back in the UK but this time it features the Super Featherweights. Choi Tseveenpurev is the early favourite. Choi has been criminally neglected and under-managed since his win over Derry Mathews back in 2008. He has only fought twice since and his age may finally catch up with the Mongolian slugger.
Remember this name: Matt Korobov. He is back this Saturday taking on, well it doesn’t matter what his name his. Korobov is the real deal and in a few fights time I expect him to be tangling with the best at 160, which Paul Williams and Sergio Martinez aside, isn’t exactly hard. Korobov fights on the undercard of a Fox Sports show. If it doesn’t clash with Martinez v Williams 2, I highly suggest you check this man out.
Fernando Guerrero takes on a shop worn Saul Duran who is turning up for a payday. Now, I am a proud co-driver of the Fernando Guerrero bandwagon, but its time he stepped up in class now.
Paul Williams and Sergio Martinez resume their hostilities in this week’s main fight. Fans have been crying out for a rematch between these two since the bell sounded in the twelfth round last December. The only difference is that this time, the Lineal middleweight Championship will be on the line.
Finally, the fans actually get a fight we want and not a load of garbage forced on us like we had last weekend. This is truly a fight in which you can not be 100% sure of picking a winner. If I am honest and you’re more than 60% sure I would call you crazy.
This is a fantastic matchup between two boxers whose styles, despite being completely the opposite of each other, seem to gel perfectly. This will be up there when we come to decide the FOTY for our end of year awards.
This fight will also be discussed when it comes to Fighter of the year. Should Martinez prevail with his Championship, could you honestly say there is someone more deserving of the accolade?
See you all next week.
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