Stallone fought for Rocky, which went on to produce eight films and multiple Oscar nominations.
Tag: boxing
Manny Pacquiao no longer has my respect
Go ahead and take yourself off the Christmas list, Manny Pacquiao.
The Filipino boxing star, set for his final bout in April, said something incredibly stupid and hateful this past week. By comparing homosexuals and lesbians who come together in same sex marriage to “animals”, Pacquiao quickly went from my favorite boxer to someone I couldn’t care less for. Yeah, it can happen that quick.
Athletes are free to have opinions. Part of what connects them to us. While they are ungodly gifted with a certain talent, they have feelings, beliefs and opinions like the rest of us. If Pacquiao doesn’t belief in same sex marriage, that is fine. PLENTY of people don’t. Hence why it took so long to become a legal thing in the United States of America. When he compares them to animals, he goes to a whole other level. Simply because a man decides to spend their intimate hours with another man, Pacquiao will now classify those two men as animals. (more…)
Amir Khan is a stepping stone for Canelo
On May 7th, The Pride of Mexico, Canelo Alvarez, will take on challenger Amir Khan. I expect this fight to be competitive for 3-4 rounds before Canelo takes over and demolishes Khan.
Here are a few reasons:
First, Canelo is the better fighter and can’t be stopped right now. He has evolved from a mere puncher into something else. A boxer with speed, precision, power and an ability to be patient when the opening bell rings. He has 46 wins, 32 knockouts and has only lost to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in a one sided school session. Canelo may fall again but it won’t be to Khan.
Second, Khan has one real skill and that’s speed. It will work for a few rounds while Canelo sets the table, finds his pace and creates lanes of attack. Once Canelo finds Khan and lands a few hefty shots on that glass jar, the fight will take a turn for the worse. If Lamont Petersen and Danny Garcia had their way with Khan, Canelo won’t find much trouble this May.
It’s not a one sided fight. Khan isn’t a bad fighter and is a the perfect stepping stone for Canelo before his big fall bout with Russian mega puncher Gennady Golovkin, who is undefeated and carries a 99 percent knockout rate into an easy pick up bout this spring. Khan isn’t a pushover for the chamo, but not ultimately someone who carries a real shot of rupturing the Mexican’s future endeavors.
Khan has won a few fights in a row and recently beat STL’s own Devon Alexander, but he steps into a different zone with Canelo. He wanted a payday with a big champ and after getting denied by Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez will invite King Khan to be beaten up and take home a nice paycheck for it.
This May bout is about keeping Canelo warm and showing the boxing fans some class in giving him a worthy opponent for his annual Cinco De Mayo clash. While Khan is worthy, he won’t last past the sixth round. Once the atom bomb fists of Alvarez find him and get in the range, the fight will come to an end. Khan doesn’t back down and has the heart of a lion and each men like to trade so it will quick yet explosive.
While it may not go the distance, fighters like Canelo and Golovkin are bringing back the explosive heyday of boxing. Big hard punching yet smart fighters who are marketable. A Canelo fight may not seem like a must buy to casual fans but he is quickly becoming a highly entertaining fighter and someone who could own the sport by the end of 2016.
Catch his latest step on May 7th.
Canelo Alvarez arrives with Cotto defeat
Two years and change ago, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez succumbed for the only time in his career, to Floyd Mayweather Jr. While his handlers asked him to wait before taking on the best pound for pound boxer in the sport, Canelo didn’t hesitate and lost in honorable fashion. He ate what seemed like 20,000 Floyd jabs and could never break into the vault that Mayweather built over 15 years in the ring.
Saturday night in Las Vegas, Canelo turned the tables and used the exact same strategy on Miguel Cotto. He had become the teacher in the ring. The wiser one. Cotto only landed 129 of over 629 punches, assaulting the thin air more than anything. Canelo was nearly perfect, winning the fight easily and taking the middleweight belt from his challenger.
Say hello to Canelo, boxing fans. This is a name you will want to remember for the next 5-10 years. And at last, it won’t be for his distinct look of red hair, pale skin and freckles. It will be for his dominance in a boxing ring.
The 25 year old took the final step into legitimacy Saturday night when he took down Cotto. For 12 rounds, Canelo frustrated the attacking Cotto and didn’t let the older fighter land his signature hook. It was like a dog chasing a car that never stopped moving yet Canelo didn’t have to run. He threw and landed a punch, pivoted, moved his head and set up his next assault. It marked Canelo’s final test in transitioning from a puncher to a boxer.
Alvarez tagged Cotto at will throughout the fight. He would slip his jab and punish Cotto’s body, like a hammer swinging down at the kidneys. When Cotto got risky and peered in towards Canelo, he was tagged with another jab and Canelo would unleash the hook to the body. There was nothing Cotto could do but take the punishment or risk getting dropped. Nobody got knocked down Saturday night, but Cotto’s career hit the canvas and Canelo’s rose to the rafters.
As 2015 ends, boxing is shifting away from Mayweather Jr. and towards fighters like Canelo and Russian sensation Gennady Golovkin. The future may represent the adventures of true action fighters. Boxers like Canelo and Golovkin prefer action rather than speed racing in a ring. They don’t fire a punch and run away. They fire multiple shots, step forward and throw more. Whenever people tell me boxing is dead, I tell them about Canelo and Gennady. With atom bombs for fists and a will that matches a moving tornado, these two guys will set up what could be the blockbuster fight of 2016.
In May, Gennady Golovkin and Canelo could very well meet and decide who gets to be the new face of the sport. It doesn’t matter who is the pound for pound champ. It doesn’t matter who has the most wins. It matters whose name comes into fight fans minds when the word boxing is uttered within their earshot. Between them, Canelo and Golovkin have 66 knockouts in 82 fights. For people that beg for action in the ring, look no further than these two.
Cotto won’t retire from the sport but his days as a championship contender have been fractured. He enjoyed a late career renaissance under Freddie Roach, but had no idea how to connect with anything sinister on Saturday against Canelo. A great warrior took his final pay per view bow on Saturday. Another is just getting warmed up.
It’s not about his Mexican background and legion of fans. It’s not about his look. It’s about his ability to cut down any style of fighter in the ring with him. Canelo Alvarez has arrived and isn’t moving anytime soon. No longer a novelty, he is an action packed delight that boxing fans, hardcore and casual minded, should know and appreciate today.
Sports, nationalities, multi-tasking and why I watch
Let me get something off my chest…
While I was watching a boxing match Saturday night, a conversation broke out about whether Canelo Alvarez was 100% Mexican or allegedly..maybe..Irish. I don’t know. Something weird. He’s pale and has red hair so what if all albinos with a possible storage of red hair dye are hiding something. Anyway, I digress.
As we were having this glorious conversation, a fight was happening. A boxing match. What I paid 70 dollars to watch.
In case you never watched a boxing match before, fights move fast. They are 12 three minute rounds with a pace that can be strict and without a care in the world for the people’s cash. They are not like football, which has commercials, breaks between quarters, and bigger breaks at halftime for conversation to break out and sponsors to make boatloads of cash. Where people can discuss the action while the players wait and their muscles get cold. Boxing moves at a big clip. Fighters don’t get big breaks. Boxing and MMA athletes smash each other in the face for three minutes at a time, so that is what I want to watch.
For me, I don’t give a fuck where a guy is from when I’m watching him fight. I really don’t. I don’t turn the TV on or pay extra money to watch two guys fight because Miguel Cotto’s nationality is Puerta Rican but he was born in Rhode Island. I don’t care if Alvarez was born in Mexico, speaks Spanish but may have Irish descent because he has red hair.
Once the two fighters step between the ropes, where they are from means little to the outcome. I want to root for a particular fighter not because he is from a certain country or was raised here or there. It’s a great story that Manny Pacquiao is from the Philippines and he helps his country and gives back. That isn’t why I like him. I like him because he gets into that ring, walks forward, and has an intent to hit the other guy in the face often and from many angles. I like Pac because he doesn’t talk shit before a fight. He lets his hands be the judges. I like him because he is a good fighter, not because he is a weird eccentric Filipino who likes to have a concert after he is done fighting.
Same for football, hockey, and baseball. Any sport. Once they step on the field or the ice, it doesn’t matter where they are from, at least not for me. Sell papers elsewhere. Maybe during the Olympics or World Cup, where players from each country come together and compete. Yeah, maybe. Then again, I don’t watch them that much.
I watch boxing, baseball, football and hockey for the action that takes place inside the ring, field or 200 feet of ice. Why else would you watch it? Why debate something that has little to do with the event at hand? If they are running for political office, go ahead. If it is sports, who cares?
What makes Canelo Alvarez a great boxer and future superstar is his ability inside the ring. What sells posters and t-shirts will be his distinct look. The red hair, pale skin, and sharp Mexican accent. Casual fans and media eat that shit up. Guys want hair dye and girls want to fuck him. It sells papers and pushes it along. What will carve his name in the great history of boxing is his ability to fight 47 times and only lose once, knocking out over 30 of those opponents. What will make him great is beating championship level fighters like Austin Trout, Esalandry Lara and Cotto. What makes him great is packing Minute Maid Park in May and demolishing James Kirkland in the third round and having the audience cheer even though they just paid 100 bucks to watch a fight last less than 9 minutes. What will make him a great boxer will have little to do with his nationality or look. This isn’t a boy band. It’s fighting.
Canelo may be Irish but that isn’t why I want to watch him fight.
Saturday wasn’t the first time I heard this, nor will it be the last so don’t take it personally. Just listen and digest a healthy opinion. Sometimes, you just have to get things off your chest. So feelings don’t get hurt and clarity is found.
By the way, when it comes to multi-tasking, I’m the fucking master! I clean my home daily(dishes, floors and everything else), sometimes seven times a day. I do that while doing ALL the laundry and cooking most of the meals. I do all of that while writing 3-4 articles a day that I DON’T get paid for, in addition to two others that I do get paid for. I do that while watching over a four year old rambunctious boy 24/7/365 for the past year save two months. I do all of that while being a good husband to a Wonder Woman type hard working wife and staying in great shape at 33 years old. I do all of this while watching A SHIT ton of TV and actively social networking. That makes me the motherfucking MASTER of multi-tasking!
End of rant-DLB
This is how I feel right now…….
I think Matt Lauria is American but let me ask him on Twitter.
Cotto vs. Canelo: Clash of the Titans
Saturday night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Miguel Cotto and Canelo Alvarez will produce the fight of the year. These aren’t boxers who train for six weeks only to run around a ring for twelve rounds. They carry the intent to let their hands go once the bell dings. They carry the intent to wage war on each other. It won’t be a matter of who is ahead on points at the end of the fight. It will be who is merely standing.
Each fighter is known for never backing down from a tough opponent. They don’t take easy fights. Look at their losses and the best of the best, Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr., are the only people able to stop them within the laws of a boxing ring.
This fight brings together two furiously passionate boxing countries, Puerto Rico and Mexico. Cotto, the 35 year old four time champion who calls the PR powered New York his stomping ground, is fighting to stay in the big fight business. Alvarez, 25, the Mexican pale white red headed superstar, is looking to retire the older fighter and take ownership of his now vacant(Cotto forfeited it this week due to not paying a sanctioning fee) WBC title belt. This isn’t just about belts, blood and battles. This is about legacy.
Since he rediscovered his lost touch in the ring with trainer Freddie Roach, Cotto has been a different boxer, going 3-0 with two stoppages and a knockout. A man possessed in the ring, sending Sergio Martinez to his retirement party early. Canelo is fresh off bashing brawler James Kirkland in Houston, surprising many by vanquishing him in the third round with ease. In a fight that many saw as a fist willed test, Canelo produced his most impressive result to date by knocking Kirkland out cold.
Canelo has superstar written all over him. He carries a record of 45-1-1, with 32 knockouts supporting that win total. The only loss coming to Mayweather Jr. two years ago. Cotto, 40-4 with 33 knockouts, is coming off an impressive win over Daniel Geale in June. He is 3-0 with Roach and looking to extend his career with a win over Canelo.
Why is this fight going to be sensational? Styles make fights and this is a perfect matchup of two sluggers. Cotto and Alvarez can box and move their head enough to extend a fight, but they aren’t known for taking steps backwards in a ring. They move forward, hunt, peck, and work until the opponent is surrounded. They unleash vigorous combinations that don’t just get their opponents attention. They stun the nervous system. They are each known for their vicious hooks and the ability to crash the body with assault. They aren’t street brawlers, but far from defensive strategists. Most boxers devise a game plan that keeps them safe in the ring while securing victory. These two guys have no such plans. They will go out on their sword before fighting a conservative match.
Do yourself a favor and don’t worry about the belt drama. Miguel Cotto didn’t want to pay a ridiculous fee to have the WBC sanction his belt in the fight, so he gave it up. They want him to also pay an 800K step aside fee to Gennady Golovkin. If Canelo wins, he gets the belt. If Cotto wins, the belt goes to Golovkin, the opponent for the winner of this fight. It’s all a murky mess, outside the ring boxing politics that shouldn’t concern fight fans. It doesn’t affect the average boxing fan who has what belt going into the ring Saturday night.
Know this. This is going to be the fight of the year. All other fights will pale in comparison. It’s not one sided or easy to call. It won’t be boring. Will Canelo use his newfound boxing expertise to keep distance between him and Cotto for him to land his big shots? Can Cotto use his veteran skill to break into the areas of the ring where Canelo feels are his? Who lands the big shots? Who gets hurt first? While Canelo is a favorite to win in the Vegas books, the outcome is not so easy to determine due to the skill set of these two true boxers. One could think Canelo, ten years younger, is simply too much for Cotto, who is prone to wearing down late in a fight. The other may think Canelo isn’t seasoned enough to take down a never better Cotto.
Between these two fighters, there are 65 knockouts. Only five losses, all to championship level fighters. Each fighter has a chip on their shoulder. Something to prove. This could be Cotto’s last big title fight. A chance to stay in the spotlight. This is Canelo’s opportunity to seize the moment and finally equal the hype that has surrounded him his entire career. Outside the ring, two countries known for facing off against each other over the brutal sport of boxing, will look on in amazement at their best products take aim at each other in the ring.
This is an exciting fight. Go watch it. Watch it with boxing lovers. Admirers of the sweet science and people who miss the good old days. A time where two men met in a ring to fight and left the politics to the suits outside of it. They don’t make them like Cotto and Canelo anymore and you won’t see many fights like this one. These are the fights many promoters stay away from because of the unpredictability of it all.
Tonight in Las Vegas, two warriors meet in the ring. Only one can make it out. One will win. One will lose. If a draw occurs, the ring will need scrubbing. Saturday night will be a good night for boxing.
Gennady Golovkin will make you love boxing again
Ask any casual boxing fan on the street and they will tell you the sport is losing steam. It’s getting boring, doesn’t have the allure it used to, or lacks stars. Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao are getting old and Andre Ward doesn’t seem to be too interested in fighting. The heavyweight division is dead. Canelo Alvavez is an exciting talent but needs to beat Miguel Cotto to regain world dominance again. For my money, Gennady Golovkin is going to bring boxing back and he will do it one knockout at a time. This weekend, at Madison Square Garden in New York City, Golovkin will face his stiffest test in Montreal’s David Lemieux, a fellow power puncher with knockout power. A pair of middlweights clashing like a pair of trains on a lit up track.
For all the people who don’t like seeing two boxers step into a ring and dance around each other while throwing harmless jabs and complacent hooks, meet this Russian tank. He’s got hammers for fists and he likes action packed fights. He likes action packed fights so much that he will resist knocking his opponent out so he can give the fans a better fight. A longer bout. How about that? GGG, as fans and analysts call him, will take a few punches to enliven the audience. He will take a shot, smile at the opponent as if the love tap wasn’t hard enough and then unleash a few thunderous shots of his own.
The best boxers have the ability to cut off the ring. Make the square shrink and seem like a tight phone booth instead of an open ring. The best boxers cut it off and then attack with a vengeance when their prey is stuck in the trap. That’s what Golovkin does in his fights. He stalks his prey around the ring and gets them into a corner, where he attacks the head and the body. He has knocked opponents out before with a single body shot to their kidneys or a dynamic combination to their head. He’s the train that rips across the tracks that fighters don’t see coming. If Floyd put you to sleep with his slow boiling ring routine, Gennady is going to pull you out of your seat when he goes to work. On the Road to Golovkin-Lemieux on HBO this past week, GGG put it bluntly. “You have dance. Or you fight. I prefer action.” So do we.
The most appreciative fan of the sweet science will admit that a power puncher is fun to watch. The glory days of Mike Tyson knocking people out before they knew where they were at is sexy and something that was missing before Golovkin showed up pitying the fools who got into a ring and locked horns with him. Golovkin has the highest knockout percentage at 90.9 in middleweight championship history and that includes over 300 fights, both professional and amateur. He has 30 knockouts in 33 professional wins with no losses. He has never been knocked down, showing the ability to have a jawline comprised more of porcelain than glass. He isn’t a flash in the pan yet a real deal that will be realized completely when he sends Lemieux to the canvas Saturday night in the Big Apple.
With no disrespect to the Montreal native, I don’t think Lemieux knows what he is getting into with GGG. It’s like expecting a few inches of snow and getting slammed by an avalanche. Lemieux can say that Golovkin hasn’t tasted the kind of shots he can deliver, but that coin can be flipped the other way. He hasn’t tasted Gennady’s power and that’s the dangerous part. Did I mention that Gennady Golovkin has knocked out 20 straight opponents since he joined up with Abel Sanchez in 2010.
Here’s an example. Marco Antonio Rubio beat Lemieux four years ago. Golovkin knocked Rubio out in the second round a year ago. After the fight, Golovkin called out Cotto to no avail. He knocked out Martin Murray in the 10th round and Willie Moore Jr. in the sixth round after a third knockdown forced Moore to shake his head to the referee, who stopped the fight. Golovkin has destroyed the same opponents who either gave Lemieux a tough time or beat him.
On Saturday night, Golovkin is going to officially coin himself as the pound for pound champion in boxing. He isn’t the next best thing. He is the thing right now in boxing that shouldn’t be missed. If you can’t buy the fight this weekend, go somewhere and watch it. Don’t wait for the replay. It’s better than any action movie in theaters and worth watching. The greatest boxers appeal to hardcore fans, casual fans and people who don’t even like the sport. When you watch Golovkin work, it’s hard to keep your eyes off him. He’s truly something else and he’s quickly taking over the sport.
Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s final fight: What We Learned
There’s nothing in life that leaves a worse taste in your mouth than being swindled out of your hard earned cash. Of course, if you were dumb enough to hand it over to something so mildly promising, the joke is on you.
The promo reel for Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Andre Berto fighting in Las Vegas Saturday night promised something special. What paying customers got was a snoozefest. Same as it ever was with a Mayweather fight.
Here are five things we learned about Mayweather Jr.’s supposed “final” ride-
- Mayweather Jr. picked an easy final ride. For his 49th win, Floyd picked a guy who had lost 3 of his last 6 fights. Embarrassing for a so called pound for pound champ.
- The clinic for getting beat by Floyd isn’t rocket science. Berto leans his head in and Mayweather Jr. pounds him with jabs. Berto isn’t fast enough. When Berto tries to land something heavy, he misses and Floyd lands 3-4 counter shots. Snooze.
- Boxing is greedy. 65 dollars for that. Hold up. One can only hope the sport follows the UFC and gives back some of its earnings to the sport and its younger generation and development systems.
- The chances of Floyd fighting again are very good but not so good for a rematch against Manny Pacquiao.
- A lot of boxing fans were lost this weekend because they paid for this fight.
Sometimes you spend money on that shiny toy that looks good in the packaging only to find it fall apart when the bands are cut and the wrapping is thrown in the trash. Boxing didn’t die Saturday night. It just didn’t grow.
The best thing about it. The sport’s big villain may finally be done. That’s also the worst thing. Boxing may have lost its most interesting “must beat” participant.
Mayweather Jr./Berto match isn’t worth your money
Spare yourself the 65 dollars tonight’s boxing match between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Andre Berto will cost you. It’s not worth it. It’s not worth anybody’s cash or time. Call it a snoozefest and something you can merely read about later on during your morning coffee on Sunday or gently forget about.
For his “supposed” last fight, Floyd is picking a fighter who used to be good but has lost 3 of his last 6 fights. Not a pretender but definitely not a contender to take away Mayweather’s flawless record. Berto is simply no match for Floyd, a superior defensive fighter and a man known for aggravating and picking apart offensive punchers like Berto. In order to obtain his 49th win, Floyd bypassed Amir Khan, Danny Garcia and Keith Thurman so he could sleepwalk over Berto. It’s disgusting and laughable.
It doesn’t help that a report was released this week showing Mayweather Jr. took an illegal IV injection before the Manny Pacquiao fight, a match that the Filipino champion also wasn’t completely healthy for. It’s a swipe of dirt on Mayweather Jr. that will only anger his detractors even more and promise few people care or watch this fight. It was a mix of saline and vitamins but it may as well have been salt and pepper because the amount he took was over the limit and it was before a big fight. If the claims that it was used for dehydration are the raft Floyd and company are floating on, I am not buying it. It’s sketchy, crap and suggests that Mr. Clean Mayweather Jr. may be anything but. It doesn’t matter what the USADA says either. The amount of fluids Mayweather Jr. took was against what WADA(the rules that which the USADA follows) allows before a fight.
This is greedy dealings. If Floyd wanted to give back to boxing or help the sport, he could have made this fight a non Pay Per View fight. He’s made more money than any man can possibly spend and could have made his exit a true fan favorite event. The opponent he picked isn’t exciting enough to make a sleepy styled fighter like Floyd interesting enough to pay big money for. After the disappointment that came with the Pacquiao fight, handing over cash for a Mayweather-Berto match is pointless. Save the money and take your husband or wife out for a wonderful steak dinner. Boxing doesn’t deserve your attention tonight.
Raw and Honest “Southpaw” told from inside out
(In case you missed it on KSDK)
Take everything away from us, and we are flesh, bone, blood and all that we have created. Antoine Fuqua’s gritty boxing flick is told from the inside out, and he accomplishes that by starting with the human frailty of the modern fighter. Southpaw may look familiar but it’s something different. The intense B-side track to Rocky.
Jake Gyllenhaal(the fearless actor can’t miss right now) is Billy Hope, and the fight opens with preparations for Hope’s 43rd fight. He’s unbeaten, but that doesn’t include facial scarring, potential brain damage and visceral shock to the upper body. His wife, the beautiful yet tough Moureen(Rachel McAdams, evolving as an actress with every role) can see the toll being stacked on top of her family, which includes the couple’s adolescent daughter. Hope wins the fight, takes a beating and may walk away before the brutal shock of life stuns him and takes everything away from him. If you haven’t seen the trailer, good for you but this film will fake the left to the head and hit you in the kidneys with an uppercut you never saw coming.
Instead of just going all Rocky and showing us the comeback trail of Hope from the gutters to the ropes, Fuqua and screenwriter Kurt Sutter(the maestro of Sons of Anarchy) beat the soul of Hope senseless first. Stripped of everything, the fighter has to be reborn. Is this like Mark Wahlberg’s The Fighter? Is it a modern Rocky? Yes on both counts, but more brutal. Those fighters didn’t have it as tough as Hope and that sets Southpaw apart and gives this seemingly conventional drama fresh legs in the cinematic ring. (more…)
Dose of Buffa 