News and Notes and Opinions
-The Errol Spence fight last night was what I thought it would be, a joke. That is not to knock Ocampo, I am always glad to see a guy get a shot and make some money but the promoter and the network should be more careful about the product they put out there. To have such a mismatch as the main event on Showtime and in a beautiful packed arena in Spence’s hometown was disappointing and is what is wrong with the sport. I understand you can not fight killers every time but when you are a world champion you should never fight a 60-1 underdog.
-There are several huge fights that can be made in boxing and Errol Spence vs Terrance Crawford is one of them. Unfortunately it is a fight that I think we will have to wait a little while for because of the usual boxing BS, mostly because they have different promoters who do not want to work with each other. But, I will make a prediction. If they fought right now I would take Crawford. While Spence is the naturally bigger man I think Crawford does everything else better. He also has fought and beat the better competition. Some may disagree and I get it. Its a great fight between two great fighters. In a perfect world they would fight 2-3 times over the next 2 years.
-Another big fight that is much closer to happening is the heavyweight fight between Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder. This is a great fight between two guys in their primes. Let me just say if Anthony Joshua decides to fight Alexander Povetkin, which is his mandatory, before he fights Wilder it may be the dumbest decision in the history of boxing. Povetkin is a dangerous puncher who may be the third best heavy in the world. Joshua would be favored but it is a very risky fight and a loss would ruin the big fight and the life changing career high payday. Now for my prediction and I know I am in the minority here. I am going with Wilder. I know, Joshua has beat better fighters and is technically much superior. This is a gut feeling, mostly because of one thing, Wilders power. Joshua does not move his head a lot, he stands tall with his hands up. He is vulnerable to a jab right hand down the middle as shown in the Klitschko fight. That is Wilders best punch. I go with Wilder by knockout. Hopefully we see this in the fall and in the end the boxing and sports fans win.
-The New York State Athletic Commission continues to hinder boxing anywhere outside of NYC and for anything other than big shows. This is why I call them the New York City Athletic Commission. Other than the normal complaints of incompetence all over that is unfortunately commonplace in most Athletic Commissions across the country because the majority of these are staffed with political appointees and friends of friends. But the insurance demands that went into place a couple years back have made it almost impossible for promoters to put on small local shows. The commission never made it easy for upstate even before because most of them are salary positions and why drive to Albany if they don’t have to. They would not approve fights or opponents for promoters up here and then some weeks later would let a show go on in NYC that was horrid. In a perfect world you would have a small commission based in Albany to help work with upstate promoters and do everything in their power to help promote the sport and work with the people who are much more important than they are (fighters, trainers, managers, promoters, etc).
- Horrible job by Jeff Horn’s trainer in the fight last week. When you have lost every round, have never shown the power to even stun Crawford and are getting beat up it is on your corner to save you, not the ref. Most refs don’t want to jump in when a guy is still fighting back and I understand why. In some ways I give Glenn Rushton (Horns trainer) credit for taking a kid and building him into an Olympian and a World champ. But, when I have never seen you in a corner with any other pro fighters and you’re experience is in martial arts and not boxing that is a huge warning sign to me of incompetence. Credit to Horn for fighting tough but a thumbs down to his trainer for making him prove his toughness way beyond what he should of had to...
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