Preview
Ray Beltran- Jose Pedraza Lightweight World Title Saturday Night ESPN
-Very interesting fight between two veteran solid fighters. Even though this is a title fight I don’t think either guy is one of the top 3 or 4 lightweights in the world but that does not matter. They are both skilled and most importantly are evenly matched in my opinion. Pedraza is a former world champ at 130 who, after losing to Gervonta Davis, has moved up to 135 and won two straight. Beltran is a true veteran who gained a reputation by being one of Manny Pacquaio’s chief sparring partners for years. He has had some tough breaks in his career but has been on a roll since his last loss which was to Terrance Crawford. He has won 6 in a row against solid competition and finally won a world title. He is a guy who can punch and box and is very slick with his defense and a very good counterpuncher. He picked up a ton of tricks by sparring with the best in the world for so long and he uses them in the ring. I really love watching him fight because he is old school in his approach and just knows how to fight, mostly using good counterpunching and the type of defense where he will stand in front of you but still make himself hard to hit.
Prediction-
I like both fighters and could see a scenario where Pedraza could pull off the upset. He’ll have to box a perfect fight and hope Beltran has slipped a little which is a possibility because Beltran has had a lot of tough fights in the ring and in the gym. But I have to go with Beltran. Pedraza’s last fight was very entertaining and was a good win for Pedraza but he got hit a little bit too much for my taste. Beltran can punch a little and once he figures you out and gets in a rhythm he is tough. Beltran by Unanimous Decision in a good, competitive fight early and RB will pull away in the later rounds.
Opinions, news and notes
-If you are in the mood for a good read I have been through numerous solid boxing books over the past year or two. I just finished “The Lost Soul of Eammonn Magee”. Magee was a solid junior welterweight contender from Northern Ireland who fought Ricky Hatton, dropped him and gave him a very good fight when Hatton was at his best. His struggles with drugs and alcohol and also growing up Catholic during the “Troubles’ in Northern Ireland are all talked about at length in this book along of course with his boxing career. I highly recommend it. The second book is “Nigel Benn: The Dark Destroyer”. Benn was a super middleweight champion from England in the 80’s up through the 90’s. His war with Gerald Mcclellan and the tragedy of that fight is what he will be remembered for but he had many exciting good fights and an overall interesting life. Good, solid book. The third book is “The Fighting Frenchman” which is the biography of 70’s heavyweight contender Scott Ledoux. Very interesting book which goes over his early life, his very solid boxing career and his battles with ALS which ultimately took his life. Those are the first three but I will write about others in the next couple weeks.
-It looks like we are about to have a big heavyweight title fight in America this November or December. Undefeated WBC heavyweight champ Deontay Wilder is set to fight undefeated former heavyweight champion Tyson Fury.. This is a very interesting fight for many reasons. Mostly because they are two very good heavyweights and also because Fury really knows how to sell a fight and is a total character. Ideally I would like to see Fury get another fight or two under his belt after his three year layoff but credit to him for having the guts to do this after only two wins in his comeback. I watched his ten round decision win last week against Francesco Pianeta and I thought he looked pretty good. I would’ve liked to see him get the KO but he boxed very well, showing angles, good combination punching and good defense. It doesn’t always look pretty but he is very athletic for a big man ( 6 feet 9 and 250 pounds) and is a guy who is very difficult to fight even though at times it looks like it should be easy work. He also has extreme confidence which helps at the top level. Wilder’s asset is obviously his huge power but he also has a good jab and the heart of a lion which he showed in his last fight against Luis Ortiz. I am leaning right now towards Wilder by late rounds KO but I can definitely see scenarios where Fury could outbox him. Looking forward to this fight.
-Another heavyweight contender fought last week on ESPN and looked pretty good. Bryant Jennings stopped Alexander Dimitrenko in the 10th of a good solid scrap. Jennings controlled most of the fight although he did take a good right hand and got dropped early. Look for Jennings to get a big fight next, depending on who it is I am not sure if he will win but he will always be in shape and give a solid effort. Also on the card super middleweight contender Jesse Hart scored his third straight knockout win since his close loss for the title against Gilberto Ramirez by easily stopping Mike Gavronski. Hart is really pushing for a rematch with Ramirez and it looks like he may get it. Since they fought Ramirez has had a couple average performances, doing enough to win but nothing spectacular. Hart on the other hand has really looked good and seems to be on a mission. If they fight again I will go with Hart to get his revenge and win a world title by knocking out Gilberto Ramirez.
-As great as it has been to get big time boxing back on cable TV with ESPN showing exciting world title fights I have one big problem. The announcing team is horrible. Tim Bradley was a great fighter but that does not always translate to being able to explain it well. Andre Ward, who is an excellent expert commentator is stuck in the studio only talking in between fights when he should be ringside doing Bradley’s job. Mark Kriegell is a journalist whose knowledge of boxing is very limited and almost just sounds like a casual fan trying to explain what is going on. And Joe Tessitore is the worst of the three. Thankfully they got rid of Stephen A Smith in the studio who I cringed listening to. There is nothing more dangerous than ignorance in action and Smith encompassed that when he talked boxing. He was totally clueless when it comes to boxing but spoke and acted like he was some kind of expert. He would just be totally incorrect on so many different things and when you have a huge audience watching on ESPN that is dangerous because most fans, especially casual ones, listen and think you know what you are talking about. ESPN should be able to do better with their announcing crew and hopefully they will soon.
-There is still a lot of talk about a potential super fight between 135 pound world champion Mikey Garcia and 147 pound champion Errol Spence. Some people I have spoken with think Garcia is crazy to move up two weight divisions to fight one of the most avoided fighters of our generation. I am not one of them. I think this is a very good competitive fight. I think Spence wins but it will not be easy and good for Garcia to dare to be great which is an attitude that is sorely lacking in many of todays top fighters. You have to remember , up until the last 30 or 40 years if you were a lightweight world champ you had no choice but to move up to 147 pounds because there was no 140 pound weight class. Roberto Duran went from 135 to 147 and beat Sugar Ray Leonard. Carmen Basilio moved to 160 from 147 and beat Sugar Ray Robinson and he weighed in at 151 and gave up 9 pounds when they fought. Weight was not nearly as important to people years ago. Before there were so many (too many in my opinion) weight divisions fighters routinely moved up 10-15 pounds to try for another word title. So basically what Garcia is looking to do is not unprecedented and he should be given a ton of credit if it does happen. And he is such a special complete fighter that I think the chance for an upset is real although I do not think likely. Spence is also a special fighter and a good big man usually beats a good little man. If I have one criticism of Spence it is his level of competition. Going to England and stopping Kell Brook was very impressive but other than that he has not beaten a very high level of fighters, at least not any on the level of where he is at. Hopefully they sign the Garcia fight and it can be the start of watching Spence fight top level comp for the next 10 years.
