Boxing

 

Looking Ahead at the Fights this Week

By Grey Johnson

01.08 - The heavyweight division is a near total disaster. There, I said it. After watching ten boring rounds of Ruiz-Johnson a few nights ago, I came to an obvious conclusion: both Ruiz and Johnson were the loser of that fight. Here we see Ruiz begging for respect from his peers in the boxing world, but yet he decided to take the easy way out of the fight by taking advantage of Johnson's tentativeness. The fact is, Ruiz had Johnson clearly hurt for once in the fight. Instead of trying to extend his lead on the scorecards, he decided to fold after being hit on the beltline. Ruiz is still and will always be a paper champion, his style is the most boring thing to watch on television, and he's the world's biggest hypocrite when he called Lewis a "girl". Meanwhile, Kirk Johnson was driving me insane. He could have easily outboxed Ruiz for twelve rounds by just pumping out his jab, but he was too inactive to take advantage. The fact is that Ruiz cannot box at all on the outside. I remember one round where Johnson was boxing correctly, and Ruiz threw eleven punches! It doesn't take a much to beat Ruiz. That's why I think Holyfield is going to get the job done in the forth fight.

Seriously, this is proof that the heavyweight division is going to hell. Other than Lewis and Wlad, who do you have? Chris Byrd...I like him, but it seems nobody else does. David Tua? Yeah he has power, but he can be outboxed. Vitali? Well...I'd pick him over Ruiz. When John Ruiz and a 40 year old Evander Holyfield (who is still a warrior, I'll give him that) can be considered top contenders, well, things are not looking good. John Ruiz can parade around with his management team and Don King and claim he deserves a shot at Lewis, but we can see right through it. John Ruiz did nothing to deserve his original status as #1 contender, he did nothing to deserve keeping his title against Holyfield in the third fight, and he did nothing against Kirk Johnson to deserve a shot at the real heavyweight champion of the world.

On a lighter note, props of the week goes to Timmy Austin. He saved we from a meltdown with an awesome performance against an extremely tough Adan Vargas. Austin, who I believe is the most mismanaged fighter in boxing, put on a terrific show for ten rounds. It's hard to believe he's 31 years old, considering the amount of years he's been a professional boxer. Austin would easily be a top ten PFP fighter if he were more active. Right now, I think he's tied with Wonjonkam for the best at Bantamweight, just because Wonjonkam has been extremely active, and has fought as good of competition as Austin has.

Oh yeah, I think I'm a believer in the "touch of sleep" now.

The Grey Johnson Silver Turkey of the Week goes to Jim Gray. Am I the only one that thinks this guy is the biggest jerk on two feet in boxing? I wanted to punch him in the face after his arrogant interview with Elmo Adolph. I think the fact that he needs to lecture everybody in sight is the think I hate most about him. Adolph make a lot of mistakes that night, but letting Jim Gray open his mouth and waste everybody's time was the biggest one.

Ok...I think I feel better now. Let's look at the upcoming fights:

Miguel Cotto (10-0) vs. Carlos Ramirez (19-5)

Cotto is the best fighter to come out of the class of 2000, with Abdulaev coming in second. Ramirez is as good as Juuko was, so Cotto shouldn't have a difficult night. Pick Cotto to win by knockout in the middle rounds.

Scott Pemberton (24-2-1) vs. Charles Brewer (37-9)

Charles Brewer returns from his loss against Joe Calzage against Scott Pemberton, fresh off a pair of easy wins. Pemberton's downfall in the past has been his chin, and Brewer is a good enough fighter to take advantage of that. If you want to look in the opposite direction, Brewer's chin let him down against Echols, and Pemberton has enough skills to make this battle very interesting. Both guys are near the end of their primes, so they both want this win very bad to get into a title picture. I will take Brewer by knockout.

Richie Lamontagne (26-4-1) vs. Michael Bennett (9-2)

Wooooah, who let Bennett back on television??? The glass jaw of the Olympic team makes his return against the experienced Richie Lamontagne. Lamontagne is the type of fighter to falters when he steps up in class, but Bennett may have been blessed with the world's worst chin. I'm thinking Lamontagne by knockout, no doubt.

Lawrence Clay-Bey (15-1) vs. Brian Nix (17-8)

Nice, one of the most underrated heavyweights in back in action. Clay-Bey may FINALLY stay active for a while and get some respect that he deserves. Nix has pulled a nice winning streak together recently, but he only has 3 KO's. Little power like that isn't going to faze Clay-Bey. I would take Clay-Bey by an easy decision. Oh yeah, Clay-Bey W12 Ruiz. Seriously. He can outhusle him. I mean it. Please, don't look at me like that!

Acelino Freitas (31-0) vs. Daniel Attah (20-0-1)

Let's see...Power puncher + world class fighter + not as good contender = mid round ko for Freitas
Should be an easy fight for Freitas. Now is it time to give Casamayor a rematch?

Antwun Echols (28-4-1) vs. Richard Grant (14-8)

Again...Power puncher + world class fighter + not as good contender = mid round ko for Echols
Grant may have been able to outbox James Butler, but Echols is much better fight. Anyways, Kabary Salem tired that, and he failed.

Michael Grant (33-2) vs. Robert Davis (27-4)

Hmmm....Grant takes an important step up against Davis. One thing I always notice about Davis is that he is easy to knockout in the first two rounds. His chin is always decent after that. Strange. Grant can beat him, but he better not get caught like Muriqi, because he won't recover.

Alexander Munoz (22-0) vs. Eiji Kojima (7-1)

Why is a 7-1 fighter getting a title shot? Only the WBA.

OTHER FIGHTERS IN ACTION THIS WEEK: Ivan Calderon, Kelly Pavlik, Tontcho Tontchev, Luis Villalta, Jose Luis Castillo, Juan Carlos Ramirez

Peace.

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