Analyzing Pacquiao vs Rios

rios673433(Photo Credit: Top Rank/Chris Farina) Brandon Rios was chosen for a reason tonight. The pay per view welterweight feature fight in Macau, China is a chance for Manny Pacquiao to rebound his career against an opponent that is designed for him to win and win big. At his best, 2009 to 2010, Pacquiao absolutely demolishes Brandon Rios with relative ease minus the occasional hard connect. This fight has shades of his destruction of Ricky Hatton and his dominant and punishing decision over Antonio Margarito. Margarito of course was trained by Robert Garcia who will once again attempt to lead his fighter over Manny Pacquiao and his trainer Freddie Roach.

When a major pay per view event is announced usually the gut feeling is the correct feeling as most of these pay per view events have not been much of a mystery at announcement.  Then the hype machine gets put in motion and the fight begins to get closer in perception as people either become convinced it’s a good fight or they want it to be a good fight and over think the outcome too much.  After the dust settles and the outcome has been decided the same people lash out in disappointment and feel robbed by the expensive pay per view price they paid for a fight that they “foresaw” when it was first signed despite getting wrapped into the prefight emotions.  When Top Rank Promotions announced that Manny Pacquiao’s next fight would be against the former lightweight titlist Brandon Rios the gut feeling was this fight is a mismatch. 

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Carl Froch vs. George Groves Hours Away: Who Wins?

froch126Who wins Froch-Groves?

A few weeks ago, I would’ve confidently picked Carl Froch by early to mid rounds KO. Now, I’m not so sure – but I’m still leaning towards the Cobra.

Groves has done a fantastic job of getting under the champion’s skin; refusing to play the respectful ‘happy to get my opportunity against a great champion’ role and consistently confronting the WBA/IBF belt holder with a series of flaws – or ‘truths’, as Groves likes to call them – that he has found in the Cobra’s résumé.

Froch, for his part, has largely tried to play the cool champion who isn’t fazed by a disrespectful young upstart. He hasn’t carried the act well though, and at times has seemed irritated by Groves’ ability to calmly analyze his words and turn them cleverly against him. It’s fair to say that Groves has got the better of Froch in the pre-fight bickering that is so much a part of the psychological battle in a big fight.

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Team Wilder open letter to Team Fury

deontay32 - Copy (2)Tyson, I know you are frustrated with the whole Haye situation. You are a top heavyweight with top people behind you. You want to fight the best and have always stepped up to the plate. Forget retirement. You have a long and bright future in front of you.

We at Team Wilder understand. We believe you and Deontay are the two best young heavyweights in the World and a fight between the two of you would put true heavyweight boxing back on top. We want to make this happen. This is the single biggest heavyweight fight that can be made now and the fans deserve it. You deserve it. Deontay deserves it.

You both should be paid accordingly and in line with the magnitude of the event. Every single person or corporation that would have attended, bought pay per view, sponsored, advertised or otherwise supported you vs. Haye would jump on board for you vs. Wilder.

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Boxing: Five Memorable “Psych Jobs”

leonard4637Boxing is an inherently psychological undertaking. It is an activity that exposes the contestants to far more than the simple prospect of defeat: the potential combination of public humiliation and genuine physical harm percolate in a fighter’s mind to a degree that few who have not lived the experience can reasonably quantify. Far from being a mere test of physical skills then, boxing is perhaps one of the purest tests of human will power. Some of the biggest contests in boxing history have therefore been won or lost through cunning, bravery and fortitude as much as they have speed, strength and stamina.

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Pacquiao vs. Rios: The Macau Massacre

pac93623This Saturday night which will be Sunday morning Macau time, Manny Pacquiao attempts to climb back on the horse that bucked him and ride that thing in to the sunset of his career.

The man that will be across the ring from Pacquiao is Brandon “Bam Bam” Rios, who’s full steam ahead style has everyone outside the Rios camp thinking this fight will be a one sided beat down not in his favor, and entertaining as hell while it lasts.

Can Manny bounce back from the nightmare that still lingers from his fourth encounter with the Mexican legend Juan Manuel Marquez?

Can Rios clip Manny with a fight changing punch making him an overnight star in the boxing world?

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Has Freddie Roach’s plan backfired?

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Manny Pacquiao’s hall of fame trainer Freddie Roach would have liked nothing better than to see dissension in the ranks at Camp Rios. Freddie hoped the likelihood of that happening would increase dramatically with the addition of Alex Ariza to the team. Freddie made headlines when he fired Ariza from the Pacman team. Freddie explained Ariza was a disruption to training activities, a troublemaker who couldn’t get along with anyone.

An interesting point about this whole mess seemed to be that Manny expressed no dissatisfaction with Ariza; although, he did feel he had to honor Freddie’s wish and agree to Ariza’s dismissal. Therefore, Ariza got the heave ho. Soon after, Ariza latched on to the job of training Brandon Rios for his big fight against Pacquiao. When Freddie got the news, he apparently thought (and hoped) Ariza would have a disruptive influence with the Rios Team.

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Roach and Alex Ariza Make Pacquiao vs. Rios a Personal Affair, Adding Fuel To The Fight

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By now, most boxing fans have already heard of, or seen the video where Freddie Roach gets kicked by Alex Ariza in the midst of Roach arguing with multiple members of camp Rios over gym time.

The scuffle was aggressive in nature, with not only name calling, but race as well as Roach’s Parkinson’s disease used as verbal weapons. Alex Ariza went farther than most would, not only kicking Freddie Roach but also mimicking his speech stutter.

Roach and Ariza never worked together in harmony, and their professional relationship also ended in a bad fashion. Words were said, and there was an abundance of finger-pointing coming from both sides.

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Tyson vents his Fury: announces his retirement from boxing!

fury5333Remember when, after his awesome KO win over Michael Spinks, an upset Mike Tyson told the media at the post-fight press conference that he may well have fought his last fight and was retiring due to his general disgust at the way the media types had treated him? Of course Tyson never meant it, even if he was angry at the time.

Well, another fellow named Tyson who has not been altogether happy lately, namely Tyson Fury, has also announced his “retirement” from boxing. The word retirement has the speech marks surrounding it because no-one really believes or takes seriously the announcement Fury has made via Twitter, yet who knows for absolutely sure?

Fury, no doubt disgusted at his big money fight with rival British heavyweight David Haye having been cancelled twice, wrote:

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Froch vs. Groves: The Case for George Groves

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In the lead up to what promises to be a classic contest, George Groves has been impressive. In fact it’s hard to think of a fighter imbued with as much self belief and confidence as he is right now. It is even more impressive when you consider he is about to step into the ring in the biggest and most important fight of his life in front of a packed Manchester Arena with millions more watching on pay per view against as formidable opponent as Carl Froch.

Groves believes he can win this fight and so do I. He believes he has the attributes to do so and so do I.
 
What are those attributes?
 
Terrific handspeed and accuracy: power (15 KOs in a 19 fight unbeaten record tells no lies): excellent lateral movement: the ability to throw shots from different angles: ring awareness: the discipline to box to a gameplan, as demonstrated against James De Gale when he defeated him over 12 rounds in 2011. Perhaps most important of all, he is superb when boxing off the back foot.

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Rashidi Ellis: An Up and Coming Prospect

1375167_10200509196631749_1475797657_nThe up and coming orthodox welterweight pugilist, “Speedy” Rashidi Ellis is one of the best prospects to come out of New England in the last couple of years and his outstanding amateur success has him poised to accomplish significant achievements in the near future.

“I`ll be a world champion in a couple of years because I`m extremely confident in all my skills especially my speed and defense which is good enough to compete with anyone and with additional fights, I`m only going to get better,“ said Ellis.

Ellis is getting a great deal of publicity due to his stellar amateur success. He recorded an impressive 60-11 record against really good competition. This year, he won a Silver Medal at the Independent Cup in the Dominican Republic, losing a close bout to Cuba`s Roniel Iglesias, a gold medalist in the 2012 Summer Olympics.

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