Mayweather vs. Canelo: “He Did What??”

MayweatherWorkout4Alvarez_Hoganphotos3It’s likely happened to one or more of us at some point.

You’ve made your purchase and you’re already within steps of your car. Suddenly….you are hit with an epiphany which is just as brutally effective as Floyd’s lead right. You then realize that it’s too late. All purchases are final. You can’t instigate a return and you can’t hit the back button. It’s yours or at the very least, it has your name on it.

Saturday night’s boxing buffet was coined “The One”. We’ll see unified super welterweight world champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez face undefeated eight-time, five-division world champion Floyd “Money” Mayweather. Nice. The MGM Grand Garden Arena will open from end to end for the weigh in alone. When it’s in the bag, Floyd will likely tell us that he’s focused, hungry and beyond ready. That’s livable. Will he still claim it’s all part of the “Mayweather Experience”?

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Mayweather-Alvarez: Could “The One” End In A Draw?

Mayweather and CaneloMost experts are agreed: tomorrow night’s Floyd Mayweather-Saul Alvarez fight will go the distance and Mayweather will win. But could “The One” wind up being a draw? Of course it COULD, but will it?

Gabriel Montoya started the ball rolling with suggestions that the hugely hyped fight could end in a draw (adding that a draw could well be worth a bet) and quite recently, there has indeed been talk of big money being placed on the draw, this action sending the odds tumbling down to something like 10/1. Golden Boy legend Bernard Hopkins has also gone on record as stating how a draw would not surprise him.

Maybe.

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Mayweather vs. Canelo: The numbers game

Mayweather and CaneloThe boxing business like all industries is about the numbers. All week we have heard a lot of numbers thrown around from everyone involved in the promotion for this super fight.

Numbers for the record breaking gate and closed circuit tickets sold. The number of screens the fight will be broadcasting in theatre’s nationwide. 44-0 vs. 42-0. And of course the holy grail for boxing being 2.5 million buys generating over 130 million dollars in revenue off the PPV alone.

When all the dust clears numbers may be the only topic that boxing fans and media members will have to breakdown with detail surrounding this event.

Well that and the super fight amongst avid followers of the sport Garcia vs. Matthysse, which should be enough of a bang to feel like your bucks were well spent.

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Final Press Conference: Matthysse-Garcia, Smith-Molina, Theophane-Cano

IMG_6394Mayweather and Alvarez are the headliners for this weekend. Naturally, the majority of the attention has been directed towards them. The One is such a stellar event is not just because of the headliner between the highest paid athlete in the world and the young Mexican star Canelo Alvarez. It’s a stellar event because of the main even WITHIN the main event: Lucas “The Machine” Matthysse VS. Danny “Swift” Garcia.

The final press conference for the undercard fights took place on Thursday afternoon to pave way for the mouth-watering fight between Philadelphia’s Danny Garcia and Argentina’s Lucas Matthysse. The fight is a train wreck waiting to happen. The final words were said from both camps and the tone is set for Saturdays showdowns.

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Lucas Matthysse – Media Roundtable Exclusive Interview

IMG_6508After the colorful press conference concluded, I, along with other members of the media, had the opportunity to interview Argentina’s Lucas “The Machine” Matthysse in anticipation of the biggest fight of his career. We touched on topics such as motivation, training camp, Angel Garcia’s antics and his future as a fighter.

A man of a few words, Matthysse does his talking in the ring. Here’s an exclusive look at some of many questions that were answered.

Question: “Is Lucas Matthysse the best fighter you will have fought after Saturday?”

Lucas Matthysse: “Definitely. He’s undefeated. He has the two titles. He’s the guy to beat. Obviously the best fighter in the division.”

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Matthysse vs. Garcia: The Definition of a 50-50 fight

DSC_4986This Saturday live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena hardcore boxing fans will finally get a chance to have their cake and eat it too. The co-feature matchup between Lucas “The Machine” Mathysse and Danny “Swift” Garcia is the best PPV undercard fight in recent history.

We already know style’s make fights. Neither combatants style is pretty but rest assure this potential bloodbath will have plenty of substance.

Credit is well deserved to everyone responsible for making this 50-50 fight a reality. The stakes are very high at the 140 pound weight class and beyond. The winner in all probability will be “The One” who gets a fight with Floyd Mayweather in either May or September of 2014.

Every since this fight has been made and even months before there has been a tide of support for “The Machine” from Argentina.

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Final Press Conference: THE ONE – Mayweather vs. Canelo

IMG_6361The final press conference for The One took place on Wednesday 09/11/2013 at the MGM Grand’s KA Theatre. Fighters, promoters, sponsors and trainers were present to provide last words leading up to the mega fight happening this weekend.

It was a special day today not just because of the final press conference, but because of the 12th anniversary of one of the most tragic days in U.S. history. Richard Schaefer took the time to recognize such a day in U.S. history before directing attention to the conference.

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Does Canelo Have the “Style” to Beat Mayweather?

CaneloMayweather’s fans/advocates claim that Floyd can adapt to any style. They believe there is no style in existence which Mayweather hasn’t seen or can’t adapt to.

Floyd’s haters/detractors say Mayweather has avoided prime fighters who had the required style to beat him. They think he ducked Pacquiao and cherry picks his opponents.

Is either side correct? And more importantly, with the big fight between Canelo and Mayweather just days away, does Alvarez have the style to beat the best boxer in the world?

Everyone knows the old boxing adage that “styles make fights” and so far Mayweather has beaten every style put before him. But “styles” can be stubborn things sometimes. Sometimes experts and fans don’t know if a “style” makes a fight until after a fight is made and they are surprised by its shocking result. Unexpected outcomes happen all the time in boxing, and sometimes it’s not just about styles but also the particular toolkit of a given fighter employing a certain style.

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Garcia vs. Matthysse: “The Angel-man cometh”

IMG_6323When the Junior Welterweight super-fight between Philly native Danny Garcia and hard punching Argentine Lucas Matthysse was initially announced as the co-main event for “The One” PPV spectacular on September 14th, fight fans around the world had one more reason to celebrate.

Not only would boxing fanatics finally see Floyd Mayweather Jr face undefeated Junior Middleweight Champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez on Mexican Independence weekend, but they would also get to find out who the hardest puncher in the packed Junior Welterweight division truly was.

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Mayweather-Canelo, Garcia-Matthysse predictions for Saturday’s massive night of boxing!

01 (2)(Photo credit: Naoki Fakuda) It could be said that the form book will very much be obeyed on Saturday night in Las Vegas, that the expected fighters will emerge victorious and that all fight fans who pointed out the obvious before it went down will be made to look like know-it-alls as a result. Indeed, most people think Floyd Mayweather will out-point Canelo Alvarez, that Lucas Matthysse will have too much power for Danny Garcia and that there will, by and large, be no shocks inside a buzzing MGM Grand.

Still, as great a night as September 14th promises to be, it would be amiss not to write a pre-fight predictions piece – and there is the intriguing undercard action to look at (arguably the two toughest bouts to call being Ishe Smith-Carlos Molina and Ashley Theophane-Pablo Cano).

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