For any boxer starting out his career, to become a champion is the ultimate goal. For those that succeed in becoming a champion, the next step is to become a great champion. Boxing enthusiasts are a hard bunch to please though, and the “great” label is a tough nut to crack. It is a label made even harder for fighters to attain by critics who choose to move the goal posts, even when a champion has excelled above and beyond his peers in those aspects typically used to define “greatness”. Floyd Mayweather is one such victim.
To see why, delve with me for a moment on a journey back in time. I want to take you first to the evening of October 3rd in the year 1998. Bill Clinton was the president of the United States, with the Monica Lewinsky scandal breaking just months earlier. ‘Gazza’ had recently been dropped from the England football team (my American friends will just have to trust me – it was a really big deal). A new teenage sensation called ‘Britney Spears’ was storming the charts with her first hit. And the ‘War on Terror’ was something you might find in a sci-fi movie. It was also the night a young ‘Pretty Boy’ named Floyd climbed into the ring to contest his first world title belt, stepping through the ropes to challenge the seasoned, world-class Mexican Genaro Hernandez for the WBC super featherweight title.
Ruslan Provodnikov – 139.8 pounds
Demetrius “Boo Boo” Andrade (19-0, 13KOs), the 2008 U.S. Olympian and one of the most decorated American amateur pugilists, will get his long awaited opportunity at a world title after several delays and opponent changes, when he takes on the former 2004 Olympian, Vanes “Nightmare” Martirosyan (33-0-1, 21KOs) on November 9th in Corpus Christi, Texas, for the vacant World Boxing Organization`s (“WBO”) Junior Middleweight Championship. 
Before facing Alexander Povetkin, it was quite a while since Wladimir Klitschko was placed against a formidable opponent with the promise of an exciting match. Most of Wladimir’s opponents were written off by the boxing community before the first bell ever rang, similar to how Mike Tyson used to tune the boxing public to believe that the fight was never going to be competitive.
On this week’s edition of “The Pugilist KOrner”, expert trainer and former Lightweight contender Joel Diaz gave the listeners his thoughts on Tim Bradley’s boxing future in 2014.
Unbeaten welterweight contender Kell Brook had an open workout in his native Sheffield earlier today, training in front of enthusiastic fans at a big shopping mall. Brook said afterwards that he is “counting down the days” to his October 26th bout with Ukraine’s Vyacheslav Senchenko and that he is relishing the idea of the Ricky Hatton conqueror giving him a stern test.
The heavyweight boxing division is drowning. There is a clear lack of formidable competition for either of the Klitschko brothers, and as time goes on, the remaining tiny pool of fighters is becoming dangerously dry.
Mario H. (Tampa, FL): There was a lot of discussion in the aftermath of Bradley/Marquez about Marquez being “robbed again”. How did you score the fight? And how did you rate the performance of both men?
The narrative for Timothy Bradley’s career before last night was that of negativity and spoiled success. Bradley has been a fighter more criticized than praised on his rise to prominence and his time in the limelight has been one of turmoil. Boxing fans and pundits alike have had a slow transition to giving credit to Bradley after his ugly technical decision win over Devon Alexander in 2011 and his controversial decision over pound for pound boxing icon Manny Pacquiao. 