Mayweather-Guerrero: Skillful Opponents, Faith and Mustard Seeds – What does it all mean?

03(Photo credit: Esther Lin/Showtime) Even rough edged boxing fans have heard or been told the Good Lord once said something like, “Faith as small as a mustard seen can move mountains.” If the Lord said it, it must be true, right? Life should be so simple for boxing fans. The sad truth is most of us feel unworthy for that to be true in our lives. Tough guys feel the statement is just a fairy tale thought up by a bible thumper or religious zealot. No doubt many critically describe such talk as “way out there” b.s. Those hard heads don’t feel religious beliefs of any kind have a place in boxing, or any sport for that matter. For example, “Tebowing” was ridiculed by many (and still is), and now the former N.Y. Jet is in search of another team he hopes will have faith in him as a winning pro QB.

It’s safe to say boxing fans generally chose to believe in something more tangible such as muscle, speed and toughness. It helps too if the fighter comes from Philly, Chi Town or the Big Apple. Pugs from those places get higher marks, because of their survival skills. It makes them betting favorites Also, If your last name is Garcia, or Mayweather, you’re definitely an odds on favorite. Chances are their pacifiers were shaped like boxing gloves.

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Final Press Conference: MAYDAY – Mayweather vs. Guerrero

IMG_5337The final press conference for MAYDAY’s headline fight took place this Wednesday 05/01/2013. Promoters, managers, trainers and fighter’s took the opportunity to address the media as Saturday looms. Up until this point in the promotion of this event, both Mayweather and Guerrero have strayed away from press conference antics, scuffles and any other rough tactics to promote interest in the event.

It wasn’t until the final press conference that we saw some verbal bashing and attacks from either camp. The verbal bashing, however, did not come from either Mayweather or Guerrero. It actually came from Ruben Guerrero, the trainer and father of Robert Guerrero.

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Floyd Mayweather, Jr. – Exclusive Media Roundtable Interview

Mayweather vs De la Hoya Guinness Record(Photo credit: Esther Lin/Showtime) After the final press conference for MAYDAY concluded, both Floyd Mayweather, Jr. and Robert Guerrero took the time to address members of the media for brief one-on-one interviews and media roundtable interviews.

Many questions were answered, ranging from topics inside and outside of the ring. I took the privilege, along with other media members, to partake in an exclusive media roundtable interview with Floyd “Money” Mayweather. Here’s an exclusive transcript of a few of the many questions that were answered were Mayweather answers questions dealing with his motivation, his line-up of rising stars under the Mayweather Boxing Club, Guerrero’s rough house tactics and his appreciation to the fans all over the world.

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Robert Uzzell and Chip Mitchell Interview Trainer Floyd Mayweather, Sr.

mayweather242We recently had the opportunity to interview one of the best trainers in boxing, Mr. Floyd Joy Mayweather, Sr. As we know, the senior Mayweather will be back in his son’s corner for the May 4, 2013 fight with Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero. Floyd wanted to set the record straight for fans and media alike. Here’s what he had to say…

Chip Mitchell: Floyd let’s jump right into it. I was going through some old CDs the other day and I came across a song by Peaches and Herb titled “Reunited”. I started singing along and I (jokingly) dedicated the chorus to you while I was singing, which leads to my question. How does it feel to be reunited with your son as his trainer?

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Klitschko vs. Pianeta: Wladimir faces his former sparring partner this Saturday, May 4th

wladimir65When you ask you will receive. In this case, IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (59-3, 50 KO’s) asked the World Boxing Association for permission to fight his former sparring partner Francesco Pianeta (28-0-1, 15 KO’s) and was given permission to take the fight instead of a fight with WBA champion Alexander Povetkin.

It’s unclear whether Wladimir is doing this as a favor to Pianeta or if he just what it was like to spar him and figured it would be a nice safe fight for him. Whatever the reason, Wladimir will be fighting Pianeta this Saturday night at the SAP-Arena, Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

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Left-Hook Lounge: Garcia/Judah, Martinez, & Amir Khan

03(Photo credit: Naoki Fakuda) By Vivek Wallace:

Jaron H. (Queens, NYC): Would you say that Garcia’s performance cleared him as the best 140lb’er in the world? I thought he weathered the storm nicely and proved so. Would you agree?

Vivek W. (ESB): I think Garcia did a very good job and earned the victory, but I would also say lets keep things in perspective. Judah is a solid veteran and one who knows the boxing game as well as most. Sadly for him, execution is another story. The biggest subplot coming into the night for Judah was whether or not he would stay on course after getting touched up a little. What we learned is he would try a bit harder, but in the end it wouldn’t be enough, as again, his effort fell short on the big stage.

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Lucas Browne Outpoints James Toney, Kevin Johnson Stops Solomon Haumono

Lucas ‘Big Daddy’ Browne (16-0, 14 KOs) outpointed American legend James ‘Lights Out’ Toney (74-8-3, 45 KOs) over 12 rounds to capture the World Boxing Foundation heavyweight title at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre this afternoon in Melbourne, Australia.

The first half of the fight saw an interesting contest with the shorter Toney starting positively looking to attack Browne with Browne using his range to set up power shot opportunities. Toney caught Browne with some good right hands in round five while Browne used his jab to great effect to keep Toney at bay for the most part of each round, to rack up points with the judges. Browne’s heavy hands always seemed to look threatening but the Australian respected Toney’s defensive nous and opted against being overly aggressive.

The second half of the fight saw Browne continue to use his size to control the smaller Toney whilst Toney reduced his offensive output which saw Browne take the later rounds to record a 117-111, 119-109 and 120-108 victory on the three judge’s scorecards.

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Sergio Martinez decisions Martin Murray

martinez66Fighting with an injured left hand from the 8th round, WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez (51-2-2, 28 KO’s) had to battle a lot harder than many boxing fans expected him to in beating Martin Murray (25-1-1, 11 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision tonight in front of a huge crowd of 50,000 at the Club Atlético Vélez Sarsfield in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Murray might have won the fight if he had come out of his defensive shell more often in the fight, as he seemed to adopt the same approach that Saul “Canelo” Alvarez used in his recent fight with Austin Trout in not throwing many punches but counting on his cleaner landing shots to make up the difference for him getting hit a lot more.

Murray could have won but he wasn’t throwing enough and he kept getting nailed by jabs and straight left hands over and over again. Murray was able to block a lot of the shots because he was keeping his gloves high protecting his head, but when one fighter is seen hitting the other all night long on the gloves, it doesn’t matter that a lot of the shots were blocked. Martinez was the busier guy and he deserved the victory. The judges scored it 115-112, 115-112 and 115-112.

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Bermane Stiverne bests Chris Arreola

arreola43 A rowdy crowd rocked the house at the Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario, California tonight; as local heavyweight Chris Arreola faced Haitian born Canadian Bermane Stiverne in front of a partisan crowd. Things started quickly and developed into one of the best heavyweight scraps we’ve seen in a while.

Neither man wasted time as both men threw big shots in the first round. The difference was Arreola’s pressure; he never stopped coming forward and backed his opponent into the ropes several times. Stiverne attempted to counter and was moderately successful, but let himself get trapped in the corner and ate a few combos. Arreola continued the pressure in the second and worked both downstairs and upstairs. However, Stiverne showed better movement and landed some nice counters. Things appeared to be evening out.

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Garcia defeats Judah; Quillin defeats Guerrero in mismatch

Garcia defeats Judah; Quillin defeats Guerrero in mismatch

35-year-old Zab Judah (42-8, 29 KO’s) gave it a good shot tonight but in the end he was beaten by WBA/WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia (26-0, 16 KO’s) in a 12 round unanimous decision loss at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Judah was in command of the fight in the last three rounds of the fight, but unfortunately for him he ran out of time and ended losing. The scores were 115-112, 114-112, 116-111.

Garcia fought well in the first 8 rounds in using his right hand to do most of the damage. Judah did a good job of neutralizing Garcia’s left hook and jab. Garcia’s right hand proved to be enough for him to control the rounds and build up a big lead. However, the crowd seemed to motivate Judah to another level starting in the 9th round when he was able to land some really big shots that stopped Garcia in his tracks.

Judah continued to land the far bigger punches in rounds 10, 11 and 12 to dominate the rounds. Garcia kept firing back, but his punches weren’t nearly as significant as Judah’s.

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