Tomorrow afternoon Melbourne, Australia time, one of the biggest fight cards seen in Melbourne in recent years takes place at the Melbourne Exhibition & Convention Centre. Headlining the action is unbeaten Australian heavyweight Lucas ‘Big Daddy’ Browne (15-0, 14 KOs) who takes on current IBU heavyweight and former multiple division world champion James ‘Lights Out’ Toney (74-7-5, 45 KOs) for the World Boxing Foundation heavyweight title.
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Saul “Canelo” Alvarez: “Simply Red”
Most of us are learning to drive at fifteen years of age. We’re more concerned about our social lives, gals and guys and whose parents will be out of town next weekend so the killer party can go down. There’s only a handful of professions that would permit one still south of legal voting age to log hours upon hours of tedious work and still evade the scrutiny of the department of labor. Different countries have different rules. Such is the case in Mexico and the newly and truly confirmed prodigal son from Jalisco state, Santos Saul Alvarez Barragan.
We don’t often refer to him by this. Rather, we prefer his trade name, which is simply Canelo. Whether or not we may agree with his unanimous decision win over Austin “No Doubt” Trout this past weekend in San Antonio, Texas, there’s no denying that the kid has serious talent and more importantly in a global sense the potential for crossover appeal.
Audley Harrison vs Deontay Wilder on Saturday
Anyone with an interest in the heavyweight division will be curious enough to tune in and have a look at Wilder, a Bronze medalist at Beijing 2008, in his biggest test to date as a professional. Not only does Wilder find himself up against an opponent with a KO record of some significance, but he also finally meets a technical fighter, as well as his first southpaw opponent since turning professional. It will be interesting to see how comfortable Wilder is with open southpaw angles and how he approaches the fight.
James Toney and John Arthur: Discussing All Things Boxing
Current IBU heavyweight champion and future hall of famer James Toney (74-7-3, 45 KOs) and his father, trainer and manager John Arthur took time out to exclusively speak to ESB today ahead of Toney’s heavyweight showdown with unbeaten Australian Lucas ‘Big Daddy’ Browne (15-0, 14 KOs) in Melbourne, Australia this Sunday.
Toney and Arthur discussed all subjects, including his time in Melbourne and fight preparation, recent ring inactivity, managing of weight, time in the UFC and future plans.
Arthur explains the bout with Browne came after the proposed bout with Tomasz Adamek fell through, that was scheduled for last September. “We were supposed to fight Adamek in September” where after that “I started to reach out to everybody and it seemed like every door that got called in the United States was closed. I reached out to some people and they put me in touch with some promoters in Australia and they said they wanted to make this happen and this is where we have ended up at… This kid (Browne) has wanted to fight James and James has never ducked and dodged anybody his whole career so I said let’s take it.”
Left-Hook Lounge: Is ‘Canleo’ Ready For Mayweather, and Could Cotto Be Next?
Reggie B. (Dallas, TX): I’m still not sold on Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez. I don’t think Trout fought his best fight. Do you think Canelo is ready for a Mayweather fight?
Vivek W. (ESB): I have to be honest and very direct in saying that I simply feel people just aren’t ready to give Saul Alvarez credit. Coming into this fight I knew that Trout would have to be at his best and that he would need to execute somewhat flawlessly to even have a shot. Despite his activity rate, he didn’t do any damage, and furthermore, he didn’t do enough to truly seize the victory from Canelo. I think we have to be honest in saying that the deck was already stacked against him – in the sense that Canelo was the house fighter. It was Mexican “Fiesta” weekend in San Antonio, Canelo is the bigger name and the international name, and despite Trout’s victory over Cotto, Canelo was the one who carried the promotion.
Canelo-Trout Post-Fight Press Conference Interviews and Photos
The co-main event included a 1st round domination by Omar “Panterita” Figueroa, Jr. over Puerto Rican Abner Cotto. The thrilling first round included a knockdown of Abner Cotto halfway through the round. That exciting moment led to a culmination of the fight with “Panterita’s” vicious left hand body shot that sent Cotto to the ground towards the end of the round. Cotto was unable to survive the body shot as the referee completed a full ten count. This was definitely Figueroa’s coming out party as one of the rising stars in the lighter weights.
Tyson Fury: Entertaining but Vulnerable
The brash Fury is quickly emerging as one of the more colourful characters of boxing, with trash talking, boasts of greatness and some might say bizarre antics, i.e. the singing at the end of the fight. Additionally some argue that this route is not working for the fans, I have to say that these statements are largely untrue. Although Fury perhaps looked like a clown and foolish in these instances, I feel it will only make him more memorable and will enable him to get the bigger paydays. This route has been utilized ever since Ali who became an icon with it, to the more recent and possibly offensive David Haye who managed to shortcut his way to a heavyweight title and fight with Wladmir, without having to take unnecessary punches in normal mandatory matches. Ultimately boxing fans want to be engaged and it is through making yourself distinguishable from the pack that this is possible. It is overwhelmingly obvious for this writer, that it is not just Fury’s name that makes him stand out but it is also these antics, his in ring bravado, his monstrous height and his vulnerabilities.
Canelo Alvarez – Austin Trout Recap
The best way to score a boxing match would probably be to have each fighter begin the event by punching all three judges (jabs, uppercuts, straights, hooks, etc.) to aid the judges in answering the mythical question hanging over every fight of punch valuation—how many of fighter A’s jabs equal an uppercut of fighter B, etc.. Now, there are many practical concerns with enacting such a policy—for example, who will judge the fight should the judges get knocked out? So, absent that, the next most logical way seems to be to simply watch how each fighter responds to other’s punches—thereby sorting out not only when a punch is thrown, but whether it lands in a clean, effective manner. Fortunately, the human body reacts in predictable ways when struck with clean, effective punches—knees buckle, the head gets snapped back, the body is staggered, or in some cases knocked down.
The Canelo Alvarez—Austin Trout tilt from Saturday night bears, according to some, the “controversial” label, but it shouldn’t. Though Alvarez found his target less frequently than Trout (124 versus 154 in total punches landed), he clearly landed more of the clean, effective punches described in the above paragraph—and if you didn’t see that then you either didn’t watch the whole fight, are one of the two judges who somehow thought Chavez swung-and-missed his way to a draw with Whitaker a decade ago, or got distracted trying to figure out if Trout has a Mohawk or just a receding hairline that looks like a Mohawk—while Trout held a decisive edge in insignificant punches landed (the kind where the guy getting hit doesn’t react or seem to care).
Alvarez Shows New Side in Win Over Trout
The slick boxing Trout did what he was supposed to do. In front of 40,000 plus fans at the Alamodome, San Antonio, Texas, he controlled the distance and pace with his jab. He mixed it up, going often to the body. He threw more punches, displayed better combination punching, but he still lost the fight! How could that happen?
It happened because Saul “Canelo” Alvarez impressed a lot of people, including the judges, that he’s a pretty damn good defensive fighter as well as an aggressive one. Several times, Trout ripped off four and five punch combinations, and none landed. Then, just enough times, Canelo would land one of his sharper, more powerful shots. When his shots landed, they had an obvious effect on Trout, and would shake him from his shoe laces to the sweat on his brow. One particularly impressive shot occurred early into the seventh round. Trout carelessly threw out a rather soft jab from his southpaw stance, and Canelo followed it back with a sharp, straight right. Canelo’s punch landed right on the chin. It took Trout’s body a fraction of a second to react, but once it did, it resulted in an awkward little dance, which ended with “No Doubt” on the canvas.
Fury/Cunningham: Keep it between the Ropes
Before the fight with Steve Cunningham, Tyson Fury showed all of the tact and rhetorical artistry usually found in the boys locker room of a local high school when he told the world of his greatness. During the fight he pounded his chest in the ring like a baboon and shoved Cunningham after the round to give us further evidence of his greatness. And after the fight, Fury took the microphone hostage and treated us to a ballad by Ricky Van Shelton (it being well known the popularity of country music in New York City) so that we would have no doubt that we were witnessing greatness.
The unfortunate thing is that Fury is not great. The reflection Fury sees of himself is not the same one that the boxing public sees. While his accomplishments have been good they have not been great, and while his style has been crudely effective it has obvious flaws. There is as much wrong with the 6’9 former amateur champion as there is right. This heavyweight Narcissus is blind to the fact that he has not proven anything great in the ring.