Month: October 2012

Chris Byrd: “I don’t believe Manny Pacquiao or Juan Manuel Marquez will change very much in part four”

Chris Byrd: “I don’t believe Manny Pacquiao or Juan Manuel Marquez will change very much in part four”By Joseph Herron – With the fourth installment of Pacquiao/Marquez just six weeks away, both men have begun the sparring portion of their preparation for the big December 8th boxing showdown at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

While Pacquiao and Roach have boldly stated through various media sources that a knock-out will be imperative to win for a third time, former IBF Heavyweight Boxing Champion Chris “Rapid Fire” Byrd believes that a KO victory against the Mexican legend will be a task that is much easier said than done.

“Manny Pacquiao vs. Juan Manuel Marquez will always be a great fight,” insists the lifelong boxing proponent. “This is still maybe the toughest fight out there for Manny Pacquiao other than a match-up with Floyd Mayweather Jr.”

“One of the reasons why a fight with JMM will always be difficult for Manny is that Marquez is so smart, he cuts you in half. He uses his footwork in a way that strategically makes a southpaw reach over his body to try and hit him. This ultimately leaves Manny out of position and open for a Marquez counter.”

“JMM patiently picks his shots because he knows he doesn’t have the edge in hand speed. He sets up his shots extremely well and delivers with precision. Because Manny has more to lose in this fight than Marquez, due to his questionable loss to Bradley and his controversial win against JMM, you might see Manny Pacquiao fight with more of a sense of urgency which could lead to more careless mistakes that a smart fighter like Marquez could exploit.”

“Rapid Fire” makes an excellent observation. Manny Pacquiao indeed has more to lose going into the fourth contest with JMM.

Because of Pacquiao’s inability to put away his last five opponents, and due to the controversial nature of his last two outings, the Filipino boxing icon has seen his pound for pound ranking among many fight fans and boxing scribes slip considerably.

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Cotto vs Trout: Cotto’s lack of size will hurt him against Trout

Cotto vs Trout: Cotto's lack of size will hurt him against TroutBy Rob Smith: Boxing star Miguel Cotto (37-3, 30 KO’s) has the experience going for him against WBA World junior middleweight champion Austin Trout (25-0, 14 KO’s) but that might not be enough for Cotto to get the win when the two of them meet up on December 1st at the Madison Square Garden in New York, New York. Cotto is dealing with youth, speed, size and just pure athleticism against Trout. I mean, let’s face it; Trout is the better athlete and you can see that just from watching one round of action from one of his fights.

Trout is the more skilled fighter and just looks natural. In contrast, Cotto looks like a fighter wearing a bad pair of shoes that are too small for him. It’s pretty painful to watch Cotto move around the ring, because he looks like he’s on a pair of pair of ice skates for the first time and isn’t really sure of his footwork. Trout isn’t someone that Cotto is going to be able to overpower like the guys he’s beaten in the past.

The problem Cotto will have is Trout’s defense and size. He doesn’t get hit a lot because he’s got such long arms and knows how to keep his opposition on the outside. And Cotto isn’t going to win this fight by jabbing Trout. Cotto may have a good jab, but he can’t win this fight with that weapon because Trout has a lot more than that in his arsenal. Cotto is going to be forced to take chances and it’s going to be difficult for him because of how elusive Trout is.

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Broner to go after Ricky Burns after the DeMarco fight

Broner to go after Ricky Burns after the DeMarco fightBy Michael Collins: Adrien Broner (24-0, 20 KO’s) will be targeting WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns (35-2, 10 KO’s) after the 23-year-old Broner takes care of business next month against WBC lightweight boxing champion Antonio DeMarco (28-2-1, 21 KO’s) on HBO boxing at the Boardwalk Hall, in Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA.

Broner’s trainer Mike Stafford said to Bleacherreport.com “We’ll go to Ricky Burns and get that other title. He’ll [Broner] be too fast, too smart and he’s (Burns) not strong enough, these guys are too slow for Adrien. He’s a special guy, a special guy.”

I agree with Stafford 100 percent. I think Burns would be like Jason Litzau, a fighter that Broner took out in a 1st round TKO last year in June. It would be too easy beating Burns. The only advantage thing that Burns has going for him is his height and his weight, but against Broner the weight would be the same for both fighters, so Burns wouldn’t have his customary size advantage. He’d be taller, to be sure, but the reach and the weight would be the same. The height wouldn’t help at all and Burns would just get knocked out quick by Broner.

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Deontay Wilder takes a step up in competition against Kelvin Price on 12/15

By Marcus Richardson: Unbeaten heavyweight boxing prospected Deontay Wilder (25-0, 25 KO’s) takes a slight step up in competition against the 6’7″ Kelvin Price (13-0, 6 KO’s) on December 15th at the Sports Arena, in Los Angeles, California, USA. This is the 26-year-old Wilder’s big opportunity to unveil his talent in front of the wide U.S boxing public, because the fight will be televised by Showtime and Wilder be fighting on the undercard of the Carlos Molina vs. Amir Khan fight. This will surely lead to a lot of boxing fans tuning into this card if only to get a glimpse of Khan. Wilder will be the undercard fight and it should be interesting for while it lasts.

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Mayweather Sr: Floyd Jr. would dominate at 140

Mayweather Sr: Floyd Jr. would dominate at 140By Rob Smith: Floyd Mayweather Sr. believes that his son Floyd Mayweather Jr. would completely dominate if he were to move down to 140 lbs instead of trying to fight at 154lbs, which he’s not really suited for. Mayweather Jr. recently defeated a heavier former WBA Super World junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto last May in a fight that was shockingly closer than what many boxing fans expected it to be. Mayweather Jr. claimed that he purposely stood and trained with Cotto to make it a more exciting fight, but a lot of fans think the 35-year-old Mayweather Jr. simply has lost his ability to move around the ring due to his age.

Floyd Sr. told Fighthype.com “You know Floyd can still fight at 140 if he wanted to. He would be untouchable there.”

Floyd Sr. is right. Mayweather Jr. would dominate at 140 lbs and his competition at that would be Danny Garcia, Amir Khan, Lucas Matthysse, Brandon Rios and Lamont Peterson. Those guys would probably get picked completely apart by Mayweather, and it would be a lot easier on Floyd for him to be fighting at that weight than it would for him to be taking on welterweights and junior middleweights.

Garcia might be the most trouble, because he’s more like a middleweight than an actual welterweight. By the time Garcia steps inside the ring for his fights, he looks to be well over 160 and that’s pretty heavy. Mayweather would still be able to deal with him by taking away his left hook. That’s Garcia’s main weapon, as his right hand is nothing special at all. Mayweather would the left away and give Garcia a real beating.

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Ruslan Chagaev vs. Mike Perez on December 1st in Dusseldorf, Germany

By Rob Smith: Former WBA World heavyweight champion Ruslan Chagaev (30-2-1, 19 KO’s) will be taking a risky bout against unbeaten Cuban prospect Mike Perez (18-0, 12 KO’s) on December 1st in a scheduled 12 round bout at the Burg-Waechter Castello, in Dusseldorf, Germany. Chagaev, 34, wants to get another title shot and for that to happen he needs impressive wins over the likes of Perez and other quality heavyweights. Perez, 27, is an interesting fighter with a lot of potential if he would only fight often enough.

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Only 500 tickets left for Froch vs. Mack fight

Only 500 tickets left for Froch vs. Mack fightBy Michael Collins: There are reportedly only 500 tickets left for the November 17th clash between IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch and his light heavyweight opponent Yusaf Mack for the Nottingham Arena in Nottingham, England. Over 9000 tickets have already been sold and the 35-year-old Froch is counting on the last 500 getting scooped up well before the fight next month. Froch wants it to be extra loud for the visiting American Mack just like it was for Froch’s last opponent former IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute, who seemed unnerved by the crowd noise and ended up losing badly to Froch.

Froch said to Sy Sports News “The atmosphere against Bute was absolutely electric – the best I’ve ever boxed in front of. Mack will not have seen anything like it in his life…the fans will raise the roof for me.”

Froch hadn’t fought in Nottingham since beating Andre Dirrell there by a controversial decision in October 2009 in the Super Six tournament. The crowd was plenty loud during that fight but Froch fought poorly, missing punching all night, and doing quite a bit of ugly fouling that he got away with. The crowd didn’t help Froch in that respect, and his victory was viewed different depending on what part of the world you came from.

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Klitschko vs Wach: Wladimir has to avoid Wach’s big right hand

By Dwight Chittenden: IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (58-3, 50 KO’s) defends against one of the harder punchers in the heavyweight division in 32-year-old Mariusz Wach (27-0, 15 KO’s) on November 10th at the O2 World Arena, in Hamburg, Germany. Wach’s KO percentage isn’t all that high, but you have to remember that he didn’t really learn to punch properly until three years ago. Before that, Wach was more of a diamond in the rough and was throwing wild looping right hands that were more like wallops than punches.

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