By Jim De Pierro

Darius Michalczewski 46-0 (36 KOs) vs. Richard Hall 25-3 (24 KOs)

13.09 - The showdown between Oscar De La Hoya and Fernando Vargas is being called Bad Blood but the name could just as well apply to this rematch. Hall made a little bit of news lately by refusing to shake Michalczewski’s hand in the promotion for this fight vowing to retire Michalczewski from the ring. I don’t know if Hall is punch drunk or just plain stupid but either way this man is completely out of his mind. I can’t analyze this fight too much because I never even saw the first fight or even a Michalczewski fight for that matter but Hall is entering this fight ultra confident to the point of being delusional. I don’t mind fighters with limited talent dreaming big but Hall sees it as inevitable that he will beat Michalczewski, Jones in a rematch for big PPV bucks and Bernard Hopkins before his career is done. If that ever happens then two must have happened, Hell must have froze over and pigs must have grown wings.

I was reading in an interview where he complains that people don’t rightly recognize him as giving Jones the best fight of his career. He then goes on to denigrate Eric Harding and Antonio Tarver referring to the rest of the light-heavyweight division as “bitches”. Hall is good at talking smack but he is even better at getting smacked. To listen to Hall tell it you would think that he gave Jones the fight of his life. Nothing could be further from the truth. Jones smacked hall around the ring like he was a rag doll. Hall did show he could take a good punch but the fight was an utter mismatch and probably should have been stopped several rounds earlier. As far as I am concerned Hall is good for one thing and one thing only and that is getting smacked around the ring for eleven rounds by the best light-heavyweights in the world. If you need a good laugh I would recommend reading this interview

I don’t know much what type of person Michalczewski is or even if he holds any type of animosity towards the people he fights but I suspect that he is probably going to be more aggressive this time around to prove that Hall isn’t in his league. I think trash talking generally only helps to make sure your opponent enters the ring more motivated to win and I suspect that will be the case here. The saying goes that history repeats itself and I think that’s what will happen here. My guess is Michalczewski will win again in the 11th round in a fight that will probably be more action packed than the first one.

Darius Michalczewski TKO 11 over Richard Hall

Oscar De La Hoya 34-2 (27 KOs) vs. Fernando Vargas 22-1 (20 KOs)

Most of the time in boxing the fighter who wants it more is the one who will emerge victorious. There is such a thing as wanting something too much and I think that is the case with Fernando Vargas. I have no doubt that Vargas is hungrier than De La Hoya or that he trained harder for this fight but to me Vargas has always come across as a little to hot headed for his own good. Despite the tough guy exterior Vargas is one of these people I think who is governed more by his emotions than common sense. Is it just me or does anybody else think this snow bank story of why Vargas hates De La Hoya a little strange on Vargas’s part? I don’t know about most of you reading this column but if I fell down in some snow and I held my hand out looking for a hand up while someone just passed me and laughed I might think that person is a jerk but I am not going to spend every minute of everyday hating that person thinking of him as my enemy for life. If little slights like that is what it takes to get on Vargas’s enemy for life Vargas must have an enemies list longer than Richard Nixon’s. His dislike of De La Hoya is going to lead him to make little mistakes that De La Hoya is going to capitalize on.

I am sure De La Hoya doesn’t like Vargas but I don’t think De La Hoya hates Vargas with any real passion. De La Hoya, I think views Vargas more as a nuisance and possibly bad for boxing’s overall image but other than that I think Vargas is just another opponent to him. Its hard to really get a gage of what De La Hoya is really like because while he comes across as a nice guy on TV, sort of low key but he never seems really passionate like his heart is really in the game of boxing. Still I think De La Hoya really does care about the public image of boxing or else he wouldn’t have spoken out several months ago about how Mike Tyson is bad for boxing. There is really nothing in De La Hoya’s self interest that is served by speaking out against Tyson because obviously De La Hoya isn’t seeking a boxing match with Tyson.

Just about every opinion I have read or heard by active fighters including Winky Wright, Kostya Tszyu, Felix Trinidad and Bronco McKart have all predicted or lean towards De La Hoya Saturday night. Vargas IMO is damaged goods and has never been the same after his fight with Trinidad. I don’t think Vargas is washed up like David Reid or should retire any time soon but I think a piece of him was lost in the ring in the night he fought Trinidad. Trinidad softened up Vargas enough that De La Hoya should be able to stop Vargas inside the distance. I see the first three or four rounds being highly competitive with a lot of punches thrown. More than likely Vargas will win at least the first round because De La Hoya usually seems to use the first two rounds to study his opponent and make adjustments. Vargas will be the one pressing the fight at least initially but De La Hoya’s hand speed and counterpunching should through the course of the fight turn the tide. De La Hoya will gradually begin schooling Vargas and should end the fight by the 8th round when the referee stops the fight after having knocked down Vargas twice. If Vargas loses I think he will be incredibly depressed and may take a long sabbatical from boxing. I don’t expect Vargas to retire if he loses but I could see him taking a year off from boxing before he decides he wants to fight again.

Oscar De La Hoya TKO 8 over Fernando Vargas

Agree? Disagree? Think I’m full of it? E-mail me at dman4673@earthlink.net and tell me what you think.