Weekend Predictions for Gatti-Ward, Hamed-Calvo and Tszyu-Tackie

16 May, 2002 - By Jim De Pierro

I am really looking forward to this weekend as it will showcase three of my favorite fighters in Kostya Tszyu, Arturo Gatti and of course the ever colorful Prince Naseem Hamed. The best part of this weekend is that if you have HBO and Showtime you will not be forced to choose which bout to watch live as was the case a couple of weeks ago when the Lewis/Ettiene and Briggs McCline fights were broadcast simultaneously by Showtime and HBO respectively.

First up will be the Showtime card starting at 9:00 pm EST featuring three-time welterweight title challenger Oba Carr 54-5-1 (31 KOs) in a crossroads bout with up and coming prospect Kuvanych Toygonbaev 16-1 (11 KOs). Oba Carr was the type fighter had he been fighting in a welterweight division without Oscar De la Hoya, Felix Trinidad or Ike Quartey would most likely have been a champion. Nowadays Oba Carr is pretty washed up and is coming off a 2nd round TKO loss to an unheralded Luther Smith. I have no idea how good Toygonabev is but if Carr is as washed up as I think he is Toygonbaev should prevail one way or another.

In the main event undisputed jr. Welterweight champion Kostya Tszyu 28-1-1 (23 KOs) will defend all three titles against rugged Ghanian challenger Ben Tackie 24-2 (15 KOs). Boxing fans from around the world all owe Kostya Tszyu a big thank you for putting that obnoxious punk Zab Judah in his place. If Judah had won we would all be trying to decipher what the hell he is saying. “Yo, I’s be da numba pound for pound fighta da world, yo. D’ya know what I mean?” Ughh, just the thought of it gives me goose bumps. It’s a shame that this joker only got a 6-month slap on the wrist suspension from boxing. If any of you degenerate Judah fans are reading this wondering when Zab’s next fight your hero and my zero will be on the under card of Tyson-Lewis. No word as of yet who will be the opponent.

After a spectacular victory in which Kostya Tszyu completely humiliated the petulant and previously undefeated Zab Judah I expect their to be a bit of a let down factor as Ben Tackie doesn’t attract the same kind of media attention, name recognition and dollars that Zab Judah brings. Ben Tackie I expect will pose some problems for Tszyu as he is both taller (5’’9 to Tszyu’s 5’7”) and has a longer reach than Tszyu (71” to 67” for Tszyu). I suspect that Tackie is naturally a bigger man than Tszyu in weight. With the exception of the Judah fight Tszyu’s last couple of fights against Oktay Urkal and Shambe Mitchell were by most accounts very taxing affairs. Although I think Tszyu is capable of getting a KO over Tackie if he is willing to apply constant pressure and take some bombs in return I think Tszyu and his team will opt for a more conventional approach by simply outworking Tackie. Ben Tackie has never been knocked out or shown any signs of being seriously hurt in any fight that I have seen him in. In an interview I read Tackie claimed that he was robbed in fights with John John Molina and Goyo Vargas. I don’t know about the Vargas fight as I never saw that one but Molina was the deserving victor over Tackie as he thoroughly outworked out boxed him. I expect Kostya Tszyu to win a hard fought decision in which he will look surprisingly vulnerable at times. The scorecards will reflect a close fight as Tacki will come up short by 1-3 points on all three scorecards. I am guessing that this will be the fight of the night.

Kostya Tszyu Unanimous Decision over Ben Tackie

The HBO card starting at 11:00 pm EST promises to be a real war as blood and guts warriors Arturo “Thunder” Gatti 34-5 (28 KOs) and “Irish” Mickey Ward 37-11 (27 KOs) will face off. A couple of years ago I would have considered this pick em fight or maybe even see Ward as the slight favorite. As I look at this match up just about every intangible favors Gatti. The heart of both fighters is beyond question as both have proven on numerous occasions their never say die attitude and have come back to win in fights they were losing. Both fighters have a propensity to cut early and often. Although Gatti tends to swell as well as bleed whereas Mickey Ward just bleeds. Gatti has the advantage in age, as he is almost a decade younger than Ward. Ward is by boxing standards almost a senior citizen at 36. Ward’s last two fights with Burton and Leija have been wars where he took quite a bit of punishment. Gatti has also had his share of wars but he has had less pro fights and his body considerably younger. Gatti has better hand speed and power than Ward in my opinion. The only decided advantage that Ward has over Gatti is his much vaunted left hook to the body.

Buddy Mcgirt was a fine fighter in his day and an even better trainer in this day. Mcgirt almost single handedly resurrected the career of Arturo Gatti, which had been grinding to a halt, as Gatti hadn’t had a major win in quite some time. His work with Gatti in his last fight with Millet really paid dividends as Gatti had his strongest performance in years. It wasn’t so much that Gatti came in superb condition which he was but that Mcgirt was able to alter Gatti’s style to incorporate defense while Gatti’s offensive repertoire remained as destructive as ever. Fighters often talk a good game about how they have learned so much when they change trainers and how their style is vastly improved. Ninety percent of the time that is just BS but with Mcgirt I take Gatti at his word as the results are evident. Mcgirt has also done some good work with Antonio Tarver and made him a better fighter as a result.

Many would argue and I would agree that Mickey Ward was screwed over royally in his last fight with Jesse James Leija. For those of you unfamiliar with the Leija/Ward fight, Leija suffered a cut early on in the fight that the referee ruled the result of a head butt even though HBO replays showed that the cut was most likely the result of a punch. The referee even later admitted that he didn’t see a head butt but assumed that the cut was the result of a clash of heads. What stunk about the match wasn’t only the referee’s incorrect call but the appearance by the Leija corner that they deliberately pulled the plug on the fight at the end of the 5th round to force the fight to the scorecards which ended up being a technical decision in Leija’s favor. Had the fight ended before the completion of the 5th round due to what the referee deemed an accidental foul the result would have been rendered a No Contest. Many boxing fans saw this as hypocritical as it lent the appearance Leija’s corner had done to Ward what Camacho’s corner did to Leija.

In my opinion Ward should have been declared the winner by 5th round TKO. Even though Ward was screwed over by Texas officials that doesn’t take away from the fact that Leija who is not that big a puncher was putting on a real beating on Ward and was giving more than he was receiving. Leija was clearly winning the fight in the accumulation of rounds. Seeing what Leija was able to do I have to think Gatti will stop Ward inside the distance. I expect Gatti is going to fight a surprisingly technical fight and consistently beat Ward to the punch. Ward won’t quit but I predict the referee or Ward’s corner stop the fight between rounds.

Arturo Gatti TKO 7 over Mickey Ward

I am one of the few people I know that actually likes the Prince and I am not ashamed to admit it either. Most people talk a good game about how they can’t stand Hamed and his arrogant antics. They say that he was always overrated and would be exposed as soon he fought a real fighter. Well to those people I say he has beaten real fighter. He beat Tom “boom boom” Johnson, Kevin Kelley and Wayne McCullough all of whom I consider to be very accomplished fighters in their own right. For those of you who were shaking their heads a couple of weeks ago in disbelief as Manuel Medina had just finished putting on a boxing clinic against Johnny Tapia was in the process of being robbed of his IBF belt I would remind you that Hamed knocked Medina out in the 11th round. Love him or hate him Naseem Hamed defined the featherweight division. It is because Hamed so defined the featherweight divison that Barrera is the only fighter in boxing today who is recognized as the number one fighter in his weight class that doesn’t hold the IBF, WBA or WBC belt. Even if you consider Hamed a second or third rate fighter there is no denying the man is a first rate entertainer. Barrera beat him hands down and I won’t deny it but I don’t believe Barrera any more exposed Hamed than Joe Frazier exposed Muhammad Ali in their first bout.

As a Prince fan the most disconcerting thing in the last year isn’t so much that Hamed lost as that he chose to wait so long before making his comeback. It has lead many to question whether his heart is still in the game. To me obviously he must have some burning desire still left in him or else he would have quit boxing altogether. Hamed is certainly rich enough that he doesn’t need to work another day in his life if he didn’t want to. There have been rumors that Hamed is having trouble making the 126 lb limit which might suggest that he may not have been taking care of his body as well as he should during his hiatus from boxing.

I fully expect that Naseem Hamed 35-1 (31 KOs) will be victorious how he looks doing it is anybodies guess. The fact that Manuel Calvo 33-4-1 (14 KOs) has never in his career been knocked out means little to me as there are no recognizable names on his record and there is not a featherweight in the world that can compare to Hamed in punching power.

Naseem Hamed KO 5 over Manuel Calvo

Agree? Disagree? Think I’m full of it? Email me tell me what you think.
dman4673@earthlink.net