Abner Mares: In the tradition of greatness

Abner Mares: In the tradition of greatness By Joseph Herron: On October 20th, in Brooklyn, New York, the world of boxing more than likely witnessed the final chapter in the career of a Mexican boxing legend.

Four division world champion and future Hall of Famer Erik “El Terrible” Morales was unceremoniously knocked out by the young incumbent Junior Welterweight Champion, Danny Garcia in just four rounds of action.

Although the 19 year fight veteran was most recently campaigning in the 140 pound weight class, the battler most affectionately known as “El Terrible” will most widely be remembered for his breathtaking matches at 122 and 126 pounds that truly captivated the masses; classic battles against Marco Antonio Barrera, Daniel Zaragoza, Junior Jones, Kevin Kelley, In-Jin Chi, and Manny Pacquiao.

Morales developed his exciting brand of brutality by predominately fighting the best of the Super Bantamweight and Featherweight divisions. And in a sport that traditionally showcased big men, the undersized warrior pioneered a boxing future that would eventually be filled with big events dominated by the action packed lower weight divisions.

On November 10th, 2012, just a little over 15 years since Morales won his first Super Bantamweight title, 26 year old Abner Mares will headline a major televised event that will take place in a 20K capacity arena in downtown Los Angeles.

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Bute faces Grachev in a dangerous fight tonight

By Michael Collins: Former IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (30-1, 24 KO’s) will be trying to pump some life into his career tonight in moving up to 175 to challenge NABF light heavyweight champion Denis Grachev (12-0-1, 8 KO’s) in a very dangerous fight for the soft-chinned 32-year-old Bute at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Canada. Bute was blasted into oblivion in his last fight against Carl Froch in Nottingham last May, and Grachev can punch with the same kind of power that Froch has.

Grachev is about as fast as Froch, but not quite as tall. Bute wants to fight Froch in a rematch next March in Montreal, but he’s got to get past Grachev in order to get to that fight. If Bute can’t beat Grachev then the big money fight against Froch will go down the drain along with it.

Bute has figured out what he did wrong in the loss to Froch and he doesn’t plan on making the same kind of mistakes against Grachev tonight. Specifically what Bute has to avoid is backing up agaisnt the ropes and just standing in one place trying to look one big shot. It’s no secret that Bute has been matched softly for the past six years and it’s caused him to develop up a lot of bad habits like looking to load up on single punches instead of throwing combinations like he once did early in his career.

Bute kind of fell in love with his power in the last couple of years after scoring a number of knockouts from single shots. When Bute tried this with Froch, he found it not working and he ended up getting beat up in that fight. It’s pretty obvious what Bute needed to do in order to beat Froch by using movement, but Bute chose to stand in one place and he paid the price for it.

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Broner vs. DeMarco still set for Atlantic City on November 17th

By Rob Smith the November 17th bout between WBC lightweight champion Antonio DeMarco and Adrien Broner is still set for Boardwalk Hallt in Atlantic City, New Jersey in spite of the damage to the area from the huge hurricane Sandy this past week. Golden Boy Promotions still want the fight to be staged there. The area is pretty wrecked from the hurricane and it’s questionable how many people will show up for the fight.

HBO will be televising the fight, which will also have heavyweight Seth Mitchell facing Johnathon Banks in addition to the Broner vs. DeMarco fight. The Boardwalk Hall reportedly wasn’t damaged so that shouldn’t be a problem. The only question is how many boxing fans from around the area will want to see the fight given the damage that has taken place from the storm.

Broner, 23, is hoping to put on a good performance in trying to grab the World Boxing Council 135 lb title from the more experienced DeMarco. This is the first fight for Broner at 135 and he’s taking on a really tough opponent in 26-year-old DeMarco. This is like going to the head of the class and it’s definitely a risky thing for Broner to be doing. He’s had trouble in the past against tough pressure fighters like Daniel Ponce De Leon, and you’ve got to rate DeMarco ahead of him. Demarco can be a lot of problems for anyone.

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Gavin decisions Witter in boring fight

By Michael Collins: 38-year-old Junior Witter (41-6-2, 22 KO’s) really showed his age tonight in losing his British welterweight title to the younger 26-year-old Frankie Gavin (14-0, 10 KO’s) by a 12 round unanimous decision at the York Hall, Bethnal Green, London, United Kingdom. The judges scored it 117-112, 119-109 and 117-110. For all practical purposes, Witter stopped punching from the 4th and did next to nothing for the last eight rounds of the fight other than flicking jabs and annoyingly changing stances from orthodox to southpaw seemingly nonstop.

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Q & A interview with amateur star Antoine Douglas as he makes professional debut

By Lou McLaughlin: Last week I conducted a phone interview with amateur star Antoine Douglas of Washington, D.C. who at the time was scheduled to make his professional debut Virginia on October 27th Douglas is scheduled for a quick ring return when he fights on November 10th in Millville, New Jersey. Due to hurricane Sandy I was unable to put this interview out earlier. But the results were Antoine winning in 90 seconds of the first round. Douglas as an amateur had a record of 85-30 and was a National PAL Champion, 2009 Jt. Olympic Champion as well as a Ringside World champion as well as placing third in the Olympic trials, recently signed with managers Bill Mielnicki and Kay Korona and with promoter Greg Cohen.

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Argentina Continues to Shine

By Emilio Camacho, Esq. – Thomas Dulorme was supposed to be the next Puerto Rican boxing star. He was supposed to be the Felix Trinidad. That’s gone.

This was important because Puerto Rico is losing its big stars. Miguel Cotto is getting old and has few fights left. Ivan Calderon retired after being defeated because he cannot compete at the elite level any longer. Juan Manuel Lopez was crushed by Orlando Salido. Twice. Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. was defeated by Jorge Arce and Nonito Donaire. Carlos Quintana and Kermit Cintron are not “A” class fighters. In short, Puerto Rico was looking at Thomas Dulorme as the next Puerto Rican hope. Unfortunately, they pushed him far too soon.

Last Saturday, Luis Carlos Abregu, a fighter from Argentina, crushed Dulorme. After a big right hand landed on Dulorme in the 3rd round, sending him to the canvas, there was no way he could recover. In the end, the corner stopped the fight and Puerto Rico’s hope for Dulorme as its next star, if any, faded. In all fairness, Dulorme is only 22 years of age and he could always come back stronger (Pacquiao is a good example).

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Javan “Sugar” Hill: “Adonis Stevenson is ready to become the IBF Super Middleweight Champion”

By Joseph Herron – After becoming the mandatory IBF title challenger by knocking out Super Middleweight contender Don “Da Bomb” George on October 12th at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Adonis “Superman” Stevenson (19-1, 16 KOs) is ready to take on the best at 168 according the his friend and trainer Javan “Sugar” Hill.

“Adonis showed me a lot in his victory over Don George,” professes the nephew of boxing legend Emanuel Steward. “Even with an injured left hand, he showed a lot of poise and stuck to the game plan of out-boxing George. Even after he had a lot of good exchanges with Don, he went right back to the focus of boxing instead of slugging it out with him.”

“Even with the injury to his power hand bothering him, Adonis was able to turn it up and get Don George out of there in the twelfth round. Adonis really showed me that he’s ready to fight anyone in the world.”

Although Stevenson is the next in line to face the current IBF Super Middleweight Champion Carl “The Cobra” Froch, the talented young trainer claims that Adonis is willing to fight any of the major title holders in the packed 168 pound division.

“Without a doubt, Adonis is ready for any one of the three recognized major world champions at Super Middleweight; Carl Froch, Arthur Abraham, and Andre Ward. Adonis really proved a lot on October 12th. With the pressure of fighting a big puncher like Don George in an IBF title eliminator, and having to overcome the adversity of decisively beating a tough opponent with an injured hand, Adonis proved that he is worthy of an opportunity for a world title.”

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Interesting Match-Ups Await “Dr. Steel Hammer” – are Wach, Povetkin, Boytsov/Fury soon to give Wladimir a real fight?

By James Slater – Those fans who have been waiting oh, so long to see heavyweight king Wladimir Klitschko’s formidable skills tested to the full might, just might be about to see the 36-year-old in a real fight. Hardly pushed at all since his first encounter with the hard-hitting Samuel Peter, way back in 2005 (although to be fair, David Haye did win a couple of sessions during his July 2011 challenge of Wlladimir), Klitschko has gone through the likes of Ruslan Chagaev, Jean Marc Mormeck and, last time out, Tony Thompson, like a hot knife through warm butter.

But the seemingly laughably easy fights may be at an end for the unified WBA, WBO, IBF, IBO ruler. Next up for Wladimir is unbeaten but unproven (at the highest level) Polish banger Mariusz Wach. No, this fight, set for Nov. 10th, doesn’t look exactly like an ultra-dangerous fight for Wladimir, but the outside chance of a potential banana skin awaits him all the same. Not only is Wach, 27-0(15) a pretty stiff puncher, with the right hand especially, he is also able to look Wladimir directly in the eye. Much has been made of the fact that never before has Wladimir faced so tall an adversary, and, with the sad passing of his long-time trainer and friend Emanuel Steward, this fight could possibly prove difficult for Klitschko.

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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

By 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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