Saul “Canelo” Alvarez: Should the boxing world judge slowly?

Saul “Canelo” Alvarez: Should the boxing world judge slowly? (Photo Credit: Esther Lin/SHOWTIME) By Joseph Herron: Like many great fighters of yesteryear, the boxing world has witnessed many great champions cultivated with a careful guiding hand.

Most recently, the career of Canelo Alvarez’s famed promoter Oscar De La Hoya was nurtured cautiously by the vigilant eye of Hall of Fame matchmaker Bruce Trampler and Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum.

The Top Rank brass knew what they potentially had and elected to carefully navigate the Golden Boy’s career during the early stages of his rise to super stardom. Many ringside critics and boxing experts criticized the star-making machine, asserting that Oscar was a padded fighter who was purposely avoiding the stiffest competition available.

Although the five division champion currently possesses great disdain for his former handler, De La Hoya has learned very important lessons from the masters at Top Rank and is utilizing the same promotional tactics to develop his WBC Junior Middleweight Champion.

With a true architect of the sport like the great Don Chargin overseeing the 21 year old fighter’s career, Oscar has placed Alvarez in a position to succeed and possibly become the next big star of boxing.

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Chavez Jr. vs. Martinez: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

(Photo credit: Sumio Yamada) By Paul Strauss: What’s a silly movie made in 1966, starring Zero Mostel, Phil Silvers and Buster Keaton got to do with this Saturday night’s HBO PPV fight night at the Thomas & Mack Center, Las Vegas, NV? Maybe it should be rephrased to …….”Life is what happens when you’re making plans”, or in this case game plans.

In the classic matchups between boxers and punchers, we expect the puncher to attack, hoping to land the big shot. If that doesn’t work, it’s expected he will continue applying extreme pressure, enforcing a threat, hoping to wear down his opponent and then eventually administering the coup de grace (or a series of them if necessary). On the other hand, the boxer is often expected to stay away, jabbing, moving and building up points in hopes of getting a decision. It’s not that unusual to expect he might even get lucky and cut the slugger and get a TKO. It’s pretty simple, right? The fighter who is best at carrying out his fight plan wins the fight.

However, more often than not, funny things happen along the way, and you’ll hear losing fighters in post-fight interviews say things like, “I just couldn’t get off tonight” or “He was faster and stronger than I expected” (Chad Dawson). Maybe the funny thing is “He was in a zone” or “He was really up for this one.” It is an emotional thing that can cause an announcer on nights like that to describe the high level of a fighter’s motivation by saying, “There’s something funny going on here”. (Can you say Buster Douglas) Sometimes new words are even invented as a result of the surprise, such as “rope-a-dope”.

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JC Chavez Jr. set the trap…has Maravilla already taken the bait?

By Joseph Herron: Great trainers insist to every fighter who walks through their gym to leave all emotion at the door. The sport of pugilism is not about violence, but built on sportsmanship, discipline, and athleticism.

Most decisions a fighter makes in the ring based on emotion almost always leads to a disappointing result. Adversely, every logical and intellectual judgment made within the hostile confines of the squared circle usually results in a satisfying performance and a victory.

Leading up to this Saturday’s main event at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, featuring Sergio Martinez and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, the fighter most affectionately known as “Maravilla” has been uncharacteristically carrying around a sack full of emotion based largely on pride, vengeance, and anger.

Will the universally recognized Middleweight Champion decide to leave his emotions at the door of the Thomas & Mack Center this Saturday night? Team Chavez certainly hopes that he doesn’t.

On July 14th, 2012, we witnessed a similar dramatic situation unfold in the ring.

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Would Chavez Jr. be popular if he didn’t have a famous father?

By Michael Collins: In looking at how average WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (46-0-1, 32 KO’s) has looked throughout his boxing career, including his time as the WBC 160 pound champion, one has to wonder whether the 26-year-old Chavez Jr. would be as popular as he is now if his father wasn’t the famous former boxing great Julio Cesar Chavez Sr. Chavez Jr. is able to draw huge crowds in stadiums and draw big ratings on HBO despite looking very mediocre.

To be sure, Chavez Jr. is winning fights but a huge part of that seems to be based on his size. He’s winning on being the much heavier fighter compared to the smaller middleweights he’s been facing. That’s part of the criticism of Chavez Jr. He’s like a light heavyweight/cruiserweight sized fighter that is somehow still able to get down to middleweight to compete against smaller guys and get and advantage in doing so.

If you compare Chavez Jr. to his father Chavez Sr. it’s like night and day. Chavez Sr. was had a ton of talent. Everything was so easy for him. He had big time power in both hands, he was light on his feet, and he never had to dehydrate down to fight smaller guys. Chavez Sr. was made for fighting.

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Sergio Martinez wants Chavez Jr. to suffer slowly and painfully on Saturday

By Dwight Chittenden: If things go the way that Sergio Martinez (49-2-2, 28 KO’s) envisions them to be this Saturday, WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (46-0-1, 32 KO’s) is going to experience a lot of pain and suffering in taking his first loss of his career when they fight at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Martinez said “It won’t be a quick knockout. I will punish him [Chavez Jr] a lot and after that I will knock him out and he will suffer a lot. I hope someone in your corner stops the fight because I will never stop. I will continue punishing you.”

Unless Chavez Jr’s chin is made of iron it’s not likely that he’ll suffer a great deal. Martinez hits with the kind of power that puts you down when he lands cleanly. Chavez Jr. is painfully slow with his movements and if he gets hurt by one of the southpaw Martinez’s left hands, it’s going to be hard for Chavez Jr. to survive it. Martinez tends to drop his opponents from single shots to the head. If he lands a clean left to the head of Chavez Jr. that could be all she wrote. The suffering won’t enter into it.

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Bradley stunned that Pacquiao will be facing Marquez next

By Marcus Richardson: WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley is less than pleased with the news that Manny Pacquiao won’t be fighting him next in a rematch to try and avenge his loss to Bradley from last June. Pacquiao and his promoter Bob Arum have chosen to go with a proven pay per view money maker in 39-year-old Juan Manuel Marquez for Pacquiao’s next fight on December 8th.

Bradley told the Desert Sun at mydesert.com “I can’t believe these guys. He didn’t want any part of me. Marquez is an easier fight. He knows that a fight with me and two good legs are going to be hell…Any champion who lost his belt, you would want to redeem yourself.”

In fairness to Pacquiao, he probably does want to avenge his loss to Bradley, but it’s not just Pacquiao making the decisions here. It’s a team process and and I think he realized after hearing the arguments from his fellow team members that it was simply more logical to go with Marquez because of his potential to draw in more PPV buys from his large Mexican fanbase. Bradley still doesn’t have a large fanbase and it’s going to take a while for him and Arum to build one up.

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Arum close to finalizing Pacquiao-Marquez 4, Roach not happy

By Michael Collins: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is close to putting the finishing touches on a fourth fight between Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez. The bout will take place on December 8th in Las Vegas for a still yet to be determined pay per view asking price. Count on it being in the $49.99 range.

Arum said to Dan Rafael at ESPN “We’re having a meeting about Manny’s next fight and to get it finalized. My goal is to finalize the Marquez fight, but I have to meet with [Michael Koncz].”

This might good news or bad news depending on whether you’re one of the fans that want to see Pacquiao fight Marquez for a fourth time. Hardcore boxing fans are getting a little tired of seeing Pacquiao fight Marquez again and again, but casual boxing fans seem to really like the fight judging by the 1.2 million fans that purchased tickets for the Pacquiao-Marquez III fight last November. With boxing fans continuing to show interest in seeing Pacquiao fight Marquez, Arum is likely going to keep this rivalry going until it no longer brings gold for Pacquiao, him and Marquez.

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Pacquiao’s next opponent could be picked this week for December 8th fight

By Rob Smith: Manny Pacquiao’s adviser Michael Koncz is reporting that negotiations are complete with the potential opponent for Pacquiao’s next fight on December 8th in Las Vegas, and the only thing that is needed now is Top Rank promoter Bob Arum’s final decision. It’s going to be either Tim Bradley or Juan Manuel Marquez, two of Pacquiao’s past opponents. The opponent could be announced on Thursday, September 13th. That’s the word that has been floating around.

Koncz told RingTV “We’re done negotiation. We’ll present everything to Bob, and he will decide what he wants to do.”

Interesting. I thought Pacquiao was supposed to be the one that is picking out his next opponent, but Koncz sure is making it seem as if Arum is the ultimate decider in the choosing.

It’s not all that appealing Pacquiao facing the retreads that Arum has offered up to him. Boxing fans want to see Pacquiao fight someone new instead of seeing the same old Top Rank fighters brought in repeatedly for fights against him. At this point it would be more interesting to see Pacquiao fight someone completely new, even if it meant that the fight would likely be a mismatch. Seeing Pacquiao fight Bradley again would be like watching paint dry.

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Hollywood Fight Night Trainer Spotlight: Eric Brown

The Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood, California is known more as the home of Manny Pacquiao and Freddie Roach’s stable of World Chamion fighters. What many people don’t know from how this gym is portrayed on HBO’s 24/7 or any other show on which it is featured, is that there are other world class trainers there as well. Chris Strait, of www.convictedartist.com sat down with Eric Brown, to discuss the journey he has taken to from the Motor City to becoming a top-notch boxing trainer at the World’s most famous boxing gym.

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How would Sergio Martinez or Chavez Jr. fair against Andre Ward?

By Robert Jackson: Now that we’ve gotten Ward/Dawson out of the way, what’s up next is the Martinez/Chavez Jr fight! The winner of this fight could rightfully be in line for a BIG money PPV match-up against the undefeated Andre Ward. An undefeated Chavez Jr facing and undefeated Ward would be the better match-up unless…Martinez puts on a virtuoso performance while beating Chavez Jr.

Looking at the case for either man facing Ward next you first have Chavez Jr who at 26 is outgrowing the 160lb division, while the 37 year old Sergio ‘Maravilla’ Martinez is counting down to the twilight of his career. The BIGGER interest and promotion would be for Chavez Jr to face Ward, he has a bigger name and following. He fights in the rough-tough Mexican style even though Freddie Roach has added a few wrinkles to his style, and he would bring the fight to Ward.

Martinez a technician just like Ward starts slowly making adjustments along the way to even out a fight and makes more adjustments as a fight moves forwards to pull ahead. Late in recent fights Maravilla has gotten KO’s, after slow starts. He’ll do the same against Chavez Jr in their upcoming fight. Doing this against Ward could result in a chess match with 2 thoughtful fighters trying to out-think each other, a possibly low punch output, less action affair. Fans may anticipate a snoozer of a fight which would make this fight the least desirable one.

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