Lightweights Make Heavyweight Impact in September

by Paul Magno

Even with Manny Pacquiao out of the picture and chasing after the Oscar that lays the golden eggs, the Lightweight division will be just fine- especially if the upcoming fights in September are any indication.

Here’s a look at the four major Lightweight bouts in September and a guide of what to look for in each:

September 6th: Juan Diaz vs Michael Katsidis

There’s no world title on the line for this one, but the winner will be sure to get a shot- possibly by year’s end. Both Diaz and Katsidis are coming off of nasty losses at the hands of veterans, previously thought to have one foot out the proverbial Boxing door: “Baby Bull” Diaz was “out-bulled” by Nate Campbell in a brutal inside war while Katsidis came into his fight the favorite to beat Casamayor and was TKO’d by the same guy many were insisting was finished in the sport.

Whatever the case here, this fight will be a war- a live, human version of Rock ,em Sock ,em Robots.

What to look for:

Warrior or Worrier?

Both fighters were somewhat emasculated in their last fight. What’s going to happen when either of them gets hit hard or stunned in this fight? What happens if/when there’s a knockdown? The mental toughness of both fighters will be put into question in this fight.

Baby Got Back

Just look at their backs if you want to see in which direction the fight is going- Whoever’s back eventually finds itself against the ropes is losing the fight. The absolute key to this fight is in imposing their will on their opponent. Katsidis needs room to throw those big shots and Diaz needs to push forward to apply pressure. So, the fighter who eventually gets pushed to the ropes will be the one losing control of the fight.

 

September 6th: Amir Khan vs. Breidis Prescott

This is the least essential fight of the four fights mentioned here, but it could be the most interesting. Amir Khan is the biggest prospect in the division and this fight, in many ways, will be his biggest test to date. This will be the first fight where Khan will not be able to cruise to victory on physical ability alone. He will have to win this fight with skill and technique.

Prescott is a lot like most Colombian fighters- tough power-punchers with a boatload of technical flaws. However, Prescott will brawl and throw tons of leather and if Khan’s not ready for this fight and doesn’t come in focused, he will be looking up at the lights.

What to look for:

Lets Get Ready to Rumble:

Is Khan ready for a two-fisted brawler as young, as tall and as hungry as he is? We’ll find out.

 

September 13th: Nate Campbell vs. Joan Guzman

Guzman is moving up to try and take the WBA, WBO and IBF titles that Campbell ripped away from Juan Diaz in one of the shockers of the year. The weight issue should be minimal since Guzman allegedly tips the scales as high as 147 in his normal, day to day, life.

Campbell has always talked a good game, but has never been a consistant performer in the ring. Sometimes he looks fantastic, sometimes he just looks like a decent ESPN2 fighter. Guzman, on the other hand, has shown world-class talent, but has been inactive and unsure of exactly what his fighting style is.

What to look for:

Don’t Judge a Book by its Cover:

With his long reach and quick hands, Nate Campbell looks like a boxer while Joan Guzman, a Mike Tyson look alike, with his bravado, looks like a brawler. Neither is true. Campbell loves to brawl while Guzman will take flight at a moment’s notice.

The key here will be being able to lure their opponent into fighting a different style. If you see Campbell chasing Guzman, Campbell will lose; If you see fierce exchanges, Guzman will lose.

Space: The Final Frontier:

Look for the distance between both fighters. If Campbell can keep Guzman relatively close, then he has a good chance of pulling off the victory. If he can’t keep Guzman within arm’s reach, it will be a long night for him.

September 13th: Joel Casamayor vs. Juan Manuel Marquez

For those wanting to write a textbook on good, technical boxing, this will be the fight to watch.

Marquez is moving up in weight to take on reigning Ring champ, Joel Casamayor.

Casamayor was thought to be washed-up after his awful performance against Santa Cruz in ‘07, but he put those doubters to shame by outclassing and taking out the younger, more aggressive Michael Katsidis.

Marquez lost a disputed decision to Manny Pacquiao in his last fight, but was competitive throughout and had actually hurt the consensus Pound for Pound king a few times.

What to look for:

Matador or Bull?:

At this stage of his career, Casamayor feels much more comfortable being the matador in his fights- stepping aside in the face of aggression and countering smartly. However, Marquez is a controlled fighter in all areas of style and temperament. There is no wasted movement or over-indulgence in Marquez’s game, so if Casamayor is looking to counter a Marquez mistake or generally play matador, he will be in trouble.

To win this fight, Casamayor needs to be a bit of a bull and push the fight on the naturally smaller Marquez. Does he have the energy left in his game to do so? We’ll see.

The “Weighting” is the Hardest Part:

For a veteran fighter who is not abnormally gifted with power or speed, a move up in weight is a big deal. How will Marquez handle the weight against a guy in Casamayor who is a natural Lightweight? What will happen when/if Marquez gets hit flush and hard by Casamayor when a faded and smaller Marco Antonio Barrera seriously buzzed Marquez? Again, we’ll just have to wait and see.

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So, while the Welterweights and Catchweight fights get most of the press, The Lightweights will be doing the hard work of actually fighting one another.

The month of September will be burning with important Lightweight fights and no matter who wins those battles, its the fans who will be the winners.

John Ruiz: Embracing History

by Damon Ealy (aka PghWindmill)

“I have to knock him out to win. That is my plan: to be aggressive from the first round.”

So says John Ruiz of his strategy for beating Nikolai Valuev this weekend. That squishing you hear is either the midsection of a Ruiz sparring partner or the sound of a nation of boxing fans’ eyes rolling.

Yeah, John Ruiz might be the favorite whipping boy in a constantly dumped-on heavyweight division, and he’s most often shredded for his dull style in the ring, the phrase “jab and grab,” often in conjunction with “hug,” most often invoked. Sometimes, though, it seems a little much, a little unfair and personal, and I’ll get to feeling like cutting Ruiz some slack. After all, he’s faced as many quality opponents as any active heavyweight, he’s active in charitable endeavors, and by reliable accounts, he’s an affable guy. And he’s been at it as a pro since 1992. I get the feeling that Ruiz loves boxing and that he’s making a living doing the thing he’s best at. I think that’s a hell of an admirable thing. But some reflection on a few points about Ruiz’s professional career is usually the tonic for those warm sentiments, and when I watch Ruiz fight, I fall right back in line with the complainers.

- John Ruiz’s resume isn’t all that great:
He’s 43-7 as a pro, but Ruiz’s quality wins are few and far between. Knocking down and decisioning Evander Holyfield in 2001, though Holyfield was 37 and banged up at the time, was big—no doubt about it. And Ruiz holds a safe decision win over Hasim Rahman (though Rahman was then 0-2-1 in his last three), and most recently (March 2008), Ruiz won a wide-margin decision over Jameel McCline in Mexico.

I’ll even acknowledge Ruiz’s 2004 unanimous-decision victory over Andrew Golota, another of the wins on Ruiz’s record that’s often cited as proof of his quality. Golota dropped Ruiz twice in the second round, and later in the fight, Ruiz lost a point for hitting on breaks. But after twice being on the floor, Ruiz returned to his stylistic comfort zone and, despite being outworked and outlanded—and not once knocking down Golota—rode to the decision—an ugly, questionable decision in a bout marred by Ruiz manager Norman Stone’s whining, buffoonery and ejection. Other than that, Ruiz’s wins are over journeymen and 40-year-old Tony “TNT” Tucker.

- John Ruiz is not a classy fighter:
Jab, fall in, clinch, break, repeat: It’s the aspect of the Ruiz ring style that detractors—observers, writers and fellow professionals among them—are quickest to slag. But hey, what works works, and Ruiz is going to slow-dance with the one who’ll prop him up. And at the Blue Corner, we’ve spoken of and admired Teddy Atlas’s view on it: A fighter who’s being held and does nothing but wait for and rely on the referee to break the clinch is entering into “the silent pact” with his opponent. If Ruiz is a clinch addict, his opponents (and some would say certain fight officials) are his enablers.

But infighting, after all, is a part of the sport, and so are its grimier aspects—holding, elbows, low shots and the like. A fighter the old-timers described as a “classy pro” (now a term overused to the point of meaninglessness) would deal with it. But in his 2002 bout with Kirk Johnson, Ruiz showed that he couldn’t take it as well as he could dish it out. Early in the fight, Ruiz was employing his standard techniques: grabbing, a little holding and hitting, doing a little work with his head. Johnson fired back low and was docked a point by referee Joe Cortez. From there, any of Johnson’s work to the body drew complaint to Cortez from Ruiz and his corner.

Cortez apparently heard. In the fourth, he warned Johnson. In the seventh, deducted a point for a shot that hit Ruiz’s leg, and Ruiz was full on into ham mode, falling and wincing, taking his full five minutes to ”recover.” The cards were still tight in round 10 when Johnson landed the next shot deemed low—and grounds for disqualification—by referee Cortez.

Some fighters recognize a generous decision. But Ruiz will even pitch a bitch after a win. This was Ruiz’s quote after the Golota fight: “I was very disappointed with the referee. I felt like I was fighting two fighters in the ring, and I felt like they wanted to take my belt away” (“Championship Eludes Andrew Golota Again,” Mike Indri, thesweetscience.com, November 15, 2004).  That ‘’second fighter” was the same referee, Randy Neumann, who gave Ruiz the benefit of the doubt at the end of the tenth round of the fight, ruling what would’ve been the third knockdown of the bout as having come after the bell.

And Ruiz was either being brutally honest with himself or was alarmingly delusional after his loss to Roy Jones Jr.: ”I felt like every time I went in, he was holding me” … ”The ref would break us up, and I couldn’t get my punches off” … ”I would give him more credit if I felt like I was given the same advantages he was during the fight” (”For Jones, Victory Only Adds To Legacy,” Mike Freeman, The New York Times, March 3, 2003).

- John Ruiz always has an excuse:
Ruiz has taken total command of the “we wuz robbed” bromide, employing it without hesitance and without even a bit of irony. He was saying it after losing to Valuev: ”Boxing is the only sport where you can get robbed without a gun” (”Ruiz Wants Rematch,” Sports Briefing, The New York Times, December 19, 2005), but even back in 2000, in the days after the Holyfield fight, he was winging the clichés around like leftover promotional Frisbees: ”It was highway robbery without a gun” … ”I was definitely robbed” … ”Like people say, I was robbed without a gun” (”Holyfield Defeats Ruiz for Fourth Heavyweight Crown,” Michael Arkush, The New York Times, August 13, 2000).

Yeah. Like “people” say. Mostly the people around Ruiz.

Ruiz has already complained that “I don’t get close decisions in Germany” after losing to Ruslan Chagaev in Dusseldorf in autumn of 2006 (“Uninspired Ruiz Left At Loss,” Ron Borges, The Boston Globe, November 19, 2006). Then why return to fight Nikolai Valuev for a second time at Max Schmeling Hall in Berlin? Why, the German gemütlichkeit, of course!

“It was more like a robbery than hometown decision,” Ruiz said of his first fight with Valuev. “Boxing is the only sport you can get robbed without a gun. I really enjoy the German people. They’ve been very hospitable to me. I love going back, just not for a fight.” (”Ruiz On The Road Again,” Dan Rafael, espn.com, July 25, 2008)

So dismiss Ruiz’s assertion that he’ll “be aggressive from the first round” against Valuev. He’s made that promise before. At best, Ruiz might be aggressive IN the first round. He might be willing to box with Valuev for three to six minutes. When that doesn’t work, Ruiz will revert to his signature style. Ruiz knows he won’t knock out Valuev; he hasn’t scored a true-blue knockout since he dropped 10-3 Willie Jackson in 1995. And in the meaningful phase of his career, since 2000, Ruiz has TKO’ed only two opponents, the weakest of the bunch: Fres Oquendo and Otis Tisdale.

Ruiz is a generous man, a charitable and well-liked man who avails himself to the media, even though he knows he’s the most maligned fighter in the division and that there isn’t much he can do to shut the critics’ yaps. I think most fair-minded boxing fans wish him well. I know I do. But if Nikolai Valuev wins on August 30th, don’t be surprised if the “Quiet Man” is squawking about handguns and injustice at the press conference.

Too Far Gone: Can Jeff Lacy Be Salvaged?

By Paul Magno

Boxing is the only sport where, at 31 years of age, someone can be considered “washed up” or “shot.”

Former IBF Super Middleweight Champion Jeff Lacy is at the point where the silent whispers behind his back are full-blown shouts. “Stick a fork in him, he’s done.”

But it wasn’t always like this. At one point, Boxing fans, especially American Boxing fans, were enamored with “Left Hook” Lacy…and they had every right to be.

After a stellar amateur career that topped-out with a place on the US Olympic Boxing Team, Lacy began his pro career with 11 straight KO’s.

He became the IBF Champ in his 17th Pro fight against Syd Vanderpool and things couldn’t have been going better. He was becoming a fan favorite and one of Showtime’s house fighters.

Over the course of his title reign, Lacy defended the title four times against marginal, at best, competition, but all of his fights were compelling, exciting affairs. His most impressive defense was against the normally durable former world champ, Robin Reid, who he blasted away in 7 rounds.

However, as is often the case, a good power punch combined with an impressive overall image sweeps many fans off their feet and many were more than willing to blindly declare Lacy a future superstar and among the best overall fighters in the world.

They were willing to overlook low-end fighters on his resume and the life and death struggle with the marginally skilled Omar Sheika who managed to stun Lacy a number of times. More importantly, though, Lacy, himself, was buying into the hype and his limited skill-set eventually was becoming reduced to one punch and one menacing scowl.

Then, Lacy got the call from the long-reigning WBO Super Middleweight Champ from Wales, Joe Calzaghe. Their IBF and WBO title unification bout was a one-sided schooling with Calzaghe being the stern professor to Lacy’s clueless pupil. The crafty, southpaw WBO champ presented problems for Lacy that a short career of Scotty Pembertons and Syd Vanderpools couldn’t solve.

The post-Calzaghe Lacy has been sluggish and deflated. Despite a legit shoulder injury, the Jeff Lacy of today has little to offer Boxing- His bad luck culminating in his most recent majority decision win over the slightly better than club-level Epifanio Mendoza who stunned Lacy often and was on the verge of stopping the former champ on a couple of occasions. Lacy even resorted to flat-out tackling Mendoza to save himself from an embarrassing ESPN-aired KO.

Lacy spoke of retirement after the fight, citing money issues instead of the real reason- his horrible performance against a fringe opponent on national TV. Despite the new deal with Golden Boy and the injuries and excuses, Lacy has to see the writing on the wall. But it has to be a bitter pill to swallow for Lacy who, essentially, is the same one punch-at-a-time, scowling fighter that he was before Calzaghe, but now, nobody is taking him seriously. From promising Olympian to burnt-out pro in less than 9 years is a pretty tough fall from grace.

Now, his career has come full-circle as he’s scheduled to face his Olympic teammate, Jermain Taylor, in a title eliminator in November. A loss ends it all for Lacy and even a win, if he remains the same fighter, will only hold off the inevitable; He will still be a limited boxer ready to be exposed by anyone with some style and class.

Conventional Boxing wisdom says that Lacy is done with, but is there a spark of hope for the former world champ? I guess, at 31 years of age, anything is possible, but Lacy has to first admit the harsh truth of his sad career and then start some really hard work. At this point, I don’t think Lacy has hit rock-bottom on a personal level yet, But if Jermain Taylor beats him badly later this Fall, his “rock-bottom” just may be the end of his career.

 

(To discuss this topic further, come join our forum: http://boxingtimes.com/bluecorner/index.php)

An Open Letter to Bob Arum

by Paul Magno

Mr. Arum,

First, congratulations on your recent successes. Despite the pressure placed upon you by your other promotional rivals, you have thrived and have become the most powerful company in the sport with a firm grasp over three of the recognized glamour divisions in the sport: the Middleweights, The Welterweights and the Lightweights.

It is well within your right to try to make some major money form this position of power and I, personally, have no problem with trying to book the biggest events possible. These Mega-Events benefit both you and the boxers and I would never complain about boxers making as much money as they possibly can.

So, the attempts to get a fight for either Antonio Margarito or Manny Pacquiao against Oscar de la Hoya are understandable and reasonable since Oscar is currently Boxing’s biggest draw. Even the upcoming Pavlik/Hopkins fight is fair since it will be a Mega-Fight for a fighter like Kelly Pavlik who most definitely deserves a major payday. However, once the De la Hoya and Hopkins Sweepstakes are done with, I would make the humble request to get down to business and start with the business of stabilizing and unifying the divisions where your guys are in control.

Let’s start with the Pound for Pound king, Manny Pacquiao. Manny is a pure joy to watch and is 5-1-1 against first ballot Hall of Famers. Every fight with him is amazing and his recent ascent to Lightweight against David Diaz was only further proof of his greatness.

Like I said earlier, I won’t put him down for thinking about a huge fight with Oscar or even Ricky Hatton, but once ‘09 begins, regardless of whether a Mega-Fight at a higher weight goes down or not, its time to get down to business and dig into the ultra-deep Lightweight division where there will be any number of great fights awaiting.

Manny vs. the winner of Casamayor/Marquez, Campbell/Guzman or Juan Diaz/Katsidis would surely be a classic. Manny could take his pick among the winners of these three and the result would be pure Boxing gold.

As a matter of fact, the Lightweight division is deep enough so that Manny could spend the rest of his career there and never have anything less than a major PPV fight. Behind the current crop of quality Lightweights, the division also has some of Boxing’s most promising prospects like Amir Khan, Vicente Escobedo and, your fighter, Anthony Peterson as well as some tough veterans like Jesus Chavez and another one of your fighters, Kid Diamond.

The Pac-man is good enough to unify this division and the result would be great for the sport..

Now, move up to Welterweight, another one of the best divisions in the sport where Top Rank currently holds two of the four recognized World Titles. With Margarito as WBA champ and Joshua Clottey as IBF title-holder along with former #1 Welter Miguel Cotto and newly-crowned NABF champ Jesus Soto Karass, the Welterweight division is squarely in your hands. A unified Welterweight division, something that hasn’t existed in a long while, can certainly be achieved with just a few well-placed phone calls from you.

Reports are that a Margarito/Clottey rematch unification bout is in the works for November 1^st and this is a major step in the right direction, but don’t stop there. You need to bite the bullet and call up Paul Williams. The winner of Margarito/Clottey must fight Williams or the credibility of the title unification would be destroyed. Williams has a win over Margarito and nobody can be considered a true, undisputed champ unless they beat Williams first.

Next would be WBC title-holder, Andre Berto, the least experienced of the division champs. It is also well within your power to corner Berto into a fight by establishing Cotto or Soto Karass as Berto’s #1 mandatory. This won’t be difficult since Cotto is already ranked #2 by the WBC and Soro Karass is #4..

Then, assuming your guys can take the title from Berto, this could lead to another title unification by the Fall of ´09. Conceivably, the Welterweight division could be unified by the end of ‘09 and the end-result would be good for both Top Rank and Boxing in general.
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Now, lets go up to the Middleweight division where Kelly Pavlik, WBC and WBO champ and the consensus #1 160 pounder in the world currently resides. After his catch-weight money fight against Bernard Hopkins takes place, it would be in his, as well s Boxing’s, best interest to stop with the catch-weight fights and focus on the division that he has ruled over since beating Jermain Taylor last year.

IBF champ Arthur Abraham has showed interest in a title unification fight and a fight between Abraham and Pavlik would be a very good match-up as well as a solid money fight all over the world. Next would be a fight with Felix Sturm if Sturm would be willing to risk his title in a fight with Kelly. If not, the world would know the truth and Pavlik would be considered the true unified champ despite only holding three of the four belts.

After the dust settles at 160, Kelly could move up to 168, where there are some very interesting young prospects on the horizon, and try the whole thing all over again. He’s young enough to give it a real go and possibly even make a run at 175 before he calls it a career. Kelly can even be bigger and make more money over a longer period of time by foregoing the Senior Fighter’s Circuit and becoming a fighter who take on and takes out the best fighters in his division in their primes. Remember, people pay homage to the prime Roberto Duran and not the Duran who became a fixture on the Senior Circuit. Pavlik, with his age and talent, gives Top Rank the possibility of representing a respected money fighter for the next decade. The moves up and down in weight and the wasted time of fighting horrible challengers only take away from the time he could be using to achieve is destiny in the sport.

So, again Mr. Arum, congratulations on your recent successes, but now comes the truly hard work. By foregoing some of the fast money fights and concentrating on the significant divisional bouts featuring your fighters, you will be ensuring the overall strength of the sport at a time when Boxing is becoming more and more of a fringe sport in the eyes of the media and general public.

I’m just speaking for myself as a life-long fight fan and a peripheral member of the Boxing community and I wouldn’t presume to be able to do your job better than you, I can only comment on how things look from this side of the TV or computer screen and as someone who fills the seats for your shows, buys them on PPV and watches them on cable.

Boxing is, ultimately, a business where money needs to be made and nobody blames a fighter or a promoter for making the occasional fluff fight for a big payday, but all fluff fights result in a bad overall product. They make the sport look bad, the fighters look weak and the promotional company look even worse. Solid, unified champions defending against the very best in their divisions reinforces the love of the game in the fight fan as well as making it easier for any new fans to jump right in and follow the sport. Remember, what’s good for Boxing is good for Top Rank.

Mr. Arum, you are in the unique position to be able to have a huge positive impact on the sport. You can still make your money while truly being able to stabilize a sport that so desperately needs stabilization. And some day, when you are retired from the sport, you can look back and honestly feel the respect of being one of the men who saved Boxing.

Sincerely,

Paul Magno, Adminstrator of the Boxing Times Blue Corner (www.boxingtimes.com)..

P.S. Feel free to come into our forum anytime you wish and see how many truly informed boxing die-hards there still are..

(I sent this off to the offices of Top Rank and if I get any reply, I will post it here and on our forum.)
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Tagged: Amir Khan, Andre Berto, Anthony Peterson, Antonio Margarito, Arthur Abraham, bernard hopkins, Bob Arum, Boxing, Boxing Times, David Diaz, Felix Sturm, IBF, Jesus Soto Karass, Joan Guzman, joe calzaghe, Joel Casamayor, Joshua Clottey, juan diaz, Juan Manuel Marquez, Kelly Pavlik, Kid Diamond, Lightweight, Manny Pacquiao, Michael Katsidis, Middleweight, nate campbell, Oscar De la Hoya, Paul Magno, Paul Williams, ricky hatton, Roberto Duran, Top Rank, Vicente Escobedo, WBA, WBC, WBO, welterweight