Last night on HBO boxing I saw the Wladimir Klitschko vs. Tony “The Tiger” Thompson fight from Hamberg, Germany and I was disappointed for quite a few reasons.
On the heels of Floyd Mayweather making the accusation of racism being practiced by the HBO commentary staff I in some small way spent some of my listening waiting for a comment to be made that would make the accusation valid for me. I give Mr. Lampley & Mr. Merchant credit for not going there. But I did noticed as the fight went on (even though they were visible facts) Thompson was being counted out before the fight was over by some of the comments. Which raises the question…
Can a person who has spent the better portion of his career being a sparring partner overcome the shadow to become a champion? In Thompson’s case I did not see that. I give him credit for his working the body the way he did but he didn’t have enough snap to break his opponent down. Not to mention the fact his cornerman barking at him in the later rounds not being a motivating factor. But as was stated it seems the European boxers are dominating the scene as of now in the heavyweight division. For me I believe they spend more time training on condition more than boxing and that is the advantage for them right now.
American boxers train to fight and that could be a downfall. Does a boxer who has more fights against opponents who have not really been placed in challenging fights stand a chance against an opponent who has trained for condition? In my opinion rarely. The US does have some in the talent pool but they are not being pushed as they should nor are they being challenged to prepare them for the ultimate prize “The US Heavyweight” title. I also think there are too many divisions so there are no real distinctive Heavyweight champions because a european fighter could lose a belt and still be look at as the overall champion.
Another thing that got me about last night’s event was Thompson (stat-wise) showed high percentages but scored low on the cards. At least according to the commentators. As for Thmopson being from DC and how that made me feel…I raised the question “why is it boxer’s from DC do not last long in the boxing game”? It would have been a feather in the cap for the hometown but even if he would have won I did see him losing the belt shortly after the win.
Seems like the exciting fights are outside of the heavyweight division and the MMA…did I just write that? Well now that Don King has seemed to disappear one can only hope there is a boxer and trainer from the US that is really ready to step up to the challenge and bring the belt back. But the only way that can really happen is by the boxer training for condition along with boxing.
There is a lot of noise going on in the world of MMA. Most of the noise is about Kimbo Slice. If you have gone to Youtube and did a search for Kimbo Slice you may have come across a video like the one below. Now of course in a street fight match there are no rules and in most cases if you have the right hype man (because there is always some fool selling your woof tickets) you are going to win the fight. Looking at him from that perspective I wouldn’t want to fight him myself. But let’s look at it from the MMA perspective.
I am going to use Mike Tyson in his prime as an example. Back in the day when Tyson reigned supreme in the Heavyweight boxing division there was NO ONE and I do mean NO ONE that wanted to see him in or out of the ring. Why?? Because like Ali (but in a different form) Tyson had the gift to beat his opponents befor he beat his opponents. The beating took place in the mind.He didn’t say much but he had a look of death in his eyes. Not to mention the fact he had the press selling him as the baddest man on the planet and whenever any clips of him where shown it was mostly a KO by Tyson that occurred. And what he did in the ring was magnified 100 times by those who were more afraid of him whenever he was in the street.
That was until Buster Douglas (who by the way had NO idea it was his night) broke the myth. Then anyone he met after that gave him a run for his money and he began losing more fights. But for his opponents it was a win because he was exsposed and his weakness was revealed.
After watching Kimbo on Elite XC the other night I asked myself was he really worth all that hype. Here is why I asked the question? In his last few matches he had already won because his opponents were already beaten because of the hype that followed him from his street fighting adventures. So I raised the question if you basically beat your opponents in 1 round exactly how much training are you actually doing? The reason I asked is because Kimbo got tested Saturday. And in the end he won but the fight was stopped.
Now grant you if he hadn’t bust the big assed blister on his opponents ear…would he have really won? This guy James Thompson from the start did not appear to be afraid of Kimbo even though in a staredown Kimbo won that one. Thompson had a great ground game and basically seemed to control the match whenever it came to the ground game. Now everybody knows standing up Kimbo got your ass on a knuckle up match. But awhen the match was stopped Kimbo fell to the ground and had to be helped up because he was so gassed out.
But when he did the interview that basically exsposed him to lots of viewers. If he is not properly trained for endurance and cardio will the hype stop?
Oscar De La Hoya, fighting for the first time in a year, dissected former sparring partner Steve Forbes in a lopsided 12-round unanimous decision victory at Home Depot Center.
What I saw was really a sparring session for DLH. I will give credit to Forbes because he didn’t seem to be looking as though he was just giving DLH a tune-up match. I was pulling for Forbes to win because this is supposed top be DLH’s good-bye tour ending with a rematch with Mayweather (which by the way has NOT been finialized). Actually it sounded as if it hasn’t even been discussed. And to hear DLH talk he sounds as if he is going to with the belt from Mayweather.
What makes that match more interesting (at least from the press) is not the fighters but the ring men. Floyd Sr./Roger is the fight most want to see. Yo have seen the clips with Floyd Sr. saying Floyd Jr. needs his ass whopped:
So knowing how he is and what he really thinks I am sure many are looking forward to that more than a DLH/Mayweather 2 fight. But I have to Forbes his props. As much as DLH was using his jab, Forbes was getting his shots in. All you had to do was look at DLH’s face. DLH did show he was in shape for all 12 but that sneak left that Forbes clocked him a few times with showed he was still vunerable.
In the end Forbes on got one round and believe that was based upon stats more than rating the fight on what was seen. I saw it as a draw or even if DLH won I would have made a manditory rematch because I though it was a close fight. And I didn’t use stats I looked at the faces of the fighters.
I look forward to seeing more of Forbes in the future. He still got some time to shine.
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