Tha Boxing Voice Week in Review

0
1220
Klitschko/Jennings

Klitschko Jennings BoxingWladimir Does What Wladimir Does!

In a fight that most anticipated to finish inside the distance, Wladimir Klitschko easily beat challenger Bryant Jennings. It was the typical one or two punches and clinch or lay on the opponent that we normally see from Wladimir except he was actually penalized a point for holding in this fight, albeit far too late to make a difference. In the aftermath, a lot of people are giving Jennings credit for doing better than expected which makes absolutely no sense at all. It’s like heaping praise on someone for getting a “D” instead of an “F”. They are both failing grades so there is really no difference. The truth is that Jennings ran around for the majority of the fight and showed good defense, but he didn’t even throw 400 punches in the whole fight! He threw some “shoeshine” type punches to the body when he was in close, but nothing of significance to make any reasonable person think he was doing any damage. If you personally want to give him credit for making it the full 12 rounds then more power to you. I, however, saw it as just another fight that was dominated by Wladimir against another opponent that wasn’t on his level. Time to bring on the real challengers in Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder so we can truly see Wlad tested.
Jack’s Win Makes 3 TMT Champions

WBC super-middleweight title holder Anthony Dirrell and Badou Jack fought Friday night on the PBC on Spike card in a fight that turned out to be better than what most people thought it would be. Jack came in determined and undeterred even though he was a heavy underdog, while Dirrell was not his normally busy self and was more than willing to let Jack bully him to the ropes and get off with decent punches. In the end, Jack won a well-deserved 12 round majority decision and added another champion to the TMT stable.

Jacobs Wins a Lackluster Fight

Danny Jacobs defended his suspect championship (GGG is the true WBA champ) against Caleb Truax Jr. in a fight that was very tough to watch for the fight fans. Truax was definitely not in the same class as Jacobs but for some reason Jacobs decided to play it safe and evade Caleb until the final round. It did not help that the Garcia-Stevenson fight before this one was a straight up stinker and probably made a lot of viewers turn the channel. Jacobs got the stoppage against a guy who had never been stopped but then again he had never faced this level of opposition so Jacobs should have stopped Truax and he should have done it earlier to be honest. Next up should be Jacobs and Quillin. Both are not going to fight GGG and neither will get a Cotto shot so the time is now for that fight. Neither one was very impressive in their last fight anyway so they might as well go ahead and bolster their resumes with the others name.

Ali Bests Santana

Tha Boxing Voices Peter Clarke reported that Sadam Ali beat Francisco Santana by unanimous decision 97-93, 97-93, and 100-90 and remained undefeated. Santana rehydrated by 20 pounds on fight night and mad a game showing but was outclassed in the end. The fight showed the grit and heart that Ali has to add to the boxing skill and power he showed in his last fight. While Ali did get the win it is time for him to step up and test himself against better caliber fighter to see if he will truly be a player in the welterweight division.

Verdejo Destroys Lopez

As reported by Mario Mungia, Felix Verdejo squared off against Marco Antonio Lopez of Mexico in a scheduled 10 rounder that was basically a stay busy fight. The end came “in the 5th round, Verdejo hurt Lopez with a left that had a time delay reaction and forced Lopez to take a knee. Moments later, Verdejo smelt the blood and went for the finish with a barrage of hard punches that caused the referee to call a halt to the bout”. There is nothing wrong with a young up and comer having an easy fight to stay busy but I would like to see Verdejo tested a bit more in the next fight so that he can showcase just how good of a fighter he truly is and will become.

Boxing Tidbits and Talk

Roc Nation Sports has announced a partnership with BET to broadcast live throne boxing events with the first one being Andre Ward versus Paul Smith. Hopefully, this will be a good thing for them but since I don’t know anyone who actually watches BET anymore I am cautiously optimistic as a boxing fan.

Ryan O’Hara reported that John Molina took another “L” this past week in “after extending his losing streak to three fights in a one-sided affair against Adrien Broner in the March 7 debut of Premier Boxing Champions on NBC. The junior welterweight tested positive for a banned diuretic during random drug testing”. I am not too hard on a guy who uses diuretics versus performance enhancers, but it is definitely time for Molina to move up in weight if he can’t make it naturally.

Time to add another fighter to the Al Haymon stable. Former two-time world cruiserweight champion and current Heavyweight contender, Steve “USS” Cunningham has signed with adviser Al Haymon. This is a good thing for Steve as hopefully it will get him a good payday to help pay for some of his daughters’ medical bills and maybe even get him a title shot opportunity versus Deontay Wilder in the future.

Paulie Malignaggi will be making his comeback in his hometown to face Danny O’Connor (yeah I don’t know him either) in the co-feature of Khan-Algieri on the PBC on Spike TV on Friday, May 29 at 9 p.m. In other words, this will be 2 fights that no one really wants to see but at least Paulie has an excuse versus Khan just ducking good fighters.

That’s all we got for this week but that is by far not all there was to talk about. Make sure that you catch Tha Boxing Voice weekly radio show live every Thursday and Sunday starting at 7pm (EST) or catch the podcast to get more insight and opinions on the world of boxing.