After a little time off for vacation we are back once again with the week in review. The business of boxing is still thriving and we are still here giving good info to the fans. Too bad the promoters aren’t giving us the good fights we deserve.
They are who we Thought They Were!
After watching the horrible Showtime card full of mismatches Saturday night we had to borrow a phrase from ex-NFL head coach Dennis Greene. “They are who we thought they were!” Referring to Salka, Santana and Fletcher of course. You can’t blame the guys for lack of trying or for wanting to follow their dreams of a title while earning a paycheck, but all 3 came into the night horribly over matched and left looking even more over matched as all 3 were beaten badly and knocked out by their superior opposition. All this crap from Oscar De La Hoya about the underdog winning and “you never know in boxing” was pure rubbish and it showed. Showtime, Oscar, Haymon and all the A-side fighters should be ashamed of themselves. I blame the fighters too. All this nonsense about I fight who they put in front of me is total stupidity. All it does is play into the stereo type of the dumb jock that has been around forever and makes it seem like the boxer cannot make the simplest of decisions in picking a quality opponent. It also shows that Garcia and Peterson are lacking the value of honor. The honorable thing to do would have been to say that their opponents were not on their level and better opposition should be found. If this happens again someone with common sense needs to step in and stop it before someone gets hurt.
Speaking of Getting Hurt
I love violence, blood and gore just as much as the next guy but that Garcia-Salka match was hard to watch even for an admitted Game of Throne’s addict like me. We all knew that the skill gap between the 2 was huge. We all knew that Salka was moving up from 135 lbs., and we all knew Salka had no shot of winning, but when the 2 were in the ring Garcia was monstrously bigger than Salka and the power and skill difference was just ridiculous. Anybody with a pair of eyes knew that fight was over after the first right hand landed and had Salka on spaghetti legs. The punishment he took afterwards was just embarrassing to watch. He was pummeled and then became too macho for his own good by trying to exchange with Garcia instead of hold or move away. The last left hook that sickly snapped his head around and sent him crashing to the floor while slamming the back of his head on the canvas was just uncalled for. These types of mismatches are how fighters get seriously hurt. Then again I cannot remember a mismatch this bad in a very long time that wasn’t named Rocky. It was so bad that the sanctioning bodies wanted nothing to do with it and they are almost always willing to take a fighters money for fees. I just hope Salka does not suffer any traumatic brain injuries from the beating he took and nothing more permanent comes out of this debacle.
Garcia Should Not be Proud of Himself
Danny Garcia tried his best to emulate Floyd Mayweather Jr. by walking to the ring with a rapper and with his post-fight interview with Jim Gray but he has a long way to go to be on the pound for pound king’s level in any way. If anything he did more to hurt his reputation than he did to help it. Beating a subpar fighter who never had any business being in the ring with you and then trying to justify it by saying that he just fights whoever they put in front of him is gutless. At some point he has to have personal accountability for what he does both in and out of the ring. Acting like you are the greatest fighter ever because you beat a D level fighter shows just how much class you lack. If you really can beat anyone when you’re at your best then you would have been in the ring with Floyd Mayweather and not Rod Salka but everyone knows you will not come close to beating Mayweather or any other top guys at 147 so you are choosing the cowards way out by fighting whomever Al Haymon want’s you to fight. Garcia claims that he has fought all these killers but in actuality that is not the case. If you break down his resume the only fight that was against a true killer was the Lucas Matthysse fight in which he hit low, hit when Lucas was in between the ropes and held on for dear life when Lucas got close. Amir Khan was already suspect in the chin department and coming off the Peterson loss. Eric Morales was 10 years past his prime and he went life and death with him in the first fight. Zab Judah was past his prime and always fails in high profile bouts. Herrera should have been awarded the decision but it was in Puerto Rico. As far as I’m concerned Garcia still needs to prove himself and fighting the Salka’s of the world won’t do it for him!
The Glazkov Gift?
The Glazkov-Rossy fight was a decent fight that, unlike Showtime’s mismatches, pitted an up and coming fighter in Glazkov against a seasoned veteran in Rossy that would test him and help him progress. Rossy threw a lot of punches and used a good jab to keep Glazkov in check for most of the fight but Glazkov was able to hurt Rossy in a few rounds to make it a close fight. It most definitely looked as if Rossy would come away with the nod but that was not to be. It seemed as if one judge filled out his score card on Friday for the Saturday bout and gifted it 98-92 for Glazkov somehow while the other 2 judges had it a close fight like it truly was. Even with the win Glazkov still seems to have a ways to go before being a true heavyweight threat and the judge still has a ways to go before being a professional judge!
At Least we got Next Week to Look Forward to
After a night of truly horrible fights from Showtime, next week we get a night of competitive and compelling matches that are sure to please fight fans and not turn them off like this past Saturday’s exhibition matches. The match that I am most looking forward to is the Kell Brook versus Shawn Porter fight. A lot of people seem to be overlooking Brook because he is unknown and Porter beat up Malignaggi in his last fight but I am not one of them. I am picking Kell Brook in fact to pull the upset. I feel that the Carson Jones fight showed that Brook is tough and will not crumble under pressure and with his power and speed, I see him giving Porter all he can handle. The Bika-Dirrell rematch should be another competitive fight as well. If Dirrell learned anything from the first fight he should be able to get a win this time. If he decides to take mini vacations in the ring again he will most likely lose. Omar Figueroa vs. Daniel Estrada should also be another closely matched fight as well. One fighter I am intrigued to see however is Deontay Wilder. He may not be fighting the heavyweight champion of the world but he is risking his mandatory title shot against Stiverne by taking a stay busy fight when he could rightfully just sit on the sidelines and wait his turn. That move right their shows more intestinal fortitude than Danny Garcia did when he fought Salka. Maybe he could takes some notes on courage from Wilder to see what it looks like.
Mayweather-Maidana II is Getting Closer
As the next significant pay per view event gets closer I still don’t have that exciting feeling that I sometimes get for the big fights. Maidana still seems over confident and underestimating Mayweather and the promotion has lost a lot of steam since the multi-city tour. To add to the underwhelming feeling there has been no undercard finalized for the card. Keith Thurman is said to be hurt and out until October, Leo Santa Cruz has not officially been added or had an opponent named and we don’t have a clue who else will be on this card. The only saving grace that Mayweather has is that Julio Caesar Chavez Jr. is still fighting with Top Rank and will not challenge him for the date. As of right now it looks as if we are going to set up for a lack luster undercard with a rematch for the main event which, just like this past weekend, will most assuredly get no one excited.
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 7 pm (East Coast time) or catch the podcast to get more insight and opinions on boxing.
