What’s up G? It’s been a pretty unmemorable year of boxing so far, thank God there is still some good fights left for the last month of the first half of the year with Hatton-Castillo and Cotto-Judah. Although the Cotto-Judah fight is on pay-per view, it has a pretty solid undercard that I’m predicting three of the four would be a war so I wouldn’t mind seeing it.  Cotto-Judah is a pick-em fight but if I have to pick somebody, I would pick Cotto just because he doesn’t yet know how to lose. I’ll pick Sotto over Pacquiao in a brutal war. I’ll pick Chavez Jr. in an impressive fashion. The Thompson-Foreman fight looks good on paper but it has the ability to be a stinker. I’ve seen Foreman fight once and I must admit I had to use a toothpick to keep my eyelid from shutting so I would pick Thompson in this one just because he has the better all around skills. With $50 price, I think this show is worthy of seeing not like the $55 fight that had a pretty bad undercard. I think Top Rank is still the best promoter in the business. If you compare their stars to Golden Boy I think they have the edge. GB has Oscar who is the biggest star today in boxing but his fighting days are numbered. Hopkins marketability is average, Mosley couldn’t even fill half of the arena in his last fight, Barrera and Marquez isn’t that big of a draw when compare to their Mexican compatriot, Erik Morales. Almost all of their stars except for Marquez are ready to retire so what will they do after that? TR not only have stars in their prime and can draw crowds, they also have three of the most exciting fighters today in Pacquiao, Cotto and Arce. Edge on TR. Now with their prospects, GB has Escobedo who’s building a pretty good fan base in Sacramento but with him losing a fight already, is he for real? Mares looks like a future champ and he has been on t.v already so I assume he has a couple of fans already and Bautista, he looks kinda suspect. TR has George who has an exciting style and has a pretty good fan base already in Chicago, Martiyonsan who has a good all around skills and already has a following in California with the Armenian-American people, J.M Lopez who has been on Showtime and HBO already and has an exciting style and a Puerto Rican fan base, Chavez Jr. who has been on HBO also and has a huge fan base already. I would give the edge on TR. They really know how to sign a prospect, has stars that are marketable and in their prime, THEY are real promoters!!! TR is still on top of the food chain. With the first half of the year being unmemorable, I made a list of 13 fights that I want to see in the second half of the year that not only will bring the ratings up, but will also win some new fans. I didn’t include fighters that has a fight lined-up for them and I made sure that all of the fights that I wrote are doable and a pick-em fight so that the promoters wont hesitate to put their boys in there so if the execs. at HBO are reading this, PLEASE for the sake of boxing. HBO BAD: Berto-J. Julio, Chavez Jr.-Salita, Mesi-Chambers, Lacy-Andrade, J.M Lopez- M. Oliver HBO WCB: Taylor-Pavlik, Calzaghe-Kessler, Duddy-Mora, Arce-Darchinyan, Juan Diaz-Katsidis HBO PPV: Mayweather-Mosley, Pacquiao-Marquez II (PLEASE), Dela-Hoya- Trinidad  G, who do you like in these match-ups?     AXEL

Leon's Response: Based on the fact that the Mayweather-De La Hoya fight just became the highest grossing boxing event in the history of the sport, it's difficult to understand where you're coming from. Cotto-Judah is a must see event. Would have been great if HBO could have anted up and put it on World Championship Boxing. As a diehard I also happen to think that the Mormeck-Bell rematch was the best fight we've had in 2007 and DK deserves props for getting it aired in America. Hopefully one day I'll be saying he deserves some more props for making the rubbermatch a reality. Hatton-Castillo should be an action packed fight and Hopkins-Wright will be interesting, though I'd rather have seen it on regular HBO than PPV. One thing we should take from the De La Hoya-Mayweather event is that stories still sell and hopefull the boxing press and the networks continue to invest in story lines. Berto. Draw. Chambers. Lacy. Lopez. Taylor. Calzaghe. Mora. Darchinyan. Diaz. Mayweather. Marquez. De La Hoya.
 
 
 

Greg whats good?? Greg, I've seen the Pavlik-Miranda fight twice now and Pavlik looked even better the second time I watched it. Kelly took some pretty good shots from Miranda and he still whooped Edison's ass. I gotta admit, I was kinda glad to see the trash talker get his mouth shut. Pavlik won the fight in a way that Miranda couldn't possibly say anything, nothing, nada.....Miranda got 'dominated', he got 'exposed' and he got KNOCKED OUT-the trifecta baby!! Then after the fight he really finished him off. "the MEDIA created him into what he was" said Pavlik about Miranda....ouch!! Those words must of stung Miranda more than all the right hands he ate during the fight. Congratulations to Pavlik!. Greg, the main event was just horrible but who didn't see that coming. I appreciate the boxing skill of Spinks and I actually had the fight a draw myself. But c'mon Cory Spinks the Middleweight champion of the world. Boxing needs that like it needs a whole in the head. keep up the top notch work!!! Cesar

Leon's Response: I can relate. I watched it for the second time the other night and Pavlik looked even more impressive on television than he did from ringside. He outslugged Miranda and was clearly the better man that night. Miranda still has a lot of potential but he needs a lot of work. Getting some sort of defense would be a great start. The main event became a boxing match because in my opinion, Taylor was hypnotized by Spinks style and tried to box with a boxer. I scored it 115-113 Spinks. Think about it, if Cory would have gotten the decision Mayweather would have probably moved up in weight to fight him for the middleweight championship of the world and based on the fact that I feel Spinks is a stylistic problem for PBF that could have been interesting. Taylor getting the decision completely eliminates any chance of seeing Mayweather-Spinks anytime soon.
 
Wut up Greg, I thought the Miranda vs. Pavlik fight was very exciting as both fighters tried to kill each other. I picked Miranda to win only because I didn't think Pavlik's chin could hold up but I wasn't surprised he knocked out Miranda. As for the "MAIN EVENT"(LOL) I thought Spinks won the fight 7rds to 5. To me Taylor stock continues to go down like a bad day at the Stock Market. He looked very shaky and allowed Spinks who is a fast but a week punching fighter make him look very foolish for most of the fight. If he dares to get in the ring with Calzaghe it will be another Jeff Lacy fight. Calzaghe will whip this boy from pillar to pillar and I don't think they have any interest in fighting Pavlik who deserves the fight now. Dibella gets an F for match making as he is trying to desperately get Taylor a knock out. Maybe they should try their luck at welterweight where they should finally be able to get a knockout win. Pavlik, Miranda was the best middleweight fight i've seen in a while.

Leon's Response: I rank the Pavlik-Miranda fight right behind the Mormeck-Bell rematch as a fight of the year so far.  Seems to me like we saw the same fight. Taylor basically fought the two best middleweights and two best junior middleweights available to him. I think that boxing fans and media have been a bit too hard on JT.  Now the heat is on JT and he must fight Pavlik unless he moves up to super middleweight to fight Calzaghe. However, don't be surprised if boxing fans first have to endure Taylor-Duddy at Madison Square Garden with Pavlik on the undercard. I too like Calzaghe over Taylor.

M

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