Greg, I have to respond to Sean from the mailbag.  Sean, what makes you think Boxingtalk attracts a "certain, and very specific, demographic audience?"   You read the mailbags and the chats and suddenly you can draw conclusions on the entire population frequenting the website?  Really.   All that you are doing is observing a small section of the whole which are simply just more likely to send their thoughts over email.  And now you have an understanding for the certain and very specific demographic?  Come on man.  And even if the entire Boxingtalk population made their thoughts public, you feel like you can accurately assess who each person is and categorize them simply from reading their boxing thoughts on a screen?  Silly.  If you want a Pavlik/Abraham match-up, then I would try making the majority of your email directed toward the fight itself and the fighters, not an empty, assumption-based (and quite pretentious :) take on the biases of Boxingtalk readers.  Me, I vote for Pavlik/Wright.  Saying Wright is not deserving of Pavlik because he is 1-1-1 in his last three doesn't quite tell the whole story, does it?  So by that logic, should Rafael Marquez retire because he is 0-2 in his last two?  Jermain Taylor as well?  I can see why you want a Pavlik/Abraham match-up though.  It would be a great fight.  But Wright has worked hard to prove that if he is not the champ, then he is the guy against whom 154-168 champs should be testing their worth.  Abraham is a good fighter, but lets be real, he hasn't done anything to take that distinction away from Winky.  If your logic is consistent, Sean, then you see Abraham as an undefeated fighter?  Just black and white like that.  I don't see it that way.  Boxing is full of gray area.  Abraham's gray area is quite obvious to me: he caught a beating from Edison Miranda.  Abraham has much more to prove before he can cut Winky in line.  And its not about who has the more "crowd-pleasing" style, because that is subjective.   Its about the fights that matter most.  Pavlik/Wright is the fight at middleweight that matters most.   ~justin

Leon's Response: Well said Justin. You know I agree with you, obviously they're are some who don't agree with us. Either way the two guys Pavlik should be fighting are Wright and Abraham, not Gary Lockett as a prelude to the not so eagerly anticipated showdown with Marco Antonio Rubio later this year. By the way, custom Bobfather Boxingtalk T-Shirts are coming soon.

Even though I sometimes don't agree with your opinion, I appreciate the fact that you take time to answer fans emails. I wrote you a critical email a while ago, and you took the time to respond and explain your point of view. There were many times you wrote something I didn't agree with, and I thought that's it, I wont browse boxingtalk again. But as a boxing fan, I really cant avoid your website. You guys always seem to have the breaking news first. Every time I look for my boxing fix, i always find myself browsing boxingtalk.  -Chest Rockwell

Leon's Response: I appreciate your appreciation. It's not easy to stay on top of the mailbag, but I enjoy responding to the ugly emails as much or more than I do the classy ones. People are usually easier to expose when dealing with passion and emotion and few people are less passionate or emotional than die hard boxing fans.

Hey G, I tend to agree with your boxing acumen and savvy when you  analyze and discuss boxing matchups. I'm a PBF fan and agree that he  is one of the best to ever lace them up. I also know that Floyd is  using the Oscar DeLaHoya rematch as a 'tuneup' for the matches to  come which may involve Cotto and/or Margarito. It's no longer a  matter of whom they fought, they're proving themselves and Floyd  should ready himself for their challanges, Hatton will always be around for Floyd to BEAT again. As a PBF fan I want Floyd to beat  Cotto and/or Margarito to add to his legend and to SILENCE his  CRITICS, HATERS and NAYSAYERS once and for all. After the dust  settles from the Cotto/Margarito match up the ECONOMIC value for 
Floyd to fight the WINNER should be quite high and Floyd will be able  to get his asking price which I'm guessing will be somewhere around  $30M, maybe more!
    
Leon's Response: There's no such thing as a $35M tune-up. Floyd and Oscar are making this fight happen because it's by far the biggest economic success in boxing. Menstrual cycle, end of story. The winner of the Mayweather-De La Hoya rematch would be hard pressed not fight Cotto if Cotto defeats Margarito in July. I wonder how many times I'm going to have to say that between now and December.

Greg, First of all, your reasoning is that Winky is a more popular fight not that he presents a more meaningful fight, which is what you said - but couldn't defend.  Thank you for reclarifying.  By biggest I assume you mean an American population of general and casual boxing fans see Winky as a more recognizable challenger.  I completely agree.  Second:  Margarito's victory over Clottey was not iffy even in the slightest sense of the definition.  He won at least 8 rounds of the fight and thoroughly dominated Clottey the final 6 rounds.  Say what you will about injuries, the truth is Margarito was also hurt that night.  The difference is the manner in which fighters deal with adversity.  And to say that Clottey was well on his way to victory - and say it with any degree of conviction - means you have not seen many Margarito fights. And no, the single act - Margarito beating Cotto - does not make him the mandatory number one WW.  You follow this sport, how can you make the analogy: Antonio and Gomez, a fighter not in the top ten and with no significant victories?  What would make Margarito the best welterweight is that he has been rated at welterweight for something like 350 weeks and has beaten more fellow top-ten rated welters than any other fighter populating the division.  And should he beat Cotto, he would have two of the four titles, and just beaten the top guy. Mayweather selecting an opponent has nothing to do with them being worthy or deserving. And frankly, that notion has become tired and sickening.  Any title-holder deserves a shot at the other title holders - that's the point of a competitive sport, right?  Did the Giants deserve to play the Patriots? If every Mayweather opponent had to meet your 10-point check to be worthy or deserving, he would not have 39 fights on his ledger.  Let's just call it how it is, it has nothing to do with fight the best - it's all about money and risk-aversion.  There is nothing wrong with that if that's who he is - which he is.  I don't see why you feel the need to cover his tracks.- Sean

Leon's Response: I didn't give Margarito eight of those rounds, seven TOPS. Because Winky is a more popular fighter that would lead to bigger money. The fact that Winky has also faced the best of the best already kind of makes it for a more meaningful fight, especially since we've yet to see Winky really get beaten up. Margarito will be vacating the title soon brother, he won't have two titles, he'll have one, the WBA. Beating Cotto wouldn't land Margarito a fight with PBF or ODLH, the only thing it would do is land him a rematch with Cotto, potentially creating boxing's next great rivalry.  Mayweather hasn't always been in the position he's in now either. He's in a position to have his ten point check system, just like Oscar does and just like any other fighter who was the cream of the crop inside and outside of the ring would.

G, I was reading the mailbag about the guy who doesn't think that Cotto is elite, even after fighting Mosley and Judah and that Cotto's fights always have a predetermined outcome.  I dare him to find me an elite fighter at 147 not named Mayweather, or a fighter at 147 whom he0
believes would not have a predetermined outcome against Cotto.  Will he name Margarito?  Well, that's his next fight.  Will he name Cintron or Williams?  They just lost their last fights.  Maybe he'll mention Clottey? Joshua is a Bob Arum fighter who won't be put in with Cotto until Arum sees that there are no other possibilities for Cotto at 147.  After the Margarito fight, if Cotto wins, Arum will probably try to make a unification bout between Cotto and Clottey for the WBA and IBF belts, assuming Clottey can win the vacant belt.  BTW, the IBF rankings, as of
 Friday, (1. Clottey, 2. Berto, 3. Judah, 4. Margarito(now champ), 5. Mosley, 6. Collazo) seem to indicate that Clottey will probably fight Collazo for the vacant belt, as he's the highest ranked available fighter (I doubt Berto's people will put him in with Clottey).  Maybe Arum can put the
Clottey-Collazo fight on HBO BAD with one of these fights as an undercard: Antillon - Julio Diaz or Antillon - Kid Diamond, Luevano - Linares, Victor Ortiz - Randall Bailey, or Humberto Soto - Jorge Barrios.  That would be a fat card!

Leon's Response: Clottey-Collazo seems like the most doable fight when you take a look at the rankings and that's the reason I called Luis yesterday, to see if Clottey is a fight that interests him. DKP might have something else cooking, but I was trying to figure out who Clottey could fight for the title and you're right it won't be Berto. Everybody else is unavailable until you get to Collazo. Hopefully Luis takes it because the fighters ranked behind him are pretty nondescript.

I love reading your mailbags but get totally frustated by your shameless bias towards Mayweather, Judah and Winky. How did you come to the conclusion that Pavlik-Winky is "the biggest and most meaningful fight at middleweight period."  What has Winky done recently? he lost to B-Hops and has been inactive since - so how does he become the biggest fight for Pavlik?
As for Judah, its hillarious how you make him out to be such a threat to others. He has lost 3 of his last 4 fights and watch Mosely hand his ass to him. Come on Greg, Judah lost to Baldormir...lol! The Mayweather bias is the most ridiculous especially when it comes to Magarito or Cotto. As fans, we want to see the most exciting fights and after watching last weekends great performance by these two, I would give them both a fair chance of pulling an upset. Today, these are the fights fans are salivating over and would pay to see.  Instead, Mayweather will take the easy option and cash in at ODH expense and ofcourse, you will defend it and say that 'its the most meaningful fight, period'. Help make the great fights G, not excuses for your pals.-Eddie.

Leon's Response: I get totally frustated with people trying to force their opinions on me, after six years of mailbags don't you guys know that's not going to happen. How did lose to Hopkins? Who is Hopkins? Who has really beaten Winky? Which fight makes the most money? These are the questions I ask myself. Another one is, what would beating somebody the ilk of a Jeff Wald fighter have really done for Winky at this point in time? Would it suddenly make him more significant to the champions and detractprs such as yourself.  I never realized I was the only one who thought Zab Judah had potential and marketability. Wait a minute, I think HBO does too, since his last three fights on that network have taken place on PPV. 

What up Greg, I checked out the light heavyweight double header last weekend, and I know it was a push forward to find the Undisputed Champ, but if that was a showcase of the best talent at 175 pounds then the only thing undisputed is that the light heavyweight division is shallow right now! It mind sound crazy, but think about it. For those who didn’t appear on that card; Bernard Hopkins is retiring, after he exposes the 175 debutant Joe Calzaghe and effectively derails Joe Doe’s light heavyweight campaign. Kill two birds with one stone. Roy Jones hasn’t IMO made a full light heavyweight comeback and made noise at 175 pounds, for all we know RJ may now be a 168 pounder, his comeback did involve a super middleweight and welterweight/middleweight. Clinton Woods never had a name (besides his appearance on Roy Jones highlight DVD), and he never will have one. You can’t get into the hall of fame off of one win over an elite champ who was mentally fragile, and sorry Glen Johnson but fighting tooth and nail with the likes of Clinton Woods isn’t exactly the quality of a champion. Glen Johnson would make a nice opponent to test your champion against in their first defence, actually a good gatekeeper for a particular trimmed down former heavyweight. Chad Dawson was in a bad situation fighting Glen Johnson, he had nothing to gain but a lot to lose. I believe he drew the fight and would have retained his title either way, but at the end of the day, Glen Johnson is the same man who fought a vulnerable Roy Jones, and Glen Johnson is the same man who Roy Jones was supposed to blow out with his quickness and talent, remember, all those reports criticising RJ for fighting Glen Johnson because Johnson wasn’t worthy. Chad Dawson should have done what we all expected Roy Jones to do, or do exactly what Bernard Hopkins did, knock out Glen Johnson. The Dawson-Johnson fight crossed Johnson out from contention and knocked Dawson down a fair few notches. I guess some may want to still see Johnson become champ and hold it down, I can understand, but I’m not one of them. Danny Green had minor potential but also retired. Antonio Tarver is too delusional for me to even worry about. If I bothered to think about him too much I would have to read his interviews and if I had to read his interviews I’d make sure I had a good smoke and a block of chocolate first. Some of the crazy stuff he says is actually amusing when your stoned, I guess you have to be on his level to understand his claims and after a good session I feel on his level. If I had to rank the light heavyweights as a future forecast with Hopkins retired and Calzaghe getting over concussion it would be; 1. Vacant for Chris Byrd 2. Chad Dawson 3. Roy Jones 4. Antonio Tarver 5. Actually lets save them the embarrassment and leave it at 4. Goes to show how shallow the division is when you struggle to beat Glen Johnson and still retain 2nd spot. Remember Roy Jones was supposed to walk through Glen Johnson with ease, he didn’t because he wasn’t mentally prepared, read the archives, Roy Jones was mocked for fighting against somebody as bad as Glen Johnson...........Brad, Australia

Leon's Response: Not sure if I've ever done you like this, but I stopped reading after you said the light heavyweight division is shallow right now. Hopkins says he's definitely retiring means there's a 50-50 chance, you should know that Brad. Hopkins, Calzaghe, Tarver, Dawson, Jones, Johnson and Byrd. That doesn't sound too shallow to me.

M

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