G. Leon's Members Only Mid-Day Mailbag

24/09/2004

G. Leon's Members Only Mid-Day Mailbag

Hey wut bro. Just wanted to comment on a couple of things. If hopkins choses to fight calzaghe, jones or tarver and loses (which I believe he loses to Tarver or Jones and I believe he beats calzaghe but it could go either way) lets not say its because he moved up in weight. Cause your saying he added to his legacy by beating DLH. well if he loses its because he's not better than jones or tarver not because of weight. Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't hopkins taller than jones and the same height as tarver. So its not like there's gonna be a big difference like hopkins/dlh or Hopkins/trinidad. Who were both not only smaller in height but body. I take nothing away from hopkins he is a good champ who has made the most of his situation and his talents. And rise up from where he came from. And being a boxer myself. I know its not easy. Not anybody can put some gloves on and put in the work that hopkins does. He's a rare breed. Much props to BHop. I just want to be honest. Because if Trinidad or DLH lose to Hopkins its because BHop is just better. Which I believe. But if Hopkins loses to Jones or Tarver its because they are better. I have a feeling Hopkins would still be #1 P4P on ur list if he loses. Because he dared to be great. No! If he loses, He loses. Flat out. But I don't see him making those fights. And jones is willing to go to 168 to fight someone who he already beat. NOW That's GREAT! Yeah Jones lost but so did Ali,Frazier,SR Robinson, Hagler Leonard,oh yeah so did Hopkins. Oh and 19 defenses is great but lets not forget that 8 pounds north there's a man that has 15 defenses(calzaghe). And lets not say he has a weak division because the middleweight division is not that great. Fighters had to come up to make that division what it is BHop didn't make it what it is. Because with no Tito or Oscar. Hop is still fighting echols and allen andall the other bums. So yeah when calzaghe makes 18, 19, 20, defenses is he gonna be great. Or does he need shane mosley to move up to 168 or tito or dlh to move up, or wright. great. Who knows I don't think so. I think Hopkins is the best middle weight of his time. That's it no more no less. Not middleweight of all time. Not the best fighter of all time. Just the best middleweight of his time. And I don't know how much that is saying considering the middleweight division. And I'm not a BHop hater I admire his dedication, work ethic, discipline, and how he stands up for what he believes. And where he came from and where he has gotten. I mean how can u hate on that. Everyone should shoot to have that work ethic and so forth. Oh and one more question bro. Where would Jones legacy be in your opinion if he comes down and beats hopkins at 168 then gets revenge of tarver at 175 and makes that big fight with toney at heavy(if toney has a title) and wins that too. Maybe its a strecth. But how do u think he should be considered. I think the greatest. Period. And I think all those fights are a possibility. Damn my bad for all the questions. But I hope u post this on the mailbag or at least answer me back on my email. Thanks again g. Regardless of what we disagree on we will always agree that BT is the G.O.A.T. Peace.-prfinest

Leon's Response: Well the fact that Jones and Tarver are bigger guys would play into it the same way Hopkins size plays into his win over Oscar. I don't think Jones or Tarver would crumple Hopkins quite the same way Bernard had DLH squirming. Hopkins beats Calzaghe, I agree with you. You're wrong, Tarver is taller than Hopkins. Hopkins is slightly, taller than Jones, but the fact that Jones has spent years at 175 certainly gives him an edge at that weight. Hopkins would beat Jones if they make the fight at 168. There are rumblings of Jones being willing to move down to 168, I haven't heard that from him and knowing how hard it is for him to make light heavyweight, I don't consider that too serious an option. 15 defenses in England don't translate into a big money fight in the States.


What up G! Man, the site is buring up, it's so hot. I wish I could say I was a part of it. I am in spirit at least. I just wanted you and everyone to know that if I was writing, it would be for BT. But, right now, I got to work on some issues with this "White Girl" I just can't let go. Put me in your prayers and know that when I'm back, crystal clean, I'll be snap crackle and pop'n on BT BABY. Stay up, Charles "Quick Trigger" Rigler

Leon's Response: We need the Quick Trigger Dime Bag back baby! I know you'll be back soon as you can, handle your business for now homey we got it covered. Tell the white girl I said hello, and I like my eggs over easy, LOL. 

Greg hey if your site ever needs any contact info please keep me in mind I train currently at Wild Card I dont think you need to know what fighters are there. However I use to plug interviews for Max writers but in light of recent actions from their staff and the behavior from their admin I will not longer be working with them they have disrespected myself as a person and some of the other fighters from the gym. I have provided them with Signed gloves sparring footage etc... for their site in the past along with contact numbers to interview fighters so if I can help your site move forward just ask. I do not expect anything in return as i do this cus I love this damn game. Santiago

Leon's Response: Brother all you need to do is keep me in the loop. Stay in touch let me know what's going on and when I should send my guys down there. You won't have to worry about being disrespected at BT, it's nothing but love brother. Everyone can help us move forward, so keep me posted baby.

"These few writers, who it seems, live to put Oscar down, have no idea what  it is to take a shot to the liver or anywhere else for that matter. Many  years ago, I remember getting hit with the same kind of shot during a  sparring session; I immediately went down to one knee where I stayed until I  was able to catch my breath. Had it been an actual fight, I would have been counted out. You get hit right to the body, I don’t care who you are; it has  an enormous affect on your breathing system. I would like to hit a couple of  these Oscar haters with a hook to the liver and see how tarnished they  become.  Even as great as Bernard Hopkins is, he would be the first one to tell you  that it could happen to even him. Oscar and Bernard are aware, as every  fighter is, that every time you step into the ring you are one hard punch  away from landing on Queer Street. " Boxinginsider.com Do you have any excuses now Greg ? I think you are one of those few writers  that live to put Oscar down because of jealousy. I know, i know, you are  probably saying get a life, but we happen to know oscar so he will be  defended at any cause.

Leon's Response: Oscar got caught with the perfect body shot. I don't think he could have beaten the count, and even if he could've, it was the beginning of the end. He did his best, it wasn't good enough. It's that simple, DLH has nothing to be ashamed about and I don't think he is ashamed. It seems quite obvious that the only mega fight left for De La Hoya is the Trinidad rematch. It just takes one in this game, that has been proven time and time again.  Speaking of Boxinginsider. I gotta give Scoop Malinowski some props for touching on the Tyson story and crediting Boxingtalk.com. Boxinginsider obviously has more guts than other sites that are supposed to be among the best. Still shocked none of the papers have touched the Tyson piece yet. Some of you Oscar fans are over the top though, your boy got KO"d with one body shot, he's never been hit like that and he may never be the same again, but Oscar, Oscar he's our man, if he can't do it no one can!

whats up greg, i see some of your readers who don't like hopkins are still clinging to with this bigger man nonsense to try to take away from his well earned accomplishments in the ring, since when is it mandatory for any fighter to move up in weight ? fighters move up in weight because they either can't make to weight anymore or there moving up for bigger paydays. its that simple. marvin hagler was arguably the most dominating middleweight of all time. when did he ever move up in weight to challenge michael spinks or dwight quawi braxton? he was just disipline enough to keep in shape for all those years. some of you readers out there is just hoping and praying someone can defeat hopkins before he retires so you can say i told you so! i guess hopkins might as well call up riddick bowe who is nearly 300lbs and fight him.will this satisfy you haters?, stop trying to measure great fighters by counting there calories! give them credit for the road work they put in! im looking forward to possible match-ups between hopkins, jones and tarver and maybe trinidad in the mix if don king permits. i'll be watching the jones fight this weekeend im sure tarver will be there working in roys corner! should be a lot of fun! i'll also check out james toney's fight on fox sports tonight. thomas. miami fl

Leon's Response: I'm really getting tired of all the Hopkins-DLH talk. For months I told you guys it wouldn't go the distance because Oscar will fade. Guess what? It didn't go the distance and Oscar faded! Let's move on. De La Hoya is old news right now. There's too much good boxing coming up in the next seven days to dwell on what happened last week. Don't you agree? Hopkins is a better fighter than De La Hoya, the better fighter won and De La Hoya will probably still make more money than Bernard Hopkins does, should he decided to continue fighting.

How are you Greg? I just saw the After Dark special and I gotta tell you, Cotto would lose to Floyd in a sleeper. Once PBF got a taste of some of that shit it would be back to one punch and run. Did you catch those rounds when Kelson was dictating pace and keeping Cotto off balance? I’m pretty sure Floyd could do that all night and Floyd’s got the discipline not to stop and trade, just like his second fight with Castillio. Boring as hell!! I’ll tell you what I want, Mayorga & Jantuah. That would be crazy. Who do you like for the Barrera Morales fight? I gotta go with Morales at Super feather. Take care my man

Leon's Response: I don't know if it would be a sleeper, but Cotto would certainly lose to Floyd. If PBF ever got a taste of that shit it could be back to one punch and run. By the way, I hear Mayweather could now be with Vernon Forrest advisor, Al Haymon,who is far from an enemy of HBO's Kerry Davis. The only fighter at or around 140 that can beat Mayweather is Cory Spinks. There could be others, but Cory definitely has the style to give Mayweather fits. I like Morales to win the third fight, but Barrera might be able to resurrect his career. As you should know by now, I'm not too big on Morales and think he's been on the decline for a while, so anything can happen but my money would be on Morales. Hopefully the third fight isn't as boring as the rematch was.

What's going on Mr. Leon? I just a few quick questions for you. First, have you heard anything about when Miguel Cotto will be fighting again? I've heard in December but I'm sure how true this is. Also I saw on Boxrec that Julio Diaz is fighting Damian Fuller on September 24th, and then I saw that the show is cancelled, any news on whether a potential December or January fight with Corrales caused this cancellation? And do you think that the reamtch between Corrales and Freitas will happen? I mena what more can Freitas do, if he tries to stand and trade more the fight ends earlier than the last time, and I don't think he can run and outbox this time. In the post fight press conferences Oscar was saying that fighting Hopkins wasn't as hard as he thought it would be, could we be seeing the stage set for Hopkins-De la Hoya 2, lol. Seriuosly though do you see Oscar fighting the winner of the Trinidad-Mayorga fight next, or possibly Fernando Vargas? Finally is it true that Zab Judah will probably be fighting Cory Spinks next, if he gets by Wayne Martell? As always, man keep bringin it!!!

Leon's Response: Miguel Cotto will return to the ring early next year. It's too early to know who the opponent is, but I'm sure it's going to be somebody competitive that he should beat. I would love to see Cotto fight Vivian Harris. I'm not sure Cotto's going to be able to make junior welterweight much longer. Once he moves to weltweight, I would love to see him fight Kermit Cintron. That would be a barnburner and the winner would be a very legitimate challenger to Cory Spinks. I think the Corrales-Freitas rematch will happen, yes. I don't think the result will be much different though. Vargas is going to need a couple of fights before something big, so I don't think he's on anyone's immediate radar. De La Hoya might want to fight the Trinidad-Mayorga winner, but will that winner want to fight him? Will Don King want that fight? We'll have to wait till after October 2 to find out.

Hey G: Look, I know you and the Mosleys are friends and that anybody that says that Mosley's losses were because of his marriage to Jin are just plain stupid. Still, I don't think is right for her to post such a disrespectful article. First is she a manager/sdvisor or is she a reporter? Second, I've read the articles in question written by Kim and there is nothing whatsoever that insults or falsely accuses the Moseleys. I think she took it completely out of context only because Kim, like most people give him very little chance of winning his rematch. Look Kim and Fisher and you and many other reporters of the internet are clearly pros whose job is to express their unbiased opinion of the proposed fights. Yes they have a list of boxers who wont talk to them like Vargas or Mosley, but you have gained some haters too like Marion from IBF and who knows if Burnstein its going to go berserk after your last article. What did you do wrong? Nothing, you just gave the facts and YOUR interpretation of them, just like professionals do. I'm a member of Boxingtalk and Maxboxing, I'm not a fan of either; I'm a fan of boxing. I invite you to read Kim's last article where he recounts his trip to Vegas and DLH fight and mentions his encounter with Mosley through his point of view. Jin should stick to trying to help her husband instead of drawing attention to her. Roberto

Leon's Response: She is a manager/chief advisor type, yes. Manager's, advisor's, and even lawyers as prominent as Judd Burstein have come on the record bashing reporters. Remember Burstein's letter to Ron Borges? Boxingtalk.com posted that one also. Do you think it's right for a journalist to say 'wait till you see what kind of shit I write next time'? Do you think Mosley needs press coverage right now? If he beats Winky Wright every last one of them will be dying to get in touch with him. And if he doesn't win the fight he may retire, in which case, what will he care about the press for? Kim and I have something in common, after I wrote my piece on Burstein he finally called me back to tell me we're "done" talking. I felt my piece was fair considering I used nothing more than his own remarks on  Don King against him. Surprised no one else has touched that one yet. Even the haters respect me though. Marian from the IBF has a yearly membership. So does Shelly Finkel and so does Judd Burstein. I must also say that of the three, Shelly Finkel has remained the most professional while under fire from this reporter. 

Greg good looking out on that phone call from Sharmba!!!!! Yo, I was a little star-struck at first, you may be used to talking to the big names but I'm definatly not. I would just like to speak for all the members of Boxingtalk.com, you do an excellent job and we appreciate all the info and the chats and the site on a whole is just excellent. I wont make any more predictions cause my prediction about Oscar shaking up the world was definatly wrong, I made that decision with my heart and not my head. The Trinidad/Mayorga bout will be great but I havent picked a winner yet cause neither of them are boxers, they charge right at their opponents. Either fighter is liable to walk into a big shot from the other. What are your thoughts on Roy? I definatly see him beating Johnson, but I also see him coming back and beating Tarver. If Roy becomes a man on a mission the whole game is shut down. Look for Jones to be more motivated, and as Montell Griffith found out, what can stop a motivated Roy Jones????? Smith and Wesson's are not allowed in the ring. Tee, Baltimore.

Leon's Response: No problem brother, don't thank me, thank Ben, he's the one who picks the winners. It's all good homey, keep your membership and eventually you'll get used to talking to some of the best fighters in the world. I'm definitely used to it and talk to at least a dozen fighters per day. The Trinidad-Mayorga fight will not last long, somebody's getting knocked out and I don't think it'll be the guy who was sleeping with hookers last month.  Roy will beat Johnson and look good doing so. After this fight Roy NEEDS to fight Tarver if he's going to stay at light heavyweight. Beating Tarver? I wouldn't say that, especially before the Johnson fight.  Roy was supposed to be a man on a mission when he fought Tarver the second time. The rematch was supposed to show the world that the first fight was a fluke.

whats up G!! just saw the toney vs booker fight. he looked alright. he should have stopped him. but anyways, the fight was alright, but the real action came after the fight. when "best damn sports" commentators were interviewing toney. he started calling out names including chris byrd who was sitting next to him and vitali klitschko. it was funny to see byrd getting a little irritated at toney and the announcers all night cuz they were calling toney the man and klitschko the champ!! it was funny as hell. then what i didn't like is the the announcers were on toneys nuts and calling him champ. i know they are not the boxing experts, but don't call him champ please. also, vasily jirov was there and was calling out toney. that was pretty badass. it was good post fight action!!! LOL. but the best part was how the announcers made themselves look stupid!! jon salley kept asking chris byrd who is that white guy talking shit to toney? salley looked pretty mad like he was going to to something(which he wasn't). and it was jirov, which all of them had no clue who it was until byrd told them who it was. then byrd said it was jirov and that he was really good!! and salley was like, "no not the black guy that white guy." and byrd was like "thats jirov." salley just had a stupid look on his face like what the fuck, that white boy is good? and the rest of the crew had no idea who he was. it was just funny to see peole with not to much boxing knowledge do a show of boxing!!! LOL. but anyways, i just read that if howard eastman wins, he gets a shot at taylor for the mandatory shot at hopkins. is this true and do u think taylor will take the fight? i want this one to happen!! oh yeah, i can't wait for a toney vs vitali klitschko fight to happen!! trinidad vs mayorga 1 week away!! yeah!! Sergio Herrera

Leon's Response: I thought Toney did what he was supposed to do with an overmatched opponent. I never gave Booker much of a chance and I believe Toney would have knocked him out had he not injured his hand. The corner probably should have stopped the fight anyway. Byrd did seem to get a bit irked didn't he. Byrd hates that because he's willing to fight both of them anytime. His friend Jameel McCline isn't a gimmee in any, way, shape or form though. I like Byrd in the fight but he needs to be on top of his game and leave the friendship with Jameel in the dressing room. LOL some of those guys were lost weren't they. Spider-Salley definitely isn't a well versed boxing man. Taylor would beat Howard Eastman. Probably by stoppage.

Greg thanks for keeping it fresh. Just a few comments on the Toney,Booker broadcast. I thought James should have and would have gained allot of casual fans if he KOed Booker, but at least he looked sharp. IMax is a fool! He was too busy screaming for Bookers corner to stop the fight(for no reason) to realize James hurt is Left arm. Absolutely dreadful job by Max. What really surprised me was Byrd. He was acting like a jealous brat taking pot shots at Toney the entire pre and post fight. Then James showed up at the post fight show and Byrd was as scared as a Shelly Finkel on your three way call with Mike. Most fighters that participate in the broadcast of big fights try to act professional and respectful. Tarver even with all the bad blood he's had with Nard, let Nard have his moment on Sat and didn't take any shots. I just thought Byrd didn't come off well at all. By the way where the Hell did that belt come from? What were your thoughts on Byrd and the fight? Matt Let's Get It On

Leon's Response: I think he would have stopped had he not hurt his hand. In either case, he still wound up giving him a world-class beating, which is remarkable considering he's returning off a torn-achilles injury. His next fight will either be Owen Beck or Monte Barrett, since I reported that news earlier today, I now hear the Barrett people have made their position clear to the WBC, so there's a chance the WBC plays the switcheroo to avoid a lawsuit. If that happens it's Toney Vs. Barrett, if it doesn't it's Toney Vs. Beck.

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