We talk about last week’s fights, worked fights in MMA, Lou Duva, drunken Merchant, and what’s coming up this week in boxing. Improved Audio quality!?

 

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(Like David Hasselhoff: despised in the US, beloved by the masses in Germany. WBO/IBF Heavyweight champ, Ring #1 heavyweight, Wladimir Klitschko. )

This Saturday night sees the return of the closest thing to a unified heavyweight champion in combat sports with the return of Wladimir Klitschko, WBO and IBF Heavyweight champion in a mandatory defense of his belts against the lightly regarded Tony Thompson (HBO, 4:30PM Saturday). Who? Anthony “Tiger” Thompson. You know, the #1 American heavyweight? Oh wait, if you live outside of continental Europe, you probably don’t know much about the heavyweight division. Well, fear not US/Canadian citizen, I can help with that, and what better way than to talk about the 50 best heavyweights on the planet?

edit: already slightly tweaked from last night! THE EXCITEMENT~

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From this week forward, I’ll be doing my best to try and run down all the major events of the weekend ahead here in this section in the world of combat sport. Whether its boxing, K-1 kickboxing, or MMA, this will hopefully become the one stop shop for where and when you can see the best (and occasionally far from best) action for the weekend.

Boxing’s #1 fighter, Strikeforce’s world class lightweight champ, and the most dominant K-1 heavyweight ever all take to the ring and/or cage this weekend.

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By Iain Liddle

Discuss this in the Total-MMA.com forums ~!

If you’ll allow me to be self-indulgent then I’ll use this week’s entry to throw out a question that has been niggling away at me of late.

March has already produced another installment in two great boxing rivalries. On March 1st Israel Vazquez and Rafael Marquez stepped into the ring together for the third time. They were tied at 1-1 in their rivalry having fought twice before in the previous thirteen months and both had been nominated for ‘Fight of the year’ for 2007. In fact, most boxing writers who I respect are unanimous in the view that the second encounter was the best to have taken place last year, despite Kelly Pavlik vs Jermain Taylor eventually taking the official boxing writer’s award.

As they prepared to lace up the gloves one more time, fan and promoter expectations were high. Gary Shaw had been proclaiming this fight as the antidote to February’s Klitschko-Ibraghimov snoozefest before it had even taken place. Showtime placed both of the preceding bouts on their website to justify the hype and show fans just how good the sport can be and will be again. It never seemed to cross anyone’s mind that the two Mexicans may disappoint us.

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By Alan Conceicao

The world of sports loves a dominant champion. Always has, always will. Dominant champions are the kind of thing that make for quick editorial pieces in print and highlight packages on Sportscenter. Can’t think of something to cover? Shit, Tiger Woods is doing something right now, right? Does King James like his french fries waffle cut or does he prefer the more traditional shoestring? Barring that, the next best thing are personalities. You don’t necessarily have to be great or even that good at what you do to be one of those. Anna Kournikova made shitloads and never won a tournament. As an American, you’ve probably seen plenty of Danica Patrick, but wouldn’t be able to pick Kimi Räikkönen out of a lineup (even if the rest of the world can). Fuck, you can’t even pronounce the guy’s name.
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by Alan Conceicao

Few weekends can quite display the tangled web of money in the fight game quite as much as the 48 hour period that went down this past weekend. In all, there were 7 televised fight cards between MMA and boxing, each displaying a variety of fashions in which the business of combat can bring together all time classics and historic unifications. Just as easily it can divebomb events, attempt to kill careers, and artificially inflate the reputations of those involved. If you like watching people hit each other, the end result ranged from embarassing to mythically great.

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By Iain Liddle

I’d like to begin this week’s entry in the style of every unimaginative office worker who finds themselves stood at the shredder, walking down a corridor, in the kitchen or wherever they may be when that inevitably horrific moment arrives as you see a colleague headed directly for you.

“Abort, abort” screams your inner monologue as you look for the nearest possible exit. There’s no way out though. More drastic action is required. Could you? No you couldn’t… could you?

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