This week’s news of the passing of four-division champion Alexis Arguello has hit the boxing world hard. For those who missed it, the Hall of Famer’s body was found early morning Wednesday in his hometown of Managua, Nicaragua. Reports from Associated Press describe the cause of death as a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the heart.

Eulogies have poured in from around the world. Barry McGuigan published one of the best today, “Let The Bells Ring in Honour of Alexis Arguello,” for Britain’s The Mirror. A former world champion in his own right, McGuigan describes “El Flaco Explosivo” (The Explosive Thin Man) as “the kind of fighter that I aspired to be but never quite made it…”

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In what is seen in some circles as an ongoing battle between MMA & boxing, this Saturday fans will get their choice between offerings from the sports’ two biggest players.

HBO Boxing offers what many are hailing as a possible fight of the year candidate, as Ring Magazine’s #2 & #4 rated welterweights square off at Madison Square Garden on Saturday. Puerto Rican Miguel Angel Cotto (33-1, 27 KOs) dons the gloves only a day before NYC’s Puerto Rico Day Parade (!) to fight a risky bout against Joshua Clottey of Ghana (35-2, 20 KOs). Clottey is a skilled inside technician who will bring a size advantage and a high work rate similar to Cotto’s. Cotto brings a better jab, but both have excellent left hooks to the head and body. It’s a tough fight to call, but it’s looking like a memorable action bout in front of a raucous and partisan (not to mention, last I checked, a near-sellout) crowd.

The same night, ZUFFA counters with an offering of… well, I don’t even know what this UFC 99 in Cologne, Germany offers. (OK, I’ll admit Caol Uno vs Spencer Fisher sounds fun, but is it really worth a PPV?) This show’s problems have been chronicled here and elsewhere, including poor sales and possible loss of its carrier on British TV. Maybe Wanderlei Silva will surprise me and have a great fight vs. Franklin after having lost four of his last five (three by brutal KO, if you’re keeping track)… maybe Kongo vs Valasquez will be something to remember besides a slew of groin shots that Kongo now admits he throws intentionally (surprise!)… maybe the German crowd will sing “Danke Schoen” and make it all worthwhile.

Maybe, but I’m not banking on it. Score one for the Marquis of Queensbury. The noble art of pugilism wins this round. Here’s my breakdown of the fight you should be watching this weekend: Read the rest of this entry »

Despite being a Pacquiao fan since I first heard of the guy in ‘02 or so, I’m hoping for Hatton to pull off an unlikely upset tonight, and this video of the weigh ins offers some hope…

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Last night marked the first PPV entry of a mixed card here on this side of the Atlantic. While the biggest events in Japanese history are almost universally events mixing kickboxing and MMA, stateside the attitudes have been different regarding the use of both sports on the same stage. While there were lots of criticisms among hardcore fans on both sides of the spectrum about the combination of the fights, really, it was up to the casual fans to decide whether or not the show was a success. And their ultimate reaction displated the uncomfortable truth so many, particularly on the MMA side, were often willing to admit. MMA here was not the primary story, nor was it ever. No one was going to buy tickets to see Nelson/Monson, no matter how well matched they were on paper. The show was an exhibition in Roy Jones’ ego, and at least inside the arena, it sure looked like it was a success.

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I think that if you are a fan of combat sports this weekend really turned out to be something special. While there really wasn’t much going on for Mixed Martial Arts, for events having the word “boxing” in them it was one hell of a weekend. Starting off last night with the amazing K1 World Grand Prix Finals (summed up by the young Andrew Rosebrock) and then ending with a bang tonight with Oscar De La Hoya being dismantled by Manny Pacquiao for eight rounds straight. Alan and myself have gotten some flack in the past over not being excited, but you can rest assured that this weekend had both of us going crazy.

Postmodern K1 endings!

Remy Bonjasky flying rib kicks!

Golden Boy pulp!

Badr Hari with a cattle gun!

 

 Total MMA Radio: No Country for Remy Bonjasky (and Oscar) [38:23m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

It’s another polished performance for the “Golden Boy.”

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Regardless of how the announcement works out, we can all agree that the RING magazine shirts are going to be awesome!

Affliction today made their big announcement, and amidst the hyperbole, conjecture and everything else, what it breaks down seems to be about right, if not a little disappointing to fans. After Affliction canceled their October show due to what seemed to be poor ticket sales, they announced that they would be bringing forth some huge announcement today, which seemingly would involve Golden Boy Productions. Well, they did.

Affliction will now be the official apparel company of Golden Boy events and Ring magazine. As a part of this deal, Golden Boy has decided to co-promote shows with Affliction. What this actually means has not really been explained all too well, but once again, this can only leave us to stew about it and come up with possible scenarios. Will Golden Boy provide undercards to Affliction shows? Will Affliction provide undercards to major boxing cards? Will they combined put on mediocre fighting cards? Will this involve HBO in some way?

While there are many of us that are fans of both MMA and boxing, these two sides do not always work well together. There are still many boxing fans that see MMA as a passing fad, just some cheap, unsophisticated garbage for the masses. Then you have the MMA fan that sees boxing as the old dinosaur that is going to be extinct soon due to the new, more evolved and somehow more humane sport of Mixed Martial Arts. Both sides do have their merits, but I’m not sure if they make good bed fellows in this case. This wouldn’t be the first time a promoter has attempted to toss together boxing and MMA, or even the first time somebody has mixed MMA with something else, but history isn’t smiling too kindly on this. For some reason I am thinking of U-File Camp shows, where they would blend together MMA, sparring matches, demonstrations and pro wrestling and how tepid the response was to that, or K-1 shows that featured MMA matches to supplement the lack of name value their current generation of kickboxers has with fans. 

I know that I’m willing to give this a chance, but I’m not exactly sure of the pull that Affliction has right now to make this work, or exactly how well these two will work together. This could either fail miserably or could bring this concept to the mainstream and get a good buzz going and attract fans to both sports. 

There’s still a haze in the air after the warfare that took place over two weeks in Beijing. Vasyl Lomachenko (pictured above) was perhaps the only soul to come out above it all, because everyone else took a beating. The judges, referees, officials, boxing as a sport, announcers…well, not many of the fighters took beatings. This was hardly the most action packed of tournaments, after all. So with the AIBA under fire from both the outside and within, trying to start up a pro league, and 270+ bouts having happened in the meantime, where to start? The scoring is the obvious place. While other subjective sports don’t allow for statistical comparison, amateur boxing does. Do the statistics say anything at all about whether or not there were issues with the Olympic Games?

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After over 270 fights, boxing at the Olympics finally wrapped up earlier this afternoon. Sadly, NBC showed very limited coverage of the last day’s gold medal matches, which comes as a surprise after such extensive coverage earlier. Still, three of the 6 bouts saw airtime in the US.

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