Boxing Highlights

Good fight between Devon Alexander and Andriy Kotelnik, for the IBF and WBC light welterweight titles:

Jacobs looked like a very promising prospect in May last year when he won an 8 round decision against Michael Walker, and ever since that fight I was certain the guy would rise up to be a worthy challenger in the middleweight division in the few years to come. I was not wrong with that prediction. Following the Walker fight Jacobs won several fights against dubious opponents (which is the case when an up and coming fighter tries to pave his wave into the top ranks of a division), two of them by TKO. So, when I turned on my television to watch the HBO boxing special yesterday night, and saw Jacobs in the undercard I knew the guy had done stuff in the past year worthy of being placed back in the undercard of the Marquez vs Diaz 2 fight. Also, when I saw his opponent - the languid looking Dmitry Pirog, the 30 year old Russian with a pro career spanning 5 years, and who also had not taken part in the Olympics (sometimes boxers not selected in an Olympic squad are cataloged as fighters without much prospect in the pro sense), I thought he would be cannon fodder for the much hyped Jacobs. This time though, I was wrong in that prediction.

Pirog turned out to be a tricky opponent, elusive, unorthodox and not at all associated with the one dimensional European style that much Russians and Eastern European fighters tend to adopt. He put pressure on Jacobs from the opening bell, showing incredible head and waist movement but still showing bits and pieces of a pressuring and plodding European style - coming forward at all times, imposing his own pace, and making Jacobs fight on the ropes. Was this really happening? I thought after the first two rounds that Jacobs would adjust to Pirog’s unpredictable style and rounds later dispatch his opponent easily. This however, never came. Pirog kept plodding and confusing Jacobs, coming from all angles until in round 5 a beautiful right hand caught Jacobs on the ropes and flattened him on the canvas. Jacobs kept his head down and tried to rise up before the mandatory 8 count, but the referee did not allow him to get up, stopping the fight in the process. Pirog wins the vacant WBO middleweight title and Jacobs collects his first loss in a three year career. But as we all know, this stuff happens to the best boxers sometimes.

Here is the knockout punch:

Fernando Montiel fought Rafael “El Torito” Concepcion on Saturday July 17, 2010 for the WBO and WBC bantamweight titles:

So its been a long time since I posted a fight in Boxing Highlights, but in actuality there hasn’t been much going on in the sport for the past months. I got excited a week ago when Pacman vs Mayweather talks were in the works, but after today I kinda lost hopes once again. What’s left in the sport at this moment? I’m not sure. The only fight I see that bears some kind of excitement is the rematch between Marquez and Diaz, and lets see how that one goes.

On Saturday Alfredo Angulo fought Joachim Alcine, and here’s how it went:

So here’s the fight that was supposed to help Cotto regain his confidence after his loss to Pacquiao and since I won’t give any spoilers, here it is for you guys to watch. I’ve seen like half of it, I’ll finish it off in a little while. The quality is bad, but this is just in the meantime, I don’t want you guys to wait too long for the fight, somewhere tonight I’ll have a full fledged quality video. This fight was for the WBA super welterweight title:

I have updated the video, I realized the previous video went down early today: