Boxing Highlights

I was hoping to come home tonight in time to watch the HBO fights but to no avail, for a second weekend in a row I was unable to watch any of the HBO bouts, including last weekend’s fight between Williams and Cintron. First and foremost I would really like to apologize to all you guys who had been visiting often for the past week in order to watch the Williams vs Cintron fight. As I said a while back I’ve been doing crazy hours at work, and today marks the third weekend I work in a row. I thought this would end last week but instead it persisted due to unforeseen circumstances. We had some mishaps in the project and now we are basically cleaning up the mess. It wasn’t my mess I can tell you that but right now I’m doing my level best to help save the project together with a couple of my colleagues. That being said I write this post with certain reluctance, not because I don’t wish to keep you guys updated, but rather because I want to stay away from a computer as much as possible when I reach home. I’m mentally drained and fatigued, and feel haggard and physically battered. This is the main reason why I’ve done minimal work on Boxing Highlights in the past week or so - my mind just can’t deal with anything computer related right now. I’m not sure how much I can keep up like this but I’m trying to suck it up as much as I can. Its been working so far, but I’m starting to feel like I’m about to reach my limit. At least I can sleep now, a week ago I had trouble falling sleep but now I’m certain that tonight after I close my eyes I will go into a deep slumber.

Again, I apologize for the lack of activity but I just wanted to tell you guys that I’ll be back in no time, and very soon I will be able to overcome this obstacle and keep working on the site like I’ve always done.

Regards,

-grestrep

What a week. Many of you guys might have been asking why I haven’t posted Mayweather vs Mosley, but I just wanted to tell you guys the kind of week I’ve had so far. Its been crazy since last Thursday. I got involved in this project at work which has completely drained me for the past week. Last weekend (the weekend of the Mayweather fight) I worked more than 40 hours out of the office, and I only had time to watch the fight when I got back home Saturday at 8pm. Since Monday I’ve been working 14 hour days and when I get home every day I just want to crawl under a rock. That’s exactly what I want to do right now. Sorry for not posting the Mayweather vs Mosley fight - I have the full video at home but I just haven’t had the time to split the video and upload it on a site. I will do that definitely today.

For now, back to the coal mine.

Cheers,

-grestrep

SPOILER ALERT!

You can’t wear down a guy you can’t hit. Period.

That pretty sums up one of the most valuable lessons that I think Pavlik learned tonight. I’m really trying hard to keep my cools as I write this, and I apologize if I sound a little bit to harsh in the coming lines, but please don’t blame me, blame the Top Rank commentators that were given the job of commentating this fight on the Top Rank broadcast. I watched the first 5 rounds of the bout on an HBO stream, and I was very pleased with the unbiased commentating of Lampley, Steward and “Vodka Breath” Mechant. Later on thought, I had to change to the Top Rank stream due to technical difficulties, and man was it was bad. But I’ll go over that later on.

If you think about it for a while, Pavlik came in at 178 lbs, and Martinez at 167. Just by calculating the weight difference, you already knew quite well what Pavlik was planning to do in this fight - outweight, outmuscle and overpower the clearly smaller but elusive Sergio. The Argentinian was smaller in weight, height, and reach. Can I also name another disadvantage? Oh yes, before I forget - age. With a 7 year age difference, it is not surprising to think why many boxing followers out there thought Pavlik would just flick Martinez like a tick thanks to the clear advantages he possessed. But, just the fact that Pavlik failed tonight to defend his WBO and WBC titles cleared many of the doubts we had concerning the Youngstown native.

This fight can be summarized briefly in a couple of sentences, but wait, for a challenge, let me sum it up in just one sentence: Initial outboxing of Martinez over Pavlik, brief change in momentum in favor of The Ghost - followed by a fluke knockdown of Martinez, and concluded by 4 strong final rounds for Martinez. After all of this, can anybody tell me why the Top Rank commentators think the fight was close and could have gone either way? Blasphemy I say. Pure bias towards Pavlik. That’s why I get mad as I write this.

Here is typical scenario that I had to go through while watching the Top Rank commentary: In the middle rounds for example, Martinez in several occasions was pretty much landing at will (whether the punches were powerful or not does not matter at all, this is boxing not a strongman competition). So when Pavlik landed a casual and long overdue right hand, the commentators would say in boring voices: “Good right hand by Pavlik!”, but when Martinez pretty much was landing consecutively on Pavlik in front of our faces, the commentators suddenly (to their benefit) turned mute. It was not until the 9th round when Martinez showed us a boxing clinic that the commentators had no choice but to give the Argentinian the credit he deserved.

Now for a quick fight recap. Just like I said before, I can make this brief. For the first 5 rounds of the fight Martinez was using his ring generalship to circle Pavlik and effectively counter-punch. The Argentinian was ahead in punch output, but Pavlik continued stalking the smaller challenger around the ring, looking for his chance to land a big punch. The puncher was clearly Pavlik, specially with his 11 pound weight advantage, but Martinez was able to neutralize this power with his slickness and counter-punching skills. Rounds 6 and 7 were hard to judge - it looked as if Martinez either slowed down or Pavlik finally figured out the elusive fighter, but Pavlik began to cut down the distance between the two fighters and was able to land here and there several powerful shots. Then came the knockdown of Martinez, which in my opinion was more of a slip and gave Pavlik even more momentum following his resurgence in rounds 6 and 7.

But, just when we thought Pavlik might have an edge and just when we thought the tables would turn and Pavlik would systematically start wearing down Martinez, in round 9 the Argentinian increased his output and became much more aggressive. He was landing at will from that point on until the end of the fight, and Pavlik in each of those rounds was a bloody mess. When the bell rang signaling the end of the fight, there was no debate as to the winner of the bout, this was going to be Martinez’s night. He had secured his victory by out-punching Pavlik in the last 4 rounds, and nobody was going to take that away from him.

Martinez captures the WBO and WBC middleweight titles. Since I believe Pavlik has a rematch clause in his contract, Pavlik will surely meet Martinez again for a sequel.

Stay tuned for the fight video!

WARNING: SPOILERS!

With the second round of the super six tournament right at our doorsteps, I found myself at the edge of my seat pondering about what this second stage would bring for all of us boxing fans around the world. Abraham vs Dirrell was the perfect first bout for this second stage, since it would reveal once and for all if Dirrell could prove his worth - most particularly after his controversial loss against Froch last year, and secondly, it would reveal to everybody in the boxing world if Abraham’s win against Taylor was a fluke or not. Both fighters were under the microscope - Dirrell would be closely examined to see if he would falter or show signs of lack of focus thanks to the haunting memories of this loss last year, and Abraham would be closely analyzed during the fight to see if his skills actually matched his undefeated record. Various modes of victory loomed through our minds, from Dirrell cruising through an easily won unanimous decision, to an Abraham annihilation reminiscent of the shocker we experienced when he dropped Taylor last year.

The fight itself can be resumed in a short paragraph. Abraham started off slow like always, employing his beloved peek-a-boo defense (which Clottey loves even more) and Dirrell taking advantage of it by remaining active while Abraham stayed in the defensive. Dirrell threw everything he could muster - primarily bodyshots, hooks and combinations towards Abraham’s high guard, and even though the majority of those combinations landed on Abraham’s gloves, the accumulation of punches Abraham was receiving through his gloves would finally take its toll - by round 7 he had collected a cut above his right eye.

As the first 3 rounds went by, you were just counting minutes until the moment when Abraham would finally let his hands go and step on the gas. The problem was, that moment never really came. For the majority of the fight Abraham was in defensive mode, trying to figure Dirrell out, and Dirrel in turn using his slick boxing skills to avoid any Abraham power shot. By the middle of the fight Dirrell was out-punching Abraham by a factor of 4 and it was clear that he would be cruising through a unanimous decision. But it was not over yet - past the 7th round Dirrell started to circle Abraham and started to box away from his opponent after sensing he had bagged enough rounds to win the fight. In turn, Abraham sensed the urgency, and with a little of frustration stepped on the gas he had hesitated to step on early in the fight. Abraham chased Dirrell around the ring, looking for that much needed knockout, but most of his wide hooks ended up touching clean air. He was able to score a couple of punches though, and by the end of round 10 he hurt Dirrell after a heated exchange in one of the corners. By round 11 Abraham’s urgency was even greater after realizing the situation he had been put in - with Dirrell way ahead on points, he needed to step up the pace and secure a victory in any way possible. A KO was his only chance for a victory. Here is when Abraham made a mistake - he let his exasperation and frustration perturb his senses, so, when Dirrell slipped on the floor after being caught off-balance, Abraham used that chance to land a monstrous punch on Dirrell’s chin when he was already on the ground. A clear intentional punch which would shorty after earn him a disqualification.

Following the monstrous punch, Dirrell was out for almost 2 minutes, and when he regained his senses he was clearly confused. After the official announcement of his win due to DQ, he was shedding tears while the rest of his entourage tried to console him, but the reason for this display of emotion we cannot guess. Were these the tears of a man who once again didn’t get the kind of victory he was striving for? After the controversial loss to Froch and this costly victory by DQ, it is not surprising for him to show some kind of disappointment. After all, a boxer would strive to win via shut-out, KO or TKO, not a DQ victory. Or, were these the tears of a man who thought he had actually lost the fight after getting hammered by that blow when he was on the floor? Only he could tell us.

Stay tuned for the fight video.

Finally, today marks the beginning of the second round of the SUPER SIX super middleweight tournament, with the anticipated (at least by me) match-up between “King” Arthur Abraham and Andre Dirrell today at 10:30 ET if I’m not mistaken. I’m a fan of Abraham, but today I will have to go with Dirrell. In my opinion, his loss to Froch last year was a fluke, and today he will make Abraham miss all night long if my prediction is right. Lets see what happens.

In the other hand we also have the return of Erik Morales since his last fight against David Diaz back in 2007. He will be facing Jose Alfaro for the vacant WBC International welterweight title. This fight will be on at 9pm ET.

I’ll be covering both fights so stay tuned.