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Random Boxing Thoughts/News v. 8


Elsalvajeloco

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26 minutes ago, hammerva said:

I would say that Askren took a dive for the money but again it is Askren who doesn't have much of a jaw to begin with.   

To be honest he looked in terrible shape. I don't just mean physically, but his pad-work too. Really slow, really laborious. The guy's 36, has had a hip replacement, was never a striker of any merit even in an MMA context .. I wasn't at all surprised he got slept quickly here. The money is all that matters for him, sure, but pretty sad to see the guy's 'career' wind down with the Masvidal fight & this circus.

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While there are some good boxers with scheduled fights, it looks like other than Canelo trying to burn through his DAZN contract ASAP, are the big big names waiting for full stadiums? But with Texas pretending there's no pandemic going on, why are we still waiting on the big heavyweight three and the handful of other big draws left in boxing? I see that, according to Hearns, Fury and Joshua have agreed on a venue so hopefully that comes together soon. Lopez is on the next triller card with the Holyfield exhibition. Really, I just want to see what's next for Inoue and Wilder. 

Big Dave said the Google searches for the triller show yesterday dwarfed Mania btw. 5.2 million searches compared to 750k for both nights of WM. While the Pete Donaldson hot takes were accurate, these shows do huge numbers. 

Edited by Jiji
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First off, commissions don't fuck around with people taking dives. That's the last thing that's going to happen nowadays because there is too much on the line and everyone is watching. Yes, you might get a really incompetent judge every now and then but that's an inherent flaw built into the system. I'm surprised that's even a talking point on social media, but then again, I shouldn't be since that's what happens when you have folks who don't even watch casually.

As far as Askren goes specifically, he's just another fighter who retired and is trying to scratch that itch. He's no different than Frank Mir on the undercard. Askren just realizes he missed his window to get those paydays. When he was suppose to be in UFC fighting the GSPs of the world and some of his other contemporaries, he was busy beefing with Dana White over nothing and fighting random people in ONE. By the time he got to UFC, it wasn't so much he was physically done as much he wasn't going to have time to acclimate to that level of competition. I don't know if people know, but Askren's been around awhile now. I remember hearing his name when it came to amateur wrestling about 14 or 15 years ago. He's only a few years younger than Tyron Woodley, who was Askren's teammate on the wrestling team and then an assistant coach when Askren was at Mizzou (hence Woodley cornering him here). He ain't a spring chicken. The average guy's athletic peak in sports isn't that long and it's not like Askren was ever this freak of nature. If we're just talking about welterweights, Colby Covington and Kamaru Usman are basically evolved forms of what Askren could have been if he was a better athlete. If we're just talking Olympic level wrestlers, I guess we can say Cormier, Cejudo, and just only based on his well roundedness and not his overall MMA record Aaron Pico. Askren just happened to be more a throwback to the old days of UFC when a wrestler could dominate just with wrestling. He didn't have to be good at anything else. And guess what? Ben was never great at anything else. He is very competent with his submissions, but the Maia fight showed, BJJ is not really a strength either. So yeah, he was a throwback. We found out through his UFC run that you can't be a real contender as a throwback. We have a Derrick Lewis at heavyweight, but he's improved through a baptism of fire. Askren had his own baptism of fire, but he decided that it wasn't worth putting his family through and his own health to continue on with it.

Now with this Jake Paul fight, he has to realize that these random paydays aren't going to come easy. He likely thought Jake Paul is just some guy, and he would do the same thing Mir did and basically just waltz his way to a decision for a moral victory. Well, Jake Paul is still infinitely better at boxing than Ben Askren is. Askren came in piss poor shape, Paul hit him with an overhand right hand, and Askren went down. That's exactly how a Ben Askren fight would go in the UFC if he showed in the same shape looking for a payday except whoever he was fighting would shrug off a terrible shot and put the coffin nails in. The referee knew he wasn't a boxer and saved his life. If you've ever watched prelim fights off TV (usually on like a free Youtube stream or w/e) for any major boxing card, the refs always save these guys from further harm unless they quit of their own volition or get knocked out cold before they could be saved (see: Seniesa Estrada killing that poor soccer mom from Kansas in mere seconds a few months back who was a late replacement). This just happened to be one that headlined a card that people were watching. I'm not a big Askren fan, but the knockdown punch was enough. It would be cruel to let Jake Paul put him to sleep like what was going to end up happening.

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17 minutes ago, Jiji said:

While there are some good boxers with scheduled fights, it looks like other than Canelo trying to burn through his DAZN contract ASAP

Technically, I think Canelo isn't tied to DAZN strictly or vice versa. I think he just prefers to do business with Hearn instead of Golden Boy and Hearn's deal is DAZN. 

Quote

the big big names waiting for full stadiums? But with Texas pretending there's no pandemic going on, why are we still waiting on the big heavyweight three and the handful of other big draws left in boxing? I see that, according to Hearns, Fury and Joshua have agreed on a venue so hopefully that comes together soon. Lopez is on the next triller card with the Holyfield exhibition. Really, I just want to see what's next for Inoue and Wilder. 

As much as I like Deontay, he might not be in the right frame of mind to fight right now. That said I would rather watch Wilder vs. Whyte than Whyte vs. Jermaine Franklin or whatever contender WBC has until Joshua vs. Fury solves itself. 

Also, Showtime announced its slate of fights for the next several months. I think because Wilder is going to demand a king's ransom it's going to make it hard for him to just fight some dude unless he can fight in front of fans. Same thing with Conor in MMA. I heard on the Fox broadcast last night for Tony Harrison vs. Perrella that all the commentators are going to be together on 5/1 (I believe that's Andy Ruiz vs. Arreola). So I'm guessing that all the PBC on Fox shows are no longer in the bubble going forward. I guess that clears the way for Wilder to have a comeback fight. Otherwise, I wouldn't be too optimistic until I hear something concrete.

Inoue....I believe there is something going on with Arum and the IBF. Over the last several months, the IBF has had a string of terrible mandatories. Since many of his guys he promotes or co-promotes have IBF belts, he said he isn't going to pay for anymore mandatories with guys he can't sell on TV. Hence, Teofimo Lopez vs. George Kambosos Jr. being on Triller and not an ESPN platform. However, I would say Kambosos is at least much better than the guy (or guys since the Chinese guy has been a mandatory for awhile now and beat this guy) Beterbiev just fought or the Thai guy Josh Taylor wiped out. Even though it's DAZN, Kambosos is better than the Polish guy Golovkin fought recently. Pulev is a Top Rank guy and Arum pretended like he had a chance against Joshua, but he's a pretty bad mandatory too. So the beef with the IBF's shitty mandatories is probably having an effect on booking Naoya Inoue. I believe he had a mandatory with the IBF, and Arum has balked on making the fight. So the next time we might see him, it's probably going to be in Japan on ESPN+ at 5 in the morning.

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Yeah, I saw Whyte was pushing hard for a fight with Wilder and I don't think that's a good idea for Wilder at all right now. He could probably use a rebound fight against somebody better than the cans he was facing a few years back but without the power of Whyte. 

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4 minutes ago, Jiji said:

Yeah, I saw Whyte was pushing hard for a fight with Wilder and I don't think that's a good idea for Wilder at all right now. He could probably use a rebound fight against somebody better than the cans he was facing a few years back but without the power of Whyte. 

I just saw a story on Boxing Scene where apparently Wilder is waiting for his legal matters regarding his rematch clause with Fury are done. However, it did list Ruiz and Charles Martin as opponents. Martin is basically the softest touch he could get and at least was a titlist albeit briefly.

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21 hours ago, Serious Darius Bagfelt said:

So Felix Verdejo is a fairly depraved human being

For context:

He's pretty much facing life in prison.

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1 hour ago, Jimbo_Tsuruta said:

https://www.skysports.com/boxing/news/12183/12297215/saul-canelo-alvarez-and-billy-joe-saunders-resolve-bust-up-over-the-size-of-the-ring

You'd think this wouldn't need to be resolved days before the fight but all publicity is good publicity I guess...

Double KTFO please and thank you. No fan of either. Golovkin was done dirty by inept judging.

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Guest Jimbo_Tsuruta
2 hours ago, The Natural said:

Double KTFO please and thank you. No fan of either. Golovkin was done dirty by inept judging.

I had GGG winning both as well. Don't think Saunders will get a sniff though.

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33 minutes ago, Jimbo_Tsuruta said:

I had GGG winning both as well. Don't think Saunders will get a sniff though.

In full agreement. Triple G won both especially the first fight. One of the worst robberies ever with Bradley beating Pacquiao in their first fight. I hate Canelo.

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Guest Jimbo_Tsuruta
3 hours ago, Serious Darius Bagfelt said:

Sorry GGG lost the second fight.  Not by much but he lost.  If you are going to hate a guy because he may have gotten some beneficial judging you must hate just about every fighter that has pulled on a pair of gloves

I don't hate Canelo, and am looking forward to this weekend. Just from memory thought GGG won the second fight. 

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Guest Jimbo_Tsuruta

Billy Joe Saunders before the fight: "I bring that gypsy heart so to beat me you'll have to nail me to the floor, you have to put me to sleep..."

Oof Size Large - Meming Wiki

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