Banks probably make a ****load from training Klitschko. Doubt he would partake in a fix for the amount of money realistically involved.

Also he would likely have gone down from one of the monster shots Mitchell hit him with if it was a fix.

Think he gassed.

I completely agree with everything you said. It looked like Banks "accidently" hurt him and was then afraid to even touch him the rest of the fight

In the Broner-Malignaggi fight I thought Paulie clearly won rounds 1,2,4 due to Broner's inactivity. I thought Broner clearly won rounds 3,6,7,9,11 in which he beat up on Malignaggi. I thought rounds 5,8,10,12 were similarly close with Broner landing only a few good shots to Malignaggi's peppering of Broner thoughout the rounds. So in my view the fight could reasonably have been scored anywhere from 7-5 (115-113) for Malignaggi to 9-3 (117-111) for Broner. Splitting the close rounds would put the score at 115-113 for Broner.

Paulie may have lost the decision and his belt (don't know about his side piece) but he did succeed in exposing Broner as something less than great and a work in progress. Had the judge who scored it 115-113 for Broner seen one of the close rounds scored for Broner the other way the decision would have been a what? Split decision draw? Not to mention the point that should have been taken from Broner for kicking Malignaggi in the balls early in the fight. Who does that? The story line going forward for Broner would be looking a lot different but for 1 close round seen differently by one judge.

I've been pulling for Broner to be great from the first time I saw him fight. But I was disappointed when he prepared to move up from super featherweight to lightweight by taking a fight against Vincente Escobedo who had been performing poorly at lightweight and thought he might have better power at 130. So after Vincente sucked himself down to make the weight at 130 Broner comes in 3 pounds over. Broner payed him off to make the fight then easily disposed of the light punching sucked down Escobedo. That's hardly how you establish pound for pound credentials.

Then Broner moved up to fight for a lightweight belt against the 15 minutes of fame, moderate punching, easy to hit, Antonio Demarco who had been thoroughly exposed 3 years earlier when he fought a real champion, the late Edwin Valero.

Now Broner collects another "belt" moving up to 147 to take on another juicy name, the lightest punching broken hands fighter in boxing, Paulie Malignaggi. It's too bad Paulie never learned to throw with power. Maybe his hands couldn't take it. Malignaggi with power would be a great show against Mayweather Jr. As it is, Malignaggi is a gd wizard with what he has to work with and very nearly scored the 11-1 upset against Broner. The Problem did not seem to be a great puzzle for Paulie.

I'd like to see Broner fight Maidana next. Or anybody halfway dangerous.


PairTheBoard

matthysse v broner at 140 after lucas disposes of danny garcia.

Cheapest tickets for Canelo vs Gayweather are $350 with a max of 2 tickets per person being sold. Are they worth it? If I purchase them do you guys think it will be a problem reselling them?

Matthysse would destroy broner imo unless broner have a sick sick chin.

I don't think Banks was ever that good. He just wanted to sit on counter punches all night, whereas Mitchell was cautious, rightfully so given he was winning the fight and appears to go down very easily.

Banks fought pretty weak and scared given all this hype about how Klitchko had to really convince him not to fight Mitchell with a broken hand earlier this year. Hell, maybe the hand did not heal and Banks fought him with it. Would explain the lack of aggression. Even in the last round, when it was so clear that Mitchell was winning, Banks hardly did anything.

That was a terrible fight. At least the first one was entertaining (though funny that those guys are fighting for a Ward stolen title, I think Ward could fight those guys back to back on the same night and win every round).

Very good post.

You're right, it was closer than it should've been, but as much of that had to do with how stupid Broner scored than anything else. So many rounds he clearly landed the only punches that mattered, but a judge seeing 20-7 on the punch stat... it's hard to give it to the guy that lands 7 if nobody fell down or was clearly badly hurt.

At the end of the day, Broner outlanded him and clearly his shots were worth a hell of a lot more as far as power/impact go, plus the discrepancy in power shots was pretty large, but the round by round stuff he did pretty terrible on.

It'd of been sad if he lost the decision or even if it were a draw. While I think all of our expectations of Broner were not nearly met, he was the better fighter in the ring that night by a good bit, and even with the poor scoring job on his part, he still should've won (your average score was 115-113 even).


I don't think he deserves to fight the winner of Garcia Matthysse anymore. I like that Maidana fight, his promoter mentioned it too. The best non premier fighters (no Mattysse, no Garcia, no Floyd, no Pac Man, no Marquez) I'd like to see him fight. If he can look impressive against one of those, or put together 2-3 victories vs these "good but not great" caliber opponents, then maybe he's ready.

New Mayweather is boring and too nice.

May around 14 minutes in
NYC Presser


Not one insult.

lol, it sounds like Danny Garcia is going to have a rematch with Judah instead of fighting Lucas Matthysse.

Excited for Golovkin-Macklin on Saturday.

Garcia ducking Matthysse again... lol.

It's not like Matthysse is unbeatable. Zab Judah have a case for having done it.
Devon Alexander does not though.

I sure hope this doesn't happen. That's ridiculous, Garcia-Matthysse is one of the most obvious fights to make.

On another note, does anyone think that two of these three fighters will ever fight each other: Sergio Martinez, Andre Ward and Golovkin?

I assume Martinez doesn't want to move up weight + is getting old, Ward doesn't want to move down in weight. So that would mean Golovkin vs Ward could happen if Golovkin keeps winning (gaining popularity) and moves up in weight. Am I off there?

Tyson Fury wants 80/20 split vs. David Haye.


lol.


ChicagoRy,

I'd say it depends, but i am leaning towards no.
If Golovkin is who most hardcore fans think he is, he will be dominating middleweight for the foreseeable future. And Golovkin has said multiple times that there's no point to boxing if the best doesn't want to fight the best, which is why i personally love him.

I could definitely see him moving up to 168 and fight Ward eventually, but the problem is i don't think Ward will remain there for much longer.

Martinez vs. Ward is completely out of the question.

Martinez vs. Golovkin... Probably the most likely out of the three, but Martinez promoter Lou Dibella have done his best to not put Martinez in there with Golovkin and still acts as if Golovkin is a complete unknown.

Obv Fury camp doesn't expect that to happen. Just setting the bar high to land a better deal during negotiation.

Tyson don't even deserve 50% vs. Haye.

Hopefully it's not just a bitch move to make the fight impossible. I would definitely root for Tyson.

Interesting thoughts.

Yea if Ward moves up, that's it for him obviously.

I can understand Martinez. I mean, he's going to fight Chavez Jr. again. A fight he won every round until the 12th when he decided to engage instead of walk to victory and ate enough leather to put him in jeopardy. Without that 12th round, it would've been a joke to think a rematch was worthwhile. But he'll do it to take the money (Chavez Jr. got more than Martinez for that fight iirc).

I do see the point that Golovkin isn't that known. I mean he fought an 8 loss guy in his last fight and I think Macklin is going to be his best opponent by far (at least of the 5 or so fights I've seen Golovkin fight). Golovkin's crowds look like what I saw when I went to a local boxing fight, where half the cards were single digit match fighters and only the main event went past 8 rounds.

That's why I think a solid Golovkin win over Macklin (who gave Martinez a good fight and has legitimate power himself) and maybe one more solid victory over a legitimate fighter could give him a large enough following to where guys like Martinez will consider fighting him.

There isn't a ton of star power at 160-168 though, is there? It's not like Ward and Martinez can choose from Mayweather, Pac Man, Marquez, Bradley, Judah, Kahn, Garcia, Broner, Malignagi and more.

Speaking of lower weights, so if Garcia fights Judah again, that's just going to be another "money over best fight" decision, right? I watched Judah Garcia the other night again and while it was a fun watch, it's not like Judah did a lot in that fight. Garcia dominated pretty handily and lost many of his rounds only after he had the fight under control. But I assume Zab can make Garcia more money than Mattyse. If you look at Garcia's career, he's chosen money over challenge plenty. Look at the Morales rematch (arguably the first fight too). There was absolutely zero reason those two needed to fight again, other than cashing a check.

And I haven't come up with a lot of solutions for the incentive problem: Fighters choosing to take six or sometimes seven figures more money to fight a bigger name, rather than a tougher opponent.

The best thing I can think of is to enter into an obligated type tournament, fought over 12-18 months. An 8 man double elimination bracket type thing would see plenty of great fights and be a natural event to promote.

Consolidating belts could potentially work too, but it couldn't be executed in today's environment, and you still have issues such as determining top contenders and you still have money vs best fight incentive problems.

Guaranteeing the winner of a title fight a certain % would be interesting too, but then you start to take away a lot from the natural value of fighters and you might see top names start to fight overseas more for the money. Why would Floyd enter into a 30-30 with 40% extra to the winner if he can grab 75% overseas guaranteed? That sort of thing.

The agreed upon tournament style solution is the best I got. And that does happen sometimes already, so it would just need to happen a little bit more.

This is just Fury throwing in some pre fight banter ... there will be a lot of this during the build up to the fight.

The fact this interview was done on Sky Sports means a PPV fight deal is virtually sealed.

Considering Fury fights on channel 5 .. why would he be on Sky Sports ...

I would expect a announcement pretty soon.

Ricky Hatton in regards to Scott Quigg:

"After that, I spoke to Richard Schaefer of Golden Boy Promotions and told him how I felt the time was right for Scott to make his name in the US"

What? That's nonsense. He doesn't even have a big following in the UK. You would expect that after the biggest win of his career he would be offered big fights in his hometown (Manchester) to build him into a big star, not crappy fights on ESPN that hardly anyone will be watching. Sky Sports with Matchroom is the place to be right now and I think Quigg made the right choice. Unfortunately this means a potential fight with Carl Frampton is dead.

macklin gonna get ktfo later

yup

So is this Macklin vs Golovkin fight worth watching coming up on my HBOs?

Oh, unquestionably. Golovkin is one of the next big things in boxing and has a very aggressive, entertaining style and Macklin is very game and I'm looking forward to it a lot.