I certainly hope it's a good time. This card is getting criticized a lot in the boxing world, just because it's viewed as two past-their-prime fighters against two unknown opponents.
Well, I'm not the guy to turn to for gambling advice, but just as a boxing fan, it's hard to imagine any of the three headliners are at risk of losing. I think these are "showcase" fights for Tarver, Forrest and Donaire. Why the hell Tarver needs another "showcase" fight is beyond me. This guy talks more trash than Floyd Mayweather with a lot less to back it up. If he's not fighting Chad Dawson, I'm not interested. Not saying I won't watch the fight, but it's not one I'm excited about. I know very little about Santiago, but based on Tarver's rather dull but competent outing against Elvir Muriqui, I'd take Tarver by UD.
The headline bout was supposed to be Danny Green vs. Tarver, but Green backed out. Not that it's much better than what is on there now...
Haven't watched it yet but got it on DVR. I read that that Kirkland-Conyers fight was a Round of the Year candidate. Can't wait to check it out.
Judah is out of the running for that fight, and it's because he made the same mistake as Cintron. Zab injured his hand a few weeks ago in a meaningless "stay-busy" fight against a no-name opponent. He can't spar for a few months, so he had to decline the Williams offer.
Just to quickly clarify, the Fighter of the Year choice(s) were MY choices, not predictions. I strongly doubt Floyd will get that award.
Wow...I had forgotten about Amir Khan, was so impressed with him in '04. Just watched the you tube clip of him over Earl. That was a vicious display. Khan looks a lot bigger, but just as fast. That left hook...whoo. I'd say that fight shows he's ready to start fighting some real competition. Will he be able to fight at 147?
Khan is 5'10", so he definitely figures to end up in the 147 range at some point in his career. I doubt at that height that he'll be able to keep his body at 135 pounds for long.
I don't know how much you guys know about Bernard Hopkins over there, but expect a lot more of that type of rhetoric as this fight moves closer to becoming a reality. That's typical Bernard Hopkins.
I think you seriously under-estimate the fanbase Joe C has in Britain - note what I mentioned about him winning Sports Personality of the Year - He's Wales' #1 sports star and in a Rugby-mad Principality that is a major feat. He did get 50,000+ people to pay at least $90 each to go to the Millenium Stadium for the Kessler fight (and 30,000+ for the Manfredo fight), Hatton didn't even sell out the 12,000 MEN Arena in Manchester for the Kosta Tszyu fight. Calzaghe has a massive following that would go anywhere to watch him and if you think the singing for Ricky Hatton was impressive, just wait till the Welsh come over. Singing is a Religion in Wales and you'll have far more variety than just 'Walking in a Hatton Wonderland'.
And also, if Joe wants a big fight, who else is there to fight?
I'm really surprised by this. I realize these were 2 Europeans, but I'm still shocked that it got the lowest rating ever.
I was shocked to read that as well. I'm a fan of Calzaghe and that was a great "fight fan's fight." But the fact is, Joe has no following in the U.S. market. And regardless of how many people he put in Milllennium Stadium, I am very skeptical that he has the kind of boisterous backing that Ricky Hatton has -- can he really bring 20,000 Brits across the pond?
Well, Taylor's another one with no significant fan base. I suppose he may get one if he KOs Pavlik, but I think that's unlikely. So Calzaghe's as high-profile as he's going to get. Unfortunately, if Jermain loses to Pavlik again in similar fashion, which is what I suspect will happen, he'll have to completely rebuild whatever marketability he might have had.
I believe it cost about half of what the US PPV cost, which probably didn't hurt.
Excellent numbers, but a bit below the projections which had it cracking 1 million and maybe reaching 1.5. Still, a nice end to a banner year for the sport -- AND it was a highly entertaining fight, unlike DLH-Mayweather which wasn't as bad as many in the media thought, but still in my eyes, a solid but not highly memorable bout.
Ya, seriously. Hatton needs to realize that there is no shame whatsoever in losing to Mayweather. He should just say, "Hey, I moved up in weight and took a shot at the best fighter out there, he beat me, I'm going back to where I belong at 140."
Nigerian vs. Russian, what a perfect fight to hold in Mexico!
That would be an interesting fight. I've been reading that Arum wanted to put Margarito in against Jose Luis Castillo, but HBO didn't want to approve it. I guess after Margarito's destruction of poor old Golden Johnson, HBO figured he had already filled his quota of shot former lightweight opponents. And that's the smart decision, throwing Castillo in there against Margarito would be lambs to the slaughter.
Ya, I assume this all stems from De La Hoya. He's spent virtually his entire career fighting in Vegas, and therefore he has a longstanding relationship with the Vegas powers-that-be.
On the other hand, it IS in Cancun. If you were going to travel to only one boxing card next year...Nigerian vs. Russian, what a perfect fight to hold in Mexico!
Boxing promoters never cease to amaze.
Zab Judah has more lives in the boxing business than Michael Myers in the Halloween movies. No matter how many times this guy gets his ass kicked, he keeps getting big fights. But that said, I like this fight, too. I have a feeling that Marg may be made-to-order for Zab. His defense is OK but not great and Zab has always had more pure athletic ability than anyone but Mayweather. To paraphrase what Eddie Stanky once said about Yastrzemski, Zab's a great fighter from the neck down. Still, I think he could blitz Marg early and possibly score a 3rd or 4th round stoppage. If that doesn't happen, though, it'll be bad news for Judah yet again.
Golden Boy has been a mixed blessing for boxing. They've done a lot of very good things and brought huge attention to the sport this year. But they need to take the next step. They rely too much on HBO and casino licensing fees and not enough on nuts-and-bolts promotion. There's nothing inherently wrong with casino fights -- Las Vegas has kept the boxing industry alive through some lean times (like the past few years until this one). But with the momentum that the sport has at the present, it's time to take the show on the road. That may mean working a bit harder and telling your big name fighters they may have to take 3 million for a fight instead of 5 or 6. But in the long run, putting big fights in urban arenas and even stadiums, with reasonable (by today's standards) ticket prices is the only way to bring boxing to the people and grow the sport, instead of just trying to wring as much out of it as you can for your company's bottom line.
Yikes. Exhibit A on how not to handle a defeat.
The next couple years will be very interesting for Golden Boy. They've made a big splash the last few years, but they've done it by signing big-name guys who also happen to be very old. Oscar, Mosley, Barrera, Hopkins... all of these guys are at/near the end of the line.
All true. But it's still massively impressive -- and it was the biggest PPV ever in the U.K. surpassing Lewis-Tyson. 1.2 million is about 2 percent of the U.K. population. So that's the equivalent of 6 million PPV buys in the U.S. market. Even if Mayweather-Hatton -- or for that matter, DLH-Mayweather or even Lewis-Tyson -- had been priced at 20 bucks, I still doubt any of them would have done 6 million buys. Though, who knows, DLH-Mayweather which did 2.4 mil at 55 bucks might have come close.
I would agree with most of those. I'd give KO of the year to Darnell Wilson for his KO of Nwodo.
