Boxing

[spud_gun]

Andre Ward has apparently signed with RocNation (Jay Z's promotion company)

Hopefully he gets back in the ring asap. Phenomenal talent who's pissed away several years of his career due to management / contractual disputes.

Rigo has also signed with RocNation.

[marcus50bucks]

Lance Pugmire @latimespugmire · 50m50 minutes ago
Just filed to http://latimes.com updating @FloydMayweather @MannyPacquiao talks. Not done, but they've agreed on @MGMGrand as venue.

Lance Pugmire @latimespugmire · 48m48 minutes ago
Mayweather and Pacquiao closing in on purse split, according to official involved in the talks. Drug-testing plan is done.

Lance Pugmire @latimespugmire · 47m47 minutes ago
As they hammer out purse, next step is to get @SHOsports and @HBOboxing to get the broadcasting plan sorted out.

Lance Pugmire @latimespugmire · 47m47 minutes ago
Very important to note until it's done, it's not done, but Thursday was a good day for the long-awaited super-fight, I'm told.

Lance Pugmire @latimespugmire · 28m28 minutes ago
Official: Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Manny Pacquiao 'making progress' on fight http://fw.to/qrTRJcf

Legit source too

[marcus50bucks]

Official: Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Manny Pacquiao 'making progress' on fight

By LANCE PUGMIRE
contact the reporter

January 9, 2015, 1:37pm

The long wait for Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao isn’t over yet, but words long absent from the anticipated super-fight have been spoken.

“We’re making progress,” a boxing authority involved in the talks told the Los Angeles Times on Friday.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because no one in the Mayweather-Pacquiao talks is authorized to discuss them publicly.

Boxing’s top two pound-for-pound fighters have failed to make a deal for more than five years, but after Mayweather (47-0) dominated Marcos Maidana in September, he was more encouraging than ever about the bout, and Pacquiao said the mega-bout “has to happen” after knocking down previously unbeaten Chris Algieri six times in November.

While a final agreement has not been struck on the purse split, the official said the sides made noticeable progress on the subject in Thursday negotiations.

Mayweather sought a split at least 60-40 in his favor, and Pacquiao (57-5-2, 38 KOs) expressed a willingness to meet that.

The parties have already agreed to stage the fight at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, and they’ve also agreed on a drug-testing plan. A date remains unsettled. It's believed the bout is being targeted for May or June.

"The calendar is a factor," the official said of the urgency to finalize the deal soon, estimating it could get done in seven to 10 days.

A disagreement over drug testing ruined attempts to make the fight in 2010, when a full term sheet had already been finalized.

Then, Maywewather wanted the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency to conduct full testing, including blood screens, and Pacquiao declined.

The specifics of the drug-testing deal this time were not revealed.

As the sides continue to work on the purse split, premium cable networks Showtime and HBO also need to work out the details of televising the bout. Mayweather is under contract to Showtime for two more fights, and Pacquiao has an HBO deal.

It’s believed the networks are pursuing a plan to televise the bout jointly, as was done with the 2002 heavyweight title fight between Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/sportsnow/la-sp-sn-floyd-mayweather-manny-pacquiao-progress-20150109-story.html

[Gibbo]

Enjoyed Hattons ringside.

[Doc_Piptorious]

The alphabets can have as many titles as they want. What people should take more heed of is lineal champions and also learn to differentiate between belt holders and World Champions.

For example the Wilder vs Stiverne fight next week for the WBC title. Whoever wins will be the WBC belt holder but they're not the Heavyweight Champion.

Yes but the casual follower of boxing is always going to assume that the belt holder is the champion/best in the world.


Never going to happen, but one belt per division would reinvigorate the sport in my opinion.

That way the man who holds the belt is the man, and everyone else is trying to reach his level.

I used to agree that the lineal champion was the one to look to, but even that has become difficult to gauge as in some divisions the lineal "title" was lost through fighters retiring or moving up a weight division.


The middleweight division is a division where the lineal system simply does not work imho. If you try to use the lineal system then Govolkin is not the best middleweight in the world right now. Tracing back the lineal title would have Cotto or Taylor as the "true" champion of the division. Which I would not agree with.


But if we look a bit further at the middleweight division, we see that there are currently three WBA champions, two WBC, one IBF, one WBO , and of course one fighter named as The Ring's best in the division. There are a number of other mickey mouse belts, but to keep the numbers down let's keep it to those eight.

The WBA has Govolkin as their super champion, Jacob as their champion, and Chudinow as their interim champion. One weight division, one organisation, three belt holders.


The WBC has Cotto as their champion and Govolkin as their interim champion.

The IBF has Jermaine Taylor as their champion.

The WBO has Andy Lee as their Champion.

The Ring has Cotto as their champion.



Now try to imagine yourself as a casual follower of boxing and try to figure out who the best in the world is.



Jump up to the big boys.


Wladimir Klitschko holds four titles. WBA, WBO, IBF, and The Ring

Bermane Stiverne (he is fighting Wilder on the 17th of this month) holds the WBC strap.

So that looks nice and simple right? Two men hold all the main belts between them.

But the WBA jump in and chuck in two more "champions".

Chagaev is the regular WBA champion and Ortiz is the Interim WBA champion.


So rather than be happy that their main guy is the most dominant heavyweight in the game, the WBA feel the need to have to have two other heavyweight "champions"


Actually most of my ire in 2015 would be towards the WBA and their need to have three champions in a division whenever they can. It just cheapens their title and cheapens the sport at the same time.


But as said earlier it is all about money now. Very few promoters give a toss about the sport, and there are plenty of very average fighters who are happy to have padded out records and one of the worthless belts around their waist.


The sad thing is that the sport that 40 years ago had pretty much everyone on the planet knowing who the heavyweight champ was is now at risk of fading into obscurity by the time another 10 to 15 years roll around.

[Tee]

Jaco, I respect your views on boxing as you clearly are very knowledgable on the subject. Just wanted to know your thoughts on Amir Khan now. I remember you did not think too highly of him and wondered if he has changed your opinion.

Also, he seems to be so much more respected as a fighter, and person, in the US. Why do you think that is? Personally I think, and always have thought, that is a race issue here in the UK. The reaction since that Prescott defeat really showed that to me.

[spud_gun]

Cotto is the lineal middleweight champion. He beat, quite handily, the previous lineal champion in Martinez.

In saying that I've no doubt that were they to fight then GGG would win the fight.

However until they fight, or someone beats Cotto, then the lineal champ is Cotto.

[Doc_Piptorious]

Jaco, I respect your views on boxing as you clearly are very knowledgable on the subject. Just wanted to know your thoughts on Amir Khan now. I remember you did not think too highly of him and wondered if he has changed your opinion.

Also, he seems to be so much more respected as a fighter, and person, in the US. Why do you think that is? Personally I think, and always have thought, that is a race issue here in the UK. The reaction since that Prescott defeat really showed that to me.

I'm still not a fan of Khan (but I like to rhyme some of the time :P).

I do not think he is all that much more respected as a person or as a fighter now, but I do think that he is managed a lot better in relation to his media image.

I recall someone on here some time back talking about Froch and saying that he was coming across much better, and I replied saying that he was still the exact same type of person he was before but that his media image was being handled a lot better at the time. The same applies to Khan in my opinion.


I am not a fan of his personality away from the cameras, never have been and don't think I ever will be, and in the ring I think he has the same strengths and weaknesses that he always had.

He can box, no doubt about that, and he has decent power albeit not concussive power, His hand speed does help compensate on the power side of things though. He is still chinny, and I would still question his heart.


As for there being some sort of race issue at play in terms of people liking/disliking Kahn. I really don't think so. There may be a few idiots that dislike a boxer because of the colour of a boxer's skin or his religion or whatever, but the vast majority of those that follow boxing would not judge a boxer by those criteria.

It is a very difficult sport to hide in. People involved in team sports can be carried and can get by for a long time on the backs of others, but once you get into the ring it becomes pretty clear how good or bad you are, and if you are a protected fighter then it becomes clear what you are being fed to climb the rankings.

Khan I think has been disliked by many due to his personality and how he was managed. But race/religion has never been a real issue and there is no reason why it should be.

[RichC]

The heart thing comes into it for me he's a decent boxer but still not at the elite level IMO in fact rather than chasing the payday for Mayweather it would be good to see him go down the same route as Froch and look to avenge his defeat to Garcia a la Kessler.

I in fact find the race reason to be fairly crass and insulting

[Doc_Piptorious]

Cotto is the lineal middleweight champion. He beat, quite handily, the previous lineal champion in Martinez.

In saying that I've no doubt that were they to fight then GGG would win the fight.

However until they fight, or someone beats Cotto, then the lineal champ is Cotto.

As the holder of The Ring title, Cotto would be seen by most as the lineal champ. But thanks to a few odd decisions in how the Ring decided who the lineal champs were across a few divisions over the years, their choices have become a bit debatable.


As it happens I agree with you with regards to Cotto based on it being

Cotto - Martinez- Pavlik - Taylor - Hopkins



But when we go back as far as Hopkins it gets messy.When Hopkins and Trinidad fought the winner was declared the lineal middleweight champion despite neither being regarded as such before the fight.

The last lineal middleweight fighter before those two was James Toney and he never lost a fight as a middleweight. So the lineal title was then left vacant until there was a megafight that it could be attached to.


So we are currently in a position where the guy that most regard as the lineal champ is not the guy that most would regard as being the clear best in the division. We are also in the position again if Cotto decides to move up a division or retire that we will see the lineal title once again go vacant and more than likely get bestowed onto the winner of the next richest middleweight bout, a la Hopkins/Trinidad, rather than it going to the man who beat the man.

[Doc_Piptorious]

The heart thing comes into it for me he's a decent boxer but still not at the elite level IMO in fact rather than chasing the payday for Mayweather it would be good to see him go down the same route as Froch and look to avenge his defeat to Garcia a la Kessler.

I in fact find the race reason to be fairly crass and insulting

Yep good but not elite would describe him well, and I do not think he will ever be a true elite boxer.


Going after Garcia would be a no brainer in boxing terms, but Khan is more a financial investment for himself and others imho so the biggest available payday or the biggest payday with the lowest risk will nearly always be the route mapped out for him rather than going down the purist route of looking to beat anyone that beat him.

[RichC]

Yep good but not elite would describe him well, and I do not think he will ever be a true elite boxer.


Going after Garcia would be a no brainer in boxing terms, but Khan is more a financial investment for himself and others imho so the biggest available payday or the biggest payday with the lowest risk will nearly always be the route mapped out for him rather than going down the purist route of looking to beat anyone that beat him.

[spud_gun]

As the holder of The Ring title, Cotto would be seen by most as the lineal champ. But thanks to a few odd decisions in how the Ring decided who the lineal champs were across a few divisions over the years, their choices have become a bit debatable.


As it happens I agree with you with regards to Cotto based on it being

Cotto - Martinez- Pavlik - Taylor - Hopkins



But when we go back as far as Hopkins it gets messy.When Hopkins and Trinidad fought the winner was declared the lineal middleweight champion despite neither being regarded as such before the fight.

The last lineal middleweight fighter before those two was James Toney and he never lost a fight as a middleweight. So the lineal title was then left vacant until there was a megafight that it could be attached to.


So we are currently in a position where the guy that most regard as the lineal champ is not the guy that most would regard as being the clear best in the division. We are also in the position again if Cotto decides to move up a division or retire that we will see the lineal title once again go vacant and more than likely get bestowed onto the winner of the next richest middleweight bout, a la Hopkins/Trinidad, rather than it going to the man who beat the man.

You make some very good points and i'm in agreement with the majority of what you say.

The issue with boxing, as you well know, is that it's so fragmented it is neigh on impossible for the laymen to determine who the actual champion (as opposed to a simple belt holder) of a weight devision is.

With regards to 'The Ring' i wouldn't put too much faith in the editorial neutrality. Ever since Golden Boy bought them over they've been a tad biased.

In essence it's a great idea to have a magazine or even better an amalgam of magazines (Boxing News, Boxing Monthly) butt heads each month and release their aggregate world rankings.

However in order for that to happen the publications need to be free from the influence one a single promoter.

To back up my assertion about The Rings rankings. They've got Andre Ward as #4 P4P

Ward, a supremely talented pugilist, has had two fights since he fought Carl Froch in December 2011. Ranking him #4 P4P is mental.

[Doc_Piptorious]

You make some very good points and i'm in agreement with the majority of what you say.

The issue with boxing, as you well know, is that it's so fragmented it is neigh on impossible for the laymen to determine who the actual champion (as opposed to a simple belt holder) of a weight devision is.

With regards to 'The Ring' i wouldn't put too much faith in the editorial neutrality. Ever since Golden Boy bought them over they've been a tad biased.

In essence it's a great idea to have a magazine or even better an amalgam of magazines (Boxing News, Boxing Monthly) butt heads each month and release their aggregate world rankings.

However in order for that to happen the publications need to be free from the influence one a single promoter.

To back up my assertion about The Rings rankings. They've got Andre Ward as #4 P4P

Ward, a supremely talented pugilist, has had two fights since he fought Carl Froch in December 2011. Ranking him #4 P4P is mental.

On pure ability I would not disagree with Ward being in the top 5 of P4P list, and would probably be higher than #4 for me, but completely agree with you that based on activity he should not be there at all.

Activity has to count otherwise we could throw in the name of any living fighter and base his P4P rating on the ability that he showed at some point of his career rather than on what he has been showing in recent times.


And totally agree on The Ring titles. They have become diminished in value in recent years, but there was a point when they carried as much weight as any of the alphabetical belts and they often carried more weight.

[Tee]

I'm still not a fan of Khan (but I like to rhyme some of the time :P).

I do not think he is all that much more respected as a person or as a fighter now, but I do think that he is managed a lot better in relation to his media image.

I recall someone on here some time back talking about Froch and saying that he was coming across much better, and I replied saying that he was still the exact same type of person he was before but that his media image was being handled a lot better at the time. The same applies to Khan in my opinion.


I am not a fan of his personality away from the cameras, never have been and don't think I ever will be, and in the ring I think he has the same strengths and weaknesses that he always had.

He can box, no doubt about that, and he has decent power albeit not concussive power, His hand speed does help compensate on the power side of things though. He is still chinny, and I would still question his heart.


As for there being some sort of race issue at play in terms of people liking/disliking Kahn. I really don't think so. There may be a few idiots that dislike a boxer because of the colour of a boxer's skin or his religion or whatever, but the vast majority of those that follow boxing would not judge a boxer by those criteria.

It is a very difficult sport to hide in. People involved in team sports can be carried and can get by for a long time on the backs of others, but once you get into the ring it becomes pretty clear how good or bad you are, and if you are a protected fighter then it becomes clear what you are being fed to climb the rankings.

Khan I think has been disliked by many due to his personality and how he was managed. But race/religion has never been a real issue and there is no reason why it should be.

I have to say I am surprised you question his heart though. One thing I accuse him of is showing too much heart at times by trying to get up too quickly and go toe to toe when he is hurt. He should stay down for longer to get his senses back and then box out the round to save himself.

He is an elite fighter now imo and I still do think much of the hate in the uk is down to race/religion. A quick trawl on many sites and forums will give a clear indication of this.