F--- boxing

I caught the Parker vs Chisora rematch and Zurdo Ramirez's fight.

Both good.

I missed Jake Paul vs Woodley 2. I guess Paul looked really good but once he faces a real boxer it's all over.

 

David Morrell, Jr. is a terrific fighter but his title defense on Fox on Saturday night was no contest as he just walked through Alantez Fox. It did feature one of the weirdest stoppages I have ever seen: Fox's father jumped up to his corner to get the ref's attention to stop the fight and when he couldn't get it, Morrell's trainer Ronnie Shields threw in a towel. I don't think the ref saw that but would have been interesting to see how they handled it if he had seen it and stopped the fight.

By the by the Fox broadcast team of Brian Kenny, Lennox Lewis and Joe Goossen is awful. And a lot of their main events are lousy.

 

I don't know. I'll take the contra here:

Dereck Chisora is (probably older than) 37.

At this point he is 32 - 12.

32 and 12

12 losses and still booking medium-profile fights on television. Not so long ago, that and 12 meant you were fighting a co-feature in the Hammerstein Ballroom.

To me that fight said a lot more about Parker's eroding skills - and how thin things are at the top of the heavyweight division.

 

A few years ago, Fox dropped Demetrius Andrade early and took him the distance. That's a good win for Morrell.

 

Definitely a very good win, Morrell will not be an easy guy to beat.

 

All I saw of that was the knockout. Holy shit. It was one of those where you seriously wonder if the guy is OK, he went down so hard and stayed down so long.

 

I heard it was pretty spectacular, but call me when he does that to a boxer in the top 50 at his weight class.

 

Eh. Spectacle is spectacle, and it was pretty devastating no matter who it was.
Is anyone really taking him seriously as a contender? I had the sense he was a moneymaking draw as a celebrity boxer who can seemingly fight once a month, not a guy climbing the ranks.

 

Well, God bless him for giving Amanda Serrano the exposure and paydays she deserves.

I guess boxing has always had the sideshow element. And as far as the rubes are concerned, as long as he he stays undefeated, how can anyone tell them he's not the next Sugar Ray Robinson.

It's no different than the club fights. As long as the guy who changes their oil keeps winning, he can sell tickets.

 

He's definitely the latest installment of boxing's sidseshow element but I read that fight drew a live crowd of 18,000+. Guys like Butterbean and Mark Gastineau weren't selling that many tickets. And then you compare that number to the Donaire-Gaballo fight on Dec. 11 which sold less than 1,000 tickets in Carson, Calif.

 

Well, the masses are asses.

After the Askren fight, MMA referee Big John McCarthy said the referee stopped it too soon. He said it wasn't a four-rounder on some backwater card. In a sane world that's what it would have been. Neither Paul nor Askren are world-class boxers. Regardless of how much they make, you don't apply the same standard that you would for Crawford vs Spence.

 

Cuba is letting its boxers fight as pros (not that they were ever really amateurs).

In a historic decision, Cuba will allow boxers to fight professionally abroad - The Ring