F--- boxing

Very good GGG - Murata fight.

Hard to tell if GGG has aged out at 40, or if the long layoff and ring rust alone made him look stiff and sluggish in the early rounds.

Finished strong, but I'm not sure I like his chances in a third fight with Canelo.

Which is why, of course, Canelo has been stalling him.

 

Boxing Distances Itself From a Figure Sought by the U.S. Government

 

Errol Spence Jr. looked tremendous this past weekend outside of a failure to protect himself at all times in the sixth round. I've not been one to buy into all the Bud Crawford hype, so I always thought the Spence-Crawford match is a pretty much a toss up. But I love the way Spence attacks the body and how he changes up his strategy for different styles and different guys. Hoping they can get this one signed for the back end of 2022.

 

Think of how good Spence might be without suffering the accident(s) and the layoff.

Excited to see him fight Crawford.

Get it made.

 

I give him a lot of credit for jumping right in against Danny Garcia after the accident and against Ugas after the eye injury.

 

Huge upset with Dmitry Bivol defeating Canelo UD12 all three 115-113.
Bivol did well with his jab and got through Canelo’s guard. moving him back when he landed the right hand.

 

Bivol.

Wow.

 

Between posts about the war and abortion and the war on abortion, just a thought about this fight.

Christ, Bivol was beautiful. Completely outboxed Canelo.

From the opening bell to the end of the 12th, he had his jab in Canelo's face. Such fast fast hands.

Canelo couldn't back him up, or cut off the ring and trap him in the corner. Couldn't bullrush him.

Bivol has only a slight reach advantage, but it seemed as if he was able to box effectively from much longer range, keeping him safe from Canelo's usual inside muscle stuff. Alvarez seemed to land relatively few body shots.

Part of this may be attributable to Canelo bulking up to fight at this weight. He seemed slow(er) to me, and wasn't able to chase Bivol down. Bivol also seemed better trained. Look at the 12th and you'll see him still up on his toes moving and fast. Alvarez is flat-footed. Not gassed, necessarily, but ponderous under the weight of his own muscle.

Again, just a remarkable performance from an absolutely gorgeous fighter.

 

Charlo fight was pretty good.

But if I were king of the world one of the first things I'd do is reduce the number of in-between weight classes. Super welterweight? Junior middleweight? No thank you.

Then I'd get rid of every sanctioning body but one.

One belt per champion.

 

I don’t completely agree with you about the weight classes. Having four different weight classes between 118 and 130 is a bit superfluous, yes, but some of those in-between classes have been around for more than a century. Also, with most of the top heavyweights weighing upwards of 230 pounds, I don’t think anyone can say the cruiser weight division is not necessary.

As much as anyone else, I’d love to see boxing go back to one universally recognized champion in each division, it’s not going to happen and even if it did, it wouldn’t last long. Inevitably there would be a promoter who wouldn’t be able to get his fighters title shots and nothing to stop him from starting his own sanctioning body. I’m pretty sure that’s how it all got started.

MMA looks like it’s more on the level but in reality the promoter and sanctioning body are the same. They just cut out the middle man. Also, there’s a much more clear hierarchy, with one organization with just about all the best fighters and the other organizations consisting of fighters trying to get into that organization or staying in the game after washing out of that organization.

 

Anyone see Haney vs Kambosos? Haney did a great job with his jab. Everyone is talking about Haney vs Davis now but there are so many good matchups in that division with Ryan Garcia, Lomochenko, Lopez and others.