F--- boxing

He could be a good promoter and if he stays in boxing I hope it’s in that capacity.
I just don’t get this idea that putting a glorified club fight on pay per view as a main event fills some kind of void left because Crawford and Spence are either unwilling or unable to make a fight.
There are far too many fights on pay per view. Routine title defenses should not be pay-per-view main events but I guess with the kind of money Tank Davis, Tyson Fury, Crawford and Spence command for any fight at all it’s the only way they will fight anyone.
When the PBC left Fox, it seemed like all the fights they used to have ended up on Showtime and what used to be on Showtime is now on pay-per-view.
I never thought I’d say this, but I miss HBO. I didn’t care for its role as opinion leader. It seemed like any numb nuts who looked good on HBO suddenly became a potential superstar (like Clifford Ettiene) much like mediocre NFL players became a big deal after a good game on Monday Night Football in the 70s and 80s. Still, it was a place where the sport’s best could make routine defenses for good money and create a demand for a pay-per-view super fight. Showtime used to be the same way.
A view years ago Oscar de la Hoya said pay per view is dead. Instead, the opposite has happened and it’s not a good thing for the fans.

 

DAZN could have been a wonderful thing for boxing by being the home of the fights that would have been on HBO Saturday Night and HBO Boxing After Dark and ESPN's Friday Night Fights. So many good, not great, fights have been on PPV that would have been perfect for that streamer. They do a solid job with fights, but it could be so much more.

 

Beautiful liver shot to end the Davis - Garcia fight. Textbook.

 

Agree

The bravest thing Anthony Joshua can do is retire from boxing | Thomas Hauser

 

Action-wise, if all pay-per-view fights were like Haney/Lomachenko, everyone would be happy. The skill level was as high as it gets, but they both got after it and were willing to take risks.
The decision was the kind of thing that turns people off to boxing. It wasn’t a blatant robbery but it was a head-scratcher. I had Lomachenko winning 115-113. I had Haney up 4-2 after six. It was 4-4 after eight and Lomachenko won three of the last four rounds.
It was Lomachenko’s best fight in a long time and he deserved better.

 

Very intriguing fight, really tough to score especially over the first eight rounds. I had it 114-114 but marked several rounds as close. I had Haney 4-2 after six, 5-3 after eight. He backed up like a cheap claimer in the 10th and 11th but I narrowly gave him the last round.

ESPN crew was dreadful, three guys yelling over each other all night, offering nothing.

 

I had Haney winning six of the rounds the 9th and the 12th, that's 115-113 Haney. It was a great close fight. Lomachenko had him dead to rights in the 11th round. He could've gotten a knockdown and maybe a stoppage, but didn't push hard enough. It's these times when people have to be reminded that every round counts and Lomachenko did great damage in the 10th and 11th, but they weren't anything close to a 10-8 round. Haney did tremendous body work in the first half of the fight. The 116-112 scorecard was a stretch.

Tremendous fight. Add this with Tank and Garcia last month and boxing is starting to get these good young guys in the ring together.

 

You’re right, Haney scored regularly to the b0dy early but it didn’t seem to have much effect later in the fight when it was Haney who was running on fumes. Haney never hurt Loma like he got hurt late in the fight.

 

As we all know, any current champion has the advantage in a fight decided on the cards.

To win away those belts, you have to affirmatively win the fight. You have to beat the champ.

Loma did not.

Great fight, but for a very long time Lomachenko's real advantage, his secret weapon, was his mystique of invincibility.

Once Lopez beat him, he became mortal.

 

I’ve heard this idea that the challenger has to win decisively to win as long as I’ve followed boxing but how is it supposed to work in practice? If a round is close is it supposed to go to the champion? Does the challenger need to win eight or nine of the 12 rounds to win? If, at the end of the fight, they add up the scorecards and the challenger wind 115-113 in at least two of them do they play with the numbers until the champion is the winner?
This is why I’ve never really bought into that idea.

 

Loma really gave himself a chance by starting quickly, none of the endless narrative the ESPN guys spewed constantly during the first half of the Lopez fight how he was "downloading intel" when he was really doing nothing but giving away rounds. Looking at him after the fight you wonder if he knows he can't get himself back to this level again, maybe all those amateur fights and a relatively light pro career jammed with high stakes fights have finally caught up to him. I love watching the guy fight, he's a as cerebral a fighter as I have ever seen.

 

Also, I think he’s looked mortal before the Lopez fight. Linares knocked him down. He also had his hands full against Luke Campbell.

He fought better against Haney than when he beat Ortiz in the fall.