F--- boxing

I will ask the same question as @Smallpotatoes: Who paid Duran, for example, to turn his back on Leonard? It's not like it led to a lucrative third fight in 1981. Did Sugar Ray do it to set up a fight with Hearns while Duran took his check and was exiled to boxing purgatory? Only Duran knows why he did what he did and to think it was because he was paid by Leonard or someone else is ludicrous. And Don King either didn't know about it or take a cut because he exiled Duran after that.

I watched Lopez-Malvarez. Malvarez easily won the first round and had rocked Lopez early in the second. If he was looking for a place to fall why not hit the deck in the first? Lopez got hit a lot and went down a lot but he could punch as hard as anyone at that weight class. The Lopez right prior to the knockdown was a bomb. Lopez was one of the top TV attractions at that time - rare for a fighter at that weight class - Malvarez was a nobody who would have probably taken the title back to Argentina, he wasn't moving the needle with US TV viewers. What was the motivation here? Did someone give Tito Lectore a check after the first and he told his guy to go in the tank?

 

You forgot the part where De La Hoya benefitted by suddenly starting to promote Hopkins fights after that "loss." So it became more rewarding to lose to Hopkins than to beat him. Remember De La Hoya had been avoiding and stalling on committing to fight Hopkins for over a year. Hopkins became a partner in Golden Boy Promotions. It was an obvious inside job, suspect ending to a soft sparring session.

 

Look at Malvarez flopping around on the deck, you call that a good acting job? Duran got a jackpot to dive for Leonard in New Orleans. I got the story from two different Duran entourage members 3 decades apart, both confirmed the same story. 1988 Stackhouse fight in AC. I loved Duran and was asking one of the guys with Duran's group, he was wearing a Duran jacket, what happened in No Mas, no way that was not real, that was not the real Duran? He saw that I was a trustworthy kid and told me The powers that be wanted Leonard, the more marketable star, to erase that loss to regain his full earning power. They offered Duran $15m cash to dive. They rushed Duran into the rematch when he could have taken optional defenses before the rematch. Duran agreed to it. When Leonard started the showboating Duran got pissed and changed the script and quit instead of diving. Two years ago at a boxing fundraiser in NYC (Duran was there) I met a former boxer who was there, he had been a sparring partner for Duran for several years in the 80s. I won't name him. We got to talking and I told him about the story I'd gotten at the Stackhouse fight. He confirmed it totally and added that Duran received $15m cash deposited in his bank in Panama. I didn't ask who made the payment. Not that it matters. There was not a rematch until a decade later. Duran was not allowed the immediate rematch and did not demand it. If it was a real authentic fight you would think Duran would want the rematch for redemption, right? You don't have to believe this version but it sure does make an awful lot of sense.

 

I take it you've never been hit with a left hook to the liver.

Tell me, if the fight were on the level, what do you think would have happened?

 

I've been hit everywhere lol including in the face with a hockey stick! Hopkins was a beast at the time, in his prime, Oscar was dodging the fight and too small. Hopkins would have brutalized Oscar in a real fight. But Oscar was smart to not put himself at such a health risk and made the wisest business decision for himself and his promotional company. Hopkins is still a partner with GBP today.

 

And you don't think that punch was hard enough to end the fight?

 

Back to reality here. Pulev vs. Joshua tomorrow. I imagine Joshua wins by knockout. Joshua looks great. That said, he did lose to Ruiz way back when.

 

'Way back when' being 18 months ago.

But that Ruiz loss raises a couple interesting questions about Joshua.

- how tough a fighter is Joshua mentally?

- having lost his unbeatable mystique to Ruiz, how do other heavyweights now view him?

He should make short work of Pulev, but we said the same about Ruiz.

 

Great weigh in today.

Joshua vs Ruiz 1 was a dive. Both smiling in ring together after. Joshua looked so terrible it could not be real. Wilder was ducking him and there were no other big money options at the time so with the new, big DAZN contract they needed a big money fight. The decision was made to make AJ throw the fight to Ruiz to set up the big money rematch. I don't remember the exact figures - you can look them up - but the rematch drew huge profits, like astonishing numbers. I think Joshua made $40m. It was an easy cake walk. Ruiz and Haymon tried to break out of the automatic rematch clause - because they knew Ruiz had no chance to win a real fight, Joshua is levels superior to fatso Ruiz. Haymon wanted to bypass the automatic rematch and set up Ruiz to dive for Wilder, so Wilder could be undisputed champion.

Ruiz being Mexican helped draw an audience to both fights. A pretty obvious fix to critical thinkers who monitor the sport pretty closely. Look at how bad AJ looked in the fight and also try to find the post fight photos of Ruiz and AJ smiling together inside the ring. Bad scripting there by Matchroom!

 

Joshua is very tough mentally and physically. There can be no doubt about that. Everything about Joshua was proven convincingly in the Klitschko fight, which was one of the greatest hwt title fights in history. I rate it as better than any of the Ali vs Fraziers.

 

bloop

 

I don't care if he did cartwheels after the fight. It was not fixed.