08/25/2018- In the hot desert town of Glendale, Az. the wily ‘ol vet, WBO lightweight champion, Ray Beltran (35-7-1D-21K() surrendered his title to a fired up and on point, Jose (Sniper)  Perdraza (24-1-12K(). Beltran who’s never an easy night for ANY body, was in a battle from the beginning. He was cut over the left eye as early as the second round. The cut was nothing new to Beltran, actually, they’re more of a habit. In fact, Ray was lucky to finish in an upright posture as he was being battered from a two-fisted assault just as the final bell rang. The ref knew the bell was about to ring and gave the former champ a shot at finishing on his feet. That was ‘noble’ of him, but it caused Beltran to accept unnecessary punishment, bell or NO bell. The once-beaten Pedraza  ( stopped by Tank Davis) was in great shape and on his game as he beat Beltan up, insisde and at distance. Beltran, as usual, put in his night’s work but tonight was all about the Sniper, as Jose is called. To put n exclamation point on things, Pedraza  dropped a tiring Beltran in the eleventh with a short left uppercut. Beltran survived that but he was pretty much done at this point. The smooth,  switch hitting Pedraza kept Beltran in check with his constant stance switching. He does it very effectively and was always two-three steps ahead of Beltran. In the   twelfth round, Pedraza didn’t wanna’ leave ANY doubt and at the two minute mark, pinned a defenseless Beltran in the corner and fired both hands, nearly stopping the champ.  After a long and successful career and many hard fights and loss of blood, this was probably (I hope(), Beltran’s swan song. The decision was unanimous and there were no dissenters. Now, there’s  already talk of a year’s end hookup between the skilled Pedraza and the undefeated WBA boss Vasyl Lomachenko, which will be worth watching.

Can boogymen stand about 5’2 and weigh 122 lbs? If NOT, how do you explain African bomber, Issac Dogboe (18-0-13K)? This is a ferocious punching and strong African that seems to enjoy punishing folks. The smooth, articulate Dogboe dissected poor Hidenori Otake in one round. Dogboe hit Otake as if he were a heavy bag. Otake was hit with sizzling left hooks, air-sucking body shots and thudding  rights to the head. This was pretty sad, actually. The brave Asian did all he could to keep from getting killed and it was damn near not enough. After landing at will to start things, Dogboe sent a rocket of a left hook Otke’s way and unfortunately, Otake was  there when it landed and down he went. Up and in bad shape, he was pounced on by the champ and rocked on several other occasions. At one point, I was HOPING he’d go down. After being dropped again, he was erect and telling the ref he wanted more. Well, damn if he didn’t get it as the bombs were landing again from Dogboe and FINALLY the ref called things to a halt. This was about as one-sided as it gets to last just one round. Afterwards, the little monster called out all 122 pounders, NONE of which I think has much of a shot at beating this guy. Vargas gets cut at the contract signing and talented Danny Roman doesn’t seem to have the power to keep Dogboe off his ass. Dogboe has the stuff stars are made of, talent, looks, ferociousness and personality.

Call me chauvinistic, but I’m not wasting much time on that women’s fight, it was PITIFUL. Makaela Mayer beat up and dropped a helpless Edina Kiss (as in ‘kissed’ the canvas). Mayer is now 7-1-4-5k as she stopped Kiss in the third.

Atlantic City, N.J.-8/18/2018- Every now and then we get a really good heavyweight fight but more likely we get what we got last night. Philly’s Bryant Jennings (23-2-13K) faced 6’7” damn near 300 lbs, Alexander Dimitrenko (41-3-26K). This looked like two glaciers, trudging around the ring, grabbing and mauling each other. This was more like a damn wrestling match. Jennings eventually scored a ninth round k.o., after dropping the Russian giant four times. Now on the surface, a fight with that many droops should be exciting, right? Wrong. Jennings too, was dropped in the fourth but from a right hand behind the left ear. Damn near a rabbit punch. Before the fight, the commentators WARNED us about how much HOUND Alexander had in him, having quit a few times in the past. In fact, on the times he was dropped by Jennings, he seemed undecided about how much fighting he really was interested in doing. He was dropped twice in the eighth from clubbing shots from Jennings and pummeled about the ring, offering hardly much resistance. In the ninth, while tied up, Jennings connected with a hard right uppercut, sitting Big D on his Russian rump. Without even bothering to count, the ref, who’d been  harassing Dimitrenko all night, quickly waived things off. It was ridiculous. Hell, we’d already been subjected to this sloth match for eight rounds, why stop it NOW?

This fight was so boring, most times, the cameras were on HOF heavyweight champ, Lennox Lewis who was having anxiety attacks rooting for Jennings all night. This was made worse because there were only two fights aired over the two hour slot. Then again, given the ‘competitiveness’ of the first fight, maybe we should consider ourselves lucky. Instead of showing us more fights, we were subjected to talk, talk, talk and MORE talk from the commentators. Jennings is still in the hunt for a title shot. I think Dominic Breazealle can beat THIS guy.

Speaking of the co feature, some guy named Mike Gavronski who SOMEHOW found 24 people he could beat. His (24-2-1D-15K) proves that numbers DO lie. Even commentator Andre Ward said, “this guy had no business in the ring with Philly’s Jessie Hart” (24-0-20K). It was a JOKE, every time Hart came CLOSE to landing a shot, this guy somehow found himself on the floor. He was just stumbling around the ring like he’d just gotten off one of those rides in A.C. Gavronsk  was so sloppy, Hart caught the fever and didn’t look a helluva’ lot better, at times. Staggered three times in the first round due to his lack of professional skills, I don’t see how he lasted  until he was stopped in the third round. Hart is seeking a rematch with Ramirez and says he’s not interested in a fight with David Benavidez, ONLY Ramirez. I know damn WELL he doesn’t wanna’ see Benavidez, in Philly or anyplace ELSE. All in all, not a good night at the fights, hell. Even those local fights on ESPN were better than this crap.

8/4/2018- I wasted a perfectly good old man’s nap today. I could’ve used it for the first two ‘fights’ aired on PBC. No, I don’t expect a homerun each time out but I don’t wanna’ witness 22 straight rounds of bullshit, either. What made matters worse was the fact the ring seemed to be about the size of a tennis court and seems like guys were just following each other around all night. Another pet peeve of the ‘ol guy is, when I’m watching a bullshit fight, I don’t want the talking heads telling me what a “great fight” I’m watching. I understand they get paid to do a job but give me some slack and if I hear Robert Guerrero use the words “also, too” together, ONE more time, I’m gonna’ jump off a bridge. According to The Ghost and Shawn Porter, I missed a “great night of boxing”, who knows, maybe I WAS asleep. Any way, here’s what I saw:

Erick Bone (20-5-8K)  v. Sergey Lipinets  (13-1-10K)

When I saw the Russian Lipinets against star Mikey Garcia, he put in a lot more work. Tonight, against a back tracking, wild swinging Bone he looked pretty damn mediocre. The compact Lipinets seemed to spend the large part of this fight shaking his arms loose, as if he couldn’t get started. Lipinets followed Bone around that monster ring all night. When he DID get in range, not much happened. He’d either get wrapped up by Bone or let him slide off the hook. This was his introduction to the welterweight class and he’s  gonna’ have LOTS of problems with those guys and trying to ‘find’ them won’t be one of them. They’ll be right there, LOOKING  for work. Porter said, “Bone’s fighting a good fight”. I guess with that head down wild swinging, he really impressed Shawn, I wonder why? The decision was a no brainer in favor of the Russian tank.

Peter Quillin (33-1-1-23K)  v. J’ Leon Love (24-1-1-13K)

The last time I saw Quillin, Kid Chocolate was being steam rolled in about two minutes by Daniel Jacobs, which btw was the last impressive performance BY Jacobs. Boxing is weird. Quillin, once highly regarded, was shown the exit early, yet top rated Jacobs has allowed a couple of no names to hang around for 12 rounds, go figure. It’s also hard to believe that Love was once the best fighter on TMT. I can’t recall the last time I saw HIM in a good fight, either, and I watch a LOTTA’ fights. Tonight, Q must have thought he was on the talk show circhuit, as he did more talking than fighting tonight. He was talking to Floyd Mayweather during the fight, chatting with people ringside, talking to Love, hell MY phone rang during the fight but I didn’t answer, it was probably Quillin wanting to talk to ME. Q as he’s called has been MIA for some 32 months and to be honest for the most part, he was missing tonight, too. He and Love missed so many shots, I don’t know HOW the judges were able to score it. Porter said (when Q was talking during the ‘action’), “this is what the people missed and paid to see tonigh. O to hell Shawn, nobody missed this shit. Q would grab the rope and look into the crowd and one wonders, ‘what hell was Love doing all this time’? I’ll tell ya,’ he wasn’t doing shit. He showed a lotta’ lateral movement during the match, that’s about all. There was a brief flare-up during the eighth round, shocked the HELL outta’ me as both guys seemed to recall what they were supposed to be doing. Quillin got the best of that brief exchange. After the verdict was rendered in Q’s favor, no surprise there, Love went to Q and embraced him and whispered in his ear for a full two minutes. Shit, Lance Stephenson wasn’t  in LeBron’s  ear THAT damn long. I KNOW Q was starting to feel a little uncomfortable. Maybe Love heard about the problems Q was having with his wife and was offering some comfort. I thought they’d done all their talking DURING the fight. Love was like former champ Kevin Kelley. Now THAT dude could TALK, especially after he kicked your ass. He’d be lecturing his victims after the fight like he was their damn coach.

Joey Spencer (3-0-3K)  v. Bruce Lutchmedial  (2-4-2K)

At THIS point, it was up to an 18 year old hid to save the show. Hard punching Joey Spencer is being touted as a rising star. He’s fast, strong, young punches hard AND he’s White, so you KNOW. He faced some guy that was probably taking tickets at the door earlier. Spencer came out and proceeded to drop some heavy shit on his tissue soft opponent. A few well placed body shots put down Uncle Brucie a couple of times and this thing was stopped at 2:59 of the opening round.

Devon Alexander  (27-4-1D-14K)  v. Andre Berto  (31-6-24K)

In the main event, two vets on the downsides of their careers faced off. Devon Alexander has had some decent wins and once held a belt as did Berto albeit, Andre’s was a gift from Al (The Hologram) Haymon. I figured this would be a good one OR a stinker. Turns out, it was a mixture of both. Berto was at a disadvantage as that pesky ass ref wouldn’t leave him alone. He was warning Berto for everything. Devon got out quickly and stunned Berto a couple of times early. There was a knockdown that shouldn’t have been called since it was from TWO shots to the back of the head by Alexander, as if Berto didn’t have ENOUGH to bitch about. After his quick start, Alexander seemed to hit the wall. He slowed down in the sixth and allowed the muscular Berto to make his run. He outhustled Alexander over the second half of the fight, sending trainer Virgil Hunter over the edge. At one point, he told Devon, “I need these next  three rounds”, Devon should’ve said ‘well  dammit, if YOU need ‘em, YOU put the damn gloves on’. Both guys let it all hang loose over the final couple rounds, ending what turned into a pretty interesting fight. During the interviews, post fight, neither  guy was able to say for certain what lies ahead. At least they weren’t making any crazy call outs, seeming to KNOW the future has passed. During the fight, Porter who’s cred had already started to slide, said “we have two hall of fame trainers in the corners tonight”. Really? Kevin Cunningham was in Alexander’s corner and take Andre Ward outta’ the equation, what are we talking about as far as the HOF goes? At the end, one of the talking heads yelled “this was a great night for boxing”. He obviously went to the Trump school of hyperbole. Oh, Berto won by split decision with the cards reading 114-113 Alexander and 115-112 twice for Berto.

Somewhere in Pensacola, trainer John David Jackson is quietly smiling and pulling on his joystick.

Sergey Kovalev (32-2-1D-28K)  v. Eleider Alvarez (25-5-2D 10K)

My, my, my, as MC Hammer would say. The once feared  WBO champion, Krusher Kovalev, once thought to be the most fearsome Russian NOT named Putin, got his ass broke off and served to him by Eleider Alvarez in a stunner. Most people thought this would be a win for the heavy-handed Kovalev, especially given the lack of KO power shown by Alvarez  in past fights. Kovalev has been running down his former coach John David Jackson, saying among other things, “he wasn’t a real coach”. Hey Sergey, was that ass whippin’ you took tonight, “real”? Kovalev whined after his two losses to the (for now) retired, Andre Ward. Krusher blamed everybody except ME. Tonight, Krusher came out looking to stop Alvarez early, pressing and landing body shots. Alvarez though, was here with a PURPOSE. He boxed smoothly, drilling Kovalev with hard jabs, made harder by the Russian’s pressing tactics. Alvarez snapped  Kovalev’s  head back several times, stopping him in his tracks and knocking him off track. On occasion, he’d surprise Kovalev with well timed right hands. This was very interesting. In the fifth, Kovalev was starting to find Alvarez with hard head shots and straight rights to the body. To his surprise, Alvarez was not impressed, firing back and challenging the heavy handed Russian. To his credit, Krusher WAS boxing better than ever.

Though he was stunned a couple of times, Alvarez was up to the task at hand. To say the ending came suddenly is an understatement. Alvarez  threw an overhand right. Krusher took one, then three steps back before he took a seat. He was hurt and there was no doubt about it, there’d be NO whining about THIS shit. To his credit, he arose and was met by a fearsome combo that put him right back where he was this time with his left arm bent awkwardly under his body. I’m sure Kathy Duva’s  undies had flunked the moisture test. Again, Krusher was up and again he was back down under the relentless assault by Alvarez, causing the ref to terminate  Kovalev’s evening. This was a performance  that  screamed,’ I WANT THIS’. This was a startling performance and a win that says, ‘no further questions your honor’. So now, Eleider Alvarez is the unified champ and the new kid on the block. So what’s next Dmitry Bivol who won earlier tonight? May as well. I think this win is gonna’ elevate Alvarez’s game as well as his stock. As for Sergey Kovalev, he doesn’t really seem like the type to bounce back from what just happened. And John David Jackson just changed his shorts for the third time tonight.

Dmitry Bivol  (13-0-11K) v. Isaac Chalemba (25-2-2D-10K)

The talking heads all considered challenger Isaac Chalemba to be mere fodder for the rampaging WBA lighheavyweight champ Dmitry Bivol and they tried to justify their assumptions by wetting their pants each time the hard puncher threw a punch. If Bivol was raising as much hell as the talking heads this fight would’ve been over in two rounds. Truth be told, Bivol came nowhere even close to dropping the awkward challenger, forget STOPPING him. All during the fight, the announcers ranted and raved about Bivol’s performance. I gave his performance a 7, even though he dominated. He didn’t look as frightening as the heads wanted you to believe. If he fights Eleider Alvarez in his next fight he loses. The fact is, 14 fights is not much of a resume. He’s a tough young kid, no doubt but the jury’s still out on the guy.

7/21/18 – I was anxiously looking forward to see what newly crowned WBO Jr. Middleweight champion Jaime Munguia would look like against a guy his size. Against Sadam Ali, the size difference didn’t lend itself to a fair fight. He blew Ali out In short order. But exactly what does  Munguia weigh? In tonight’s tiff against Brit Liam Smith, he weighed in at 153.8 but at the bell he was 176, a damn CRUISERWEIGHT. Sure, Smith went from 153 to 172 making one wonder about this sorta’ shit. A couple of weeks ago, a boxer damn near killed himself trying to make weight. My favorite sport has to do something about this. One weight class up after rehydrating, ok, but four classes up, WTH? The commission would be better served by not having these secondary weighins.

Anyway, about the fight. Munguia, 21 years young with a slate of (29-0-25K) said he wanted to “stop Smith faster than Canello Alvarez did, nine rds. Turns out he didn’t stop the rugged Brit at all, though he did drop him with a left hook in the sixth round. Liam Smith proved to be as rugged as hell, making things really interesting for the young upstart. In fact, if Smith was a harder puncher, the flush shots he landed on the pretty much defenseless champion would be cause for concern in Munguia’s camp. I ain’t tryna’ hear that, ‘but Don, he’s so YOUNG’, shit. He’s the champ, RIGHT?  Munguia as strange as it sounds, reminds me of a young George Forman, trying for the ‘sleeper’ with every shot. It seems at times, even while in range, Smith was still able to avoid the champ’s haymakers. The once beaten Smith didn’t pull a Lucas Matthysse stunt, surrendering his drawers to Manny Paquiao after the first hard shot he ate. After each power shot he caught, Smith fought back, hard, drilling Jaime with three-four punch sets. The champ is strong, heavy handed and seemingly pretty durable but unless he learns some D, he’s in for a rude awakening. I was surprised that he wasn’t bruised or cut from the many shots he ate. He must have that Lupe Pintor, Iguana skin.

After a decent amateur career and 30 fights as a pro, given the many rounds of sparring he gets, his D should be much better. To me, he fights like a guy that thinks he’s indestructible and can get by on his offense. He also spends too much time bouncing around in the ring. Wasted energy.  Unbeaten heavyweight champ Deontae Wilder says, “as hard as I punch, I don’t need to work on no defense’. Is that Jaime’s mindset? Oh yeah, Munguia is pretty slow, too. He’s already mentioning  Canelo, Charlo and Hurd, slow ya’ ROLL youngster, those guys will short circuit your career. It’s not the best thing to enter a fight with ONLY a puncher’s shot, especially when those other guys punch hard, too, AND fast. Munguia is a fun guy to watch until……BTW, Jaime won a unanimous decision. It was a good win, Smith’s no joke BUT when you’re the champ, there are no excuses. Jaime learned a lot, he said, what with all the head butts, elbows e.t.c. he was subjected to but he kept his poise and if his peeps are patient and wise enough……

In the co main, sharp shooting, WBA super bantamweight boss, Alberto (Explosivo)  Machodo (20-0-16) was impressive as he dropped top contender Raphael (Sweet pea) Mensa  (31-1-23K) with a sizzling right counter hook, toward the end of the opening round. It appeared to be the beginning of an early exit for the nephew of former champ, Ike Quartey, but he was competitive enough to last the twelve rounds. This was like a sparring session where the champ won every round on every scorecard. The slick ‘n quick champion called out former champion Francisco Vargas, which would be a war with plenty of Vargas’ blood on the canvas. This guy bleeds at the contract signing.

2/19/18- Showbox had a show that featured some weirdly dressed fighters and some batshit BLIND judges.

In the main event, highly touted Philly fighter Jaron (Boots) Enis (20-0-18K) faced, punching bag Armando Alvarez. This was supposed to be Enis’ coming out performance and I can’t say he was outstanding. Being a Philly guy the only guy I can say Enis reminds me of is Gypsy Joe Harris, but not as talented. Gypsy was a clown with a purpose and when he decided to ‘get involved’ he was exciting to watch. Enis’ opponent had ZERO to offer and Enis had a field. The mugging, the clowning, the antics, looking out at the crowd, all that shit better get cleaned up when he fights REAL contenders. This was against a guy, Alvarez (13-0-7K) and my question was how hard did his peeps have to look to find 13 guys HE could beat?  It seemed like Enis had half of Philly in the ring after the fight, such as it was. I’m issuing a pass on this one for Enis, I have to see him in there with somebody, this was just a time consuming venture. It only lasted 3 rounds but seemed longer.

In the blind judges fight of the night, Cleveland’s Thomas Mattice (12-0-10K) got his ass delivered to him over eight rounds by Armenian brawler, Zhora Hamazaryan  (9-0-6K). I suppose the judges looked at the records before the fight and made up their minds. After pressing the taller Mattice in the opening round, Zhora lined his ass up in the second and blasted Mattice to the canvas with a howitzer of a right hand. It didn’t look as if Mattice was gonna’ finish the ROUND, much less the fight. He was in bad shape and spent the rest of the fight making sure THAT shit wasn’t happnin’ again. Zhora was enjoying the fight even though he did all the pursuing. He often cornered Mattice and dug deep rib shots causing Mattice to hold on in desperation. Mattice got back into it late in the scrap, landing some nice uppercuts on the inside along with some nice right hands but there was no stopping the little tank in front of him. Hamazaryan finished strongly, outpunching the favorite right up to the bell. I already wrote in my notes ‘brotha’ got his ass beat’. Mattice even LOOKED like he lost and THEN, the sight-impaired rodents took their positions (which SHOULD’VE been near the damn exits).  Mattice was declared a split decision winner and he was OBVIOUSLY the most surprised person in the building. He probably thought, ‘well if THIS is true, then the Cavs must be world champs]. Hopefully,  Zhora’s team keeps their words and file a protest and request a redo. There is no way in HELL, Mattice even came CLOSE to winning this fight.

In the opener , Montana (Too Pretty) Love (11-0-5K) and Kenneth  (Bossman) Sims, Jr. (12-1-4K) fought hard to keep me awake in this snore fest over eight rounds and the less said, the better. They both tried. It just wasn’t an interesting fight. Montana won the showmanship award, I guess, he had an outfit that looked worse than Enis’ and his handler held up a mirror as he preened WITH his shades on, SPARE ME, especially if you don’t do shit when the bell rings.

6/30/2018 OKC- Prior to what occurred in the ring last night between homeboy Alex Saucedo (20-0-17K) and Lenny Zappavigna (37-3-27K), trainer Abel Sanchez said he “wanted to see his boy (Saucedo) in a “hard fight”. As they say, ‘be careful what you wish for’, because his boy got every INCH of that, last night. I’ve been watching fights all my life and have not seen too many that matched last night’s savage blood bath. Anything with with Marvin Johnson or Matt Franklin comes to mind, maybe the trilogy between Rafael Marquez and Israel Vasquez. For seven brutal, savage rounds these two men put everything on the line that even had THIS ‘ol  guy hoping for a break in the action. That was not to be.

From the  instructions, these to ‘carried on’. It was as if somebody had patted somebody’s wife on the ass. Zappavigna a known bleeder  proved that as early as the second round. The punishing shots from the hard hitting Saucedo opened up a cut and caused bruising around Lenny’s right eye. Obviously, this didn’t mean a DAMN thing to Lenny as he returned fire as long as he was erect. Alex was landing short,  hard right uppercuts on the inside and Lenny was landing overhand rights. Defense really wasn’t that important tonight. A beauty of a short right dropped Lenny in round three but if that was supposed to slow Lenny’s roll, guess again. At round’s end he was blasting Alex with both hands driving him into the ropes, damn the blood flow. Round four was a hell storm for the favored Saucedo as Zappavigna drove him across the ring firing both barrels and had me wondering how in the hell is he still upright? This fight could’ve been stopped on several occasions. There was more than one round that could qualify as round of the year. Folks, I LOVE this game but there was a time I wanted to see this thing stopped. The human body was not MADE for this type of activity. It was as if these guys had NO feelings for pain.

Saucedo was cut as well and his blood was all over Lenny’s back. I’m sure Abel was saying, this was “tough’ enough. The fifth and sixth rounds saw both guys going for the kill with neither looking to retreat, it was savage folks, SAVAGE. Lenny barely made it to his stool at the end of the sixth but quit was NOT a word he understood. In the seventh, after another series of brutal exchanges, Lenny’s corner found it’s heart and waved it off. Alex noticed the guy on the ring apron and pointed it out to the ref and Lenny and he seemed glad this thing was finally over. Lenny reportedly retired afterwards, citing his history of cuts and bruising. Talking head former champ Tim Bradley said, “Saucedo, work on your  defense, son”. I’m sure this churned up memories of his fight with that Mad Russian Ruslan Provodnikoff (sp). Only it wasn’t THIS bloody. The Red Cross people should’ve been stationed at ringside tonight. Time of the stoppage was 2:31 seconds.

Needless to say, this fight saved the card and should have been the main event. The in between fight between a 29 year old former Brazilian Olympian with SEVEN fights, Robson Conceicao (7-0-4K) trashed some guy ( I don’t wanna’ call the guy a bum) named Gavino Guaman (5-2-1K). The only noticeable thing in this beatdown was the cool haircut Guaman had. Robson seems like a decent fighter, throws lots of hard shots downstairs and uses his height and reach well. Something must be amiss for him to be at this level.  Poor Guaman acted like this was the first fight he didn’t have to PAY to see a fight. He had NO skills to speak of (unless he’s his own barber) and simply had NO right wearing a pair of boxing gloves. The only thing he used them for was to push his ass up off the canvas about five times. He was stopped at  :56 seconds of the third round. I wanna’ see Robson fight a ‘real’ fighter, he’s a good fighter.

In the maine event, WBO 168 pound champ, Gilbert Ramirez (37-0-25K) didn’t impress as he struggled to a points win over a guy named Alexis Angulo.  Angulo has heavy hands and came in with a 23-0-20K slate but didn’t look to be all that. He buzzed the champ a few times and gained respect early and turned this into a bit of a stinker. He only threw about three meaningful shots a round but that was enough to keep the champ from looking for a ko. Maybe it’s me being too high on WBC champ David Benavidez, the guy Ramirez claims he wants next  but I see that as a mismatch. Ramirez was too patient (wary) to be considered a real threat.

A few things I wanna’ discuss before signing off. People know I was a big Floyd Mayweather  fan when he was ‘Pretty Boy’ but jumped off the train when he became ‘Money’. Mayweather (49-0), that’s right, I’m NOT counting that last so-called bullshit with Connor and NEVER will. Anyway he may not be able to read Cat in The Hat but he DAMN sure can read, ‘Money in the Bank’ as he became the third and YOUNGEST athlete to make a BILLION dollars during his career. Shit, I’ll stop reading for THAT type of cheese. I’ve been getting shit from fans because I don’t see young Devon Haney as a coming superstar. Sorry. I read where he says he’ll fight the winner of the Mikey Garcia-Easter fight. Now, I know this guy has a rolls and Mercedes and all the bling and is unbeaten but he needs to be drug tested, talking like THAT. He’s won 19 fights against guys that aren’t household names in their OWN homes. His last fight was against a guy with some pop, and he back pedaled for the whole fight, tiring the guy out and making his corner call it off. He’s gonna’ have to change things to ever become a PPV fighter. He’ll learn that bullshit will only take you so far. There are LOTS of guys out there he’d have issues with.

I see where Dom Brazeale is talking shit about what he’ll do to Deontay Wilder when they fight. I’ve seen mediocre guys wobble Dominic more than once and the first time Wilder lands on his ass,  that fight’s over. I see it going 4-5 rounds, IF Wilder wants to LET it. Another  prediction, Benavidez is gonna’ put Dirrell’s dick in tha’ dirt.

06/16/2018- Frisco, Tx.  Last week when his nemesis, Terrence  Crawford, new welterweight champ beat up on big talkin’ no fightin’ Jeff Horn, unbeaten Texan, Errol Spence (23-0-20K) was asked what he thought of Crawford’s performance. Spence said, “he did what he was supposed to do against that kinda’ guy, I never thought anything of Horn, ANYWAY”. Well, I’d like to know what he thought of this guy HE fought tonight. In a huge stadium, packed with fans and defending his title at home, he faced a guy that didn’t even have any business IN Texas, let alone a boxing ring with Spence. This was a damn JOKE. Carlos Ocampo was 22-0-13K, hadn’t fought in damn near a year and SOMEHOW was ranked number three in the IBF. Tonight, the fans probably thought IBF stood for, ‘I’ve Been Fkd’.

It looked like this guy hadn’t fought in FIVE years. I saw the way he threw his first punch and knew this shit was over at the contract signing. I think he landed one shot on Errol’s chin and it was the dog’s dick after that. Spence did what he ‘was supposed to do’ and was a bit apologetic after the one round blitzkrieg. Two shots to the body and one to the testacles and Carlos was in siesta mode on all fours. Hell, that guy that Danny Garcia damn near decapitated, Salita (?) would’ve done better than this, Maybe, I would have. I understand a guy having a gimmie, in golf, but this was a farce. This guy looked like, if someone asked him ‘ is this the first time you’ve been in Texas, he might’ve said, hell, it’s the first time I’ve been in a boxing ring’. That’s how sorry this thing was. I’m pretty cool with the King’s English, but I’ll be DAMNED if I can pump THIS thing up.

It took little Danny Roman, one of our local homies to save the night. Roman, of the Ken Thompson boxing stable was excellent in his technique and performance as he beat down long, lanky, overweight Moises Flores. They don’t call this dude ‘Chunky’ for the hell of it. This was a super bantamweight title bout and Flores weight 138 lbs. With a formidable slate of 25-0-2NC-17K, Flores was gonna’ be some good work for the ultra talented Roman (22-3-9K), anyway, and to be THAT heavy was ridiculous. That lack of big time ko power is my only concern with the popular Roman, whom I watched move up the ladder from the 4 round level at the Doubletree Hotel in Ontario under the Thompson banner. He went to foreign lands on more than one occasion and has fought his way to become the WBA Super bantamweight title holder. If he had more power, he’d be a spitting image of one of my favorite little boxer -punchers Albert (Tweety) Davila. Roman established his dominance early with a persistent two handed body assault which paid dividends on his way to a shutout over twelve rounds. Flores fought well, but was just not on Danny’s level. Roman is slick ‘n quick and constantly beat Flores to the punch. He was quicker of hand AND feet and was a couple steps ahead of Chunky all night. The only advantage he had was weight. So now, Danny wants to unify and there are some talented, heavy handed bangers in that division. People however, LOVE the ko’s and I hope that doesn’t keep Roman from becoming a ‘star’.

Does Jr welter Adrian Granados do ANYTHING the easy way? This guy is always in a war or some controversial shit and tonight was no different. Graados (18-6-2-11K) was involved in a foul fest with Javier Fortuna who has no need Or regards for boxing rules. Fortuna (33-2-1-1NC-23K) has that Shawn Porter attitude ‘we don’t have weapons, let us fight’. They’ll do whatever they get away with and don’t complain about what the other guys do. Fortuna was deducted points on a few occasions but it didn’t mean shit to HIM. Plus, he had one of those  annoying ass refs that liked to slap the fighter’s hands down when they’re fighting in close. I’d love to see a guy punch a ref for doing that shit. Things REALLY got freaky in the fourth round when during one of their many tussles along the ropes. Fortuna was pushed outta’ the ring and down to the floor, injuring his neck and from MY seat, looked serious. He was carried out on a stretcher wearing a precautionary neck brace. This one was rule a ‘no decision’, so what else is new in an Adrian Granados fight?