2009 Junior Middleweight Report

by Dafs117

Last year there was hope. This year, there’s self-pity.

The revolving door at 154 pounds continues to revolve, with the likes of Paul Williams and Sergio Mora moving up to middleweight, and the star-studded names such as Shane Mosley and Oscar De La Hoya have either headed down south or retired. Their replacements were hardly a fair trade. Although Carlos Quintana and Joshua Clottey are great technicians, they are hardly Pay-Per-View fighters. Quintana and Clottey are suppose to come up from welterweight, but who knows in the current fight game. Unfortunately, so far, Kermit Cintron, hasn’t exactly created the predicted splash, which is impressive if you’re a platform diver, but not in any other sport. The Puerto Rican promised a big showing, but we received a lacklustre play instead.

The death of Vernon Forrest has left the division reeling, with the older, wiser gentlemen at the upper half of the ratings taking time off to reflect on their careers. "The Viper's" death scarred the year, alongside legends Alexis Arguello and Arturo Gatti, and respected fighter Marco Nazareth, who all passed away in a July 2009.

One of the fighters that’s took a break from the ring is Ukranian lefty Sergiy Dzinziruk. Another talented fighter from the Eastern bloc, Dzinzurik recently split with promotion outfit, Universum Box for failing to land him a fight with a desperate Paul Williams. Should return for a successful 2010, quite possibly with new promoter, Top Rank, but who would want to risk their winning streak if the WBO strip his title?

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Can Golden Boy Survive the Decade?

You could feel the tension in the air as the tide started turning against Golden Boy prospect, Victor Ortiz, this past Saturday at the Staples Center.

And, when Ortiz eventually caved in under the pressure of Marcos Maidana in the sixth, the frustration exploded as Shane Mosley gave Ortiz a few tense words, shortly followed by a second tongue lashing from Golden Boy boss, Oscar De la Hoya.

But you could hardly blame them for their frustration. The Ortiz loss was just the latest in a series of unfortunate turns for De la Hoya and his promotional company.

2009 began in outstanding fashion for GBP as Shane Mosley shocked the boxing world by easily handling Welterweight kingpin, Antonio Margarito.

Now, just about six months later, momentum has shifted away from the promotional company that, at one point, boasted veteran legends such as Mosley, Bernard Hopkins, Marco Antonio Barrera, Juan Manuel Marquez, Ricky Hatton and De la Hoya himself.

The Golden Boy of the recent past was on top of the world, snatching up as many veteran names as boxing headlines and brokering a deal with HBO which would essentially give them carte blanche to fill a lion's share of the available TV dates with fights and fighters of their choosing.

The boxing world, literally, was thrown at their feet and they most definitely had a plan for world domination.

Even with De la Hoya having been retired by Manny Pacquiao at the end of '08, the strategy would be simple: Mosley and Hopkins would build off of their remarkable wins against Margarito and Kelly Pavlik respectively while the entire promotion crossed its fingers that Ricky Hatton could somehow find a way to beat Pacquiao.

In the downtime between headline-grabbing fights by future Hall of Fame inductees, Golden Boy would satisfy the fans by highlighting their next generation of stars, all on the verge of greatness...or so they would have you believe.

Leading the GBP surge for future dominance were James Kirkland, Victor Ortiz, Robert Guerrero and Abner Mares.

Unfortunately, the boxing world is often not the most predictable and in a matter of just a few months, GBP would find the heavy-handed Kirkland behind bars for parole violation, Mares being nursed back to health following eye surgery and Ortiz and Guerrero being tagged with the label of being quitters in what was to be their "coming out" parties on HBO.

And to make matters worse, their "bankable" talents, Mosley and Hopkins, have not been able to find the type of fight they feel they need at this stage of their careers. Mosley has been desperately searching for a fight with an indifferent Pacquiao while Hopkins' only legit attempts at a fight were a half-hearted offer to Cruiserweight champ Tomasz Adamek and a rumored bout with the UK's Super Middleweight world champ, Carl Froch.

In the meantime, HBO has been saddled with mostly luke warm events that generate mediocre ratings and cost a relative fortune to stage. With the exception of Mosley-Margarito and Golden Boy/Top Rank promoted Pacquiao vs. Hatton, you'd be hard-pressed to find any positive Golden Boy events on HBO.

Don't think this fact is lost on HBO executives and don't think it's lost on Golden Boy's promotional rivals, either.

“They [HBO] gave their dates to one promoter, who's stable has now been wiped out. They made a bad mistake. They are not evil people, and I can't blame Golden Boy for grabbing those dates, but it shows that it wasn’t the wisest thing for them to do,” said Bob Arum of Top Rank.

Another blow to GBP is the fact that, in order to make the marquee fights for their established stars, they will need the cooperation of the other promoters who, at this point, have been driven to resentment by Golden Boy's perceived status as HBO's pet promotion.

So, with their best and brightest pretty much taken out of the equation and legit future stars, Erislandy Lara and Danny Jacobs, still too far away to be a factor, questions about the immediate future of Golden Boy have to be raised.

Will HBO grow frustrated with the poor showings and make Golden Boy go back to booking dates on a fight by fight basis?

And if HBO does this, will GBP be able to compete with a company like Top Rank who has a much deeper roster and a keener matchmaking eye at this point?

Can Oscar's company survive the decade? Probably, but expect a major re-tooling of the promotion and a reluctant admission from them that they do indeed need to co-exist with the other promotional companies in order to stay afloat.

2010 will be an interesting year for the sport and a crucial one for Golden Boy.

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Madcow's Standing 8 Count (6/29/09)

by Madcow

Aside from actually being written, this week's column will be a little different.

Last week, as you all know, Michael Jackson died. I have had a special relationship throughout my life with Jackson. No, I never got to visit Neverland ranch as a child and I was never able to share a can of Jesus Juice with the "one-gloved-one."

My connection with Jackson isn't even about music. Actually, I'm luke warm to his talents.

No. My link with Jackson goes directly through Lori C, Madcow's first love and a very fine looking High School Junior with bubble gum lip gloss and a teddy bear backpack.

I had taken "Ms. C" to the Junior Prom and, to spare all the details, that was the night your favorite bovine became a man.

On the way home, I turned on the radio in my clunker in absolute glee and the first song on the radio was "Billie Jean" by Michael Jackson. Not my type of music, but on that particular night, it was the greatest song I had ever heard.

So, this column is dedicated to Michael Jackson, "Billie Jean," and beautiful Lori C, who was more woman at 17 than all 3 of my wives put together. But enough with this sappy crap.

In a "Thriller," Marcos Maidana overcame knockdowns and all obstacles to force Victor Ortiz into submission. Now, after an embarrassing quit job and a non-fighter-like post-fight interview, Ortiz has to seriously take a look at the "Man in the Mirror" and decide if he really wants to continue fighting or if he just wants to "Beat It."

"Smooth Criminal," Oscar De la Hoya desperately tried to spin Ortiz's quit job into something quite the opposite, but nobody is buying it. Overall, it hasn't been a good time to be a Golden Boy prospect. Abner Mares split, Ortiz was just crushed and "King of Pop," James Kirkland is eating bologna and mayonaise sandwiches behind bars.

"Remember the Time" when PPV dates were reserved for only the elite fights, the best of the best? The Latin Fury show this Saturday was just, plain "Bad." I would like to run into the chump who paid 35 bucks to see this suck-fest so I can sell him some bumper car tickets at Neverland Ranch. Wake me up when Juanma Lopez starts fighting someone with a pulse.

Arthur Abraham defended his title against some guy named Oral on Showtime Saturday. I'm sorry, but the only thing I'm watching with the name "Oral" on it is a PPV movie from The Spice Channel.

Everything else this Summer has been a big let-down. Cancelled or postponed fights, combined with weak matchups. Boxing is in a serious "Jam" and needs to fix things fast or, maybe next year, there won't be anyone buying these shows for broadcast.

Well, seeing that its been a slow news Summer and that I've exhausted my Michael Jackson references, I think I'll end this special edition of Madcow's Standing 8 Count.

Besides, I've just called the escort service and told them to send their best; Doesn't matter if they're "Black or White," I just "Wanna be Startin' Somethin'." Now, "Leave Me Alone."

RIP Michael

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Madcow's Standing 8 Count (5/17/09)

by Madcow

Hello Everyone! It’s another edition of Madcow’s Standing 8 Count featuring James Kirkland’s least favorite shooting buddy, Me! I wonder way Kirkland hasn't been on the range lately?

To say that this week has been a slow news week is like saying that your beloved Madcow likes his Jack and Water cold and strong…Duh! Other than Andre Ward finally acting like a real prospect and Edison Miranda quickly working his way back to eating roadkill, almost nothing of note has been happening.

So, rather than fill the rest of this column with filler about Mayweather-Marquez-Pacquiao and played-out debates on who’s better, I thought I’d take this opportunity to let everyone know what I absolutely hate about the sport of Boxing.

Here’s my list (in no particular order):

* Manny Pacquiao’s Fans (Especially the Filipino Fans)- I understand national pride- I felt the same way when the USA passed Mexico on the Swine Flu “Most Infected” list, but these Pac-fans are too much. In the past weeks I’ve read stories about Manny “easily” beating everyone from Cotto to Hopkins to Klitschko. Hell, at the Pac-land Forum, they aren’t debating about “whether” Manny can beat Mayweather, they’re debating about in which round he’ll knock Floyd out! Pacquiao is a great fighter, no doubt, but his fans need to bring things back to reality…Manny can’t beat the entire Indonesian Coast Guard and he probably would fare too well against the Nazi War Machine of World War II, either.

* Mayweather’s Mouth- If PBF could trash talk in an intelligent manner, I wouldn’t have a problem, but he sounds downright retarded sometimes and totally oblivious to the criticisms that come his way. So, Mayweather will go on and on about how a good little man will never beat a good big man despite the fact that critics are all over him for fighting Juan Manuel Marquez and, duh, Mayweather, himself, chose to fight the little man.

* Fighters from The Contender- Take a bunch of club fighters, slap them on TV and send them out into the real world with an inflated sense of self-importance and a mess of undeserved publicity. The result is crappy fighters in crappy fights wasting precious TV time that could be going to a legit class fighter.

* Catchweight fights- For crissake, fight in your own division and when you kill everyone around, then move up! If God had intended Juan Manuel Marquez to weigh 147 lbs., he would’ve given the guy a shoe size larger than single-digits.

* Strawweights- Any athlete weighing less than 105 lbs should be either on top of a horse or wearing a mask in Mexican Lucha Libre.

* Overweight Heavyweights- Any 200+ lb. athlete with rolls of fat around his belly should be wearing face paint or an Indian headdress and wrestling in the WWE.

* Interim titles, “Regular” Champs, “Super” Champs- Either you’re champ or you’re not, no in-betweens. That’s why I respect the BTBC World Rankings- They don ‘t recognize any of that BS. Being an Interim or Regular Champ is like saying that you’re just “a little” gay…No, it doesn’t work like that. You’re either a champ or a challenger…

* The Mora-Spinks Syndrome- Fighters, like Sergio Mora and Cory Spinks, who talk tough and walk to the ring with a swagger, but fight like little biaaatches.

* HBO’s Influence Over Boxing- I hate the way HBO has been allowed to dictate to fighters, promoters and sanctioing bodies. Imagine FOX telling the NFL that the Cardinals aren’t allowed to be in the Super Bowl! I just don’t trust HBO…After all, this is the network that built-up the best series ever, The Sopranos, and ended its run with the lamest ending ever!

* Every Boxing Forum, except The BTBC’s (http://www.btbc.proboards.com/) and every Boxing Blog except this one and The Blue Corner Blog (http://thebluecorner.wordpress.com/). Ok, will you get off my back now, Paul?

Well, my time is up here and I must be on my way. Cold drinks and warm ladies await.

Until next Sunday.

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