BTBC Stock Exchange

In boxing, opinions can change in a flash. When you’ve got it all, you’ve got it all to lose. The BTBC introduce their brand-spanking new feature, which includes who’s reputation has risen or received a battering in recent weeks.

Floyd Mayweather and Shane Mosley: It's hard to hate on the most exciting match-ups in recent memory. Although not as good as Mayweather-Pacquiao, you can hardly complain with Mayweather's choice of opponent, which carries much more risk than Joshua Clottey does for Pacquiao. When Boxingscene spewed out bullshit over Floyd's second comeback fight, the thought of seeing Matthew Hatton share the ring with one of the greatest fighters of the modern age was frightening. It turned to damage limitation for Floyd's fans, although it did get better. Every three days or so, Boxingscene would upgrade the quality of their rumour fight. From Saul Alvarez, onto Nate Campbell, even as high as Paulie Malignaggi, it became obvious that Boxingscene were getting desperate. And when Andre Berto pulled out of his fight with Shane Mosley due to the Haiti earthquake, Mosley was available for Mayweather. Freddie Roach dismissed Floyd-Mosley on ESPN with Brian Kenny, but he was wrong. Great moment for the sport and a slight rise for both fighters' stock.

Kendall Holt: I'll be honest, I was on the Kendall Holt bandwagon. So was Paul, and many others, who had followed Rated R's career path that reached its peak with a jaw-dropping 61-second knockout of Ricardo Torres and an extremely impressive performance against Timothy Bradley. But last Saturday, his no-show in the ring was puzzling to say the least. He dominated the opening round against Kaizer Mabuza, before becoming a hittable target for five one-sided rounds and forced into submission by the unproven South African. Big drop in stock for Holt.

Edwin Valero: To be honest, I didn't know what to make of Valero's battering of Antonio DeMarco on February 6. Yes, he was impressive, but when is he going to fight someone who has proven consistency on the world stage. Antonio DeMarco is a fine talent, but he still qualifies as a prospect. He hadn't defeated a top 10 fighter, he hadn't proven himself against someone of real note, so what makes him a worthy title challenger. He made the perfect opponent for Valero though. For the impressive display, but the soft touch in opponents, Valero's stock doesn't change, but is still pretty high.

Robert Stieglitz: Stieglitz is the black sheep of the Universum family. Random you may think, but Stieglitz wanted to open his title defence with a tough battle against Edison Miranda, but unfortunately for the German, Miranda pulled out the week before the fight due to illness. Unlike other Universum fighters, he wants to be evenly matched, he likes to be challenged. His next opponent will be undefeated and highly touted prospect Eduard Guktnecht, who's around the same talent level as Stieglitz and should be a tough match. He may not be fighting the best in his division, but at least he's not under-matched. I'm impressed.

Amir Khan: Now think of the opposite of Stieglitz. Khan has the talent which Stieglitz may lack, but is wrapped in cotton wool by his new promoters Golden Boy and fighting in no-risk fights. Everybody knows that Khan has major question marks over his chin, so you'd understand avoiding big punchers. But if that fighter becomes your mandatory, surely it's a must fight, not pay the organization and avoid. The thing that makes it even more irritating is the fact I would predict that Khan would defeat Maidana nine times out of ten. But he'll probably chose a soft touch in Malignaggi, which is not the worst of opponents, but definitely not the best. For being a chicken, minus rep.

Fernando Montiel: Let's go through this process again shall we. Montiel, talented, popular, got pound-4-pound attributes and so on. He has two options; fighting for the bantamweight crown or defend his poxy belt against a third-tier contender. Which one does he choose? The easy predictable Top Rank decision. Instead of fighting Hozumi Hasegawa, he'll batter Eric Morel, a post-prime bantamweight challenger that poses no threat what so ever to Montiel. Zzzzz...

Mike Jones: The BTBC co-house fighter for 147 pounds didn't turn in a flashy performance for the cameras against Henry Bruseles, but he still defeated his toughest opponent to date pretty handily over ten rounds. The lack of TV time for Jones has been mind-boggling, but I hope his performance hasn't effected his broadcasting future. He lost the opening two rounds, which suggested that Bruseles was far from shot, but he showed impressive composure to get back in control. Mike Jones' stock stays the same.

Yuriorkis Gamboa: The talented Cuban produced a scintillating display as he battered experienced veteran Rogers Mtagwa inside two rounds with extremely ridiculous accurate power punching from the get go. Gamboa looks like the best prospect (can we still call him a prospect?) in the game, and he looks like he'll dominate the sweet science for a long long time. With rumors floating around that he could face unpredictable and awkward super bantamweight titlist Celestino Caballero in June, Gamboa's stock is at an all-time high.

Elio Rojas: Only known to the hardcore fans, Rojas produced a sterling display to shutout Guty Espadas Jr. in a fight that he was expected to win, but he also did it in style. Rojas could be a wildcard at 126 after couple more seasoning fights.

Nonito Donaire: The Filipino Flash hasn't capitalised on his stunning upset knockout win over Vic Darchinyan. Raise your hand if you were 0.006% impressed with Nonito Donaire's victory over Manuel Vargas. Seriously. Raise your hand, and then comment about what impressed you. Someone out there has to be amazed. Someone out there has to really think, this Donaire can really fight. We don't know if Donaire can fight, I would even be blunt and say that I'd back Darchinyan in the rematch because of his level of opposition.

Juan Manuel Lopez: The Puerto Rican superstar outclassed Steven Luevano in January, but doubts still hang above Lopez. Sure, he's talented and a very exciting fighter to watch, but he's being under-matched by Bob Arum and is still bitching about Caballero while it's pretty obvious he wants nothing to do with him. Lopez's stock stays even.

Roger Mayweather: Has Roger and Floyd Sr. accused Manny Pacquiao of every performance enhancing drug yet? Seriously Roger, shut the fuck up.

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Vazquez Pushes, Sonsona Caves; Holt Quits (And The Rest of The Weekend Action)

Bayamon, Puerto Rico- In a surprisingly easy evening of work, Wilfredo Vazquez, Jr. (18-0-1, 15 KOs) beat Marvin Sonsona (14-1-1, 12 KOs) via TKO in the 4th round.

Sonsona had a good 1st round, but folded as soon as Vazquez started applying pressure. The end came thanks to a wicked left hand to the body of Sonsona.

Vazquez picks up the vacant WBO super bantamweight title.

Guadalajara, Mexico- On the same telecast, the Rodel Mayol (26-4, 20 KOs)-Omar Niño Romero (28-3, 11 KOs) bout for Mayol's WBC jr. flyweight title ended in a controversial technical draw.

The first two rounds were even and the bout showed signs of being an exciting encounter, but those hopes were dashed in the 3rd round when Romero knocked Mayol out while ref Vic Drakulich was trying to stop the action after a Romero low blow.

A defenseless Mayol, still recoiling from the low blow was knocked down hard and had to be carried out of the ring on a stretcher.

The bout was declared a technical draw and WBC officials announced that an immediate rematch would be ordered.

Atlantic City- Kendall Holt (25-4, 13 KOs) put in the non-performance of the night in a RTD 6 loss to unknown South African, Kaizer Mabuza (23-6-3. 14 KOs).

After an ok 1st round, Holt simply stopped fighting and stopped trying while Mabuza applied even pressure throughout.

Holt did not answer the bell for the 7th. Neither Holt nor his trainer offered any explanation for this extremely passive performance.

Mabuza is now the top challenger for the winner of the upcoming Juan Urango-Devon Alexander bout.

Also, on the card, BTBC Co-House Fighter and welterweight prospect, Mike Jones (20-0, 16 KOs), overcame his biggest test to date by beating veteran Henry Bruseles (25-4-1, 13 KOs) via UD.

Jones struggled at the beginning, but found his rhythm in the middle rounds and outclassed the experienced Puerto Rican over the full 10.

Scores were: 98-92 (Twice) and 97-92.

On that same card, Gabriel Rosado (14-4, 8 KOs) put last August's slaughter at the hands of Alfredo Angulo behind him by beating tough veteran, Saul Roman (32-6, 27 KOs) via split decision.

Roman started strong, but Rosado's better technique and execution took over and allowed him to beat the aggressive Mexican.

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2009 Junior Welterweight Report

by Dafs117

Vastly becoming the division to watch, the 140 pounders are competing with the talent rich welterweights up north, putting on explosive fights and competitive battles throughout the year. The division is pretty deep, and we have 3 new alphabet titleholders this year to turn the division upside down, with the average age of the current four titlists at a toddler age of 25.

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The Return of American Swagger

by Paul Magno

At the beginning of '09, the big story among the boxing media was the apparent downfall of the American fighter.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. was still retired, Oscar De la Hoya had been humiliated by Manny Pacquiao and future Hall of Famers, Shane Mosley and Bernard Hopkins were on their last legs. Even Kelly Pavlik, the blue collar Cinderella story of 2007-2008 had been profoundly schooled by Hopkins at the end of '08.

2009 didn't look to be much brighter at all for the American fight contingent since, to kick things off, Mosley was going to be facing off against the new consensus #1 Welterweight in the world and widely-regarded beast, Antonio Margarito.

But "Sugar" Shane pulled off the upset in front of a partisan, pro-Margarito crowd at The Staples Center in Los Angeles and ushered in a year that would see the return of a strong American presence in the sport.

Of course, bringing in the headlines was Floyd Mayweather Jr., as he totally dominated Juan Manuel Marquez in his comeback fight in September and officially pushed for a return to his pound for pound throne with a proposed fight against Manny Pacquiao in 2010.

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Amir Khan: Out of The Frying Pan, Into the Fire

It's party time in Manchester for Olympic Silver Medalist and the UK's favorite young idol/target, Amir Khan.

After decisively capturing his first world title, the WBA Junior Welterweight championship from Andreas Kotelnik, Khan has earned a few days off and a few days of partying.

However, beating a solid, but predictable Kotelnik was the easy part. The hard part is going to be keeping that title in a 140 lb. division that is absolutely stacked with quality fighters in a wide array of styles and levels of experience.

Looming on the horizon first are his #1 mandatory challenger, Dmitriy Salita, and the WBA Interim Jr. Welterweight Champ, fresh from his destruction of Victor Ortiz, Marcos Maidana.

Both Salita and Maidana are young and hungry pressure fighters who will jump on Khan from the opening bell and won't back down unless the likeable 22-year-old champion backs them down. Salita and Maidana will require a mental toughness and focus from Khan that he has yet to display in his professional career. Neither fight is an easy win.

It's precisely for this reason that Khan's promoter, Frank Warren, is trying to stir the pot and find a way to get around those tough fights.

It'll be a tough sell for Warren to avoid the mandatory with Salita without making some sort of huge "step-aside" payout to the Orthodox Jew brawler from Brooklyn. And even with step-aside money, it seems a little far-fetched that Salita would voluntarily walk away from a world title bout and a lucrative payday against a champion that many feel is very vulnerable.

But maybe Warren is counting on the WBA continuing its efforts to become the 90's WBO of the 21st century, running interference for a few preferred champions and rigging the ranking as to allow a steady supply of hapless club-level fighters as #1 challengers.

Barring the cynical protection of the WBA, Khan should buckle up soon and absorb more from Freddie Roach because the road to Jr. Welter dominace is paved with lighting-fast elite like Timothy Bradley and Kendall Holt, iron-fisted sluggers like Juan Urango, Ricardo Torres and Mike Alvarado; Hungry, young prospects like Maidana, Salita, Lamont Peterson and Devon Alexander; And veteran war horses like Ricky Hatton, Nate Campbell, Stevie Forbes and Randall Bailey.

And, of course, let's not even mention current lineal champ at 140 lbs., Manny Pacquiao.

So, now that Khan has taken the plunge on to the world arena by capturing a world title, the learning curve normally allowed for a 22-year-old fighter is out the window. Fans don't want to hear about a champion learning on the job, just ask Andre Berto.

With nowhere to slack off and a division full of class fighters, Khan will have take care of things the old-fashioned way: Fight his way through the best.

For his sake, I hope he's ready.

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