Boxing thoughts and a brief Raw preview.
Nice fights over the weekend. Shaddax has a round by round writeup of both HBO matches on his blog, and pretty much everything he has, I agree with. Miguel Cotto looked pretty spectacular in gutting out a decision win over Lovemore N'Dou, though he tired late, and actually asked his corner what round it was after the 9th. Cotto seems to be on his way to being one of the big fighters in the welterweight division for a long time to come if(when) he moves up in weight, and he's certainly going to be a factor at 140 for the moment.
Pacquaio and Marquez was a slightly questionable draw, though it was a very close fight. Pacquaio knocked Marquez down three times in the first, but the no-3-knockdown rule saved Marquez from a very early exit, and Marquez gradually pulled his way back into the fight as Pacquaio seemed to lose focus in the middle rounds. In the end, the judges had it 115-110 Pacquaio, 115-110 Marquez, and a 113-113 draw, which would be odd if the fight wasn't so damn close. I had Pacquaio winning by two points myself, but I could see where the judges had their problems. The rematch on this should be fabulous. If Pacquaio can keep his head in the second one, maybe he can pull one out.
NBC had a main event that turned out to be somewhat less spectacular then their hyperbole would have you believe. To hear NBC tell it, Francisco "Panchito" Bojado is another next big thing in the junior welterweight division, 15-1 at only 20 years of age. They showed lots of replays of a bloodied Bojado knocking someone out with one punch and made it sound as though he did this in every fight. The hyperbole was up there with HBO's recent ill-advised pushing of Joe Mesi as the next "great white hope". Well, Bojado's no Mesi, and he did dominate one Andre Eason, but he never seemed to get to the level that one would hope for, given the hype. He pretty much dominated Eason, but seemed to take the middle rounds off, and seemed content to pepper Eason with punches, only managing to get a knockdown at the very end, when he popped the mouthpiece right out of Eason's mouth with a solid left uppercut. Overall, Bojado will probably be up with Cotto in a year or two, but he needs to fight a higher level of opponent.
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Raw this week has a PPV vibe, as May is a SD!-only PPV month. No less then five matches were announced on last week's show, with the highest profile one being Christian and Chris Jericho in a cage match. Other matches on the show include Tajiri/Batista; HHH/Shelton Benjamin; the debut of Eugene, in a match against Rob Conway which promises to be a technical-fest; and Randy Orton taking on Edge with the Intercontinental belt on the line. All this, plus the continuing soap opera of Matt Hardy/Lita/Kane, and fallout from the HBK/Benoit main event last week, makes for a much more interesting show, as sad as this is to say, than this Sunday's SD! PPV.
Pacquaio and Marquez was a slightly questionable draw, though it was a very close fight. Pacquaio knocked Marquez down three times in the first, but the no-3-knockdown rule saved Marquez from a very early exit, and Marquez gradually pulled his way back into the fight as Pacquaio seemed to lose focus in the middle rounds. In the end, the judges had it 115-110 Pacquaio, 115-110 Marquez, and a 113-113 draw, which would be odd if the fight wasn't so damn close. I had Pacquaio winning by two points myself, but I could see where the judges had their problems. The rematch on this should be fabulous. If Pacquaio can keep his head in the second one, maybe he can pull one out.
NBC had a main event that turned out to be somewhat less spectacular then their hyperbole would have you believe. To hear NBC tell it, Francisco "Panchito" Bojado is another next big thing in the junior welterweight division, 15-1 at only 20 years of age. They showed lots of replays of a bloodied Bojado knocking someone out with one punch and made it sound as though he did this in every fight. The hyperbole was up there with HBO's recent ill-advised pushing of Joe Mesi as the next "great white hope". Well, Bojado's no Mesi, and he did dominate one Andre Eason, but he never seemed to get to the level that one would hope for, given the hype. He pretty much dominated Eason, but seemed to take the middle rounds off, and seemed content to pepper Eason with punches, only managing to get a knockdown at the very end, when he popped the mouthpiece right out of Eason's mouth with a solid left uppercut. Overall, Bojado will probably be up with Cotto in a year or two, but he needs to fight a higher level of opponent.
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Raw this week has a PPV vibe, as May is a SD!-only PPV month. No less then five matches were announced on last week's show, with the highest profile one being Christian and Chris Jericho in a cage match. Other matches on the show include Tajiri/Batista; HHH/Shelton Benjamin; the debut of Eugene, in a match against Rob Conway which promises to be a technical-fest; and Randy Orton taking on Edge with the Intercontinental belt on the line. All this, plus the continuing soap opera of Matt Hardy/Lita/Kane, and fallout from the HBK/Benoit main event last week, makes for a much more interesting show, as sad as this is to say, than this Sunday's SD! PPV.
posted by Jon M. at
3:28 PM
2 Comments:
Bojado's so odd...he's got obvious talent, well-developed skills, and when he puts it together- like the second Rubio fight- you can see a future champ in spots. But he's lazy (fights at too high a weight, barely trained before his first fight with Rubio which he lost) and he can only rarely combine the big punching speed merchant of his early fights with the defensively adept skill fighter he was vs. Emmanuel Clottey and others. All prospects look less dominant as they go up in opponant quality, but with the way his power's disappeared before fighting anyone as good as N'Dou, you have to wonder about him.
Man, I love boxing geeks. PREACH!
-Guthrie, who knows so little about boxing, Pete McNeeley could take his lunch money.
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