Boxing News Thread
- Thread starter heyzel
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I'm not going to put too much time into the money thing, since I'm not getting paid and I don't care, but they've already agreed on 50/50 before and regardless if floyd has slightly bigger PPV numbers than Pac it's the TWO of them TOGETHER which will generate the most PPV buys in the history of the sport. Floyd can't do that against anyone else and pac can't do that against anyone else. They are the two best fighters in the world and clearly the two most popular. For that reason, it should be 50/50, imo.
If it's a big problem they should just have an extra 5% to the winner, I mean both are so confident they'll win so why not.
If it's a big problem they should just have an extra 5% to the winner, I mean both are so confident they'll win so why not.
Arum is slick, the sole reason Manny and his Pimp is getting all this money and publisity in the first place is because of Floyd. Bob Arum is milking the fuck out of the possibilty of a match up between the two and people are falling for this bullshit lol! all these fixed fights(Clottey, Margarito, Mosley, Marquez is next), all in house btw and over protection for the biggest event of them all. Bob Arum and Manny should write Floyd a check and say thank you
haye isn't doing shit to vitali but on some real shit Vitali is mad overrated he couldn't even get zzzz's from a cruiserweight. I mean think about it george foreman or riddick bowe would have punched adamek out of the ring in the first round lmao and lennox did make vitali look like a retard by slapping him around after taking all he had to offer
who gives a fuck about Haye lol, and hed be stupid as fuck to turn down all that money (that yall fans will pay to see). The Klits aint no damn puzzles, everyone is just scared to fight them. anyone who gets in the ring and tries to box the klits is not smart, you gotta go for it and get them out they comfort zone. the Heavyweight divission is horrible anyway and would be a lot better if they had a super heavy weight division cause the shits unjust
Vitali is also 40 years old. There aren't too many heavyweights throughout history that have dominated like Vitali at 38, 39, and 40 years of age. He was surely about to stop Adamak before the ref waived it off, it was a one sided beat down if I've ever seen one.
As far as Lennox vs Vitali goes, that was one of the best heavyweight fights I've seen. Most people, if not just about everyone, had Vitali up on the scorecards when the fight was stopped due to cuts and of course Lennox gets the W because the cuts were ruled from a punch. He retired after that and turned down about $20 million for a rematch so that should tell you something right there.
As far as Lennox vs Vitali goes, that was one of the best heavyweight fights I've seen. Most people, if not just about everyone, had Vitali up on the scorecards when the fight was stopped due to cuts and of course Lennox gets the W because the cuts were ruled from a punch. He retired after that and turned down about $20 million for a rematch so that should tell you something right there.
Idk about that 206 Both guys landed big punches. Lewis was training to fight Kirk Johnson who I am sure he was planning on KOing within 4 rounds. I would like to have seen what the fight would have been like if Lewis was training to fight Vitali. Lewis was coming on when the fight was stopped. I think he was getting his second win
Lewis hit Vitali with that big uppercut and was getting his offense warmed up right before the fight was called. Lennox was going to knock Vitali out in the next round, and Lewis was out of shape as hell for that fight. Vitali hit Lennox with his best shots and weak chin Lewis took them good. In shape Lewis would've put Vitali in the hospital. Lennox lost his love for training that's why he didn't rematch Vitali and retired from boxing.
they should have rematched though (especially if $20 million was on the table). It was a sick fight and if Vitali's face didn't fall apart, who knows what would have happened if not for the cuts. Maybe lewis does stop him, maybe he doesn't.
I'm not saying vitali is better than lewis or vice versa, just sayin Vitali gave Lewis a HELL of a fight and he was definitely worthy of a rematch. My point though was in response to Timm how he said Lewis made him look a retard. Far from the truth, it was a back & forth awesome fight. Pure entertainment.
I'm not saying vitali is better than lewis or vice versa, just sayin Vitali gave Lewis a HELL of a fight and he was definitely worthy of a rematch. My point though was in response to Timm how he said Lewis made him look a retard. Far from the truth, it was a back & forth awesome fight. Pure entertainment.
Emanuel Steward: “I hope Floyd realizes this is going to be a challenge and
by Geoffrey Ciani (Exclusive Interview by Jenna J & Geoffrey Ciani) - This week’s 142nd edition of On the Ropes Boxing Radio (brought to you by CWH Promotions) featured an exclusive interview with Hall of Fame trainer Emanuel Steward, who shared his views on the upcoming showdown between Floyd Mayweather Junior (41-0, 25 KOs) and Victor Ortiz (29-2-2, 22 KOs). Steward also touched on a variety of other topics including Vitali Klitschko’s tenth round stoppage win against Tomasz Adamek, Pacquiao-Marquez III, and whether boxing needs a super heavyweight division. Here is Part 1 of 2 for the complete interview transcript:
JENNA J: Let’s move to our second guest of this week’s show. He is making his seventeenth appearance with On the Ropes Boxing Radio. We are joined by Hall of Fame boxing trainer Emanuel Steward. How’s everything going today, Emanuel?
EMANUEL STEWARD: Everything is going fine.
JENNA: Alright let’s talk about a fight you called just this past weekend, Vitali Klitschko versus Tomasz Adamek. It was a fight that a lot of people wanted to see for awhile even though people thought it would be a mismatch. Now that the fight has played out, what did you think of it?
STEWARD: Well the fight went pretty much as I expected. I was hoping for something different. Vitali’s a very tall man. He fights very tall and he’s about the best I’ve seen for being able to handle smaller guys by using a jab. The way he jabs he doesn’t commit. He doesn’t step in. He like leans in the jab always keeping his body in a position where as soon as you punch him, he’ll pull back and then he’ll start jabbing you again. He moves his opponents’ heads very well where guys can never get in position to take advantage of him if he misses a punch. So he fought a good fight. Adamek was just too small. It’s a case where if you asked Adamek just to wipe the sweat off his brow, Adamek would normally need a chair or a stool or something so he can do that. So it’s hard to see him being competitive hitting him on a consistent basis. He was just too small, and Vitali fought a very, very smart fight. After the first round I could see in the eyes of Adamek that he really didn’t want to be there, and he welcomed the stoppage when the referee finally stopped the fight.
JENNA: Alright now with Adamek in this fight, a lot of people were saying Vitali could have stopped Adamek sooner if he wanted to, if he pushed more for it. In your eyes, could he have?
STEWARD: He could have, but that is Vitali. That’s the way he fights. If you look at the Shannon Briggs fight, if you look at the Sam Peter fight when Sam Peter himself stopped the fight, that’s the way about 90% of his fights guy. He systematically destroys and beats the guys up. He’s not the type of guy who comes out and blasts you out, because he doesn’t put combinations together like three or four hard punches. He doesn’t do that. He puts maybe one right hand, maybe two, but he doesn’t put punches together. He’s very effective with what he does that way, and that’s just the way he fights. He doesn’t have the explosive one punch punching power like his brother, but he’s a busier fighter, though, and he wears guys out a lot more.
JENNA: He has been very successful in his comeback. Do you think he would be boxing as well as he is if he didn’t have those four years off leading up to this?
STEWARD: I do not believe that he would be boxing as good. I think the layoff did him great because he was saying that he was fighting with his body more than he was with his opponents and his sparring partners. His body was really in bad shape because of the injuries that he suffered from his years as a kick boxer, which is what he really was before he really got seriously into boxing. He was telling me about injuries with his legs, and his thighs, and his body was worn from the results of those injuries. So he rested four years and then his body healed up completely, so I think it did him well.
JENNA: Okay Emanuel, now what do you say to boxing fans out there who say Vitali Klitschko has more of a claim to the heavyweight title than Wladimir does, being he was a champion before he retired?
STEWARD: Well I think that the statistics are right and that it should be Wladimir. Wladimir has been consistent without ever having a break off, and even when Vitali was off, he was still fighting the top notch fighters. Even though Vitali fought Sam Peter, when Wladimir fought him the first time that was when Sam Peter was a prime Sam Peter, and Wladimir had to come off the floor three times. Those are the type of drama fights that Wladimir had to go through, and then Wladimir fought I think about five undefeated fighters that he stopped. So he’s definitely, and it’s not just because he has all of those belts. He’s been consistently active since 1996 when he won the Gold Medal here in Atlanta. So he is the one that should be the champion.
It’s so unfortunate with the heavyweight situation. With just one dominant fighter, like Vitali or Wladimir, cleaning up the division would create a major problem. But now when you got two of them! It’s like two of them gobbling up everybody. It’s made it even worse for the quality of the fighters in the heavyweight division. It’s not their fault. All you can do is be the best of your era and go up against everybody that’s there. You can’t fight past eras and you can’t fight the future, and that’s what those two have done—they’ve been the best of this era. It’s not good for boxing. I was hoping the fight would be a good fight here with Adamek, and it wasn’t. Then the fight with David Haye and Wladimir I was hoping would be a more exciting fight. So both of those fights didn’t live up to what my expectations and hopes were, and I’m quite sure that my feelings are probably the same as the general boxing fan.
JENNA: Emanuel, with the whole mess with the WBA, and you commented on that before about giving Povetkin a belt—do you think boxing should adapt a super heavyweight division now? Just because it seems because it seems they’re hell bent on finding belts for other heavyweights who are trying to avoid the Klitschkos, maybe that they should have their own division?
STEWARD: That is what these organizations should be doing! It’s definitely clearly been established a long time in amateur boxing, the differences between the heavyweights and the super heavyweights. I don’t understand why they resisted against that when it’s so plain to see in so many recent fights a good big man beats a good little man. You saw it when David Haye couldn’t handle Wladimir, and Wladimir had speed to equal him plus the size. We saw it with Vitali being too big in addition to being good. Still they come up with all of this stupid crap with creating a super champion or a platinum champion. That to me is totally ridiculous, and usually I go along with most things. But that is something that I am totally against, and I’ve always been for having a super heavyweight division. The fighters are bigger and better coordinated. It used to be if a guy is 6’4” or 6’5”, but usually once a guy got to a certain size or height they had no coordination. That’s not the case now! In fact look at the top heavyweights that are up there. You got Robert Helenius, he’s about a 6’7” guy now, and you got Tyson Fury. Tyson is 6’9”, Wladimir is 6’6”, Vitali is 6’7”, and these guys are all fairly well coordinated in addition to having the height and weight. So there definitely is a big need for a super heavyweight division. You look at the dominance by Lennox Lewis and then the Klitschkos, all of these guys are 6’5” and up. When we’re looking at probably the next dominant heavyweight, I still feel number one is Tyson Fury even though a lot of people overlook him and play him down. Tyson Fury or Helenius or one of those guys, those are all big guys.
I don’t like to go so much into the WBA, because they’re like well he’s just doing it because of Povetkin and Wladimir. That’s not the case. I feel that to me it’s a disgrace the way they are creating these two or three world champions in the same weight division. I mean I’m still confused as to why Sergio Martinez, who I thought was the middleweight champion of the world is no longer. Now it’s Julio Cesar Chavez and Martinez is the platinum or whatever, the super diamond champion. Then they got the rules in some organizations that you’re a diamond champion when you unify all the titles. It’s just a joke. It’s so complicated that we wanted to explain on HBO the situation why Gamboa was not the champion even though he won the championship, and it was so complicated that when we were doing our meetings just trying to get understood among us, we decided to not even do anything on it. How do you think the public can understand it?
JENNA: From what you’re saying there Emanuel, do you actually think that boxing having all these belts, all these super champions, interim belts, gold champions, regular champions, and all of this—do you think it’s actually ruining the game because no one knows who the champion is?
STEWARD: That’s what’s ruining boxing more than anything. It’s bad enough we have four major bodies, and you got weight divisions about every six pounds—I think there’s 105 pounds, 109 pounds, 112 pounds, 118 pounds, 122 pounds, 126 pounds, 130 pounds, 135 pounds, 140 pounds, but you have all these weight divisions as well as all of these organizations. Then when you have a world champion in all of these divisions you could possibly end up with a world champion and a diamond world champion. I mean it’s too much confusion, and the fans after awhile don’t even want to look at any of the fighters as champions. The belts mean very little, and I don’t like to say this but it’s created with greed and money. I don’t see any other point. It’s nothing but confusion. It’s definitely not for the betterment of the sport. The damage that it’s doing I think is terrible, especially at a time right now when people are so confused about who the champions are anyway. When they finally think they got it figured it out, then they find out they don’t have it figured out.
JENNA: Okay Emanuel. As always when you’re on the show, I’m joined by my Co-Host Geoff Ciani.
GEOFFREY CIANI: Hi Emanuel. As always it’s a great pleasure to have you back on the show.
STEWARD: You know it’s always my pleasure being on this show.
CIANI: Emanuel, I wanted to ask you with Vitali’s dominant win and Wladimir having a dominant win against Haye in two fights that fans had high hope for some type of competitiveness, what’s it going to take for someone to really test a Klitschko? Is it going to take a scenario where there is something unusual or maybe an injury suffered by one of them for a fight to actually be competitive with either one of them in the foreseeable future?
STEWARD: Well Geoff, I hate to say this but I think everything you said was pretty much a good summary of the situation. It’s bad! I don’t see anyone out there that’s creating any excitement except Tyson Fury. I mean everybody else has got their own ideas, but I’m looking at all of them and I like Robert Helenius, also. But these are all European fighters. Very few people here are familiar with them. I mean I am more so than most because I spend probably a third of my time in boxing in Europe either training or being at the fights, and naturally I study when I go to the gyms over there. What’s even worse, not only are the only credible fighters that we have coming up in Europe, but I see nothing coming up over here even in the amateurs. It’s funny. We were looking at that heavyweight picture we put on the screen with future heavyweights. I mean outside of Arreola, everyone else was from Europ. We kind of had to go through a little stress even putting Arreola in there, because every time he gets to a certain point he disappoints and falls apart. But he’s the one that we promoted the most here. Tony Thompson and Eddie Chambers are preparing to fight, and I think both of those guys are good. At any other point in time without probably the Klitschkos, both of them would probably be world champions. But it’s not looking too good right now and in the future. I’ve always said I thought the most talented of the American fighters was still Eddie Chambers. Even though he is physically small, I think he’s the most talented out of all of them.
CIANI: Without that real interest in the heavyweight division for American boxing fans, they tend to turn their attention towards guys like Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. In the case of Floyd, he’s got the fight coming up this weekend against Victor Ortiz. I know I’m actually getting excited to see it. What are your thoughts on that fight, Emanuel?
STEWARD: I think it’s a good fight for boxing. Ortiz’s name is not a big name to the general public, and he just really came on the scene with one fight. That was really the fight that he just had with Berto. Other than that nobody knew anything about him. I think he brings excitement. To me as a boxing person who has been studying the sport for years, because of his youthfulness and the fire inside of him, I think it’s more than anything than Floyd has fought in a long time. Really you have to go back to the first fight with Castillo, which I really do still think Floyd had hand problems in that fight. So it’s really not fair the way everyone said he got a bad decision. Even though it was controversial, I thought he was injured going into the fight. He proved himself in the rematch in the next fight. Nevertheless, this still is the first fighter that I’ve known of since then that’s coming in to fight Floyd with that type of energy and attitude.
CIANI: When we’ve had Roger Mayweather on the show, he said that even a fighter as talented and good as Floyd is, when you keep taking these long layoffs you can’t expect to stay at that elite level for a long time. What I’m wondering Emanuel is, for Victor Ortiz, what do you think his best chances are of pulling off the upset in this one? Do you think his best chances come early in the fight?
STEWARD: I think he’s got to be prepared to fight, if he can, the same type of a high charged energetic fight that he fought with Berto. He needs to come out and try to force Floyd fight out of his comfort zone, pressure him, and make him fight faster than he likes to fight. Floyd’s a very intelligent fighter, and that’s the only way that he’s going to be able to beat Floyd. Floyd is a great technician with a lot of experience, and he’s gone up against the best, really going all the way back to ’95 or something, and even in the Olympics. He was the first guy to beat a Cuban in the Olympics in a long time, and then he lost a controversial decision there.
So he’s proven himself, but this is a new type of fighter. The type of a fighter that beats a lot of the great fighters usually is a guy with a lot of speed and a lot of energy. Kind of like what Cassius Clay did to Sonny Liston I remember at the time, when he came out all brash. If you look at history even the eighth fight by Leon Spinks in his first fight with Muhammad Ali, where he set such a fast pace and tempo that Ali couldn’t keep up with him. Floyd’s biggest thing that you have to be concerned about, is if you’re winning so much for so long, it’s a tendency for all of us to lose a little track of reality. You’re confident when you have everyone around you telling you everything that sounds good.
These layoffs, they will take their effect I think. In this fight here I think he should be favored, but I think it’s going to be a tougher fight than he had in a long time. If he wins this win very impressively, he would really, really score big with me personally. I saw him fighting and beating these names, but none of them brought the energy or the fire into the ring that I was hoping for. I thought Mosley was going to bring that energy into the fight because of the phenomenal fight that he had with Margarito. I thought wow, he’s got a really good chance of really giving Floyd a really good test. But when we interviewed him prior to the fight in his suite, he seemed like a mild little old man. I just couldn’t believe the personality change that I saw from the Margarito fight. His attitude was like he was just so glad at his age to be in a big super fight with Floyd Mayweather. That was his attitude as compared to when he fought Margarito. I don’t know what happened in between.
Right after we finished the meeting Jim Lampley asked me, “Emanuel, do you still feel strong about him giving Floyd a really tough fight?”
I said, “I felt that way, but the way this man’s body language and demeanor are, I don’t think so”.
Even though he had Floyd hurt he never was physically or mentally there. Floyd said himself that, “If I had stepped up I probably would have stopped him”, and he would have.
I think this is a totally different fighter here, and I hope Floyd realizes this is going to be a challenge and not just another one of these easy fights, because if he’s prepared properly Floyd definitely will win. I believe it’s going to be a tough fight.
CIANI: Now Emanuel, previously on our show you have said that you personally believe Floyd would have a good shot at beating Pacquiao, but for whatever reason he doesn’t seem to believe that himself. Do you think if he beats a young energetic southpaw like Victor Ortiz, who throws a lot of punches, and looks impressive doing it that he might come around and finally accept the fact that fans have been demanding this for years now—that he’ll be apt to take that Pacquiao fight?
STEWARD: In my personal opinion I think everybody is close to closing a deal on the fight on both sides. I think the biggest problem that I’m seeing, and maybe I’m crazy, is they both have some tough fights coming up. I look at Pacquiao’s fight. It’s going to be a tough fight and I think Floyd’s fight is tough. But I believe that Floyd and Manny will come somewhere together on this with whatever, the performance enhancing drugs thing. I think they’re coming together on both sides, but Floyd does seriously believe that Floyd is taking something. So it’s not like he’s just saying that not to fight. He really does believe that, and regardless of what anybody else believes it’s up to him. If he feels that way we have to respect it, but he does believe that, though. I think that they will come together some kind of way and that the fight will take place if they both can get by these next fights. That’s what my concern is.
If they do fight I think Floyd in my mind still has to be given a slight edge maybe, simply because of the physical size. Once again, we’re going back to these sizes. Even though they’re both fighting at welterweight, I think that Floyd is a true solid welterweight. I saw him actually muscle Mosley around and I could he’s very strong, and solid, and big now. Manny’s really still a junior welterweight. So I think the size might be a problem for Manny. Then the tempo that Manny sets is I think one of the tests that Floyd is going to experience in his fight coming up with Ortiz—seeing if he can fight a fighter with that type of tempo and slow him down and make him adjust to his pace. So the fight between Ortiz and Mayweather is going to be a good gauge for a fight between him and Manny because they both can make exciting fights.
I think that Manny’s fight with Marquez, that style is always going to be a dangerous fight for him. The difference I see right now this time is physically I believe Manny is bigger and will have the strength and size advantage, even though they might weigh in similar. Based on the fight that Marquez had with Floyd, it just shows coming in at 142 or 144 didn’t fit well on his frame. It’s like trying to put a Mac Truck on a Volkswagon frame. It just doesn’t work. I just think his natural weight is nothing but a good 135 or 133 pounder, and I think Manny is grown up where he’s a really good solid 140 pounder. Outside of the knockdowns, Marquez probably would have won those first two fights. One of them ended up a draw after he was knocked down three times. Still he battled back that well that he still got a draw in a fight he really won except for the system of the knockdowns scoring. Then the second fight he got knocked down again in one of those exchanges. Other than that he would have won in that fight. So probably in his mind he’s won more rounds, but just due to those knockdowns and the system he lost.
So he believes that he’s won both fights and this is his dream fight. This is the one fight that he’s been obsessed with. When a fighter gets that type of fight—like Floyd was when he got his fight with Oscar and it was his dream from childhood, and we know what Tarver did when Roy Jones. This is the fight throughout this little rivalry Marquez never thought he would get, and now that he’s got it he’s going to come in unbelievably wired up physically and mentally. It’s going to be a challenge. Manny is a little bit bigger I think naturally now, but it’s going to be a very exciting fight.
by Geoffrey Ciani (Exclusive Interview by Jenna J & Geoffrey Ciani) - This week’s 142nd edition of On the Ropes Boxing Radio (brought to you by CWH Promotions) featured an exclusive interview with Hall of Fame trainer Emanuel Steward, who shared his views on the upcoming showdown between Floyd Mayweather Junior (41-0, 25 KOs) and Victor Ortiz (29-2-2, 22 KOs). Steward also touched on a variety of other topics including Vitali Klitschko’s tenth round stoppage win against Tomasz Adamek, Pacquiao-Marquez III, and whether boxing needs a super heavyweight division. Here is Part 1 of 2 for the complete interview transcript:
JENNA J: Let’s move to our second guest of this week’s show. He is making his seventeenth appearance with On the Ropes Boxing Radio. We are joined by Hall of Fame boxing trainer Emanuel Steward. How’s everything going today, Emanuel?
EMANUEL STEWARD: Everything is going fine.
JENNA: Alright let’s talk about a fight you called just this past weekend, Vitali Klitschko versus Tomasz Adamek. It was a fight that a lot of people wanted to see for awhile even though people thought it would be a mismatch. Now that the fight has played out, what did you think of it?
STEWARD: Well the fight went pretty much as I expected. I was hoping for something different. Vitali’s a very tall man. He fights very tall and he’s about the best I’ve seen for being able to handle smaller guys by using a jab. The way he jabs he doesn’t commit. He doesn’t step in. He like leans in the jab always keeping his body in a position where as soon as you punch him, he’ll pull back and then he’ll start jabbing you again. He moves his opponents’ heads very well where guys can never get in position to take advantage of him if he misses a punch. So he fought a good fight. Adamek was just too small. It’s a case where if you asked Adamek just to wipe the sweat off his brow, Adamek would normally need a chair or a stool or something so he can do that. So it’s hard to see him being competitive hitting him on a consistent basis. He was just too small, and Vitali fought a very, very smart fight. After the first round I could see in the eyes of Adamek that he really didn’t want to be there, and he welcomed the stoppage when the referee finally stopped the fight.
JENNA: Alright now with Adamek in this fight, a lot of people were saying Vitali could have stopped Adamek sooner if he wanted to, if he pushed more for it. In your eyes, could he have?
STEWARD: He could have, but that is Vitali. That’s the way he fights. If you look at the Shannon Briggs fight, if you look at the Sam Peter fight when Sam Peter himself stopped the fight, that’s the way about 90% of his fights guy. He systematically destroys and beats the guys up. He’s not the type of guy who comes out and blasts you out, because he doesn’t put combinations together like three or four hard punches. He doesn’t do that. He puts maybe one right hand, maybe two, but he doesn’t put punches together. He’s very effective with what he does that way, and that’s just the way he fights. He doesn’t have the explosive one punch punching power like his brother, but he’s a busier fighter, though, and he wears guys out a lot more.
JENNA: He has been very successful in his comeback. Do you think he would be boxing as well as he is if he didn’t have those four years off leading up to this?
STEWARD: I do not believe that he would be boxing as good. I think the layoff did him great because he was saying that he was fighting with his body more than he was with his opponents and his sparring partners. His body was really in bad shape because of the injuries that he suffered from his years as a kick boxer, which is what he really was before he really got seriously into boxing. He was telling me about injuries with his legs, and his thighs, and his body was worn from the results of those injuries. So he rested four years and then his body healed up completely, so I think it did him well.
JENNA: Okay Emanuel, now what do you say to boxing fans out there who say Vitali Klitschko has more of a claim to the heavyweight title than Wladimir does, being he was a champion before he retired?
STEWARD: Well I think that the statistics are right and that it should be Wladimir. Wladimir has been consistent without ever having a break off, and even when Vitali was off, he was still fighting the top notch fighters. Even though Vitali fought Sam Peter, when Wladimir fought him the first time that was when Sam Peter was a prime Sam Peter, and Wladimir had to come off the floor three times. Those are the type of drama fights that Wladimir had to go through, and then Wladimir fought I think about five undefeated fighters that he stopped. So he’s definitely, and it’s not just because he has all of those belts. He’s been consistently active since 1996 when he won the Gold Medal here in Atlanta. So he is the one that should be the champion.
It’s so unfortunate with the heavyweight situation. With just one dominant fighter, like Vitali or Wladimir, cleaning up the division would create a major problem. But now when you got two of them! It’s like two of them gobbling up everybody. It’s made it even worse for the quality of the fighters in the heavyweight division. It’s not their fault. All you can do is be the best of your era and go up against everybody that’s there. You can’t fight past eras and you can’t fight the future, and that’s what those two have done—they’ve been the best of this era. It’s not good for boxing. I was hoping the fight would be a good fight here with Adamek, and it wasn’t. Then the fight with David Haye and Wladimir I was hoping would be a more exciting fight. So both of those fights didn’t live up to what my expectations and hopes were, and I’m quite sure that my feelings are probably the same as the general boxing fan.
JENNA: Emanuel, with the whole mess with the WBA, and you commented on that before about giving Povetkin a belt—do you think boxing should adapt a super heavyweight division now? Just because it seems because it seems they’re hell bent on finding belts for other heavyweights who are trying to avoid the Klitschkos, maybe that they should have their own division?
STEWARD: That is what these organizations should be doing! It’s definitely clearly been established a long time in amateur boxing, the differences between the heavyweights and the super heavyweights. I don’t understand why they resisted against that when it’s so plain to see in so many recent fights a good big man beats a good little man. You saw it when David Haye couldn’t handle Wladimir, and Wladimir had speed to equal him plus the size. We saw it with Vitali being too big in addition to being good. Still they come up with all of this stupid crap with creating a super champion or a platinum champion. That to me is totally ridiculous, and usually I go along with most things. But that is something that I am totally against, and I’ve always been for having a super heavyweight division. The fighters are bigger and better coordinated. It used to be if a guy is 6’4” or 6’5”, but usually once a guy got to a certain size or height they had no coordination. That’s not the case now! In fact look at the top heavyweights that are up there. You got Robert Helenius, he’s about a 6’7” guy now, and you got Tyson Fury. Tyson is 6’9”, Wladimir is 6’6”, Vitali is 6’7”, and these guys are all fairly well coordinated in addition to having the height and weight. So there definitely is a big need for a super heavyweight division. You look at the dominance by Lennox Lewis and then the Klitschkos, all of these guys are 6’5” and up. When we’re looking at probably the next dominant heavyweight, I still feel number one is Tyson Fury even though a lot of people overlook him and play him down. Tyson Fury or Helenius or one of those guys, those are all big guys.
I don’t like to go so much into the WBA, because they’re like well he’s just doing it because of Povetkin and Wladimir. That’s not the case. I feel that to me it’s a disgrace the way they are creating these two or three world champions in the same weight division. I mean I’m still confused as to why Sergio Martinez, who I thought was the middleweight champion of the world is no longer. Now it’s Julio Cesar Chavez and Martinez is the platinum or whatever, the super diamond champion. Then they got the rules in some organizations that you’re a diamond champion when you unify all the titles. It’s just a joke. It’s so complicated that we wanted to explain on HBO the situation why Gamboa was not the champion even though he won the championship, and it was so complicated that when we were doing our meetings just trying to get understood among us, we decided to not even do anything on it. How do you think the public can understand it?
JENNA: From what you’re saying there Emanuel, do you actually think that boxing having all these belts, all these super champions, interim belts, gold champions, regular champions, and all of this—do you think it’s actually ruining the game because no one knows who the champion is?
STEWARD: That’s what’s ruining boxing more than anything. It’s bad enough we have four major bodies, and you got weight divisions about every six pounds—I think there’s 105 pounds, 109 pounds, 112 pounds, 118 pounds, 122 pounds, 126 pounds, 130 pounds, 135 pounds, 140 pounds, but you have all these weight divisions as well as all of these organizations. Then when you have a world champion in all of these divisions you could possibly end up with a world champion and a diamond world champion. I mean it’s too much confusion, and the fans after awhile don’t even want to look at any of the fighters as champions. The belts mean very little, and I don’t like to say this but it’s created with greed and money. I don’t see any other point. It’s nothing but confusion. It’s definitely not for the betterment of the sport. The damage that it’s doing I think is terrible, especially at a time right now when people are so confused about who the champions are anyway. When they finally think they got it figured it out, then they find out they don’t have it figured out.
JENNA: Okay Emanuel. As always when you’re on the show, I’m joined by my Co-Host Geoff Ciani.
GEOFFREY CIANI: Hi Emanuel. As always it’s a great pleasure to have you back on the show.
STEWARD: You know it’s always my pleasure being on this show.
CIANI: Emanuel, I wanted to ask you with Vitali’s dominant win and Wladimir having a dominant win against Haye in two fights that fans had high hope for some type of competitiveness, what’s it going to take for someone to really test a Klitschko? Is it going to take a scenario where there is something unusual or maybe an injury suffered by one of them for a fight to actually be competitive with either one of them in the foreseeable future?
STEWARD: Well Geoff, I hate to say this but I think everything you said was pretty much a good summary of the situation. It’s bad! I don’t see anyone out there that’s creating any excitement except Tyson Fury. I mean everybody else has got their own ideas, but I’m looking at all of them and I like Robert Helenius, also. But these are all European fighters. Very few people here are familiar with them. I mean I am more so than most because I spend probably a third of my time in boxing in Europe either training or being at the fights, and naturally I study when I go to the gyms over there. What’s even worse, not only are the only credible fighters that we have coming up in Europe, but I see nothing coming up over here even in the amateurs. It’s funny. We were looking at that heavyweight picture we put on the screen with future heavyweights. I mean outside of Arreola, everyone else was from Europ. We kind of had to go through a little stress even putting Arreola in there, because every time he gets to a certain point he disappoints and falls apart. But he’s the one that we promoted the most here. Tony Thompson and Eddie Chambers are preparing to fight, and I think both of those guys are good. At any other point in time without probably the Klitschkos, both of them would probably be world champions. But it’s not looking too good right now and in the future. I’ve always said I thought the most talented of the American fighters was still Eddie Chambers. Even though he is physically small, I think he’s the most talented out of all of them.
CIANI: Without that real interest in the heavyweight division for American boxing fans, they tend to turn their attention towards guys like Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. In the case of Floyd, he’s got the fight coming up this weekend against Victor Ortiz. I know I’m actually getting excited to see it. What are your thoughts on that fight, Emanuel?
STEWARD: I think it’s a good fight for boxing. Ortiz’s name is not a big name to the general public, and he just really came on the scene with one fight. That was really the fight that he just had with Berto. Other than that nobody knew anything about him. I think he brings excitement. To me as a boxing person who has been studying the sport for years, because of his youthfulness and the fire inside of him, I think it’s more than anything than Floyd has fought in a long time. Really you have to go back to the first fight with Castillo, which I really do still think Floyd had hand problems in that fight. So it’s really not fair the way everyone said he got a bad decision. Even though it was controversial, I thought he was injured going into the fight. He proved himself in the rematch in the next fight. Nevertheless, this still is the first fighter that I’ve known of since then that’s coming in to fight Floyd with that type of energy and attitude.
CIANI: When we’ve had Roger Mayweather on the show, he said that even a fighter as talented and good as Floyd is, when you keep taking these long layoffs you can’t expect to stay at that elite level for a long time. What I’m wondering Emanuel is, for Victor Ortiz, what do you think his best chances are of pulling off the upset in this one? Do you think his best chances come early in the fight?
STEWARD: I think he’s got to be prepared to fight, if he can, the same type of a high charged energetic fight that he fought with Berto. He needs to come out and try to force Floyd fight out of his comfort zone, pressure him, and make him fight faster than he likes to fight. Floyd’s a very intelligent fighter, and that’s the only way that he’s going to be able to beat Floyd. Floyd is a great technician with a lot of experience, and he’s gone up against the best, really going all the way back to ’95 or something, and even in the Olympics. He was the first guy to beat a Cuban in the Olympics in a long time, and then he lost a controversial decision there.
So he’s proven himself, but this is a new type of fighter. The type of a fighter that beats a lot of the great fighters usually is a guy with a lot of speed and a lot of energy. Kind of like what Cassius Clay did to Sonny Liston I remember at the time, when he came out all brash. If you look at history even the eighth fight by Leon Spinks in his first fight with Muhammad Ali, where he set such a fast pace and tempo that Ali couldn’t keep up with him. Floyd’s biggest thing that you have to be concerned about, is if you’re winning so much for so long, it’s a tendency for all of us to lose a little track of reality. You’re confident when you have everyone around you telling you everything that sounds good.
These layoffs, they will take their effect I think. In this fight here I think he should be favored, but I think it’s going to be a tougher fight than he had in a long time. If he wins this win very impressively, he would really, really score big with me personally. I saw him fighting and beating these names, but none of them brought the energy or the fire into the ring that I was hoping for. I thought Mosley was going to bring that energy into the fight because of the phenomenal fight that he had with Margarito. I thought wow, he’s got a really good chance of really giving Floyd a really good test. But when we interviewed him prior to the fight in his suite, he seemed like a mild little old man. I just couldn’t believe the personality change that I saw from the Margarito fight. His attitude was like he was just so glad at his age to be in a big super fight with Floyd Mayweather. That was his attitude as compared to when he fought Margarito. I don’t know what happened in between.
Right after we finished the meeting Jim Lampley asked me, “Emanuel, do you still feel strong about him giving Floyd a really tough fight?”
I said, “I felt that way, but the way this man’s body language and demeanor are, I don’t think so”.
Even though he had Floyd hurt he never was physically or mentally there. Floyd said himself that, “If I had stepped up I probably would have stopped him”, and he would have.
I think this is a totally different fighter here, and I hope Floyd realizes this is going to be a challenge and not just another one of these easy fights, because if he’s prepared properly Floyd definitely will win. I believe it’s going to be a tough fight.
CIANI: Now Emanuel, previously on our show you have said that you personally believe Floyd would have a good shot at beating Pacquiao, but for whatever reason he doesn’t seem to believe that himself. Do you think if he beats a young energetic southpaw like Victor Ortiz, who throws a lot of punches, and looks impressive doing it that he might come around and finally accept the fact that fans have been demanding this for years now—that he’ll be apt to take that Pacquiao fight?
STEWARD: In my personal opinion I think everybody is close to closing a deal on the fight on both sides. I think the biggest problem that I’m seeing, and maybe I’m crazy, is they both have some tough fights coming up. I look at Pacquiao’s fight. It’s going to be a tough fight and I think Floyd’s fight is tough. But I believe that Floyd and Manny will come somewhere together on this with whatever, the performance enhancing drugs thing. I think they’re coming together on both sides, but Floyd does seriously believe that Floyd is taking something. So it’s not like he’s just saying that not to fight. He really does believe that, and regardless of what anybody else believes it’s up to him. If he feels that way we have to respect it, but he does believe that, though. I think that they will come together some kind of way and that the fight will take place if they both can get by these next fights. That’s what my concern is.
If they do fight I think Floyd in my mind still has to be given a slight edge maybe, simply because of the physical size. Once again, we’re going back to these sizes. Even though they’re both fighting at welterweight, I think that Floyd is a true solid welterweight. I saw him actually muscle Mosley around and I could he’s very strong, and solid, and big now. Manny’s really still a junior welterweight. So I think the size might be a problem for Manny. Then the tempo that Manny sets is I think one of the tests that Floyd is going to experience in his fight coming up with Ortiz—seeing if he can fight a fighter with that type of tempo and slow him down and make him adjust to his pace. So the fight between Ortiz and Mayweather is going to be a good gauge for a fight between him and Manny because they both can make exciting fights.
I think that Manny’s fight with Marquez, that style is always going to be a dangerous fight for him. The difference I see right now this time is physically I believe Manny is bigger and will have the strength and size advantage, even though they might weigh in similar. Based on the fight that Marquez had with Floyd, it just shows coming in at 142 or 144 didn’t fit well on his frame. It’s like trying to put a Mac Truck on a Volkswagon frame. It just doesn’t work. I just think his natural weight is nothing but a good 135 or 133 pounder, and I think Manny is grown up where he’s a really good solid 140 pounder. Outside of the knockdowns, Marquez probably would have won those first two fights. One of them ended up a draw after he was knocked down three times. Still he battled back that well that he still got a draw in a fight he really won except for the system of the knockdowns scoring. Then the second fight he got knocked down again in one of those exchanges. Other than that he would have won in that fight. So probably in his mind he’s won more rounds, but just due to those knockdowns and the system he lost.
So he believes that he’s won both fights and this is his dream fight. This is the one fight that he’s been obsessed with. When a fighter gets that type of fight—like Floyd was when he got his fight with Oscar and it was his dream from childhood, and we know what Tarver did when Roy Jones. This is the fight throughout this little rivalry Marquez never thought he would get, and now that he’s got it he’s going to come in unbelievably wired up physically and mentally. It’s going to be a challenge. Manny is a little bit bigger I think naturally now, but it’s going to be a very exciting fight.
Rafael: Mayweather beats Ortiz, and picks up win No.42
By Chris Williams: Photo credit: Sumio Yamada – Dan Rafael is ESPN sees Floyd Mayweather Jr. (41-0, 25 KO’s) out-boxing WBC welterweight champion Victor Ortiz (29-2-2, 22 KO’s) on Saturday night to pick up Ortiz’s World Boxing Council strap, not that Mayweather really wants the belt. Mayweather is more concerned with beating top fighters than in picking up worthless trinkets that require sanctioning fees to keep.
Rafael feels that Mayweather has the better inside fighting ability compared to Ortiz and will give him a lot of problems when Ortiz tries to engage. He also feels that Mayweather will be able to get away from Ortiz’s bum rushes fairly easy, saying “Mayweather is so poised in the ring that even if Ortiz rushes him early, which I expect, he’ll simply dart away. Ultimately, Mayweather will use Ortiz’s aggressiveness against him because he’s also a supreme counterpuncher.”
Rafael is 100 percent correct of course. Ortiz will no doubt rush Mayweather, but when he does, Mayweather will move and nail him with shots as he’s coming in. And on the inside, Ortiz is going to be at Mayweather’s mercy all night long with his fast accurate shots coming often. I suspect that Ortiz will forget all about fighting on the inside after the first couple of rounds and will focus entirely on just throwing jabs from the outside like he was told to do by Oscar De La Hoya. You’re not going to beat a quality fighter like Mayweather by jabbing him. It takes a lot more than that simple Plan B to beat him when Plan A quickly goes down the tubes in the first two rounds.
Mayweather will likely use a lot of lateral movement, Rafael points out to stay out of the way of Ortiz’s big shots. And with referee Joe Cortez working the fight, it gives Mayweather one more important advantage. Cortez is the same referee that worked the Amir Khan vs. Marcos Maidana and Ricky Hatton vs. Mayweather fight. In both of those fights, Cortez seemed to get in the way of Maidana and Hatton while they were attempting to work on the inside.
By Chris Williams: Photo credit: Sumio Yamada – Dan Rafael is ESPN sees Floyd Mayweather Jr. (41-0, 25 KO’s) out-boxing WBC welterweight champion Victor Ortiz (29-2-2, 22 KO’s) on Saturday night to pick up Ortiz’s World Boxing Council strap, not that Mayweather really wants the belt. Mayweather is more concerned with beating top fighters than in picking up worthless trinkets that require sanctioning fees to keep.
Rafael feels that Mayweather has the better inside fighting ability compared to Ortiz and will give him a lot of problems when Ortiz tries to engage. He also feels that Mayweather will be able to get away from Ortiz’s bum rushes fairly easy, saying “Mayweather is so poised in the ring that even if Ortiz rushes him early, which I expect, he’ll simply dart away. Ultimately, Mayweather will use Ortiz’s aggressiveness against him because he’s also a supreme counterpuncher.”
Rafael is 100 percent correct of course. Ortiz will no doubt rush Mayweather, but when he does, Mayweather will move and nail him with shots as he’s coming in. And on the inside, Ortiz is going to be at Mayweather’s mercy all night long with his fast accurate shots coming often. I suspect that Ortiz will forget all about fighting on the inside after the first couple of rounds and will focus entirely on just throwing jabs from the outside like he was told to do by Oscar De La Hoya. You’re not going to beat a quality fighter like Mayweather by jabbing him. It takes a lot more than that simple Plan B to beat him when Plan A quickly goes down the tubes in the first two rounds.
Mayweather will likely use a lot of lateral movement, Rafael points out to stay out of the way of Ortiz’s big shots. And with referee Joe Cortez working the fight, it gives Mayweather one more important advantage. Cortez is the same referee that worked the Amir Khan vs. Marcos Maidana and Ricky Hatton vs. Mayweather fight. In both of those fights, Cortez seemed to get in the way of Maidana and Hatton while they were attempting to work on the inside.
Sergio Martinez ready to fight Pacquiao at 150 lbs, says trainer
By Chris Williams: WBC Diamond middleweight champion Sergio Martinez (47-2-2, 26 KO’s) is reportedly willing to go down to 154 lbs to fight WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao after Martinez takes care of his light work against number #3 ranked WBC contender Darren Barker on October 1st.
Martinez will win that fight easy, and can be ready to fight Pacquiao if he’s willing to man up and take the fight with Martinez.
Pacquiao told esnewsreporting.com that Martinez was simply too big for him at 154 lbs. However, Pablo Sarmiento, the trainer for Sergio Martinez, said he’s willing to get down to 150 lbs and fight Pacquiao after the Barker fight next month. Now it’s up to Pacquiao, his trainer Freddie Roach and promoter Bob Arum to see if they bite for this fight. If Martinez is willing to get down to 150 lbs to take the fight then there shouldn’t be any reason for Pacquiao not to accept the bout. If the weight is right, then Pacquiao should accept it and fight Martinez.
After all, Martinez is smaller than Antonio Margarito, a fighter that Pacquiao beat last year. But of course if it’s not the size that Pacquiao really concerned with and more so Martinez’s power and boxing ability, then I can understand Pacquiao staying far away from Martinez no matter what weight he gets down to to try and make the fight.
Martinez isn’t slow, hittable and someone that’s fading in his career like a lot of Pacquiao’s opponents have been in the past three years. Pacquiao would be in huge trouble against a guy like Martinez because of his one punch power. That’s why I can’t see Pacquiao accepting the fight even if Martinez squeezed down to 140. He would likely still be too good and too dangerous for a fighter like Pacquiao.
By Chris Williams: WBC Diamond middleweight champion Sergio Martinez (47-2-2, 26 KO’s) is reportedly willing to go down to 154 lbs to fight WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao after Martinez takes care of his light work against number #3 ranked WBC contender Darren Barker on October 1st.
Martinez will win that fight easy, and can be ready to fight Pacquiao if he’s willing to man up and take the fight with Martinez.
Pacquiao told esnewsreporting.com that Martinez was simply too big for him at 154 lbs. However, Pablo Sarmiento, the trainer for Sergio Martinez, said he’s willing to get down to 150 lbs and fight Pacquiao after the Barker fight next month. Now it’s up to Pacquiao, his trainer Freddie Roach and promoter Bob Arum to see if they bite for this fight. If Martinez is willing to get down to 150 lbs to take the fight then there shouldn’t be any reason for Pacquiao not to accept the bout. If the weight is right, then Pacquiao should accept it and fight Martinez.
After all, Martinez is smaller than Antonio Margarito, a fighter that Pacquiao beat last year. But of course if it’s not the size that Pacquiao really concerned with and more so Martinez’s power and boxing ability, then I can understand Pacquiao staying far away from Martinez no matter what weight he gets down to to try and make the fight.
Martinez isn’t slow, hittable and someone that’s fading in his career like a lot of Pacquiao’s opponents have been in the past three years. Pacquiao would be in huge trouble against a guy like Martinez because of his one punch power. That’s why I can’t see Pacquiao accepting the fight even if Martinez squeezed down to 140. He would likely still be too good and too dangerous for a fighter like Pacquiao.
Roger Mayweather: Khan will have to take the drug tests if he wants to fight Floyd
By William Mackay: If IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (26-1, 18 KO’s) wants to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr. then he’s going to have to agree to take the Olympic style random blood tests for performance enhancing drugs before he’ll get the nod to step forward and get his payday fight against Floyd.
In an interview at the Telegraph.co.uk, Roger Mayweather, the uncle and trainer of Floyd Mayweather Jr., said “If the fight [Khan vs. Mayweather] goes ahead, Khan will have to take the drug tests. That’s just the way it’s got to be.”
I don’t have any doubts for a second that Khan wouldn’t have any problems accepting the drug testing. With Khan likely to make $5 million, likely even more for this money fight, he’ll gladly accept the drug testing just to have the chance to share the ring with Mayweather.
Ignoring the fact that Khan doesn’t have a ghost of a chance to win the fight, he could make it interesting at least before they get in the ring with his nonstop 24/7 bragging about himself, about how none of the top fighters want to fight him and how he doesn’t duck anyone. What a laugh.
We’ve seen how eager Khan was to fight Marcos Maidana and how he’s not exactly been in a rush to get back in the ring with him after struggling to a 12 round decision last year in a fight where Khan took a beating. We’ve seen Khan want no part of fighting a rematch with Breidis Prescott, who knocked Khan out in one round three years ago, and how Khan seemed relieved appeared when Paul McCloskey beat Prescott recently by a very, very controversial decision in McCloskey’s home country of Ireland. The win basically freed Khan from any pressure to ever have to fight a rematch against Prescott. How can anyone begin to make an argument that Khan should fight Prescott again when he was beaten by Miguel Vazquez, Kevin Mitchell and McCloskey?
By William Mackay: If IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (26-1, 18 KO’s) wants to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr. then he’s going to have to agree to take the Olympic style random blood tests for performance enhancing drugs before he’ll get the nod to step forward and get his payday fight against Floyd.
In an interview at the Telegraph.co.uk, Roger Mayweather, the uncle and trainer of Floyd Mayweather Jr., said “If the fight [Khan vs. Mayweather] goes ahead, Khan will have to take the drug tests. That’s just the way it’s got to be.”
I don’t have any doubts for a second that Khan wouldn’t have any problems accepting the drug testing. With Khan likely to make $5 million, likely even more for this money fight, he’ll gladly accept the drug testing just to have the chance to share the ring with Mayweather.
Ignoring the fact that Khan doesn’t have a ghost of a chance to win the fight, he could make it interesting at least before they get in the ring with his nonstop 24/7 bragging about himself, about how none of the top fighters want to fight him and how he doesn’t duck anyone. What a laugh.
We’ve seen how eager Khan was to fight Marcos Maidana and how he’s not exactly been in a rush to get back in the ring with him after struggling to a 12 round decision last year in a fight where Khan took a beating. We’ve seen Khan want no part of fighting a rematch with Breidis Prescott, who knocked Khan out in one round three years ago, and how Khan seemed relieved appeared when Paul McCloskey beat Prescott recently by a very, very controversial decision in McCloskey’s home country of Ireland. The win basically freed Khan from any pressure to ever have to fight a rematch against Prescott. How can anyone begin to make an argument that Khan should fight Prescott again when he was beaten by Miguel Vazquez, Kevin Mitchell and McCloskey?