Monthly Archives: July 2016

Pound4poundireland’s July 31st POUND FOR POUND top 10

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1. Roman Gonzalez

2. Terence Crawford

3. Sergey Kovalev

4. Gennady Golovkin

5. Saul Alvarez

6. Guillermo Rigondeaux

7. Juan Francisco Estrada

8. Andre Ward

9. Naoya Inoue

10. Carl Frampton

  • Despite a highlight reel KO win at the weekend, Adonis Stevenson is bumped out. He’ll need to up his level of opposition to reclaim a place
  • Carl Frampton takes his place after an inspired win over fellow unbeaten Leo Santa Cruz in a high class war.
  • Following up on his win over Scott Quigg to unify titles at 122lbs., Frampton has now truly lived up to Barry McGuigan’s early proclamations & etched his name into Irish sporting history.

Named and Shamed: Judging the Judges (June 2016)

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June 3rd – Rances Barthelemy luckily wasn’t affected by the rancid Hilton Whitaker Jr.’s 110-117 card en route to his easy win over Mickey Bey.

 

June 4th – Raul Caiz Sr. pulled a Pat Russell by stopping the first round of the Francisco Vargas-Orlando Salido war ten seconds early at the sound of the clapper.

Fortunately, there was enough action elsewhere in the bout to make up for the deficit.

 

On the undercard, Abraham Lopez-Julian Ramirez resulted in a controversial decision, as most every observer saw Ramirez as the clear winner.

Judges Max DeLuca (97-93), Carla Caiz (97-93), & Fernando Villarreal (98-92) saw things exactly the opposite.

 

June 10th – Lucien Reid’s thrashing of journeyman Trayan Slavev was stopped a full minute too late by ref/sadist-in-training Kieran McCann.

 

June 25th – David Benavidez-Francy Ntetu ended in bizarre fashion, with ref Shada Murtaugh calling a halt to matters suddenly after a period of Ntetu success and with the fighter in no visible distress.

Some good reporting from Boxingscene’s David Greisman sheds further light on the matter:

http://www.boxingscene.com/nysac-doctor-explains-controversial-benavidez-ntetu-stoppage–106104

 

June 28th – Longtime fringe contender Edner Cherry appeared to lose an upset to unknown Haskell Rhodes, only to be saved by the cards of Kevin Morgan (98-92), John Poturaj (97-93), & Steve Weisfeld (97-93).

 

Disgraced Erkan Teper returned to fight Derric Rossy on July 3rd.

But how was this allowed to happen after his 2 year ban for PED use going back to his knockout of David Price last July (as well as the police raid on his home that uncovered vast amounts of PEDs, something that has seemingly gone unpunished)?

More details of his ban can be found here:

Named & Shamed: Judging the Judges (January 2016)

The answer once again lies in the eternally fractured state of boxing’s regulatory structure, as Germany’s boxing commission (BDB) are under no obligation to honour the EBU’s ban.

Check out the asinine reasoning offered by BDB president Thomas Puetz for their decision:

http://www.boxingscene.com/erkan-teper-details-return-explained-by-bdb-president–106373

Does anyone think a fine, random testing & a last-chance probationary stance is enough of a punishment, or enough of a justification to not honour the EBU’s ban?

Thankfully, Rossy wasn’t hurt in a ten round decision loss, but what about Teper’s next opponent?

If there was any justice in boxing, Teper would never be allowed to fight again after what he’s done.

July 6th’s Random Boxing Rants

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Fun fact: the promoter (and circus strongman), Butty Sugrue, who brought Ali to Ireland for his 1972 fight in Croke Park, is buried 200m from my house in County Kerry, Ireland.

Here is a trailer for RTE’s terrific documentary on the subject: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wA8_th5nYBU

 

Some people are already giving Chris Eubank Jr. credit for calling out Gennady Golovkin.

Let’s not go nuts…anybody can blow hot air and call another boxer out.

It’s all perception and hype until he signs on the dotted line and, indeed, until he steps between the ropes.

The reality is that Eubank Jr. has turned down shots at world level against Danny Jacobs (for whom he was the mandatory) and Billy Joe Saunders, to instead fight the modest likes of Nick Blackwell and Tom Doran for the British title.

In my view, the Eubanks are using Golovkin’s name to create a buzz and John Ryder is a far more likely next opponent for Eubank than GGG.

 

Canelo and his team at Golden Boy announcing they’ll entertain a Golovkin fight in September 2017, and instead fighting Liam Smith later this year, is enough to make anybody hate boxing.

Any fan who buys that rubbish on PPV in America needs a sectioning.

 

 

Between the drug test failures of Alexander Povetkin, Lucas Browne, Erkan Teper, the alleged nandralone positives of Tyson and Hughie Fury, & the highly suspicious physiques of Anthony Joshua and the 40 year old Wlad Klitschko, I think it’s fair to say that the heavyweight division can’t be taken much more seriously than the 100m sprint.