Floyd “Money” Mayweather is back in the
ring, putting his undefeated history on the line. The champ is presently
45- and about to deal with one of the most popular boxers in the game,
Marcos Maidana.
Maidana is coming off a huge earn in
opposition to Adrien Broner—what can the Argentine do to knock
Mayweather off his game and defend his WBC welterweight title?
Look at the online video earlier
mentioned to see Jenaro Diaz and Lennard “Action” Jackson of the Church
Avenue Boxing Gymnasium crack down the approaching fight and forecast
who will occur away victorious.
Floyd Mayweather vs. Marcos Maidana will take area Saturday, May 3, at nine p.m. ET/six p.m. PT on PPV.
Boxers Already Searching for Redemption After Poor 2014 Performances
Malik Scott used several years creating
up a stellar history as a competitor in the heavyweight division. Victor
Ortiz is a previous pay out-for every-view headliner.
But soon after swift knockouts previously this year, it will be challenging to build an audience for both fighter once more
Prizefighting is a brutal activity, and
not just for the apparent causes. The actual physical hurt sustained can
be really cruel. But the margin of mistake for a lousy effectiveness
can be even crueler.
If a baseball player normally takes an
-5 collar with three strikeouts, he’s still acquired yet another match
to play the subsequent afternoon and a line-generate double at the
appropriate second or a walk-off house operate will erase any lingering
hangover from his poor efficiency the day before.
Even in soccer, the participant commonly has upcoming week.
But boxers at the championship stage
contend two to 4 occasions a 12 months. A disappointing exhibiting for a
fighter lingers in the public’s memory for months and can toss his
overall vocation off keep track of.
Khabib Allakhverdiev
I’ve bought Khabib Allakhverdiev at the
incredibly bottom of this listing due to the fact factors could
absolutely be substantially worse for him. On the Manny Pacquiao-Timothy
Bradley undercard, he obtained his first considerable publicity in
North The usa, dropping a really exciting battle to Jessie Vargas.
It was a near sufficient battle that
HBO’s Harold Lederman thought Allakhverdiev really should have won, as
did I. Enthusiasts will be fascinated in looking at the difficult-nosed
Dagestan native battle once more.
Even now, Allakhverdiev experienced his
initially skilled loss and dropped his WBA “regular” light welterweight
entire world title. So on balance, the night was a damaging knowledge
for him. He allowed Vargas to set up a great jab early, and he ate far
too several remaining uppercuts in the course of the battle.
When I believed Allakhverdiev won, it
was definitely considerably too near to contact a theft. Vargas did a
good deal suitable in the battle, and Allakhverdiev’s effectiveness was
flawed.
He will be hungry to do considerably greater his upcoming time out.
Curtis Stevens
On the a single hand, Curtis Stevens
came away from his combat with Tureanao Johnson previously this month
with a ultimate-spherical TKO that saved victory in the final minute of
the fight. It enhanced his file to six-1 because 2012, with 5 of the
victories coming by stoppage.
On the other hand, Johnson had won
virtually every single round of the battle, banging Stevens up and
pushing him about. The Spherical ten stoppage was incredibly
questionable, and I practically under no circumstances problem
stoppages.
Stevens surely deserves credit for
connecting with a monster still left hook when he wanted it. He backed
Johnson up and experienced him in trouble. But Johnson had fought out of
worse places earlier in the battle.
He didn’t seem like he was “out on his feet” to me. He didn’t respond like he was when the fight was waved off.
Getting rid of to Gennady Golovkin
previous 12 months experienced accomplished minor to reduced Stevens’
track record. He had still knocked out four of six opponents given that
2012 in the 1st spherical, and GGG starches all people.
The fight with Johnson most likely did
more to make Johnson’s popularity than diminish Stevens’. The earlier
unbeaten Olympian from the Bahamas appeared like a prospective
contender.
But queries will cling over Stevens heading into his following battle, just as his career was attaining major traction.
Daniel Ponce De Leon
Daniel Ponce De Leon missing to Juan
Manuel Lopez by Spherical one stoppage back again in 2008. It was a
major setback loss, but he experienced come back in the a long time
considering that, losing only to Yuri Gamboa, Adrien Broner and Abner
Mares whilst also winning the WBC featherweight title from Jhonny
Gonzalez in 2012.
When Ponce De Leon achieved Lopez in a
rematch final March, equally fighters ended up viewed as on the draw
back of their careers. Lopez had lost his featherweight title to Orlando
Salido in 2011 by TKO and was stopped in the rematch a 12 months later.
In June 2013, Mikey Garcia had smashed Lopez in four.
But in his rematch with Ponce De Leon,
Lopez channeled his outdated, explosive self, battering Ponce De Leon
and stopping him in two. It will incredibly most likely be Ponce De
Leon’s past substantial-profile combat.
Danny Garcia
It would be a mistake to contact Danny
Garcia’s victory in excess of Mauricio Herrera last March a theft. The
struggle was near, and because Garcia was the undefeated winner, it is
really not stunning that the final decision went to him.
But it was hardly the overall
performance he had hoped to place on battling in Puerto Rico for the
initially time. The Philadelphia indigenous was traveling to the
boxing-obsessed nation of his mother and father, sizzling off the most
impressive acquire of his occupation, a decisive unanimous-determination
victory in excess of risky Lucas Matthysse very last September.
Ultimately Garcia has stayed unbeaten,
and yet another extraordinary win will be all it normally takes to set
the memory of his struggle from Herrera guiding him. But for now, the
disappointing performance lingers about him.
Thanks to a questionable determination
by the Minnesota Athletic Commission to overturn Argenis Mendez’s
knockout decline to Rances Barthelemy in March, Mendez retains his IBF
super featherweight title. But that boardroom selection does not
actually erase what took place in the ring, in which Barthelemy battered
Mendez, dropping him 2 times in the next round.
As the movie demonstrates, Barthlemy’s
last blows did land after the bell. But Barthelemy was in the course of
action of delivering a flurry at a minute when his killer instincts
experienced taken more than, and it was the referee’s job to be in the
position to individual the combatants in this sort of a situation.
Whatever any individual thinks about the
fight becoming modified to a no-contest, nobody can deny that Mendez
was finding his clock cleaned. Mendez is a youthful fighter and will
have the opportunities to redeem himself.
But for suitable now, he’s a world winner in title only.
Adrian Hernandez entered this 12 months
the reigning WBC gentle flyweight champion and arguably the prime
fighter in the planet at 108 lbs. Considering that 2008, his only
decline experienced been to the incredibly skilled Kompayak Porpramook
in December 2011.
And he’d avenged it by TKO the following Oct.
So just one of the greatest surprises in
boxing so significantly this year has been his TKO reduction earlier
this month to five-, 21-12 months-outdated Naoya Inoue of Japan. Inoue
had a rather respectable amateur occupation and has now stopped five of
six opponents.
So maybe we’re viewing the emergence of a
new phenom from the ranks of the small men. But losing to a fighter
with such paltry encounter is a main setback for a seasoned expert like
Hernandez.
Victor Ortriz
No so extended back, Victor Ortiz was
becoming elevated to the upper echelons of the sport. In 2011 he
captured the WBC welterweight title from Andre Berto in a Combat of the
12 months battle. That fight gained him a pay-per-check out shot at
Floyd Mayweather.
In Round four of the Mayweather fight
Ortiz came unhinged, first throwing a blatant flying headbutt at the
pound-for-pound king, then dropping his guard and trying to give
Mayweather an apologetic hug. With his arms outstretched and
consideration lapsed, Mayweather knocked Ortiz out.
However, Ortiz was subsequent floated in
June 2012 as a substantial-profile opponent for Saul Alvarez. All he
experienced to do was gain a June 2012 fight with Josesito Lopez.
Instead Lopez broke Ortiz’s jaw, forcing
him to give up following Spherical nine. Following that Ortiz took off
additional than a calendar year, even attempting his luck as a
contestant on Dancing with the Stars.
When Ortiz returned to motion past
January towards veteran Luis Collazo he appeared to be his old cocky
self, telling Boxing Scene’s Dan Ambrose that it “disgusted him” to
enjoy boxing, because there have been so several top fighters “who
didn’t belong there. I could beat all of them.”
As an alternative, for the second
straight battle, Ortiz stumbled in what was billed as a tune-up. Collazo
jumped all over the purported “A side” fighter Ortiz, knocking him out
in the 2nd spherical.
I doubt any one actually expected Malik
Scott to upset Deontay Wilder when they fought in March. Wilder came in
with a excellent 30- document, with all thirty wins coming by stoppage
inside the initially 4 rounds.
But on paper Scott looked like the very
best opponent Wilder experienced faced. The 6’5″ Scott is amongst the
ideal boxers in the heavyweight division. He was predicted to give
Wilder a check.
As an alternative he went down with
stunning relieve, slipping to a hook-cross blend just ninety six seconds
into the battle. The remaining proper hand didn’t even land flush,
prompting allegations of a deal with.
It’s irresponsible to formally accuse a
fighter of using a dive without having strong evidence. I’ll say only
that Scott didn’t glance like he was there to acquire. From exhibiting
up at the weigh-in carrying a paper bag on his head to standing
flat-footed at the conclude of Wilder’s jab, Scott performed the
component of opponent and stepping stone, not decided challenger.
It really is way too terrible, since a
great effectiveness would have remaining Scott in placement to get far
more big fights. I thought he was robbed in his attract in opposition to
Vyacheslav Glazkov previous 12 months, and Glazkov’s victory above
Tomasz Adamek previously this yr has rocketed him up the rankings.
A rematch among Scott and Glazkov could
have attract a ton of curiosity. But following his functionality in
opposition to Wilder, nobody’s clamoring for Scott’s return now.