Bleacher Report - Articles by Rich Groves

Mikkel Kessler: Europe's Best Kept Secret

Rich Groves — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 11:35:01 -0500

It is a shame that American TV has not caught on to the European love for Mikkel Kessler. The only time that I can recall seeing him was his bout with Joe Calzaghe and it’s a bit unfair to be judged by a fight with the greatest fighter ever to come out of the Super Middleweight division.

That said I had the pleasure to see Kessler fight Danilo Haussler on the EuroSport network while on holiday in France. Kessler displayed a powerful jab, awesome right cross and his finishing salvo was nothing short of fantastic nearly sending his opponent in the air before coming down on his back.

He is extremely strong but what I was really impressed with was his boxing ability. I’m certain that any fighter would have trouble with his power, even Calzaghe was stunned a few times by Kessler’s right uppercut.

My mind drifted to the upcoming Jermain Taylor versus Jeff Lacey fight. These guys really need to prove their viability in the division. Lacey can be fun to watch showing flashes of Tyson-esque power but he seems to be having trouble even with B class opponents lately. During his fight with Joe Calzaghe, Calzaghe was able to reach in to Lacey’s soul and pull out his will to endure in a tough fight, a painful thing to watch.

Taylor on the other hand has the determination to win. He may have had issues with Kelly Pavlik, everyone else in the middleweight division has so this isn’t really such a black mark on his record. I don’t see how Lacey even stands a chance. Taylor is faster, a better tactician, and he has proved himself against a few greats beating Bernard Hopkins twice and fighting to a draw with Winky Wright.

I see Taylor resurrecting his jab, outboxing Lacey, cutting him, and having little trouble in the late rounds as he has been there many times before.

Once Taylor finishes with Lacey his next logical fight should be with Kessler. I am really looking forward to this. I hope HBO is smart and holds this in a major US venue to showcase what will be a fantastic battle ending in a knockout for Kessler. Is Kessler as good in reality as the busty blondes at ringside during his last bout think he is? I think so.

Long live Mikkel Kessler.

Roy Jones Jr.: On the Cusp of True Greatness

Rich Groves — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 09:40:17 -0400

Over a long and highly decorated career in boxing Roy Jones Jr. has had to take some harsh criticism. Many have questioned the quality of his opposition over the years simply due to the one-sided nature of most of his fights. I think we can see in retrospect that from his wins over Bernard Hopkins, James Toney, Felix Trinidad, Virgil Hill, and John Ruiz, just to name a few, that he has had the best opposition available to him.

As Jones enters the twilight of his career, his fights become more interesting, with unexpected outcomes. This has been historically true of all the all-time greats. From Muhammad Ali’s loss to Leon Spinks, and many touch-and-go wars toward the end of the great Sugar Ray Robinson’s career, we see that when a blazing-fast fighter slows down just a tad, wonderful battles that are good for boxing ensue.

When a fighter is able to pull a victory out of the fire of defeat is truly the measure of greatness. Look at Leonard’s first win over Tommy Hearns, Evander Holyfield’s fights with Riddick Bowe, his unexpected difficulty with Bert Cooper, and Ali’s win over Joe Frazier in the "Thrilla in Manilla" to see examples of what I am talking about.

As brutal as boxing is, we long to see great fighters in battles where years of their lives are left in the ring. With that said, Jones has not had the chance to transcend this magical barrier between an all-time great and an upper-echelon placement in the “all-time greats.” This is a distinction that is reserved for fighters like the ones that I have mentioned.

Jones’ crowning achievements over the years have been lopsided routes with some obviously overmatched good fighters. Even in Jones’ conquest of Ruiz, it was the weight that was Jones’ opponent, not Ruiz himself. Once he got back to light heavyweight, however, true chaos ensued.

Was it Jones slowing down with age, or was it truly the issues with moving back down in fighting weight? Antonio Tarver, a good fighter but not a great one, beat Jones in each of their three matches, including the first match that was scored for Jones. Then, of course, there was the debacle against Glen Johnson.

So after his relatively one-sided affair with Felix Trinidad, we have a Roy Jones who is an unknown. He demonstrated his amazing ring generalship and pot-shotting capability that made him great, but against a diminished threat in an old, easy-to-hit Trinidad who relies on a punch that didn’t likely make the journey to light heavy with him. Essentially, a fight completely made for Jones, on Jones' turf.

On Nov. 7, we will get the chance to witness Roy Jones Jr. versus another very good and certainly unique fighter in Joe Calzaghe. In this fight, each fighter has his own advantages. Calzaghe’s speed and work rate are his, while Jones’ advantage is that Calzaghe does not seem to have a true knockout punch.

In this fight you will see Calzaghe eclipse Jones' work rate and Jones hitting Calzaghe with fewer, but more effective punches. As the rounds go on, we will see a touch-and-go battle of Jones' ring generalship versus Calzaghe's speed and punch volume. This will make it difficult to predict the scoring, as some judges weight one over the other.

Toward the middle of the fight, Jones will realize that Joe has eclipsed his punch output and he will need to ask some very difficult questions of himself. What we are all waiting for is whether he will actually get an answer.

I believe he will, and we will begin to see the emergence of the second-coming of Roy Jones Jr. A fighter who realizes that his speed and agility have diminished some and must compensate by becoming a brilliant tactician.

Jones will get through the initial shock of Calzaghe’s speed and work rate and will eventually pound out a close points victory, something B-Hop was not able to do.

Bernard Hopkins: An All-Time Great

Rich Groves — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 20:22:47 -0400

Why has it taken me so long to like Bernard Hopkins?

I really can't put my finger on it. When the fight with Felix Trinidad was announced, I figured that Felix would flatten Bernard with his left hook. Bernard handled him without any trouble at all.

When Oscar De La Hoya signed to fight Bernard, I assumed that "The Golden Boy" would outbox him—Bernard leveled him with an amazing liver shot.

When he was beaten twice by Jermain Taylor, I somehow felt redeemed. I was reminded somewhat of Roy Jones outworking him in the early days. A few years after Bernards lost to Taylor, Roy Jones was leveled by Antonio Tarver which spurred the Hopkins-Tarver fight. I figured "If Tarver could do that to Roy, then Hopkins is no match."

After being proved wrong by his win over Tarver, Winky Wright and his closer than expected (by me) loss to Joe Calzaghe, he signed to fight Kelly Pavlik. I have no idea why this fight was made, but it seems that Larry Merchant hit it on the head when he mentioned greed. He out- punched AND out landed Kelly—I'm still shocked.

So I give up. I can't bet against this guy anymore. If he is as active against Jones (win or lose against Calzaghe,) he will beat him. These are powerful words coming from a big Roy Jones Jr. fan like myself.

He has beaten me into submission. An all time great that deserves to be up there with the likes of Marvin Hagler, Ray Robinson, Carlos Monzon, and the rest.

You won Bernard. Beating me doesn't make you any money, but you have another fan that will cheer loudly when you are inducted into the hall of fame.

A Prefight Analysis of Kelly Pavlik vs Bernard Hopkins

Rich Groves — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 03:07:43 -0400

I must admit when I heard that Kelly Pavlik the Middleweight Champiion of the world had decided to fight the great Bernard Hopkins I began to panic.

You see I am not particularly impartial, I am a big fan of Kelly Pavlik. He reminds me of a white Thomas Hearns but with a much better chin. These first years of Kelly's career as the middleweight king are probably the most important of his career. With this in mind why would you take any chances with a crafty all-time great at the end of his career?

I can only assume that Hopkins sees something much like Max Schmeling noticed the flaw in the armor of Joe Louis. Once Joe fired his powerful jab and began to pull it back to his guard he dropped it slightly on the way back. Schmeling was able to capitalize on this and knock Joe out with a series of amazing right hands over the lazy jab. Does Hopkins see a similar flaw?

This is really the only chance that Hopkins has. He cannot keep up with Kelly's workrate and frankly wont even try. He attempted to hang with Calzaghe which was the reason for his eventual loss. Kelly has a rock solid chin (when he isn't sticking it out for Jermain Taylor). Kelly always comes in in amazing condition I mean we've all seen the training regimen on the Countdown series.

Kelly has no chance to knockout Hopkins, or does he ? Lets think about this for a moment. Hopkins has fought and knocked out some historically big punchers. Both Felix Trinidad and Oscar De La Hoya attempted to remove the crown from Bernard and failed.

What is important to note here is that both were coming up in weight. Felix started his career at Welterweight and Oscar at Super Featherweight. Did they bring their power to the Middleweight division? It seems unlikely. Kelly on the other hand is a natural middleweight with a very strong punch. His frame is large enough to support much more weight so we shall see when he plateaus.

So does Bernard have much of a chance here? The statistics say no. He's brilliant, he's amazingly rough on the inside, but we all grow old sometime. And boxers generally grow old overnight.