The Hottest Boxing Storylines for the Week of November 29
The king has been toppled!
There's a new sheriff in town!
The dragon has been slain!
We could go on and on (and believe me, we were tempted) because the heavyweight division, long the dominion of Wladimir Klitschko, has a new man at the top of the mountain.
Tyson Fury, the brash-talking British behemoth, did exactly what he said he'd do, winning the mental game and the heavyweight championship of the world in what has to be considered a stunning upset.
We ponder whether he won the fight or Wlad just didn't have it anymore.
Spoiler alert: It's the former.
Then we move on to what comes next for uber-prospect Errol Spence Jr. and the upcoming card at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, that features Daniel Jacobs vs. Peter Quillin for a middleweight title, Jesus Cuellar and Chris Algieri.
These are the hottest boxing storylines for the week!
Did Tyson Fury Win, or Did Wladimir Klitschko Lose?
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Some people will completely dismiss Fury's heavyweight championship win over Klitschko as more about what the former champion couldn't do than what the new champion could.
That's the definition of unfair.
Klitschko, who was attempting to make a 19th consecutive defense of his title, looked beyond dreadful. He was lethargic, completely unwilling to engage and looked ridiculous raising his hands in victory when the final bell rang. It was the worst performance of his career by a long way.
But a lot of that had to do with what Fury was able to accomplish in the ring. He was physically larger and lengthier than Wlad, which prevented the future Hall of Famer from bullying or forcing him to come in and engage on his terms.
For more than a decade, the book on Klitschko was that you needed to get inside and land big shots to knock him out (his three previous defeats had come via stoppage), and most foes found that a virtually impossible task, eating punishing jabs and laser right hands that deterred or stopped them on their way inside.
Klitschko's punch output was astoundingly low—he landed just 52 of 231 punches, per CompuBox, for an average of just over four landed per round and under 20 thrown—and most (if not all) of that had to do with Fury being bigger and Wlad simply not being able to bully him around. He fought timid and scared for most of the fight, unwilling to take risks or pull the trigger against a bigger man.
Fury wasn't pretty, but he did the job. He outboxed the supposedly invincible and long-reigning champ, taking his title and reinvigorating a division that has long been dormant.
Taking away his credit for that is the height of unfair.
Is It Time for Errol Spence Jr. to Step It Up?
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Spence Jr. used to be the top prospect in boxing, but he's past that now.
This kid is the goods.
That might be high praise, but the 25-year-old Texan has earned it with performances in the ring, including Saturday afternoon's impressive stoppage win over Alejandro Barrera on Premier Boxing Champions on NBC.
Spence has already proved to be must-see TV with just 18 fights under his belt, but you have to think that his time for stepping up is rapidly approaching. None of this should be interpreted as a criticism (moving along young fighters slowly and gradually is usually good business) but simply as pointing out the kid is ready for prime time.
His win over Barrera was in an IBF eliminator, so that lines him up for a potential shot at Kell Brook in the near future. Whether or not that's a fight Spence's promoters or manager (he's managed by Al Haymon) would want right away remains to be seen.
Spence is already a top-10 fighter in the welterweight division, and since he's ready for the Keith Thurmans, Shawn Porters and Amir Khans of the world, why not give him one by the end of next year? Let the kid really shake things up.
And for his next bout, how about Lamont Peterson? That's a good challenge and a good measure of whether or not all this high praise is deserved.
Will Jacobs or Quillin Rule Brooklyn?
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Jacobs and Quillin will do battle for a largely meaningless belt in a nonetheless significant fight in the main event Saturday night at the Barclays Center on Showtime.
The two middleweight punchers are good friends outside of the ring, but once the bell rings, as the promotional materials tell us, one will fight his way to leaving with both Brooklyn (or its support, at least) and the "regular" WBA Middleweight Championship.
The real title (though who the hell knows with the way the WBA throws around belts) currently lives with Gennady Golovkin, but, once again, see above for our thoughts on the WBA and its championship policy.
Jacobs is one of the most inspirational stories in all of sports.
He was diagnosed with a life-threatening bone cancer in May 2011 (the tumor wrapped itself around his spine), and it wasn't certain that he'd even live, much less walk or fight again. He battled the disease successfully and returned to the ring, becoming the first cancer survivor to win a world title in August 2014.
Quillin is a former WBO middleweight champion. He voluntarily ceded the belt, and a career-high payday, to pursue bigger-name opponents. That plan didn't go exactly as planned (he fought to a draw with Andy Lee and knocked out criminally overmatched Michael Zerafa in September), and this is a huge opportunity for him to regain relevance in the 160-pound division.
The belt they're fighting for doesn't have much meaning, but Jacobs vs. Quillin is definitely an exciting middleweight fight between a pair of big punchers. It should have no problem meeting expectations, and the winner will get some bonus points in the crowded second-tier middleweight ranks.
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Who Sticks out in the Crowded Featherweight Mix?
4 of 5Cuellar burst on the scene with a two-round blitz of punchy former world champion Juan Manuel Lopez in September 2014. He's scored two more knockouts since, felling Ruben Tamayo and faded former champ Vic Darchinyan in his most recent fight.
He defends his WBA Featherweight Championship against Jonathan Oquendo Saturday night in the exciting co-featured bout of the Showtime telecast from the Barclays Center.
Oquendo earned this opportunity by outpointing former champ Jhonny Gonzalez (in what was supposed to be the Mexican's comeback fight) on the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Andre Berto televised pay-per-view undercard. The 32-year-old Puerto Rican overcame a knockdown in the opening round, dropping Gonzalez in the second and winning by scorecards that should have been wider.
Both Cuellar and Oquendo are high-activity fighters, and both can punch, so this has the potential to be an exhilarating matchup and give the winner opportunities for high-level contests in the future.
The featherweight division is brimming with talent, and the winner here should push toward the front of the line for the many lucrative fights it offers—especially with so many of those fighters campaigning under Haymon's banner.
Can Chris Algieri Rebound?
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Algieri returns to action as part of Showtime Championship Boxing at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn Saturday night. His bout against Erick Bone will be on the non-televised portion of the card.
The 31-year-old former junior welterweight titlist has dropped two fights in a row and will be looking to get his career back on the right track against the decent but largely unspectacular Columbian, whom Shawn Porter knocked out in five rounds in March.
Algieri captured a world title with a gutsy win over Ruslan Provodnikov in 2014 followed by an embarrassing loss (he was dropped six times) to Manny Pacquiao on HBO pay-per-view just a little over a year ago. He brought in John David Jackson as his new coach and showed immediate gains in his next fight.
Amir Khan was able to squeak out a decision in a fight that was closer (particularly early in the fight) than the official scorecards seemed to indicate, and the Long Island native showed noticeable improvements in his power and level of aggression.
The early returns with a new trainer were good, and Algieri will hope to continue that improvement and get back in the win column against an opponent who seems perfectly suited for the task.
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