The Hottest Boxing Storylines for the Week of April 10
The boxing calendar has finally heated up with a pair of significant fights this past weekend and a few more on tap for next weekend.
Your long winter of discontent is over, boxing fans.
We take aim at Manny Pacquiao's decisive win over Timothy Bradley in what may well prove to be the final fight of his illustrious career.
Did the future Hall of Famer show enough to continue fighting on?
Or should he call it quits and take the storybook ending that so often eludes us in boxing?
Next, we take a look at Anthony Joshua's big title win and try to sort through some of the competing ideas about where he's at in his career. Plus, what should come next for him?
Then we shift our gaze to the coming weekend, looking at Errol Spence Jr.'s stepping-up fight against Chris Algieri, Krzysztof Glowacki's first cruiserweight title defense and the return of Gary Russell Jr.
These are the hottest boxing storylines for the week!
Should Manny Pacquiao Fight On?
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The question of whether Pacquiao, fresh off his third victory over Bradley in the eyes of a substantial majority of the viewing public, should hang up the gloves is a ridiculous one.
We get it.
You're tired of the boxing era being dominated by Pacquiao and his longtime rival and one-time conqueror Floyd Mayweather Jr. You want the next generation to step up and establish a new crop of stars to take the torch into the next phase. Valid lines of argument, both.
But if you watched the fight Saturday night and took note of the ease with which Pacquiao dismantled Bradley, a top-tier fighter in his own right who was picked by many (including this writer) to finally get over the hump, and don't want at least one more fight, then I don't know what to say.
Pac-Man looked like a wholly different fighter than the one whom Mayweather nearly shut out a little less than one year ago. He was more aggressive, faster to the target and looked meaner in there, dropping Bradley to the canvas twice.
It wasn't the "old Pacquiao," but it was the closest we've come in many years. He left no doubt and left Bradley with no answers. By the end of the fight, Desert Storm looked discouraged and resigned that he was in there with the better man on this night and in this rivalry.
And he was, clearly.
You wouldn't want to see that version of Manny try to fend off a young buck such as Terence Crawford?
Pacquiao stated numerous times in his post-fight comments, both in the ring and at the press conference, that he had promised his family he'd retire and that was what he intended to do. But he did leave the door open for the possibility of a return, since he doesn't yet know what retired life will bring.
If Saturday night was his last hurrah, then it was the storybook ending that so rarely comes in boxing.
There's a reason for that. The allure of the ring is hard to resist.
Is Anthony Joshua Ready for Prime Time?
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Joshua's second-round implosion of Charles Martin to capture the IBF Heavyweight Championship on Saturday was every bit the impressive performance the towering Brit's fans and handlers were hoping to see.
He looked poised and sharp. That right hand? Wow.
Joshua showed once again that he has all the tools to one day be not just a champion but the champion of the heavyweight division.
We need to be careful, however, to not overrate or underrate his win over Martin.
There was a lot of chatter coming into this fight about its wild-card nature.
Joshua was viewed as one of the two most promising young talents in the division (alongside Kiwi Joseph Parker), but some felt that this fight could potentially prove too much too soon for him. Martin, despite his belt, was still largely unknown.
The American took the vacant (and meaningless in the grand picture) belt via injury over Vyacheslav Glazkov in a January fight where neither man showed much of anything special.
The guy walked into the O2 Arena with people legitimately debating whether he was some bum off the street or the potential reincarnation (hyperbole) of Sonny Liston. We just didn't know.
Joshua's quick demolition of the American was met with the typically schizophrenic responses from the hardcore fights fans of the Internet, affectionately known as "boxing Twitter," who labeled AJ anything from the greatest of all times to some bum who walked into an easy belt.
Can we pump the brakes and calm it down a notch, please, people?
This kid is the goods. He stuck an entire foot into the pool of big time on Saturday, and there's some serious talk about a fight at Wembley Stadium in the summer, but he still has a bit of developing to do.
Park your need for immediate gratification and enjoy the ride.
Can Errol Spence Take the Next Step?
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Spence gives every indication of being a blue-chip fighter.
He possesses tremendous natural speed, power and poise, running his way through the first 19 bouts of his professional career in impressive fashion. His nickname is "The Truth," and that's exactly what most smart boxing people believe him to be.
The 2012 American Olympian takes a huge leap in competition Saturday night, facing former 140-pound titlist Chris Algieri at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, on Premier Boxing Champions.
Algieri is a tough customer who has been in there with Pacquiao, Ruslan Provodnikov and Amir Khan. He fought the latter two at the Barclays Center, upsetting the Siberian Rocky (with one eye, literally) to capture a world title in 2014 and dropping a spirited (should've been closer) decision to Khan last year.
This is a real crossroads fight for both guys.
Spence is still a young man with a lot to prove. He looks like the goods, and he probably is, but a win over Algieri would do a lot to answer any lingering questions that remain about his upper-level potential. It would be a statement and the biggest win of his career.
Algieri remains a live dog, however. He's tricky and smart and would jump right back into the conversation in a crowded welterweight mix if he can score the upset.
The stakes are high for both men, which is exactly how fights (particularly those on network television) should be.
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What Will Krzysztof Glowacki's Follow-Up Be?
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Glowacki has a hell of a lot to live up to after his last fight.
The 29-year-old Pole, who was a huge underdog, fought in the United States for the first time and shocked veteran champion Marco Huck with a Round 11 knockout in blockbuster fight last August on PBC. Huck, who is a multi-time world champ, was attempting to break the cruiserweight division record for title defenses.
It was one of those fights that had to be seen to be believed. Boxing people were literally buzzing about it for days. Round 6 was named ESPN's Round of the Year, and it would have been Bleacher Report's Fight of the Year had Takashi Miura and Francisco Vargas not battered each other in a bloody war in November.
Not bad for a fight in a division that most fans usually ignore.
Glowacki burst on the scene with his performance that night, but now he needs to stay there. He defends his WBO Cruiserweight Championship against wily veteran, and former champ, Steve 'USS" Cunningham Saturday night in Connecticut.
Cunningham has recently been competing at heavyweight, where he was much less successful than during his heyday of winning a pair of titles a division below. This is probably his last shot to do something significant in the sport.
He's going to bring the action; the question is whether or not he'll be able to stand in there with the more powerful and younger champion. That didn't work out too well for Huck, so we have our doubts.
Will Gary Russell Jr. Get His Career Back on Track?
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Russell Jr. was long considered one of boxing's better prospects, but his slow pace of rising through the ranks rubbed many the wrong way and opened questions about his overall ability and confidence of his handlers.
A wide loss to Vasyl Lomachenko in his first world-title challenge added fuel to that fire.
But Russell made good in his second challenge for a title, blitzing veteran Jhonny Gonzalez and dropping him three times en route to a fourth-round stoppage and the WBC Featherweight Championship in March 2015. It was a prospect-made-good moment, but, unfortunately, it was the last time the Maryland native has been in the ring.
Russell was supposed to defend his title against Oscar Escandon in November but was forced to withdraw less than two weeks before the fight with a cut suffered in training. He faces Patrick Hyland, best known for once being a part of Team Snooki Boxing (yes, of Jersey Shore fame), Saturday night in Connecticut on Showtime.
Hyland is the definition of nothing special, but he'll do fine as an opponent for the returning champ who hasn't seen in-ring action in more than a year. That's a significant gap for a guy who seemed to be just hitting his stride.
Russell holds a featherweight title, and he's managed by Al Haymon, so should he win, big fights with significant stakes could follow.
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