10 Things We Learned From Boxing's Biggest Weekend Of 2010
This past weekend was hands-down the biggest weekend that the sport of boxing has seen for quite sometime. With so many great exciting/meaningful fights stacked up all weekend on both HBO and Showtime, all the fight fans had a lot to be happy for.
So to sum things up for all the fans, we will do a Top 10 list for the most important things we learned this weekend as boxing fans.
1. Hasegawa Is Back!
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Hozumi Hasegawa , Japan's biggest boxing star had a lot to fight for in his big comeback fight this weekend since his loss to Fernando Montiel. Hasegawa decided to come back hard by going up two whole weight classes to fight the undefeated Juan Carlos Burgos for the vacant WBC featherweight title.
Usually when fighters suffer a big knockout loss they often take a tune up or soft competition first in order to gain their composure and clear their heads, but not Hasegawa. He takes on the much larger undefeated heavy-handed Burgos and gives him the first loss of his career in an impressive unanimous decision performance.
Plus, you add the fact that Hasegawa recently lost his mother and that makes this an even more meaningful win.
The fact that Hasegawa took some clean hard power shots from the hands of Burgos may tell us that he was weight drained at bantamweight.
Many true fight fans were rallying at the brilliance that Hasegawa showed and are eagerly awaiting his big debut stateside.
2. Arthur Abraham May Be Too Small For 168.
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Carl Froch utterly dominated Arthur Abraham in an embarrassing shutout. Many envisioned Arthur's superior power to take control from the middle rounds, but his power was nowhere to be seen in this fight.
Abraham had no answer for Froch's basic jab all night.
With now two back-to-back one-sided losses, it may appear Arthur was either not in this tournament's league or he may just be simply too small for 168.
Even his own trainer ripped him a new one for such a humiliating performance in which he was reportedly calling his own fighter a coward.
Froch's girl could be heard screaming at the top of her lungs round after round nonstop cheering on her man and taunting Abraham which was so annoying it made you even prefer to listen to Jennifer Lopez sing, if you had the choice in which was worse.
3. OK, Froch's Girl Gets A Pass This Time
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Ok, Froch's girl gets a pass this time, especially when you look like that. But we will just be sure to have the finger on the mute button next time.
4. Andre Ward Needs To Fight Outside Of The Bay Area Next
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I am a big fan of the S.O.G., but lets keep it real; just as we criticize Lucian Bute, and those Houston fighters who get shady Houston decisions, we must equally criticize Ward for all of these hometown advantages. Is it really his fault? No, not at all. But when you have fought only in your backyard three times in a row in, what should be a neutral territory tournament even his own fans would want him to further prove himself as well.
I still have Ward winning the whole enchilada, but if he never fights outside of the Bay Area, even his biggest fans would have to start scratching their heads.
5. Jason Litzau Made Us One Step Closer To Lopez VS Gamboa
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With the huge upset win of Litzau over an overly cocky, less prepared yet superior boxer ,Celestino Caballero, we should all give Litzau his props. Many of us counted Litzau out and wrote him off before these two even touched gloves, but he proved all of us wrong. With all his heart and determination he earned his biggest win of his career.
More importantly we are now a big step closer towards the super fight that everyone wants to see Juan Manuel Lopez vs. Yuriorkis Gamboa. With Caballero constantly calling out both of these guys he was the major road block preventing the real fight that everyone wanted to see.
Now that Caballero's stock took such a nose dive after getting outworked by Litzau, we do not have to sit through him fighting either Lopez or Gamboa anymore.
Thank you Jason! Sorry we doubted you. Keep up the great work!
6. Andre Berto Is The Rodney Dangerfield Of Boxing: No Respect.
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Andre Berto is still not getting any love from HBO, the media and the fans.
Despite being an undefeated WBC champion and defending it now five times, everyone seems to deny him his due.
With his first round destruction of his opponent, Hernandez Saturday, many began to say, "who was that guy who just got knocked out verses...wow Berto is a bad man."
Berto should start unifying and racking up all the belts so that his stock will continue to rise and the elite must face him should they want any of the titles.
7. Juan Manuel Marquez VS Michael Katsidis Is The Fight Of The Year
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On Twitter I was talking to the legendary Brian Kenny of ESPN fame. I will paraphrase what we said, but basically he was saying something to the degree that when watching the fights going on Showtime vs HBO there's a huge difference that he saw flipping back and forth.
I then replied that Showtime generally has the more exciting fights where HBO has the higher production value.
He then replied something to the tune that Showtime also has the more exciting main event and co-main events as well back-to-back.
But then, of course, the bell rang for Marquez vs. Katsidis and this fight pretty much owned anything that Showtime showed this year.
With a fight of the year worthy performance by both Juan Manuel Marquez and Michael Katsidis Saturday night it was nothing short of beautiful. All action non stop with some intellectual technical brilliance coming from the master boxer Marquez.
Any fight that goes back and forth, up and down and has the great Marquez get knocked down only to get back up and destroy his opponent is going to win fight of the year.
Many consider Marquez vs Pacquiao 1 & 2 the most exciting fights of Juan's career mostly due to him again coming back up from a vicious knockdown to fight fire with fire.
8. Marquez Wants The Third Pacquiao Fight Badly
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Juan Manuel Marquez utilized his big win over Michael Katsidis this weekend as a PR stunt to bait the sport's number one pound-for-pound fighter.
With his team wearing taunting t-shirts that read everything from: "I Beat Pacquiao Twice" to "Pacquiao You're Next", it was more than enough to rile up the Mexican fans into supporting him and backing him into a rubber match with Manny.
As a fan of both Marquez and Pacquiao, I could not be more happy that this fight may come up next should Mayweather continue to be "un-reachable" according to Bob Arum.
9. The Showtime Super Middleweight Tournament Is Too Confusing
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As Froch defeated Abraham many fight fans were now more confused than before. Ok, so what does this mean exactly? Is Abraham eliminated? Where does Froch stand?
Then Ward defeats Bika, but it was a stay busy fight not even part of the tournament?
Then to make things worse, even the Showtime commentators did not even know what exactly was going on. They were saying, "ummm I believe this means..."
Come on Showtime, get your act together or at least educate your commentators so they can inform us where all the tournament fighters now stand.
At least Showtime has learned from this tournament right away and their second tournament, the Bantamweight tournament, is simply a single elimination tournament. Which means if you lose, you are out of the tournament.
We the fight fans appreciate you putting together these wonderful tournaments, but yes, single elimination is definitely the way to go!
10. This Weekend Is What Boxing Needs To Keep On Doing
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This weekend is what boxing needs to keep on doing in order to get back on top where it belongs.
With so many casual fans complaining that there are not enough exciting and meaningful fights going on, this weekend would have been the weekend to convert a casual fight fan into a real fan.
Not every Saturday can we have Manny Pacquiao destroy another man who outweighs him by 25 pounds.
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