Dawson happy to be back with Scully, ready to regain title!‏

"Bad" Chad Dawson addressed the media today via international conference call along with his trainers John "Iceman" Scully and Ronald "Winky" Wright in promotion for his upcoming fight against Light Heavyweight Champion Bernard Hopkins.

Boxing fans will remember Wright and Scully for their many in the ring exploits but now both former fighters are turning their attention towards training former champion Chad Dawson as he prepares to face Bernard "The Executioner" Hopkins on October 15th in a fight for Hopkins' Light Heavyweight Championship.

Dawson answered several questions about his recent decision to switch trainers for the fight. When the fight was initially signed, Dawson was with the legendary Emanuel Stewart. Last month, Dawson surprised the boxing world when he announced that he was parting ways with Stewart and had decided to go with one of his former trainers, John Scully as the new lead trainer. Dawson described the decision as a "great move" and emphasized the fact that he feels most comfortable working with Scully, who trained him back in 2004-2005 for Dawson's fights against Darnell Wilson, Carl Daniels, and Efrain Garcia.

Trainer John Scully describes the initial split with Dawson as "nothing personal" and seemed excited to be back with Team Dawson. Dawson went on to say that he regretted ever parting ways with John Scully in the first place and described the brief period of time that they did work together as the time that he was most happy, "And now it's like we've picked up right where we left off."

Dawson talked about how in the past few years he had grown into a "bored fighter" and described the trainer switch to Scully as just what he needed bring the best out of him. Asked what he brings to the table as an advantage over the 46 years old Hopkins, Dawson described himself as "younger and faster with better legs."

Though not known as a knockout artist, Dawson actually did say that he thinks he can hurt Bernard and get Hopkins "outta there" but he stopped short of predicting a KO victory, instead predicting a twelve round unanimous decision victory over Hopkins. As for how he hopes to achieve that against a fighter as cagy and experienced as Hopkins, Dawson stated that he wants to throw somewhere between a thousand and twelve hundred punches against Hopkins, "If Hopkins throws 30 punches a round, we want to throw 80."

Hear all of what Chad Dawson, John Scully, and Winky Wright had to say by hitting play below.

Chad Dawson battles Bernard Hopkins for the Light Heavyweight Championship of the World on October 15th on HBO PPV.

Does the name Jack Obermayer RING a bell?

KO JO

(Jeffrey Freeman, KO Digest) A week or so ago I was going through some of my old Ring Magazines, long forgotten issues from the 80's. In the back of the magazine was a feature I always liked called Rings Around the World, or Ringside Reports which was basically as described, reports from fight cards across the country and around the world. As I was reading them on my trip down memory lane, I came across a name I had long forgotten about.

Jack Obermayer.

Jack was a boxing reporter who did hundreds of these reports and he had a style of doing them I really enjoyed. Jack was funny, occasionally sarcastic, and he made really good reports. He was definitely a favorite of mine. At that moment, I literally thought to myself,  "I wonder whatever happened to Jack Obermayer?"

A week or so later, The Boxing Universe gave me the answer. Last Wednesday night when I was covering the fights up in Manchester, NH for Knockout Digest, take a guess who was suddenly sitting right next to me in press row? You guessed it, none other than Jack Obermayer. I could not believe it!

More than a coincidence I thought, The Secret applied to the boxing world.

Jack needed a little help with his computer and a few other things and so I was  glad to help him, honored in fact. I told him how much I always enjoyed his work, and that I had just recently been wondering whatever happened to him and so he filled me in on some recent details of his life and I was surprised to find out we had quite a few things in common, more than just boxing. Jack no longer reports for The RING but he was there covering the fights and collecting stats for a boxing website (fightfax.com) that currently employs his statistical talents, and meticulous attention to detail. As the night went on it was a treat to be seated next to him and it was great to chat boxing with a true old school boxing guy like Jack Obermayer! A statistical prodigy, Jack knew exactly how many boxing cards he'd been to in his entire life, on this night: 3,307 to be precise. Jack also told me that he likes boxing trivia and so I said, "Hit me with your best shot Jack!"

Here was his trivia question to me: Since Liston-Patterson, name the five heavyweight champions who weighed less than 200 pounds when they won the title. Now keep in mind, he told me that this was not limited to linear champs, and just about anyone who ever held a heavyweight title belt would apply for the answer, so long as they weighed less than 200 pounds for the fight.

Bible of KO

I got 4 out of 5 of the correct answers. For the record, the answer is Michael Spinks, Leon Spinks, Roy Jones, Jimmy Ellis, and the one I didn't get, Ernie Terrell, which pretty much means that I don't know Jack!

10th Annual "Fight to Educate" with Gerry Cooney!

KO Digest was live at the Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester, NH for what promised to be an entertaining & charitable evening of professional boxing. The card was headlined by undefeated 2008 US Olympian Demetrius Andrade who took on the challenge of rugged veteran Saul Duran in a 10 round junior middleweight contest. Duran twice challenged for a world title in his career and holds a recent win over Hector Camacho. Andrade is coming off a win over Grady Brewer on ESPN's Friday Night Fights.

KO Digest caught up with former heavyweight contender Gerry Cooney prior to the start of the fights. Cooney was in attendance along with former champs Vinny Pazienza and John Ruiz for the fundraising portion of the evening. Hit play below to hear all of what Gentleman Gerry had to say! And be sure to catch Gerry along with Randy Gordon on SIRIUS radio talking boxing on Friday nights from 7-9pm!





Fight to Educate Results:

Demetrius Andrade KO3 Saul Duran (junior middleweights) The favored Andrade did what he was supposed to do tonight, he won handily and looked pretty good doing it, against admittedly limited opposition. Duran was down in the second and then down again in the third. Mercifully, his corner stopped the fight between rounds and so it was No Mas for Duran who did not come out for the fourth round.  Andrade improves to 15-0 w/ 10 KO's while Duran falls to 38-19-2 w/ 31KOs. All in all a good performance for Andrade who mixed his punches up well to the head and body. Said Andrade after the fight, "My plan was to use the jab, and go to the body. But he made me mad at the weigh-in so I came out aggressively. I hope to fight one more time this year." 

Saul Duran upsetting Boo Boo Andrade!

Jose Medina KO2 Anibal Acevedo (middleweights) In this scheduled 6 round co-main event, Stinger Medina controlled the first and then dropped the 40 year old Acevedo in the 2nd with a hard right hand. Acevedo beat the count and survived the round but his handlers stopped it in the corner, to the surprise of the crowd. Medina improves to 15-9-1 w 7 KOs while Acevedo falls to 13-8-1 w/ 11KOs. 

Danny O'Connor KO1 Jamal Del Cid (junior welterweights) The Irish Danny O'Connor dropped the grossly outclassed Del Cid in a heap with a combo to the head and body. Time of TKO 1:20 of round 1. O'Connor improves 15-1 w/ 4 KOs, Del Cid falls to 7-6 w 3 KO's.  O'Connor is trained by Ronnie Shields.

Dan Powers W4 Luis Rosario (featherweights) Powers busier through four rounds as both fighters fought on the inside the whole fight. Powers improves to 4-0 w/ 2 KOs while Rosario slips to 4-16 w 2 KOs. 40-36 on all three judge's cards. Neither fighter hurt in this decent, entertaining scrap.

 Chris Gilbert KO1 Noel Garcia (welterweights) In the evening opener, Chris Gilbert stopped Noel Garcia with a right uppercut in the first round. Time of the KO 1:33 of the 1st. Gilbert improves to 2-0 w/ 2 KOs while Garcia quite literally falls to 2-12-1 w/ 1 KO. Garcia beat the count but was on wobbly legs and was ruled unfit to continue by the referee.



Proceeds from tonight's card will go to benefit the SEE Science Center, The Bobby Stephen Fund for Education and Saint Joseph Community Services and their Meals on Wheels program.

Kiss Me Deadly - Floyd Mayweather KO's Victor Ortiz

By Jeffrey Freeman

Protect yourself at all times.

It's a simple rule of boxing as old as the sport itself and Victor Ortiz simply failed to follow it. That lapse in judgement cost him his WBC Welterweight Championship last night in Las Vegas as Floyd Mayweather stayed undefeated with an emphatic fourth round KO. 

Floyd Mayweather won the first three rounds easily with his amazing defensive prowess and lead right hands. In the fourth, Victor had some success mauling Mayweather on the ropes but then in an act of sheer frustration, a vicious Ortiz flagrantly lunged at Mayweather's face with his head. Referee Joe Cortez immediately took a point from an overly apologetic Ortiz, but then seemed to lose control of the fight following this call.

As the fighters came face to face to resume the action following a command of "let's go!" from Cortez, Ortiz must not have been finished apologizing. Big mistake! Ortiz went to hug Mayweather again, and Mayweather, who had already been kissed by the overly apologetic Ortiz, hit Ortiz with a left hook and then a straight right which sent Ortiz crashing to the canvas as Joe Cortez looked away with a confused look on his face. Ortiz, badly hurt, failed to beat the count and Mayweather had a KO win, which he guaranteed in the buildup to the fight.

It might not have been the classiest move but it was perfectly legal and Floyd was well within in rights to take advantage of the inexperience and naivete of the young Ortiz. Floyd definitely did not like being headbutted but he seemed to dislike being kissed by Ortiz even more. So he kissed him back. With his fists.

Things then got very ugly after the fight as Mayweather verbally assaulted HBO's Larry Merchant in the ring. Mayweather assailed the 80 year old Merchant with a verbal tirade fit for an internet message board. It was truly disgraceful.

To his credit, Victor Ortiz was classy and respectful after the fight. He made no excuses and called the fight a learning experience. For a guy who just got his ass kicked in front of millions of people, Ortiz handled it pretty well.

The quote of the night, hands down, belonged to a bemused Larry Merchant, who responded to Floyd Mayweather's ugly post-fight tirade by saying, "I wish I was 50 years younger, and I'd kick your ass!"

With his ugly verbal assault against HBO's Larry Merchant, Floyd Mayweather effectively closed whatever remained  of the gap between boxing's historic civil discourse and the kind of gutter level trash talk that permeates most boxing message boards these days. All that was left for Floyd Jr. to do was call Merchant a Victor Ortiz "nuthugger" and a "Pactard."

Mayweather vs Ortiz Preview & Prediction‏

They say that history repeats itself, and in the case of Floyd Mayweather against Victor Ortiz, history's repetition might be right on time for those doomed to repeat it. Twenty years ago this past February, Terry Norris defeated Sugar Ray Leonard by unanimous decision and with that unexpected victory he catapulted himself to boxing superstardom and began a lengthy run on top that included victories over Donald Curry, Meldrick Taylor, and Simon Brown just to name a few. Ironically, Norris' own inevitable fall from the top would be most terrible of all but for Leonard, the defeat was his first since Roberto Duran in 1980, it was his first official in-ring thrashing, and he would never win another boxing match; fighting only once more in an embarrassing KO loss to Hector Camacho six years later.

Fast forward twenty years to the present, and it's very nearly the same situation Floyd Mayweather is facing against the 24 year old Victor Ortiz.

There are many obvious parallels between Sugar Ray Leonard and Floyd Mayweather Jr. as fighters, but there are also some interesting parallels between Leonard's 1991 fight against Terry Norris and Mayweather's September 17th fight against Victor Ortiz. In February of 1991, Sugar Ray Leonard was coming off a 14 month layoff following his December 1989 victory over Roberto Duran in their anticlimactic rubber match. Terry Norris was chosen by the 33 year old Sugar Ray Leonard as his latest comeback opponent because he was considered to be a beatable, but legitimate young gun. The 23 year old Norris was not particularly well known at this time but he was the WBC Super Welterweight Champion, and had recently knocked out John "The Beast" Mugabi in stunning fashion. Not long before that however, Norris was himself knocked out by the hard punching Julian Jackson. It was the type of loss that could have easily shattered his confidence as a fighter.

From Ray Leonard's perspective, Terry Norris was a safe fight that he was expected to win, but also a fight that would test his ability to hang with a young and hungry boxing champion. For Leonard it was a bit like fighting a younger version of himself. A win over the upstart Norris would prove to Leonard and to the boxing world that Sugar Ray was still sweet.



Like Leonard, Floyd Mayweather is coming off a similar layoff. Mayweather is 34 years old, and facing a WBC Welterweight Champion ten years his junior. In his last fight 15 months ago, Floyd was rocked in the second round by a past-his-prime Sugar Shane Mosley but to his credit, Mayweather bounced back, dominated the rest of the fight and won easily. Mayweather has not fought a young hungry lion like Ortiz since 2007 when he dispatched a then undefeated Ricky Hatton in ten rounds. Mayweather is likewise expected to win against Ortiz, who can be seen like Norris was, as a safe but legitimate - handpicked opponent - who should test him and prepare him for a Superfight against Manny Pacquiao. Ortiz, like Norris in 1991, has a devastating loss on his record to go along with a recent big win. If the 2009 Marcos Maidana defeat took Victor Ortiz to hell, the Andre Berto victory brought him from hell and then back.



And so it goes that Victor Ortiz now stands on the threshold of a victory that would redeem him in every imaginable way. A victory over Mayweather would make Ortiz an instant star, he would most likely sweep all the major year end boxing awards, and a win over one of boxing's biggest stars would go a long way towards earning forgiveness for boxing's gravest sin, quitting in the ring as he did against Marcos Maidana in 2009 and then infamously declaring afterwards, "I'm not gonna go out on my back. I'd rather stop while I'm ahead so I can speak well when I'm older. I'm young but I don't think I deserve to be getting beat up like that."

If Ortiz beats Mayweather, his critics will have to take a second look at the Maidana fight and consider the possibility that by "quitting" to avoid serious injury, Ortiz in effect preserved himself as a fighter and by doing so actually made it possible to take advantage of the bigger opportunities when they ultimately came knocking on his door. Against Andre Berto, Ortiz answered the knock of that opportunity and won the WBC Welterweight Championship, a title belt that Ortiz truly coveted. Opportunity is again knocking for Victor Ortiz, this time very loudly against Floyd Mayweather.

Will Ortiz answer the door this time, knowing what lies behind it?


Can he beat one of the two best fighters in boxing?

Conventional wisdom says no. Las Vegas odds say no. And Floyd Mayweather Jr. will probably have something to say about it too. Still, if you follow boxing long enough, you realize that no fighter is invincible and that time catches up to even the very best of them. There is always somebody out there with your number. Mike Tyson had his Buster Douglas. Julio Cesar Chavez had his Frankie Randall. Sugar Ray Leonard realized this painful truth in 1991 when Terry Norris beat him up and humiliated him. A 35 year old Roy Jones Jr realized it against Antonio Tarver in 2004, and the unbeaten 32 year old Aaron Pryor realized it against Bobby Joe Young in 1987. Father time finally caught up to Ray Leonard and when it happened, Terry Norris was in the right place at the right time to take advantage of it. Granted, Leonard was not undefeated when he fought Norris but at that time he had yet to be truly humbled in the ring by a fighter he was expected to beat.

By continuing to push his luck in the most unforgiving of sports, there is now an air of vulnerability for Mayweather just as there was for Leonard in 1991.

So what will happen on fight night? Will history repeat itself? The feeling here is that it will. Floyd Mayweather is a great fighter but time will finally catch up to him as it does for everyone and he will realize very early in the fight that he made a terrible mistake by fighting so infrequently against naturally smaller opponents as he got older. He will learn why so few fighters are able to stay undefeated forever. He will come face to face with the fact that boxing is a young man's game. Mayweather's layoff, combined with his inactivity and advanced age will create the perfect situation for young Victor Ortiz to take advantage of, and Victor will seize the moment and do just that.

Prediction: A highly motivated and vicious Victor Ortiz staggers a declining Floyd Mayweather early to get his respect, drops him midway through the fight, and goes on to pound out a clear cut unanimous decision victory over Floyd Mayweather. Mayweather will have his moments in the fight, but the night will belong to Victor Ortiz, who recently stated that he wants to fight the best Floyd Mayweather possible on September 17th. No he doesn't. The best Floyd Mayweather beats him and does so with relative ease just as the best Sugar Ray Leonard would have most certainly beaten Terry Norris. But that wasn't the best Sugar Ray Leonard in 1991 and neither will Mayweather be at his best come September 17th. A dominant performance by Ortiz will come as a great surprise to many just as it did 20 years ago when Terry Norris manhandled the great Sugar Ray Leonard.

For Mayweather, it will be his first loss and a test of his greatness in terms of how he responds to it. For Ortiz, it will be the biggest win of his young career, it will position him for another huge fight, perhaps against Manny Pacquiao but most importantly for Ortiz, a win will mean true redemption.

To the Victor go the spoils.



Result: (9/18/11) Mayweather KO4 Ortiz. Protect yourself at all times! 

Leonard-Norris it certainly wasn't!

Title Bout: Marvelous Marvin Hagler vs Robbie Sims

Hagler stalks Sims

In this scheduled 12-round "Title Bout" fantasy fight billed as "Sibling Rivalry" - reigning middleweight champion Marvin Hagler took on the unorthodox challenge of his half brother Robbie Sims. Hagler was coming off his 1986 title defense against John Mugabi and Sims was coming off his 1986 victory over Roberto Duran.

The 12-round championship fight was scheduled for New Years Day 1987 at the historic Boston Garden. It was the first time in boxing history that two brothers would be fighting for a major title. Like a bad car crash, people just could not help but watch. 

Hagler came out guns-a-blazing in the 1st and he pounded his younger half brother like an overused sparring partner. Sims was dazed from shots to the head and entered the second round vulnerable to his brother's superior power.

Incredibly, instead of folding in the 2nd, Sims stood his ground and staggered Hagler with an uppercut, the first of several that Sims would sneak in throughout the fight to good effect. Sims also proved there was no love lost between he and Hagler as he went low midway through the round, and received a warning to keep the punches up. Hagler, stupefied that his own brother would not only hurt him but hit him low, came roaring back in the second half of the 2nd and staggered Sims with a powerful left hook.

Brother vs 1/2 Brother

Hagler came out quickly in the 3rd and landed a nice combination of punches that caused Sims to buckle. With Hagler pounding on his wounded prey, and with the ref looking closely at the action, Sims landed a desperation uppercut that again hurt Hagler and this time held him off from finishing Sims. The brothers are now going at it, like brothers!

The 4th was dead even as Sims held his own punch for punch against his brother. Hagler won the 5th and continued to build a comfortable lead on the cards. In the 6th, Hagler was warned for rabbit punching as he roughed his brother up inside and won the round easily.

The 7th was a big round for Hagler, who began to really put the punches together. Fatigue began to set in for Sims in the 8th and again Hagler was beginning to tee off on his brother when once again, Sims somehow found an opening for his uppercut and staggered his half brother with it twice to close the round and win it on the scorecards, taking his first round of the fight.

Sims started the 9th tired and punched out. Hagler took advantage and put together a combination that dropped Sims along the ropes more from pure exhaustion than from the actual punches. Still, Sims is badly hurt but family pride pulls him to his feet at 9. Hagler cannot believe it and moves in for the kill, ending the fight fittingly with a devastating uppercut that drops Sims in a corner where is he counted out at 1:56 of the 9th round.

Marvin Hagler retains his title as Undisputed Middleweight Champion of the Family!

Said Hagler afterwards, "I still love my brother but I'll destroy any man who tries to take my title away from me."



Result: Marvin Hagler KO9 Robbie Sims
Scores at the time of KO: 89-83, all three judges.
Time of KO: 1:56 of Round 9

Boxing vs MMA: Yahoo's Kevin Iole weighs in!

Very few people cover Boxing and MMA. Yahoo Sport's Kevin Iole is one of them. Today, Iole was a guest on the RingTV radio show hosted by Doug Fischer and Michael Rosenthal.

Iole spoke at length about the upcoming Floyd Mayweather-Victor Ortiz fight before turning his attention to MMA. Through the fine folks at RingTV and their use of Facebook, I was able to ask Iole what he considers to be the biggest difference as well as the biggest similarity between the two sports.



Click play below to hear all of what Kevin Iole had to say about Boxing and MMA.

Berto stops Zaveck in 5, answers critics.

BILOXI, MS ~ Andre Berto returned to the ring last night for the first time since his decision loss last April to Victor Ortiz. Berto stopped the game but overmatched Jan Zaveck after five rounds when Zaveck could no longer see clearly through a swollen, badly cut right eye. It was a must-win situation for Berto and he got the job done in a fight where a loss would have been a devastating setback to his career, and to his marketability as a fighter. Berto answered his critics with a strong entertaining performance, despite the fact that Zaveck appeared to be turning the tide when his right eye was cut and nearly closed in the 5th, forcing the stoppage.

Berto took the first three rounds with his speed, athleticism, and aggressiveness. He hit Zaveck at will to the head and body, and took little in return from the defending champion. It appeared that Zaveck had no answer for Berto and would be lucky to go the distance. Things changed in the forth however when Berto appeared to slow down a bit and the fighting went to the inside, where Zaveck was surprisingly effective at hitting Berto with many good rights to the head, winning the round convincingly. The fifth was similar to the fourth for Zaveck except for the fact that Berto opened a nasty gash over Zaveck's right eye which nearly swelled shut.

The cut, combined with the swelling caused Zaveck's corner to stop the fight between rounds. Zaveck wanted to continue although it appeared he was having difficulty seeing out of either eye, both of which were cut. It was a good stoppage, and a good win for Berto who picked up the IBF welterweight title, and kept himself firmly in the mix at welterweight. After the fight, Berto called out Victor Ortiz for a rematch, which seems like a natural given how excellent their first fight was.

"Victor Ortiz and I can definitely do it again."

Monday Morning Recap: Good comeback win for Berto. He fought his fight for the first three rounds, looked pretty good doing it, and then overcame the determined advances of Zaveck to win the thing. Good fight, good showing by BOTH fighters. Definitely was punches that busted up and opened up Zaveck's face. No headbutts, and no controversy as claimed by some. Berto really put a whoopin on Jan in the last half of the 5th. In the corner after the 5th, Zaveck knows how badly he is injured, and how much jeopardy he and his title are in at that moment. He screams out in frustration over it, and at one point when they have an endswell over his right eye, a panicked look comes over his left eye that tells me he could not see out of that one either. Good stoppage by Team Zaveck. (9/5/11)

Ring Posts II

Welcome to the second installment of my monthly boxing column, Ring Posts! Here is where you will find my latest rants on a variety of fight related subjects that got my attention in the past month.

People often ask where Manny Pacquiao ranks alongside the all time greats? Could he have beaten Henry Armstrong? Was his punching power greater than that of Roberto Duran? I always say the same thing when I hear questions like that: Manny Pacquiao is currently too polarizing a figure in the boxing landscape and I refuse to discuss him and his place in history until after he retires, and some proper perspective can be gained.

There was a lot of talk after the Abner Mares-King Kong Agbeko low-blow fiasco about some of the worst referees throughout the history of boxing. Doug Fischer of Ring Magazine came up with a great list covering the worst offenders of the past decade but you have to go all the way back to 1995 and the brutal Nigel Benn-Gerald McClellan fight to point the finger at Alfred Asaro for "worst referee" in recent memory. His negligence and his incompetence did not cost a fighter a title, or the fans a good fight. It cost Gerald McClellan his career and very nearly his life. If you don't believe me, go watch the tape. It's sickening.

Young boxing fans who were born too late sometimes ask why Muhammad Ali ended up the way he did. They see a man who can barely speak, and wonder how could this be the greatest of all time? The answer is simple really. It's because in the ring, Ali was willing to sacrifice his body and his mind for the HONOR & GLORY of being remembered as the greatest heavyweight champion of all time, and one of the greatest fighters who ever lived. Because he was the exact opposite of Victor Ortiz in the Marcos Maidana fight, and because Ali was willing to die inside the ring. Ali knew that his body was only a temporary vessel and he was more than willing to run that race car into the red, and beyond. Because Muhammad Ali was willing to pay the high price for true greatness. That's why.



Having a great chin is not always about not going down, but rather how you respond when you do go down. Because of this, Larry Holmes deserves special consideration for all the monster shots he sponged up without going down, and more importantly for the monster shots that did drop him but failed to keep him down. Ernie Shavers and Renaldo Snipes both dropped Holmes with HARD shots and Larry got up like nothing happened and went on to win those fights by KO. Shots like the ones that decked Holmes would knock out inferior chins. Larry had a rock solid jaw. It took all of a prime Mike Tyson to finally cut him down, and keep him there.



Speaking of great chins, Marvelous Marvin Hagler really was a one of a kind Champion. His approach to defending the Middleweight Championship of the World was something you simply DO NOT see today, at any weight. Hagler considered anyone challenging him to be trespassing, and trespassers were prosecuted to the fullest extent of his fists. He came to destroy you, not just beat you. Hagler was perhaps the last of that kind. Greatness mattered to him and he fought like he always had something to prove. Marvin also had the right temperament for a Boxing Champion. He was not there to outpoint you, or just merely beat you. He was there to punish you for having the nerve to step into a boxing ring with him and for daring to think you could take his title away from him. That attitude translated into power and greatness. Hagler was said by some to fight with the advantage of "three hands" in the ring. His left, his right and that shiny bald hard head, which Hagler once aptly said if cracked open would reveal a boxing glove.



What's the deal with Carl "The Cobra" Froch? The Super 6 finalist has fought the toughest schedule in boxing the past couple years and when his opponents do hit him, he responds with an overwhelming number of volume punches to the point where no matter what you do against him, Froch can do more and better to you. He's one of the best in the world, and on the brink of winning the Super 6 tournament. All he has to do is beat Andre Ward. No easy task. Can he? I'm leaning towards a Froch upset win in this fight, but I'm not ready to make my final prediction just yet. Still, Froch is not to be trifled with, the guy is a beast in the ring. It should be a great fight, a good blend of styles, and the stakes could not be any higher. Winner takes the Super 6, and wins recognition as Ring Magazine Super Middleweight Champion. Also, there are Pound for Pound implications for the winner, and loser.




Long time fans of boxing sometimes talk about the good old days. For me, those good old days were 1985 thtough 1990, that was my Golden Era of Boxing. In that short six year period, boxing saw the rise and fall of Mike Tyson, the sport was full of superstars, and boxing fans saw some of the best and most important fights in boxing history. Just to name a few: Hagler KO3 Hearns, Douglas KO10 Tyson, Chavez KO12 Taylor, Leonard W12 Hagler, Hagler KO11 Mugabi, Cruz W15 McGuigan, Duran W12 Barkley, Leonard D12 Hearns II, Holyfield W15 Qawi, and Holyfield KO10 Dokes. It was an amazing time to be a young fan, and from that perspective, it seemed like it would never end.