Who Manny Pacquiao Should Fight Next

By BJ

On Sunday, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum went to the Philippines to present Manny Pacquiao with a list of four options for his next fight, none of which is Floyd Mayweather Jr. Back in November, Oscar De La Hoya stated Arum was the reason for the non-fight, and it looks like that continues to be the reason.

Today, Arum stated that a megafight will have to wait until an outdoor stadium is finished being built at the end of May, possibly turning it to look like it’s on Floyd, who has already set the May 5 date for his next match.

I rank the four fighters on Arum’s list on who Pacman should fight next below.

4. Juan Manuel Marquez  – Admittedly, JMM has given Manny the most trouble, but let’s put to rest this amazing trilogy. If Pacman fights Marquez again, the thought of him beating an opponent four times is historically inane.

3. Lamont Peterson – On December 10, Peterson upset Amir Khan in a split decision that shouldn’t have happened. The incompetent referee penalized Khan two points for pushing, which turned out to be the difference in Peterson’s favor. As a fan, I want to see a Khan-Peterson rematch first, and if Peterson wins, he can be a more viable candidate. But none of this will happen in time for Pacman’s next fight date in late May/June.

2. Miguel Cotto – The thought of having this fight be at a catchweight of almost 154 pounds is the only intriguing thing in a rematch of a lopsided 2009 victory. Pacman’s camp may be talking up Cotto with his three straight TKO’s since, but he’s not all that interesting.

1. Timothy Bradley Jr. – Why I like him: He beat Peterson in a unanimous decision in 2009…He’s 28-0…He’s a junior welterweight titleholder.

Why I don’t like him: He’s dodged fights, most recently, a bout with Khan with an eye on Pacman. Khan then lost to Peterson, ruining his shot with Floyd so Bradley shouldn’t be rewarded for his action – or rather, inaction…He’ll have to move up in weight to fight Pacman…He has no big fights on his resume.

The Weekly Rundown

By Bryan Jeon

Big Brown Wins Kentucky Derby

Favorite Big Brown was victorious in Saturday’s 134th Kentucky Derby, beating runner-up Eight Belles by 4 3/4 lengths. Surprisingly, Eight Belles, the lone filly in the race, broke both of his front ankles and was so severely injured, he was unable to be taken off the track and euthanized by injection on the spot. Now, PETA is demanding a suspension for the jockey and a revocation of the $400,000 second prize, insisting that the horse suffered the injury before the finish and not during the gallop out. Notwithstanding the commotion in this year’s race, I realized that this is an event I have to make a trip to once in my lifetime. Some interesting facts from Big Brown’s win:

• It was just the second time a horse from the No. 20 post won, the other was in 1929.
• It was the first time since 1915 that a Derby winner raced just three times previously.
• Jockey Kent Desormeaux became the 8th jockey to win the Derby three times (1998, 2000).
• The colt earned $1,451,800 with a finish of 2:01 in the 1 1/4 mile race, raising his total to $2,114,500.
• Up next for Big Brown: the Preakness in two weeks with a chance to become the first Triple Crown champion since Affirmed in 1978.

De La Hoya Victorious Against Forbes

Oscar De La Hoya was absolutely dominant against Steve Forbes Saturday night at the Home Depot Center in Carson. De La Hoya, who marked this the first of three fights this year, lost just one round on two judges’ scorecards and none on the other. The Golden Boy was unable to knock down, however, the former 130-pound champion fighting at 150 pounds, making it all 38 fights now that the runner up of the Contender series has not been knocked out. De La Hoya will likely get a September rematch against Floyd Mayweather Jr. and if he wins that, a match with perhaps Miguel Cotto in December as his swan-song fight, assuming that the 35-year-old actually retires.

NHL Playoffs – Conference Finals Set

Detroit garnered the only sweep of the round although there wasn’t much drama in any of the series. The Red Wings scored 21 goals, including eight in the series clincher, and now face a Stars team coming off of a 4-OT, 5-hour, 14-minute game that saw Marty Turco make 61 saves in the 2-1 win. Pittsburgh has won eight of their nine playoff games but now face a Flyers team they dropped five of seven to in the regular season. Sidney Crosby leads the Penguins’ attack with 2 goals and a playoff-high 12 assists. This is the furthest Sid the Kid has gone in his short 3-year career. Will the buck stop here for now?

Western Conference

(1) Detroit beat (6) Colorado 4-0
(5) Dallas beat (2) San Jose 4-2

Western Conference Finals:

Game 1: (5) Dallas @ (1) Detroit – Thurs.
Regular Season Series: Red Wings 3-1

Eastern Conference

(6) Philadelphia beat (1) Montreal 4-1
(2) Pittsburgh beat (5) NY Rangers 4-1

Eastern Conference Finals:

Game 1: (6) Philadelphia @ (2) Pittsburgh – Fri.
Regular Season Series: Flyers 5-2

Go !

MLB – SC’s Players of the Week

Matt Kemp, LAD – RF: 7 R 0 HR 11 RBI 6 SB .407 AVG (11-27)
Season totals: 18 R 2 HR 22 RBI 7 SB .324 AVG
Kemp has a nine-game hitting streak going, raising his average 51 points in the process. More impressive are his six steals in a five-game span after swiping just one base in the first 23 games, leading the Dodgers to an eight-game win streak that just snapped.

Roy Halladay, Tor – SP: 16 IP, 1-1 13 K 1.12 ERA
Season totals: 57.0 IP, 3-4 38 K 3.00 ERA
The Blue Jays ace has continued to rack up the innings, pitching at least seven innings in each of his seven starts and piling four straight complete games under his belt. Halladay beat the White Sox Sunday to break out of three straight losses.

Quote of the Day: Ozzie Guillen

Before Sunday’s loss to Toronto, outspoken White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen went on yet another tirade. This guy wouldn’t survive in New York:

“Right now everyone in Chicago is making lineups — ‘Call up this guy, call up that guy.’ … If we had 50 people allowed on the roster, we could do that. That’s what ticks me off about Chicago fans and Chicago media: They forget pretty quickly. A couple of days ago we were the [bleeping] best [stuff] in town. Now we’re [bleep],” Guillen said to the Chicago media before the game. “We won it a couple years ago, and we’re horse[bleep]. The Cubs haven’t won in [100] years, and they’re the [bleeping] best. [Bleep] it, we’re good. [Bleep] everybody. We’re horse[bleep], and we’re going to be horse[bleep] the rest of our lives, no matter how many World Series we win. We are the [bleep] of Chicago. We’re the Chicago [bleep]. We have the worst owner [Jerry Reinsdorf]. The guy’s got seven [bleeping] rings, and he’s the [bleeping] horse[bleep] owner.”

The Boxer and The Fighter

 

By Chris Le

Entering Saturday’s fight, I saw it as Ricky Hatton being the rugged one, willing to take two punches in order to land one giant bomb, and Floyd Mayweather Jr. as the pretty boy (no pun intended) who could wither if roughed up.

As it turns out, my perception of Hatton wasn’t far from the truth, but boy was I wrong about Mayweather.

Through a hell fire that was Hatton’s barrage, Mayweather was unflappable, surgically breaking down the Englishman en route to a 10^th round TKO.

Mayweather (39-0, 25 KOs), in arguably his greatest performance, proved a lot to me. That he can win a rough-and-tough (and, at times, dirty) fight, without abandoning his exquisite technique. That he can weather a storm. That he can take a punch. But most of all, that he’s as much a fighter as he is a boxer. And that is what all of the all-time greats do.

Before Saturday, Mayweather simply cruised through 38 previous fights without breaking a sweat. I never saw him dig deep and pull out a victory like what we saw with Muhammad Ali against Joe Frazier or Ray Robinson against Jake LaMotta. He was always absent of that killer instinct while under distress, mainly because he was usually too talented to be in trouble or a roughhouse fight. I lumped Mayweather with the likes of Roy Jones Jr. and Mike Tyson – ultra talents with untested mettles. With his performace against Hatton, however, I am now more willing than ever to group Mayweather with the elite of the elite.

Despite a comfortable lead on the scorecards, I can say without hesitation that Hatton was Mayweather’s toughest fight to date. In a fight that at times looked more like a wrestling match, Hatton mauled, pushed around and even dished out a handful of shots to the back of his opponent’s head, but even against all this, Floyd was never bullied. Not once did Mayweather back down; he stood his ground in the face of danger and was sharp-shooting Hatton with accurate counters the entire night. All of which culminated in the tenth when Hatton lunged in for a wide right hook, but was met only by Mayweather’s left fist. It was beautifully timed and square on the jaw. That was the story of the fight: timing and precision over strength and aggression.

It doesn’t hurt that Hatton, though fighting with the right approach, wrongly executed his game plan. Super aggressive as he was, which he needed to be, he was mindless in his strategy. He barely threw any jabs, and jabs are key to beating quick-firing boxers like Mayweather. Obviously, you’re not going to win the battle of jabs against a supreme boxer like Floyd, but the point isn’t to out jab him but to get him out of rhythm and set up punches. All night, Hatton was lunging with wide punches, essentially leading with his face. He needed to attack behind a jab, trying to disrupt Mayweather’s timing. Inexplicably, Hatton abandoned his jab as well as his work to the body, usually a trademark of the Englishman. Mayweather took full advantage.

My Scorecard

Round Mayweather Hatton

1 9 10

2 10 9

3 10 9

4 10 9

5 9 10

6 10 8

7 10 9

8 10 9

9 10 9

10 TKO

11

12

Total

—

Regarding their futures, Mayweather’s only remaining challenge at welterweight is Miguel Cotto, who recently defeated former champion Shane Mosley. Cotto (31-0, with 25 KOs) has a style with a mix of aggression and skill that could potentially cause Mayweather a few problems, certainly more so than Hatton. If not Cotto, I could see Mayweather retiring, a move he has hinted to for a while, citing the breaking down of his body, mainly his back and fists. Either way, I think Mayweather’s legacy and bank account are secure.

As for Hatton (43-1, with 31 KOs), even with this loss, he still has a lucrative future ahead of him. His down-to-earth charm and entertaining style make him a fan favorite. He could move back down to junior welterweight (140 pounds), where he fought most of his career, and face WBC champion Junior Witter, in an all-UK battle that would have as much animosity as Mayweather-Hatton. If Cotto fails to lure Mayweather into a fight, Ricky Hatton would be an extremely entertaining second option.

Boxing’s Resurrection

By Chris Le

Sunday marked the second installment of television’s best program, HBO’s Mayweather/Hatton 24/7 series (Sundays 10pm). The first series was made popular by chronicling the journeys of Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather Jr. toward their mega bout this past May, which unfortunately failed to meet the lofty expectations. Pundits deemed the fight one that would “save” boxing, instilling enthusiasm in a sport that was all but dead. A split decision later, boxing was still on life support, and I was about ready to pull the plug. I almost gave up on the sport that I loved the most.

Then, in the last few months, boxing gave us three potential fights of the year – and reason to be fans again.

It all began with the Pride of Wales, Joe Calzaghe’s unanimous decision win over the game Mikkel Kessler. It’s not often that we have two men as skilled as Calzaghe and Kessler throwing caution into the wind and letting go as many punches as they did. The heart displayed by both men was enough to make you proud to be a boxing fan. Calzaghe’s victory puts him in line to move up to light heavyweight to challenge the ageless Bernard Hopkins, whose tactical counterpunching is Calzaghe’s perfect foil.

Then there was The Contender finale which saw Sakio Bika stopping Jaidon Codrintong in the 8^th round, providing the boxing world with an all-time great action fight. The ebb and flow nature of the bout coupled with the free-swinging, almost wild style of Bika harkens back to Rocky Graziano and his legendary meetings with Tony Zale. It was as if it were the 50’s and 60’s again, the golden age of boxing.

And last week, we witnessed a back and forth battle with rising superstar Miguel Cotto grinding out a decision over Shane Mosley. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a rough and tough bout fought at such an elevated skill level. Every punch executed with textbook precision and nary a wasted motion. It was high-class boxing that could not have been produced with lesser fighters.

And on December 8, the boxing year ends with Floyd Mayweather Jr. squaring off against Ricky “The Hitman” Hatton, a match up that has the ingredients to top all of the aforementioned fight of the year candidates. During the bout’s promotion, as seen in 24/7, Mayweather displays the level of confidence and arrogance present in any great fighter – but in his own manner of dirty-mouthed, bling-filled braggadocio. The antithesis of Mayweather, Hatton is as blue-collar as he is friendly, as humble as he is tough. In essence, the least Hollywood famous person you’ll ever see. One is everything the other isn’t. And neither would have it any other way.

If their bout is as entertaining as their preflight jeering and as tense as their mutual distaste for the other’s lifestyle, it will be one of the best in years. In my estimation, the fight has extreme potential because the only thing that is more contrasting than their personalities is their fighting styles.

Watch out for my analysis of each fighter and, of course, my prediction in the coming weeks.