Boxing Banter

The first big fight of the year was held yesterday, but aside from that there's not a lot of in-ring action to discuss this week. Here's the (short) return of Boxing Banter:

1.) Shane Mosley (46-5-1; 39 KO) won his first full-fledged (i.e. non-interim) championship belt since 2004 by defeating Antonio Margarito (37-6; 27 KO) at the STAPLES Center last night to take the WBA Welterweight crown. That puts Mosley at 7-1 since losing multiple light middleweight belts to Ronald Wright in '04. His only loss in that stretch was, incidentally, to Miguel Cotto -- who in turn has only lost to Antonio Margarito in his 33 fight career. That makes for a rather interesting triangle, and could mean that a rematch between Mosley and Cotto is in order. Certainly that fight, won by Cotto via a narrow unanimous decision, was closer than yesterday's drubbing of Margarito by Mosley, which ended in the 9th round. Mosley says he wants big fights, and if Cotto gets past Michael Jennings on February 21, I would think that rematch would fit the bill.

2.) The only title fight on the schedule next week is for the vacant IBF Junior Welterweight crown, and will Herman Ngoudjo (17-2; 9 KO) against Juan Urango (20-1; 16 KO). Urango's sole loss came two years ago against Ricky Hatton, in a decisive unanimous decision. Ngoudjo, meanwhile, has a split decision loss to Jose Luis Castillo and a fairly narrow unanimous decision loss to Paulie Malignaggi on his record over the past two years. I'm going to give the edge to Urango going in, but I don't know much about these two fighters and what sort of matchup they'll have.

3.) Remember Francois Botha? He's perhaps best remembered for being on the losing end of fights with Michael Moorer, Mike Tyson, and Lennox Lewis between 1996 and 2000. Botha returned to the ring from a five year absence with a unanimous decision win against Bob Mirovic (28-18) in 2007. He'll be facing the similarly uninspiring Ron Guerrero (20-15; 14 KO) in South Africa on January 30. Believe it or not, the fight will be for a "world title" of sorts, as the World Boxing Federation has decided to award the winner its vacant crown. If it isn't WBO, WBA, WBC, or IBF, however, nobody cares.

4.) There was some hope that Manny Pacquiao's next fight would be against Floyd Mayweather, Jr. -- but if that fight is going to happen, we'll have to wait. Pacquiao's first order of business will be to take out Ricky Hatton on May 2. This fight should be interesting as well, but I expect Pacquaio to solve Hatton without much trouble. I hope that's the case -- a convincing win over Hatton could open the door to Mayweather, since it would make it more likely the money for a huge purse would appear.

5.) Mark your calendar for March 21, when WBC Heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko will defend his belt against Juan Carlos Gomez. As I've said in the past, I'm a sucker for heavyweight bouts, and I think this one will be entertaining. David Haye might be waiting in the wings for the winner, especially if the winner is Klitschko.

Boxing Banter

Well, so much for that Vikings playoff run I was hoping for (not that I expected it). Now, onto the boxing:

1.) I went 2-for-3 on my title bout predictions from a week ago. First up, Denkaosan Kaovichit took the WBA flyweight crown off of Takefumi Sakata with a 2nd round knock out. I also correctly predicted that Toshiaki Nishioka would succesfully defend his WBC interim junior featherweight title against Genaro Garcia. My incorrect pick came in the WBA "regular" lightweight championship fight, which I thought would be won by the defending champ, Yusuke Kobori. It seems I disregarded challenger Paulus Moses' undefeated record (built mostly against less-than-steller competition) at my peril, as Moses picked up the crown and now sits at 24-0. At least I can say it was a close call, as the fight went to the cards, with Moses getting the unanimous decision.

2.) I mentioned that Evander Holyfield was contesting the decision in his December 20 fight against Nikolai Valuev, and it seems the WBA is taking things seriously. A panel of judges will apparently review the fight, and I would imagine that they'll actually consider whatever the panel says (this being boxing, though, maybe I'm giving them too much credit -- I suppose it's possible that this was done just to shut Holyfield up). Again, I don't really have a dog in this fight; it sounds like neither fighter was very good. However, I don't think the decision of the ringside judges should be overturned unless it is absolutely clear that their decision was wrong, and I don't think this fight rose to that level. A bad decision? Quite possibly. A clearly, obviously, unequivocally wrong one? No.

3.) There are two title fights in Germany on Saturday. In the first fight, WBO light heavyweight champ Zsolt Erdei (29-0-0; 17 KO) will defend against the WBO #10 contender Yuri Barashian (25-4-0; 17 KO). Erdei has held the title since January 2004, with 10 succesful defenses behind him. I would be stunned if he lost the title to Barashian, who only the WBO and IBF have even bothered to rank.

4.) The second title fight on the German card will see WBO super middleweight champion Denis Inkin (34-0-0; 24 KO) make his first defense since winning the title in September against Fulgencio Zuniga. His opponent will be undefeated Karoly Balzsay (19-0-0; 14 KO), the WBO #1 contender and Intercontinental champion. I love fights between undefeated competitors, and this one should be entertaining. Both of these guys seem to have some finishing power, and they're about the same age (Inkin is a little older). I'm going to give the edge to Inkin to retain.

5.) Finally, Friday night brings the season premier of ESPN's Friday Night Fights, which will see Yuriorkis Gamboa and Odlanier Solis in action. Free fights are always welcome!

Boxing Banter

Like many of you, I'm sitting down to see if the Vikings can salvage a playoff berth today. Hopefully they can pull off the win against a Giants team that doesn't have a lot to play for -- I'd rather see them get in that way than through a Bears loss (although a Bears loss might be wishful thinking anyway). Now, enough on football -- time to get to boxing. Another abbreviated schedule this week means another short Boxing Banter post:

1.) The only fight of any significance this week was WBC flyweight champion Daisuke Naito's title defense against Shingo Yamaguchi. Last week I suggested that Naito was probably the prohibitive favorite due to the comparative records and strength of prior opponents, and that turned out to be the case -- Naito won the fight via an 11th round stoppage and doesn't seem to have ever been in any trouble.

2.) Fight News reports that Evander Holyfield is contesting the result of his December 20 fight against Nikolai Valuev. I would guess he has virtually no chance of suceeding. I don't know the rules that are in play for a sanctioning body to review a ring-side ruling, but I would guess the judges would have had to be horribly off to be reversed. I know that a few people, like ESPN's Dan Rafael, believe that Holyfield should have won the fight -- but I've read plenty of reports from other people that say the fight was either a draw or a Valuev win. My point is that this doesn't seem to have been a case where Holyfield won the fight without any doubt, and I think that's what it would take for the judges at ringside to be overruled.

3.) There are three title fights in Japan this week, and as with last week's fight I don't know much of anything about the fighters. First up is the WBA flyweight defense of champion Takefumi Sakata (33-4-2; 15 KO) against Denkaosan Kaovichit (45-1-1; 19 KO). Sakata has had the belt since 2007, and hasn't knocked anyone out in a title defense. With his record, that would seem to suggest that Kaovichit has a good shot of knocking Sakata off, but that record is built mostly against bad fighters and it's unclear just how good he is. These two fighters have met before, going the distance in a draw in November 2007. That suggests the fight is indeed closely matched. I'm going to predict a title change.

4.) Next up, Toshiaki Nishioka (32-4-3; 19 KO) defends his WBC interim junior featherweight title against Genaro Garcia (36-6-0; 20 KO). It will be Nishioka's first defense after winning the title September 2008. Garcia hasn't fought since December 2007, and has lost two of his last three fights. Nihioka, on the other hand, has been on a decent run recently. I would be somewhat surprised if Nishioka didn't retain.

5.) The WBA has a strange policy (designed to get more sanctioning fees out of fighters) that allows it to have multiple champions in a weight class. If the WBA champion in a class wins another major belt, he's declared the "WBA Super Champion," and a new "WBA Regular Champion" will be crowned. WBA "regular" lightweight champion Yusuke Kobori (23-2-1; 12 KO) will defend that so-called "title" against undefeated Paulus Moses (23-0-0; 17 KO) in the final interesting fight of the week. Moses has a couple of solid wins, but I wouldn't look at the undefeated record and get all starry-eyed -- he has a lot of cheap wins in the record as well. Kobori seems to have faced stiffer opposition in his career, and I think he'll emerge from this fight with the win.