Boxing (June 20 - 23)

June 17, 2007

(All bouts subject to change)

Wednesday, June 20 - Mashantucket, Connecticut (ESPN2) -
10 rounds, super middleweights: Peter Manfredo Jr.
(27-4, 13 KOs) vs. David Banks (14-1-1, 2 KOs).

Friday, June 22 - Miami (ESPN2) - 10 rounds, light
middleweights: Julio Cesar Garcia (40-2, 34 KOs) vs.
Troy Browning (19-0-1, 8 KOs); 10 rounds, welterweights:
Richard Gutierrez (20-1, 13 KOs) vs. Luciano Perez
(15-5-1, 13 KOs).

Friday, June 22 - at Nassau, The Bahamas - 12 rounds,
super middleweights: Jermain Mackey (13-1, 10 KOs) vs.
Kirt Sinnette (14-0, 11 KOs).

Saturday, June 23 - at Zwickau, Germany - 12 rounds,
middleweights: Amin Asikainen (21-0, 15 KOs) vs.
Sebastian Sylvester (25-2, 12 KOs).

Saturday, June 23 - at Las Vegas (HBO) - 12 rounds,
light welterweights: Ricky Hatton (42-0, 32 KOs) vs.
Jose Luis Castillo (55-7-1, 47 KOs); 12 rounds,
super middleweights: Victor Oganov (26-0, 26 KOs) vs.
Antwun Echols (31-6-3, 27 KOs).


There are some entertaining fights scheduled on Wednesday and Friday on ESPN. However, the fight that most boxing fans are looking forward to is the Saturday bout between Ricky Hatton and Jose Luis Castillo. The articles that I have been reading, which come from sports journalists as opposed to boxing writers, tend to take it for granted that Hatton will win. They are already discussing who he will be fighting next. I think there is a strong case to be made for Hatton winning on Saturday. But there is also a strong case to be made for Castillo. More, each of the two has definite flaws that the other is fully capable of exploiting.

Hatton is young and strong. He has the ability to get up for a big fight, and to fight at a pace that few people can hope to maintain. Though not a one-punch knock-out artist, his rough style wears most opponents down. He has good defensive skills, and takes a good punch to the head.

His weaknesses are that he often gains more than 30 lbs between fights (associated with beer); that he has not looked great in his last few fights; that he cuts; that he is hurt by body shots; and that he is beginning to lose the upper-body movement that made him one of the elite in his division.

Castillo is a warrior with a proud history. He was the sparring partner for one of boxing's true all-time greats. He has competed against the best in several divisions, and even two of his loses are among the most important bouts in recent history. He came close to taking a decision from Mayweather, and lost the classic war to Chico.

He is not a one-punch KO artist, but is among the best body-punchers in boxing today. Against Hatton, that body-punching ability is of far more value. He is relaxed in the ring. He tends to look better against people who come towards him, than those who move away. He has very good defensive skills, and can take a good punch.

Castillo is getting on in age, and has moved up in weight. He tends to try to fight more in spots now, and could have trouble with a longer, fast-paced bout. He is beginning to get hit more than he used to, and his punches often are not coming with the same intensity that they used to -- both being the classic signs of age.

Two things stand out to me: First, after the Cotto v Judah match, we have to admit that "dirty tactics" can play a significant role in a fight. In this area, both warriors are fully capable of bending and indeed breaking the rules. Hatton and Castillo are both dirty fighters. Castillo may have a slight edge in his ability to be less obvious with his fouls. Second, both warriors are very likely to be "up" for this fight. It's not a grudge match, but one of mutual respect. These are two smart men, who would not take the other lightly.

I think we are in for a hell of a fight.

They are both guys that "bring it."

I hoping both of them come to the fight in shape. If either one of them is lacking in that department, then they're in trouble. On paper it looks like a decision win for Hatton, but Castillo sometimes show a few moments of greatness. Like you said, if Castillo can work that body of Hatton's, he's got a good shot. Also, it will be interesting who is the referee, and how much influence the ref will have on the fight. I wouldn't want to be the ref in this fight.

I hope it's someone who helps keep things in control, without attempting to be the central player. (In other words, NOT Jay Nady.)

It just seems -- at least on paper -- like one of the very best fights in 2007. I'm hoping that it isn't influenced by a butt or low blows.

Hatton has been known to be a bit on the pudgy side between fights. And we all know Castillo's history with weight. I'm actually going with Castillo in the upset. I've never really bought into Hatton. He had one good win against Tszyu. Other than that, he hasn't impressed me. I like Castillo by late stoppage. Castillo has always come up big in key spots. He often times looks unimpressive in fights he doesn't take seriously, such as the Ngoudjo fight. But when he's properly motivated, such as his fights with Mayweather and Johnston, he's real impressive. I like Castillo's experience and ring smarts to wear down Hatton. I predict a real war with the boxing public clamoring for a rematch.

Castillo knows how to fight on the inside. If he's able to stop Hatton from excessive clinching, there's a lot of holes in Hatton's defense for Castillo to exploit. Lets also hope the referee, Joe Cortez, properly officiates this contest. It's a trend recently that refs don't properly penalize holding.

be difficult to say without having seen either guy training, I think that Castillo is a superior body-puncher. And that goes a long way in a fight like this.

Peter Manfredo, Jr. won a UD over David Banks from the Foxwoods in Connecticut. Reports say that it was a hard fought bout, and Manfredo deserved the 97-93 decision on all cards.

I'll give Manfredo credit. He's stayed active since the loss to Calzaghe. He's fought twice since losing to Calzaghe in March. Manfredo may never be a threat to Top 168 pound fighters like Kessler and Calzaghe, but he'll probably be able to attain another shot at a belt if he keeps up the good work.

The rest of the card wasn't that interesting. I can't seem to get into women's prizefighting. Christy Martin put it on the map years ago on Don King/Mike Tyson undercards. However, for the most part women's boxing never put together marquee matchups, instead relying on gimics like Ali/Frazier "4" and Mia St. John.

looked good. Banks is a very tough young fighter, who has a future as a contender. Like Peter, he is not skilled enough that he will ever be a champion, but relatively few fighters are. They are both good fighters, and it was an interesting match.

I agree and the problem I notice is that the entire sport centers around Laila Ali who barely even fights anymore.

Of course I am curious what would happen if Ali locked horns with Ann Wolfe who has some devastating power.

http://www.killsometime.com/video/video.asp?ID=196

That's her KO of Vonda Ward... still one of the more brutal KOs I have ever seen.


Rp

Or as I should say, the fight everyone turns on Ricky Hatton. Hatton has an ugly, rough housing style especially in later rounds when he tires that seems to draw boos and negative reactions. The thing is he's had a some less than amazing opponents and this will be his biggest fight in quite some time and that could mean more viewers who could be turned off by his style.

I think this could be one of those fights where Castillo pushes him and he ends up sapped a little early and he does that leaning, pushing stuff that draws a lot of heat from the crowd...

Rp

I think that both of these guys are prone to breaking the rules. You make an interesting point regarding how fans will view these tactics differently in various contexts. The fight involves not only two warriors who are extremely popular with their own country men, but two guys who get curious reactions from the public in the USA.

The group of friends who will be in my living room include a college professor who was born in Mexico who will be cheering for Castillo, and a British-American, retired from the military, who will be cheering for Hatton. We'll be sure to seat them on opposite sides of the room! There are also going to be a number of guys who like both fighters, but who see flaws in each. I think that a number of people who were hoping that Hatton would be able to beat Mayweather are somewhat let down by the fact that his chances of doing well against Floyd seem remote today. He may be being held to a standard created by fans' wants and needs, rather than a fair assessment of how good he actually is.

If Hatton tires, and squares up, bends over and attempts to lean on Castillo, I think that he'll pay a serious price. Kosta Tzu was old, inactive, and seriously hurt early in his fight with Hatton -- and I want to make clear I give Ricky full credit for an outstanding win. He didn't really tire much in that war. But Castillo has a different range of power than Tzu. Hatton needs a lot of upper body movement, and dipping at the knees, to avoid being hit by the uppercut-hook combination.

I think we are in for a really good fight.

I read that both fighters looked good, and not visibly drained from making weight.

Castillo is bigger than Hatton. The guys on ESPN FNF seems to favor Castillo.

I'm really looking forward to it.

In the fights before the Tszyu victory, Hatton was a crowd pleasing, exciting fighter to watch. Against limited opposition, he scored electrifying KO's in front of an adoring Manchester audience.

But in his two fights in the States, against Luis Collazo and Juan Urango, he's been relatively unimpressive. While he won both fights on points, fans and media began to harshly criticize his grappling and holding on the inside. Some have even called him the John Ruiz of the lower weight divisions.

That being said, a crowd pleasing victory over Castillo would catapult him back into the big fight picture. In Hatton's defense, both Collazo and Urango were tricky southpaws who were hard to look good against.

My prediction is that both fighters give a good performance, prompting Hatton to exercise his rematch clause after losing by late stoppage or decision. HBO would be ecstatic and likely promote a rematch later this year on PPV.

was given a gift with the Collazo decision.

I could see Ricky winning a decision. I could see him getting TKOed around the 10th. Let's hope for a good fight, without any controversy, such as fouls.

just upset Julio Cesar Garcia in a very strange 10 round bout. At first, it looked like the 20-year old was "carrying" the 40-year old. But he was losing rounds.

By the middle of the fight, Garcia began to look anxious between rounds. He looked like a defeated fighter.

Though it was Garcia's hometown, only one judge scored it a draw, while the two honest ones scored it for Browning.

Browning did enough to win -- or more accurately, Garcia gave the fight away and allowed Browning to rack up points. I thought for sure that the judges would give it to Garcia, though. I can usually count on my native Floridian judges to screw something up. Fortunately, Browning got his deserved decision.

Garcia seemed to have a breakdown in the ring. No clue where his head was. He was talking to the ref, talking to people outside the ring. It's implausible that Garcia allowed this fight, and maybe his career, to slip away.

of McCall's breakdown before the announcers. I was glad when they said it.

He fought his heart out and deserved the decision. In fact, Browning surprised me with the slick defense that he had, making him very hard to hit, even on the ropes. But Browning as I understand it was exactly twice Garcia's age, at 40 years old, had never beaten a ranked fighter, had never fought beyond 8 rounds, and had spent 8 years away from boxing before coming back for a 4 rounder and 6 rounder as tune-ups to this fight. Amazing. And I think Garcia was actually ranked #3 in the world by one of the boxing sanctioning authorities.

But Garcia just didn't look right. At first I thought Browning had broken one of Garcia's ribs. I remember a hard body shot to Garcia's left side by Browning in about the 3rd round after which Garcia winced. Almost immediately after that body shot, Garcia began grimacing and adjusting his protector, which he then continued to do throughout the fight. And Garcia just wasn't taking much air into his lungs. A broken rib could perhaps account for it, and for Garcia's lack of activity. But if that's not the reason, then I can't guess what is. Garcia behaved very strangely, as though he didn't want to fight and tens of seconds would go by with Garcia taking shots from Browning and throwing nothing back.

I don't want to detract from a very gutsy performance by Browning, who showed a lot less ring rust than I thought he might. But Garcia just didn't look like his head was in the fight, either because of an injury or some kind of psychological problem.

wonder: why did his people let him into the ring last night?

I've been a big fan for awhile. I still think he beat Mayweather that first fight. Clearly beat him too.

I just like Castillo's warrior mentality. He's a true warrior through and through. I like that in a fighter. I'm a Hatton fan, but I'm pulling for Castillo in this one.

That being said, I think Ricky will pull one out. I think he may be learning just how much the high life was taking out of him. The weight gain and the beer are too much for a guy to handle if he fights in the style Hatton does.

that this fight is so interesting is because it is possible to make a good case for each guy winning. More, in either case, the chances are that the winner will have to withstand a great deal of punishment to come out victorious. While both guys have some skills at outboxing certain opponents, it would seem unlikely that either Hatton or Castillo would attempt to fight like Mayweather tonight.

Hardly Fight of the Year caliber. Castillo looked downright awful. Didn't seem to have a whole lot of life in his legs.

The shot Hatton landed to score the KO was legal. But I still don't see how Hatton gets away with the holding, while Castillo was penalized for a borderline low blow. Nevertheless, Hatton was the better man tonight and we won't be seeing a rematch any time soon.

I was surprised about how down HBO's Emanuel Steward was on Castillo before the fight. While he was right that Castillo appears to be shot, he didn't seem to show JLC much respect. On the other hand, Kellerman may have been overly effusive in his praise of Castillo. To Castillo's credit, he'll probably go down as the only guy to ever beat Floyd Mayweather, even though he lost the decision.

was an impressive fight. I disagreed with Kellerman after the fight: people should give Hatton full credit for KOing Castillo in June of 2007.

Steward had been dismissive of Castillo until the 3rd round, when Castillo (in my opinion) started to land better punches than his younger opponent. Both guys landed low blows, and I assume they intended to. Hatton was also pushing, etc, which he could have been warned for.

The body shot that KOed Castillo would have had the exact same result on any night of his career. You can't prepare for those. And you are not going to regain your feet in 10 seconds. Won't happen.

I think Mayweather is going to go to England.

He must have a real keen eye. But I thought Steward was fair when he agreed with Harold Lederman that Hatton was doing 90% of the holding. Jim Lampley seemed stunned and speechless when Lederman said that, and tried to get Steward to agree with him that it was Castillo doing the holding, which Steward failed to do. Even Kellerman sided against Lampley and blamed Hatton for the holding.

When they replayed the knockdown, I looked carefully at Castillo's face and I really didn't seen pain register. Maybe some fighters train themselves not to show pain to their opponent. Steward made a big thing out of the fact that he'd never seen a Mexican fighter go down and stay down from that type of body shot, as they train themselves to work through that type of pain in the gym. I thought Steward came close to suggesting that Castillo wasn't hurt bad enough to stay down for the count, but that he was instead just giving up. I know they say that body shots can hurt like nothing else. But I have to agree with Steward that I would have expected Castillo to at least try to get up from his knee. Great body shots like that usually leave a fighter sprawled on the canvas in pain, not on one knee. I also base that on Castillo's demeanor between rounds. He sounded dejected in his corner and was complaining to his handlers in Spanish about Hatton him HIM low. And I think the point deduction really seemed to take the wind out of his sails.

if you watch Castillo's face after the body punch lands, you should focus on his jaw. You won't see pain in his eyes, but you will see the pain register as his jaw has the involuntary pull.

Also, I think that body shots like that do not result in a fighter being sprawled on the canvas in pain. Quite the opposite: a person's legs pull up under him -- watch Castillo spin, and note how his knee bends. It's different than being hit in the pit of the gut (commonly called the "solar plexus", being hit in the balls, or simply having the "wind knocked out" of you. A liver shot is a unique sort of pain, which leaves your legs tucked, and keeps you from breathing, for about 12-15 seconds. And it hurts in a manner that no other punch does.

Oscar took one with B-Hop, and some fans were convinced he could have beat the count. And the best example of this type of punch comes from watching old Mickey Ward tapes.

I never heard about the involuntary jaw pull. Thanks. I'll look for it next time.