|
 The demise of a multiple time world champion appears to have been greatly exaggerated!
Boxing fans are known to jump off band wagons as quickly as they will jump on one. So it was no surprise after Pelenchin lost a pair of controversial split decisions that many of them were willing to write him off as either exposed or too old to compete at the highest level. It seems that now the wagon is once again filling up with believers.
On New Years Eve in front of, for the third consecutive time, a hostile crowd, Pelenchin cruised to a clear cut victory over a game, but out-classed Satoshi Hosono. As the final bell rang, there was no doubt that Pelenchin had claimed victory despite having fought in his opponents homeland. The judges scores were indicative of the domination as two of them gave Hosono just one round. It may have not been the most pleasing fight to the eye, but it served as a strong reminder to other fighters in the division that no matter how much they may have hoped Pelenchin would have just gone away after back to back setbacks against Jason Litzau and Jonathan Barros, that he is still a force to be dealt with. |
|
The great thing about boxing is that ultimately you have to back up your hype. You can be built up through clever promotion and matchmaking, but eventually, if you don't possess the goods, you will be exposed. Juan Manuel Lopez learned this the hard way.
 Bob Arum and Top Rank had told everyone who would listen that this guy was the next great superstar. They had a lot of the public and most certainly Lopez himself believing it. And for the early part of his career, it looked like it might be true. Then Lopez ran into Oscar Salido who never get the memo. Two knockout losses later, Lopez' stock has taken a significant blow.
It wasn't long ago where Juanma felt he was on top of the world. He felt so sure of his place in the sport that he told much more accomplished world champions such as Celestino Caballero, who had pushed for a fight against him, that he was not worthy to share the same ring with him. Apparently Juanma was under the impression that he was already a top tier draw despite not even being able to draw 5,000 fans to his fights in Las Vegas. Outside of Puerto Rico, only the man himself, and of course Bob Arum were buying into the hype.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
By Jeff Mayweather
 Lately I have been fortunate to venture into the world of Mixed Martial Arts. My first stint with mma was a smashing success with “King” Mo Lawal. Mo came to me right before his big bout with Roger Gracie.
Mo has a passion for boxing, so his coming to me for help with his stand up and striking was an easy fit. When Mo first told me who he was fighting, to be honest I didn’t know much about mma, and had never heard of Roger. But just as if you know nothing about boxing, you would still know something about the name Mayweather, the Gracie name is the same in mixed martial arts.
I knew that King Mo, no matter how great a wrestler he was in college couldn’t use his ground game against a Gracie. The only thing Mo did was give me his name and said to look him up on Youtube. The second I saw him it was easy for me to assess what we needed to do in order to give ourselves a realistic chance of emerging victorious.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
|
The WBA has ordered a purse bid for a potential fight involving titleholder Celestino Caballero and Mikey Garcia for May 3rd. Promoters have been unable to reach an agreement within the 30 days that were allotted.
Light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins and former titlist Chad Dawson, who fought to a controversial second-round no-decision last fall, will meet again April 28 at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, both camps told ESPN.com on Wednesday.
