The Boxing Thread

This is your place to discuss all aspects of the Sweet Science. Whether you are an active boxer,amateur or pro,trainer or corner man, or are an active fan like myself. Let us know your thoughts on the influence of Premier Boxing Champions ( Al Hayman ) broadcasts on Showtime and HBO . Your thoughts on the Kovalev/ Pascal fight.
Does Andre Ward deserve to be dropped from the pound for pound ratings for inactivity?
What are your picks for up coming fights?
What is a good explanation of a check hook ?
What is "catch and shoot" ?
What would be a good boxing workout routine for guys that want to start.
All of this and any other Boxing topic you want to talk about is fair game so ....

Touch gloves. return to your corners, and come out posting at the bell !

The Pac / Mayweather fight has gone stale for me. I am more interested to see whats next for Kovalev, Provodnikov,GGG.and Andre Ward than this fight. I've heard the ppv is going to @ $100. That is way too much for fighters not in their primes.

ESPN Friday Night Fights will have it's last show on May 22.
Al Haymans Premier Boxing Champions will be putting on the bouts for ESPN. Teddy Atlas and Joe Tessitore will stay on as commentators.

I don't follow boxing like I used to so I'm not the best on current events but for some of your other questions;

A check hook is used to thwart the aggressiveness of an opponent that is coming in straight. When the opponent comes in, you slightly pivot and turn a quick hook to punish him for leaning in. Roy Jones Junior was great at this. Also one of the most famous check hooks was the Mayweather Hatton fight.



Catch and shoot is used to take advantage of an opponent's lazy jab and fire off one of your own. Imagine a boxer throws out a jab and the other boxer paws or catches it and in that instant fires off his own jab.


Concerning getting into boxing, is this for a beginner or someone with some boxing experience?

Just as a beginner.I am interested in finding out about a boxers initial training as an amateur. I have been a fan of boxing since age 9 when I heard the Johansen/Patterson championship on the radio.
I have followed boxing through the frustrating down years and it now seems to be moving toward a much better era. Many of the pros today have gotten over the loud mouth bragging era and seem to be very focused and serious athletes. This is very much a change for the better and it shows in the ring. There is much more television coverage than before so you can follow their careers from the start to the championship fights.

The best thing to do is to go to a gym with a trainer that has a good lineage. If that's not possible a jump rope, mirror and round timer are all you need to get into some decent shape. You'd be surprised what shadowboxing can do for your cardio. You can even tie a string to both ends of a wall and practice forward and backward movement while ducking and bobbing and weaving while throwing combos.

Seen its been a while but I will chime in.

The May-Pac fight still has my interest, but it would have been better at the height of their careers. Like when Pac was basically destroying anyone they put in front of him. Think of the end results of DeLaHoya, Cotto, and Hatton. The difference in how May beat them and pac destroyed them.

I think the PBC can be good. Another way to get more boxing on the TV!

I really would like to see Mathysse and Garcia rematch. I believe at this point Garcia does not want anything more to do with Mathysse. If it was not for that cut in his eye (which was not from a punch!) Lucas would have won that fight.

I was dissapointed in Molina's performance against Broner...he just seemed like he was not there all night. Disappointing because he lasted a long time with Matyhsse.

I agree with you on Molina Broner. I was hoping (and thought) Molina could get it done.

The Paquiao Mayweather was the disapointment I predicted. Now that we hear of the rotater cuff injury, I wonder what it could have been if Paquiao was full speed. I did not buy it but saw it at a friends home. You could tell by the second round Pac was not 100%.
There is a good one coming up this weekend however. Canelo Alvarez and James Kirkland tomorrow night. With Kirkland being a "win or get knocked out" kind of fighter I think it will be anything but boring. It will also be interesting to see how he does without Ann Wolf in his corner.
Another interesting one will be GGG vs Willie Monroe although I do not see GGG loosing to any body at this point. I remember seeing Monroes uncle "Willie the Worm" Monroe getting one over Marvelos Marvin years ago.

Pacquaio could have been 200% healthy, and the only thing that would have changed "might" have been that he won an extra round. That fight was NEVER going to end in anything but a unanimous decision win for Mayweather. It is how he fights, and it will ALWAYS be how he fights.

That KO from Canelo was great.

You got that right. Canelo looked great last night.
Kirkland is no roll over guy by any stretch , he needs to "dance with the one that brung him" (Ann Wolf).
Seeing Kirkland hammer guys in the past in just a few rounds made me wonder how this one would turn out. Canelo really impressed me with what he could take not to mention what he could deal out.This fight deserved all the hype that the one last week got and did not deserve. He became a major star last night.
I am hoping the fight gets made with Cotto this fall. If it does I will be looking forward to it.

Did anyone catch the Andre Dirrell V James Degale fight?

Mayweather has not losing down to a science. That's all I'm gonna say about that. You want to see a good fight, find the first fight of the Ward-Gatti trilogy. Now that was a good fight. I haven't yelled at the TV like that since.

duotone said:

Did anyone catch the Andre Dirrell V James Degale fight?

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I caught it and agreed with the 114-112 in favor of Degale . I think he won it fair and square. The judge that scored it 117-109 should have his licence pulled.
There is no question that Dirrell has talent but sometimes I wonder about his fire to win . I believe he was the Dirrell that declined to fight Andre Ward in the Super Six on Showtime.

docjude said:

Mayweather has not losing down to a science. That's all I'm gonna say about that. You want to see a good fight, find the first fight of the Ward-Gatti trilogy. Now that was a good fight. I haven't yelled at the TV like that since.

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You are exactly right about Mayweather fighting not to loose. I have been done with him for a long time and refused to buy the pay per view. From his style that you mentioned to his sucker punch of Victor Ortiz (who seemed to be getting to Mayweather at that time in the fight), imho Mayweather has no business as a pay per fighter.
There are too many rising stars in boxing to waste time and money on Mayweather. Omar Fifugeoa, Canello, Diego Delahoya,
Roman Gonzalez,Kell Brook, and Kieth Thurman just to name a very few.
The first Ward Gatti match I had four friends over for steaks, cigars , adult beverages and boxing. After that night they all became fans and still are.
Another great trillogy was Vasquez-Marquez.
The most recent really exciting fight I have seen is Figueroa vs Hiakoua (sp?). If you can catch it on You Tube don't miss it .You will be glad you did.

I am a retired fan of boxing, but a couple good ones were Hearns vs Hagler, and the Gatti vs. Ward series.
Another good title fight was Paul Spadafora winning his first major title. Unfortunately I do not remember his opponent. Spades was VERY slick, but unfortunately he later changed trainers and his trainer changed his style.

A great, exciting boxer to check out from a few years ago is Johnny Tapia, he wore his heart on his sleeve, and I get emotional even now thinking of him. His biography "Mi Vida Loca" http://www.amazon.com/Mi-Vida-Loca-...8&qid=1432598789&sr=1-2&keywords=mi+vida+loca was a very good read, and unfortunately his demons finally caught him.

Nick Styptic said:

I caught it and agreed with the 114-112 in favor of Degale . I think he won it fair and square.
There is no question that Dirrell has talent but sometimes I wonder about his fire to win . I believe he was the Dirrell that declined to fight Andre Ward in the Super Six on Showtime.

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That Super Six series could have been so good, it's too bad that Froch was the only boxer who actually honored his commitment to the series.

Speaking of Froch, he's the boxer I admire the most in recent times. Tough,talented, lots of heart, has a great trainer. He is terrible at trash talking however, and much better at being humble.

If you have the chance, watch Froch vs Pascal, that was some fight.

Ward on the other hand is the type of fighter I hate watching, he's what I call an anti-boxer, headbutts, and had that association with a doctor who helped athletes cheat. It's a shame because Ward has obvious talent, I get the feeling he's had dubious representation in the past. Just my opinion of course.

nffclsr said:

That Super Six series could have been so good, it's too bad that Froch was the only boxer who actually honored his commitment to the series.

Speaking of Froch, he's the boxer I admire the most in recent times. Tough,talented, lots of heart, has a great trainer. He is terrible at trash talking however, and much better at being humble.

If you have the chance, watch Froch vs Pascal, that was some fight.

Ward on the other hand is the type of fighter I hate watching, he's what I call an anti-boxer, headbutts, and had that association with a doctor who helped athletes cheat. It's a shame because Ward has obvious talent, I get the feeling he's had dubious representation in the past. Just my opinion of course.

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Froch is one of the toughest fighters active today. He also has more nerve than most of the other top stars in his weight class.
He has started talks with GGG for a possible fight in the fall. Most of the other guys are far to afraid to even think of a fight with Golovkin.
Ward does have talent and the ability to radically switch styles both in a fight ,and from fight to fight.I am thinking of his first fight in the Super Six to the second. In the first fight he was a boxer/puncher. In the second, he was almost all an inside power puncher. Not many can do this.
Ward had better get busy though. His management troubles with Goosen made him inactive while others have risen up to fill the void.I think he may be one of the ones that want no part of GGG. Have you noticed that Hopkins seems to be nudging Ward out of ring side analyst appearances lately ?

tinashubby said:

I am a retired fan of boxing, but a couple good ones were Hearns vs Hagler, and the Gatti vs. Ward series.
Another good title fight was Paul Spadafora winning his first major title. Unfortunately I do not remember his opponent. Spades was VERY slick, but unfortunately he later changed trainers and his trainer changed his style.

A great, exciting boxer to check out from a few years ago is Johnny Tapia, he wore his heart on his sleeve, and I get emotional even now thinking of him. His biography "Mi Vida Loca" http://www.amazon.com/Mi-Vida-Loca-...8&qid=1432598789&sr=1-2&keywords=mi+vida+loca was a very good read, and unfortunately his demons finally caught him.

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I remember the Spadafora fight , I think it was 1999. He came in the underdog and left with the title. He was similar to Tapia in that they both were successes in the ring but had difficulty out of it.
Tapia was one of those fighters (like Camacho and Terrence Crawford today) that when I saw him when he was an unknown underard fighter first on TV , I sat up and thought "that young man has IT ".

http://old.post-gazette.com/pg/05058/463277.stm this is a link to an article on Spadafora from 2005. I hope he has put things together by now.

I grew up around boxing. My father is a huge fan, largely because his older brother, my uncle, was a professional fighter in the mid to late 1960s (ranked as high as #4 in the world at one point, and even fought a main event at Madison Square Garden). Dad is currently the treasurer for the NJ Boxing Hall of Fame (into which my uncle was inducted into in 1995).

Personally, I don't watch much boxing these days, and I don't care for MMA.

If anyone is interested, here is a sort of highlight reel of my Uncle's fights, put together by another Uncle. Uncle Paddy was pretty good.