General

Round by Round: Weekly Boxing Notes

May 15, 2009, 6:50 PM UTC

In Non-Pacquiao-Related Newsâ†µâ†µI’m going to try to do a weekly recap here without detouring into the one-man boxing circus that is the mighty Pac Man. Two weeks after his pulverization of Ricky Hatton, Pacquiao is still the toast, the buzz, the bee’s knees of boxing town. But I think it’s finally time to give his name a rest and turn our attention to the rest of his kingdom, Fistiana, where, unsurprisingly, there is no shortage of news. To wit:â†µ

â†µâ†µWard vs. Miranda: Boxing in O-Townâ†µ

â†µâ†µThe fight game makes its first marquee appearance in Oakland since George Foreman fought at the Oakland Coliseum in 1987 (he knocked out Charles Hostetter in three rounds -- not exactly the wide world of sports). Andre Ward faces Edison Miranda at the Oracle Arena Saturday night in a super middleweight bout being televised by Showtime. It should be an exciting night for local fight fans, in that Ward is a Bay Area native who lives in Oakland and does his training at the city’s legendary Kings Gym.â†µ

â†µâ†µThis is unquestionably the biggest moment of Ward’s career, as he faces the high-profile decapitation artist, Edison “La Pantera” Miranda, known for his spectacular knockouts. With Miranda, who has faced much more elite competition than Ward in his career (including Kelly Pavlik once and Arthur Abraham twice, all losses), it’s always kill or be killed from the opening bell. A gold medalist at the Athens Olympics, Ward should be the bigger and infinitely more skilled boxer in the ring tomorrow night, but can he handle the heat in La Pantera’s kitchen? If he does, it could prove the first major step in his path to becoming the star that many have expected him to be for years now. I’ll be on hand ringside to see how he fares, and I’ll have a detailed report on the scene right here at TSB.â†µ

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â†µHe's Bad ... He's Worldwideâ†µ

â†µâ†µIf the scope of the press tour is any indication, Floyd Mayweather and Golden Boy Promotions are going to pull out all the stops to make the Mayweather/Juan Manuel Marquez fight on July 18 an international event, going so far as to include London in the six-day junket. I can only imagine that they’re heading over to the Jolly Old to cash in on the noted British hatred of Money May that started during the wild build-up to Mayweather’s destruction of Ricky Hatton in December of 2007. â†µ

â†µâ†µIt seems like a wise promotional move to me. Going back to a young loudmouth by the name of Cassius Clay, there’s a grand tradition of fighters playing the bad guy to boost the ratings of their fights. When people hate you, they quite often will tune in to your fights, just in the hopes that you catch a beating. And Floyd is the latest, greatest villain in the game. He knows what side his bread is buttered on, and that would be the Dark Side of the Force.â†µ

â†µâ†µKelly Pavlik Continues to Flounderâ†µ

â†µâ†µWhat a difference eight months makes. Go back to September of 2008, and Kelly Pavlik was one of the biggest rising stars in boxing about to face a living legend, Bernard Hopkins, in a fight that most expected him to dominate. â†µ

â†µâ†µOf course, it didn’t turn out that way, and the humiliating loss that Pavlik suffered at the (all-too-fast) hands of B-Hop proved only the beginning of his problems. One has to wonder if his promoter, Bob Arum, is spending too much of his attention these days on a certain ferocious Filipino who shall not be named. Because it feels like Pavlik’s career has been derailed to an unnecessary extent by the Hopkins debacle. Yes, it was a bad loss, and it exposed him somewhat as vulnerable to opponents who show him different angles. But it still doesn’t quite seem like that defeat should have sent him into the purgatory in which he now finds himself.â†µ

â†µâ†µThe latest problem he faces is that his fight with Sergio Mora, initially set for June 27, has been postponed indefinitely due to a staph infection on Pavlik’s right hand. Subsequently, however, Pavlik’s team has said that the fighter was cleared to fight and they weren’t exactly sure why the fight was postponed, leaving some in the biz to think that it had been such an unsuccessful promotion that Arum just decided to pull the plug on it, using Pavlik’s injury as a convenient excuse. â†µ

â†µâ†µGranted, it was a terrible make in the first place. Absolutely no one wants to see Sergio Mora, who isn’t exactly big when he campaigns at 154, get a mother of a beating from a giant like Pavlik at 160. It wasn’t a fight -- it was a ritual sacrifice. The only reason to make it at all was that Mora has some tiny level of name recognition with the public due to his days on The Contender.â†µ

â†µâ†µWhich illustrates the real problem faced by Arum as he tries to get Pavlik back to the top of the A-list -- there’s no really intriguing fights for him out there. Hopkins ruined him, Joe Calzaghe retired. There’s Armenian bruiser Arthur Abraham waiting over in Germany, a likely opponent for Pavlik later in the year, and yet that provides the always unwelcome specter in this sport of a very rough fight against an opponent with zero fan-base in the U.S.â†µ

â†µâ†µAnd so Pavlik finds himself knocked down several pegs from the days following his thrilling knockout of Jermain Taylor in September of 2007 when it seemed like he was headed for certain superstardom. He desperately needs some other compelling figure to emerge as a star in the 160-175 weight range to provide him with an exciting matchup down the road. Which brings me back to my first entry and the fate of Andre Ward in Oakland. Ward may not just be fighting for his own future tomorrow night, but for that of Pavlik, Chad Dawson, and just about anyone else who hopes to make a name for themselves in those three woebegone weight classes that right now are bereft of meaningful competition.â†µ

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This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.

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