FINAL RUNDOWN

Hey Douglas.

Just a final few words before the September Madness hits us. Can’t remember the last time I looked so forward to September by the way.

Good win by Arthur Abram in what was a pretty good fight to end an otherwise uneventful month for boxing. The way I saw it Arthur’s power won out over Stieglitz’s heart and determination. I still can’t picture The King doing any better against the 168-pound elite than he did before. A fight between Arthur and Lucien Bute could be interesting. Both can really crack. Bute is more skilled and busier. But Artie obviously has the tougher chin. What do you think?

Concerning Golovkin-Proksa, I figure that “Superman” will probably take it as I mentioned before but I certainly not ruling out the possibility of the Pole scoring an upset. As it is, Proksa, unlike Golovkin, already has beaten a top ten guy (Sebastian Sylvester). So it’s really Golovkin taking the bigger step here.

One thing that I should mention: Regardless of who wins this fight it’s been mentioned that the winner won’t be considered ready to challenge Sergio Martinez. Fine. So who did Chavez Jr. beat to “earn” his shot at the title? Hey, if Proksa does indeed win that would be two top-ten guys he would have defeated right there. And if it’s Golovkin who wins then he still would have beaten one more legit contender than Junior ever did. And yet we have a seemingly increasing vocal bunch who thinks that Junior is going to run over Marvilla. I guess he’s big enough to do it. Nevertheless, the whole thing’s is still so screwy. And not just the fact that Marvilla’s fighting an overrated cruiserweight.

Speaking of Chavez Jr., was he separated at birth by any chance? He doesn’t even look anything like his dad. He looks more like Lou Ferrigno Jr!

Oh, and while we’re talking about look-alikes, is there anyone else who thinks that Wlad Klitschko’s upcoming opponent looks like a cross between Lurch of the Addams Family and the father from American Dad? Or just simply Lurch with a Jay Leno chin. Anyways Doug, enjoy the action! – Dave

Mariusz Wach looks like Lurch, period.

No need to combine the 6-foot-7 Polish heavyweight fringe contender with Stan (from the American Dad cartoon, one of my favorite shows) or Leno.

Add white paint to his face, color his hair salt-and-pepper grey, and have him say “You rang, Mrs. Adams?” and we’ve got America’s No. 1 giant zombie butler.

I think Chavez Jr. does resemble Senior.

Ferrigno Jr. looks like this:

And he makes cool “pop-surrealist” art like this:

Regarding Golovkin-Proksa, I think the winner is deserving of a shot at the Martinez-Chavez winner, but not more so than the winner of the Felix Sturm-Daniel Geale fight, which also takes place tomorrow.

Ideally, the Golovkin-Proksa winner will fight another top middleweight contender on U.S. television (perhaps the winner of the Peter Quillin-Hassan N’Jikam fight or Dmitry Pirog) to gain more exposure and career momentum before going after THE RING title.

I agree that Abraham will still be dominated by the elite fighters of the 168-pound division. The fact that he went life and death with Stieglitz is proof of that. However, an Abraham-Bute fight is intriguing. I’d like to see that fight.

LET’S GET RAW!

OK Dougie!

I’m back. August Break is over. The big September Smack-down is just about here. Time to get raw! And as the ol’ saying goes, raw is war! F__king right!!

Oh, and for those of you who bitched about my “raw” nature, here’s a newsflash for you all; boxing ain’t kiddy-fare! Get over it!

Kicking off with Golovkin-Proksa, what we have here is two beasts from the East who will be pounding away at each other’s flesh come Saturday night. Once again a very big thumbs-up to HBO for taking this one.

And my pick? Well it’s like this. Proksa’s indeed no joke. He really unloaded a nasty beating on Sebastian Sylvester’s overrated ass and he certainly avenged his one defeat in decisive fashion. Nevertheless he’s still going to get battered into submission by the mid or late rounds.

I just can’t overlook how banged up the Pole was in his one lone loss to feeble-fisted Kerry Hope. And Golovkin’s a f__king wrecking-ball with fists. Hey, the guy has been beating up cruiserweights and heavyweights during his sparring. Makes me wonder if he should be the next one facing this or that Klitschko. As it is I sure hope Proksa likes the smell of freshly chopped meat first thing the morning after because Borat here is going to f__k his face up worse than the way Mike Tyson f__ked up his own face!

That brings us to Sturm-Geale. And with this one some of us are already smelling some good ol’ s___ty German home cooking in the form of the usual putrid judging that’s goes along with a Sturminator bout. S__t, Geale could score ten knockdowns per round and those moronic judges will still score it in Sturm’s favour and then carry on about the havoc Sturm’s face dished out on Geale’s poor swollen fists.

Unless the Aussie can put Sturm away he probably will get f__ked by the judges. In which case Geale should just move on like a true top contender should and face the likes of Golovkin and Martinez; guys who don’t need to hide within their refined cushy home surroundings in order to win.

OK Dougie, I’m going to go and get further geared up for the rest of the upcoming kickass action like Martinez-Chavez, Rios-Alvarado (f__k yeah!!) and pretty much any fight involving Lucas Matthysse. Right after I watch this weekend’s headbusting action. Can’t wait! Cheers!! – Todd The Terminator

I gotta admit, Todd, I’m pretty hyped about the next three weeks, and the month of October, too.

I wish I could tell you that you’re exaggerating about the possible unfair outcome to the Sturm-Geale fight, but I can’t. I thought Sturm lost eight rounds to Matthew Macklin. I thought Martin Murray edged him, too. Having said that, I think the Sturminator looked sharp in his last outing (a ninth-round stoppage of Sebastian Zbik) and I view the showdown with Geale as an even fight.

Win or lose, I know Geale will give it his all and I’d love to see him take on the Golovkin-Proksa winner or the Quillin-N’Jikam winner next.

I agree with your pick in the Golovkin-Proksa fight, by the way. I think Golovkin stops him before the 10^th round.

Good to hear that TTT believes in GGG.

KO MAGAZINE

Hi Doug,
Love the mailbag.
I bought a back issue of KO magazine (May ’87), and want to share with you some observations on it….and get your thoughts.

My lesson from it? “Everything is obvious once you know the answer.”

For all the post-career detractors of Tyson and Michael Spinks…and there are lots of them… This issue was released just before Tyson’s unification match with Bonecrusher Smith (predicted to be a one round KO, either way…. not the 12 round clutch-fest it turned out to be).

The top 11 heavyweights after Tyson at that time were listed as: Michael Spinks, Bonecrusher Smith, Pinklon Thomas, Trevor Berbick, Tim Witherspoon, Tony Tucker, Tyrell Biggs, Tony Tubbs, Frank Bruno, Carl Williams and Jose Ribalta.

Although it’s trendy now to dismiss his opposition, Tyson beat 10 of the 11 men in that list between ’86-’89. The only one he didn’t fight was Witherspoon, who had put himself out of the picture by crumbling against Bonecrusher and his fallout with Don King.

I think that’s impressive by anyone’s standards.

Also, not only was Spinks #2 in the heavyweight rankings, he was #2 behind Tyson in the P4P rankings too. He was highly regarded, and contrary to some posters claims that “nobody picked him to win”, he was tipped over Tyson by Bert Sugar, Teddy Atlas and Muhammad Ali on the basis of his awkward style and unbeaten record. There’s a reason he got that huge payday.

To dismiss him as just a blown-up light heavyweight diminishes the performance of Tyson, unfairly so.

On the other hand…. Julio Cesar Chavez, still at 130lbs, was described as overrated and extremely lucky to get a decision over Juan LaPorte.

Pernell Whitaker, 11-0, was described as a boring disappointment with a shaky chin and no punch.

Finally, fans wrote in saying it was insanity to think that Ray Leonard could last six rounds with Hagler.

Food for thought!

Matchup time…who do you pick?
1) Hearns vs Norris at 154 lbs
2) Hearns vs McClellan at 160 lbs
3) Benn vs Nunn at 160 lbs
4) Bruno vs Morrison
5) Tua vs Mercer

Regards. – Paul

Thanks for writing in with your thoughts. As hot as the current action in the sport is about to get, I never tire of looking back at recent history – especially the late ’80s, since it was during this period that I developed into a hardcore fan.

Tyson’s meteoric emergence and the Hagler-Leonard superfight are key events that forced me to put down the comic books and pick up issues of THE RING and KO magazine. In fact, I still have the KO that you speak of (somewhere around here in a box).

What you said about “Everything is obvious once you know the answer” is absolutely true. Until the fights actually happen, or a fighter’s career finally plays out, we don’t know how good they are or will be, and we have no idea how they will be remembered.

For the record: Leonard was my idol but I still thought – like most of my friends – that Hagler was going to mug him. And I thought Hector Camacho was going to beatdown and embarrass both Chavez and Whitaker if they ever fought.

I was a huge fan of Tyson’s (though I didn’t buy into the notion that he was “unbeatable.”)

Part of the dismissal of Tyson’s legacy is probably due to the fact that he was hyped so much during his prime that many members of the media put him in the same class as Ali and Joe Louis. That wasn’t Tyson’s idea or his fault, but when he failed to live up to those impossible expectations, people came down hard on him.

However, you are absolutely right that he was amazing during his prime (late ’86 through ’89). I remember literally being struck breathless as I witnessed his demolition of Pinklon Thomas in ’87.

I agree that we shouldn’t call the version of Spinks that fought Tyson a blown-up light heavyweight. He proved that he could hang with the big boys vs. Larry Holmes and Gerry Cooney. If he had gone directly from 175 pounds to fighting Tyson, then we could say that Iron Mike beat up on a blown-up light heavy.

Anyway, despite the crazy ups and downs he went through during the 1990s and the early part of the last decade, members of the boxing media remembered his glory ears enough to vote him into the International Boxing hall of Fame the first time his name appeared on the ballot.

Mythical matchups:

1) Hearns vs Norris at 154 lbs – The Hitman by early KO. Hearns was at his best at 154 pounds and Norris, even at his best, was chinny.

2) Hearns vs McClellan at 160 lbs – Hearns by shaky decision. If he boxed a disciplined fight he could outclass the G-man, but tommyhad flaws and his heart often got the better of him, so I could see him getting clipped at some point. He’d probably get rocked a few times or dropped, but I believe he’d survive (the way he did vs. Leonard and Iran Barkley in their rematches; or in the James Kinchen fight)

3) Benn vs Nunn at 160 lbs – Nunn by late TKO. Nunn was too tall, rangy and smart to be pulled into Benn’s wild attack.

4) Bruno vs Morrison – Tommy by an up-from-the-canvas KO in a fun fight.
5) Tua vs Mercer – Mercer by close decision. Merciless’ iron chin and better boxing technique would overcome Tua’s superior strength and power.

Email Dougie at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @dougiefischer