FRIDAY NIGHT THOUGHTS

Pretty fun finale to FNF. Tavoris Cloud reminds me a bit of Jeff Lacy, with more explosive hand speed and two-fisted power. I wasn't surprised he didn't KO Clinton Woods (who has only been stopped by a prime RJJ) but I thought he hurt him several times and more importantly showed dangerous power late. Speaking of Woods, I realize Teddy Atlas was trying to play up the old pro vs. young lion angle, but he made Woods out to be Archie Friggin Moore!!! He's not that sly Teddy!

Anyways, the logical progression for Cloud would seem to be Tarver. I know Tarver excites NO ONE these days, but he'd be another 'name' and I actually think their styles would mesh quite well.

As for Bailey-Urango, well we saw the reason why Randall Bailey is Randall Bailey and NOT Tommy Hearns-- Ok maybe not the only reason (LOL) -- still going in I thought Urango was the more limited yet tougher guy and once again when the going got tough, Bailey more or less folded... He still can drop the hammer though, thought he had Urango out for a minute. -- Tom G.

Me too. And that would have been one hell of a one-punch KO as Urango has never been down before, never mind laid out. I picked Bailey to win Friday’s fight by decision because I thought he’d control Urango with his underrated jab, but he was a little too light in the ass to hold off a tank like Urango, who did the right thing in banging Bailey’s narrow body. I forgot that one of Bailey’s worse losses was a TKO to Diosbelys Hurtado, and the Cuban scored that stoppage by attacking the body. I don’t know if Bailey is going to stick around for one more run at a title, but I think he had a fairly accomplished career. He only lost to quality fighters and I thought his losses to Ener Julio, Ishe Smith and Herman Ngoudjo could have gone his way.

I think Cloud has more upside than Lacy even though he doesn’t have the amateur background that ‘Left Hook’ had. Cloud seems to have his head screwed on a little tighter, he’s got better technique, and he doesn’t rely on one power punch at a time.

However, he still needs to be developed. I don’t think Cloud is ready for Antonio Tarver. The former champ may be long in the tooth, but his legs are still under him and he’s got a dangerous style for Cloud. Woods got off well with his jab, which didn’t have much pop on it. Tarver’s southpaw jab is harder, rangier and it sets up a big left hand. Tarver is much better at keeping the action at arms length than the Englishman. That’s no good for Cloud at this stage of his career. I think someone like Yusaf Mack or Chris Henry is the perfect showcase for Cloud’s first title defense. Those young contenders will give Cloud a decent (but not TOO educated) jab to deal with and learn how to slip (as he started doing in the late rounds against Woods) and they will take him into the late rounds while making for entertaining fights that should help the Tallahassee native make more of a name for himself. After a defense or two, then I’d like to see
Cloud go for the likes of Tarver, Johnson and Dawson.


URANGO-MALIGNAGGI/DAWSON-CLOUD

Hey Doug-
Second time writer, long time fan.

Wanted to get your opinion on two potential fights that could happen in light of the last few weeks’ results.

First I know you are sick about hearing about Paulie Malignaggi getting robbed (I too thought he clearly won what was a tough, close fight), but I'm guessing you'd agree that his stock went up after that performance and since we all know there won't be a Diaz rematch at Madison Square Garden in a 20 foot ring, that he still deserves a significant fight. What's your take on a Malignaggi-Juan Urango bout for Urangos' IBF belt?

On the one hand Urango, to me, looks one dimensional & super sloppy with those slow, looping, arching punches and it would seem to me that Paulie, with the form he showed last weekend, would pick him apart, easily avoid trouble and win a wide, comfortable decision. Also Paulie would have the luxury of that extra pound and a half to make 140, while Urango's heavily muscled frame came in over the 140 lb limit at the first weigh in on Friday.

On the other hand, Paulie's lack of KO power is no secret, and Urango is a hard charging, albeit clumsy, pressure fighter who you would think would march forward especially hard against a fighter that didn't have the danger aspect of a Bailey, Hatton or Berto, and maybe he could wear Paulie down and stop him late. It seems like a match up that makes sense for both guys career wise and could probably do good business here in NYC. Whaddya think?

I also wanted your quick take on Tavoris Cloud vs Chad Dawson. I know this one is probably a few fights away for each guy if they keep winning, but I'm intrigued because you can see that Dawson has elite potential, but he hasn't really put it all together in one fight yet, and Cloud hits with such intensity and brings such ferocious intentions (he reminds a little of Hagler in terms of mentality), but I saw a fighter that was getting hit A LOT in the Woods fight, even if he was walking through it. I'm not sure he could walk though Dawson’s shots the same way, nor am I sure Dawson could stand up to Cloud's pressure and constant power punching for 12 rounds. Thoughts?

Thanks for reading, hope to hear your responses! -- Chris / NYC

Thanks for finally writing in, Chris. Urango-Malignaggi is a fight I would like to see ASAP, especially if Urango can’t get a higher-profile opponent such as fellow beltholders Timothy Bradley or Amir Khan. Both Urango and Malignaggi are proven vets with Polar opposite styles. It’s a hard fight to pick, which means it’s a quality matchup. I thought Naoufel Ben Rabah won eight rounds in his unanimous decision loss to Urango back in 2006, and the Australia-based Tunisian’s style is very similar to Malignaggi’s. However, I thought Juan Diaz legitimately beat Malignaggi and I know Urango is a lot stronger and harder-punching than the natural lightweight. Herman Ngoudjo and Lovemore Ndou (in the rematch) gave Malignaggi fits just by gradually walking him down until they could measure him with hard punches. That’s pretty much all Urango does, only he’s got more strength and power than those two. Urango’s also got Evangilista Cotto in his
corner now. Who knows? Maybe those two will have Malignaggi suffering from “Miguel Cotto flashbacks” if this fight gets made and lands in MSG.

I think Dawson-Cloud is the best boxer vs. pressure fighter/puncher matchup that can be made in the 175-pound division, but I don’t think it should be made right away. I think Cloud still needs a little seasoning before he’s ready for Dawson’s blend of speed, power, and lateral movement. There’s no doubt that Cloud’s pressure, heavy volume punching and seemingly iron chin would give Dawson fits, but I think having dealt with Glen Johnson (for 24 rounds by the end of this year) gives the southpaw the experience to deal with that combination. If it was made for February of next year, it would still be a good fight, but I’d strongly favor Dawson. If the fight is made late next year, and Cloud is able to fight at least twice between now and then, I think it could be a great fight and I would have no favorite in the matchup.


DOUGIE HAS MADE IT!

Dougie,
I am very proud that I met you @ the Hollywood Park & Casino that night Bernard Hopkins was there after the Felix Trinidad victory a while back.

You were very humble, courteous, and even shared a few drinks.

Thursday night I saw you again, punking Hopkins!

I was in the audience at Club Nokia, and it was cool to see you sit next to your "old rival" Hopkins (I recall some articles where you mentioned he was not happy with some of your reporting).

You held your own, and I'm wondering what the back and forth was about, but I was in awe of how far you've come!

Here's to your success!

Any tips for someone who has not yet made it?

Is there a secret that you attribute your success to? Persistence?! Passion? -- Eric

Thanks for kissing my mulatto ass and making me feel like a celebrity, Eric. LOL. Seriously, I appreciate your words.

I forgot about those club shows that were held at Inglewood’s Hollywood Park in 2000 and 2001. It’s amazing when I think about how far some of the fighters on those cards have come. I saw Nonito Donaire’s pro debut and his third pro bout there. (That’s back when Jackie Kallen managed him. I remember seeing Meg Ryan “shadow” Kallen at those shows as part of her research for that awful movie she starred in that was based on Kallen’s rise in the sport with James Toney.) I met Mickey Rourke at one of those shows. We talked about his two favorite fighters – Carlos Monzon and Toney. He and Nonito have certainly come up after some tough times, eh? And how about Nard? He had just unified the middleweight titles, proving that he was the man in the division, but who knew that he would accomplish enough to become a first-ballot hall of famer and an arguably great fighter? Who knew he’d still be fighting at the end of the decade?

And who knew we would one day be commentating partners (for four live broadcasts and counting)? I certainly would not have believed it back in 2001.

At the time, I didn’t have any broadcast aspirations. However, that changed as the decade progressed. If there’s a secret to success in ANY arena I think the two attributes you mentioned – passion and persistence – are key components. You gotta want it and you gotta be willing to stick with your goal. I’ll add two more P-words to that mix, patience and practice. It takes time and a lot of work for one to learn his craft (as I’m sure Hopkins, Donaire or any fighter will tell you).

I got used to expressing my opinions with MaxBoxing’s The Next Round before I got my feet wet with produced TV segments that appeared on The Fight Network in Canada. Then there was my first live commentary broadcast (which was actually a webcast, the Antwun Echols-Rubin Williams card from Auburn Hills, Mich., in January of 2007), which was followed by a number of HBO Countdown shows (which included Barrera-Marquez, Cotto-Judah, Hopkins-Wright, Pacquiao-Barrera II and Cotto-Mosley thanks to the network’s young producers who didn’t mind having a geeky guy with a pony tail talk about those fights), and that led to my first live pay-per-view show (‘Latin Fury I’ headlined by Julio Chavez Jr.-Ray Sanchez in December of ’07). Last year I got semi-regular work with more Latin Fury PPVs and some international broadcasts of big Top Rank shows (such as Pavlik-Taylor II and Pacquaio-Diaz) thanks to producer Rick Seara, who helped me out a lot and gave
me confidence to keep working at it. This year it’s been producer Frank Belmont who’s given me the opportunity to continue to grow.

Positive emails like yours (yeah, I get ‘em occasionally; I don’t always post them in the mailbags but I appreciate every one of them) also encourage me to keep at it. So thanks again.

Now, as for the whole Hopkins beef, that was squashed a few years ago (by Nard, of course). B-hop has been fun to work with since we did the ‘Lightweight Lighting’ PPV card in April. Fight Night Club is even more fun because of the atmosphere at Club Nokia (as you experienced last Thursday). There was no “punking” going on. LOL.

College boys who have never laced on a pair of gloves for a real prize fight don’t ”punk” Graterford Prison grads who happen to be future hall-of-fame boxers.


MORE TEXAS INCOMPETENCE

Sup Dougie,
I just wanted to point out that yesterday makes two weekends in a row with terrible, Texas officiating. Jesus Soto Karass beat Edvin Dos Santos Barros in an entertaining, close but clear-cut fight near Dallas that was up for grabs midway, yet two of the judges turned in absurd cards of 100-90 and 99-91. Being from the Lone Star State, I can tell you I've been to a couple lower profile fights and have seen highway robberies like you wouldn't believe. I'm not kidding, they're on the level of Augustus-Burton. And while I'm add it, is there a logical explanation as to how or why Laurence Cole got his license back after years of incompetence followed by the JM Marquez incident? -- Will

Um yeah, Cole never lost his license for informing Marquez that he was ahead on the scorecards after an accidental clash of heads during his Texas bout with Jimrex Jaca opened a cut that could have ended the bout and gone to the scorecards (which was so stupid on so many levels I don’t even want to waste time going into it – I mean, never mind the fact that HBO’s cameras and mics were all around the ring, but why would he think JMM needed an escape from a guy he was going to destroy? Ugh!). Cole’s dad probably thought he did the right thing.

Anyway, Texas definitely needs to get its s__t together. It’s too big of a market for promoters to ignore – and I don’t want them to (there’s too many talented fighters and too many fans who live there) – but if the officiating continues to look shady on national television I wouldn’t blame the networks from shying away from fights that take place the Lone Star State.

For the record, I thought the 97-93 card for the Soto Karass-Dos Santos fight was the only realistic tally.


TAVORIS CLOUD

I just read your article on Tavoris Cloud. Great work as always. Cloud looks like the real deal. He has power, stamina, and a good chin. He also seems to have a lot of desire. I was wandering what you thought of the judges’ scorecards in this fight. I had the fight 118-110, only giving Woods rounds two and five. I thought Woods clearly won round two, but five was questionable. I thought Woods put up a game effort, but in most of the rounds where Woods would seem to be scoring points, Cloud would close the round with a bunch of haymaker punches that would cancel out Wood's effort, in my opinion. I also thought it very curious that all of the judges had the score 116-112, which is giving Woods four rounds.

Do you think the judges were second guessing themselves, not wanting to put themselves in the position of Gayle Van Hoy, the infamous judge who gave the hometown favorite Juan Diaz a 118-110 score over Malignaggi? I also wander if you could enlighten me.

Do the judges of the fight sit next to each other? Could they peek at each other's scorecards? -- Robert

Judges do not sit next to each other. They sit at opposite ends of the ring so that each judge has a unique view of the combatants. Judges are not there to “agree” with each other. Still, widely divergent scorecard’s like Van Hoy’s make you wonder if some of them don’t smoke a little weed before they take their seats at the ring apron.

Anyway, I also scored the Woods-Cloud fight 118-110 for the young tiger. I scored rounds two and four for Woods. You say you gave Woods the fifth round, so maybe they scored all three of those rounds for the English vet, plus found one more for him. I thought the second round was competitive, so maybe that was the one. I think 116-112 is giving Woods the benefit of the doubt, but it’s not totally out of line. I don’t think the judges were trying to avoid the appearance of favoritism. I think that maybe Woods’ punches appeared to have more impact from where they were sitting than they did on TV, and that, along with the vet’s better boxing in the first half of the fight, led to his winning four rounds on all three official cards.


60/40 AND I'LL WHUP YOUR ASS!

First time emailer, been following since the Maxboxing days... keep up the good work; I have a feeling you will as long as you cover this sport...

That subject line of course is from RJJ during some HBO broadcast a couple years back... loved that interview, can’t remember seeing Nard so speechless after RJJ told him that... you're right, that snoozefest 14 yrs ago (?) was a really a shytfest... I think reading about it in The Ring and KO mags was more entertaining than the fight itself... right again on the pre-fight for RJJ/B-Hop: it would be a contest in str8 shyttalkin'--which has its place and is sometimes funny--instead of a good scrap… interesting to see where both are now...

No questions really, just wanted to sound off to you and tell you to keep banging the stories, I find it to be solid info especially here on the westside (from Culver City/Mar Vista myself)... OK one question... Vitali/Arreola, give me something, what do u think...I’m only asking b/c I think I might actually sit and watch this fight (thinking about seeing it at Staples) instead of playing online poker with the fight on TV in the background...

Have a good weekend, looks like our summer weather finally hit. -- Jack

Oh yeah, I knew we wouldn’t escape the summer without at least a few days of brutal sun and this weekend’s heat was compounded by the awful air quality from the wildfires. It probably won't cool down in September but least we’ve got some good local boxing to look forward to. Andre Ward makes a Southern California appearance in Temecula (with James Toney on the undercard) on Sept. 12, heavyweight prospect Travis Kauffman makes his way to the Chumash casino in Santa Ynez (north of Santa Barbra) on Sept. 18, there’s the fourth Fight Night Club at Club Nokia on Sept. 24, and then the big heavyweight showdown at Staples Center on Sept. 26. I think you should try to be there live for at least one of these shows but DEFINTIELY watch the heavyweight fight on TV if you can’t pull yourself away from your online poker for more than a few hours.

I promise it will be worth it. There’s no way Arreola is going to allow this fight to be boring.

Speaking of boring, I’m happy to report that Jones-Hopkins II is no closer to being made now than it was back when RJ was still coming up with embarrassing non-rhymes to prevent risky fights from taking place. Back when Jones was singing “60/40 whup yo ass” (I think it was in 2002, not too long after Hopkins unified the middleweight titles) I had some interest in the rematch, particularly if it would have happened at 168 pounds. Now, I think such an “event” (and sadly much of the mainstream sports media would treat it as such) would only detract attention from legitimate fights and the new generation of light heavyweights.

A Jones-Hopkins rematch at super middleweight would have been an interesting fight six years ago, but it didn’t happen when both men were still enjoying the tail end of their athletic primes. Now that both future hall of famers are at the end of their careers I’d rather not talk about what could have been.

I prefer to discuss how Jermain Taylor will fare against Arthur Abraham and how Andre Dirrell will deal with Carl Froch in October, and then pontificate on how all four will do in the rest of Showtime’s Super Six tournament.

And yeah, I realize that both Hopkins and Jones are currently RING-ranked light heavyweights but I’d rather watch the Dawsons, Pascals, and Clouds of the 175-division do their thing. It’s their time.


dougie can be reached at dougiefischer@yahoo.com