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Dougie’s Monday mailbag

Fighters Network
21
Dec
Photo by Alex Menendez - Hoganphotos/Golden Boy Promotions

Photo by Alex Menendez – Hoganphotos/Golden Boy Promotions

KING KONG & THE AXEMAN

Yo Doug!

I have literally been in a coma induced by the May-Pac ‘extravaganza’ that actually dulled my interest in the sport quite a bit, but fortunately I’ve snapped out of it finally! The Luis Ortiz-Bryant Jennings fight felt like proper heavyweight boxing. I was just casually channel hopping and caught it at the right time, so glad I watched it. That’s the kind of bout I remember and haven’t seen a HW clash like this in a while. Super impressed with Ortiz, so much so that I’m officially a fan and want him to go on a be the champ! What are your thoughts on him taking on the best of the division and how far can he go?

Also, I’m gutted for the Axe Man but he is so damn tough I’m not even that bothered ’cause he’ll get back in the ring and brutalize his next opponent regardless of what the judges say! So Doug what’s your take on where Walters career will go?



Finally have you got any other boxing websites for news, etc. that you recommend? Cheers. – Seth

They’re all pretty good, Seth. I go to Fightnews.com, Boxingscene.com, TheSweetScience.com, UCNlive.com, 15Rounds.com, East Side Boxing/www.boxing247.com, ESPN.com’s boxing page, BleacherReport’s, Yahoo.com’s, etc. There are at least a dozen others. I can’t name them all but each one has its strength (breaking news, insider/insight, original columns/features, videos, international coverage, community, etc.) and is worth visiting.

I agree that Ortiz-Jennings was a “proper” heavyweight fight. Ortiz won the first and third rounds big by rocking Bryant, but the tough Philadelphian bounced back in Rounds 2 and 4 by outworking the Cuban (especially on the inside). I thought Ortiz took command of the fight in Round 5 when he found the proper (there’s that word again) range to let his hands go, but Jennings was having a good Round 7 before “King Kong” blasted him with those left uppercuts.

I favored Ortiz in what I viewed as a “toss-up” matchup, but I thought he would struggle more with the tenacious American contender and figured he would have to settle for a close decision. So, the big southpaw exceeded my expectations. I consider Ortiz to be a top-10 heavyweight now. I’m excited about what he might do in 2016.

What are your thoughts on him taking on the best of the division and how far can he go? I think Ortiz will be a handful for anyone ranked in THE RING’s Top 10, as well as the champ, Tyson Fury. But it’s still a bit early to predict if he can go all the way. He just beat his first contender. Ortiz answered some questions on Saturday, but there are other questions that Jennings wasn’t able to “ask” (such as how he takes a shot from a world-class puncher, or how he handles a bigger opponent). I’d like to see Ortiz beat another contender, or two, and earn his shot at Fury (or Klitschko if Wladdy wins the proposed rematch with the Gypsy King).

So Doug what’s your take on where Walters career will go? I think Walters can and will be a player at 130 pounds as long as he doesn’t allow that bulls__t draw decision sour him on the sport. I would favor him to beat top-10 contenders, such as Javier Fortuna and Orlando Salido, and current beltholders Roman Martinez and Jose Pedraza. I think showdowns with WBA titleholder Takashi Uchiyama and WBC boss Francisco Vargas would be epic.

SOLD ON LUIS ORTIZ

Hi Dougie,

I love your work. I have been reading your mailbag since you were at Maxboxing. I am a fan of your work, Steve Kim’s, as well as Tom Gerbasi’s.

Hey, I just want to share a thought about Luis Ortiz’ win over Jennings this weekend. I find Ortiz’s footwork to be among the best, if not the best, among current heavyweight contenders. I am not talking about his Ali-like-rope-a-dope move, but more about his ability to step to the right, left, or back just right before he punches such that he could get the best leverage for his punches. That move, actually, also generates new angles that would confuse the opponents, making it even harder for them to block Ortiz’ punches. And most importantly, Ortiz did all that so naturally. Did you see what I see?

I know most people would probably need to see him in a few more of fights before calling him a real deal but I am sold. He picked apart a very good opponent in Jennings, who is a pretty good heavyweight and who came in prepared and, I believe, was in a much better shape than when he fought Wladimir. After this performance, I would pick him against any heavyweight. I am not saying he will demolish them. He’ll be in competitive fights with Fury, Deontay Wilder, Alexander Povetkin, or Kubrat Pulev ÔǪ but I believe he’d find ways to defeat them. – Chris Tiadi

You may be right. You may be wrong. Ortiz beat a very solid heavyweight on Saturday. Jennings is a legit contender. He’s battled tested against veterans and up-and-comers and he had been to the big dance earlier this year when he challenged then-champ Klitschko. But Jennings doesn’t have a deep amateur background like Ortiz and other heavyweight contenders. Jennings isn’t a large heavyweight by modern standards, and he isn’t a puncher (10 stoppages in 21 bouts). And although Jennings is strong and durable, he isn’t a dynamic athlete with world-class speed.

We know Ortiz is talented, skilled and big enough to hurt and wear down a tough cat like Jennings. But we don’t know how Ortiz will react if a fast-rangy puncher like Wilder nailed him with a flush one-two combination. We don’t know how he will react if he nails a rock-headed S.O.B. like Povetkin with his best shots and the Russian keeps pressing him, round after round. We don’t know how he would deal with giants like Fury and Klitschko.

I hope we find out soon.

Whoever Ortiz faces next better be prepared for the Cuban’s deft footwork. I did notice how nimble the big man was on his feet, and I think he took over the fight once he incorporated his footwork/foot-placement/movement into his offense.

Thanks for the kind words and for following my work (and the work of my former MaxBoxing colleagues and good friends Kim and Gerbasi) for all these years.

THE YEAR IN REVIEW

Hi Dougie,

What a year in boxing it’s been! I want to thank you for once again voting for Nigel Benn/Chris Eubank for the IBHOF, and, for responding to my question when the Hall of Fame inductees will be announced. Hope they make it this year.

Couple of comments I wanted to make about this weekend’s action. I wasn’t surprised with the majority draw score between Nicolas Walters and Jason Sosa. Sosa kept busy throughout the fight and if you ignored the HBO commentators I observed Walters landing the harder shots but Sosa remained composed and threw tons of punches, many landing upstairs that were clean shots to Walter’s head. In other words, Sosa remained busy enough and landed enough to stay close on the scorecards. Many will disagree, but every time Walter’s landed his punishing body blows, Sosa would return fire. I thought Walters won the early rounds but Sosa closed the gap in the later ones. And I gave Sosa rounds 11 and 12. Also, Sosa nailed Walters continuously with his straight right on Walter’s head. I know I’m in the minority but IMO the fight was close.

We now have a serious heavyweight contender in Luis Ortiz. That was a great heavyweight fight between Ortiz/Jennings. Every time Ortiz hurt Bryant, the latter would come right back and furiously throw uppercuts and body shots in the clinch. And what a finish for Ortiz, showing he could box on the inside as well as outside. That huge uppercut he landed on Jennings was a thing of beauty sending the American face first to the canvas. Ortiz, is that rare breed, a boxer-puncher and hopefully we have a serious Cuban heavyweight in the division. There have been many great Cuban fighters over the years who’ve made the trek to the U.S. And the one thing we know about the Cuban school of pugilism is they can box. Cuba just hasn’t produced a serious heavyweight contender until now. Not only is Ortiz a big man but he can move as he showed when he danced around boxing Jennings on the outside. I look forward to him fighting the best of the best.

2015 Fight of the Year: Huck/Glowacki. I knew I wouldn’t see a better one after that dramatic cruiser weight clash.

2015 Fighter of the Year: Tyson Fury gets my vote since someone finally brought life back into the heavyweight division defeating the overly long reign of Wlad.

2015 Most Promising Fighter of the Year: James Degale who won the super middleweight title against Andre Dirrell then went to Quebec and fought a thrilling fight against the game ex-champion Lucian Bute. Degale showed his complete game with his quicker feet and happier hands. I look to Degale now to rule the super middleweight division.

2015 Greatest Boxing Gift to America: The PBC gets my vote for putting world class boxing back on network T.V. The first half of the year for the PBC was rough going, but, sometime in the early months of summer the PBC fights improved, and by the end of the year we, the fans, were treated to some thrilling fights.

What are your thoughts on Walters/Sosa?

Do you agree/disagree with my list?

Thanks for keeping me in the boxing loop this year Dougie. It’s difficult to write in sometimes since we agree on almost everything! Two points of contention though: GGG fouled Lemeiux in their middleweight showdown with that late punch. Though you loved Huck/Glowacki you stuck to Mattysse/Provodnikov as fight of the year unless you’ve changed your mind and have chosen another candidate.

Hope you have a great Holiday with your family and keep up the excellent, masterly boxing analysis for your cult of followers who seem to grow yearly.

Regards. – Erik

Thanks for the kind words and holiday wishes, Erik.

There’s no contention between us. I agree that Golovkin fouled Lemieux with a late punch. I think Lemieux deserved up to five minutes of recovery time. I’m on record with this opinion. And my personal Fight of the Year (none of my opinions are those of RING magazine’s) is Francisco Vargas-Takashi Miura, not Matthysse-Provodnikov.

I agree with your thoughts and observations on Ortiz and share your enthusiasm for the big man.

What are your thoughts on Walters/Sosa? I thought Walters won clearly. He nailed Sosa with the harder, cleaner punches and he avoided a lot of the underdog’s head shots. Sosa was game and competitive, but the official judges gave the Philadelphian too much credit for his ability to take a shot and for his activity. I love a high-volume puncher, but he’s got to land a significant percentage of those shots in order for me to give him credit for his work. I don’t think Sosa connected with enough of his punches on average to win more than two or three rounds against the harder and more-accurate punching from Walters. How the judges missed Walter’s brilliant body work is beyond me. There’s no way Sosa won five or six rounds. No. Freakin’. Way.

Do you agree/disagree with my list? I only agree with your Fighter of the Year selection but I don’t disagree strongly with your choices for Fight of the Year (Glowacki-Huck was a badass scrap) or Most Promising Fighter of the Year (I’d go with a popular young up-and-comer who hasn’t won a world title yet but seems on his way, such as Joseph Diaz Jr., Felix Verdejo, or Oscar Valdez; but DeGale is a favorite of mine and I agree that he has the ability to take over the 168-pound division). The only category of yours that I really can’t agree with is “Greatest Boxing Gift to America: The PBC.” If the PBC is a “gift” to the sport, it’s the gift that keeps on giving, and giving, and giving, and giving, until we don’t want any more of it. The PBC is like the Harry & David Fruit of the Month Club. Anyone ever give you one of those for Christmas? You get a box of fresh fruit delivered to your door every month. It sounds good and it’s pretty cool for a month or two. “Oh goody! Fuji Apples! Asian pears!” But by the third or fourth month of a 12-month collection, you’re sick of fruit, you’re dreading the deliveries and wondering what the f__k you’re going do with all those damn mangos and kiwis and nectarines and papayas and whatnot. I try to keep up with the PBC on all of its various platforms but 75% of the product isn’t worth the effort. I’m just being real. If some of these PBC shows were boxes of fruit they’d have worms in them.

 

DID BHOP TAKE RJJ’S HBO JOB?

Is BHOP officially in and RJJ out as HBO’s expert commentator? Was Jones yanked because everyone ktfo him now and it’s tarnishing his rep, or is he just off to save face and get better and BHOP was just moonlighting? Thank you. – Jason

I don’t think Jones has been ousted by HBO (although Hopkins has made no secret that he wants that role and he’ll always have a competitive hard-on for his old nemesis). I think Jones needed to take the rest of the year off from commentating to nurse the concussion he sustained with his latest overseas canvas nap, and he’ll be back in 2016.

I hope so, anyway. B-Hop is my man, but I like Jones’ commentary. I thought Hopkins did a good job on Saturday. It wouldn’t surprise me if HBO brought B-Hop in for Boxing After Dark shows and kept RJJ on Championship Boxing in 2016. We’ll see, but I think there should be a place (on HBO and other networks) for both future hall of famers to share their experience and wisdom with fans through commentary gigs.

 

LEE VS. SAUNDERS

Hi Dougie,

Just a quick one; how can you score Lee v Saunders? Note “can” and not “did”!

All the rounds were 10-10 apart from round three which was 10-7 thanks to the knockdowns.

People moaned about Klitschko’s v Fury but that was FOTY compared to this crap. Neither of them did anything of note at all in 11 of the rounds. Chris Eubank Jr. may have been beaten when they met but he’d kill either Saunders or Lee if they met now.

End of moan. – Matt, Beds, UK

Eubank has definitely grown as a fighter since that close loss to Saunders last year. I think he’s a threat to every middleweight but GGG.

I agree with your opinion of Saunders-Lee. There was way too much posing and respect given between the southpaws. I’m not a minimalist when it comes to boxing. I can’t get into a matchup of two boxers with a wait-and-counter approach to the Sweet Science. The fine art of avoidance is not for me.

I scored six rounds for Saunders, four for Lee, and one even (Round 6), so obviously I had it for the young challenger by a few points. When Twitter heads wanted to debate my scorecard I couldn’t be bothered. I don’t even care to defend my score when a fight sucks ass. When fans Tweeted to me that they scored the fight a draw, all I could think of was “Who cares?” I didn’t even bother to share that thought.

Anyway, my hope is that the uneventful nature of the fight was due to the style match-up and to first-time title challenge jitters, and that the next time we see Saunders in the ring he actually lets his hands go. As we saw in Round 3, good things can happen when he does.

 

THE YEAR OF GOLDEN BOY

Mr. Fischer,

First off I would like to say I am a big fan of yours, sir, and I appreciate the great work you do writing and commentating about boxing. Ring TV Live is awesome and I look forward to seeing you and your crew twice a month talking about up and coming fighters, fights and showcasing the top prospects that Golden Boy has. Quick question, are you guys thinking about doing Ring TV Live on the east coast or down south to cover the other Golden Boy prospects that aren’t mostly from California? That would be great.

Back to Golden Boy, this has been a great year for them. To think they lost probably over 20 top flight talents to Al Haymon and yet they figured out a way to make it work and not just survive, but thrive under the circumstances is simply amazing. Most companies would have folded like a cheap tent. But Golden Boy didn’t. Major props to Oscar, Bernard, and his great team he has.

These last 2 months have gone great with them sweeping the 2 major cards on HBO. Canelo, Francisco Vargas, and Luis Ortiz made huge statements to finish the year. I look forward to seeing what lies ahead for these guy in 2016. These guys a long with Sadam Ali, Jorge Linares are going to be headliners for Golden Boy. Hopefully early next year Lemieux and Matthysee reestablish themselves as major contenders again next year. It was just one loss against top guys in their divisions, and I don’t understand why people want to write them off, they both have a lot left in the tank.

I also look forward to guys like Slava Shabranskyy, Jo Jo Diaz, Manuel Avila, and a bunch of other young established prospects go to legit title contender status under Golden Boy. They have so much talent hopefully they find more ways to get there talent seen.

To wrap this up, Golden Boy was head and shoulders above all this year in boxing. I truly know now more than ever that the future is extremely bright for Golden Boy Promotions. Instead of them hiding their top talent, they challenged their top talent to be great. They should be commended for that.

Happy Holidays to you and your family Mr. Doug. – Mike from the Lone Star State

Thanks for the kind words and holiday wishes, Mike. And thanks for the props for the Ring TV Live venture. A lot of people have worked really hard behind the scenes to get it started this year, and while it’s definitely up and running right now, you can expect the streaming channel to really take off in 2016.

We will be streaming at least two live boxing shows a month next year. In fact, we’ll probably do around 40 shows, and some of them will emanate from the East Coast and maybe from Texas. There will also be a lot of original boxing-related programs produced out of Golden Boy’s new studio in 2016 and those shows will run on THE RING’s official website and the various Ring TV Live channels/platforms (on Roku, Amazon Fire, Yip.TV, ringtvlive.com).

Regarding your thoughts on Golden Boy Promotion’s year of rebuilding, I’m obviously not an impartial observer (as the company owns THE RING and I’m involved with the Ring TV Live venture) but I still want to add a few points and names to your notes.

Firstly, GBP has A LOT of young talent. I’m talking about prospects of various levels (from various parts of the U.S. and world) between the ages of 19 and 24, such as Julian Ramirez, Diego De La Hoya, Jason Quigley, Frankie Gomez, Zachary Ochoa, D’Mitrius Ballard, Joet Gonzalez, Damon Allen, Lamont Roach Jr., Christian Gonzalez and Hector Tanajara, among many others. The company is committed to developing these up-and-comers to their fullest potential while giving them as much exposure as possible.

In addition to the fighters you named (and thanks for mentioning Shabranskyy – did you see that slugfest that Russian bomber had with Yuniesky Gonzalez? Holy crap!), the company has some mature contenders, such as Mauricio Herrera and Tureano Johnson; some young guns who just entered (or re-entered) the rankings, such as Antonio Orozco and Ronny Rios; and some talented guys on the fringes that are one or two wins away from breaking into the top 10 of their respective divisions like Patrick Teixeira, Marcelino Lopez, Abe Lopez and KeAndre Gibson.

Former IBF bantamweight titleholder Randy Caballero, who had a nightmarish 2015, will be back (at a 122 pounds) in February, and that’s a bout you’ll be able to watch via RingTV Live.

 

ZAC ‘DYNAMO’ DUNN

Hey Dougie,

I discovered this column a couple of months ago and it’s made Ring magazine my favourite website on the Internet. Many thanks for the two columns full of boxing insight every week, has drawn my attention to some of the lower weight classes in particular.

Anyway, being an Australian boxing fan, I was wondering if you’ve heard anything about Zac Dunn. He is the current IBO World Super Middleweight Champion, which he won over contender Max Bursak. While I know the IBO isn’t one of the more important sanctioning bodies, Golovkin (who I’m also a huge fan of) and Erislandy Lara also hold IBO world titles, as well as Tyson Fury after he won it from Klitschko. All are quality fighters who hold major sanctioning bodies’ world titles.

Zac himself won his last fight in a good fight against Derrick Findley, who has beaten Fonfara before and fought some good fighters (including Andre Dirrell).

Although he can improve his defence, Zac has shown an ability to take a lot of punishment (took a lot in his fight against Bursak), and his next fight is supposed to be February 13 against Daniel Geale, the former middleweight champ.

Do you think Zac would be able to beat Geale, and would that earn him a shot against a world champ, maybe Chudinov or King Arthur?

And even though this email probably won’t be published by Ring, I thank you again for continuing to publish fantastic boxing articles. Best Wishes. – James

Thanks for the nice words about the mailbag column, James.

I’m familiar with Dunn. He looks more like a prospect than a world titleholder (or even a bona-fide contender) to me, but I think he has some potential. He appears to be a good overall athlete and he’s poised in the ring. I think he’s got a sharp jab, solid balance and he’s a good body puncher (especially with his left).

However, he’s rather stiff in his upper body. He’s always straight up and doesn’t offer a lot of head movement. Dunn relies on a high guard to block punches instead of real defense (slipping shots), which is why he gets tagged so much. He also needs to sharpen up on his offensive technique because he tends to wing his shots in the later stages of his fights.

I’ve heard that Dunn reminds some Australian boxing pundits of former two-time WBC light heavyweight beltholder Jeff Harding. I can see some of the physical and stylistic similarities, but while Dunn is more athletic and coordinated than Harding was, the “Hitman” was a far busier fighter who committed more to his body attack. I remember Harding well because his three bouts with Denis Andries (what an underrated trilogy that was) were on network TV in the U.S. He was a rugged S.O.B.!

If Dunn can’t sharpen up his defense and technique, can he emulate Harding’s buzzsaw style? Is he durable enough to fight like Harding? Is his condition/stamina strong enough to fight like Harding?

Do you think Zac would be able to beat Geale, and would that earn him a shot against a world champ, maybe Chudinov or King Arthur? I have to favor Geale based on the former middleweight titleholder’s experience and maturity, but who knows how much the veteran has left? It’s a tremendous opportunity for Dunn if the fight is made. He might be catching Geale at the right time. Even if Dunn beats Geale I don’t think he’s ready for Chudinov or Abraham. I don’t think he should be rushed into any major world title bouts. He’s only 24 years old. There’s still time for him to improve and develop.

 

Email Fischer at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter.

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