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Dougie’s Friday mailbag

Photo courtesy of Sky Sports.
Fighters Network
10
Feb

BRONER-GRANDOS/CANELO-CHAVEZ JR.

Hey Doug, just writing in to get your thoughts on a couple of future fights. I’ll get right to it.

Adrien Broner vs Adrian Granados: I was impressed with Granados’ upset over Amir Imam. He showed great conditioning and determination as he drowned the longer, more talented fighter in punches. I love those kinds of wins.

What are his chances like against Broner though? If he gets his poor man’s Homicide Hank impression going I think he’s got a real shot against the talented trouble man. Broner has the sharper technique and the faster, heavier hands but his weakness seems to be pressure and volume. Granados brings both those things plus a looping right to get over Broner’s high chinned shoulder roll. He may not be at the level of Marcos Maidana or Shawn Porter but the style match-up looks favorable for Granados. What’s your take?



Canelo Alvarez vs Julio Chavez Jr.: As frustrated as I am with the red head, I’m excited for this fight. Canelo is at his best when he’s got a plodding, aggressive target to let his counter combinations trip off on. But Chavez Jr. ain’t no Alfredo Angulo or Liam Smith; he’s bigger, more durable, and heavier handed. I could see Canelo teeing off on him for the first half of the fight, then JCCJ weathering the storm and continuing to pressure a tiring Canelo, giving him a real scare. Could you see this playing out or do you think Canelo will just outclass Mexico’s favorite goofy son? – Jack

I think Canelo’s got his work cut out for him on May 6. I envision a hard-fought decision victory for the red head that hardcore fans love to hate. Chavez Jr. isn’t just bigger, more durable and heavier handed than Angulo and Smith; when he’s properly trained and motivated (as I expect him to be for Canelo – and with Nacho Beristain preparing him), I think he’s a superior technician.

Providing Junior doesn’t kill himself weighing in at 164.5 pounds (or put on too much weight following the weigh-in) – big “IFs” – I think we will be treated to a fierce and fast-paced boxing match because of the pride (personal and national) that is on the line in this all-Mexican matchup.

Regarding the Broner-Granados matchup, I agree that Granados has the style/activity, durability and mentality to give Broner a tough fight. The Illinois native (who spent a few years training with Beristain in Mexico City during his amateur and early pro years) is a tough night for anybody. He’s more mature, experienced and formidable than his age (27), record (18-4-2) or apparent talent would indicate. Granados was never babied during his professional journey, and some of the split/majority decision losses and draws on his ledge could have easily been victories.

If he takes the fight to Broner and averages 90 punches a round as he did against Imam in December 2015, he’ll give himself a shot at pulling the upset (and it won’t hurt if he’s got Buddy McGirt in his corner). However, I still favor Broner, who is more sturdy and experienced than Imam, and more comfortable battling on the inside than the rangy 140-pound prospect.

 

HEAVYWEIGHT ACTION

Hey Doug,

I am kinda lost in the shuffle with the current heavyweight picture.

It seems we have some interesting heavies but I am still trying to get a handle on who the best ones are. I look at the top ten on Ring’s web page and half of them I don’t know much about. Are any of those guys fighting each other?

I don’t really know a lot about some of the guys coming out of Europe.

I know David Haye but all I can remember about him is how bad he made me look after I told everyone to watch his battle with Vladimir Klitschko and he totally punked out. (I know that was a few years ago) Has he redeemed himself since?

Does this guy Gerald Washington who is going to fight Deontay Wilder bring anything to the dance? Does he have a shot? I don’t know him.

I follow a couple of boxing related pages on Facebook and I see that Luis Ortiz is calling Deontay Wilder out. That is an intriguing fight. How would you see that one playing out? I have also read speculation of a Bermane Stiverne/Luis Ortiz fight.

That has the makings of a modern day Foreman/Lyle type punch up.

Finally, I think I will open my wallet for the Anthony Joshua/Vladimir Klitschko PPV.

I know the popular thought is that it will be a changing of the guard where the young guy takes out the older former champ (and I tend to be in that camp)…but ya never know.

Has Joshua’s chin been tested yet? Can Vlad check it? – David, Nashville

Of course, Klitschko can chin-check Joshua, who was rocked during the early going of his shootout with Dillian Whyte in December 2015. However, AJ possesses the technique and power to take out the soon-to-be 41-year-old former champ. As my man Wladdy likes to say, “It’s a very interesting fight.”

I look at the top ten on Ring’s web page and half of them I don’t know much about. Are any of those guys fighting each other? Well, Joseph Parker (rated No. 6) just outpointed Andy Ruiz Jr. (No. 9), and you know that No. 1-rated Klitschko is challenging No. 5-rated Joshua for the IBF title on April 29, so, obviously, SOME of them are facing each other. I expect more matchups between legit top-10 heavyweights in 2017.

I don’t really know a lot about some of the guys coming out of Europe. They’re pretty much like heavyweights from other parts of the world only they sell more tickets and have better TV deals.

I know David Haye but all I can remember about him is how bad he made me look after I told everyone to watch his battle with Vladimir Klitschko and he totally punked out. (I know that was a few years ago) Has he redeemed himself since? Not really, but the semi-retired 36-year-old veteran remains in the heavyweight mix because he knows how to market himself and he’s got eye-catching skill and athletic talent that suggests that he can hang with the young guns of the division. Along with his good buddy Wladdy, Haye is the smartest and most business-savvy heavyweight in the game. His March 4 grudge-match showdown with Tony Bellew will make both combatants healthy paydays. However, even if Haye wins in spectacular fashion it won’t let us know if he’s a legit heavyweight player – Bellew is a cruiserweight. Haye hasn’t fought a heavyweight of note since stopping Dereck Chisora in 2012.

Does this guy Gerald Washington who is going to fight Deontay Wilder bring anything to the dance? He brings size, athleticism and solid fundamentals for a late-comer to the sport. (Washington has technical flaws but that’s to be expected from someone who spent a lot more of his athletic life on the gridiron than in boxing gyms.)

Does he have a shot? I don’t think so. Wilder is more experienced, more athletic, quicker and rangier. And the defending WBC beltholder is a born puncher. I’m not talking about the Alabama native’s power, I’m bringing up his mentality. He truly believes he can take out anyone he catches clean, and he’s usually right. Washington, despite his imposing stature, is a somewhat cautious boxer by nature. I don’t think he commits enough to his offense to clip Wilder and I don’t think he’s busy or aggressive enough to outwork/outpoint the odds favorite.

I see that Luis Ortiz is calling Deontay Wilder out. That is an intriguing fight. Sure is.

How would you see that one playing out? Ortiz is a threat because of his quick hands, combination punching and power, but Wilder can neutralize the Cuban southpaw with lateral movement and long-range, punch-on-the-fly pot shots.

I have also read speculation of a Bermane Stiverne/Luis Ortiz fight. They’re Nos. 1 and 2 in the WBC’s heavyweight rankings. We’ll see if Eddie Hearn (Ortiz’s promoter) works out a deal with Don King (Stiverne’s promoter). Ortiz has other options, I think, but it’s a good matchup if it’s made.

That has the makings of a modern day Foreman/Lyle type punch up. Let’s not go crazy.

Finally, I think I will open my wallet for the Anthony Joshua/Vladimir Klitschko PPV. I ain’t mad atcha.

 

NO LOVE FOR ANDRADE?

Hey Dougie,

Thanks for finally publishing one of my letters. So maybe you can explain something to me. Why isn’t the Demetrius Andrade-Jack Culcay bout on March 11th being televised in the U.S.? Not only is Andrade undefeated and supremely talented, but the winner of this fight thrusts himself into the thick of things in the junior middleweight division by becoming the mandatory to Erislandy Lara.

On top of all this, Andrade put an absolute show during his last fight on Showtime against Willie Nelson. He was flashy, exciting, aggressive, and rewarded us with a 12th-round KO. I also think he might be the only guy in the division who could possibly challenge Jermall Charlo. I am removing Canelo from the equation here, as I don’t see him melting back down to 154 after moving up to fight Chavez at 164.5 – although it wouldn’t be the first time I was wrong!

Regardless, surely HBO and/or Showtime should be interested in televising this fight? So what’s the deal? Puzzled in New York. – Doug

I guess HBO is busy with the Golovkin vs. Jacobs pay-per-view event in New York City and Showtime’s airtime is full with their Gary Russell Jr.-Oscar Escandon/Jermell Charlo-Charles Hatley doubleheader from Maryland on March 11. It doesn’t help that the Culcay fight is taking place in Germany.

Tough break for Andrade, who really needs the exposure having only fought once last year, 2015 and in 2014. But if he beats his old amateur foe for the WBA’s “regular” title, he’ll set himself up for the kind of matchups that Showtime and HBO won’t pass on.

Beyond the showdown with Lara (another one of Boo Boo’s old amateur rivals), there’s former beltholder Austin Trout and Michel Soro (29-1-1, the WBA’s No. 3-rated contender).

I agree that Andrade (at his best) is live against any of the top 154 pounders, such as Jermall Charlo (and I’ll include Canelo). However, I think Charlo is going to take page of Canelo’s book and move up in weight, so I don’t see that showdown happening. Maybe Andrade’s people can entice WBC beltholder Jermell Charlo into the ring (if the Houston native beats Hatley and eventually gets by the Erickson Lubin-Jorge Cota winner).

 

VINNY PAZ

Good Morning Dougie the Boxing Guru,

Hope you and the family are all well, loving the mailbag, keep up the great work my friend.

Just a quick one that I wanted your thoughts on, I watched “Bleed for This” the other day and I have to say it blew my socks off, what Vinny Paz went through and how he fought to get back in the ring was sensational.

I had heard about him and the accident but never in depth and I have been trying to find documentaries on it since watching the movie. I went through his list of opponents and was astonished at the names he has shared a ring with (Herol Graham, Roy Jones Jr., Roberto Duran obviously past his best but still, Lloyd Honeyghan, Dele who he was not really given a chance against, Roger Mayweather and Hector Camacho), that is an impressive list!

I was just curious as to what his reputation was back in the day when first he won the 2 world titles before the accident and then his career afterwards. Would you say he was elite? I know the world titles after the accident were not the major belts, IBU, IBO, etc., but for his lifestyle and what he went through, what a story and what a man.

Anyway, sorry to ramble on, just love to hear your thoughts on how he was looked upon from the boxing experts during his career, and your thoughts on him as a fighter and a person.

Cheers bro, keep up the good work, love the mailbags and as far as I’m concerned, you’re the Guru of boxing from across the pond! Thanks. – Michael, Isle of Man

Thanks for the kind words, Michael. (I hope you know that you’re pissing some folks off by calling me a “guru” but I’m not mad atcha. In fact, I’m kinda glad you’re pissing them off because they’re d__ks.)

Anyway, I was aware of Vinny Pazienza during his prime and considered myself of a fan of his even before I ever watched one of his complete fights due to what I’d read about him in THE RING, KO magazine and Boxing Illustrated and from the some of the highlights I’d seen of his press conference and ring antics.

In the late ‘80s/early ‘90s (the period when I became a hardcore fan), I knew Paz as a very popular East Coast/New England area contender who occasionally traveled to the West Coast and always lost against the elite boxing talents of his era (such as Mayweather and Camacho). He was hyper-active personality with real athletic talent and solid skills. He was a born fighter and showman.

Paz was not an elite boxer but he got the most out of his ability. I might be in the minority with this opinion but I think he was more talented/athletically gifted than the hall-of-fame enshrined Arturo Gatti. “Thunder” was a bigger star and made for more dramatic fights, but Paz was arguably more of a showman and did better against the more-superior talents than Gatti did. (Paz was actually competitive in spots against Mayweather and Camacho.) He didn’t have Gatti’s punching power, but he was quicker and had better stamina. Both guys bled a lot in tough fights and generally gave fans their time and money worth. Paz did strong ratings on national TV, basic cable and subscription cable.

I closely followed his comeback from the car accident/neck injury through NYC/New England newspapers (I was a grad student at Columbia and did a newspaper internship in the Boston area during this time), boxing magazines and the basic cable networks that aired his first few fights back. It was a compelling story and you had to root for the little nutcake.

I went through his list of opponents and was astonished at the names he has shared a ring with (Herol Graham, Roy Jones Jr., Roberto Duran obviously past his best but still, Lloyd Honeyghan, Dele who he was not really given a chance against, Roger Mayweather and Hector Camacho), that is an impressive list! One thing about Paz, he wasn’t afraid to fight anybody, including men he had no business being in the ring with, like Jones. I remember the subdued build-up to the Jones fight. Nobody gave Paz a chance in hell and some insiders and pundits were pretty funny in the manner in which they dismissed him, Sean O’Grady on USA’s Tuesday Night Fights and Buddy McGirt in particular. I recall reading a boxing magazine that polled a bunch of fighters, writers and industry folks – everyone viewed the bout as a joke, which it was (I mean, come on, Paz had struggled with an ancient Duran prior to facing the prime version of RJJ) – and McGirt said something like “Jones doesn’t even have to train for this fight, all he needs to do is light shadow boxing for a couple weeks.” Mean statement, but hey, he wasn’t wrong.

I was just curious as to what his reputation was back in the day when first he won the 2 world titles before the accident and then his career afterwards. Paz was known as a tough, little son of a bitch who generally made for entertaining interviews, media events and fights. He surprised a lot of fans and insiders by winning a major 154-pound belt from Gilbert Dele and he inspired a lot of people by rebounding from what looked like a career-ending injury. However, he also rubbed some fans and media the wrong way because he could be nasty and vulgar toward his some of his opponents and he (and his father Angelo) did not always take kindly to criticism or negative comments from boxing writers. Sometimes he (and/or his father or trainer Kevin Rooney) got into it (verbally, and maybe a little bit physically) with my favorite boxing scribes and magazine columnists. I used to enjoy reading about those encounters. And Paz cracked me up with some of the very un-PC s__t he used to spew about fighters he didn’t like in boxing mag interviews (even when it was about my favorite fighters, such as Terry Norris).

There was a Q&A-formatted interview that he did with Robert Cassidy in the January 1995 edition of KO magazine that read like one of his fights – or his life for that matter – a wild roller-coaster ride. He fired from the hip as he fielded questions about his animosity toward certain fighters (Duran and Greg Haugen, who claimed he received gifts decisions against them), boxing writers (Wally Matthews, Michael Katz, World Boxing’s Ed Maloney and KO’s Jeff Ryan) and his former promoters/managers (Main Events’ Dan Duva; Shelly Finkel and Lou Duva), steroid allegations (which were rampant at the time – did “Bleed For This” delve into that subject? I haven’t seen it yet), future big fights (he said he was considering Chris Eubank, Nigel Benn and James Toney, if Toney beat Jones), and the movie treatment on his life story that he’d just finished and sold (which he said was going to be called “Heart And Soul” with Christian Slater as the frontrunner for the starring role). Paz began the Q&A ripping into Duran, who’d given him a tough scrap in their first bout. When Cassidy asked him about Haugen (his hated rival he split two 15-round IBF lightweight title bouts with and beat in a 10-round rubber match), Paz said:

“Haugen is a lot like Duran. Duran is a crybaby. He can never accept a loss. You know, you live and die by the sword. Take it like a man. I’ve never cried. I never belly-ached about things that have happened to me, Haugen and Duran, you know they are one in the same. The only difference is, they speak different languages. They are two crybabies. Two whiners. The two of them should get married and have hermaphrodite kids.”

Cassidy replies: “Excuse my vocabulary, Vinny, but what kind of kids?”

Paz: “Hermaphrodites. Look it up, it’s in your dictionary.” And there was an Editor’s Note under that line that read: “Webster’s says a hermaphrodite is an animal or plant in which reproductive organs of both sexes are present.”

Paz’s fights were fun, but his interviews in boxing magazines were a sometimes bizarre, guilty pleasure.

He may have butted heads with some of the columnists for RING and KO but those same mags ranked him at lightweight, junior welterweight, junior middleweight, middleweight and super middleweight during his 60-bout, 21-year career. Not too shabby!

 

FIRST TIMER

Hey what’s up Dougie? Thanks for keeping the mailbag ‘lit’ as the youngsters say.

After more than 20 years being a hardcore boxing fan, I will finally attend my first ever live boxing match, this year.

GGG vs Jacobs at MSG!!

I can’t wait. – Steve

Photo by Tom Hogan – Hoganphotos/K2 Promotions

I guarantee that you’re going to have a blast, Steve. That’s going to be a special week for boxing fans and the industry. There will be the Golovkin-Jacobs fight-week events (which will take place early in the week to avoid clashing with the public and press events for Irish amateur star Michael Conlan’s pro debut), the Boxing Writers Assoc. of America awards dinner on Thursday night, the Conlan card (at Madison Square Garden’s Theater) on Friday night, and then The Big Drama Show in MSG’s big room on Saturday. Oh yeah, there will a lot St. Paddy’s Day fun going on. Don’t be a stranger if you happen to see me.

 

 

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

 

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