Well, my fellow boxing aficionados, last weekend was full of incredible fights, most noted, Calzaghe beating the life out of Jeff Lacy. This went against my prediction; all I can say is this fight was damn close to Winky Wright’s dominance of heavy handed Felix “Tito” Trinidad. The boxing world isn’t shocked that Calzaghe won, it was shocked on how impressively he won, and without a doubt he is the best Super Middleweight since Roy Jones Jr. in the mid 90’s. What’s next for the Pride of Wales, I personally hope another title unification bout with Dane Mikkel Kessler who holds the WBA title and has an impressive record of 37-0 with 28 KOs. If that can’t happen, Markus Beyer of Germany would be a great match-up.
Now we need to take a look at Juan Manuel Marquez, who I neglected to feature in my last article, but refused to revise it for the simple fact that absolutely no one in the boxing world thought he would lose. Marquez for the last few years was a staple in the Pound for Pound top ten in many publications, most noted Ring Magazine. Since this fight was not televised only spectators could tell what really happened, I have heard rumblings around from some sources that Marquez was ill, others say he was robbed. I have read some reports stating Marquez had to travel by car through a jungle to arrive at the fight location, which seems rather odd for a P4P top ten guy. As my fellow analyst Trent has pointed out, there are many questions about his management team, and their ability.
If you are looking for a weekend chock full of action fights, you will be disappointed; the only live fights being televised are on Friday, but not on ESPN, HBO, SHOWTIME, or FOX Sports. So if you have a cable provider that carries Telefutura, or Telemundo you are in luck and I expect an invite to your house.
In a fight that is taking place in Germany on Saturday features another one of Trent’s dangerous fighters, Felix Sturm. Sturm hailing from Germany boasts an impressive record of 24-1, and in all honesty should be 25-0 losing an extraordinarily biased decision to The Golden Boy Oscar de la Hoya. This fight was supposed to be Oscar’s tune-up fight before taking on Middleweight King Bernard Hopkins, I can watch this fight 500 times and not see any other reason for Oscar winning other than the huge pay day for everyone involved in fighting Hopkins. Ahhh boxing corruption is alive and well. Sturm will being taking is workman like style and technically superior jab into Saturdays fight against Maselino Masoe, 26-2 with 25 KOs. I have only seen Masoe fight once, but judging by his competition this New Zealander isn’t a huge risk, but you really can’t dismiss anyone who has a 96% KO ratio. This fight is a tough call, since I have seen about 10 of Sturm’s bouts and only 1 of Masoe’s, but it should be a very entertaining fight to watch.
Rokk’s Prediction: Felix Sturm by Unanimous Decision (118-110)
In lieu of a slow boxing week I will try to supplement some substance, with a Special Edition of The Scorecard this weekend.
Rokk can always be reached at jetsdrg@gmail.com. Send me questions, comments, hate mail, or nudie pics (females only ages 18-35 only, sorry no cougars!).
Congrats to both the Men’s and Women’s Ohio State Basketball teams, for capturing the regular season Big Ten Championships. Go Bucks!
