Boxing League 2009-2010 Begins

Just one day into the new boxing league, already 2 fights to report. First, Daniel "Golden Child" Jacobs of Hurricane CandleBox prevailed by unanimous 10-round decision over Ishe Smith. Jacobs controlled most of the fight with his handspeed and movement, but the rugged Smith had him rocked on a couple of occasions. Hurricane CandleBox moves to 1-0 and picks up points of Option A: 1, Option B: 0.5 and Option C: 15.

Just a few hours later, Juan Diaz of Death is Forming stepped into the ring against Paulie Malignaggi. While Diaz landed the harder shots, he was cut severely early in the fight and struggled with blood streaming into his left eye. For his part, Malignaggi controlled the ring for much of the fight and landed quick shots. Diaz pushed the fight and prevailed by scores of 115-113, 116-112 and 118-110 (116-113 on my card). A Fightnews poll indicated that most fans thought Malignaggi had won the fight and indeed it was close. Diaz gets Option A: 1 pt, Option B: 1 pt and Option C: 16 pts.

A NEW SEASON BEGINS

2009-2010 Roster of Participants:

Andrew M- first time boxing league manager. Some boxing experience in recent years, once threw a good left hook to the body when I challenged him to demonstrate. Irish. Lives and breathes softball.

Joel M- first time boxing league manager. Fight Night Round 4 owner and improving player. Used to own oversized boxing gloves that were stored on top of his TV. Enjoys Skoal and sales.

B Whit- The defending league champion. A loyal follower of the sport. A keen eye for talent (Juan Manuel Lopez) and a reported penchant for beer and Kelly Pavlik.

Mark - 3rd place in last year's league. Boxed on camcorder in the late 80s, occasionally hitting his friends harder than they were comfortable with. Once watched a pay per view fight without contributing any $.

Jay- tied for last in last year's league. Nicknamed the "Bulldog" for pre-adolescent boxing exploits that featured roundhouse rights. Enjoys video editing and studying volcanoes.

Joel - has obsessive-compulsive tendencies, follows boxing and boxing history as much as possible. For his efforts, he achieved a hard-luck last place tie in last year's league, garnering 3 losses (Jermain Taylor, Antonio Margarito, Vic Darchinyan)...not that he's keeping track.

Team Names and Draft will soon follow....

FINAL STANDINGS

FINAL STANDINGS

1. Brian (Simply Juanderful)

2. Jeff (Impregnable Impetuous Children Eaters)

3. Mark (Knuckle Sandwich)

4. (tie) Jay (Punching Bags), Joel (LM's Vodka Breath)

BOXING LEAGUE TEAMS	Aug 13-Aug 13
Impregnable Impetuous Children Eaters
Manager: Jeff Whitmore
Current Record: 7-0-0, 4 Ko
	AVGs	1.57	1.43	18
Fighters:	UPCOMING	Option A	Option B	Option C
Arthur Abraham(3-0)		5	4	55
Mikkel Kessler(1-0)		2	1.5	18
Chad Dawson (2-0)		2	3	32
David Haye(1-0)		2	1.5	21
	TOTALS:	11	10	126
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Knuckle Sandwich
Manager: Mark Enns
Current Record: 5-0-1, 4 Ko
	AVGs	1.33	1.75	15.2
Fighters:	UPCOMING	Option A	Option B	Option C
Manny Pacquiao(2-0)		4	6	39
Miguel Cotto(2-0)		3	2.5	35
Israel Vazquez		0	0	0
Chris John (1-0-1)		1	2	17
	TOTALS:	8	10.5	91
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The Hitmen
Manager: Jason Brunner
Current Record: 6-2-0, 2 KO
	AVGs	0.63	0.75	12.1
Fighters:	UPCOMING	Option A	Option B	Option C
Kelly Pavlik (1-1)		1	1	20
Andre Berto(1-0): CLAIMED		1	2	15
Nikolay Valuev (2-0)		2	2	30
Joan Guzman(1-0)		1	1	15
	TOTALS:	5	6	97
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Simply Juanderful
Manager: Brian Whitmore
Current Record: 12-0-0, 10 Kos
	AVGs	1.83	2.13	17.8
Fighters:	UPCOMING	Option A	Option B	Option C
Juan Manuel Marquez (2-0)		4	6	40
Paul Williams (3-0)		5	6.5	50
Juan Manuel Lopez (4-0)		8	6.5	74
Tomasz Adamek(2-0): CLAIMED		4	4.5	35
	TOTALS:	22	25.5	213
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Larry Merchant's Vodka Breath
Manager: Joel Brunner
Current Record: 6-3-0, 5 Kos
	AVGs	0.78	1.22	12.41
Fighters:	UPCOMING	Option A	Option B	Option C
Wladimir Klitschko(2-0)		4	6	18
Floyd Mayweather Jr:CLAIMED		0	0	0
Vitali Klitschko(2-0): CLAIMED		4	6	37
Vic Darchinyan(1-1): CLAIMED		2	2	21
	TOTALS:	7	11	113

Klitschko wins again; Standings Update

After nine rounds and one knockdown, Wladimir Klitschko was awarded a TKO victory over a bloody and outmatched Ruslan Chagaev in a fight that was universally recognized as being for THE Heavyweight Title.  Klitschko used his usual weapons, the dominant jab and the straight right hand to snap Chagaev's head back several times each round.  For his part, Chagaev tried to compete but refused to throw enough punches to make Klitschko worry.  The win moves Wladimir to 53-3 with 47 KOs.  More importantly, it helps Larry Merchant's Vodka Breath move to 6-2 with 5 KOs.

Standings:

1. Simply Juanderful (10-0) OPTION B: 23.5 (2.35), OPTION C: 178 (17.8)

2. Children Eaters   (6-0)  OPTION B: 9.5 (1.58), OPTION C: 104 (17.3)

3. Knuckle Sandwich(5-0-1) OPTION B: 10.5 (1.75), OPTION C: 91 (15.2)

4. LM's Vodka Breath (6-2)  OPTION B: 12 (1.5), OPTION C: 110 (13.8)

5. Punching Bags   (6-2)  OPTION B: 6 (0.75), OPTION C: 97 (12.1)

Under 2 months to go in the league, Simply Juanderful's lead seems insurmountable.  Mark is threatening to jump into second place.  With Mayweather-Marquez postponed, we have only the following fights to consider:

Chris John (Mark) vs Rocky Juarez

Tomasz Adamek (Bri) vs Bobby Gunn

Juan Manuel Lopez (Bri) vs a scrub

Arthur Abraham (Jeff) vs M.Oral

Vic Darchinyan (Joel) vs Joseph Agbeko

Is This a Joke?

It now appears that David Haye is not fit to fight Wladimir Klitschko on June 20th.  Something about a hand injury, or a back injury.  Seriously guys, do you think that it's ok to do this?  Do you think that it's ok to keep screwing over the boxing public time after time, after time, after time? Nikolay Valuev refused to really fight against Evander Holyfield, then he refuses to step in the ring with an infectious Ruslan Chagaev.  Chagaev has been injured or unable to fight in about 80 percent of his recent fights.  Vitali Klitschko is on pace to fight about once a year.  Sam Peter has proven that he sucks, and prospects like Chris Arreola, Eddie Chambers and Alexander Povetkin all have major flaws.  Then David Haye makes things interesting, talks a good game, and then pulls a Garnett and says "OWWW!!"

Wladimir is making things interesting in his online remarks lately, talking about maybe fighting Chagaev or Arreola as a backup to Haye.  Or maybe he'll wait 3 weeks and fight Haye.  Either way, diehard fans of heavyweight boxing once again have to do what it feels like we're always doing....waiting for a decent fight.

A Nice Win and Another Serving of Horsesh#t by Boxing

"I have hepatitis and maybe other strange blood diseases.....shut up!  I'm the champion!"

                                                                                                                    -Ruslan Chagaev

In terms of the Chagaev-Valuev 2 Heavyweight Title fight cancellation, I can say it no better than this guy on another website...

To Summarize

Awful heavyweight fight, featuring top-ranked heavyweights who epitomize how terrible the division is right now, were to meet for a long-delayed bout that would determine which of the two heavyweights was the undisputed holder of one of the four crappy sanctioning organization belts, since both somehow held a version of one of the four crappy sanctioning organization belts. Fight gets cancelled for mysterious reasons that point to somebody or multiple somebodies behaving in a way that is less than honest and quite possibly dangerous, and a replacement opponent can't be arranged for the heavyweight who is deemed healthy despite the apparent eagerness of one of the potential replacement opponents, resulting in the cancellation of the entire show. Moving forward, likely and fairest outcome is that boxing ends up with arguably the worst heavyweight title trilogy in the history of the galaxy, and one way or the other, protracted legal action is a distinct possibility.

It sure is a good thing the rest of boxing is doing so damn well in 2009. Because the heavyweight division is a f'ing wasteland.

So they didn't fight.  And people hate the heavyweights even more.  Valuev is still unproven and Chagaev is still just a strange, undefined, possibly infectious, but undefeated part of the heavyweight mix.

In a fight that actually did happen, Andre Berto solidly defeated Juan Urango by unanimous decision.  Berto was fast but unspectacular.  Urango threw no more than two punches at a time.  Jay picks up some points, including 2 in Option B and 15 in Option C and the Punching Bags move to 6-2 with 2 KO's.