The holiday
season is upon us and things in the boxing world have slowed down both in
and out of the ropes. The next solid card takes place January 7th
when Zab Judah defends his belts against Carlos Baldomir with O’Neil Bell
and Jean-Marc Mormeck going at it for Cruiserweight honors in the
co-feature.
In this
edition of Inside the Game I offer up my two cents on
Judah-Mayweather, Jermain Taylor’s next fight, Ike Quartey’s chances of
again becoming a champion, and more.
Is Zab Judah looking past Baldomir? At the moment in Las
Vegas, everyone’s favorite subject seems to be the hopeful clash between Zab
Judah and my nephew Floyd Mayweather. This is a great fight for boxing but
people seem to be forgetting one thing; Zab Judah has a fight of his own to
worry about on January 7th and if he somehow loses, you can kiss
a match-up with Floyd goodbye.
I feel that Judah has
Floyd in his head and he may very well be looking past his upcoming
opponent, Carlos Baldomir. Baldomir hasn’t lost a fight in his last 19
outings and an upset isn’t out of question. The contracts being signed won’t
mean a thing if Zab can’t win on January 7th. We’ll just have to
wait and see.
Things are slowing down in Vegas...
Since it is the
holidays, things have slowed down a bit in Las Vegas. I went to the Top Rank
gym the other day and the place was damn near empty. The only other people
there were some fellow trainers; Mike McCallum, Eddie Mustafa Muhammad, and
Rafael Garcia. With an empty house serving as the audience, the four of us
grouped together and did what we do best; talk boxing.
Once the holidays are
over things should pick back up again.
Even though
Morales-Pacquiao II is less than
a month away, people in Vegas just don’t seem as hyped up for the upcoming
rematch between Erik Morales and Manny Pacquiao. I’ve even heard a lot of
people talking more about the Heavyweight fight between James Toney and
Hasim Rahman than Erik and Manny’s fight. Morales’ loss to Zahir Raheem
obviously didn’t help to perk interest, but I think it’s also a case of
people possibly getting tired of seeing the same fighters fight each other.
Just like with his fights against Marco Antonio Barrera, a lot of people
would prefer to see Morales in the ring with a new face as opposed to
someone he’s already fought before.
I think a fight between Jermain
Taylor and Winky Wright would be great in 2006, but I’d like to see Jermain
take somewhat of a tune-up before that match happens. Taylor is coming off
of two nip and tuck wins over Bernard Hopkins and I personally feel that
Winky looked mediocre in his last outing. I think Taylor needs to have a
dominating performance against another foe in order to hype this fight up.
As far as Winky is concerned, I
think that he stamped himself as one of the game’s truly best fighters with
his whitewashing of Felix Trinidad in May. I think Wright is nearing the end
of his career and a main focus of his is making some serious cash before he
calls it a day. If I were Winky I wouldn’t risk taking a tune-up before his
fight with Taylor. It’s too much of a risk.
With news of the rematch between
Roy Jones Jr. and Bernard Hopkins being made comes a clear sign of no
interest from my end. I just don’t see this fight being nearly as meaningful
as it would have been even a few years ago. Both guys seem to be set for
life, but I still think this fight is more about money than anything else. I
mean come on, even if you have millions lying around, are you going to turn
down another five million for going twelve more rounds?
Still, I think this will be a
competitive fight in a sense and I feel that Roy Jones has enough left to
defeat Hopkins. Roy is very ego-driven and his confidence will be up just
knowing that he’s facing a smaller guy in Hopkins.
Once one of the premier divisions
in the sport, the 154 lb. class has quickly become familiar to today’s
Heavyweight scene in that things are wide open for anyone to take over. I
don’t see anyone standing out from the rest and that includes the champions.
Kassim Ouma was carrying a heavy bandwagon a year ago but he was upset by
Roman Karmazin and is in the process of putting the pieces back together. I
don’t think Oscar de la Hoya has the fire in his belly to reign supreme and
his skills have started to fade. A guy like Ricardo Mayorga will always have
a puncher’s chance but he’s vulnerable to anyone with good boxing skills.
Ike Quartey had a nice comeback last year and it was a good story for the
sport. I think Quartey has something left and wouldn’t be surprised if he
grabbed a belt. Young Sechew Powell also has a chance to do some great
things in that class in 2006. Powell, the southpaw stylist from Brooklyn, is
a funny guy outside of the ring but pretty much all business in between the
ropes. He has some skills and I wouldn’t be shocked if he claimed a belt
within a year’s time. In the Jr. Middleweight division it really is anyone’s
ballgame these days.
Questions? Comments?
Email
Jeff Mayweather
12-31-2005
