Been mad busy lately, but finally got some time to spit ... I'd like to address the state of Pro Boxing ... With the increasing popularity of Mixed Martial Arts, it leads many to conclude that boxing is dead ... That is far from the case ... Sure, gone are the days of the marquee heavyweight contenders, but based on the $150M draw at last month's Oscar DeLaHoya - Floyd Mayweather bout and the $2.5M gate revenue at the sold-out Madison Square Garden for Miguel Cotto - Zab Judah, I'd say that boxing is alive and well ... There are many reasons one can think of for the decline in boxing's popularity ... Previously mentioned, the rise in popularity of MMA ... Another, also mentioned, is the lack of star power in the Heavyweight division ... Stars of the 1990's such as: Mike Tyson, Lennox Lewis, Riddick Bowe and Michael Moorer, now are all a memory ... In their place, relatively unknown heavyweight champions of European descent ... Finally, another reason that comes to mind is boxing's current stars, being at the twilight of their respective careers (Oscar DeLaHoya, Sugar Shane Mosley and Bernard Hopkins) or being simply washed up (Evander Holyfield, Arturo Gatti and Roy Jones Jr.) ... Boxing is currently in a transition period, with stars on their way out and new ones still being established ... But in my opinion there still remains plenty of intrigue in the lower weight divisions ...
We'll begin with the Lightweight Division and my personal favourite fighter, Manny Pacquiao ... There isn't a more exciting fighter in all of boxing than "PacMan" and Pound-for-Pound ranked second only to Floyd Mayweather (I'll get back to that guy later) ... The reigning Fighter of the Year, still has plenty of unfinished business ... With the new working relationship between, once-bitter rival promotions, Golden Boy and Top Rank, a rematch has been scheduled between Pacquiao and Marco Antonio Barrera for October 6th ... From there, Pacquiao has plenty of opponents lined up, including: (what fans most want to see) a rematch with Juan Manuel Marquez, then up-and-comers such as Joan Guzman, Edwin Valero and possibly Humberto Soto and Jorge Barrios ... Looking ahead, Pacquiao may want to move up a division to challenge Joel Casamayor or undefeated Juan Diaz ... Who ever Pacquiao faces, his fights are worth the price of the PPV ... For those who like action, PacMan delivers every time he steps foot in the squared circle ...
Moving up to the Welterweight division, there isn't a hotter fighter at this point than Miguel Cotto ... His 11th Round TKO of Zab Judah last month at The Garden, solidified his status among boxing's elite and launched him to the cusp of superstardom ... The question is, where does Cotto go from here? ... Most fans probably want to see him challenge Floyd Mayweather in a superfight of undefeated fighters ... I don't see this fight happening for at least a couple of years, for two reasons ... One: Mayweather simply won't take the fight, he's only looking for big money payoffs at this point ... Considering his non-fan-friendly fighting style, Mayweather alone isn't considered a big draw ... Two: As much as I am a fan of Cotto, I don't think he's ready to challenge Mayweather at this point ... Despite the TKO of Judah, Miguel still shows some signs of vulnerability in the way he fights ... In my eyes, he's still 2-3 fights away from being able to challenge Floyd ... Cotto should take fights with Paul Williams or Antonio Margarito, then move on to guys like Ricky Hatton and Sugar Shane Mosley, upon beating 2-3 of those guys, which at this point is still an IF, then he would be elevated to superstar status and would be ready to square off in a superfight with Mayweather to decide who is the best Welterweight ... Regardless, Miguel's future in boxing is very bright ...
The only beefs I have with boxing at this point are having champions like Jermain Taylor and Floyd Mayweather ... Taylor first of all got outshined last month by his undercard, Kelly Pavlik ... Taylor has failed to impress me in his bouts with Winky Wright and Cory Spinks ... Pavlik will give "Bad Intentions" all he can handle in their expected upcoming bout ... Mayweather on the other hand fits the mold of the typical spoiled American athlete ... My problem with him is that he's calling himself the greatest, when there are still challengers out there for him to beat (Hatton, Mosley, Cotto) ... All boxers talk smack, that's part of the game, but the difference between Mayweather and prime-Tyson, prime-Jones Jr. was that those guys ran their mouth and knocked guys out ... No doubt, Mayweather is talented, but his attitude sucks ...
Wow, an essay on boxing ... it's another one of my loves and I will be discussing it in future blogs ...
One,
- J -
Monday, July 23, 2007
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Talkin' Raptor Ball
Now with that first blog off my chest, let me sound off on my passion, basketball, in particular Raptors ball ... I, like all Raptor fans, am waiting for the day that they deliver the Larry O'Brien trophy north of the border ... Now here's the weird thing, can I even be considered a Raptors fan even though I'm only a fan of three guys on the team? Namely, Chris Bosh, TJ Ford and Jason Kapono ... I guess my biggest pet peeve about the Raptors, is how most of their fans treat Jose Calderon, Andrea Bargnani and Anthony Parker as if they were gods walking among men ...
Calderon is in my opinion the most over-rated player on the team ... If you listen to most Toronto fans, they'll put the guy on par with Steve Nash, which I think is nonsense ... If you consider when Calderon plays during the game, he's usually matched up with the opposing team's backup point guard, thus his play gets augmented ... Next, I have to consider how Jose scores most of his points, wide-open jumpers and wide-open layups ... My explanation, when opposing teams scout another team, they usually focus on the best players, in this case Bosh and Ford, thus there is no attention at all on Jose ...
Every time I think of Bargnani, I think "Damn David Stern!" ... why did he have to change the rules by setting an NBA age minimum the same year that the Raptors finally got the first pick in the NBA Draft? ... The idea of having a Greg Oden or a Kevin Durant paired up with Chris Bosh and TJ Ford would have layed the foundation for a NBA championships in years to come ... but back to Bargnani, a big man, who admitted that he "never learned how to rebound" ... He's a scorer, nothing more and that's all he's going to be ... Toronto fans are going to be bitterly disappointed when he doesn't turn out to be the next Dirk Nowitzki like they're all hoping ...
Anthony Parker ... there's a reason why he was playing in Israel for 4 years prior ... if the Raptors ever hope to contend for a title, they're going to have to do a lot better than Parker at the 2 guard ...
Now on to the better players of the team ...
Chris Bosh ... easily the best big man right now in the Eastern Conference ... I love his attitude and hard work ... As good as he is, I still think he has room for improvement ... Sure I'd love to see him score more points and grab more rebounds, but what I would like to see is for him to develop a more consistent post game ... When he receives the ball in the post, he usually faces up his man for the pull-up jumper or the drive ... If he can add a few low post moves like a jumphook to his arsenal, he would be unguardable ...
TJ Ford ... gets so much hate from Toronto fans, a lot of which is unwarranted ... He's got enough talent to one day become an all-star ... The one thing I love about this guy is that he's a winner ... He won a high school state championship, led the Texas Longhorns to the final four in college, brought the Milwaukee Bucks into the playoffs and this year helped the Toronto Raptors win their first Atlantic Division title ... Not to mention, he was clutch the entire season, hitting big shots and making big plays ... He's significantly improved his jump shot this past season and I'd like to see him improve it even further ... What I'd also like to see is for him to drive to the basket with more regularity ...
Jason Kapono ... the perfect compliment to Bosh and Ford ... he's a money shooter, who will allow Bosh to have open looks in the post and will open up driving lanes for Ford ...
I will be talking Raptor ball frequently throughout the season and I'm looking for more good things in 07-08 ...
One,
- J -
Calderon is in my opinion the most over-rated player on the team ... If you listen to most Toronto fans, they'll put the guy on par with Steve Nash, which I think is nonsense ... If you consider when Calderon plays during the game, he's usually matched up with the opposing team's backup point guard, thus his play gets augmented ... Next, I have to consider how Jose scores most of his points, wide-open jumpers and wide-open layups ... My explanation, when opposing teams scout another team, they usually focus on the best players, in this case Bosh and Ford, thus there is no attention at all on Jose ...
Every time I think of Bargnani, I think "Damn David Stern!" ... why did he have to change the rules by setting an NBA age minimum the same year that the Raptors finally got the first pick in the NBA Draft? ... The idea of having a Greg Oden or a Kevin Durant paired up with Chris Bosh and TJ Ford would have layed the foundation for a NBA championships in years to come ... but back to Bargnani, a big man, who admitted that he "never learned how to rebound" ... He's a scorer, nothing more and that's all he's going to be ... Toronto fans are going to be bitterly disappointed when he doesn't turn out to be the next Dirk Nowitzki like they're all hoping ...
Anthony Parker ... there's a reason why he was playing in Israel for 4 years prior ... if the Raptors ever hope to contend for a title, they're going to have to do a lot better than Parker at the 2 guard ...
Now on to the better players of the team ...
Chris Bosh ... easily the best big man right now in the Eastern Conference ... I love his attitude and hard work ... As good as he is, I still think he has room for improvement ... Sure I'd love to see him score more points and grab more rebounds, but what I would like to see is for him to develop a more consistent post game ... When he receives the ball in the post, he usually faces up his man for the pull-up jumper or the drive ... If he can add a few low post moves like a jumphook to his arsenal, he would be unguardable ...
TJ Ford ... gets so much hate from Toronto fans, a lot of which is unwarranted ... He's got enough talent to one day become an all-star ... The one thing I love about this guy is that he's a winner ... He won a high school state championship, led the Texas Longhorns to the final four in college, brought the Milwaukee Bucks into the playoffs and this year helped the Toronto Raptors win their first Atlantic Division title ... Not to mention, he was clutch the entire season, hitting big shots and making big plays ... He's significantly improved his jump shot this past season and I'd like to see him improve it even further ... What I'd also like to see is for him to drive to the basket with more regularity ...
Jason Kapono ... the perfect compliment to Bosh and Ford ... he's a money shooter, who will allow Bosh to have open looks in the post and will open up driving lanes for Ford ...
I will be talking Raptor ball frequently throughout the season and I'm looking for more good things in 07-08 ...
One,
- J -
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Through my Eyes
Being around old friends almost always comes our age old discussion of the hypothetical "If you could do it over, what would you do different?" ... Looking back on those (and my apologies for sounding cliche) years of Wonder, the days where everything was simple, full of promise and where the world of endless opportunities just lay ahead ...
Now, if you're thinking that I'm going to sound off about the many regrets of my life, that is far from it ... I would not change a thing ... But looking back on, most specifically, the past 7 years, it's almost as though I've been a spectator of my own life and something deep down, and I can't shake this feeling, tells me that it's all been scripted ...
"Life is what you make of it", blah blah blah ... Don't get me wrong, I'm fully aware of things happening to me, around me and to those closest to me ... Countless significant moments have occurred over the past 7 years ...
When I was living those moments, again, it's was though I was observing them from another vantage point, knowing full well I had some measure of control to somehow influence the outcome, however the result always felt like that was the way it was supposed to happen ... call it fate, call it destiny, predetermination or whatever, it felt like it had already been written ...
The only thing I Wonder now is what happened to that feeling I had 7 years ago, the feeling of being close to reaching the summit ... A point to this Dawson's Creek-like run-on sentence you ask? to quote a line from a great movie "it's like coming this close to your dreams, and have them brush past you like a stranger in the crowd" ... Still being relatively young, I know this story is far from over ... hopefully the day will come where I can shed the feeling of being part of this one-man audience viewing my life.
One,
- J -
Now, if you're thinking that I'm going to sound off about the many regrets of my life, that is far from it ... I would not change a thing ... But looking back on, most specifically, the past 7 years, it's almost as though I've been a spectator of my own life and something deep down, and I can't shake this feeling, tells me that it's all been scripted ...
"Life is what you make of it", blah blah blah ... Don't get me wrong, I'm fully aware of things happening to me, around me and to those closest to me ... Countless significant moments have occurred over the past 7 years ...
When I was living those moments, again, it's was though I was observing them from another vantage point, knowing full well I had some measure of control to somehow influence the outcome, however the result always felt like that was the way it was supposed to happen ... call it fate, call it destiny, predetermination or whatever, it felt like it had already been written ...
The only thing I Wonder now is what happened to that feeling I had 7 years ago, the feeling of being close to reaching the summit ... A point to this Dawson's Creek-like run-on sentence you ask? to quote a line from a great movie "it's like coming this close to your dreams, and have them brush past you like a stranger in the crowd" ... Still being relatively young, I know this story is far from over ... hopefully the day will come where I can shed the feeling of being part of this one-man audience viewing my life.
One,
- J -
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