Yesterday, while I was watching the Burgos/Cruz fight, I thought that Cruz had, probably, the worst balance I've seen in a boxer. But balance can be an important thing. It can lead to disheartening and decision altering KDs. Cotto immediately comes to mind. The first KD Manny scored was really a combination of bad balance by Cotto and weird punch angles by Manny. Steward also commented that Cotto had horrible balance when he came into his corner. What other fighters had terrible balance and how did it affect their careers, if at all?

Mayweather and Pacquiao have taken centre stage in the discussion of important fights that will probably never happen. However, Scott's article about Rigondeaux and Donaire and Garcia's comments afterwards have led me to believe that this is another great fight that we will probably never see.

We have discussed many important fights that did not happen in the past, but can you take out your magic 8 balls and see which fights turn up this:

via blogs.wickedlocal.com

I'm also curious to see which rising stars you think will avoid the best or most intriguing match up, either because of promoter conflicts or because they will protect and pad their records as much possible.

It seems that every week we, as boxing fans, are treated to some sort of weird/horrible ending. There are corrupt judges, inept referees, weird ass moments in the ring, dirty fighters... yet we keep watching. Is our love for boxing like the blind love of a person in an abusive relationship? They swear they'll change and we believe them. But then next week is the same old thing.

I know most of us would prefer to just watch fights without all the drama, but we have to be honest and also consider the possibility that all of these subplots and twists also keep us engaged. I know if I had missed that bizarre ending yesterday I would be lamenting myself, even if now I'm lamenting myself because of the unsatisfying way it ended.

It's a complex question. Do you watch boxing because of or in spite of all the drama? I know my answer changes all the time.

Well, I'm not sure the other topic was a hit, but I still think this other one could be a good piece of conversation. Which fights did you think were going to be sure-fire snoozefests and actually turned out to be quite thrilling? Another variation is, which two fighters were supposed to be horrible style match-ups (entertainment wise) and actually put on a great show? I can't think of any right away, but as soon as I can I'll post them in the comments section. 

There are just some fighters whose styles are not made for thrilling audiences. Which fighters do you think would make the most unwatchable fight? We have seen our share of boring fights, but I am looking for a little creativity. Not which have been the most boring fights you have seen, but if you had to come up with the most boring fight you could think of, which two fighters would be pitted against each other? 

Note: If people enjoy this thread, I have a follow up for later. =)

While discussing whether or not Pacquiao really wants to fight Floyd Mayweather, Don from Prov wondered how else could Manny bait Mayweather into a fight. He offered some great alternatives: 

"What is he to do, chase Floyd into the Big Boy mansion? Attempt to ticket one of his cars? Pull a Larry Holmes?" 

I actually think that attempting to ticket one his cars might do the trick. What other ideas can you come up with?

Note: * I'm actually just the messenger, the idea for this thread came from Pakinpower based on my response to Don's suggestions. 

I've never been a huge defender of Juan Manuel Lopez's character. I think he has a lot of flaws, but I also think sometimes he's been the victim of poor translations. He doesn't sound as conceited in Spanish as he does in English. There was an interview with him today in El Nuevo Dia that I think demonstrates this point, so I've tried to translate the most salient points as faithfully as I can. This is not the entire interview as some of the questions are not too relevant or are things that have been published in other outlets.

For those of you who speak Spanish, the entire interview is published here: http://www.elnuevodia.com/enpiejuanma-944339.html For those of you who don't, read some of the questions and answers after the jump. BTW, I think this is a decent translation, but I'm not a professional translator. 

Continue reading this post »

First off, I'd like to go on record saying that I still think Antonio Margarito doesn't deserve big fights. What's he done? Cheat and lose. But let's not rehash that old topic anymore. It's been discussed to death. 

So, moving on from that, how do you see this impending fight? Do you think Cotto has enough left on his tank to weather the Margarito pressure? Do you think Margarito has enough in his tank to apply the same kind of pressure as first time? Do you think Steward in Cotto's corner will make any difference? I look forward to your feedback. 

With Bob Arum constantly shoving crap fights down our throats, and his recent quote saying that he doesn't care about boxing hardcore fans he just cares about casual sports fans, I've started thinking about the matchups that I would like to see regardless of how much financial sense they make. Some of these may actually come true, but others will simply stay in our imaginations because promoters will not risk their fighters.

These are some of mine (If I think about any others, I'll post them in the comments section):

Caballero vs. Lopez - Now, I know Caballero just lost, but this is more about Lopez than Caballero. It's about Lopez not ducking this fight for "financial reasons" (which, honestly, it's crap after all the free promotion its gotten from Caballero... he's certainly more well known than Rogers Mtagwa). 

Angulo vs. Margarito - I won't ever pay for a Margarito fight, but if this were on regular HBO I'd watch it because I'm subscribed already. I think these two definitely deserve to beat each other up. 

Chavez Jr. vs Alvarez  - The battle of the upcoming Mexican superstars! 

Cintron vs. Williams 2 - I know a lot of people think Cintron is mentally weak and that he doesn't deserve big fights again, but I thought that the first fight was just becoming interesting when it ended... I would like to see how that ends up. 

Mayweather vs. Martinez - I'd like to see Sergio get his shot at big money and superstardom, but also, I think it could prove to be an interesting style matchup. It may end up being a boring tactical fight, but I think that Sergio would push the action. 

There are also the ones being mentioned constantly Pacquiao/Mayweather, Lopez/Gamboa, Haye/Klitschko...

I am a new member of BLH so my apologies if this post has already been done. I did a quick scan through the threads and didn't find it. 

As I was watching the Vazquez vs. Bedak undercard, I heard one of the announcers say that the Arroyo twins have said that they won't fight each other, same as the Klitschko brothers. That got me thinking, are there sets of brother boxers who have fought each other? Which are the best brother fights? (Inside the boxing ring!) 

As my nickname suggests, I am a relative newcomer to boxing, so I can't really provide any input. I await for yours!