Dear Mr./Mrs TBD:

Hello, my name is The Boxer Rebellion, and I am a longtime HBO subscriber. Since The Sopranos, and to a lesser extent, Big Love, went off the air, the only reason I remain one of your customers is because I love the sport of boxing. You see, I am not interested in vampires, or some show about wizards and knights and kings and dragons that you people seem obsessed with pushing on me; no, I stick around for one reason, and one reason only - boxing.  Please let the following serve to summarize some of my thoughts about your recent hiring, and what HBO can do to both increase ratings and help boxing return to a more prominent place in the U.S. sports scene.

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Consider the following hypothetical:

You have recently been named the new boxing matchmaker at CBS Sports, which has decided that it will put on a series of fights this summer on prime time television. You have been given an ample budget, and for our purposes, you can make any fight you want for the premier edition of "CBS Night at the Fights." The only limitations you face are the following:

1. Your fight cannot include Manny Pacquiao or Floyd Mayweather, as CBS cannot make this work financially.

2. You are operating in the current environment of boxing promotion, meaning that you cannot make a fight between a Top Rank fighter and a Golden Boy fighter.

The head of CBS sports has instructed you to make your decision based on an equal mix of 1) ability to draw eyeballs and 2) likelihood of an making an exciting, action packed match so as to retain viewers for the second installment of the new series. 

What fight do you make, and why? My response after the jump.

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As we head into the big Pac-Mosley weekend, I thought it might be fun to revisit Mosley in his prime. So, let's have a look at De La Hoya - Mosley I, unquestionably one of Shane's signature wins. Mosley headed into this one undefeated, having recently made the leap from lightweight to welterweight, while Oscar had only the loss to Trinidad on his sheet. Two great fighters, both in their primes -- but was Mosley's win a dodgy decision? Let's go to the tape:

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I was nearing my seventh birthday when this fight went down in April of 1987.  While I didn't watch the fight live, or really know anything about boxing given my age (those checking my pick-em score may persuasively argue that I still don't), this fight does trigger a couple of interesting childhood memories which really put a timestamp on it.

First of all, I remember people, run-of-the-mill average people, like my school bus driver, my little league coach, and certainly my dad, TALKING about this fight before it happened. Sadly, I don't think many seven year olds in America today hear folks around them getting hyped up about a fight for boxing's middleweight championship of the world. The second thing I remember is reading the recap of the fight in Sports Illustrated, which I devoured religiously every time it showed up in our mailbox. While my dad wasn't a huge fight fan, I still remember being fascinated by the boxing coverage (for some reason, an article about Mike Tyson's fight with Bonecrusher Smith really sticks out in my mind; Tyson, to a suburban grade schooler, seemed more like a comic book villain than a real human being), and those early memories set the stage for me becoming a fan later in life when I starting having more regular access to HBO and Showtime.

Enough about me and my childhood nostalgia; let's get to one of the all-time great middleweight showdowns. 

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[Note: Added to the front page by Brickhaus.]

It really has been only over the past three years or so that I've gotten into boxing in a serious way. As a result, I haven't seen a lot of fights that get referenced here from time to time. In the course of going back and watching those fights, I figured I'd RBR some of the most controversial ones and see how I would have scored them. Hopefully, in the process, I'll spark a little conversation, and maybe cause some of you to go back and rewatch and evaluate the fights with fresh eyes.

I've decided to start with Mayweather-Castillo I. Let's face it, I probably won't be seeing Floyd in the ring any time soon, so what better time to go back and take a look at a fight that many apparently think he lost. Let's get started. 

(this fight is on YouTube, for those who want to go back and watch)

Round 1:

Mayweather leaps in with a left hook that kind of lands. Floyd with a jab to the body, and now he jumps forward with the left hook again. Another jab to the body by Mayweather. Castillo trying to find a way to get to Mayweather, and throwing very little. Floyd again to the body with the jab. He's circling Castillo and pot shotting with mixed results, but Castillo just standing there in the middle of the ring, doing very little. I'm not sure Castillo landed a single good punch in that round. 

R1 10-9 Mayweather

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Fully acknowledging that this is a somewhat silly topic, I thought it might still be fun. 

Last weekend, in the great fight between Marcos Maidana and Amir Khan, Khan opened up the first round by attempting to touch gloves in a show of sportsmanship. Rather than touch gloves, Maidana elected instead to attempt to decapitate Khan with a leaping left hook. It certainly set the tone for the fight, and showed that Maidana was in the ring for one purpose, and one purpose only: to knock Khan out. He may not be much of a technical boxer, but boy, Maidana really seems like a very tough, nasty guy to be in the ring with.

So...with that in mind: who do you think is the MEANEST fighter in the sport today? 

As a huge Marcos Maidana fan, I was pretty distressed to hear about what some have reported to be an uncomfortably close decision win last Saturday night over the faded DeMarcus "Chop Chop" Corley. Since the fight wasn't on any U.S. TV outlet that I'm aware of, and due to the fact that I was at a fantasy football draft at the time, I didn't watch the fight live. But Dan Rafael was kind enough to link to the entire fight on YouTube via his twitter page, so I figured I'd watch the fight and RBR it here just to see if it was as close as some people have suggested. 

Pre-Fight -- Looks like a pretty solid crowd, probably 10,000+. Chop Chop has come out in an Argentinian soccer jersey of some sort. I doubt that's going to win over too many folks in Chino's home country, but hey, you can't blame him for trying. To his credit, he looks relaxed and ready to fight. 

Marcos is all business with his ring walk, though his folks are proudly displaying his WBA superinterim provisional emerald belt. Hey, it IS a lovely trinket. Maidana looks kind of soft in there, but I doubt it matters a ton. The crowd chants "Chino," and here we go:

Round 1:

Both men paw with the jab. Maidana with a glancing right hand that knocks Corley off balance. A wild looping right by Maidana misses. Another wild right misses and Corley comes forward with a few jabs that are off the mark. Maidana lands a half-hearted jab, and he looks a little sluggish in there. Both guys flick jabs, but they aren't landing. Chop Chop misses badly with a left hook. Corley misses and Maidana lands a decent straight right. Thudding body shot from Maidana lands. Corley to the body now. Another glancing right hand from Maidana. Corley with a decent straight left. Maidana misses wildly with a right hook and Corley gets a little shot in. Corley with a flurry at the bell, and I think he took the round there, because neither man did much otherwise.

10-9 Corley.

Round 2:

Both men come out more aggressively in this round, and Corley slaps Maidana with a right hand. Now Maidana works the body and lands a couple of decent shots.Stiff jab by Maidana, but the right hand follow doesn't connect. Another slapping right hand from Chop Chop, who looks more like Slap Slap so far.  AND NOW A BIG RIGHT HAND BY MAIDANA SENDS CORLEY BACK! Maidana jumps on him, but Corley seems to be ok. Marcos to the body and then a left hook, now a big shot to the body sends Corley back.Corley now with Maidana against the ropes and throws some shots, but Marcos gets away. GOOD straight left by Corley moves Maidana a bit. Now Marcos paws the jab with no effect. A shot to the body, and then one to the back of the head by Maidana. Marcos takes the round.

10-9 Maidana, 19-19

Round 3:

The TV broadcast has Round 2 for Corley as well, so it is 20-18 Corley on their card. I don't see what he did to win Round 2, but hey, this is something you should know. 

Oh boy...Maidana is ALREADY looking a bit winded between rounds. 

On with the action. Maidana just looking to load up on the right hand, but he's not found the range other than that one shot in the middle of the 2nd. Maidana with a weird sorta-uppercut that doesn't land at all. And now he lands a solid body shot that gets Corley's attention. A decent right hand and a left and Corley wobbles a bit! Maidana swinging aggressively but not landing much, and Corley seems to be just fine. Maidana with a thudding right hook and that one looked good! Corley really not doing much this round...and just as I type that, he sticks a decent right hand into Marco's midsection. Now there's a clash of heads near the bell, and Maidana's got a little cut over his right eye. It's properly ruled accidental. Anyhow, Maidana round.

10-9 Maidana, 29-28 Maidana.  

Round 4: 

Maidana comes out looking a bit cranky after being on the receiving end of that head butt and promptly dishes out a SOLID rabbit punch to Corley! Both men just swinging wildly and the ref can't even get in there to warn Maidana! Now he finally gets to Marcos and warns him for that shot. Maidana clearly fighting with bad intentions now, but Corley takes advantage of that aggressiveness a bit and pops him with some jabs. Now they are on the ropes, and while both men are swinging looping shots, few, if any, are landing. Now this is becoming a clinch-fest....getting pretty ugly, frankly. SNEAKY right hook from Corley shows you that he's been in this business for a while. And he lands it again! Now they get back to the ropes and Corley lands a decent shot, but his momentum carries him to the point where Maidana is directly behind him...and Maidana wings a few shots to the back of the head! Boy this has gotten dirty! Now Corley has Maidana in a headlock! WTF? This ref is pretty awful. Maidana lands a couple of decent body shots, and the round comes to a close. Close Maidana round. 

10-9 Maidana, 39-37 Maidana

Round 5:

Solid right hand by Maidana to open the round. Both men struggling to find the other; Corley with a lazy right hand. Maidana comes in, misses, and gets popped with a right hand for his trouble. Maidana lands a right hook and Corley is a bit staggered! He's holding on to Maidana! But he doesn't appear badly hurt. Good shot from Corley late, but I score it for Maidana. With that said, he looks flat, a bit tired, and quite sloppy so far.

10-9 Maidana, 49-46 Maidana

Round 6:

TV announcers have it 49-47 Corley. I'm a bit puzzled by that. 

We're settling into a pretty steady pace: Marcos stalks, with a lazy jab thrown just in the hopes that it blinds Corley long enough for him to smash him with a right hand, while Corley evades and throws hooks and straight lefts that don't land. I can see how you might have scored a round or two more than me for Corley on workrate, though, and frankly, he looks to be the better conditioned fighter as well. This is turning more and more boring by the second. Nothing significant from either man for about a minute now and MAIDANA WITH A BIG LEFT UPPERCUT AND CORLEY IS HURT!!! HE'S ON THE ROPES AND HOLDING ON! AND A HUGE RIGHT HAND AT THE BELL FROM MAIDANA! ROACH AND KHAN CRINGE FROM ANOTHER CONTINENT! Big Maidana round!

10-9 Maidana, 59-55 Maidana

Round 7:

Maidana coming out looking for the kill with chopping hooks! But he hasn't landed, and now he holds and throws shots to the body until the ref breaks them up. AND THERE'S A MONSTER RIGHT HAND AND CORLEY IS HOLDING ON TO MAIDANA AND THEN GOES DOWN!! He's on one knee though and looks to be ok... and now he's up. Maidana jumps on him but doesn't land anything big...Chino thinks he's got him though and is swinging wildly, trying to take him out! AND ANOTHER RIGHT HAND AND CORLEY IS WOBBLING AROUND THE RING WITH 30 SECONDS TO GO! Now Maidana just throws Corley to the canvas! He did him a favor there, because that's going to get Corley out of the round! Huge round for Maidana though!

10-8 Maidana, 69-63 Maidana

Round 8:

Not much action to start here...Maidana now looks a bit tired. Corley with a decent right hand, and the ref is in to break them up. Now Maidana with another shot to the back of the head, and he's doing that quite a bit. He gets warned again, but frankly he'd have lost a point were I the ref. Now Corley with a decent left hand. Good left to the body by Corley. Corley with an overhand right, and Corley puts Maidana back in the headlock! The bell rings, and Corley takes it. 

10-9 Corley, 78-73 Maidana. 

Round 9:

Good right to the body by Maidana that may have been low. Corley trying to jab and move without success. Maidana extremely flat footed and misses badly with a wild hook. Corley with a decent left hand. Maidana starting to look REALLY tired now. Did he not take Corley seriously in training? Maybe just ring rust? Corley with a good right hand! Now Maidana lands and Corley holds on! Corley now with a good left hook! Corley takes the round.

10-9 Corley, 87-83 Maidana. 

Round 10

Not much early...Good left hand by Corley...another CRISP left hand by Corley! Maidana looks exhausted! Corley swings a wild left hand, looking to take Maidana out but missing badly. BIG LEFT HAND BY CORLEY! That's his best punch of the night! Maidana looks unfazed and throws back, but he is out of gas, folks. That shot does seem to have woken him a bit and he lands a right hand. Corley with a chopping left hook. Now they're swinging wildly, but Corley seems to be landing the better shots! The bell sounds and Corley has continued his comeback from that Round 7 knockdown. 

10-9 Corley, 96-93 Maidana

Round 11

TV has it 96-96. Again, I really don't get that score. 

Maidana comes out swinging and he may have gotten his second wind. Good right hook from Maidana. A thudding body shot and the momentum is back with Chino. Now Corley snaps back Maidana's head with a jab. Corley with a low blow, then a left hook that lands, and the ref warns him on the low blow. Now Maidana's milking that low blow for some extra time, so maybe that second wind was an illusion. He takes about 30 seconds, and the action resumes. NOW MAIDANA WITH A  LOW BLOW AND CORLEY IS DOWN! Corley doesn't seem hurt, but he's angling for a point to be taken away. Sorry, Chop, you're in Argentina, my friend. Corley with a left hand. Maidana is really tired and CORLEY LANDS SOME NICE SHOTS! Maidana is totally out of gas! The bell sounds, and Corley wins another round. 

10-9 Corley, 105-103 Maidana 

Round 12:

Not a ton of urgency in Maidana's corner; I think they know that as long as Maidana is standing, he's going to get the decision. Still, he's faded BADLY down the stretch here and could really use a big KO finish.  Let's go to the last round.

TV sees it 106-105 Corley. 

Corley comes out swinging big time! Not landing much, but showing that he wants it! Now here comes Maidana! The crowd trying to spur him on! Corley lands a left hook! Maidana just has nothing left! He's missing badly! Maidana lands another low shot and he's EXCEEDINGLY lucky that no points have been taken away! NOW THEY"RE TRADING AND MAIDANA'S LANDING SOME! But now MAIDANA WITH ANOTHER BLATANT RABBIT PUNCH! THE REF IGNORES IT AND THE BELL SOUNDS! MAIDANA THROWS WAY AFTER THE BELL! 

10-9 Corley. 

My score: 114-113 MAIDANA. 

Official scores of 117-110 (twice) are really pretty wide, while 115-112 Maidana is certainly reasonable. I could see this 114-113 for either fighter, honestly though.  

Wow. Maidana was soft coming into this fight, and it showed. His conditioning stunk. He had the fight completely under control after the big Round 7 knockdown, but had nothing left after that. His punches had no pop whatsoever and Corley was able to get to him with relative ease down the stretch. Both guys fought dirty at times, but Maidana seemed to be the worse of the two, and outside of Argentina, he gets a point (or 2) deducted and loses the fight. 

In sum, it was a rough night for Maidana. He'd better get in much better shape to have a chance to beat Amir Khan, because Khan is going to be on his bike all night and Marcos is going to have to chase him to have a shot to land a big knockout punch. 

Hope you enjoyed.

While I enjoy BLH for a lot of reasons, fight-night commentary is hands down on the top of the list. I particularly like seeing everyone's scores in real time, because it gives me feedback on my own scoring and whether I'm seeing the same fight as everyone else. So, while scoring the Perez-Mares fight last weekend, I had an idea.

Generally speaking, in the recap posts, SC or Brick will say, "Bad Left Hook had it 116-112 for X," which is the score that the post writer had for the fight. On most fights, particularly the huge ones, both Brick and SC will score the fight. So, since we already have two scores, why don't we make a regular commenter/contributor the third judge, and have "Official Bad Left Hook Scoring" that's comprised of the results from the three judges. I think it might provoke some extra discussion, and it would be pretty cool to keep a log or records of how the site, with a representative from the readers, scores fights over time. Just a little thought.

Well, it looks like Manny-PBF is now off. Here are my thoughts on the winners and losers as a result of this unfortunate outcome: (in no particular order, and PBF and Manny are left out as the most obvious losers)

LOSER #1: HBO -- what a mess they now face. Both Manny and Floyd are HBO fighters, and now both guys are posturing to fight within one week of one another, against less than stellar opponents, and presumably on HBO PPV. The two fights which look most likely (PBF-Malignaggi and Manny-Yuri Foreman) have the potential to be snoozers, and to be poor moneymakers. Add in an public frustrated by the breakdown of the fight they want to see, as well as a potentially semi-organized backlash against, and even boycott of , these fights amongst the boxing hardcore, and it isn't pretty.  Does HBO dare to only pick up one fight and risk alienating the other? Or will one fighter elect to push his date back enough to make the fights more plausible? This is a real headache for the network.

WINNER # 1 SHOWTIME: what's bad for HBO is good news for Showtime. While HBO sorts through this mess, Showtime will continue on with the Super Six, which now, more than ever, looks like THE main attraction in boxing. I could add "Super Middleweight" as a winner here, because the major contenders/beltholders have proven that they are willing to fight one another, unlike welterweight, where ducking seems to be becoming the norm. If HBO angers one fighter with respect to their upcoming fight, could the other head over to Showtime?

LOSER(s) #2: Everyone associated with fight negotiations - Arum, Schaefer, DLH, etc: what an absolute embarrassment this is for everyone who had anything to do with making this thing happen.  From DLH's asinine blog posts trying to insinuate that Manny is on the juice, to the ridiculous posturing and refusal to compromise, the entire process has been an embarrassment to the sport of boxing. Here we have the opportunity to make the biggest fight in arguably twenty years, to generate an absurd amount of money for all involved, and to greatly promote the sport, and you all blew it. Bravo, fellas.

WINNER(s) #2:  Yuri Foreman and Paulie Malignaggi -- Foreman went from being a little known contender, to strapholder and potential opponent for one of the greatest P4P fighters of all time, in ninety days. Paulie goes from near career extinction after a shellacking by Hatton to two exciting, well received fights against Diaz, and now a potential fight against an undefeated P4P great with giant name recognition. Neither guy can win their fights, but both are in for a nice payday.

(Winner 2(a): the BLH Community's Yuri Foreman Schtick! Long live the Kosher Krusher!!!)

LOSER NO. 3:  Las Vegas: the city loses on out a mega-event that would have been a huge boon during still-tough economic times.

WINNER NO. 3: The winner of Mosley-Berto: with Pac-Man and PBF apparently dug well into their positions, and seemingly unwilling to fight one another later in the year, the winner of this fight is now well positioned to fight either Floyd or PacMan, later in the year for a huge payday. Maybe, just maybe, things are shaking out for Mosley to get the mega fight he has so desperately sought before retirement. The winner of this fight certainly feels like the TRUE welterweight champion given the current state of affairs.

And last, but not least,

LOSER NO. 4: BOXING -- finally, at long last, the sport was making a spirited comeback., as 2009 was absolutely loaded with exciting, important fights. The sport has produced two mega stars that the whole world wants to see fight, and who have such diametrically opposed lifestyles/stories that the storyline for the fight is essentially built in ---the good guy, Manny, vs. the bad guy, Floyd. Losing this fight reinforces all of the worst assumptions about boxing, and sets the sport back considerably.