I'm going to try this but I suspect it won't work out. I'm trying to get back into the swing of it after not caring since the screw job that was the De La Hoya/Trinidad decision waaaay back in the late 90s.

So I caught this week's fight show running on most of the FSN type channels. Ok show for the most part. The main event was the best kind as it featured has been Ray Mercer taking on never was Shannon Briggs. Pretty boring fight as Briggs pretty easily won. Mercer is pretty fugly now as he's got the typical beat up boxer face.

I caught the last few HBO shows On Demand. That Valuev dude (the 7'0" russian) really didn't impress me much. He's too awkward, and 3 times he simply pushed the guy down instead of punching him.

Non-Heavyweight fights = good.
Heavyweight fights since Tyson's glory days = bad.

Valuev's just big. No real skills other than that. He just beat Monte Barrett recently but I don't think you can call that an accomplishment. There was a decent J. Welterweight match on this show and the other heavyweight bout was pretty good for the most part as it was all action.

I miss watching the C level guys on USA Tuesday Night Fights though.

FSN Detroit had some boxing today. Joe Mesi fights some 3-1 jobber in a 4 rounder. Mesi manages to get a black eye within 2 rounds even though he totally outclassed the guy. The other bout was a chick fight so I passed on it. I DVRd some ESPN2 show with some of the guys with from the Contender. Hopefully it provides more entertainment than this did.

ESPN2 show was pretty good. All super middleweight stuff. Allan Green who's #9 in Ring Magazine got a KO in an okay 8 rounder. Then the main event was 3 rounds and pretty action packed.

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Some dude just got punched in the balls. I think it ended the match by DQ.

That's always entertaining. I remember one local show featured a bunch of losers getting knocked out in 15 seconds of Round 1. Good times...

And I fucking hate 4 rounders. What's the damned point?

To see if the wanna-be's can do anything worth a damn? Even Tyson was scheduled in 4 rounders his first few fights. Of course he mauled people in 30 seconds, but that's not the point.

Like I said Mesi did a 4 rounder and he's fallen so far that the can actually gave him a black eye in the process.

There's just too many fucking champions though. I watched a couple of hours this weekend and I swear half were for some title or another.

Exactly. It seems like there are more titles than actual contenders these days.

The Briggs/Mercer card had a belt on the line in the undercard. The show with the ball punching had 1 or 2 belts on the line. The ESPN2 show didn't have a belt on the line but Spina had a WBC belt when he came out.

Though that fight was really good as Manfredo from the Contender just beat the shit out of him for 3 rounds.

Oh crap, I forgot to tape the Manfredo vs. Whoever fight! Oh well, I'm sure ESPN will replay it 50 times to fill up time.

Yeah, it was a pretty good show. The first fight sucked till the last round as Allan Green was being a lazy for a lot of it. The Manfredo match was great though.

So what weight classes are good these days? I take it middleweight and down is all solid for the most part.

I do wish I got HBO and Showtime as it would be nice to see the so called A talent in action.

Anything below 165 pounds works for me. The fighters are more adventerous to having a wild fight, and the action is usually lively.

As for HBO/ShowTime, you usually don't miss much except for PPV main event re-broadcasts. Hell, back some years, the only reason I had Showtime was to see the Tyson fights. :D

I can at least I saw the fight where Evander Holyfield stopped being a good fighter. I think it was around Round 7 of his title defense against Vaughn Bean.

Did you catch his "Comeback" on FSN a few months ago? How shameful a heavyweight of his recognition is lowered to such levels. He's lucky it wasn't on CSS or Versus/OLN I guess. :D

I saw Riddick Bowe's comeback fight last year. It wasn't pretty but I guess Foreman proved you could still be successful even in your 40s. Speaking of which they had his 93 fight against Tommy Morrison on the new VS. channel the other night.

I caught that just for the fact I've never seen Tommy Morrison fight... a real fight that is. Sadly, I had to watch him act in Rocky V. He looked like a white Tyson. He went for the kill early, and was pretty much a worthless slug after Round 4.

That's my big complaint with almost every heavyweight I've seen over the last decade. Good first couple of rounds and then they're both completely punched out by the end of the 3rd round.

It all comes down to conditioning. Some are so jacked-up, they can barely move around. Then once they punch themselves out, neither guy is usually ballsy enough to take a chance for a KO.

Has the heavyweight division ever been this bad? I know it was really bad during the Larry Holmes era but you still had a lot of good prospects coming up. Is there even anyone out there you see and see star written all over him?

None. It's not bad enough no one stands out with ability, but you also need charisma to connect with crowds (or ass-kicking abilities), and right now, no one has that. Sure, during the Valuev/Whoever fight the crowd chanted USA, but only because Valuev sucked and he was some Russian jerk-off with our belt, not because the other guy (Montte Who) had a hope in hell of winning... but I give him credit for throwing some bombs at the guy, just for the hell of it.

Monte Barrett. He's 31-5-0. Losses to Lance Whitaker, Wladimir Klitschko, Joe Mesi, Hasim Rahman and of course the big russian guy. Your typical modern heavyweight as he's beaten a bunch of nobodies and C listers but lost everytime he's faced a solid heavyweight that isn't horribly past their prime.

Damn... out of all those names, the only one I recognize is the newest. What a sad time for boxing. Damn Buster Douglas.... back in 1990, that is.

I blame it on Riddick Bowe.

Don't forget Michael Moorer... dammit, he was knocked out by a 40+ year old George Foreman! In a fight he was winning!

What do you expect from the guy that got KOed by David Tua in Round 1?

3rd Annual Louisville Slugfest is what's on most of the sports channels this week. Interesting show as two guys actually walked out of the place with losing records which is rare to see on tv.

Danny Jimenez 5-0-0 d. Luis Hernandez 0-1-0 in a lightweight 4 rounder. Jimenez looked like he has a lot of potential as a fighter. He destroyed the debuting Hernandez and got the decision easily.

Daniel Attah 24-3-1 d. Alejandro Ramirez 8-9-1 in a featherweight 8 rounder. This one sucked. Attah clearly outclassed the guy but was just content to get a lazy decision.

Noe Bolanos 12-0-0 d. Jose Hernandez 8-6 in a lightweight 8 rounder. This ended when Hernandez got his head split open on an accidental headbutt and they went to the judge's cards early.

Oliver McCall 48-8-0 d. Darroll Wilson 27-9-2 in a heavyweight 12 rounder. Well at least they got a former champ to fight in the main event, Pretty decent fight as McCall tore Wilson apart and earned a TKO in the early part of the 4th round. Some title called the WBC Fecarbox was on the line. This goes along with my complaints about there been too many damned titles running around.

Decent enough show I guess. The middle two matches weren't so great though.

http://boxrec.com/

You can reference every fighter and see who they fought and all that good stuff. A great reference site as it helps me figure out the dates of things going on.

Good idea, considering remembering dates for anything boxing related is next-to impossible these days.

I hate it. They just throw shit on tv like it's live. Would it kill the production guy to throw the date on there from time to time?

I also noticed ESPN Classics doesn't play older fights as much anymore. I'm guessing they don't want to pay for the rights and just fill all their boxing shows up with old fights aired on ESPN2.

They seem to show a bunch of Tyson fights, but most of them were originally on ESPN no doubt (except the Buster Douglas fight, which I think was on HBO).

I also can tell how pointless titles are. Half the time I don't even hear a title is on the line until I see the champion putting it on after the fight.

You mean like the IBO and IBF Super Bantomweight Belts of the "World" (in Pennsicola)? I have the same problem. :D

Like that Fecarbox belt that was on the line for the McCall fight. What the hell is a fecarbox?

Isn't that the box from that mythological story that unleashed a bunch of demons?

That's Pandora.

Close enough, and with the same amount of prestige.