Maybe it’s due to the fact that it is a Leap year but February has been a strange month of boxing so far.
First, Floyd Mayweather announced he was facing Miguel Cotto this May, then Manny Pacquiao and Top Rank announced the worst kept secret that he would face recently signed Top Rank fighter Timothy Bradley in June.
It gets more interesting as Paulie Malignaggi issued a statement towards Robert Guerrero. As it turns out, Guerrero turned down a chance to face the Magic man on the undercard of Mayweather- Cotto bout May 5th, as to the reason. Guerrero sent his own statement basically stating that Malignaggi was not a big draw or have knockout power nor did he have any clout to headline a main card of his own.
While it may be true that Malignaggi is not a knockout artist, he has faced far better competition than that of Guerrero. However Guerrero seems to be looking for paydays more than proving he is one the best at 135 or 140 these days. The problem is that he has no following himself nor is he a fighter boxing fans are paying to see. How would any fighter that is trying to get a fight with Mayweather or Pacquiao not want to prove his worth by passing up a slot on one of the biggest PPV cards of 2012? Expect to see Guerrero face someone of lesser competition than Malignaggi.
While Guerrero may have passed up a date on May 5th a fighter that has not been in the ring in over 3 years is rumored to fight. Ex Middleweight champion Ronald “Winky” Wright is set to face hot prospect Peter Quillin. Goldenboy had said previously that they were going to put on great undercards but I have yet to see undercards that are “great”. I am not sure Winky is a PPV worthy fight, he has not fought since his loss to Paul Williams in 2009 and even worse Wright has only been in the ring twice since 2007. If this fight is actually official, I do not see anything good coming out of it. Wright is not a offensive juggernaut and even though Quillin is coming into his own as a fighter, Wright is smart enough to go the distance and lose a Unanimous Decision than take any real damage.
If fighters that have not been in the ring in quite some time is not enough, then Top Rank is serving up Yuriorkis Gamboa jumping up two weight classes to fight the heavy handed Brandon Rios.
This fight is exciting in the sense that both Gamboa and Rios are young and exciting fighters who are always in entertaining fights that the fans love. However, Gamboa has fought above 130lb one time in his career and Rios has only fought once below 130 in his career. While it is exciting to see how this fight plays out, it is questionable why Top Rank went for a bout between these two. There are other names that are actually in the lightweight division that could give Rios a run for his money. Juan Manuel Marquez and Robert Guerrero. While Marquez probably priced himself out, I am assuming Guerrero as I stated earlier doesn’t have the clout to demand that fight as well as having Goldenboy as his promoter probably does not help the situation.
However regardless of the weight discrepancies, Gamboa-Riosshould be considered a win for the fans and on April 14th fans should tune into see fireworks. I would suggest if you are in the Vegas area, this would be the fight to see live.
I don’t like the fact that Guerrero turned down a fight over someone’s following and punching power, I may be mistaking but last time I checked The Ghost is not a big draw nor is he a very big puncher himself. I know Paulie’s K.O ratio is low but he’s still a talented fighter and I’d rather see this fight on the undercard instead of watching an old Winky Wright bore us for 12 rounds no offense to Quillin but I don’t see him stopping or making any kind of excitement with a reluctant Winky Wright. With this month coming to a close it looks like this maybe shapping up to be a strange year of Boxing. I mean everything from Chisora’s slapping, spitting and getting “glassed” to the awful and sad fight and riot in Argentina, We still got Alexander/Maidana going down this weekend, with this taking place in St. Louis Maidana better take him out otherwise if it goes all the way it will be another robbery for the hometown kid..
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