Weekend Wrapup February 28
By Mike Hanson
The most amazing news of the weekend is Saturday, exactly 14 days prior to his bout with Joshua Clottey, Manny Pacquiao took a blood test. Amazingly enough he didn’t cower in fear of the needles, his soul wasn’t stolen, and he didn’t pass out. Fourteen days was the final date that the Mayweather Camp agreed to. Just goes to show you that if you aren’t wearing Mayweather hating glasses then it has been obvious from the start that Manny, Roach,and Arum never had any intention of fighting Floyd. My belief is that they thought all along that Floyd would pull out and look like the bad guy. Unfortunately, the plan backfired and they walked away in a tiff over taking a blood test 14 days prior to the fight. The next day they sign to fight Clottey and what do you know 14 days prior to that fight he takes a blood test.
ESPN held a great card Friday night, possibly the best of their year so far. In the prelim Danny Garcia (16-0) stepped up his level of competition and got a nice test from Ashley Theophane (25-3-1). The slick challenger gave Garcia all he wanted and Garcia scored a split decision win. I thought Garcia won by a score of 96-93. The main event had fight of the year written all over it. Two neighborhood kids who didn’t like each other growing up to face each other in the ring. Antonio Escalante (23-2) showed he was ready for bigger fights in the Junior Featherweight division with a solid points win over Miguel Roman (28-6). Roman was dropped in the eighth to make the decision a little wider but Roman gave as good as he got all night long. Great show of sportmanship between the two after the fight also. Classy card all around.
Mike Jones (20-0) has struggled to get fights and get exposure in the past took the main stage on Saturday’s Fox Sports Net broadcast and did absolutely nothing to make anyone want to see him again. He was far more talented than veteran Henry Bruseles (28-3-1) but took zero chances and was content to jab his way to victory from the outside. Anyone watching the fight had to feel that if Jones tried he could have stopped Bruseles but Jones was content to just win. You get a long awaited shot at a televised event and you bore everyone. Mike Jones is not must see TV.
The PPV event Saturday night was well worth the price tag. We got to see the mismatched debuts of Puerto Rican Olympians McWilliams and McJoe Arroyo (p.s. Love their McNames) and they looked like the next big things from our 51st state. I would love to see Cruiserweight prospect Carlos Negron (8-0) eat a couple of steaks and step up to Heavyweight. At 6′ 6” he looks as though he has a chance to be a good big man. Not to mention how much fun is it to see a guy talk crap while he is getting his butt kicked and knocked out in the first round? The main event from Puerto Rico was a good 4 round slugfest as youngster Marvelous Marvin Sonsona (14-1) was stopped in the 4th on a liver punch. No need to get down as this kid will be a Ring champ one day. Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. (18-0-1) was a beast Saturday night and looks ready for bigger and better things. Can we get him versus Antonio Escalante next please?
The PPV event then went to Mexico where another fight of the year candidate took place between Daniel Estrada (22-1) and Angel Alirio Rivero (21-7-1). These two beat the tar out of each other for nine and a half rounds until a strange stoppage by the referee. We couldn’t hear the open scoring but I would assume that Rivero was behind on points. He also didn’t seem to answer the doc very well in the corner after the 9th either. In the main event Omar “pornstache” Romero (28-3-2) scored a knockout that was ruled a no contest over Rodel Mayol (26-4-1). Romero landed the classic left hook to the jewels, left hook to the chin combo for the KO, only problem was the referee was pulling him away when the one to the chin landed.
This weekend we have the ESPN Friday night fights starring Martin Honorio taking on Wilton Hilario. Martin will try to capitalizio on his victorio over John Molina his last time outio. John Molina will also be on the card and will be fighting the dreaded TBA.
Saturday night HBO and Showtime do their version of dueling banjos. Showtime will feature Vic Darchiyan facing a decent prospect in Rodrigo Guerrero. The spider monkey should be way too much for Guerrero and I imagine it will be a short fight. The undercard bout between Leonardo Zappavigna and Fernando Angulo should be a pretty good scrap. Interesting to note that Angulo has a fight scheduled just two weeks later.
HBO has the card of the weekend as we get a Junior Welterweight unification bout between Devon Alexander and Juan Urango. Classic boxer versus slugger event and should be a highly entertaining bout.
TB Predicts will return this weekend so be on the lookout for that. As always buy Title Bout Championship Boxing as it is the best boxing game on the market. Also pick up the year subscription to Talkin Boxing with Billy C. Billy does nothing but talk boxing for 2 hours every weekday morning it is a fun broadcast with great interviews. Links below.
http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/joomla/home-tbcb.html
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