Maidana’s name now in the lottery jackpot for Mayweather’s next fight

12/20/2013 by @James_theGrad

maidana54343 by James Le Blanc: While everyone was anointing Amir Khan as Floyd Mayweather Jr’s next opponent in May I just couldn’t see it. In the UK they were even spreading reports that the fight was a done deal. While I am a Khan fan I still knew that Khan had not looked impressive in his recent bouts, in his last 4 bouts he lost, got knocked out, got dropped, and got one stoppage. His last two opponents were relatively unknown. Then you had these welterweight bouts all coming at the end of the year, and to me all of them were auditions.

This is when the inexplicable happened, Amir Khan backed out of the Devon Alexander fight, you know the one where Shawn Porter replaced him and took Devon’s belt. I couldn’t believe Khan would make such a terrible move.

When will the fans turn on Manny Pacquiao?

12/04/2013 by @James_theGrad

pac783 By by James Le Blanc: The stage was set, the moment couldn’t be any more perfect, Manny Pacquiao had just given Brandon Rios the lesson of a life time which is ‘Boxer beats tough guy’ 99% of the time. HBO’s Max Kellerman had the microphone, and asked the probing question that every fighter gets once they dish out a beating, “and who are you looking forward to Manny, what are you looking forward to?” This is the part where Manny says ‘Bring on Floyd Mayweather, let’s give the fans what they want to see!!”

But that didn’t happen. Instead Manny deferred to his promoter Bob Arum once again who is already giving us a glimpse of the possibility of this fight by stating Manny would return in April knowing good and well Floyd has set his dates in May and September of 2014. We know the players; we know the rules to the game have changed and that it is very unlikely for Golden Boy to work with Top Rank.

Is 2013’s Fighter of the Year that hard to identify?

12/02/2013 by @James_theGrad

bellew7 By James Le Blanc: As this year is coming to a close, with great fights throughout the course of this year it is that time to crown the most impressive boxer; the one that separates himself from the rest as Fighter of the Year. According to some analyst there are many names to choose from; Floyd Mayweather, Danny Garcia, Gennady Golovkin, and Adonis Stevenson. Let me get straight to the point when I say, this year’s Fighter of the Year has to be the Canadian Adonis Stevenson.

Any time a Champion fights four times in a calendar year it is something special. These days we are lucky to get a Champion to fight twice a year. This was the recipe for success in 2012 for Nonito Donaire who fought four times, knocking out two of those opponents. This year Golovkin fought four times knocking out all four opponents and defending his belt every time but the competition is questionable.

Mayweather vs. Khan a bad rumor with a lot of truth to it.. by James Le Blanc

10/03/2013 by @James_theGrad

khan6 by James Le Blanc: The boxing world has been buzzing with news out of England that Amir Khan was going to back out of a fight with IBF welterweight champion Devon Alexander this December in order to preserve himself for a match with Floyd Mayweather Jr. next year in May.

The logic behind this was that Alexander was too high a risk, and that losing to him would ensure Khan would never get the mega match he has been dreaming and talking about for years. When I heard the news, not knowing if they were true or not, I immediately knew that it was a bad move for Khan and would bring certainty that he would NOT fight Floyd in May if he were to avoid the Alexander fight.

Matthysse didn’t deserve Danny Garcia’s belts

09/15/2013 by @James_theGrad

By Idol: I’ve been following Lucas Matthysse’s career since the before the Devon Alexander and Zab Judah upsets. I know what he is capable of, and where he lacks fundamentals. Believe me, my heart was shattered as I watched Lucas get beaten last Saturday night by WBA/WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia (27-0, 26 KO’s) by a 12 round unanimous decision at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. I’m not going to make excuses for Matthysse. The fact of the matter is Matthysse clearly didn’t deserve the belt.

Garcia (who I actually despise) not only prepared well, but he fought the PERFECT fight against Matthysse. Both fighters were looking to take away each other’s biggest threat. The big difference was Garcia landed the match defining shot first. By taking away Matthysse’s eye (luck or not), the fight became a desperate race against time for Lucas. Funny thing is Matthysse seemed to have the better game plan from the start. He was attacking Garcia at awkward angles that were leaving Garcia in awkward positions.

Mayweather-Canelo catch-weight controversy

09/13/2013 by @James_theGrad

by James Le Blanc: Who saw Dan Rafael set the record straight on ESPN First Take about the recent ‘boxing is dead’ assessment. I was also particularly happy to see him call out Skip Bayless for not knowing what a catch-weight was and starting a controversy over it. The catch-weight agreement between Floyd Mayweather and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez has had particular attention because Mayweather criticized his rival Manny Pacquiao for forcing his fighters to fight at catch weights.

Just recently Canelo Alvarez has come out and said not only did Mayweather demand the catch weight, he tried to have him fight as low as 150 when fighting at the welterweight limit was out of the question for Canelo. Canelo then went on to say Floyd wanted a rehydration clause in which Canelo would have a limit to what he weighed the actual day of the fight.

The Sport of Boxing deserves the backlash

09/09/2013 by @James_theGrad

by James Le Blanc: Recently on the show Pardon the Interruption Michael Wilbon stated that after Floyd Mayweather retires, it’s over for boxing. Boxing journalist Dan Rafael took to twitter to imply that anyone that says the sport of boxing is dead is just ignorant and lazy. I myself thought the year of 2013 would be a year full of unwanted rematches and dead on arrival mismatches but I couldn’t be farther from the truth.

Smooth Sailing for Mayweather post Canelo mega-fight?

08/28/2013 by @James_theGrad

By James Le Blanc/@James_theGrad: Remarkably, this is Floyd Mayweather Jr’s first ever unification bout in which he will be defending his WBA Light Middleweight title and attempting to relieve Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (42-0-1, 30 KO’s) of his WBC title. While Alvarez has size advantage, more power in his punch, he is still conceived as a heavy underdog against the brilliant Mayweather who has shown an uncanny ability to adapt to every opponent he has faced who gave him problems early on in the fight.

What has made Mayweather so intriguing to me in the past few months has been his contract with Showtime in which he signed to a 6 fight deal. So no retirement, no long break, no long wait to see Floyd in the ring again, and after this fight with Canelo, we can expect to see Floyd in the ring at least 4 more times in the next two years.

Scenario not so farfetched 2

08/16/201308/16/2013 by @James_theGrad

By James Le Blanc/@James_theGrad Back in March of this year I wrote an article explaining the inevitability of a matchup between Adrien Broner and Floyd Mayweather. This match-up immediately came to mind once Adrien Broner announced he would be entering the welterweight limit and challenging Paulie Malignaggi for his belt.

I recall seeing Max Kellerman earlier this year on the Dan Lebatard show saying that in the next 2 years Adrien “The Problem” Broner is going to be a problem match up for Floyd Mayweather although he doubts they would ever fight because they are close buds. After watching Broner’s poor performance against Malignaggi, in which he won via split decision, and then also seeing countless interviews from Broner and Mayweather, I still believe this fight will eventually happen and here are a few reasons why.

Sergio “Maravilla” Martinez vs. undefeated Martin Murray

04/23/2013 by @James_theGrad

by James Le Blanc: I have become accustomed to continuously seeing Sergio Martinez’s name go up and down in the top 10 p4p rankings and it irritates me incredibly that he has never reached number one, at least for a short period of time. Since 2010 defeating Kelly Pavlik, Sergio has dominated his opponents, he has dominated his weight class, and he has dominated the sport.

Let’s recap to solidify my argument here. After the fight with Pavlik, Sergio fought a rematch with Paul Williams who had controversially defeated him before. We remember the knockout, the vicious hook that made people worry about the well being of Paul Williams. Since that giant victory over a much feared and over-sized middleweight in Williams, Martinez went on to fight Dzinziruk.