Notes from the Hatton-Alvarez Card

·               For a shutout, that was quite an entertaining fight.  Saul Alvarez showed the boxing world what an elite prospect is supposed to look like.  He threw power shots and featured a full arsenal of punches.  Most importantly, he displayed a willingness to mix it up.  Alvarez's left hook may be punishing but his short right uppercut is going to put a few people to sleep before it's all said and done.  Matthew Hatton has nothing to be ashamed of and fought as well as could be expected with his natural disadvantages.

·               Alvarez reminds me a lot of Miguel Cotto.  He has that vicious left hook.  Like Cotto, he’s a stalker who doesn’t waste energy.  They both box flat-footed and look to land power shots.  They both have significant defensive flaws and poor footwork.  What might really separate the two is conditioning.  Cotto always comes into the ring in shape.  I’m concerned that Alvarez failed to make weight and his body didn’t look great.   I worry about Alvarez’s ability to go 12 tough rounds.  He already seems to fight only in spots.  Alvarez's true division might be middleweight.  He'll still be a beast there.

·               Alvarez also reminds me of former heavyweight contender and Rocky V star Tommy Morrison.  They both load up for power shots and are willing to take a punch or two in order to land their own bombs.

·               Did Ricky Hatton eat Kosta Tszyu?

·               In 2010, Sergio Martinez was still a junior middleweight champion.  I don’t think he would lose more than one round to Alvarez.  It’s nice that Alvarez has a belt and all but the kid still has a lot of work ahead of him.

·               Golden Boy needs to look at Alvarez as a developing fighter.  They did a great job matching him tonight.  Eventually, they will have to test Alvarez’s chin and conditioning.  The challenge is to keep him in entertaining fights as he continues to develop into a complete fighter.  Lou DiBella failed the entertainment part for Andre Berto.

·               Well, we have our first bad decision in a major fight this year.  To my eyes, Daniel Ponce de Leon cruised to a victory over Adrien Broner.  I had Ponce de Leon winning 98-92.  I had Broner winning only the 5^th and the 7^th.  The 10^th round and the 3^rd round were close.  That 99-91 card for Broner was a complete embarrassment.  If Broner wasn’t a hyped de la Hoya/Al Haymon fighter, he would have lost by four points easily.  Ponce de Leon was the aggressor, threw vicious body shots and tried to make the fight.  Broner wasn’t busy enough. 

·              California didn’t distinguish itself with having so many inexperienced judges deciding the Broner-Ponce de Leon fight.  I can live with one judge having fewer than five title fights, but two?  Too often, in a fight where one fighter throws a lot of body shots and the other fighter lands a lot of head shots, the guy who throws the head shots often gets the benefit of the doubt.  Broner’s counter rights looked good but they didn’t really hurt Ponce de Leon and there weren’t enough of them.  At least the judges recognized Broner’s counterpunches.  As Bernard Hopkins and Winky Wright’s questionable decisions prove, judges don’t often have love for counterpunchers.

·              As I predicted here, http://saturdaynightboxing.blogspot.com/2011/03/strange-matchmaking-hatton-alvarez-and.html, Broner was overmatched tonight.  The goal with a rising prospect is to put him in an entertaining fight and have him look good.  Neither of those two goals was accomplished tonight.  Even though Broner got the win, he was timid, didn’t throw combinations and completely failed to inspire.  Golden Boy needlessly ruined the momentum of a promising prospect because of lazy matchmaking. 

·              A good point in the broadcast was made by Roy Jones: fighters like Ponce de Leon always look easy on tape.  Ponce de Leon seems slow and his punches are often telegraphed.  Yet his awkward movement, slight hesitation and wide punches have caused bad nights for many fighters.  If Golden Boy supports him, Ponce de Leon could still pick up a title at featherweight.  I would have him avoid Lopez or Gamboa.  However, because they are both promoted by Bob Arum, we don’t have to worry about those eventualities right now.

·              Broner will be back.  He has good skills; he needs to learn to seize the moment.  Hopefully, he will pick up some solid victories and regroup for his next big fight.

·              Max Kellerman shouldn’t have said that Manny Pacquiao is not fighting significant boxers.  Shane Mosley may not have looked good in his last two fights but he is still a top-10 welterweight with a history of springing upsets.  Mosley is a real fighter.  He may not beat Pacquiao, but his body of work has earned him the fight.   

Sillakh Looked Good, But Not Yet

Ismail Sillakh looked very strong last night in defeating former Cuban amateur star Yordanis Despaigne.  Sillakh dropped his foe with a beautiful right hand/left hook combination.  He works well off the jab, features an accurate, straight right hand (though not necessarily powerful), and throws sneaky left hooks and occasional looping right hands.  I was very impressed with his poise and his ability to place punches.  His amateur pedigree and ring generalship suggest experience well beyond his 15 professional fights.

Sillakh earned the victory by a wide decision.  Despaigne was able to hurt him in the fifth round last night but Sillakh rebounded with his excellent conditioning and boxing skills.  

After the fight, the ESPN2 broadcasters stated that with the win, Sillakh should be placed in the upper tier of light heavyweights, behind only Hopkins, Cloud, Pascal, Dawson and Glen Johnson.  I think that's a little hyperbolic at this point.  Let's see how he holds up to a pressure fighter or someone that has more tactical weapons than a looping right hand.  

The light heavyweight division features a lot of strong, quality boxers. Sillakh needs to beat a tough guy like titlist Beibut Shumenov, Adrian Diaconu, Chris Henry or a master boxer like Zsolt Erdei before reaching the top tier of the division. 

At this stage, Sillakh has many tools and is clearly one to watch in the division.  It was an excellent performance but let's not anoint him just yet.   

You Want Archives

Saturday Night Boxing now has seven, count 'em seven different ways to find your favorite posts on the blog.  With all of Saturday Night Boxing's new fans, an easy way to find past content has become imperative.  SNB readers can now find past posts through the four theme page archives  (boxer, trainer, promoter and network).  At the bottom of the SNB home page (which lists eight posts), the "Older Posts" link will take you to the previous eight posts.  The "Older Posts" link will keep bringing up the previous eight posts.  


SNB's Facebook page, www.facebook.com/SaturdayNightBoxing lists the previous major posts.   Most recently, a monthly archive was created that lists all of the posts in sequential order.  That archive can be found on the right-hand side of the blog. 

With all of these great ways to find SNB content, I hope you enjoy surfing the blog.  Please feel free to contact SNB for ideas to improve the user experience. 

Tim Bradley's Two Problems

Tim Bradley should be more popular.  In theory, a unified American titleholder who fights the best available would be among the sport's most recognizable figures.  That Bradley presents himself well and interacts magnificently with the media would be the icing on the Q-rating cake.  But Tim Bradley is not a star.  I doubt many casual boxing fans even know who he is at this point in his career.  Essentially, he has two main problems: he has not been promoted properly and he has an awkward fighting style. 

Bradley had a very good amateur career, going 125-20 and placing well in PAL and Golden Gloves tournaments.  He never qualified for the Olympics and was defeated in his amateur career by names such as Andre Berto and Vanes Martirosyan. 

Notice that those two boxers fight at welterweight and junior middleweight, respectively.  Bradley fought his amateur career at those two weight classes.  Even as a pro, he started at welterweight before dropping down to his optimal weight class of junior welterweight. 

Despite his amateur pedigree, he didn't turn pro with an eye-popping bonus or promotional agreement.  He was shepherded through the pro ranks by Thompson Boxing, a small boxing outfit based in Southern California.  Almost all of his early fights were held in hotel ballrooms or small Indian casinos away from the bright lights and media scrutiny of Los Angeles.  Even leading up to his title shot against Junior Witter in England, Bradley had never left Southern California to fight.  He fought once in Los Angeles and his other fights were in more remote SoCal outposts.  To say he was an obscure titleholder after beating Witter, is an understatement.

As a titleholder, Bradley has defeated fellow belt holders Kendall Holt and Devon Alexander, stopped highly touted prospect Lamont Peterson, marked time with a win over Ender Cherry and had a no-contest with former titleholder Nate Campbell -- a fight stopped early due to cuts on Campbell from Bradley's head butts.  Bradley also moved up to 147 to fight Luis Abregu when attempts to fight Marcos Maidana fell through.

To grow Bradley's stature, Gary Shaw was brought in as lead promoter.  Shaw worked his TV connections to make Bradley a featured fighter throughout his title reign, first on Showtime and then HBO. 

Shaw can secure a network TV date as well as anyone, but creating stars has not been his forte.  To Shaw, getting TV dates and holding a few press conferences encompass the sum total of his promoting. 

To this point, Bradley has not drawn well anywhere.  He cannot even fill local Indian casinos near his hometown of Palm Springs.  The unification bout against Alexander drew a little more than 6,000 people.  Who knows how many of them actually paid for a ticket?

Even with Bradley's drawing power difficulties so noted, it is not wildly speculative to suggest that if he were fighting under a different promotional banner, he would be a much bigger name.  Bradley has charisma.  Listening to him in interviews, he is a student of boxing and has many insightful observations and comments.   He may lack the drama and self-promotion that others exhibit, but he has a warm presence and seems to be a good guy.  

Shaw has yet to demonstrate any ability to get his American fighters publicity beyond traditional boxing circles.  Bradley, for his part, does as many interviews as any fighter.  If he signs with one of the other promotional entities that feature more creative thinking, the number of opportunities that await him could blow his mind. 

The second major hindrance to Bradley's superstardom results from his style of boxing; he doesn't produce entertaining fights.  Having an awkward style that is equal parts Ricky Hatton, Evander Holyfield and Bernard Hopkins can have that effect.  Like Hatton, Bradley can be a mugger.  He's kind of a pressure fighter who uses his superior physicality to wear down opponents.  Like Holyfield, he leads with his head, which leads to frequent head butts.  Similar to Hopkins, Bradley takes away an opponent’s best weapon. 

Bradley's fights produce a lot of grappling, holding, butting and delays of action.  To his credit, Bradley tries to make the fight; he is the aggressor.  He is not per se a cheap fighter but he knows a lot of the veteran moves needed to break down opponents. 

In terms of achievement or overall skills as a boxer, Bradley has not yet reached the lofty perches of a Holyfield or a Hopkins but he posesses Holyfield's doggedness and self-belief and he wants to become the master boxing student like Hopkins.  His most promising feature as a fighter might be that he fights his fight and thwarts his opponents' game plans.

Bradley still has some significant flaws as a fighter.  He squares himself up to his opponent when he wants to throw his lead right hand from close range.  This makes him vulnerable to a left hook or a straight right hand against a conventional fighter.  Kendall Holt landed both punches, leading to two knockdowns of Bradley.  Southpaw Devon Alexander had some limited success landing uppercuts.  Also, Bradley sometimes paws with his jab and doesn't always turn over his right hand.

These problems are well known in boxing, yet nobody has been able to beat him.  Bradley, though not a big puncher, creates a lot of emotional duress for his opponents.  Devon Alexander didn't want to finish his fight, neither did Nate Campbell.  Lamont Peterson and  and Alexander never looked comfortable in their fights against him.  Despite the two knockdowns, Holt lost practically every other second of their contest.  Bradley's will and self-belief rank in the top tier of all boxers.  He has great training habits and will be a tough out for anyone.  

Bradley's next task should be challenging.  His probable next opponent, Amir Khan, is both a headhunter and possesses an excellent left hook.  (Bradley to this point looks more susceptible to head shots than body work.)  Khan also employs Freddie Roach, one of the best tacticians in the sport.  Khan will be well prepared for the fight and in excellent condition.

If Bradley wanted to, he could rightfully bemoan his lack of name recognition in the sporting world, but time is on his side.  He can become a free agent after his next fight.  Every major promotional player in American boxing will take a run at him; his fortunes will improve.  Wherever he lands, he is hitting the market at a great time.

At 27, Bradley has beaten world-class fighters and is already a unified champion.  His fight with Amir Khan will recognize the best at 140.  Large names like Maywather and Pacquiao loom for that winner.    

At 27, Bernard Hopkins was just a club fighter in Philadelphia without a big-time promoter or even a regional belt.  If Bradley keeps himself in shape and works on some defensive flaws, he has another good 10 years in his run.  He may never be the mega-attraction of someone like Manny Pacquiao or Floyd Mayweather Jr., but as Hopkins has proven, if you keep winning, the recognition and the big money will follow. 

Strange Matchmaking: Hatton-Alvarez and Broner-Ponce de Leon

Two intriguing fights take place on Saturday in Anaheim.  Fast-rising star Saul Alvarez meets Matthew Hatton for the WBC junior middleweight title and heralded prospect, Adrien Broner faces knockout artist Daniel Ponce de Leon perhaps a pound or two above the junior lightweight limit.  Both fights will tell us more about the young charges than the veterans.  Can Alvarez outmaneuver a polished professional like Hatton?  Can Broner's chin withstand Ponce de Leon's bombs?

In both fights, the decks are stacked in favor of the young guns.  The Alvarez fight will be in front of a large Mexican and Mexican-American crowd (with California judges) at a weight which favors him.  Hatton almost always fights right at the welterweight limit of 147.  This fight will be seven pounds north.  Broner, who often fights at lightweight will be facing former featherweight Ponce de Leon, who will be fighting at least one weight division higher than his optimal weight.

Golden Boy, the promoter of the card, is taking no chances with Alvarez.  Their promotional outfit is lacking young stars.  Alvarez already draws tens of thousands for his fights in Mexico and has built upon that following with the Mexican American community in the southwestern United States. 

Hatton will not knock Alvarez out, or really hurt him.  Hatton is a boxer and sometime brawler who has both limited power and athleticism.  After some bad losses early in his career, Hatton has been on a nice run and can clearly beat B-level boxers.  If Alvarez is the goods, then he should beat Hatton with his punching power, weight advantage and superior technique.

Broner's match is far more intriguing.  Broner built his shiny 19-0 record on the backs of mediocre fighters.  His 16 knockouts belie his punching power and speak more to his weak opposition.  Broner is a slick boxer who still has some amateur habits, primarily not sitting down on his punches.  He also needlessly moves too much; he could and should stay in the pocket more.  

Ponce de Leon will test Broner's chin with his bombs.  Furthermore, Ponce de Leon can box a little too.  Essentially, his career has been defined by scintillating knockouts and fights where he seems disengaged.  He has lost only one fight in his last five years, when Juan Manuel Lopez blitzed him in the first round.  Ponce de Leon is disadvantaged by the weight class for this fight but his power should still carry.  At 126, he can knock anyone out.  At 132, his power could still cause serious problems for Broner.

Interestingly, Broner just signed a management/advisor contract with influential powerbroker Al Haymon, who has favored-nation status with HBO.  Haymon's fighters (Jermain Taylor, Andre Berto) have historically had a disproportionate number of HBO bankrolled soft touches before facing significant opposition.  However, in this case, Broner may even be overmatched.  Ponce de Leon was not the first boxer offered the fight with Broner.  Supposedly, Jason Litzau was offered the fight but turned it down.  Even moving two divisions below Broner to find a suitable opponent, Broner will still be at real risk.  

Golden Boy matchmaker Eric Gomez better hope that Ponce de Leon has one of his off nights, otherwise they may have needlessly sacrificed another young fighter (Daniel Jacobs being a recent example) on account of overaggressive matchmaking.  Young fighters should be matched tough, but why throw Broner in with one of the best knockout artists in the sport given his limited professional opposition?

With the Broner-Ponce de Leon fight, boxing fans should see drama.  The Hatton-Alvarez fight might be more technical in nature and perhaps less aesthetically pleasing. 

To this point, Golden Boy has protected Alvarez by not putting him in with punchers; Alvarez is their meal ticket.  If he goes down, Golden Boy is in some serious trouble.  They did not afford Broner the same luxury.  He has to learn how to swim in deep water, and fast.