Mikey Tapology Boxing Corner!

Alright folks, 

As you might know I'm Tapology Boxing editor. I know the majority of you guys are here for MMA, so was I originally. But for the last year or 2 there is a little more interest in Boxing on the site. 

So here's a place to talk boxing. 

Comment this topic with the intention of starting a debate, I would like to know what other boxing and MMA fans think about this.

For me, the closure of rehydration in most cases (now I will explain why all cases are not the same) are a cowardly movement, in my opinion they go against the spirit of combat sports, in the beginning there were no weight categories (or very few) and yet Rocky Marciano despite being a natural middleweight knocked out size advantage boxers and is arguably the best or one of the best HW of all time (in MMA there is the example of Royce's victories Gracie in the first UFC tournaments).

Boxers with big names like Pacquiao, Floyd and Canelo at some point resorted to catchweights in title fights (another controversial practice) and/or contracts with stipulated rehydration closures. The most blatant example was the Canelo vs. Smith: Calum Smith is a big Super Middleweight and tends to have strong weight cuts, one of the main reasons why Smith had such a questionable performance and you had that bicep inflammation during the fight is because his body was not fully recovered from the limited post weight cut process due to rehydration limits. I understand that not all fighters rehydrate in the same way and sometimes the competition can be uneven (a perfect example of this was the fight between Ramos vs. Spencer last weekend), but that the A-Sides demand their rivals (that have marked the correct weight on the scale) a weight recovery limit, can become fraudulent and clearly cowardly. This means that many fights have been won "halfway" to put it in a way. For example, in his debut in Light Heavyweight, Smith sent his rival to the hospital and knocked him out in a way that many worried about the health of the Dominican boxer. Anyone can say "Wow Callum is a Monster, but Canelo gave him bruises even on the arm!'' and that's only half true Canelo beat up Callum Smith Yes!, BUT only a zombie version due to lack of hydration. It's a win against a big name Yes!, BUT pretty much the path to this was laid by contract. 

Rehydration closures make sense in opponents who blatantly miss the weight (miss by more than 5 pounds) who misses in this way and does not have any injuries is a cheater who at some point in the final part of the camp decided not to continue cutting weight, rehydrating before the stipulated time and getting into the ring with a wide advantage and high victory percentage in exchange for 20% or 30% of your pay per fight.

A perfect example that happened in the UFC of a justified rehydration shutdown was when Darren Till missed weight by 8lbs against Stephen Thompson in order to fight they put a weight limit on him to fight on the night if they didn't do that literally that fight would have been between a middleweight against a welterweight and that was kind of unfair.

The most recent and commented case regarding this is the closure that Gervonta Davis wants to impose on him to face Ryan Garcia. The first thing that comes to my mind is not supposed that his trainers said that the Tank once knocked out a HW in sparring, it is not supposed that his power can be imposed even against welterweights and super-welterweights. There aren't even supposed to be dilusional fans who say Tank can knock out Canelo in a hypothetical super-fight (I know someones who think that could happen). If all those things were true, it doesn't matter how much Ryan Garcia can dehydrate, Tank drops HWs!, he can't against the guy that Campbell knock down in a spectacularly way. 

Rehydration closure may even be fair and necessary to maintain health in the sport if both fighters must meet the same limit. It is cowardly that only one of the boxers has to comply with the whim of promoters or cash cows regarding how much weight they can recover after having mark in the scale the weight of the category. 

The only one of Canelo's last 5 opponents who did not have a stipulated rehydration contract was Bivol and the Russian clearly dominated him, if against Benavides he does not put a rehydration contract on him then Canelo shows that he is the true king of the weight class, but if he forces him to weigh less than 180 pounds on the fight night then he proves that his doubters are right: he only beats dehydrated opponents.

As crazy as it sounds, I know people who think that a Lightweight Gervonta Davis could knock out a super welterweight Canelo Alvarez in a boxing match. As crazy as it may seem, there are people who don't seem to know how the weight class system works.

Its bareknuckle but here is a wild round between 2-0 American tough guy Hatch and Croatian journeyman Martinjak who had gone 6-1 in bareknuckle 

* Edited at 03.29.2023, 12:24 PM ET *

Harrington, Olympic, World, European champ
Hogan, fights for a world title in May
Dunne, World and European champ
McGuigan, World, European, British champ
Taylor, if she keeps winning, the women's G.O.A.T?

* Edited at 03.29.2023, 12:42 PM ET *

That bareknuckle fight isnt too skillful compared to high level amateur or pro boxing, but I thought it was pretty entertaining, rock em' sock em' robots 

* Edited at 03.29.2023, 12:44 PM ET *

https://www.tapology.com/fightcenter/events/99726-tcl-1-day-1


https://www.facebook.com/100087647303207/videos/176140064835951

Interesting new event here.  Team Combat League starts today and they are doing boxing a little differently.  It is now a team sport.  Teams of fighters face off in a season format.  Each "Match" is 12 rounds however each round is a different pair of fighters.  The match is split into 2 halves of 6 rounds a piece and each fighter can only fight one round per half, meaning no one person can fight more than 2 rounds.  Each round is scored like normal and the total scores determine which team wins at the end of the 12 rounds.  No superstars by any means involved but there are some decent guys involved in this.  

Amett, I am also not a fan of rehydration clauses. I don't really like Weight cutting in general.  Fighters should fight at their natural walk around weight, not the lowest weight they can possibly boil down to for 1 second on a scale. 
But I guess rehydration clauses are there to protect from guys who cut huge amounts of weight. 
Again, I just want fighters to fight at their natural weight! 

Cody, I seen an article about that new Team Combat League the other day. Seems a bit mad!!!  Not sure if it'll catch on. 
Do you know if its being streamed anywhere??? Maybe check it out 

The facebook link I sent goes to the stream.  Normally they will have a direct website for it but they were having technical difficulties with it so they are streaming though their facebook page today.  They are currently on intermission as the first half of the first match just ended

* Edited at 03.29.2023, 8:50 PM ET *

I agree with you, fighting in the natural weight classes is the most suitable, that's why in the past of the sport those who managed to prevail their talents and skills over their opponent to won, while today the size and reach can assure you almost 50% of the Victory chances (especially the fight day weight issue). 

It's well known that weight cutting at extreme levels causes long-term damage to the brain and kidneys, but sadly many athletes are willing to risk passing out on the scale or suffering chronic kidney failure in order to feel they have an advantage in competition. as big fighter for a weight class. The point is that despite all the times that fights related to weight cutting complications have fallen, there is no regulation change regarding this in sport (there are ways to cheat in the ONE Rehydration Test for example) and self-inflict Strong dehydration before getting on the scale is a practice that is unfortunately legal. 

I understand that the big stars of boxing do not want to give weight bullies an advantage, but asking for closures on that in a contract, adding to other issues such as the size of the ring, the shape of the gloves and etc. are maneuvers that can be perceived as cowardly. Anyway, today I feel that boxing is not the same and they try to push narratives in most cases when Calzaghe moved up to Light Heavyweight he faced the two best boxers at that weight at the time (Hopkins and Jones Jr.) and he beat them without rehydration closures or ring size demands. Today boxers seek to become champions in multiple categories and seek to fight against dehydrated zombies or against easier to beat champions of a category or for vacant titles (but those last 2 cases many times the main boxing organization are complicit).

Boxing's credibility was greatly compromised after the whole WBA show handing the decision and world title to Maestre and the WBC letting Valdez fight after failing a VADA test.

Roberto Duran is probably my favourite boxer of all time (I have a long list of favourite boxers so picking 1 is hard! But Duran is definitely near the top!) 
He is a great example of fighting way above and beyond his natural weight! Puts 99% of modern fighters to shame when you look at his record and long, long list of achievements. 

In my opinion he is the greatest Lightweight ever, his run in that division was incredible. The fact that it kinda gets forgotten about when talking about his career is crazy!!! It just shows how great he truly was!!! 

The 1st fight vs Sugar Ray Leonard is a masterclass in mind games, dragging a supremely skilled boxer into a Brawl. Also a little unknown fact about the events of that night, after the fight and while waiting for the scorecards to be read Duran was storming around the ring still giving Leonard abuse. Leonards brother got involved and stepped to Duran, Roberto knocked him out!!!!  So, unofficially, he was 2-0 that night!!!! Haha 

Maybe my favourite fight of Duran to watch back is his fight vs World Middleweight Champion Iran Barkley.  Duran Duran was way past his prime, undersized, less power, less strength, and Barkley had brutally KO'd Tommy Hearns who had brutally KO'd Duran. 

The Modern Martial Artist has an excellent breakdown on YouTube that I recommend watching. He manages to show just how skilled, crafty a boxer Duran is

I kinda forgot why I went on about Duran there???!!! Lol!!! 


Oh yeah, he is maybe the greatest example of a great fighter who never used size as a weapon, started as a Lightweight, fought and beat many Hall of Fame Welters and Middleweights!!! 
LEGEND!!!!! 

Also, speaking of drug test failures meaning nothing in boxing! 

Connor Benns next fight is about to be announced next week. He's fighting in the middle east(Dubai or Saudi) most likely vs Chris Eubank Jr, with a slight possibility that he faces Kell Brook!!!!! 

So I was wondering how these Team Combat League fights were going to be tracked records wise as they are listed on BoxRec and they answered my questions before it started today.  These fights are gonna be tracked separately on BR kind of like how BareKnuckle fights are tracked there.  So these fights do not count for these fighters normal records.  Seems like the right decision as I'd find it crazy to have these "1 round fights" count on their records 

Duran's record is a perfect example that before it was common to see the best face off against the best, without so much need for undisputed titles or lengthy contract negotiations: Duran had the trilogy against Esteban De Jesus, the trilogy against Leonard, fights against Davey Moore, Hagler, Hearns, Barkley, the 2 fights against Vinny Pazienza, the 2 fights against Locomotora Castro and the 2 fights against Macho Camacho. 

Many were great victories, others were bitter defeats. But I face the best even moving up in weight class to make those fights happen. 

In modern boxing, every time a Super Fight enters the list of possibilities, some of the parties or both parties postpone the fight as long as possible until someone feels in full advantage, which happened with the fight between Floyd vs. Pacquiao (Floyd waited until Manny's losses against Bradley and Marquez to really do his part to make the fight happen), happened with the Canelo vs. GGG (then 2 fights in a row, Canelo waited until GGG passed his prime for them to do the 3rd fight), boxing fans have been waiting years to see matchups like Joshua vs. Wilder or Spence vs. Crawford but today the best do not face the best immediately, rather they are like The Cold War or chess, one of the pushes heavy for the booking when they feel they have the advantage or it happens that the years go by and never come to realization of the dream fight 

Honestly, it is disappointing that some athletic commission sanctions a fight with a boxer who failed a VADA doping test, it would be even worse if some boxing organization (WBA, WBC, IBF or WBO) put Conor Benn back in their ranking after that hypothetical fight in the Middle East. 
Benn's issue is simple: Heans sees in Conor Benn, a second-generation boxer the son of a former world boxing champion from the UK, the great opportunity to have another AJ but at welterweights: After his fight against Formella the record de Benn is full of considerable names (ex-champions or World Cup challengers) but they clearly spent their prime like Granados or Algieri, as a boxer who has not even fought for a championship becomes one of the first signature boxers of the first boxing video game that EA launches in more than a decade? Simple, pure marketing strategy. 

Prior to his suspension Benn was ranked high on the WBA and WBO lists and despite appearing to be close to a title shot he never faced boxers who are currently in Boxrec's Top 40. Benn has much marketing than Butaev, Ennis and Stannionis, but I have no doubt that those 3 fighters could clearly beat him. From my point of view Benn is just Marketing hype and clearly Hearns and the matchroom management are waiting for the opportunity of some interim or vacant title so that Benn can fight an accessible rival to have the "recognition" of being world champion.

P.S: for some reason the suspension Benn received for failing a doping test for an estrogen blocker was less than a year and in theory he will be allowed to fight again at the end of May 2023

Duran's era was filled with lengthly negotiations killing fights dead or boxers waiting to age out the other. There's even something to be said about the 70s too like when Ali waited 3 years to set up the rematch with Fraizer, and after Fraizer had been knocked out a year prior.

* Edited at 03.31.2023, 5:03 PM ET *

Yeah some wild stories of corruption at all levels in 60s-70s worst was the fixed fights Clay was involved in at least one of those too.
You could get away with a lot more back then if nobody died, or the body was never found..
 

In case you guys forgot, Roy Jones Jr. is fighting again tomorrow in a fully sanctioned professional fight.  Just weighed in at 199.1.  His opponent, Anthony Pettis, weighed in at 198.5...which is 28.5 pounds heavier than he has ever been for a fight

That is so crazy, wonder how long before we see the showtime kick? 

I have a horrible feeling that Roy is going to get slept bad on Saturday!!! I pray that he doesn't get hurt. 

It's almost criminal sanctioning him for a professional bout at his age and after suffering several heavy Knockouts. Starting from Antonio Tarver way back in 2004, Glen Johnson in the very next bout was an even worse 1 punch lights out KO!  
Roy did have a little success after those brutal knockout losses, although he lost against the best he faced (Tarver again, Hopkins and Calzaghe all on points) He had good wins over Tito Trinidad (himself very faded!) KO ing Omar Sheika and especially Jeff Lacy probably done more bad than good because it would have built up some confidence and belief. 
All that lead to was the worst defeats of Roy's career!!! Danny Green blitzedRoy in 2 minutes in 2009. Denis Lebedev absolutely destroyed Roy in 2011. Roy was actually doing well in that fight, he got too confident, started to showboat like he used to do back in his prime only now his reflexes were shot and Lebedev caught him and sent his head bouncing off the canvas while his body was stiff as a board! 
The last and worst KO of them all followed in 2015, again in Russia vs HUGE puncher Enzo Macaranelli.  Horrible scary and sad at the same time!!! 

Despite all these horrid KOs Roy Jones Jr is still 1 of the best boxers of all time. The 90s prime Jones Jr has a very good argument of being the most skilled boxer ever!!!!!  Go check out his highlight reel for the evidence!!!!


PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DON'T GET HURT 🙏🙏🙏