With the incredibly boring weekend college football had this weekend--despite some of the upsets--the most exciting thing I watched this weekend was the Saturday night boxing match between WBC Heavyweight champ Vitali Klitschko and Cristobel Arreola. And this was in no way a close match.
Dr. Iron Fist holds a Ph.D. in sports medicine
Much of the pre-fight talk surrounded on the vast age difference between the Arreola and Klitschko. Would Cristobel finally wear the big man down? Klitschko had never lost a fight before tonight through the scorecard or knock-out. Only two losses--the most notable to Lenox Lewis four years ago--were from the referee stopping the fight due excessive bleeding on the part of Vitali's face.
Arreola trailed in punches thrown and landed the whole fight. He didn't land anything of great impact until the 4th round when he finally connected on a few while Klitschko was sitting back on his heels. His nose opened up in the 8th which provided much needed distraction from the insightful advice from his corner coach (my favorite, "Keep your feet under you"). The 8th round also brought 13 landed punches for the guy who wants to be the next Jack Johnson, his highest of the match.
The fight ended after the 10th round when the ref stopped it after it looked like Arreola's was just going out there to get the crap kicked out of him. There was no way he was going to win anyway, so I guess it makes sense. Arreola's made himself look better by crying at the end of the fight (actually that made him look worse).
The sad part was Arreola was supposedly the biggest competition the WBC champion has seen in several years or will see in the immediate future. Vitali and his brother Wladimir are probably the two best fighters probably in the world right now. While Vitali made it clear after the fight with Arreola, Cris has what it takes to be heavyweight champion some day. Well, after watching this fight that doesn't hold much hope for the futre of boxing, because this fight reminded me of a scene from Indiana Jones...the one where this guy jumps out of nowhere with this fancy sword fighting, and Jones just shoots him like he's nothing.
It seems to me that right now the only boxers who could beat the Klitschkos are, in fact, the Klitschkos. The fact that they vowed never to fight each other in a professional match could mean that these two will not be beat until they either decide to break this pact or until they both retire. Wladimir hold the IBF, WBO, and IBO heavyweight titles. That's four belts between the brothers. That's alot. I really think it is going to take either retirement on the part of these brothers or a Rocky type no name fighter to shock the world.
So why isn't Klitschko the household name that Tyson and Holyfield are? Because they're not American? Possibly. But really it's because nobody relaly cares about boxing. And that's kind of sad. What better time could be had then watching two guys get thrown into a box with each other and their only instructions are to beat the living piss out of the other guy? Really? So my advice is to watch boxing. Also, you should watch the Klitschkos. Probably the only reason these two aren't more popular than Mike Tyson is because they aren't assholes like he was. They're actually act respectfully being figures for their sport. Who woulda thought? Professional athletes who aren't dumb and embarrass the entire human race? Shirely, not.
Arreola trailed in punches thrown and landed the whole fight. He didn't land anything of great impact until the 4th round when he finally connected on a few while Klitschko was sitting back on his heels. His nose opened up in the 8th which provided much needed distraction from the insightful advice from his corner coach (my favorite, "Keep your feet under you"). The 8th round also brought 13 landed punches for the guy who wants to be the next Jack Johnson, his highest of the match.
The fight ended after the 10th round when the ref stopped it after it looked like Arreola's was just going out there to get the crap kicked out of him. There was no way he was going to win anyway, so I guess it makes sense. Arreola's made himself look better by crying at the end of the fight (actually that made him look worse).
The sad part was Arreola was supposedly the biggest competition the WBC champion has seen in several years or will see in the immediate future. Vitali and his brother Wladimir are probably the two best fighters probably in the world right now. While Vitali made it clear after the fight with Arreola, Cris has what it takes to be heavyweight champion some day. Well, after watching this fight that doesn't hold much hope for the futre of boxing, because this fight reminded me of a scene from Indiana Jones...the one where this guy jumps out of nowhere with this fancy sword fighting, and Jones just shoots him like he's nothing.
It seems to me that right now the only boxers who could beat the Klitschkos are, in fact, the Klitschkos. The fact that they vowed never to fight each other in a professional match could mean that these two will not be beat until they either decide to break this pact or until they both retire. Wladimir hold the IBF, WBO, and IBO heavyweight titles. That's four belts between the brothers. That's alot. I really think it is going to take either retirement on the part of these brothers or a Rocky type no name fighter to shock the world.
So why isn't Klitschko the household name that Tyson and Holyfield are? Because they're not American? Possibly. But really it's because nobody relaly cares about boxing. And that's kind of sad. What better time could be had then watching two guys get thrown into a box with each other and their only instructions are to beat the living piss out of the other guy? Really? So my advice is to watch boxing. Also, you should watch the Klitschkos. Probably the only reason these two aren't more popular than Mike Tyson is because they aren't assholes like he was. They're actually act respectfully being figures for their sport. Who woulda thought? Professional athletes who aren't dumb and embarrass the entire human race? Shirely, not.
Not bad commentary on the heavyweight division, which is woefully short of talent, leaving the Drs. Klitschko ruling the roost. The best boxers reside in the lighter weight divisions. Who can stop Pretty Boy Floyd Mayweather? Mosely? Paciao? And who do you like in November's big match-up, Kelly "the Ghost" Pavelik or Paul "the Punisher" Williams for the middleweight title? I'll take the sweet science over this UFC garbage anyday. After all, some of the best boxers of all time came right from the bowels of the Motor City. Ever hear of a guy named Joe Louis? or Tommy the Hitman Hearns?
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