"The bad behavior of Garcia is being rewarded - and will probably be duplicated."
"People want to see what Ryan Garcia will do - but the WBC junior welterweight fight is becoming more of an event - and not so much a sporting event"
"I am a boxing guy - and this isn’t a boxing guy fight"
-------
What this fight does is devalue the merit of being a champion.
Garcia missed weight. He doesn't have the chance to win the belt. But that doesn't matter. By his own admission, Garcia missed weight specifically to gain an advantage in the fight.
This fight reminded me of the Fiodor CZERKASZYN fight on the Usyk Dubois Card.
Czerkascyn is a ranked middleweight fighting an African French fighter coming down from light heavyweight. They fought at a catchweight of around 163 lbs.
The bigger fighter knocked Czerkascyn down twice, and it was all Czerkascyn could do to hold and avoid getting knocked out.
The judges tried robbery in that fight too. If I remember correctly, one judge had it a draw.
Like Czerkascyn, Haney was overpowered and had no answers. Like Czerkascyn, Haney had little power himself to keep Garcia off him. And like Czerkascyn, Haney was able to survive thanks to the referee allowing him to hold.
The other fighter I'm reminded of is Jessica MacCaskill. McCaskill will flail wildly and basically take a 90 degree "bow" as her "defense". That bow is effectively the same as Garcia fully turning his back.
Going back to the weights, this fight brings the Youtube spectacle beyond Jake Paul to boxing's upper echelon. Haney was an undisputed champion at 135 lbs. And he was champion at 140 lbs. A pound for pound fighter. By all accounts, Haney was a professional and was doing all the right training. Losing to a spectacle devalues the merit of being a champion and challenges the perception of whether boxing is a "sport".
Taking into account the spectacle, a lot of boxing fans speculated that Garcia might lose by DQ. Or that his antics were done to give himself an excuse if he lost.
I felt an air of Wrestling spectacle prior to the fight and in round 2.
I listened to an interview where Barboza openly criticized Top Rank...
- Top Rank didn't offer him the superlight weight tournament (But then he says they gave him the fight vs the winner)
- Top Rank gave him "all or nothing" offers and they did the same to him as Teofimo Lopez is saying
Barboza kept saying very general praise for Golden Boy. He moved there for opportunities. GB is going to give him the big fights etc.
That fight reminded me of Joseph Adorno vs Nichlas Walters.
Like Adorno, Barboza wasn't throwing. He was scared to get hit.
Also like Jose Tito Sanchez's last fight, rounds 1 and 2. Sanchez is lazy. He took rounds 1 and 2 off. Barboza was lazy in this fight too.
It sounded like Bazboza didn't execute his team's gameplan. The plan was to break McComb down and KO him in the mid to late rounds. Barboza didn't execute. And then he was both too lazy and too afraid to get hit.
McComb is a European level fighter who fights on Conlan Promotions cards in Belfast. Matchroom has a co-promotion deal with Conlan, so I'm guessing Matchroom recommended McComb as a Barboza opponent.
Having said all of that, I remember that Barboza was there "just in case". In other words, Barboza didn't want a tough evening, he was doing a favour for KingRy Promotions, Haney Promotions, Matchroom and GB, and the judges would protect him. And that's exactly what happened.
Sam Noakes' original opponent (maybe 15-0-0, British level) pulled out. Mark Chamberlain (also with Queensbury) had been ducking Noakes for a year.
British level lightweights know Noakes is world level and don't want that smoke.
Mendys agreed to the fight on 3 weeks notice.
What this fight shows is that Noakes is a big puncher who does what it takes to win, without resorting to dirty tactics (yet).
- no headhunting (unlike Robesis Rameriz)
- throws enough punches (unlike Omar Rosario)
- good enough chin (unlike Gary Cully)
- adequate defense (unlike Kurt Scoby and Jalen Walker)
Noakes learned he can go the full 12 on a decent gas tank. That's useful experience when he goes world level.
Mark Chamberlain is fighting in Saudi for the second time on the Fury-Usyk card.
Look for Noakes to KO Chamberlain on a Saudi sponsored card in late 2024 or early 2025. Maybe on the rumoured Crawford card in 2024, or an Inoue card in 2025.
Ref took too long to stop the Conwell Gallimore fight as I speak. I think round 5? There's a thirty or forty five second stretch near the end of the round. Gallimore throws nothing back. Goes to the corner. Still eating punches.
American fighters are something else. If Gallimore was a Euro fighter, you'd see him touch canvas at least twice.
The Brandon Adams KO over Ismael Villareal made Callum Walsh's win age poorly.
Both in guard. Trading punches. Adams getting the better shots through and Adams getting the more painful shots through. Hurts Villareal in round 3. Then a body shot drops Villareal.
The announcers said that Villareal said he drew the short end of the draw with Adams. Too bad for him. He was (on paper) too tough for Scoby; too tough for the prospect; maybe he could have traded places with one of the two in the fight with the guy who drew Jahi Tucker.
Adams was the early favourite (slight), but betters evened the odds thinking that the layoff led to ring rust.
---
Scoby got EXPOSED vs linger. I think Scoby was a -2500 favourite. Big punchers sway the odds. Which is silly. There's little risk of controversial scorecards against big punchers.
One useful measure is the number of fights (and/or wins) a fighter has against two star opponents on boxrec. I think Scoby had one fight against a boxrec 2 star opponent. His opponent, Dakota Linger, had maybe 8 fights against 2 star opponents, including Danielleto Zoritto, who lost a controversial scorecard to a half shot Regis Prograis.
Just like Jalen Walker last week, big punchers with little experience are ripe to be beaten against game experienced underdogs who are not too old.
Plus Scoby turned to boxing late after presumably failing to advance in an NFL career.
Recent Big -2500 favourites who lost in the past year
Kurt Scoby
Omar Rosario
Gary Cully
The Common pattern is that their opponents had a relative high number of losses, influencing the odds.
Big -1000 to -800 punchers who lost
Jalen Walker
Trayvon Marshall
Deontay Wilder
Arslan Makbenbok
KOs are sexy and lead to heavy favourites at risk of being exposed.
But that's an argument in favour of Berlanga's quality.
Just as big punchers lead to over hype, losing that KO streak leads to negative hype. Unlike the others on this list, Berlanga "finds a way to win" (i.e. he's dirty).
Big punchers who fail to KO their opponents need to be dirty to win and to hide their deficiencies.
Zhilei Zhang wasnt' dirty vs Joe Parker, and he lost.
Scoby has hurt for 250 seconds in round 4.
The ref allowed Scoby to continue for the entire round 4, and half of round 6 before he stopped it.
All Scoby could do was to hold.
What Scoby should have done was throw low. Frazer Clarke throws low (got the draw). Berlanga throws low (got the win). Throw low. Shoot the elbow.
"The bad behavior of Garcia is being rewarded - and will probably be duplicated."
"People want to see what Ryan Garcia will do - but the WBC junior welterweight fight is becoming more of an event - and not so much a sporting event"
"I am a boxing guy - and this isn’t a boxing guy fight"
-------
What this fight does is devalue the merit of being a champion.
Garcia missed weight. He doesn't have the chance to win the belt. But that doesn't matter. By his own admission, Garcia missed weight specifically to gain an advantage in the fight.
This fight reminded me of the Fiodor CZERKASZYN fight on the Usyk Dubois Card.
Czerkascyn is a ranked middleweight fighting an African French fighter coming down from light heavyweight. They fought at a catchweight of around 163 lbs.
The bigger fighter knocked Czerkascyn down twice, and it was all Czerkascyn could do to hold and avoid getting knocked out.
The judges tried robbery in that fight too. If I remember correctly, one judge had it a draw.
Like Czerkascyn, Haney was overpowered and had no answers. Like Czerkascyn, Haney had little power himself to keep Garcia off him. And like Czerkascyn, Haney was able to survive thanks to the referee allowing him to hold.
The other fighter I'm reminded of is Jessica MacCaskill. McCaskill will flail wildly and basically take a 90 degree "bow" as her "defense". That bow is effectively the same as Garcia fully turning his back.
Going back to the weights, this fight brings the Youtube spectacle beyond Jake Paul to boxing's upper echelon. Haney was an undisputed champion at 135 lbs. And he was champion at 140 lbs. A pound for pound fighter. By all accounts, Haney was a professional and was doing all the right training. Losing to a spectacle devalues the merit of being a champion and challenges the perception of whether boxing is a "sport".
Taking into account the spectacle, a lot of boxing fans speculated that Garcia might lose by DQ. Or that his antics were done to give himself an excuse if he lost.
I felt an air of Wrestling spectacle prior to the fight and in round 2.
Dibombe just didn't develop as a boxer.
He basically fought club level fighters in his hometown in France. Plus two more club level fighters in USA and Canada.
That's the difference between him and Gabe Rosado.
Rosado fought Charlo, Golovkin, Jacobs, Quillin, Lemieux prior to sparking Melikuziev out.
Is this the fight that pseudo exposes Melikuziev? Or is Melikuziev going to improve?
Wow, Arnold Barboza Jr. What a frustrating fight.
I listened to an interview where Barboza openly criticized Top Rank...
- Top Rank didn't offer him the superlight weight tournament (But then he says they gave him the fight vs the winner)
- Top Rank gave him "all or nothing" offers and they did the same to him as Teofimo Lopez is saying
Barboza kept saying very general praise for Golden Boy. He moved there for opportunities. GB is going to give him the big fights etc.
That fight reminded me of Joseph Adorno vs Nichlas Walters.
Like Adorno, Barboza wasn't throwing. He was scared to get hit.
Also like Jose Tito Sanchez's last fight, rounds 1 and 2. Sanchez is lazy. He took rounds 1 and 2 off. Barboza was lazy in this fight too.
It sounded like Bazboza didn't execute his team's gameplan. The plan was to break McComb down and KO him in the mid to late rounds. Barboza didn't execute. And then he was both too lazy and too afraid to get hit.
McComb is a European level fighter who fights on Conlan Promotions cards in Belfast. Matchroom has a co-promotion deal with Conlan, so I'm guessing Matchroom recommended McComb as a Barboza opponent.
Having said all of that, I remember that Barboza was there "just in case". In other words, Barboza didn't want a tough evening, he was doing a favour for KingRy Promotions, Haney Promotions, Matchroom and GB, and the judges would protect him. And that's exactly what happened.
Sam Noakes' original opponent (maybe 15-0-0, British level) pulled out. Mark Chamberlain (also with Queensbury) had been ducking Noakes for a year.
British level lightweights know Noakes is world level and don't want that smoke.
Mendys agreed to the fight on 3 weeks notice.
What this fight shows is that Noakes is a big puncher who does what it takes to win, without resorting to dirty tactics (yet).
- no headhunting (unlike Robesis Rameriz)
- throws enough punches (unlike Omar Rosario)
- good enough chin (unlike Gary Cully)
- adequate defense (unlike Kurt Scoby and Jalen Walker)
Noakes learned he can go the full 12 on a decent gas tank. That's useful experience when he goes world level.
Mark Chamberlain is fighting in Saudi for the second time on the Fury-Usyk card.
Look for Noakes to KO Chamberlain on a Saudi sponsored card in late 2024 or early 2025. Maybe on the rumoured Crawford card in 2024, or an Inoue card in 2025.
Ref took too long to stop the Conwell Gallimore fight as I speak. I think round 5? There's a thirty or forty five second stretch near the end of the round. Gallimore throws nothing back. Goes to the corner. Still eating punches.
American fighters are something else. If Gallimore was a Euro fighter, you'd see him touch canvas at least twice.
The Brandon Adams KO over Ismael Villareal made Callum Walsh's win age poorly.
Both in guard. Trading punches. Adams getting the better shots through and Adams getting the more painful shots through. Hurts Villareal in round 3. Then a body shot drops Villareal.
The announcers said that Villareal said he drew the short end of the draw with Adams. Too bad for him. He was (on paper) too tough for Scoby; too tough for the prospect; maybe he could have traded places with one of the two in the fight with the guy who drew Jahi Tucker.
Adams was the early favourite (slight), but betters evened the odds thinking that the layoff led to ring rust.
---
Scoby got EXPOSED vs linger. I think Scoby was a -2500 favourite. Big punchers sway the odds. Which is silly. There's little risk of controversial scorecards against big punchers.
One useful measure is the number of fights (and/or wins) a fighter has against two star opponents on boxrec. I think Scoby had one fight against a boxrec 2 star opponent. His opponent, Dakota Linger, had maybe 8 fights against 2 star opponents, including Danielleto Zoritto, who lost a controversial scorecard to a half shot Regis Prograis.
Just like Jalen Walker last week, big punchers with little experience are ripe to be beaten against game experienced underdogs who are not too old.
Plus Scoby turned to boxing late after presumably failing to advance in an NFL career.
Recent Big -2500 favourites who lost in the past year
Kurt Scoby
Omar Rosario
Gary Cully
The Common pattern is that their opponents had a relative high number of losses, influencing the odds.
Big -1000 to -800 punchers who lost
Jalen Walker
Trayvon Marshall
Deontay Wilder
Arslan Makbenbok
KOs are sexy and lead to heavy favourites at risk of being exposed.
But that's an argument in favour of Berlanga's quality.
Just as big punchers lead to over hype, losing that KO streak leads to negative hype. Unlike the others on this list, Berlanga "finds a way to win" (i.e. he's dirty).
Big punchers who fail to KO their opponents need to be dirty to win and to hide their deficiencies.
Zhilei Zhang wasnt' dirty vs Joe Parker, and he lost.
Scoby has hurt for 250 seconds in round 4.
The ref allowed Scoby to continue for the entire round 4, and half of round 6 before he stopped it.
All Scoby could do was to hold.
What Scoby should have done was throw low. Frazer Clarke throws low (got the draw). Berlanga throws low (got the win). Throw low. Shoot the elbow.