A word of advice to any fighter out there who still does not get the message fully: Don’t you dare try to knock out Floyd Money Mayweather. Sugar Shane tried. Sugar Shane came somewhat close. He delivered a monstrous right, twice and both times, particularly the second time, Floyd’s knees buckled. And he paid for it. Sugar Shane that is. He paid for the audacity of coming closer than anyone else ever did to putting the Money man on his ass on queer street.

Floyd is a badass. He is the baddest boxer alive today. I love Pac man, I love Sugar Shane, but there is no doubt in my mind, that when he decides to fight, there is no one and nothing like Floyd Mayweather in the ring. He is amazing for both his offense and defense, and his unequalled efficiency. There is not other fighter that I have ever seen who so clearly understands just how much they need to do to win a fight. He never does, Floyd that is, more than he absolutely needs to do to win. Last night he got lazy for a couple of minutes in the second and almost got knocked out. But the correction he made was amazing. He was untouched for the rest of the fight!

There are some things Floyd does which must just be frightening to an opponent. He is one of the few fighters who will counter the opponents in progress punch every single time. Every single time? Is that some badassitude or is that some badassitude? He will get out of the way and ring your bell at the same time, every single time. He can follow up on a jab, as his opponent steps away from a jab with such blinding speed that the over hand right typically scores. He is stronger, much more so than he looks. And for all the trash talk and attitude, there is not a more studious and serious fighter in the ring.

I like Shane Moseley a lot. From where I sat, it seemed to me like Shane never expected to win. He was surprised that he almost did in the second. The effort and emotion around that event drained him. Once Mayweather made the adjustment, Shane was unable to figure out what to do. There was a moment, I think in the ninth, when I really thought his corner might stop the fight. I am glad they didn’t. Shane is far too good a guy and fighter to have that happen to him.

Pacquiao, if the fight can be made, better bring his lunch. And so should Floyd. Pacquiao is relentless and he hits awfully hard, but I would not be surprised if Floyd knocked him out around the 7th round. Speaking of, I will never understand why Pac’s camp cannot agree to the drug test. In fact all of boxing should be thanking Mayweather for what he is doing for boxing, creating the true image of a dope free sport. If they are concerned about the effect the drawing of blood will have on their fighter, why not just stipulate that both fighters should be tested at the same time? Fairly or not, we can’t help but wonder if they are not trying to hide something. Pac Man’s camp that is. But what a fight it will be when it happens. What a fight! What badassitude!

I am watching 24/7 Mayweather/Mosley on HBO. Floyd is running his mouth. I love the guy. Pure badass, pure unadulterated badassitude. Some choice Floyd Mayweather quotes – the guy is a gem:

“Shane Mosley says, I am fighting for money. Hello? I am a prize fighter. That is what I am supposed to be fighting for! Duh“.

“You can’t stop God’s work”.

“Some people say he says he’s better than Mohamed Ali. Yep, I am better than Mohamed Ali. That I am better than Sugar Ray Robinson. Yep, I am better than Sugar Ray Robinson”.

Badass!!!

In the early rounds, Martinez flummoxed Pavlik. He used a ton of speed and movement, scored a ton of points and for a while I thought he was going to run away with the fight. Kelly did not look like he had an answer for Martinez. Around the 4th round though, Kelly started to impose his size and length and actually started to box. I thought for a while that he would find a way to end the fight quickly. There is something about Kelly Pavlik’s size, the way he moves, and the visual comparison with guys in his weight class that makes you think the fight is about to end. You keep thinking that anytime, he will do enough to drop his opponent.

In round seven, Pavlik did enough and caught Martinez with a short inside right. Martinez was off balance, and Pavlik put him on his ass. The fight started to get really interesting in round 8. Martinez came back into the fight and Pavlik fought back. I enjoyed round 8. Badassitude was in evidence. Each guy was trying to get away ahead of the opponent. I thought Martinez won it. The HBO crew called it for Pavlik but that was neither here nor there. But I have seen Pavlik backed into a corner before. This is why I enjoy watching his fights. Anywhere, anytime, he can find the big punch and finish the fight.

Round nine and ten were a wash-out. Martinez won the round cleanly. The punch starts were overwhelmingly one sided. Pavlik looked like a man whose ass had been kicked every which way. He was a bloody mess. But again, I had seen those heavy hands of Pavlik before. They essentially ended Jermaine Taylor’s career. He is a badass but tonight like he has a few times before, he seemed to have run into a badasser fighter. The end of round 11 was tough for Pavlik. He took a ton of punishment and did not do anything in return. In those last rounds, there was something disappointing about Kelly Pavlik. He is a badass. Win or lose, you never doubt his badassitude. In this fight though, in those last rounds where champions are made, he was absent. Bottom line, Martinez was the badasser fighter tonight. If he didn’t win this fight, it would be a travesty.

Darchinyan – Badass!
I watched  Vic Darchinyan beat Rodrigo Guerrero. The Guerrero kid put up a good fight. Decent speed. He needed more power for sure. Darchinyan though is a badass. There are very few fighters who load up so apparently when they are getting ready to launch a big punch and still get away with it. Everyone knows exactly where that big punch is coming from and yet many still get hit by it. That is badassitude of a very high grade.

Devon Alexander – Badass!
Who looked great last night though was Devon Alexander against Juan Urango. He looked clinical, confident and quick. Was he ever? Durango couldn’t seem to find him as well as he wanted. And when he did, he couldn’t seem to drop enough cleans shot on him. And when he did, it did not seem to do anything. On the other hand, Devon was moving around beautifully, taking clean shots at Durango, finally dropping him twice in the 8^th to stop the fight. Moral of the story, speed will triumph 85% of the time.

Joppy Retires
Speaking of, William Joppy  announced his retirement last night after what was apparently a hard fought loss to Sebastien Demers. Joppy has been fighting for a long time. He is a bonafide badass. But it is time to move on now. I hope he truly retires (at some point we would like to think that the word has meaning. No. In any event, we wish Joppy the best. His badassitude was always clear.

Jonny is still fighting?
I ran across a piece that totally threw me. Johnny Tapia is still fighting. Or he is back fighting or some such. Johnny is like 100 years old and was last seen having his ass kicked like 50 years ago. Ok, I exaggerate. But when Johnny quit the fight game years ago, it was because he was too old. So he found the fountain of youth? He won the fight. Johnny’s record was (57-5-2, 29 KOs). His opponent who also goes by the name Tomato Can was (21-28-3, 17 KOs). Once upon a time, Johnny had so much badassitude it was silly. Those days are long gone!

I have heard a lot of conversations and opinions about women in boxing or in MMA and other fighting arts. The argument goes that it is particularly dangerous for women because (if you can believe this shit), women are somehow not constituted to the fight game. Anyone with half a lick of sense will grant you that on average, and by a significant margin, men are far stronger and very significantly physically adept at than women in endeavors that require the combination of strength, power, and speed.

On the other hand, women who are so gifted have a much finer mastery of precision movement, range (contortions to which few bodies can be pushed) and motion.  Returning to the fight game, I think those who pooh pooh  women’s fighting ability or their right to pursue the sport are grossly misguided. Yours truly here had been involved in the fighting arts forever (a reference to most of my life) and still am. Along the way I have worked out with many women/girls.  From this one fighter, much respect, much regard and definitely a proponent for women in the fighting sports. In every sparring session, once you accounted for the size and strength, many of the girls were badasser than many of the guys. They wanted to take your head off. They tried to take your head off. They came close to taking your head off.
Here is one personal strange observation though that I will make about women in the fighting arts – their defense, particularly in a stand-up fight is the one thing I have always found lacking. When I am working out with the gals, I always have to remind them to defend themselves no matter how good they are otherwise. The flipside to that though tend to be that if they are good attackers, they are so all over your shit hat you have to be good and fast enough to notice the hole in their defense.

Am I a booster of women in the fighting arts, particularly in MMA? Absolutely. Am I suggesting that we should allow cross gender fights? Absolutely Not. Men against Men, Women against Women is what I am advocating. The promotions that are working with women fighters today, promoting women championships  are way ahead of the game and they win.

I love the fights. Boxing, MMA, Karate. You name it, I love the fights. I love the idea of a mano a mano contest, where one guy (or gal) looks the other in the eye and the other guy (or gal) sees the badassitude in that guy’s (or gal’s) eyes and the full intent to kick ass. And the guy (or gal) has to show their own badassitude to the opponent and take the responsibility, single handedly, to stop the opponent.

It is always an interesting experience for me when I watch different fighting arts back to back or even at the same time, flipping back and forth. This evening, I was watching boxing side by side with MMA, flipping back and forth. Different experiences, same thrill. The thrill of watching the 2 opponents go at it, understanding what each is doing, and seeing what they are trying to do work (or not) is a fascinating thing. Often, the fight plan (or lack of) gets much clearer much sooner in boxing than in MMA.

In MMA, you are often first waiting to see what tool set the fighter is working with (I have expressed thoughts about this in this blog before) and then figure out what the strategy is. In boxing, because the fighters are only limited to stand up, you are working with a smaller universe of possible strategies. If you have a good eye for the game, you will see a lot of things very clearly very fast. You will begin to get the sense for a fighter’s badassitude pretty quickly and discern what they are trying to do and how. And you tend to see hpwt the opponent is also doing to counter.

I come back to the question often debated – which fighting art provides a more accurate test of the skills involved? Boxing without question does a better job. But as to which art provides more excitement? My answer would be – give me 2 very good fighters, and no matter the fighting art, I am going to have a good time watching.

Apparently while we were away and not looking, a deal was struck for a fight between Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones. Contrary to what most of us thought, or believed, or thought should be, these 2 guys are still fighting. I have watched both guys in the last few years and however hard I look, I can’t find any evidence suggesting that this is a fight that needs to be made at all.

I watched Bernard’s last 5 or so fights and o be fair, if he wants to, there is nothing we have seen in the ring that suggests he should stop fighting. Except that he is like a hundred years old.  Bernard is a badass, was always a badass. Bernard’s badassitude has never been in doubt. In his last 5 fights, he destroyed Tarver and he was respectable in a draw against Wright. When he lost to Calzaghe you couldn’t help thinking that just a little more effort and work from Bernard and it would have been a fifty- fifty fight. He schooled and embarrassed Pavlik a fight in which he was an enormous underdog. He put in enough work to beat Ornelas as he should have in tune up fight.

Roy Jones on the other hand has provided indisputable evidence that he needs to find a new career. Once upon a time he was a real badass. Once upon a time, his badassitude was undisputed. That was once upon a time. Since he was knocked out by Tarver (twice) Roy has never been the same again. He fights scared. He does not have the assuredness that he used to have. He is really scared of getting hit – most likely because he tends to get knocked out whenever he is hit. In his last five fights, he beat Felix Trinidad, a fight Trinidad should never have taken anyway and he was battered by Calzaghe in a fight that was painful to watch. Then he came back to beat  Omar Sheika (who the heck is Omar Sheika?) and Jeff Lacy, a guy who a) was highly overhyped, and b) has  been done for a while. Then he was put to sleep a few in the 1st round (WTF?!) by Danny (who the heck is that guy?!!) Green a few weeks ago.

And they still made the fight between Roy Jones and Bernard Hopkins? Come on…!!

I am a fight fan. I love the fights. As a kid I boxed, then got into martial arts which I practice to this day, many, many years later. There are not many fights that counted in the past couple of decades that I did not watch boxing contests, mma fights, even tough man contests. Remember K1?. I have watched a them all.

I watch fights with the enthusiasm of a fan and the also very much the eye of a fighter. I try to study them, I try to understand their techniques and I try to understand what they do and why and how they do what they do. And I enjoy the fights. A lot. What I have found over the years is that boxers use more of the arrows in their quivers so to speak, while MMA fighters use far less of the arrows in their quiver.

A good boxer will throw 500 punches in a fight, each with a lot of skill, each studied, quick measured, looking for something specific, going for something specific. Watch Floyd Mayweather or the Pac man work. Watch film of Delahoya or Sugar Shane, Roy Jones, the great ones like Hagler, Ray. The greatest of them all, Ali, smoking Joe.  It is fascinating and I think it is this quality that allows the best fighters to make obscene amounts of money.  On the other hand, MMA for all their skill often disappoint. Most MMA fighters are accomplished martial arts black belts. A good black belt has so many arrows in the quiver, one would think that watching one fight should be spellbinding. What we see more often than not is a pair of fighter stuck in what looks like a mediocre grappling contest. Why did grappling become so dominant in MMA? Or a pair of fighters with the second rate boxing skills swinging wildly. True, there have been exceptions. Chuck was awfully entertaining with a limited set of skills. When Anderson Silva decides to fights, he has a lot of good stuff. And GPS is always good for an exciting night. But not very many more. For example, I have always believed that nothing can beat a well executed kick. If that kick is a spinning back kick, it can be lethal because we all know how much damage it can do. There are only probably 2 or 3 fighters that I have seen use it effectively. Why? And that is just one example.

Boxers are badass. MMA fighters are badass. Why don’t MMA fighters expose all their badassitude in every single fight, using what they have and know, flawlessly?

The other day, Jermaine Taylor dropped out of the Super Six. That was quite a fall. He quit. He was beaten, had lost one too many times for his, and all his fans’ liking and it was time for him to man-up and admit what had become obvious: At this moment, in this environment, in his condition, he did not belong in the Super Six.

Maybe we should have more of these Super Six kinds of tournaments, unglamorous as they might seem. You see, in boxing, it is easy for any comer to up and claim that he is good enough for this and that and the other title shot. That they should fight this and the other person. That they are ready. That so and so and the other is ducking them.

What is true though, is that if you picked 6 of the top fighters in any weight class, using a bunch of criteria to select the fighters, you will typically end up with a good representation of the top of that weight class. If then you ask the fighters you have selected to fight each other in a round robin tournament to determine who among them should earn the right to fight for the championship, you will if nothing else find out who is not only the badassest of the bunch, but more so, whose badassitude quotient can stand up to a comparison with, say the most venomous of serpents. One would; a) have to be real badass fight after fight to win, and b) ridiculously high in badassitude quotient to keep winning and c)dripping with pure badassitude to win it all.

For the longest time, I thought Jermaine Taylor was a badass and that from the way carried himself in and out of the ring, he had plenty of badassitude to spare. Then Pavlick kicked his ass. And then again. Before we knew it, he had lost 5 straight. I like to think that it is a credit to the abundance of badassitude he used to have that he was invited to the Super Six. But alas, I think he is done. In boxing, some guys last while others don’t. He lasted as long as he was going to. Jermaine Taylor is no longer a badass. Jermaine Taylor, as a boxer, no longer has any badassitude.

I love Floyd and I love the Pac Man. These are 2 baddest, coolest fighters I have ever seen, and I have seen many. I remember Ali, Frasier, Foreman, Hagler, Leonard, Hearns, John the Beast Mugabe, Pryor, Agueyo. I remember Hands of Stone Duran. Tyson, Lewis, Arturo. I remember Roy Jones, Pernell Whitaker, to name but a handful. I remember them all. Badasses one and all. Many with badassitude to spare. There were pretenders who came along, inordinately hyped but we fight fans understood what was up. Remember Prince Nassim? Remember Popo Freitas? I remember them all. Was a fan of many, didn’t think much of a few!

Then came Floyd. The quality was beyond belief. The only fighter I have ever seen who always only fought only as much as he needed to.  The guy chose and decided how he wanted to win fights. He had badassitude to spare. He carried his badassedess in a way few could or can. I loved the guy, love the guy still. Remember when he knocked out the pretender from Man City? Toyed with him for a while, got bored and decided to end the fight. Now remember back to the night he decided to fight. The night he fought Arturo. It was frightening to see. As a guy who loves Arturo, it was sad to see.

Then came Manny. The Pac Man. For the longest time he fought primarily with the quickest right-left combination ever and a crazy abundance of energy and determination – he came to fight. Then he found Freddie Roach and learned how to box and the combination became lethal. Remember the abuse he heaped on Oscar? The way he dismissed the pretender from Man City? How he embarrassed Cotto?  But he was and is a nice soft-spoken dude, almost embarrassed by how badass he was. He showed a tone of badassitude.

Both guys walked through opponents like knives through butter. In their different ways, one brash, confident, often loud, and the other soft spoken and humble, they were both off the charts on the badassitude scale. The were venom to an opponent. Think of them as twin venomous serpents from a different mother. It came to pass that the only fight we really wanted to see and really want to see is  the fight between Floyd and the Pac Man. We all thought we would see this fight like now. Then what happens? We get 2 competing fights with semi no-names because the principals (methinks it’s more the punks who represent the principals) got into a silly pissing contest about who was may or might or was rumored to have used PEDs.

Prior to this silliness you couldn’t find 2 fighters with more badassitude. These boys were badasses and they knew it. It showed in everything they did. It showed in every way they carried themselves. It showed in their fights. It showed. It just showed. They had badassitude to spare. You could run a charity badassitude enterprise on their left overs.  Then, poof, just like that, they both punked out at the same time pretty much. They gave in to the pettiness (hint – pettiness drops your score on the badassitude scale), silliness (hint – silliness drops your score on the badassitude scale), stupidity (hint – stupidity drops your score on the badassitude scale – by a lot), bullshit (hint – bullshit drops your score on the badassitude scale), lying (hint – lying drops your score on the badassitude scale – below the floor).

We are watching the 2 best fighters on earth today contrive to sabotage potentially the biggest fight ever on earth and it boggles the mind. Completely boggles the mind!