TUESDAY, May 13:
The scorecards show that Saturday's title fight was one that Junior Witter would have won had he been a shade more spirited.
While I had no doubt that Timothy Bradley deserved the decision, a look at the master scoresheet showed how close the challenger came to losing.
Born in England in 1942. Life as a boxing writer began with a weekly column in a newspaper called the South London Advertiser in the early 1960s. Moved to the far bigger-circulation South London Press, writing a twice-weekly boxing section, in 1966. Joined the weekly Boxing News in 1970 and became editor in 1972. Moved across the pond in 1977 for marriage-related reasons and covered the American scene for Boxing News until joining Boxing Monthly in 1990. ...
MOREEmail: graham@fightwriter.com
Bouts between unbeaten heavyweight hopefuls do not come around too often, but we have one on Saturday when Italian-born Francesco Pianeta meets Michael Marrone of Vero Beach, FL, in a 10-rounder on the Sauerland Event show in Germany.
In what will be his last year in boxing, former heavyweight champion Chris Byrd is going to make another championship run — but as a light-heavyweight. He starts the quest on Friday Night Fights in a 10-rounder against Brooklyn’s Shaun George.
Jhonny Gonzalez is marking time on Telefutura on Friday, meeting Colombian veteran Mauricio Pastrana in a tune-up 10-rounder while waiting for the chance to win back a 122-pound title. Pastrana is 35 and took heavy punishment in title-fight losses to Rafael Marquez and Celestino Caballero. I am not sure how much he has left. The loss to Caballero in Panama last December was apparently a one-sided beating and now he is back in the ring with a tall boxer-puncher who is likely to be hurting him whenever he hits him.
When Jose Reyes was last seen on Telemundo he found himself involved in a war, knocking out Ivan Valle in the fourth round of a fight that saw each man down three times (shades of Naseem Hamed versus Kevin Kelley).
Improving 140-pounder Francisco “Gato” Figueroa appears on Wednesday Night Fights tonight in an NABF title defence against a Mexican named Luis Rodriguez who has an excellent record of 23 wins in 24 bouts but has been matched against opponents of lowly repute.
Of all those taking pleasure in Timothy Bradley’s upset win over Junior Witter, few, I suspect, will be more delighted than Ricky Hatton. For what seems like ages, Witter has been challenging Hatton, often in an unpleasant, not to say insulting, fashion. All the while, Hatton steadfastly refused to give his British 140-pound rival what would have been by far Witter’s biggest payday.
As public workouts go, it was good enough. Oscar De La Hoya got in a brisk 12 rounds against Steve Forbes, dominated the fight but never looked remotely like stopping his durable and clever opponent. It was one-sided but fairly entertaining, although a smattering of boos in the last round showed that not everyone was satisfied.
What a difference one fight can make. Andre Dirrell was roundly criticised for his ultra-careful performance in outpointing Curtis Stevens last June, but on Friday night he looked devastating in his fifth-round win over Anthony Hanshaw on ShoBox.
Once again, Ishe Smith boxed skilfully but ended up losing the verdict. It happened in his fights with Sergio Mora and Sechew Powell, and it happened again when he lost a unanimous decision to Joel Julio on the Wednesday Night Fights show from Vancouver (or more accurately just outside the city, in the suburb of Richmond).
