posted by Large

First of all, let me welcome all you Pound 4 Pound radio listeners to the Friday prognostification contest here at the Mas. The contest is simple – leave your own prognostification for tomorrow night’s Timothy Bradley/Nate Campbell fight in the comments to the piece, and the closest to the final outcome wins a No Mas t-shirt of his or her choosing. Price is Right scoring applies, so be specific. Bradley by decision ain’t gonna cut it. We need scorecards. Similarly, when calling a KO or TKO, give the time of the stoppage and not just the round, so we can use that as a tiebreaker if need be.

Aight… on to the matter at hand. I’m going to give my take on the fight, and then at the bottom of this piece you can listen to the prediction from our friends at Pound 4 Pound.

Right off the top, I think everyone out there will agree that we’re looking at a potential FOY candidate here. One never knows how things will play out, of course, but both of these guys come to fight, both are willful and resourceful and familiar denizens of the Ministry of Dirty Tricks, and both have a tremendous amount at stake.

Brother Nate is a 5-2 underdog right now, paying $250 on a c-note. I think a lot of folks, particularly in the Mas community where I know Nate has a following, will look at that and start seeing dollar signs floating around their eyeballs. When you consider what Nate has been through in his career and what kind of heart we all know beats inside his chest, not to mention what he is wont to do with undefeated young hotshots (Kid Diamond, anyone? Baby Bull?), the short end of 5-2 against a mid-level talent like Bradley doesn’t seem to tell the tale.

Read the rest of this entry »

posted by Large

This trend whereby boxing loses some of its most beloved fighters, another one seemingly every week, to early, violent death, is really getting disturbing. The latest victim is Vernon Forrest, dead at the age of 38, killed last night during an attempted carjacking while he was filling the tires of his Jaguar in Atlanta. Two punks carrying pistols tried to boost Vernon’s car, but evidently he pulled his own piece on them and chased them down the street. Gunshots were exchanged and he took one in the head. The punks both escaped.

Forrest wasn’t an icon of boxing at the level of Gatti or Arguello, but he was known to be one of the sport’s best citizens, tireless when it came to charity work for kids and the mentally challenged.

Though he had a long and successful career in which he competed in the Olympics and won three world titles in two different weight classes, Vernon nevertheless always will be remembered as something of a hard luck story. A favorite to win a gold medal in Barcelona, he got a dose of food poisoning before his first-round bout and lost unceremoniously. Later, on the cusp of mega-stardom after his two signature victories over Shane Mosley in 2002, he was stopped in the third round by Ricardo Mayorga in only the first fight of a brand-new multi-fight deal with HBO. By the time of the rematch, Forrest already was struggling with the left shoulder and elbow problems that would force him to have multiple surgeries and stay out of the ring for two years during his prime. After Mayorga beat him a second time, the surgeries began, and his all-too-brief stint on the A-list was over.

He fought well when he returned to the ring, beat Ike Quartey in an exciting fight in August of 2006 and then won the WBC junior middleweight belt from Carlos Baldomir in 2007, a title he lost and then won back from Sergio Mora last year.

Inactive since that second Mora fight in September of ’08, there had been some talk of him matching up with Sergio Martinez, which would have been an entertaining fight for sure. But now he’s dead, a victim of some random thuggery and his own instinct to fight back. R.I.P. Vernon and God bless. As for the rest of you fighters out there, for Pete’s sake, be safe and watch your back, because some very nasty vibe is loose in the atmosphere lately and it seems to have the best of the boxing world in its crosshairs.

posted by Large

A late reminder that I’ll be making my inaugural appearance on the Pound 4 Pound radio show tonight, an hour-long show that airs at 7 p.m. EST on Sirius/XM 98. Other than my esteemed self, the guests are Chris Arreola, Steve Cunningham and Stephane Larouche, who plays left wing for the Canadiens. No, wait… he’s Lucien Bute’s trainer.

I understand the topics that I’ll be addressing will be the Showtime Super Six tourney, the Pac/Cotto extravaganza, David Haye’s continuing ridiculousness and some other recent news today concerning Tomasz Adamek and Amir Khan. They’re also encouraging call-ins tonight, so do holla if you have the itch at 1-888-942-7326. I include below some links to recent pieces of mine from The Sporting Blog and my latest HBO article.

Pacquiao vs. Cotto: Questions Will Be Answered (HBO.com)
“Over the next four months, this match-up is certain to provoke a firestorm of debate among devoted followers of the sweet science. Both men are accomplished stars who inspire great passion in their fan base, and yet they have unanswered questions hanging over them at the moment,questions that will be settled once and for all when they fight in November.”

David Haye Is Ducking the Klitschkos (The Sporting Blog)
“I have no doubts that the Klitsckos were working him over big-time at the negotiating table, but them’s the ropes in this hustle, Hayeburger. You essentially have done nothing in your heavyweight career yet but talk a big game and wear cool t-shirts. You’re a former cruiserweight champ with a stoppage loss to Carl Thompson on your record. The most impressive scalp on your belt is a past-his-prime Jean-Marc Mormeck, who wasn’t all that impressive even when he was in his prime. No matter how much you blab, son, when your resume is that bloody thin, you’re going to have to settle for table-scraps if you want to sit at the king’s table, or even the king’s brother’s table.”

Pacquiao vs. Cotto: Big Fight, Good Fight (The Sporting Blog)
“Bob Arum’s Top Rank Promotions officially announced yesterday that the Manny Pacquiao vs. Miguel Cotto fight, scheduled for November 14 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, is a done deal at a catch-weight of 145 pounds. In what has been a strange, transitional year for the sweet science, this is likely to prove the only true super-fight of 2009 in terms of both the legitimacy of the match-up and the interest it generates.”

Kelly Pavlik: A Man Without a Plan (The Sporting Blog)
“Pavlik and his handlers now have themselves a serious problem. A boxing Machiavelli like Bob Arum has to be thinking to himself at this point, “Maybe, just maybe, Kelly Pavlik isn’t that good.” After all, he doesn’t really have any A-list scalps on his belt. He beat Jermain Taylor twice (who, of course, beat Hopkins twice in highly disputed decisions) but there is no one in the fight world left standing who will tell you that Jermain is or ever was a great boxer. A-plus potential, but Jermain probably maxed out at B-plus performance.”

posted by Large

I’ve been trying to get up here with a report on Khan/Kotelnik all day, but various nuisances have kept me otherwise engaged. And then, well, then the other shoe falls and suddenly a Khan/Kotelnik recap seems about as pressing as a soft summer rain (though it was a pretty enjoyable fight on the whole – I’ll try and get a short piece up here with my thoughts either today or tomorrow).

So look, brothers of the Mas, if you don’t know, now you know – the shit is on like Donkey Kong. So many arguments, so many comments, so much dissension to be enjoyed in the ranks. I’m going to do a feature on this very topic for HBO this week, and when I’m done I’ll link it here and then I’ll be available to start moderating the madness. Until then, Brad, Ricky, and the rest of you maniacs… play nice.

posted by Large

A couple links on the Gatti tribute front. First of all, my piece over at HBO, which is a compendium of excerpts from interviews I did with Micky Ward, Buddy McGirt, Jim Lampley, Larry Merchant, Manny Steward, Max Kellerman and Ross Greenburg. It’s an HBO-heavy list, admittedly, but I got a lot of great material, and I think the piece reads like a neat little oral history of Gatti’s career.

I also include links to Pound 4 Pound’s show from last night, which was devoted to Gatti and includes Ward, McGirt, Greenburg and Ivan Robinson as guests. Also, remember, HBO is running all three Gatti-Ward fights back-to-back-to-back tonight at 9 and then tomorrow on HBO2 at 10:15. In other words, get the TiVo humming, cause you’re going to want to keep them shits in the collection.

Remembering Arturo Gatti
Jim Lampley: “At the end of any HBO fight, the mechanics of the telecast are such that I throw into the ring and then stand up and walk to the camera to do my post-fight on cameras, which is a difference of maybe eight or ten feet. When I stood up at the end of the tenth round of the first Gatti-Ward fight to walk the eight or ten feet to go to the camera, I almost could not straighten my body up because my stomach muscles were locked so tight from being tensed up involuntarily… just from watching what these two guys were doing to each other.”

Pound 4 Pound Radio: Gatti Tribute 1

Pound 4 Pound Radio: Gatti Tribute 2

posted by Large

We here at the Mas are proud to announce a new partnership with Pound 4 Pound Radio, the only boxing show on Sirius XM. We’ll be cross-promoting with them and they will be taking part and drawing participants to our “call-the-round” t-shirt contests for the big fights. The next such contest will be for the Bradley/Campbell fight on August 1st, and let me tell you something, Masians – gonna be a lot more action on that one than there has been in the past, so you better get your thinking caps on right now.

Also, starting next week, I will be making regular appearances on their radio show, which airs on Thursday nights at 7 p.m. EST at Sirius/XM 98. I urge you to check it out, because it’s really an excellent show with a regular roster of top-notch guests. Take tonight, for instance, which is a special Arturo Gatti tribute show. They’ll be talking Gatti with Ross Greenburg, Ivan Robinson, Micky Ward and Buddy McGirt.

Quite a lineup. And that’s not at all the “Mas on the Radio” news I have up my sleeve. The one and only Chief Executive Masian (he’s like Oscar, I’m like Richard Schaefer… or maybe I’m Bernard… that’s a bad thought, actually), the I-berglar, Chris Isenberg, will be making an appearance on a show called “Under Score” on the same station (Sirius/XM 98) at 3 p.m. tomorrow. Under Score is a show that focuses on the intersection of sports with society at large, art, culture, whatnot, obviously fertile terrain for I-berglary.

I’ve included below a few links to both shows for you to sample below, and also a link to a piece of mine from over at The Sporting Blog, which gives my thoughts on Showtime’s Super Six tournament, which I gather will be one of my primary topics of conversation on Pound 4 Pound next week.

Pound 4 Pound Radio (Juan Diaz, Giovanni Segura)

Under Score (Tor Hamer)

Showtime’s Boxing Tournament Doomed Early
“Therein lies the most glaring problem with their tournament, a problem not unfamiliar to those schools left out in the cold come Selection Sunday for March Madness. And this is no 64-team field. Showtime has six fighters locked up for this tournament, and they are indeed six worthy names. But not among those six is the current champion of the IBF (one of the three major sanctioning organizations), the Romanian by way of Montreal, Lucian Bute (pronounced, to my great delight, ‘boo-TAY”).”

Gents – I bring you my elegy for Gatti today from The Sporting Blog. I’m also in the process of doing a piece on him for HBO that will include remembrances from a lot of different writers and commentators. I’ll link to that when it’s up. As with Arguello (fucking-A, Arguello and Gatti in a matter of weeks…), I encourage you to post your thoughts and reminiscences in the comments here. I know Gatti numbers many a Masian among his hardcore fans. In conclusion, I think of Marlene Dietrich’s infamously curt epitaph for Captain Hank at the end of Touch of Evil: “He was some kind of a man.” What else is there to say?

A Fight Fan Remembers Arturo Gatti
“What is it that Mickey Rourke says at the end of The Wrestler? He’s about to head into the final contest that will probably kill him, and he turns to Marisa Tomei, gestures to the ring, and says something like, ‘I’m fine in there… the only place I get hurt is out here.” I’ve been thinking about that line these last couple of days. You always sensed that there was exuberance and joy woven into Gatti’s endless turmoil, and yet one wonders if there wasn’t something in the larger-than-life Gatti persona that he simply could not out-run in the end, some essential poison in the 180-proof cocktail that was his existence.”

posted by Ariel Helwani

Prior to every major UFC event, Dana White puts out several video blogs to show what he’s up to behind the scenes in the days leading up to a pay-per-view. Of course, he is doing the same this week for the upcoming UFC 100 event.

As far as video blogs go, this might be the worst one yet. I mean, I’m all for jokes and hijinks, but did we really need to see almost 10 minutes of some office prank?

The best part of this video? Check out which T-shirt UFC CEO and billionaire Lorenzo Fertitta is rocking. Respect. (The shirt in question makes its appearance at about 4:30.)

In case you’re wondering, this isn’t the first time Fertitta has shown love to the Mas – that’s him in the picture up top sporting the colors on the right.

Meanwhile, every few weeks I see White wearing the infamous Leon Spinks shirt:

So to all the MMA haters on this site, I ask you this: when’s the last time you saw Don King, Bob Arum, Lou DiBella or any other boxing promoter wear a No Mas shirt? That’s right, never. Show some love! (Now that should put an end to the ridiculous boxing vs. MMA debate once and for all, right?)

posted by Ariel Helwani

Once upon time, I provided No Mas with my 23 greatest moments in Wrestlemania history. So with UFC 100 right around corner, I thought I would do the same kind of thing, only this time I’ll keep it at 10. I don’t think anyone wants to read about my top 100 moments. Let’s do this:

10. Randy Couture def. Vitor Belfort via TKO (punches) , RD 1, 8:16
UFC 15 – Collision Course
Date: October 17, 1997
Location: Bay St. Louis, Mississippi

I remember watching this fight thinking that there was no way this wrestler guy (Randy Couture) would defeat the terrifying Belfort. Well, he did, and it helped kick off one of the most storied careers in MMA history.

9. Matchup: Gabriel Gonzaga def. Mirko Cro Cop via KO , RD 1, 4:51
Event: UFC 70: Nations Collide
Date: April 21, 2007
Location: Manchester, England

Greatest. Knockout. In. UFC. History.

Read the rest of this entry »

posted by Large

Gentleman – here’s my Alexis Arguello piece from over at The Sporting Blog. A more beautiful fighter, a sweeter scientist, there never has been. It’s a sad day in Boxiana. Needless to say, Arguello is a no-doubt, hands-down, first-ballot No Mas Hall-of-Famer. I invite you to share your memories of him here – I’m sure the Masian faithful have many great Arguello memories. Mine are primarily of the two Pryor fights and the Mancini fight, where I admit I was rooting against him, and yet came to be awestruck by his greatness by the end of the evening (like so many, I rooted for him against Pryor – I couldn’t win with this guy). Anyway, for the second time today I write – may he rest in peace. He was something else.

Alexis Arguello, 1952-2009
“What most Americans will remember of Arguello is the beautiful and courageous boxer, the man who won titles in three weight divisions and fought some of the most memorable battles of his era, with defining victories over some of the great names of the 70′s and 80′s, like Olivares, Alfredo Escalera, Rafael Limon, Bobby Chacon and Boom Boom Mancini. Boxing experts generally rank Arguello as the greatest 130-pounder who ever lived, and among the greats at 135.”