Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez II on March 15

It may not blow it away but it has potential to be better. The fights scheduled in the first 3 months of 2008 are better then they were in 2007.

 

Hopefully the first quarter doesn't see as many postponements/cancellations as there were the last few months of this year.

2007 was good and had the potential to be much better but Showtime, especially, was cursed.

 

I said 2008 is shaping up to surpass.

When 2006 became 2007, we were coming off of Winky-Quartey and Taylor-Ouma to end '06, which was preceded by Floyd-Baldy, Wlad-Brock, Pac-Morales III and J.M. Marquez-Jaca. Through the first three months we had the following to look forward to (between HBO and Showtime):
Peter-Toney II/Simms-Rivera (Showtime)
Hatton-Urango (HBO)
Arce-Ler/Pavlik-Zertuche (HBO)
Dawson-Adamek (Showtime)
Malignaggi-Cherry/Powell-Ishe Smith (HBO)
Mosley-Collazo/Harris-Lazcano (HBO)
R. Marquez-Vazquez I (Showtime)
Cotto-Urkal/Miranda-Green (HBO)
Wlad-Austin (HBO)
Mormeck-Bell II (MSG, but good (and anticipated) enough to where it warrants mention)
Kessler-Andrade (HBO)

and of course. "The World Awaits"

Of those fights, the only ones with any anticipation were the Showtime cards and Mormeck-Bell II. Kessler-Andrade was intriguing because for most of America, it was their first look at him, though a grand total of nobody expected Andrade to win. Even Marquez-Barrera (which shouldn't have been on PPV) barely received a push, thanks to HBO scaling back its budget due to the sales push for Floyd-GLH.

HBO didn't pick up the pace until after "that fight", when everyone in the media all but dared them to put on a fight that was actually worth a damn.

In 2008, they're flying right out the gate.

And again, among all those fights mentioned, you still have major fights to schedule for Mayweather, Cotto (though most likely Margarito after their proposed doubleheader), Calzaghe, Hatton, Haye, the top light heavyweights (and hopefully finally against one another), etc.

So that's how it's shaping up to surpass 2007. Of the proposed dream matches, we're already getting at least two of them in the 1st Quarter of '08. Whereas we had to wait until the 2nd half of the year for desired fights to materialize. This years fights are leading to next year's BIGGER fights (save for super middleweight, though plenty on this side of the pond will argue that Calzaghe-Hopkins would generate far more interest than was the case for Calzaghe-Kessler).

That's how 2008 shaping up to surpass 2007.

 

Great fight! I'm very happy this one gets made.:bears: Right now, I pick Marquez to win a UD.:flip:

 

margarito is fighting JLC? oh man. what a nightmare.

 

i'm not holding my breath for cintron/williams. not after that thesbian performance by cintron following his last fight.

 

That's good considering it's already been called off.

 

I called for that fight a long time ago. Wow, I can't wait :bears:

 

JLC is gonna get killed. what's with margarito and his shit comp. i'm starting to have to agree with a lot of these people complaining he doesn't fight anyone. okay, clottey, cintron and williams were good opponents.

but johnson and now jlc? jlc, i'm sorry to say, isn't much at 147.

 

azz-hole. ::

 

It's to set up his fight with Cotto. It's not like Margarito has any kind of leverage to fight whoever he wants to. Personally I think Margarito has a pretty good style to defeat Cotto if they fight.

 

oh so do I !!! that's why i was so saddened by his loss to Williams because I think too many have taken it to mean that he was never a threat to Cotto - as if Cotto is anything that even remotely resembles Williams in terms of style.

so in that sense I should be happy - we will likely get to see Margarito/Cotto, and Margarito, in my opinion, will probably win that fight. after that, people will "have" to give him credit. and Williams too who I think is very under-rated, even despite his beating Margarito.

Cotto is the one who is over-rated at this stage, not that his win over Mosley wasn't significant or indicative that he's a good fighter.

By the way, I also think Margarito is a tougher fight for PBF than Cotto is.

I just hate to see JLC go out like this but I guess it's inevitable. He can't make 135 obviously. And he's been made pretty irrelevant at 140. If he'd put up a better fight against Hatton he might've succeeded in luring a guy like Juan Diaz to come up to 140 and fight him in set up for a Hatton/PBF fight. But a KO loss in the fourth round? He's basically Top Rank fodder now. And you know Margarito will have an easy time with him.

 

So sad, and so true. The guy is shot, and he would be better to call it quits than to become 'a name for the resume'...

 

I agree with the last part. Castillo - like Morales - had stretches where he helped carry Top Rank. Castillo had one of the more complete resumes of any fighter in his era, and one of the busiest... but he looked finished against Hatton.

But then, like Morales against Pacquiao, Hatton is not someone a fighter with weakened legs and slower reflexes will fare well against. Guys like Hatton and Pacquiao will simply overwhelm them.

Maybe Castillo has a little more left than he showed, but he'll still get pounded by Margarito...who you can bet will be going downstairs just as Hatton did.

 

plus, judging from the hatton and ngoudju fight, it doesn't look like castillo has much punching power at the higher weights. maybe if they use 8 oz gloves he can hurt margarito, but i doubt they will - they'll prolly use 10 oz in which case i can't see him putting a single dent in margarito.

and don't get me wrong - there's prlly some guys at 147 that people consider decent that castillo could beat imo - like i think a fight between him and collazo would be fascinating and not necessarily a loss for castillo (although he'd have to be the favorite).

it'd be interesting to see how castillo at this stage would deal with a zab judah too, or a sharmba mitchell. castillo's specialty seems to be neutralizing guys with speed and slickness - that's one of the things i always liked about him - his timing and smarts allowed him to overcome deficits in foot and hand-speed. that's a cerebral fighters - those are the guys i like to watch.

anyways, i agree. margarito will pound him, it won't be pretty, and of course, castillo will be declared finished and margarito will get no credit whatsoever for the win. but hey, if it paves the way for cotto/margarito? i guess i can't complain.

 

seems to me like arum never really cared for castillo. if he does in fact face margarito next year, he'll get punished and punished severely.

i dont really like the guy, but after all of them wars he's been through, he doesnt need to go out in that fashion.

 

Even at this stage, and even though Castillo is done, I would still fancy him to mangle Zab. And the less said about Sharmba, the better IMO...

And you are correct, Margarito will get no credit whatsoever for beating Castillo. But if he gets his shot at Cotto, that won't matter shit. And it will give you your shot at proving all those who doubted you wrong...opcorn:

MTF

 

Castillo's at a point where he needs money fights. 2006 was disastrous on the financial front for him, as well as Arum when it came to investing in his fights. He basically fought Ngoudjo and Hatton for free when all was said and done.

Dude is seemingly at the end of his career, and needs a payday. I'm not a fan of this fight, I think it's a gross mismatch. But I certainly don't blame Castillo for taking it, or even Arum for putting it together.

 

another washed up lightweight for tony.

 

Margarito would take him out in about 5 rounds of one way slaughter. But If by some miracle Castillo were to win that fight...I would be personally ecstatic with that result! :clap:

 

Agreed. Kermit the fraud dont want to get Punished!

 

yeah. as great a fights as those were with Corrales, there was the weight issue, plus the fact that seemingly, Castillo can't draw shit.

i will say though that Arum stood behind Castillo following the first PBF fight, saying he couldn't understand how anyone could watch boxing after that decision. of course, that could've been all about setting up the rematch so that PBF wouldn't have to fight a guy outside of Arum's stable.

when all is said and done, Arum's primary objective seems to be to make fights involving fighters only he promotes:

PBF/Hernandez
Morales/Chavez
Morales/Hernandez
PBF/Castillo
PBF/Corrales
Corrales/Juuko

If two guys are in or around the same weight class, and both promoted by Arum, it's a good bet they will face each other eventually. Arum, it would seem, doesn't like to share his promotions one bit.

 

Thats a good list. I don't care who them guys were promoted by they were all good fights.

 

not saying they weren't good fights, or that they should not have been made. just providing examples of fights (and there's thousands more) in which both fighters were promoted by Arum.

David Diaz/Morales is another good example.

Point is, when the public demands a fight involving one of Arum's fighters, and the opponent is NOT, it is an ordeal - always. And Arum you hear bitch all the time about how tough it is to work with this promoter or that one, but the translation to that is, "it's tough to get the other promoters to bend to my terms."

All I'm saying is if there's two potential match-ups on the horizon that are the slightest bit comparable in terms of entertainment value or significance in the sport, and one involves two Arum fighters, but the other doesn't, you can bet your bottom dollar it'll be the one with two Arum fighters that gets made. And it's precisely why if and when Pacquiao does make a move to 135 you can bet it's David Diaz, and not Juan Diaz that he fights.

 

Don King is the same way. It's the smaller promoters that usually do the most work with other promoters...though I think King seems to be tiring in his old age which is why he's now co-promoting just about every heavyweight not named Klitschko.

 

why would you be ecstatic? you seem to hate every fighter i like. and in this case, either outcome would involve a favorite of mine having won.