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HBO Boxing: Klitschko defends TV report PDF Print E-mail
HBO World Championship Boxing Recap
 
September 26, 2009
Staples Center-Los Angeles, California
 
 
 
This event has drawn an outstanding crowd of 14,556 people. Ticket sales for this event had been very slow leading up to the match with all of the boxing talk revolving around last week's match between Floyd Mayweather, Jr. and Juan Manuel Marquez limiting the buzz for this event. Therefore, the weigh-ins for this event were held on Thursday to give an extra day for the photos and press coverage of the event to disseminate to the potential ticket buying audience. it seems to have helped spike ticket sales in the last few days.
 
 
 
This match was preceded by a replay of last week's match between Mayweather and Marquez. After that was over, Jim Lampley, who is doing play-by-play of this match live in Los Angeles, interviewed Mayweather who is in his Las Vegas, Nevada mansion via satellite. In this interview, Mayweather said he was going for a knockout in rounds 9, 10 and 11 against Marquez, but Marquez was too tough to be knocked out. In regards to Shane Mosley calling Mayweather out after his win, Mayweather said that Mosley had passed on an opportunity to face him twice earlier in his career. Mosley is just looking to face Mayweather now that Mosley is getting older and Mayweather offers the biggest money match possible. In a roundabout way, Mayweather said he is not going to take a match below 147 pounds, again. A lot more on this mega-event in the news and notes section. However, a full recap of that event can be found here: http://www.number1contender.net/the-latest/2009/9/21/hbo-ppv-recap.html
 
 
 
WBC Heavyweight (200+ pounds) 12-Round Championship Match:
Dr. Vitali Klitschko (37-2, 36 KO's, 252 pounds) (c) vs. Chris Arreola (27-0, 24 KO's, 251 pounds)
 
 
In an unprecedented move, Klitschko came out of a nearly 4 year long retirement to take this title from Samuel Peter via technical knockout at 3:00 of round 8 on October 11, 2008 at the O2 World Arena in Berlin, Germany. Klitschko dominated Peter with his superior speed and conditioning despite the long layoff. The Ukrainian landed numerous power punches in every round that eventually broke Peter's spirit. After round 8, Peter simply told his corner, "It's over." The Nigerian had been completely dominated and embarrassed. At that point, Peter decided to surrender his title by quitting on his stool. A full recap of that match can be found here: http://www.number1contender.net/the-latest/2009/3/21/recap-of-vitali-klitschko-vs-samuel-peter.html This will be Klitschko's second defense of this title.
 
Klitschko had an outstanding amateur boxing career that culminated when he took home the silver medal for Ukraine at 1995 World Amateur Championships in the 200+ pound division. (Klitschko decided not to go to the 1996 Olympics where he would have been a favorite for the gold medal to let his younger brother Wladimir go to the games. Wladimir then went and took home the gold medal in the 200+ pound division in the Olympics.)
 
Vitali had a deal in place to defend his title on September 12 against David Haye at a soccer stadium in Germany. The deal was identical to the deal Haye had signed to challenge Wladimir for Wladimir's 2 world heavyweight titles on June. In June, Haye pulled out a few weeks before that match realizing he was probably going to get knocked out and since his money was coming from Setanta Sports, which was days from going off the air, the Englishman would be doing the match for free. (Haye cited an injury, which now appears to have never occurred.) Haye pulled out of his match with Vitali when he realized he was going to get knocked out and was only going to get paid from the money he was able to draw on PPV in Britain. That could be a minuscule amount of money, because it is based solely on the number of people in the Britain that actually care enough to pay to see Haye box. Since Haye could not say he was ducking both Klitschko brothers, because he could not draw money on his own and was likely to get knocked out, Haye said he pulled out of the match with Vitali, because he was being offered slave wages. (That is simply offensive for a variety of reasons, that a boxing recap is not the right place to address. More on Haye in the news and notes section.) This forced Vitali to find a new opponent on short notice and a match with Arreola would get a lot of television distribution in the United States. Klitschko could have made a lot more money to defend his title in Germany. However, he took less money to come to what is essentially Arreola's hometown (Arreola actually lives in Riverside, which is several miles away) to gain recognition as the greatest heavyweight on the planet.
 
Klitschko's last match was a technical knockout victory 1:49 into round 9 over Juan Carlos Gomez on March 21, 2009 at Hanns-Martin-Schleyer Halle in Stuttgart, Germany. Gomez was competitive with Klitschko in the first few rounds. However starting in round 5, the Ukrainian started to dominate the match with his superior conditioning. In round 6, Gomez went down from a slip. That was largely, because the challenger was exhausted at that point from trying to match the champion's high workrate. With 1:18 to go in round 7, a huge right hand caused Gomez to step back, turn around and take a knee. Gomez was able to answer the referee's count to continue following this knockdown, but it was clearly only a matter of time until Klitschko scored the knockout. With still 36 seconds to go in round 7, Gomez executed a textbook "Takayama takedown" in an attempt to buy more time to recover. That was a smart, albeit illegal, move by Gomez. The referee appeared seconds away from stopping the match as Gomez was trapped in the corner taking a series of power punches, before the Cuban executed the throw. With 20 seconds to go in round 8, Gomez turned his back on Klitschko apparently intent on quitting. However, Klitschko wanted a highlight reel knockout and spun Gomez back around to face him. Despite already appearing mentally and physically broken by Klitschko, Gomez came out to start round 9. With 1:46 to go in round 9, Gomez was put on the canvas by another hard right hand from the champion. A gutsy Gomez, stood at the referee's count of 8 and was allowed to continue. With 44 seconds to go in round 9, Gomez turned his back to run from an oncoming Klitschko and got his right arm caught in the ropes. Klitschko seized the advantage and landed several left hands, forcing the referee to stop the match. A full recap of that match can be found here: http://www.number1contender.net/the-latest/2009/9/24/recap-of-dr-vitali-klitschko-vs-juan-carlos-gomez.html
 
Klitschko is The Ring magazine's number 1 contender to their Heavyweight Champion, his little brother, Dr. Wladimir Klitschko.
 
Arreola had a strong amateur boxing career that culminated when he won the 2001 National Golden Gloves Championships at 178 pounds. The American claims he had a growth spurt and his body changed between the ages of 20 and 28 that caused him to put on 80 pounds and become a large heavyweight. In reality, he just got fat.
 
As a rule, boxers are never described as talented in these recaps. Every boxer who makes it to major television has some degree of talent. What separates them is how hard they work. To say a boxer wins simply because they are more talented then their opponent dismisses the years of work a boxer has put into honing their skills. Arreola wins, because he is simply more talented then his opponents. That statement is meant as derisively as it can possibly be expressed. Arreola has not shown up in shape to a match in shape in years. He recently gave the excuse that it was because he did not respect his opponents, but was going to show up in shape to this match. That was because he hired a new fitness trainer and respected Klitschko. However, Arreola has still shown up to this match grossly obese. His work ethic is pathetic, and the talented boxer always has excuses for it. Arreola says he likes to drink beer and eat fast food, then cites other elite boxers who do the same thing. The problem is all of those boxers stop doing that in the months leading up to a match, and always show up in shape. Arreola only spars with his buddies, rather then top level sparring partners where he might actually improve. The boxer then claims that his friends are great boxers that always push him. Arreola refuses to leave home for training camp, but his condition has been steadily declining rather then increasing as he trains with the comforts of home. Arreola faced Chazz Witherspoon on June 21, 2008 and officially weighed in at 239 pounds. That was an opponent Arreola did not respect 15 months ago. Tonight he is facing an opponent he reportedly does respect and has gained 12 pounds. To call Arreola a professional athlete is generous at best. He is just a talented guy that hits hard. Arreola has yet to prove he is a professional in his approach to the sport. ESPN's Kieran Mulvaney has pointed out that Arreola probably spells training B-U-F-F-E-T. Also being this obese, Arreola is certainly not an athlete. HBO played a video package before this match and it was embarrassing how much Arreola was in denial about his need to show up to a match in good physical condition.
 
Arreola's last match was a knockout victory 2:01 into round 4 over Jameel McCline on April 11, 2009 at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. McCline was coming out of retirement to take the match on short notice for the good paycheck a boxer receives to play the part of "opponent" on an HBO event. McCline accepted the match on 6 weeks notice after HBO refused to televise Arreola vs. Hasim Rahman, who had agreed to accept an HBO level payday to play the part of opponent. McCline showed up to the match completely out of shape, which is what Arreola's people wanted. In a match between out of shape heavyweights, Arreola's people were confident the younger and more talented one would win. In a slow paced round 2, Arreola out-landed McCline 20-to-5. Arreola did a good job of working McCline's soft midsection in the first few rounds. That combined with the exertion of landing 5 punches against a boxer, who Mulvaney joked could not spell defense if you spotted him the "d" and the "fense", had McCline completely exhausted in round 3. In round 3, McCline was already on the verge of losing a point for holding, since he kept grabbing Arreola to catch his breath. With 1:12 to go in round 4, a chopping right hand finished an exhausted McCline. The boxer made a token effort to stand at 8.5 and probably intentionally reached his feet just after the referee counted to 10. A full recap of that match can be found here: http://www.number1contender.net/the-latest/2009/9/25/recap-of-chris-arreola-vs-jameel-mccline.html
 
Arreola is being pushed hard by his management in conjunction with HBO as the future of American heavyweight boxing. To cultivate that image, he has been heavily protected, and never matched against a heavyweight ranked in the top 10. If Arreola wins tonight, he would be the first boxer of Mexican descent to hold a portion of the heavyweight title. He is only the second boxer of Mexican descent to challenge for a portion of the heavyweight title. Arreola believes that would make him the Mexican version of Jack Johnson, the first African-American to hold the heavyweight championship of the world. For Arreola to even compare himself to Johnson shows the boxer has very little understanding of boxing. There was literally rioting across the United States when Johnson was able to beat the top white American boxer. Johnson was sent to prison largely for having the temerity to be the first African-American heavyweight champion. There is currently a bill on President Obama's desk asking that the boxer receive a posthumous pardon to correct that injustice. Were Arreola to win tonight, it would be remarkable if the victory even got mentioned in the first 2 segments on Sportscenter.
 
Arreola is The Ring's number 6 contender at heavyweight.
 
At 28-years old, Arreola is 10 years younger then the 38-year-old Klitschko. Klitschko has the height advantage standing 6' 7" tall, while Arreola is listed as standing 6' 3.5" tall. Arreola is probably 1.5" shorter then that, but if Arreola is listed at 6' 3.5" he does not sound as obese as he is really is. Klitschko has the reach advantage with a 29" arm length measured from the armpit to the end of the fist, compared to Arreola's 25.5" arm length. There are no unofficial weights available for either boxer approaching match time. However, their weights are unlikely to have changed much since the official weigh-ins. That means both boxers should be relatively the same weight in the ring. Both boxers will employ the orthodox stance. Klitschko is a 5-to-1 favorite in this match.
 
The unified rules of boxing are in effect for this match. The judges keeping official score of this match from ringside are from Italy, Thailand and Japan. Judging a Klitschko match is the easiest job in boxing. In his 39 pro matches, the Ukrainian has gone to 1 decision. That was a 12-round unanimous decision victory over Timo Hoffman at the Preussag Arena in Hannover, Germany on November 25, 2000. It is not expected that the judges will be needed in this match, either. The referee is Jon Schorle. Harold Lederman will keeping HBO's unofficial scorecard for this match.
 
As the boxers come out, their appearances are strikingly different. Klitschko has a chiseled physique that makes him appear menacing. He has been compared to Ivan Drago, the Soviet nemesis of Rocky Balboa in Rocky IV. (The two are actually rather similar. Drago was taking steroids at the instruction of his Soviet boxing trainers. Klitschko was forced into his nearly 4 year absence from the sport due to a series of injuries. It is suspected that they were the result of him being given large doses of steroids in his youth by his Soviet boxing trainers.) Arreola's man-boobs literally jiggle as he bounces in the ring to stay lose.
Speaking of Rocky, to begin the celebrity roll call, Rocky himself is here. Sylvester Stallone is sitting in the front row talking to California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Once again, Governor Schwarzenegger is booed when his picture is put on the big screen. Mike Tyson is here and gets cheered. Tyson is looking a lot better today then he did a few years ago. It appears the former heavyweight champion has lost some weight. Hayden Panattiere is in the building. This might be the first time she has been shown on camera at a major boxing event. Mickey Rourke is here, wearing a hat and shirt ensemble that shows he may have dressed in the dark. Kobe Bryant is the building. Pete Rose is here and looks awful. It looks like he has been doing a lot of drinking recently. Shockingly the guy who looks like he has a drinking problem is here as a guest of Arreola and has reportedly been visiting Arreola's gym. Wonder if Rose has any money on this match?

Klitschko completely dominated Arreola in winning round 1, 10-9. Before the match, Arreola said he was going to press Klitschko. Arreola tried that for the first minute and was only able to land about 2 punches on the tall Ukrainian. Klitschko was able to control the distance and counter Arreola as he rushed in wildly. Since, Arreola has never faced a boxer that could stand up to his pressure this had him completely confused and he stopped pressing. Klitschko spent the next 2 minutes of the round landing punches at will as Arreola barely attempted to throw punches back at the champion. The champion takes round 1 on the Lederman scorecard, 10-9. In round 1, Klitschko landed 34 of the 88 total punches he threw. That is a phenomenal punch output for a heavyweight. In round 1, Arreola landed only 7 of the 32 total punches he threw. For a boxer that wanted to push the pace, that is terrible. Thirty-punches thrown is below the average number of punches thrown by a heavyweight in a round and the 7 total connects is abysmal. Klitschko continues to completely out-class Arreola in winning round 2, 10-9. The crowd which had been heavily pro-Arreola before the match started to chant for Klitschko at the end of round 2. In round 2, Arreola improved to land 10 total punches, which is still terrible. Unfortunately for Arreola, is the fact that in round 2 Klitschko got even better. In round 2, Klitschko landed 43 total punches, which is amazing. Lederman scores round 2 for Klitschko, 10-9. Klitschko dominates Arreola in winning round 3, 10-9, and leads on my scorecard after 3 rounds, 30-27. The Ukrainian has probably had tougher sparring sessions then what he is having to deal with against Arreola. The HBO commentators are trying to pretend this match is competitive or could become that way, because Arreola keeps walking forward. That is forcing Klitschko to work at a fast pace. However, when Arreola keeps walking forward into punches and rarely lands a punch of his own that makes it impossible to accurately describe this as a competitive match. Klitschko takes round 3 on the Lederman scorecard, 10-9, and leads on the Lederman scorecard after 3 rounds, 30-27. After round 3, Arreola's face is starting to turn red from Klitschko hitting him there so many times.
 
Klitschko out-lands Arreola to win a closer round 4, 10-9. According to CompuBox through 4 rounds, Arreola has landed 6 power punches. Arreola has been throwing a lot of wild power punches, but Klitschko is able to easily dodge them. That was exactly what the champion said he was going to do heading into this match. Lederman scores round 4 for Klitschko, 10-9. Round 5 is all Klitschko and he wins it on Lederman and my scorecard, 10-9. The HBO commentators are still persistent in trying to put this over as a competitive match. However, this is more of a landslide according to CompuBox then the Mayweather-Marquez match from last week that they identified as a blowout from the opening round. Through 5 rounds, Klitschko has landed 167 of the 424 total punches he has thrown, for a 39% total connect percentage. Through 5 rounds, Arreola has only landed 39 of the 168 total punches he has thrown, for a 23% total connect percentage. That works out to Klitschko having a more then 33-to-8 advantage on total connects in every round. Arreola is only throwing 33 total punches per round on average. Klitschko is averaging a nearly superhuman 85 total punches thrown per round. Round 6 ended 5 seconds early, which did not having any impact on the scoring. Klitschko continues to show that he is worlds better then Arreola in winning round 6, 10-9, and is ahead in the match on my scorecard after 6 rounds, 60-54. Lederman scores round 6 for Klitschko, 10-9, and has the champion ahead on his scorecard after 6 rounds, 60-54. It would be very difficult to have this match scored differently. Klitschko is once again showing that he is truly an elite boxer in this match. Arreola should be credited at this point for not mentally breaking as so many of Klitschko past opponents have done when they were this badly out-classed.
 
In round 7, Arreola started shaking out his left arm like he may have injured it. If Arreola's arm is injured it would be irrelevant at this point. It has already been well established who the superior boxer is in this match. Arreola continues to employ the same strategy that has failed him since round 1. That means Klitschko dominates round 7 exactly the way the champion has dominated the previous 6 rounds and wins it on Lederman and my scorecard, 10-9. This is playing out in the ring like a match between an elite heavyweight and someone pretending to be a professional boxer. With around 30 seconds to go in round 8, blood is pouring from Arreola's nose. Arreola's nose was probably damaged by an unintentional clash of heads. Round 8 is the most competitive of the match. Arreola landed some punches that looked good and popped the crowd. In reality, those punches did very little damage. Klitschko was backing away as Arreola connected, which may the punches look good. It also took almost all of the power of those flashy punches, so they actually did not do any damage. Essentially, Arreola was made to look really good, because Klitschko has outstanding defense. The appearance of effectiveness and crowd reaction may be enough to win the round on some of the official judges' scorecards. However, Klitschko out-landed Arreola to win round 8 on my scorecard, 10-9. In round 8, Arreola landed the most total punches he has landed in any round, 13. That is just sad. In round 8, Klitschko landed the fewest punches he had landed in a round, 20. Lederman scores round 8 for the challenger, 10-9. This will be the first round 9 of Arreola's career. Klitschko has scored 5 knockouts after 8 rounds, including in his last match. The longer match seems to favor the fit veteran boxer over the portly inexperienced young boxer. In round 9, Larry Merchant, who is doing color commentary of this event for HBO, finally admitted this match is as one-sided as last weekend's Mayweather-Marquez match. At the end of round 9, Klitschko got a small cut near his right eye. It should not be a factor in this match. In round 9, Klitschko's speed started to truly overwhelm Arreola and the champion saw that the knockout victory was imminent. Klitschko then began to push the pace on his way to winning round 9 on my scorecard, 10-9, and the Ukrainian leads on my scorecard after 9 rounds, 90-81. The champion wins round 9 on the Lederman scorecard, 10-9, and after 9 rounds only leads on the Lederman scorecard, 89-82. Through 9 rounds, Klitschko has landed 267 of the 710 total punches he has thrown, for a 38% total connect percentage. Through 9 rounds, Arreola has only landed 81 of the 297 total punches he has thrown, for a 27% total connect percentage. Arreola has worked his way up to averaging 9 total connects per round. Through 9 rounds, Klitschko has a 111 lead on Arreola in power connects, having out-landed the American 135-to-24 in power punches alone.
 
Klitschko easily wins round 10, 10-9. In round 10, Klitschko set a new CompuBox record for the number of total punches he has landed in a match. This match is being stopped in the corner after round 10. Arreola's trainer has stopped the match, because the boxer was taking too much of a beating. The match was getting less competitive in the last 2 rounds. That is a good stoppage. Klitschko probably would have knocked Arreola out in round 11. Arreola is crying in the ring after the match is stopped. If Arreola put that type of emotion into truly preparing for this match it might have been competitive. In round 10, Klitschko landed 34 of the 96 total punches he threw. Conversely in round 10, Arreola only landed 5 of the 34 total punches he threw. That is the fewest number of total punches Arreola had landed in any round of the match.
 
The official outcome courtesy of Michael Buffer is that at: 3:00 of round 10 the referee has stopped the contest making the winner via technical knockout and still WBC Heavyweight Champion of the World, "Dr. Ironfist" Vitali Klitschko. The win moves Klitschko to 38-2 with now 37 wins coming by way of knockout. With 37 knockouts in 38 victories, Klitschko holds the record for the highest knockout percentage by a heavyweight champion in history.
 
The final punchstat numbers have Klitschko landing 301 of the 802 total punches he threw, for a 38% total connect percentage. Klitschko landed 151 of the 283 power punches he threw, for an insane 53% power connect percentage. Arreola landed only 86 of the 331 total punches he threw, for a 26% total connect percentage. In 10 rounds, Klitschko threw 471 more punches then Arreola. That means on average, Klitschko threw 47 more punches in every round then a boxer who planned to win this match with his aggressiveness and combination punching. Arreola only landed 24 of the 107 power punches he threw, for a 22% power connect percentage. Klitschko landed 44 more power punches then Arreola threw. That statistic also shows that Arreola did not land a power punch in round 10, meaning the timing of the stoppage was perfect.
 
Klitschko said in his post-match interview that this was not as easy as it looked. The champion was very impressed at Arreola's ability to take all of the big punches without being knocked out. Klitschko was not asked about a potential next opponent in this interview.
 
Arreola in his post-match interview said he wanted to go the distance. When asked what went wrong in the match, Arreola's answer was essentially that Klitschko was a lot better then him.
 
Klitschko once again proved to be an elite boxer in this match. It is nearly impossible to think of some way Klitschko could have been any better in this match. The champion made David Haye look like a genius for running from him. It appears the only boxer in the heavyweight division capable of defeating him is his brother Wladimir, and those 2 are never going to face each other in an official boxing match. Lampley in his closing thoughts for the show said that the only boxers who will be capable of beating a Klitschko brother are ones that are dedicated to the sport and training year round. Both brothers train year round to be supreme athletes. Only someone willing to work at least as hard as they are is going to beat them. That makes the most interesting match-up for Vitali his brother Wladimir. That is because they are the only 2 boxers in the heavyweight division willing to work hard enough to truly be elite. Of course as noted earlier, the Klitschko brothers will never face each other. That makes it hard to think of an attractive match for Vitali. There are rumors Klitschko's next match will be in Germany in December against Kevin Johnson.
 
Arreola is a frustrating waste of talent. He was terrible in this match and the American should not have been this bad. As advertised his defense was bad. Arreola also came into the match out of shape, like always. It is hard to see where Arreola is improving. Arreola cried after the match about all the hard work he put in and it not being good enough. The fact is Arreola really did not do all the hard work necessary to win. That is the problem. He has no idea what it takes to be a champion and work like a champion. Arreola surrounds himself with friends and other people who tell him he is great. His friends are frankly lying to him when they congratulate him for working hard. The people who tell him to layoff the beer and mix-in a salad occasionally do not understand boxing or at least his style. Arreola says he trained harder for this match. He would then go home and eat a bunch of greasy food with hot sauce. It would take minimal amount of effort to not add the hot sauce to his food. That simple effort is too much for Arreola. That is the behavior of a person has no real desire to be a champion. Arreola says he wants to be a champion. Then cries about how hard he worked and that it did not work out for him. People should not feel sorry for Arreola or applaud the fact he was able to take a lot of punches from Klitschko and stay standing. The fact is he did not really want to be a champion or he would have worked like it. Arreola should be embarrassed with his performance in this match. He was gift-wrapped a title shot and did not actually work to win the match. His crying after the match was simply pathetic. Lots of boxers cry after matches and are never criticized in these recaps. The difference with them and Arreola is that those boxers actually tried and were not looking for pity. In this match, Arreola needed speed to deal with Klitschko. Instead, Arreola had slow moving fat that made him an easy target against the first good boxer he has ever faced. He reportedly trained to go rounds, but not lose weight. The fact is fat boxers are slower then boxers that are in shape. Tonight Arreola needed to be quick and in shape. He was not. Therefore, he was made to look like a clumsy amateur by Klitschko for having the temerity to show up obese to face the champion. Arreola is trained by one of his longtime friends. That needs to change. His trainer is clearly one of the people on Arreola's inner circle feeding into the boxer's distorted view of what it takes to be successful in this sport. Furthermore, Arreola's gameplan in this match was horrible. Then when it failed Arreola's adjustment was to keep doing the same thing that failed in the first place. Until Arreola mentally gets what it is to work hard and be a professional, the television time and money devoted to Arreola would be better spent on lighter weight boxers that actually understand what they are doing. Cruiserweight Champion Tomasz Adamek would be a good place to start. Of course, expecting Arreola to get what he needs to do or HBO to give up on building up undeserving American heavyweights seems silly. Still, HBO trying to pretend that Arreola is some great boxer is infuriating.
 
 
 
This broadcast featured the Mayweather blowout victory and this route by Klitschko. Both were tremendous displays of skill by elite boxers. For viewers that can appreciate tremendous boxing skill, they are recommended viewing. Neither match is competitive for a second, though. However, the commentary in the second match was so nauseating that it made the match borderline unwatchable. This was the most one-sided match that the commentators tried to pretend was competitive in a long time.
 
 
 
News and Notes: There has been a lot of news coming out of last week's Floyd Mayweather, Jr.-Juan Manuel Marquez PPV. To begin, The Ring rankings have undergone quite a shake-up. Michael Katsidis moved up 1 spot in The Ring rankings at 135 pounds following his 12-round split decision victory over Vicente Escobedo. Katsidis is now The Ring's number 3 contender at 135 pounds to their champion in the weight class, Juan Manuel Marquez. Escobedo remains unranked by The Ring. Rocky Juarez has dropped 1 spot in The Ring's rankings after his unanimous decision loss to Chris John at the PPV. Juarez is now The Ring's number 5 contender to their vacant championship at 126 pounds. John is still The Ring's number 1 contender at 126 pounds. By defeating Marquez, Mayweather took Marquez' place as The Ring's number 2 ranked boxer in the world, pound-for-pound. Mayweather also entered The Ring's rankings at 147 pounds. The Las Vegas resident is now the number 2 contender to The Ring's vacant championship at 147 pounds. Mayweather is only ranked behind Shane Mosley in The Ring's 147-pound rankings. That should have made it somewhat expected that Mayweather and Mosley nearly came to blows in the ring at the end of the PPV. Following the loss to Mayweather, Marquez has dropped to being only ranked by The Ring as the number 5 boxer in the world, pound-for-pound. Marquez remains The Ring Champion at 135 pounds, and he is expected to defend that title in his next match.
 
The story about Mayweather not making the originally contracted weight for the match has come out and it makes the boxer look rather bad. Mayweather woke up on Friday morning weighing 145.5 pounds. That means simply by exercising, it would have been very manageable for the boxer to make 144 pounds. Mayweather should not have even needed any time in a sauna or to go through any extreme weight cutting measures to lose the extra 1.5 pounds. However, he decided that morning he did not feel like making the weight and the contract was changed to 147 pounds.
 
As for how the PPV did financially, it was a huge success. Early indications are that the PPV did around 1 million buys. It was expected to do around 600,000 buys. It is going to be the most successful non-heavyweight boxing PPV not involving Oscar De La Hoya. The event generated $52 million on PPV. The report on the live gate is mixed. The gate was 12,009 paid for $6,811,300. The money generated from the gate is very good, but that is a few thousand shy of a sellout. This seems to be Mayweather's pattern. He is a tremendous PPV draw, but a so-so gate draw.
 
This big payday appears to have taken care of all of Mayweather's financial problems. Mayweather has already settled with the IRS. They have already gotten $5.6 million out of the boxer's original purse to pay Mayweather's back taxes. That means the IRS is still going to be making several million more dollars from Mayweather's efforts last Saturday. Mayweather has also paid off all the homeowners associations he owed money. There are still a few outstanding debts that Mayweather needs to settle, but it appears to be only a matter of time at this point.
 
The Kelly Pavlik-Paul Williams match originally scheduled for October 3 on HBO has been rescheduled for December 5. It had to be rescheduled, because Pavlik had a re-occurrence of a staph infection in his hand. The December 5 date had originally been on hold for Shane Mosley. However, HBO ran out of money to fund a Mosley card on that date. That allowed for the change. The event will still be at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey where Pavlik has become a tremendous draw. Pavlik is the anti-Mayweather in that he is an outstanding draw at the gate, but has done very poorly drawing on PPV.
 
Speaking of delayed matches, on Thursday it was announced that Bernard Hopkins will rematch Roy Jones, Jr. from a match Jones won in a 12-round unanimous decision in May of 1993. The match will be carried on HBO PPV in the first quarter of 2010, around 8 years after the point it would have been interesting. Both boxers did terrible business in their last matches on HBO PPV in 2008, making it nearly certain this PPV will do very poorly. For this match to happen, Jones must defeat Danny Green on December 2 in Australia. Hopkins is allowed to take a tune-up match, before he faces, but that is unlikely to do it. The Philadelphia, Pennsylvania native is talking about boxing on December 2 in his hometown. However, as noted HBO has no money to put together events for the rest of 2009. Hopkins is not going to box for an ESPN level payday. That means the next time Hopkins steps into a ring for official competition it will be against Jones. The boxers have agreed to split the revenue from the match 50-50, unless there is a knockout. If there is a knockout, the person who scores the knockout gets 60% of the revenue and the loser gets 40%. This clause was largely put in for posturing. The odds of a knockout in this match are very small. Hopkins has not scored a knockout in several years and Jones has not knocked out a real opponent in many years.
 
James Kirkland who had been one of Golden Boy Promotions top prospects until getting arrested in April was sentenced to 2 years in jail for violating his probation. Kirkland who was on probation for felony armed robbery bought a hand gun at a gun show with his own idea shortly before he was arrested. In April police pulled Kirkland over for a routine traffic stop and then informed him it was illegal for felons to own guns as they escorted him to jail. There are so many things unbelievably stupid about what Kirkland did it is amazing the judge let him off so light. This crime normally carries a sentence of 47 to 57 months. However, Kirkland should be out of jail and able to resume boxing in June 2010. At that point he will only be 26-years old and barring another colossal screw up, should still have time to become a world champion.
 
This was HBO's last live boxing event for a while. With tonight's event and last weekend's PPV out of the way, HBO has already started working on their next boxing broadcast which will be the premiere of 24/7 Pacquiao/Cotto. That will be a 4-part mini-series starting on October 24 leading up to the November 14 mega-PPV featuring Manny Pacquiao challenging for Miguel Cotto's 147-pound title.
 
The press conference to kick off the promotional tour for the Pacquiao-Cotto match was held at the new Yankee Stadium in New York City, New York. Therefore, Bob Arum, talked about running a boxing event at Yankee Stadium in 2010. This talk should be taken as seriously as when Dana White tells fans that the UFC is coming to their town. Arum has talked about running Yankee Stadium and Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles in recent years. The deals have never come close to happening. The costs of renting a baseball stadium are very high. Then the seating would have to be re-arranged for boxing. In addition, there would be additional costs incurred from setting up the ring and lighting where it is not designed to be. That is very expensive. Also, to run an event in New York it would have to be in the summer. That would be when the Yankees are playing. Holding a boxing event at Yankee Stadium would likely tear up the field, which would make the baseball team that plays there very unhappy. There are also issues with weather running an event in an area that is prone to thunderstorms in the summer. Finally, the main eventers for a boxing PPV do not begin to walk to the ring until 11:00 PM in New York. Even on a good day, the conditions are not going to be ideal for boxing at that time of night. All of this means there is not going to be a boxing event at Yankee Stadium in the foreseeable future.
 
Finally, the David Haye news. It was announced this week that he will get his title shot at the only heavyweight belt not held by a Klitschko on November 7 against Nikolai Valuev in Nuremberg, Germany. Valuev is considered the weakest of the heavyweight champions, having barely beat Evander Holyfield by decision. Haye won The Ring Championship at 200 pounds then announced he was moving to heavyweight after defending the championship by knocking out Enzo Maccarinelli at 2:04 of round 2 at the O2 Arena in London, England on March 8, 2008. To put in perspective how long ago that was, that match aired on Showtime as part of a doubleheader with an EliteXC show featuring Ken Shamrock getting knocked out by Robert Berry in England. Haye has had 1 match as a heavyweight, since he announced he was moving up in weight over 18 months ago. In that match, Haye's performance was mixed. He knocked out Monte Barrett at 1:28 of round 5 at the O2 Arena in London on November 15, but was knocked down once before earning the stoppage. However, thanks to Haye's never ending trash talking the boxer has managed to become steadily regarded as one of the best heavyweight boxers in the world. Haye is a very good worker. A few weeks after Haye scored his only victory at heavyweight he was unranked by The Ring. Following this loss by Arreola, and without competing a single time, Haye is probably going to take Arreola's spot as The Ring's number 6 contender at heavyweight. At this pace, if Haye never boxes again he should supplant Joe Louis as the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time in 4 years when the Englishman would be eligible for the International Boxing Hall of Fame. Since, Haye had his 1 heavyweight match 10 months ago he has been offered a shot at literally every sanctioned heavyweight title. In that time, he has not beaten anyone and pulled out of a match due to what appears to be a faked injury. When Haye pulled out of the match with Vitali, Haye never even notified the people at Golden Boy Promotions who have him under contract or HBO who were planning to televise the event. This man is truly tremendous, and the rest of the heavyweight division is so terrible that people are willing to believe the loud-mouthed Englishman is the savior. For the record, the Haye-Valuev match will not be televised in the United States, because there is not enough interest in this country in either boxer to have any network wanting to show the match. Also, with fewer and fewer television dates available for boxing it is really a bad idea for boxers to make the major networks angry.
  
 
 
The next recap will cover the opening match of Showtime's Super Six Boxing Classic. That will be the October 17 match between Jermain Taylor and Arthur Abraham in Berlin, Germany. That will be part 1 of a 2 part recap. Part 2 will come out the next day covering the second match in the tournament on the same day from Nottingham, England featuring Carl Froch defending his 168-pound title against Andre Dirrell.
 
 
 
Sincerely,
 

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