Boxing Humor: The Fallibility of Boxrec

Boxing Humor: The Fallibility of Boxrec

Boxrec.com is a site I frequently link to and do research at. It is one of the best online resources for boxing and I'm incredibly glad that we have it, BUT it is not infallible. You have to figure with that many facts and pages of information, something will get screwy from time to time. Example:

Researching a favorite of mine whom I consider one of the great fighters of all time, Johnny Tapia, I check out his page on Boxrec. Now, I know they edit these things and add to weaker pages or clean up some sloppy bits and pieces, so they might change it but at the time I am writing this, Johnny Tapia's bio page has a very interesting Amateur Achievements section. It says exactly this:

''Amateur achievements

• 1983 National Golden Gloves light flyweight champion
• 1985 National Golden Gloves flyweight champion
• 1990-94 drug and alcohol abuse''

Gentlemen, drug and alcohol abuse is not the kind of amateur achievement you officially list. Besides, he wasn't even an amateur during those years.

BE's Best Punchers Spotlight: Edison Miranda

BE's Punchers Spotlight goes to Edison Miranda. Miranda is just 28 years old and has been fighting since 2001. He is known as being a top middleweight contender who:

*Fought current undefeated IBF Middleweight world champion, Arthur Abraham - twice. His two fights with Abraham did not make friends out of the men. In the first fight, Miranda broke Abraham's jaw and was deducted two points for blatantly headbutting, as well as three more points for low blows at different times. He lost a decision and unsurprisingly, given those circumstances. In the second, Abraham knocked Miranda out in the fourth round after putting him down three times in a row.

* Fought current WBC Middleweight world champion, Kelly Pavlik. He was knocked out in the seventh round.

Though he is known mostly for these three losing fights by the boxing public, he is clearly a highly rated fighter, having not lost any others.

Impressively, the Colombian fighter has notched 27 knockouts in 31 victories. More impressively is how quickly those fights went by.

*17 of 27 up to this point ended in the first round. His career started with four 1st-rounders in a row.

*3 of 27 ended in the second round.

*4 of 27 ended in the third.

That's a grand total of 24 of his 27 knockouts that have been against fighters that didn't make it past the first three rounds. The other three ended in 5, 7 and 5. Lastly a statistic of only 5 of his fights, win or lose, which went the scheduled distance. If you see a Miranda fight, you can almost bet you're going to see somebody get knocked out. That's an action fighter.

Miranda's last fight was at Super Middleweight and it was one of the aforementioned 3-round knockouts. His knockout rate is just under 80% overall. Both fighters to knockout Miranda, Pavlik and Abraham, are notoriously hard hitting themselves. No shame in that for Miranda. Here are two videos of Edison and his crushing right hand. Enjoy and gosh I hope Miranda and Taylor can meet now that they're both Super Middleweights.



Edison Miranda VS Willie Gibbs - 1st round knockout

Video URL:



Edison Miranda knocking David Banks through the ropes - 3rd round:

Video URL:

Celebrity Boxers List: Did they really box? How'd they do? Were they serious?

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Celebrity Boxers List:

This list attempts to list all celebrities which had an amateur or professional boxing career as a point of interest and a fun reference.

1. Emmy award winning comic icon Jackie Mason was an amateur boxers. Talking about it on Wednesday Night Fights on ESPN, he mentioned that as a comedian, maybe people call you names but they don't wrap in the mouth. He mentioned that from the time he was fifteen to the time he was 21, he was boxing almost every day. Click Here For Jackie Mason's Official Site

2. Tony Danza - Born

Youtube video of Tony Danza VS Billy Perez:



Source of video footage of Tony Danza VS Billy Perez:

3. Dean Martin

4. Bob Hope

5. Ferlin Husky

6. Max Baer Junior

7. Vai Sikahema - Vai is a former 8-season football star famous in part, not ironically for his boxing the goalpost after a touchdown and current Philadephia sportscaster. He played for the Cardinals, Packers and Eagles. Athletically, though he became a pro football player(American football), he was groomed by his father to become a great boxer and did compete seriously as an amateur from the age of 7-14. He fought at least 80 times. Actually, born in Tonga, his father reportedly brought him to America to get him a better shot at being a great fighter.

Sikahema was pitted up against Jose Canseco for a celebrity boxing match. Severely disadvantaged in height and weight, he had the athletic edge, being a former fighter. Canseco claimed quite a martial arts background...but who knows? Sikahema is 5'9 and weighed in at 205 pounds. Canseco is about 6'4 and weighed in at 245. The fight was promoted as football vs baseball. The fight was set for three two-minute rounds with headgear and 14-ounce gloves.

The fight didn't last long. Vai put Canseco down twice and the bout was over in the first round as the ref stopped it. Vai said "When you step inside the square circle," Sikahema said, according to the Press of Atlantic City, "don't ever think that your size is going to matter because in Philadelphia, we will chop you down."

Vai donated $5,000 of his winnings to the family of a slain Philadelphia police officer, who was shot and killed in May of that year-2008.

It wasn't the first time Vai had returned to his boxing roots. Apparently he almost fought Danny Bonaduce in a celebrity boxing match but instead defeated a local disc jockey named David Cruise. Here's some actual footage of Canseco getting a royal whipping:

Source of youtube video footage of Sikahema VS Canseco in case embedding becomes disabled:

Source for prefight information here:

Also see more detailed information on Sikahema and his background here:

Canseco VS Sikahema aftermath source:

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Happy New Year From Boxed Ears: 2009 Will See Big Fights

Welterweights:

Antonio Margarito and Sugar Shane Mosley are fit to rumble on the 24th of this month for the WBA title, and Miguel Cotto is ready to make a comeback from his single and brutal loss to Margarito against 34-1 Michael Jennings of the UK for the vacant WBO welterweight title. Succeeding Floyd Mayweather Junior, Andre Berto is the WBC welterweight champion. Berto is undefeated and will fight Luis Collazo on the seventeenth to defend his title. Joshua Clottey is the newest IBF welterweight champion getting the vacant title with a defeat over Zab Judah. He has been inactive since October and yet to defend the IBF title. As yet, I see no fights scheduled for him either. I would love to see him in there against Andre Berto for a unification of the WBC and IBF titles.

Heavyweights:

Most important news on the heavyweight front for 2009: The WBA will review Nikolay Valuev's ''win'' over Evander Holyfield. This was announced on the 30th on ESPN. Could we get a reversal? If so, would Holyfield finally quit? Could there be...and I hope there isn't...a Valuev/Holyfield II?

David Haye, who vacated his three world titles at Cruiserweight to step up to heavyweight and get his shot at Wladimir Klitschko could be fighting Vitali instead this year. From what I hear, Haye and Klitschko are signed to fight in June. Vitali has a 92% kayo percentage. David has a 91% kayo percentagem though with only one HW fight under his belt. Big punches will be thrown and most likely, there will be a stoppage. I'm inclined to think Haye will be the fighter to get stopped but I know Vitali has had injuries in training and in the ring that make it unsteady ground for both men. I don't think Haye has earned a title shot by just beating a well worn Monte Barrett but three world championships at cruiserweight, a world of mouthing off and hype and a win over well worn Monte Barrett I guess is something very different to matchmakers.

Other big fights:

Light welterweight champion Ricky Hatton looks to be fighting Manny Pacquiao, possibly in May of this year. Floyd Mayweather, as expected, wants back in the game after hanging back and letting Cotto's shine come off and watching Pacquiao come into his own as the p4p great. It's possible Floyd will fight Pacquiao if he wins. I don't see a Hatton rematch. That's all for now. We've got some good ones coming up is the point.

Fun Boxing Bit: For those of you that remember 1987's Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!, like I do, you can play it here for free (Happy New Year):

Mike Tyson PunchOut game

Updates to BE's Top 20 Current Heavyweight Rankings:

Updates to BE's Top 20 Current Heavyweight Rankings:

I would like to update this post with some news. First Chazz Witherspoon, I feel still deserves his status at 19. He takes his only loss to Chris Arreola, the current NABF minor title holder. Secondly, in November he sprung back from this defeat to a last round knockout victory over 21-1-0 Adam Richards.

Secondly, Nikolay Valuev has dropped down to the fifth spot on the list because of his completely dreadful performance against Evander Holyfield. If you'll notice, I still don't have Evander Holyfield in the top twenty. He wasn't before the fight was scheduled. He shouldn't have gotten a shot against Valuev and now that I know he's rightfully beaten Valuev, I will still not call him a top twenty man. It was Valuev's sickening performance against Holyfield that allowed Evander to command that fight, not Evander's ability. Evander is clearly a better boxer than Valuev ever was but he is physically shot and unable to really pressure a man anymore. He hadn't fought for over a year. He lost in the fight previous to Valuev, albeit against a champ (Sultan Ibragimov). His last win was in 2007 over another 40+-year-old fighter in Lou Savarese. Holyfield hasn't beaten a top opponent since Rahman by Technical Decision in 2002. So, I dropped Valuev down and did not put Holyfield on the top 20 list. If you don't think that's right, tell my why in the comments section. If Evander actually beats any of the top twenty guys again, whether they actually recognize it or not, I'll certainly reconsider. To be clear, he is the new WBA heavyweight champ to me. I just don't think much of that title these days. How could I?

Lastly, James Toney defeated Fres Oquendo for the IBA and NABO titles. So, I moved him up to seventh spot, just after Samuel Peter and above the inactive but always dangerous Shannon Briggs. To my knowledge, Briggs is only inactive and not officially retired. I'd personally love to see either Briggs or Toney fight David Haye. If Haye won, he'd legitimize himself to me as a real HW and if Briggs or Toney beat Haye, that would tell me they deserved a new title shot without question. As it looks now, Haye will fight Vitali Klitschko. Wrong brother! He wants Wladimir, though he hasn't proved himself at heavyweight yet. Oddly, Wladimir/Haye would be more interesting as they both have big power and decent but not world class chins. Vitali's world class ability to take a punch and big power makes me think barring one of his odd injuries here or there, he'll crush Haye. Then again...you never know.

So the top 20 rankings have changed slightly but no one has been added or subtracted since the original post. Tony Thompson is the most vulnerable to getting knocked off of my list at number 20. I'm not sure who I'd add to replace that last slot. Suggestions and other comments are welcomed as long as racial slurs and the like are left out. Express yourself with civility or not at all.

BE's look back on the career of Arturo ''Thunder'' Gatti: A gift to boxing

BE's look back on the career of Arturo ''Thunder'' Gatti: A gift to boxing

Major fan favorite Arturo ''Thunder'' Gatti was one of boxing's most exciting fighters. A tough guy from Canada like George Chuvalo and a mean Italian-blooded small man like Carmen Basilio. He soldiered through and even won bouts with his eyes swollen to near-blindness, his face cut to ribbons and his hands broken. It's no wonder he was called ''The real blood and guts warrior''. World class trainer, former fighter and HBO commentator Emanuel Steward has said his swelling eyes were a predisposition of the high cheekbones Arturo carries.

After years of laying his body on the line against anyone who would trade punches with him, including Angel Manfredy, Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather Junior, Gatti took a one-sided beating from Alfonso Gomez. Gomez being a very good but not great fighter should not have been able to accomplish such a consistently dominating and damaging performance against Gatti and we all knew it was far past time Gatti retire from the sport. He did retire, thankfully, after that fight in 2007 and we hope he stays retired and does well.

He was a gift to boxing and more than just an exciting tough guy. He was the IBF Super Featherweight champion, WBC light welterweight champion and finally the IBA welterweight champion. I always thought that while he was never capable of the technical mastery of some of his opponents like De La Hoya and Mayweather, he always was capable of being slicker than he usually allowed himself to be. He would sometimes choose to box rather than brawl and look good doing it. He did not however tend to do this against anyone who pressured him terribly. When his best opposition challenged him, he always reverted back to the blood and guts brawling that made him a fan favorite as well as a willing target.

Better than he's often given credit for as a boxer but always earning praise as a true fighter, here is BE's look back on Arturo ''Thunder'' Gatti's major career highlights:

Arturo Gatti's Major Career highlights:

1. Though Gatti had captured the minor title of USBA Super Featherweight champion in 1994, he makes his first major move in 1995 by defeating former WBC Super Bantamweight champion and then current IBF Super Featherweight champion, Tracy Harris Patterson to gain the IBF Super Featherweight title. He wins by Universal Decision.

2. Cements win against Patterson with a Universal Decision over him again in a rematch title fight in 1997.

3. Knocked out former WBC super featherweight champion Gabriel Ruelas in the fifth round and makes his first appearnce in Ring Magazine's fight of the year for 1997.

4. 1998 - Gets onto Ring Magazine's fight of the year for the second year in a row with opponent Ivan Robinson. Gatti loses but it's a close fight (Split decision 10-rounder) that garners him great fan support from the televised event.

5. Totals 15 1st-round knockouts finishing with 1999's fight against Reyes Munoz who is removed on a stretcher and never fights again.

6. 2000 - Gatti puts Joey Gamache into retirement with a second round kayo. Gamache was the former WBA Super Featherweight and former WBA Lightweight champion.

7. 2002 Gatti faces his most evenly and perfectly matched opponent in Micky Ward. Ward was in 2001's Ring Magazine Fight of the Year against Emanuel Burton. Gatti loses a majority decision but the fight is so good that it lands Arturo his third appearance in Ring Magazine's fight of the year, proving that his fan-favorite status is still strong after several wars in the ring.

8. 2002 - Gatti defeats Ward in a rematch by a Universal Decision making a third match a huge demand by hungry boxing fans everywhere.

9. 2003 - Gatti and Ward make one of the most exciting trilogies in boxing history and Gatti gets the best of it with a second Universal Decision win over his rival and friend. Gatti makes it for a fourth time on Ring Magazine's fight of the year for this match. For most appearances in Ring Magazine's Fight of the year, Muhammad Ali is in first place with six appearances, Carmen Basilio comes in second with 5 and Arturo Gatti is in a 3-way tie for third place with 4 appearances with Joe Frazier and George Foreman. Gatti is clearly one of the biggest fan favorites of all time.

10. 2004 - Gatti fights evenly matched Gianluca Branco of Italy and is awarded the vacated WBC light welterweight title, handing Branco his first loss (Today only Miguel Cotto has beaten Branco since and Branco is the current EBU light welterweight champion). This is Gatti's second world championship title and in two different weight classes. This puts him in an elite list of fighters to become world champs at more than one weight class.

11. 2004 - Gatti becomes the first and only man to stop tough Romanian fighter Leonard Dorin. He does it with a brutal body shot in just the second round. Dorin never fights again. Dorin was the former WBA lightweight champion. Dorin also fought Paulie Spadafora to a draw in a unification title bout, prior to this fight and had won two Olympic Bronze medals for Romania.

12. 2005 - Gatti knocks out former WBC Super Featherweight champion, Jesse James Leija in the fifth round. Gatti puts the great Leija into retirement after this bout.

13. 2006 - Gatti knocks out the undefeated (37-0) Thomas Damgaard of Denmark in the eleventh of a scheduled twelve rounds. It's Gatti's last win and Damgaard's only loss up to the time of this post. The vacant IBA welterweight title goes to Arturo. His last victory propels him into the club of fighters who have won world titles in three different weight classes.

In closing, Arturo's final career record from 1991 to 2007 (only assuming he stays retired) was 40 wins (31 by knockout)-9 losses (5 by knockout) and 0 draws. In his 49 professional fights, we saw the action of three times as many average modern pro careers. Our best to Mr. Gatti.

Click Here to view Arturo Gatti's full boxing record

Live Updating for Holyfield VS Valuev: Outcome soon

Hi everybody. For those that can't get the fight and want the spoiler, Al Bernstein (I think) says Evander Holyfield is winning almost all the rounds through 9. I just got the update.

Update: Bernstein and co. says Valuev has been very poor tonight, even ''comatose'' and that Holyfield, still not sharp is putting in ''an adequate performance'' and that this is all he needed.

Update: 1 round to go and Holyfield, barring a hugely unpopular decision will get his hands on the world heavyweight title an unprecedented fifth time.

Update: Valuev is ''giving his title away'' and he needs a kayo or a corrupt judge, I guess.

Update: I have no idea if this is true but someone online is spouting off that Holyfield was robbed and Valuev got the decision 2 of three judges. I'm already hearing cries of Russian mafia. God help boxing if Valuev won that fight. When he put his hands up after the fight, the audience booed him. Al Bernstein called it ''a delusional gesture'' considering his dreadful performance.

Update: Boxrec.com has adjusted to show Valuev is the winner by majority decision. I guess God has washed his hands of boxing. Valuev does not deserve this. I never thought he was a great fighter but obviously a decent fighter who is mostly just a threat due to his size. He was not a champion today. As far as I'm concerned, he's no longer the champion.