He's at it again.

 

Floyd Mayweather Sr believes that the boxing media lavishes too much praise on rival trainer Freddie Roach while ignoring his own accomplishments in the corner.

 

“They can do what they want to do,” said Mayweather Sr to On the Ropes Boxing Radio. “They give (awards) to Freddie Roach all the time and he can't fucking train no damn nobody. Let's be for real, you can put us both on stage and you'll find out who's the best. He's nowhere near me, he's not even in the same class, nowhere near. But like I said before, they've been giving him all the accolades but I don't give a damn. You got to go through all that bullshit to get a fucking trophy? Fuck them, I ain't thinking about them. It's them feeling sorry for Freddie and that's where all that bullshit is coming around. It is what it is however way you want to do it because either you're in the game and win – if Freddie Roach would have done what I did this year, hey , there would be no question in anybody's mind that he would get the accolades again. We'll just wait and see what happens. I thought very seriously that they'd honor me but all they want to do is cheat, steal and all that shit!”

 

Speaking of Mayweather Sr, I didn't know he had another son in Justin “Mayweather” Jones. DNA tests confirmed Floyd Sr as the father and he has now begun training his newfound son.

If this was Terence Crawford's last fight at 135 pounds, he went out of the division in style.

Crawford dominated the rugged Ray Beltran over twelve rounds and once again proved himself to be a star on the rise.

In front of a packed house of 11,127 at the CenturyLink Center in his native Omaha, Nebraska, Crawford (25-0, 17 KOs) dominated en route to a unanimous-decision victory by scores of 119-109 (twice) and 120-108.

"I'm just blessed, I'm just happy," said Crawford, who made the second defense of the lightweight title he captured in March from Ricky Burns in Scotland.

Crawford looks to be moving up to the junior welterweight division now with no big name challengers in his current weight class.

"This is it [at lightweight]," Crawford said. "This is it -- like Michael Jackson."

Many felt that Beltran had been robbed of the title after a disputed draw with Burns in September of 2013. His chance to right a wrong came against the wrong man.

Beltran (29-7-1, 17 KOs), a native of Mexico, had been known primarily as the chief sparring partner to Manny Pacquiao. HBO talked up him as the best challenger (frankly, Yuriorkis Gamboa is a helluva lot more talented but a helluva lot smaller). But Beltran could not match Crawford in speed, timing or length.

"He's a great champion," Beltran said. "I couldn't handle his timing or his counter-punching." 

Beltran landed a nice left hook during the ninth round but that was his only moment of success.

"Crawford is very good, technically," Beltran said. "He sees a lot of things going on in the ring. I did OK for the first four rounds, but then he started to get effective distance on me. I thought I adjusted to him, and then halfway through the right, he readjusted."

Crawford never let Beltran get untracked. He seemed to rise to the occasion as the fight went on and battered the challenger at the end of rounds 10 and 11.

"[Beltran] was such a strong fighter," Crawford said. "I had to work off my jab early in the fight, but because of the big crowd, I tried to push it the last few rounds. I never got for a knockout, but I just pushed it the last three or four rounds. I feel he was slowing down, but I didn't want to get careless like in the Gamboa fight, when I got caught with a stupid shot."

Crawford did not mention any names but his manager is interested in the prospect of facing Manny Pacquiao.

Freddie Roach has stated that Pacquiao will move back down to junior welterweight if they cannot make a bout with Floyd Mayweather Jr in 2015.

UPDATED SETS ON HISTORICAL FIGHTERS

MIKE AYALA – Added in bout with Terry Crowley

PAULIE AYALA – Added in bouts with Thai Condo and amateur fight with Sergio Reyes

NIGEL BENN – Added in rare bout with David Noel

TREVOR BERBICK – Added in bout with David Bey

LAURENT BOUDOUANI – Added in rare bout with Carl Daniels

LAMON BREWSTER – Added in bout with Moses Harris

NORBERT EKASSI – French based Cameroonian had power

LEROY HALEY – Added in bout with Chuck Peralta

RONNIE HARRIS – Added in amateur fight with Josef Grudzien

TOM JOHNSON – Boom Boom's fight with Santos Rebolledo

HILMER KENTY – Rare fight with Chris Fernandez added

SAOUL MAMBY – Ageless one's fight with John Meekins

BARRY MCGUIGAN – Added in bout with Lavon McGowan

TOMMY MORRISON – Amateur fight with John Bray, last fights with Matt Weishaar & Corey Williams, plus bout with 7-foot Marcellus Brown. Also including brief documentary on Morrison called “Still Standing”.

MELDRICK TAYLOR – Added in bout with Craig Houk

RODRIGO VALDEZ – Bout with Edmundo Leite added

PRINCE CHARLES WILLIAMS – Brutal bouts with Merqui Sosa, Mwehu Beja, Anthony Witherspoon

TIM WITHERSPOON – Bout with Tim Puller added

MYUNG WOO YUH – Rematch with Hiroki Ioka added

DUANE BOBICK – Heavyweight contender of the 1970s

JOHNNY DUPLOOY – South African heavyweight fought some big names in the late 1980s

EDER JOFRE – Added in first bout with Joe Medal

DANNY ROMERO – Albuquerque slugger's matches with Harold Grey and Roberto Lopez added

LESLIE STEWART – Trinidad's LHW champ's bout with Guy Waters & Fully Obel added

MIKE WEAVER – Added in rare bouts with Ladislao Mijangos & Bill Corrigan

 NEW SETS ON CURRENT FIGHTERS

CHRIS EUBANK JR – Like father, like son?

SAMMY VASQUEZ – The “Who Can Mexi-Can” is fastest rising welter contender

 UPDATED SETS ON CURRENT FIGHTERS

JAMES DEGALE – Technically brilliant destruction of Marco Antonio Periban

MICHAEL KATSIDIS – Fight with Eddy Comaro added

TEERACHAI KRATINGDGAENGGYM – Thai welter champ against Abraham Peralta

RUSLAN PROVODNIKOV – Bout with dinosaur Jose Luis Castillo added

SHANNON BRIGGS – Fast starting heavyweight still lobbying for title shot

LUCAS BROWNE – Hulking Australian needs to step up in competition

ROMAN GONZALEZ – Latest title defense against Rocky Fuentes

ANTHONY JOSHUA – Time for a step up in comp? Includes last night's demolition of Sprott

WLADIMIR KLITSCHKO – Added latest ko over Kubrat Pulev

MANNY PACQUIAO – Includes Chris Algieri bout

KUBRAT PULEV – Top heavy contender annihilated by Klitschko

 

NEW SETS ON HISTORICAL FIGHTERS

JOE MESI – Buffalo heavyweight rose up ranks until brain bleed cut career short

GERMAN TORRES – Power hitting Mexican flyweight of the 1980s

AMADO URSUA – Flyweight strongman's bouts against Hilario Zapata & Tadashi Tomori

FEMALE FIGHTERS

JOSELYN ARROYO – latest bout with Mayela Perez added

KATHY LONG – Kickboxing legend

 BOOKS

THE LAST GREAT CONTENDERS – An encyclopedia of the heavyweights contenders of the 1970s

FLOYD MAYWEATHER VS THE ALL TIME GREATS – Mayweather Jr takes on the old-timers in a series of fantasy fights

MANNY PACQUIAO VS THE MODERN GREATS – Pacquiao takes on the best from featherweight to welterweight in dream fight showdowns

Shannon Briggs has continued his stalking of Wladimir Klitschko as he gate-crashed Klitschko's open training session in Hamburg.

The 42-year old Brooklynite was subsequently ejected from the building by security.

"The people don't want Klitschko anymore. Champ, come out at last," shouted the American in his latest effort to get a world title fight with Klitschko.

"I'm the real champ. The world wants to see the Klitschko-Briggs fight. I'll knock Klitschko's teeth out."

Briggs then peeled off his shirt and pounded his fists on the building's glass doors, demanding: "Give me something to eat!"

Briggs has taken stalking to an international level never before seen in any sport.

1. He gate-crashed a press conference before Klitschko's bout with Australia's Alex Leapai.

2. He interrupted Klitschko while he the Ukranian champ was dining in a Miami Italian restaurant.

3. Klitschko was paddle surfing and was “intercepted” by Briggs who came upon him from a speedboat.

4. He had to be ushered out of a gym while accosting Klitschko before a training session.

"I really couldn't care less what he does," said Klitschko, 38, after Briggs' latest stunt. "I will just concentrate on the fight."

Briggs, who has twice held world titles, is undefeated in his last six heavyweight bouts since losing to Vitali Klitschko for the WBC title in Berlin in October 2010.

After he was ejected from the building, Briggs pounded on the glass shouting “Bring me something to eat!”

I thought Jim Lampley made an excellent point at the end of the broadcast when he said that he was “spooked” against picking Hopkins to lose. Hopkins had proved him wrong before and because of that he chose to ignore the “cold, hard logic” that this was a 49-year old man going up against a 31-year old destroyer in his prime.

 

I felt the same way. There is a part of us that wants to believe that certain athletes are special and that they can somehow always find the magic bullet. This bout reminded me of Sugar Ray Leonard's beat down at the hands of Terry Norris way back in 1991. That fight was as one-sided as it gets but there was still tension in the final round that the Sugar Man could somehow pull one out of the fire.

 

Lampley and Max Kellerman retained their belief in Hopkins throughout and overreacted to a left hook Hopkins landed in the final round. “Kovalev is wobbled!” Kellerman cried out. The replays, however, showed that the punch landed on Kovalev's neck which forced him off balance.

 

Max Kellerman compared him to Archie Moore and George Foreman but his fighting style really is nothing like those two. Saoul Mamby was probably a poor man's Bernard Hopkins in that he used his guile and ring savvy to compete well in his 40s.

 

Post fight discussions revolved around what was next for Hopkins and the name of Adonis Stevenson came up....Please...no more....It is clear that Hopkins cannot handle any kind of volume punching opponent anymore. Stevenson is not Beibut Shumenov or Tavoris Cloud. He is mobile when he wants to be and would be able to win that fight with his southpaw jab in and of itself, let alone his big left cross.

 

I believe the primary error Hopkins made was in comparing Kovalev to Kelly Pavlik.

 

Hopkins described Kovalev as “Frankenstein's Monster”, in other words, someone who had his foot planted to the canvas and plodded forward. There was nothing in Pavlik's game that is comparable to Kovalev aside from the fact that they are both tall, Caucasians.

 

Any footage of Kovalev shows him to be mobile, rangy guy. He uses his legs to get in and out of the pocket. Pavlik just stepped forward. And when the “Krusher” attacks he uses angles (as Hopkins found out all too well) and seems to have uncanny accuracy with his right cross.

 

There is a belief about Hopkins which asserts that he is only vulnerable to speedsters like Joe Calzaghe and Chad Dawson. This is an erroneous assessment when you like at his bouts against Jermain Taylor. In the first fight, he is clearly fearful of Taylor's right handed power and gives away all of the early rounds. Recalling that fight made me believe that Hopkins was in serious trouble against Kovalev but I'll admit that I didn't bet on it. Like Lampley, I was “spooked” by Hopkins' mystique.

 

I seriously doubt Hopkins will retire. I'd look for him to take another title fight at age 50 which would be the selling point in and of itself. I'm hard pressed to name a champion in the light heavyweight or cruiser division that he could beat, however.

 

Kovalev could rule the light heavyweights for a long time. If Andre Ward steps up to light heavyweight that would be a super fight for hard core fight fans. I hope that clamor for that possible match-up starts soon.

 

Random thoughts on Saturday's other bouts: Sadam Ali has a good technical grasp and received excellent strategy from his trainer. I never thought much of Carlos Abregu. He knocked out a very raw prospect in Dulorme and posed no threat to Timothy Bradley. I would like to see Ali against the likes of Danny Garcia if he steps up to 147. I think he would give Garcia fits and it would be a lively all-East Coast showdown.

 

Tomasz Adamek, like Hopkins, should start thinking about retirement after losing to the ordinary Artur Szpilka. Felix Sturm and Robert Stieglitz battled to a draw which I haven't watched yet but makes me wonder if we should give Sturm the nickname of “King of the Draws”.

 

SERGEY KOVALEV CAREER COLLECTION

 

BERNARD HOPKINS CAREER COLLECTION

 

 

Gennady Golovkin's trainer, Abel Sanchez, thinks there is a possibility that GGG could face Mayweather Jr after all.

Sanchez thinks that if Golovkin scores an impressive victory against Martin Murray in February than fans will put pressure on the Money Man to step up and take on the unbeaten Kazakhstan. But Mayweather Jr has maintained that 2015 might be his final year in the sport.  

"Floyd understands the business as well as anybody in the boxing business and if it's not a profitable fight and Golovkin does well against Murray, Floyd has got some decisions to make," Sanchez said. "Floyd's about making the biggest fights and if Golovkin is the biggest fight, I'm sure that he'll consider it."

GGG is 31-0 with 28 knockouts. He is the reigning WBA middleweight champion and recently destroyed Marco Antonio Rubio inside of two rounds to retain his title.

Sanchez believes that Triple G could knockout Mayweather if given the chance.

"I don't think he would stop him like he did with Rubio, Floyd Mayweather is a heck of a fighter. Floyd Mayweather has proven that every time somebody speaks up, he shuts them up. He has 47 fights that he has won. We can talk all we want but until he steps in the ropes and we have to deal with Floyd, we'll find out. I am confident that Gennady stops him within twelve rounds," Sanchez said.

Rumors of a superfight between Mayweather and  Manny Pacquiao have bubbled up again. If  in their long-proposed super fight next year. But if the Pacman has a lackluster effort against non-entity Chris Algieir, Sanchez believes the opportunity for Triple G to step in may surface.  

"I think we have to wait on that one until the Algieri fight to see how good Pacquiao looks," Sanchez said in an interview with On The Ropes Boxing Radio. "If he doesn't look good even if he wins, then it's not a profitable fight for Floyd."

GENNADY GOLOVKIN BOXING DVD SET