It's Monday. Welcome back for another edition of Observe and Fight, The Boxing Observer's compilation of observations and random thoughts from the week that was in boxing. Get caught up on some of the most recent events you may have missed out on, including the Mayweather feud on 24/7, the Pacquiao-Marquez III press tour schedule, Carl Froch's suggestion for random drug testing, and much more. Without further ado, check out the latest observations from The Boxing Observer.
- Seems like HBO does not believe Ortiz can win this fight. Watching "Greatest Hits: Victor Ortiz" on demand the other day, the coverage of the Maidana fight was ceompletely skewed. The clip doesn't even mention that Ortiz quit. It shows the reason the fight was stopped was due to a cut. Just another way for HBO to get a few more buys from the novice boxing fan who will only pay $70 to watch someone try to be the first to beat Floyd Mayweather. Call it good promoting, I guess.
- Mayweather/Ortiz 24/7 will be the best 24/7 yet. Forget the fact HBO is hyping Ortiz up like he has a realistic chance to win this fight. Everyone has a puncher's chance, but that's as far as it goes. The slow week in boxing was livened up by the 4-plus minute argument between Floyd Jr. and Floyd Sr. That argument showed that the relationship between the two will always be on thin ice. As for Ortiz, though I find his story inspiring, I do not buy for a second that he doesn't remember the Maidana fight. I commend Otrtiz for turning his career around, but don't insult our intellegence. Just admit it was a moment of weakness because we have all had them.
- The Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez press tour is ridiculous. I was tired just reading through the schedule these two men have for their 25,000 mile adventure. The tour starts in the Phillipines, four days later heads to New York, followed by a trip to California the next day, and rounded out by a trip to Mexico. 6 days, 4 cities, 25,000 miles. Marquez better pack on the pounds because he will need every one of them November 12th against Pacquiao. Hey Bob Arum, here's an idea for you. Charge $10 a piece for folks in the Phillipines and Mexico to attend the press tour. You could bank an extra few million by preying on the poor folks trying to get a glimpse of their heroes.
- A press conference is expected to be held Tuesday to announce that Arturo Gatti, was in fact, murdered. All I can say is, "I'M SHOCKED!" Let's be real here. Does anyone actually believe the crap the Brazilian police tried to make us believe about suicide? Do I think Gatti was squeaky clean? Nope. Do I think he and his wife, Amanda Rodrigues, could have had an argument that turned violent that night as was reported? Yup. But do not think for one second that Gatti killed himself. All the evidence pointed to murder, and I hope investigators not only announce that Gatti was murdered, but they have suspects they are targeting for the murder. If they can't find anything, let's get the CSI team on the case.
- Good for Carl Froch for asking for random drug testing. By no means am I saying we should be suspicious of Andre Ward. Ward happens to be one of the guys in boxing that kids can look up to. But when Froch found out that Ward previously worked with former BALCO mastermind Victor Conte, Froch stated he was concerned. Ironically, it was Andre Ward who first brought up the idea for both fighters to take this to the next level and force each other to take the tests. If a fighter other than Mayweather demanded this testing, maybe it would start a trend and clean up a sport that has enough problems already.
- In case you didn't hear, there was a heavyweight title fight this past Saturday. Alexander Povetkin defeated Ruslan Chagaev for the WBA heavyweight title. This came about only because the WBA took a page from the WBC by promoting regular champion, Wladimir Klitschko, to "Super Champion", paving the way for another title fight, aka, another way to charge a sanctioning fee. Povetkin prevailed, which should set up a superfight between he and Klitschko, right? Don't expect it anytime soon. Povetkin's trainer, Teddy Atlas, didn't sound too enthusiastic about putting his guy in the ring with "Godzilla" as Atlas referred to Klitschko during a conference call promoting the fight last week. Believe it or not, Povetkin's next opponent could be none other than Evander Holyfield. That's right. Holyfield, who turns 49 in October, may get his wish to fight for a heavyweight title one more time. Let's just all hope that Povetkin doesn't bite. He could make even more money if he decides to fight Wladimir.
- Speaking of heavyweights, can anyone tell me what the betting odds are against Tomasz Adamek defeating Vitali Klitschko on September 10th? Call me crazy (and I'm sure I will get a few emails from you fans telling me I am), but I think Adamek has a legit shot at knocking off Vitali. The key for Tomasz is to make it an even more boring fight than we are accustomed to seeing with the Klitscko's. He needs to go one punch at a time and run like hell. He could steal some rounds that way and potentially shock the world. He will certainly have the entire stadium of 40,000 fans behind him in his home country of Poland. Maybe, just maybe, we could see one of the biggest upsets in boxing history. Getting ahead of myself with this statement, but if Adamek beats Klitschko, I would love to see him make his first title defense against cruiserweight kingpin Steve Cunningham. The 2008 war between the two brought the cruiserweight division to life ever so slightly with three total knockdowns in the fight.
- Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. finally got smart. If you want to believe Chavez Jr. cut his hand on a ceiling fan, that is certainly your perrogative, but I believe there were some serious doubts that Chavez Jr. could beat Ronald Hearns, even though the fight was in Mexico. One slip-up from Chavez will cost he and Saul Alvarez a multi-million dollar payday in a Mexican superfight. Chavez is not on the level of the elite and will be force fed easy competition until the day he gets in the ring with "Canelo". PERIOD! Plus, I'm pretty sure nobody would be paying any attention to the fight since most Mexican's will be watching "Canelo" fight on the Mayweather-Ortiz undercard.
- Would anyone else like to see a Jermain Taylor vs. Andre Dirrell matchup? Both guys have been out for a long while now, both guys suffered head injuries, and both guys have made suggestions they will be returning to the ring. Why not match the two of them together? Two of the original members of the Super Six tournament could collect a nice payday if their first fight back was against each other.
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