Monday, May 19, 2008

Weekend wrap up.

Byrd-George

The story of Chris Byrd dropping 40 + pounds to light heavyweight distracted many of us from the obvious going into this fight... Chris Byrd was a shot fighter. The writing was on the wall in his last heavyweight fight against Povetkin, Chris just couldn't get out of the way of punches.

I knew George was a very fast handed fighter going into this fight and Chris wasn't prepared for that speed as his reflexes were lost in his tough losses to Klitshko and Povetkin. The speed and power at light heavyweight is obviously far different and Chris experienced that. I'll admit, I overlooked that Chris was pretty much shot going into his fight with George. No shame in losing though, as he's had a great career winning a heavy weight title and battling it out with the giants and faring pretty damn good in many of those fights, like his style or not, he had balls doing it.

Kirkland-Albert

I like Kirland and he was very impressive with stopping Albert for the first time ever in their fight. Kirland's hard core training methods were hyped up going into this fight. He can bang hard that's for sure. He needs to develop more all around skills though. Sure, don't take away from his strengths, but what is he going to do when he fights a fighter with balls, toughness, and skills. Marching relentlessly forward banging away will only take you so far, if Kirkland can expand on his awesome tenacity and punching power he can enjoy longevity in this sport and he'll be able to adjust when he must when a fighter stands up to his strengths.

Angulo-Gutierrez


Angulo is a patient persistent killer. He starts off a little slow and that must be improved upon but when you make a mistake or create an opening, he's on you. That was the factor in this fight, Gutierrez started off fast and had some great success severely hurting Angulo, but he made to many mistakes that a great counter puncher like Angulo capitalized on.

Alfredo really needs to increase his speed though. He hangs his punches out there to much and he'll be caught regularly himself when he faces another persistent fighter with great hand speed. He arms punches a lot too and needs to get more leverage on his shots so he can get a guy out of there faster when he has them hurt. He's a young fighter though and has a lot of upside and time to grow, and i think he will. Sparring with Antonio Margarito has been speeding that up too. He's a great young gun to keep an eye on and his future is bright in the aging junior middleweight division.

Gamboa- Jimenez

I was really looking forward to watching Gamboa fight with all this hype of his comparisons to a young Meldrick Taylor. What a bunch of fucking bullshit! What really got me was the praise of Gamboa's team going into this fight, he does have a great strength/conditioning coach in Mo who's been doing his job, but the lack of discipline that Gamboa displayed in the fight was very disturbing for such a high praised fighter!

I mean what the hell are they working on in camp?! Keeping your hands down and hot dogging it? The dudes in trouble with a fighter who can jab, move and counter with power. I think Gamboa has A LOT of potential, but they need to tighten ship in the discipline/technique department during the fight and NOT give a fighter like Jimenez opportunities to counter and drop a fighter with seemingly superior gifts in Gamboa. Hey this is the pros, NO head gear and heavier gloves, anything can happen and having discipline makes sure it doesn't.

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