Busy Weekend for Boxing

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Filed on December 14th, 2008 in Boxing ⋅ ⋅

This weekend in boxing saw a little bit of everything.

You had a potential Fight of the Year on Thursday when Tomasz Adamek beat Stevie Cunningham in an epic cruiserweight battle.

You had the heavyweight king, Wladimir Klitschko, putting on a boxing clinic, and finally letting his hands go early in a fight, en route to a seventh round knockout win over the drastically overmatched Hasim Rahman.

You had James Toney getting a ridiculous gift decision against Fres Oquendo, in a fight in which Oquendo realistically swept the second half of the fight, and likely nine of 12 rounds.

And to top it off, you had Kendall Holt edging out Demetrius Hopkins in a very exciting junior-welterweight bout. Holt took the split-decision, but it was a fantastic fight, especially considering the fact that both fighters took the fight on short notice.

Other than the Toney-Oqeuendo debacle, it was a pretty good rebound weekend for boxing, considering the sideshow that was last weekend.

The Adamek-Cunningham fight on Versus is a true contender for Fight of the Year. Cunningham probably controlled more of the fight, but three knock downs evened the score. The points that Cunningham lost for getting knocked down may have cost him the fight, as it probably not only cost him points, but in two of the rounds, probably changed who was the round winner.

It was an all-out action fight, and hopefully we will see it again.

The Klitschko fight was what most expected it to be, and the Toney fight was a joke, while the Holt-Hopkins fight was a pleasant surprise in terms of excitement.

And I’ll add this about the Holt-Hopkins fight: The junior-welterweight division is quietly becoming one of the most exciting divisions in boxing, in terms of quality of fighters and potential matchups. And not only that, it may be the classiest division in boxing. Between Holt, Hopkins, Timothy Bradley, Ricky Hatton, and Paulie Malignaggi, there may not be a division full of nicer guys. That’s got to be worth something.

Bottom line: Four good productions, four fights interesting in one way or another, and all of them on television here in the States. Good weekend for boxing.

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