IT WAS A GREAT FIGHT… A HELLUVA OF A FIGHT!!! Didn’t think much of it before but afterwards, this might be the fight of the year… so far. It was competitive, it was nonstop, it was a great match-up and it it was one really good fighter and one elite fighter, you just didn’t know who was who until it was all over. I know that they are going to say that Loma was the obvious elite fighter, but styles make fights and Kambosos, regardless of the haters, deserved a shot at the title and made an exciting fight.

There is going to be electricity at the Barclay Center tomorrow on 4/20…. (2024). Devin “The Dream” Haney versus Ryan “King Ry” Garcia. Really quick, on a separate note, that fighters take on nicknames, like urban youth throwing up tags… mine was “epic”, is a little hilarious because this the only sport that formalizes those monikers or nicknames. But now back to the reason I’m writing this blarticle…. the fight between these young fighters is going to be pretty amazing, IF… and only if…. they are allowed to fight without outside interference. Lets hope that this will be the case, right. Fair fight on a fair night. That being said, the winner of this fight is easy to pick… it’s the one with the most points at the end of the night or the one that’s standing when it’s all over. The way I see it is, this fight can go either way with a 55% to 45% advantage to the person that is able to implement their game plan and not let the other person adjust.

Let’s start with Devin Haney (pictured above yelling at the mirror in constant professionalism as he practices to yell at Garcia) is the undefeated 140 pound Champion with a record of 31 wins with 15 big wins by curing insomnia. Haney’s biggest asset is his IQ and his mobility. His path to a win is to not let people chirp and forget about going for the KO. It will come if it comes. Haney’s specialty is quick shots and having his opponent walk into a big shot. Haney has to mix up his shots and do quick side steps and counters. If he goes at Garcia, he is going to run into something. Luckily for Haney, Garcia has two modes… fast and faster, which should play into his bag of tricks. Haney needs to keep that right hand at home when he isn’t using it and rely on his jab. Haney has a bad habit of leaving his right side exposed and he needs to definitely correct that for this fight.

The opponent, Ryan Garcia (pictured above seemingly readying himself for Haney by getting ready to headbutt a ram) is the uber (meaning very and not the taxi) talented fighter with a record of 24 wins with a sole defeat against a pound for pound lightweight with 20 big wins followed by his opponents asking “how long have I been asleep” zzzzzzzz’s…… Garcia’s biggest asset is no surprise to anyone, it’s his speed and his ability to change direction on his punches. Garcia’s path to win this is to mix up patience with controlled aggression and some feints. Garcia has to rack up the points early and move to make Haney desperate and than force Haney to come to him, which as sure as the doctor slapped yo mama when you were born, Haney will do if he is behind on points. If Garcia can pull that off, he will KO Haney, absent any outside interference. Garcia needs to learn to tuck his chin to avoid being knocked down and his one weakness is that he always goes straight back instead of off-lining to the right or left like he should. He needs to step right or left to stay in range and needs to pump that jab like he is playing that slots.

Both of these fighters, regardless of what is seen leading up to the fight, are good guys. The magnitude of this fight is getting to them but you have to realize that they are both young and they are both hungry and they both want to win. Too bad you can’t have two winners because I believe they both deserve a win but this is the hurt business not the heart business. You perform and then you extend your gratitude to your opponent. Let’s hope that they can keep it professional in there.

My prediction is that the best man will win, hopefully…. Most pros have Haney winning and he is the betting favorite, but there are a few that have Garcia pulling off the upset. Good luck to both.

Ahhh… the great sport of boxing has become a parody. Before I tell you why I think that, let’s go over the history of prize fighting.

Boxing used to be a sport that was introduced by the Greeks. Before the mid-third century B.C., the ancient Greek Olympics were called the Hekatomboia. This festival involved the sacrifice of 100 oxen and attracted participants from all over Greece. The ancient Olympics were so successful that the Greeks created the Panhellenic Games, which were four games in four different city-states to honor different gods. The Olympics lasted nearly 1,000 years until they were outlawed in 393 CE by the Roman Emperor Theodosius I. However, they were revived again in 1896.

Boxing, or something similar, was represented in those games as people that had their hands wrapped in cloth fought… that was part of the games. As legend has it, Mikus Tysonious was the first ever champion, yeah that would have been pretty funny but the actual name of the person was Onomastus, which in Greek means famous, which I’m guessing was his fight name, a lot like the “Gypsy King”, because I can’t imagine that someone would just name their kid Famous. But it was Greece, so who the hell knows. Hey, did you see what Famous did, he wrote graffiti on the Temple of Hera. That Famous… always getting into trouble.

Boxing resurfaced in England in the early 16th century in the form of bare-knuckle boxing, sometimes referred to as prizefighting. Boxing was introduced in the United States in the late 1700s but began to take root there only about 1800. Irish immigrants are said to have introduced boxing to the United States as they migrated to the Northeast throughout the 1860s and 1870s with the first Heavyweight Champion being John L. Sullivan, the son of Irish immigrants, who was said later in life to become friends with an Irish guy named Bailey…. and he used his cream to get in shape for his fights. Bailey’s Irish Cream would eventually be the downfall of the Champion.

As the years went on we seen great champions come and go. Boxing was such an adored sport that one of the famous figures in history, Muhammad Ali, is world renowned. To be the heavyweight champion of the world brought a certain amount of prestige… most of the time. Now, boxing is losing its panache. With social media and everyone having a camera ready to shoot someone at their worst, these famous fighters are confronting things their predecessors didn’t have to. But the worst part of the situation is how technology can affect your performance. Boxing is no longer a sport that is determined on skill but on who has less baggage or is more liked by the “power company”. That electricity and wave particle duality or particle wave physics has more of an outcome to determine who wins a fight than the fighters themselves makes boxing a joke.

The fighters are aware of this and they constantly try to make their opponent into some kind of Bond villain in the hopes of not being affected by these outside entities. They would rather see their opponent be affected. It’s a sad state of affairs when sports is no longer sports but people trying to please an unknown master. I still watch boxing but only to see which of the two opponents is going to be affected. Being the best is no longer necessary, now you have to win popularity contests.

Thank God it wasn’t that way… at least not as much… in the days of Ali.

What a fight ….. or maybe… where was the fight? I understand how everyone feels, Ortiz definitely had a game plan that offset Lopez’s best qualities. It was smart, slick and worthy of mention but a lot like Stevenson v. De Los Santos, it doesn’t make for the best fights. The reason why Lopez won a close fight that could have gone either way is because 1) he was already the Champion and you have to take the belt from the champion (as noted by allowing the champion to keep his or her belts in case of a draw), 2) Ortiz wasn’t overwhelmingly landing more shots than Lopez, he barely landed more and none were significant and 3) finally, because if you reward a close fight like that to the slick guy and not the guy that was pressing the action, you will end up killing boxing because viewers, not the hard core guys but the ones that watch it for the entertainment factor, will go to any other sport and not the track meet in a 20 foot square. While I became a fan of Ortiz and his skillful display, rudimentary fans that are watching for the first time may never watch again. That’s why, if you are going to make the stick and move your game plan, you better overwhelm statistically with punches landed, you have to leave no doubt….. and while that’s a sad fact….. it’s a fact nonetheless. Ultimately, this a business, and if you deliver fights like that night after night, boxing will die, and that’s why Ortiz lost. That being said, if Ortiz was the champion and he was defending his belt(s), he would have gotten the win.

That brings us to another perplexing situation, Lopez, for as good as he is, has one major flaw, almost all boxers do, he can’t handle movement. He needs to correct this. He should have stopped and forced the challenger to follow him. He is the champion and if no one lands a shot, he retains the belt. I mean, hell, the fight was about that boring anyway. Not as bad as Stevenson v De Los Santos, but close. Got to have a game plan for the guys that are not going to stand there and trade.

The right guy won…. but not because he won but because the other guy didn’t do enough to win…. if that makes sense. Boxing scoring is subjective as opposed to objective, that’s the correct phrasing, I looked it up to make sure, which means that unless a KO is achieved, the fight is left in the hands of judges who make a decision based on their experience and also what is best for the sport. I know, it sucks… but if boxing is to survive, you have to force the fights to be entertaining or at least, in cases where the fight is so tactical and technical, decisive. It has always been that way.

But if I was a matchmaker…. Teo Lopez vs. Conor Benn…. that would definitely be an all action fight and Benn, who is a top ten contender in a heavier division, assuming that he can make the 140 pound limit, would be coming down or Lopez can go up for one fight. That action packed fight would make up for this tactical fight. And since both fighters just fought 12 rounders, the time off would fit. May 4th is still open….