Boxing Blog – TSS Tidbits

The Condender hasn’t lost its punch

The ep started with a comprehensive wrap-up, so anyone who hasn’t been on board from the get-go is in good shape. The rest of us can feel free to visit the bathroom and raid the fridge for a few minutes…

Good thing Forbes and Acevedo weren’t cut, because we learn that they are due to face off against each other just three days after their winning outings…

Tuesday Sept. 26th is the finale, in case you didn’t know. Visit the Staples Center Bo for tix or your nearest service charge I mean Ticketmaster outlet…

SRL addresses the remaining crew. Acevedo and Forbes get necklaces from SRL. “Digest where you are right now, you are the elite eight,� he tells them. Teams are finito, it’s every man for himself…

The gang heads out for some fish out of water action; they visit a clothing store to get an outfit of their choosing, on the house. Gallagher tries to get everyone to pick up a cummerbund but they are all dubious. They all look sharp…

The crew prowls the city in their new finery and then it’s off to the strip club. Just kidding—they hit a restaurant and SRL tries to put it all in perspective. SRL does a voiceover and it’s edited to seem like he’s sizing up each matchup for the boys. Newsflash: this is reality TV but it ain’t all reality—the magic is often found in the editing room…

SRL has each of the boys pick who they think should get a mystery gift, based on who showed the most heart and soul. Bravo picks K9, Stewie picks Forbes, Vinroy chooses Bravo, Forbes goes with Stewie, K9 picks Bravo, Walter goes with Stewie, Ace picks Bravo, Balletto goes with Stewart—so SRL breaks the tie and goes with Bravo. Gallagher concurs. What’s the gift dammit? I’m like a 5-year-old at his birthday party.drumroll please…SRL hands him a set of car keys, Outside is a brand spankin’ new red TOYOTA TUNDRA! They certain that Gallagher wasn’t tooling around in it while the boys ran and Tommy hurled insults?

A masseuse works on Ace, who refrains from asking for a happy ending…or was that cut out in the editing bay? I’m joking, he seems like a perfect gentleman…

Ace runs and we hear how his pop brought him to the gym to keep him off the streets. He left the game for a spell, but he’s 31, and this is his last chance…

Balletto watches Forbes and calls him “Too Slick.� His nickname is actually Two Pound ‘cause he was born a 2 pound preemie. He was born a fighter in other words…

The weigh-in is on. I miss Marc Ratner. Ace is 150, Forbes is 149. We have a fight…

SRL thinks they’ll fight their hearts out and will rise to the occasion…

I’m watching this live so you readers get this report first because I care about you all dammit and I want you to know we’ll have it first, and that our writing is of a higher level than some other sites that shall remain nameless. I don’t want to name names because I respect everyone’s game but it must be noted…And we don’t put an !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! here there and everywhere which you have to respect. And if we talk to a fighter we don’t label every damn thing we do an EXCLUSIVE. Rant over…

Gallagher trains Forbes and recommends working off the jab. Always a smart building block…

Jeremy is with Acevedo and he says Ace and Forbes are the two slickest fighters in the tourney…

Mrs. Forbes shows up and chats with her man….

Mrs. Acevedo and her kiddies visit. The five of them live in a two bedroom apartment but he wants to get them a house. I live in NYC too, I know it ain’t easy. All that Wall Street money has made the real estate scene ludicrous…But I digress.

Hey, Mark Burnett is in the house. No sign of Burt Reynolds, though.

It’s fight time…

In the first round, both guys commit to the body attack. Ace looks a little stronger and Forbes should move more. Gallagher tells Forbes to get busier…

In round two, Forbes starts moving more; I guess he got his legs warmed up. He gets Ace with a nice right upper. But he stops moving as much towards the end of the round, but still took the round, Williams tells Ace…

In the third, Ace lands a one-two and Forbes is damaged. He holds and then Ace pours it on. You knew it was coming because the action slowed right before the telling combo. Forbes’ wife makes the sign of the cross. But her man weathers the storm and perhaps Ace has punched himself out. Gallagher says he needs the last two. “In his face,� he tells Forbes.

On to the fourth. Ace is leaning in, he looks beat. Forbes takes the round with more energy, but where are the uppercuts? Both trainers agree it is all even…

In the fifth, Forbes sends a message that he wants it more. “Empty that tank,� Gallagher tells him and he does. He flurries with a hardcore intensity and then we go the judges. Two of the three judges see Forbes as the victor so the winner, by split decision, is Steve Forbes.

“He outhustled me in the last round,� Ace admits afterwards. “Just fatigued.�

The Acevedo crew tries to cheer up papa. “I let myself and everybody down,� he says. “I gave it my all, just came up short.�

Next week, K9 and Walter keep jawing and then get it on…

Overall, another solid ep, another solid fight. Has there been a stinker yet?

James Toney and Sam Peter packing the pounds

I tried, for those of you aiming to put down some cashish on Saturday’s heavyweight title shot eliminator between James Toney and Sam Peter.

I asked Peter’s manager Ivaylo Gotzev what his man would be weighing for the contest and if he liked his level of conditioning.

“In the 250s,” Gotzev said. “And I wouldn’t be a good manager if I weren’t always looking for things my fighter can improve.”

I myself like Peter in the 240s and think at 6-1 he’d look sharp in the 230s range…

Against Toney he will need mobility, but then again, John Ruiz tried to get into boxer mode against RJJ, instead of using his natural weight and strength advantage, so time will tell…

Then I asked Toney’s manager, John Arthur, what his man will weigh come weigh-in time on Friday.

No dice. That touchy issue isn’t a popular one with Toney and Arthur said his guy didn’t want him to discuss it with reporters.

Toney was on the scale Monday, the manager said, and he was “light,” was how Arthur put it.

Arthur is maintaining that JT is in fine form, looking like he did a few years back, against Holyfield.

Just to be sure, I also asked Arthur if Toney had any flu bug or cold coming in, as he did against Hasim Rahman.

No, Arthur said. JT is at 100% and in fact, the manager told me, that when someone in the camp had a sneezing fit a few days ago, he banished him from the inner circle, lest Toney pick up a bug…

Showtime goes deluxe for Toney/Peter

Got to commend Showtime for getting on the ball and into the stream of things…

The net will be offering oodles of goodies on SHO.com for fight fans before and after the big Saturday rumble between James Toney and Samuel Peter. Here’s the menu:

Wed., Aug. 30: Exclusive access to the final press conference
Thurs., Aug. 31: Get on the scales at the heavyweight weigh-in
Fri., Sept. 1: Close and personal at the undercard weigh-in
Sat., Sept. 2: Go inside the ropes at Showtime’s private pre-fight tailgate party; and retrieve fight highlights immediately following Saturday’s live telecast.
Sun., Sept. 3: On stage at Saturday night’s post-fight press conference

In addition, select audio from Showtimes’ fighter/talent meetings will be available on Friday as a podcast. Log on to the boxing home page for access topodcasts.

Presumably, there will be a day delay for techs to clean up Toney’s language during the meeting…

Hey, as one of my insider pals who shall remain nameless said, we should all be rooting for Showtime to do well. So watch Weeds, watch Brotherhood, people. Why? Because if the net does well across the board, that can only mean there will be more money for the boxing arm of the outlet, and that benefits us all…

Trashing talking trainer takes aim at Morales’ hunger

I tend to regard Freddie Roach as a benevolent tutor type, but the man has a knack for trash talking.

His guy Manny Pacquiao (42-3-2) will get it on with Erik Morales for the third time on November 18, at the Thomas & Mack Center, and the mischievous Roach took the opportunity to poke fun at Morales, who is like he’s far, far, far away from the super featherweight limit. I’m guessing junior middleweight, maybe more…

“On November 18, Manny Pacquiao will have Erik Morales eating his heart out,” Roach said. “And by the looks of Erik at the recent press conference, that seems to be the ONLY thing Erik hasn’t eaten.”

Joking aside, this corpulence does not bode well for Morales, who is on a two fight losing streak, has been in more wars than the Israelis and the Palestinians, and is a relatively ancient 29. The 48-4 Morales of course has ample time to trim down but that is both a mental and physical strain, while Pac Man stays reasonably close to 135 pounds in between fights.

If I was a bettin’ man, recent photographic evidence that Morales is indulging in any and all eats would send me to the window to plunk down major moolah on Pacquiao to go to 2-1 against the legend from Tijuana…

Brazil on radar for Acelino Freitas vs. Julio Diaz

It looks like IBF interim lightweight champion Julio Diaz will get it on with Brazilian Acelino Freitas in Brazil, if contractual terms can be hashed out.

This being boxing, with egos being what they are, and the handshake basically out the window as a guarantee of a deal, we’ll believe it when all the Ts are crossed and the Is are dotted…

Freitas (38-1, 32 KOs) targeted Diaz (33-3, 24 KOs), the California Desert Sun reported. The two camps came to a preliminary agreement on Nov. 19 in Brazil.

Diaz told the paper the deal should be completed by Friday.

“This is a whole different fight. This is the kind of fight where I’m fighting to earn my respect,” Diaz said. “Beating [Ricky] Quiles didn’t really put me where I want to be like a Freitas would. I’m just trying to get my respect from the boxing world to get me where I want to be. It’s a big risk I’m taking. He’s a king there, a god.”

The former WBO lightweight champion, 30-year-old Freitas is 18-0 in his native land. So why did the Diaz crew agree to fight on his home turf? One guess….

You got it…money.

Freitas insures a beefy gate, much more than either fighter commands in the states, so it makes fiscal sense.

“I don’t really care,” Diaz said of fighting Freitas in Brazil. “I know what I’ve got. I’m confident I’ll knock him out.”

British docs say gymnastics bad/boxing good

Hear ye, hear ye, boxing abolitionists…

A new study in the August issue of the British Journal of Sports Medicine has been released which states that boxers actually have a lower risk of injury than athletes in sports such as gymnastics.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it, peaceniks…

Australian researchers followed 47 amateur and professional boxers over a year and determined that overall, the fighters suffered two injuries per 1,000 hours of boxing.

Published data on other sports then shows that boxing a less risky activity than contact sports like soccer, rugby, basketball, field hockey and elite-level gymnastics, the study indicates.

“The low overall injury rate was unexpected in terms of the general perception of the injury risk within the sport,” lead study author Tsharni Zazryn, a doctoral student at Monash University, told Reuters Health.

One caveat: the boxers in the study spent much more time in training – where injury risk is quite low – and less time in competitive bouts, where the rate of injury, of course, is far higher.

Boxers suffered injuries at a rate of one per hour during bouts, over the course of the study. But because they mostly competed only once or twice during the year, this amounted to only a dozen injuries overall.

Almost all of these 12 injuries were to the head, the Reuters story said, with concussion being the most common.

“Certainly,” Zazryn said, “this study has shown that there is a high risk of injury during competition, but overall the injury risk is low for boxers.”