GSW Vs Thunder a treat - the basketball that is a boxing match

Durant and Westbrook - up 3-1 in the Western Conference finals - poked fun at Curry being a laughable defender and delivered a slight to GSW...

The Thunder had awakened a sleeping giant. Curry had regained a fraction of his supernova self and is proving he's still the sun in a constellation of stars. And Klay himself is never far delivering his own blinding light.

Now at 3-3, GSW showed a warrior's heart and proved they're ready for any fight.

Game 7 is when Durant will wish he could take it all back.
GSW will deliver the knock out.

Mayweather Vs Pacquiao Showed Changes Needed in Boxing

(It ended with a whimper! This is what I wrote a couple of weeks after the forgettable Mayweather-Pacquiao sparring match. First published at Boxingnews24, read on fellow aficionados!)

About 2 Weeks removed from the fight of the century, and with Mayweather and Pacquiao now hundreds of millions richer, it's time to revisit that farce of a boxing match.

Here's what we learned:
1. Mayweather looks to have really benefited from the match being held in MGM Grand, which is his turf. Watching the replay, the commentators made it sound that Mayweather was pulverising Pacquiao with the hand of God. Tuning out the noise, a draw is the best outcome Floyd could have hoped for. Instead, he was awarded the win.
2. There is a need for transparency in the way boxing judges do the scoring. It's high time we know the score after each round as well as how the judges arrived at the score so nobody gets conned in the end. Also, there's scoring integrity in real professional sports that is painfully lacking in boxing. Change is needed and soon.
3. Don't do the math in a Mayweather fight because things don't really add up. Less is more apparently and the judges somehow buy that.
4. Mayweather was robbed of an Olympic medal and it seems Professional Boxing overcompensated by favouring Mayweather whenever his fights went to the scorecards. Mayweather should not be winning any boxing match when all he does is run away without making the opponent pay. Otherwise, Joshua Clottey - another defensive Master, but more of a possum than a hare - should also be undefeated.
5. Pacquiao thought "Mayweather didn't do nothing." He was right.
6. Pacquiao thought he won the fight. He may be right.
7. Mayweather called Pacquiao a coward. That's after five years of Mayweather evading a fight with Pacquiao and 12 rounds of running away from an injured smaller fighter.

In hindsight, we're all better off not watching the fight. Having said that, any takers for a rematch?

http://www.boxingnews24.com/2015/05/mayweather-vs-pacquiao-showed-changes-needed-in-boxing/

Running Man Mayweather Awarded a Win Over Tepid Pacquiao

(My take on the forgettable Mayweather-Pacquiao boxing match. Read on fellow afficionados, this is worth your time and 100 times much better than the fight!)

Basketball is a running game. Apparently, so is boxing. And Mayweather who showcased his running skills against Pacquiao naturally won.

It was a masterful performance once again by Mayweather. He ran around the ring and Pacquiao rarely caught up with him. But the fight of the century it never was. More like tag you're it. Mayweather playfully running away and Pacquiao just happy to be there.

We waited for the Big Bang from two boxing gods sharing the same ring, a Mayweather-Pacquiao supernova that will reverberate through time and space altering our perception of life or reinforcing it. Boxing becoming a religious experience once more, like the gladiator combat in all its glory way back in Ancient Rome.

Alas, Mayweather was always a blackhole. And Pacquiao's light always destined to be sucked in by the growing darkness - the inevitable death of a star.

It ended in a whimper. Mayweather fleeing after a few love taps and Pacquiao taking his own sweet time to run after Floyd with no sense of urgency at all. Boxing's ultra elites went through the motion - a sparring job at best - and happily collected their ungodly pay cheques.

Elsewhere, the Spurs and Clippers battled to the death in game 7. Blake Griffin was finally the monster we wanted him to become and Chris Paul gave his life and limb to overcome the almighty Tim Duncan. Super athletes rising to the occasion and elevating themselves. That was the real fight of the century.

The boxing match we've waited for and watched was however something else entirely. 

Mayweather's bogus win is a middle finger directed to the suckers that we are and Pacquiao's shoulder injury a good sell for a rematch.

The con remains at play.

Article first published at Boxingnews24.
http://www.boxingnews24.com/2015/05/running-man-mayweather-awarded-a-win-over-tepid-pacquiao/

Mayweather Vs Pacquiao - End Game

By Rasheed Catapang

Floyd Mayweather is a boxing genius. A tortured soul, the fight with Pacquiao had played out in his mind many times over. He'd thought Every move and counter, every feint and attack, every run and chase and its permutations. They all led to a single outcome - a whirlwind attack, a barrage of punches coming from every angle piercing the much vaunted shoulder roll. Floyd flat on his back, knocked out cold by Pacquiao.

A genius knows it's equal. And from the moment he laid eyes on him, Mayweather knew Pacquiao was his, and then some. But that was true 4 or 5 years ago. Floyd retired and evaded Pacquiao. He watched, waited and knew exactly when Pacquiao's skills had eroded. A decline which was more than his, it's time to cash in the chips - all 180 million dollar of it.

But then again, Pacquiao is a once in a generation talent who might have saved his best for last. He gave in to Mayweather's every demand just to secure the much coveted fight. Floyd, for all we know, is on death row. 

Roach said "Floyd can't run like he used to... We'll knock out Floyd." And so on May 2, the Tazmanian devil that made Dela Hoya quit and Cotto retreat will be unleashed again to devour Mayweather once and for all. Floyd, should he reach the 12th round by some miracle, can hope for a Bradley like win. That is highly unlikely, but still.

We all want the perfect storm, however. The yin and yang in reckless abandon, forces of nature colliding to destroy the balance. Pacquiao and Mayweather toe to toe - boxing's deadliest practitioners giving all they have and more. 

It may end with a whimper or with a bang. Either way, this is already so much more fun than the taunting game we've endured for years.

Article first published @ Boxingnews24:

http://www.boxingnews24.com/2015/03/mayweather-vs-pacquiao-end-game/#more-189770

Carl Froch Reigns

Maidana-Mayweather: The Emperor’s Naked Again

By Rasheed Catapang

WBA/WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr (46-0, 26 KO’s) was amazing again last Saturday in defeating WBA welterweight champion Marcos Maidana (35-4, 31 KO’s) by a 12 round majority decision at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Running away with the win as expected, in a fight were Maidana beat the stuffing out of him. That Floyd has kept his unbeaten professional record intact after the Maidana fight is truly remarkable.

Maidana, hand-picked by Mayweather and the perfect foil to make him shine, obviously didn’t read the script. Or if he did, then he wisely decided not to follow it. He gave Floyd 12 rounds of hell, delivering a sustained destructive attack Mayweather had not accounted for. Maidana morphed into a crazy but better Jose Luis Castillo – the exact type of fighter Floyd has always been avoiding, a volume puncher in his prime – and showed Mayweather the boss wears a blue “sombrero”.

But like Jose Luis Castillo, who was robbed of the win when he fought Floyd in 2002, Maidana officially lost the fight. No gross injustice was committed, though, because it’s been established beforehand that it’s Mayweather’s world we’re living in. And in this world two rules apply:

1. Floyd’s perfect record is the central truth and sole constant, and;

2. All things must bend to sustain rule number one.

The judges, just as CJ Ross & Duane Ford before them, simply complied.

Sometime later, the greatest boxer ever tweeted he’d hope to see Mayweather rumble with Pacquiao. Ali’s not getting his wish.

Manny Pacquiao is Maidana with wings. And Mayweather, after getting his backside kicked by Maidana, is now fully cognizant that Pacquiao is not merely the embodiment but also the realization of all his fears. The road to Floyd’s defeat is thus forever blocked.

And so Floyd will keep his perfect record. But that does not make Floyd the best boxer of his generation. Not when the best boxer of the last decade was Pacquiao – a time when Floyd was at the peak of his powers.

Not when on one Saturday, Maidana overwhelmed Mayweather. And the one in the blue “sombrero” owned the night.

(Article first published at Boxingnews24.)

Mayweather's exposed. Not quite the All-Time-Great his sycophants portray him to be.

The emperor's naked once more.

What Pacquiao-Bradley 2 means to Mayweather

Pacquiao-Bradley 2 meant nothing and everything to Floyd Mayweather.

First published at Boxingnews24, read on Dear Readers...

http://www.boxingnews24.com/2014/04/what-pacquiao-bradley-2-means-to-mayweather/

In the height of his powers, Michael Jordan was a force of nature. In his hands, the defeat of opposing teams were a foregone conclusion – inevitable like death and tax. Prime MJ was the ultimate basketball player, absolutely devastating in both sides of the court. The same is true for the 2008-2009 version of Pacquiao which in the rematch with Bradley was nowhere to be found.

There were flashes of brilliance of course. Moments in the fight showing us glimpses of the punching dynamo Pacquiao no longer is. The buzz saw still churns but no more in a sustained mode.

Had the Pacquiao of old been inside that ring, Bradley would have fallen like timber. The Desert Storm should have fallen face down comatose by round seven. Fortunately for Bradley, as in their first fight, it’s the old Pacquiao across him.

The current Pacquiao is still fast enough to outgun Bradley. Although lacking the thudding fists the prime version used to annihilate better fighters like Hatton, Dela Hoya and Cotto. That Agent of chaos and destruction is a distant memory, replaced by this calculating and Maywetheresque lesser version. This Pacquiao is still good enough to beat elite fighters like Bradley but ill-equipped against the uncanny Mayweather.

Thankfully for Pacquiao, that fight is still not going to happen. Pacquiao, no matter how diminished now, remains the biggest threat to the risk-averse Mayweather. And Floyd can’t really be bothered. After all, he still will be the highest paid athlete of 2014 once he dispatches Maidana in May – a fight akin to the Ultimate Spurs taking on the helpless Milwaukee Bucks. The con remains at play.

All the better for Pacquiao who sees himself fighting for two more years. That would be MJ playing for the Wizards in basketball terms.

...which brings us to Pacquiao-Marquez 5!