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Hey Guys, it's a late thread. I was supposed to do an undercard preview while Ninth took the main event thread but he pulled out and I've caught my lucky break to fight in the main event. Look, I just don't have the time to bang out a full article on Manny Pacquiao and Keith Thurman. If you want to read one, here's a good one. Here's the short version: Manny Pacquiao (61-7-2, 39 KO) vs Keith Thurman (29-0, 22 KO), welterweights, 12 rounds Manny Pacquiao is Manny Pacquiao. An all time great and first ballot hall of famer, the only man to win titles in 8 divisions, potentially the greatest pound for pound fighter ever etc. He's Manny Pacquiao. If you're not an avid boxing fan you might not have seen Pacquiao's quiet resurrection within the past few years. About 2 years ago he was on what appeared like what it would be the Manny Pacquiao retirement world tour when he got upset by relatively unheralded Jeff Horn. Did Horn really beat Pacquiao? No. It was a bad decision, but Horn definitely took the fight to Pacquiao and Pacquiao seemed to really take a genuine step back and examine his career before fighting again. He spent about a full year out of the ring and when he returned against an over the hill Matthysse, he somehow looked like a new fighter. Earlier this year, he completely dominated Adrien Broner, a talented fighter who never quite reached the welterweight peak he wanted to. Now, he's stretched out this fantasy comeback to a bona fide welterweight champion in what should be his physical prime. Keith Thurman doesn't quite have the star power you'd expect him to have, given that he's a charismatic, undefeated American with the best recent record of the active welterweights. There are question marks hanging around him though. He was out of the ring a long time, he's had more than a few injuries that have sidelined him too. He's sometimes been accused of having questionable dedication to the sport. He looked a bit rusty in his fight earlier in the year. Make no mistake though, when Thurman has everything together, he's one of the best fighters in the sport. I personally think people have been underrating him a lot, both in this fight and in general ranking discussion. His wins over Garcia and Porter may not have been super dominant, but they're very good names to have on a resume and he won them without significant controversy. The fact that this fight is close to a true 50-50 is a serious testament to Manny Pacquiao's insane legacy. A big part of the outcome will depend on which version of each fighter shows up. Maybe Pacquiao looks old, maybe Thurman isn't fully healthy, but if they're both the best version of themselves we've got a close contest to look forward to. I'll be spilling a lot more words about the undercard in my next post. For now, here's some relevant information: The televised cast starts on Fox at 7pm ET, at 9pm ET it will switch over to the PPV cast. The main event will start sometime after 11, the scheduling is a bit difficult to predict, but it could be quite late.
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Jul 20, 2019 23:08
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| # ? May 6, 2024 17:32 |
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Undercard Report Fox Undercard There are 2 fights before the PPV starts that should be pretty fun scraps even if they don't figure to be particularly competitive Efe Ajagba vs Ali Eren Demirezen, heavyweights, 10 rounds The first televised fight of the night is a heavyweight clash of prospects. I've never seen Demirezen fight but he's had a perfectly decent amateur career and as a pro has collected a pretty record of 10-0 over unexceptional opposition. By all accounts he appears to be a very standard prospect with a very standard career. Ajagba on the other hand is an exceptional prospect. He's had a good amateur career, getting just short of the podium at the 2016 olympics. He's always had a style much more suited for the pros though. He's a cromulent boxer for sure, but his physical assets are what really make him stand out. He's got what appears to be amazing power but what really stands out for me is his insane reach; He's got the greatest reach in the whole division. Ajagba has knocked out every opponent who didn't just turn around and leave the ring as soon as the fight started. He's only been past the 2nd round once. He's a wrecking ball who looks like he might be the next Deontay Wilder. Demirezen isn't some can or unknown club fighter, he's a real boxer who is genuine regional talent, but he doesn't figure to be world level and Ajagba does. I'd expect this to be another highlight reel KO for Ajagba. That said, this is the heavyweight division and on paper this is the type of opponent who could make him work for it. Caleb Plant vs Mike Lee, super middleweights, 12 rounds Ok let's just get this out of the way to start: Mike Lee was in subway ads for some reason and has received a big promotional push throughout his underwhelming career. A large part of this is his Notre Dame connections which has got a lot of people to buy into him. Despite this, he's never accomplished anything in his 9 year career. Does he have potential? I don't know, he must have some to be considered a prospect at all, but I figure if he was the real deal he would have got a crack at the top earlier. Still, he's undefeated and in his athletic prime. Maybe he's been hiding the goods this whole time. But it's a massive leap from club fighters to a world title fight. A few years ago Caleb Plant was also an American prospect without any distinctive win, although he did have a real career trajectory. He stepped up his opposition until he was brought in as a pretty sizable underdog against Jose Uzcategui. Plant smoked Uzcategui, dropping him twice while outboxing him the whole way. To say it was an impressive performance would be an understatement; he went from a little known fighter with potential to being in the conversation for the best fighter in the division. I'm looking forward to this fight because it'll be fun to see Plant take a nice showcase fight on the big stage and even though the hype around Mike Lee is completely hollow, there's something fun about fights between hyped undefeated fighters. I'd expect Plant to win this easily, but the very unlikely scenario where Lee makes this a scrap would be fun to see. PPV undercard Luis Nery vs Juan Carlos Payano, bantamweights, 10 rounds Bantamweight is in a bit of flux right now. The WBSS is wrapping up right now, with P4P talent Naoya Inoue looking to unify against Nonito Donaire in the finals. The winner of that fight will be the top ranked man in the division, but there are a few other guys who have a strong argument for being the true best man in the division. One of those guys is Luis Nery. Nery was always a well respected fighter in Mexico, but only really jumped onto the world stage when he destroyed former bantamweight king Shinsuke Yamanaka in 4 rounds, then followed up by doing it again in 2 rounds. Those wins weren't without controversy. Nery popped PEDs after the first fight and wasn't able to make weight for the second fight, presumably because he was no longer on his weight cutting gear. As a result, he was banned from ever fighting in Japan again. Nery is now considered something of a heel in the boxing world. If he continues to dominate as he has been, it seems inevitable that he'll fight Inoue. But first he has to fight Payano. It's difficult to describe Payano's level. He's arguably a fringe top 10 guy in the division with some solid wins. At worst he's a top 15 guy. A real contender. But when Payano fought Inoue at the end of last year he was blown out of the water in one round. It's hard to imagine anybody being as dominant as Inoue, but Nery also seems like that type of special fighter. On paper, this is a good match up, but in practice I expect Nery to put on a show. Sergey Lipinets (15-1, 11 KO) vs Jayar Inson (18-2, 12 KO), welterweights, 10 rounds Unfortunately John Molina Jr, who was supposed to fight Lipinets, had to pull from the fight after a back issue. His replacement is Jayar Inson, a Filipino working under Manny Pacquiao promotions. Inson seems exactly like what you'd expect a replacement fighter to be. Some guy with a spotty record who is unlikely to trouble his more seasoned opponent. Sergey Lipinets was always the favourite in this bout, but he's sometimes sloppy and has very exploitable flaws. Against an opponent that knows how to exploit them, he can get into very entertaining scraps. To say the least, Inson doesn't figure to be that guy. Yordenis Ugas vs Omar Figueroa Jr, welterweights, 12 rounds This is an interesting crossroads fight. Ugas has had a strange career, he's bounced around the line of looking like a potential champion to looking like a future gatekeeper. After losing a few matches he was expected to win as a prospect, he turned into something of a prospect buster, winning fights he was expected to lose. Whatever you think of him, he's clearly scrapped his way into a top ten spot in the division. Ugas is just coming off a split decision loss to Shawn Porter where he gave the star all he could handle and then some. It was a fight that could have gone either way, but it seems like most onlookers had the fight for Ugas. Of course, the only opions that matter are those of the judges so now Ugas has gone back to the drawing board. In the other corner, there's Omar Figueroa Jr. Figueroa is a good looking prospect with some quality wins, but his career progression hasn't exactly been explosive and there's been questions in the past about his level of dedication to the sport. Still, the talent is there and it's undeniable. I'm coming up a bit short on time and imagination, but here's the bottom line for this fight: They're both good welterweights and the winner is on their way up to bigger and better things in the near future. For Figueroa, this could be his breakout win, allowing him to finally compete at the top level of the sport as a star fighter. For Ugas, a win here would continue to elevate his status as a top shelf opponent, capable of ruining anybody's day. In either case a title shot could be in the cards for the winner, potentially against the winner of the main event. Jump King fucked around with this message at 23:49 on Jul 20, 2019 |
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Jul 20, 2019 23:08
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Strong work as always dog I can't imagine many people were expecting the Ajagba fight to last this long
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Jul 21, 2019 00:45
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The SituAsian posted:Strong work as always dog I'm kind of kicking myself for underestimating Demirezen so much. I mean, you look at it on paper and you see he's a successful amateur, not a standout by any means, but he's competent and capable. Still a good performance by Ajagba though, he won a pretty straightforward decision and got some good experience.
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Jul 21, 2019 00:58
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Mike Lee is the worst contender for a major belt I've seen recently
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Jul 21, 2019 01:24
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Who would have guessed that Mike Lee, the guy who got ads on subway then spent the next 7 years fighting cardboard cutouts to majority decisions, would be beaten easily by Caleb Plant, a real boxer with a decorated amateur career coming off his breakthrough domination of the best man in the division?
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Jul 21, 2019 01:28
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MMM Whatchya Say posted:Who would have guessed that Mike Lee, the guy who got ads on subway then spent the next 7 years fighting cardboard cutouts to majority decisions, would be beaten easily by Caleb Plant, a real boxer with a decorated amateur career coming off his breakthrough domination of the best man in the division? Not me *rips up betting slip* Subway lied to me
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Jul 21, 2019 01:36
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It's annoying how broadcasters stay in their own little fiefdoms and won't acknowledge each other's champions, and it's never more obvious than in the 168 division - Fox with Plant and Benavidez, Sky/DAZN with Smith, ESPN with Zurdo Ramirez (is he still going?)
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Jul 21, 2019 01:41
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Watching at a bar with no audio, looked like Nery night have caught Payano with an elbow on that last exchange?
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Jul 21, 2019 03:01
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mad to think that it could be manny's last fight tonight
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Jul 21, 2019 03:19
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how are Ugás and Figueroa the same weight lol
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Jul 21, 2019 04:04
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Ugas absolutely taking it to Figueroa
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Jul 21, 2019 04:21
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ugas is clearly a level above here
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Jul 21, 2019 04:27
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Kind of a shame because I was excited about Figueroa, but it’s nice to see a guy like Ugas grind his way to the top of the division.
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Jul 21, 2019 04:30
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MMM Whatchya Say posted:Ugas absolutely taking it to Figueroa I kind of figured this is how it would go. Omar didn't really have much power at 140, so I didn't see him having much to offer here.
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Jul 21, 2019 04:30
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yea that was all Ugás
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Jul 21, 2019 04:47
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Floyd in the ring for some reason
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Jul 21, 2019 05:02
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thurman about to save us from seeing a pointless floyd rematch god bless
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Jul 21, 2019 05:04
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thehappyprince posted:thurman about to save us from seeing a pointless floyd rematch god bless 
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Jul 21, 2019 05:10
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lol uhoh
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Jul 21, 2019 05:12
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please kick the screaming girls out
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Jul 21, 2019 05:12
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Who the gently caress are these godawful announcers
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Jul 21, 2019 05:13
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love to back up in a straight line with my hands down against manny pacquiao
thehappyprince fucked around with this message at 05:21 on Jul 21, 2019 |
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Jul 21, 2019 05:13
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manny is still so quick lol
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Jul 21, 2019 05:15
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Buncha good rights from Thurman this round Edit: that last left from Manny had him wobbly or at least he didn't like it much. good time for the bell
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Jul 21, 2019 05:28
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thurman was having his best round there until the second half of it when manny woke up
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Jul 21, 2019 05:30
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7 was definitely Thurman's best round. If it's true that he bet on himself to finish in the 7th, he may have blown his load trying to make it happen.
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Jul 21, 2019 05:37
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manny’s slowing down now. it’s gonna come down to how many of the early rounds they gave to thurman
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Jul 21, 2019 05:43
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A lot of these rounds have been close. I had Manny 5-1 through round 6 but can imagine the official judges may have had it closer. Thurman seems to have found a rhythm in the last few rounds and I think he had a good case for rounds 7 and 8. This could be a very close fight score wise, even with Manny's extra point.
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Jul 21, 2019 05:44
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I didn't see the alleged headbutt. Edit: ya, body shot
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Jul 21, 2019 05:50
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pacquiao hurts him to the body, commentators think it’s a head butt. thurman spends the next minute covering his body, commentators still don’t get it.
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Jul 21, 2019 05:51
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I think regardless of the cards, the performance Manny is putting on at 41 is crazy. I don't think there are 7 rounds here to give Thurman.
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Jul 21, 2019 05:54
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7 rounds only gets him a draw unless he gets a knock down. agreed about manny. back on the juice confirmed
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Jul 21, 2019 05:56
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Watch this be declared a draw lol
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Jul 21, 2019 05:58
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thehappyprince posted:7 rounds only gets him a draw unless he gets a knock down. 7 to Thurman against 5 + the knockdown for Manny would win him the fight.
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Jul 21, 2019 05:59
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Thought Manny won.
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Jul 21, 2019 06:00
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lennox lewis really brings nothing to the broadcast does he
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Jul 21, 2019 06:00
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lol
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Jul 21, 2019 06:01
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split? are you loving kidding me? Not sure how two could go 115-112 then the other had Thurman winning, even with the knockdown i can still taste him fucked around with this message at 06:04 on Jul 21, 2019 |
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Jul 21, 2019 06:02
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| # ? May 6, 2024 17:32 |
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my man
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Jul 21, 2019 06:02
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