Battle for St. Louis tonight…
By Robert Przybylo
BPrzybylo@opubco.com
I’ve been so wrapped up in the Showtime card Saturday night for boxing that I nearly forgot how good of a card, well, fight there is tonight.
You have two St. Louis fighters fighting in The Lou. Imagine that, a fight taking place where it should.
It pits Cory Spinks vs. DeAndre Latimore for the IBF junior middleweight crown and the unofficial “King of St. Louis” title.
Latimore impressed me a lot last year with his destruction of Sechew Powell. So much I named him 1B for Prospect of the Year.
No bad blood in this one so far as Latimore has said repeatedly how much he admired Spinks on his way up.
So that’s tonight, then tomorrow Showtime returns with Tulsa’s Allan Green vs. Carlos De Leon Jr., which I’ve chronicled before and a main event of Jermain Taylor vs. Carl Froch.
Got a soft spot for Taylor. One after another, he took on the best when he was still young and raw. He’s not young anymore, but some would still consider him raw.
He looked good in dismantling fellow US Olympian Jeff Lacy, but I don’t know what that means in the long run.
Like I said (and have defended) Taylor about before: deep down, he’s a fighter. Some think he just wants the payday. Uh uh, he’s a fighter.
I admit to not having seen Froch fight. I’ve seen his name a lot in the news the last couple of years.
He’s 24-0 and beat a shop-worn Robin Reid two years ago before dominating Jean Pascal last year for the WBA Super middleweight title. Admit to picking Pascal in that one.
It’ll be Taylor’s first fight on Showtime after having a home away from home on HBO since his debut in 2001.
***
UFC President Dana White spoke openly about Chuck Liddell retiring. And their business relationship goes way back, so I’m not gonna jump on White for basically announcing it for Liddell.
Hope the IceMan gets out as well as the Shamrock brothers (Frank and Ken). Their legacies are set.
Liddell will always be credited in some regard for helping MMA bust out into the mainstream. I’m sure he’ll always have a home in the UFC, just hope it’s never in The Octagon again.
***
I’ve tried to avoid the “will he/won’t he return” saga of Floyd Mayweather. But it looks like it’s a done deal that “Money” will be back in the ring. And as an avid Floyd fan, pretty pumped about it, except…
Calling a potential fight with Juan Manuel Marquez a “tune-up” is among the most disrespectful things I’ve heard lately.
JMM is anything but a tune-up, no matter the size. Marquez is a lot like Bernard Hopkins to me. They’re “hard” fighters.
They’re wired differently and that makes them even more of a challenge than 95 percent of the guys out there.
Floyd Sr. said Junior wants to fight Marquez and eventually land a date with Shane Mosley. Hope Mosley is still around at that point and still think Mosley and Miguel Cotto have some unfinished business in a rematch.
Cotto eked that one out, but this Mosley might be the most confident one we’ve seen in years after his destruction of Antonio Margarito.
***
Bobby Lashley has signed with Maximum Fighting Championships. That fight is May 15 in Canada. Much more on that in the future as there are a couple of Oklahoma products on the card as well…Comanche Casino event coordinator Jason Reynolds has notified me that Grady Brewer will be fighting in his hometown of Lawton, also on May 15. George Tahdooahnippah will also be on the card.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
The Ice Man was a really good fighter but last couples times i saw him fight he was kind of not doing so well.