CBCSports.ca’s Chris Iorfida pulls no punches on the action inside the squared circle and in the world of pro boxing.
Path clear for Molitor; big fights on horizon
Thursday, September 25, 2008 | 07:34 PM ET
It appears there's nothing standing in the way for Steve Molitor to compete in the biggest fight of his life, in his home ring.
The Canadian holds the International Boxing Federation belt and after five defences, will likely take on Celestino Caballero, the World Boxing Association beltholder.
Caballero easily removed the last hurdle, knocking out patsy Elvis Mejia in one round last week at the WBA's "KO Drugs" fight card/charity event in Panama (I can't make this stuff up).
The date for the unification bout between Molitor and Caballero that has been mentioned is Nov. 21 at Casino Rama in Ontario, with an official announcement expected sometime soon.
"World title" a loose term
A wire story last week trumpeted the fact that Montreal's Jean Pascal and Herman Ngoudjo were both soon contesting for "world title fights."
Pascal (21-0, 14 knockouts) will fight Carl Froch in England for the vacant World Boxing Association super-middleweight title on Dec. 6 in England, while Ngoudjo faces Juan Urango for a vacant International Boxing Federation junior welterweight bout, with the date yet to be determined.
Good fights for both Canadian guys, but make no mistake, they are fighting for one of a number of trinkets available and won't be "world champion" of anything. Until proven otherwise, Joe Calzaghe is the world super middleweight champion and Ricky Hatton is the world junior welterweight king.
The "big" fight this weekend is Shane Mosley against Ricardo Mayorga.
It's clearly a stay-busy fight for Mosley, 37, who I kind of wish would retire. He's done enough in the sport and I would hate to see him in with Antonio Margarito, as there's already a bit of a noticeable difference in his speech from his prime 10 years ago.
I always thought he would match up really well with Floyd Mayweather Jr., but when the fight could have been made in late 2006 after he beat Fernando Vargas in the summer, Mosley chose to take some rest.
Mayorga is basically a cartoon character at this point; he needed a knockdown in the final round in his last fight to guarantee a win against a completely-finished Vargas.
I do find it interesting though that Mayorga, despite really not coming to prominence until 2002, will have now fought all the great welters and jr. middles of the turn of the century - De La Hoya, Felix Trinidad, Vernon Forrest, Vargas, and now Mosley.
Gear up for fight season
I will be watching, however, and it serves as a warmup as boxing returns from a relative down period to gear up for sustained activity of big fights over the next two-plus months.
On Oct. 11, Vitaly Klitschko will come back after nearly four years off against Samuel Peter, while in another site Antonio Tarver takes on Chad Dawson. Undefeated Kelly Pavlik will face slick veteran Bernard Hopkins the following week, with the month closing out with Montreal's Lucian Bute defending in his hometown against tough Librado Andrade.
We'll have to wait and see about HBO Canada's arrival in October, announced this week.
No one has expressly said that the boxing fights that HBO broadcasts will be shown here on the channel. TSN carries about 90 per cent of HBO fights, but not all of them live, and when NASCAR or curling run interminably, they join the fight in progress, which boxing fans detest. It would be great if this new channel can fill the void. Since it's on a separate tier than TSN, I can't see it threatening TSN's numbers very much.
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About the Author
Chris Iorfida has been writing about professional and amateur sports since joining CBC Sports in 2002. Previously he worked as a producer for the Team Sports Radio Network and has also written for national publications Strategy, Chart and Exclaim.
A passionate boxing observer since 1982, a crazy year for the sport, Chris has never missed a major bout and has travelled to Nevada, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New York and of course in Canada to attend fights in person.
Recent Posts
- Path clear for Molitor; big fights on horizon
- Thursday, September 25, 2008
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- Monday, July 28, 2008
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- Thursday, July 24, 2008
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- Thursday, July 10, 2008
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- Friday, June 27, 2008
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