Browse >
Home / Archive: 23. May 2009
By Stoker MacIntosh… Lurking in the sea of talent which is boxing’s welterweight division—arguably the greatest welterweight division in the history of the sport—there swims many a shark.
Names like Shane Mosley, Joshua Clottey, Zab Judah, and Miguel Cotto are only some of the names that adorn the list of elite talent in this thrilling division.
Ranked No. 7 among them is a rising young welterweight superstar named Andre Berto.
This former Olympic boxing team member and two-time national Golden Gloves champion is a hungry, young, up-and-comer who never seems to be in a dull fight.
From December 2004 to October 2006, Berto won 15 fights, with 13 coming by way of knockout, and is currently the WBC welterweight champion.
Berto’s style is much the same as many pressure fighters who have traveled the well-worn path before him.
He uses incredible hand speed to apply pressure, constantly moving forward, hoping to land a big right-hand bomb, which has ended the night for many of his opponents.
Although Berto has great offensive power, he is not unlike many power-punchers before him, in that he sometimes sacrifices his defensive skills for a knock-out-seeking offense.
This characteristic was never more evident than in his unanimous 12-round war with Luis Collazo earlier this year.
Collazo is a slick veteran southpaw who has had wars with Ricky Hatton, Jose Antonio Rivera, and others.
This fight was no different; it was a war that Berto won by a narrow margin—a close, hard-fought unanimous decision that many at ringside had given to Collazo.
Maybe Berto should have stayed on the outside, but that’s not his style, so by fighting on the inside he allowed Collazo to dictate the fight.
In 2007, at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, Berto fought a similar war with David Estrada.
Berto was dropped in the fourth round, but won by TKO in the 11th, and captured the NABF welterweight title in a hard-fought see-saw battle.
In another thrilling fight in June 2008, Berto won the WBC Welterweight title from Miguel Rodriguez by continuously feeding him a diet of right hand bombs.
Luckily for Rodriguez, the fight was stopped in the seventh round before any more punishment could be delivered.
Steve Forbes was the opponent for Berto’s first title defense in September of last year.
Forbes was dominated and out-boxed, but went the distance with Berto, who won by wide margins on all three scorecards.
At the age of 25, Berto is a work in progress, and winning 24 pro fights in today’s welterweight division is nothing to be sneezed at.
That being said, however, Berto does have some holes in his defensive game that need to be plugged soon.
In that ocean of talent, the powerful young Berto could very well be on the cusp of super-stardom, but with those unplugged holes he may find himself on a ship that’s about to sink.
Berto will get a further chance to keep himself afloat on May 30, when he will defend his WBC title for the third time against light welterweight Juan Urango (21-1, 16 KOs) in a 12-round bout at the Seminole Hard Rock hotel in Hollywood, Fla.
Authors Note: This article was previously written by Stoker under the alias Rocky Scotland.
By Jack Vallon… While everyone and their mother , especially the folks down at NBC, has jumped on the Pittsburgh Penguins bandwagon I most certainly have not.
It has absolutely nothing to do with Sidney Crosby’s perceived whining or “jibber jabber”* I love the guy and would relish an opportunity to see him in a red, black and white Devil uniform. The guy’s a horse.
Nor has it anything to do with Brooks Orpik’s proud place as the NHL’s dirtiest player. Eric Cole and Tuomo Ruutu would certainly attest to my sentiments; anyone catch the two blatant “knee on knees” in game one against the Canes? Nor does it have anything to do with my disdain for Malkin’s game, Fleury’s personality….
It actually has nothing to do with any one particular Penguin player, simply the manner in which they’ve been acquired.
Unlike the Redwings who built their squad with Håkan Andersson’s brilliant eye and Ken Holland’s unmatched decision making, taking Pavel Datsyuk at 171st overall, Johan Franzen with the 97th pick, and Henrik Zetterberg, in the 7th round of the Entry Draft at an astonishing 210th; the Pengins were gifted the core of their team due to their failures throughout the early and mid noughties.
One can say, “but Marian Hossa was a free agent pickup”. Agreed but the Wings won without him in 2008 and he is certainly not the reason they’re likely to repeat this playoffs. Brian Rafalski another significant pickup, was signed away from the New Jersey Devils due to his love for his hometown and desire to play for his childhood team, not a reward for poor play.
The core of the best team in hockey is one that’s been engineered by astuteness of the Red Wings hockey machine.
The core of the Penguin’s were simply gifts for being the league’s worst team for so many years. Both Sidney Crosby and Marc-Andre Fleury were taken at number one, first overall, selections awarded to the teams with the worst record in the NHL in the preceding campaign; and Evgeni Malkin with the second overall choice.
Just how bad were the Penguins during this period?
Season W L T P GF GA
2001–02 28 41 8-5 69 198 249
2002–03 27 44 6-5 65 189 255
2003–04 23 47 8-4 58 190 303
2005–06 22 46 14 58 244 316
Reward for a failure to make the playoffs for five straight years; reward for being one if the leagues worst teams should most certainly not come in the form of Lord Stanley’s Cup.
Face it folks, Crosby, Malkin and Fleury were gifts for chronic failure. If one were to take any one of those three players away the Penguins now, my guess is the Pens would hardly be any better than a first round flop.
Teams such as the Avalanche and Stars, even the Devils to a certain extent are now suffering, for all intents and purposes being punished, for their consistency and regular season successes. This my fellow hockey fans is an inequality that needs to cease. Everyone should have an equal opportunity in the draft. Being rubbish should most certainly not be rewarded.
What I respect is teams that are able to consistently stay a top the leagues standings despite poor placement in the draft; what I respect is the Detroit Red Wings.
*-A shameful Boston Legal reference.
Note-I am not a Detroit Red Wing supporter, nor am I cheering for them to repeat as champions. I welcome all feedback, noth positive and negative.
By Long John Silver… For some reason, I remember the 1996 Roland Garros championships like they were yesterday. I have always contended that regardless of how good your preparation is, how much time one has put in on the practice courts, how much one has trained, or how talented one is—you still need a stroke of luck to get over the final line.
That is what the difference in this tale was. Sampras’ herculean effort was neutralized to nothing because of one small bad decision, or as we might say, “just back luck mate.”
Background
It is quite ironic that (even though I am not a huge fan of Sampras) most of my “Rewind” editions are about him.
We all remember the all-time “Sampras-Courier” classic in the 1995 Australian quarters, co-incidentally that was my last “Rewind” edition during OZ 2009. This was when Sampras came from two sets and a break down in the fourth to seal it in five, and he lost his long-time coach and mate Tim Gullickson to cancer at that time.
Sampras had also gotten past Courier in the New York semis in 1995, 7–5 in the fourth. He had lost to Phillipoussis in the 1996 Australian, but he had won it before.
Hence this was his Achilles Heel. This was the missing piece in an otherwise complete slam quadruple. We all know how much Sampras wanted to conquer his toughest surface, by winning in Paris. This was his and Tim’s dream.
Draw
Well, he had the draw from hell. Two double Garros champions before the semis, in addition to Draper and Todd Martin, both of whom could play.
He beat Gustaffson in the first round. He went on to beat Brugera in round two, 6-3 in the fifth, and Martin in the next round 6-2 in the fifth.
Draper went down in straight sets, and then came the perennial slugfest with his mate in the quarterfinal. Sampras won this through the sheer psychological hold he had on Courier. He won 6-7 4-6 6-4 6-4 6-4.
Courier, after playing vintage bread and butter serve wide and inside out forehand tennis, looked like he had it signed, sealed, and delivered (just as he looked with a break up in the fourth in OZ in 1995). But Courier just could not close Sampras out.
Sampras would prevail in five. As a huge Courier fan, I had to take it out on something, the remote control paid the price (again).
I loved the final comment about Sampras’ hang dog approach, that Jim would voice at match point down. He said: “The guy looks like he’s going to fall off on court and he is serving bullets, 194 mile an hour f****** bullets at me.”
I guess Courier despised someone looking tired, when they weren’t.
Recent Comments