The fight between Joe Calzaghe versus Roy Jones Jr. started out with a bang and ended up as a lopsided affair.

The pride of Wales was dropped by a short right hand in the very first round, providing some hope to fight fans who expected a good outing from the 39 year old Jones Jr. Unfortunately that would be the best moment for Roy versus Joe in this fight. The remaining 11 rounds were truly disappointing as Jones appeared slow and unwilling to fight in the trenches or for that matter at all.

What made Roy Jones Jr. one of the best fighters in the 90’s was his unbelievable speed and athletic ability which usually surprised his opponents and would overwhelm them leading to easy victories. As Jones aged and lost the speed and athleticism, he became more hittable and consequently was knocked out two times. The fight yesterday in Madison Square Garden featured an old worn out fighter who really has no business in the ring. I had hoped to see at least some glimpses of the great fighter who once knocked an opponent out as he back stepped towards the ropes. Instead we saw an old fighter who not only has lost his skills but his pride and heart!

Roy Jones did not even try to win this fight. Joe Calzaghe is not a knock out puncher and even though I am a fan of his, Joe really has not beaten top U.S. fighters in their prime. I am not sure what Jr. was waiting for to throw punches and try to win this fight. Even when he was being mocked in the ring, Jones would just smile and stand there instead of throwing punches. This was just a pay day for Roy, it seemed all he wanted to do was end the fight on his feet no matter how bad he looked.

After the fight Calzaghe mentioned he had defeated two hall of fame fighters in Jones and Hopkins and was thinking about retiring because he has beaten the best. He has in fact defeated two great fighters who will go into the hall of fame but they were way passed their prime. He beat up two old men (in boxing terms), one who is 43 years old and another who is a worn out 39 year old. He has 45 wins and you can count on one hand notable name fighters within those 45 wins. Throughout his career Joe has hand picked his fighters and taken minimal risk, always fighting in Wales and only coming to the United States to fight two veterans passed their prime. When asked if he would think about fighting Chad Dawson he smiled and did not provide an answer. That fight would be considered risky and not the type of fight which he would be interested in as that would jeopardized his unblemished 45-0 record.

After watching this fight I am hoping that two things happen. The first should be the immediate retirement of Roy Jones and the second would be that Joe Calzaghe finally decides to take a fighter in his prime like Chad Dawson.

Carlos Caicedo - MrFight.com

EliteXC has officially announced that it will be closing its doors down. After two years of huge financial loses which totaled over fifty five million dollars.

EliteXC had become very popular of late with big name MMA fighters like Kimbo Slice and Gina Carano, who seem to be more celebrities than proven fighters. Unfortunately what lead to the downfall of this company wasn’t their fighters but bad deals. One of these deals included their cable contract with Showtime which really did not provide the revenue needed to sustain the fighting league. Every time EliteXC was on a Showtime televised event they were losing huge amounts of money. The contract was one sided and they could not get out of it. The CBS television contract was more lucrative but still not enough to save them.

This leaves many fighters out of work including Kimbo Slice and Gina Carano. Some or most of these MMA fighters will be absorbed by other organizations such as industry leader the UFC. Don’t expect to see Gina Carano and Kimbo Slice on UFC any time soon though. Dana White the president of the UFC had been clear in the past saying he would never allow Kimbo Slice to fight in the UFC. He feels Kimbo Slice lacks the technical MMA ability to fight with his seasoned fighters. He stated he is interested in showcasing MMA fighters and not street brawlers. The last Kimbo fight just makes his point of view a lot stronger, after a 15 second outing where Kimbo gets KO’d.

In regards to Gina Carano, the UFC and Dana White are not interested in promoting or featuring female fighters. White has had several opportunities to display female MMA fighters and has always passed. It still remains to be seen if Dana White will follow through with his statements, as a business decision Gina Carano does bring fans to the arenas and PPV events. Her sex appeal and decent fighting skills may turn out to be a combination that White cannot pass up on.

EliteXC brought us some exciting fights which included Baroni versus Frank Shamrock, and also displayed some great athletes and fighters that we may have never heard of like Kong. It also put alot of its chips in celebrity types like Kimbo, who was exposed and would be a fighter on a downward spiral in the future if put to a test with top fighters.

It was a great run for a couple of years and it is sad to see EliteXc fail, it was the only other organization truly rivaling the UFC.

Carlos Caicedo - MrFight.com

WOW is all I can say. Bernard Hopkins beats Kelly Pavlik in a 12 round decision yesterday October 18, 2008 in Atlantic City NJ. Bernard surprised many people including myself. After the past few performances from The Executioner it would have hard to picture such a complete dominating performance.

Bernard Hopkins completely overwhelmed Kelly “The Ghost” Pavlik, he pretty much took the 26 year old fighter to school. The Ghost looked confused, sluggish and slow in comparison Hopkins at 43 years of age looked faster and in better shape. Kelly has always had terrible foot work and Hopkins really exposed him yesterday, he kept moving laterally and not giving The Ghost any chance to land a significant blow.

After the fights Bernard has had of late and also after the comments from Freddy Roach I truly was down on Hopkins and believed he was at the tail end of his career, seems he proved me and 90% of reporters wrong. At the end of the fight The Executioner looked very emotional as he stared down the press core by ring side. He looked as if he wanted or was trying to tear, he had a hard, cold look which was piercing and an “I told you so” type moment.

The Ghost on the other hand had very little to say at the end of the fight, he said it was a lesson learned, when asked by Larry Merchant what lesson it was he had learned, he really still did not know. His corner kept telling him to lead with jabs and bend his knees, but Pavlik just seems incapable of doing so. Even Bernard Hopkins in a very classy display had a conversation with Kelly and provided compliments and advice, one piece of advice was to learn how to bend his knees!!!

The Ghost retains his belt as it was not a title fight, and he still has a long career ahead of him but Kelly Pavlik needs to work on his foot work and cutting of the ring. Bernard Hopkins seems to have a lot left in the tank. As the business man that he is, The Executioner already started promoting his next fight by saying “I will be going for the knockout, unlike in the past where I have played it safe, I understand what fans want to see”. It remains to be seen who will fight Bernard next but one thing is for sure he is no ordinary 43 year old!

I hope you enjoyed my article “Bernard Hopkins Wins“.
Here is my related article and my erroneous prediction Kelly Pavlik vs Bernard Hopkins.

Carlos Caicedo - MrFight.com