It's great to be off of Olympic boxing, but the first post-Beijing headline bouts feature boxers who aren't a whole lot more entertaining than those amateur slappers: Iván Calderón versus Hugo Cázares and John Ruiz versus Nikolai Valuev. This is the boxing equivalent of going from heroin to methodone.
Calderón is as smooth a technical fighter as there is in the sport, but he has zero pop, and his fights are as patterned and predictable as an assembly line. I like him to stink it out even more than usual against Cázares, who roughed him up in their first bout, and win a decision.
John Ruiz, who would be this generation's Sugar Ray Robinson if boxing rewarded clinching, steps back into the ring with Russian giant Nikolai Valuev. Valuev, a seven-footer who looks more like a Grand Theft Auto villain than anyone on the planet, scored a controversial decision over the Quiet Man in 2005. Both men are said to have improved in the interim, though I've seen neither fight since then. Just as in 2005, this fight is in Germany, so any decision will go to Valuev, and I don't see Ruiz throwing enough punches to knock him out. Hopefully, Valuev takes on Vlad Kitschko next. It would be a fun promotion, building up to an easy knockout for Lil Bro.
Gancho Boxing is 5-4 on the year.
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