Loma-Pedraza/Dogboe-Navarrete - MSG/Sat/ESPN/BN/Ponce-a-Stream

[Fenster]

The P4P no.1 and Ring champion at 135 has a unification (WBO/WBA) with the Ring no. 3. Obviously Loma (1/25 betting odds) is so good these fights are overlooked as mismatches, however, Pedraza (14/1) isn't a "world" champion and top rated lightweight for nothing. Loma stoppage 7-12.

Dogboe-Navarrete is intriguing (for me). Again it's priced up as a virtual mismatch (Dogboe 1/12 /Navarrete 7/1), however, the 23-year-old Mexican (25-1/22 KOs) is rated no.9 by The Ring, he's about a foot taller and is the mandatory challenger, his loss was a 4-rounder on PTS. Having watched little of him he looks slow as molasses, which will make Dogboe look like the Matrix, however, he brings enough to the table to have some shrapnel at the price.

[Ron Swanson]

I’m pretty sure it’s the ease with which Tank destroyed Pedraza that makes people overlook him. He made him look nowhere near his level. If Tank can Loma surely should be able to. Tank just owned him. It’s one thing to lose, another to watch a fight and think if they fought 1000 times one guy would win every fight, any way that guy chose to win it.

[Freedom]

[Master]

Vasyl Lomachenko fights Jose Pedraza aiming to achieve in his 13th fight what some don’t in a lifetime



With the same elusive grace he uses to pirouette nimbly around his opponents, leaving them groping clumsily into the darkness like drunks on the dance floor, the great Vasyl Lomachenko has dropped off the news agenda in recent weeks, overshadowed by the exploits of two of his Ukrainian contemporaries.

In November, Oleksandr Usyk ascended to the heavyweight empyrean by pensioning off a valiant Tony Bellew, over eight thrilling rounds in Manchester. Last weekend, Oleksandr Gvozdyk won the WBC and lineal light-heavyweight titles from Adonis Stevenson, a tremendous achievement with tragic consequences. Now, it is Lomachenko’s turn to dart brilliantly back into the spotlight.

On Saturday night, Lomachenko will grace the Hulu Theatre in New York, a low-ceilinged crypt that lies underneath the famous Madison Square Garden, where the ghosts of so many celebrated moments in boxing’s rich history hang heavily in the air. And while the New York Knicks play the Brooklyn Nets upstairs, Lomachenko will fight Jose Pedraza down below, attempting to become a unified lightweight world champion in just his second outing in the division.

His most recent victory, a tenth-round stoppage of the hard-nosed Jorge Linares, saw him become a three-weight world champion in his twelfth professional fight. For context: it took Oscar De La Hoya 22 fights to achieve the same feat. Floyd Mayweather 34. The great Sugar Ray Leonard a comparatively plodding 35. Lomachenko’s numbers are as rapid as his sequences, as breathtakingly bamboozling as his movement.

Thrown into the ring with Linares, himself a celebrated world champion at three weight divisions, Lomachenko’s spiteful artistry scaled remarkable new heights. A combination he landed at dizzying speed in the second exemplified his talent: Lomachenko exploited Linares’ high guard by ripping a pair of boomerang hooks into his taut body, following up with a right uppercut which crashed precisely through the half-inch left exposed underneath his chin.

The tone was set for a wonderful fight. Linares maintaining a wisely wide stance, hanging back, looking to counter. Lomachenko twitching, feinting, spinning and punching, punching, punching. He is boxing’s biggest glutton: why throw just the one shot when you can throw five, pivot around your opponent’s contorted body like a dancer auditioning for the Ballet de l'Opéra de Paris, and throw five more?

But Lomachenko did not have it all his own way. Later in that second round he felt his right shoulder pop out of place before clicking uneasily back in. Unknowingly, he had torn the labrum, an excruciating injury which he bravely disguised for the remainder of the fight. “I couldn't use my right arm to throw my right hook, and it was very uncomfortable to continue my fight,” he smiled through gritted teeth, following an examination by an orthopaedic surgeon shortly afterwards.

And, in the sixth, his unstinting confidence briefly toppled over into arrogance. Marching blithely down the middle like an indignant opening batsman come to prod inquisitively at the pitch, he caught a straight right hand that rattled his incisors and sat him down on the canvas. Staring up at the referee in disbelief, the very real dangers of the prize ring suddenly floated back to the surface. He would battle back to win in the eighth, with a sickening shot to the liver. It had been no procession.

This is what makes Lomachenko such a spellbindingly thrilling fighter to watch, particularly at 135 pounds. His greatness is compellingly entwined with the potential for his own destruction. In search of an equal, he finds himself tempted into fights with bigger men: his next opponent, Pedraza, is taller, heavier, with a not insignificant 5” reach advantage. With every fight comes increased risk.

What Lomachenko lacks in size and stature, he makes up for in his dizzying array of lateral movement. And to be sat, mouth agog, focused only on Lomachenko’s blurring and brutal hands is to criminally miss what makes him the most compelling currently active boxer. He might not possess the explosive in-and-out movement of Manny Pacquiao. Or the slick glide of Pernell Whitaker. Or the exuberant pounce of Prince Naseem. Instead he possesses a cocktail of all three.



There is no boxer better at sidestepping his opponent having witnessed an angle that nobody else can see; at planting his front foot tendril-like on the outside of his victim so that he can counter from off-centre, as vital to a southpaw as a left hand itself. Rivals don’t watch Lomachenko. They spot him darting in and out of their peripheral vision, flickering like a bad television reception, constantly disappearing and reemerging like a shadow in soft dappled sunlight.

Many have been unable to take it. Most boxers go through their entire careers without experiencing a rival surrender: four of Lomachenko’s last five opponents decided there was no point in continuing. They — or their corners — quit not through capitulation, but fear: the fear of the next nanosecond he slips alarmingly out of eyesight, the fear of that rush of air somewhere to the side of them, the fear of the blow they cannot see. Lomachenko is simply not worth the risk.

Pedraza, the WBO champion who insists he has studied tapes of the fight with Linares so often he has uncovered the secrets to Lomachenko’s downfall through sheer bogeyed repetition, is the latest man to stand Sisyphus-like in his path. He is a 12/1 underdog. Beyond poor Pedraza stands Mikey Garcia, the sole remaining lightweight title holder, before a crack at a fourth weight division.

https://uk.sports.yahoo.com/news/vas...075117180.html

[Master]

Isaac Dogboe brings slice of Ghanaian culture to Madison Square Garden ahead of Navarrete fight



Isaac Dogboe made it a mission to spread the word the minute he touched down in New York City earlier this week, his first time ever in the Big Apple.

"Neho!" Dogboe had local NYC youth from the Give a Kid a Dream Foundation huddle around him and chant at Brooklyn’s famed Gleason’s Gym on Wednesday during a meet-and-greet workout.

“Neho!” Dogboe said on stage at Madison Square Garden's Chase Square while seated next to Vasiliy Lomachenko during a press conference Thursday.

“Neho!” Dogboe even yelled in the face of Emanuel Navarrete during the traditional faceoff before their fight Saturday night.

What does “Neho” mean, and why is the WBO junior featherweight champion so intent in spreading its gospel?

"Never-failing excellence, 'H' for hope, 'O' to overcome. God has given us a never-failing excellence that through hope we shall overcome," Dogboe tells Sporting News. "'Neho' means to uproot, to take charge."

He says it so much that it paved the way for him and his team to spark the "#NEHOCHALLENGE" on social media, with fellow boxers and industry insiders taking turns yelling out the word.

Yes, it's branding to the 10th power for the boxing champion with lineage to Ghanaian royalty (Torgbui Sri III, ruler of Anlo state in Ghana's Volta Region, is his grandfather), but "Neho" is also a way of life for the charismatic 24-year-old who was born in Accra, Ghana, but grew up in the U.K.

Dogboe (20-0, 14 KOs) is excited to face Navarrete (25-1, 22 KOs) on the headlining card of Lomachenko-Jose Pedraza at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night. The 5-2, 122-pound dynamo is also confident that he’ll record his fourth consecutive knockout of 2018.

But as serious as the "Royal Storm" takes boxing, Dogboe discerns his role as a humanitarian in his native Ghana as one carrying more weight than any form of gold hardware he could ever accrue in the ring. When asked what he’d most like to be known for in and out of boxing, Dogboe said he wants to treat the sport as a vehicle that will help him to make his greatest mark in life, period — sort of like a certain someone who's the only eight-division champion in boxing history.

"When I look at Manny Pacquiao, I admire him so much for the humanitarian work that he's doing," Dogboe said. "For someone to be able to house thousands of people in his own country, that's inspiring. That’s something that I want to be able to achieve — to inspire people on a global scale. I believe that our service to God is through humanity and that’s how I want to go out as."

Dogboe’s fists have helped him to put his money where his mouth is.

He says he regularly pays for schooling for people in Ghana and is working with different initiatives to unearth clean water there.

"What we have set out to do is drill a lot of bore holes to get clean water to nearby rural areas, for communities and people," Dogboe says. "Water is life, so that’s one of the key issues that we’re focusing on and looking forward to."

His uncle Dr. Donald Agumenu added: “The problem we have is not an unavailability of water. It’s the unavailability of drinkable water. Thank God for the brand of Isaac and that he believes in putting humanity first. He has so much passion and a godly duty to making sure that people across Africa — not only Ghana alone — have access to clean drinking water. We've done a lot of initiatives together with water for rural Africa and he has traveled a lot to see where there are critical situations that he needs to address."

Perhaps Dogboe was modest to speak about himself, but his uncle didn’t mind continuing to speak proudly on behalf of his nephew.

"He could have had mansions, but could you believe that he uses those monies to pay school fees for people?" Agumenu said. "Isaac, as somebody who believes in education, feels that he can use his persona, his brand equity to affect the lives of people. Isaac represents the hope that Africa is searching for."

And just in case the competition feels like it could get one over on Dogboe since he's so entrenched in his humanitarian work, his uncle said it would be wise to reassess that evaluation.

"His arms are ready to welcome whoever feels that they are ready," Agumenu added.

And that won't be for a warm embrace. You've been warned.

https://uk.sports.yahoo.com/news/isa...185649076.html

[Freedom]

[TitoFan]

ESPN Deportes appears to be starting coverage of the fight, while ESPN is now televising....................... the Heisman Trophy presentation??

[Kirkland Laing]

The fight is supposed to be on but I'm watching the fucking Heisman troophy ceremony. It's just overrunning, right? The fight is on after this? Or am I on the wrong channel? I'm all fucked up here. I need help. Help me. What's going on?

[Kirkland Laing]

Ah it's on. Panic over.

Good evening everybody.

[TitoFan]

We're all good, Kirk. Problem rectified.

I put in a call to ESPN and told them to get off that damn Heisman Trophy shit and put on the fight telecast.

[TitoFan]

Lopez vs. Mena............... OOPS...... what happened??

[Kirkland Laing]

Face first into the canvas one punch round one KO. Nice way to start the evening.

[TitoFan]

Knockout of the Year candidate.......... followed by a 10.0 Olympic backflip.

[Kirkland Laing]

Bang on the chen.

[Ron Swanson]

Are we going to see any fights tonight or only one sided slaughters. Sanctioned torture