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‘Al Bernstein’
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By Al Bernstein November 19th, 2009 All Boxing Articles
 This weekend I will join the Showtime team in Oakland for the final stage of the Super Six Boxing Classic. WBA Super Middleweight Champ Mikkel Kessler travels across the pond from Denmark to battle Californian Andre Ward. It’s possible this match-up might end up being the best of the three in the tourney’s first stage.
The first two matches produced some intriguing results and some exciting moments. Arthur Abraham scored a 12th round knockout of Jermain Taylor, punctuating a great performance by this German superstar fighting in front of his home fans.
Taylor had his moments early in this match, but as has sadly become his custom lately, he faded as the match went into the middle and later rounds. Abraham showed us that his peculiar style is a tough one to master.
Showtime Boxing analyst Steve Farhood put it best when he said “Abraham is like a football team, he plays defense and he then plays offense, but never the two at the same time.”
Abraham comes out of his defensive shell to throw quick and powerful combinations. He will be a tough nut to crack in this tourney.
The next man to try will be young American Andre Dirrell who lost a split decision in stage one to WBC Champion Carl Froch. Dirrell landed some good counter punches against the charging Froch and even stunned him once or twice, but just didn’t quite do enough offensively to win the day according to two of the judges.
Dirrell came into the tourney as the least battle tested of the six, and he did show he has the poise and ability to hang with the big boys in this tourney. Froch, the tough Brit, came away with a less than artistic win. More...
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By Al Bernstein November 12th, 2009 All Boxing Articles
Boxing’s excellent year of 2009 heads for a potential zenith this weekend with the Manny Pacquiao-Miguel Cotto fight.
Anyone who has even a passing interest in the sport should want to watch this match. The true measure of a fight is how many questions it raises when you try to analyze it. This fight has so many interesting elements that it boggles the mind.
The first is the mystique of Pacquiao. There is this almost pervasive force field around him now that suggests that he can do anything. How do you ever really believe he can lose?
He has gone up from 106 pounds at the beginning of his career to 147 to beat Oscar De La Hoya. In the legendary competition between Juan Manuel Marquez, Marco Antonio Barrera , Erik Morales and Pacquiao, Manny came out with the best record in face to face matches with these hall of famers. And along the way he has become boxing’s international superstar. Does all that mean something when he steps into the ring with Cotto?
Then there is the “real welterweight” angle to this story. Cotto is that. This Puerto Rican superstar is very comfortable at 147 pounds and has been there for years since moving up from 140. He is a big puncher at that weight and still has hand speed to throw combinations.
There is a school of thought (and I am in this school) that says he will be the hardest puncher Pacquiao has fought. Mystique or no mystique, Pacman has been put down and also stopped in his career—but that was a while ago.
Then we have the “reinvention” of Pacquiao. Nearing 30 he did something almost no boxer can do at any age, let alone that age—he reinvented himself. With the help of Trainer Freddie Roach he went from as kind of one dimensional slugger to the textbook version of a boxer-puncher. More...
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By Al Bernstein October 30th, 2009 All Boxing Articles
Sometimes in life you end up viewing something extraordinary—something you might have missed. That happened for me and all the fans that filled up the Mardi Gras Ballroom at the Orleans Hotel in Las Vegas this past Friday. We saw a fight of the year candidate. We were in the right place at the right time.
The match between former cruiserweight champion Arthur Williams and Victor Barragan was expected to be an entertaining and competitive fight.
The 44 year old Williams had been somewhat inactive in the last two years and wanted to show that he still had the skills to fight at a high level. The 28 year old Barragan came in with a decent 10-4 record and he needed a win over a cruiserweight of note to move up the ladder. Both men were successful, even though one lost.
Crown Boxing matchmaker Frank Luca provided a classic match of styles. Williams was the taller fighter who used his length and reach to land from the outside—working in a dash of lateral movement. Barragan is a classic attacker, using jabs to work his way inside for a volley of body shots, and finally a left hook or two to the head.
This style dynamic and both fighter’s desire to win created something more than just an entertaining match-up—it was a wildly exciting and well fought match—one of the best I’ve seen this year.
The early rounds were fought at a very quick pace with Williams landing big shots from the outside and then Barragan working his way inside to blast the body and head. Both men used a wide array of punches that included uppercuts, hooks, jabs and even overhand rights. The pace was brutal and seemed to favor the younger man, but Williams gave as much as he took.
The pace and Barragan’s body shots had their effect on the 44 year old Williams. By the 7th King Arthur had slowed a bit. In that round the Oxnard, California resident came up with some big hooks and straight right hands to stop Williams in his tracks and force the fight to be stopped. More...
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By Al Bernstein October 15th, 2009 All Boxing Articles
I am off to England for the opening weekend of the Super Six World Boxing Classic and the gravity of the moment is hitting me, as it is everyone else associated with this rather grand event.
Without overstating the case, this is a pretty significant undertaking. What makes it even more so is the fact that this is something that has never been done. Very seldom can you say you are participating in something in a sport that has not been done.
As this “World Cup” type tourney begins, it is thrusting boxers, promoters, TV executives, sportscasters and fans into some uncharted territory. There have been tournaments in boxing before, but none with this format, none that stretched this long and none that had such logistical challenges.
Six boxers will; be bound together for months, facing each other and no one else. They will be scouting future opponents and preparing for their own battles at the same time. They will know what lies ahead of them and have to carefully plan what they do in the ring so they can keep winning, remain injury free and have enough in the tank to get through five matches against top competition over the next 18-24 months to win this tourney.
One of the intriguing aspects of this is that most fighters don’t fight that many matches in a row against the best men in their division. Recent examples of tough schedules for fighters are revealing when compared to this super middleweight task. Take Erik Morales, who within a 24 month period fought super featherweights Manny Pacquiao three times and Marco Antonio Barrera once. He was 1-3 in those fights.
In the 1999-2000 calendar years, Oscar De La Hoya took on the best welterweights available to him; Ike Quartey, Felix Trinidad and Shane Mosley. He went 1-2. More recently from 2006-2008, Miguel Cotto, within the welterweight division, battled Zab Judah, Shane Mosley, Antonio Margarito and Joshua Clottey. Despite a 3-1 record in that group of fights, we know it took a toll on Cotto—though part of that toll may have come courtesy of the “extra powerful” gloves of Margarito. More...
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By Al Bernstein September 29th, 2009 All Boxing Articles
Not surprisingly, the aftermath of the Floyd Mayweather-Juan Manuel Marquez match has produced some very simplistic commentaries about the commerce of the fight.
The very good buy rate that topped 1 million has been viewed in a number of different ways. Many of them so absurdly one dimensional that it boggles my mind.
The black and white mentality of commentators in both sports and news is astonishing. There is no more gray. And, I hate to break it to them and the people who buy into their messages, but, most things are in the gray area. Usually there are several factors that make something happen, not just one.
First, the huge buy rate is good news for boxing and it’s good news for Floyd Mayweather, who has long struggled to provide evidence that he can carry a pay per view. In this case, Marquez brought a following, but it was incumbent upon Mayweather to provide the bulk of the interest.
The other specific point that this huge buy rate demonstrates is that, as I suggested in my special commentary (which you can watch below on my boxing channel), when a major match gets the appropriate amount of coverage from the mainstream media, it will flourish and fans will be interested.
That was the case with this fight. Because of Mayweather’s return to the ring, this match got good coverage from newspapers, television and radio. More...
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By Al Bernstein September 16th, 2009 All Boxing Articles
Floyd Mayweather Jr. is a little like the National Basketball Association. That seems a strange analogy, but it’s really not.
In recent years the off-season of the NBA has been really entertaining. There are blockbuster trades, player feuds, always more than our share of police blotter stories involving players, and at least a half a dozen paternity suits to spice things up.
Then the season begins and all that sizzle becomes a staid 82 game schedule with a style of play that must give all the players of the 70’s and 80’s heartburn.
Fast break opportunities are ignored to instead see guards walk the ball up the court, dump it into the low post and while everyone stands around that low post player goes one on one with not always sensational low post moves.
The product on the court somehow does not live up to our expectations.
And, that describes Mayweather Jr. to a tee. Outside the ring everything about him leading up to a fight is entertaining. His family is boxing’s version of the Osbournes. The break-ups and reconciliation’s come at a dizzying pace.
Most family members are soundbite machines that fuel the media with juicy stuff. And, add to that the inevitable legal entanglements that seem to find Floyd Jr. as often as cameras find Paris Hilton.
And, with HBO’s new penchant for making reality shows now before Mayweather fights, well, it’s all just too entertaining…much like the NBA. More...
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By Al Bernstein September 1st, 2009 All Boxing Articles
I can count on one hand the times in my 30 year career that I have expressed disagreement with any of my broadcasting colleagues in a public forum.
Mind you, I have often disagreed, but seldom if ever have I spoken out. My style as a communicator is not built on argument or confrontation and I don’t really understand “media feuds.” And, I am certainly not trying to ignite one here.
All that having been said, I feel called upon to strongly disagree with some of the opinions expressed by ESPN commentator Teddy Atlas in a recent interview I read on the internet.
I’ll further qualify this (how much qualifying can one man do?) by saying that Teddy and I have never had any issue with each other on a personal basis, and we have many mutual friends.
So, this column is really a reaction to his comments and there is nothing else behind it.
In this recent interview, Teddy makes some all inclusive comments about the internet that I think are very unfair and inaccurate. In the process, he diminishes one of the strengths of the sport, in much the same way uninformed members of the mainstream media have been doing in recent years.
First, even though the interview he did was with an internet writer and was dispensed on the internet, he completely dismisses the internet as a means of providing accurate or meaningful information.
Here is some of what he said:
“I don’t read any boxing internet articles unless someone sends me something or faxes me something, which I really don’t care to read in the first place. There is just so many boxing websites that I wonder how they survive. More...
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By Al Bernstein August 18th, 2009 All Boxing Articles
This weekend, I hosted a pay per view telecast headlined by the WBA Interim Super Flyweight title match, featuring Nonito Donaire vs. Rafael Concepcion.
Everything that happened in the days before the match and in the first round suggested that Donaire, a rising star and potential superstar, was going to provide a dominant win that would further market himself.
Concepcion was rumored to be having terrible making weight, and, in fact came in a whopping 4 ½ pounds over the 115 pound limit. That did not bode well for his conditioning for the fight and it made an already motivated Donaire more angry and he vowed to beat Concepcion no matter what his weight.
Concepcion was fined part of his purse and Donaire received half that fine—but the Donaire camp did not demand that Concepcion try hard to make the 115 pounds. They were worried about a replay of the Joan Guzman-Nate Campbell fight of last year, when Guzman came in over the weight and tried to lose the weight, but was too weak to fight.
This pay per view had been set up a star vehicle for Donaire and Nonito and his management did not want his fight canceled.
The fight went on and true to his word, Donaire came out smoking. He was so dominant in the first two minutes that it looked like a monstrous mismatch. Conception had lost the year before to Jorge Arce in a war and Arce at that point had somewhat diminished skills.
If Donaire fought Arce he would be a prohibitive favorite. So, common sense told us that Concepcion was not in Donaire’s league—and round one was proving the point. More...
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By Al Bernstein August 5th, 2009 All Boxing Articles
The relationship between mixed martial arts and boxing has had an intriguing evolution in the past decade.
The boxing establishment has viewed MMA with equal parts ambivalence, hostility, envy and sometimes grudging respect. The MMA world has sometimes seen boxing as a kindly old uncle that you respect for its past, but snicker a bit at its present state.
From time to time there has been open hostility and ridicule of boxing by MMA moguls, but that has abated in the last several years.
For many of the “old guard” in boxing, MMA is scoffed at and treated like a barbaric undertaking that is without skill. The members of this old guard passes judgment on the sport of MMA without ever really bothering to learn more about it.
To suggest that there is not skill in mixed martial arts is as absurd as suggesting that courage is not an integral ingredient in both sports. While it is edgy and violent, MMA is also filled with nuances.
I have hosted MMA shows on television, one on Showtime and several others on pay per view or regional cable. To prepare for the first MMA show I ever did, I watched hours and hours of video and was able to pick the brain of one of the best analysts in the sport, Stephen Quadros.
Stephen baby-sat me through my Showtime MMA experience. What I learned from that experience was that MMA is a sport that demands that it’s athletes have at least some level of skill at many disciplines, if they are to reach the upper echelon of fighters.
I’ve enjoyed every one of my MMA announcing experiences and found that the fighters and fans will welcome someone associated with boxing as long as they are not guilty of either of these two things: a.) Pretending they are MMA experts, or b.) Pretending they like MMA, when they really don’t. More...
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By Al Bernstein July 30th, 2009 All Boxing Articles
What took David Haye and his braintrust so long to figure out that he was a lot better off fighting Nikolai Valuev for a world title than he was fighting a Klitschko?
If David had come to this realization earlier he would have spared us the charade of pulling out of the Wladimir fight and then the phony negotiations to fight Vitali.
Haye is obviously able to fight at heavyweight and will beat many heavyweights, but he won’t beat the ones who are tall, can “fight tall”, and have pop in their punch.
David was hurt by Jean Mormeck in the cruiserweight division. If and when he is hit by a really good right hand by either Klitschko, the heavyweight dream will be ended. His chances against Wladimir are remotely better because he might hurt Wladimir with one of his own punches - but that’s a longshot.
All that having been said, there will be more money for him to make off this unfortunate episode with the Klitschko if he brings a heavyweight title into the match. That was always the case and it is astonishing to me that the Haye camp didn’t get that and insisted on trying for the Klitschkos first.
I think Haye is the favorite to beat Valuev. He is much quicker than Valuev, (everyone is much quicker than Valuev), will throw enough combinations to keep the giant off balance, and he may be able to take even the best shot of the light punching Valuev.
Valuev is capable of performances that define dreadful in a new way, as evidenced by his “win” over an ancient Evander Holyfield. That version of Valuev would be raked over the coals by Haye.
If Haye can wrest the title from Valuev, I would actually suggest a defense against someone before he tackles a Klitschko, and I suggest Wladimir as his choice. In that case, Haye’s trash talking and fight promotion will seem more credible. More...
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By Al Bernstein July 17th, 2009 All Boxing Articles
OK, this is a little awkward. When the news broke this week that Showtime has created a six man tournament in the super middleweight division I was, well, ecstatic.
I love the talent in super middleweight division, and I think boxing needs something fresh and daring like this tourney. Now those are my honest, gut level reactions to this news.
Here’s the awkward part. Since I’m employed as the lead boxing analyst for Showtime Championship Boxing, it’s just barely possible that some might think that kind of enthusiasm is not arrived at objectively.
They might reasonably assume that I have a more subjective agenda in praising this new venture…like keeping my job. Well, I won’t deny that my 10 year old son’s penchant for purchasing every Star Wars item ever made means I can hardly afford a loss in income.
But, my giddy reaction to the super six tourney is as genuine as could be. You can suggest it’s misguided or even wrong, but you can’t get me for being a total company man.
I could trot out the argument that my track record as a broadcaster suggests fairness, and I could point to the countless times I have praised the product of other networks in columns like this or on my boxing channel.
But I have a better and less narcissistic argument to use—my reaction must be an honest one because it’s the same as everyone else’s. Virtually every boxing writer, broadcaster or fan I have talked to or listened to has said the same thing—this is great.
Perhaps there are a few complete misanthropes intent on concentrating on the potential pitfalls like injuries, mid-tourney retirements, or old fashioned contract breaking. Finding those people is about as hard as finding Miguel Cotto fans in the Phillipines. More...
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By Al Bernstein July 3rd, 2009 All Boxing Articles
When an athlete or any celebrity writes a book, an all important element is the title. And over the years, many projects have had titles that did not make the final cut.
I had a book project that had an original title that I thought was inspired--“My Life As Boxing’s Sex Symbol.” For some unfathomable reason, an editor ruled it out. Go figure.
Here are some other book titles that you will never see on the front of a book jacket.
Creative Baby Names
By George Foreman
Father Knows Best
By Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Weight Loss Guaranteed
By James Toney
Defend Yourself At All Times
By Arturo Gatti-- with a foreword by Mickey Ward More...
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By Al Bernstein June 22nd, 2009 All Boxing Articles
While we all wait for the apparently inevitable announcement that Manny Pacquiao will fight Miguel Cotto, I think it’s wise to really sit back and try and put the Pacquiao story in perspective. Our goal here is to come up with some historical perspective that is reasoned.
In doing that you would think that the exploits of Pacquiao would take on less superhuman traits and be viewed through a prism less filled with hyperbole and more geared to hard scrutiny. That’s what you would think.
But, in reality, the process of taking a step back and really dissecting what Pacquiao has done in his career makes me more impressed and more willing to talk in terms of “greatest” and “historically important.”
I said a few weeks ago that if Manny Pacquiao beats Miguel Cotto, Shane Mosley or Floyd Mayweather Jr., he will have stamped himself as the greatest EVER at lighter weights, 135 or below. That’s a bold statement, but I believe I can back it up with a strong case.
The quartet of Pacquiao, Marco Antonio Barrera, Erik Morales and Juan Manuel Marquez produced the greatest series of fights seen at any time in boxing. They occurred during a decade’s span in a few weight divisions. This series of fights exceeded even the Hagler, Leonard, Hearns and Duran combinations of matches. More...
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By Al Bernstein June 9th, 2009 All Boxing Articles
"This Is Not Time For Humor!"
Imagine, if you will, this scene. In a slightly run down urban neighborhood, a huge truck with an ESPN logo on it is parked behind a concert venue.
Several police cars surround the truck and officers exit their vehicles and approach the truck very carefully. They have already called for back up because they believe a robbery might be in progress.
The officers have no idea what the label “ESPN” means, and so they figure it’s some kind of cover to look like a real business. They deduce that equipment or furniture is being taken from the concert venue and put into the truck by the thieves.
They carefully enter the vehicle only to discover it is a television production truck with a now startled crew working inside it. A nervous producer tries to convince the skeptical police that this is all part of an all-sports network and they are there to televise a sports event that evening. The police finally accept this is “some kind” of television event, even if they still don’t know what ESPN means.
This sound like a twilight zone episode set in some alternative universe to ours. But, as delightful as it might be to think there is a parallel universe that has not yet been sullied by Stephen A. Smith’s commentaries or the Around The Horn show, that’s not where this all took place.
All of this really happened right here in 1980, in our universe, on planet earth, in a little place called Chicago, Illinois.
The television truck was there to do one of the early shows in the Top Rank Boxing Series on ESPN, when police did, in fact, assume something criminal was going on and acted as described above.
These police officers could be excused if they didn’t know what ESPN stood for, since none of the city of Chicago was yet wired for cable, and ESPN was only in a small fraction of the homes nationally. More...
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By Al Bernstein June 3rd, 2009 All Boxing Articles
As we bask in the glory of great fights already held this year and look ahead to bouts like Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs Juan Manuel Marquez in July and Manny Pacquiao vs. Somebody in October, let's not forget a fight that is just upon us; the battle between Miguel Cotto and Joshua Clottey on June 13th in Madison Square Garden, which could get lost in the shuffle. That would be a shame.
The match is certainly not “lost” to the many East Coast fans who are planning to attend. Many tickets have been sold and a full house is expected. On a global scale, however, this match may not be totally understood. Make no mistake, this is potentially a great fight and is anything but the “transition” fight for Miguel Cotto that some believe it to be. This is a shootout in the making.
Miguel Cotto is a superb fighter. He has lost only once, and frankly, that loss is called into question because of the Margarito glove tampering in his fight with Shane Mosley. But, Cotto is only 11 months removed from that beating at the hands of Margarito, and only a win over C-level Michael Jennings has come since.
Cotto has always been an exciting, but slightly vulnerable champ. He can be damaged, but before Margarito, never broken. Did the Jennings win and the healing of time make him whole again? Trust me, we will find out on June 13th.
Joshua Clottey is champion but not an A-list fighter. He has had to claw for every opportunity and crumb of recognition he could get in his 13 year career. But, through it all, Clottey has remained focused and he has improved.
But for two hand injuries in the fight, he would likely have beaten Margarito when he fought him. Clottey was winning handily over the first four rounds, when the injuries struck. Even then he lost a decision and was never in trouble against Margarito.
Certain football and basketball games and soccer matches are referred to as “trap” games—a tough contest that comes at just the wrong time for a team. This is a trap fight for Cotto. With a tough loss behind him and a possible mega-fight with Pacquiao in front of him, he is faced with Clottey. He is faced with a fighter who is better than almost anyone gives him credit for being, and a fighter who is hungry for stardom. More...
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