Thursday, November 30, 2006

:boxing: Hatton-:-"Forehead-on-Forehead" & No Fighting Crowes

Ricky "The Hitman" Hatton made a few comments about his upcoming January 20 fight against Juan Urango for the 140-lb IBF belt, as well as a possible bout with fellow pugilist Jose Luis Castillo. Concerning this, he makes the apt comparision to Castillo's wars with Diego Corrales, describing "superfight" scenario "forehead on forehead" affair. I could easy see that coming to past, as both have no qualms about fighting in close quarters and trading off in extended brawls. If such a fight were to occur, I'd see Hatton winning via KO in the latter rounds of a very tough fight (I very much doubt it would go to a decision, either way).

"Pretty Boy" Floyd Mayweather was also on the Hitman's mind, as he predicted a route by Oscar De La Hoya in their anticipated May match-up. Like many, he was unimpressed with handling of Carlos Baldomir a few weeks ago, and delivered a "Quote of the Week" worthy comment in the process:

"He wants to be remembered as an all time great and its hard to criticize Floyd with what he's done, but you can't be an all time great having fought people like Baldomir. All of Mayweather's fights are the same and they're not exactly spectacles, not edge of your seat stuff. They carried him into to the Baldomir fight dressed like Russell Crowe, a warrior, but he ended up fighting more like Sheryl Crowe. He has great skill but he doesn’t have you on the edge of your seat."


Personally, as much respect as I have for the Golden Boy and as little as I have for, uh, "what's-his-face", I think that it could very well be a potentially major mismatch, with De La Hoya not having the same kind of speed and power that Mayweather can produce, not to mention the relative inactivity, aging, and his getting tagged by a few of Ricardo Mayorga's shots more often than he should have (despite dominating him). While I see Mayweather winning an, albeit close, unaminous decision (or even a possible late round KO), I see him have a harder time with the more tenacious and hard-punching Ricky Hatton. However, if he himself gets outmanuvered and hit like he did in his last televised outing (and this is Mayweather we're talking about, now), I do not see a very pleasant night for him, either.

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

HardDoor:: Back Again!

After weeks of back-to-back exams, papers, and presentations, I can finally get back to this blog! I tried to post a few times, but the tight working period restrained any real sort of free time for doing so. In my absence, some really interesting tidbits arose in the worlds of anime and boxing, such as ADV's surprise acquisitions of Le Chevalier d'Eon (GREAT show, BTW) & Sergeant Frog (better known as Keroro Gunso), and Morales' second KO loss to Pacquiao, which could set up the dream fight between the latter and sensation Edwin Valero.

I still aim to keep HardDoor up-to-date with the latest of news on both fronts as possible, and of course, I'll try to keep up a decent stream of special articles and thoughts along the way (speaking of which, keep an eye out for a special two-to-three parter). In any event, though, it certainly is good to be back!

--HD