The Short Update...

...And just that! :O

::Mayweather prediction was pretty off. Forgot to take into account PBF's fear of getting hurt (read: touched) in the ring, leading to a lost opportunity to totally befuddle and embarrass the aging De la Hoya. Regardless, he still won based on the Golden Boy's own lost opportunity to take control of the last four rounds over a hesitant opponent.

::Taylor-Spinks decision (and especially HBO's cheerleading) was a complete joke. I guess dodging potential KO bombs is now taboo and ring generalship means not one thing nowadays.

::Speculation Corner turns up another red herring, as ADV Films seems to have somehow caught the GONZO fever from fellow Houston company FUNimation and licensed Welcome to the NHK!, Red Garden, and Pumpkin Scissors--all very different shows, all very good in their own rights.

Work's been preventing me from really going all out and proceeding with what I have planned out, though I will get to it eventually... ;D

:boxing: Golden Boy vs. Pretty Boy -- The Prediction

There has been a ton of hype and a ton of exposition on this "mega" fight, so I'll make this short and sweet.

Oscar de la Hoya may have the edge in experience and possibly strength, but he is going past his prime and has had a history of difficulty against quicker, more agile opponents. Floyd Mayweather Jr. is just that type of fighter and much more, as he also possesses a great set of both physical and mental skills. His one, rather major strike--he rarely fights anyone within breathing distance of this abilities nor has he fought anyone that could really challenge him. Is the Golden Boy that type of guy?

If one went by his last fight, against Ricardo Mayorga, then that question just might remain as one. Sure he TKO'd him bad, but he got tagged far too many times by the lesser skilled brawler. Pretty Boy Floyd seems all wrong, but at the same time, he hasn't had a good elite-level opponent in ages, even if that person is relatively inactive and fading away.

In the end, PBF will still be too much for ODH to handle, despite the motivation to shut his big mouth up.

Prediction: Mayweather, KO--Rd 8, or sooner than that (nothing early, though)

:anime: -:Speculation Corner:- Welcome to the NHK!

Welcome to the NHK!
This one's a little old, but on an installment of AnimeTV, an anime discussion webcast produced by dubbing studio Bang Zoom! Entertainment, there was a cheesy, tongue-in-cheek segment that "interrupted" the show. Featuring a stereotypically-played otaku hamming it up in Japanese, the guy rambled on about the greatness of GONZO's Welcome to the NHK! (oh, excuse me, NHK ni Youkoso! ;-) ), a satire on fandom and, essentially, people with deep social issues. This seems a bit odd that BZ!, on a show where they basically promote their own works and pat themselves on the back, would spend so much time and effort in marketing a show that they have no connection to. Of course, no distributor has been rumored to have acquired it yet, but perhaps something will come up at this weekend's Anime Boston convention. Either Geneon or Bandai Ent., in that order, if this proves to be true, considering they are the only ones who have sold the animation studio's titles in the past and do not have in-house dubbing units.

:boxing: Dethroning a Giant

Friday night, I made the prediction that Ruslan Chagaev would be knocked out by WBA heavyweight champion Nikolai Valuev early, especially if he tried to swarm him. While "swarming" might be a bit of overindulgence, Chagaev managed to at least throw some good, quick punches to score against him, leading to a surprise victory in Germany. Chagaev wasn't afraid to mix it up, but played it smart by picking his openings and staying close to him. Valuev tried, but couldn't formulate a proper way to fight him when he was up close in the first half of the match. The much shorter, lighter challenger continued to out-hustle and outgun him until the latter rounds, when all of his maneuvering and in-your-face-and-out tactics began to catch up to him, as Chagaev showed slight signs of fatigue. Valuev capitalized and began to land more shots with greater frequency. What perhaps helped nail the majority decision for Chagaev was his tenacity and conversion to counterpunching, landing a couple of hits for every jab received. The now former champ did what he could, but ultimately could not come close to stopping the faster, more agile southpaw, who fought like he truly wanted to win the title (as opposed to just folding up and becoming another tomato can on the shooting range). The commentator put it best when he said that Chagaev was "doing the dance routine of his life." All in all, a good competitive bout with plenty of intrigue to keep all the more interesting (could the smaller man pull it off, or would the giant crush him with one punch?). Don't know how well he could handle some the other champions, but based on his performance, Ruslan Chagaev has a decent-enough chance at beating some of them.

Now, for that roasted crow...

:boxing: Boxing Bits ::04.13.07:: Calzaghe, Bayless, Shocking Punch

Boxing Bits... 'nuff said (I hope...) --HD

:Wed.04.11.07: Calzaghe Wants Taylor...Again
Joe Calzaghe's promoter, Frank Warren, offered middleweight champion Jermain Taylor $4 million to fight his man in England--with an American referee for "assured" fairness. Fine and all, but this sort of scenario is nothing new. Calzaghe will challenge some middleweight main attraction, says he'll beat him, then either injures himself during training or during a fight with a relative tomato can, and pulls out either due to that or due to his hopeful opponent's refusal to fight on his home turf. Hey, when will Calzaghe make good on that promise to fight on THEIR'S?

:Wed.04.11.07: Kenny Bayless Gets De la Hoya-Mayweather
Well, it's just like the title says. Referee Kenny Bayless, one of the best and most recognizable in the sport, will be the third man in the ring in the upcoming "megafight."

:Wed.04.11.07: The Legend of the Shocking Punch
Michael Sprott is claiming his KO win over Audley Harrison last year was a result of him receiving an electric shock from a wall outlet he was testing while renovating his house. The subsequent shock caused his left arm spaz in such a way that his strength there has greatly increased. The power, which would later claim Harrison as its first victim, was compared by Sprott's trainer to be on an Ernie Shavers-level, certainly high-enough praise. Waxing the exaggeration on thick? Perhaps, though just maybe, his muscles could have pulsated and/or realigned to the point where it maximized his output of energy. Or they read too many comic books and maybe even some shounen anime.

:Fri.04.13.07: Valuev vs. Chagaev Prediction
And now for something not from Wed.04.11.07. Thank you MSG for broadcasting a notable overseas fight that no one else wanted to pick up. Good to see someone other than ESPN(2), HBO, and Showtime do some live big fights. As for this fight, unless Ruslan Chagaev gets a Shocking Punch of his own, he'll stand little (heh, heh) chance against seven-plus-foot champ Nikolai Valuev. Fourth round KO for the giant, second round if Chagaev tries to swarm him with barrages. Yes, like this man could actually take down the guy on TV...

Courtesy: Fightnews.com

:anime: -:Speculation Corner:- NANA, Powerpuff Girls Z

A new spot on HardDoor, Speculation Corner is basically where all unconfirmed rumor mill products, or guesstimation on HD's part, end up... --HD

NANA
While looking at NANA's credit information on Anime News Network, I came across a peculiar listing of Bandai Ent. as "Production Collaborator". While this may not be an automatic lock, judging by past similar acts, such series have fallen into their hands in the end (Eureka Seven, Eat-Man '98, Escaflowne: The Movie). This might explain why Geneon never got the series alongside mangaka Ai Yazawa's other Madhouse-animated adaptation, Paradise Kiss.

Powerpuff Girls Z
CrystalAcids.com recent posted that the Ocean Group will be handling the dub for the series. Curiously, it doesn't look like the original PPG cast will be used (unless Ocean did that too). Now then, who is the licensor? It doesn't appear to be a Turner branch if they employed them, so could it be Bandai or Geneon, the dub company's main employers? Let's not forget that a good deal of Ocean's actors supply the voices on Ed, Edd, and Eddy and few other Cartoon Network projects, too...

:anime: Anime Kibbles 'n' Bits ::04.13.07:: FUN Piece, Not So Speed Racer, Little Mermaid--Miyazaki Style (sort of...)

:Fri.04.13.07: FUNimation Picks Up One Piece
Sure to bring out a collective cheer from fans, FUNimation licensed the popular-yet-mishandled One Piece months after 4Kids abandoned the property. With both the broadcast and DVD rights in place, the company will be giving it a new dub, which should debut on Cartoon Network sometime in August, with Episode 144, and uncut DVDs. Both entities and animation studio Toei made a joint agreement on continuing the show's broadcast, though it is up to fan interest as to whether they will dub the past episodes later on. I'd gather that will be a resounding yes, another part of a potential happy ending to the saga that is One Piece and its problematic time in the U.S. Very good to see FUNimation step up and pick up the...uhh...pieces (or is that just "piece?")

:Fri.04.13.07: Speed Racer Cast Fleshes Out a Bit More
Christina Ricci will be playing "Trixie" in the upcoming Speed Racer movie, joining a number of other notable thespians for the Wachowski Bros.' new project:

Speed Racer: Emile Hirsch
Pops Racer: John Goodman
Ma(?) Racer: Susan Sarandon
Racer X: Vince Vaughn (who was the main force behind pitching the film for years)

...now if only the Mach 5 were real (totally CG in the film, not even a model!). Hope producer Joel Silver will at least allow for some should he still be up to doing that Last Exile adaptation that he wants to do. Oh, and no CGI Lupin while you're at it, either. :P

:Mon.03.19.07: Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki's New Project: Ponyo On A Cliff
The master himself, Hayao Miyazaki, announced his new film, Ponyo On A Cliff, about a month ago (making this about a month too late in reporting). The movie will return Studio Ghibli to its cel roots, centering around a young boy and a "goldfish princess," the title character, who wishes to become a human. Sounds a little familiar? It indeed has a Little Mermaid tilt to it, but Miyazaki says that it will have quite a bit of a Japanese style to it. I may hate the Disney movie with a passion, but hopefully this won't be the same case here. Look out for a summer 2008 release.

:boxing: Calzaghe, Clottey Victorious; HBO Hypocrisy

Last Saturday night brought forth two notable fights on two continents. In the first, WBO super middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe made short work of Peter Manfredo Jr. in three rounds in Wales, England. Perhaps "short" was too much of the word, as the referee made the stoppage rather soon to many...just not me. Manfredo looked like he was thinking too much about what to do rather than trying to at least throw something at the wily Calzaghe (which he virtually didn't most of the time). Perhaps it was not having regular trainer Freddie Roach in his corner (busy training De la Hoya), regardless, he still allowed the veteran to have his way, punishing him with his hand speed and size in rounds two and three. It didn't do him any more favors that he was fighting on the champ's home turf and has had trouble before against slick boxers. Sergio Mora, his Contender foil in the championship bout of the reality show, was such a fighter of who faced similar success with similar traits, twice.

Hmm, reality. The HBO commentary team seemed fixated on drawing the line between "real" boxers and "reality show" performers. Never mind the fact that Manfredo was a well-known prospect, and former champion, I believe, before the series. They basically equated him and everyone else on there as "journeymen," which was half-true, as some of them truly were. However, they appeared to relish in the outcome of the bout, that it somehow retained the sanctity of the sport. I mean, let us totally place the weighty promotion of the network's own reality series focused around the combatants of its own overhyped Mayweather-De la Hoya telecast towards the back of our minds. It's nice to see HBO placing its attention on a loudmouth who likes fighting to an easy paycheck and a guy with a fight schedule akin to Santa's work schedule. If "The Contender" were HBO's idea or production, they would have treated Manfredo's annihilation like Ali was getting struck down by Leon Spinks.

*sniff, sniff* Do I smell crazy hippos...or is that just hypocrisy?

In much better action, Joshua Clottey dominated a completely game Diego Corrales in ten rounds in the later bout in Springfield, MO. Corrales was definitely out of his league in his welterweight debut, but nonetheless stuck in there with the skilled No. 4-ranked title contender, who appeared to be two to four punches ahead of him. The style of the fight itself was similar to the classic close-quarters-combating of Corrales-Castillo, only more one-sided and not as enthralling. But hey, I'll take a complete battle between two fighters willing to duke it out rather than an embarrassing "effort" on the other side of the pond.

:anime: Anime Kibbles 'n' Bits ::03.31.07:: Haruhi No-Go, Geass Gold, 4Kids 4 Maids

It's been awhile since the last K'n'B entry, due to all of the busy activity lately. Nonetheless, I managed to make a few contacts along the way, culminating in some rather spicy news details...

:Sat.03.31.07: Haruhi NOT Coming to the U.S.?
The handling of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya for U.S. release has been a hotly contested one ever since Bandai Ent. had announced its plans for its DVDs and subsequent volumes. Well, for those antsy enough over the Kyon Order discs and pillowcases in the LE sets, you'll have no fear. They won't be coming. None of it. For no divulged reasons, the sets--nor the regular DVDs--will be arriving stateside as planned. "Ryouko," the representative I contacted, said that none of the Haruhi franchise will be coming to North America and that anyone who has preordered it will instead receive an I.O.U. and a box of Love Hina DVDs. "She" wouldn't budge any further from that when I tried to press for more information, sad to say.

:Sat.03.31.07: Harmony Gold Licenses Code Geass?
Through a number of undisclosed sources, it appears as though Harmony Gold has bought the rights to solicit the popular Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion series in the U.S. A formal announcement will most likely be given in the approaching days, meanwhile, the person I spoke to has said that while Carl Macek will not be involved in the adaptation, a few edits will be made "where appropriate" and that HG will "welcome the show warmly into the Robotech family."

:Sat.03.31.07: 4Kids Introduces New Anime Life into Lineup
After probing around 4Kids for comments on the recent stoppage of their One Piece production and their financial issues, I was given a major scoop on their Summer and Fall '07 broadcast plans. In hopes of getting more parents to watch along with their kids (and thereby gaining new attention to its products), the company is set debut a sort of hybrid of what they called "more adult" features. This new show, untitled as of now, will be a re-spliced and localized combination of the likes of He is my Master, Emma, and a third yet-to-be-decided series (said to be a toss up between Monster and a show with the word "maid" in it). Count on there being some major hyping of it hopes of getting 4Kids out of its slump.

:boxing: Of Rematches and Future Rematches...

Today marks a day of redemption of sorts, as two major fights focus on title-rewarding rematches. The first fight, between Jean Marc Mormeck and O'Neill Bell, actually took place in the afternoon stateside, as it was contended live in the suburbs of Paris, France. Mormeck came out victorious in his homeland over the champion Bell, capturing two of the titles (WBC, WBA) that he could have walked out with in their landmark cruiserweight unification bout from last January. Though not fully avenging that KO loss, he managed to engage the formerly-undefeated Jamaican across the twelve rounds in an exciting and vociferous slugfest which seriously drained the two by the start of the championship rounds (and the reportedly sweltering arena probably wasn't doing them any favors either). Bell was game and tried to pull off a few feinting theatrics, but Mormeck served up more of the action and pressured him against the ropes as often as possible. He himself looked more wobbly than his opponent most of the time, where towards the end of the fight, he was keeping his distance away from the already spent Bell. Mormeck won a unanimous decision much to the fancy of the crowd.

But will championship wishes ring true in Las Vegas? Marco Antonio Barrera and Juan Manuel Marquez duke it out later in an anticipated bout between not only two well-respected Mexican fighters, but two men who have tasted the canvas and defeat at the hands of Manny Pacquiao. Barrera was clearly blasted away in their fight a few years back, which made the Pacman a household name, while in the sensation's follow-up match, he sent Marquez to the ground three times in the first round before escaping JMM's surge and subsequent schooling of him with a draw (thought he won that despite the knockdowns). Whoever wins this match will most likely see a rematch with the champ (unless Edwin Valero becomes the more enticing match-up).

Prediction: Split Decision - Barrera

P.S.: I right in thinking that Mormeck would get the victory, but it sure didn't seem like I would be a number of times in during the bout, especially in the final rounds...A better fight than last time, I surely would like to see a third and deciding encounter between the two, only this time, outdoors with some breeze :D ...