Vic Darchinyan vs. Joseph Agbeko: Predictions

The Franchise says...

Vic Darchinyan has always been a hard-nosed competitor who's been fun to watch both in and out of th ring. But ever since an eight-month stretch that started in July 2007 with his first loss (at the hands of Nonito Donaire) and ending with a lackluster draw to Z Gorres in February 2008, it's like the proverbial light bulb went on for the Raging Bull.

He's shown improved boxing skills to go with his power. He's shown a lot more defensive awareness and ability to control the ring. He's just looked, well, better, and he's stayed as quotable as ever at the same time.

He'll move up in weight this Saturday to take on Joseph "King Kong" Agebeko, a rugged customer with a great chin and plenty of power of his own. He's not one to do much jabbing or setting up shots, preferring to let his straight rights and left hooks speak for themselves.

With that in mind, you can't help but think that this fight will be as hard as Darchinyan makes it. If he goes into it thinking he'll blast Agbeko out early, he may get a little more coming back his way than he'll enjoy.

If Vic takes his time a little bit and allows his superior boxing skills and what I expect will be faster hands to be the difference, I think he'll end up wearing Agbeko out. I'll show some faith in Vic to do just that, and though King Kong has never been knocked out, I feel accumulated damage will allow Darchinyan to emerge with a late-round KO.

Posted by The Franchise

Fight Night Round 4: Review

Fight Night Round 4 has finally hit shelves all around the world. After months of waiting and completely wearing out the three-round demo, Spartan117 got a copy and put in the work to go from (virtual) chump to champ.

For those of you who are waiting to see how the game is before buying a copy, I'll fill you in on the much anticipated "Legacy Mode" and online play. For the basic mechanics, please see my review of the demo.

In FNR4's "Legacy Mode," you take your boxer from the amateur circuit to the major venues like the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, and a generic version of Madison Square Garden called the New York Arena.

When starting a new career in Legacy Mode, you can choose an existing boxer on the roster or you can create your own boxer to climb the ranks. I chose the latter. Whether you choose a real boxer from the lineup or a newly created one, you start with same stats. You start fairly slow and weak, which forces you to put your time in the gym to boost your stats.

When creating a new character, the customization options are plentiful. You can choose gear from brands such as Grant, Nike, Adidas, Reebok, Everlast and Rival. Even after you choose a style, you can change every color on the gloves, shoes, trunks, mouthguard, socks, and even your robe, plus you can change the material of your gear. This makes your man more of an individual when you make the turn to online play.

Your first event is an amateur tournament. You strap on the headgear and face other boxing hopefuls. This makes for a great tutorial for your career, but it's almost too easy compared to the battles that follow. After the tournament, you make the jump to professional boxer whether you win or lose.

The success of your professional career is measured by multiple criteria:

1. Your record
2. How many championships you've held
3. Whether or not you've moved up in weight
4. Popularity, based on your percentage of knockouts
5. Major televised fights you've won

There is also a nice pound for pound list that you can climb by winning as well.

You start out fighting mostly jobbers. These guys won't give you too much trouble, but they do make for good stepping stones. Between each fight you view your fight calender. You are required to rest and heal for at least a month after a fight. Depending on how long in advance you schedule your next bout you can fit in one to three training sessions. Judging from the training sessions from the first three Fight Nights, I assumed that one session would be enough to move it. It was for about the first two years of my career. Then I was in for the brutal realization that I had to put the work in the gym to move up through the big named fighters.

FNR4 does a good job of making sure you can't move up in rank too quickly. I tried to jump five ranks to face Sergio Mora. I'll admit I thought my fighter may not be ready for the challenge, but I tried to put him to the test anyway. Mora served me up a whooping and I was sent back down the ranks. So the key is patience and making sure you get as much training in as possible.

As you move up in the top 10 of the weight division, you may get challenged by the champions. This is a nice feature but the challenges don't always make sense. For example, Winky Wright was the champion at the time, and he challenged me saying that he thought "it would be a good fight for the fans." I faced Winky earlier in my career and got destroyed. I guess he forgot about that victory.

After building your fighter up to the elite level, you can win three titles in your weight division. After that, you can stay on top of your weight class or you get the option to move up in weight. If you make the jump up, you start in the top 10 of the division. You do need to win a handful of fights before you get a title shot.

Another minor gripe I have is after you spend enough time in your career, your boxer can actually become too strong. I've spent a good 15 years moving my character along and now he can easily run through anyone who challenges.

A second issue I have is with the yearly boxing awards. After each calender year of Legacy Mode, the game gives out awards to best fighter, best fight, best round, best comeback, best knockout, best defensive fighter, and best prospect. I won a handful of awards early on but now I fail to bring in any. I'm number one PFP, have six belts in two divisions, and take out my opponents in 1 or 2 rounds. How does that not get me the fighter of the year award?

These are very minor complaints in the grand scheme of Fight Night's Legacy Mode. It really does make for a great overall experience.

Online mode is also a lot of fun. With a broadband connection, the action is completely flawless. I've played about 20 online matches and I haven't seen one glitch, hiccup or lag in the middle of the action.

In order to play online and vie for the online title, you have to create a fighter. In the online community, there are lightweight, middleweight and heavyweight divisions with one title belt in each. There are thousands of people in each weight class, so to become the champion you really need to earn it.

To even the playing field, all of the fighters are given the same attributes. I'll warn you, make sure you practice and know your strengths and weaknesses before you jump into online play. There are some serious contenders out there that show no mercy.

I also want to add that Joe Tessitore and Teddy Atlas did a fantastic job recording the commentary for this game. Of course you'll get a few repeated lines after a while, but what is shocking is how realistic the commentary sounds. It sounds like they had a lot of fun with it.

Overall, Fight Night Round 4 is the best boxing experience you can have on the next generation consoles. It has great replay value and is a fun experience without sacrificing the realism of the sport. EA has acheived near perfection and they are taking the franchise in the right direction.

If you have yourself a copy and want to fight it out online, shoot me a friend request. My Xbox Live gamertag is "p lov 3".

Posted by spartan117

20/20 Hindsight: Showtime's Proposed Super Middleweight Tournament... and Why It Might Actually Work

There weren't any major fights to look back on during this July 4th weekend (sorry Eddie Chambers!), so instead, I'm going to focus on some news that first hit over the last few days. Close your eyes for a second and imagine that two current super middleweight titleholders, two rising American stars, a former middleweight champion and an undefeated middleweight titlist moving up in weight all agreed to compete in a six-man, round robin tournament.

Sounds great but crazy, right? After all, this is boxing, where even obvious match-ups have a hard time coming together for various reasons.

But it might not be as far-fetched as it seems. As reported by various sites, but most prominently by ESPN's Dan Rafael, Showtime is attempting to assemble a tournament featuring Mikkel Kessler, Carl Froch, Andre Ward, Andre Dirrell, Jermain Taylor and Arthur Abraham.

You really need to read the whole piece to appreciate the ambition involved, but to summarize the details, each man would fight three others in the field with two points awarded for a win (plus one for a KO), one for a draw and none for a loss. The top four in points after the preliminaries would advance to the semifinals, with the winners facing each other after that to decide the whole thing.

The very tentative plan for the first round would be:

Oct. 10: Froch vs. Dirrell and Abraham vs. Taylor
Nov. 7: Kessler vs. Ward
Jan. 30, 2010: Abraham vs. Dirrell
March 2010: Froch vs. Kessler
April or May 2010: Ward vs. Taylor
July or August 2010: Ward vs. Dirrell and Froch vs. Abraham
September 2010: Kessler vs. Taylor

In a word, wow. It would be hard to believe any boxing fan wouldn't be excited by this idea: a series of good fights in a division stocked with talented fighters.

So many questions would be answered by this tournament. Is Froch for real? Does Taylor have anything left in the tank? Can Abraham continue his winning ways at 168? Are the two Andre's ready for the big time? And that's just a few off the top of my head.

At the same time, it's even easier to see why it's not wise to get your hopes up for Showtime actually pulling this off. Too many competing interests, too many egos to be stroked, too much perceived risk (it's very possible to come out 0-3) and just too many questions, even if Rafael says there are contingencies for everything.

Until an official announcement is made that the tournament is on or credible boxing scribes write that it's dead, the case against it will be argued all over the internet. As an optimist by nature, I'm going to take a shot at arguing why the crazy thing might happen.


1. None of the participants are superstars.

Yes, it's a talented field, and everyone but Ward and Dirrell has held an alphabet belt. All of the fighters are known quantities who have been on the big American cable outlets.

Still, no one in the proposed tourney has huge name recognition among mainstream sports fans - the kind of pull that would generate eight-digit paydays. Taylor is probably the closest to being a household name in the U.S., but his star has faded after three losses in his last four fights.

The Europeans are all looking to raise their profiles on this side of the Atlantic, and Ward and Dirrell could use the step up in competition. Even with the knowledge that no bouts in this event would be easy, there's reason to think all of these guys could see the upside in it.

There's no way a Manny Pacquiao or Floyd Mayweather would agree to something like this, because the risk doesn't justify the possible rewards. But for a group of boxers a notch or two below elite status, it just might.

2. Golden Boy and Top Rank are not involved.

This is not a slam against either organization. They are the two biggest powers in the sport right now, and they even play nice with each other when there's incentive to do so.

It's just hard to imagine either Golden Boy or Top Rank would agree to let one of their fighters participate in a tournament like this one. They wouldn't feel comfortable with the uncertainty involved, and they'd likely want more say in the format.

On top of that (as Rafael points out), Golden Boy and HBO are almost like peanut butter and jelly at this point, and this is Showtime's baby.

It's not going to be easy to get a half-dozen promoters to agree on anything, let alone something as complicated as a round robin tournament. Yet it's still going to be easier to sell them without the two gorillas in the room.

3. The proposed fights have strong regional appeal.

Some of the match-ups wouldn't sell out venues in Las Vegas or Atlantic City. Showtime seems to be aware of this and has thoughts of staging the fights where they make the most sense.

Froch-Kessler and Froch-Abraham will draw big crowds in Europe. Ward can certainly bring fans out in California, and Taylor should still be an attraction in the South or Midwest.

A few of the prelims look shakier than others (think Abraham-Dirrell, especially if either or both lose their first fights), but by and large, the round robin fights have strong regional appeal. Put them in the right places, as Showtime appears willing to do, and the ticket sales should be acceptable for all parties involved.

4. Showtime can afford to think outside the box and has a history with these fighters.

HBO tends to market everything, even fights that don't necessarily warrant it, as its own event. That formula has allowed it to become the industry leader, and there's really no incentive for it to commit to anything like this.

As the network doing the chasing, Showtime can roll the dice to try to bridge the gap. It's quite the coup if the tournament comes off, as the cable channel would have compelling fights to broadcast from this fall through the first part of 2011.

Showtime has also invested time and money in this particular group of fighters (and the 168-pound division in general), with all but Kessler making appearances over the last two years. If there's a big promotional blitz, as Rafael suggests is in the works, there's no one better equipped to hype the participants, show highlights, etc.

The fighters and their teams surely know this too. That previous investment could pay off handsomely by giving Showtime the extra bit of persuasion necessary to get the participants they want to sign up.


There are plenty of reasons to be skeptical that the tournament will become a reality. Boxing is the sport where great ideas wither on the vine far too often, as anyone who's followed it for any length of time can attest.

It's a long shot, but there are just enough factors in play to make this concept the exception. As boxing fans, we just have to cross our fingers and hope that a plan this promising pans out.

Posted by The Franchise

Franchise Thoughts: The Best American Boxers Today

To all of our U.S. readers, a very happy Independence Day. This year's July 4th weekend leaves us without any major boxing action to speak of, but we hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable holiday nonetheless.

It seems only natural to use some of my space today to examine the strength of American pro boxers as a group. While the death of boxing in the U.S. has been exaggerated (ad nauseam) by a number of sources, any rational fan would agree that the sport has fallen a long way from its peak domestic popularity during the 20th Century.

Still, the biggest bouts are still held primarily in the U.S., and American-born fighters continue to have a significant presence among the top levels of most divisions. Who are the best? Glad you asked, because I'm going to lay them out as I see them.

Two notes before I start. First, even though weight classes are becoming less important for purposes of making good fights, they're still useful for the sake of organizing fighters. For simplicity's sake, I'm placing each guy in the division in which he's ranked on BoxRec.com.

Also, I know that people born in Puerto Rico are U.S. citizens. But Puerto Rican fighters and fans tend to identify along ethnic lines, so I'm not including them with boxers born in the States. Obviously, adding the likes of Miguel Cotto and Juan Manuel Lopez would bolster America's ranks significantly.

Starting with the big guys and working down...

Heavyweight - Top American: Chris Arreola - This was a tough call, because the crop of U.S. heavyweights is both aging and, well, not very good as a whole.

It remains to be seen if Arreola has the stamina and defensive skills to truly compete with the Klitschko brothers and other top big men, but he certainly can bring it and he's yet to taste defeat. Plus his career is still on the rise and he's on the right side of 35, which is more than can be said of John Ruiz, Lamon Brewster and Hasim Rahman.

A bit of love also goes out to Eddie Chambers, who's also under 30, has lost just once and is actually fighting tonight in Germany.

Cruiserweight - Top American: Steve Cunningham - The cupboard is also pretty bare for American cruisers too, but Cunningham gets the nod as a former titlist who gave a pretty fair account of himself against the division's current top dog, Tomasz Adamek.

It's tempting to tout BJ Flores as a future hope in this weight class, but he's too old to be a prospect and hasn't exactly pushed himself to find the best fights. I like his announcing work though.

Light heavyweight - Top American: Bernard Hopkins - Until he officially retires, The Executioner remains one of the top U.S. boxers at any weight. His accomplishments speak for themselves, and he's still formidable at age 44.

Since B-Hop floats around in weight to fight so often, the real American champ at 175 could be Chad Dawson, depending on how he fares in his rematch with Glen Johnson. Big names Roy Jones Jr. and Antonio Tarver are still holding on, but just barely.

Super middleweight - Top American: Andre Ward - This was my first difficult decision, as Ward has yet to really cement himself as a top contender. He certainly looks to have all the tools necessary for future success.

If Ward is No. 1, then Andre Dirrell is 1A, and he also could very easily be a star in the making. BoxRec ranks Jermain Taylor ahead of both Andre's, but he's lost three of his last four and is just 1-1 at 168.

So there's hope for Americans in this division, but for right now the top guys (like Carl Froch and Mikkel Kessler) clearly reside overseas.

Middleweight - Top American: Kelly Pavlik - This was one of the easiest calls, as the Pride of Youngstown has settled in as middleweight champ. He did get schooled by Hopkins, but that was a few pounds north of here.

BoxRec rates Daniel Jacobs in this division even though he's fought above 160 for most of his fights, so I'll go ahead and say he's the future for the U.S. if he actually can make middleweight. Other than The Ghost and the Golden Child, there's not much else near the top.

Super welterweight - Top American: Paul Williams: The Punisher exemplifies today's trend of floating around between weights, and he's made it very clear he'll fight anyone between 147 and 160. BoxRec places him here and so will I. He's one of the best boxers in the world and easily takes the top spot with his work rate, height and underrated power.

The U.S. is fairly deep at 154 aside from Williams. Vernon Forrest and Cory Spinks have been around for a while but don't look finished yet. And the beginning of the next decade looks promising thanks to James Kirkland (assuming he gets himself straightened out) and Deandre Latimore.

Welterweight - Top American: Shane Mosley - It's pretty much a two-man show at 147, but it's a good two. Sugar Shane showed he still has plenty left in the tank by beating down Antonio Margarito, even if that hasn't resulted in the big paydays he's been seeking.

The other half of the duo is Andre Berto, who has his doubters but just keeps winning. He's young enough to force bigger names to fight him in the next few years if he keeps it up.

Super lightweight - Top American: Timothy Bradley - Though he's kind of an unlikely champion, Bradley has a title and an undefeated record for now. It's tough to say if he's really great at any one aspect of the game, but he's solid in everything.

I almost gave the nod to Nate Campbell here but decided to wait until he actually had a fight under his belt at 140. It's against Bradley, by the way.

The U.S. is loaded in young talent here too, as Devon Alexander, Victor Ortiz (yes, despite his recent loss) and Lamont Peterson are all 25 and under.

Lightweight - Top American: Juan Diaz - The Baby Bull wins this almost by default as others have moved out of this weight class. Despite some rough outings over the past few years, I'd still watch him fight any time, and that counts for something.

Memphis' Anthony Peterson is the one to watch as we roll into and past 2010.

Super featherweight - Top American: Robert Guerrero - The pickings are slim for U.S. fighters at 130, and the "other" Ghost's last fight was at lightweight. His upcoming August bout with Malcolm Klassen is for a super featherweight title though, so he counts here.

Featherweight - Top American: Steven Luevano: This was a tough call. I went with Luevano for his excellent record against some pretty good opponents, but we'll see what he's made of when he fights Bernabe Concepcion in August.

The coin flip loser was Rocky Juarez. I think Rocky is talented, but he's come up short in his biggest fights and was fortunate to earn a draw against Chris John last time out.

Below featherweight - Top American: Brian Viloria: If the U.S. isn't cranking out too many excellent big men, it really isn't developing many top contenders at the lower weight classes. The weight classes below featherweight are almost completely devoid of top talent.

You have to go all the way down to light flyweight to find a notable exception. Hawaiian Punch has been rolling since a 2007 loss to Edgar Sosa, and he gets bonus points for being a frequent and often insightful Twitterer.

Posted by The Franchise

Manny Pacquiao Cashes In Big Time

Cnnsi.com has just released their "Fortunate 50" list of highest paid athletes in the US as well as the top 20 internationally. The only boxer to make the list was the Pac Man, coming in at third place internationally raking in $40,000,000.

David Beckham was #1 at $45,200,000 internationally and Tiger Woods was tops in the U.S. with an insane $99,737,626.

Posted by uatu

BoxingWatchers.com: Boxer Power Rankings - July 2009

As we move into a bit of a summer lull in an entertaining year in boxing, it's time for the July power rankings. There was some shuffling around since last month, but since it was mainly among guys already in the top six, it's pretty much a case of the rich getting richer.

If this is your first time reading this, you are about to experience something so cold, man. Er... I mean, if you aren't familiar with how we do these, here's a quick primer. The lesson, as always, is that these aren't pound-for-pound rankings.

Without further ado...

1. Arthur Abraham - 24.53 - Arthur remains king of our rankings after taking care of Mahir Oral. He said all the right things after the fight about taking on Kelly Pavlik or moving up for a real challenge at super middleweight.

2. Juan Manuel Lopez - 22.59 - JuanMa added another KO to his growing total last month. Right now his biggest problem seems to be finding a real challenge.

3. Wladimir Klitschko - 21.02 - Dr. Steelhammer had little trouble with Ruslan Chagaev and has now KOed seven of his last eight opponents. I'd still be interested in seeing him fight David Haye.

4. Celestino Caballero - 20.38 - The Panamanian should be back in action in the fall, but a date and opponent haven't been finalized just yet. He doesn't seem to be on the radar of other top super bantamweights like JuanMa or Rafael Marquez.

5. Manny Pacquiao - 19.27 - Reports say a huge fight with Miguel Cotto isn't quite a done deal. But BoxRec is obviously feeling confident it will come together.

6. Kelly Pavlik - 18.13 - The Ghost has a new deal with Top Rank and apparently is not in rehab. Now if he'd just fight Abraham this fall, everything would be lovely.

7. David Haye - 17.00 - An injury prevented him from getting the shot at Wladimir Klitschko that he seemed to want so much. If he doesn't log a win by the end of 2009, he'll fall so far he may not even make honorable mention in these rankings.

8. Nonito Donaire - 16.00 - The flyweight ace will take to the ring in Las Vegas in August. He'll move up one division to take on Rafael Concepcion on a card that also features Steven Luevano versus Bernabe Concepcion, plus Odlanier Solis and Anthony Peterson.

9. Juan Manuel Marquez - 15.46 - JMM's showdown with Floyd Mayweather got pushed back from the summer to the fall. Fighting the Saturday after Mexican Independence Day should have him even more psyched than before, if that's possible.

10. Miguel Cotto - 13.20 - Cotto may be biting off more than he can chew by chasing Pacquiao. But if he wins, his star will be as bright as any in the sport.

The next 7: Paul Williams, Andre Berto, Chris John, Vic Darchinyan, Carl Froch, Chad Dawson, Tomasz Adamek

Posted by The Franchise

Boxing Hall of Famer Alexis Arguello Found Dead in Nicaragua - Possible Suicide?

The Associated Press and other news outlets are reporting that former world champion and 1992 International Boxing Hall of Fame inductee Alexis Arguello was found dead this morning at his home in Nicaragua. Known as the "Explosive Thin Man," Arguello won titles in three different weight classes during his long career, but he may be most famous for his unsuccessful attempt to win a fourth when he was knocked out in the 14th round by Aaron Pryor in an epic battle in 1982.

Though the AP piece does say Arguello was found with a gunshot wound to the chest, details of his autopsy have not been released. Other reports are circulating that TV stations in his home country are already stating that the wound was self-inflicted and calling the death a suicide.

Arguello's career came before my time as a boxing fan, but I did get a chance to meet him briefly and get his autograph in Canastota in 2004, which inspired me to learn more about his career. He became friends with Pryor despite their two slugfests in the ring (Pryor also won the 1983 rematch with a 10th-round KO), and both men were on hand for the induction weekend five years ago.

Posted by The Franchise

Boxer Clothing and Gear - Follow-Up II

As part of my continuing quest to scour the internets for boxer shirts, clothing and such (here's the original post and my first follow-up), I've come across another company I missed up to this point:

Remetee: Based in California, this clothing company was founded by one of the creators of Affliction, and it shows in both the design (skull-heavy) and price (not cheap) of its clothing.

It's also run into some bad luck supporting some talented boxers. Sharp-eyed fans may have noticed Victor Ortiz and the guys in his corner were decked out in Remetee right before he got knocked out by Marcos Maidana. Also this James Kirkland signature shirt probably seemed like a good idea until a few months ago.

Also for sale is a Ricky Hatton shirt (with no skulls!) and an event shirt for Hatton's demolition at the hands of Manny Pacquiao.

Posted by The Franchise