Lei Tong

I'll give Ed the benefit of the doubt and write-off the performance to ring rust, as Dana did. However, that being said, Kalib's going to roll through him with ease, though it's not even a garauntee Ed can take Kendall in the semis.

I'm picking Sakara by JD.

His real name is Muntaser.

Considering they'll have to comp tickets to every member of the Gracie family to get a full house, I'll say he was severely overpaid.

Herman looked average and blew the Miletich/Alessio armbar.

Holy fucking size difference.

Herman advances, but Danny lasts long enough to make a good account of himself.

If you want to use Williams' "marketablity" as a good reason to pick him as opposed to securing a tough fight, that's one thing. But combined with his repeated attempts at avoiding a fight with his mandatory, it ends up looking suspect. Regardless of Vitali's people not liking King, it doesn't change the fact that Vitali was trying to avoid his obligations as WBC champion, as well as those of a supposed "people's champion" (I purposely left out his Ring championship title, as they decided to make a joke of it), IMO. Vitali was possibly the best of a bad lot, but his own fragility (mental or physical, depending on your view) kept him from ever proving it.

http://www.boxnews.com.ua/news.php?id=1614&lng=en

Tyson was no longer considered invincible, but considering Lewis had lost just a couple of years earlier to Rahman, and cameinto the Vitali fight at a career high weight, it makes performing well against him under those circumstances a little less imprssive. Around the time Vitali handpicked Williams, Ruiz had just beaten Rahman & TKO'ed Oquendo and Lamon had laid out his brother. I won't deny that Vitali recieved some preferential treatment (of course), but he did have free reign after the Sanders fight, and he chose Williams. Considering Vitali's knee had been cleared, and Arum basically told him to fight or get fucked... I'll say he simply gave up on the fight. http://www.boxnews.com.ua/news.php?id=1514&lng=en I'll try and find a link for the Brock match-up.

Those guys would have been fine, IMO. Rahman would've been decent as well (at least moreso than Maskaev & Brock, both of whom Vitali would've much rather have faced).

Lewis retired, so he knocked out the guy he was going to fight. Tyson got knocked out, so he beat the guy that did, he beat the guy that beat his brother. Who else is out there? Hasim! Sorry man, the heavyweight division is shit. How about any of the other champions? Or anyone not at a career high in weight? Or near the verge of retirement? The heavyweight division was and is a pathetic mess, but even then Vitali's resume leaves a whole lot to be desired.

It's fine if said fighter can follow up with some good wins, but if not, the value of the performance comes into question.

Do you honestly think RING Magazine would have plastered Kirk Johnson's face all over the magazine, pushed him to the top of their rankings, and trumpeted him as their champion after a win over Corrie freakin' Sanders (with HBO along for the ride), had he been in the same position as Vitali? No, but Kirk Johnson didn't almost KO Lennox Lewis, and everyone knows why there was so much at stakes in the Vitali/Sanders fight. Older brother, avenging younger bro's loss.... I suppose I should've made it clearer that by "in the same position," I meant had teed off on an out of shape Lewis the same way Vitali did, and lost in the same controversial matter. Also, "almost KO'ed" is a strong phrase considering Lennox never even went down.

A couple of full fights for today: Shinya Aoki vs. Keith Wisniewski Akihiro Gono vs. Ivan Salaverry Chris Brennan vs. Takaharu Murahama Masanori Suda vs. Kenji Kawaguchi

This is should actually be a pretty good card for most non-fans, as Royce is known amongst most people, and while many of the matches on the card have little meaning in the big scheme of things, they should be fun to watch. Of course, to a more seasoned fan, the lack of important match-ups is pretty dissapointing, but your average beer drinker won't give a shit as Riggs bombs on Swick or Vera & Silva trade.

Do you honestly think RING Magazine would have plastered Kirk Johnson's face all over the magazine, pushed him to the top of their rankings, and trumpeted him as their champion after a win over Corrie freakin' Sanders (with HBO along for the ride), had he been in the same position as Vitali?

Tyson hardly looked awesome, but he didn't struggle much outside of looking lethargic against Botha. If wins over Donald, Bean & Norris impress you...right. Considering the previous two times Lennox came into a fight in that shape he had lost, I'd say it should've been Vitali's night. ...?

I would argue that while Tyson had something left around the time Lewis teed off on him, he had pretty much nothing left 2 years later. Vitali had done little to distinguish himself from previous contenders aside from luck-out and fight Lennox on a very bad night. Vitali never dropped Sanders, which was pretty dissapointing. Except Lewis... and Byrd. Bad luck, when he had boxing media as a whole on his jock simply for being a white guy who was competitive with Lennox? Hardly.

SHOOTO Best of 2000 batch (almost every fight is heavily clipped, unfortunately): Dokonjonosuke Mishima vs. Din Thomas Hayato Sakurai vs. Tetsuji Kato Baret Yoshida vs. Masahiro Oishi Naoya Uematsu vs. Joey Gilbert Uchu Tatsumi vs. Anthony Hamlett Hayato Sakurai vs. Luiz Azaredo Caol Uno vs. Marcio Barbosa Alexandre Franca Nogueira vs. Uchu Tatsumi Stephen Palling vs. Hiroyuki Abe Naoya Uematsu vs. Noboru Asahi Baret Yoshida vs. Mamoru Ohkouchi Takanori Gomi vs. Ryan Bow Akihiro Gono vs. Masanori Suda Dokonjonosuke Mishima vs. Marcio Barbosa

Considering Silva has stopped one out of a few dozens shots taken at him that way... no.

It's doubtful Anderson KO's Leben. Rather, Leben will eat punches, knees, elbows and kicks for 15 minute en route to one of the most one-sided ass kickings in recent memory. Unless he goes for a takedown.

Word is the card hasn't even been sanctioned yet.

Nobody's saying Lewis hadn't been in trouble, but the level of punishment and how close Vitali was to winning that fight have been overstated a good deal since. The only question remaining is if a past-his-prime Lewis could motivate himself enough to beat a primed fighter like Vitali. Apparently, he thought it'd simply be better not to possibly embarass himself, losing to fringe competition late in his career like many of his contemporaries. I'll give you that Holyfield was showing his age by the time of the Lewis bouts, but Lennox was on the sownslide of his career as well. And yes, Grant & Botha were mediocre fighters, and put away as such. But the others... - Tua, though a one-trick pony, had earned his title shot, putting away almost every other contender he faced, save Ike. - Tyson was past his prime, but he still had enough at that point to blow past most of the scrubs in the HW division at that point. And there's no real proof that Tyson's lack of aggression in that fight had to do with anything other than the beating he took. - Lewis, as was often a problem, came into the first Rahman fight overconfident, out of shape, and ill prepared (easily one of his biggest faults). However, most agree that the rematch was a more accurate measuring stick for each fighter. ...how was Vitali anymore legit than any number of contenders Lewis had already dispatched? His biggest claim to fame was failing to finish off an old, out of shape Lewis. I put Holyfield right behind Lewis on my list, and arguments can and have been been made for either. Wlad has the same speed (but with less awkward footwork), a better variety of punches on offense (whereas Vitali is pretty much a 1-2 kind of guy). Brains isn't an issue for either guy (fight tall, clinch in close is pretty much a no-brainer). However, Wlad's chin is still shaky as all hell, and the only thing that's improved with Stewart in his corner is his ability to clinch. ... true, but weren't you just ripping on Lennox's resume? So all we're left with is a decent HW who might have been better than he let himself be. Nothing more.

Some SHOOTO rookie action upped by MSIA: Bantamweight (56 Kilograms) Ryuichi Miki vs. Hiroharu Matsufuji http://youtube.com/watch?v=lUdgZNoQ1Z0 Featherweight (60 Kilograms) Teruyuki Matsumoto vs. Takeya Mizugaki http://youtube.com/watch?v=Nvdn0Q0S3qk Teruyuki Matsumoto vs. Joji Shimada http://youtube.com/watch?v=3ST-ZTtM5-U Satoshi Yamashita vs. Takeya Mizugaki http://youtube.com/watch?v=q1vJPV0qUM4 Naoki Yahagi vs. Atsushi Asano http://youtube.com/watch?v=mUx7FV5hSEg Lightweight (65 Kilograms) Hiroshi Nakamura vs. Yutaka Nishioka http://youtube.com/watch?v=3bFvkU5tJlA Hiroshi Nakamura vs. Seigi Fujioka http://youtube.com/watch?v=Mm2s29v016Y Welterweight (70 Kilograms) Shinji Sasaki vs. Ken Omatsu http://youtube.com/watch?v=Hq0WAGlaTes Middleweight (76 Kilograms) Katsuaki Niioka vs. K-Taro Nakamura (Highlights) http://youtube.com/watch?v=bFG0jqOjnVE Mateus Irie Nechio vs. Tomokazu Yuasa (Highlights) http://youtube.com/watch?v=YfH5zF_KASE Yuki Konishi vs. Yosuke Mikami http://youtube.com/watch?v=ejGTvWkM7o8 Akihiro Yamazaki vs. Yoshiyuki Yoshida http://youtube.com/watch?v=4OEslFYbFjQ Light Heavyweight (83 Kilograms) Kintaro vs. Masashi Yozen http://youtube.com/watch?v=4qEJ3RnYypc Yoshinori Ashikawa vs. Ryuhei Sato http://youtube.com/watch?v=LVgwVUVW5wQ __________________