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By Stephen “Breadman” Edwards
The Daily Bread Mailbag returns with Stephen “Breadman” Edwards giving his thoughts on various topics such as the Teofimo Lopez performance, Michael Spinks and the shocking moment when Manny Pacqiuao was knocked out by Juan Manuel Marquez
Hi Bread,
Hope this email finds you and your family well and you’ve had a great week/weekend. One of the most impactful definitions I’ve learned about effective communication is: when a sender sends information to an intended receiver and the intended receiver hears and understands the information the way the sender intended. Curious to hear your thoughts about what ‘effective communication’ looks like as a trainer in the corner on fight night. Have you ever been in a situation in which you thought your communications/instructions were clear, but your fighter did not execute upon said instructions? How did you go about improving communication for the next fight and what was the outcome?
Thank you for your time.
Bread’s Response: Great Question. Instructions don’t always work. It’s up to the fighter to execute and don’t forget the opponent also has something to say about it. Effective communication is actually the most important aspect of the trainer/fighter dynamic. You know when the fighter is listening because he’s “trying” to do what he was instructed to do. In my opinion the key to that is knowing each other. Being in the gym and understanding what the fighter is comfortable doing. What he has trouble doing. What he’s willing to do. What he’s willing to try. What his tendencies are. All of these things matter.
Yes of course it has happened to me. Julian Williams was fighting Nathaniel Gallimore in Las Vegas. Williams won the first 3 rounds by outboxing Gallimore and just being sharp. In the 4th round, Julian went inside and looked fatigued. I was instructing him to box. In the 5th round it was still the same. I couldn’t understand why Williams started slugging but I could tell he wasn’t going to box anymore. So I literally told him, I will flow off of him and instruct him to fight and maul Gallimore inside because if the judges heard me yelling to box, and he was slugging, then they would score against us. Each judge gave Gallimore rounds 4-6. I think it was because I was asking Julian to box and the judges could see he wasn’t listening.
When I started instructing Williams to grind on the inside they started scoring rounds for us again. True story. The fight is on YouTube. After the fight I watched the fight with Julian and explained to him that what he thought was happening was not really happening. He was outboxing Gallimore easy, but in his mind he thought he had to do more and what it did was allow Gallimore to get back into the fight. He told me a weird fatigue came over him and he felt comfortable inside grappling. I understood his explanation and I kept record in my mind in case we went through it again. We went through it the following year, vs Jarett Hurd and we were better equipped to go through it because of what happened vs Gallimore. And I was also more comfortable with Williams being inside vs a bigger fighter . It’s one thing to see it in the gym. But it’s different to see it in real fights under the bright lights. We both learned from that moment.
Hey Bread
Watching Conor Benn fight a few weeks ago, got me thinking about his Dad.
Going to get right to my question – should Nigel Benn be in the Hall of Fame or at least be considered? Each year, when we talk about who is HOF worthy, I never hear his name mentioned. He seems to check a lot of the boxes – two-weight world champion, solid wins over good fighters and one of the most exciting fighters of his era. Do you think it is held against him that his greatest win turned out so tragic vs. Gerald McCellan? Reid – Atlanta, GA
Bread’s Response: I’m going to be very honest with the answer. I don’t like some of the nasty rumors that surround Nigel Benn in his greatest victory over Gerald McClellan. I won’t get into them but they make me feel uncomfortable. But the result is the result and we have to respect the result. That being said in fairness to Nigel Benn. My answer is YES, he should be a HOF. He shouldn’t just be on the ballot. But he should be in.
Out of all of the top UK super middleweights in history, Benn performed the best vs Americans. For as great as Chris Eubank was he didn’t face the elite Americans. Calzaghe faced Roy Jones and Bernard Hopkins on the back end of their careers. Steve Collins did face some top guys from the US but he lost. Benn has stoppage wins over Iran Barkley and Gerald McClellan. Benn vs McClellan is the greatest fight in SMW history and Benn won it. The circumstances surrounding the fight are shady but what wasn’t shady is Benn’s heart and determination to overcome the brutal early onslaught of McClellan.
The right hand that McClellan hit him with against the ropes, looks as if it snapped Benn’s neck. Benn fought like a maniac that night and I respect what he did. It was breathtaking to watch, as it happened. I watched it as it happened!
On top of winning the McClellan and Barkely fights. Benn defended the SMW title 9 times. I also felt like he beat his rival Chris Eubank in their rematch. Watch that fight close. Benn had improved since their 1st fight and I thought he won the rematch clean. They should be 1-1. Benn also won the MW title and defended it a couple of times. In a killer era. One of the best eras ever at 160 and 168. Benn rose to the top and was one of the division’s best fighters. He had the peak performances. Numbers. And enough longevity. By any metric, Nigel Benn should be a HOF.
Hey Mr Edwards
The last mailbag, you gave such great insights I think I just want to reflect briefly on them. I say briefly because the first two emails were good but long-winded but I didn’t see you come down as hard on the writers as you do on me, good though their inputs were. Maybe you need to look at that. I liked what you said in defense of Tank Davis. The writer that said Tank has ducked Shakur Stevenson, Devin Haney and Teofimo Lopez must research the facts. Shakur stank the place out against De Los Santos and on that performance he’s nowhere near the queue to fight Tank. Lopez, after he picked up a lucky decision over Vasiliy Lomachenko had delusions of grandeur and was an ATG in his own mind dismissing guys like Tank by saying they had to prove they deserved a crack at his titles. I think Haney knows he is the B-side against Tank but he’s allowing his loud-mouthed father to derail that fight because he believes his son is the best thing since instant coffee. What’s Tank expected to do?
I won’t say much about Boots Ennis and Bud Crawford because you know my views there. Boots will find out very early in that fight that Crawford is a stratosphere above everyone he’s ever faced and once Crawford touches him he won’t even know he’s been touched. I don’t think any person who gets electrocuted quite knows what hit him, you know. I think you called it right with Artur Beterbiev and Andre Ward and I don’t think the writer researched the facts. Nothing Andre did at 175 pounds put him in the HOF. He was already in the HOF, best pound for pound fighter in the world and an ATG for what he did at 168 pounds, and it’s not fair to stack him up against a career 175 pounder like Beterbiev who’s already in the conversation for ATG at 175. It would be fairer to compare Beterbiev with Michael Spinks, who I think runs Ezzard Charles very close on Mt Rushmore at that weight class. Incidentally, how do you see that one? I think Spinks fought in an era when there were a lot of killers at the weight while Beterbiev really hasn’t had much to deal with. If you ask me, on sheer quality of opposition faced, I think Spinks would carry too many guns for Beterbiev. Beterbiev’s one great advantage over his opponents, besides his obvious assets, is that he was a star amateur but Spinks was a very elite amateur and Beterbiev would have no advantage over him there. Enough about that great mailbag. Here’s my final question to you. The heavyweight division. We know it has gone through some serious depressions throughout history but I say this present lot, including the very overrated Tyson Fury, is an insult to all the legends of the past. The division is so poor that a UFC fighter with no boxing experience whatsoever made a mockery of the supposed top man of the division and could easily clip someone who is probably the second best in the world in his next fight. Memories of Andy Ruiz suggest Anthony Joshua will be all at sea when Francis Ngannou clips him. Most of the top contenders are geriatrics. The division is not only dead but apparently entombed because I don’t know who a young fellow like Jared Anderson will have left to prove himself against. Do you agree?
By the way, thank you a few mailbags back for remarking that our Brian Mitchell is criminally underrated. It was overdue. Keep punching sir.
Katlholo Johannesburg, South Africa.
Bread’s Response: I wasn’t so much taking up for Tank, I was elaborating on the circumstances and giving insight on how things work. Hopefully Tank, Lopez, Ryan, Shakur and Devin can all fight each other at least once. I agree with everything you say about Terence Crawford, he’s special. Our only point of disagreement is Boots Ennis. I think he’s also special but he hasn’t had a chance to prove it.
Andre Ward beat the #1 guy in Kovalev two times at 175. So he did do some HOF stuff at the weight also. But his body of work is at 168 not so much 175.
I rate Michael Spinks as the best light heavyweight since he left the division 39 years ago. Roy Jones and Beterbiev would argue but I think Spinks is the top guy since 1985. I actually rate Spinks over Bob Foster at 175 historically. Very few men in history can hang with Spinks at 175. Ezzard Charles, Archie Moore, Gene Tunney maybe Sam Langford… I had go back over 100 years. That’s how good Spinks was. And you’re correct Beterbiev’s amateur class gets overlooked because he’s such a great puncher. But his pedigree is elite even though he didn’t medal. He has that advantage over most of his opponents. But with Spinks he would be facing a gold medalist who was his equal as an amateur.
Spinks and Beterbiev are both orthodox fighters who move well to their rights. So it would be fascinating to see them probing, feinting and looking for opportunities going right. Today I say Spinks would beat Beterbiev. I think Spinks’s quickness would be the separating advantage. Beterbiev also processes fast. It’s why he traps his opponents so often. But Spinks also has a really quick mind, and he’s naturally faster than Beterbiev. I can see Spinks landing quick, violent punches, on the break and in clinches, then using his legs to get him out of trouble. Spinks would have hell on his hands but I would take him to win a decision.
Beterbiev would also have to be very careful to not to run into a kill shot and I think that threat would allow Spinks, to navigate the ring and stay out of harm’s way. See Spinks vs Qawi on youtube.
The heavyweight division is better than it was during Wlad Klitschko’s reign. But the US market allows the division to expand. Deontay Wilder is the America’s best heavyweight and he just lost to Joseph Parker. I think the foreign heavyweights need more exposure. The US has to develop a top heavyweight. And the heavyweights need a big platform like they just had in Saudi on a more regular basis.
Brian Mitchell was criminally underrated. Excellent fighter.
Hey Breadman,
I was wondering about your thoughts on Tefimo Lopez vs Ortiz outcome. I watched it twice, the second time with no sound so I wouldn’t be swayed by analysts and I had Ortiz in a very dull fight winning by a comfortable margin. Neither did much of anything but I found that Ortiz came in with a better gameplan and frustrated Lopez. Am I missing something? When I listened to Bradley and company they were all over the place calling this one. One minute they made it sound like Lopez was winning the fight saying he pressed the fight, all I saw was him missing his shots or pitter-patting, numerous times he backed up in frustration beckoning Ortiz to come to him. I saw Ortiz give as much as he took in exchanges. I guess the A-side gets the win in uneventful fights. I’d like to hear your opinion on the fight. Also I’m curious what is the reason older fighters can’t pull the trigger. Please explain if it is reflexes that cause them to hesitate and not fire shots.
Bread’s Response: Older fighters can’t pull the trigger because the nerve fibres slow the speed of conduction. That’s a scientific fact. It’s why I never say POWER is the LAST thing to go. That’s another boxing myth. Because the ability to pull the trigger affects power. If you can’t react fast enough to hit something, it doesn’t matter how hard you punch. Pick a random KO ARTIST and look at his entire career. 90% of the time, the KOs are less frequent after he gets over 30.
Bernard Hopkins was not known as a KO artist. But early in his career when he was called the Executioner for a reason, he scored plenty of KOs. Just check his record. After Hopkins stopped Oscar De La Hoya in 2004, he NEVER scored another KO. 18 straight fights without scoring a KO to end his career.
George Foreman went the distance 4 straight times to END his career. At no other point in his career had he ever been the distance 4 times in a row. But at the end, he went the distance 4 times. There is a reason for that. Reaction time allows fighters to land shots that the opponent does not see. In a game of inches, this is a BIG deal.
As I watched Lopez vs Ortiz I thought several things. I got on twitter(x) and stated that Teofimo doesn’t cut the ring off well because he fights in a bladed stance and he punches from too far out. And that Ortiz was moving well but he may have dumbed the fight down too much. He didn’t land much. I wasn’t sure if Ortiz would get credit for how he fought. He didn’t. So after the fight, I wasn’t surprised that Lopez won. I didn’t think he got a gift. I thought he got the benefit of doubt, which is different than getting a gift. Neither fighter set the world on fire.
As I was watching the fight I understood both perspectives and why it was looking how it looked. First off I want to commend Ortiz for his conditioning. That kid was in great shape. His movement was superb. If he could’ve established a more commanding jab, he would’ve won going away. But that’s where Teofimo comes in. He’s super sharp at countering. And the more you throw punches at him, the more opportunities you give him to clip you.
Ortiz was hurt badly a few years back by a fighter named Joseph Adorno. Adorno is built similar to Teofimo Lopez. I honestly think Ortiz felt Teo’s power and didn’t want to trade which is understandable because he was basically knocked out on his feet by Adorno. He’s the one taking the punches. But being a little conservative cost him the victory in my opinion.
Onto Teofimo. I like the kid. I don’t like his verbal outburst but I like him overall. For all of the criticism he’s receiving about not being able to cut the ring off, which is something he needs to work on obviously, he’s taking fights vs guys like Martin and Ortiz that other A-list fighters aren’t taking. I give Teo credit for taking those fights, the same way I give Canelo credit for fighting Lara. Unless those tricky type of styles are the mandatory as an A-side star, they usually don’t get the big fights. Again, Lopez is taking those fights. Newsflash. Most boxer/punchers can’t cut the ring off. It’s not as easy as it sounds. But Teofimo is getting exposed for it because he’s taking the fights. Look at Mikey Garcia vs Sandor Martin….
Now as I watched here is why I think Teo has trouble cutting the ring off. Teo is short and he doesn’t have a crazy reach. But he fights like he’s 5’10 or 5’11. He fights in a bladed shoulder roll stance, he punches from very far out and he does fancy moves on defense which look good but they take him out of position to attack. None of these things are counter productive when an opponent is trying to knock you out coming towards you. But they are counter productive when you’re walking a fighter down. The reasons are simple. The bladed stance allows the opponent to move either way. Punching from too far out makes you reach and when you miss the moving opponent doesn’t have to worry about the follow up punch because reaching makes you off balance. And again, doing too many fancy moves takes you out of position when you’re going after a MOVING target.
Good pressure defense is subtle slips and catching punches on your gloves while stepping into the moving opponent. So most of Teofimo’s natural tendencies are counter productive to him being a pressure fighter. But I can tell he’s talented enough to pull it off. Watch the last round. He did a good job pressuring. The issue is pressure fighting conditioning is different from counter punching conditioning. Being a pressure fighter takes more conditioning and it’s not something you will be able to turn on and off in the middle of the fight without training for it because it will tire you out. I’m not going to say anymore because the game is to be sold, not to be told.
Bread,
What would you define as the single most shocking moment or instant that you’ve experienced while watching boxing? And why? Specifically looking for a second in time that you couldn’t believe what you had just seen. Not an unexpected change in momentum, but a flash. Micky Ward’s body shot on Alfonso Sanchez after losing every minute of every round, as just one example. Jeremy
Bread’s Response: Three fights come to mind. Mike Tyson vs Buster Douglas. As the fight was unfolding, my friends and I got on a group call. We couldn’t believe what we were watching. That wasn’t a fight where Douglas landed a lucky shot. He was putting in work from the opening bell. Mike Tyson was the most dominant fighter I had seen up until that time and it was shocking to see him lose like that in his prime.
Roy Jones was the most dominant fighter I had seen after Tyson. Jones was a ko artist who rarely lost rounds besides the 1st fight with Montell Griffin. Tarver vs Jones II left me hurt. I literally got into an argument with a relative who claimed that Roy Jones could NEVER take a punch. I asked the idiot how would he know, he had never been in trouble in 50 fights and 15 years. It was shocking and sickening to see Jones get clipped.
Marquez vs Pacquiao 4. I was at a local fight in Philly that night. I didn’t have time to go all the way home, so I stopped at a sports bar that was showing the fight. It was a great fight. I knew Marquez fought Pac well and I was a little nervous. But after Pac took control I felt a little better but I wasn’t at ease because I knew Marquez was almost impossible to stop. Then he clipped Manny. I first looked to see if the punch landed in time because if you look close it landed as the bell was ringing. After seeing that it counted as a good shot, I felt heat in my head. I started sweating and I literally got dizzy. I’ve never felt that feeling before. I don’t know what feinting feels like, but that ko shocked me and me feel like I was about to faint. It took me about 5 minutes to be able to get up and leave the sports bar. I was STUCK.
What’s up Bread?
Long time reader, some time right in. Maybe I was a lil harsh on my last question/statement for some reason you didn’t address it, totally understandable. But now that you’ve addressed C. Benn I was wondering if you addressed the A. Beterbiev who has had an “adverse” testing, A. Baumgarnder who has tested positive, and the monster Inoue who gets a lot of home cooked meals that pays a lot of money to opponents to come there where we rarely hear of or know if there’s any testing at all. All that to say that we know nothing is random, but just wanted to know your thoughts if you were in the opposite corner facing any of these fighters.
Also, your thoughts on Virgil Hill’s career who I enjoyed watching on regular TV and thought got the most out of his talents and career… Keep up the excellent work and teaching of boxing. Best regards
FlintowntoAz
Bread’s Response: Virgil Hill was an excellent fighter. A top 5 light heavyweight of the 80s and 90s. Hall of Famer.
I never addressed Beterbiev, Inoue or Baumgardner concerning PEDS because I wasn’t asked about them. I can only answer what I’m asked.
Beterbiev did NOT test positive. There was just an adverse finding. I don’t fully understand that. And I don’t want to rush to judgement. So I will have to research it before I can comment on it. But I do want to say that in my opinion, results should NOT be GRAY. They should be positive or negative. Findings that aren’t positive but adverse cause too much speculation.
Inoue as far as I know has NOT failed any test. I also don’t know what fights he was tested in and what fights he wasn’t. So I would have to see where he didn’t test to properly comment. One thing I will say, is if there are championship fights that Inoue has had where there was NO testing, it would come off as suspicious because Inoue is the A-side star and he can make anyone test that he wants to. And if he CHOSE to NOT test in one of his championship fights, it wouldn’t be a good look. But as of now, I think Inoue is the TRUTH and an ATG fighter.
As far as I know Baumgardner failed a test. I’m actually a big fan of Baumgardner, I think she’s an awesome fighter. Her test results caught me off guard. I don’t believe she’s fought since, so I can’t comment on how she’s looked afterwards because I don’t have any performances to judge from.
I did hear she was cleared of any wrong doing but I don’t understand what CLEARING of an athlete entails. I don’t know what proof or details were provided etc. So I can’t comment on a process I don’t know about.
For the record my overall stance on PED testing is simple and this has nothing to do with Baumgarder, Inoue or Beterbiev… I try not to do mental gymnastics over drug test results. I try to not speculate on intent. Or if someone purposely ingested drugs or did so by mistake. It’s too much for me personally. And it’s too hard to make a determination. I try to look at it as simply pass and fail unless the fighter can prove something like say….an over the counter supplement that had something banned in it.
When you get into if someone knew or not, things again become cloudy. I don’t believe testing should be cloudy. I have heard too many convenient excuses. I’m not saying everyone in particular is lying. But what I will say is the excuses are convenient. They all sound innocent and most of the excuses involve food. Wild boar, steak and eggs. I’m not being sarcastic either…
I could be wrong but I haven’t heard one fighter say, my nutritionist gave me something he shouldn’t have. I haven’t heard one fighter say my strength and conditioning coach gave me something to make me test positive. Make no mistake. Fighters aren’t making PEDS. They don’t put themselves on dosing schedules. Someone is doing it for them. No fighter is going to take the fall for a team member giving them something banned if they truly didn’t KNOW. But as of yet, I still haven’t heard a fighter say that a team member gave them anything. The reason I believe is if they tell on a team member, the team member will defend themselves. And then the whole kingdom will crumble.
At this point, I think it’s fair to say that Teofimo Lopez fights to the level of his competition. Why does this happen to fighters in boxing? What needs to be done to prevent this from happening? I think Lopez is as talented as anyone in the sport, but he seems destined for another upset loss.
Bread’s Response: Teofimo is a hot and cold fighter. I’m not sure why, but what I do know is that there is a reason for everything. Oftentimes why an athlete is hot and cold is mental. When a person can do something on Tuesday and then can’t do it on Friday, it’s a mental lapse. Why the mental lapse? I don’t know. But consistency is UNIFORM. Preparation is the key in my opinion. Consistent preparation allows you to have consistent performances. Special fighters are consistent. Very good fighters can have hot and cold nights. Over time everyone reveals what they are. Hopefully Teo figures out why he’s inconsistent and we see the guy that beat Loma on a more consistent basis. One more thing I want to add, I would like to see if Teo is truly hot and cold. Or if he’s just cold vs movers. If it’s against THAT specific style then he has to develop more OR they have to keep him away from movers. If it’s just him, then he can’t take showcase, easy fights. They have to match him BIG every time because like you said, he may lose to a lesser guy for shorter money.
Greetings, Mr. Breadman!
As a lifelong orthodox boxer, I was curious about advantages to switch-hitting. I mess around in southpaw from time to time on the bag when I feel tightness, etc. and feel it could be a worthwhile investment, but after so many hours and years, I just don’t know if the juice is worth the squeeze so to speak. As a tradesman, I go left and right-handed on various tasks to reduce wear and tear, capitalize on certain situations and make sure I can feed my family if I’m partially disabled. I’m in my mid-thirties, train boxing and combatives because I love it and do security work on the side. Beyond giving an opponent “a different look”, are there advantages that might offset training and sparring at a lower level to develop something for some Joe Blow on the wrong side of 35?
Thanks for running your column and improving the lives of your fighters. Beyond the boxing, you share some great principles for navigating life, and offer perspectives I’d never be exposed to otherwise.
All The Best, Rawbadawb
Bread’s Response: I make my fighters switch-hit everyday in the gym. For at least 1 round. It exercises the brain from seeing punches on that side. It builds dexterity. It also gets you stronger on that side. If you’re orthodox, your right leg is stronger because that’s your push off leg. Your left arm gets worked more because that’s your jab hand. Your reflexes in terms of delivering punches, seeing punches are built-in to the orthodox stance. So by changing stances it builds up the opposite side. It’s definitely beneficial to at least practise it.
Anything can happen in a fight. You can hurt your hand. Your eye can become injured. You can throw a shot and fall off balance and need to attack or defend from the opposite stance. I have seen two huge historic KOs come from orthodox fighters who threw right hands, their momentum turned them southpaw, and they then threw BIG left hands to get the KOs. Buster Douglas vs Mike Tyson. James Toney vs Michael Nunn.
Hey Breadman,
Thanks for taking the time to do this mailbag. Boxing nuts like myself look forward to this every week. My question for you was inspired by the Teofimo Lopez performance. Full disclosure, I bet on Jamaine Ortiz to win, but I promise my sour grapes are not relevant to this question (However, 117-111? C’mon. That s*** has to stop.) What I saw was another sub-par performance by Teo. Sure, Ortiz did not engage at all, but that is a reality in boxing. Sometimes fighters are going to stink it up a bit. The problem was, Teo didn’t do anything…anything at all…to adjust to Ortiz. He simply followed him around the ring throwing one punch at a time. No footwork, no balance, no cutting the ring down. No real strategy to deal with a disciplined defensive fighter. Two questions for you: 1. At what point do we start blaming the trainer? For a brief time in the fight it appeared that Lopez did make an adjustment by trying to get Ortiz to come to him, but it was immediately clear that wasn’t going to work. Ortiz was committed to his strategy. Of course, I am not privy to the corner or their training sessions, but I just didn’t see any tactics being deployed. 2. Teo is obviously a phenomenal athlete, but is it possible we are overrating him as a boxer? I mean, he looked great against Taylor, but that was because Taylor let Teo do what he was good at, counterpunching. When Ortiz didn’t engage to allow Teo to counter, he was lost. My question here is, as a trainer yourself, how important is athleticism in your opinion? I think of Roy Jones Jr. whose athleticism allowed him to break fundamental “boxing rules,” but he was one in a million and even he started to get touched when his speed and reflexes started slowing. Teo is not even close to Jones as a fighter, so how much further can his athleticism take him?I’m not trying to hate on Teofimo Lopez. He beat Loma and he looked great with Taylor. Fine… he won. I won’t cry robbery because that was an impossible fight to score (117-111 was nonsense though). But, there were simply too many recent performances that showed his flaws more than his gifts. It’s becoming clearer and clearer to me that he is just a great counterpuncher and not much more. Am I being harsh?
Thanks for reading,
Mark
Bread’s Response: I don’t know if you can blame the trainer if you aren’t in camp to see what they are working on. Maybe they worked on it and Teofimo can’t do it. His dad got him to be a 2x lineal champion at 135 and 140 and to be a top 10 P4P in the world. So he did something right. Obviously he has to work on cutting the ring off and pressuring opponents but again I don’t know who’s fault it is.
I saw Teo put some solid pressure on in spots. But he couldn’t sustain it. That’s the issue. If you don’t train to be a pressure fighter, it’s very difficult to sustain it in a real fight over 12 rounds. Teo is master counter puncher and he loves when fighters come to him. So that’s his comfort zone. It’s also more energy efficient, I would say Teo needs to train in that pressure mode so he can sustain it. He did well in the 12th round. I think he was able to do it because he knew it was the last round. So let’s see if they can make the adjustments.
I don’t think Teo is overrated. I think he’s a talented but flawed fighter. No one is saying he’s #1 P4P. but top 10 P4P is reasonable considering the eye ball test and his victories over Commey, Loma and Taylor are real wins. Just like his tough nights vs Ortiz and Martin are real. Teofimo is the basketball player who gets 50 on any given night. But he will also score 7 on any given night. You have to count both type of games for his average. You can’t just count the 50 point nights. And you can’t just count the 7 points.
In his defense, I also think Teo is accepting tough styles to fight where as other fighters in his position may not. Sandor Martin outboxed Mikey Garcia who is considered very fundamentally sound. I fully admit that Teofimo didn’t look great vs Ortiz. But I want to see other elite fighters dominate Ortiz and Martin so I can put Teofimo in proper context.
Sambu Kalambay had a stick and move style. He beat the great Mike McCallum giving him his first career loss. Other middleweights didn’t pick on Kalambay because they knew he was REAL although he wasn’t a big name. McCallum is as well rounded as they come but he had trouble with that style. McCallum took on a tough style that he could’ve possibly avoided. I say this to say, let’s see “others” dominate the guys that gave Teofimo trouble.
What do you think happened with Canelo and PBC? Do you think it’s him just not wanting to fight David Benavidez or is it a money thing? How does this affect his 3 fight deal? And who do you think is the more competitive fight, Munguia or Berlanga?
Bread’s Response: I don’t know what happened with Canelo and PBC. But I assume he could fight Benavidez if he wanted to. Canelo is the biggest star in boxing. He can fight whoever he wants. But as far as what was WRITTEN or AGREED upon, I have no idea….
I don’t want to be the GUY, who acts like he has a seat at the table of negotiations that have nothing to do with me. We can all speculate but none of us really know unless you’re present in those rooms.
From what I’ve read Canelo is leaning towards Munguia but who knows. I think that’s a good fight but obviously it doesn’t have the same historical significance that Canelo vs Benavidez would have. Objectively I think Canelo will fight Benavidez but he’s going to do it on his own time. I also think he knows that Benavidez can take the rest of his prime away and that would probably be his last fight of his career. Just my opinion but I think Canelo and Eddy Reynoso are very smart and clever. They know the challenge that Benavidez brings in terms of a physical threat. Canelo has over 60 fights and he’s had some serious injuries. He would leave a piece of himself in the ring if he fought Benavidez.
I also believe they know what they did to GGG in terms of waiting him out a little bit. And they don’t want the same thing they did to GGG, to happen to them vs Benavidez…..
I think Munguia has improved over the years. He’s not as good as Benavidez but he is further along in development than Berlanga. Munguia has been 12 rounds at a fierce pace. That alone gives him more valuable experience than Berlanga. Munguia won a world title and competed in several world title fights. He’s also fought multiple fighters that may be able to beat Edgar Berlanga. Berlanga has not fought one fighter that could beat Jaime Munguia. So no disrespect to Berlanga, but Munguia is clearly the more advanced fighter and tougher challenge.
Although I favor Canelo to beat him, Munguia’s heart, stamina and work rate will be a challenge for Canelo. But before we jump to conclusions, let’s see who Canelo officially picks to fight. Everyone seems to be in a rush to make a prediction of who he will fight but he hasn’t said anything yet. From my experience, if he has the option to pick either Munguia or Berlanga, whoever he picks to fight first, is the fighter he feels is LEAST threatening. Fighters instinctively take the toughest challenge LAST in terms of options. Let’s see what happens.
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