Chris John vs. Jackson Asiku

I’m busy watching Wimbledon so I’m going to keep this short. The majority of time I stick to boxing and Muay Thai but tennis is one of my favorite sports and since this is “the” tournament of the year, I’ve been watching it religiously.

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It’s final – Chris John makes his next title defense against Jackson Asiku. Immediately, the anti-John fans began harping on how he never fights anyone good and how Asiku is far from a worthy challenger. Ayyyy….it’s really difficult to change the mind of someone when they’ve already got their mind made up. What really gets me though is many of the haters have never seen John fight – or any of his opponents for that matter.

One thing I can never understand is the American mentality that a foreign champion must come to the US to defend his title. Rubbish. There’s good reason why boxing is growing in Germany, Thailand, China, Russia, the Philippines, and many other countries while it’s plateaued in the US. Challengers need to take the title from the champion – the champion doesn’t need to leave if he can’t get a big enough purse or simply doesn’t want to.

Why fight for $100,000 when you can fight for twice that? If Marquez or anyone wants to fight John that bad, then go to Indonesia and beat his ass or knock him out. He is the champion and is under absolutely no obligation to go to US fans. In fact, if anything he feels the obligation to his Indonesian fans.

You don’t hear many people calling him out, do you? I’ve worked with his people and a Thai promoter trying to get him fights and he’ll make chicken feed versus what he’ll make in Indonesia. Asiku has no problems coming to Indonesia or fighting him in Australia and has told me in no uncertain terms he plans to knock Chris TFO. That remains to be seen, however.

The one thing I’ve learned being involved with boxing over the years is for 90% of fighters, the money is what’s most important – show me the money – not just a promise it’ll come later. That’s why Don King handed Rahman a paper bag full of loot – money talks. The fighters care about money first and the fans opinions are secondary. If fame and glory come and it’s feasible, most will take that too. But not at the expense of the $$$.

Cortez Blew It

Referee Joe Cortez blew it, plain and simple. He should be man enough to own up but not surprisingly, he gave his ridiculous spiel about the safety of the fighters being paramount.Unbelievable.

A few things…

1) I seriously doubt he saw Soto hitting Lorenzo behind the head and think he reacted to the Dominican’s theatrics.
2) Lorenzo was hit in the head because he took a knee and Cortez was slow to tell Soto to go to the neutral corner.
3) The blow was glancing at best and Cortez and those who conferred with him should have taken this into consideration.

This is one case in which instant replay would have been helpful.

After the bout, Lorenzo twisted the facts into a pretzel, and I suspect he was just flat out lying because he saw an opportunity and took it. To hear him say that Soto, “knew he was losing and this is why he did this” was a bit much.

Other Stuff

All I can say about Pacquiao’s victory over Diaz is WOW. He looked phenomenal and if he fights like this for a few more years he’ll not only be recognized as the greatest Filipino fighter ever but also as one of the all-time greats. Draining weight is never good for the fighters and to see a boxer fighting at his ideal weight gives credence to this theory. Who knows what’s next for Pacquiao but I do not want to see him fight Nate Campbell. Much was made about his victory over Juan Diaz – no doubt it was a nice victory but…let’s not get carried away.

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Rumor has it Sirimongkol Singwangcha is headed back to the K-1. Singwangcha is apparently in desperate need of money and can’t seem to get the big money fights he desires. He’ll once again be dropped from the WBC ratings but – who needs the WBC? Screw em. Singwangcha’s trainer David Treharne is searching for a good fight for his charge – outside of Thailand. Signwangchai recently told the Bangkok Post’s Julian Turner that, “he doesn’t want to waste his time fighting inferior opposition in Thailand.” Cheers to that!!! It’s rare for a Thai fighter to speak up about who, when, and where he fights and this is a nice change. I wish him luck and in the near future I’ll be doing a feature on him.

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As I’ve been saying for the past week or so, there’s quite a bit of boxing coming up in the next month. Unfortunately, AJ Banal is fighting Rafael Concepcion on July 26 for the vacant WBA super flyweight title – the same day as Chris John is fighting Jackson Asiku. I can’t be in two places at once so I need to figure out which fight to cover. One factor is whether or not I get a visa into Burma. If I am able to, I’ll be working on a project about Leth Wei (Burmese boxing – bare knuckle).

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I’m also looking into lodging for the Olympics. One person I spoke with may be able to put me up in one of the rooms he has but so far nothing has been confirmed. I do want to go but can’t afford to pay $4000 for the accommodation.