Doghouse Boxing Presents Daniel 'The Boxing Guru' Poland's Mailbag Addition

Doghouse Boxing Presents Daniel 'The Boxing Guru' Poland's Mailbag Addition

By Daniel Poland, Doghouse Boxing (July 22, 2009)

Hello boxing fans to the first addition of my new mailbag, today's discussions include Arturo Gatti, Alexis Arguello, The super six tournament, Amir Khan and more...........

To be apart of next week’s mailbag, send your questions to Checkhookboxing1@hotmail.co.uk

Enjoy

Daniel
With the whole boxing world in mourning of the recent passing’s of two of its finest warriors, Arturo Gatti and Alexis Arguello (R.I.P), i was wandering what are your best memories of both fighters?.

Adam

Hi Adam

Thanks for the email and welcome to the first addition of my new mailbag. Boxing has been struck with two terrible tragedy's over the last few weeks, first the passing of the great Alexis Arguello, a fighter who I regard as one of the greatest of all time, and then soon after our very own human highlight reel Arturo Gatti passed away, I try not to think too much about how Gatti may have died but try to think on how much he spent entertaining us over the years.

Thinking of what my finest memories are of both fighters is hard. I am a young man who unfortunately wasn’t old enough when Arguello was doing his thing but as my love for boxing has grew over the years, I took myself to school, revising about the old and present great boxers. When my time came to study Arguello, I was in awe of how great he was, his fight with the great Ruben Oliveras is one of my finest memories but the one that sticks in my mind was his two wars with Aaron Pryor, two great battles with great controversy. Arguello coming up short in both fights still showed his greatness and i will never forget him.

Now to Gatti, LOL where do i start ?, so many memories, it is safe to say Gatti weren’t the greatest fighter of all time but he is one of the greatest entertainers of all time, he was like an action hero, who almost left the ring every time cut up and swollen. Many people will point to his trilogy with 'Irish' Mickey Ward as there fondest memory, but i will be different and say his fight with Gabriel Ruelas is my favourite Gatti moment, it was such a great battle that went back and fourth until Gatti showed his power in knocking out Ruelas in the fifth round. I don’t think i have ever seen Gatti in a bad fight, it’s a shame he has gone, he will be missed.

Hi Daniel bro
My question to you is how do you sum up this Super Middleweight tournament?, its meant to be the best six Super Middleweights in the world but where is Lucian Bute or Allen Green?, surely they are more worthy of a place in this tournament then the likes of Ward, Dirrell and Taylor dont you think?, Anyway in your opinion who comes out on top and why?

Hi Justin

Thanks for the email and welcome to the first addition of my new mailbag, I like everyone else see's this tournament as great news for boxing, boxing needed this to get everyone talking about something apart from Mayweather and Pacquiao, we have six top fighters all going head to head but you make a good point about Bute and Green not being included, its a real shame because if you where to include them you can truly say it is the best in the division going at it, they maybe more deserving of a place in the tournament then Ward,Dirrell and Taylor but that’s not to say the three names mentioned don’t deserve to be there.

Ward and Dirrell are two great up and coming fighters who deserve a shot like this, people complain about prospects who continue to fight C class fighters, so it is good to see these young men testing themselves against the best, as for Taylor in my opinion he is still a top class operator and is definitely worthy of his place, if he could of held on for fourteen more seconds he would of beaten Froch when they met in April, alot of people are writing Taylor off in this tournament but I see him as one of the favourites.

As for how i see the tournament going, I believe the top four will be Kessler, Taylor, Abraham and Dirrell and then in the final Kessler will beat Taylor. That’s my opinion so far, if you are to ask me this question after the first two round robin fights i bet my life my opinion will change LOL

Daniel
What are your thoughts on Amir Khan's performance against Kotelnik?, Do you think he's ready for big fight in America?, if so who against and why, and if he where to fight Ricky Hatton how do you think the fight would turn out?

Taylor

Hi Taylor

Thanks for the email and welcome to the first addition of my new mailbag. I have to say i was very impressed by what i saw from Khan, he showed great hand speed, punched in flurries and also showed improvement in his defence and chin, we all seen that he took a couple of big shots and his legs held up well. Yes Kotelnik is not a big puncher but the way people spoke about Khan's chin a jab from Ivan Calderon or Paulie Malignaggi would put him down. People are too quick to discredit Khan, they all want to see him lose and when he wins they will find any excuse to put him down. I am a big fan of Khan and am looking forward to seeing him in some big fights.

Yes i can see him having a big fight in America soon and looking at who it could be, i am looking at the big fight that takes place on August 1st between Timothy Bradley and Nate Campbell, the winner could be lined up as a possible opponent for Khan and both would be dangerous fights for the youngster but he is in the big league’s now and wont be able to turn away those kind of challengers, as for all this talk about an all British showdown between Khan and Hatton, if it happens I can only see one outcome and that is a stoppage win for Khan, he is too quick and Hatton has proven to struggle with speed and since his knockout loss to Pacquiao, i cant see 'The HitMan' being at his best anymore.

Daniel
I don’t know about you but i feel like I am the only one who is not jumping on the Edwin Valero bandwagon, Yes the man has power but he has shown his power against C class opponents, how do you rate Valero? And do you think he can become a boxing superstar?

G-Star-5000

Hi G-Star-5000

Thanks for the email and welcome to the first addition of my new mailbag, G-Star in the words of Michael Jackson 'You are not alone', well not when it comes to this issue, I was once a feature writer for Ringsidereport and was asked to do an article on who i thought where the top five overrated fighters in boxing today, and my number one was none other then Mr Valero himself, am with you, i just havent seen anything that suggests he's a great fighter, a record of 25-0 with 25 knockouts is impressive but if you go on boxrec, i bet nobody can pick out any quality, his best opponent to date is Antonio Pitalua who he knocked out in two rounds in his last fight. Pitalua is a good fighter but Valero still hasn’t proven anything, he can argue the fact he has had to compete in Asia and South America throughout his career as he finds it hard to get a licence to fight in America due to medical reasons, but still when i have seen him fight i have not been impressed, i think its absurd that people at one point where calling for a Pacquiao-Valero fight. Pacquiao would walk through Valero with ease.

Now can he become a superstar?, of course he can, he has the power and it is obvious he isn’t the finished article yet and is still improving, but for people to say he is a great fighter at this point in his career in my opinion are crazy, lets see what happens when he fights somebody who will fight back.

Hello Daniel

My question to you is who do you believe the future of boxing is?, what prospect out there excites you enough to make you believe he is going to be a superstar?. There have been two that have failed to live up to there expectations, 1) Amir Khan, yes i know he is now a world champion but people are still questioning him since his knockout loss to Bredis Prescott and 2) Victor Ortiz, i was excited about Ortiz, i seen him as a future great but in his last outing against Maidana, he showed he didn’t have the heart that is needed to compete at the top level, Maidana isn’t even that good of a fighter, he's just a slugger and Ortiz crumbled. So again who do you see being the future of our sport?

Nathan

Hello Nathan

Thank you for the email and welcome to the first addition of my new mailbag, To start with i will defend both Khan and Ortiz. Since Khan was knocked out his career has been on the up and he has shown that defeat doesn’t necessarily mean the end, he hired the best trainer in the world Freddie Roach and has became a completely different fighter which has led him to a world title, he even said himself losing was the best thing that happened to him. For Ortiz, it was disappointing to see him quit like that but it doesn’t mean he doesn’t have heart, he is a great fighter with top skills and maybe defeat is what he needed, i predict Ortiz will come back stronger and become the great champion that you once seen him becoming, trust me on that.

Back to your question on who i believe can become a boxing superstar, looking at all the top young prospects i can find so many who i believe can become great champions, there's the obvious one in Featherweight Yuriokis Gamboa, he is quickly rising through the ranks and will soon become a world champion. The rise of Middleweight Daniel Jacobs is exciting me, he has easily walked through the beginning of his career without any problems and will now be looking to step up the competition and when the competition gets better i am convinced Jacobs will also get better, but the fighter who I think has superstar written all over him is Middleweight Matt Korobov, this man looks like the full package and he has only had seven fights, he brings excitement every time he steps in the ring and i am sure he will become a true fan favourite. Skill and power combined is always dangerous, so keep your eye on Korobov he in my opinion is the future.

Thank you again for all your questions, see you next week for more mailbag.

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Be part of Daniel's Mailbag! Send your first name (or screen name) along with your comments or questions to Checkhookboxing1@hotmail.co.uk and check for our new mailbag set to debut next Wednesday!

Doghouseboxing wants you to send in your questions to feature writer Daniel Poland in our new weekly mailbag addition. You may ask what ever is on your mind and you will most definitely be given an answer, send all your questions to Checkhookboxing1@hotmail.co.uk.