Cash Cow Klitschko, Mayorga Still Talking and more...
Inside The Game By Jeff Mayweather (April 25, 2006)
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Ricardo Mayorga
Last weekend Wladimir Klitschko stopped Chris Byrd in the 7th round to capture the IBF Heavyweight Championship belt. The fight took place in Germany and Klitschko pleased his fans with a performance just as dominating as their first fight, except he scored a stoppage this time around. The win makes Klitschko the cash cow of the division and everyone will want a crack at him because he generates big money and is still vulnerable enough to beat.

The win shows that Klitschko still has some great offensive tools to work with but we shouldn’t get too excited, because he beat a faded version of Chris Byrd who is no longer as elusive as he used to be. Chris is also a former Middleweight who bulked up muscle to fight as a Heavyweight and I can’t get too excited about Klitschko’s performance.

After the Klitschko-Byrd fight I caught HBO’s Countdown to De La Hoya-Mayorga and I feel it was well done. It showed an accurate view of both guys, but I also feel that it showed just how much of a fool Ricardo Mayorga can be. He can run his mouth with the best of them but fights are decided inside the ring with fists, not outside the ring with trash talk. If you remember correctly, Mayorga also had a lot of bad things to say about Cory Spinks and it didn’t do any good for him when they fought. De La Hoya is on a whole different level than Spinks and I feel Mayorga will be in for a rude awakening when he meets Oscar.

Zahir Raheem and Acelino Freitas will be fighting this weekend on HBO’s Boxing After Dark series. This is a pretty evenly matched fight and Zahir will have to be on top of his game from start to finish, just as he was in his win over Erik Morales last September. Freitas is still a hard punching Lightweight and he has fought the higher level of competition in guys like Diego Corrales, Joel Casamayor, and Jorge Barrios. I actually feel that it is Zahir who needs to win this fight in order to stay on the map. His win over Morales was great but it won’t mean too much if he can’t keep the momentum going with a win over Freitas.

Kermit Cintron scored a big win on Wednesday night when he knocked out David Estrada in the 10th round in West Palm Beach, Florida. The fight was action from start to finish but I don’t think it is the type of fight that fully vindicates Cintron from his whipping to Antonio Margarito last year. Cintron showed against Estrada that he has heart and can still punch but he still has a long way to go. Still, it’s the type of performance that gets Kermit back on track and at this moment in his career that’s what he needs most.
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