Here are my Olympic Boxing Semi-Final predictions for the middleweight and heavyweights. These bouts will take place on Friday the 22nd at 3:00 a.m. EST (middle) and 3:30 a.m. (heavy). We’ll analyze how I did on Saturday. (Jabandgrapple picks in bold)

Middleweight Semifinals
Darren Sutherland (IRL) vs. James Degale (GBR)
Sutherland likes to scrap and that makes him a jabandgrapple favorite. He throws punches, combination even! He boxes, he engages his opponent, he doesn’t dance and he works hard. These shouldn’t be unique qualities in a boxing tourney but these Olympic Games aren’t just any competition. In the quarters he beat the …read more

The highest Ring Magazine-ranked boxer in “action” last weekend was Russian heavyweight Alexander Povetkin although it’s not as if his opponent Taurus Sykes actually wanted to fight. Povetkin, Ring’s #5 heavyweight, won by KO in the fourth round. Sykes spent the entire fight grasping and holding. When the White Lion finally managed to graze him with a punch Sykes floundered to the ground refusing to get up. And to think I was angry that this fight wasn’t being broadcast on U.S. television.
If you can actually find a legitimate knockout punch then you have a better eye than me. A youtube …read more

On Friday night British heavyweight Danny Williams somehow found a way to beat challenger John McDermott and remain in boxrec.com’s top twenty despite. Williams managed to win a majority decision despite having three points taken away from him in the late rounds for various infractions. Williams also survived an fifth round beating (video below) which was unbelievably not stopped by the referee.
Here is the London Telegraph’s recount of the fight where writer Gareth Davies correctly assesses British heavyweight boxing as being “in the doldrums.”

Image details: Chris Arreola v Damian Wills served by picapp.com
My dad recently asked me “Why didn’t you write about the HBO heavyweight fight a few weeks ago? The one where the young kid Chris Arreola just tore that poor Philly boxer Chazz Witherspoon up. That kid was something else.”
Back in late June I was much more interested in the Showtime fights that aired at the same night: the Arthur Abraham – Edison Miranda rematch its co-feature the Raul Marquez – Giovanni Lorenzo upset. A few days later when I got around to watching the HBO fights — Arreola’s third …read more

Image details: Wladimir Klitschko v Tony Thompson – IBF/IBO/WBO World Championship served by picapp.com
It took 11 slogging rounds but eventually Wladimir Klitschko decided that America’s top ranked heavyweight Tony “The Tiger” Thompson was his for the taking. In the eleventh Dr. Steelhammer upped his output and caught Thompson with a clean right which sent him down for a quick ten count from Joe Cortez.
The win brought Klitschko’s record to 51-3 with 45 of those victories coming by knockout. Thompson fell to 31-2 and will no longer hold the severely devalued mythical title of top American heavyweight. With his win Klitschko …read more

Image details: Wladimir Klitschko v Tony Thompson Press Conference served by picapp.com
Tomorrow afternoon the consensus (if not undisputed) heavyweight champion of the world is facing the consensus top American heavyweight but for some reason the excitement level hasn’t reached fever pitch on these shores. The clinical, cautious and glass-jawed Ukrainian Wladimir Klitschko has yet to capture the American imagination and highly unlikely that his American challenger Tony “The Tiger” Thompson ever will. Even if his beats the 6:1 odds and fells the Eastern European giant.
We at jabandgrapple.com will be glued to our TV set tomorrow a 4:30 p.m. and dialed …read more

Yesterday’s ESPN2 fight card originated from an unlikely place: Butler, Pennsylvania, a town of 15,000 located 40 miles north of Pittsburgh. It’s the hometown of heavyweight contender Brian Minto. Minto, 33, played football for the Butler High Golden Tornados and must have competed there with one-time NFL player Scott Milanovich.
Minto predictably dismantled Philadelphia-native John Poore dropping him three times in the first round. There is a full video of the fight below. But is Minto a viable heavyweight candidate? Was ESPN’s graphic correct; is he really the fifth best American heavyweight?
This was ESPN’s list:
1. Tony Thompson 31-1-0 …read more

Chris Byrd’s foray into the light heavyweight division did not go as planned. In a relatively shocking and ultimately sad bout Shaun George TKOd the former heavyweight champ late in the ninth round. Referee Jay Nady stopped the fight after George floored Byrd for the second time that round.
George’s demonstrative and dominating win, he was up 79-72 on all three cards, announced that he is yet another talented fighter in a division proving to be boxing’s finest. Byrd, on the other hand, did not prove that he belonged.
Byrd fought the smaller quicker George as if he were a …read more

Last week at jabandgrapple.com we told you about the proposed Vitali Klitschko – Samuel Peter fight and how Peter will fight some walkover in the interim. Well, a name for that walkover has been bandied about and it’s none other than Andrzej Gołota a/k/a Andrew Golota a/k/a the guy who was perilously close to winning the world heavyweight title in 1996 but couldn’t stop hitting Riddick Bowe in the unmentionables.
“He’s still fighting?” we wondered. It seems. He’s now 40-years-old and in the midst of a modestly successful three-fight comeback. The last time I even thought about Gołota was way …read more

Image details: Samuel Peter v James Toney served by picapp.com
ESPN reports that www.jabandgrapple.com’s favorite mayoral candidate Vitali Klitschko has just accepted a future WBC heavyweight title fight against the self-proclaimed Nigerian Nightmare Samuel Peter. The match is scheduled to take place sometime this October with a site in Germany being the the likely location. Peter will probably fight an interim fight sometime the summer while Klitschko is kissing babies, giving platform speeches and engaging in anti-corruption debates.