LAS VEGAS -- Your weekly random thoughts …
• In the past, I've gotten on Showtime's case for its virtual worship of the alphabet sanctioning organizations. Seems they can't get enough of initials over there. On the flip side, HBO has downplayed the organizations for years, which I applaud. However, HBO is missing the boat big time on Saturday's
Bernard Hopkins-
Joe Calzaghe fight. Make no mistake, the fight is for the legitimate light heavyweight championship of the world and the Ring magazine belt that goes along with it. Yet HBO refuses to call it a light heavyweight championship fight for whatever ridiculous reason. Instead, it labels the fight as simply a "light heavyweight fight." That's a disservice to boxing fans and disingenuous. If HBO is labeling the fight the way it is because editorially it believes it should only recognize sanctioning body belts, that's one thing. But that can't be the case because in 2006 when Hopkins beat down
Antonio Tarver to claim the Ring belt and earn recognition as the true 175-pound champ, HBO marketed that fight as being for the light heavyweight championship. So what's changed? Hopkins won that fight and has remained champion. Now, all of a sudden, he is no longer champ? I don't get it. Let's hope the situation is rectified on Saturday night.
• Got to give huge props to Showtime for nailing down the
Arthur Abraham-
Edison Miranda rematch for June 21 against long odds. Their first fight, for a middleweight belt, was great, but it took place in Germany, so few Americans saw it. The rematch, at 166 pounds, should be another excellent fight. It's even a better matchup than Miranda-
Mikkel Kessler, which Miranda's handlers thought they had made until Kessler pulled out after a deal had been struck.
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Dan Rafael
