Edwin Valero looking at Edner Cherry or Breidis Prescott for next Challenge

Okay so Edner Cherry may not garner much attention but if Edwin Valero fights Breidis Prescott that would be a very interesting fight. I think Valero beats Cherry and probably knocks him out in a later round - he has the skill to do it eevn though Cherry has never been knocked out in his career. However, with Prescott the fight is harder to predict as Breidis has some of the most lethal power punch combinations around and Valero's defense is still somewhat un-tested.

Bob Arum, who promotes Edwin Valero, recently indicated on ESPN that he is looking at those two fighters as possible opponents. Nothing is set in stone yet but I don't see why Breidis Prescott wouldn't want the fight now that Valero's name has sky rocketed after the Antonio Pitalua victory. For Valero, Prescott is a solid fighter with decent recognition after his victory against the young Amir Khan last year. I'd would definitely line up to see that one.

Amir Khan to Challenge for Junior Welterweight Title

Amir Khan has secured a fight with top ranked junior welterweight fighter Andreas Kotelnik. Kotelnik holds a world title belt and will be putting it up for grabs against Khan who will be moving up from lightweight to junior welterweight. Khan will get his chance to win a title at 22 years old. This represents a big step up for Khan as he is moving up in weight and fighting a solid world class belt holder. Andreas Kotelnik has been in the ring with the likes of Junior Witter and other solid contenders. Frank Warren and Freddie Roach must be very confident in Khan's ability to snare a world title at this stage of his career. Kotelnik represents a new class for Khan not counting the old and cut Marco Antonio Barrera. Kotelnik owns the WBA title which will be on the line when he fights Khan in the United Kingdom. Kotelnik's management turned away a fight with Victor Ortiz to take the more lucrative fight with Khan in the UK.

Can't wait for this fight as it should be quite exciting to watch and I expect that it will go into the late rounds if not the distance. How will Khan where the extra weight? Will it slow him down or make him stronger while maintaining his speed? Will he be better able to take a punch with the extra weight? I suspect some of these questions will be answered on June 27th when the two meet in the ring.

Alexandar Povetkin and Edwin Valero Win Tonight

Tonight Edwin Valero faced his stiffest and most experienced challenger yet in Antonio Pitalua. He dismantled Pitalua with ease and demonstrated for the first time in America that he is here to stay, if not dominate. He was the aggressor in the fight and made Pitalua (another knockout artist) become the more defensive fighter. In the end, he eventually caught Pitalua with a solid right hook that floored him instantly. Pitalua got up but then went down again after a flurry of shots from Valero (although none of them connected well). Pitalua got up again and seemed to be gesturing that he was not hurt but Valero showed his intelligence and finishing strength by jumping all over him eventually forcing the referee to stop the fight. It was a dominant second round knockout and the 25th for Valero in 25 fights. There is now talk of him stepping up further to fight a Juan Manuel Marquez. I think Valero needs another serious fight with a contender before stepping in the ring with a guy who might test him beyond five rounds.

In other action, the best heavyweight not named Klitschko, Alexandar Povetkin, took a unanimous decision from Jason Estrada giving him another solid victory and maintaining his perfect record. He really needs to be the next challenger for Wladimir or Vitali. He is the best there is at the moment for any of them to fight, even though he would be an underdog in either situation. It would be interesting to see how Povetkin handles the size mismatch against any of the Klitschko brothers.

April Pound for Pound List

Here is the pound for pound list for April:

1. Manny Pacquiao

Still can't argue much with Manny being number one. Juan Manuel Marquez is making some noise but Manny is still the man. He soundly beat Oscar De La Hoya while moving up several weight divisions from only a year earlier. He has fairly recent wins over legends of the ring Juan Manuel Marquez, Marco Antonio Barrera and Eric Morales.

Up Next: Ricky Hatton. A win there would clear any debate on the matter of number one.

2. Bernard Hopkins

Bernard completed a recent destruction of Kelly Pavlik to go along a close split decision loss to Joe Calzaghe that many thought he won. B-Hop has fought an unbelievable number of figters that were top 10 pound for pounders when he fought them. By comparison, Joe Calzaghe had only ever done that once in his career - when he fought Bernard Hopkins. It looks like the B-Hop / Tomasz Adamek fight is off the table for now. Unfortunately, there aren't too many challengers out there for Bernard at the moment and he may lose his number 2 spot with Juan Manuel Marquez breathing down his neck if he stays inactive.

3. Juan Manuel Marquez

Two scintillating close fights with Manny Pacquiao, a solid victory over Joel Casamayor and an incredibly entertaining fight with Juan Diaz that he won via TKO. He's getting really really close to Manny and B-Hop.

4. Shane Mosley

Close fight with Miguel Cotto and destruction of Antonio Margarito makes him the top welterweight and puts him 4th on our list. He now needs to stay active and probably settle the score with Cotto otherwise he will slip on our list.

5. Paul Williams

Still underrated but clearly one of the top fighters today. His victories over Margarito, Verno Phillips and Carlos Quintana along with his versatility across weight divisions squeeze him into the top five. He can solidify his spot with a big win against Winky Wright in what should be an interesting fight.

Boxing News Tidbits

Here's some recent news tidbits in the world of boxing:

• Don King has appealed the late stoppage of Marco Antonio Barrera's fight with Amir Khan given the nature of the cut suffered by Barrera. King argued that the fight should have been stopped earlier and ruled a no contest instead of going to the cards which resulted in a loss for Barrera. Barrera felt his eyes were covered with blood impairing his ability to fight. I think Khan shouldn't rule out a rematch with Barrera regardless of the result. He will probably win a rematch and produce a more clear victory in the process.
• Rumor has it that Khan is considering fights with Edwin Valero and David Diaz. If he doesn't take on Barrera both of those guys are solid steps up for Khan.
• David Haye and Wladimir Klitschko have agreed to fight on June 20th. This should be a decent draw given Haye's popularity.
• The war of words has begun between Ricky Hatton and Manny Pacquiao. Hatton recently called Pacquiao's win over Oscar Dela Hoya a fluke. He said Dela Hoya didn't look like himself during the fight. Pacquiao said it's easy to make excuses after the fight. Lets hope Hatton is ready when they enter the ring.
• The material in Antonio Margarito's hand wraps during his fight with Shane Mosley was finally determined to be something called plaster of Paris. This clearly isn't part of the short list of items allowed in a boxer's gloves.

Paquiao is Voted Fighter of the Year

The Boxing Writers Association of America have voted Manny Pacquiao fighter of the year for 2008. No complaints here - Pacquiao was the obvious choice. He won three big fights in three different weight divisions last year. Victories over solid Juan Manuel Marquez, David Diaz and Oscar De La Hoya make him an easy choice.

Looking ahead to 2009, Pacquiao could certainly repeat if he beats Hatton and then wins another big fight later in the year (possibly against Floyd Mayweather). It would be hard to pick anyone else if he does that!

The Over Hyped Perfect Record

In recent times boxers have become overly obsessed with maintaining a perfect record. I think this has hurt the sport significantly as fighters are taking less risks to ensure they don't lose their "0". Look at recent accusations against the likes of Joe Calzaghe and Floyd Mayweather for not fighting the best available competition. Calzaghe and Roy Jones Jr. never fought for several years as both of them maintained their perfect records. We are seeing less and less of best fighting against best and this is terrible for the fans. I think we have put too much of an emphasis on the perfect record. In reality, it doesn't mean much. Look at the early losses of Manny Pacquiao - he was still young and developing as a fighter when he got knocked out in two earlier fights. Pacquiao is now the pound for pound king of the ring. Many great fighters have suffered losses. I would argue that being able to come back from those losses are what make you truly great. Look at Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Robinson - both of them had wars and experienced losses in their career but their place in history will never be questioned. Calzaghe ended his career undefeated (at least for now) and will not be in the same league as Roy Jones Jr. or Bernard Hopkins when looking back on history. Both Hopkins and Jones have suffered several losses in their careers. However, they fought several top ten pound for pound fighters (especially Hopkins). Calzaghe only fought one top ten pound for pound fighter in his career and that was a 43 year old Bernhard Hopkins.

If we look at more recent examples, we can see how 21-year old Amir Khan's career was almost proclaimed dead after he lost to 25-year old Breidis Prescott. Khan was and still is young and developing as a fighter - he will make mistakes. He may or may not develop into a world champion but writing him off after a loss at 21 makes no sense.

Looking at the current pound for pound list we see the likes of Pacquiao, Juan Manuel Marquez, Bernard Hopkins, Shane Mosley and Paul Williams. All of them have suffered losses in their career. Not even one is undefeated. In fact, all of them have early career losses.

We need to put an emphasis on level of competition versus record. Records are relatively meaningless. Only the fans will benefit if the boxing world starts to understand that and give us the best fights out there rather than trying to defend and promote fighters with perfect records.

Roy Jones Jr and Vitali Klitschko Win

Roy Jones Jr. beat Omar Sheika in an interesting but uneventful fight last night. The referee prematurely stopped the fight after Sheika suffered a cut on his face. Jones was winning easily but Sheika was no where near done despite taking a lot of punishment. It was a good performance by Jones but clearly showed how much his speed had diminished. Sheika was very slow and constantly moved forward - the ideal opponent for Jones (especially a slower Jones). Jones took advantage and did what he needed to do. Roy will probably have trouble with a more formidable opponent and it's unclear how he intends to continue with boxing. Maybe just as a promoter (although the verdict is still out as to how well March Badness did) or as a boxer. If he continues as a boxer he'll have to be very selective around his opponents so that he can build his promotional brand for his future career beyond boxing. Any loss at this point would make it difficult for Jones to sell tickets with his name alone.

On another card last night, heavyweight Vitali Klitschko made relatively easy work of solid Juan Carlos Gomez. Vitali once again showed that the Klitschkos are clearly the class of the heavyweight division. They deserve the proper dues for that - no matter how weak we perceive the division to be. It would be great to see a true challenger to the brothers' reign at the top. We just don't have such a situation at the moment and the Klitschkos won't face each other so they have to fight the best available opponents. Roughly speaking, they have done just that. Lets hope that the division gets more competitive before the Klitschkos are done as it would be great for boxing to have a strong heavyweight division. In the meantime, at least we can all embrace the phenomenal talent in the lower weight classes.

Roy Jones Jr Headlines Boxing and MMA Card

Roy Jones is returning to the ring tonight to face brawler Omar Sheika on a card that also features some decent MMA fights.

It's an interesting concept to combine MMA and boxing. I'm not so sure that it will work since the two sports still have very unique followers. It will be interesting to see how the event turns out though. The other item of interest will be to see how well Jones performs in the ring.

Roy just turned 40 and is well past his prime. The only reason, it seems, he is out there is to build his promotional company and he needs to use his name to do that. Of course, if he loses this may be the last opportunity he gets to use his name to bring fans out. His loss to Joe Calzaghe was pretty ugly especially after a 43 year old Bernard Hopkins basically faught Calzaghe to a draw. Jones is running out of runway space in his career and needs a big win against Sheika to give himself any sort of serious consideration in the sport. Sure, Hopkins has managed to stay at the top at 44 years old. But Hopkins is very very unique in that sense. Jones has not shown the same potential in his later years. This fight with Sheika is do or die for Jones. I suspect he may not do enough to show that he can fight on as a serious contender. Of course, a lot of that depends on Sheika.