New Jersey Association of USA Boxing

Just a reminder...Boxers are registered when they have a sticker in their book; all books should have pictures. Non-athletes (coaches, officials, etc) are also registered = BUT not approved by USA Boxing until you receive your card in the mail when the background check is complete.

Non-Athletes should carry the pink receipt form with 2010 at all times until they receive their new card. Clubs are not registered until your information is received, logged into the NJLBC computer, and payment is given to the Treasurer. 

You have no liability coverage without the club application getting to Ed and the payment getting to Rich Stoltenborg, If you do not register with Ed directly - make sure the person you give your paperwork and payment gets it to Ed in a week's time or quickly to cover your club.

Manny ending his career to Mayweather

With Manny Pacquiao possibly about to end his career in November, his promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank is determined to try and put together a mega fight with undefeated Floyd Mayweather Jr. In an article by the Associated Press, Arum says “That’s the fight people want to see, and that’s the fight I’m going to do my darnedest to make happen. My first goal is to make that fight happen, but we’re not going to negotiate this thing in the press, because if we do, given the egos, it’s never going to happen.” That’s nice to hear. It’s too bad that it took this long for that to happen.

The time to have made the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight was in March, not now. If they had stuck it out longer and got a little more movement from Pacquiao on the random blood testing, the fight would have been easily made. Now things aren’t going to be so easy. Mayweather is now the one that is in the position of power with his one-sided 12 round decision over Shane Mosley earlier this month and the previous agreements that were made during the last negations, like purse split, might not hold this time.

It’s hard to imagine Pacquiao agreeing to take less than 50-50. But it’s more difficult to see Mayweather agreeing to fight Pacquiao unless he gets what he wants with the random blood testing. Mayweather might even want more than a 50% cut of the revenue and he would have the better numbers from his last fight against Mosley to justify asking for a bigger cut. This could really get in the way of putting together a fight. Arum isn’t saying whether Pacquiao will give in on the blood testing that he wants.

But hopefully Arum can persuade Pacquiao to at least agree to take the random blood tests up until two weeks before the fight. That would make putting together a fight with Mayweather much more doable. 24 days is a nonstarter. That won’t work this time. Pacquiao is probably going to have to give in on this issue if he wants to get the money fight with Mayweather. It won’t work if he stubbornly sticks to the 24 days, refusing to have the testing within that time frame.

In the past, Arum and Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach said there would be no concessions during negotiations, which was kind of a strange thing to say given that Mayweather is perhaps the most popular fighter in boxing. I could see them saying that if this was one of their typical opponents that have been dug up to fight Pacquiao, but not Mayweather. That seemed very strange and not productive to putting a fight together. In a way, it seemed like they didn’t want the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight to happen.

I could understand why they wouldn’t because Mayweather would have an excellent chance of ending the gravy train by beating Pacquiao. Now, however, with Pacquiao possibly fighting for the last time in November, there is a sense of urgency from Arum that wasn’t present last time. If the fight can be made, it will be a huge payday for all involved, even if Pacquiao gets totally dominated by Mayweather.

Is it time for Jones and Hopkins to retire?

Last Saturday night was one of the worst boxing fights I’ve ever seen in my entire life. 45-year-old Bernard Hopkins (51-5-1, 32 KO’s), looking many moons removed from his prime form, defeated 41-year-old Roy Jones Jr. (54-7, 40 KO’s) by a 12 round unanimous decision at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada. The final judges’ scores were 118-109, 117-110 and 117-110. The outcome was never in question from the very start, as Jones was unable to pull the trigger with his punches and just looked totally shot. I wasn’t going to buy the fight, but at the last second gave in and purchased the $49.95 card. Boy, was I sorry.


Jones saw the openings, but was unable to let his hands go with anything but a few harmless shots during the fight. It wasn’t that Jones was afraid to throw; It just seems like he’s lost his reflexes and can’t fire when he does see the opportunities in front of him. Hopkins, who may have a little left in the tank, but not much, dominated the fight – if you want to call it that – with his better punch output. However, Hopkins was far from impressive because of his ugly tendency to dive forward fight on the inside against Jones.

On the inside, Hopkins made it ugly, throwing rabbit punches, low blows and not really landing with anything that was meaningful. Jones, too, was busy responding with his own rabbit shots, and succeeded in knocking Hopkins to the canvas with them twice in the fight. Neither of the rabbit punches that Jones threw seemed to be all that hard, but Hopkins reacted as if he had been leveled by a howitzer. He went down both times he was hit, and stayed down for a considerable amount of time.

Jones lost a point for the first rabbit punch in the 6th. Hopkins stayed down for ever two minutes clutching his head while Jones walked around the ring laughing and talking to the crowd. When Hopkins did get up, he rushed Jones and threw a flurry of punches, all but one missing badly. The two fighters continued to mix it up well after the bell and had to be separated.

This flurry from Hopkins was a normal part of his game when he was younger, and it was sad to see him only able to fight like that when he was angered. In the 7th, Hopkins regained his composure and continued to control the fight with his smothering offense. Hopkins still didn’t throw many punches and was missing more than few. Jones, for his part, could do little more than stick his left hand way out in front of him as if to keep Hopkins away. Jones rarely threw anything back in the 2nd half of the fight.

For that matter, Jones rarely threw any punches in the 1st half either. He just looked totally shot. I saw Jones’ first fight with Hopkins only this week, and it was so sad to see how much Jones has deteriorated in the past 17 years. Despite fighting with only one good hand in their 1993 fight, Jones had blinding hand speed, and got the better of Hopkins in almost every exchange.

Jones was throwing punches back then and catching Hopkins clean again and again. Last Saturday night, Jones was like a statue, unable to move his arms and just poising all night long. He looked like all the fast twitch nerve fiber in his arms and shoulders had completely deteriorated to the point where he just couldn’t move them. In the end, both fighters looked horrible.

Hopkins got the win, but didn’t show that he’s got enough left to beat the top light heavyweight champions in the division. Hopkins will probably stick around and continue to fight, but he’s going to have to be very selective in choosing his fights or else he’ll start getting on a regular basis just like Jones. I would give Hopkins zero chance of beating Chad Dawson and not much chance of beating the other light heavyweight title holders either.

Hopkins is saying he wants to fight WBA heavyweight champion David Haye, but the British fighter isn’t at all interested, in particular after watching how bad Hopkins looked against Jones last Saturday night. I think both Jones and Hopkins need to consider retiring. I don’t know what they have left to prove. If they continue fighting, they’ll struggle unless they pick their opponents carefully.

Before this fight, Hopkins last two bouts have come against middleweights Kelly Pavlik and Enrique Ornelas. Before that, Hopkins fought a former light middleweight Winky Wright and then a super middleweight Joe Calzaghe. As you can see, Hopkins hasn’t been fightin

For the Sixers, rock bottom remains a record 37 years later

Mercifully, finally, it ended, not in Philadelphia but in Pittsburgh, a non-NBA city hosting what by most reasonable standards was a sub-NBA team. It ended on this date 37 years ago -- March 25, 1973 -- in a 115-96 farewell smack from the Detroit Pistons. The Philadelphia 76ers, already brought to their knees by the worst single-season in league history, crawled into the summer with a 13-game losing streak.

Which, miserable as it was, couldn't even crack their Top 3 in terms of consecutive losses that year. They had futile stretches of 20, 15 and 14 games, too. Even "Big Daddy" Don Garlits never left skidmarks that long. At least the Sixers were 9-11 in and around all those streaks.

No team in NBA annals ever has lost more than Philadelphia that season (73). No modern team ever has won fewer (nine). Those dual distinctions -- di-stink-tions? -- give the 1972-73 Sixers squad a special place in league lore that several surviving members are glad to have, even feel a little protective of. It beats, y'know, abject anonymity.

That's why Fred Carter, the leading scorer on that team (20 points a game) and a Philadelphia native, was calculating the odds Wednesday when I called him about the 2009-10 New Jersey Nets' chances of tying, or maybe taking the Sixers' record outright. Surveying the standings and the concussion that would again sideline Sacramento's Rookie of the Year favorite Tyreke Evans, Carter saw a glimmer of light in the Nets' 7-63 tunnel. Besides -- and he didn't even need to say it -- the Kings are mindful of their own spot in the NBA's reverse standings, knowing that extra victories near the end now could drop them from sixth-worst to seventh-, eighth- or beyond. That means fewer Ping Pong balls in the lottery, a mechanism Philadelphia's opponents didn't need to think about back in 1973.

Of the Nets, Carter said Wednesday: "Once they get No. 8, then No. 9 is just around the corner." And sure enough, a few hours later, New Jersey did get to No. 8, beating Sacramento 93-79 at the IZOD Center. Unlike the old Sixers -- who, let's face it, have learned to live with their notoriety -- the current Nets want no part of "losingest" anything. Minutes after notching their eighth victory since late October, New Jersey players were thinking about a ninth -- the one that would unburden them of at least 50 percent of their distinction.
"You have to look at the next one," center Brook Lopez said, "a winnable game against Detroit."
Would these Nets know a winnable game if they saw one? The Sixers of 37 years ago didn't; they bumped along that season not just as the team with the worst record but as the worst team, which aren't always the same things.

Philadelphia in 1972-73 ranked last in the NBA in defense, allowing 116.2 points per game. That left them last in point differential too -- minus 12.1, based on their 104.1 scoring average. Curiously, the Buffalo Braves got outscored by an average of 9.2 points that year yet managed to win 21 times.

The Sixers finished last in the Atlantic Division, a whopping 59 games behind the Boston Celtics (68-14) in the Atlantic Division. They were last in home attendance as well, drawing an average of 4,461, or a little more than half the league's average (8,474). They played 31 games at The Spectrum and went 5-26, while staging 10 of their home dates at Pittsburgh (1-5) and in Hershey, Pa. (0-4).

Overall, there was one swell fortnight in an otherwise dreary season: From Valentine's Day through the end of February, the Sixers got hot, even scalding by their standards, winning five games in a stretch of seven. After a five-game, eight-day road trip bounced them from Boston to Portland to Los Angeles and left them 4-58, the Sixers won at home by two points over Milwaukee, then backed it up 48 hours later with 119-106 victory over Detroit. They split back-to-back games with the Knicks, lost to Houston in Hershey, then defeated Portland and Baltimore. Their two two-game winning streaks were their longest of the season.
Carter gave credit for the bump in results to Kevin Loughery, the injured 32-year-old guard who took over as head coach after the All-Star break in late January. His predecessor, Roy Rubin, had been overmatched after jumping from Long Island University, something the players noticed right away when Rubin got oddly buoyant after a preseason victory over the Celtics. Loughery's 5-out-of-7 stretch was his only good run, but he still won more in 31 games as coach than Rubin (4-47) had in 51.

Before, during and after? Not so good. Philadelphia opened the season by dropping its first 15, which is tied for the fourth-worst start to any NBA season. By losing its final 13, it holds a share of the fifth-worst finish. And that 20-game skid from Jan. 9 through Feb. 11 still ranks second-worst in league history for most consecutive defeats in one season, behind only Vancouver's 23-gamer in 1995-96.

The Sixers' .110 winning percentage -- really, shouldn't they be known for their .890 losing percentage? -- is the worst ever, undercutting even the 1947-48 Providence Steamrollers, who went 6-42 (.125) in the old BAA. Remember, though, the Philadelphia franchise had won an NBA championship only six years earlier, posting a 68-13 mark in 1966-67. It won 62 games the next season, 55 in 1968-69 and 47 in 1970-71, just two seasons before the bottom dropped out. Top scorer Billy Cunningham had jumped to the ABA and coach Jack Ramsay, after winning 30 games in 1971-72, had shuffled off to Buffalo.

The Sixers were shuffling themselves by 1972-73, moving a total of 19 players onto and off of the roster that season. Most of them were too young, too old or too limited to matter. Carter was a legit scorer and role player. John Block got picked as the team's lone All-Star. But the great Hal Greer was 36 by then, playing 38 games as a bit player in his final season. Bill Bridges, a three-time All-Star, and Mel Counts, who won titles with Boston in his first two NBA seasons, began the season in Philadelphia but were traded in November to the Lakers for Leroy Ellis and John Q. Trapp.

The suffering did pay some dividends -- Philadelphia got the No. 1 pick in the 1973 draft and selected Doug Collins, who became a four-time All-Star before injuries ended his career. The team began its climb back to respectability, winning 25, then 34, then 46, reaching the NBA Finals in 1977 with Julius Erving, Lloyd Free, Darryl Dawkins and George McGinnis.

The players on that squad -- "9-73 in '72-73" hardly was a rallying cry -- eventually did get their upside-down bragging rights, though at the time, they mostly were worn out and embarrassed. Carter, named the team's MVP, didn't know whether to feel proud or insulted. And as he recently told longtime Sixers beat writer Phil Jasner of the Philadelphia Daily News: "When we walked through airports, I used to turn my travel bag with the logo against me so people didn't know who we were."
People may not have known then, but they know now. Thirty-seven years ago they made history, in the worst of ways.

Mayweather, Pacquiao Strive to Strengthen Communities

Mayweather started The Floyd Mayweather Jr. Foundation in mid-2007. This foundation is a non-profit organization that helps build community alliances, youth leadership, strong family relationships, and healthy neighborhoods, in addition to the work they perform to help combat hunger, poverty, and at-risk youths. Mayweather routinely helps provide food to the homeless and working poor, and it has become a tradition for him and his foundation to provide hot meals every Thanksgiving to people in both his hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan and in his adopted home in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Mayweather Jr. steps up the efforts during the holiday season. As the superstar boxer said, “The holidays are the most important time to give back. No family should have to go hungry on Thanksgiving and no child should go without a toy on Christmas.“ Mayweather Jr. Foundation also holds different events to support Toys for Tots and help raise gifts for the less fortunate during what can be the most stressful time of year for loving parents and guardians without the means to give the gifts their loved ones deserve.

This is far from some sort of publicity gimmick, as most of this organizations efforts go largely unrecognized by the national media. It is not something that is only done during a filming of HBO’s popular 24/7 series, but operates on a year round schedule and more often than not, flies below the radar.

Helping combat hunger is only a part of this amazing foundation though, as Floyd Mayweather Jr. is also known to speak to at-risk youths. During the fourth of July weekend in 2008, Mayweather held a high-profile event in Grand Rapids which included a family friendly carnival, a car show, and a film premiere cloaked with celebrities. The carnival included many free activities for the little ones, including inflatable play areas.

The Mayweather Foundation has paid for prizes for achievement, improvement, and attendence at Stocking Elementary School in Grand Rapids Michigan, which included calculators, books, jump ropes, and gift certificates to bookstores. On April 2nd of this year, the Mayweather Jr. Foundation will be holding its first annual “Fight for our Future” benefit dinner. The evening will include a silent auction, special guests, and entertainment. “The purpose of this dinner is to continue to make strides towards helping our community” according to a statement made by Mayweather.

Manny Pacquiao, also fights for the underprivileged. He started his own non-profit organization, The Manny Pacquiao Foundation. It is hard to decipher when this was officially founded and began charity work on its own. Its official website contains a piece from February 2009, stating it was still in the start up phase, at that time.

One of the original goals of this foundation, is to help Filipino boxers and their families. As Pacquiao described in a 2007 interview with Eastsideboxing.com “it is my hope that the foundation can give Filipino boxers pensions and their children scholarships.” This doesn’t coincide with the dates on the web site, but that could be due to the problems and red-tape establishing such a massive undertaking is prone to. During the time it took to get started, Pacquiao obviously decided to widen the Foundation’s interests and areas of work, greatly increasing the number of lives it improves. It is unclear whether Manny has been able to establish a pension for Filipino boxers, but there is no doubt that through his personal generosity and his Foundation, that many youth are granted scholarships which allow them to continue their education. Thus, through their own hard-work, the youth can provide a better live for themselves and their families.

This foundation has already touched many lives through its work. Some of there work include helping victims of Typhoon Ondoy (Ketsana) in 2009. This natural disaster caused over $2 million (US) of damage and displaced hundreds of thousands of people in and near Manilla. Pacquaio’s foundation helped with food, clothing, money, and in countless other ways, including the simple and too often overlooked gesture of just showing care, by being there to help with one’s time and energy.

In March of 2009, he held a Fil-Am (Filipino-American) Celebrity Showdown basketball game. Most of the money went towards the underprivileged in the Philippines. Pacquiao explained, “This is for the foundation. We are giving money to medical missions, schools, and others.”

The Monday following his May 2, 2009 knockout win over Ricky Hatton, Pacquiao held a celebration and benefit concert in LA to help raise funds and awareness of the foundations work. The proceeds helped his good will work which includes a cancer and research center in Mindanao. Other notable activities of the Manny Pacquiao Foundation are other medical missions, scholarships for children, and raising environmental awareness.

Though the Manny Pacquiao Foundation is still in the early stages, the Pacman has long been involved in giving back. He has helped raise funds for various other non-profit organizations, and helped the less fortunate on his own. Manny is known for his generosity and giving of cash assistance and bags full of groceries to those in need. In fact, Pacquiao was named “Person of the Year” in the Philippines in 2003, a reward that is even more noteworthy than the numerous boxing awards he has won, including Fighter of the Decade for the first 10 years of this millennium. The Philippine’s House of Representatives passed a resolution which recognized Pacquiao as “a people’s champ” “for his achievements and in appreciation of his of the honor and inspiration he has been bringing…to the Filipino people.” Manny also owns a lottery outlet in the Philippines for the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes. This is the charity branch of the government and the proceeds go towards good causes some of which are reinvesting in health care, public services and welfare. By attaching his name to this, Manny has ensured it does better than it otherwise would.

In a very ambitious move, Pacquiao is running for a congressional seat in his home country, the Philippines. Manny has made it clear, that his reason for running is his desire to help his fellow Filipino citizens. The election is scheduled for May 10, 2010 and could factor in Manny’s decision rather to continue boxing or to retire from the ring and focus all of his energies on helping those in need.

For information, including info on how to donate, visit the official websites, which are http://tfmjf.org/ for Mayweather’s foundation and http://mannypacquiaofoundation.org/ for Manny’s.


Both Mayweather and Pacquiao are not only two of the greatest boxers in recent memory, but also two outstanding role models. Regardless of who is someone’s favorite boxer and their thoughts on Mayweather or Pacquiao’s skill or choice of competition, I think it is safe to say, that EVERYONE wishes both the best of luck with their respective foundations.

Michael Jordan reportedly assumed some $150 million in debt to take over the Bobcats

Last year, I saw this clip of Scottie Pippen, in F-list "Midgets vs. Mascots," getting gaffled by a group of little people, including Gary Coleman. Don't get it twisted. This wasn't a well-received, wink-wink cameo like Mike Tyson's in The Hangover. This was one of the 25 to 30 greatest players in NBA history, just recently retired, making a cringe-worthy appearance in a crap movie even by straight-to-DVD standards.

Why had Pippen stooped to this level? Only he really knows. But one wonders if it's because Pippen -- although earning well over $100 million in salary and endorsements during his career -- was looking to make some dough after well publicized and regretful financial woes.

I bring up this depressing story as his old running mate is pulling a landmark power move. Last week, in case you didn't know, the NBA approved Michael Jordan's bid to buy the Charlotte Bobcats. He is the first athlete to go on to majority ownership of a major professional sports franchise. (Technically, it's Mario Lemieux, but Lemieux used deferred salaries to buy the Pittsburgh Penguins.)

Is this the start of a trend? Might we see a new dynamic in the next 20 to 30 years? You'd hope. But with stories like Pippen's or Antoine Walker's (a recent Outside The Lines segment reported Walker's startling demise from filthy rich to dirty broke), you never know. Reading Pablo S. Torre's piece in Sports Illustrated last year, I almost choked when I read this: Within five years of retirement, an estimated 60 percent of former NBA players are broke. It's no better in the NFL where, by the time they have been retired for two years, a reported 78 percent of former NFL players have gone bankrupt or are under financial stress.

This is a not a, "Why can't you reckless athletes keep your millions?" piece. I recognize and can even understand how stuff happens. Bad business, child support, alimony, seedy handlers, entourages and, of course, ballin' outta control can add up. Tyson, Pippen, Latrell Sprewell, Evander Holyfield -- those are just some big names. Athletes go broke. That's not going to change. But the smarter ones -- I'm hoping they're looking at Jordan and thinking, "I wanna make that kind of power move, too."

Not all athletes are going to make MJ cheddar during their careers. Although Jordan made only about $90 million in NBA salary (I say "only" because I can probably rattle off about 50 current players that will have made more by the end of their careers), he cashed in much more from Nike, Gatorade and all his other endorsement deals. Before his Bobcats acquisition, MJ's net worth was said to be about $500 million. But it's not like MJ hasn't weathered a costly divorce and doesn't enjoy the occasional game of high stakes poker.
Kevin Garnett, Grant Hill, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade -- these cats will have made a boatload of money by the time they call it quits. Why can't one or all of them organize individual investment groups the way MJ gathered up the money through MJ Basketball Holdings? Fifteen years from now, why can't native Seattle sons Brandon Roy, Nate Robinson, Jamal Crawford, Martell Webster, Marvin Williams, Aaron Brooks and whomever else get an ownership group together and resurrect the Sonics in Emerald City (if someone doesn't beat them to it)?

Pro franchises are exactly cash cows. Vanity toys for some owners, many teams are reported to be losing money recently. And most of these owners are far richer than these athletes. But making money in owning a sports team can be done. The statement/symbolism of former athletes becoming owners is nothing if not social/commercial progress.

Actors don't own movie studios. Musicians don't go on to own major labels. And former athletes don't own teams. Until now. Think about the different dynamic there would be between players and owners, if, in a few decades, a third of the teams were owned by former athletes. The owners' ranks would benefit from the perspective of men not too far removed from competition. Players would be working for men with whom they share a kinship. It would change, if nothing else, the nature -- maybe even process or outcome -- of collective bargaining negotiations. And with a contracted cultural and generational gap, some of the "us vs. them" that colors every league/players relationship would inevitably ease. The impact would be palpable.
That's how MJ's power move resonates with me. Once again, he's providing a paradigm. Former athletes cutting checks. A pipe dream? We'll see.

Will Toronto's stuggles on defense negatively effect Bosh's trade vaule this summer?

EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ -- With less then four weeks to go in the season and fighting for one of the last two playoff spots in the Eastern Conference, this is not the time for the Raptors to have reverted to the way they were playing in November.

A players-only meeting and a couple of tweaks to their defensive schemes turned things around at that point, and the Raptors won 22 of their 32 games heading into the All-Star break. They didn't exactly turn into the 2008 Celtics, but they were the 18th best defensive team in the league during that stretch, allowing 105.4 points per 100 possessions, good enough to get by with a highly potent offense.

But when the Raptors returned from the break, it was like they were starting the season over again. They won a couple of games over the Nets and Wizards to peak at seven games over .500, comfortably in fifth place in the East. But the cracks showed, and since then, the leaks have sprung.

Over the last 13 games, the Raptors have gone 3-10, and their defense has been just as bad as it was back in November, allowing 114.8 points per 100 possessions. They've slipped back down to eighth place, and if it weren't for injuries to Chicago's Joakim Noah and Derrick Rose, they would probably be lottery bound right now.

A trip to Secaucus on May 18 may still be their destiny. The Raptors are currently 2 ½ games ahead of the Bulls for eighth, but both Noah and Rose made their returns for the Bulls on Saturday and Chicago's remaining schedule is slightly easier (they play the Nets twice more and have just five road games remaining) than Toronto's.

The Raptors' recent struggles will do nothing to quiet any speculation that Chris Bosh will want to leave Toronto this summer via free agency. The All-Star went on a post-game rant after last Saturday's 124-112 loss at Golden State, lamenting his team's inability to practice what they preach.

"For some reason, we just don't like to secure leads and win basketball games," Bosh said. "That's the only thing I can think of. We come out here, we talk about it. We have a billion meetings, but we can talk all we want. Unless we do something about it really doesn't matter."

Grit and toughness are certainly lacking in Toronto. A starting lineup of Jose Calderon, DeMar DeRozan, Hedo Turkoglu, Bosh and Andrea Bargnani just doesn't have the collective DNA to be a very good defensive team. And as Bosh weighs his options this summer, he might come to the realization that, as a finesse power forward, he's a better fit with a team that isn't so soft at the other four positions.

At this point, the Raptors have pretty much clinched the Worst Defensive Team in the League title for the 2009-10 season. The question is: Does that devalue Bosh in the free agent market? Can he be nearly on the same level as LeBron James and Dwyane Wade if he can't make an impact on both ends of the floor?
Bosh may have the best numbers of any power forward in the league, but he's not nearly the defensive anchor that Kevin Garnett and Tim Duncan are, even though he just celebrated his 26th birthday and those two are both in the twilight of their careers.

The Raptors ranked 12th defensively in 2006-07, when they won the franchise's only division title. So it's not like Bosh has never been on a good defensive team. This may just be a case of an average defender being surrounded by a bunch of really bad ones. And with so many teams clearing cap space in order to make a free agency splash this summer, someone is going to give Bosh a max contract no matter how bad the Raptors have been defensively this season.

They'll just have to make sure that they have the right system and the right players around him. And they can look at this season's Raptors for an example of what doesn't work.

Green upset with Ward fight postponement

Super middleweight contender Allan Green (29-1, 20 KO’s) is less than pleased with the latest postponement by World Boxing Association super middleweight champion Andre Ward for his stage 2 Super Six bout, which was supposed to take place on April 24th in Oakland, California. Ward had to pull out of the fight due to swelling of his right leg. Ward’s doctor said that he will need four to six weeks to rehabilitate and rest his leg.

In the meantime, Green, 30, isn’t happy about it, saying “I fight through bumps, bruises and injuries, and we go through that. I fought Tarvis Simms with a bad right shoulder. If your knee keeps getting hurt, it could be something chronic and you’re probably not going to be ready in six weeks. If your knee is swollen, just take a cortisone shot.” Ward reportedly wants to take the fight with Green, but is hesitant to fight unless he’s 100%.
Ward won his first fight of the tournament with an 11 round technical decision over Mikkel Kessler last year. Ward, a 2004 Olympic Gold Medalist for the United States, showed remarkable skills in that fight, not only beating Kessler but dominating for the full 11 rounds of the fight. The win was so impressive that some boxing experts immediately made Ward the favorite to win the entire Super Six tournament.

Based on how good that Ward looked in beating Kessler and how easily he defeated knockout artist Edison Miranda last year, it’s doubtful that Ward is trying to avoid Green because he’s afraid of him. Green is a good fighter, but he’s not unbeatable. As we saw in his 10 round decision loss to Miranda in 2007, Green can be hurt in a fight if he gets hit with something big.

He also looked timid in the Miranda fight, and spent much of the bout fighting as if he was walking on egg shells. It’s somewhat understandable Green being cautious against Miranda, because Edison is after all a big puncher. However, Green wasted the entire fight playing it safe and not letting his hands go. In the 10th round, Miranda hurt Green and knocked him down twice before the time ran out.

For Green, it might be a good thing that Ward has taken time to rest and rehabilitate his right knee, because this will also give Green more time to prepare for Ward. That’s a good thing. Green is coming into the Ward fight with zero points and he needs to win this fight if he has any prayer of getting to the semi finals in the Super Six tournament.

Roach says he declined to train Hatton last year

Roach says “If he wanted to fight Amir Khan, that’s one thing. But I couldn’t train Ricky. I said I think he should retire. He’s washed up.” The funny about Roach rejecting Hatton is that although he thought Hatton was washed up as a fighter after being stopped by Pacquiao, Roach didn’t think twice about wanting to match Khan against Hatton. This seems a little off putting to me.

If  Hatton is shot and over the hill, why does Roach want to put Khan in there with him? Khan had already fought another old guy in 35-year-old Marco Antonio Barrera, who many people thought was way past it last year, and now Roach was looking to put Khan in with a guy that he thinks is shot?

Roach says “If he [Hatton] continues fighting, he’s going to jeopardize his health. I would not want to be a part of that. If he decides to fight Amir Khan, that’s up to him. He’s been a multi-world champion, he’ll go down in history for some of his great victories, and the thousands of British fans who followed him to America, he’s been there and done it, and he doesn’t need to do it anymore.”

So Roach is okay with Hatton fighting Khan, even though he’s worried about Hatton jeopardizing his health. That seems weird. First off, why put Khan in with a guy that you consider shot? What good does that do Khan? If Hatton was to fold from the first few big shots he gets hit with, does that reflect in how good Khan is or is it because he’s shot? I don’t see it being a good fight for Khan if Roach is correct about Hatton being over the hill.

What does Khan get from that other than a name on his scalp that has value in name only? That doesn’t seem right. If you want to make Khan a better fighter, shouldn’t Roach put in with a live body like WBA light welterweight interim champion Marcos Maidana instead? Roach, by the way, doesn’t want Khan to fight Maidana right now. I can understand how Roach might not want to train Hatton because he’s worried about Ricky’s health, but then in the next breath to say he’s okay with Hatton fighting Khan just seems wrong to me.