Comments Thread For: BoxingScene's Midweek Mailbag: What's next for Bakhram Murtazaliev, Tim Tszyu and the IBHOF

[BoxingUpdates]

In this week's mailbag, we tackle your thoughts on what comes next for Tim Tszyu after the three-round drubbing he took at the hands of Bakhram Murtazaliev; we stay with the junior middleweights to talk about the year Serhii Bohachuk has had and whether he deserved better; we discuss some criticism of the International Boxing Hall of Fame; and we once again try to make sense of decisions made by the sanctioning bodies.
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[Knuckle sandwich]

Definitely not a rematch

[Mick Higgs]

Regarding the IBHOF, surely if Barry McGuigan's in there, then there should be a place for John H.Stracey. What Stracey achieved in Mexico City on December 6th 1975 against all the odds far outweighs What McGuigan achieved in his entire career!

[Boxingfanatic75]

Regarding the IBHOF, surely if Barry McGuigan's in there, then there should be a place for John H.Stracey. What Stracey achieved in Mexico City on December 6th 1975 against all the odds far outweighs What McGuigan achieved in his entire career!

Even annoying Tim Bradley got in there and I suspect that was an inside job due to his gig calling fights now. I mean a two weight class champ? Those are now a dime a dozen. And his “win” against Manny? Everyone knew Manny thumped him.

[Left Hook Louie]

I look forward to this column every week!

"Let’s face it: Would Sun-Ra still be the musical genius we know if he were jamming with the San Francisco Philharmonic?"

I wonder how many readers even know who Sun Ra is.....

[Elheath]

I look forward to this column every week!

"Let’s face it: Would Sun-Ra still be the musical genius we know if he were jamming with the San Francisco Philharmonic?"

I wonder how many readers even know who Sun Ra is.....

I personaly never heard of him but I assumed he was some famous singer in the US or something like that, he's not?

[Elheath]

As for the Nakatani-Estrada factor, I was on the same boat of how a dude who got thumped on the division below automatically get No. 1, but given the rest of the ranking I see that it might actually be worth it only IF Estrada is willing to get another beating by Nakatani (which I'm skeptical). The writer has a point that given the situation Takuma won't be fighting him next, no way Teiken breaks the precious golden egg they are hoping to make into a star in Tenshin, and definitely don't need a rematch with Santiago.

[anonymous2.0]

Everyone gives Tim Tszyu's corner stick, but I think the corner was hobbled by Tim himself. The Fundora fight should've been called off by the cut and ruled a No Contest, hard luck but live to fight another day. Tim would later walk around puffing out his chest weirdly bragging that he's glad his corner didn't stop the fight because if they did he would've fired them. So Tim went through a very arduous fight with a very bad cut and walked out without any belts and a loss. The next logical step would be to give him a tune up fight to erase any lingering ghosts but Tim didn't want that either, preferring to jump right back into deep waters. So the corner and matchmakers acquiesce. I think Tim isn't letting his team do what they're supposed to, sometimes the team has to make tough decisions for the fighter that the fighter doesn't like but Tim's corner and team can't make those decisions because Tim has straight up said he'll fire them if they do.

[crimsonfalcon07]

I think Estrada is a more appealing matchup for titleholder Junto Nakatani than anyone else in the sanctioning body’s Top 15.
Takuma Inoue (No. 2) just lost his WBA world title. Tenshin Nasukawa (No. 3) is still too early in his pro boxing career. Alexandro Santiago (No. 4) lost to Nakatani earlier this year.

I think we'll have to agree to disagree on that one. Count me as one that thinks that weight classes matter and we don't really know how a fighter will behave until he's made his debut.

That's one of the things I find wonderful about Inoue: that he's taken on the closest he could get to the divisional best in his divisional debuts basically every time. Moved up from junior fly to junior bantam, and took on #1 Ring rated Omar Narváez. Moved to bantam, took on #2 Jamie McDonnell. The Ring champ then was Shinsuke Yamanaka, who later got knocked out by Luis Nery, and Inoue avenged that defeat in May. Then took on #1 and #2 Fulton and Tapales in his first fights at 122. Most fighters don't just jump to the best, but if they're undefeated, I appreciate that they do.

I grant that Bam Rodriguez is class. I rate him very highly, and wouldn't be surprised if he has a good chance to end up one of the more respectable HOF entries. And Estrada has had a great career. But he's coming off a KO loss at 115, and wars with the great Chocolatito (the second of which Estrada didn't deserve the win IMO, but I digress). At 118, we don't know if his power and speed and conditioning will carry. Look how heavy and flat Stephen Fulton looked in his debut at 126.

Both Takuma Inoue and Santiago at least proved that they were able to achieve a world title at 118, and in Takuma's case, he was able to defend it too. I think a close loss at the weight class following defenses is worth far more than a KO loss in a lighter weight class. It's a shame that the other champs won't unify, but if they won't, I personally think Takuma is still more worth Nakatani's time at 118 than Estrada. Fighters moving up after a loss should always have to prove themselves in the division. Otherwise it's just privilege.

The one argument maybe for Estrada would be that maybe he can set up a bit more of a narrative for a fight with Bam, but given the way Bam has bounced around avoiding Nakatani, I don't know that Bam wants that fight yet.

[Mr. David]

I think we'll have to agree to disagree on that one. Count me as one that thinks that weight classes matter and we don't really know how a fighter will behave until he's made his debut.

That's one of the things I find wonderful about Inoue: that he's taken on the closest he could get to the divisional best in his divisional debuts basically every time. Moved up from junior fly to junior bantam, and took on #1 Ring rated Omar Narváez. Moved to bantam, took on #2 Jamie McDonnell. The Ring champ then was Shinsuke Yamanaka, who later got knocked out by Luis Nery, and Inoue avenged that defeat in May. Then took on #1 and #2 Fulton and Tapales in his first fights at 122. Most fighters don't just jump to the best, but if they're undefeated, I appreciate that they do.

I grant that Bam Rodriguez is class. I rate him very highly, and wouldn't be surprised if he has a good chance to end up one of the more respectable HOF entries. And Estrada has had a great career. But he's coming off a KO loss at 115, and wars with the great Chocolatito (the second of which Estrada didn't deserve the win IMO, but I digress). At 118, we don't know if his power and speed and conditioning will carry. Look how heavy and flat Stephen Fulton looked in his debut at 126.

Both Takuma Inoue and Santiago at least proved that they were able to achieve a world title at 118, and in Takuma's case, he was able to defend it too. I think a close loss at the weight class following defenses is worth far more than a KO loss in a lighter weight class. It's a shame that the other champs won't unify, but if they won't, I personally think Takuma is still more worth Nakatani's time at 118 than Estrada. Fighters moving up after a loss should always have to prove themselves in the division. Otherwise it's just privilege.

The one argument maybe for Estrada would be that maybe he can set up a bit more of a narrative for a fight with Bam, but given the way Bam has bounced around avoiding Nakatani, I don't know that Bam wants that fight yet.

I appreciate the agreement to disagree, even though we otherwise seemed mostly in agreement. =)