Boxing – Page 13 – Fight Matrix

Bernard Hopkins vs. Joe Calzaghe

Posted on April 21, 2008 by Jason

Back Story

Those of you who watched this bout may not have been thrilled by it, unless you understood and appreciated the historical significance. The bout featured two future hall-of-famers who are universally recognized champions, squaring off in a bout for all of the marbles at light heavyweight.

Bernard Hopkins, 43, the former universally recognized middleweight (160) champion, enters the bout as the universally recognized light heavyweight (175) champion and as one of the top 5 boxers in the world. After holding world titles in the Middleweight division for more then a decade, dispatching of all comers, including fellow hall-of-famers Oscar De La Hoya, and Felix Trinidad, he was written off after losing two questionable decisions against Jermain Taylor in 2005.
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Talk about never say die….

Posted on February 20, 2008 by Jason

A recent question from a BoxRec forum poster put me on the hunt to find out which boxer had the largest amount of consecutive losses before winning a bout.

Believe it or not, a boxer named Frankie Hines lost 51 consecutive bouts before winning again. The streak spanned over 7 years (Dec 1993 – Mar 2001). He won twice more after this, and retired with a record of 17-120-5. Boxers, Frank Wuestenberghs, and Arv Mittoo, receive the silver and bronze, with streaks of 49, and 46, respectively.

Boxing Stats – Reach Matters

Posted on January 18, 2008 by Jason

Its been a while since I’ve posted about boxing, but just recently, I did an analysis based on reach measurements. I researched all the way back to the beginnings of boxing, to determine whether or not the boxer with the longer reach won much more often.

I discovered that a boxer with any reach advantage at all won 57.1% of the time (excluding draws). At two inches or more, this went up to 58.4%. It progressively increased all the way up to 64.6% at 8 inches or more. At 10 inches or more, the number actually dropped, but I attribute this to the small subset, and because some “freak” match-ups may contaminate the results.

Some say its not the size that matters, but these results suggest more than a negligible difference. They suggest size DOES matter. You might’ve suspected such results with regards to height, but did you expect it with regards to reach alone?

Boxing Stats – Did you Know?

Posted on December 12, 2007 by Jason

Everyone has varying opinions as to whether or not a boxer (or fighter) can rebound from a knockout loss. We know it happens, but how often? I dug into the BoxRec database, and came up with some numbers.

From 1980 to present, a boxer losing by knockout, technical knockout, or corner retirement, won the rematch about 17.3% of the time. The interesting part is, this number drops as we only consider more recent bouts.
From 1990 to present, the figure drops to approximately 16%.
From 2000 to present, it plummets to about 13.3%.
2005 to present? 12.6%

One can only assume why this trend occurs. Has matchmaking gotten worse? Are the winning boxers simply taking their careers more seriously?

JCS’ Top 25 P4P Boxing List – Issue #1

Posted on December 10, 2007 by Jason

It has been a personal hobby of mine to keep a pound-for-pound boxing list to compare with those of others, including those of major publications. Like in the computerized system, I try to put neutrality first and determine who the very best fighters of the world are, independent of weight divisions.

1. Floyd Mayweather Jr. – Declaring #1 is easy. Fresh off of his dominant win over Ricky Hatton, Floyd has proven time and time again that he is the top fighter in the world, in terms of ability, and accomplishment.

2. Manny Pacquiao – By default more than anything, Pacquiao remains at #2. I can’t say I’ve been impressed with his recent performances. But, his accomplishments in the past few years assure that he remains as high as #2. However, this placement will definitely be up for debate after his March fight with Juan Manuel Marquez.

3. Juan Manuel Marquez – JM Marquez is likely the best technical boxer in the entire sport. In his first bout at 130 against Barrera, he was not at all impressive. However, he has since looked excellent. Look for him to knock off Pacquiao in March.
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