Cyber Boxing Zone -- News

DANGEROUS DAN: DAN BUNTIN

JOHNSTON STORMS BAZAN

Stevie Johnston (26-1) won a split decision over Cesar Bazan (34-2-1) in a action packed 12 round affair that reunited the Denver native with the WBC lightweight title Saturday night on HBO. Stevie out worked Bazan most of the fight to convince two of the three judges of his victory. The third judge incredibly voted for Bazan who didn't win more than a few rounds in my mind.

A strange thing occurred in the third round when Johnston spun around Cesar and punched him in the back of the head. This left the former champ dazed and confused. The referee motioned for them to continue to fight only to have Bazan hold the back of his head in protest. After seeing the Mexican complain about this, the referee took a point away from Johnston.

CESAR DONE AFTER

The Mexican fighter never seemed the same after this enroute to his third loss. After the fight, Johnston did not seem to be in a hurry to fight the man considered the best lightweight in IBF champ Shane Mosley when he was asked about his former amateur rival. Johnston said, "I would like to have a fight in my hometown of Denver first".

HAS HBO WILL TRAVEL

I am sure Shane would not mind going to Denver to unify the lightweight title, do you?. Look for Stevie to tip toe his way around Shane for as long as he can.

REGGIE NOT SO SWEET

On the undercard, Reggie Johnson (39-5-1) looked a little knockout happy in his defense of the IBF light heavyweight title against Will Taylor (15-2). Johnson must have watched the tape against William Guthrie time and again, in which he knocked William dead with a solid right (southpaw) hook. This was the punch that Reggie kept leading with all night long in hopes of turning out the lights on Taylor.

TAYLOR HAD A LITTLE

The challenger would play no part in this though, as he would confuse the Texan all night long by switching back and forth to southpaw all night long. Taylor's dream almost came true when he knocked Johnson down on a beautiful counter shot in the final stanza that had the champ stunned. Reggie was able to hold Taylor off for the remainder of the round, and win a unanimous decision.

IT'S V IN THREE!

Evander Holyfield is now calling the round in which he believes he will knock out Lennox Lewis. This all compliments of the man upstairs, so says Evander. This is a bold prediction for the Real Deal to throw out there regarding the once beaten Lewis. Holyfield may be trying to psyche himself with the bold statement.

READY TO DONATE

If this comes to pass and Evander disposes of Lewis in three, I will be the first to mail 10% of my earnings to the church the very next day. For those of you who don't know this, when the church asks for 10%, they mean 10% GROSS!

MORE DAMAGE CONTROL

All jokes aside, this is just a way to redirect questions from himself regarding his ability to father children, as well as being an effort to gauge his opponent's mental makeup. The ball is now in Lewis' corner.

DISH MISMATCH!!

What's the deal with USSB broadscasting a fight in which the main event consists of IBF jr. flyweight champ Will Grigsby (13-1) vs Anis Roga (4-5-1). Talk about grabbing a fighter from the low end of the gene pool! The IBF has Anis Roga ranked number five in their rankings for reasons worth investigating.

TELL ME!

How in the hell do you rate someone that high when they do not even have a .500 winning percentage, AND after only 10 fights. SHAME (SHAM) on you IBF Prez Bob Lee.

AVIS BATTLING TO REMAIN #2

SHOWTIME boxing has been in an out of control nose dive these past few years and there is no evidence that this will change any time soon. The first and main problem with the Viacom company is that all their fighters must come from, or go through Don King. This puts SHOWTIME in a re-active mode instead of a pro-active mode, something which it's rival HBO operates so smoothly in.

MISSING FACE

For instance, where the hell is Tim Austin? Besides being the unbeaten IBF bantamweight champion, Tim has not even been a blip on the boxing radar screen. Instead we get a bum like Frankie Liles fighting someone who has already had five chances at a world title, and lost them all.

TAPIA BECAME LOST

Johnny Tapia went from the shelf to an appearance on SHOWTIME with no advertisement and a no name opponent. That's another thing, SHOWTIME does not advertise the fights like HBO does. When Ricardo Lopez and Rosendo Alvarez II was shown, I found out just the day before, and only because Alvarez was having trouble making the weight.

THE SAME UNTIL 2000

The bottom line is that you get what you give, and as long as SHOWTIME continues toalign themselves with Don King and no one else, look for more of the same from until DK and SHOWTIME go their separate ways on December 31.

Dan Buntin

Note: The writer is featured exclusively at www.fighters.com on Wednesday. Dangerous Dan can be reached at dbuntin@concentric.net