Pantera

Over the past few years I have become interested in boxing again. Everyone says it is a dead sport and there are some arguments which support this. I, however, am not one who believes that boxing needs a dominant heavyweight champion to be relevant. (Just to be clear I am sort of a Wladmir Klitchko fan anyway.) I tend to gravitate toward the middleweight and adjacent divisions for the nice combination of speed, technique and power. Heavyweight fights have always disappointed IMO. With middleweights you get real boxing but the potential still exists for a knockout.

Anyway, the fighter I am always excited to watch is Edison "Pantera" Miranda. He's fairly tall for a middleweight at 5'11". He throws tons of looping haymakers usually going for the knockout(record 27-1 with 24 KO's). But what really is amazing is his story. Born in Colombia, his mother abandoned him when he was a year old. He was raised in an abusive household and ended up living homeless on the street at age 9. He decided to track down his biological mother who turned him away and sent him back to the street.

From his bio:

He was now all alone on the tough streets of Colombia at the young age of nine. He spent the rest of his childhood working hard in the plantain and yucca fields of Tumaco and sweeping up for street vendors in the neighboring town of Buenaventura. He ate whatever he could find on the streets in order to survive. By the time Edison was 12, he was already working a grown-man's job in construction. Just two years later, he worked as a cattle butcher in Barranquilla, where he would soon begin pursuing his dream of becoming a champion boxer.

He was an amateur boxer at age 16 and eventual amateur champion. He lost an earlier professional title bout to Artuhur Abraham in a controversial decision where he broke Abraham's jaw with a legal punch. On May 19th he fights Kelly Pavlik (30-0, 27 KO) for the right to fight for the title. Two men who clearly fight to knock the other guy out. Not a PPV, it's on HBO as an undercard fight on the middleweight title bout between Spinks and Taylor. My money says the undercard fight will be the one worth watching that night. I better have HBO in my hotel room in Anaheim.

I do promise at some point to return to things "not sports" in my posts but for now it will continue.

Bulls vs. Pistons Game 1 (Plus)

Well it had to happen eventually. The Bulls sucked last night plain and simple. Managed to more than quadruple their turnover number from game 4 against the Heat. It was a blowout. On one hand it causes some fear that the Bulls simply are outmatched in this series. On the other hand, if the Bulls can come back to take game 2 then they still have a great shot in the series having stolen home court advantage. In my opinion, the key is the bench players which was the most lopsided matchup from game 1. I never realized Jason Maxiell was the greatest forward in the game. Maybe as the series progresses he'll go "Antoine Walker" for his hometown.

In other sports news the Jazz made T-Mac cry. I'm picking the Warriors in 6 to take the semifinal series against Utah. Golden State just has so much momentum right now, I think they will take at least 1 of 2 to start the series in Salt Lake.

Finally, I watched the Mayweather/De La Hoya fight which was a decent fight but overall a bit disappointing. No knockdowns and a split decision (which it shouldn't have been) never satisfies. The best part was Floyd Sr. stating after the fight that he felt De La Hoya should have won. Like the majority, I wanted Oscar to win especially after seeing this.

Derby, Bulls and Mayweather

Big day tomorrow for Sports and betting, starting a little after 5 pm with fastest 2 minutes in sports. Then at 7pm is opening game of the Second Round of the Eastern Conference Playoffs with the Chicago Bulls visiting the Detroit Pistons. Finally the nightcap of the day, with the Mayweather vs De La Hoya fight.

After going 2 for 3 on picks last time its time to make my picks for tomorrow. First I'll start with the easiest one. Mayweather by KO, TKO or DQ at 4:1. With that in mind, I obviously like the under of 11.5 rounds at +190.

In the second sporting event of the day, the Bulls are +5 against the former Bad Boys. Here are some recent trends in the game from Covers.com

Bulls are 5-1 ATS in the last 6 meetings in Detroit.
Bulls are 4-1 ATS in the last 5 meetings.
Underdog is 4-1 ATS in the last 5 meetings.
Road team is 5-1 ATS in the last 6 meetings.

In one of the more wide open Kentucky Derbies in recent memory, with 20 horses entered there are a couple favorites; Curlin (+250); Street Sense (+500); Scat Daddy (+700); Circular Quay (+750). Its a tough one to pick and many experts out there would like to pick a middle of the pack horse at about 10-15:1 to put some money on as an attempt to pick the favorite. I would like to recommend a little different strategy, its called boxing the exacta, take 5-6 horses that you like and then bet on them all to finish one two, no matter the order. As long as Curlin and Street Sense don't win and place then you should be in the black and if you can pick one of those 10-15:1 picks then you should be in for a big payday. As for my picks, I'll take 2,7,12,14,16 and for my flier -15 Tiago who is coming off a victory at Santa Anita in which he finished strong, plus he's the half kid brother of Giacomo, and of course he is OJ's pick.