Sherdog Boxing: The Weekly Wrap

Crawford to Fight Collazo in Fight That Disappoints Everyone

You know when you wanted ice cream, but your mom offers a peanut butter and jelly sandwich instead, then you pout so much about not getting ice cream that you never get the sandwich and have to go to sleep hungry for not being grateful? That’s what happened to boxing fans this week when it was announced that Terence Crawford would be fighting Luis Collazo.

See, we wanted Errol Spence Jr. vs Crawford, then weren’t all that happy when we thought we were getting Egidijus “Mean Machine” Kavaliauskas against Crawford, so now we’re stuck with Crawford facing Luis Collazo, who has lost seven times to guys like Ricky Hatton, Andre Berto and Amir Khan, and whose best win is probably a 2014 knockout of Victor Ortiz. The fight will take place at Madison Square Garden on Mar. 23 and will air on ESPN.

Collazo has zero shot, and this fight warrants zero interest. This is what we get for being so ungrateful.

Juan Estrada-Victor Mendez Replaces Chocolatito Fight on Final HBO Card

HBO’s final card on Dec. 8 lost Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzales this week due to a knee injury. In his place, Juan Carlos Estrada will fight fellow Mexican super-flyweight Victor Mendez. Estrada lost a decision to Sor Rungvisai, then rebounded with a win over Felipe Orucuta at “Superfly 3.” This will mark Estrada’s third appearance on HBO, and it is unclear what network he will look to continue his career on.

Although they are lucky to get Estrada, losing Chocolatito may prove to be devastating to the card. With all due respect to Cecilia Braekhus, last weekend’s Dmitry Bivol-Jean Pascal fight did terrible ratings despite both fighters being known far better than any female boxer in the world.

Donnie Nietes to Face Kazuto Ioka

Speakng of super-flyweights that flourished on HBO, after both winning on the network’s “Superfly 3” card, Donnie Nietes will be facing Kazuto Ioka on Dec. 31 in Macau, China. Ioka returned from retirement to defeat McWilliams Arroyo in his last fight after watching a previous “Superfly” card and deciding he could beat anyone fighting that night. Nietes last fought fellow Filipino Aston Palicte to a draw, but enough people thought he won the fight that a rematch would be unnecessary.

Floyd Mayweather Fined $600,000 for Touting Cryptocoin Profits

This week, Floyd Mayweather was fined $600,000 by the SEC for “unlawfully touting initial coin offerings” because both he and DJ Khaled did not disclose that they were being paid to tout the cryptocurrency they invested in on their social media accounts, including a post in which Floyd declared that he should be referred to as “Floyd ‘Crypto’ Mayweather from now on,” something that was never going to happen.

Bivol Looks to Canelo, Canelo Looks to Floyd

After beating Jean Pascal, Dmitry Bivol expressed a willingness this week to move down to 168 pounds if it meant he could get a shot at either Callum Smith or Saul "Canelo" Alvarez which may hint towards how he feels after fighting the naturally larger Jean Pascal. However, a Bivol-Canelo fight will never happen because Bivol is way too big and way too good for Canelo at 168 pounds, and because Canelo is still trying to get a rematch with “Crypto.”

Yes, this week Canelo said that if he was to get a fight against Mayweather, the lowest he could go for the fight would be 160, despite Floyd never having fought above 154 lbs. That means this rematch will never happen, and if it did Floyd would be so bloated that Canelo would be at a huge advantage in both size and age. It should be noted both GGG and Sergio Martinez were once willing to drain themselves to 154 for a shot at Floyd, but that Floyd wanted no part of either matchup.

Michael Conlan Reveals He Was Held at Gunpoint during 2016 Olympics

Between the vile conditions of the water, Ryan Lochte’s escapades and the Olympic swimming pool suddenly turning green, Rio de Janeiro seemed to have a never-ending parade of things that proved they weren’t ready to handle an Olympic Games. Although we didn’t know it at the time, another issue may have been the worst of all.

Michael Conlan, the Irish boxer who became most famous for flipping the bird after being robbed of a decision by Olympic judges revealed this week that he was held at gunpoint shortly following that loss. Apparently, Conlan and his dad were in a taxi whose driver as cutting people off and driving like a maniac, when an angry driver stepped out of his car and stuck a desert eagle pistol in the face of both the drivers and passengers. Conlan was in such distress over the loss, that he didn’t even register how insane the experience was until a while after. It was a crazy Olympics, and this week Conlan added another crazy story to the mix.

Jermain Taylor Arrested Again (No, I’m Not Kidding)

I kid you not Jermain Taylor got arrested again this week. This time, it was for failure to pay child support. I suppose it’s good that although still getting arrested weekly, the crimes are getting less and less serious. That’s progress, I guess.