Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Beltway Legends Lauded In Ring Year-End Issue!

While no current Beltway Boxers were heralded in The Ring Year-End Award Issue this year, a number of Beltway legends were highlighted in the magazine's rankings of the best boxers by division in the decade of 2000. The section was written by Eric Raskin.

In the heavyweight class, Hasim Rahman ranked fifth among the best in the 2000's, trailing Lennox Lewis, Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko and Chris Byrd.

William Joppy placed ninth among middleweights behind the likes of Bernard Hopkins, Kelly Pavlik and Jermain Taylor. Sharmba Mitchell placed ninth in the ranking of junior welterweights, behind the likes of Kostya Tszyu, Ricky Hatton, Miguel Cotto and Manny Pacquiao.

Mark Johnson came in 10th among junior Bantamweights in the first decade of the 21st century, despite only fighting three times in the division. One of his victories, however, came against the number two man on the list, Fernando Montiel. Vic Darchinyan heads the junior bantamweight list.

In the TV Fights of the Month section of the Ring, Martin Mulcahey had some interesting comments about three bouts featuring Beltway Boxers. Mulcahey described Tim Coleman's USBA Junior Welterweight title win over Mike Arnaoutis as "sparring partner to the stars gets a quality win." Lamont Peterson's loss to Timothy Bradley was described as "the most entertaining one-sided fight of the year." Regarding the bout between Fernando Guerrero and Jessie Nicklow, Mulcahey wonders "Why are two well-supported Maryland prospects fighting in Minnesota?"

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