As always. Sulaiman will do everything in the name of money. I actually wished it would've happened. Makabu is short in the division which is probably the reason why Canelo considered him but it also means the guy is bulky. Makabu is not that fast but he is heavy-handed. Maybe Canelo will lead in the scores but it's a 12-round fight. Sooner or later Makabu should be able to hit Canelo with some of his bombs because the Mexican is not that fast either. And I doubt Canelo can take bombs from a KO artist at cruiserweight.

I am not an expert but the WBC interim should be used only when the champion is injured or if the champion has a legit excuse. And Canelo was not injured nor has a valid excuse to defend his belts from his mandatories. Instead of issuing the interim belt, the WBC should've made Benavidez mandatory right away. This is a way of prolonging a mandatory on Canelo and allowing him to pick his fights. Benavidez no doubt has a legit claim on the belt since he was the former champion and only lost it because he failed to make the weight. And since he wants to remain in the same division, then the race for the sanctioning bodies to give him a high ranking or mandatory is on. And Benavidez is the 2nd biggest name in the division after Canelo. The interim allowed the WBC to take a grip on Benavidez (the WBC will take a cut on its purse), otherwise, the other sanctioning bodies (WBA, IBF, and WBO) will be the ones giving Benavidez an eliminator or an automatic mandatory.

Usually, the WBC is always accommodating to superstars because of the money they bring. And Canelo is one of them. There was a time though when the WBC under huge pressure from the boxing community finally issued Canelo to face GGG who's been campaigning to unify all 4 belts. The result was either Canelo was stripped or he voluntarily vacated the belt. We will see if the WBC will do that again. IMO, Benavidez is nowhere near the level of GGG's stardom which means the WBC will make a way to buy time if Canelo won't accept the mando. The excuse the WBC will use is probably Canelo's injury that he needs a tune-up and the next excuse is the rematch clause between Canelo and Bivol whom I believe is already expired and the contract was at 175 but the WBC will make it legit since Bivol agrees to the rematch at 168.

Yeah, duck Spence is making things personal. Probably the same reason why he never fought Crawford, I have a feeling that he felt shamed and bullied when he was surprisingly approached by the boogeyman. Looking at his face and gestures, he seemed pressured and was trying to remain calm with his fake smile but he can't stare at Crawford's eyes while he was being challenged and was laughed at.

I don't know why Thurman agrees to a fight at 154 when he can have a shot at the 3 belts. And if Spence disagrees, then Thurman can fight for the vacant WBC belt. As per the latest WBC ranking, former number 1 Ortiz is at number 2 but the kid will face Stanionis for the WBA regular. This means Thurman can face number 3, Yordenis Ugas and it should not be that hard to make since they are all under the PBC umbrella. But looking at the way Thurman fights nowadays, he will also lose to Ugas and the money won't be as big as a Thurman-Spence fight. And Thurman probably doesn't care much about welter belts anymore since he was already a unified champ before. It seems like Thurman is ready to cash out big time and then leaves boxing again after getting KO'd by Spence.

What a game. The Mavs was leading early and I thought the Lakers won't be able to catch them up but I was wrong. The Lakers though had bad 3-point shooting while Mavs' showed consistent accuracy with their shots.

Luka Doncic has been performing like a goat since his 1st year in the NBA and he keeps on improving. At 23 years old, he will be breaking more records soon as long as he keeps being healthy. It's just surprising because he is not fast or physically strong but he performs well either outside or inside. His IQ indeed is at a whole new level, he's too smart.

Nah! I do not agree to try trading by borrowing funds. The question alone means OP is new to trading. You are not even advised to trade a big amount because you need to learn a lot first. Trading can be tempting especially if we see those coins that are increasing in price but believe me, it only looked easy and it is easier said than done. Why not try trading with a small capital of like $100 and see it yourself? Demo accounts are not good testing grounds because your emotions won't be tested with fake money. So the best way is to learn and at the same time fund your trading account with a small amount that won't make you cry and mad if it is lost. 

As expected indeed. Even last season, Team Secret really struggled most of the time. They even failed to qualify in the last regional qualifier. It was only in the last qualifier at Singapore that they were able to win it and then the momentum just continued in the TI. How much more now that Nisha is not part of their play anymore. But Puppey is a brilliant tactician, he needs more time to figure out BOOM's strengths and weaknesses and then they will make necessary adjustments. 

Meanwhile, what intrigues me most this season is Shopify Rebellion players trying to prove themselves a top team and make the management of EG regret it.

Damn! No more John Ryder, please. Canelo already cherry-picked him before and the fight was not even close. If Canelo wants a tune-up, he should pick a new name, maybe someone undefeated but unproven at the higher level.

I read somewhere that after the tune-up, the plan is for Canelo to defend his undisputed belts against Bivol. Lately, Bivol already said that he is willing to drop down in weight for Canelo's undisputed belts at 168.

And I doubt that the corrupt WBC will strip the biggest name in boxing for not fighting the winner of Benavidez-Plant. These sanctioning belts especially the WBA and WBC are money first before following their rules. That is why they intentionally put special cases and exemptions in their own rules to cater to their interests. Bivol-Canelo rematch combined purse may be worth $60 million or more. A simple cut of 2% to 3% is over a million dollars. That's a lot of money for Mauricio Sulaiman to miss.

Connor McGregor was 2 years inactive in MMA when he fought Khabib Nurmagomedov. I think he was an underdog already when he faced Khabib. I am not saying Connor will beat Khabib but it could be different if he was active and not from that long layoff and the huge humiliation when he was just toyed by Floyd Mayweather before being stopped in a boxing match.

Nevertheless, Connor has always had a place in the UFC whether he returns or not. Either he faces a newly signed beatable weak fighter, Connor will be entertained by Dana as always. Even Connor's tune-up with 100 years old Cerrone was top 5 in UFC PPV buys history. Connor owns 8 out of the top 10 UFC PPV buys.

Well, our physical bodies when we reach our 30s and onwards are not the same as when we were in our 20s. That's proven over time and in any physical sports, athletes will start to decline when they enter their 30s. In boxing, fighters will gain experience over time so the early 20s might lose to the early 30s. Most fighters are primed in their mid-20s to late 20s. If we see champions in their late 30s and onwards, most of them are future Hall of Famers. They are special since their diminishing physiques are still enough to beat fighters in top forms.

Another factor if we observed long enough in the world of boxing, those styles that are conservative and safety-first are the ones to prolong their careers. Guys like Floyd Mayweather Jr., Bernard Hopkins, and Juan Manuel Marquez are good examples. Brawlers and bangers consume too much energy and strength and they are put at a big disadvantage when they are in their 30s if they won't change part of their styles. Mike Tyson and Julio Cesar Chavez Sr. are perfect examples, no matter how very good, explosive, experienced, and gifted they still lose in their 30s. Lewis is even older than Tyson but his style is more long-lasting and allowed him to fight in longer rounds whereas the old Tyson doesn't have enough gas to maintain his quickness and strength in a full 12-round fight. Chavez Sr. was still beating mid-levels to good fighters in his mid-30s but was KO'd when he tried to fight the younger De La Hoya and Tszyu.

Back to Lomachenko, he is still capable of winning against good opposition but I doubt he is capable of beating younger fighters that have Hall-of-Fame qualities. Right now, Haney and Shakur still need more achievements to their names to become future HOFers like Loma but they are showing signs of greatness. We'll see if Haney can pass the Loma test. I do think he can. Shakur is probably next for the winner. I see Shakur as more talented than Haney. The only piece of stuff that Haney and Shakur don't have is their lack of power which might need if they want to conquer more divisions. Mayweather and Pacman were KO artists before moving up in many divisions.

80 - inthelongrun

Thank you MrMojoRising26 for this raffle.

Seriously I am looking for lottery coins but something like x20 to x100. But wow! We have x1000 hunters here. It'll be very hard to find coins that will shoot at x1000. Most of the newly launched coins will just perish in a short period of time. And those newly launched coins with known developers and are invested by big crypto groups like Binance Labs and Kucoin Labs have market caps of $50 million something already which make them hard to grow x1000 in the next bull run.

If we're looking into the next meme coin, maybe it's a cat logo in the next bull run.

I have no idea about the panel that will vote for the MVP but it will be hard indeed as each of them might have their own specific bias deep inside of them or they might meet together to talk about their preferred players. And it's the NBA, there might be no panel members from foreign countries except Canada who's got a team in the American league. The issue is probably on the 3 straight MVP award since there are players already that won it more than 3 times like Bron and Jordan but they haven't won it in 3 consecutive years. I am also optimistic that in case Jokic is the obvious winner especially if Denver remains in the top position, they will vote for him. And Jokic is still in his mid-20s, he still has a lot of prime years in him.

For busy people, investing is the easy way rather than starting a business that consumes a lot of energy and resources. It will be hard to start a business and just let other people run it, most of it fails because they might not give their 100% effort and they won't lose anything. If a business becomes successful though, it earns more than a long-term investment. So it is always the higher risk with the higher effort that profits more which is fair enough. I am also torn between these two. But it seems I will give up most of my time if ever I pick to start a business.

And it is only Canelo that has the power to do his per-fight deal. 99% of these fighters are not powerful and influential enough to be at the level of Canelo. I heard Tank Davis is now a free agent, we'll see if he signs a new promotional contract or if he tries to copy Canelo's style. Luckily for Tank, the PBC has a solid cult of casual and blind followers. Otherwise, Tank and his team would've tried hard to negotiate with Bob Arum who has contracts with nearly all the big names and champions from lightweight to light-welterweight.

Meanwhile, as per boxing journalist Mike Coppinger. Spence and Thurman are now finalizing a date in April but they seemed to be fighting in the 154 division. If this is true then hopefully the WBA, WBC, and IBF will strip Spence of his belts as he has passed due mandatories that he never entertained. Crawford should move up too and forget about his dream of becoming the first 2-division unified champion in the 4-belt era because it would take forever to collect these 3 belts 1 by 1. It'll be better for Crawford to spend his remaining years of boxing attempting to become a 4 division world champion.

Usyk tweeted something to Fury earlier. It seems like he remained fit during the long holidays. I bet Belly gained a lot of weight after the long holidays. Weird it's the side of Fury that wanted a March date. Fury will be burning some of his fats in order to be a little quicker in order to catch Usyk.



Meanwhile, the IBF already canceled its mandatory order for Filip Hrgovic's title shot which means Usyk is now free to fight Fury without losing his IBF belt. I haven't heard yet from the WBA, WBC, and WBO but most likely they will do the same. AFAIK the WBO also has its interim champ Joe Joyce who's supposed to be next too but apparently, Joyce is also promoted by Frank Warren the same promoter of Fury, it should not be a problem I believe.

Okay, I'll go for the underdog. Hopefully, the fight happens in a neutral venue to lessen the bias of officiating. It will be a tough fight but I think Usyk can outmaneuver Fury. Someone already took the split decision so I'll settle with a majority decision.

My pick: #54 - Usyk wins points decision W2 D1 L0

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Well, what I heard before is that 1 month is the minimum amount of time to completely heal it. We do not know yet the full report on how serious it was but the way I see it, it seems bad. DeRozan might be out for the whole season, who knows but hopefully it'll heal fast.

Too bad KD is injured but at least he is expected to return after weeks of rest. I am cheering for the Joker to get his 3 straight MVP award and hopefully, his team will go deep or even win the championship this year. Luka Doncic if Dallas continues to win games has a big chance of winning the MVP, especially he is doing it all alone and the stats his stats are getting crazy.

FTX fucked up my portfolio really badly. But then again, my eyes are focused on the 2024 and 2025 markets. So I managed to take advantage of the situation. I bought some altcoins and bitcoin at $16k and I am still planning to add more before it goes back to $19k and $20k levels which were the price ratio before the FTX crash. The same with altcoins although I think I have too many altcoins on my list and it makes me confused as to what coins will I buy next. Hopefully, there are no more big exchanges to crash again as regulations are stepping up to avoid these types of problems in the future.

It is a very very difficult task since you will be fighting the other champions which is very challenging already but there's also boxing politics. Champions are not obliged to fight the other champions. Negotiating with the other champions is already a tough one and it will be more difficult if the promoter is different the most difficult to deal with are the top networks namely DAZN, Showtime/Fox, and ESPN. That is why most fighters just prioritized getting the Ring belt and the lineal recognition in order to be considered the best of the division and then move up in weight for another challenge.

I am very excited as to who will be the first fighter to take that record. Before, my favorite to win it is Terrence Crawford as he only needs to fight Errol Spence to become a 2-division undisputed and then impose a mandatory on undisputed champion Jermell Charlo for a chance to become the first 3-division unified champion in this 4-belt era. But then Spence and his friend Charlo together with their handler PBC are not allowing it to happen. Now Crawford is getting older and he might not be able to get it. The next in line is unified heavyweight champion Oleksandyr Usyk although the task to take the last remaining belt which is the WBC might be very tough as Tyson Fury is the one holding it. But I am optimistic Usyk can beat Fury especially if the fight is held in a neutral location.

Canelo is a unified champion in 3 divisions but he failed to complete the task to collect all the belts except at super middleweight. I think the WBO champion at middleweight at that time was Billy Joe Saunders. I became a BJS fan when he took the fight against the arrogant Eubank Jr. But later on, I hated BJS a lot when he became the WBO champion and hostage the undisputed recognition. GGG already held 3 belts at that time but BJS was a dick. And then came Canelo who controversially robbed GGG's 3 belts, still unable to reach a deal with BJS too. Canelo and BJS fought later at super middleweight to unify the WBA, WBC, and WBO belts which the Mexican superstar won in a close fight.

What do we expect from a corrupt system? I am not bashing the president, I know the guy won by a landslide and he might want to improve the nation. But the whole system run by politicians and government officials, in general, is rigged and corruption is too rampant from the top down to the lowest position. Laws are not for the masses but for the rich and giant corporations who's been paying and sponsoring these government officials.

Regarding the basic commodities in the country, hoarding is rampant. Exploitations of farmers are rampant. Many times the government noticed these over the years yet I never heard of people being arrested.

Earlier all the votes were uniform since we predicted Beterbiev to win by KO/TKO and then later we have 1 vote for a draw. All I can say is Yarde has the balls to challenge the beast from the east. Beterbiev though is getting old so he is not the same beast that seemed vulnerable in the past. But what is left of Beterbiev right now is enough to demolish anyone, so we will see if Yarde can take advantage of probably a slower and less strong version of the champion. And Yarde is fighting in his backyard too so hopefully the officiating will be fair.   

Odds are one-sided since Beterbiev remained unbeaten over the years. The champion is holding 3 belts and is only 1 fight away from becoming an undisputed champion. Here are the odds look like from BK8.



I would rather bet small on a Yarde KO/TKO and Yarde by decision since the fight is happening in England and who knows the referee might allow Yarde to hold a lot and the judges might give the close rounds to the home fighter.