DAILY BREAD THURSDAY EDITION (2-21-13)
By Stephen "Breadman" Edwards

I wanted to quickly bring up the appearance you made on a boxing show on the radio. In the interview, when talking about Lucas Mathysse’s power, Pedro talked about Felix Trinidad’s power before the 2001 William Joppy fight. I wanted to know your thoughts on the whole Trinidad hand wrap controversy during Trinidad's next fight, his loss to Bernard Hopkins. Can you share your thoughts on how this affects Trinidad’s legacy or how it should affect it?

Also want to bring up Saul "Canelo" Alvarez facing Austin Trout! I’m very happy with this fight; it shows Canelo has the guts to get in there with a dangerous fighter who isn’t a cash cow (something a lot of his haters were probably hoping he didn’t have). Very tough fight for him, and still very early to predict who would win, but as of now I’m slightly leaning towards Canelo (something I thought I wouldn’t do) just because I think at some point Canelo’s going to hurt Trout and that will probably make the difference in winning the fight. What do you think about the match up, and who’s your early pick?
Congratulations to Adrien Broner, both on his victory and his ability to get more people to talk about him. It’s funny really, it seems the better a fighter is, the higher the standards are for him to take credit without being hated on. He’s very likely the best lightweight in the world right now, so people criticize him by saying the top dogs at 140lbs would destroy him. Now, I’m not a big fan of his, but I don’t need to bash him to feel better about myself or the fighters that I prefer. He’s good, entertaining, and he’ll be around for a long time. How do you see him in a fantasy match up vs Edwin Valero at lightweight?
One last question Bread. Who do you think wins between Malik Scott vs Amir Mansour?-- S-rod


Bread’s Response: Thanks I enjoy chopping it up with Pedro on the radio. Tito Trinidad is a puncher, point blank. His hands were wrapped improperly for the Hopkins fight, but that’s not the same as a foreign object being placed in the wraps. Huge difference. I won’t even elaborate on that subject anymore, I don’t want to discredit one of my all time favorites. Handwraps didn’t make Tito a puncher, god did. His legacy is intact.

I love the Canelo vs Trout fight. My early pick is Canelo Alvarez. Yes I said it. I think the kid is tired. When I say tired I mean he’s tired of all of the talk of how he is being spoon fed. Canelo is very prideful. He was being spoon fed but that doesn’t mean he can’t fight.

Canelo has been training for this fight for months already. My early pick is the pick I’m staying with. Canelo wins this fight. It’s crazy to visualize what I’m about to write but the difference in this fight will be speed. Usually the Black fighter has the speed advantage over the Latino fighter. But not in this case. Trout, is smooth, he’s coordinated and he can box. But he’s not faster than Canelo as far delivering punches. Remember me saying it. Canelo will land the more judge friendly punches. Also I will point out that Trout seems to have some length but he’s not the tallest guy. He looks to be 5’9 to me, and he fights out of wide bent stance. Canelo is 5’8”. His length may be somewhat troublesome but in the ring Canelo will be more erect and there won’t be a height advantage. “BOXING EYES.”

What up Bread? I got some inside news on Andre Berto. I heard he fired his trainer and will be going to Freddie Roach. [This information has not been verified--Editor] Do you think that is a good move or should he go with a more defensive minded coach and/or strategic planning coach? -- Anonymous

Bread’s Response: I don’t know. I would have to see Berto in the gym. See how fast of a learner he is. Most importantly, I want to see what kind of defense he was being taught. See right now, Berto needs a built in defense. If someone tried to teach him how to slip a dozen punches he would get knocked out. Lots’ of things would improve Berto’s defense. Better conditioning, a basic stance with his chin in his shoulders, and smoother combinations.

So it’s hard for me to answer your question. But Freddie will have his work cut out for him. I think Berto is BIG trouble at the top level. He’s being doing the wrong thing for so long, it has created so much negative muscle memory, that under the gun he will always have a hard time.

Bread,

I get it how Adrien Broner gets compared to Floyd Mayweather . Similar size, bravado, somewhat outlandish/outspoken presonalities, etc, but people are taking it way too far. In the ring, they are not all that similar. Mayweather likes to hit and not get hit. Broner likes to fight and pushes for the KO. Mayweather's strength is defense and accuracy while Broner's is his offensive arsenal. Just look at the numbers. Mayweather's opponents only land 16% of their punches on him which is absolutely incredible. Broner gets hit more than 30% of the time fairly often. I think when it is all said and done Broner will be in some seriously enteraining fights for your average fan, but no way he will have the longevity of a Mayweather that goes 16 years without losing or even touching the canvas. Not criticizing Broner since it is supposed to be entertaining, but I just don't see him sitting atop the P4P rankings for very long, especially with heavy handers like Mathysse out there.
On another note, is Trout all wrong for Canelo? I think a tall, rangy, big lefty is bad news for a young fighter like Canelo, but I give him props for stepping up.

How does a fighter " take advantage of a wide stance"? I've heard this phrase a few times in regards to Adrien Broner.   
 
Mike from CT
Bread’s Response: Ok here is my take on Floyd and Broner and I will try not to indulge in this anymore. I won’t dare compare Floyd and Broner at 23. I won’t dare compare their ko%s and try to break everything down to minutia. It makes no sense. Here is why.


When you take small microcosms of performances and not a large % of them you can come up with false value. What if a baseball player goes 4 for 10 in his first 10 at bats of the season? Does that mean he will hit .400 and challenge Ted Williams? Hell no.


People want to bring up Floyd’s connect against%s and Broner’s ko%’s etc etc, I’m not like that. Obviously they are similar. But fighters evolve for many reasons. Floyd scored plenty of kos at 130lbs. People forget that. 20 of his 26 career kos came at 130lbs. As he went up in weight, the punches coming at him got harder, he had hand troubles and he stopped knocking people out. We have to see if the rise in weight effects Broner like that. So that’s one wrong slant at how things get looked at.


When Floyd had 26 fights like Broner does now, he faced better fighters. So I’m not saying Broner couldn’t beat the guys Floyd did 26 fights in, but the reality is he hasn’t yet. So let’s wait and see. Stern competition has a way of revealing things about a fighter.


Then people like to say Floyd is better defensively. I’m not disputing that. But Broner seems to have a different mentality. When Floyd fights Broner fight, in fights with Emanuel Augustus and Miguel Cotto I can assure you more than 15% of their punches landed. Why? Because he was in the danger zone. Floyd was sitting down on his punches trying to hurt his man. I don’t care who you are, if you fight like that over the course of rounds of against top notch fighters you will get hit. Ray Robinson, Floyd Mayweather, Adrien Broner it doesn’t matter. You will get hit.


If Broner was forced to fight a defensively responsible fight, where he threw 40 punches/round and he threw single shots, I assume he’s athletic enough to hold his opponent’s connect %s down.


I do see similarities in their body style and the way they deliver their punches. But we need to let Floyd be Floyd and Adrien be Adrien. Floyd turned pro when Adrien was 7 years old. Floyd is one of the top 25-50 fighters ever. Broner is just getting started. It’s way too early to tell. As of right now let’s just enjoy the young man and see if he can build his legacy.


 

Breadman,
I would like to shift gears and give props to Gavin Rees. He came in to fight not given a snowball’s chance to win and really made to most of his opportunity. I was surprise by his hand speed and punch selection. Especially to left hook to the liver. He had the perfect game plan and executed it as best as athletic ability could allow him to. He fought like a real fighter was supposed to. Even when had been hurt and clearly getting getting busted up and out gunned he showed no quit when could have easily found a way out and collected his pay check. With that said Broner did what he was supposed to do and show exactly what it means to be an A class fighter. One other note. If that was Brandon Rios executing the exact game plan and landing the same punches how do you think that Broner would have responded? What are your thoughts?
Columbus,
Tampa
Bread’s Response: Gavin Rees was a gun and I respect the hell out of him. He fought his heart out. Stand up Gavin.
I don’t know how Broner would respond to Bam Bam Rios but I sure would like to find out.


 

I'd like to ask you about fighter Joe Gans. Some have called him the greatest lightweight boxer of all time. How do YOU rank him among the lightweights(past and present), among ALL fighters in general, and how competitive do you think he would be in the Modern Era?

Peace,
Kristopher M.
BMore.

Bread’s Response: Tough question because Gans didn’t fight in the modern style. So people will say he couldn’t compete today. I’m not one of those people because I would say if he competed today then he would fight in the modern style and have access to some of the modern things we have today. That being said he has to be one of the top 5 lightweights ever regardless of era. He was a big puncher for the era and he had excellent size and natural talent. He has 8 freaking losses in over 160 fights! That’s also incredible for any era. Gans also took on great fighters who were much larger like Joe Walcott and Sam Langford who turned into a great heavyweight.


Gans would be a good size lightweight by today’s standards. That’s the one thing about boxing that people don’t realize. Evolution did not hit boxing like it did other sports. Gans is about 5’7 and he has a 71 inch reach. Very similar to Adrien Broner. More importantly he would be much bigger than two guys who recently challenged Broner in Eloy Perez and Gavin Rees. Gans would be a monster in any era and he’s a certified great fighter.

Send questions and comments to: dabreadman25@hotmail.com