Whose '0' will go in 2014?

Rances Barthelemy, tomorrow? :think

It might be an early start for the Zero Boogeyman.

 

I'll go with:

Timothy Bradley
Danny Garcia
Peter Quillin
Shawn Porter
Keith Thurman
Tyson Fury
Yuriorkis Gamboa
Viktor Postol
Jessie Vargas
Thomas Oosthuizen
Deontay Wilder
Scott Quigg

Off the top of my head.

 

That's an interesting fight.

I lean toward Mendez but am not ruling out Barthelemy....

Both are a level below the top fighters at Jr. Lightweight.

 

why isn't this a multi option poll? :blood

there are more than one on that list who I exepect to lose their precious O

 

In fairness, it is annoying when you put a poll up and forget to tick that box and there is no option to change it. :twisted:

EDIT: oh the poll says most likely. Shouldn't be a multi option poll.

 

I'm going for Gamboa in that poll. I think he will end up fighting Garcia, Shafikov or Crawford and I'd favor all those guys to beat him.

 

It'll be Garcia (all but official), and then either Gamboa or Garcia will be poised to move up to 135 and meet the winner of Shafikov vs. Vazquez and/or the winner of Crawford vs. Burns next to unify. Personally I favor Shafikov and Crawford very heavily in those match-ups, but still, boxing is the arena of the unexpected so best practice is to not put the horse before the cart and throw out names like "Shafikov" or "Crawford" as big payday ops when neither is even champion yet and there is a slim chance they'll fail in their upcoming challenges and see their own zeroes go. :deal

 

Shafikov and Crawford have got Vazquez and Burns in my opinion. Those two look legit, unless Burns gets another robbery of course.

I mentioned Gamboa fighting them because I have read somewhere he want's to stop at Lightweight.

 

Another prediction- Keith Thurman get's KO'd early in a fight he's highly favored to win. Kind of like a Mares-Gonzalez situation.

 

Off that list, in order of likelihood:

1) Wilder if he is matched with anyone with a pulse who is top 40 and neither a midget nor incredibly slow or old or chinny or featherfisted.

2) Garcia if the Matthysse rematch comes off.

3) By necessity either Gamboa or Garcia as they're all but certain to meet...unless it's a draw or NC. I lean toward Garcia escaping with his zero intact but no sure thing.


...and that's it. Honestly I don't see any scenario where any of the others lose in 2014.

No welter or super welter is beating Mayweather at present.

No super middle is beating Ward at present.

No middle is beating Golovkin at present

No super bantam is beating Rigondeaux at present.

No light heavy is beating Kovalev at present.


...the only iffy one is Bradley, far less invincible than anybody mentioned above - though most of the rumors floating around him concern rematches with either Pacquiao or Provodnikov and I think he wins both of those.

 

I fear Ali Rayami may come undone

 

Pulev seems poised to face off with Wladimir over the summer, so I'd list him for sure.

My boy Kazuto Ioka could run into trouble if he moves up and tangos with one of the top guys at Flyweight. Don't think he will, but worth mentioning along with Gonzalez moving up into the hot division potentially. Uchiyama if he unifies with Miura could be a surprise risk candidate.

Danny Garcia, even if good/great, is a candidate simply on his potential rematch with Matthysse and especially if he fights Mayweather in September.

Shawn Porter and Demetrius Andrade, new titlists with enough solid big name guys to pose a threat to the zero even if they take a tuneup in the calendar year. Thurman for whatever reason I'll lump with these two. One of Porter or Thurman will lose as Golden Boy will be matching them with their deep stock at WW.

Khabib if he ever gets deservedly matched will honor a shout out, because he really does deserve to face the very best guys at 140.

Gamboa, I swear that guy is a walking disaster despite the to this date undefeated, pretty highly relevant career.

Wilder and Fury although if my life depended on it I may say both leave '14 undefeated. The reason I would say that would be due to careful match making rather than "amazing skill that lives up to the hype."

While I would pick Bradley over Pac or Provodnikov in rematches, I certainly wouldn't make him a huge favorite over Pac which would be damn near a 50/50 fight in my eyes, so that deserves a shout.

 

Yeah, Broner will definitely be looking in Allahkverdievs direction when he returns.:think