Weekend Picks (8/15/08)

2007: +12.45 units
2008: +14.585 units

Anthony Thompson vs. Ishmail Arvin
Under 9.5 (-120) (Sportsbook)
1.2 units

Prior to his lackluster showing against Yuri Foreman on the Miguel Cotto-Zab Judah undercard last year, Thompson had knocked out 4 of his last five opponents.  That includes Robert Frazier and Mohammad Said, who were considered relatively tough customers at the time Thompson fought them.  I'm not going to hold too much against Thompson for his poor performance against Foreman because Foreman's a fast, defensive boxer who makes all his opponents look bad.  Meanwhile, at 33-years-old, Arvin is nearing the end of a disappointing career.  He's just 0-1-2 in his last three fights, which looks really bad when the loss came to the crude David Toribio.  Arvin's never been KO'd, but he's also never met anyone with Thompson's ability.  I expect Thompson to get some work in early, but he should be able to start hurting Arvin enough in the mid-rounds for the fight to end before the final bell.

Good luck buddy.  My biggest concern would be Thompson starting slow after his period of inactivity.  How was the atmosphere at the card last week?

It was great.  There was lots of enthusiasm for Cloud, and you could tell that people were a bit astonished that Gonzalez could keep going after absorbing those vicious shots in rounds 5-6.  I like these small, 1000-1500 seat venues for boxing matches.  The seats were about seven rows back of ringside, so it was a great view...Nothing else on the card was too exciting.  There was a really annoying lady screaming for Carlos Molina ("Go, Carlos, go!" she kept yelling in a screeching tone), so I was hoping that Camarena would land something special to shut her up.

Nice.  Yeah smaller venues are great, it feels like you are right on top of the action and you seem to "feel" the fight more.  Lol, Camarena just didn't have it in him, he is about as average across the board as you can get.  Does Cloud have a decent following since most of his cards have been there?

Yeah, it's kinda a small group of people who regularly attend boxing matches in the Chicago area, so Cloud definitely had the support of the crowd due to his promotional ties (8 Count Productions, which puts on the Chicago bouts).  The place was probably about 70/30 in favor of Cloud.

Took the other side here, but only small. BOL anyhow A2C.

Anthony Thompson vs. Ishmail Arvin
Under 9.5 (-120) (Sportsbook)
1.0 unit

There's no doubt this fight was rightfully stopped after the end of the 6th round after a gaping cut over Thompson's left eye left him looking like he was ready to play the part of some kind of zombie in a B grade horror movie.  However, the manner in which the TKO victory was awarded to Arvin was critically absurd.  The blame can be placed on both the indecisiveness of the referee, who initially stopped the fight in favor of Arvin by stoppage, but after watching a replay of the 3rd round when the cut actually took place, changed his mind and plead with the commission to rule the cut an accidental headbutt.  After several minutes of back and forth dialogue, the commission refused to budge from the ref's original call and finally ruled it a stoppage win for the underdog - after they had watched the replay with Tessitore and Briggs, who were both pleading a case for Thompson that the cut was inadvertent.  This should have gone to the cards at the time of stoppage, in which case Thompson would have been awarded a technical decision.  Unbelievable.  A truly bittersweet win.