Punishment Inc.

[nfg22]

What game are you using? I looked at the OOTP boxing game and I didnt see a manager mode...but maybe I missed it...thanks for the info...

[PilotMan]

Daed: Thanks for reading and I am glad that you are enjoying it. I had intended to post more yesterday, but things got a little hectic. Enjoy the update.

nfg22: I am using an older game called World Championship Boxing Manager, or WCBM for short. It is not the same as the old VGA boxing game. The game is about 6 years old. There was supposed to be an update, but the developer seems to have found better ways to spend his time.

[PilotMan]

Here we go!

This fight is scheduled for 6 rounds.

An ugly first round. A lot of holding, and McFarlane didn’t throw enough punches. I did land some in flurries, but I want more. He didn’t control the round, and didn’t make Fanshaw miss enough. I told him that he lost that one. For the next round I want him to go on the offensive a little more, but to still be wary. Be more active!

More of the same, Fanshaw is doing a nice job of being elusive. So far his lack of defense hasn’t hurt him. I say that McFarlane lost that round too. If he is going to sit on the outside and jab us to death we will come and find him. My only reservation about this is that it opens us for more punches.

That was much more of what I had wanted to see. McFarlane went after him and was totally dominating the round halfway. I thought that if he could keep that up he was going to get the TKO. Fanshaw did a nice job of recovering and slowly landed punch after punch, and made it close at the end. This one could have gone either way. I would like to think that we won it but I am not counting on anything.

More of the same here. Fanshaw is landing a lot of punches and Lawrence is unable to really track him down. I know that if he got him cornered and could land a series of punches that it would be all over. McFarlane is taking a lot of blows, but he is weathering them well. Two rounds left and we are going to need some help.

I knew it! I knew that if we could just get him slowed down enough it would be all over. Lawrence McFarlane has stopped John Fanshaw with a 5^th round TKO. Finally, Lawrence was able to clap him with the jab over and over. And finished with an uppercut. That was the begining of the end for Fanshaw. The power of McFarlane was way too much. It didn’t come without cost though as McFarlane took a lot of punches. He deserved this break though.





Elsewhere, the Featherweight Title belongs to Peter Badillo. A huge second round capped with a KO of Armando Medina. I am surprised by this and it cost us 20k. However, we more than made up for it with the winnings from the McFarlane match.

Xavier Firth is going to defend his title again. In just 4 weeks. It will be his 3^rd title fight of the year. I guess he is trying for fighter of the year.

[PilotMan]

The stable at Punishment Inc. is about to get bigger. I am certainly not bursting with money but this has to be a financial decision. There is a young boxer, a nobody, who is going nowhere in this career. He has not won in his first 3 fights, but I think that maybe I can find a way to get him some money. Or at the very least I could put him up against some better fighters and at least get the payout from the bigger names. Part of the name of the game after all is to use up the young to drive the machine. Even if I don’t win anything with him I would only be out around 200k. That is a cheap investment. Conversely, If he was to win some matches the value of his contract could go up significantly and I could sell it for the profit. I really don’t see a downside, except that my reputation might be sullied a little. It is worth the chance.

Lee Drydon is a tiny man. He fights at the lowest level of boxing in the flyweight division. He is currently ranked #178. That makes him just about the lowest of the low. He has signed on for 9 fights. I gave him a good sales pitch, I am sure he is just happy to be represented. He does have some skills, and reminds me of Lawrence McFarlane. His current record is 0-2-1(0). His first loss was on a majority decision, the second was a draw, and the last was a unanimous loss. To me he is just a hair from being 2-0-1, which would have made his value that much higher.

Watching him it looks like he has a good chin, a solid, accurate punch, and a pretty tight defense. Honestly, he could be quite the fighter if he can build his confidence back up. Perhaps under the right tutelage he could. That may or may not be me. His real "in ring" weakness appears to be his ability to withstand punishment. That may mean that he has to be a little more elusive if he wants to win. Welcome to the stable Lee.

[PilotMan]

Two weeks until Omar has his rematch fight. He has been doing well on the speed bag, and the road work is good. He is young and a hard worker and I hope that he rebounds well in his next match. I will be much more careful with his strategy for the next fight.

Lee Drydon is in such bad shape that he is working extra time in the gym. So far he has shown no improvement. He next opponent is going to be selected very carefully.

Lawrence McFarlane has moved up to #51 in the Middleweight rankings.

Omar Acevedo is ranked at #135 in the Lightweight division.

Lee Drydon is #174 in the Flyweights.

I want McFarlane to win, but I am afraid that if he continues to win I won’t be able to afford to sign him a contract extension. I am saving my money for that eventuality.

I took some time today to see who was available to fight Drydon. I talked with a number of managers who had fighters in the same situation as Drydon, and pretty much noone was interested in fighting on my timeline. The downside of a fighter like Drydon is that for another fighter the payout is going to be pretty small, as he is considered to be terrible. If he could just get a win that would improve. I have been looking at a rematch with Betillo Sanchez, the fighter that Drydon earned a draw with. He seems to be a tough fight, but we need to start somehwere. In addition the fight wouldn’t be on a favorable timeline. I was hoping to come up with something in about a month, but noone is interested in that either so the wait may be longer.

Lawrence McFarlane is also due to have a fight scheduled. I would like to challenge him, and at the same time continue to build him up. The fight that I want is with Gorilla Jones, 100-25-13(53). A fighter who is clearly past his prime, and is ranked #50. I talked at length with his management agency and they wanted nothing to do with this fight. Another fighter who is of the same ilk, but is ranked much lower is also available. Is it worth it? Ceferino Garcia, 114-32-16(70), is ranked #70 in the Middleweight division. They are interested in doing a fight the second week in November. That would be the 4^th fight for McFarlane, I would really need to decide what I was going to do with him after that. Hmmmm. OK. The fight is set.

[daedalus]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

Daed: Thanks for reading and I am glad that you are enjoying it. I had intended to post more yesterday, but things got a little hectic. Enjoy the update.

Thanks for writing! Good work so far.

I hope my little joke did not offend. I understand that you have a life, I just wanted to toss in a little joke to let you know I'm reading along.

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by daedalus

Thanks for writing! Good work so far.

I hope my little joke did not offend. I understand that you have a life, I just wanted to toss in a little joke to let you know I'm reading along.

Not at all, but you know how my other dynasties have gone so far. As an update, I now have almost 100 (update) pages of writing on this dynasty.

[PilotMan]

Punishment Inc, has made a huge investment in the future of the group. A new fighter has been signed to the organization. I have had this feeling that I was a heavyweight, and now I am managing these fighters and not a heavyweight among them. There are a number of prospects but I like who I signed.

In other news, and slightly off of the subject. I am having a horrid time trying to line up Lee Drydon for a fight. I have been asking and practically begging anyone to give him a fight. I am afraid that his ship may have sailed. If I can’t make something happen with him I will need to dump his contract for a fighter who is going to be marketable.

Anyway, I just thought that I would get that off of my chest.

I just signed Niall Beaumont, 0-0-0(0) to a six fight contract that is worth 1.04 million upfront. This may hamper my ability to resign my current fighters but they do have some fights so I should be able to keep them if I need to. Honestly, I really don’t know if it will hurt at all.

Sorry, off track again. Niall is a young heavyweight. He is currently ranked #183 in the Heavyweight division. He turned pro the first week of July, and hasn’t been active at all. He has a pretty good punch which you have to have at this level. He likes to be in control of the fight and is in the habit of moving forward. His defense is good. His chin is good, he can take a bit of punishment before quitting, and he doesn’t give up easy. Not the most accurate puncher, I just hope he is willing to work in the ring. He may have to throw three, get hit twice, to land one. Hopefully that will be enough.

[PilotMan]

First week of October-

Fight Night-

I got a call from a manager today, asking me about booking a match against Lee Drydon. They would give me a bonus of around 115k if I would take the fight. I took a look at the offer. Drydon would face Peter McHugh, the second week of November. McHugh is #160 in the world and has a record of 1-1-2(0). He seems harmless until I look at the fighters that he took on in his first 4 fights. Guys who are primed for greatness, and he manages a 4 round draw. Look, I want the fight and I want the money, because face it, even with the bonus, win or lose I get a nice cut of cash from a boxer that good. And maybe somewhere down the road that will be the right choice to make, but right now, that is not the way I want to take Drydon. I told him when he signed that I would make every effort to help him improve and develop the skills that I believe that he has. I gotta go with a no on this one.

Omar has a very important match tonight. He is facing Marcos Solano, again. Solano is 1-1-1, and is ranked #153 among Lightweights. He is an accurate puncher with a good chin. His power shouldn’t be an issue, even with Omar’s suspect chin.

In the last fight, Omar was fighting from behind for most of the fight and only came back to win by attacking the last few rounds. This is only a 4 round match, so I will need to watch him closely. Certainly don’t want him falling behind again.

Omar is not an aggressive fighter by nature, and he doesn’t absorb punishment all that well, but he is solid offensive and defensive. His power could be the difference.

[PilotMan]

A loss here would really hurt his future though. Oddsmakers favor Omar ½, while Solano is at 7/4. Some money on Omar, but not the back.



Xavier Firth, 20-6-0(9), is putting his Bantamweight World Title on the line tonight. This is his second defense of the title this year after winning the title back in March. His opponent tonight is Esteban Lopez. Lopez, 13-9-0(5), is ranked as the #2 contender to the title. He has moved up in the world and is getting his first title shot.

Firth has won his last 2 fights by either TKO or KO in the second round. He is heavily favored here. Odds on Firth are 2/5, while Lopez is 11/5.

The fighters are similar, in fact, I would be surprised if this one was stopped early. Neither is really a power puncher and Lopez has a good chin and good fortitude. We shall see...

In other boxing news, Muhammad Ali, 58-5-0(38), 1/4, is fighting Rocky Marciano, 49-1-0(43), 15/4. Marciano has not fought since his loss to Jack Johnson. He is ranked as the #17 contender, while Ali is #3. This could be it for Rocky.

[PilotMan]

Here we go!

A good round for Omar, although it didn’t start out that way. Solano landed a number of jabs and a good combination early while Omar did nothing. It didn’t take long for Omar to answer with some combo’s of his own. His heavy punches were having an impact and Solano was forced backward through the round. Both fighters used the jab effectively, but Omar landed more often and did more damage. I think he won that round, of course I might be biased.

Another round with a lot of punches that were thrown and landed on both sides. Solano landed better combinations and appeared very comfortable behind the jab. Both fighters did a nice job of slipping punches through the round. Omar’s heavy punches had a big effect again as Solano was sucking wind at the end of the round, but I am not sure that he won the round. I would have to give the tie to Solano. I told Omar to go forward and press the action but to be careful and not make any stupid mistakes.

Solano had his best round but still paid for it. He probably won that round as it seemed that he landed his punches 2 for 1 with Acevedo. Last round, and Omar is going after him again. Solano is not in good condition and maybe he can catch him with a flurry and end it.

Solano did well again, he landed numerous punches and did the most damage to Omar for the entire fight. Omar to his credit, landed a huge flurry that just about ended the fight, but he couldn’t quite close the door.

J1: 39-37 Omar

J2: 39-38 Omar

J3: 40-36 Omar

And he wins the rematch by unanimous decision!!! That is great news. Certainly I will be able to rest well tonight.

Muhammad Ali won a 10-round unanimous decision over Rocky Marciano. Marciano did not retire like expected.

Xavier Firth was challenged a lot harder that he or I ever expected, but he did successfully defended his Bantamweight title with a 12-round Split decision win over Esteban Lopez. He has been the most active current champ, and has to be the odds on favorite for fighter of the year as we get closer to the end of December.



Made a nice 21500 profit on bets this week. That will help to cover 11k that I lost last week.

Here is a breakdown of Punishment Inc’s cash and assests:

Cash - 556,883 Total Contract Value - 2,875,827

Lawrence McFarlane’s Contract - 747,756

Omar Acevedo’s Contract - 889,671 Worth - 3,432,710

Lee Drydon’s Contract - 194,400

Niall Beaumont’s Contract - 1,044,000

[daedalus]

Nice win by Omar.

How much did you pay the 3rd Judge?

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by daedalus

Nice win by Omar.

How much did you pay the 3rd Judge?

[PilotMan]

Niall Beaumont will make his debut against another boxer who has yet to fight. Eric Kippax will be the opponent. The fight will take place the third week of November.

Kippax appears to be average all around. No other real information to go on though. I have Beaumont working on the speed bag, because with his power he will need some speed to complement. He is doing some sparring, because he has to become accustom to being hit. It should toughen him up a little and put the pieces in his game. He is also doing some general training, hopefully that will round him out even more.

I got a call from the manager of Butch Norman, a fighter who has previously beaten Lee Drydon for a reamatch. They are offering a payment of 84k to take the deal. I think that I will take this, the payout alone pays for half of Lee’s contract. I believe that Lee has a chance to win this fight even though he doesn’t appear to be responding to any training at all.

The downside of this fight is that if he loses I am going to take a hit to my reputation as a manager who is willing to sell out his fighters. But if he wins....but I doubt that he will, honestly.

[PilotMan]

Well, Mama would be proud. I seem to have curtailed my betting. I just stopped and realized that I was losing money! Wow! You would have thought that I would have realized that sooner.

This is a big week for boxing. There are two World Titles on the line. First, the Light-Heavyweight title is on the line. Defending champion, Jeff Ellery, 20-8-1(12), will defend for the first time. His opponent is Julio Perez, the #5 contender, who has a record of 16-0-0(6). Perez has been getting a lot of respect and I am quite surprised that he was the one to get the title shot. He must have the right connections.

Ellery brings the power, and defense, but his chin is really questionable. Perez, while unbeaten, is not a big puncher. Maybe that is why he got the title fight? Oh well, Perez has a good chin. I would expect this to be a back and forth match. I think that Ellery stands a reasonable chance to win, although the bookmakers like Perez. He is ½ while the odds on Ellery defending are 7/4.

The other title fight this week is for the Flyweight title. Champion Gerardo Ramirez, 24-0-0(12), will defend his title, and put his undefeated record on the line against a legend. Pasqual Perez, has won his last 3 fights all by TKO or KO, and will look to extend streak. His record is 87-7-1(60). Perez does have that one punch and done power, luckily for Ramirez he has a good chin, defense and is an accurate puncher. Perez does not have a particularly good chin, and Ramirez is no slouch.

Oddsmakers have this fight favoring the ageing wonder, Perez. The odds on him are 8/13, while Ramirez is 11/8. That is pretty close. In my opinion, I gotta think that the younger, and undefeated Ramirez can stay away and land enough to steal this one.

[PilotMan]

One out of two ain’t bad, is it? Ended up losing 10 grand and winning a little over 13 grand. Pretty much a wash. Maybe, mama wouldn’t be that proud since I can’t seem to walk away. But hey? I won money!

There is a new champion on the block in the Light Heavyweight division. Julio Perez has scored a 12 round unanimous decision over Jeff Ellery. I wonder if there will be a rematch for this one. Perez is now 17-0-0(6).

The Flyweight title was a back and forth affair with the title staying with Gerardo Ramirez in a 12 round majority points decision. A majority decision is where 2 judges had the score for the winning fighter, while a third had the fight a draw. Ramirez runs his record to a perfect 25-0-0(12).

As of right now, there are two more title fights scheduled. They are going to be good.

[Airhog]

Nice Dynasty. It has a good feel to it. Hope to read more...

[PilotMan]

Thanks Airhog! It certainly helps to keep going when you know that people are reading and enjoying it.

There will be much more to come. Right now I have it simmed and written up into April of 2006.

[Tellistto]

I concur, a very nice dynasty. Can really connect with the fighters.


Tell

[PilotMan]

Thank You Tellistto. You don't think that you might be a bit biased do you?

[PilotMan]

Second Week of November -

Fight Night-

Lawrence McFarlane will try and continue his rebuilding effort against Ceferino Garcia. McFarlane, 13-7-0(13), possess a huge punch and can end the fight at any time. He has won his last 3 fights by KO or TKO, and looks to add another notch to his belt on his comeback under my tutelage.

Garcia, has lost his last 2 fights by TKO. His record stands 114-32-16(70). His career may be behind him at this point and I would love to be the one to end it. Garcia is ranked quite a bit lower than McFarlane, but even a win will help at this stage.

I intend to test Garcia’s chin right away. McFarlane will need to be careful though, because Garcia could hurt him. McFarlane has a good chin, and I feel confident in him, and in this match.

The oddsmakers are calling this one a pick’em. Let ‘em pick ‘em. I know who is going to win this one, and I am willing to bet the farm on it.

[PilotMan]

Here we go!

This fight is scheduled for 8 rounds.

Tonight in the locker room I feel good. I have a lot ridinig on this fight and I am hoping that it ends the way I plan.

The strategy to start out involves McFarlane pressing Garcia. I told him to move forward, be dodgy, and make him miss. Land when you get the opportunity and look to make holes for your punches with body movement, feigns and head movement. Hopefully, we can land a disproportionate number of punches and move the fight along. At some point I am going to turn him lose for the kill. I just hope that it is when we have a lead as opposed to fighting from behind.

I dropped 250k on this fight. That was almost half of the liquid cash that I have. No pressure, right?

:26 seconds into the first round..................I am smiling. God damn, I love this sport!

Lawrence didn’t even break a sweat. He went out and did what I told him too. He started forward dodged a couple of punches, missed with his own. Then he caught Garcia with and uppercut and a jab, a couple more jabs and a hook to the ear and Garcia went down. He did not get back up.

I had wanted to get this fight a little longer than this, but I knew how it was going to be . I knew I had his number and Lawrence knew it too. I just made 250k on one fight! How fuckin’ awesome is that?

Niall fights next week, let’s hope for more of the same from him.

[PilotMan]

Third week of November -

Fight Night-

Niall Beumont is making his pro debut today. He is the type of fighter who needs to wade through the punches and get hit in order to be hit. Not the most accurate puncher ever, he does have many other great skills that I have noticed. For being a big man, his elusiveness is very good. I have seen him get hit with some good punches and not even look phased. When he does admit later that he was hurt, he fights through it and continues on. These are all good signs for a young fighter.



His opponent is Eric Kippax. Also making his debut, but I don’t think that he is in the same league with Niall. Not that it won’t be a close fight I just think that Niall has much bigger promise.



As for the oddsmakers, they like Niall as well. In fact, he is a heavy favorite. Odds are 1/4 in his favor, and Kippax is at 7/2. I will bet some money on this one, but probably won’t make much, or lose if we are upset.

I want Niall to get in there and mix it up. I am not going to mess with his fighting style for a round or two, and if he is winning I won’t mess with him at all. I want to see what he brings to the table, and see if he has got it.



Also tonight, there is an important Title fight. The Middleweight title is on the line. Current title holder Sugar Ray Robinson, 186-20-6(118), is fighting for the first time in almost a year. He is facing Leavander Nolan, 17-0-0(7), who is a young rising star, and the undisputed #1 contender to the title.

Robinson certainly has the experience advantage here, while youth is on Nolan’s side. Robinson is a legend, hits hard and accurate, and has a good chin. His only drawback is his lack of activity.

For Nolan, he is not a hard puncher, but he too is very accurate, and very aggressive, and he has a good chin. He has been very active over the last year, as this will be his fourth fight. His last win was a majority points decision against former #1 contender, and boxing legend Carlos Monzon.

Still, the oddsmakers favor Robinson by a wide margin, as he goes off at 2/7. Nolan is 13/5, so despite Robinson being favored by so much, the odds on Nolan are pretty low. In my opinion, Nolan could take him, but in the end Robinson will probably win.

[Tellistto]

More! More! We need more!


Oh...me biased? Nah, this game looks pretty neat, and it's really rather my style, I love management games.

Tell

[PilotMan]

Here we go!

This fight is scheduled for 4 rounds.

That was a good round for Beaumont. Early on it was Niall missing or landing with a jab here and there, and getting hit 2 or 3 times. Beaumont came forward landed a jab, and a right hook and sent Kippax to the canvas. He was up by the eight count and didn’t appear to be overly phased. In fact Kippax went on to land numerous punches and would have taken the round if Niall hadn’t knocked him down. I told Niall to move more, make him miss.

The second round didn’t go well at all. Kippax landed punches at will and Niall couldn’t seem to hit anything. Both fighters were tying up and clinching. For this round Niall has to back up to make room for his punches. He is getting hit way to often, he lost that round.

The third round went much better for Niall. He used his movement much better, and Kippax missed a lot of punches. Niall missed a lot as well, but landed the lions share more. I think that he took that round easy, and I want him to do more of the same for the 4^th. I would like to see more power punches landing, but I will settle for a win being a win.

I don’t like the way this ended. Kippax did well and I think that he stole the round. Hopefully I can steal the fight, because I have lots o’ money riding on it.

J1: 39-37 Beaumont

J2: 38-37 Kippax

J3: 38-37 Kippax

Well fuck.

That cost me 200 grand and a lot of value that I spent on Beaumont’s contract. Good thing that there is still 5 fights left for him. Personally I had the fight scored 38-38 a draw, which would have cost me lots of money anyway. Should have done better in that last round. But what I can’t figure is that J2 and J3 both must have scored round 1 10-8 for Niall, and then had him lose the last 3. I clearly felt that he won round 3, and felt that Niall should have won.

We both have our heads hung after this one. But I really don’t have time to sulk. Lee Drydon is going to try and get his career back on track next week.



In world title news.

Leavander Nolan scored a 4^th round TKO over Sugar Ray Robinson, and is the new Middleweight champ. Sugar Ray Robinson announced his retirement from boxing and congratulated the new champ. I did win some here but not enough to offset the massive loss at the hands of Eric Kippax.

[PilotMan]

Punishment Inc, today, announced that they have extended the contract of middleweight fighter Lawrence McFarlane. McFarlane has won his last 4 fights and is moving up the ranks of the middleweight division.

McFarlane was the first fighter signed by the young manager, Bucky the Bull. His manager hopes that he will be able to contend in the division soon.

[vex]

Great read, I've been slowly reading over the past few days, finally caught up

Good news on McFarlane, he's doing really well.

[PilotMan]

Thanks Vex, there is certainly more to come.

[daedalus]

Disappointing debut for Niall. Hard to see him do much more without increasing accuracy or just become a Rob Deer (swing hard in case you connect).

Oh, well . . . not a terribly bad gamble for a young stable, regardless.

[TonyR]

Good read PM. finally caught up as well. Keep the updates coming.

[The Phat Eskimo]

Nice Dynasty, but where do you get WCBM

[PilotMan]

Thanks Tony and Eskimo, I glad that you both enjoy it.

If anyone has any interest in this game, send me a PM. I might know someone who has a copy to spare.

[PilotMan]

Last week of November-

Fight Night-

Lee Drydon will make his debut as a member of Punishment Inc. His record is 0-2-1(0). His opponent his evening will be Butch Norman, a power puncher with a good chin, whose record is 2-3-0(1). This will be Norman’s sixth fight of the year as he as has been one of the most active boxers in all of boxing. This is a rematch of an earlier fight in which Norman won by unanimous decision.

I am hopeing that we can make things different and turn the career around of the biggest longshot in my camp. If I can’t I will just have to take what I can get, or just release him out of his contract and tell him that he can make more money in shoe repair.

Norman has a big advantage in confidence. Drydon has the skills to make this interesting, but until he believes in himself that won’t happen, if it ever does.

Neither fighter is really aggressive, so I want Drydon to jab and move through the fight, make him miss and answer. Don’t worry about putting him down, but maybe he will get lucky.

The oddsmakers are favoring Norman, but only by a little. The odds on Norman are 4/6, while the odds on Drydon are 5/4. Since I won’t lay any money against my own fighter, I won’t lay any money at all. The odds just don’t favor me. Besides I am still smarting from last week.

[Swaggs]

Looking forward to seeing Drydon debut.

Is it hard to find completely amateur fighters that have no record? It is kind of disappointing that some of your non-veteran guys already have losses.

[PilotMan]

To answer your first question, no. Each week there are a number of fighters who are created. You are allowed to sign a fighter as long as he has not been contracted to fight someone else. Rookies can always be found, however, rookies with the right mix of abilities and promise are harder to find. The big drawback with rookies is that they are costly to sign, as well as train. They are untested and have lots of potential. The contract of a young fighter can be worth more than the Champion's, but leading them to the top is very rewarding and I believe has a great impact on your reputation. Take a fighter like Drydon. He has not won in his first 3 fights. The value of his contract is minimal, but he has good skills, but his form is off. He may never reach his potential, or if he can string some wins together he could regain his form, or what I like to think of, his confidence. As he wins, his value increases, and money is made in the form of the future fights that he gets. A loser will never get big money fights unless they are offered, and will be forced to fight for pennies and will be worth pennies. But in the case of Drydon, I am hoping that he can win, and his contract will go up in value. Every amount that it goes up is more money in the bank for me either from bigger fights or from selling his contract outright for the cash profit.

The second question is no, it is not dissapointing. Fighters fight to make money, and unless they are handpicked by the gods themselves rarely do they get the ability to pick fights that are good for them. Hence, a fighter may fight a good fighter at a bad time. He will make good money, but it won't help his career development. Part of the advantage of being a manager is that I can control who they fight. Drydon right now, for example is like an overweight Buster Douglas. He has skills but the way his career is going he may never amount to anything, but if he can win some, and get that feeling back he could be a very tough fighter. It is up to me to decide how I want to use him best. Do I try and build him up for a title run? Do I use him as a journeymen tester of talent and cash in on big money fighters only to lose and damage my own reputation.

Ultimately, I want to run a stable of champs. But the only way that a fighter of that caliber will sign is if your reputation is high enough. Incidently, you have no idea what your reputation score is, and can only judge it by the fighters that are willing to sign with your stable.

This might be more info than you really wanted to know, and I might be giving away secrets that I shouldn't but maybe it will let you inside what the game is all about.

[PilotMan]

Here we go!

This fight is scheduled for 4 rounds.

A close round that most likely went to Norman. I talked to Drydon in between rounds and said that he needed to be more elusive. He is getting hit to often, although he did use his jab well. Unfortunately, Norman used his jab well too.

That was a bad round for Drydon. He got beat all over the ring, and whatever it was that he was doing in the ring didn’t work. For a moment there it looked like Norman may have hurt himself. He was rotating his shoulder in a funny way. When Lee came back to the corner, he said that he had hurt his hand. I can’t tell how bad it is, but I told him he only had 6 minutes left to decide this fight and he needed to step it up.

I saw it! I saw a flash of the ability that haunts Lee Drydon. He did very well using his jab and getting out of the way. In fact, he was controlling the round and around the 1 minute mark landed a punch that sent Norman to the canvas. LEE! POUR IT ON LEE! Norman got up for the 3 count and took the 8, and Lee rushed in. But it was sloppy and Norman covered up the best that he could. Lee won this round and hopefully put a glimmer of hope into himself for this fight.

Drydon worked hard in the last round and halfway through it looked like he was going to steal this fight. In fact, the knockdown appeared to have changed the tone for the whole fight. Drydon let Norman back in and Norman landed good combinations. He controlled the last half of round four. It is up to the judges now. All I can do is pray.


I love a good tease.

[vex]

The anticipation

[Swaggs]

Get'er done, Lee!

[PilotMan]

J1: 38-37 Drydon

J2: 39-36 Drydon

J3: 38-38

Lee Drydon has won his first match of his career. What a performance! It was obvious that the knockdown played a large part in the decison. J1 had Drydon winning and additional round, J2 had Drydon winning 3 rounds, and J3 had Drydon winning one, Norman winning two, and even for one.

This is a good win for the organization. It will go a long way toward building us up.



The next week, I received a call from the mananger of Heavyweight fighter, Ric Arlos. He was descibed as an untested rookie looking to break on to the scene. His manager seemed to think that a fight with Niall Beaumont would be the way to go, and they were willing to pony up 77k to sweeten the offer.

Arlos is a similar fighter to Beaumont, in that he has power, and reasonable accuracy. However, he is mearly average defensively, and his chin is untested. He seemed like a good match for my winless warrior so I said go ahead and book the match for the second week of January of next year.

[Tellistto]

Woot! Nice win for Lee!


Tell

[vex]

Great win!

[PilotMan]

It is the first week of December and the Heavyweight title is on the line. The champion, Peter O’Connell, 34-3-0(19), is defending his title against heavyweight legend Joe Frazier. Frazier has a record of 34-4-2(28), and is the #4 contender to the title behind Joe Louis, Paddy Sexton, and Muhammad Ali.

O’Connell won the title from Gene Tunney, via a 12 round unanimous decision, and has not fought since.

Frazier has fought 3 times this year and has recorded wins over Evander Holyfield, and Jack Dempsey, and his match against David Skinner was declared a draw. Fraizer is clearly the stronger puncher and more aggressive of the two, but O’Connell has good defense a great chin and good heart. It will be a close fight.

The oddsmakers are favoring O’Connell to retain the title with the odds on him at 4/11, while the odds on Joe Frazier are 12/5.

[PilotMan]

Peter O’Connell has retained his Heavyweight Title with an 8^th round KO of Joe Frazier. I must say that I am surprised with this result although thankfully is didn’t cost me any money.

I talked with two trainers about prospective fights. First, on behalf of Lawrence McFarlane, I talked to the trainer of Augustin Sandoval. Sandoval is 16-2-1(3), and is the toughest competiton that McFarlane will have faced to date. Recently he scored a 6^th round TKO of Jake LaMotta, that I hope was in part to LaMotta getting on in years. Although in his most recent fight he lost.

Sandoval is in good shape, and his boxing skills are reasonable honed. He does not have great natural ability but always seems to get the job done. He is aggressive and has a good chin, but as anyone can tell by his KO ratio, he is not a power puncher. His defense is not that great either, and I am hoping to exploit it as a weakness.

To get Lawrence trained for the fight he is continuing with the same regimen of heavy bag and speed bag, along with lifting, road work and callisthenics. This fight is going to take place the second week of February of next year.

Omar is also scheduled to fight again. Acevedo who’s record stands at a less than spectacular 2-1-0(0), is scheduled to fight Domingo Ortega. Ortega, 2-9-1(1) is a fairly gifted fighter who boxes to put food on the table. He has a great chin, and is very aggressive. His punch is powerful, so no doubt that we will be focusing on defense for this fight. Omar will need to stay away, and land at opportune times to win. This fight is going to take place the last week of December of this year.

[vex]

That sounds like quite the challenge for both boxers. What are they ranked?

[PilotMan]

I think that Ortega is right around #125, while Sandoval is about #40.

[TonyR]

Great win for Drydon. Can't wait to see the next bouts.

[PilotMan]

As of right now, Lee Drydon is the only fighter that is without an upcoming match. He is not quite ready to start training for his next fight as he is still recovering from his fight with Butch Norman.

Another fighter, that has also beaten Norman recently has offered to fight Drydon, and I would be tempted to arrange the fight if Drydon was closer to fighting health. But his is not. The boxer is Kenji Harada. Harada is 1-3-1(0), and is nothing to write home about. His skills are limited, but he does have a good chin. His management organization offered to pay me 67k to sign. That would pay for about 6 weeks of training for Drydon, but I told them no.

As an aside, when I signed Drydon, the value of his contract was a little less than 200k. Right now the value of his contract is 892k. It is tempting to sell him for that kind of money, as the profit is outstanding, and it would go a long way toward keeping other fighters, or reinvesting in another Drydon type fighter. My hestitation of course, is that I will be perceived as a manager who uses his boxers. I am certainly not ready to do that, but in the end that is part of the game, and it may become necessary to go to the next level of fighter management.

[PilotMan]

Last week of December, 2004.

Fight Night-



Omar Acevedo is scheduled to face off against Rene Dominguez. The match is scheduled for the 3^rd week of February and hopefully will lead to the second career win for Lee. Dominguez is 0-3-0(0) and is an otherwise hard and accurate puncher. The fight will pay me next to nothing, but hopefully the credibility earned from another win for Drydon will reward me in due time.

Omar Acevedo is scheduled to go toe to toe with Domingo Ortega. Ortega has been a very active fighter as this is his 7^th fight of the year. His last fight was a 1^st round KO over Fidel Vasquez. His power could certainly give Omar trouble, that is why I am going to be very careful with the way that I lay out the strategy for this fight.

Omar has done well staying on the outside, and that is just where I want him to stay. I would like to see effective jabbing, along with the gloves staying up for the fight. He is not going to hurt Ortega, and Ortega should spend most of the fight coming forward.

In order to win, Omar will need to land more, better punches. It is as simple as that.

The oddsmakers have been favoring Ortega in betting for this fight as the odds on him getting the win are 8/15, while the odds on Acevedo winning are 8/5. I will lay some money on this fight, but since the kitty is pretty dry there won’t be to much at stake.

[PilotMan]

Here we go!

This fight is scheduled for four rounds.

Round one went to Ortega, even though Acevedo did a nice job of trying to get out of the way he was easily hit 4 to 1. Omar had a nice last 10 seconds, but overall things didn’t go as planned. Omar needs to land more punches. His heavy punches seem to have an impact, but I am hesitant to send him into the fray for fear that one good punch from Ortega.

Early on in the second round Ortega seemed to limit the use of his right hand. He was still able to land quite a few punches and dictated the flow of the fight. Omar did have a much better round, but still can’t seem to put it all together. For the third round he needs to make something happen. If he is already down 2 rounds it doesn’t feel like I am losing much by sending him in there to get close and throw heavy punches. If he gets hit..he gets hit.

Round three saw Omar continue to get hit with a lot of punches. I overheard one of the commentators say that they felt like he took too many punches in that round. The upside was that far and away he landed more than he had and more damaging punches as well. I would like to think that maybe in someone’s eyes he won that round, but that might be wishful thinking. I told him he needed a KO to win this one, and that he better try. He has 2 contracted fights left with Punishment Inc, and that might be it, if he continues to turn in performances like this one.

Round four was everything that I had hoped it would be. It was domination and control from Omar, as he came mere seconds from scoring a TKO victory. He landed barrage after barrage, and moved well, despite pressing the action. He took no more damage in this round than he had in either of the others. I have my fingers crossed for the decision.

[daedalus]

Nice fourth round! Now if he could only put it together for the whole fight.