racingmeridian.com

PUG LIFE…Andre Dirrell scored the biggest win of his career on Saturday night. The manner in which he won, though, was outlandish. Dirrell was easily outboxing Arthur Abraham when he slipped and fell. While on the canvas Abraham cracked him with a vicious right hand, rendering the Michigan native unconscious. The ref promptly disqualified the previously unbeaten Abraham, the man who had been considered the best super middleweight in the world. Dirrell was coming off a loss to Carl Froch and has redeemed himself with a fantastic, skilled performance…Showtime deserves great praise for their Super Middle tournament. Forcing the best in the division (with apologies to the neglected Lucian Bute) to fight each other has lead to great dramatics. The fight Saturday was staged in front of a packed Joe Louis arena and it evoked memories of boxing’s finest days. When the best commit to fighting the best, boxing can still produce brilliant theatre…Steve Molitor looked only workmanlike as he won a dreary twelve round decision over Takalani Ndlovu, a fighter he had previously knocked out. Molitor continues to regress and does not look like a threat to any of the division’s elite fighters…while I was able to watch the previous two fights, I couldn’t find a link for Erik Morales’s comeback battle. Apparently it was a rip roaring slugfest with Morales prevailing with a gritty effort….Hasim Rachman also fought Saturday. He knocked out some dude with more losses than wins on his record. No word on what Rachman weighed, or what his future plans are. The division is so starved for talent that Rachman would easily be back in the mix with even a couple of wins…we cashed at a very generous +200 when Joan Guzman defeated Ali Funeka. Guzman showed up for the title fight 9 lbs overweight, but was allowed to compete without being able to lay claim to the belt. It appears Guzman will be forced to fight as a junior welterweight in the future…Edwin Valero’s wife has refused to press charges after her frightful beating at the hands of the lightweight champ. Valero has been sported around Venezuela wearing a bulletproof vest and a helmet after numerous death threats were received. The fighter is blaming an alcohol dependency for his awful behaviour…

ICE…the struggling Calgary Flames can’t be happy with the production of Jay Bouwmeester; he has three goals and twenty four assists in his first year with the Flames…uh-oh; Jose Theodore was pulled during the first period of Washington’s loss to the Calgary Flames. Theodore will be crucial to the Caps during their playoff run and yesterday was, hopefully, nothing more than a hiccup…remember all the fuss over Fabian Brunnstrom two years back? The Toronto Maple Leafs were one of a number of teams in hot pursuit of the free agent. Be careful what you wish for. Brunnstrom has two goals and nine assists in 41 games with the Dallas Stars this year…the invisible Alexi Kovalev, pointless in his last twelve games, has cut his hair in order, he claims, to get faster. I think he’s joking…Rick DiPietro, he of the 15 year multimillion dollar contract, has pulled the plug on his season. The fragile netminder managed to play in only eight games this year…Lee Stempniak is averaging a goal a game in twelve starts for the Phoenix Coyotes…

GRID IRON…in a very interesting column, S I’s Peter King reports he is “alarmed” by what he has heard about the allegations against Pittsburgh QB Ben Roethlisberger. Further, King suggests the Steelers need to plan a “life without Ben”, just in case. What does King know that has not been publicly disseminated? Probably allot.  It’s easy to be cynical and suggest cash will eventually make this go away. But the accusations concerning the character of Big Ben seem to have the Steelers antsy. Is the rumoured trade to Seattle going to be made? The case continues to fascinate…

PONIES…a wild day of racing in Dubai was headlined by Gloria De Campeao’s nose win in the ten million dollar Classic. The jock on the runner-up celebrated after mistakenly believing he had snatched the win in the final strides. Steven Crist of the daily Racing Form unloaded on the day, writing, “synthetic surfaces…make a complete mess of the so-called championship of racing…the results of the Dubai World Cup may as well have been drawn out of a hat…”…the current Derby crop is causing fans serious indigestion. A nondescript group, highlighted only by the imposing Eskendereya and Lookin At Lucky, continues to record subpar times. Trainer Todd Pletcher is pointing nine runners to Kentucky…dare we say it? Could Eskendereya be poised to sweep the three year old Classics, ending horse racing’s most painful drought? The colt is extremely talented with excellent tactical speed. He is also catching a fairly weak crop, raising the exciting possibility that a Triple Crown sweep could be in the offing. The colt was seriously flattered by the results of the Florida Derby, when the top two finishers were horses unable to come within ten lengths of Eskendereya during that one’s memorable Fountain of Youth romp…