The Ultimate Fighter is better , you never see anyone from the contender in a high profile fight , where a good few of fighters from TUF have challenged for the title
People keep going on about the WBO. Well, a lot of good fighters have held this belt-Pavlik and Calzaghe included. I have no problem with it. At least it offers the chance of unification matches. Every belt has fighters who dont deserve to be so highly ranked.
Pavlik won the belt against taylor along with the wbc belt and Calzaghe has only had that belt because the has the biggest joke of a manager in boxing Frank Warren
Which he is more than happy to defend againt Locket.
The only reason he is defending against lockett is because John Duddy was so bad in his last fight and got an extremely nasty cut and was no able to fight on that date.
John Duddy was always his first choice to fight first not lockett
Guida vs Huerta, Guida vs Griffin, Gomi vs Diaz, Pavlic vs Taylor, and Bika vs Codrington were quality fights.
Griffin never fought Guida,
The two fights in boxing that were big internationally were: Mayweather/De La Hoya and Mayweather/Hatton.
Compared to UFC where the biggest fights internationally were: Liddell/Jackson , Jackson/Henderson and are GSP/Hughes and Silva/Liddell
De La Hoya - Mayweather , De La Hoya won that fight also Amir Khan - Willie Limond was a joke the ref stopped counting after he reached 7 when Khan was down
Khan is the world champion at talking SHIT , he fights shit fighters and showed against Willie Limond that when he gets hit hard and clean he goes down like a tonne of bricks. Hatton would demolish Khan and would also take his anger that he has for Frank Warren on Khan and has always fought very good fighters which Khan hasn't and example John Thaxton is one and there are loads more. Hatton by KO not stoppage early in the fight.
Floyd Mayweather , he wasn't good against De La Hoya in my opinion and thought he wouldn't do well against Hatton and he proved he was a brilliant fighter by dismantling one of the best in the world. He has this award even if he doesn't fight in 2008 and 2009 and the only person that can run him close is Calzaghe
* Early/Bad Stoppages - Fight fans watch fights because they enjoy watching men beat down on each other. On the flip side of that, unless your a sadist you don't want to see any boxer truly or permanently hurt or even killed. Boxing is a brutal sport and when lifetime injuries or death occurs it is truly a tragedy. Boxers however know when they make the decision to become a fighter that they're going to get hit. They know that they are going to have broken bones, extreme cuts, and face long term damage. For those who truly love to fight these things are big concerns and while I will agree the sport should do everything in its power to prevent severe injuring and deaths of its fighters boxing has lost a lot of it's potency violence wise. The majority of knockouts these days are TKO's rather than KO's. Inviting a friend over who was curious about boxing, I pumped up the fight to get him excited only to have him turn on me when the referee stepped in and stopped the fight before the fighter even had a chance to hit the canvass. My friend turned to me and said "are you kidding? That's it?" Now mind you the losing fighter was being beat and was wobbled and would have undoubtedly gone done had the other fighter landed one more punch but this kind of premature stoppage is prevalent throughout the sport of boxing today. Boxing's "better one punch early that one punch to late" attitude has diminished the sports competitive nature. In many cases fighters who get wobbled or look like they are on rubbery legs after beating the count could come back if given the chance but boxing plays it safe instead. Again we don't need or want to see someone take a senseless beating when it's clear they can not win or continue however a little more discretion from today's referee's would go a long way and allow for true KO's. Know when to let fighters finish fights. More action, violence and fighters in troubles creates excitement which draws more people to the sport. All referee's should take a queue from Steve Smoger.
* Pay Per Views - Pay per views are now a couple of decades old and have generated a lot of revenue for the sport and certain networks. That said it has also alienated many fans. In today's boxing world this is even truer where we're sometimes asked to pay for fights that are obviously mismatches, or a contest between two has been's that has no meaning attached to it. I have also heard others ask why they must pay an additional cost for an HBO fight when they are already paying for HBO, a question I have often asked myself. If HBO and other networks are going to ask us to pay for the biggest fights, the fights need to be important, have some ramifications for the sport and the fighters involved and be a fight that's has the real possibility of being exciting. All other fights outside of that type of fight should be free. In more recent times I as have many other fight fans seen more exciting fights and fighters on ESPN's Friday Night Fights, than we have on PPV's. Pay Per Views should be relegated to Unification Bouts and things of that nature. Most causal fans or those who are curious will never pay $50.00 for a fight. We need a reason to pay for these fights. Then again the NFL doesn't charge its home viewers to watch the Superbowl and the MLB and NBA don't charge television viewers anything to watch their championship games so why are boxing fans being asked to pay for championship fights? hmmmm...
* To many titles and divisions - I believe the sport of boxing would benefit greatly from eliminating all but two Championship titles from each weight class. Allowing two champions per division still allows for the big unification bouts and an the once sought after "undisputed" status. I further believe the only titles that should be recognized are The Ring titles. IBF this, and WBO that....what casual fan or prospective fan can follow all of that. I've been a boxing fan and enthusiast for nearly 25 years and I find it hard to keep up with all of that nonsense. Two champions per division and everyone else is just ranked. Additionally there are far to many weight divisions in boxing today. As someone who has boxed before I know the value of having or not having a few extra pounds but fighters with enough skill will topple the bigger man on any day. Now mind you I'm not talking a 20 or 30 pound difference but 3 to 10 pounds, come on. Again what casual observer or fan can't keep track of who's on top in the Superfeatherweight, Featherweight, Cruiserweight, Light Heavyweight, Middleweight, Welterweight, Bantamweight, and Junior Middleweight divisions? To many divisions and to many titles.
Sorry for the long post...just a few of the things I think boxing should consider if it wants to be dominate in the sports world again.
THE WBO and mandatory fights must take place within a year , theres another few problems
Skysports news are legit and they have it on.
Frank Warren had a bust up with Sky so he would never tell them anything first but the contracts must not be signed because Frank Maloney does loads of business and would have told them about the fight within minutes of the contracts being signed. Frank Warren is just filling Setanta with shit
Good performance by Duddy but he could have been alot better with his guard , Eastman's right uppercuts were connecting in nearly every round but overall well done John , bring on Pavlik Or Taylor
Yes, the only Croke Park I've ever heard of is in Dublin. Surely Hatton wouldn't make his fans trek all the way over there. Most would have to stay overnight somewhere, and that means BIG MONEY added to the cost of the ticket, plus the return fare.
I thought that the GAA were fanatical about allowing only Gaelic events, such as Gaelic Football and Hurling in Croke Park.
Wembley must be bigger....I think.
The GAA up until recently wouldn't let any non irish sport be played at Croker but there has been boxing matches there before with one of the fighters involved with the name of Muhammad Ali
Frank Warren discussing a Ricky Hatton fight is a F**K**G JOKE , Warren will always go against Hatton even if he was up against an amatuer with an
0-100 record, he is just jelous that he hasn't got the balls to stick one of his fighters against someone of that standard , like who will Calzaghe fight next it wouldn't be Bernard Hopkins for a start and probably not Clinton Woods either probably some Light Heavyweight that holds the WBO belt ehh.. Zsolt Erdei who ever he is
Warren is a disgrace to British boxing because he says every fighter that is in a big fight that isn't with him will get destroyed and always says it about the big names. Warren wake up Haye owned Maccrinelli