I think its a really good thing that Joe is only now fighting Hopkins, and closing out his career more or less.
With Joe, hes really come on the last 3 or 4 years due to experience. He now is so much better technically than he was in his mid 20s, a little Hopkins like in that respect. Doesnt waste anything, strategically unmatched.
With his brittle hands, if he was unearthed (to the american audience, and thus the world of boxing fans...) at say.. 25, the demand for him would have been overwhelming. He would have fought the best p4p guys at the time (Roy Jones, Toney possibly..) while not at his boxing peak (which I believe is about now) and his flame might have burnt out rather quickly. (Possible losses, Broken hands etc..)
Taking a few easier fights in between has allowed him to nurture the hands through some tough times, and kept him an amazingly fresh 36 year old.
Still, if you have an in depth look at his fights, some were much tougher than seem to the average fan, because not many knew anything of the european fighters he has faced. As we've seen with Kessler (yes, the Miranda situatoin is U>G>L>Y) some europeans that were 12 UD on Joes record are really really really good!
All in all, beating the names Eubank, Lacy, Kessler, Hopkins (if all goes well..) hopefully followed by Roy Jones still makes his career a pretty darn awesome one!
Sam looks like he could be Ouma's father to me lol
Probably is. :banana:
I grew up in east london (england) and went to school and played football with these Nigerian kids.
They do physically develop waaaaaaaaaaaay faster and earlier than white kids, but theres no way that that kid scoring all the goals (complete with fully grown balls, dick the size of my leg and patchy facial hair) was 12!
Im guessing big Sam Peter is around 32. Itl be interesting to see how long he fights, if hes really 27, a solid 10 more years wouldnt be beyond him (unless he gets killed by David Haye 'pow').
A retirement due to massive loss of physical ability, great loss of speed (although that one would be hard to notice) or blury eyes anywhere around 5 years from now would confirm it in my eyes that he is in fact around 32-35 now.
Just watched the hatton lazcano fight in full, I honestly can't see what the fuss is about. This was Ricky's best 12rnd performance since Tszyu (i know it didnt go 12, but it was close:) He absolutely smashed the hell out of Lazcano and the initiation of holding was about 50/50. I think Paulie will start off ok but will get caught with one of those left hook, right to the body, straight jab combos that ricky loves and will get smashed to pieces thereafter.:luvbed:
Floyds lanky frame can accomadate the extra pounds.. Rickys little stumpy frame fills out perfectly at 140, and the extra 7 pounds for him is like a useless backpack with books in it.
I think he should be.. people like me (20yo followed boxing pretty closely for about 5 years now) only really seen James Toney the blob wobble around the ring and give James Brown style press conferences and smoking big cigars.
Aparently he was a pound for pound champ once upon a time, 70 wins, 6 losses, title upon title, different weights, the guy is a legend, definately an ATG in my opinion..
My pic was Hatton by anhialation within 5 or 6.
I was under the impression that although Manny was fast, he wasn't a devastating hitter and I though Ricky would plough through him and obliterate him.
Within the first 10 seconds I understood what the fuss was about.
Manny made me a believer. He is not only shockingly fast, but accurate to a millimeter but the biggest thing that impressed me was his raw power that came with every single shot.
At the start of the second round when Ricky seemed to settle down a little and started working and landing a little I though Ok, here we go, settle down, start working. Yet he was like a rabbit on E and just kept running into Mannys punches (which made even more of an impact on his chin :)) and then the BOOOM.
I am genuinly saddened because I was very optimistic for Ricky and really believed that he worked hard, but he just got WAAAAAAAAAAAAY over excited and rightly got his bell rang in pretty cool fashion.
Big propps to all the Manny fans who are actually knowledgeble and understood what went on and predicted what we got :D (to all the banwagon jumpers, you still suck.:drillserg)
You didn't REALLY think he was retired now, did you?
Then again, I just might be full of s__t.
Damn 'Acme' crystal ball.
Takes balls to write something like this, very well thought through, swinging for the fences, if it comes off you sound like a genius, if it doesnt, well.. you dont :)
Great stuff nonetheless. Id give you karma and brownie points if i knew how, im pretty new on here.
Heres hoping it happens as planned :notworthy
I find it hillarious how floyds lines are soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo laaaaaaaaaaaaame!!!
I wish someone more lyrically diverse was there with the same 'spoilt material dickhead' mind as floyd.
Floyd is a twat.
'my boy here rayjay'
'custom suit bla bla bla'
'custom goggles bla bla bla'
'money making money bla bla bla'
wtf man.
Obviosly the boxing talent might have passed onto him in bloodlines but gift of the gab certainly hasnt.
Floyd - :lame: almost as lame as watching him fight.
Yeah, Hatton didn't look too special in the footage, but then again we didn't get to see all that much. That's one thing I like about Pacquiao, he allows people to have full access to his sparring sessions.
What about the possibility of Ricky being poop being staged?? I have heard Floyd Snr talking about how he really likes his sparring to be private as its the 'real' tactics and he is actually pretty strict as to what goes on tv...
I remember when Floyd Jr was preparing for Ricky they brought Baldomir in there and just showed 4 seconds of him slowly hooking at Floyds body while he tried to cover up and lean away (ie.. showing the supposed vulnerability to Hatton chasing him down and pinning him on the ropes..) and we all know what happend in that fight :D
Hatton by brutal KO somewhere in the 8-9-10 rounds.
Combination punctuated with a huge hook to send a bloodied Manny flying into the ropes with the ref calling it off.
Bang Bang
:boxing:
I think you are complete right in saying that. I just think that if I a guy is going is going to be an international superstar and have 'everybody' on his side, he must be able to do both, in more or less equal measure, and Floyd doesn't. There are more boxing people out there that love to see a brawl than a strategic sly defensive 12 rounds of slipping and sliding, hence Hatton has a huge following and Floyd, not really comparable..
*DO NOT LAY INTO ME AS A HATTON NUTHUGGER!!!*
(but i am using him as an example in this argument :))
ricky, throws 50 punches, lands 20, gets hit with 15 (another 45 miss) = 100 punches with 30 landed in the round
floyed (and his defensive genuis) throws 20 punches, lands 15, gets hit (crappily hit, grazed.. ie, no spectacle or excitement) with 4 or 5 (with loads just catching nothing but air =about 50 punches thrown in total.
its just that simple, for all his defensive genius and his precise 10 clean single punches a round, he is really not that exciting to watch for 50 bucks on ppv.
ricky.. even a fight everybody seemed to call shit...lazcano, threw combination after combination, bomb after bomb, hit, got hit, there was sweat there was blood there were serious connects... EXCITING FIGHT.
i think floyd is a genius, incredible athlete, incredible boxer. but he is as boring to watch as Audley Harrison!
:smashfrea
great fight, actually pretty hugely anticipated by guys who have a follow boxing pretty deep. Massive crowd at a massive soccer stadium, and a fantastic fight too..
SUPERFIGHT :):luvbed:
Im surprised nobody has mentioned Vinny Maddalone :) Always in great bloodfests of fights, usually on the losing side, but throws leather like a welterweight and always looks in Sly Stallone shape :)
:boxing:
Let's fast forward to fight night so these guys can just shut the fuck up and scrap already.
Noooo... this is awesome, these two are actually the best with their wide range of slightly funny insults, not like most of the other stuff we hear
( Im gona knock you OUT... no way man, Im gona knock YOU out, naaaaa (pauses..) IM GONA KNOCK YOU OUT! )
.. keep promotion going for a bit longer I say :)
Even DLH realizes Hatton is a garbage fighter that he would destroy even though Oscar is way past his prime. The world is finally starting to realize Hatton is nothing more than a glorified club fighter who became successful due to handpicked oppositiion...
Im sorry If i sound like a Hatton nuthugger, that I assure you I am not :)
But being beaten by Floyd MAyweather doesnt isntantly make a good fighter into a crap club fighter, after all, even a really good club fighter wouldnt go a round with Kostya 'the great spelling mistake' Tszyu.
I dont see why people make such a fuss over the Lazcano fight, Ricky battered him for 12 rounds. Yes, he did get caught a couple of times, yes, he didn't knock Lazcano out. I think Ricky outlanded him by about 5-1. Great brawler that he is...
David Haye wobbles every time a girl gives him a kiss on the cheek, and yet hes one of the most exciting fighters out there now. I think you hatton bashers should kneel at his feet and start respecting boxers for being exciting and wanting to punch people in the head 10 times while getting hit back with 9 :)
As oppose to Mayweather and even worse, Oscar de la hoya who seems to lose, lose and lose again and putting on a stinker against a real hand picked little weak guy in Steve Forbes. Come on folks, love ricky for who he is, until he retires. Then sing his praises. It doesnt take much to repeat something negative another person is saying, takes much more however to look closely and form your own opinions ;)
rant over.:luvbed:
shawn who is that in your avatar?
having followed froch in england a little bit, he fights in a similar style to david haye with the hands cycling around quite low and pops his shots, he really isnt anything special. i hope he goes through a tough field of fighters, if they make the calzaghe fight now, itl be a replay of peter manfredo getting pummeled without throwing much back.
i'd be suprised if 10 seats get sold, Williams would have been a much better fight
Im going to london for the month of july and my family live a 10 min walk from the arena... aaand my birthday is on the 13th, so just out of curiosity of watching a boxing even at the O2 arena... Il be there:D