Duran vs PBF??
Duran fought from 130 - 160 at a very high standard and must be regarded as one of the greatest fighters in history. He carried power through the weights and had a very good (possibly very under-rated) defence. The way to think about this is to consider what the modern day version would be. Can you imagine Diego Corrales going through to 160 and being the best or amongst the best?
PBF is, obviously, a fighter in the Sugar Ray Leonard mould. However I'm sure that even PBF's fans wouldn't dream of comparing him to SRL. Duran did occassionaly struggle with the movers but could he hit!! Duran lost the re-match and rubber match with SRL because he was fighting one of the greatest boxers of all time and landed very few effective punches. ("no mas" wasn't Duran quitting through lack of heart)
In fact surely SRL is possibly only behind Willie Pep in being the greatest defensive fighter?
Would PBF be able to avoid a serious Duran punch for 12 rounds at any weight? I don't think so and no matter what weight the bout would be at Duran was able to hurt at that weight.
If we could have this fantasy match I would expect to see a Duran victory via KO in the mid to late rounds.
O.K, I admit that I haven't heard of Bika but checking out his record he fought Sam Soliman and stayed the distance. I notice that he had a fight against Marcus Beyer but it was stopped on a accidential headclash. Maybe Calzaghe will under estimate him and we'll have a great fight but I'm very disapointed in the choice of rival.
Anthony Mundine would have been available and willing.
If Toney is stupid enough to come in that heavy he deserves to lose. Samuel Peter might not be the fastest Heavyweight out there but we all know he has power. Toney is yet to be hit by a Heavyweight of Peter's build and he could be in trouble. If we take the Wlad Klitschko verus Samuel Peter fight it looks like Peter can take a decent shot. Toney surely won't be able to punch as hard as Wlad K?
I'll stick with my Peter win prediction. 7th - 9th round KO.
wlad will destroy briggs in 5 one-sided rounds
I'm not too sure. Briggs is fast and can hit.
It depends which Wlad Klitschko turns up. If the one who turned up against Sanders, Brewster or even Peter turns up Briggs has the abilty to destroy Wlad. However, if a fighter is only as good as his last fight then Wlad's peformance against Chris Byrd suggests that Emanuel Steward has taught him enough to beat Briggs.
A close fight and one that I hope happens.
Fixed fights or bad judges? There is no doubt that when Frankie Carbo was invlved in boxing there were many fixed fights but recently? I'm not sure. The worse decision I have ever seen was a fight between Matt Vanda and Sam Garr (maybe 2 years ago) Vanda lost, in my opinion, by at least 6 rounds and ESPN had him lose by 7. Vanda got the home town decision. Now did the judges get together before the fight and agree an outcome? Did they listen to the home town cheers every time Vanda threw a punch and think that it had landed? I think the latter is more likely.
Even Lewis vs Holyfield 1 wasn't fixed. Many of my country men forget that it was a British judge who scored the fight a draw which was a terrible decision but a fix? Never.
The WBO has grown to be legitimized. There is not one fighter who changed the image. At the core is the middleweight/Super Middleweight where we have had Barkley, Hearns, Benn, Eubank, Collins and Calzaghe as WBO champions . That is a time span of nearly 20 years and I suppose that if the names on the WBU list in 20 years time are decent that belt would have become legitimized as well.
However, I think it is interesting to note that as the WBO becomes legitimized a lot of boxing fans are turning to The Ring magazine title as the only champion. I know that 5 years ago I could name most of the alphabet champions in most weight divisions but now I could only tell you the Heavyweight alphabets and The Ring Champions in each weight.
I do think that today's referees are more likely to stop fights earlier than the pre 1990's refs. However I think this is more to do with social changes and society's attitude to boxing than anything else. Also I'd rather have a re-match following a controversial stopage than a death.
Boxing's mainstream coverage, and therefore support, is on the decline. However, I don't think that that is a really bad thing. Here in the U.K football (soccer) is the most popular sport but a lot of people like it just to impress or because it has become trendy. What you find is that a lot of people, maybe even the majority, talk rubbish about the sport. It is hard to find football conversations which are not ruined by people offering opinions they have read in the newspapers and not formed themselves or by people who know nothing about the history or anything happening outside of England.
Boxing is different. While I might not agree with every view or opinion I read on here the vast majority of posters put thought into what they believe. They won't just like the American or British guy because of an accident of birth. They will watch plenty of action from outside their shores or at least follow the development of various overseas fighters.
Boxing might not enjoy the support it does deserve but it is left with the true fans and therefore the most informed.
Khan thinks he will be a "World Champion" within a year. Now I have long jumped on the Ring Magazine Championship idea but I doubt he will win any of the legit alphabet belts. He will probaly win the WBU and give it the bigun over it.
I suspect that he is over hyped but time will, obviously, tell. My biggest problem with Khan is his "supporters". They incite trouble wherever he fights and when people stand up to them they run to the police and say that they are being racially abused. There was trouble at the Excel Centre on Saturday and in future fights I suspect that someone is going to get seriously hurt.
Khan should be forced to fight in small shows so his "supporters" get no or few tickets.
If we get a dominate winner when Adamek and Dawson fight who the fuck is going to want to fight them?
Is Hopkins going to clean up in this ultra competitive area or is he leaving for Oleg? (there are a handful of fights here that will give him enormous trouble)
Can Librado Andrade upset Kessler?
Forget Calzaghe v. Taylor how about Miranda v. Taylor...fuck it how about Miranda v. anyone!
1 missing name - Felix Strum. He was a "watch out for" after his wonderful performance agaist Oscar De La Hoya and has only lost once since, a unlucky KO defeat to Castillejo who was trailing by around 6 points. I'm sure that if he had more exposure on American TV he'd get a shot against Taylor.
Howard Eastman is too good for Williams. Eastman should still be at European level and Williams is lucky to get a shot at the British Title in my opinion. I say Eastman by clear points.
By the way, the original post has Matt Skelton in the 2nd photograph.
i suppose its how you view boxing,but i would say a boring fight is when both fighters are on the defense most the time,hardly throwing,waiting to dodge punches,but they never come,i do like technical skill full fights,but not to the point where they hardly hit eachother,but i dont know,some people might like that
The most boring fight of 2006, in my opinion, was Junior Witter vs Demarcus Corley. The moment which sums up this fight for me came in either the 9th or 10th round (I can't precisely remember) when both boxes stood still for almost 20 seconds just eyeing each other.
Should the alphabet bodies be more accountable for their ratings systems?
A quick look on the WBF ratings shows that Wlad Klitschko is ranked number 1 challenger to the current champion Albert Sosnowski of Poland. Now, thankfully, Klitschko will never ever sink low enough to fight Sosnowski. Regardless of Klitschko's pride the television companies will never allow the fight to materialise.
Likewise Don Sultan and John Cotterill Jr will not be forced to defend their WBF "world" titles against the respective number 1 challengers, Floyd Mayweather Junior and Miguel Cotto. (I haven't go the guts to boldly predict that Joe Calzaghe will never fight Jamie Pittman)
So thankfully none of the WBF chamions will be forced to risk their lives against much better fighters.
However the WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO rating systems do need to be checked. Joe Calzaghe has been allowed to fight some very unworthy challengers in his 9 year reign as WBO champion. How lucky is the sport of boxing that no one has been very seriously hurt?
The sooner all alphabet bodies are confined to history the better. The Ring magazine title is the only way forward and I hope that everyone concerned realises that soon. The Ring could approve fights according to it's own ratings so we know there will be no serious mismatches.
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The question is, who gets to decide what fighters fight? If anyone gets to decide, it should be Ring Magazine. They would make the best matchups. But that would piss off all the boxing czars who love their power (Don King, Arum, etc.) and also take power away from the fighters.
I disagree that the fighters lose power. Arum and King will not be promoting shows in 10 -15 years time. By that stage Golden Boy promotions will be the main promotors and others will be following their example. Golden Boy Promotion's transparacy/fighter power is the future and that future belongs to the fighters.
PBF already looks in great shape and, suprisingly, had a height advantage (unless he was wearing some funky high heeled boots). Hatton, already the underdog by some margin, needs to not only try and out smart the best boxer on the planet but, it would seem, a height advantage. (2" difference in height and 7" reach according to box rec)
Back here in England it seems the only people who really think there will be an upset are coming from a patriotic stanch and not based on boxing facts. The truth is that Hatton will present PBF with the same difficulty as Auturi Gatti did 2 years ago and we all know what happend then. Hatton will be chasing the fight for 12 rounds (if it goes that far) and PBF will run and he will hide and Hatton could end up looking very untalented and his career will be over except for a few crap defences at 140.
The big fight is at 140 is against Cotto or Castillo. Cotto will step up to 147 soon if the stories are to be believed and a Hatton vs Castillo fight has to overcome T.V politics and Castillo's enivitable isolation, from the fall-out of the postponed rubber match against Corrales. This is a problem for Hatton. He might have to stay at 147 where he seemd to struggle with Collazo's power and he hasn't even got any.
On a selfish note the fight I want Hatton to take is against Junior Witter IF he wins the WBC 140 title. This would be a great occassion for British boxing but I think what Floyd did to Gatti would be repeated with Witter completely out-boxing Hatton to a very comfortable points victory.
I've just seen Vivian Harris vs Stevie Johnston (a few weeks late I know!!). O.K Harris wasn't in against Johnston at his peak but he did look good. If the Harris performance against Carlos Maussa was just down to bad training he could give Ricky Hatton a bad night. I'm not saying he would beat Hatton but it will be good fight.