The Boxing Thread

(I've searched through the site and can't find one - if it exists by all means shut this one down and point me in the right direction)

Barring Rugby League (including the Mighty Saints) boxing is my favourite sport. I'll watch any fight - pro or amateur. The politics of the sport are as crooked as a dog's hind leg, but that doesn't detract from the fact that at times it can be truly mesmerising. I have every respect for fighters who put their lives on the line - often for little more than pride and the desire to be the best.

A few questions to kick this off:

Is Floyd Mayweather unbeatable?
Can Ricky Hatton defeat P4P #1 Manny Pacquiao (I'm really looking forward to this fight)?
Should Antonio Margarito have been banned for life for using illegal wrapping against Shane Mosely?
Can Mosely beat Cotto in a re-match?
Was Joe Calzaghe right to retire, or should he have fought Chad Dawson to cement his legacy?
Can David Haye beat Wladimir Klitschko?
Who can stop Vic Darchinyan?
Yuriorkis Gamboa - hype or the real deal?
Jermain Taylor vs Carl Froch (apparantely this fight is definitely on) - who wins?

The smart money has to be on Manny, but Hatton does have a some chance.
For Hatton to win - five things must happen:

1. Build behind the jab (the single most important tactic and it's good to see Floyd Mayweather Sr. got him using it against the useful but toothless Malignaggi).
2. Circle away from Manny's straight right. Don't allow him to find that leverage. If he can't nullify the straight right (which is Manny's bread & butter shot) he's in danger of being stopped.
3. Hunt the body - continuously. Manny's midriff is open to question, IMO - and Ricky has always been a nasty rib-tickler. But he can't just go in recklessly head down all night without building a platform first with his jab because on the way in he'll take a ton of leather and the risk of a cut will be high.
4. Footwork. Hatton is one of the best in the business at closing down angles (even Mayweather found he had less room to operate than usual). Keep Pac away from the centre of the ring.
5. Use his obvious physical advantage and tire Manny out in the clinches.

I think Mayweather is fantastic. He might just be the best fighter in my lifetime. The guy's defense is practically unreal. It's almost impossible to lay a glove on him. And when he decides to go on the attack it's like watching a magician. The 'check hook' that put Hatton away was a thing of beauty.

He gets a lot of stick for not going into the trenches - fighting wars. But why should he when he can win - easily - by taking his opponent's A-game away with minimal effort? It goes without saying that boxing is a dangerous sport. Why risk your health when you don't need to?

I don't think there's anyone around who can beat him within his weight range. Pac would give him a tough fight, but Mayweather knows he can rely on Manny's occasional recklessness to gain advantage. Marquez is a great counter-puncher and he had Manny in all kinds of trouble in their last fight (I thought Marquez deserved the decision). But Floyd is the best counter-puncher in boxing.

The worry I have for Pac is whether he can cope at the higher weight. I discount the ODH fight completely because Oscar was shot (the Oscar that beat Chavez twice would have knocked Pac into a coma).

I don't think there's any chance of Pac beating Margarito (who is far too big for him) or even Cotto.

Try boxingscene.com. They probably have the best forums, too.

If Marquez could rid himself of the costly habit of going to sleep in the first two or three rounds of every fight he'd be unstoppable.

Maybe for part-time boxing fans. Most of the greatest fighters in history (Sugar Ray Robinson, Roberto Duran, Roy Jones Jr., Jimmy Wilde etc.) fought outside of Heavyweight (I'll ignore Jones's win against Ruiz) and gave the fans excellent entertainment.

The problem with Heavyweight is that it's become an anachronistic classification. It used to be that two fighters entered the ring within a few pounds of each other. Today you've got guys like Wlad, Vitali and Valuev who're sometimes twenty or thirty (or in Valuev's case - sixty!) pounds heavier than their opponent. That's just too much of an advantage. A superheavy classification should have been created when the likes of Bowe and Lewis arrived on the scene.

I kind of feel sorry for the Klitschkos. They've become victims of their own success. Vitali is definitely the better of the two, but he's still hung up about the loss he received at the hands of Lewis.

All is not lost, tho. There are a few promising kids on the way up. It'll be interesting to see how Wlad handles undisputed Cruiserweight champion - David Haye. It's a potentially explosive fight. Haye is prone to the odd knockdown, but then he's also prone to knocking guys unconscious with one punch. And Wlad's chin has always been suspect.

I like Pavlik. He's a brave, honest fighter who knows his limitations and works to them.

The Hopkins fight was a bit of a disaster. He was carrying an elbow injury which required an injection pre-fight and his weight management was all wrong. At 160 Pavlik enters the ring at around 171 on fight night. For the Hopkins fight at 168 he weighed pretty near 171 (whilst Hopkins was over 180!) - that's something seriously wrong between him and his trainer.

Pavlik says he wants a re-match at 160. I doubt Hopkins can get down to that weight so it looks unlikely. The next big challenge is German-based Arthur Abraham. He's one of those big nasty fighters who love to inflict pain. He's got the right hand to cause Kelly lots of problems, but the big question is whether one of the big TV companies will pick up the bill. Abraham is a bit of an unknown in the US and so it may not be commercially viable.

Pavlik and Calzaghe have talked about a fight for some time. Again, Pavlik would have to come up. Calzaghe is getting on a bit but he retains the ring smarts to make Kelly's night a misery.

There's no shame in losing to an ATG like Hopkins. He may be a bit too conservative for most fans, but his ring craft is beyond criticism.

I think Calzaghe would be a bad fight for Kelly. Joe's packing a few too many years and his hands are shot, but he's too fast and too unorthodox for Pavlik. I was surprised to hear Hopkins (who rarely says a good word about anyone) claim Calzaghe was a harder fight for him than Roy Jones in his prime. The thing about Calzaghe is his ability to re-adjust during a fight. Most fighters have no more than a Plan A when they enter the ring. Calzaghe has a Plan A, B, C through to Z. Against Kessler (who is a viable opponent for Kelly) he took a fearful pounding in the first three rounds (mostly from Kessler's uppercut). In round four he switched tactics and had Kessler reeling from some tremendous body shots.

Kelly's biggest problem is his speed. He's just not quick enough to beat Calzaghe to the punch. The last time Joe fought someone similar to Pavlik (Jeff Lacy) he inflicted nothing short of torture.

Not seen it yet. Better than Castillo v Corrales?

Watched the Khan v Barerra fight. Barerra needs to give up. He's too slow and Khan was laying a beatdown on him. The kid's defence seems a lot tighter under Freddie Roach. But the question remains - can he take a big shot to the beard? The Prescott fight suggests not.

Amir Khan is British and an Olympic silver medalist at junior lightweight. He lost out to the great Cuban Mario Kindelan - mainly through inexperience. He beat Kindelan in their next fight.

Soon after he moved to the pros and knocked over half-a-dozen regulation tomato cans in quick time. Then things started to get flaky. He was knocked down on a couple of occasions by nobodies and could easily have been beaten in one fight.

Critics pointed to his questionable chin and near total lack of defence. He answered them by ditching his trainer in favour of Cuban Jorge Rubio. The partnership lasted one fight. Rubio - for reasons that escape just about everyone - brought over a big-hitting and unbeaten Colombian kid by the name of Bredis Prescott who knocked Khan into orbit within sixty seconds. It was a real sickener. The type of KO that finishes a fighter.

Khan ditched Rubio and hired Freddie Roach. Roach immediately set about tightening up Khan's defence and even pitched him against Manny Pacquiao in sparring during the lead-up to the ODH fight. Apparantely Khan held his own with Manny.

His next fight was a gimme. Frank Warren (Khan's manager) then made the match with Barerra. At the time I thought Warren was throwing Khan to the wolves. Barerra might be old, but his experience is four levels above anything Khan's faced. I guess Warren thought it was a win-win situation. If Khan wins he's beaten a legend. If he loses - he's lost to one. No shame in that.

As for Khan's abilities. On the plus side he is fast. Blindingly so. He's also extremely accurate and often puts together beautiful combinations. And he's a huge lightweight. This makes him a genuine handful for anyone in the division.

On the negative side - he's chinny. No doubts about it. But he doesn't help himself. He's so obsessed with putting on a sparkling attacking performance that he often leaves himself wide open. The Prescott fight underlined this perfectly. If he'd had any kind of guard he may well have weathered those punches (although Prescott is a murderous hitter). Freddie Roach will sort this (as well as Khan's lack of head movement) out. He's an excellent trainer.

Where Khan goes from here I'm not sure. Beating even a faded Barerra can only raise his share price. Frank Warren is talking about a world title shot before the end of the year. Most of the lightweight belts are vacant at the moment. Clearly Marquez is the premier fighter. A match with him could be interesting. Marquez isn't a big hitter and Roach knows his game inside out (even if Pacquiao was fortunate to win their last bout). Other possible opponents are Valero, Diaz or Casamayor. All of those are winnable. Beyond these you've got Katsidis, Romanov and a re-match with Prescott. All three ring alarm bells for Khan.

Scratch the above about Marquez. Looks like he's moving up to fight Mayweather.

Khan's team were looking to attract Marquez.

Williams is a weird boxer. He's 6ft 1 inches, which is ridiculously tall for a JMW (Margarito is quite tall, too). How he manages to get under the weight limit is a mystery to me.

His fluid, high-octane combinations coupled with the huge reach and height advantage make him a nightmare for any opponent. He's a bit of an arm puncher, but - like Calzaghe - he makes up for it by accruing points with the judges for workrate (and accuracy).

He was regarded as the big hope for JMW/MW until he ran into Puerto Rico's Carlos Quintana. In what was one of the big shocks of 2008 Quintana handed a lesson to Williams in the art of counterpunching. Williams immediately sought a rematch and TKOd Quintana in the first round. Since then Williams has moved up to MW, where he doesn't have to boil himself down to make the limit.

His victory over Winky was impressive. Wright is an awkward customer who has made life difficult for a number of good fighters (including Shane Mosley and Jermain Taylor). But it's unwise to get carried away. Wright's best years are long gone, and he is not an especially hard puncher. Kelly Pavlik, on the other hand, is and Williams has called him out on a number of occasions. He also called out Calzaghe (now retired) immediately after the fight. The money would have to be extraordinary to tempt him out of retirement.