Gooner

Rios was a lb and a half over, even after the second weigh-in so has been stripped of his belt. They will check his weight this morning, then apparently it is up to Murray's camp this morning whether they decide the fight goes ahead or not. Could go either way really,golden opportunity now for Murray cos Rios looked like a corpse on those scales last night.

 

Good effort by Martin Murray last night, he just didn't quite do enough in my eyes. He used the old cliche of 'punches in bunches' but never really set down in to a continued, long assault. Sky's commentary was horrendous, Watt was moaning on about a robbery for a fight he had Murray winning by just 1 round! And he somehow scored the last one level, despite Sturm battering him for most of it, and nearly knocking him down at the end.

So he did end up getting stripped? I saw it and went to the bar to watch the Murray/Sturm fight, well what was left off it. According to Dan Rafael's twitter, Rios has basically not eating in five days, on health reasons alone I don't think he should be allowed to fight. After all the effort Murray has put in, i'd be surprised if he doesn't still take it. With Garcia also training Margo, I know in the same camp but to allow his fighter to be so out of condition weight wise, it looks as if he has been too focused on getting Margo ready.

I didnt't think Murray did enough either. After every combo he threw he looked tired. If he had just been able to step it up a little he would have won it and no way was the last round a draw. It was a clear Sturm round, Jim Watt over the last few years has become more and more annoying. Couldn't believe the crap what was coming out of his mouth last night, same goes for Johnny Nelson too.

Saturday December 3rd, 6pm~ (Boxnation)

Main Event

Alexander Povetkin (22-0) vs Cedric Boswell (35-1)

Fake WBA heavyweight belt - 12x3

--

Live Undercard

Robert Helenius (16-0) vs Dereck Chisora (15-1)

Vacant European heavyweight belts - 12x3

 

Saturday December 3rd, 8pm~ (Sky Sports 1)

Main Event

Prince Arron (21-3) vs Brian Rose (17-1)

British light middleweight title - 12x3

--

Live Undercard

Karl Place (15-0) vs Steve Williams (11-1)

Eliminator for British light welterweight title - 10x3

 

Sunday December 4th, 2am~ (Boxnation)

Main Event

Miguel Cotto (36-2) vs Antonio Margarito (38-7)

WBA light-middleweight belt - 12x3

--

Live Undercard

Brandon Rios (28-0) vs John Murray (31-1)

WBA lightweight belt - 12x3

--

Mike Jones (25-0) vs Sebastian Lujan (38-5)

Eliminator for IBF welterweight belt - 12x3

--

Pawel Wolak (29-1) vs Delvin Rodriguez (25-5)

Non-title light-middleweight bout - 10x3

 

Sunday December 4th, 2am~ (Premier Sports)

Main Event

Abner Mares (22-0) vs Joseph Agbeko (28-3)

IBF bantamweight belt - 12x3

--

Anselmo Moreno (31-1) vs Vic Darchinyan (37-3)

WBA bantamweight belt - 12x3

The above is all the boxing fights that are going to be shown tonight. Lots of good fights with the biggest as we all know being Cotto/Margo II. Anybody see the weigh in last night for the bill in MSG? I was for sure thinking Rios would take Murray out, but after coming in so overweight, having to come back to make weight he looked so gaunt, if Murray has got his preperations spot on, he could cause a major upset. The rematch between Mares/Agbeko should be a cracker after the controversy of their first fight. I'm not sure about Cotto/Margo. I hope Cotto destroys him after what happened in the first fight, but regardless of whether Margo cheated or not, he was walking through Cotto's punches after five rounds, he says Cotto hits like a girl, will see tonight if that is the case. Im gonna go with Cotto on points. Gonna be a great night of action, I can't wait.

You got any ideas on what they might show next in terms of documentary's? Considering what they will and will not have the rights to i'm thinking Eubank/Watson possibly.

 

Maybe but I'm not sure they will do that story at the minute because there was that Watson doc recently on Sky Sports for the 20th anniversary of Eubank/Watson 2.

 

This is the one, good doc if you haven't seen it

 

Are they deffo gonna be doing more boxing docs then? Maybe something on Henry Cooper? Even Bruno or Lennox Lewis maybe? They've already done Benn/Eubank with the Clash of the Titans doc so they probably won't do another one for them.

Thanks for the link, I remember watching when it aired, it was a very moving show. The only reason I was thinking about Watson is due to what happened and the fact ITV had the rights to the fights, and they ae indicating they will be showing a few more of this documentary over the forthcoming months. I guess will wait and see.

Yeah, I would expect something to happen with a British heavyweight next.

Finally, that's great news. I've been hearing about documentaries in the works for a couple of years now but nothing was happening, I even emailed ITV a few months back but they said they had no plans for it.

 

Good to see this story is gonna be told. I knew about the reunion but only seen this picture

 

Be interesting to see the footage.

 

Cheers for posting that Gooner. You were in attendance at the fight? That must have been a mental atmosphere.

I know they have a few more planned but when they end up coming out is anybody's guess.

I'm sure that picture is from 2007 and they will show bites and pieces of what happened as they were all together for the first time since the tragedy and raising money for McClellan.

It was a crazy night for so many different reasons. Back in those days you live off family/friends taping boxing for you, buying Boxing News every week and watching old school fights in the early hours of Sunday morning on ITV, or on the Wednesday on BBC's Sportscene show. It was the second fight I had ever watched live in person at that stage, first was Lewis Vs Ruddock in 1991. The atmosphere before both fights was great, but the circumstances of the Benn/McClellan fight when it came to basically Benn being finished in round one, somehow surviving, coming back and then looking like he might get stopped again, to him forcing the stoppage is easily up there with one of the most dramatic fights in history. I had only seen McClellan two times on video before the Benn fight and his stoppage of Julian Jackson had me in awe, I mean he destroyed him, the power was scary and Jackson was such a banger himself. I have never watched the fight on replay again, same with Eubank/Watson 2. I'm gonna check this out as I want to see/hear everything surrounding before and after what happened.

You got any ideas on what they might show next in terms of documentary's? Considering what they will and will not have the rights to i'm thinking Eubank/Watson possibly.

Credit:Itv.com

The Fight of Their Lives Nigel Benn V Gerald McClellan itv Documentary

 

The Fight of Their Lives

 

Episode: 1 of 1Monday, 5 December 2011, 10:35PM - 11:50PM

 

Factual

 

Production house: ITV Sport Productions

Press contacts: Nick Dear nick.dear@itv.com

Viewer enquiries: viewerservices@itv.com

 

 

Considered by many to be the greatest world title fight ever seen in Britain, Nigel Benn versus the American Gerald McClellan ended in such tragic circumstances it has never been broadcast since.

 

Now, 16 years later, ITV has unlocked its archive to allow the incredible story of that savage night to be told in full.

 

Nigel Benn, a British paratrooper turned world class fighter, faced America

That was a sensational right hand Groves connected with, couldn't believe Smith somehow got up, showed a lot of bravery but it was all over. Groves seems happy to take his time and continue around domestic/european level before going for some of the big hitters, which is good as he is not ready yet for a Froch, Ward, Kessler or Bute. Keep hearing all the Degale talk but that is a fight if it is ever to take place again, it needs to happen way down the line when there is at least one if not two world titles on the line.

I'm happy for Burns. I thought he boxed very well and was surprised by how he took some of those big bombs. It's not his second world title and I doubt a fight against Marquez would ever come off. See what happens with Marquez next week but if he was to hang them up it be interesting to see what would happen with the title. I could see Burns/Mitchell somewhere down the line, be a cracking fight.

There is no way Floyd can be inactive for a year, come back and fight Pacquiao from the offset. If the Ortiz who beat Berto shows up, it will be a tough fight for Mayweather and he needs to be careful. Whether if both he and Pac win means they get it on, well who knows. The main sticking point is the drug testing and right now it doesnt seem like that will change.

I'm looking forward to Khan/Judah. Judah has gotten himself back in the mix and has looked more like himself in recent fights. He has the boxing skills to cause Khan a lot of problems, I'm expecting a close fight.

That fight last night has given me some food for thought as far as how I believe a Mayweather vs Pacquiao would go. I think Floyd would have a real chance of winning, as he's basically a younger, fresher, faster version of Mosley.

 

I'm thinking that Floyd takes that fight.

A lot of people think the same, I've always felt Floyd would win the fight and nothing I have seen from Pacquiao over the last couple of years has changed my mind. Pacquiao struggles against slick boxers and there is no one out there more slicker than Mayweather. It's just a shame the fight will never happen as regardless of the legacy both fighters have had and will leave behind when they retire, there will always be a question mark over the both of them if this fight never takes place.

Pacman never looked that good, despite being in control for the majority of the fight. I thought at one point he may have stopped Mosley after the knockdown in the third round, but it never happened. I don't want to see Pac vs Marquez part three unless it's at 140 maximum and that would allow Marquez to come in lighter. Marquez would get destroyed if the fight was at 147lbs as Pac has gone up so many levels since their last fight. I didn't like Pacquiao response to the Mayweather question. If you want the fight so badly, make it clear to the watching world that your prepared to take the fight, rather then say you don't care about the guy as that isn't helping anybody. It will be interesting to see if it does over a million PPV buys in the states.

The only chance Mosely has tonight is to end the fight early. Bar the second round against Mayweather he was schooled in every other round and in his last fight against Mora he looked his age. Pacman has just been dominent for a long time now and has barely lost a round since destroying De La Hoya. I can't see Pacquiao knocking Mosley, but I can see Naseem pulling Shane out between round eight-ten.

This Mayweather rumour has been floating around for the past couple of weeks, until he comes out himself and says he is returning I will wait with baited breath.

Taker Vs Triple H is a lot more exciting then the rumoured Taker Vs Barrett or Triple H Vs Sheamus matches. Wrestlemania needs a marquee match and this unless Sting signs seems to most obvious choice. I loved the build up to their match at Wrestlemania 17 and if it happens, hopefully they can top it. I would have prefered Taker Vs Cena but Cena looks odds on to face Miz for the WWE Championship, maybe next year when the streak could possibly hit a double decade it could be made.

The Haye vs either Klitschko fight has to happen for the sake of all three fighters involved. It is the only real meaningful fight out there in the heavyweight division and if it doesn't happen it tarnishes all involved. I got no problem with Haye fighting Harrison as it is a fight the British public wanted to see. Being fair to Haye and his manager they made it clear from the beginning that they didn't want the fight, but because enough interest was in it they would end the myth of Fraudly. If Wladimir disposes of Chisora then he should be the one fighting Haye next. I would expect sometime between April/May.

Pacman is a absolute beast. I don't know how he does it but it was another magnificent performance. Credit to Margarito aswell for the punishment he took and the fact he continued to come forward throughout the fight. His face was a mess at the end but if he is able to box again, a rematch against Cotto seems to be the most viable option for both fighters. I don't see what else Pacquiao can do. Surely he won't try going up to 160lbs and taking of the winner of the Martinez/Williams WBC title match this Saturday night. I think that would be when he finally reaches a bridge to far. We all know the fight against Mayweather has been talked to death but if that fight can't be made, Pacman may aswell retire and enjoy his new politician life without having the distractions of boxing camp again. It be a shame if he and Mayweather both retire without having fought one another. Lets hope somehow that fight is made to happen.

All the Klitschko fights look indentical at the moment, just utter control and slow brutal destruction...Saturday wasn't much different, Samuel Peter got beaten up.

Which is why Haye won't fight them if he can choose another option, such as Harrison.

 

He would meet with the same fate as well.

I wouldn't go that far, most fighters who fight the Klitschko's barely throw a punch back. Fighting Peter five years after beating him, regardless of the fact Peter put him down three times in the fight with punches that barely connected, showing how vunrable Wladimir's chin is, but Wladimir still won the fight clearly on points. On Saturday he just controlled the fight better, but what else would you expect. Peter can barely move around the ring and Klitschko was not going to make the same mistake twice. Haye is a completly different proposition as not only can he box, but he has the power to seriously trouble Wladimir.

Also, everything I've seen and read (which admittedly is probably coloured by it being British and therefore biased towards Haye) suggests that he's not ducking the Klitschkos so much as they're trying to dictate all the terms from location to money to everything else, when the fact is that there's a lot of money to be made on the British end of things and Haye deserves the lion's share of that.

The hard fact is that Haye was signed up & supposed to fight Wladimir Klitschko, then pulled out.

 

The same contract that he had no problem signing was available again when he recovered from his injury, yet he chose not to sign it.

 

Reports suggest that he was scheduled to fight Vitali at some point during 2009, and pulled out of that as well.

The first contract is one that people are still debating even today. The reports were he hurt his hand in sparring, the real reason which has never be proven was due to Haye only being a challenger, the deal he had agreed was that the money he would get from the fight would be through the British broadcaster. Now the British company at the time who were going to broadcast it were Setanta and at the time the rumours were flying around big time about them close to going bust. Now if the hand injury wasn't true, it would make sense for Haye to pull out as basically he would not have got paid, seeing what happened to Setanta within a couple or months or so after that, lays more weight to that argument.

He was on ringside last night and spoke only about the Vitali supposed fighte. He said they had agreed verbally together on a deal, the deal included Vitali getting a rematch clause, but he said once the contracts were drawn up, the clauses had changed, they tried to thrash it out but nothing was doing so he was offered a fight with Valuev, he told them his demands, they accepted and he went that route instead. I'm not saying any of this is true, just his own official opinion on things. I'm sure Vitali would give a different story and so on.

Anybody ever seen the Buff Bagwell shoot interview from a few years back? Just wondering if it is worth buying.

All this Harrison dont deserve a shot is total rubbish, he qualifies by way of being European champion which has happened for Donkey's years. talksport suggesting nearly all tickets sold, so there must be interest.

The argument is he never deserved a shot at the European title in the first place and I don't think beating Sprott in the last round when behind on every scorecard is really worthy of getting a shot at the WBA Champion. He has been very fortunate and he knows he is only getting this shot due to the champion being British. There was always going to be a lot of interest, it's the reason why Haye has taken the fight. He is going to make some good money and a chance to end Harrison's career. Looking at the interest it has and will generate in this country I don't blame him for taking the fight but after this if he wins he knows he'll have to take a harder fight, hopefully against one of the Klitchsko's.

It's crazy to think that after ten years, Audley could actually back up what he has been saying day in and day out about being a World Champion. He has barely done anything to justify a shot, but it's a fight that will at least have a great build up to it. The trash talking has already begun and no doubt they'll be alot more to follow. On the same night as Pacquiao/Margarito aswell which makes for a great night of boxing.

Ahmed Johnson shoot is worth a look.