Taylorslade

On 2/10/2019 at 1:55 PM, Porkchopcash said:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jVBxJTqdtf8

The American broadcast of Lewis v Ruddock. I always prefere the American take on fights from years gone by.

Sure this was on the same night as Ghostwatch. What a great nights tv.

 

 Also this. Nice intro music.

 

It was Halloween night, 1992, and yeah it was the same night as Ghostwatch. However, the fight was on extremely late at 2 or 3am because despite being in England, they still held the fight at the later time to accommodate the HBO audience. 

This fight was the first part of an unofficial agreement between the management of Lewis, Ruddock, Bowe and Holyfield, brokered and partially financed by HBO, where the winners of each fight would face off in an attempt to crown one champion. The second fight in the agreement was of course the Bowe/Holyfield classic a few weeks later. Unfortunately, Bowe and his manager Rock “Don’t call me White” Newman would go back on their agreement and refused to fight Lewis, who had to raise the WBC belt after Bowe tossed it into a bin. And thus began Lewis’ reign of being the most avoided Heavyweight of the 90’s. As surprising as that might be to hear, it’s undeniable, as no fighter in history at any weight received as much “step aside” money as Lennox Lewis.

The HBO broadcast contains one of my favourite Larry Merchant flip flop moments; just after Lewis destroyed Ruddock “We have a GREAT new Heavyweight on the boxing scene” 

30 seconds later; “errr I don’t trust a guy whose best accomplishment was losing two tough fights” (referencing the two Tyson fights). 

I’m sorry, but none of the US announcers could carry Reg Gutteridge’s microphone, nowhere near in his class in terms of both announcing and knowledge.  

After getting a Kindle for Christmas I'm stocking up on my boxing books, starting with the Mickey Ward one. Anyone got any Kindle boxing book recommendations?

 

Well here's my personal list of classics I always recommend off the top of my head, although I'm not sure if they are all on kindle or not.

 

Four Kings by George Kimball--Anyone who doesn't have it, should get it. It's just that good, definately the gold standard of boxing literature within the last 10 years.

 

Unforgivable Blackness by Geoffrey C Ward--Incredibly detailed and monumental biopic of the first black World Heavyweight Champion of the gloved era.

 

Nipper by Alex Daley -- One of those life stories which are unique to the boxing world. It's about the most talented fighter that Britain has ever had Nipper Pat Daley, who turned professional at NINE years old. The account of him schooling feared World Champion Mickey Walker in sparring when he was just 17 is surreal. Shocking management and far too hefty fight schedule led to his retirement at 21，otherwise he would've been our version of Sugar Ray Robinson.

 

That's my personal top three, they might not be available on kindle, but get them in print if not because they are that good.

Bunce said he was going to be doing a book like that a couple of years ago, I think he willdo it eventually. I know some people don't like him, but I think he's alright. I like that he's a proper journalist and writer, not some glorified fanboy blogger like you see now.

 

I recommend his two boxing novels, especially "the fixer". There's not enough boxing fiction books out, good ones especially.

 

 

 

 

 

There's also a great one called "Waiting for Carver Boyd" by Thomas Hauser, a brilliant read which you can finish in a couple of hours as it's not too long.

i never knew that McClellan walked out of the hospital here

 

Incredible isn't it? It's almost never mentioned anywhere either.

The ITV documentary on Benn Vs Mclellan was a good enjoyable programme, but I have a problem with a couple of things in it. I really don't like how Barry Mcguigan threw Jim Watt under the bus. I could think of a few things Barry has said on commentary that could've been taken a certain way if someone wanted to do the same to him.

 

The big problem I have with the documentary is that they forgot to include the fact that Mclellan made enough of a recovery in England to WALK out of the hospital. It was the flight home that set him back and began to lead to complications. Something to do with pressure in his skull because of the altitude. His family were told not to, but did it anyway. I can't criticise Frank Warren, he paid for all kinds of stuff and went out of his way. Mclellan's "trainer" Stan Johnson saying that they had some of Benn's blood tested which they took from Gerald's boots, and it was positive for steroids. When Frank Warren was asked he said; "That's strange, because his boots are still in my office where they have been since 1995".

 

The Watson and Mclellan stories are similar on the surface, but different when you look at them, particularly the fights. Watson was hit with a freaky punch totally out of the blue and was out of it for only a few minutes before he collapsed. Mclellan on the other hand, looked out of sorts after a few rounds. The excessive blinking and losing control of his mouth should've been a massive red flag to his corner and the referee even if he didn't speak English. Reg Gutteridge noticed it on commentary straight away.

I wonder what would have became of Watson as a boxer had he not suffered that horrible brain injury. In a lot of ways he was probably the most talented of the three - Watson, Eubank, Benn. Such a shame. But it's great to see him in clips now. For someone who could've been bitter, and no-one would really blame him, he's so positive whenever you see him. Always a big fuck off grin on his face and when he talks about his boxing career, there's even a hint of cockiness still there at times! I love it.

 

In my opinion, he was the best of the bunch and had the potential to go much farther. A brilliant jab and great ring IQ with nerves of steel to put it in practice (see the Benn fight) I thought they rushed him into the fight with Mike Mcallum, even without the nose injury he received in training I still think they should've held off on that one. One thing that was different back then was that it was really hard to get good champions to come to England and fight for several reasons, one being the scoring system at the time with the referee being the sole arbiter, even though they were consistent and accurate, it still made foreign fighters feel uneasy. So with that in mind, I can sort of understand why they rushed him into it once they knew Mcallum was up for it.

 

Regarding the Benn/Watson/Eubank era, I am looking forward to the day that Steve Bunce writes a book on that time, much like George Kimball's "Four Kings" on the Hagler/Leonard/Hearns/Duran era. I like the look of the books that are already out, but I think Bunce can give a different perspective considering that he was there covering all of them and knew all guys involved very well.

 

I love, absolutely love Michael Watson. As a person and a fighter. Like you mate, I also love how he talks about his career, pure class. He has "forgiven" Eubank, although that's probably not the correct term. He doesn't harbour any resentment, but he really doesn't rate him as a fighter whatsoever. Everytime he is asked about Eubank he always says "Not as good as Nigel, Nigel was a pure force of nature, Chris was nowhere near in comparison". I always love that one.

 

Anyone here watched the two Watson vs Eubank fights? How did you score the controversial first one? I think I did have Watson winning but I didn't think it was as bad a decision as it's made out to be.

 

Well I thought Watson won the fight, although some of the rounds could've went either way. One thing I didn't like, and I never like this, is when fighters use "you have to take it from the champion", I don't agree with that, if you lose, you lose. I always feel like that is no different than giving the home fighter an advantage in the scoring also, which is usually frowned upon, so it's a double standard.

 

The second fight was incredible, but terrible how it ended. And rewatching the footage during the Eubank documentary, I was reminded just how uncomfortable it was seeing Watson go out for that final round. To be honest, I think the ref and Watson's cornermen were awful that night. They're supposed to do their best to protect the fighters yet they let Watson go on when he was clearly out on his feet. I know with hindsight it's easier to criticise but the corner must have seen how fucked Watson was between the 11th and 12th round. But they pushed him back out there for more punishment in the hope he could stay upright and just survive to win the decision

 

It was a brilliant fight, Watson just pummelled Eubank, and was one round away from the win, which I think was the problem. Had the fight been anywhere near as close going into the 12th round, I think Jimmy Tibbs in Watson's corner would not of been as caught up in the whole thing as he was. I'm never overly critical of him for not stopping the fight, but I think if you had spent as much time as Tibbs did with Watson, then you know he was a totally different person after that uppercut. He wasn't all over the place, but wasn't responsive and seemed to be somewhere else in his mind, whereas Watson always seemed in control of himself and composed during his fights previously. I don't think it was negligence, I think they got too caught up with how big that fight was and how everything went down in the first fight, and got too stuck on the prospect of winning the fight.

 

However, there is no doubt whatsoever that the way Watson was handled medically was nothing short of disgraceful. He was laying in a crowded ring totally unresponsive without oxygen with a fucking briefcase under his head to support it. The ambulance took him to the wrong hospital. It's a clich

Juan Manuel Marquez....Reformed piss drinking, fun loving Mexican.

 

 

 

Note; These are quite old, but posting them just for a laugh for anyone who hasn't seen them. There's a couple more of the same Oriental guy grabbing his bollocks.... for whatever reason.

Taylorslade, Wand or whoever, I have a question

 

Reading Hatton's book, it made me remember he and Junior Witter never fought at their peaks.

 

How would that fight have gone does anyone think.

 

Well, I know Frank Warren purposely kept them apart and although I certainly don't agree with everything Warren does, I have to say it was a smart plan at first which worked really well. Hatton was already filling local venues in his first handful of fights and was gaining in popularity especially after he took the British title from John Thaxton. At the same time, Junior Witter wasn't even known outside of his own gym, so when they began to have this tension between eachother Warren saw an opportunity to get Witters name in the spotlight and build to a fight long down the road.

 

It worked too, whenever Hattons name was brought up in British circles, Witters was also and they were frequently at ringside for eachothers fights. Witter was able to headline a few of his own shows of a fairly high profile off the back of this press, something he would never of been able to do otherwise. He was just horrible to watch, not because he was defensive, but he was just so awkward and it seemed like he could never have a good fight with anyone. I remember when he boxed on the Tyson/Savarese undercard in Scotland against Zab Judah, Showtime weren't too pleased.

 

Warren had every intention of eventually making the fight, which he believed (as do I) that Hatton would win, but even though he knew Hatton was a massive draw, I don't think he realised Hatton would become such a draw that he could draw such heavy interest from Golden Boy and go to America to command the type of crowds he did. After the Tszyu fight, I think both Witter and Hatton became very restless waiting for the fight to be made, Hatton left to go Stateside expecting Witter to be in a position to make the fight when he came back one way or the other. However, it didn't happen, although it came very close, Witter was almost the opponent for Hatton in his first fight back after the Mayweather defeat, at the City of Manchester Stadium in 2008, but for whatever reason it didn't come together and Juan Lazcano got the job instead.

 

After that, the interest in the fight began to die down, especially after Witter lost to Timothy Bradley. There was one more time that the fight almost came to fruition, as a crossroads fight after Witters loss to Bradley and Hattons loss to Pacquiao

He said Nigel Benn and Roberto Duran attended the Senchenko fight as well which I didn't know. And he said, when asked who he wishes he'd have got to fight - he names Duran, Miguel Cotto and Arturo Gatti. Imagine those fights!

 

They would've been unbelievable, makes me salivate just thinking about them.

 

Of all the dream fights involving British fighters which were actually very close to being made at one time, my top choices have to be ;

 

Naseem Hamed Vs Floyd Mayweather - this one was close several times, the final time being just after Mayweather laid waste to Diego Corrales. The main problem was the weight, Hamed was already pushing it at Featherweight, he was a really small guy, obviously his massive punching power allowed him to be at that weight. I've no doubt his punching power would've carried up through multiple divisions, but at 5'2 you have to wonder how effective he would've been.

 

Naseem Hamed Vs Arturo Gatti - Same as the above, really. I do know that Gatti really hated Hamed at one point. I remember Sky always had Naz in the backdrop whenever the done one of Gatti's fights, normally using him as an analyst in the studio or having one of those live satellite interviews with him. It was close, but obviously not close enough. One can dream, though.

 

Ricky Hatton Vs Arturo Gatti - The whole thing was geared up for these two, but Gatti had to get through Alfonso Gomez first, and sadly we know what happened there. A massive shame, even though Gatti was terribly faded, it still would've been awesome and a brilliant atmosphere in Atlantic City with Gatti's fans there and Hattons army making the trip.

 

Sigh.....

The fight did 900k buys according to what Showtime said, they gave him the 200m dollars for a 6 fight contract, I can't see why they would lie. The PPV figures for Pacquiao are redundent as he isn't American, he will never be bigger in America then Mayweather, fact he fought his last fight in China says it all. His figures before when he fought in America before were much bigger then anyone Mayweather has faced in his career. His problem is looking for excuses, giving reasons why he doesn't need to fight etc I've been over the whole May/Pac debate to last me a lifetime, I'm a huge fan of both, been more a Mayweather fan to be honest since 96 when he competed in the Olympics, I hold the both of them to blame on this, you can take a pick on who's to blame most, I don't believe either have done or wanted the fight enough to make it happen. Easier fighting guys you know you will beat for huge sums and taking it easy.

 

It is a power thing it always has been, I think that's more between Mayweather and Arum. There's an issue there from years ago and it has resulted in this stalemate where both sides want full control. I blame everyone involved in this whole situation, they ruined it for the fans and basically screwed us out of the biggest fight in boxing history.

 

Would not surprise me in the least bit of Pac has tax problems, Mayweather had them too, that has no barring on why the fight hasn't taken place so far or is likely to happen. Mayweather is bringing up a lot of things lately to justify not taken the fight, that's all well and good, problem is if he goes on and faces Khan next, his arguments are null and void.

 

I was told by Tris Dixon of the Boxing News that the final numbers were roughly 1 million when I was at a Boxing writers awards show a couple of weeks ago. I'm not saying that to try and make myself sound great, but just to show I'm not just pulling it out of my arse. Not much difference in 900 and 1million anyway i suppose.

 

The PPV numbers are relevant because it determines each guys value, in this situation anyway because the fallout was over the purse split everytime they held discussions along with the Random Testing. Pacquiaos nationality was never brought into it.

 

Which PPVs did you mean having done much better than Mayweathers? Because I don't believe that to be the case at all. Although it's somewhat of a murky issue regarding Top Rank and HBO because they rarely announced official numbers.

 

Pacquiao fought in China because he didn't want to pay the heavy Nevada state taxes anymore. The location of the fight shouldn't of made a difference to people wanting to buy it because it was still on live at the same time it would've been had it been in Vegas.

there's a rumored fight between Gennady Golovkin & James Kirkland going down next year also... now many people may see that as a mismatch, but just knowing how James Kirkland fights, that may turn into one of the wildest fights of the year.

 

Doesn't Mayweather want Canelo on the undercard of his PPV?

 

Golovkin/Kirkland would be a great fight, hopefully once GGG gets through his next defence on Feb 1st, they can make the Kirkland fight somewhere in America in the summer.

 

He mentioned that Canelo should fight on his undercard, he also said the same for Broner, based on who he is likely to face on May 3rd i can see why he is trying to load the undercard up, if it does under a million buys like his fight against Guerrero did Showtime will not be best pleased and wouldn't surprise me if they really make a push to make the Pacquiao fight happen, I think it's the only way that fight will ever get made, well that and if this tit for tat online continues to get deeper and personal.

 

They did a million with Guerrero, but not much more, that stuff about it selling poorly was guff. They've been trying to minimise Floyds PPV appeal ever since he left top rank infact, they said he'd never be star in the first place. Remember when the Marquez fight was going to be a failure?

 

Whenever you hear someone saying how poorly a fight did on PPV a few days afterwards then you know it's nonsense. There's always a rush to proclaim a Mayweather failure no matter how baseless a claim it may be.... Yet when hard proof came out about the Pacquiao/Rios fight not even reaching 500k then nobody seems interested.

 

As for the fight itself happening, of course I would love it, but my reasons to be skeptical remains the same, it's Bob Arum. About a year ago I made a post regarding Pacquiao's finances regarding tax and how he's being robbed blind and how Arum won't co-promote with regards to Pacquiao because he doesn't want anyone poking their nose around. Well all of that is coming to light now with Pacquiao and his troubles with the IRS and BIR. Its a sad situation but Manny is in trouble big time and he needs to start getting rid of certain people like Michael Koncz, whose name was brought up by tax auditing firm VisionQuest after they were hired by Manny to get his finances in order a while back. Not long after they were hired they were let go in favour of a company at the insistence of Bob Arum. VisionQuest released a statement recommending that pacquiao should as Koncz about "ridiculous amounts of money disappearing from Mannys accounts". We know now that the company Arum recommended obviously did not help pacquiao at all so what was the reason for the abrupt letting go of visionquests services?

 

Some of the obstacles Arum has intentionally put there are quite unbelievable. I mean, whatever happened to the huge stadium he was going to build just for this fight? He had to come up with that one when both fighters were free to fight just before Mayweather went to jail, when the infamous phonecall took place during which Floyd offered the 40million guarantee to Pacquiao with half of it to be wired to him that very day if he agreed.... Pacquiao who has never actually received more than 15million for any fight... He walked away for whatever reason. If Pacquiao had more control of his own decisions, in the way Mayweather has, then this fight would've happened already because the fighters have wanted it for some time. As hard as it might be for some to believe, it took Pacquiao much longer to be willing, for whatever reason.

 

It's quite a shame that Mayweather took as much abuse as he has during this four year saga. I understand that much of that can be blamed on himself due to some of his antics, but when you look back on the whole drug testing saga when Floyd was called a coward and "using it as an excuse to duck the fight".... While Manny was being supported and praised for refusing random testing, with people saying he would never use PED's because of his faith in god.... this same guy was out banging hookers all night and gambling illegally.

 

You also can't deny a lot of guys have been caught since Mayweather began forcing this issue.

 

On a side note, Top rank takes 27 percent from their fighters purses, much more than what is regarded as standard in the game nowadays.

 

I think there will be a lot of dirt coming out in 2014 regarding Top rank promotions and whilst it will be a bumpy ride to start with, I think it will put a lot of things right in the long run.

Speak of the devil, Floyd posted this on twitter;

 

 

This is my Christmas card to the world... Happy Sleepy Holidays zzzzzzzzzzzz

 

He's at it again....

 

"Meet my new friend, Manny Roach. "

 

 

 

 

 

If I didn't know any better, I would say it seems like he's trying to drum up controversy to get people talking. I've never seen him go at it this hard before.

little side note, one of the lads i traveled down with was saying how he saw a young Amir Khan at 14 years old getting knocked as an amateur in Darlington of all places in the East End club, the lads always been chinney then ha!

 

He's always been like that aye. I personally saw him get dropped 3 times in the amateurs, one by Craig Watson who did go on to be a Light Middleweight, but they were both the same natural weight division then. The other two times was to two lads who didn't go on to box as Professionals. Shit happens, a lot of people have been buzzed here and there early on, but it definitely happened to him much more, and with the bigger gloves on and the headguards it shouldn't have happened as much as it did. Especially early on when he was a junior because at that time you lack any kind of accuracy and control so the punches that do land don't have much on them.

Might aswell make my first post back a decent one.... here's my choices for the highlights of 2013. This is part one, part two to follow soon.

 

Fighter of the year : Floyd Mayweather Jr. UD Robert Guerrero, MD Saul Alvarez.

 

 

I don't see much room for debate here, although there will always be arguments given the long standing trend of diminishing Mayweathers accomplishments after the fact. However, when one evaluates the Money mans year (at least with their eyes open), it was a brilliant one.

 

Coming into the year following a points win over Miguel Cotto which was was somewhat competitive by Floyds standards, along with a brief stint in jail, many were wondering what the 2013 version of Pretty Boy Floyd would look like when he finally stepped back into the ring. The boxing world was stunned when he left HBO to sign the most lucrative deal in sports with rival Showtime, none more stunned than HBO themselves who had just lost the single biggest drawing card in combat sports to their closest competition.

 

The first fight in this new contract (which should last until the fighter retires) saw the undefeated Mayweather take on the former two-weight champion Robert Guerrero in May. "The Ghost" was coming off a very convincing win over the talented and somewhat slick welterweight Andre Berto, who tried to perform his best Floyd Mayweather impression throughout the whole fight whilst Guerrero pummelled him from the first round to the last. In doing so, many believed the Mexican to be a tough test for the American Mayweather, as it has long been said that the fighter to beat this defensive wizard would be one who muscled him around the ring and beating the slick skills out of him and to some, Guerrero seemed to be that man in the right place at the right time, catching Money Mayweather in the right place at the right time.

 

 

This fight would also mark the first time over 10 years that the veteran Mayweather would have his father in his corner as the head trainer and chief second in the ring on fight night. Floyd Joy Mayweather Sr. had filled an advisory role in his sons fights with Juan Manuel Marquez and Shane Mosley, but was really on the outside looking in. This would also mark the first time the father and son had reconciled since their fierce, uncomfortable and downright disgusting verbal confrontation in the Mayweather Boxing Club infront of the HBO cameras. The "Faggot" and "Punk motherfucker" would have to seamlessly coexist in what now seemed to be a pivotal and crucial time in Mayweather Jr's career.

 

 

 

In a sign of things to come, Money Mayweather looked awesome in training camp....sparring partners were being sent home from the "Dog House" left and right.

 

On fight night, Pretty Boy Floyd once again made fools out of everyone who thought he was slowing down and was in for a tough contest. As usual, Mayweather started by taking a look at Robert Guerrero, who rather foolishly showed all of his cards to Floyd in the first two opening rounds, leaving Mayweather with all of the information he needed to shut out and dominate the Mexican with brilliant ring generalship and lightning fast reflexes. The move to bring his father back proved to be a profitable one, as Mayweather opted to use his jab as he had done earlier in his career, and to brilliant effect, peppering the strong southpaw and blinding him with it, leaving Guerrero vulnerable to his laser beam right hand. Mayweather used two and sometimes three versions of the right hand to batter his opponent, looping it, sometimes just straight down the pipe or sometimes using it in a half-hook half-uppercut fashion. Mayweather looked brilliant and fresh, dominating his Mexican opponent en route to a Unanimous decision.

 

 

 

 

In the wake of the fight, there were rumours of a low PPV buy rate. However, these rumours were not entirely true as the fight still reached the 1 million mark even though Robert Guerrero was not a very well known fighter and Mayweather had not attended much of the press tour to promote the fight. The initial rumours of a low PPV return were likely started as a tactic by certain business rivals of Mayweather, Golden Boy and Showtime, in an attempt to take some of the momentum away from Mayweather following this impressive win as they knew what his next move would likely be....a monumental showdown with Mexican superstar and Undisputed Jr Middleweight Champion Saul "Canelo" Alvarez.....

 

The fight was made at a catchweight a 152lbs, but there would be no limit on the much younger champion's weight in the ring on fight night. Alvarez could weigh as much as he liked come bell time. Canelo took full advantage of this, coming in the ring at a whopping 170lbs compared to the 149 of the much smaller Mayweather.

 

The hype for this fight was enormous, and rightly so. Saul Alvarez had established himself as the man at Junior Middleweight, and seemed to have the style, strength and poise to end Mayweathers reign of dominance. The Mexican looked fierce in training camp, and his team had trouble finding sparring partners to last, and he was not having any trouble at all taking off the extra 2lbs for this fight. In his final week of sparring, Mayweather had to take a knee following a shot to the ribs from his unknown sparring partner. It was looking like Floyds time was indeed over.

 

From the opening bell, Mayweather stood right infront of the much larger Alvarez, controlling the centre of the ring and forcing his opponent to think. Everything Canelo tried, Mayweather countered or nullified easily with a level of defense which I have never seen before and probably won't see again after he retires. Everything Floyd tried, worked. During the middle rounds, Mayweather landed a remarkable right uppercut which he threaded through the guard of Alvarez which will stay in my mind for the rest of my life. It was a punch which might not look like much to the untrained eye, but in the eyes of boxing purists everywhere it was seen for what it was - a true feat of technical brilliance to rank alongside Sugar Ray Robinsons counter left hook which knocked out Gene Fullmer as well as many others. Even after watching the fight over 10 times, I still have no idea how Mayweather was able to land it with such accuracy and force.

 

 

Mayweather beat the fight out of the young champion, and took the fight on what was in reality a complete shutout win, with the less said about CJ Ross' scorecard the better.

 

 

 

In the wake of the fight, those who still chose to criticise Mayweather tried to say that Alvarez didn't try hard enough. Hogwash, Alvarez did all he could, he was just in with one of boxing's all-time greats who played with him, showing everyone watching what greatness is all about. The fight was expected to do monster business, yet it exceeded expectations, drawing 2.2 million PPV buys which on paper was not as much as the 2.4 record which Mayweather set against De La Hoya in 2007, but in total PPV revenue they drew much more money than the fight in 2007, setting a new record as well as new record for a live gate in ticket sales. In an age where it is very difficult for fighters to become mainstream stars, Floyd Mayweather shines brightest and as a result is the highest paid athlete on earth.

 

Floyd Mayweather Sinclair might not be everyone's taste as far as his public persona, and some may have a point in saying he is not exciting in the ring, but neither was Pernell Whitaker or Wilfredo Benitez just for the record. However, when a man is so far above all of the available competition to the point where he is very rarely tested in a brutal toe to toe fight, you cannot hold that against him. He has been tested enough for this observer's taste, having watched him go from being robbed at the 1996 Olympics to where he stands today; on top of the fistic universe....the greatest fighter of his generation....and one of the greatest fighters of all time.

 

He's also my 2013 fighter of the year.

Stephanie likes it hard

Feinstein's claim on the ECW footage is based on an agreement they made back when RF Video and ECW home video were running more or less as one, I believe. He's been selling them ever since, so imagine he's made a decent chunk off them, especially since they started re-releasing them on DVD and putting new compilations together.

 

Regarding those Kayfabe Commentary DVD's, I remember them using footage (I forget what of), with "Footage courtesy of YouTube" running along the bottom. Rascals.

Also

I like the Mayweather vs Cotto fight, from what's on the table regarding alternative opponents not named Manny Pacquiao. As usual, Mayweather will catch a lot of shit from the usual groups of nay-sayers with the same tired arse criticisms.

 

Unlike the Cotto vs Pacquiao fight (held at 144lbs yet was still for Cotto's WBOwelterweight title ), this will not be a catchweight, this will be at 154.

 

I've remained positive about the Floyd vs Pac fight, as I believed that it would be made eventually. However, (and I've never said this before ) this fight will never happen. It's not because of how long this bollocks has been going on for, it's because of one man.... Bob Arum. I've seen more than enough evidence to know that he has never had any intention of making the fight, not because of any fear of his biggest star being on the end of an inevitable humiliating beat down from Floyd.... It's due to the fact that he really does not want anybody outside of Top Rank anywhere near his business records as far as Manny Pacquiao is concerned.

 

I really want to go into detail on this, but I'm having to use my tablet to post and it takes ages to do so on these things, but to put it in the simplest terms; Arum and Koncz (Mannys adviser), beginning with the Cotto fight in November 2009，have been robbing Pacquiao of serious money.... I'm talking millions here. Now, some of you will probably already read or heard this rumour, but the articles on various websites have all mysteriously vanished. Obviously, you can't take articles on the web for gospel, so I done some research of my own and used a few of my own contacts to point me in the right direction. There was also a public domain record from the NSAC released into the boxing media community this week, and although it doesn't automatically prove anything on its own, but it does when you dig into the subject properly.

 

In a nutshell, Floyd and Manny generate roughly the same PPVbuys each time they fight.... However, Floyd hasbeen paid; $20M vs Ortiz, $20M for Mosley, $15 for Marquez and $12M for Hatton, those totals are amounts which he was guaranteed and he received these amounts but they do not include his cut of the PPV buys.

 

Pacquiao however, has never received more than $6M for any of his fights beginning with the Hatton fight. Arum hid behind the smokescreen of "he will probably clear roughly around $15M for each fight. There's only one problem though, Manny never received any of the PPV money, so even taking out Arum's 27.5% cut, there's still millions not accounted for. Manny also had a company called VisionQuest to review his financial status, and not long after they began, they noticed "seriously alarming discrepancies regarding Mannys fight purses, and even more concerned with numerous withdrawals by Mike Koncz for ridiculous amounts of money, and why Koncz had bought a house for himself using Pacquiao's money and WITHOUT PACQUIAO'S KNOWLEDGE ".

 

Not long after raising the alarm to Manny, Arum convinced Pacquiao to fire them because they "didn't know what they were doing". Strange eh?

 

It doesn't end there. Pacquiao has lately this last year, received advances from Arum during training camps for cars etc, in the weeks leading up to the 3rd Marquez fight, Manny got an advance from Arum to buy a Ferrari for something not much less than 500K, to be paid back out of his purse for the fight. Read on; When fighters get a cut of PPV money, it doesn't go to them in one lump sum, it can take up to a year for everything to be paid up.... For example; they might get 50k one month, then 200k the next month and so on. Pacquiao didn't know that, he may not even today, so when Arum on behalf of Top rank collects the loan back from Manny for the large sums he kept being advanced.... in reality those advances were his own money anyway from the PPV percentage checks which kept rolling in every month, unknown to Manny. In essence he was paying for those cars twice over.

,

It's a ticking timebomb soon to go off. Most articles on the web regarding this have been pulled off, but there's a couple of interviews with Ariza and Freddie Roach where they more or less confirm these stories.

Will def be going to this:Kell Brook back in SheffieldI have liked Brook for a while now - what does everyone else think of him? Contender or flash in the pan?

He has all of the right qualities to do very, very well; Athletically gifted, marvellous reflexes, a rare level of anticipation and alley cat instinct to go with his very good boxing brain. A lifetime of being in the same gym alongside a handful of talented fighters hasn't hurt either. Of course, Naz was the biggest example of those gym buddies who helped him along. Iron sharpens iron. Although I don't think the comparisons with Hamed are entirely accurate, because Kell is far more conventional than Naz ever was as far as movement and style goes. IMO, he is very good to watch and I fully expect him to do well, while giving fans a few exciting moments on the way. --------One more thing, to answer Ebb's question about DVD sellers and their ads in BN, normally I only use Superstars of boxing, whose service is always great in every way. As far as guys like 4-play-fights, they are very very expensive, and the extra cost of his career sets are not really worth it just for the sake of one or two more fights (which are almost always fights from very very early in the fighters career. On average, a career set from SOB will cost about

Floyd Mayweather Jr has avoided starting his jail sentence for domestic violence until June 1 after a judge ruled that he can fight an as-yet unnamed opponent in May believed to be Manny Pacquiao

....and in response to the vast amount of requests, the State of Nevada has released a photo of the Federal Judge who granted this request from Mayweather's legal team ;the Judge has also released the following statement to the media ; "Let's get it on!!"

Anyone following the Khan story about the mystery man at ringside during the Peterson fight? Its pretty fascinating stuff the way Khans claim is shown in pictures. If something dodgy is revealed from this it would be ace.

Yeah, it would really be something to celebrate wouldn't it? Regarding the Khan/Peterson fight, I didn't have a problem with the referee penalizing Khan for the forearms. Yes, we see hundreds of fighters using forearms, but it depends on which referee you have and how you use the forearm to push and shove an opponent. Good fighters develop an ability (mainly using their forearms and elbows) to control an opponents movement at close quarters , and to create space for their own offence whilst limiting the other guy can do. It's an art form in itself, and the finest practitioner of these techniques right now is of course Floyd Mayweather. Guys who do it well, will do it somewhat discreetly and at the correct moments, unlike how Amir was during the Peterson fight, which was the main thing that lead to the referee docking him. Just shoving your opponent back crudely will probably get you penalized sharpish, depending on the referee, and to be fair, the ref gave Amir plenty of warnings.Here's a quick example of how to control an aggressive opponent as they come forward, Skip to exactly 2 minutes of this video for the best example.....of course, that is a gifted fighter doing that, but you get the idea. Of course, Joe Cortez would've probably looked the other way during that fight if Mayweather even kneed Hatton in the balls, but I know that no ref would reprimand a fighter for doing it in similar fashion to what Floyd does in that clip and in most of his fights.In this next clip, the young George Foreman tears the HW crown from Joe Frazier, implementing shoving tactics which make those of Amir Khan seem tame and subtle, as part of a simple fight plan laid out to him by All-time great and boxing mastermind Archie Moore. Simple, but effective tactics which took away Frazier's only real chance of winning, which was his ability to create momentum and set up his famous left hooks. Looking at that fight, you could understand Khan's frustration, but at the end of the day, it all depends on which referee you get and how you approach these things.Frazier Vs Foreman IRegarding the mystery man at ringside ; whoever he is, his communication with one of the WBA or IBF representatives at ringside (it's not a judge he is speaking to), that does look suspect, so it will be interesting to see what explaination comes out. However, this was a Golden Boy promoted show, and Amir Khan was the house fighter in reality because Lamont Peterson can't sell tickets to save his life, so on the surface, a "pay-off" doesn't seem anywhere near as likely as people are making out, not when you really think about it. It's not like Khan was fighting Saul Alvarez in Mexico city, or Chavez Jr in Culiacan, so it doesn't really add up. It will be interesting to see what comes out though. In all of this BS, everyone seems to be losing sight of the fact that Khan didn't perform well during the fight , which was probably due to Peterson putting in a great performance, and not just down to Khan "not showing up" as most are suggesting. Khan is a very vulnerable boy sometimes, particularly when he throws combinations, because he ends up way out of position....and when he goes to the ropes, he has a habit of reeling back into the ropes and allowing the momentum to carry his upper body towards his opponent, these were things that Peterson should be given full credit for, because he saw his chances and took them.

Short clip of Roberto Duran in Rocky 2 as Rocky's sparring partner

 

Was this common knowledge? I've seen this film loads of times and had no idea he was in this.

 

 

 

 

"If you can catch him, you can catch Creed easy"

 

 

Funnily enough, Duran billed himself as "Rocky Duran" for a little while up until he ripped the WBA Lightweight title from Ken Buchanan in 1972. After that, he went through a phase of calling himself "Super Man" also. As far as I'm concerned, he can call himself Andre the Giant if he likes, I love the man (although I don't rank him the best ever, he's in my top 5 P4P.)

 

I've been offline for a while, my laptop contracted AIDS or something similar. My god, there's been some serious discussion going on while I've been away....

 

Titles and sanctioning bodies ;

 

Whilst I agree that there is absolute madness going on in this area, I would like to point out that this is nothing new. This is something which has been going on for a long, long time, even as far as back to the 1940's. Around that time, each State athletic commission or governing body recognised their own "World" Champion, and the New York State Athletic Commision was not only one of the worst perpatrators (sp?), but also the most powerful boxing organisation in the world , rivaled only by the National Sporting Club, which later became the British Boxing Board of Control.

 

With the New York area being the centre of the boxing world back then, the NYSAC held a stranglehold on the sport and the vast majority of it's box-office attractions. Not only would there be some strange goings on within America between all of the different area commissions, but situations would develop where promoters over here in the UK would become very frustrated with the Yanks and all of their skull duggery, along with their extreme reluctance to allow any of their "World" champions to defend titles over here (mainly due to the different scoring system and referee being the only judge of fights) so the British promoters on many occassions created their own "World" title. One promoter in particular called Jack Solomons was very partial to doing this, so much so, that the lineage of the titles he created are still referenced to this day as "Solomons title", or something similar.

 

It is because of situations like those, which are to blame for legitimatley brilliant, all-time great fighters from the UK such as Len Harvey forever having an asterisk next to their names which read "Jack Solomons title", thus taking the shine from their brilliance through no fault of their own. Anyway, I'm rambling on again now, but the point I'm making, is that this has been going on for a long, long time, but when you have great fighters in great fights, contesting these titles no matter how bogus they are, that's what it's all about.

 

Since 2000 onwards, things have really began to get out of control as far as Alphabet soup goes, but a fair share of the blame must rest on the shoulders of certain TV networks, for offering more money to broadcast certain fights which had things like "WBU" attatched to it.

 

One of the best examples, is the classic battle from everybody's favourite British rivalry - Benn Vs Eubank. After Benn's defeat to Michael Watson, he went to America and bagged himself a WBO Middleweight title, which the British Boxing Board of Control refused to recognise, and only agreed to approve of this title when they saw the amount of money to be made by staging a World title fight between these two rivals who the British public were begging to see fight eachother. I encourage everyone to go and look at all of the press coverage and boxing trade magazines from the time of their first fight, and you will see all of the many articles and reader's letters attatched to the Benn Vs Eubank fight and the "bogus" title which they were fighting for.

 

There has been many great fights which have been attatched to a seemingly bogus championship, Arturo Gatti Vs Mickey Ward 1 being one of them, along with Mickey Ward Vs Shea Neary.

 

Anyway, this is a discussion about World level boxing. That aside, no matter how ridiculous the Alphabet situation is, there is still the mountain of prestige which goes with something like a British title fight and the pursuit of a Lord Lonsdale Challenge belt.

 

That's just a quick post in response to keep the debate going, I've got a few things to get off my chest and some interesting stuff to post regarding a few hot topics in boxing, some of it rather shocking, which I haven't had a chance to share with anyone since I've been offline.

 

I'll be back in a couple of hours, Merry Christmas.

whats everyone's opinion on last weekend's Martinez/Barker fight?

 

been a kind of weird reaction to the fight. I watched the Sky broadcast, which was very pro-Barker. They made me feel like the fight was really close and gave nothing but praise to Barker after finally losing in the 11th round.

 

I picked up Boxing News this week though and the reaction across the pond was apparently a lot different, saying that Barker was poor with many believing he took a bit of a dive to get out of the fight.

 

where do you sit?

 

I know I'm a bit late but....

 

I thought Barker done extremely well, but I wasn't surprised because I was well aware of his quality going into the fight. One thing that seems to be rife in boxing right now, and it is one of my pet hates, fighters don't seem to lose anymore, or have tough fights which they ultimatley show their class by shining through in the end....now they get "exposed". It's ridiculous. A lot of writers and so-called experts, mainly in the US, they are forever banging on about how certain fighters don't take the biggest challenges and when they do fight, they don't put it all on the line. However, when these fighters do take big challenges and fight with it all on the line, and sometimes end up just scraping a win after a tough fight (which is the mark of all great fighters, who can adjust and always find a way), then these same writers then go and say things like "Oh, he was made to look ordinary" or "he was exposed tonight" and the classic "He just isn't what he was". So what we get, is guys taking easier fights, and when they do take a step up, it's more often than not, a safety first fight with all the drama sucked out of it, and it robs us of the chance to see how good these fighters really are, because no matter how much talent you have, you can only see who is great when they are pushed to prove it.

 

Honestly, I found a lot of the criticism against Barker from the American press to be absolutley disgraceful, and for the most part, I think a lot of them were looking for an explanaition as to how so-called experts like they pretend to be, how they could of overlooked the quality of Barker, as he has been well known in boxing circles as a very good technician, well schooled amateur and has given many, many top class fighters a lot of problems in sparring over the last decade, and those guys are supposed to be professionals and get paid to cover these fights, so they should've known all this, I mean, it wasn't a secret or anything, for fuck's sake, a 10-minute clip on Youtube could tell them that Martinez was going in against a live opponent.

 

Anyone who thinks Barker "took a dive"....well, those people must surely be smoking the strongest form of crack known to man. The finishing shot didn't look like much, but you could see Barker starting to slow down a couple of rounds prior, and it was an accumulation of punishment. I know that he sustained a perforated ear drum as a result of Martinez's final series of lead right hooks, and believe me, that fucking hurts, and your equilibrium goes all over the place.

 

If I was handling Barker's career, I would put him in with Chavez Jr. in a heartbeat, because I KNOW he would win that fight. Of course, Chavez Jr is a shockingly overhyped product who is only getting the star treatment not only due to his father, but because he has the same name. If he had a different first name but was still Chavez's kid and the same fighter, he wouldn't have the big contract. Anyway, the reason I'm using Chavez Jr as an example, is because a lot of those idiotic US writers are scoffing at Barker being heralded as World Class, but if Chavez Jr is in the middle of the 160lb rankings, then you bet your arse that Barker is at least on the same level. Anyway, I look forward to the moment when Bob Arum finally decides to put his Mexican cash cow out to pasture when he allows him to go in with Saul Alvarez.

 

 

 

Someone earlier mentioned who they have as their number 1 Heavyweight of all time, in Rocky Marciano, so I'll just give my top few while I'm on it.

 

Normally, the same names float about in my top 10, from 5-10, they change every now and then when I'm thinking to myself, but my top four is always the same....

 

4 -

 

Rocky Marciano - Retired undefeated, mainly to get out of his contract with his overbearing manager, and planned to return against Ingamarr Johansson in 1959. After not training in 3 years, he went through one month of training camp, but quickly realised that his hunger for the sport was no longer there and after seeing Sonny Liston perform so well against Patterson, Marciano officially closed the book on his fabled career. His record of 49-0 will always be significant, however, the quality of opposition prevents me from being able to put him higher than I do, because there was no denigrating Marciano's greatness, because he was great, but he is somewhat penalised by history because even though it was no fault of his own, it remains that his overall record and the 6 defences of his HW title, unfortunatley does not hold up as well as the other three guys in my solid top four.

 

Finest achievement/s ;

 

-- The only Heavyweight champion of the world to retire undefeated, leaving a record of 49-0, and one of the small handfull of champions of any division to do so.

 

Best Known For ;

 

-- Incredible ability to absorb massive amounts of punishment, before coming back to destroy his opponent.

-- The owner of arguably the most devastating single punch in the history of boxing - the right hand which he named "The Suzie Q".

 

Interesting Fact ;

 

-- One of the very few fighters in history to make the unusual move of turning professional, then going back to compete in an amateur Golden Gloves tournament, and then back to professional.

 

 

Number 3 -

 

Jack Johnson. One of the very first defensive fighters in the history of boxing, certainly the first defensive fighter of the Gloved era. It seems like he was 50 years ahead of his time, both in and out of the ring. Inside the ropes, he displayed a skill level so advanced that not only was it under appreciated, but for most of the time, the sublime subtleties which were unique to his repetoire weren't noticed at all. Johnson built up a stellar record on his pursuit of the Heavyweight Championship. Well overdue a title shot, Johnson literally chased the Heavyweight title holder Tommy Burns around the world during the champions tour across the globe. Eventually, after Johnsons Heavyweight man hunt which took in England, France, Germany and a few other European areas, and had also lasted for two years, the champion agreed to face Johnson on December 26th 1908 in Sydney Australia. Johnson had already been the "Coloured Heavyweight Champion" for some time, but this was his first chance at the real thing, and as he always said he would, Johnson came out and absolutley battered Burns, and even played with him in the way a cat would with a mouse. After multiple rounds of sheer humiliation, the Sydney Police Constabulary entered the ring and ordered the fight to be stopped, and also forced the cameras to be turned off, because not only was Burns recieving a terrible beating, but in their eyes a white man simply could not be seen to lose to a black man, and definatley not in this fashion. The title was then awarded to the challenger, and via KO, Jack Johnson had became the first black man to officially win the World HW Champion of boxing in the gloved era.

 

Johnson would dominate for quite some time, beating all of the "White Hopes" which the establishment in boxing could find to dethrone him. This quest to rip the crown from Johnsons head became an obsession for some, but one man in particular made it his mission, and that was the famous writer Jack London. He looked for challengers far and wide, and at certain times he became so desperate to find one such fighter, that on more than one occasion, he would look for the "biggest, strongest and whitest challenger". Eventually, London gave up hope of finding an unknown to beat Johnson, and turned his attention to the one man who he believed would whip Johnson easily....the now retired former Heavyweight champion James J. Jeffries (and undefeated at the time). London, using all of his Newspaper influence, coaxed Jeffries out of retirement, so the former champion could, as he put it, "reclaim the rightful property of the white race, and whipe the smile from that yellow nigger's face"....

 

Jeffries agreed to come out of retirement and stated ;

 

"I feel obligated to the sporting public at least to make an effort to reclaim the heavyweight championship for the white race. . . . I should step into the ring again and demonstrate that a white man is king of them all".

 

Johnson really couldn't believe his luck, as he had courted a fight with the supposedly unbeatable Jeffries for years while the former champion was active during his title reign, but Johnson couldn't land a shot because Jeffries kept on hiding behind the colour bar.

 

Even back then, though, the money had to do the talking before the fight would be made, and promoter Tex Ricard gave both men massive advanced guarantees, and the fight was on. This would also mark the first time that Tex Rickard would construct one of the purpose built wooden outdoor arenas which his promotions would become synonymous with, capable of holding over 100,000 spectators. The fight took place in Reno, Nevada. Tex Rickard himself was the referee, after President Taft was unable to attend. Yes, the US President. Once again, Johnson toyed with his opponent, even going as far as pinning Jeffries' hands behind his own back, rendering him helpless, whilst Johnson laughed hysterically and taunted his enemies at ringside while he pummelled the former champion into a pathetic mess. The fight was stopped by Tex Rickard in the 15th of the scheduled 45 rounds, although most eye witness accounts and film footage states that Johnson could've ended the fight as early as the 3rd round, but carried the former champion, partially for his own amusment, and partially to ensure that the footage of the fight could be sold to movie theatres across the country. Unfortunatley, this fight sparked race riots across the country, resulting in several deaths. Because of this, US congress passed a law which prohibited the showing of fight films in the USA, a law which stood for a handful of years.

 

 

Johnson defeats Jeffries.

 

Anyway, due to Johnson's performances against top class opposition and the manner in which he did so, I have him number 3 in my "Solid four."

 

Finest Achievements ;

 

-- First black World Heavyweight Champion.

--First, and only man to defeat James J. Jeffries.

 

Best Known For ;

 

--Outrageous behaviour.

--Incredible strength, defensive prowess and unpredictability.

 

Interesting Facts ;

 

--Forced into exhile from United States for years, essentially because he married a white woman and travelling with her. The US government was determined to punish Jack Johnson for daring to be the best fighter in the world and a flamboyant one at that.

 

---Johnson died in a car accident in 1946. He drove into a diner at a highway service station, where he was refused to serve him because he was black. Angrily, Johnson raced off in his car down the highway, where he lost control of the wheel, and crashed into a telephone pole. He was taken to the nearest black hospital, where he died of his injuries. The following day, the newspapers headline read ; "Jack Johnson dies, crossing the colour line for the last time."

 

--It is also said, although there is no solid evidence, that while he was living in England during his time in exhile, Johnson had attempted to board HMS Titanic for its ill-fated journey, and he was refused entry by the Captain, who legend has it, said to Johnson ; "I ain't hauling no coal on here." Although, this story has always been nothing more than an urban myth.

 

 

I will post my numbers 1 and 2 in a little while, because that took a little longer than I expected My god I hope someone enjoys reading this a little bit

The lisp has officially gone....

 

And just for fun, one of my all-time favourite Eubank howlers....

 

 

Anyone see the Michael Watson Story on Sky Sports over the weekend? I thought it was really good. What's up with Eubank though, is he ill or something? He looked really thin. Even more surprising he seems to have swapped his lisp for a really fucking irritating whistly S

 

Can't believe it's been 20 years since the Watson incident.

 

I was just about to post something along the same lines myself regarding the Watson documentary. During the sections with Eubank, I kept thinking to myself "Something's not right, here" or "Is there something different about him?", I couldn't put my finger on it. Then, I realised that what was missing, was his iconic lisp. Then it hit me that the reports of Eubank paying something in the region of