Boxing Thread

[wandshogun09]

Amir Khan's saying that himself but it won't be for a while yet.Khan's fighting Lamont Peterson next then moving up to 147. From what I'm reading the talk is that he'd have a couple of fights at that weight (Matthew Hatton is rumoured to be his 147 debut opponent but fuck knows) and then Mayweather would be the 3rd fight for him at 147.

[Mr Lawrence]

Lewis destroys Golota.

 

Good Hagler interview. Love Hagler, great fighter, great look.

 

hearns int.

[Egg Shen]

I deffo thought Barker gave a good effort, he was just outmatched imo. The Sky commentators did seem a bit pro Barker to me, I never gave Barker more than 2 or 3 rounds myself and had Martinez comfortably ahead before the stoppage.

yeh i think they made me feel it was a bit closer than it actually was. I got the HBO version here, i need to watch it....whilst i don't think Barker was close to winning it, i thought he did a great job of not allowing Martinez to perform.

[britishwrestlinglegends]

Lewis destroys Golota.

Good Hagler interview. Love Hagler, great fighter, great look.

hearns int.

I enjoyed all 3 links thanks . I could not decide what was more dodgy? Hagler"s knee length white socks or the interviewers budgie smuggling shorts .

[wandshogun09]

Lewis destroys Golota.

Good Hagler interview. Love Hagler, great fighter, great look.

hearns int.

Great stuff. Hagler is one of my all time favourite fighters. In my opinion he's the greatest middleweight in boxing history.Check out this little gem, Hagler and Hearns on CBS Sports Sunday in 1984 a year before they fought

[Mr Lawrence]

Lewis destroys Golota.

Good Hagler interview. Love Hagler, great fighter, great look.

hearns int.

I enjoyed all 3 links thanks . I could not decide what was more dodgy? Hagler"s knee length white socks or the interviewers budgie smuggling shorts .

Hagler carried the look off i think. The others geezers ball breakers wernt to flattering though. Reminded me of Creed in Rocky 3 on the beach. Creed had a quality jump suit in Rocky 2.more clps of easy to watch stuff

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLtmgCnxb5A...feature=relatedcalzage v mitchellhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyH4c-Mj2Wgcalzaghe doc before lacy fight - one of the best performances ever by any british fighter everray robinsn tribute, theres quite a few of these with simlar footage but i would reccomend anyone who's interested in boxing to watch them. Taylr Slade wrote a good piece on him a few pages back as well.

[Mr Lawrence]

Lewis destroys Golota.

Good Hagler interview. Love Hagler, great fighter, great look.

hearns int.

Great stuff. Hagler is one of my all time favourite fighters. In my opinion he's the greatest middleweight in boxing history.Check out this little gem, Hagler and Hearns on CBS Sports Sunday in 1984 a year before they fought

excellent stuff. boxers wanting to fight each other, that's what you need, they still had ego's and cash etc.... but they wanted to prove who was the best. not enough of that these days

[wandshogun09]

Box Nation on Saturday has 2 big fights on live with Cleverly vs Bellew at 7pm and Hopkins vs Dawson at 2am Sunday morning.

 

Also Prizefighter - Super Flyweights is on tonight at 8pm

 

Lee Haskins

Craig Lyon

Mike Robinson

Don Broadhurst

Ryan Farrag

Terry Broadbent

Nathan Reeve

Usman Ahmed

 

If you're not familiar with Usman Ahmed check this out

 

maybe the most hilarious knockout I've ever seen and after an entrance like that one of the most satisfying aswell

[Sergio Bellend]

Box Nation on Saturday has 2 big fights on live with Cleverly vs Bellew at 7pm and Hopkins vs Dawson at 2am Sunday morning.

 

Also Prizefighter - Super Flyweights is on tonight at 8pm

 

Lee Haskins

Craig Lyon

Mike Robinson

Don Broadhurst

Ryan Farrag

Terry Broadbent

Nathan Reeve

Usman Ahmed

 

If you're not familiar with Usman Ahmed check this out

 

maybe the most hilarious knockout I've ever seen and after an entrance like that one of the most satisfying aswell

 

Not started watching Prizefighter yet, but I love a bit of Uzzy. Technically though, that knockout didn't come after that entrance. The entrance is from a Commonwealth title fight with Chris Edwards in Stoke where he basically just took punches for 12 rounds and somehow never went down. I was there, and there's a quick shot of me in the crowd in that vid. He got sparked out by Ashley Sexton a few months after that in a different fight, which is the KO.

[Taylorslade]

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

[wandshogun09]

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

 

Yeah mate, I can't speak for anyone else but I'm sure I'm not the only one who loves reading these posts. Cheers for taking the time to post them.

 

The Jack Johnson stuff is really interesting. He had a really fascinating story. I've got a great documentary on disc somewhere which covers Jack Johnson's era and the Joe Louis/Max Schmeling rematch. I've been looking for it on Youtube so I could post a link but can't remember what the doc is called. I'll try and dig it out later and I'll bump this thread with the title. You've probably seen it Taylor but I'd recommend anyone to give it a look.

 

It specifically goes into great detail on Johnson. Stories of him being made to fight while blindfolded as a child for the entertainment of rich white men which led to his disdain towards his white opponents later on. And covers a lot how he opened the doors for black boxers and then how Joe Louis after him, carried it on being a more media friendly black fighter which was the beginnings of black acceptance in sports from the American public. Really interesting.

[Egg Shen]

great post TaylorSlade!

[Egg Shen]

talking of old fights, how the hell did fights look when they went 45 rounds? i can't imagine what kind of physical state fighters were in after that many rounds.

 

 

[Egg Shen]

who's everyone fancy in the Cleverly-Bellew fight?

 

just been watching Bunce's Boxing Hour which had interviews with both guys and showed the old press conference again, it's heated stuff. It's probably the most hate filled British fight of the year. Whislt DeGale/Groves was a big rivalry it seemed to be more a case of both guys wanting to prove they were the best, this fight genuinely seems to have a nastiness to it It's gonna be great.

[wandshogun09]

I fancy Cleverly to win handily to be honest. I'll go with a stoppage in the late rounds.

 

Loving the return of Buncey's Boxing Hour aswell. That was one of the things I missed most when Setanta went tits up.

Edited October 13, 2011 by wandshogun09