Boxing Thread

[CiKe]

God rees was great for 7 rounds then ran out of gas completely, very disappointed in Murray he was about 6inches short for the entire first half of the fight.

[Atticus_Finch]

Forgot to say earlier, fair play to Eamon O'Kane who won in the first round in his first pro fight.

For a guy that needed a big last round was disappointed with the lack of urgency shown by Murray, obviously tired as well but still think he could have dug a bit deeper.

[BennyHarp]

Did anyone see the final of prizefighter tonight? Junior Witter dancing around like a right cocky hoor, ended up getting chucked out of the ring on top of a camera man! Yassine el maachi won in the end! Very bizarre though!

[JimStynes]

He's back 

Floyd Mayweather Jr to fight Victor Ortiz for WBC welterweight title• Mayweather announces title fight on Twitter
• 'I have been blessed,' says Ortiz

Floyd Mayweather Jr has announced on Twitter that he will fight the WBC welterweight champion Victor Ortiz in September. Photograph: Ethan Miller/Getty Images
Floyd Mayweather Jr has claimed he will return to the ring on 17 September against the WBC welterweight champion Victor Ortiz. "My fans have been waiting long enough," the 34-year-old said when announcing the fight on Twitter.

The statement spread rapidly on the internet and the Californian Ortiz replied to persistent inquiries with his own tweet: "u will know soon enough." Ortiz posted a later tweet: "I'm on road to another great fight w pound for pound Floyd Mayweather! I am blessed."

Mayweather, who lives in Las Vegas and has several court charges to deal with there, did not say where the fight would take place but Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, has been mentioned as a possible venue. His last fight was in May 2010, when he outpointed Shane Mosley, who subsequently lost to Manny Pacquiao.

The mega-fight between Mayweather and Pacquiao, first mooted two years ago, remains a distant possibility. The Filipino's promoter, Bob Arum, claimed on Monday that Mayweather had turned down an offer of $65m (£40m) from "legitimate people in Singapore" to fight Pacquiao.

Ortiz last fought in April when he beat Andre Berto to win the title, which Mayweather once owned. Ortiz has fought twice on undercards of Amir Khan's American fights and is a close friend of the Bolton fighter. Khan has started training for the fifth defence of his WBA light-welterweight title, against the American Zab Judah at the Mandalay Bay Casino, Las Vegas, on 23 July. Promoters are due to announce further details of the fight on Wednesday.

[Up The Middle]

Did anyone see the final of prizefighter tonight? Junior Witter dancing around like a right cocky hoor, ended up getting chucked out of the ring on top of a camera man! Yassine el maachi won in the end! Very bizarre though!

Watched it alright. The 2 of them in the final were jumping all over each other, they were like 2 dogs on heat they couldnt wait to get tore into each other and it just looked messy.

[Jimmy]

Anyone follow Kahn on twitter. He's been retweeting a rant from one of his advisers who is giving off about sky not wanting to show his fight with Judah. Reading between the lines, sky don't want anything to do with him at the minute after the hash that was made of the mccloskey fight and sky. Between various blogs and rumors (admittedly online) Kahn seems to think he is worth alot more than he is and seems to be very greedy, even by boxers standards, when it comes to TV deals/fighters. I'm sure atticus could confirm this. I'm sure he'll be back on sky at some point, probably even this fight will end up on sky, but maybe he'll learn not to bite the hand that feeds him.

[Tony Baloney]

Anyone follow Kahn on twitter. He's been retweeting a rant from one of his advisers who is giving off about sky not wanting to show his fight with Judah. Reading between the lines, sky don't want anything to do with him at the minute after the hash that was made of the mccloskey fight and sky. Between various blogs and rumors (admittedly online) Kahn seems to think he is worth alot more than he is and seems to be very greedy, even by boxers standards, when it comes to TV deals/fighters. I'm sure atticus could confirm this. I'm sure he'll be back on sky at some point, probably even this fight will end up on sky, but maybe he'll learn not to bite the hand that feeds him.

Was reading a bit in the paper about it. Sky have told him they're not interested as there was no interest in the McCloskey fight which was downgraded to a PPV fight to just another fight on Sky Sports 3. Khan is in the Golden Boy stable and one of their representatives has said Sky can't pick and chose fights from their stable - it's the heap or nothing so I'd fully expect Khan to be back on again.

[Rav67]

Anyone follow Kahn on twitter. He's been retweeting a rant from one of his advisers who is giving off about sky not wanting to show his fight with Judah. Reading between the lines, sky don't want anything to do with him at the minute after the hash that was made of the mccloskey fight and sky. Between various blogs and rumors (admittedly online) Kahn seems to think he is worth alot more than he is and seems to be very greedy, even by boxers standards, when it comes to TV deals/fighters. I'm sure atticus could confirm this. I'm sure he'll be back on sky at some point, probably even this fight will end up on sky, but maybe he'll learn not to bite the hand that feeds him.

Was reading a bit in the paper about it. Sky have told him they're not interested as there was no interest in the McCloskey fight which was downgraded to a PPV fight to just another fight on Sky Sports 3. Khan is in the Golden Boy stable and one of their representatives has said Sky can't pick and chose fights from their stable - it's the heap or nothing so I'd fully expect Khan to be back on again.

I think that Golden Boy statement is a complete bluff.  I imagine if one of their other fighters was going to lose money in the future because of Team Khan's argument that fighter would be extremely fucked off.  They're not team-mates or anything so I don't think they'd be willing to stand together.

[Atticus_Finch]

Sky's reluctance to stage any future Khan fights was inevitable after the way Khan's team behaved during negotiations in the run up to the Khan vs McCloskey fight. 

Khan's team acted in a very short sighted way following McCloskey vs Khan losing its PPV status.  It is well documented that the removal of the fight from Sky Box Office cost Khan's team a fortune in lost revenue.  In order to try and salvage some of that lost revenue they then tried to play Sky and Primetime off against each other.  Khan's advisers at the time felt they had done the right thing by signing up with Primetime to stage the McCloskey fight as they got a few extra pounds but surely they most look back with hindsight and realise how absolutely stupid they were, the move has effectively exiled Khan.  He can't stage a big fight in the UK without the backing of Sky. The loss in terms of UK television exposure will ensure that Khan will never have a fanbase that would even come close to someone like Ricky Hatton who became a fan favourite through his fights being televised on sky.

And if we take a step back from this and ask who is responsible for this ? There is only one answer.  Time and time again Khan's team have shown signs of greed and short changing people. There is a clear chain of causation in this incident.  The fighters on the undercard were not rewarded as they should have been and it was only a decent undercard that would ensure that McCloskey vs Khan was a PPV event.  When Matthew Macklin dropped out of the fight, Sky had no option but to downgrade the fight on to one of its sports channels.  After the disaster that was Fraudley vs Haye they had an obligation to give boxing fans a quality fight night for their money. Sky having put considerable money into already promoting the fight (e.g. they filmed two 24/7 style pre-fight buildup programmes which ended up never being aired) were obviously still keen to have it on one of their sports channels and that had to be Sky Sports 3 as Sky Sports 1 was "booked up" showing the el classico.  Khan's team then tried to make life as difficult as they could for Sky all with the aim of getting a few more pounds.  If you want to / have to work with someone at a future date it's never a great idea to make life difficult for them !

What's going to help bring a resolution to this problem for Khan ?  A proposed boycott of Sky by Golden Boy fighters ??  Come on seriously folks .... as Rav67 has alluded to already - Richard Schaefer is fooling no one here, this is a complete bluff.  The next big fight involving Golden Boy fighters is mayweather vs Ortiz .... i guarantee you now that fight will be covered by Sky.  Do you think mayweather or ortiz are going to stand in solidarity and lose out on UK tv revenue because some little pr!ck from Bolton let his family manage his affairs poorly and in the process of doing so fcuked off Sky televison ??  The guys that ran the tuck shop in my former school had more business acumen than Shah Khan and his bunch of goats .... and they gave the sweets away for free !

The only possible fight involving Khan that Sky would come under pressure to televise from boxing fans would be against Timothy Bradley,  that's not going to happen anytime soon and here is something that most people arn't considering what if Khan gets beat by Judah ? I think it's a distinct possibility and if Judah could just hop in a Delorean go back five years ago when he fought Mayweather, bring that Judah back with him to 2011 .... then my friends I would say it would be a certainty. 

The way that McCloskey vs Khan fight turned out vindicated Sky's refusal to play dice with the Khan's .... if Judah beats Khan i can't see any fighters going chasing Khan for a fight especially with his team's reputation of making life difficult during negotiations ... and once again Sky's decision could be vindicated.

The one man that owes a big thank you to Khan's team is Carl Froch.  Khan's loss is Froch's gain.  He's never off ringside now and the exposure he will get by Sky this year will be huge and will turn him into a household name.

I think at 100/1 (with Boylesports and Betfred) that he is a huge price for Sports Personality of the Year Award ... allow me to briefly explain why ...

1. Exposure - as alluded to already, the reason why Carl Froch has not been a household name is been due to exposure he now has that and now has well connected promoters in the form of the Hearns.
2. Chances of success and the timing of that success - This is the crucial point to my explanation. In 2007 Joe Calzaghe won the SPOTY - in that same year he had two fights he beat peter manfredo in April and beat Mikel Kessler in November.  my point is that the memory of Calzaghe winning was fresh in the minds of the public when it came to voting in December.  Froch is due to fight Andre Ward in October or early December (it can't be November as Pacquiao vs marquez is on then).  I think he has a good chance of beating Ward and if he does he'll have two world title belts to his name (WBA & WBC). If that happens he would be a shoe in to make the nominees for SPOTY.
3. Ricky Hatton's empty shoes - The same year calzaghe won it, Ricky Hatton came third. He lost to Mayweather the day before the SPOTY awards but even though he didn't achieve the success that normally is needed for making the top 3 he got there because he is a likeable guy. Since Ricky Hatton has gone there has not been a fan favourite for British fight fans.  Khan is not a liked guy and haye turns alot of fans off with his trash talking.  froch has a down to earth manner and i expect that there will be a huge amount of fans travel to watch him against Ward.  Those fans will vote for Froch if he make the nominees.

If you believe david haye will beat wladimir and then Vitali this year then disregard my above advice.  He'll win SPOTY.  The British media will revel in the number 1 heavyweight fighter being British.  But I can't see this happening so i'm not taking it into consideration.

Not saying put the house on it but at a huge price of 100/1 - Froch is great great value and definitely worthy of a small punt

Going to end with this -i know a lot of you out there are interested in whether Mayweather vs Pacquiao will ever happen,  i'm slightly more hopeful about it happening now as Pacquiao settled a defamation lawsuit against Golden Boy's De la hoya and Schaefer which was brought about because of the whole drug testing allegations.  Pacquiao has received an apology from golden Boy and there was a confidential settlement reached.  He's stilll due to go to court with Mayweather over the same issue.  But this settlement seems to have at least paved the way for golden Boy and Bob Arum to work together in the future to bring about the fight.

[heganboy]

grea story:

Another that meant a lot to Tyson was his 1988 defense against aging former champ Larry Holmes, whom Tyson drilled in the fourth round.

"Cus had wanted me to beat him so bad," he said. Then he explained why, in a fascinating story I had never heard before.

Tyson explained that he was 14 when D'Amato took him and Jay Bright, a longtime member of Tyson's inner circle, from their home in Catskill, N.Y., to Albany to watch on closed circuit as Holmes retained the title in a 1980 destruction of the faded Muhammad Ali. Tyson even recalled the exact date: Oct. 2.

"I was offended by how bad he beat up Ali," Tyson said. "When we drove home to Catskill [about an hour from Albany], nobody in the car said a word, we were all so upset. The next morning, Cus was on the phone with Muhammad Ali after taking this shellacking from Holmes. He said to Ali, 'I have this young black kid who is going to be heavyweight champion someday and I want you to talk to him.'"

Tyson got on the phone and said he told Ali, "'When I grow up, I'll fight Holmes and I'll get him back for you.' I was 14 at the time."

When Tyson did meet Holmes seven years later, Ali was a guest at the fight. Tyson said Ali whispered to him beforehand, "Remember what you said -- get him for me."

from http://espn.go.com/sports/boxing/blog/_/name/rafael_dan/id/6648044/mike-tyson-reflects-hof-career

[DennistheMenace]

Seen dudey in the papers recently saying that a deal with Maidana is off which isn't suprising really but there are certainly still some options for McCloskey because of the backing sky have gave him, his fanbase and the multitude of fighters at his weight that he could fight. Hopefully he will at least be able to make a few big paydays for himself in the coming few years.

As for Khan, well he won't fight in the UK for a very long time, he doesn't have anywhere near a big fanbase and obviously the Sky fallout was the icing on the cake for him to move to USA. Personally I'm going to be very interested in the Fury v Chisora fight that is being shown on terrestial tv channel 5, granted the cover will be shit but the are 2 evenly matched boxers who should provide an entertaining and interesting fight.

Oh and Mayweather would need to be in good shape for his next fight or he could be in serious trouble.

[CiKe]

Seen dudey in the papers recently saying that a deal with Maidana is off which isn't suprising really but there are certainly still some options for McCloskey because of the backing sky have gave him, his fanbase and the multitude of fighters at his weight that he could fight. Hopefully he will at least be able to make a few big paydays for himself in the coming few years.

As for Khan, well he won't fight in the UK for a very long time, he doesn't have anywhere near a big fanbase and obviously the Sky fallout was the icing on the cake for him to move to USA. Personally I'm going to be very interested in the Fury v Chisora fight that is being shown on terrestial tv channel 5, granted the cover will be shit but the are 2 evenly matched boxers who should provide an entertaining and interesting fight.

Oh and Mayweather would need to be in good shape for his next fight or he could be in serious trouble.

Mayweather has never been anything other than in tip top shape, Ortiz will do well to get close to him. Showed a lot of heart but Berto isn't no Mayweather

[Capt Pat]

Ward and Moylette won their european amateur championship golds today.

Now they need to qualify for the Olympics later in the year.

[The Claw]

SO does Macklin have much of a chance against Sturn tomorrow night?

[mayogodhelpus@gmail.com]

Great to see the man from Islandeady, Castlebar, Ray Moylette bringing the Gold back to Ireland. Well done to Mr.Ward too. Well done lads.