Boxing

[Galwaybhoy]

Last nights fight was brutal all right, the fans started to boo during the latter rounds.  Steward was clearly not happy with Taylor and after the final round Spinks started to run around the ring with his hands raised while the look on Taylors face showed that he clearly wasn't happy and thought he lost.  The Sky lads also thought Spinks deserved it, for what its worth I scored it similar to the American TV lads and two of the judges and thought Taylor won.  He may not have worked as hard as Spinks but Spinks being smaller always had to work a lot harder to even have a chance of beating Taylor.  Taylor landed cleaner punches and won more rounds.  I had Taylor by two points.

Pavlik beat Miranda in a great fight last night.  It stole the show.  It reminded me of Gatti vs Ward.  Very little defence and it was all out attack.  Taylor doesn't look that great imo and now might be the right time for Pavlik to face him if he wants to win a World title.  Though I don't think he could afford to be that gung ho against Taylor.  But since Calzaghe also wants a shot at Taylor it will be interesting to see what will happen.  I thought Taylor may be scared of Calzaghe and intentionally priced himself out of the market, but I have heard since he has lowered the asking price.

[An Laoch]

Yeah, it was a poor fight alright and I'd say Spinks is kicking himself he didn't do a little more to edge some of the rounds. Shocking to see how contrasting the judges scored the fight, it's difficult to believe they were watching the same bout.

Taylor looked completely disinterested, he just didn't box enough. Manny Steward was exasparated by his lack of effort. I'd like to see Calzaghe get a shot.

As mentioned by Galwaybhoy, the Pavlik fight was superb. He took some of Miranda's best shots - in one round he took 5 successive clean right hands and never buckled. Great to see 2 well matched boxers really go for it.

[CiKe]

saw the fights this morning and thought Spinks did just enough to win it - very skilled performance from him, and as GWB said, their respective reactions at the end of the fight said it all. A draw wouldn't have been an unfair result.

Miranda-Pavlik was great stuff altogether. Had read report saying Miranda looked weight drained before I watched the fight and right enough he seemed pretty knackered from the word go with little of his usual power in most of his punches. That said he did land some heavy blows and Pavlik absorbed it fairly easily.

On last nights performance I'd take Calzaghe to beat Taylor handily which I certainly wouldn't have done before

[Jack Dempsey]

On last nights performance I'd take Calzaghe to beat Taylor handily which I certainly wouldn't have done before

only loser here was calzaghe. Poor chap just doesnt have a worthy opponent out there and is suffering because if it

[CiKe]

Kessler is more than worthy of a fight with Calzaghe don't kid yourself. Calzaghe best wins are probably still Eubank and Lacy (who hadn't beaten anyone -that said I didn't expect it to be so one sided). Kessler has absolutely destroyed Markus Beyer and Mundine who are both good boxers (mundine having improved significantly over last couple years, although Beyer was definitely getting on). Think is unfair of Joe to always be spouting on about no one good enough to face him - he wants people to step up in wieght but has been unwilling to do it himself. Let him fight the winner of Hopkins-Wright (I see that Winky wants to move down to 160lbs again after this fight but am sure that given the right money he would fight Calzaghe - Calzaghe shouldn't price himself out of this because despite Winky not being PPV material he defintely has fought the higher quality of opposition)

[An Laoch]

Anyone see Duddy's fight on BBC? Only caught the last 2 rounds and he looked very laboured trying to knock out a really awkward opponent. He won every round but just couldn't nail the guy it seems.

[Tyrone Dreamer]

Do the BBC actually advertise that they'll be showing the Duddy fights? Thats twice theyve had highlights but I didnt realise theyd be on. Ive only seen a few rounds from Duddy but have yet to see enough that he is genuine world class - but Ill withold judgement for now. Sounds like he'll be fighting in Dublin in the summer. Could be similar to Dunne who is a decent fighter but unlikely to be good enough to have a chance of winning a major world title.

[Declan]

Could be similar to Dunne who is a decent fighter but unlikely to be good enough to have a chance of winning a major world title.

From what I've seen of them Dunne is world class whereas Duddy isn't. Whether Dunne is good enough to win a World title I'm not sure but there is no way Duddy will. 

[CiKe]

Duddy has replaced long time trainer Harry Keitt with Don Turner apparently. Team beleived Keitt had brought him as far as he could.

Doesn't surprise me really as Duddy doesn't seem to have come on much at all in the last 18 months. Like Declan I don't think he is world class yet and to be honest I have my doubts whether he can reach world class although hopefully he will. Did anyone hear is it confirmed who his enxt opponent is against? With a change in trainer I don't imagine it will be an immediate step up in class and will probably be another treading water fight against someone with a decent chin but who won't be able to hurt him

[Declan]

  http://www.rte.ie/sport/2007/0529/euchamps.html

For purists out there this would be worth a visit

[Galwaybhoy]

The boxing is about to start on RTÉ 2 for anyone interested.  Bernard Dunne v Reidar Walstad.  Dunnes second defense of his European Title.

[anportmorforjfc]

just found out dunne has fought 23 times won all of them

[Galwaybhoy]

Great fight.  Dunne won on points handy enough.  I had him winning 10 of the 12 rounds.  But Walstad looked dangerous, and I was worried for Bernard in the final round he looked in trouble.  Took punches and at times looked to stager.  To be honest, if it was still the days of 15 round fights it wouldn’t have surprised me if Walstad went on to hurt Dunne a lot more as Dunne looked very tired near the end.

That Wlastad is a tough fighter, he took a lot of punishment from Dunne but never really seemed like he was going to go down.  The cut above the left eye looked very bad, I thought the fight might have been stopped, as I've seen fights stopped for less but luckily common sense prevailed and the fight was allowed to continue.

I'm not gone on Magee as commentator.  Sometimes he annoys me.  The amount of times he kept going on about Dunne being this great boxer, and he must have mentioned it about five times.  But as Dunne said himself he has along way to go before he is the finished article and before he wins a world title.  He needs to improve his defence and keep those arms up a bit more.  It looks like Dunne’s next defence will be a mandatory defence of the title against the European number one.

[Norf Tyrone]

Not a boxing afficiaendo but that was a very good fight. Dunne is a fast boxer, but his exposed stance is bound to be caught out sometime.

The Norweigan fella wouldn't lie down would he. Should balls, and that cut above the eye....ouch!

[The Gs Man]

Cracker fight...and that cut was putred.  I near choked on my beers.

But what about Brian Kennedy singing the National anthem............he had the crowd like putty in his hands, the big fairy.