Nostalgia is a big seller. And its vendors seem to know just when to pique our interest in some bygone phenomenon. Whether it be the Mamma Mia film reaching out to women over 35 to relive their days as Dancing Queens – and some men come to think of it - or other film franchises like Charlie’s Angels or boxing’s own Rocky series. Today’s wander down memory lane was the tabloid suggestion David Hasslehoff is bidding to relaunch Baywatch, with media-shy, wholesome mother of three Katie Price (aka Jordan) donning the red bikini made famous by Pamela Anderson – though it was always Yasmine Bleeth for me. Read more »
Filed under: Boxing, British Boxing, Mike Tyson, Ricky Hatton, Sports | Tagged: Baywatch, Erik Morales, Floyd Mayweather, Herol Graham, Jordan, Julian Jackson, Katie Price, Middleweight, roberto duran, Thomas Hearns | Leave a Comment »
In the immediate aftermath of Showtime’s exciting announcement of the Super Six tournament to be held at 168 pounds over the next two years, I asked readers to predict who they felt would emerge from the groundbreaking series as champion. As you might anticipate the outsiders, Andre Ward and Andre Dirrell only landed 2% of the votes cast but it was Danish hard-man Mikkel Kessler who fans felt most likely to prevail. 60% of the votes went to Kessler with Froch (21%), Abraham (9%) and Taylor (8%) trailing someway behind. 
Following an unfortunate series of injury induced withdrawals of late, notably Mayweather v Marquez, Kotelnik v Khan, Haye v Wladimir Klitschko, fans will be reluctant to presume David Haye’s mooted September 12th clash with 37 year old Vitali Klitschko is actually going to happen until the two men are staring across at each other with just a referee between them. However, in the interests of positivity – and the sport needs a pick me up following the sad loss of Gatti, Arguello and Caldwell in the past week – I’m willing to celebrate the news David Haye finally has his chance to back up his words with actions. 
Pictures of the press conference, media tour and photoshoot for Showtime’s forthcoming Super-Middleweight tournament left me aghast. Six headline fighters, in their respective primes from multiple promotional houses, numerous countries and varied sanctioning bodies coming together for a single organised format, spread out across two years. Its logical, coherent, understandable and exciting – in fact, it just isn’t boxing. Without wishing to become too lavish in my appreciation ahead of the first bell, it is the most welcome development I can remember. And the first pictures are already getting fans talking. 
This award, which has laid dormant since Shane Mosley’s richly earned January residence as the BoxingWriter.co.uk fighter of the month, is the one fighters really clamour – forget Ring championships or PPV figures, the award they’re all looking for is this one. Selected unscientifically by a panel of one, the award seeks to recognise the eye-catching result or performance of the month. There is usually a splash of non-conformity about the choice and a sprinkling of sentiment over the significance of the bout or bouts the winner has participated in. 
Bobby Gunn is a curious phenomenon. No other fighter, whether christened Floyd, Bernard or Oscar has engendered the type of readership and commentary that articles about the Celtic Warrior have. I suppose that might say as much about the sporadic readership of this gloomy corner of the blogosphere as any significance Gunn actually holds for boxing fans at large but it forces me to ensure his doubtless plucky lunge at Tomasz Adamek, the number one Cruiserweight in the world, doesn’t pass with out some message of good luck. 
“God is our guide! from field, from wave, From plough, from anvil, and from loom; We come, our country’s rights to save, And speak a tyrant faction’s doom: We raise the watch-word liberty; We will, we will, we will be free!” 
Originally, the news Carl Froch was to feature in a six man round robin over two years on American network Showtime was met with little more than pithy sarcasm at BoxingWriter towers but now, two days later, it seems the proposed Froch, Taylor, Kessler, Abraham, Dirrell and Ward tournament is genuine and will begin with Froch v Dirrell in October – a twin venue double bill with Abraham v Taylor live from Germany. 
Since the disappointment of David Haye’s withdrawal from this year’s biggest heavyweight title fight and a potential record breaking event to boot it has been widely assumed Ruslan Chagaev would prove to be the natural replacement for the former Cruiserweight king. Similarly shorter than Wladimir, with a reliance on speed and movement the WBA champion is a far more obvious replacement, physically at least, than Nikolay Valuev, the near 7ft Russian who offers a polar opposite opponent than the one the younger Klitschko has spent many weeks preparing for. Bu this thesis overlooks one obvious factor, the 6ft Uzbekistan fighter is a left-hander. 
I’m not sure of the exact wording of the urban myth, the one which declares you are never more than a few feet from a rat, whether it be London, New York or the sport of boxing, like most of these myths there is, somewhere, an origin in fact. David Haye’s withdrawal from the biggest heavyweight fight since Lewis v Tyson because of an, as yet, unqualified and unquantified injury has caused a typically hysterical reaction among boxing fans, only Mohammad Al Fayed does conspiracy theories as well as boxing fans, and the hunt for the rat in the story is on. UPDATE: Adam Booth claims Haye is hopeful of a re-arranged July date. Source: The Sun 
I’m not usually one to advocate these fan-led Radio shows, too often they’re so poorly conceived, so uncomfortably amateurish that any meaningful content is lost amongst the cringing I’m doing. However, while still a little rough around the edges, the 
Those desperate to rekindle interest in the talent bereaved heavyweight division will hope the next three weekends herald the emergence of a new consensus contender for the division’s sibling kings. Since the departure of Lennox Lewis, and the three year retirement of the more rugged Klitschko, the division has waited for either a charismatic young puncher to appear or for the more fluid, but less stout Klitschko to stamp his authority on the troubled weight class. Fans gravitated toward Samuel Peter for a while, then had their heads turned by Alexander Povetkin swift ascension, fell in line behind David Haye’s march from Cruiserweight or, for the visually impaired who fail to see the molasses around his waist, fell in love with Cristobal Arreola in their quest to find an antidote to the soporific Ukrainians.
I’ve written some pieces for 
Regular visitors will be accustomed to the acerbic analysis of Andrew Mullinder, our resident correspondent in Moscow. I’m sure Andrew has all the usual creature comforts we enjoy in the West but I prefer to adapt the usual visual triggers employed by third rate cold war thrillers to conjure an image of Andrew huddled over an ageing type writer, all fingerless gloves, one bar fires and cheap vodka, manically venting on the issues of the day from his down trodden apartment block in some mafia run ghetto. Why? Well it just makes sense of his withering contributions, and the latest, a deconstruction of the most artificially created ring moniker in boxing must have come after a slurp or two of the strong stuff. 
Like many who have witnessed his open three engagements, I’ve warmed to Tyson Fury – he’s seemed confident but sincere, ambitious but eager to learn. Hennessy Sports matchmaking has been encouraging and his name and story help garner him a disproportionate amount of exposure. However, like Audley, Amir and Eubank before him it is easy to see his youthful mischief turning into unlikeable arrogance if he’s not careful. David Price, who debuts this weekend, is inevitably his latest target. 
For a man accused of every sin possible within the parameters of boxing, a man capable of bamboozling writers with quotes and sentiments drawn from Twain to Churchill it says a lot about the sport, that veteran promoter Don King is the sole voice of reason in the aftermath of the Khan v Barrera contest. Well alongside Terry Dooley at BritishBoxing.net at least, a fearless if slightly dishevelled writer who can always see through the mist, running against the grain, Dooley titled his review of the fight; “
Now the preceding release from Brian Peters, which strongly stated Wayne McCullough would need to earn a clash with new WBA Super-Bantamweight title by winning fights was largely dismissed by yours truly. After all McCullough v Dunne made massive commercial sense and that would be the primary motivator in Dunne’s first fight wouldn’t it? McCullough still believes so, but with more information to reflect on, I think the veteran could be chasing a lost cause. Here is Wayne’s view this evening; 
I know precious little of Brian Peters, he is a new name on the promotional front, so commentating too much on his latest release is not grounded in much experience of the man or his methods. However, despite that lack of history, I still think the prospect of Bernard Dunne accepting either a non-title fight or voluntary defence against Wayne McCullough (if the WBA can be coerced into ranking McCullough) is just as likely as the unification bouts Peters is professing to prefer. It simply makes too much financial sense to miss out on, particularly given the presumed lack of risk a 38 year old McCullough would present. Judge for yourselves. 
The forthcoming middleweight clash between veteran southpaw Winky Wright and Paul Williams, the former Welterweight champion stirred me to contemplate which fighter of the past decade had been the most avoided. Winky Wright makes a strong claim for this unwanted acknowledgement, particularly given his recent enforced inactivity, but ultimately he has secured bouts with Shane Mosley and Bernard Hopkins to name but two. His advocates would remind me he had to chase Hopkins all the way up to Light-Heavyweight when they spent years side by side in the Middleweight division, both in desperate need of a big payday. Williams too, wouldn’t be without his supporters, but now he has Wright, following victory over Margarito, himself a contender for the tag. 
