Ossie Duran v Contender Reid

Rugged former Commonwealth champion, Ossie Duran continues his Stateside career next week when he faces veteran of Contender Series 1, Jonathan Reid. From memory Reid was the first to depart the show, despite entering as arguably the most decorated of the group.
To British fans, Duran is well known from his time based here. Tough, good [...]

Danny Williams Last Chance Saloon

Depending on to whom you speak; Danny Williams is a vast underachiever or a fighter who has earned far more than his talent and fragile self-belief would suggest he should have done. There is no in between. Knockout victories over Kali Meehan, Mark Potter and Mike Tyson – did I really just put Iron Mike [...]

IBF, Hatton and the r-word

With the abdication of the three belts he won beating Kostya Tszyu, Carlos Maussa and Luis Collazo behind him the irony of the IBF’s threat to withdraw light-welterweight champion Ricky Hatton’s belt wont be lost on the wider boxing public. It’s hard to malign Hatton for preferring to fight Jose Luis Castillo in June before his [...]

Hatton Making Excuses

Manchester iron-man Ricky Hatton told the BBC this week that the disappointment expressed over his recent performance versus Juan Urango, and before that Luis Collazo, was unfair. Calm and personable out of the ring, Hatton is clearly irked by the commentary on his recent ring form, although he conceded the forthcoming contest with Jose Luis Castillo [...]

UFC – Will it suffocate or galvanise boxing?

I remind myself that long before the slide toward ‘Entertainment’, wrestling was a legitimate sport around the globe, and for fans of the sweet science concerned by the growing popularity of MMA and UFC perhaps that shared history provides comfort. Boxing can survive without a monopoly on fans of combat sports.

Hamed, Tyson and YouTube

As a late-comer to the YouTube party, I was intrigued to monitor to whom I would gravitate in my first taste of archive footage of the sport I love. For this writer, boxing is about more than knockout power and the slug-fests, to give them their playstation generation tag, for which the sport appeals to [...]

Vital or A Knee Jerk? The Return of Big Brother

The return of giant Ukrainian Vitaly Klitschko caused something of a rumpus in boxing circles this week, fresh from Samuel Peter’s emergence as a contender from the ranks of pretenders it would seem the WBC, the over-valued leader of the sanctioning bodies and one of the sport’s biggest problems, reinstated the former champion as mandatory [...]

Boxing Returns to Sweden

As a country that fathered former Heavyweight boxing champion Ingamar Johansson, who beat Floyd Patterson to win the title before losing in a rematch – as well as flattening proud British hope Henry Cooper amongst others, Sweden is long overdue a return to professional boxing. 37 years on from the last card staged there, and having [...]

Coma to KO with Jorge Castro

As a veteran of 144 contests you would think there could be little left to prove or pursue in a fighter’s career, but following a car crash that threatened to paralyse former middleweight champion Jorge Castro (130-11-3) returned from months of rehabilitation and a 20 day coma to exert revenge over Jose Herrera, the last man [...]