The winning of a prizefight is decided by a complex equation. Combining as it does the unquantifiable x and y’s of the scientific and the visceral, the physical and the emotional. Each aspect of a fighter’s make-up contributes to his equilibrium and the tipping point between winning and losing. These variables are infinite and even at a fight’s conclusion, the outcome can remain subjective and the underlying building blocks for success and failure only ever partially revealed.
Posts Tagged ‘Amir Khan’
Boxing: Reassembling a defeated fighter, Kevin Mitchell begins to convince
In Boxing on June 1, 2011 at 11:40 amBoxing: Old school, new school? Cleverly and Bellew spat
In Boxing on May 19, 2011 at 4:25 pm
For those of a certain antiquity, the increasingly ubiquitous press conference rumpus between world-class Light-Heavyweight contender Nathan Cleverly and champion of the Commonwealth Tony Bellew will have proven distasteful. Others of more recent vintage will be torn. Nurtured as we were on the polarised demeanours of the ever urbane Lennox Lewis, the pantomime charm of Frank Bruno and the caustic atmosphere of all things Benn and Eubank, it is hard to either embrace or condemn the two ‘headline’ novices. I’m caught between the conflicting etiquettes I grew up with. Read the rest of this entry »
McCloskey smashes Lauri to the canvas in the 11th
In Boxing, British Boxing, Fight Reports, Sports on June 11, 2010 at 10:46 pm
Irishman Paul McCloskey plucked a world-class right hook to knockout veteran Italian Giuseppe Lauri in dramatic fashion to retain his European title and preserve his aspirations of securing a world-title shot in the near future. Just moments before there had been concerns about his swollen right eye between rounds and he’d had a point deducted for persistent use of his head. It had served to nudge the partisan Kings Hall crowd to the edge of their seats as the points verdict looked likely to be close. Then, with Lauri lowering his guard momentarily, McCloskey stepped forward and thudded his pet right hook on to his chin and the famous old Hall erupted in delight. Read the rest of this entry »
Gavin Rees added to McCloskey v Lauri card
In Boxing, British Boxing, Fight Previews, Sports on June 9, 2010 at 2:41 pm
I was interested to read that pocket battleship Gavin Rees has been added to the under card of Paul McCloskey’s encounter with veteran Italian Giuseppe Lauri this weekend. Rees has fought once since winning the Prizefighter 140 pound tournament, defeating three former European Champions in the process, and appears to be a promotional free agent in the absence of Calzaghe Promotions and his departure from the Sports Network stable. His last tune up being deep on the Harrison v Sprott under-card put together by Matchroom Sport. Read the rest of this entry »
Boxing: Barrera. The pudgy-faced geriatric.
In Boxing, Fight Previews, Sports on June 7, 2010 at 4:21 pm
As a white-collar worker with the thinnest of fistic endeavour behind me I cannot ever bring myself to discourage professional fighters from doing what they do best whether a fathom removed from their prime or not. The likes of Evander Holyfield, Roy Jones and Bernard Hopkins all earned the right to make their own decisions and though a shadow of their former selves they remain steadfastly more capable than a plethora of younger fighters for whom world-titles will always remain a pipe-dream. You cannot make a fighter retire simply because of their age or the evident decay in their performances. However, as an independent observer with a soft spot for the Mexican legend Marco Antonio Barrera I’d be happy to whisper quietly that its time for him to stop. If I could get close enough.
Ricky Hatton, Danny Williams and the search for common sense
In Boxing, British Boxing, Fight Previews, Sports on June 1, 2010 at 3:41 pm
Contrasting stories surround two of British boxing’s favourite sons this week. Firstly, and most satisfactorily, is Ian McNeily’s piece at BoxRec News dutifully reporting Ricky Hatton difficulty in summoning the will to commence training while the same site also records a summer fixture for Danny Williams on the other side of the world. News of this proposed clash comes just days after the genial Londoner promised retirement in the aftermath of his capitulation to Derek Chisora. Read the rest of this entry »
Fagan back on track
In Boxing, British Boxing, Fight Reports, Sports on October 25, 2009 at 8:48 pm
Strange how fighters flicker in and out of boxing’s VIP lounge. Irishman Oisin Fagan has twice dipped beneath the ropes dividing the obscure and the revered, first in a razor tight defeat to Mum’s favourite Paul Spadafora and then more recently by knockout to Lightweight star Amir Khan – a defeat tinged with melancholy as Oisin broke an ankle on the way to the canvas. On Saturday night, he continued his attempt to build toward a third chance.
Wrestling with fog, Golden Boy seeks to tame Guzman
In British Boxing, Sports, TSS.com Archive on July 28, 2009 at 11:14 pm
Now aged 33, the career of Joan Guzman is a curious one. An unfulfilled one. Despite being a decorated Amateur and world-championship belts in two divisions, the Dominican has failed to deliver on his unquestionable talent and has frozen himself out of the title pictures from 126 to 140 pounds. Oscar De La Hoya will need every ounce of his wealth and charisma to play Midas to ‘Lil Tyson’s’ stuttering career. Read the rest of this entry »
The brainwash is almost complete, I’m hooked on Tyson Fury
In Boxing, British Boxing, Fight Previews, Mike Tyson, Shop, Sports on July 17, 2009 at 10:23 am
You have to concede it has worked. Firstly, the day in June 1988 when former heavyweight battler John Fury decided his son would be called Tyson, a reflection of Fury senior’s love of the then unbeaten Heavyweight champion Iron Mike, and secondly the day now 6ft 9inch Tyson Fury became Hennessy Sports’ most promising signing. Those two events have led the 6-0 (6ko) heavyweight prospect to become one of the most talked about fighters in the modern game. Read the rest of this entry »
Save the boxing martyrs; BringBackBunce.net
In Boxing, British Boxing, Mike Tyson, Sports on July 10, 2009 at 9:57 am
“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!” wrote George Loveless in 1834, ahead of his transportation to Australia as one of the Tolpuddle Martyrs. Six friends who’d sworn an oath to each other not to work for less than 10 shillings a week. Now Steve Bunce and attentive side-kick Andy Kerr aren’t likely to have plaques placed on Plymouth docks or die in workhouses, but the loss of their one hour show in the wake of Setanta’s expiration has created a seemingly comparable level of public outcry and angst. Read the rest of this entry »
Boxing relies on Don King and Terry Dooley for sense and integrity!
In Boxing, British Boxing, Fight Reports, Sports on March 26, 2009 at 10:23 am
For a man accused of just about every sin possible within the parameters of boxing and capable of bamboozling writers with quotes and sentiments drawn from Twain to Churchill it says a lot about the sport he inhabits, 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. Dooley is a fearless, if slightly dishevelled, writer who can always see through the mist, and is unafraid of running against the grain. Dooley titled his review of the fight; “Say what you like but Khan should never have won”. Read the rest of this entry »
Guest: Barrera’s bloody mess obscures the true worth of Khan’s victory
In Boxing, British Boxing, Fight Reports, Sports on March 18, 2009 at 12:43 pm
Having clung tight to my £14.95 last weekend, Amir Khan is not presently a pay-per-view attraction regardless of the affection with which I hold his opponent – in this case Mexican legend Marco Antonio Barrera, I’m delighted to provide a forum for guest writer Ben Carey’s view of the contentious clash between the aspiring Khan and the jaded Barrera. Read the rest of this entry »
The Great Guzman and the WBA’s weight of responsibility
In Boxing, Fight Reports, Sports on October 3, 2008 at 2:34 pm
It might be the stiff wind from the Urals which makes guest writer Andrew Mullinder such a cantankerous observer of the noble art. Mullinder is not implored to write by the science or the beauty of boxing, only the muck, the politics and the fractious infrastructure of the sport evoke his withering invective. His latest target is the WBA, for whom the dietary plans of Joan Guzman appear to have been but a distant theme from a distant land. Mullinder thinks its time governing bodies started, well, governing. Read the rest of this entry »
Nowhere to Hide, not that old chestnut
In Boxing, British Boxing, Fight Previews, Sports on October 3, 2008 at 12:19 pm
I’m sure the revelation Delia Smith, who famously coined the phrase “lets be having you” during an impromptu half-time plea to the insipid Norwich City football crowd, is looking to sell her stake in the club has nothing to do with the impending return of boxing maverick Herbie Hide to the region, but Hennessey Sports’ decision to run with the “Lets Be Having You” show title does provide coincidental segway between the two events. Read the rest of this entry »
BoxingWriter.co.uk Fighter of the Month; September
In Boxing, British Boxing, Fight Reports, Sports on October 1, 2008 at 9:15 am
Thus far the BoxingWriter.co.uk Fighter of the Month award has been won by Monte Barrett for his destruction of Tye Fields’ flimsy standing as a heavyweight contender, Antonio Margarito’s thrilling suffocation of Miguel Cotto’s resistance and latterly Cedric Boswell’s destruction of pampered prospect Roman Greenberg. I found the stand out performance in September was much harder to select. Read the rest of this entry »
Guzman better not rely on hunger
In Boxing, British Boxing, Fight Previews, Sports on September 12, 2008 at 1:38 pm
Joan Guzman doesn’t strike me as a fighter who bases his strategy on assumption. He’s played the sanctioning body game shrewdly, most recently choosing to abdicate the WBO Super-Featherweight belt to earn a #1 ranking with the same body at 135 pounds. Placing him firmly in the sight-line of Nate Campbell, a fighter with a brow like a porch roof and a virulent case of Hopkinesque ‘outsider’ syndrome. If Guzman assumes his role as the challenger means he is, by default, the hungrier fighter, as he did in interview this week, he’ll underestimate the 36-year old champion. Read the rest of this entry »
Setanta, Skywalker and Bunce; Boxing’s New Hope
In Boxing, British Boxing, Fight Previews, Fight Reports, Sports on September 12, 2008 at 8:58 am
Watching Steve Bunce’s Boxing Hour last night on Setanta Sports 2 I was struck by a number of things. Firstly, how good it is to see a magazine show for the sport where debate, discussion are preeminent over the gloss Sky once applied to their weekly Ringside presentation. True, big Buncey isn’t to everyone’s taste and it took me a while to ‘get’ his role, persona and style, to understand that enthusiasm and energy were his selling points and that he had his tongue firmly in his cheek. But I do now and it works. A boxing night isn’t the same without his animated contribution. But the Setanta hour is more than just Bunce let loose. Read the rest of this entry »
Oliver Harrison, Amir Khan and the final word; blame
In Boxing, British Boxing, Fight Reports, Sports on September 11, 2008 at 8:14 am
I’m struggling to summon a fight in recent memory to which more attention has been paid. Certainly, the column inches afforded to Amir Khan’s humbling defeat is entirely disproportionate to the superficial importance of the Inter-Continental bauble he and Breidis Prescott scuffled over on Saturday night. Of course, Amir Khan is not merely ’just another’ fighter, Andrew Mullinder provides one final analysis of the fight, the aftermath and that most emotive of topics, blame. Read the rest of this entry »
Video: Amir Khan mimicks Judah’s ‘chicken dance’
In Boxing, British Boxing, Fight Reports, Sports on September 8, 2008 at 3:29 pm
Seeing Amir Khan laid out like a flat-packed bookcase on Saturday, with his head propped against the ring post in the style of a teenager watching Batman re-runs on the portable reminded me of one of the first times he came to the public’s attention. Coincidentally, he was mimicking the Zab Judah inspired ‘chicken’ dance he show-cased when hit by a Prescott punch on Saturday following a less formidable left-hook from Craig Watson back in the Amateurs. Read the rest of this entry »
“Nobody is invisible”, Amir Khan explains
In Boxing, British Boxing, Fight Reports, Sports on September 8, 2008 at 10:40 am
It is hard to know where to begin a review of the shattered remnants of Amir Khan’s fastidiously constructed repute. Following 4 years of painfully cautious match-making, three trainers and a deluge of column inches, platitudes, award ceremonies and celebrity television appearances the 21-year old demonstrated holes in his fistic education large enough to drive even his ego through. In a slip of the tongue, Khan said “nobody is invisible”, he meant invincible of course, but invisible seemed to fit very well too. Breidis Prescott certainly found him easily enough. Read the rest of this entry »
