Despite David Haye’s protestations to the contrary the prospect of this unlikely heavyweight prizefight remains the talking point of the day in the dungeons of the internet’s boxing forums. Audley Harrison has, afterall, already sacrificed the European title in the belief that he will secure the all-British world heavyweight title fight he and television network Sky Sports appear to crave. Debuting his guest column, John Cascells reflects on the fight; why it may prove to be more challenging than the cynics presume and why he is sure it will make for must-see television. Read the rest of this entry »
Posts Tagged ‘heavyweight’
Boxing: Harrison v Haye – why it should happen
In Boxing, British Boxing, Olympic Boxing, Prizefighter, Sports on June 30, 2010 at 10:34 amBoxing: Long and winding road. Six years since the BBC dumped Audley
In Boxing, British Boxing, Fight Previews, Olympic Boxing, Prizefighter, Sports, TSS.com Archive on June 25, 2010 at 9:48 am
Precious few heavyweights polarise opinion in the way Audley Harrison does. Maybe that is part of the fascination with him. Maybe that enigmatic quality is what draws observers back to the story despite a series of tame defeats to mediocre fighters. The Mona Lisa is neither the most beautiful subject nor the most technically perfect painting but it endures as the most famous artwork in history (arguably) because of the interpretation her expression is open to. It isn’t definite. It has depth beyond the brush strokes da Vinci swabbed across the canvas. Much like Harrison, who has conjured few moments of brilliance during his own career on the canvas and yet holds a depth of fascination few others can match. However, despite the critics and the years completed since his first low point of being dropped by the BBC he is on the brink of the title shot he told us all along he would get to. Read the rest of this entry »
Boxing: Whats wrong with boxing? Adding the letters P, P and V to Tua v Barrett.
In Boxing, Fight Previews, Mike Tyson, Sports on June 24, 2010 at 2:39 pm
I like David Tua. I shared the dream once. I threw him up as another fighter Tyson ducked in his shambolic 1990′s reincarnation. He shook up heavyweights; he was fast, dangerous and busy. Obviously, that was all before he got his mandatory ranking, hibernated and then froze versus Lennox Lewis – since then he’s been dormant, injured, uninterested – but is now repackaged, remotivated and back in the lucrative American market, or so he hopes we believe. But Pay-Per-View at $24.95 against Monte Barrett, the guy who lives in a tent in front of the heavyweight top 25 towers, is available on 24 hour call out and has a key emblem on his nightwear? Really? Read the rest of this entry »
Boxing: David Haye in Orwellian about turn; Audley not Vitali or Wladimir next?
In Boxing, British Boxing, Fight Previews, Mike Tyson, Prizefighter, Sports on June 23, 2010 at 12:32 pm
It was meant to be different. That was the tag-line. The sedentary waters of the heavyweight division were to be purified. David Haye wanted to fight the best heavyweights straight away, he didn’t want to procrastinate, to manoeuvre. He just wanted to know if he was the best, prove it or fail. Money was secondary. Challenge was everything. Boxing’s downtrodden masses craved the Utopia Haye was selling. He evangelised about bypassing promoters, side-stepping sanctioning bodies and the established order. Boxing is about the fighters not men in suits he might have said. He founded this alternate reality. Hayemaker. Fighters flocked to his rallying cry. Pretty girls flushed, forums hummed, fans cheered. Now, with a portion of the establishment in his possession – the WBA belt - and an unexpected level of renown that now enables him to accumulate £1-3 million pay-days for the type of rudimentary defence he once denounced, the urge to corner a Klitschko in a ring, or even at the top of an elevator has evidently subsided.
Maloney: “As far as we know, Tyson Fury is OK for the fight”
In Boxing, British Boxing, Fight Previews, Sports on June 18, 2010 at 11:43 am
Throughout Tyson Fury’s embryonic boxing career he has embraced and wrestled with more media attention than his exploits in the ring have thus far merited. In part due to his eye-catching name, part due his back-story as a 6 foot 7 inch giant from travelling stock and in no small part to the potential he showed. On the surface, Fury has revelled in the attention and seemed naturally quotable whenever a camera was pushed in his face. Youthful charisma or an arrogance waiting to bite him on his not inconsiderable posterior? Depends how you like your fighters, respectful and humble or brash and loquacious? In the run up to his much required rematch with John McDermott the normally omnipresent Fury has been uncharacteristically quiet. A cause of some concern to Frank Maloney, who has to sell tickets for the clash and for fans, who want to buy them. Read the rest of this entry »
Exclusive: Tyson will not fight Holyfield says David Payne
In Boxing, Mike Tyson, Sports on June 16, 2010 at 3:57 pm
I’ve consulted with my much ignored common sense, accessed with the help of a strong mug of Yorkshire tea and low-lighting, and I can confirm that this fight is not going to happen, I’d encourage you all to breathe, take stock and have a similar internal conversation. It will save you time and energy for other more credible activities, like washing the car or painting the back-bedroom. And please don’t read or believe anyone who tells you different because they’ve probably got an accomplice entering your home through the back door to rifle through your purse. In other news, Prince Naseem Hamed will not be returning to fight Justin Timberlake at catchweight, Joe Calzaghe will not be fighting Robert De Niro (though he is old enough) at Light-Heavy and Ricky Hatton is as likely to share a ring with Floyd Mayweather again as he is to play wide-right for England on Friday. I think my work here is done. Read the rest of this entry »
Flying over the cuckoo’s nest for the last time? Oliver McCall defeated
In Boxing, Fight Reports, Mike Tyson, Sports on June 16, 2010 at 3:12 pm
Anyone with a passing interest in heavyweight boxing over the past twenty years will hold a mental image of one sort or another of heavy punching former champion Oliver McCall. Whether it be the crunching right-hand which felled Lennox Lewis, his emotional implosion in the rematch or the various drug fuelled episodes which have blighted his attempts to construct another run at the championship he lost to a grateful Frank Bruno in 1995. Last night at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel he dropped a clear decision to peripheral contender Timur Ibragimov spelling the end of any residual potential the now 45-year-old could claim.
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Harrison, Haye and Klitschko. Among the madness, bluff and silence is there a fight to be found?
In Boxing, British Boxing, Fight Previews, Olympic Boxing, Sports on June 11, 2010 at 10:56 pm
In an era before nutritionists, public relations and conditioners, during that simplistic period when heavyweights ran, hit-bag, sparred, chopped wood and often took a stiff drink or three the night before a fight it is hard to imagine how they would have viewed the flimsy media battle being contested by heavyweight trio David Haye, Klitschko and heaven help us Audley Harrison. It may be nostalgic romanticism to suggest fighters like Jack Dempsey or Jim Jeffries simply signed to fight an opponent, trained and then settled it in an often gruelling, unforgiving fight, but it is with some confidence that I propose they wouldn’t have been comfortable with the shallow misinformation all parties appear to be peddling even if avoiding opponents is an oft-overlooked aspect of boxing at the beginning of the 20th century too. Read the rest of this entry »
Larry Olubamiwo to face Big Dave Ferguson on June 25th
In Boxing, British Boxing, Fight Previews, Sports on June 8, 2010 at 9:44 am
Likeable, affable heavyweight Larry Olubamiwo announced overnight that his opponent on the big Maloney bill later this month, June 25th at Brentwood, will be the North East’s Dave Ferguson in a cracking contest that serves as a title Eliminator for the British and Commonwealth titles. Great news for both fighters and a boom for Frank Maloney who now manages or promotes a crop of the division’s most viable talents. Read the rest of this entry »
John McDermott: “I don’t want any favouritism, just whoever WINS, wins!”
In Boxing, British Boxing, Fight Previews, Sports on June 4, 2010 at 9:59 am
I met John McDermott once. He was standing at the back of the press rows the night David Haye got beaten by Carl Thompson. An evening more notable for him because he saw Mark Krence flattened by an imported journeyman that looked likely to rule the boxing butcher out of their proposed Eliminator, a contest, John lamented, for which he’d already sold £10,000 of tickets. And that snatched conversation typifies the kind of circumstantial misfortune he has laboured under for his entire professional career. In his forthcoming rematch with Tyson Fury I have a growing suspicion the genial giant may yet have his moment in the sun and overcome that sense of never being in the right place at the right time once and for all. Read the rest of this entry »
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 »
Old? Check. Fat? Check. Unambitious? Check. Brian Nielsen next for Vitaly?
In Boxing, Fight Reports, Mike Tyson, Shop on June 1, 2010 at 12:48 pm
Did you hear the one about Vitaly Klitschko and the hungry, young contender? No, nor did I. Admittedly, Vitaly Klitschko hasn’t fought during a particularly glowing period for heavyweights. His tenure, interrupted by a now mysteriously cured knee problem, as the leading heavyweight began when Lennox Lewis retired and has continued through soporific contests with Danny Williams, Kirk Johnson, Corrie Sanders, Sam Peter, Juan Carlos Gomez, Chris Arreola and latterly Albert Sosnowski. So maybe, the revelation Danish pastry Brian Nielsen is making a comeback aged 45 will be welcome news in the Klitschko castle if nowhere else. Read the rest of this entry »
Sosnowski, Subbuteo, Sanders, Snooker and me
In Boxing, British Boxing, Fight Reports, Mike Tyson, Sports on May 25, 2010 at 3:56 pm
I’ve always found an attic or loft to be a fascinating place. It probably originates from the joyous isolation it provided me as a child, resplendent with snooker table, dart board, train set and Subbuteo it was a place of dreams, solace and make-believe. On the baize I was Davis AND Higgins, on the Astropitch I was everyone from Peru to Peterborough and with darts in hand I was toothless Jocky Wilson and the Crafty Cockney.
Feted, hated, fated? Is Audley stepping closer to defining Haye fight?
In Boxing, British Boxing, Olympic Boxing, Sports on May 24, 2010 at 3:12 pm
There has been something of the David Icke about Audley Harrison throughout his decade as a prominent heavyweight. Fuelled and demonstrated by a paradoxical cocktail of delusion, acute self-awareness and paranoia. Qualities which ostracised him from the boxing public and allowed the media to portray him as the villain, the idiot and the clown in his own one-man pantomime. But like all cabaret shows, it aint over til the fat lady sings and maybe, just maybe, said fat lady is back stage sipping honey and lemon as talk of a Harrison v Haye contest gathers pace. Read the rest of this entry »
Boxing: Say what you like, but Holyfield v Botha caught your eye, didn’t it?
In Boxing, British Boxing, Fight Previews, Mike Tyson, Sports on November 24, 2009 at 9:46 pm
Francois Botha has tried many things to stay relevant and keep earning including a hapless foray into that form of combat that needs no introduction beyond its initials. The veteran South African is in the Autumn, arguably Winter, of his fluctuating career. A career, lest we forget, which has variously included Michael Moorer, Lennox Lewis, Mike Tyson and shortly, Evander Holyfield too. For some reason his proposed match with fellow heavyweight grandfather Evander Holyfield has me intrigued. Regulars will know I have some curious vices.
John Ruiz v David Haye will be a thriller
In Boxing, British Boxing, Fight Previews, Mike Tyson, Sports on November 10, 2009 at 1:04 pm
It will not prove as easy for newly crowned WBA Heavyweight champion David Haye to sell tickets to his mandated clash with American John Ruiz in the spring as the David v Goliath showdown proved last weekend. But for all the doubters, I’d like to encourage everyone to visit YouTube and refresh their preconceptions about the 37 year old former two-time WBA champion. In short Ruiz is a different beast to the much maligned jab and grab merchant he’s often described as. Read the rest of this entry »
In the shadow of giants, Sexton wins
In Boxing, British Boxing, Fight Reports, Mike Tyson, Sports on November 9, 2009 at 8:59 pm
Poor old Sam Sexton, not enough that he derailed the Cinderella Man story of Belfast hard man Martin Rogan once, controversially of course, but last weekend he returned to the white hot atmosphere of the Odyssey Arena to thoroughly dismantle the Rogan again. And within 24 hours his considerable achievement was completely outshone by some David v Goliath showdown. Read the rest of this entry »
David Haye, boxing’s new Barnum, continues to sell
In Boxing, British Boxing, Fight Previews, Mike Tyson, Shop, Sports on November 4, 2009 at 4:50 pm
If promoting a fight is craft, then David Haye has used every tool in the box to generate interest in this Saturday’s fight with Nicolay Valuev. He is an effervescent self-promoter who has used eye-catching gimmicks, distasteful commentary about Valuev’s personal hygiene, appeared on every talk-show, press event and personal appearance in order to force this fight to transcend the confines of the boxing audience. And, glory be, its working. Read the rest of this entry »
No electricity like Tyson electricity
In Boxing, British Boxing, Mike Tyson, Shop, Sports on November 4, 2009 at 11:52 am
During the dim days of his post Buster Douglas career, I would maintain in the face of often fervent opposition that Mike Tyson was over-rated. That he succeeded in a weak era and through the many attempts to recycle the myth he tip toed around any of the risk-laden contenders of the 1990′s. Fighters like Ray Mercer, George Foreman, Shannon Briggs, David Tua were all punchers and held a shot** – Tyson wasn’t allowed near them. Evander Holyfield and latterly, Lennox Lewis further undermined the theory in emphatic triumphs over the ageing former champion. Read the rest of this entry »
The art of attracting web hits: Put Tyson in the title
In Boxing, British Boxing, Mike Tyson, Sports on November 2, 2009 at 2:56 pm
He remains a media phenomenon, even now two whole decades removed from the last of his boxing peak and with a whole generation of boxing fans for whom he was never a consensus world-champion now fully grown. The time when the word Tyson was part of the language of the playground, of bars, of water-coolers (not that they were present in Blighty til after he lost) alongside Rocky Balboa is a distant memory. Tyson’s name became short-hand for power, speed, aggression, brutality and pain. Today’s vague, shallow and generally transparent suggestion that the 43 year-old may yet return to the ring only serves to prove the fascination with Iron Mike has proven timeless. Read the rest of this entry »
