Eubank, nostalgia and the glow of the past

Article first appeared at BigFightWeekend.com

To each their own. Every generation venerates a new clutch of heroes. My grandfather was born in the era of Jack Dempsey, marvelled at Joe Louis and was a contemporary of fellow Doncastrian Bruce Woodcock, who could fight a bit. His voice whispered through the pages of the books I inherited on his passing in 1984 too, Ali was the best of them all the collection suggested. He was gone before Iron Mike tore through the late 80s and before the seeds of love for the sport he planted blossomed into interest.

For children of the 70s like me, it was all about Tyson; inescapable, unique, intoxicating. But he was also out of reach. Seen through the prism of highlights and delayed screenings. Domestically, it was Nigel Benn and Chris Eubank, with a fleeting dose of McGuigan, and a sprinkling of Big Frank.

Continue reading “Eubank, nostalgia and the glow of the past” →
0

Chris Eubank Jr. tackles blue-collar veteran Liam Smith

Article first appeared at Bookmakers.com

Most of Chris Eubank Jr.’s career has been spent in a quest for authenticity. To prove himself worthy of the name he inherits from a legendary father and to garner respect as a serious contender in the Middleweight division. There have been high points where he has legitimised the hyperbole projected before him, and there have been fallow periods in which his career has stagnated and the whisper of cynicism that haunts those with illustrious predecessors has grown ever louder. 

On Saturday night at the Manchester Arena, he faces Liam Smith, a decorated member of the famous Smith boxing family and, superficially at least, the antithesis of everything that Chris Eubank Jr. represents. This contrast isn’t a new narrative. Eubank is always boxing someone hoping to knock him off the pedestal he adopts, and the one he is presumed to sit upon. Boxing thrives on these types of storylines and makes wagering on them at betting sites all the more popular. 

It is the white and black Stetsons of the great Western films and helps build rivalries and ticket sales. Of course, the nature of humans, and of fighters, is never so binary. Nuance exists in both Eubank and Smith. But nuance doesn’t sell. Good guys and bad guys do. 

Continue reading “Chris Eubank Jr. tackles blue-collar veteran Liam Smith” →
0

Leigh Wood to face wild Mexican Mauricio Lara

Article first appeared on BigFightWeekend.com

Two days ago, late night idling, I tuned in to a Twitter Space devoted to boxing. A handful of speakers and even fewer listeners. Some proclaimed a professional association to the sport, others merely lay opportunists, sharing profanity laden ‘shock jock’ opinions. It was an interesting medley. My visit lasted about the time it takes to endure a 40-36 show opener.

Extraordinary among this mundanity was the disdain shown for almost every fighter discussed. Listeners to the space may be surprised to learn just how many “bums” currently hold world title belts. I know I was. Among them, the panel suggested, was Leigh Wood, the Featherweight from Nottingham who was last seen knocking out Michael Conlon to secure the WBA belt.

Continue reading “Leigh Wood to face wild Mexican Mauricio Lara” →
0

Dan Azeez batters veteran Rocky Fielding in 8

Dan Azeez, now 18-0 (12ko), successfully defended his British Light-Heavyweight title and added the Commonwealth title with a methodical and ultimately destructive performance against Rocky Fielding at the Bournemouth International Centre. The fight was made at the intersection of their respective career arcs and proved to be a little too late for Fielding, who now stares long and hard into the wilderness beyond professional boxing. It has been a good career, the Autumn of which sadly hindered by the pandemic.

33-year-old Azeez is refreshing both in the level of activity he boasts and in the humility of his outlook. Eager to pursue competitive fights, the late bloomer from London is now drawing attention and respect. American trainer Buddy McGirt has joined the team and evidently sees a fighter with polished fundamentals, a good attitude and prospects beyond British domestic level. 

The fixture was strategic in the making and designed to platform Azeez and to decorate his resume with a known name, despite the pretext of Rocky Fielding’s decline, his performance remains a disappointment. Circumstances may be in play that are not in the public domain, but not only did he miss weight by a pound and opted not to try and lose it, he looked fleshy and lacking in self-belief throughout the fight. 

There was a script. Azeez read his part and delivered a well-rounded performance. Fielding seemed to accept his supporting role too. 

Continue reading “Dan Azeez batters veteran Rocky Fielding in 8” →
0

Azeez and Fielding meet at one of boxing’s oldest crossroads

Article first published at BigFightWeekend.com

At every crossroads that leads to the future, tradition has placed ten thousand men to guard the past.
Maurice Maeterlinck, Playwright, 1862-1949

British and Commonwealth Light-Heavyweight Champion Dan Azeez defends his two historical belts this weekend against veteran former Super-Middleweight WBA titlist Rocky Fielding at the Bournemouth International Centre on England’s South coast. An archetypal crossroads encounter, the fight narrative pitches the ageing Fielding against the emerging Azeez. Despite only two birthdays seperating the two men. 

It is a contest with promise. Complimentary styles and well-matched protagonists. Both have much to gain, and defeat will shift perceptions too.  

Continue reading “Azeez and Fielding meet at one of boxing’s oldest crossroads” →
0

Warrington and the chaos beyond a loss

There is an uneasy solemnity that drapes, inky black, on those standing beside a beaten champion. Neon lights trace across drunken faces outside the ropes, microphones are readied and cornermen wipe sweat from opponent’s shoulders and blood from brows. Rivals embrace. Affirming their mutual respect. The imposters of triumph and disaster are met. Doctrine is observed. Doctors assured.

It is a peculiar, haunting void. A type of professional grieving commences. Sermons are offered. The flush of adrenalin weakens. Reality stirs. Those closest search for reason and for words of reassurance. Rendered motionless. Speechless too, but for familiar cliche. Startled by their own dependency, they know not where to be, where to look or what to do. The former champion still prowls, still sweats, still fighting the onrushing truth. Into the chaos beyond defeat, into the collapse of the exit plan, the lost income and stark realisation of a peak now passed, many more than just the deposed champion are plunged.

A defeat can often be a type of reckoning. Always unwelcome, it searches for the hidden truths. The miles not run, the sessions missed or, as Josh Warrington discovered on Saturday night, the irreversible signs of age. Perhaps noted in the convenience of silence or with a momentary locking of eyes, but dismissed or disguised in the privacy of training nevertheless.

As the boxing truism insists; fighters are the first to know but the last to say.

Continue reading “Warrington and the chaos beyond a loss” →
0

Lopez leaps into world class after winning IBF title in rugged encounter

Luis Alberto Lopez, the little Mexican with an unsettling, maniacal grin, took the IBF Featherweight belt from Leeds’ Josh Warrington in an absorbing contest in front of the Yorkshireman’s partisan fans tonight. A triumph built on unshakeable self-confidence, heavy hands and a chaotic style that baffled and battered the 32-year-old Warrington for sufficient rounds to eek out a narrow points victory.

English judge Howard Foster scored a 114-114 draw, but two other judges saw 115-113 to the visiting Lopez despite the widespread expectation of a benevolent ‘hometown’ verdict circulating on social media.

In the end, with swing rounds in the 1st and 6th, the fight could’ve ended a draw, a 115-114 could be found on this obsever’s notepad, but Lopez felt like the winner if there was to be one.

Continue reading “Lopez leaps into world class after winning IBF title in rugged encounter” →
0

Intersection. Josh Warrington defends against anarchic Luis Lopez

There is a crazy little Mexican man coming to Leeds on Saturday night. His name is Luis Alberto Lopez. A fighter with rocks in either hand, a wild glint in his eyes and zero shits given about the reputation of the man he challenges, IBF Featherweight champion Josh Warrington.

Their battle may be short, it may go the distance. A tantalising unpredictability pervades. Lopez’s style doesn’t lend itself to the science of a gambler’s algorithms nor the made to measure tailoring often afforded British attractions by promoters protecting their cut and that uncertainty provides a welcome frisson of excitement.

There are ingredients present for a blue-collar classic.

Continue reading “Intersection. Josh Warrington defends against anarchic Luis Lopez” →
0

Pretty Boy Kelly in joyous, redemptive triumph

Irrespective of how the remainder of Josh ‘Pretty Boy’ Kelly’s career unfolds, aged 28, and with a deep reservoir of ability, there should be many more stories as yet untold, his win on Friday night may forever remain the most satisfying. A victory over local-rival Troy Williamson secured the British Light-Middleweight title, call it Super-Welterweight if you wish, and provided Kelly with an escape from the claustrophobia of the past.

Kelly’s talent has never been in doubt, but success in boxing requires more than talent, however luxurious it may appear. Self-belief, perseverance and resolve are all necessary qualities for the boundaries of a fighter’s potential to be stretched to its limit. In defeat to David Avanesyan almost two years ago, Kelly’s inflated self-belief was punctured. Fighters like Kelly, who adopt a cape of arrogance as part of their fighting persona, as slick counterpunchers so often do, feel the exposure of defeat more acutely than even the proudest of warriors. Avanesyan had proved too resolute, too organised and too strong. Cutting, dropping and breaking the resistance of Kelly in six rounds, cornerman Adam Booth throwing in the towel as his charge unravelled.

Avanesyan has progressed subsequently and is now signed to fight one of the stars of the Welterweight division, having left the vanquished Kelly in the darkness of defeat and brooding self-doubt. Until Friday.

Continue reading “Pretty Boy Kelly in joyous, redemptive triumph” →
0

Chisora the absorber, pummelled for pay and our ghoulish perversion

Derek Chisora has been a brave and capable heavyweight. His bravery was the great enabler of his third fight with Tyson Fury. The prolonged pummelling he endured entirely unnecessary.

It is the nature of the sport of boxing, the pursuit of glory at potentially grave personal cost, both the explicit and the disguised, that participants and observers are pushed to their extremes of tolerance. The third meeting between Tyson Fury and Derek Chisora for the Heavyweight title was a luminous example in this particular collection of boxing’s gloomiest encounters. All involved, from the last spectator to those carrying buckets of spit, are complicit in permitting and encouraging Saturday’s prolonged brutality.

As expected, Derek Chisora was pummelled for thirty or more minutes. The masquerade of competitiveness tossed aside from the second round. Reality replaced salesmanship. Facts displaced fantasy.

Predictable. Pitiless.

Continue reading “Chisora the absorber, pummelled for pay and our ghoulish perversion” →
0

Chisora, British Boxing’s favourite anti-hero, to dance once more

“A circus is like a mother in whom one can confide and who rewards and punishes.” 
Burt Lancaster, Actor, 1913-1994

One of the staple attractions of British boxing’s wandering circus will dance for the public again this weekend. His name is Derek Chisora and though gallant, he is now a depleted fighter. Weary from a decade of tugging at the tether boxing, with her beguiling promise of riches and adulation, ties to its most daring sons. The incessant blows, the sparring, the wins, the losses, the wear and tear of life as a professional athlete has worn away Chisora’s vibrancy, as those punishments always do. Eventually, there will be a reckoning. Repayment on the debt will be necessary. Passage to retirement never tempts ageing fighters as much as the whisper to carry on. There is always another pay day, another town, another spotlight. A fighter’s diminishing returns, the missed cues, the forgotten lines, are inconvenient truths all vested parties routinely ignore.

Although the soon to be 39-year-old boxing out of choice not economic necessity is a reassurance, his continuance remains troubling and poses a elevated risk for him and the sport he has excelled in. He gambles the quantity and quality of his tomorrows for the bounty of today, the roar of the crowd and the glory of a title that has been beyond his reach when younger and fresher.

Nevertheless, a man handsomely rewarded for years of durability should not still be chasing giants at his advanced age and with twelve painful defeats to his name. And in a more organised meritocracy, champions as capable as Tyson Fury should not be sending him contracts. Particularly in an era in which two fights a year is a busy calendar. But boxing isn’t that utopia.

Continue reading “Chisora, British Boxing’s favourite anti-hero, to dance once more” →
0

Fury v Chisora and the old routine

Heavyweight champions don’t always fight the opponents they should and don’t always fight the opponents they could. From the black fighters overlooked a century ago, to the missed opportunities of the 1990s and the voluntary defences even the Greatest of them all indulged in 50 years ago, a host of undeserving contenders have been blessed with title shots better men ought to have had.This weekend, the current heavyweight champion, Tyson Fury, meets perennial contender Derek Chisora for the third time. It is a bout without the competitive credibility title fights should possess and is one only Derek requested.

And yet, for all the caveats and criticism, the veteran slugger has the chance to become the champion of the world, and with that people have the opportunity to place wagers with betting sites. 

Continue reading “Fury v Chisora and the old routine” →
0

Timeless. Priceless. Wardley guts Gorman in 3 to become British Champion

Where there's a will there's a way
Proverb

As a thick snake of blood oozed from a cut on Fabio Wardley’s busted nose, punches smeared and splattered it across his brow and cheek. His teeth grinding into his mouth piece beneath. A giant, visible to Wardley through a mask of warm claret, lumbered closer, the possessor of greater experience, heft and the initiative. The Ipswich man grimaced but chose to walk forward. Toward the tumult. Where many would hold or fold, Wardley elected to fight. Not to box, but to fight. In that distinction, in Wardley’s willingness to risk when vulnerable and hurt, the British Heavyweight title, with all its abundant history, was won.

Gorman proved unable to match or repel Wardley’s spirited response to the success he’d enjoyed in the first round and fell to defeat in the third. The white towel of surrender fluttering on to the canvas to confirm the fighter’s shallower resistance was spent. By then, Gorman had been on the floor twice in the second and once in the third.

Wardley’s youthful combination of flaws and enterprise suggest many equally entertaining nights lay ahead.

Continue reading “Timeless. Priceless. Wardley guts Gorman in 3 to become British Champion” →
0

Whyte returns for a sure-fire brawl

Hard pounding this, gentlemen, let's see who will pound longest
Duke of Wellington, (remarking at Waterloo), 1769-1852

Dillian Whyte is a heavyweight boxer. He is now in his mid-thirties, 35 in April. The best of him, his prime, such as it was, is now in the books. A late-starter, Whyte began with clumsy feet, peculiar habits forged in other combat pursuits, and the remnants of a boyhood Jamaican drawl to his voice. Relative success in an old-school ‘tear-up’ with a surging Anthony Joshua encouraged investment and in his fortunes. Flaws were worked on, weakness polished toward competence and natural power channelled productively.

Big Derek Chisora proved too resourceful to conquer definitively, but Whyte took the contentious decision and ran with it. He beat Helenius on one of the giant Finn’s passive evenings and survived a knockdown to beat Joseph Parker. And then there was the Povetkin year. A knockout loss. A knockout win.

His busyness, resulted in momentum and that impetus, in an otherwise slovenly field, forced him toward the top of the division. Dancing from novelty heavyweight, to contender, to avoided boogeyman through to the supposedly exposed veteran of today. All in just a handful of short years. Fury adding an exclamation mark to the current characterisation of his part in the heavyweight picture.

In Jermaine Franklin, an ill-defined, undefeated and as yet unverified heavyweight out of the Motor town of Detroit, Whyte faces a fighter with some stylistic similarities to his own. Wider stance perhaps, a right hand Franklin launches from the bleachers lacks Whyte’s explosiveness but they certainly share an appetite for a heated exchange. Whyte more concussive, Franklin quicker.

Saturday’s fight will probably lack finesse. But it might be fun. And for Whyte, defeat is unconscionable.

Continue reading “Whyte returns for a sure-fire brawl” →
0

In the footsteps of Ali. Katie Taylor eyes Croke Park crescendo

Sometimes my feet are tired and my hands are quiet, but there is no quiet in my heart.
W.B. Yeats, Irish Poet, 1865-1939

Katie Taylor answered in her characteristic manner. Certain. Humble. Promoter Eddie Hearn waxed lyrical. Ignoring the boos of progressively deeper octave; “Ireland, Croke Park. Serrano. Has to be. If not, someone else. But it is Ireland next.” Taylor’s Irish eyes smiled, warming to a familiar squint. Sweat still springs. Cheeks thickened. Her aching hands resting on silk hips. As the questions were posed and the cliches shared, hundreds still loitered among the strewn plastic cups and the Saturday night spilt at their feet. Taylor had done as expected; beating the tall, organised Argentinian Karen Elizabeth Carabajal for all the Lightweight belts by unanimous points decision. Knockouts, the violent climax ticket buyers crave still stubbornly elusive.

Still friends and strangers sway, arms entwined, a joyful scrummage. The shrewd and restless twist their necks to listen as they clambered for the exits. The nocturnes and neon of the London night, the rationed taxi cabs and their prodigal sibling of the morning’s regret quickening their stride. Irish tricolours stretch and fall. Cheers, drunk with vowels tumble down toward the ring and the garden of microphones.

Katie Taylor fills arenas. And her eyes are on the biggest of all. One with both history and meaning for the people of Ireland.

Continue reading “In the footsteps of Ali. Katie Taylor eyes Croke Park crescendo” →
0

Barrett falls to Rakhimov but exposes his weaknesses

Shavkatdzhon Rakhimov won the vacant IBF Super-Featherweight title in Abu-Dhabi Saturday night in the latest in a sequence of major fights to take place in the Middle East. A venue that provides convenient fight times for global audiences and inconvenient questions about money for promoters. For Zelfa Barrett, a fluid counter puncher from Manchester, the fight offered an opportunity to confirm his ability at World level. One he took, despite the disappointment of defeat in the 9th round.

Barrett’s success with left and rights to the body, stinging right uppercuts to head and body and a willingness to punch in combination despite his movement based strategy and determination to avoid short-range exchanges, brought a points lead heading toward the championship rounds.

Pressure fighters like Rakhimov don’t tend to worry about the minutiae of scorecards.

Continue reading “Barrett falls to Rakhimov but exposes his weaknesses” →
0

Chisora lands stupefying, unnecessary trilogy fight with Fury

WhyteChisora 
Why drag this out much longer?
I'd be ahead if I could quit when I was behind
Bobby Womack*, 1976

At the time of writing British heavyweight chugger Derek Chisora is 8-weeks short of his 39th birthday. By the time he walks toward the empty ring on December 3rd to fight the Heavyweight Champion, Tyson Fury, he will be closer still. Among the dissent the match up has drawn, for the things it isn’t; competitive, necessary or requested, boxing fans, writers and observers are only paying peripheral attention to yet another example of a middle age man punching for pay. Aesthetics can deceive. Routinely do.

Beyond the superficial of weigh-ins, face offs and PR soundbytes, in the haste to point to those who Fury should be fighting and just how unworthy Chisora is, the challenger’s age is but a sideline.

Lest we forget. Old is still old.

Continue reading “Chisora lands stupefying, unnecessary trilogy fight with Fury” →
0

Veteran Wilder punches toward future greatness

The bigger they come, the harder they fall.
Bob Fitzsimmons, 1862-1917

It is the nature of the meandering river of life that the vistas and postcards of the past can seem more lustrous than our current view. That which has passed becomes richer for the embellishment our memory imposes and the present dulls as our optimism dissipates with grey hair and midlife. Applied to boxing, it exaggerates our heroes and denigrates their successors.

This manifests as “Tommy levels Floyd”, “nobody beats peak Iron Mike”, or for older observers, “nobody punched like the Brown Bomber”. Ask Eddie Murphy. These opinions root deeply, becoming fixed in the landscape of our outlook. It closes us to the brilliance of now. The genius around us. Things new can still be great and may one day, if we are spared long enough, be the fixations of our future. Best to embrace the enjoyment they provide as if still young ourselves, than diminish them in the kangaroo court of our rose-filtered nostalgia.

Saturday’s knockout win, accumulated with a single right hand that travelled around 18 inches, continued to confirm that future history will smile on Deontay Wilder in much the same way it romantacises those bygone gladiators.

Continue reading “Veteran Wilder punches toward future greatness” →
0

Nostalgia for sale. Benn and Eubank Preview

Article first published at Bookmakers.com

There will be a different type of atmosphere in the O2 Arena, London, this weekend when the British pairing of Chris Eubank Jr. and Conor Benn march toward the lights. Memories will be stirred. Emotions and glasses will be charged. 

Fans of their fathers, Chris Sr. and Nigel, two warriors of the 1980s and ‘90s, will recall the febrile nature of their great rivalry and those who watched as children, or were not yet born, and suckled on tall tales of Eubank and Benn fights, will grasp tightly the chance to experience those golden days via the proxy of their fighting sons. Those feelings, of a deeply rooted affinity to a fighter, are harder to muster among the inactivity and sprawling labyrinthian reality of boxing in the 21st century. 

Rivals all too rarely fight. 

Saturday’s headline contest boasts this once common intensity, inherited though it may be, and is a refreshing fixture even as a catchweight contest. 

Continue reading “Nostalgia for sale. Benn and Eubank Preview” →
0

Boxing isn’t to blame for cheating. Cheats are to blame for cheating.

Peace: A period of cheating between two periods of fighting.
Ambrose Bierce, American Essayist, (1842-1914)

Boxing isn’t an entity. It isn’t sentient. It isn’t a building, a person or a particular group of people. Nor is it an organisation or corporation. It isn’t owned. It isn’t a charity. It isn’t a sanctioning body, or a certain array of promoters. It isn’t one thing, or a sum of many. It isn’t a game. It isn’t a business. It doesn’t think. It doesn’t care. It doesn’t have a conscience.

It isn’t even an it.

On days like today, when the shit hits the fan and someone has been caught with their hand in the till, or cheating to get ahead, the orgy of activity that occurs beneath the word boxing is often referred to in this way. As a thing. A conscious, aware, tangible, living, breathing thing. Boxing is not any of those ‘things’. And as such, the idea ‘boxing is hurting itself’ or, more dramatically, ‘shooting itself in the foot’, is a phrasing which hinders progress and the serious discussion required to find solutions to the problems all too frequently perpetrated in the name of the sport.

Continue reading “Boxing isn’t to blame for cheating. Cheats are to blame for cheating.” →
0

Echoes of place and time as Eubank and Benn seek to extend their fathers’ legend

The important thing when you are going to do something brave is to have someone on hand to witness it. 
Michael Howard, Military Historian, (1922-2019)

Our relationships with fighters are shaped in the main by the greatness of their deeds. In their power, their skill, their willingness to endure pain that appears beyond our comprehension, behind the ordinary. The depth of the awe in which we hold those champions is influenced by our place in life when they emerge. It is the crucible for the additional sentimentality we all feel toward the heroes of our past. Specifically, those of our formative years when senses are keenest and less dulled by time and the accrued cynicism.

Appreciation of others, of successors, assessment of predecessors, is cured by the wisdom of age but our champions, the one’s we elevate at our most impressionable always stand tallest in our recollection.

On Saturday night, Chris Eubank Jr and Conor Benn will tap into the emotions of fight fans of my generation, encouraging a voyage through the decades to the seminal rematch between their fathers 29 years ago. It is a fight forged in opportunism, hidden from the masses by the convoluted nature of viewing via an obscure app and with arguably more to lose than there is to gain for both protagonists. And yet such is the lustre of Benn and Eubank Senior’s two fights there will still be an audience in pursuit of access when the first bell rings.

Continue reading “Echoes of place and time as Eubank and Benn seek to extend their fathers’ legend” →
2

Joyce’s chin, otherworldly, is an asset and a deterrent

The weekend reluctantly succumbs to a grumbling Monday, children scramble onto back seats and the drizzle of late September sneers at those too lazy to cut the lawn the day before. In the ensuing silence, thoughts, ideas compete, ebbing and flowing for those of us wrestling with obligation, the should dos afforded by time and solitude.

Boxing lurches in to frame among the unwashed breakfast pots, the dogs that need exercise and the bill that needs paying. It isn’t always this way. Golovkin and Canelo III came and went leaving little fat to chew on by the Monday, despite the generational greatness of the pairing. A tired episode in a great rivalry. The money laden, but inferior, Godfather III if you will. Years too late.

Into the wash of their encounter stepped Shakur Stevenson, the next, next Pretty Boy. He has predecessors as would be successor to Floyd and his Uber-wealth. 25 years old and 22 ounces over the limit. He won. Cemented his status. But missing weight brought more headlines than the fight. The nature of the modern mediums. Words, failure, toxicity create more wake than quality, preparation, success.

And so it fell to the heavyweights in Manchester, England. The two nice guys called Joe, Joyce and Parker, met in a crossroads bout. Was this the top of Joyce’s arc or could he continue his climb versus Parker, a man who had soared with Joshua and Ruiz already? Expectations had been modest. Joyce, huge, lumbering but effective. Parker, stout, sharper and seasoned.

Both excelled. And their bruising encounter revealed a new player at the top of the division.

Continue reading “Joyce’s chin, otherworldly, is an asset and a deterrent” →
0

Andy Lee, a young face with an old voice, creates doubt in the script for Joyce v Parker

When in doubt, tell the truth.
Mark Twain, Humourist and novelist, (1835-1910)

Any boxing match worth its salt is a cocktail of knowns and unknowns. Proposing multiple potential outcomes, paradoxical in the conflict of conviction and uncertainty those possibilities provoke. Fight week should play with those conclusions, tease doubt, shift perspective and stimulate debate for those with the wisdom to embrace the rumination rather than dismiss anything that doesn’t validate their own opinion. A common failing in the echo chamber of our own social media streams.

This weekend’s heavyweight battle between Joe Joyce and Joseph Parker doesn’t possess all of those ingredients. As a result it had failed to toy with fight fan’s interest as the last days and hours before the first bell tick away in the way the best fights usually do. Both Joes possess strengths and weaknesses, present a variance of form and experience and offer complimentary styles too. There has always been much to like in the match up. The bout boasts sufficient jeopardy and reward for the victor and vanquished to encourage a fierce commitment from the two gentlemanly protagonists too.

Continue reading “Andy Lee, a young face with an old voice, creates doubt in the script for Joyce v Parker” →
0

When the time comes. Golovkin and the age old problem

When forty winters shall besiege thy brow, 
And dig deep trenches in thy beauty's field
William Shakespeare, Sonnet 2

I sat perched on the edge of the sofa, waiting for one of the three greatest middleweights of my life time to enter the ring. Twenty or more title fights sprawled out on his record, a long sequence of victories, a red mark or two failing to diminish a reputation as the best 160 pounder of his generation. And perhaps, whisper it quietly, the best of all.

Aged 40, doubt remained. Such was my intoxication with boxing, the 4am ring walk, the obscure channel, the pay per view fee, nothing would dissuade me from tuning in. A dangerous opponent, younger, fresher, stronger too maybe? He had it all to do.

The year was 2005. The fight was Hopkins versus Eastman. Much has changed since. Much has stayed the same.

Continue reading “When the time comes. Golovkin and the age old problem” →
0

Golovkin chases the debts of the past, Canelo credit for his own

First published at bookmakers.com

This Saturday, fans of boxing and the wider sporting world will turn their gaze away from the heavyweights and toward the unfashionable trappings of the Super-Middleweight (168lb) division. Two luminaries of the modern age; Saul ’Canelo’ Alvarez and Gennadiy Golovkin, face each other for the third, and in all likelihood, final time. Los Angeles’ T-Mobile Arena will provide the stage for the concluding chapter in their bitter and controversial rivalry.  

For each combatant, the customary collection of belts will be at stake, alongside lucrative purses and, most cherished of all, the chance to establish definitive superiority over the best of their contemporaries. There are a host of variables to navigate in predicting the outcome. Age, form, activity, location, weight. Proposing opportunity for punters but complicated by the interpretations applied to their significance and to whom they offer advantage. The enduring injustice which hung over the verdicts awarded in their first two contests, an unjustified Draw and a barely conceivable Majority Decision for Canelo, is an additional factor which could influence markets and conceivably create margins for those who invest unemotionally.  

It is a feast of tangibles and intangibles.   

Continue reading “Golovkin chases the debts of the past, Canelo credit for his own” →
0

Usyk glowers, grins and out-wits Joshua once more

No man who is occupied in doing a very difficult thing, and doing it very well, ever loses his self-respect

George Bernard Shaw, Playwright 1856-1950

As I glared at the blank screen before me, thoughts on Oleksandr Usyk’s triumph over Anthony Joshua still swirling. Theories, meaning, the rumination of others flitting in and out of view and ear shot. The starkness of the victory I had seen, the troubling thread of doubt dangled by one or two who’d witnessed a closer fight weaving through my mind. Happen-chance and necessity led me to a live BBC concert from the Royal Albert Hall. An exceptionally gifted singer, Shelea, was shaking the old dome to its foundations. Performing in the long shadow cast by Aretha Franklin. R-E-S-P-E-C-T. She sounded uninhibited, undeterred by the shoes in which she trod. Empowered by the responsibility. Emboldened by the audience before her.

It struck me that the quest for the respect of others, of history, of his rivals, of those who would take what he had, of the street life he hoped never to disgrace but eternally escape, of being validated by wealth, influence has been a constant in Anthony Joshua’s professional career. A weighty burden too.

Continue reading “Usyk glowers, grins and out-wits Joshua once more” →
0

Beyond reasonable doubt. Usyk chases confirmation, Joshua redemption

Article first published at Bookmakers.com

“Doubt … is an illness that comes from knowledge and leads to madness.” ― Gustave Flaubert 

Saturday’s heavyweight rematch between Anthony Joshua and Oleksander Usyk, a bout awash with possibilities and drenched in the oily wealth of its hosts, will anoint Tyson Fury’s successor following the Gyspy King’s insistence he has now retired. Other shiny and glib garlands will be draped about the victor of course but in the old money of boxing, either Joshua or Usyk will become, the man. 

Continue reading “Beyond reasonable doubt. Usyk chases confirmation, Joshua redemption” →
0

Fury dominates and then destroys Whyte in six

First appeared on BigFightWeekend.com

It would be cruel to suggest 76 years young singer Don McLean moved his feet quicker in his pre-fight rendition of American Pie than London bruiser Dillian Whyte did before being struck by a Tyson Fury right uppercut, but it wouldn’t be far from the truth. Deconstructing Whyte’s reputation based on the ease with which Fury deposited the floundering challenger on the canvas in front of a baying Wembley crowd, high on freedom and other confections, will be a popular undertaking but unjust too. Observers are encouraged to refrain.

The division today isn’t 1970s deep. It never was before Ali, Foreman and their many contemporaries and it likely never will be again, and as such the perennial comparison is redundant. Within his generation, Whyte possessed a credible record and a consensus place in the top half a dozen big men.

That Whyte failed to land a punch of note in six rounds speaks to Fury’s dominance of that same generation more than the limitations of the self-made ‘Body Snatcher’. But defeat brings cynicism. Dominance, as Fury’s predecessor, Wladimir Klitschko found, invariably does too.

Continue reading “Fury dominates and then destroys Whyte in six” →
0

Boxing bullied out of the Kinahan business on eve of Fury versus Whyte

“I think crime pays. You travel a lot.”

Woody Allen

Fighters always attract a troupe of colourful characters. Their money, and their potential to be parted from it, even more. Sycophants. Chancers. Criminals. Sugar Ray Robinson, the greatest of them all, engaged a parade of the bizarre and the harmless. From a person with Dwarfism, employed for no discernible reason beyond the novelty of their height, to a pair charged with whistling while the shimmering Robinson worked – if Gilbert Rogin’s obituary of April 24th 1989, by way of coincidence, is to be taken as a gospel of the period.

The great man danced in an era in which dressing room visitors were far from harmless, and in a shady world where the advice of ‘advisors’ was always followed. Boxing’s enduring chaos is fertile territory for organised crime. In the 1950s, a period oft considered a golden age, the Mob were manifestly the king makers within the sport.

On the eve of the heavyweight title fight between Tyson Fury and Dillian Whyte, Daniel Kinahan’s growing influence within boxing’s many lucrative shadows, including a documented advisory capacity in Fury’s later career, has finally been arrested.

If not the man himself. It is a story perhaps only at its beginning.

Continue reading “Boxing bullied out of the Kinahan business on eve of Fury versus Whyte” →
2

Khan and Brook cast long shadows from their last sunset

Ageing is natural. It happens to all of us. I just always want to look like myself, even if that’s an older version of myself.

Halle Berry, Actor (1966- )

In the summer of 2004 a boxer called Amir Khan, aged just 17, the possessor of unfathomable hand speed and armed with a quiver of jabs, a favourite grandson’s smile and a vest beneath which beat a fearless heart, became a household name in Britain when his voyage to an unlikely Silver medal at the Athens Olympics was broadcast live on terrestrial television. Fight fans, sports fans, grandmas, uncles, friends, all bore witness to Britain’s sole entrant.

On Saturday night, much closer to home than the Greek capital and now a retired veteran of 35, Khan climbed the steps to the ring for the final time. The loneliness of his entrance in to the public’s consciousness as a boy all those years ago reflected back in a brutal departure from the prize ring. Referee Victor Loughlin showing sufficient mercy to save a wilting Khan from a pitiless and increasingly rampant Kell Brook in the sixth round.

A fight 17 years in the making was over in 17 minutes.

Continue reading “Khan and Brook cast long shadows from their last sunset” →
0

Create a website or blog at WordPress.com

Up ↑