Derek Chisora intends to box again. However fat the cheque or significant the title, the calls for him to be saved from himself have been loud for a considerable time and, if ignored, will eventually leave many with regret. Not just Derek.
In the course of 25 years scribbling about fighters and the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune they’ve all encountered in the murkiness that stalks the sport, I’d would imagine Tyson Fury has probably accumulated the most words. It is alleged he has a fight upcoming. Beside him in the time I’ve spent musing on boxing probably stands Bernard Hopkins, Ricky Hatton, Wladimir Klitschko and Anthony Joshua.
An unscientific instinctive listing. I’ve neither time nor inclination to provide the data. They are five outstanding fighters, Bernard probably the pick of the bunch if I permitted a digression into a pound for pound debate between them. I’ll resist because none of the five are the subject. Derek Chisora, who probably ranks #6 on this list of principle studies of the last quarter of a century writing about boxing is today’s muse.
As news broke this week that big Derek is booked to box Murat Gassiev, a 19-stone boulder from Russia almost 10 years and 200 rounds his junior, I was reminded of the number of times I’d contemplated the morbidity of his never ending, if colourful, career.
Continue reading “There’s nothing else to say baby. Goodbye, so long”
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. 
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. 
I’m excited about the WBC Super-Middleweight contest between Nottingham’s Carl Froch and Arkansas’ Jermain Taylor, it pitches two fighters together who are in their respective primes. It doesn’t rely on nostalgia, nor does it feature a network favourite and a cherry picked opponent. It isn’t quite the choice Froch has framed it to be, pursuing Taylor is noble given the posturing of preceding champions in the selection of foes, but Taylor, lest we forget, is Froch’s mandatory as he won a vacant title and Taylor beat Lacy in a final eliminator. However, for all the glass half full gloss it still beats Taylor’s reliance on an age old cliche to promote the fight. 
It would be remiss of me to overlook the timeless performances of Bernard Hopkins and Shane Mosley in recent months before deploring the matchmakers and executives who compiled and approved the Chad Dawson v Antonio Tarver sequel. Perhaps Tarver’s sojourn to the Rocky Balboa film set has infected the romantics among the powerbrokers, who refuse to give up on Tarver despite Dawson’s complete domination of the ageing former champion last year. A Dawson hand injury postpones Tarver’s second portrayal of a man with a white chalk line around his youth. 
