John-Lewis Dickinson fulfilled the suspicions of those cute judges who felt he may have the qualities required to upset Matty Askin for the English Cruiserweight title tonight, defeating the champion by unanimous decision. The bout provided chief support to Anthony Crolla’s British Lightweight clash with Derry Mathews. Continue reading “Boxing: Dickinson wins the English Cruiserweight title”
Boxing: Bobby Gunn and James Toney in a room. Never going to be tea and biscuits.
It may surprise some readers to learn Bobby Gunn causes the biggest spike in readership whenever I cobble (do you see what I did there) together a news or opinion piece on the plucky prizefighter. Avoyd Mayweather holds nothing on the scrapper once spectacularly referred to as “the most ferocious fighter since Jack Dempsey”. The outlandishness of the claim further enhanced by the one round mauling at the fists of Enzo Maccarinelli that followed shortly after the words were uttered. Gunn also fought Tomasz Adamek for another portion of the Cruiserweight title, so his notoriety isn’t entirely hollow. I ducked any coverage of his bare-knuckle contests on principle but I must confess to a curious interest in his next bout following a heated press conference.
A clash with James Toney. Yes, the real one.
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Boxing: Nobody gets out on their own terms, not even Hopkins
It was sad to see Bernard Hopkins, a fighter who has battled the boxing establishment, its promotional cartels and the received wisdom of how to manage a career for 20 years, finished by one of the sports unshakeable truths; nobody leaves the sport on their own terms. Bernard has spent the past decade, and intensely for the last 5 years, selling his resistance to the ageing process, declaring himself an alien or somehow immune to the ravages of time.
Alas, a cruel injury may snatch the crescendo he still pursued from his grasp.
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Boxing: Reassembling a defeated fighter, Kevin Mitchell begins to convince
The winning of a prizefight is decided by a complex algorithm. Combining 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 that which he is and decides 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 the triumph and disaster which befalls them is often only ever partially revealed.
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Boxing: What a tangled web we weave. Tarver and Fury practice to deceive
There is a hierarchy to everything. It is nature’s insistent truth. Whether it be a pack of wolves, heavyweights or journalists. No demographic or social organism exists without either a class system or a distinct pyramid of significance. In the wild, the theory of evolution demands this hierarchy is structured upon one simple principle. ‘Survival of the fittest’.
Thus, the alpha animal remains so while ever he has the strength to repel younger aspirants. Just the type of jungle of competition fighters are supposed to emerge from as the king, if they are to demand the acclaim of one.
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Boxing relies on Don King and Terry Dooley for sense and integrity!
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”. Continue reading “Boxing relies on Don King and Terry Dooley for sense and integrity!”
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Boxing: Frank Maloney’s cold-shower for Belshaw’s prospects
Every press release I’ve read about big Scott Belshaw has been heavily doused in salt. Frank Maloney is a wise old hand at generating attention for his fighters and he’s used every reference possible to project Belshaw as a raw puncher with a big future. Last week Belshaw was calling out Audley Harrison, who for all his vulnerability and idiosyncrasies, would walk through Belshaw in less than a minute.
Yes, that Audley. Okay maybe two.
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Boxing: A Nightingale Sang In Iran Barkley Square
Boxing’s lack of structure is never more apparent than in the plight of retired fighters struggling to eke out an existence. Somehow ageing and the problems of ensuing retirement, seems more acute than on any other sportsman. Proud warriors, frightening, thunderous, larger than life characters humbled and humiliated by their loss of youth. A loss they so rarely see approaching. Lifetimes spent proving their physical superiority over the man opposing and, seemingly, the world at large – if only for a moment, replaced by an inability to function, provide or find direction in their post boxing life is an acute and distressing contrast. Continue reading “Boxing: A Nightingale Sang In Iran Barkley Square”
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