Tag: cruiserweight

Can’t Fight Won’t Fight.

Jake Paul battles Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.

 Article first appeared on AndysBetClub

Speculating on outcomes for fights involving Jake Paul can feel like a type of betrayal. First to the sport he subverts with these pseudo-exhibition bouts and secondly, because his opponents often appear inhibited, inept or both and uniformly unable to punch the self-styled ‘Problem Child’ in the face.

This weekend, the 28-year-old with the huge social profile will again employ that notoriety to headline as a boxing attraction in Anaheim, California versus the rotting carcass of the former WBC Middleweight Champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. Like his predecessors as Paul fall guys, Mike Tyson luminous among a parade of otherwise unknown stuntmen, Chavez has the usual impediments required to secure the lucrative pay day.

Continue reading “Can’t Fight Won’t Fight.” →
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Billam-Smith loses title to Ramirez, remains undefeated as a Gentleman

As images emerged of Chris Billam-Smith in the days that followed his courageous display versus the talented Mexican Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez; left eye closed shut, the signature white tape clinging to the stitches on his brow and a bandaged hand with broken digits, it was hard to suppress growing admiration for his performance – despite the clear defeat he suffered. The pictures served as another reminder of the damage accrued in punishing, distance fights both in the conspicuity of the short term but also stored deeper for those days beyond the lights when retirement and middle age come to collect on the debt of punches taken.

Billam-Smith, like illustrious predecessors Cooper, Farr and a legion of others, won new fans and deepened the respect with which he is held via his toughness between the ropes as well as his conduct and demeanour in defeat. The Bournemouth favourite is a throwback to fighters who punched for pay long before most of Saturday’s paltry crowd in Saudi Arabia were born.

Continue reading “Billam-Smith loses title to Ramirez, remains undefeated as a Gentleman” →
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Boxing gargoyle. Jake Paul finally faces Tommy Fury

Article first appeared at Bookmakers.com

On Sunday, beneath the warm Saudi Arabian sky of the nation’s original capital, Diriyah, restored and repurposed as an international destination rich in history and the amenities the wealthy demand, populists Jake Paul and Tommy Fury will attempt to substantiate their credentials and disproportionate public prominence as professional prizefighters. Against each other. 

Betting sites are struggling to separate them on the betting line. 

The bout is scheduled for eight rounds at an approximated Cruiserweight limit of 185 pounds. 10 pounds higher than Light Heavyweight, the division Fury appears to consider his home, but 15 beneath the current maximum for the division. 

These sojourns to the Middle East have become a customary fixture in the boxing calendar, and the region is jostling for position with many of the traditional venues in the West. Diriyah is a location in keeping with the contrived nature of the contest. There is incontrovertible opportunism in the construction of this fight. 

Continue reading “Boxing gargoyle. Jake Paul finally faces Tommy Fury” →
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Saturday night at the fights; Okolie, Ortiz and two crazy guys called Lopez

Lawrence Okolie

Change is not made without inconvenience, even from worse to better

Richard Hooker, English theologian, 1554-1600

It would be easy to be cynical about the Lawrence Okolie story. Too much of Saturday night television has leant on the ‘journey’ of whoever the wannabe singing or dancing hopeful was that particular weekend. The tears, the back story, the setbacks, the dead grandma. It can become repetitive and contrived. But as Eddie Hearn demanded in post fight interview, following the Londoner’s exemplary victory over Krzysztof Glowacki to win the WBO title, Okolie’s tale merits retelling.

The fat kid in McDonalds, a perfectly respectable career for many let it also be said, inspired by heroes Usain Bolt and Anthony Joshua to chase something bigger, something more. Boxing, as it so often does, provided the vehicle for the revolution Okolie wanted. No barrier to entry in boxing you see. Show up, and someone will teach you, will care.

He began. And while last night represented a huge step in his career, winning a quarter of the world title, it was the first step eight years ago that required the most gumption.

Okolie wasn’t the only winner on an entertaining evening of boxing as the action swung from London to Texas.

Continue reading “Saturday night at the fights; Okolie, Ortiz and two crazy guys called Lopez” →
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BoxingWriter.co.uk Fighters of the Year 2018

Tyson Fury

It is said that time feels increasingly fleeting with the passing of every year. A lament often aired during the Christmas frivolities, as the day itself ‘cannonballs’ in whilst our minds are still fresh from collecting spent rockets and eating the last of the Halloween Haribo. Certainly for those of us wrestling with middle life, the sticky toffee that holds the melange of children, grandparents and other assorted acquaintances together, the reflection brought on by year end arrives all too quickly.

Add in an interest in the world of boxing, a niche within the Venn diagram of human existence once obscure and peripheral but now experiencing a population boom, and the pace is quickened still further. No weekend in the boxing fan’s diary is ever clear, perhaps save the one forthcoming, and the platforms and mediums for indulging their passion grows by the day. There is barely time to pause for breathe between a Spring time heavyweight showdown in a football stadium and a Featherweight dust up on the brink of New Year.

But, just as the charity pleas that interrupt our Christmas viewing and draw us back from the excess of our indulgence and before we dare to complain, gratitude should be our only sentiment.

Continue reading “BoxingWriter.co.uk Fighters of the Year 2018” →

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Usyk v Bellew betting preview

First appeared on gambling.com

On Saturday night, in the hothouse of the Manchester Arena, Tony Bellew will tackle Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk for the unified Cruiserweight championship.

A fight that offers Bellew the chance to etch his name alongside predecessors in British Boxing folklore with whom the self-effacing “fat lad from Liverpool” will be the first to insist he has no right to be compared.

It has been this paradox, the deeply held certainty of victory despite simultaneous acknowledgement that the other guy holds all the advantages, that has been the narrative of his rise from peripheral domestic fighter to pay per view attraction and, albeit briefly, world champion. Continue reading “Usyk v Bellew betting preview” →

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MyFightTickets.com Fighter of the Month – July

Boxing can make you cry. Boxing can make you shout. Make you sing. Excite you. Demoralise you. Inspire millions. Save a lonely soul. A single prize-fight can evoke all of these emotions, bring communities together, even unify the divided, if only temporarily. Since the 1950s the pioneers of commercial television realised the potential boxing had to provide enthralling action and, soon after, the draw the men in each corner could become if their stories, their characters were revealed.

It is why, alongside the practicalities of a sport viewed through the monochrome of the early television sets, champions wore white shorts, the challenger black. Just as their contemporary storytellers in Hollywood depicted good guys with white Stetsons and evil landowners in Black ones. Boxing wanted you to care, to ‘pull’ for one guy or the other. And to watch the adverts too of course. Continue reading “MyFightTickets.com Fighter of the Month – July” →

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Usyk the Ukrainian hero needs no titles

“If there’s one thing I know, it’s never to mess with Mother Nature, mother-in-laws and mother freaking Ukrainians.”

Skinny Pete, The Italian Job, 2003

Sport and politics are not meant to trespass on to each other’s figurative lawns. Far too frequently, they do. From the cricket fields of apartheid South Africa in the 1970s, the American boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics through to the present day  – a swirl of state sponsored doping, kneeling line backers and the awarding of football World Cups on the basis of stuffed manila envelopes rather than full stadiums. The politicising of sport is neither a new nor uncommon phenomenon. They are perennially entwined.

Boxing is littered with examples, from the persecution of Jack Johnson a century ago to the symbolism of Joe Louis’ rematch with Germany’s Max Schmeling in 1938, it is a rich and luminous seam. Fighters possess power in their actions and their opinions that can reach far beyond the roped square in which they ply their trade and politicians are always eager to manipulate the image or popularism of their pugilistic contemporaries. Continue reading “Usyk the Ukrainian hero needs no titles” →

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Boxing: Dickinson wins the English Cruiserweight title

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” →

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Adamek to ride shot Gunn

GunnBobby 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. Continue reading “Adamek to ride shot Gunn” →

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Archive: Old Man Thompson Stops Unbeaten Haye in 5

hayethompsonARCHIVE: 10/09/04

David Haye is the toast of the boxing media presently thanks to his shrewdly selected but nevertheless impressive debut at heavyweight, sinking Tomasz Bonin in a round, title triumphs at Cruiserweight and latterly his destruction of the seasoned Monte Barrett. He has subsequently emerged  as a loquacious rival for Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko to embrace or avoid – depending on the prevalent press release at the time of reading. 

However, there was a time when his confidence took him into territory from which his right hand couldn’t provide escape. He took on Carl ‘The Cat’ Thompson in 2004 before he was ready and came unstuck. It was one of the most enthralling, absorbing and punishing contests I’ve had the privilege to cover from ringside.

Continue reading “Archive: Old Man Thompson Stops Unbeaten Haye in 5” →

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Archive: Holyfield ignores the lessons of King Canute

August 23rd 2005

Three years on from the first publication of this article on thesweetscience.com, its hard to comprehend that the career of Evander Holyfield should still be an active topic. He had been consigned to the scrap heap innumerable times already by 2005 and yet still steadfastly refused to yield to the dieing of the light. At the time of release the first formal steps to forcible retire the proud warrior had been taken, they proved pointless and rightfully so.

Continue reading “Archive: Holyfield ignores the lessons of King Canute” →

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Haye Delivers On Promise

Union JackTonight, amid a partisan French crowd, London’s David Haye delivered one of the most thrilling performances by a British fighter in a foreign ring since the glorious nights of John H. Stracey and Lloyd Honeyghan. By depositing Cruiserweight champion Jean Marc-Mormeck on the canvas in the seventh round with a thunderous right uppercut and swinging right cross Haye announced himself to the boxing world and secured the Cruiserweight world title. Continue reading “Haye Delivers On Promise” →

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Maccarinelli faces…erm..someone

Punch BagBig WBO Cruiserweight belt holder Enzo Maccarinelli is presumably a realist. In interview, he strikes me as a level-headed fighter who understands the sport’s political intricacies enough to realise facing top-line contenders in every bout isn’t possible, he’ll also digest the fact tomorrow night is all about Joe Calzaghe v Mikkel Kessler. But despite that presumed pragmatism he must be frustrated by the search for a worthy opponent to tackle, he’ll certainly wish to avoid the criticism levelled at him following the Bobby Gunn fight. Continue reading “Maccarinelli faces…erm..someone” →

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Happy Days – Haye to Face Mormeck

Jean-MarcOK, so big-punching David Haye couldn’t crack Ismael Abdoul and true he was decked by Super-Middleweight Lolenga Mock but despite those apparent limitations he remains a crucial piece of the British Boxing jigsaw. In fact, his importance could reach further. Boxing needs a charismatic, heavy handed heavyweight contender. Haye is one of a precariously short list of applicants for that role. Only Alexander Povetkin ranks ahead of him as a heavyweight youngster with punch power. The difference with Haye? He has obligations at 200 pounds to fulfil first.

Continue reading “Happy Days – Haye to Face Mormeck” →

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Staggering. Maccarinelli To Face Joke Opponent?

Bobby GunnPragmatism is an essential personality trait for boxing fans these days, accepting mediocre opponents in the name of world-championship boxing has become second nature to fans of the sport.

However, in Bobby Gunn, Frank Warren may just have found an opponent so devoid of credentials that boxing fans, even those devoted to the WBO Cruiserweight champion, Enzo Maccarinelli, Gunn is scheduled to face, will be unable to accept. Continue reading “Staggering. Maccarinelli To Face Joke Opponent?” →

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