Christmas day was 'boxing' day

I hope everyone in the blogosphere and readers of this blog (both of you) had a happy Christmas. My family did me proud and I received a number of boxing-related gifts including a fantastic Rocky 'Italian stallion' Balboa boxing gown (pictured on the right) courtesy of my wife, a Boxing Legends 2010 calendar and a boxing glove signed by former heavyweight champion Frank Bruno. I now have an enviable collection of boxing autographs which includes British greats such as Joe Calzaghe, John Conteh, Howard Winstone, Alan Minter, Dave 'Boy' Green, Big Frank and legendary BBC commentator Harry Carpenter.
My brother-in-laws also gave me a copy of Joe Calzaghe's autobiography, 'No Ordinary Joe' which I'm reading at the moment. I met Joe at a charity ball some years ago (that's where I got the autograph) and he was politeness personified, although not as tall as I'd imagined him to be. The book is good too, by no means a classic, but very interesting on his Sardinian roots and the controversy surrounding his non-appearance at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992 (when he surely would have been a medal contender, remember Robin Reid went away with a bronze). But I was surprised when I came across this passage on page 16: " I was even asked to compete on Strictly Come Dancing shortly afterwards, but that's not for me. I'm not into the celebrity scene and going to big movie premieres. I'm a boxer, a guy from the Welsh valleys."
Oops.
To be fair to him, he's writing about a period, after the Lacy fight, when he was still very much an active boxer. His recent Strictly adventure only came after he had retired, undefeated. It's too early for a review as such so I'll have to finish the book and get back to you.
Meanwhile, a brief look ahead to 2010. There are already some mouthwatering match-ups to look forward to: Mosely v Berto in January, Vasquez v Marquez in May and the return of the super-six fights at super middleweight including our own Carl Froch against Mikkel Kessler, but at the moment the fight everyone wants to see looks further away than ever. Ben Dirs has a nice piece here on the farce surrounding negotiations for Pacquiao and Mayweather's proposed fight-of-the-century.

Valero marches on

He definitely hasn't mastered boxing's defensive arts, in fact, he has no defence to speak of at all, he's failed a brain scan meaning he can't yet fight in the US (outside Texas) and he has a reputation for being somewhat unstable, but Venezuelan Edwin Valero is one of my favourite fighters at the moment and a name to look out for. The 28-year old defended his WBC lightweight title on Saturday against the durable Mexican Héctor Velázquez, who suffered heavy punishment before staying on his stool at the bell for the seventh. Valero, sporting a huge tattoo of the the Venezuelan flag and his hero Hugo Chavez across his chest, has a 100 per cent knock-out rate from his 26 fights and needed less than 18 rounds of boxing to finish off his first 18 opponents (although questions could be asked about the quality of fighters he faced early in his career).
But what's refreshing about Valero is that in many ways he fights the way most of us would when entering the ring for the first time: arms swinging wildly (and quite often missing), no obvious attempt to cover up and the courage that usually only follows a few drinks. He throws very few jabs, they're pretty much all potential haymakers. And that's the difference, when he does connect it's with astonishing, clubbing, brutal power that more often than not dispatches his opponents with time to spare. The flip side of this is he leaves himself wide open and gets hit by boxers far less skilled than he. The suspicion remains that against an experienced champion he will be found out, but the guy's got the heart of lion and a solid chin so we'd be guaranteed a war of a fight at the very least. Next up: another defence against Antonio DeMarco in February with the prospect of a place on the Mayweather-Pacquiao undercard, assuming it happens and Valero can get a license, after that.

Malignaggi gets his revenge against 'El Torito'

Pick of the weekend action was probably Paulie 'Magic Man' Malignaggi's unanimous points win over the Texan Juan 'Baby Bull' Diaz in Chicago. Back in August Malignaggi was on the receiving end of a dubious decision in favour of Diaz when the two fought in Juan's home town of Houston. This time there could be little doubt Malignaggi deserved the victory and all three judges scored the fight 116-111. Malignaggi dominated the early exchanges, cleverly using his speed to stay out of reach and landing the greater number of punches. But Malignaggi failed to press home his advantage, insisting instead on showboating and talking to the crowd, his corner and even the TV commentary team at one stage rather than finishing his opponent inside the distance (perhaps why he's only won five contests by knock-out in a 30 fight career). Diaz took a couple of rounds in the middle stages of the fight before he was wrongly ruled to have been knocked down in the tenth. I've never been Malignaggi's biggest fan, I didn't like the way he recently hinted that Manny Pacquiao might be on drugs because he'd been able to withstand Cotto's punches where Malignaggi had failed, and nothing I saw on Saturday changed my opinion of the Brooklyn man. He's been mentioned as a future opponent for Amir Khan as has Timothy Bradley who also fought his way to a points victory on Saturday against Lamont Peterson. But a Bradley v Malignaggi fight seems more likely before Khan can get his teeth into either one of them.
There was also, lest I forget, a world heavyweight title fight on Saturday night. Not that I watched it. I'm told Vitali Klitschko bored his way to a points win over the previously unbeaten American Kevin Johnson. It underlined once again just how badly the moribund heavyweight division needs David Haye and I'm glad to see both sides have reached a preliminary agreement for a fight next year. The fact that Klitschko could walk away from boxing for four years and pretty much pick up where he left off shows the dearth of talent in the sport's most high-profile division.

Mitchell: Future is bright for British boxing

Excellent posting here from The Guardian's Kevin Mitchell who takes an extremely optimistic - but not unrealistic - view of the state of British boxing. It's a great time to be a boxing fan in general with the Mayweather v Pacquiao superfight on the horizon and excellent innovations like the super-six series, but for British fight fans in particular we really could be on the verge of a new golden age.

Jones defeat a sad day for boxing

At his peak he was one of the greatest, if not the greatest, boxer of his generation, blessed with lightening-fast hand speed and the ability to entertain, so it was with sadness that I watched the 40-year-old Roy Jones Jr crumble to Aussie Danny Green last week. English ref Howard Foster stopped the fight after only 122 seconds and even Green admitted he 'felt bad' beating up on Jones, one of his boxing idols. Boxing retirements are rarely as tidy as say Joe Calzaghe's (another man to have defeated Jones in recent years) who retired undefeated earlier this year. More often than not boxing retirements are long, drawn-out, painful affairs as the Jones episode proves.
Incidentally, the Australian commentator bills the fight as "the biggest fight in Australian boxing history". Well, maybe it's the biggest involving an Australian boxer on home soil, but the biggest fight in Australian history has to be Jack Johnson claiming the world heavyweight championship on Boxing Day 1908 against Tommy Burns in Sydney, brilliantly described in Geoffrey Ward's book, Unforgivable Blackness.

Roach deserves credit for 'King Khan'

Amir Khan made light work of his first defence of the WBA light-welterweight title on Saturday, needing just 76 seconds to dispose of the previously unbeaten New York-based Ukrainian Dimitriy Salita. You can watch the whole fight (walk-in and announcements included) here. Salita hit the canvas after just 10 seconds and never looked like recovering.
Meanwhile, Dagenham's Kevin Mitchell scored an impressive points victory over the only man to have beaten Khan, Breidis Prescott, and improved his record to 30-0. There will inevitably be talk (there already is in some quarters) of a British super-fight with Khan further down the line but for the moment Khan is looking stateside for his next fight. Another Kevin Mitchell, this time of The Guardian, had an excellent piece in Saturday's paper profiling legendary trainer Freddie Roach who is widely credited with transforming Khan since his defeat to Prescott last year.
And finally, while I'm inclined to agree with Shah Khan on the racism issue, there's no doubt whatsoever that his son seems to attract some very unpleasant comments on online message boards. I was sickened by some of the vile stuff I read on the web after his defeat to Prescott and I've tried to avoid reading the comments left on YouTube ever since. For some reason these message boards appeal to some of the most ignorant, slack-jawed cowards this country has to offer.
Having said that, I'd encourage you to comment on this blog, because, well, it's different.

UPDATE: Barker is British middleweight champ

Barnet's Darren Barker (pictured) topped the bill in Brentwood on Saturday night in a comfortable seventh round victory over young Bristolian Danny Butler who stepped in at the last minute as a late replacement for Wayne Elcock (picking up £12,000 for a tough night's work). Fight fans watching live on ITV4 were denied an intriguing fight between unbeaten Barker - a former Commonwealth Games gold medalist - and Birmingham's Elcock. In the end, Barker looked composed and classy and controlled the fight from start to finish. Butler's brave effort ended in the seventh round and Barker improved his record to 21-0 taking the vacant British middleweight title in the process (a belt once held by the likes of Alan Minter and Randy Turpin).

The pick of the undercard was local Finsbury Park favourite Yassine El- Maachi who toyed with his opponent - the Latvian bulldog Spitko - for a couple of rounds before finishing him off in style in the third. El Maachi, who lived up to his nickname 'the showman', delighted his traveling support and helped celebrate Eid ("We killed a sheep", he told Jim Rosenthal after the fight) with a thoroughly entertaining, if a little unorthodox, demolition job.
El Maachi looked in great shape and is a likable guy (Barry McGuigan is a fan) but complained after the contest that he can't get anyone to fight him. He's only just taken on a trainer and he doesn't have a manager or a promoter but with a few more fights like this one on the telly someone's bound to give him the chance he deserves. A right-handed south paw, he's in possession of a ferocious, whipping left hook which did for Spitko on Saturday. Modeling himself on Prince Naseem, he keeps his hands low and likes to showboat, he's built up a small but dedicated following (me included) but at 30 he needs to start getting the big fights if he's ever going to get a shot at a European title. Watch this space.

Boxing's life blood

From the glitz and glamour of the MGM Grand Las Vegas to Brentwood Leisure Centre on Saturday night. Yes, I think it's high time I came down to earth after the Pacquiao fight and showcased a local fighter. I've just been down to get a haircut on Blackstock Road, Finsbury Park, home to a large north African community, and there are posters everywhere advertising local lad Yassine El Maachi's upcoming fight with Alex Spitko on Saturday night. El Maachi - from Finsbury Park via Morocco - is fighting on the undercard of the British Middleweight title bout between 'Dazzling' Darren Barker of Barnet and Wayne 'Mad Dog' Elcock of Birmingham. The fight and the undercard will be shown live on ITV4 or you can still buy tickets for the fight here.
Yassine 'The Showman' El Maachi's professional record of 10 wins and four defeats at Light Middleweight is hardly going to set the world alight, but he has won six on the trot and looked impressive last time out on the way to a third round victory over Drew Campbell. He's already beaten Latvian-born Sptiko (pictured above), so I'm not quite sure what he's got to gain from fighting him again, apart from the wider exposure he'll get from a televised fight. There's a nice little profile of the former Moroccan amateur champion here.
It's fight nights like these, featuring decent and up-and-coming British fighters, that are the life blood of boxing in this country and it is greatly to ITV's credit that they've managed to fit fights like these into the schedule (even if it's on a freeview channel few people watch). But at least the option is there for those of you who don't fancy a trip to Essex of a Saturday night.

Who's the greatest of them all?

Boxing is back, according to the New York Times and everyone is getting carried away in the aftermath of the Pacquiao/Cotto fight at the weekend. Pick of the bunch, in my opinion, is Sports Illustrated's run-down of the greatest fighters, and fights, of all-time.
They've picked Roberto Duran (pictured) as the best lightweight ever (no arguments there), Harry Greb as best middleweight (no he wasn't that familiar to me either), Ali gets the nod at heavyweight and Sugar Ray Robinson is named the best pound-for-pound fighter - again I've got no arguments with that.
Even more interesting is the top ten list of great fights. Only three of the fights happened during my lifetime (although I was born just five days after Sugar Ray Leonard and Tommy Hearns' 1981 meeting) and I only remember watching one of them - the astonishing 2005 clash between Diego Corrales and Jose Luis Castillo which sneaks in at number ten. According to SI the best fight ever was Jack Dempsey's 1923 defeat of Luis Angel Firpo despite the fact that the fight lasted less than two rounds (there were 11 knockdowns).
Interesting stuff and I'm sure you'll disagree with some of the selections... You can have your say here.

Do you have to box to write about boxing?

Unlike most football writers who will have enjoyed, at the very least, the odd kickabout in the park, I doubt you could name more than a handful of boxing writers who have ever stepped into the ring. But does it matter? Well, from my experience of playing and watching football, I would say that it does. It's very easy to be an armchair fan, to wonder how it's possible that a team who have spent the entire week on the training ground can still concede a goal from a set piece on Saturday. But that doesn't take into account the tired legs of a full-back who has been run ragged for 90 minutes only to lose concentration for a mere fraction of a second when it really counts. If you've ever played football you'll know the feeling; sometimes your legs won't do what you want them to.
So it is with boxing. It's all very well shouting at the TV: "Just hit him, he's right in front of you!" But arms (and legs) can feel like lead after just a few three minute rounds (try shadow boxing for three minutes straight). This is where I have to confess that I myself have never laced-up and jumped the ropes of a real boxing ring. The intention has always been there, I've just never got round to it. But I will one day. In the meantime, having recently joined the gym at Hackney's Clissold Park Leisure Centre (pictured), I thought I'd go along to their Boxfit class last night.
A few light stretches and sprints at the beginning didn't prepare me for what was to come. I pulled on the gloves and did some intensive pad work with my partner, left hook, straight right, left hook, straight right before sprinting round the 'ring' to the next person, upper cut, jab, upper cut, jab, and so on for 20 gruelling minutes.
I gave it my all and was positively gasping by the end of it. But just when I thought we might start warming down, he had us on our backs, (gloved up again) doing sit-up punch combos, one-two, one-two, one-two, gradually increasing the number of punches until we got up to 20, shouting out the numbers as we hit the pads, one-two-three.....
I'm not afraid to admit that I came close to throwing up at the end. It was punishing.
Walking home afterwards, I thought about the training regime of the average pro fighter. Road work at 6am, heavy bags, pads, sparring etc. I don't think people appreciate just how tough it is. The rewards, for a few, may be great, but in my humble opinion, they deserve it. The training is bad enough but once you step into the ring at the end of it all, someone's trying to take your head off with swinging rights and lefts and brutal shots to the body that leave you pissing blood for a week after it's over. No one said the fight game was easy but I think there are a few boxing writers who could benefit from a good pummeling every now and then.

The whole world wants to see Pacquiao v Mayweather

After Pacquiao's stunning victory over Cotto at the weekend, thoughts inevitably turn to the one fight every fan wants - and as the excellent Kevin Mitchell argues here deserves - to see.
He also airs an interesting take on the Haye fight courtesy of fight-write legend Hugh Mcllvanney - author of Mcllvanney on Boxing which I would highly recommend.
There's a lot of work to be done before a Mayweather v Pacquiao fight becomes a reality but that's not going to stop litres of ink being devoted to the subject over the next few months. I am already tingling with excitement at the prospect. It would be the defining fight of this generation.

Pacquiao wins it in, yes you guessed it, the twelfth round!

Not much time to blog right now but just got to put something up about Manny Pacquiao's victory last night over Miguel Cotto. It makes the Pac-man the first man in history to win world titles in seven different weight divisions - the latest being Cotto's WBO welterweight title. Astonishing stuff and his status as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world is now assured, along with his place in the history books. I haven't actually seen the fight yet but I'm hoping to catch it on YouTube later today. More to follow.

All hail the new champion of the world

So Britain has a new heavyweight champion of the world: David Haye. In what was by no means a classic encounter, he succeeded in outpointing the defending WBA champion, Nikolai Valuev, on Saturday night. But despite what some commentators are saying, it was never a sure thing and I could see the uncertainty written all over Haye's face as he waited for the judges' verdict. The Sky Sports commentary team certainly doubted whether Haye had done enough, especially given the fact that Valuev has been the beneficiary of some dubious decisions in the past, particularly fighting on what was in essence home turf.
But as someone said in the aftermath of the fight, if you only land two or three punches a round and your opponent lands none at all, you still win. That was pretty much the way it went for the majority of the fight, with the notable exception of the final round. Valuev may as well have been shadow boxing and Haye got in a few punches in the early rounds which would surely have floored a smaller man.
But it turns out that the single biggest factor affecting the quality of the fight was not revealed until after it finished. Haye says he broke his hand early on. That would certainly explain why he held back on those famous Hayemakers until the twelfth round. It also makes his achievement all the more remarkable and reminds me of Joe Calzaghe's victory over Evans Ashira in 2005 when he took a points decision despite fighting with a broken left (leading) hand from the third round onwards.

Haye's victory is all very exciting, particularly the prospect of a first title defence in London next year against former champ John Ruiz. Ruiz is a tailor-made opponent for Haye and should give him the chance to show more of his skills and impress the all-important US audience. Then it's the brothers Klitschko.

Exciting stuff, but a word of caution from the always excellent Gareth Davies.

Rocky makes me faster

I recently purchased Rocky Balboa: The Best of Rocky [Soundtrack] from iTunes and I swear when I'm plugged in and running around Finsbury Park with this shit on, I might as well be Rocky himself flying up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and pumping my fists at the top.
It could be my imagination but I think I get some strange looks from passers-by, especially when I'm deep into 'Heart's on Fire', 'Eye of the Tiger' or my personal favourite 'No Easy Way Out' from Rocky IV. Arms pumping, sweat in my eyes, and more often than not in London, rain in my face, the power of simple music to inspire never ceases to amaze me. I haven't yet attempted to quantify the 'Rocky effect' in any kind of scientific manner, but I would estimate I run roughly five-times faster with Rocky in my corner.
It's a funny thing, but for a boxing fan I think I came quite late to the Rocky movies. I remember seeing a couple of them when I was growing up, but they weren't an indelible part of my childhood the way other films were. In some ways I'm grateful. There is nothing worse than the boxing "fan" whose only frame of reference is a certain fictional heavyweight. And as outrageous as the Rocky films are in terms of boxing realism (getting progessively more outrageous as the series progresses) there is almost nothing that happens in a Rocky film that hasn't at some point happened in a real fight, albeit to different fighters, and at different times. Boxers retire, make improbable comebacks, get up off the canvas to win, and are touched by tragedy. Where would boxing commentators be without Rocky references? Next month's Haye v Valuev has more than a touch of the Ivan Drago about it.
But I got to agree with the makers of the excellent recent documentary 'Thriller in Manila' that it is an absolute disgrace that there is a statue of the (entirely fictional) Rocky Balboa in Philadelphia and nothing honouring that city's greatest, real-life heavyweight, Joe Frazier.

Haye versus Valuev is a circus sideshow

Heavyweight boxing has been in the doldrums for a while so there was definitely a buzz in boxing circles when David Haye stepped up to heavyweight after unifying the cruiserwight division.
And after a few false starts - most notably an aborted bout against Vitali Klitschko this summer - fight fans will get another chance to see Haye fighting at heavyweight next month. And not just any heavyweight but perhaps the heaviest of them all, the so-called Beast from the East, Nikolay Valuev. Standing 7ft 2 inches and weighing in at more than 23 stone, Valuev is, even by boxing standards, a freak of nature. Anyone tuning into the recent press conference may have been forgiven for thinking they'd stumbled across a David Attenborough documentary, because the fact is, and I'm not going to win any Russian friends by saying this, Valuev doesn't look human.
Haye told reporters: "He's a giant of a man, big, hairy and ugly." And it's hard to argue with that. But what fascinates me most is his head. It's literally twice the size of Haye's head and looks like a large, unmoulded lump of clay. You could argue that Haye will have a bigger target to aim for. True. But he's got to reach it first. Haye's giving up a full nine inches to Valuev as well as seven stone in weight. That's probably more than the average supermodel. Still, you've got to say, it's going to be a fascinating encounter. I can imagine non-boxing fans tuning in purely for the circus sideshow-aspect of the fight. It's being called, somewhat unimaginatively, David vs Goliath, and this is probably the closest we'll get to witnessing something in that biblical ball park.
So all eyes will be on Nuremburg on November 7, and let's not forget that there's a real world title on the line.