The best book you've never read

Ok so you might have read it, I don't know, I just thought a catchy title like that would get more clicks. The book in question is 'This Bloody Mary Is the Last Thing I Own' by the British writer Jonathan Rendall. A great title to be sure - from a quote attributed to a Las Vegas barfly - but this book also has one of the most arresting opening lines in non-fiction:

It was a few hours after Frank Bruno attacked me at Betty Boop's Bar in the lobby of the MGM Grand that I decided to get out of boxing.

This is a book about boxing (this is a boxing blog after all) but as one reviewer points out, it successfully avoids falling into cliche and contains writing that would grace any genre.

For instance, how about this passage describing the author's first (and last) encounter with ageing Cuban boxing legend 'Kid Chocolate':

Kid Chocolate sat down on one of the chairs and opened his mouth to speak. But rum trickled out instead through his cracked lips stained with tobacco, like lava suddenly spewed from a long-extinct volcano. His voice when it emerged was a hoarse whisper, and he formed words with difficulty, each syllable accompanied by the widening of his eyes and a grin, as if greeting every tortured sound as an old, forgotten friend.

Rendall tells the story of his love affair with boxing; from falling in love with the sport as a wide-eyed eight year old watching Roberto Duran on television, to his subsequent all-too-brief foray into the ring at university, his career as a boxing journalist and sometime agent, through to the end of the affair and the reasons that led to him walking away from the sport - something in reality he never quite managed.

Several things struck me when I recently re-read the book. First and foremost, the quality of the writing, but also an overwhelming sense of sadness. You see, Rendall died a couple of years ago, aged just 48. His body wasn't found for a week. His talent was obvious, but Rendall lived a troubled life in many ways, and never really scaled the heights he reached in 'This Bloody Mary..' which received the Somerset Maugham Award for young writers when it was published in 1997.

Some have likened his writing to Hunter S. Thompson's 'Gonzo' brand of journalism, and it's true, there are passages, particularly those concerning his adventures in Las Vegas, that have a Hunter-esque quality. But he's also self-aware and incisive, a wonderful travel guide through the weird and wonderful world of boxing, from the fading lights of early-90s Las Vegas to the York Hall in Bethnal Green.

Although there's lots to admire for non-boxing fans, fans of the sport, particularly in Britain, will enjoy being reminded of names and characters from years gone by. People like Colin 'Sweet C' McMillan, an enormously talented British featherweight who Rendall helped guide to a world title in 1992. McMillan had a 'sweet as sugar' style that if injury hadn't forced him to retire could have made him one of the sport's biggest stars. Luckily you can watch all his professional fights on his website.

Rendall also reserves many of his most purple passages for another great British fighter from that era, Herrol 'Bomber' Graham, often talked of as the best British fighter to never win a world title. Trained by Brendan Ingle in Sheffield, Graham's quick, evasive, wholly unteachable style, was a massive influence on another up-and-coming fighter from the same gym, 'Prince' Naseem Hamed.

Rendall's writing, in my opinion, deserves to be mentioned alongside that of British writers such as Hugh McIlvanney and Donald McRae as well as the Tooles, Mailers and Lieblings of this world. He was a truly original voice and I'm just sad he wasn't with us for longer.

Five things I've learnt from my first 'White Collar Boxing' fight

I’ve been a boxing fan for more than 20 years, and I’ve been known to pontificate about who has the greatest punch, the best chin, the fastest hands. But until last Saturday I’d never climbed into a ring myself. Now with my first, and perhaps last, charity fight under my belt, what lessons can be drawn from the experience?

1. You’re only 10 weeks away from peak fitness
I was in okay shape when I started training for the fight at Legends Boxing Gym in South-West London. Like a lot of people, I play a bit of five-a-side football, go for the occasional run and eat reasonably healthily. But such is the intensity of boxing training, that within just a few weeks I found – to my surprise – that I’d made rapid progress in my overall fitness. There’s a reason for that. The recent fad for ‘high intensity training’ is something boxers have known about for years. Try punching a bag non-stop for three minutes and you’ll see what I mean! As middle age begins to spread itself across your midriff, it’s heartening to know that with a bit of hard work, you’re only ever 10 weeks away from the fittest you’ve ever been.

  2. There’s a good reason why boxers are considered among sport’s fittest athletes
Among our group of novices, there were several rugby players, gym bunnies and fitness freaks. We even had an ‘ultra marathon’ runner, someone who has completed the infamous Marathon des Sables (156 miles in the Sahara desert since you ask) and even she found the training tough. Boxing’s combination of intense bursts of anaerobic activity (punching to you and me) followed by relatively short recovery periods make it one of the most physically demanding sports out there. Six minutes in the ring almost finished me, the idea of going the full Championship distance of 12 x 3 minute rounds now completely blows my mind.

3. Age need not be a barrier
Our group included several guys in their late forties and even – my hero – a 61 year old called Norman. George Foreman famously regained the heavyweight title a couple of months shy of his 46th birthday but even his achievements have arguably been surpassed by Bernard ‘The Alien’ Hopkins, who won his last world title at the age of 49. In short, it’s never too late!

4. ‘Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth’
For weeks leading up to the fight I pored over every boxing book I could get my hands on, mugged up on ring strategies, and watched classic fights on YouTube. I also listened intently to everything my coach, Harvey Morgan, had to say on slipping, blocking and footwork. When I found out who my opponent would be – another lanky fellow – I tried to identify the best way to beat him. But as Mike Tyson famously said, ‘Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth’. When that happens instinct tends to take over and every fibre of your being tells you start swinging!

5. Defensive skills are underrated 
Novice fighters like myself often end up in slug-fests because the ability to think clearly under pressure is something that can only be developed over time. You can learn to punch fairly quickly, but learning how to box takes years. As a boxing fan, and I’m sure I’m not alone in this, I tend to favour the classic dust-ups like Gatti-Ward, while in all honesty Mayweather’s brand of defensive genius has often left me cold. But after this experience I’m going to re-watch a lot of old fights with a new eye. Slipping, counter-punching, timing – all these can be things of beauty, just look at masters of the art like Pernell ‘Sweet Pea’ Whitaker or Argentina’s often-overlooked Nicolino ‘El Intocable’ Locche.

And for anyone wondering what happened in my fight? After three ding-dong rounds which swung this way and that, it ended in draw. However it was declared ‘fight of the night’, so perhaps now I should retire, a little wiser, a little sorer but still undefeated!

Haye v Klitschko: The Big Fight Verdict

In the end, it was wholly predictable if depressingly so. Dr Steelhammer jabbed and prodded his way to a deserved points victory over a pitifully below par David Haye. Klitschko’s style may not be especially pretty but it’s certainly effective and this was probably his best performance to date - although as a spectacle it was fairly horrible. The tension at the beginning of the fight – would Haye get inside to land big on the Ukranian’s chin? – soon gave way to round after round of monotony. A pattern was established quickly with Klitschko working well behind his ramrod jab, leaving an increasingly flustered Haye swinging wildly at thin air and more often than not, falling over in the process. Every time Haye wound-up one of his patented ‘Hayemakers’ the Ukrainian took a step back and shoved the smaller man to the canvas. It was pitiful to watch. But Haye’s problems didn’t begin and end with the size difference or even Klitschko’s slightly dubious tactics. His timing was well off and he appeared to lose his balance almost every time he threw a punch. After the fight, he tried to blame this on a broken toe, and while painful, I’d have been more inclined to believe him if it had been a big toe he’d broken, not the little one. And it hardly befits a heavyweight champion of the world to moan about a little toe given some of the punishment his illustrious predecessors have had to endure on the way to the title. So where does all this leave Haye and the heavyweight division in general? Klitschko has certainly done his reputation no harm, in addition to picking up the WBA belt to add his collection. While few people would call him an exciting champion, there’s no denying his skill as a ring tactician. That is what I believe he is and his 56 victories are a testament to that, but he is not in my opinion a great fighter in the sense that I don’t think he enjoys a scrap in the way the best boxers over the years have. As for Haye, if he keeps to his word and retires in October, he probably only has one fight left to rescue his legacy. That fight is a must-win against a top-name opponent, maybe even Vitali Klitschko. Anything less, particularly another underwhelming domestic clash against someone like Derek Chisora, won’t be enough to take away the bitter taste left by this contest.

PREVIEW: Haye v Klitschko

After what seems like years of build-up - actually this is literally true, the fight was first mooted in 2009 - boxing fans will finally get the opportunity on Saturday night to see whether David Haye has what it takes to, in his own words, 'clean up the heavyweight division'.
Some of the pre-fight build up has been pretty tedious and some of it has bordered on the bizarre. But all is fair when there's box office tickets to sell and this one could break all the records. Certainly the appetite is there in Germany where TV audiences for boxing have been huge in the past. Saturday's fight in Hamburg is expected to attract a 60 per cent share of the TV audience in addition to the 50,000 fans crammed into the Imtech Arena. It's a welcome reminder of the days when the heavyweight championship really was the biggest prize in sport.
As for the fight itself, it could be a classic. If Haye keeps to his word and retires before his 31st birthday in October, this could very possibly be his last fight. He has to leave everything in the ring or he will regret it for the rest of his life. But it won't be easy to wrestle the belts from Klitschko that he's held since 2006. The Ukrainian has a strong jab, a longer reach and the ring nous to do just what it takes in front of sympathetic judges on home turf. If Haye let's it go to the cards, he'll be in big trouble, but then very few Haye fights go the distance. The major exception was his fight against Valuev in which he boxed sensibly, moved in and out of range and only took risks when it was clear the big man was dead on his feet. Klitschko is a completely different prospect. To win, Haye will have to knock him out, but that is by no means beyond him. The omens are good. Klitschko's two previous conquerers - Corrie Sanders and Lamon Brewster - were heavy-handed shorter men in the Haye mould. Sanders is 6 ft 4in and Brewster 6ft 2in, while Haye is right in the middle at 6ft 3in. Throughout his career, the one thing that has never been in doubt about David Haye is his power. When he connects, it's goodnight Vienna.
Like Lennox Lewis, I'm torn. My heart says Haye, my head says Klitschko. So I'm going to split myself in two with a bet on Haye to win by KO or TKO in rounds 4 to 6 at 8/1 with Betfred and a saver on Klitschko on points at 15/4 with Bet365.

Preview: Pacquiao vs Mosley

This has been a big week for boxing, for all sorts of reasons. On Sunday the British fight game lost one of its most iconic figures. Sir Henry Cooper - our 'enery - typified the spirit of the age in which fought and was, as his most famous opponent Muhammad Ali said, 'a great fighter and a gentleman'. He will be missed.
On Saturday night the ever-popular Prizefighter series goes international with a night of heavyweight boxing from Alexandra Palace in north London. Being a bit of a boxing traditionalist I wasn't a big fan of the format when it first appeared in 2008. But I have to admit, I'm a convert. It will be interesting to see if the concept takes off internationally and helps revive interest in boxing, as Steve Bunce clearly believes.
Over in Las Vegas, Nevada, boxing promoters are having little difficulty stimulating interest in Pacquiao's next outing, even if we're no closer to the mulit-million pound superfight with Mayweather we all want to see. 'Sugar' Shane Mosley has had a great career and is a tough cookie, but at 39 most people expect him to be too slow for Pacquiao's whirling fists. Pacquiao has fought three times since he destroyed Hatton back in May 2009 and although Cotto, Clottey and Margarito presented very different challenges, they all had something in common. They all managed to take the contest into the twelfth round and they all ended in convincing victories for the Filipino great. Mosley meanwhile has made it to the twelfth round in five of his last six fights. If the pattern is to continue, the 25/1 on offer from Sporting Bet for a Pacquiao victory in Round 12 looks tempting. I'm not quite that brave though, so I'm going for rounds 10-12, a 6-1 shot with newcomers Unibet.

Review: The Fighter

On Monday night I was lucky enough to attend a preview screening of David Russell's new Oscar-nominated film, The Fighter, which stars Mark Wahlberg as 'Irish' Micky Ward.
Ward is an unlikely subject for a boxing biopic but then this isn't really a film about his career. If it was it would never end before the fights which made him famous - an epic trilogy against Arturo Gatti (pictured above). It's really a film about his family and in particular his brother Dick Ecklund, an ex-boxer and crack addict, brilliantly portrayed in the film by Christian Bale. It's a crazy, helter-skelter performance that has to be seen to be believed and Bale is as short as 1/9 to take home the Oscar at the end of the month. Ecklund is a compelling character, a local legend around Lowell on account of his 1978 fight with Sugar Ray Leonard (he had Leonard on the canvas, but lost on points). The HBO documentary which chronicled his sad decent into drug addiction - and which features in the film - is now available to view online.
But back to those Gatti fights. If you've just come back from the cinema and you want to know what happened next, then I urge you to go on YouTube and look up Gatti-Ward.
The pair fought a total of three times, two victories for Gatti and one for Ward - but that doesn't tell the half of it. Two of their three contests were subsequently voted 'Fight of the Year' by Ring magazine and they still take the breath away, even on second, third, and fourth viewing.
Their first encounter was one of those rare occasions, in boxing and in life, when two men with an abundance of what fight people call 'heart' met in a head-on collision the like of which we may never see again. Like two cars driving towards each at full speed, they never let up the tempo, each daring the other to be the first to pull out. All three of their fights were over 10 rounds and it is interesting to speculate how they would have turned out over the 12-round championship distance. Both men gave literally everything they had, and walked away with the satisfaction of knowing they had left their blood, sweat, their very souls on the canvas.
Despite the ferocity of their fights, both became close friends after their boxing careers were over, sharing a bond few people will ever understand. Ward was devastated when Gatti was found dead in a Brazilian hotel room in 2009. His death has never been satisfactorily explained, but the fight world lost one of its most charismatic figures.
When I first watched those Gatti-Ward fights I always sided with Gatti, I'm not sure why. But knowing something of Ward's own extraordinary back story means I'll watch them again with new eyes.
The Fighter is a helluva film and deserves every one of its seven Oscar nominations. Amy Adams is also a revelation as Ward's feisty girlfriend Charlene who gives as good as she gets against Ward's mother and seven sisters. In real life there's no love lost between them to this day. The movie ends with Ward's 2000 victory over Shea Neary, a promising fighter who had previously been unbeaten but retired just two fights later. Both men played strongly on their Irish roots: Micky Ward was known simply as 'Irish' while Neary went by the nickname, the 'Shamrock Express'. In the movie though, most of the crowd in the London-based fight are wearing Union Jack t-shirts. A minor point, because the movie as a whole is superb.

Treat in store for fight fans

After the travesty of Haye v Harrison last month, a fight that simply never should have happened, boxing fans tuning into Frank Warren's 30th anniversary fistic extravaganza tonight are in for treat.

Top of the bill in Liverpool is Olympic gold-medallist James 'Chunky' DeGale against home-town favourite and former 'contender' Paul 'Smigga' Smith. Now I'm a big fan of Degale and he was hugely impressive last time out against Carl Dilks on Warren's 'Magnificent 7' bill. But he's only fought as a professional eight times and many people think he may have bitten off more than he can chew against Smith. Frank Warren won't mind what happens. Both fighters are part of his stable, although Degale is surely the better prospect. Still, Smith will have vocal support tonight inside the Echo Arena and Skybet's 9-2 about a Smith victory is grossly overpriced.

In Las Vegas meanwhile, Amir 'King Khan' takes on highly-rated Argentinian Marcos Maidana. I'm going to have to put the coffee on to stay awake (the fight is scheduled to start at 3am) but this has all the makings of a classic. Maidana has an impressive 90 per cent knock-out rate and is unlikely to rein in his big-hitting style now he's hit the bright lights of Vegas. Expect fireworks right from the start. Khan has turned into a top notch fighter under Freddie Roach and happens to have the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world as a sparring partner - Manny Pacquiao. I think Khan will be too slick for Maidana on the night but the Argentine is a tough nut to crack and it might be worth a punt on Sporting Bet's standout 11/4 on a Khan decision.

PREVIEW: Haye vs Harrison

In case you weren't aware, there's a big pay-per-view fight on telly tonight. But while boxing fans the world over will be staying up late to watch ring superstar Manny Pacquiao, British fans have been caught up in the hype surrounding the Haye vs Harrison knock-about in Manchester. And why not, it's a genuine all-British world title fight (albeit for the less respected WBA version of the heavyweight title) between two former friends who clearly despise each other. Look, you see, even I've bought into the hype. But back in September I called this fight a 'farce' and I stand by that. There's a very good reason the promo material for this fight keeps showing slow-motion footage of Harrison's crushing 12th round knockout of Michael Sprott; it's probably the only decent punch he's thrown in the last ten years. I exaggerate, but only slightly.
People forget that Harrison had probably lost every round up to that point and was staring, not for the first time, at boxing oblivion. But from somewhere he pulled out an absolute peach of a punch to set himself up for an unlikely shot at a heavyweight title.
Don't get me wrong, I don't blame David Haye for taking this fight. There's clearly plenty of public interest in seeing them get it on (motivated I suspect by a desire to see a perennial boxing bogeyman get his comeuppance) and Haye is due a big payday. The Klitschkos will still be there in a few months time and Haye knows, everyone knows, that he will have to fight them at some point. Why not pad out his 24-1 record against a former Olympic gold-medalist?
Harrison may be big, but he's slow, and Haye can duck and weave with the best of them. Some people seem to be predicting a Harrison victory on the back of a single punch against a second-rate opponent. I don't see lightning striking twice and I predict a Haye victory inside the first three rounds, available at 5/2 with Betfred.

PREVIEW: Pacquiao vs Margarito

Earlier this year, November was penciled in as possible date for the Pacquiao v Mayweather superfight that all fans want to see and that boxing badly needs. That fight still hasn't happened, as everyone knows, and when this somewhat unlikely match-up was announced instead, I have to confess, I was a little underwhelmed by the prospect. However, as the fight has got closer, I've started to get excited, as I do whenever the dynamic little Filipino enters the ring. Already assured of his place in boxing history and with an era-defining fight with Mayweather still out of reach, Pacquiao has been pursuing, what you might call, other interests. Like, being elected to the House of Representatives in the Philippines.
There are suggestions from the Pacquiao camp that his training hasn't been as vigorous as usual and trainer Freddie Roach isn't happy. In contrast, Antonio Margarito is that most dangerous of beasts, someone with pretty much nothing to lose (I'd argue Harrison is the same, although more of that later). He weighed in five pounds heavier than Pacquiao and could enter the ring with as much as 15-20 pounds over the smaller man. But size alone isn't everything, as Pacquiao has proved time and again in his relentless rise through the weight divisions. It's been well over two years since Margarito put in a decent shift, and even that victory against Cotto looks slightly dubious in light of what happened before the Mosley fight. Still, he's tall and rangy, an awkward customer with a decent chin and I don't expect Manny to have an easy night in Texas. He'll still win, and I think he'll do so inside the distance: 4-7 with Bet365.
Skybet offer 4-1 on a Pacquiao victory in rounds 7, 8 or 9 and that's the Twelfth Round selection.

Haye v Harrison takes us into realm of the absurd

The big news in boxing this week is that David Haye will fight Audley 'A-Force' Harrison at the MEN Arena in Manchester on November 13. There are so many things wrong with that sentence, I hardly know where to start.
Perhaps the least obvious though, is the location. Why Manchester for God's sake? I've got nothing against the city, apart from a certain football team I'm not going to mention, but why on earth have they chosen to stage a fight between two London fighters, with big London-based support, in er, Manchester. It makes as much sense as moving the Manchester derby to bloody Wembley.
Anyway, that said, it's an intriguing proposition wherever it's held. Harrison is best described as a joke without a punchline, while Haye is obviously taking time out from his oft-stated mission to 'clean up the heavyweight division'. Some have said, rather unkindly, that Mr Harrison doesn't deserve a shot at the title. Which may be true but at least he holds the European heavyweight title and the fight is of interest to British fans if only to enjoy the spectacle of two former friends swinging their fists at each other. But before all that, we've the even bigger spectacle of Haye/Harrison 'trash-talking' in the media to look forward to, for ooh, the next eight weeks or so. Harrison, who will be 39 when he climbs into the ring, certainly talks a good game, as he proved at the press conference. And apparently he does still have some fans, as proved by his appearance on Soccer AM this morning. Will whoever these people are please make themselves known at reception...

In other news, one of the men who Haye should have been fighting, Wladimir Klitschko, defends his IBF/WBO/IBO world titles tonight against Nigerian Samuel Peter. In their last meeting five years ago, Peter managed to put Klitschko on the canvas three times before eventually losing on points. However, having reviewed the footage just now on YouTube, they looked like pretty soft knock-downs, and I don't think the big Ukrainian was ever in real trouble. Still, it's probably the most-entertaining encounter the younger Klitschko has been involved in for the past few years, which isn't saying a lot considering he's played a starring role in some of the biggest boxing snooze-athons of all time. While Peter has an impressive 73% knock-out rate, I don't think he'll pull it off tonight and old Wlad will probably wrestle his way to another points win (2/1 Betfred), taking another little piece of boxing's ravaged soul with him.

Marquez v Diaz II and a new dawn....

After a fairly quiet summer on the blogging front - ok I'll admit it, I got distracted by another sport where the only gloves on show are worn by goalkeepers - big time boxing makes a come back tonight in Las Vegas.
Juan Manual Marquez's 2009 encounter with Juan 'El Torito' Diaz was an almighty bust-up rightly named 'Fight of the Year' by the Boxing Writers Association of America. Marquez eventually triumphed in the ninth round but only after some barely believable exchanges which left both men bruised and bloodied.
It's not surprising then that fight fans all over the world are looking forward to their re-match tonight. But after the all-out-war they gave us in the first fight it's hard to see how tonight's match-up can be anything other than a disappointment. I hope I'm wrong and given their contrasting styles - Marquez more of a counter-puncher, Diaz doesn't have a reverse gear - there's every chance we could have another classic on our hands. Marquez was well beaten by Mayweather in his last outing, but there's no disgrace in that, while Diaz lost his recent re-match to Paulie Malignaggi. Enough said. Marquez has to be preferred and Sporting Bet's 2-1 that he wins in rounds 7-12 offers the best value.
An interesting sub-plot of this fight for British fans is that if Juan Manual Marquez wins he is very likely to be Amir Khan's next opponent at light-welterweight.
Tonight's fight also marks a major milestone for me personally in that for the first time ever I will be able to watch it legally, in my own home, on Sky Sports. Thanks to BT Vision's deal with Sky I no longer have to stay up late, trawling the internet to find an illegal stream with Chinese commentary or have to wait until someone loads it onto YouTube the next day. Thank you BT.

Sucker Punch: Boxing and the Arts

There are those, myself included, who consider boxing an art form. But even if the sweet subtleties of the fight game are lost on many people, the arts seemingly can’t get enough of the sport. Rarely a week goes by without the release of a new coffee-table book of black and white photos of Muhammad Ali and the sport of boxing has already given us some truly memorable films. I recently watched Humphrey Bogart in The Harder They Fall, a classic sporting film noir about the (thinly-disguised) career of Italian giant Primo Carnera, and I’ve just begun reading Michael DeLisa’s Cinderella Man, the story of heavyweight champion James J Braddock.
However, if it’s not unusual to come across artistic depictions of boxing in books, films and on television, one place I never expected to find it was in the theatre.
Sucker Punch by Roy Williams has just finished a highly successful run at the Royal Court Theatre in London and when I went to see it a couple of weeks ago it absolutely blew me away. I can’t recall a more visceral, affecting experience at the theatre, ever. Even my wife enjoyed it.
The intimate theatre - it barely holds 50 people - had been transformed into a boxing gym with a ring at its centre and the audience on either side. The action is set in London against the backdrop of Thatcher’s Britain and the race riots in Brixton and Broadwater. Two friends, Leon and Troy, end up working at a south London boxing gym run by old-school trainer Charlie Maggs who takes them under his wing and tries to mould them into contenders. Troy bristles under Charlie’s subtle-as-a-sledgehammer training regime and barely concealed racism while Leon is happy to bite his tongue and ignore his trainer’s many faults in the hope of receiving some paternal warmth lacking from his own father.
After the pair fall out their lives go in very directions and Troy moves to America. But both find success in the ring and the scene is set for a final showdown between the two former friends. Almost every critic has written something along the lines of 'this play packs an emotional punch', which it does, but the play also succeeds on a number of levels. It is about race, the black British experience, the sport of boxing, identity, friendship. Both fighters are a pastiche of well-known British boxers from the 80s but probably the most obvious comparison is with Chris Eubank (Leon) and Nigel Benn (Troy). Although Eubank came from an impoverished background and had been taken into care as a youngster, he adopted the manner and dress of an upper-class English gentleman and even purchased the title of Lord of the Manor. In contrast, his great rival, Essex-born Nigel Benn, was considered somehow more ‘real’ by many people. A rough-and-ready character who wore his heart on his sleeve. Their epic rivalry split the nation and culminated in two mega fights in Birmingham and Manchester. But the comparisons with the protagonists of Sucker Punch don’t bear much scrutiny. These two weren’t childhood friends, although they did come to despise each other, and it was Eubank not Benn who like Troy took up boxing after moving to America from London.
However, the play is a triumph and I can see it being made into a successful film one day. The performances are all first rate, particularly Daniel Kaluuya as Leon who is barely off-stage for the entire 90-minute production. As I say, it's just finished its first run but when it reappears, go and see it. You won't regret it.

Preview: Kevin Mitchell v Michael Katsidis

There are two big fights this weekend involving up-and-coming British fighters. In New York, Amir Khan takes on Paulie Malignaggi, while a little closer to home, at West Ham's Upton Park, local boy Kevin Mitchell fights Michael Katsidis for the WBO interim lightweight title. There's little doubt in my mind who has the more difficult task (Mitchell) and which fight will prove the more entertaining (Mitchell again.)
Unbeaten in 31 fights, Kevin Mitchell is a great little fighter: tidy, compact, but with a sting in the tail, as his last outing against Ignacio Mendoza proved. But despite impressive wins against Mendoza and Breidis Prescott among others, the suspicion remains that Mitchell may have moved up in class too soon. Graham Earl, knocked out in five rounds by Katsidis in 2007, certainly thinks so. Katsidis (pictured above) is a warrior in every sense of the word, and his Greek father even hails from the same village in Greece which is thought to have been the birthplace of Achilles. He will care not a jot that Mitchell is fighting in front of an expected 30,000 fans at the home of his beloved West Ham and will try and take him into the trenches from the start. The bookies make Mitchell a slight favourite overall but SkyBet quote both fighters at 2/1 to win by TKO or KO. My feeling is that it could go either way - sorry for stating the obvious - but I expect a war and fancy SkyBet's generous 6/1 on both fighters hitting the canvas at some point during the fight.

Preview: Amir Khan v Paulie Malignaggi

Visa problems aside, Amir Khan will make the journey to the spiritual home of boxing on Saturday, New York's Madison Square Garden, to take on Brooklyn-born Paulie Malignaggi.
One of two big fights this weekend featuring British fighters, the other being Kevin Mitchell's title fight at Upton Park against Michael Katisidis, more of which later, the bookies make Khan a 1/5 favourite to defeat the New York man in front of his own fans.
Malignaggi is a bit of a slapper, by which I mean to say he doesn't punch very hard not that he's loose of morals, and the facts bear this out. Paulie has won 27 of his 30 fights but only five of those wins came by way of knock-out. Having said that, he's a pretty durable fellow and came out of two tough fights against Juan 'Baby Bull' Diaz with his reputation enhanced. He has only been stopped once, by Britain's own Ricky Hatton back in 2008, and even that defeat went down in the record books as a 'technical' knock-out after his corner threw in the towel at the start of the 11th.
Hatton was nowhere near his best that night, but easily outclassed the 'Magic Man'.
I expect Khan to win comfortably but I wouldn't be surprised if brave Malignaggi refuses to go down easily in front of his own supporters and takes the fight to the scorecards. Sporting Bet's 13/10 about a Khan decision is the stand-out bet, with a saver on a Khan stoppage in rounds 10,11,or 12 at 13/2 with Bet365 advised.

Mayweather a bridge too far for Sugar Shane

I must admit I thought Floyd Mayweather Jr would cruise to a comfortable points win over 38-year-old 'Sugar' Shane Mosley and well, I wasn't far off. The scorecards at the end of the night reflected Mayweather's dominance with two judges scoring the fight 119 to 109 and a third giving to it to 'Pretty Boy' by a slightly narrower 118 to 110.
But that doesn't tell the whole story. In the second round 'Sugar' Shane landed two sweet right hands that had the self-proclaimed 'best-fighter-in-the-world' wobbling at the knee and holding on. For a brief moment, with the crowd brought to its feet, it looked like the unthinkable might happen. Sadly from Shane Mosley's point-of-view it was not to be and Floyd Mayweather Jr regained his composure and put on the boxing exhibition we'd all expected of him. Slick, quick, a master of the defensive arts, Mayweather got on his bike and slipped in and out of range with consummate ease. The 14 months since Sugar Shane demolished Antonio Margarito seemed to have aged him 14 years and he tired rapidly after his second round heroics came to nothing.
But for all his dominance Mayweather never really looked like finishing off Mosley inside the distance and I'd be inclined to agree with Manny Pacquiao's assessment of the fight. No one has really taken Mayweather into the trenches and tested his fighting heart in the way that I believe Pacquiao certainly would.
That fight now has to happen. There can be no more delays, false-starts or fudges. Fight fans deserve to see the world's two greatest fighters - two of the greatest ever - going head-to-head. If Floyd Mayweather's blocking tactics were intended to raise the stakes (and I believe that is exactly what 'Money Man' intended) then it's worked. Expectations ahead of a fight with Pacquiao are at fever-pitch. When seasoned boxing writers like Kevin Mitchell in The Guardian are comparing it to another Ali-Frazier, you know we're in for a treat.

Where now for Carl Froch?

I wasn't altogether surprised when I heard the news that Carl Froch had lost his first professional fight to the formidable Dane Mikkel Kessler last weekend. Froch had looked well below par in his previous 'Super-Six' outing against Andre Dirrell and it was always going to be tough taking on the remarkably durable Kessler in his own backyard.
Froch's preparation for the fight was further hampered by an ear infection and the volcanic ash situation but the Nottingham-man, to his credit, has never been one for excuses. Having finally watched the fight - it's been a busy week, don't ask - I have some sympathy with those members of Froch's camp who have complained about the scoring. To be honest, I think the verdict was a fair one. Froch has an infuriating habit of keeping his hands dangling near his waist and a tendency to stand back and admire his handiwork after landing big shots instead of pressing home his advantage and finishing the job. He didn't do enough to keep his WBC title and he probably knows it. Having said that I have no clue how one of the judges scored the fight 117-111 to Kessler. Was he watching the same fight? Most of the rounds were pretty close and Froch had the better of the early exchanges in what was, at times, an enthralling fight. The last two rounds in particular will live long in the memory and marked perhaps the first time this Super-Six contest has really kicked into life. Froch has nothing to be ashamed of, none of the fighters taking part in the contest have won away from home so far and it was always going to be a big ask taking on Kessler in front of 10,000 partisan Danes. With a 1-1 record from his first two fights in the competition, Froch is far from out of it, and could still figure in the final reckoning to decide the world's best super-middleweight. Unless, as reports suggest, he rules himself out of the competition because of a dispute over the venue of his next fight with Arthur Abraham. That would be foolish.

The tragedy of Edwin Valero

I felt almost physically sick when I heard the news that Venezuelan boxer Edwin Valero had been found dead in his police cell, a day after his arrest for murdering his wife. In these days of tabloid hyberbole when the word 'tragedy' is applied to the most mundane of mishaps, this is a tragedy in the true sense of the word.
Valero - a boxer I have regularly championed on this blog - was a fighter blessed with supreme natural talents and cursed by poverty, drug addiction and a violent, abusive temperament which spilled out of the ring with truly devastating consequences. He won all of his 27 professional fights inside the distance and was just starting to gain wider recognition. In Venezuela of course, he was a national hero, a symbol of defiance and closely linked to President Hugo Chavez, an image of whom he had tattooed across his chest.
Plenty of people will point the finger; at the authorities who denied him a license to fight in the US, at the people who surrounded and glorified him while turning a blind eye to his appalling behaviour, and at the sport of boxing itself. Valero is the third high-profile boxer to take his own life in recent times, following the suicides of Alex Arguello and Arturo Gatti. But at the end of the day no one is to blame but Edwin Valero himself, who has murdered his own wife, orphaned his children and thrown away the gifts God gave him. It will be interesting to see what happens now. His millions of fans in Venezuela will want to give him, and will probably get, a hero's farewell at his funeral, but the man was a murderer. In the end, suicide, as Bob Arum notes, was the only option open to him once he had sobered up and realised the enormity of what he had done. What an unspeakable tragedy for everyone concerned.

Twelfth Round-up: Haye overcomes Ruiz and B-Hop beats up Jones

David Haye's self-proclaimed mission to clean-up the heavyweight division remains on track after a ninth-round victory over 38 year-old John Ruiz at Manchester's MEN Arena.
As I predicted, Haye landed bombs and Ruiz kept gamely plodding forward until his corner had seen enough and threw in the towel. Ruiz deserves credit for staying upright as long he did as Haye landed with big, trademark rights and lefts from the very first round. I'm not a huge fan of the way Haye keeps his leading left hand dangling down near his waist, but the WBA champion was far to quick for the veteran and he could have had his hands behind his back and still whipped-in hooks faster than Ruiz.
Twelfth Round predicted a knock-out in the later rounds (and you could have got 9-1 on a stoppage in rounds 10,11 or 12) but in the end Ruiz's corner decided, wisely, that their man didn't have anyting more to prove by staying in until the bitter end. It was only Ruiz's second loss inside the distance in an 18-year career. Haye must now sidestep a contracted re-match with Valuev before he can get at one of the Klitschko brothers, probably Wladimir, in a Wembley super-fight later this year.
Across the Atlantic, a 45 year-old Bernard Hopkins beat a 41 year-old Roy Jones Jr in a middle-aged match-up of dubious merit. Hopkins's points victory was predicted here on the 3rd February, as was Pacquiao's recent points win over Clottey at a healthy 15/8. If it's boxing betting tips you're after, look now further than Twelfth Round where in the next few weeks we'll be previewing Froch v Kessler, Mayweather v Mosley and Khan v Malignaggi.

Haye has enough to crush Ruiz

David Haye will defend his WBA heavyweight title this weekend against the 'Quiet Man' John Ruiz. The last person I can remember applying that label to themselves was Iain Duncan-Smith and look at what happened to him.
When the fight was first announced I thought at the time, and I still think, that Ruiz would be a tailor-made opponent for Haye. As a heavyweight he's on the small side and at 6ft 2in he's an inch shorter than the champion. Ruiz is now 38 years old and never possessed the fastest hands in the business even when he was in his prime. On the face of it then, the Hayemaker should walk straight through the challenger and add a 22nd knock-out victim to his CV in what is only his 25th fight. The bookies reflect that belief and Bet365 offer a best-priced 8/11 on a Haye victory coming by way of KO, TKO or DQ.
Having said all that, I will put the case for the defence. Ruiz has lost eight times in his 54-fight career but has only been stopped once: an astonishing ten-second destruction at the hands of the 5ft 10in New Zealander David Tua back in 1996. Tua went on to challenge Lennox Lewis for the heavyweight world championship, losing on points. Coincidentally he returns to action this Friday against, ahem, Friday Ahunanya for something called the WBO Oriental heavyweight title.
But going back to Ruiz, he has fought 26 times since the Tua nightmare and has never been stopped, including three epic battles with Evander Holyfield which all went the distance and ended in a win, a loss and a draw. Crucially, 11 of Ruiz's last 15 fights have gone to the scorecards and he has the experience and sheer awkwardness to make Haye's night difficult. Ladbrokes and a few others offer 11/4 on a Haye points win which is good value but I still have a sneaky suspicion Haye will land at least one of his Hayemakers during the course of the night and it will be interesting to see whether Ruiz's 38 year old legs can survive the wobble. My guess is they won't, especially if it comes late on, and Bet365's 9-1 on a Haye knock-out coming in rounds 10,11 or 12 is a real tempter.

Goodbye 'Arry

Sad news has just reached me that Harry Carpenter, the BBC's legendary boxing commentator, has died at the age of 84. Harry will probably be best remembered for the double act he formed with Frank 'D'ya know what I mean 'Arry?' Bruno (pictured above). There's some great footage here of Frank's heavyweight title fight with Tyson in 1989 and the moment when, for once, Harry let his professionalism slip and shouted : "Get in there Frank"- as Bruno landed a left hook flush on Tyson's chin. There's also a nice film of Harry verbally sparring with a young Cassius Clay ahead of his trip to London to fight Henry Cooper.
How strange that both Harry and his ITV counterpart Reg Gutteridge should die in the same year, within months of each other, and both at the age of 84. They will both be greatly missed by the sport of boxing and a little of that magic of yesteryear has been lost forever.