Boxing

[Doc_Piptorious]

Jaysus lads, a possible fight of the year fight in Taylor/Serrano and a showing he is the real deal fight with the Stevenson fight, two of the biggest fights for 2022 in terms of the sheer quality of the four fighters involved, and nobody at all here to comment on either fight?


Guess we will come to life for the hype for Silky skilled Joshua come the summer


And yes I will be watching that one to see if Uysk can continue to take his cruiserweight form and skills into the heavyweight division. Do think it might be a tougher fight for Usyk given his world was upended as he went to the Ukraine at the star of the war to stand with his countrymen and though he is in his training camp now it is hard to guess what his mindset is like or will be like come July depending what is happening in the Ukraine then.

[Doc_Piptorious]

Decent stoppage for Liam Smith last night against Vargas too.

Yeah it was a solid win with Smith putting in a good performance. It was a good fight in it's own right to be fair. Smith kept ramping up the pressure round by round and looked strong throughout.

Just got overshadowed by the two fights later on in the night.

[Shaggy]

Decent stoppage for Liam Smith last night against Vargas too.

[Doc_Piptorious]

She did it Jaco - up there in the pantheon of greatest Irish sportsperson ever now

She is certainly up there with the best of the best, and also in contention for being the greatest Irish sportsperson of all time.

Because of the level of her opponent, that was her career best performance for me along with Serrano being the best she has faced without a doubt.


For me what we got to see last night was the two best female boxers of all time go head to head, they are that good and if we remove gender from any chat, both of them are easily high on the current Pound for pound list in my eyes.

Taylor for me is a top three P4P fighter if you combine the men and womens ranks and Serrano is top five or six.

[Doc_Piptorious]

Hell of a performance by Taylor, in fact hell of a performance by Serrano as well.

Two tough as nails at the top of their game fighters that just went for it. Defo going to make FOTY lists.

Fantastic clash of styles and experience as well. Both women dug deep into what they knew to try and impose herself on the other, and both of them landed the sort of shots and combinations that would have stopped lesser fighters.

Two classy warriors who were respectful before the fight, no need for knuckle dragging trash talk, just two supremely confident women acknowledging what the other did well but still sure of her own ability to win.

Then once the bell went it was war and giving everything to win though never a dirty fight.

Once the result was in they were back to being respectful and classy.


The second big fight of the morning a few hours later was a surpise. Stevenson vs Valdez I thought was going to be a closer fight given the quality of the two involved but Stevenson won clearly and was well ahead on my own scoring card when it finished and all three judges scored it with him well ahead. Really impressive performace against an unbeaten high level opponent in Valdez.

Those two fights alone made it easily one of the best nights watching boxing I have had in years.

The night had everything.

Fierce fighting, great technique, courage by the truckload, classy winner, classy loser in Serrano (who surely will be getting a rematch here in Ireland) and Stevenson putting in a masterclass performance to please those that love to watch and aggressive technican at work.

[Irishnev]

She did it Jaco - up there in the pantheon of greatest Irish sportsperson ever now

[Doc_Piptorious]

Had a nice doze and now getting ready for a night/morning of boxing.


Smith vs Vargas to kick off the night, then an hour or two later the Taylor vs Serrano hopefully barn burner, then a few hours after that we have Stevenson vs Valdez which might be just as good as Taylor/Serrano.

Plenty of tea, chocolate, meaty sandwiches and anything else I can find to eat or drink for the next six or seven hours

[Doc_Piptorious]

Anyone staying up to watch Taylor v Serrano?

Reckon it may turn out to be the fight of the year. Serrano is the slight favourite with the bookies but is a proper 50/50 tear up in my eyes. Don't think I have ever seen Taylor so up for a fight. She normally does not get into much by way of stare downs etc but she seemed laser focused in all of them
including at the weigh in where she broke eye contact last.


Two really hard boxers with plenty of skill and mental toughness.


The noise at the weigh in was just wild, the crowd there getting into it in a big way.

Cannot call it at all. Styles make fights and Serrano has a more pleasing style to the eye but aesthetics do not win fights and you can never bet against Taylor. Hoping for a Taylor win but who knows.

Only thing I am fairly sure as to what will happen is that it is a fight that will catch fire quickly.

[spud_gun]

There's a very good episode of The Underworld Podcast about the Kinahan drug cartel and their impact on boxing.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/6eZVlrdQTVApTOmjQZGG15?si=ad8bd05fd8944792

[Doc_Piptorious]

Whyte now bleating on about how he should be given a rematch as he was "cheated".

What is it with British boxers this year. We have Taylor still claiming he won his fight clearly and now we have Whyte trying to make some sort of case for a rematch.

Would say something if he had turned in some sort of a decent performance and lost in a controversial manner, but he was utter muck the entire fight and his excuse that he lost because of a shove is laughable.

You lost because you were really bad on the night and got tagged, fella. Not because you were "cheated".

[Doc_Piptorious]

It was bugging me for the past hour or so as to what song you were riffing on.

Now, after giving in and using google, I know it was Stan so that brain itch has gone away

[fidget]

Dear Tyson, I wrote you but you till ain't callin'
I left my cell, my pager, and my home phone at the bottom
I sent two letters back in autumn, you must not-a got 'em
There probably was a problem at the post office or somethin'

[Doc_Piptorious]

So about a question i asked earlier.....

The notion that you floated when the fight was announced that Fury would drop the belt in order to avoid fighting Whyte.

Where in ****s name did that come from?

A fighter dropping a belt to avoid a mandatory? Not exactly an uncommon thing in boxing if a fighter decides he does not want to be told who to fight next or if the money is not right to meet a mandatory contender or if negotiations are being a ball ache or whatever.


Was being discussed as a possibility in the Boxing press along with the mainstream pre media (The Mirror for example ran with it and had direct quotes) at the time too so was not just me thinking it might happen.

Is also something that was discussed in the boxing press regarding the likes of Joshua in the recent past, with regards to Josh Taylor in the last month or so, and if we go back years we had high profile belt dropping like Riddick Bowe calling a press conference to drop a belt into a dustbin when he did not want to be forced into taking on a mandatory defence (against Lewis)

Plus Tyson Fury has publically stated a number of times that he would be willing to drop a belt if he was not happy with money talks being dragged out or an opponent, the most recent time being in the build up against Wilder when Wilder wanted more money.



There was also reports in the British press of Tyson Fury being willing to drop a belt if he did not get the terms he wanted against Whyte. Something Fury's promoter Bob Arum is on record as confirming. A quick google search will find it.


There is the small matter of Fury having actually dropped belts (WBA and WBO) in the past.

So regardless of why belts get dropped, whether it is the fault of the belt holder, the proposed opponent, promoters or a boxing body, it is not an unusual thing to see happen and certainly not an unusual shout to make especially with regards the heavyweight division the past 30 years right up to now. I can think of very few high profile heavyweight champions over the past 30 years who have not at the very least threatened to drop a belt at one point or another.

[spud_gun]

So about a question i asked earlier.....

The notion that you floated when the fight was announced that Fury would drop the belt in order to avoid fighting Whyte.

Where in ****s name did that come from?

[Doc_Piptorious]

Thank you.