Boxing

[Alex]

It says something when we are having to look at home for the interesting fights. They are not even good Fighters. Well Haye is questionable for me. But the others are no where near world class fighters. Not even close.

[PTP]

it's not even that they are good fights - more just a good event if you like - you just know the trash talking will be funny and someone will get knocked out

[Doc_Piptorious]

It says something when we are having to look at home for the interesting fights. They are not even good Fighters. Well Haye is questionable for me. But the others are no where near world class fighters. Not even close.

Nowhere near world class? Would argue that many of the current crop closer to home are some way off even being of European class.


Am struggling to think of a weaker period for the heavies. A lot of folk have slammed the early 80's Heavy division, but I reckon many of the early 80's mid level heavies would have cleaned up the current division (save for the brothers) with a degree of ease.

The British Heavy scene is awful as well. The so called up and comers are not much tbh, and the latest on that line, Joshua, is very robotic and is horribly lacking in fluidity. Would also question his power because a heavy without power had better be a damn good boxer, and I think Joshua will be proven to be badly lacking on both scores.

The Furys I regard as hype as well, but at least the latest Fury (Hughie) is somewhat fluid in his movement, and could seem him being a much better prospect (only at domestic level mind you) than Joshua will be.

If I had to pick one semi famous name of the past that Joshua reminds me of in terms of his amateur style and possible his future career, then that name is Michael Grant.

Grant for those that do not remember him or who have not heard of him was the "next big thing" in US circles for a while despite having a short unpaid career. Tall, very muscular build, looked intimidating, had a nice padded record of knock outs to his name, but in reality was robotic, had poor feet, had hyped power, had very average skills, and was soon found out when put in with decent fighters.

Now I don't think that Joshua will even go on to have a career as good as Grant did, but he does remind me of a watered down inferior version of Grant.

Grant is still around so maybe we may get to see Old Hype job against new Hype job at some point.

[Chazza]

As George Groves prepares for his world title shot in a PPV event next weekend, this weekend Channel 5 are treating us to James Degale defending his WBC silver title in a shopping centre

Bluewater

[Sarb]

Degale is a gobby cunt. Been whining for weeks about Groves. Sore loser

[PTP]

degale was someone who was hyped up and believed it - remember that dickhead celebration he used to do when he looked to the sky

that lasted long

[Sarb]

degale was someone who was hyped up and believed it - remember that dickhead celebration he used to do when he looked to the sky

that lasted long

[Chris]

Gethin is out of the Crolla fight. The one competitive fight on Eddie's woeful card goes.

[Mike]

Gethin is out of the Crolla fight. The one competitive fight on Eddie's woeful card goes.

FFS

I'm a jynx, every time I go to see a fight there is a cock up.

Haye vs Charr - called off.
Haye vs Fury - Postponed.
23rd November - Gethin out
Echo 7th December - Stephen Smith off the under card.

Just my luck.

[spud_gun]

FFS

I'm a jynx, every time I go to see a fight there is a cock up.

Haye vs Charr - called off.
Haye vs Fury - Postponed.
23rd November - Gethin out
Echo 7th December - Stephen Smith off the under card.

Just my luck.

ouch!

Have you lost money on hotels, flights etc?

[Mike]

ouch!

Have you lost money on hotels, flights etc?

Nah mate, I live near Manchester and Liverpool so they're only half an hour on the motorway.

Apparently Callum Smith isn't fighting now too!

[Alex]

Nowhere near world class? Would argue that many of the current crop closer to home are some way off even being of European class.


Am struggling to think of a weaker period for the heavies. A lot of folk have slammed the early 80's Heavy division, but I reckon many of the early 80's mid level heavies would have cleaned up the current division (save for the brothers) with a degree of ease.

The British Heavy scene is awful as well. The so called up and comers are not much tbh, and the latest on that line, Joshua, is very robotic and is horribly lacking in fluidity. Would also question his power because a heavy without power had better be a damn good boxer, and I think Joshua will be proven to be badly lacking on both scores.

The Furys I regard as hype as well, but at least the latest Fury (Hughie) is somewhat fluid in his movement, and could seem him being a much better prospect (only at domestic level mind you) than Joshua will be.

If I had to pick one semi famous name of the past that Joshua reminds me of in terms of his amateur style and possible his future career, then that name is Michael Grant.

Grant for those that do not remember him or who have not heard of him was the "next big thing" in US circles for a while despite having a short unpaid career. Tall, very muscular build, looked intimidating, had a nice padded record of knock outs to his name, but in reality was robotic, had poor feet, had hyped power, had very average skills, and was soon found out when put in with decent fighters.

Now I don't think that Joshua will even go on to have a career as good as Grant did, but he does remind me of a watered down inferior version of Grant.

Grant is still around so maybe we may get to see Old Hype job against new Hype job at some point.

Seems like the division suffers from the generation before. Early 80s had the Ali reign ending, now we had the end of Lewis and Tyson who dominated for so long.

Maybe they all are in the shadow, and we need younger lads to burst through after seeing how poor the standard is now.

[Doc_Piptorious]

Seems like the division suffers from the generation before. Early 80s had the Ali reign ending, now we had the end of Lewis and Tyson who dominated for so long.
Maybe they all are in the shadow, and we need younger lads to burst through after seeing how poor the standard is now.

We must be a good 16 to 18 years since Tyson was even close to being a genuine force in the ring, even longer since he was a dominant fighter, and a close to peak Lewis was 13 or more years ago. So would not be putting any decline in the division down to those lads having been top class in their day.

Early 80's did see the end of the Ali era, but it also saw the mainstream rise of one of the all time greats in Larry Holmes. The brothers have been the closest we have seen to genuine world class fighters in the heavyweight division and even they cannot be beaten despite their current ages.

Personally I think the decline of the heavies, and to a degree all the other weight divisions, can be traced back to two events. The first is the creation of a multitude of belts/titles. This diluted the worth of the term champion and also made it easy for average fighters to become world champions. It meant to be the "best" you no longer had to be the best, and the heavyweight title, a title that once meant you were the man on a global scale slowly become something that meant very little to the regular man on the street, and the knock on effect was that it became something that young kids no longer aspired to.

The second thing, again imho, is the rise and rise of UFC and other MMA organisations. Just as the division of titles weakened the boxing world and made it less attractive to people, critically to those who would be the future athletes, the increase in popularity of MMA made boxing an even less attractive dream for young kids wanting to be sports stars.

We could also throw in things like our disposable modern culture etc as other reasons, but for me the splitting of the belts decades ago and the rise of MMA are the two hands that most tightly grasped the neck of boxing.

[Vermilion]

From 2 weeks ago. Ringside. Groves/Froch.

What a pair..


I thought at one stage one of them would say....'My Dad is bigger than your Dad!'

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXQGZF5PWf8"]Ringside - George Groves V Carl Froch - YouTube[/ame]

[Darth Marty]

Did that ****wit degale win?