With so little quality of opponents of late, and people now beginning to question whether he can return as the fighter he was five years ago when he fought Carl Frock, what does Andre Ward need this weekend to get a reasonable pass mark? Barrera gives himself a shout, but he'll probably be out gunned. But this Light Heavyweight class is a whole new ball. He should win, but what does he need to do, to say that he's in with a real shot against Sergey Kovalev? Hughie Fury should win again as should Brook. (How good is Brook?)
I know it's unlikely to happen given that Eubank Jnr is the heavy favourite but I've had a couple of quid on Nick Blackwell to beat Eubank Jnr tonight on points at 20/1. Blackwell is still and improving fighter and is the current British champion, Eubank for me is still a bit of a hype job still at the moment so the prices seem a bit crazy to me. It could be that Eubank blasts him out of there and the prices end up looking fair but i'm willing to risk a couple of quid regardless. On sky I'm looking forward to seeing Luke Campbell return to action against local lad (local to me anyway) Gary Sykes. On paper Campbell should have too much class and should win comfortably but coming off the back of a first career defeat who knows how it's affected him. Sykes is in the shape of his life and has been training like a beast for this one. He's always good value for money and will give it his all so let's just hope it's a good fight. My concern is that if Campbell starts throwing punches with those fast hands of his the ref steps in and we get a premature finish. Hopefully not but we'll see. Not much I can say about Kell Brooks fight. Should be an easy night for him and if he doesn't get this bloke out of there in first 4 or 5 rounds I'd consider it a poor performance from the Champ. He really needs that big name fight, a Keith Thurman, Danny Garcia, Timothy Bradley sort of fight. I doubt he'll get one of them over to Sheffield Arena unless Eddie Hearn is willing to seriously spend some money so Brook may just have to travel to defend his title and make more of a name for himself
I'm biding my time to take on Eubank. Just waiting for the right type of fighter. Have a close watch of him tonight- he really cocks his hands when throwing punches. He loads up and is wide open. I need to find a middleweight who can throw a beautiful short uppercut, because whoever it is will knock Eubank out. His journey will be an entertaining one though I give them that. Value for money for sure.
I don't honestly think tonight will be the night I just thought 20/1 was too big a price. Eubank is very rigid when he fights very poor movement and very easy to hit. good engine on him though and we don't know about his chin yet that's not really been tested, if it's a fraction what his old mans was though it'll still be very good!
Former Commonwealth and British Middleweight champion Nick Blackwell has been placed in an induced coma due to bleeding on his brain after the defeat he suffered at the hands of Chris Eubank Jr. He was taken from the ring on a stretcher. Here's hoping that he'll come out the other end ok.
It's not really the nasty side Ron it's an unfortunate but rare side effect to a risky sport. Usually when you get punched in the face a lot you fall over and the fight gets called off but there are a fair few fighters out there who's chin and heart don't allow them to fall and it's hard to tell what damage is being done internally. It's scary to think that if Blackwells eye hadn't swollen up last night and he'd continued the damage that could have been done that we don't see.
Very unfortunate smokey. Especially as his father inflicted a similar injury on Michael Watson. Wouldn't be surprised if that will have a mental affect on Eubanks Jnr (I think it left one on his father). Also, I remember Joe Bugner. A very talented boxer who very noticeably held back from finishing off opponents after one of his victims lost his life
When I first started attending fights in the early 70s at Brisbane's Festival Hall, now sadly demolished, a man named Hector Thompson "The Brisbane Bomber" was one of the local stars. The young Aboriginal bloke was a really decent fighter. He was a three time Commonwealth Light Welterweight Champion. He had the misfortune to run into two of the all time greats when offered a World Title fight. The first came against Roberto Duran and the second against Antonio Cervantes. The tragedy of his career though was that two of his opponents lost their lives at his hands. Another to find himself in the same position was Sugar Ramos who saw both Jose Blanco and the wonderful Davey Moore succumb to the fight game. There is no doubt that the sport can be brutal.
It's poor refereeing that's allowed this injury. It was pretty clear that for the first 30 seconds of the 8th Blackwell was unable to defend himself, and apparently Eubank senior had slready appealed to officials to stop the fight in the 7th. The fact that Blackwell was apparently able to recover his wits enough to return some punches of his own for a further 3 rounds does not imo mitigate the fact that the ref - who's first responsibility is to protect both fighters - allowed a defenceless man to continue taking punishment for a prolonged period and consequently suffer serious injury.
Did Ward look ok by you guys? He was much too good for Barrera, winning almost every round, and started pulling out the big shots as the fight wore on. He did take a few though, and had the habit of planting his feet to do some counter punching, which allowed Barrera to smack a few home. It wasn't the fleet footed affair I expected it to be though. A lot of his evasive stuff was classic close in defence, something he's outstanding at. He does take shots though, and this will be a huge problem against Kovalev. And he's stepping up into the champs physical domain. Bugger it, I'm going out onto the very tip of the limb and plonk for Kovalev if they meet. Hughie Fury was served up an easy opponent but won all rounds to go 19 and 0. I reckon he's a man who will make better news in the next two years. I like his speed.
So Adrian Broner fails to make the weight ahead of his world title defence against Ashley Theopane this weekend and is stripped of his title. It's the second time in his career he's lost a world title on the scales what an absolute bell end that man is is!
Absolute ****er. They gave him two hours to work off the extra .4 of a pound, but he chose to not even try. Wtf? People spend decades trying to win a world title, and he pisses it away in a heart beat.
Maybe he's thinking about when he turns himself in after the fight. "Armed robbery, what's the ****in' use? I'm going to do 10 years."
Tyson Fury has some interesting things to say about the Martin v Joshua IBF Title fight on the 9th. http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/boxing/anthony-joshua-useless-blasts-tyson-7665956 http://www.sportinglife.com/boxing/...joshua-needs-a-miracle-to-beat-charles-martin
Tomorrow night im off to see the sensational Lee McGregor top the bill at the Scotland Elite championship. Straight out junior ranks fighting for a senior title. Massive support travelling from Edinburgh for both fighters..
Lee wins the title with a classy display of boxing. Forced a standing count in the 2nd and knock down in the 3rd. Gets all 3 judges. Wins boxer of the night. British title next! I cant see anyome to touch him in the Bantamweight 56k division. Lee knows what it takes having already won the the Scottish and British youth title at flyweight.
