One for the Boxing fans!

[david_carnell]

Oh I'm not complaining. A cursory glance at the BBC Champ list suggests:

Klitschko x 3

Lebedev

Kovalev

Golovkin

Gradovich

Lomachenko

Not as many as I'd assumed actually but not shabby. UK and Ireland get:

Froch

Lee

Brook

Quigg

Frampton

(and possibly Selby on Sat)

not bad going as a comparison.

[KidKruger]

Tonight:

Fury v Hammer

Eubank v someone

in next few days:

Geale v cotto

Selby v Gradovich

Joshua v Johnson

Khan v Algieri

Nicholas Walters v someone

Vasquez v someone

Mitchell Smith is on again soon, also Buglioni, Fury, Wilder, Klitchko to come.

Top year so far.

[david_carnell]

Great wins for selby, brook and Joshua.

Khan didn't impress in his points win but if he still wants mayweather, if anything, a slightly imperfect performance might be more likely to land it than looking like a potential defeat.

Selby looks v naturally gifted. A bout against lomachenko could be epic.

Brook is now a real contender at welterweight and will struggle to find people keen to take him on.

Joshua didn't look amazing but did what no one else has done in ko'ing Johnson inc wlad, fury and chisora. The boy can certainly hit hard and he looks a million dollars. Now needs a real rest but he can't be far away from challenging some of the gatekeepers of the division and then a belt (at least the one wlad doesn't have).

[Otta]

Feel gutted for Mitchell who by all accounts had a war, but lost his third title shot.

[KidKruger]

Mitchell was great against Linares, had him down in the 5th, great composure. But the champ's seen it all before and is hard as nails.

Being beaten by Linares is nowt to be ashamed of and IMO this contest proved for me Mitchell is definitely world-level, whereas previously I'd not believed it to be the case.

[Jeremy]

KidKruger Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Tonight:

> Fury v Hammer

You sure about that?

[KidKruger]

Ha ha !!!

No, not at all sure (now).

I was watching BoxNation and got all excited when they announced a whole card with Fury and Eubank on.

About 30mins in, my mate pointed out that we'd already seen the show in Feb.

I did get a d?j? vu feeling - then he broke the bubble.

Good spot.

Past bouts really shouldn't feature in a list of forthcoming events !

[Jeremy]

Apparently GGG and his guys are totally up for the Froch fight. But Froch (having previously said that this is one of the few fights which he'd be interested in) is now undecided, so Golovkin is looking at other opponents instead (Lara?). Doubt Froch will fight again.

[Otta]

Froch has admitted that he knows how risky this fight would be. What's really in it for him in terms of his lagacy. Nothing to gain, everything to lose.

[Jeremy]

Nothing to gain? For me he is lacking a career defining fight (despite the likes of Bute and Kessler II on his CV). A win against GGG would be just that.

[Otta]

Yeah, fair point, but in his head he'll think he has a great legacy which would be at risk.

It's funny really, he desperately wanted Calzaghe, who had no reason to fight the younger hungrier fighter...

[Jeremy]

To be fair in 2007/2008 Froch wasn't a big name, Calzaghe had no reason to fight him (and I don't think Froch would have been ready then, either)

[Otta]

So Calzaghe could have done us all a favour by knocking him about a bit early on.

[KidKruger]

I think there's too much focus on career defining fights, Froch has fought everyone at his weight and done extremely well. Even if he'd beaten Ward I wouldn't call that career defining - Ward for all his skill is a boring dirty fighter.

Beating GGG might be regarded as impressive by some, about as impressive as GGG dragging-up Lara from LMW and beating him.

The multi-belts make all these inter-weight fights more plausible, but I don't like it. Look at Canelo amusing the system, Cotto is a joke 'middleweight', whole thing stinks, including Froch v GGG.

Aaaaah, feel better for that rant...

[Jeremy]

I don't think a super middleweight fighting a middleweight stinks. The problem is that we have too many divisions, so sometimes a bit of hopping around is inevitable. (agree that no belts should be contested at catch-weights though, i.e. Cotto)

[david_carnell]

Mo' belts, mo' money.

[KidKruger]

Broner v Porter this weekend.

Any predicitions ?

My guess is Broner gets stopped. I think Broner's a better boxer but Porter gets through with a couple of those looping shots and Broner can't keep him off and is too small, a lightweight recently.

Even this contest is already having weight 'politics'.

[KidKruger]

One to watch this weekend is Hassan N'Dam v David Lemieux in Montreal.

Both are extremely talented, Lemieux having had the better exposure recently.

I'd say war on this one.

The contest is for the vacant IBF MW belt, stripped from Jermaine Taylor after his gun-related arrest and charges that followed.

Whoever wins, I'm almost certain will challenge GGG to unify at MW, these guys have balls in spades and can trade all night. I'd say Lemieux v GGG would be 50/50.

[Mick Mac]

Irelands 5 greatest boxers

"Despite its small population Ireland has produced many successful boxers. In this article we take a look at the top 5 best Irish boxers in history!

Eamonn Loughran makes it on our list of top 5 best Irish boxers in history. In 1987 he represented Ireland and was awarded silver in the World Junior Boxing Championships. The same year Loughran turned a professional boxer and began his winning streak. After defeating Lorenzo Smith he became the WBO World Welterweight Champion and defended his title an impressive 5 times."

edited to add: He also fought MickMac from the EDF when aged 9 in a fight which didn't last long. Possibly Eamon's greatest victory

[Otta]

Haha, I'm sure you gave it your all MM.

[Otta]

Totally missed this story. Fury to fight Klitschko 24th October.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/boxing/33418747

[Otta]

No big swan song / pay day for Froch, he's hanging his gloves up.

[Jeremy]

Probably wise. Get out with lots of money, and your brain in one piece.

[Otta]

Indeed. No one was really interested in America, which is a bit of a shame, but he's not exactly Mr Charisma. And too risky to take on Golovkin.

[Otta]

So Mayweather matches the record of 49 wins undefeated.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/boxing/34191454

Insisting he's now going to retire. May well stick to that just to annoy people.

Would have liked to have seen him take on both Khan and Brooke, but can't see either ever happening.