The **BOXING** thread Vol 2

[Zammy]

Just caught the 2nd half of the DeGale fight, didn't realise BT were showing it for free on Virgin. Fair result, shame to see DeGale lose the belt.

[Yiliterate]

Really not looking good for DeGale. Fair enough, Truax fought out of his skin but he was the lowest ranked contender DeGale could have picked (indeed, only the IBF ranked him at all) and, by DeGale’s own admission, was selected because he wanted an easy first fight back. Most worryingly though, DeGale’s insistence that, after his break to get himself sorted out healthwise, he’s now fitter and stronger than ever looks to be a bluff, and neither time nor his injury record are in his favour in terms of getting back to his peak either...

Edited by Yiliterate on Saturday 9th December 23:37

[Birkin1932]

what was the betting ??

I'm amazed. looks like his teeth have gone again.

[Amirhussain]

I was reading an article earlier in which DeGale says he wants another £30 million before he retires.

[RumbleOfThunder]

Chunky is shot. Tbh I didn’t think he was “well” after Jack, seemed to act strange in interviews and his speech didn’t seem right (even after accounting for his new teeth. He’s gotten caught up in too many wars now and should hang em up with a great career culminating with being a good world champ.

[untakenname]

Stayed up late just to be disappointed, hand injury excuse is such a copout

[Yiliterate]

Another bizarre twist in the story of Rigondeaux, and again, not a positive one...

Fair play to Lomachenko, again looked supreme, though the circumstances of the fight gave him advantages that he probably didn’t need.

[lerate]

Absolutely pathetic from Rigo, how embarrassing

[CAH706]

I watched most of the fight without sound which helps my impartiality usually. Was a fair decision and he just didn't perform for some reason (ring rust, complacency?)

He will be kicking himself this morning at the thought of how much this had cost him financially!

[Yiliterate]

Warning - Don’t watch the Smith - Vargas fight whilst eating breakfast

[Birkin1932]

Guys, take a minute to wish Eric Skoglund a quick recovery. He collapsed after training yesterday and has been put in a coma

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/boxing/42295111

[Yiliterate]

Birkin1932 said:

Guys, take a minute to wish Eric Skoglund a quick recovery. He collapsed after training yesterday and has been put in a coma

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/boxing/42295111

Absolutely. Makes you wonder if it was something that just happened in training or whether there was something lasting from the Smith fight.

[hyphen]

untakenname said:

Stayed up late just to be disappointed, hand injury excuse is such a copout

I didn't post anything about this fight beforehand as was very cynical.

A 29 year old fighting a 37 year old who is also moving up in 2 weight divisions just felt like it wouldn't end well. The public need to start saying no to these kinda fights, let both fighters compromise and make a catchweight. As it just isn't fair.

[tuscaneer]

to be fair, the fight should have happened a few years ago...rigo turned pro in 2009 and loma turned over in 2013. rigo was a super bantam and at that time loma was a featherweight...only a 4lb differential.

in reality, despite loma calling out rigo as early as his 3rd fight it has to be remembered neither man was a big name outside of hardcore fans....you could argue that neither were particularly big names until this weekend...

as much as it's tempting to lay blame the reality is that to pit them against each other so early in their pro careers will have had the brakes put on it by both sides of the promotional coin. i'll bet both teams were thinking "get a few more higher profile fights then match them together in a blockbuster"


watching that the other night it was apparent that the story of the fight was who's footwork was better.and we got that answer as early as the second round.

i felt let down that rigo quit.he did, he just quit. not out of cowardice, rather frustration...much the same way as duran did in his rematch with leonard back in 1980.

i think he has tarnished an otherwise flawless repuation as one of the sports finest operators. duran couldn't shake that moment of madness for decades.

[tuscaneer]

Yiliterate said:

Birkin1932 said:

Guys, take a minute to wish Eric Skoglund a quick recovery. He collapsed after training yesterday and has been put in a coma

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/boxing/42295111

Absolutely. Makes you wonder if it was something that just happened in training or whether there was something lasting from the Smith fight.

that was a hard,hard fight..most likely there's some damage carried forward i reckon...

it does make me feel sick that as fans who pay to watch we are somehow contributing to it all...

the article below knocks me sick

https://www.express.co.uk/sport/boxing/865618/Edua...

[DocJock]

tuscaneer said:

stuff

Completely agree with all of that. When he quit, I said to my lad it was 'no mas' all over again.

[Birkin1932]

tuscaneer said:

that was a hard,hard fight..most likely there's some damage carried forward i reckon...

it does make me feel sick that as fans who pay to watch we are somehow contributing to it all...

the article below knocks me sick

https://www.express.co.uk/sport/boxing/865618/Edua...

This is something I have also been thinking about recently. I have particularly been reading about pugilistic dementia. What worries me is these guys are warriors and as sports science advances so does their ability to wield amazing power. Joshua is a perfect example when compared to say Larry Holmes. Forget stature, who was best etc etc. I am simply talking about power.

This power is being increased at every weight category, what worries me is the long term damage this will be causing. I think we may have a time bomb on our hands.

The degale fight this weekend was sickening. The power dubois had against Darch was scary.

I've been a major fan of boxing since I was a kid, been ringside at some of the major fights in the UK, but recently I have started to question the sport and the way it looks after its fallen. I'm sick of seeing justgiving pages for lads who have hurt themselves, when up the ladder there are guys earning millions, boxers and promoters.

Its a really difficult judgement, I love the sport but morally question what I am seeing. The recent Alan Shearer dementia programme put this issue in the public eye. Nothing was mentioned about boxers sparring every week, fighting every quarter. Its simply not a conversation anybody seems to want to have.

[tuscaneer]

there's just too many stories about yet another damaged / killed fighter. i'd not really given much thought to the development of power over the decades. the guys that were deemed to be very heavy handed in their times (like marciano) wouldn't come close to the wilders/joshuas etc of today. and skulls aren't developing any thicker over time.

my missus is absolutely adamant that i can never box again which i always counter with arguments about 12oz gloves and headguards but she showed me this..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshi...

...it did make me pause for thought. i see a bit of harmless sparring in the gym as just that....we're certainly not pros banging 7 shades out of each other....however when i think about hours spent getting tagged over the years, being knocked out on a couple of occasions , getting punched hard enough to break my nose...only this weekend i had a headache for hours after training......and had a very "angry" looking hooter

well, i had half commited to another unlicensed affair for back end of february.....hoping to argue the toss with her indoors over christmas....i'm not doing it now.....and i'm going to make a conscious effort to only tech spar and not get dragged into wars where we're knocking each other all over the ring

[hyphen]

tuscaneer said:

Yiliterate said:

Birkin1932 said:

Guys, take a minute to wish Eric Skoglund a quick recovery. He collapsed after training yesterday and has been put in a coma

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/boxing/42295111

Absolutely. Makes you wonder if it was something that just happened in training or whether there was something lasting from the Smith fight.

that was a hard,hard fight..most likely there's some damage carried forward i reckon...

This was also the subject of the link i posted last week, rules vary and some states insist on post fight scans and some don't. Regular scans should be made compulsory.

[Yiliterate]

tuscaneer said:

to be fair, the fight should have happened a few years ago...rigo turned pro in 2009 and loma turned over in 2013. rigo was a super bantam and at that time loma was a featherweight...only a 4lb differential.

in reality, despite loma calling out rigo as early as his 3rd fight it has to be remembered neither man was a big name outside of hardcore fans....you could argue that neither were particularly big names until this weekend...

as much as it's tempting to lay blame the reality is that to pit them against each other so early in their pro careers will have had the brakes put on it by both sides of the promotional coin. i'll bet both teams were thinking "get a few more higher profile fights then match them together in a blockbuster"


watching that the other night it was apparent that the story of the fight was who's footwork was better.and we got that answer as early as the second round.

i felt let down that rigo quit.he did, he just quit. not out of cowardice, rather frustration...much the same way as duran did in his rematch with leonard back in 1980.

i think he has tarnished an otherwise flawless repuation as one of the sports finest operators. duran couldn't shake that moment of madness for decades.

Some interesting points there mate. Personally, I think Rigo has reached that stage where he simply doesn’t give a st anymore. He was almost certainly one of the top 5, if not top 3, greatest amateur boxers of all time; but, as a Cuban, his greatest material reward for such an achievement was a base spec Mitsubishi given to him by Castro (not to be sneezed at by Cuban standards, but compare and contrast with how he would have been treated if, say, he’d achieved similar in an GB vest). An aborted defection led to him being ostracised within his own community, most importantly by the Cuban boxing community for fear of state retribution and, when he finally defected for good, he left his wife and young son behind in Cuba, not knowing when he would see them again.

As a pro, his talents have been ridiculously under-appreciated, particularly by sections of the US boxing media, despite being acknowledged as one of the pound-for-pound best. This has significantly undermined his marketability; in turn, no big names at Super-Bantamweight have wanted to touch him with a bargepole after Donaire, hence missing out on big fights with the likes of Santa Cruz, Frampton, Quigg, etc (also, I wouldn’t like to bet his ‘representation’ has been of the highest calibre for much of his career either). So, at the age of 37 and having spent the best years of his pro career inactive or taking low profile fights for relative peanuts, the only realistic option for him to secure something approaching a big fight/payday is to put himself at a significant disadvantage by stepping up two weight divisions (not forgetting he’s not a particularly big Super-Bantamweight either) to take on arguably the best fighter on the face of the planet.

In all honesty, I think he’d come to the conclusion after three or four rounds that he wasn’t going to win, but he’d still be getting paid so he really didn’t give a stuff what the consequences for his reputation would be for quitting. He wasn’t hurt and wasn’t really humiliated and he might still be able to make a few more quid off his Super-Bantamweight title…time for him to look after himself. And, having gone through all that, I’m not sure I blame him either…