Boxing Thread

Anyone know what time the Calzaghe fight is expected to start at?

I was watching the preview on Setanta last night and Paul Dempsey said it was starting at 3am. Paddy Power has it down to start at 4am though. Currently debating whether to stay up for it or not.

Think I’ll opt for a power nap and then get up to watch it. Plan on recording it and uploading some/all of it though.

A really shite fight.

Calzaghe wins on a split decision after being floored in the 1st.

Hopkins did a lot of holding so he could pace himself for the 12 rounds.

Calzaghe’s workrate was greater but Hopkins landed the cleaner punches I thought.

I actually thought Hopkins sneaked it bit Calzaghe won 113-114, 115-112 and 116-111. The last judge must have been absolutely pissed - if Calzaghe took 9 of those 12 rounds then I’m a China man.

[quote=“Bandage”]A really shite fight.

Calzaghe wins on a split decision after being floored in the 1st.

Hopkins did a lot of holding so he could pace himself for the 12 rounds.

Calzaghe’s workrate was greater but Hopkins landed the cleaner punches I thought.

I actually thought Hopkins sneaked it bit Calzaghe won 113-114, 115-112 and 116-111. The last judge must have been absolutely pissed - if Calzaghe took 9 of those 12 rounds then I’m a China man.[/quote]

As someone currently living in China I can categorically state that Bandage is most definitely not a China man. The accent was the clincher.

Shite fight alright. Couldn’t be arsed uploading any of that - nothing of any interest happened outside the first round.

Can’t believe anyone could give him a 5 round margin. That’s pure nonsense.

[quote=“therock67”]Shite fight alright. Couldn’t be arsed uploading any of that - nothing of any interest happened outside the first round.

Can’t believe anyone could give him a 5 round margin. That’s pure nonsense.[/quote]

It’s actually a 6 round margin given the first round was 10-8 to Hopkins 'cos of the knockdown. 'Twas awfully scheidt and I felt particularly sorry for the likes of Sly Stallone, Bruce Willis, Catherine Zeta Jones and Arnold Schwarzenegger who gave up their Saturday nights just to be there.

poor fight but didnt expect it to be a classic…b-hop was never going to let it become an open affair…i scored it 7-5 to joe(114-113)…fair play to joe many a british fighter went over there with a big rep only for it to come home in tatters…

Thought the Executoner nicked it myself. Sure Calzaghe threw more punches but Hopkins definitely landed the cleaner shots.

Now Calzaghe wants to fight Roy Jones Jnr who is past his best (though is still very good).

I would prefer to see him get in with Jermain Taylor or Kelly Pavlik to really prove himself a boxing legend

I know Bandage doesn’t like women’s “sport” getting discussed but Katie Taylor has been an exception in the past and she deserves another mention on this hallowed portal. She’s fighting in the European Championships defending her crown (she’s won 3 in a row) and in the semi-final yesterday she stopped her opponent in 45 seconds of the first round. She’s miles ahead of everyone else.

When I saw the boxing thread back up on the top of the board, I assumed it was going to be someone talking about the new date for Calzaghe/Jones Jr.

Ridiculous post by Rocko.

calzaghe jones is goin to be shite,calzaghe chickened out of fightin kelley pavlik after his dad seen him hammer the shite out ofhis stablemate,handy money fightin jones,wont be payin to watch that,also andy lee thinks jj nevin has the best chance of a medal in china

Disagree with you there Massey about Calzaghe/Jones being a shite fight, I actually think it will be a great fight to watch due to there respective styles.
It will defenitely be much better to watch than the last fight with Hopkins which was basically a hugging match. Calzaghe should win it handily though as Jones is way past his prime.
I agree that he is taking the easier option though, Kelly Pavilik is hard as nails and has good power in his shots too. I’d love to see that fight as it could turn out to be a war as both fighters never take a backward step.
I suppose from Calzaghes point of view the Jones “superfight” gets him the last big paycheck(way bigger than if he fought Pavilik) of his career and after so many years on the go, who can blame him I suppose.

agree to disagree balloo,but am very dissapointed in calzaghe thought he would like to go out on a high, after all eubank gave him his fight,he didnt have to

Calzaghe/Jones live on Setanta Sports Saturday 8th of November, not sure of venue

Good article by Kimball in today’s Irish Times about young boxers getting shot.

Shot that felled Vargas reflects on gun nuts

GEORGE KIMBALL

AMERICA AT LARGE: RONNY VARGAS was a precocious teenager from the Bronx with three New York Golden Gloves titles to his credit. His amateur exploits had attracted the attention of Pat Lynch, who had managed Arturo Gatti for much of his career.

Lynch signed Vargas to a contract and last September put him in against a hapless light-middleweight from Michigan named Ricky Dew on a club fight card down on Wall Street. I was there that night, and what I remember most vividly was that Dew’s cornermen hadn’t even made it down the stairs when their guy hit the floor.

Including the time it took referee Sparkle Lee to count Dew out, Vargas’s pro debut had lasted all of 20 seconds.

Three weeks later he was back in action, and won all four rounds of his supporting bout against Bruce Burkhart on the Kelly Pavlik-Jermain Taylor card in Atlantic City.

When he fought Brian Mullis on the Miguel Cotto-Shane Mosley card at Madison Square Garden last November, the bout wasn’t three rounds old when Mullis’s cornermen climbed up the stairs waving a white towel in a gesture of surrender. And this past April when Alfonso Gomez ended Gatti’s career in Atlantic City, Vargas once again had a featured role on the undercard and stopped Roberto Iririzarry in three.

I’d seen him fight only on those four occasions, but in all he had fought eight times in less than 11 months and won all of them, the last another third-round stoppage on a boxing show in New Jersey three weeks ago.

Like Ronny Vargas, Roshii Wells was 19 when he made his professional debut. He had still been a student at Riverdale High School when he won a bronze medal at the 1996 Atlanta Games. A member of the US Olympic team that included future champions Floyd Mayweather, Antonio Tarver, Fernando Vargas and David Reid that year, Wells won his first three bouts before losing to the eventual gold medallist, Ariel Hernandez of Cuba, in the semi-final.

He turned pro a year later, and was undefeated when he challenged the Mexican Alex Terra Garcia for the WBA light-middleweight title at the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut five years ago. Boxing on the undercard of the Chris Byrd-Fres Oquendo heavyweight title fight, Wells was leading on all three scorecards after nine, but he was dropped in the 10th and seemed so woozy in the corner that referee Frank Cappuccino didn’t let him come out for the 11th.

In 2004 in Las Vegas, Wells beat Roberto Duran’s nephew Santiago Samaniego to earn another crack at Terra Garcia, but when they met in Chicago three years ago he was once again stopped, and he never fought again.

At 3am last Saturday night, Ronny Vargas was cruising around the Bronx with some friends when they dropped into an all-night bodega on Clinton Street. There they encountered two men and two young women, one of whom appears to have initiated a conversation with Vargas, to the evident displeasure of her companions.

While there were heated exchanges of words, no serious punches were thrown before the two groups were separated and sent on their respective ways.

Vargas got back in his car with his friends, and had driven but a short distance when two cars cut him off and forced his Honda Accord to the side of the road. One of the principals from the earlier disagreement jumped out, produced a pistol, and shot him through the chest before speeding away in a white sedan.

An ambulance was summoned, but Ronny Vargas was pronounced dead by the time he reached the hospital. He was 20 years old.

Just a few nights earlier in Las Vegas, Roshii Wells had been involved in an argument with a man described as an acquaintance. The latter threatened to return, and in the wee hours of the morning he did, this time packing heat. He shot Wells twice through the chest, killing him.

A few days later Arizona police arrested 26-year-old Roger Randolph and charged him with Wells’s murder. No arrests have yet been made in connection Ronny Vargas’s death.

That the testosterone is going to bubble over when young men congregate is hardly an American phenomenon, but the frequency with which firearms are used to resolve these disputes would seem to mark us as unique among supposedly civilised societies.

An obvious first step would seem to be addressing the frightening availability of lethal weapons on American streets, but the entrenched gun-owning lobby represents a powerful force to the whims of which even otherwise rational politicians find themselves forced to kowtow.

It probably wouldn’t surprise you to learn that John McCain’s position on the issue (as enunciated on his campaign website) is that the Arizona senator “believes that the right of law abiding citizens to keep and bear arms is a fundamental, individual Constitutional right . . . Gun control is a proven failure in fighting crime. Law abiding citizens should not be asked to give up their rights because of criminals - criminals who ignore gun control laws anyway.”

You might also suppose McCain’s history of consistently voting against legislation to ban the ownership of assault rifles by ordinary citizens and his voting record of opposition to bans on the importation and manufacture of armour-piercing ammunition would have mollified the right wing, but back in 2001, when he lent his voice to a tepid proposal requiring background checks for those seeking to purchase automatic weapons at otherwise unregulated gun shows, he was the target of an NRA-inspired recall petition, one that accused him of abetting “dishonest and treasonous” legislation.

You might also suppose that since his opponent is a virtual lapdog for the firearms industry, Barack Obama would have the opportunity to stake out a position on the side of sanity, but in fact, the presumptive Democratic nominee is no more eager than McCain to tangle with the gun nuts.

Senator Obama’s official position is that “as a general principle, I believe that the Constitution confers an individual the right to bear arms. I have no intention of taking away folks’ guns.”

The gun nuts are fond of saying “guns don’t kill people; people kill people”, but the specious logic of that philosophy should be self-evident, even to a politician.

Young Vargas was waked in the Bronx on Tuesday and Wednesday and will be buried this morning.

A grieving Pat Lynch said, “I truly believe the kid had all the talent in the world to be a world champion,” and he may have been right about that, but that is not the point.

The point is that nobody should have to bury a 20-year-old kid, and a 31-year-old ex-boxer should by rights have a long and productive life ahead of him.

If their killers hadn’t had such ready access to deadly weapons, both Ronny Vargas and Roshii Wells might be alive today.

Another cracker of a fight annouced there, Oscar De La hoya takes on Manny “Pacman” Pacquaio on the 6th of December. The fights at welterweight so Pacman is jumping up 2weights to fight De La Hoya, can’t wait.

Amir Khan just got knocked out on his Sky Box Office debut:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qS3-jd3j_Wo&

I was reading another forum debate about Khan earlier in the week and one guy said there was no way he was shelling out 15 to watch him fight on Sky because he’s been watching him fight diddies for free on ITV for the last while and Khan wasn’t up to much at all. I guess this guy was right.

this should be interestin fight dLh is way bigger but will be fined $1 million for every pound hes overweight,i think the longer the fight the stronger pac/man will get,the opposite for dLh weaker he will get so he will proably try to finish pac/man early which i dont think hell be able to do as pac/man spars with big fighters all the time,was very dissapointed dLh didnt sign on to fight antonio margarito after he demolished miguel cotto,now that had the makins of a classic and would have been a great way to go out,he cant win against pac/man,if he loses theyll say he lost to a small guy and if he wins theyll say it was cause he was to big 4 pac/man

I was awful impressed with margarito, I never saw him fight before the Cotto fight even though I had read all about him and knew he was good. He reminds me of a Wayne McCullough except with power to boot, he never takes a backward step and has an iron chin. I actually thought Cotto would win that one easily enough(another class act) I think Margarito was around 5/2 that night with Paddy Power.
I hope De La Hoya wins, I like both fighters but De La Hoya always comes across as a sound man in interviews and I’d like to see him pick up the win.