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captaincarrantuohil

Listed below are comments made by captaincarrantuohil between Thursday, 21st August 2008 and Friday, 16th October 2009.

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Froch's rocky road to recognition 8:37pm on 16 Oct 2009 I notice that CheckHook has posted precisely the same vitriol on eastside boxing, under the name "calzaghe fan". He is entitled to be a fan of Calzaghe, one of Britain's top 5 boxers of all time, but to denigrate Froch's achievements seems a little silly. Joe certainly hadn't beaten too many people of the calibre of Pascal and Taylor after 25 fights - indeed, he had still to go through his embarrassing learning experiences against men such as Starie and Thornberry by then.
Ultimately, Joe became the butterfly bursting out of his chrysalis, but let's not pretend that he was always the finished article. Far from being "one of Britain's worst ever world champions", Froch, by his last couple of victories, is already up into the top 40 or so British boxers of all time. His victory over a live opponent such as Taylor on foreign soil, in his first defence, will be viewed as one of the finest ever by a British fighter overseas. Froch may not be Calzaghe, but he has his compensations; he richly deserves to start favourite on Saturday night/Sunday morning.
Boxing needs a Bolt 6:52pm on 16 Sep 2009 If we're talking solely about what is shown on BBC TV then, unfortunately, boxing is by no means the only fringe sport. Both codes of horse-racing, with the exceptions of Ascot and Aintree, cricket and a fair chunk of rugby union have disappeared from the Beeb's screens in recent times and presumably, have also been awarded minority status.

Indeed, aside from football and the noble (!) pursuit of Formula One, very little sport seems not to qualify for Auntie's dreaded "minority" rating. Boxing remains extremely popular in the country at large. It would be even more popular if various influential organs of the media actually bothered to give the sport a chance to prove it.
Boxing needs a Bolt 5:40pm on 16 Sep 2009 Interestingly, Ray Mercer, now considerably closer to 50 than 40, has just KO'd Tim Sylvia, apparently an MMA practitioner of some repute, in a recent MMA contest. Takes some imagination to imagine Randy Couture, or some equally venerable MMA warrior, KOing a recent former titlist like Chagaev or Samuel Peter in a boxing bout.
Boxing needs a Bolt 10:19am on 16 Sep 2009 I've never really bought the theory that "as go the heavyweights, so goes boxing". Before Marciano's reign, and well after Joe Louis was of any relevance, the sport was enjoying what a number of people regard as one of its golden ages. Pep and Saddler, among the featherweights; Ike Williams, Beau Jack and Bob Montgomery heading the lightweights; the greatest crop of welters and middleweights we've ever seen, with Sugar Ray Robinson their undisputed star. Boxing was never more popular, despite the shenanigans of the Mob, a popularity that was just as eveident in the UK as in America.

We can see a similar story in the early to mid 80s. Ali has gone, no-one is inspired by Holmes and his successors are a bunch of under-achieving, over-eating gutbuckets. However, Hagler, Duran, Leonard and Hearns ensure that this is another wonderful era for the sport. So do names such as Arguello, Pryor, Chacon (never in a bad fight), the greatest bunch of light-heavyweights ever, Sanchez and Gomez. Again, people are talking about boxing the day after fights, even if they're just casual fans of the sport.

The difference between the late 40s and early 80s and today? Exposure. Everybody could watch title fights back then, everyone knew who these fighters were, heavyweights or not. If a division was no good, you had alternatives. Big money could be made by men at any weight. World of Sport used to show title fights from all over the place at Saturday lunch-time. Newspapers would analyse forthcoming match-ups and dissect them after they'd happened. It doesn't happen now. Somewhere along the line, boxing became the viewing and reading pleasure of a minority and Jesus Christ himself, reincarnated as a hard-hitting heavyweight, won't change that.

Newspapers need to feature the sport properly, with writers that love and know the sport. Terrestrial television also needs to do its job properly and try to divorce itself from its love affair with the inane. Bring the sport back to the public and it will flourish again, with or without a top-line heavyweight.
Ghost of Owens inspires Bolt 00:34am on 17 Aug 2009 He really is the best, isn't he? Usually, it's possible to argue about where an athlete or any sort of sportsman fits into the great scheme of things - Woods is great but is he better than Nicklaus; Federer's marvellous, but better than Laver? And so on and so on.
With Bolt there's just no room for argument. He reduces his opposition to rubble and the rest of us to drooling disbelief. I reckon that I might have forty or so years left on this planet if I behave myself. I know for sure that Usain Bolt will still be the world record holder for 100 metres when I go. The world is not going to see his like again for generations, if ever.
Nice blog, by the way. Encapsulates the sense of wonder that I'm sure we sports nuts are all feeling.
The Beckham of boxing? 09:40am on 17 Apr 2009 I'm not sure how apposite the Beckham comparison is, but there is a great name from boxing's recent past whose imprint on the sport does seem remarkably similar to de la Hoya's.

That man is Thomas Hearns. A fighter with all the skills, the respect of the vast majority of the cognoscenti and a hatful of world title belts to his credit, Hearns, like de la Hoya, fought just about everyone of consequence from his era, with the notable exception of Mike McCallum. However, also like de la Hoya, Hearns was never recognised as an undisputed champion at any weight, despite racking up som many title wins and he will always be remembered for the major fights that he failed to win - those that would have sealed his legacy among the immortals of the game.

I suspect that de la Hoya and Hearns will earn a similar rating decades from now. When people try to rate them in 2059, it is likely that they will be regarded as very good, even great, but not in the very top rank.
Why Calzaghe deserves his place among the greats 7:34pm on 05 Feb 2009 It's possible to argue the toss about his record until the end of time, but there's no doubting that he had all the toys. Great jab, blurring hand-speed, great combinations, sound chin, great resolution and, until his hands started to let him down systematically over the past four years, decent power.

In British terms, the post-war comparison with Lewis (L) and Buchanan is apt - these are the best three of the past sixty-five years or so. The comprehensive nature of Hatton's loss against the best he faced leads me to place him, with Hamed, Conteh and Turpin, a rung below the top three.

For what it's worth, I make Calzaghe Number 5 of all fighters to come from these shores. Only Buchanan and Lennox Lewis and the two undeniable superstars of around World War 1, Ted Kid Lewis and Wilde, sit ahead of him, in my view.

There may always be a slight annoyance that Calzaghe left it so late to make his proper mark, but he did at least get there in the end. Had he retired at the end of 2005, "So what?" would have been the only possible response. As it is, he deserves to be remembered as one of the great British sportsmen.
Hatton next on Pac Man's menu? 2:32pm on 08 Dec 2008 Generally a good piece of scene-setting, although it is pushing it to suggest that Manny was the first to stop Barrera. It is the merest technicality that Marco's cornermen entered the ring to save their man from being nailed to the canvas by Junior Jones, so rendering the official decision LDQ5, rather than the more accurate TKO by 5 or KO by 5.

That said, Pacquiao represents by far the most serious threat to Hatton's self-proclaimed "unbeatability at light-welterweight", not excepting Tszyu, who, let's not forget, has never fought since the Hatton contest and in 2005 was clearly not the fighter that he had been. The question is now whether Hatton was genuinely an improved fighter against Malignaggi, or whether the American simply lacked the skill set to force Hatton into a truly searching examination of his own technique.

Whatever the case, Hatton is going to have to scrape the floorboards of his ability and resilience to come away with the right result against Pacquiao. If Hatton is indeed improving, then Manny has raised his own game by remarkable levels over the past three or four years. At 29, he is younger than Hatton, lives better between fights and so far as we can tell, is still refining his remarkable range of talents. The heart may well say Hatton, but heart is not a negotiable currency at the bookies. My money, which is, will be going firmly on the Filipino.
China for gold, Britain for bronze? 7:31pm on 21 Aug 2008 Agree with your assessment of our remaining medal chances, Matt, with one omission. I seriously think that Lisa Dobriskey is talented enough to win gold in the 1500 metres if she will only believe it herself.

On the face of it, the race has no outstanding favourite and Lisa looked remarkably polished in her semi. However, her interviews are so self-deprecating ("I'd be delighted with any medal", "there are dangers everywhere" etc) that you want to shake her.

She's obviously a delightful, modest woman. Just for four minutes on Saturday, a touch of devil would be in order.

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