Last weekend saw the return of Tyson Fury; this time he made his US debut at Madison Square Garden against Steve Cunningham. The bout was for the IBF number two spot at heavyweight and Fury saw the bout as another step closer to fighting a Klitschko brother.

Prior to the bout, Fury, as usual, had big intentions for this fight and he didn’t see Cunningham as any form of threat to him, due to the size and power advantage Fury held over Cunningham.

Fury was quite vocal and disrespectful to Cunningham in the run up to the contest and it was clear from the start of the fight that those words were still ringing in Cunningham’s head as he dropped Fury heavily in round two with a massive shot.

Fury seemed to be quite hyper in my opinion in the first couple of rounds and this was demonstrated at the end of the first frame when he went over to Cunningham and pushed him towards the ropes.

Fury no doubt is an entertainer and he was looking to get his shots out and it cost him because he kept his hands really low and he got tagged by a shot that he didn’t see coming.

The stadium erupted and it was clear that Fury was not going to be in for an easy night after all, Cunningham was starting to stamp his authority on the bout with some crisp boxing and he was hurting Fury with some good right hands.

Cunningham in the past has shown us he is more than capable of boxing his opponents and he has the ability to win rounds through sticking and moving. Cunningham was going forward though in this fight and he was landing some good shots, he knew that he had what it takes to hurt Fury so he pressed the action and made it an exciting fight.

Fury needed to start making an impact in the fight, he had a point taken off him for the use of his head and it was clear that he was trying to rough up Cunningham. He was trying to close the distance on Cunningham, landing his shots; he was using his forearms, elbows and leaning on Cunningham to get him out of his rhythm. More...

Middleweight Lee Crossland, who trains out of the Venture pro gym in Birkenhead, England, has turned professional this week.

Crossland is making his debut on the Brian Rose vs. Vivian Harris undercard at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool on October 5th in a four round fight at middleweight (11st 6lbs).

Damian Jones (Astley VIP pro boxing) recently signed Crossland, who is trained by Danny Kelly and Sean Trodden, to a management contract.

Crossland said, “I started boxing at the age of 20. I was getting myself into trouble with alcohol, boxing disciplined me and and gave me something to focus on.

"I’ve been boxing on and off for seven years. But alcohol addiction got a hold of me, not ashamed to say this, and I hit a rock bottom in my life where I needed help. More...

SaddoBoxing had the good fortune to catch up with Peter Fury, trainer of his nephew, undefeated ex-British, Commonwealth and Irish heavyweight champion, Tyson Fury, who is coming off a five round destruction of American veteran Vinny Maddalone this past July in which Fury won the vacant WBO Intercontinental title.

SaddoBoxing: Recent articles about Tyson are saying that he is next going to fight either Siarhei Liakhovich, Ruslan Chagaev or Jean-Marc Mormeck. Who would be your preferred choice of opponent out of the three and why?

Peter Fury: We ultimately leave it to [Promoter] Mick Hennessy. Tyson will fight anyone.

SB: How do you predict the fight will go for Tyson?

PF: The fight will go to plan and hopefully he gets some quality rounds.

SB: For your last training camp, you went to Holland and Tyson had a solid six week preparation. Are you doing things differently this time?

PF: Yes, every camp is slightly different. Last time he had seven weeks. This time he's having nearly four months That's because we are building his weight in muscle with explosive power. It takes time, especially when considering the vast amount of cardio he does. Also, we are working on all aspects of his boxing skills. More...

Next up for British heavyweight champion David Price is a bout with Audley Harrison at Liverpool's Echo Arena on October 13, 2012.

Harrison and Matt Skelton were the front runners for Price’s voluntary defence of his British title belt. Both Harrison and Skelton have had knockout victories in their last outings, with Harrison stopping Ali Adams in four rounds and Skelton winning his last two fights by knockout; Tom Dallas in five and Ladislav Kovarik in three rounds.

This gave Price incentive to fight one of these former European champions to build experience and put one of their names on his record.

Harrison was the first choice of Price and this is ultimately who got the shot. As we have heard before, Harrison is officially in the best shape possible for this fight, as he has recovered from the Pectoral injury that he had against David Haye and this was his main reasoning for the poor performance.

Harrison looked to have been in form against Ali Adams as he found his range and got Adams out of there, which does show that Harrison does have power at this level.

Harrison firmly believes that he is going to beat Price this time round, and Price certainly is not underestimating the capabilities of Harrison. Price has said that he greatly respects Harrison and believes that Audley has been on the wrong end of a lot of criticism throughout his career.

Price has learned a lot throughout his career from Harrison. In the past, Price received useful advice from him before he went off to Beijing for the Olympics. Price has also learned a lot from Harrison on how not to manage your professional career.

Harrison has made a lot of mistakes and that’s why he never achieved the potential that he could have reached, which is a shame because way back in 2000 when he won the Gold medal, he had all the tools to be a world champion. More...

Amir Khan takes on Danny Garcia on the 14th July at the Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas for the WBA and WBC light welter titles.

Prior to this fight, there has been a lot of controversy because Khan was supposed to be fighting Lamont Peterson in a highly anticipated rematch but it fell through because Peterson was reportedly linked to a performance enhancing substance.

This rematch had the potential to be another outstanding clash, the first fight was one of my favourites of 2011 and I had Khan winning by a round, but it could have gone either way.

The fight itself had scandals with the referee and the mystery man ring side, the boxing world was really ready to see the rematch to sort out the shit that had happened that night. I was very excited to see Khan back in with Peterson, in the first fight when Khan was boxing and using his speed Peterson had no chance.

Khan is a highly talented fighter and when he boxes clever he will cause problems for any fighter from 140-147 pounds. I think Khan really was ready for the rematch against Peterson, I feel very bad for him that it fell through due to the circumstances with the referee and the mystery man ring side.

Khan trained hard for the rematch and was ready to go and the whole boxing world got stung when we heard the news that Peterson, who had initially asked for VADA style testing, got caught out.

I was shocked and gutted about the news because I thought Khan was really ready to settle the score with Peterson, whose victory is no doubt tainted now. I do not respect Peterson anymore for this happening and it’s a great shame to the boxing world that it has happened.

Peterson has ruined his image and in my opinion put a dent in the sport, as has another great American fighter, Andre Berto, who also got caught out when he was supposed to have a rematch with Victor Ortiz. More...

Carl Froch - Lucian Bute facing off for Bute's IBF Super middleweight title in Nottingham, England, this Saturday night is a fight that had to happen for the 168 pound weight class.

With Bute absent from the Super Six tournament, but worldwide known as the second or third best in the168 pound weight class, he now has the chance to make a statement in the boxing world.

That statement was Lucian Bute agreeing to fight Carl Froch in Froch’s backyard of Nottingham, England which will no doubt be the biggest challenge Bute has faced to date.

Bute deserves a lot of credit for making this happen, because no doubt he could have fought somebody else back home, defended his title and we would still have the same opinion of this talented fighter, somebody who has the potential to make an impact in the division but does not want to leave home for a major challenge.

Although sitting on the side lines for the Super Six tournament, boxing fans had constant reminders of Bute’s capabilities with brilliant performances against top rated fighters.

Bute settled the score with Librado Andrade with a sensational knockout over the guy whom many believed beat him back in 2008, highly controversial circumstances came from that fight in my opinion, but this does happen in boxing, however Bute did what he needed to do and thrilled the crowd with a dominant fourth round knockout.

Bute was again making noise in the 168 pound weight class but could not make an impact due to not being involved with the Super Six of the division. Bute carried on his career with a string of knockout victories against name fighters; Edison Miranda, Jesse Brinkley, Brian Magee and Jean-Paul Mendy.

Bute had some great knockouts against these fighters and he showed to the boxing world that he was a live challenger, but he had not faced a world level fighter to match him in the ring. More...

The domestic British heavyweight scene has really picked up in 2012, and there is an upcoming clash that offers plenty of suspense.

David Haye- Derrick Chisora has been announced at Upton Park on the 14th of July, which by many fans is seen to be highly controversial due to the circumstances of the showdown in Germany, however as a British boxing fan you have to be getting a little bit excited for this one.

Both men certainly have big egos and we got a taste of that in the post press conference, and it certainly has got me intrigued into how this fight would pan out in the ring. In my personal opinion, I think promoter Frank Warren has got bottle organising this fight, with all of the controversies with theBBBO’C and no doubt there is going to be a lot of stick for this fight.

On the flip side though, I think you have to give the man some credit for actually going down with this contest, because as a boxing fan I think this bout really does bring some excitement to the domestic and world scene.

Both Haye and Chisora come to fight and no doubt we are going to see a war, come July 14th. I personally have been quite impressed with Derrick Chisora in his last couple of outings. I thought he was particularly unlucky against Robert Helenius in Finland, last December.

Chisora certainly knew that this was make or break for him as Helenius was seen to be a true threat to the Klitschko brothers. Chisora, on the other hand, showed up in good shape and highly motivated, which was the complete opposite to how he performed during the Tyson Fury showdown, which in my opinion was an embarrassment on Chisora's behalf.
I had Chisora winning the Helenius fight, it was a bit closer on my card than some boxing fans had it however, Chisora impressed and I think he deserved his shot at VitaliKlitschko after losing his opportunity previously to face Wladimir Klitschko.

I think, based on ring performance, Chisora has shown the boxing world that he is a top ranked contender. I thought he madeVitali get into a true fight and that was really promising to see. I thinkVitali was really pushed in the fight and I think
Vitali did not anticipate such a live challenge.

However, Vitali did show us that he still is top dog and he beat Chisora in an action packed fight. He certainly looked tired though and has shown us that there is slight vulnerability in this later stage of his career. More...

Two heavyweights who are bringing excitement back into British boxing are David Price and Tyson Fury.

I have been very impressed with both fighters in their most recent outings and both men certainly are making an impact in the world heavyweight scene. I was disappointed that Price vs. Fury did not happen, but one must think that this showdown would be better, from a promoter’s perspective, two or three years down the line.

I personally would prefer to see this fight when both men are more established, which no doubt they are both on track for doing this. I personally believe these two are already making an impression in the heavyweight division and Wladimir Klitschko certainly acknowledged their impact in his post-fight press conference against John Mark Mormeck.

This is encouraging for both fighters, and they are certainly on track to getting a showdown with Wladimir due to their size and what they bring to the ring. I personally would love to see both men getting their opportunity against Wladimir in two or three years’ time when, in my opinion, Wladimir will be on the slide by then.

It’s a true opportunity for both men to establish themselves as champion when the Klitschko dominance will be fading in the not too distance future.

Firstly, however, David Price has a tough test this weekend against an established domestic heavyweight in Sam Sexton. I think this fight is make or break for both men and has come at a good time for this pair of fighters who clash at the Aintree Equestrian Centre in Liverpool tonight.

I was very impressed with Price against John McDermott, who I thought would have got some rounds in against Price and I personally thought Price would have been tested.

McDermott landed a solid punch straight away but that did not deter Price at all, as he put on a demolition job against McDermott. As a boxing fan, this was truly encouraging to see and it has shown the heavyweight boxing scene that Price is going to make an impact in this weight class and he is a live challenger. More...

On Saturday, 17th December the Super Six Tournament finally wraps itself up with the two best men in the 168 pound weight class reaching the grand finale, Carl Froch and Andre Ward.

For both men the tournament has been a fantastic opportunity to launch themselves as the greatest fighter in the 168 pound weight class and along the way they have faced some very strong opposition to make it to the final where they deserve to be.

For Froch, the Super Six Tournament, in my opinion, has pushed him up there with the greatest super middleweights Britain has ever produced.

Froch has been heavily criticised throughout his career for having a very low guard and taking a lot of punches. However, there is no doubt by looking at the resume that he has built throughout this tournament, that he is up there with being one of the best fighters to ever come out of Britain.

Froch brings to the ring excitement, determination, focus and the will to win and this is why he has persevered to where he is now.

Looking at Froch’s first fight in Super Six, it was something that only a special fighter would be able to achieve and that was the ability to fight back to retain his title when he was behind on the scorecards.

Jermain Taylor, I believe, is a good fighter who, prior coming into Super Six, had recovered from his two defeats against Kelly Pavlik,, which were great match ups, by defeating Jeff Lacy.

Taylor wanted to be back on top again and came into the Froch fight highly motivated to make an impact in the tournament to be recognised as a great champion once again.

This was Froch’s first defence of his WBC title, which had won by defeating Jean Pascal for the vacant crown. Early on in the fight, Taylor looked outstanding, he had Froch on the floor in the third round and he is still the only person who can say he has done that.

Taylor looked like he was in full command and was well ahead on the scorecards after four rounds. Froch needed to get back into the fight, he looked like he was losing his title, but as a great champion does he came back and upped his work rate and started finding that right hand on Taylor's chin. More...

© Showtime Boxing

On the 24th April, 2010 the second round of the super middleweight tournament continues with Carl Froch defending his WBC title against Mikkel Kessler. The fight is taking place in Herning, Denmark and it will see Froch defending his title for the third time, the second time on foreign soil.

Ever since Joe Calzaghe retired from boxing the position of who is the best fighter at 168 pounds has been very wide open. Many people would have given the position outright to Kessler as he put on a strong performance against Calzaghe back in November 2007.

Kessler, after the Calzaghe fight, was largely inactive and although he won three straight fights there looked like there was a bit of ring rust and the performances in my opinion where not worthy of being called the best fighter at 168 pounds.

The fighters that he came across where not highly ranked and it certainly showed that if Kessler was putting in the performances he was showing, then the 168 weight class was very wide open. More...

In 2009, British boxing was left with three world champions after Ricky Hatton got knocked out by Manny Pacquiao. Our biggest star was knocked out cold by the pound for pound great in just two rounds and it showed that Hatton's elite fighting years are defiantly past him.

Starting the new year saw the attention on Amir Khan and if he could possibly rebuild his hopes of a world title shot after suffering a devastating knock-out in just fifty four seconds.

After an impressive performance against the Mexican legend Marco Antonio Barrera, Khan was given his chance against WBA light titlist Andriy Kotelnik and he didn't fail to impress with the performance of his career to date, he outboxed the champion and won the title in style.

Carl Froch, who started 2009 as the WBC super middle champion, continued his winning ways with a sensational 12th round KO against Jermain Taylor in which he was behind on the scorecards and came back strong later in the fight to stop the former undisputed middleweight champion.

Froch was placed into the Super Six Tournament and its world wide attention. Froch made it through the first round against Andre Dirrell via a controversial decision but still however remains the champion

David Haye's hopes of becoming heavyweight world champion came true with a victory over the 7 foot giant Nicolay Valuev. Haye now looks like a promising talent to the heavyweight division which has been much needed over the years. Hopefully we can see Haye progress as our heavyweight champion in the near future. More...

Miguel Cotto started the year 2008 as the man to beat at 147 pounds with a hard fought win over the highly rated Shane Mosley. When Cotto entered the 147 pound weight class, some people criticised that he simply wasnʼt big enough for the welterweights and that the larger fighters would be too much for him to handle.

Cotto answered the critics with a sheer dominant performance over fellow countryman Carlos Quintana. Cotto looked really strong at the weight and with his later performances at 140 pounds, the 147 move was essential for. He showed that night that he was the future of the 147 pound weight class and defended his title four times enroute to the Antonio Margarito clash.

The fight which really appealed to me was the Zab Judah fight in June, 2007; it really did show that Cotto was on track to becoming the best welterweight in the world. With Floyd Mayweather Jr avoiding fighters like Cotto, Paul Williams and Margarito, it was time for the weight class to start really sorting out who was the best.

The p4p number one was interested in the come-forward pressure style of Cotto or Margarito, but I personally think he was put off by the size of Williams above everything else. The only way in which Cotto would ever get a shot at Floyd would be to go after the other elite 147 pound fighters.

In July, 2008, Cotto got a shot against Margarito, who many still believe was the best 147 pound fighter at the time. In my opinion, going into that fight, Margarito was the third best welterweight behind Cotto and Williams, who had beaten Margarito a year prior to this fight.

The status of these elite fighters is what made this fight really what it was. Everything to gain and lose from this very important fight and that is what was shown from start to finish. Cotto canʼt have anything taken away from him in that fight as his game plan was so effective for the first six rounds. More...

The domestic 154 pound weight class is really looking like it can have the potential to have some great match ups in the coming years. The talent is beaming from this division and I think it can't be ignored. As a fan of British boxing, I believe this has to be one of our strongest weight classes.

Jamie Moore, 30-3 (21), who is from Salford, looks like he's on the make or break point of his career. He looks as if he's entering the world level and he needs that push to get him out of the domestic scene. At 29 years old, Jamie offers a lot at the 154 world level and having only gone the distance twice in nearly six years shows he has power.

His most noticeable victories were over Matthew Macklin, which could have been Fight of the Year and was memorable to anybody who follows British boxing. How Moore and Macklin continued to fight at that high of a work rate was beyond me.

A former British and Commonwealth Champion, Moore also has a great victory over Sebastian Andres Lujan, who recently handed the great Jose Luis Castillo a one sided drubbing. Although 2008, in terms of opposition, has been disappointing for Moore, I believe 2009 is going to be where he really pushes his career.

Another exciting 154 pound prospect is the experienced British Champion Ryan Rhodes 40-4 (27). I believe Rhodes has found his best weight class if he wants to succeed in his remaining years. He's 31 years old, but he's coming off two great victories, against Gary Woolcombe and Jamie Coyle.

The Woolcombe fight showed that Rhodes is going to be around causing all sorts of problems for the British 154 weight class, and his age certainly doesn't show that he will have problems with the other domestic level fighters. Rhodes, like Moore, is as at the make or break part of his career and with his next fight against top ranked light middleweight Vincent Vuma, it shows that he cant afford to lose anything at this later stage of his career.

The Vuma fight is for the WBC international belt and if Rhodes can win this, it will certainly boost his WBC ratings and he may get a world title shot if he can get some good wins in 2009.

A fighter who has really impressed me over the last few years has to be Bradley Pryce, 27-6 (17). Seven straight victories after his close defeat to world ranked Mick Jennings shows that Pryce is on the warpath to fight the best at 154. More...

David Haye has now begun his heavyweight campaign after successfully establishing himself as the world's top cruiserweight. His win over Enzo Maccarinelli proved that Haye has done enough at the weight and he can now move up to the heavyweight division.

The second round stoppage was career defining for Haye as the match up had been in anticipation for years. I give Haye great respect for taking that fight because he had problems with the weight and he really had to train hard to make the 200 lb limit. With Haye walking around at over 16 stone [224 lb] in between fights, you can see how much of a big ask it was for him to lose that weight. But he did it and beat Enzo in great knockout style to win the unified cruiserweight crown.

The heavyweight division isn't new for Haye. In early 2007, Haye beat Tomasz Bonin of Poland in brutal knockout fashion. Three knockdowns inside the first round prompted the referee to stop the fight and it was a great start for Haye, who was seeing himself into the weight class. Although Bonin wasn't the best of fighters ,he still held a record of 37 wins and only one loss, to Audley Harrison, who took nine rounds to beat him. It showed how dominant Haye really is over the British heavyweight scene because he got the job done in 105 seconds!

Haye is chasing his dream fight with Wladimir Klitschko and is on the warpath to make this fight happen. David even confronted him at the airport to ask him face to face for the match up. Wladimir knows he has to defend his belt in order to keep hold of it, so he was forced to face mandatory challenger Tony Thompson in a rather boring affair. Wladimir now has to face up and coming prospect Alexander Povetkin in his next fight and Haye questions if Wladimir is capable of beating the young Russian.

I believe Klitschko has been very unlucky with criticism recently. It's really not his fault if fighters get in the ring with him to simply survive and it makes him look bad because of that. During his last two outings, I believe, he was fully in control of the fight sand Sultan Ibragimov was happy to say he didn't get stopped by Klitschko.

Haye is exploiting the fact that the heavyweight devision is really in need of a hero. Ever since Lennox Lewis left in 2003, there hasn't been a legitimate champion in my opinion and the division has been left wide open since that departure. Haye fully believes he has what it takes to be the best in the division and to do that, he simply wants to fight the best a heavyweight. If it was up to Haye, I do believe he would fight Wladimir today, but that not going to happen for the time being.

Haye was told he needs to prove himself as a genuine heavyweight contender by Klitschko because Thompson and Povetkin did genuinely prove themselves. Although Haye is a big name in the cruiserweight division, he hasn't yet had a convincing win at heavyweight to prove to Wladimir that he should share a ring with him. More...

© Jane Warburton / Saddo Boxing

Ricky Hatton returned to the ring against Juan Lazcano in May of this year, looking to get his career back on track. After starting 2008 with a knockout loss to pound for pound king Floyd Mayweather, some people were really questioning Hatton's abilities to fight at the top again.

With constant criticism about Hatton's weight and him having to loose over two stone [28 lb] per fight, people were questioning if he would have the stamina to carry on fighting in the future.

The simple response by Hatton was very funny; he came into the ring wearing a fat suit for his homecoming fight with Lazcano. Ricky claimed he didn't put on as much weight in this fight and really did work hard on his build up to the contest. Coming off a first defeat in a career is very hard to take and it can mentally affect some fighters. But did it affect the hitman? No it didn't.

In my opinion, Hatton won every single round and put on a performance similar to one against Ray Oliveira. The stamina issue was answered, Hatton boxed 12 solid rounds and didn't look as if he was tiring. Post Kotsya Tszyu fights showed that Hatton would be "hugging" to get back some energy, but not in the Lazcano fight. More...