|
Join Our Busy Boxing Message Board Today
Where the boxing fans have a voice
Boxing Talk | Ask the Trainer | UK Boxing | Off Topic | MMA
Archive for March, 2008
 | |  | | |
By Allan Donnellan March 31st, 2008 All Boxing Articles
Saturday, March 29. For the first time in his career Paul McCloskey was taking charge of a ship, one which belonged to a fleet of Brian Peters' promoted boxing events taking place in recent weeks.
McCloskey was calm in the build up. One assumed that with his first big occasion looming ahead of him, the Derry man would have displayed some nerves or apprehension. Instead, the week preceding the fight presented a Paul McCloskey who smiled politely at the fights mention and mingled easily with the press.
Opposing him, Cesar Bazan, a fighter who had been a world title holder at lightweight, fighting with passion in each bout and in the Mexican spirit, was not going to surrender, even at a time when his greatest achievements are memories now overshadowed by his losses to greater, more notable opposition.
Indeed, his opposition had been well documented in the fightʼs promotion. With over half a century of fights on his record, Bazan had never ran from or alluded any opponent. His record contains a couplet of losses to two truly great fighters in fellow Mexican Jose Luis Castillo and the Puerto-Rican Welterweight sensation, Miguel Cotto.
For Paul McCloskey, this elevation in the level of competition would serve as his certification. With a successful result, McCloskeyʼs professional apprenticeship would be complete and he could begin to advance into the fistic world.
The fight itself was a joy for any journalist. Every round was incredibly similar and if one were to pen a detailed report of the first round, the author could easily pass it off as a report of any of the nine rounds that followed. More...
| |  |  |  |
| | | | |
By Allan Donnellan March 31st, 2008 All Boxing Articles
As Professional Boxing enjoys a long overdue resurgence and our current champions finally receive the exposure they deserve, there are other men who anonymously prepare to become champions themselves. These men are the less famed and less credited amateur boxers who toil at their trade without payment or recognition.
As the final qualifiers draw to a close, the men fortunate enough to have qualified, begin to undergo intense training in anticipation of their opportunity in the Beijing Olympic Games this year.
With boxing enjoying a huge influx of new fans and much of the attention being bestowed upon the glorious profession welterweights, middleweights and bantamweights, it is not surprising that the amateur game has been lost from the radar slightly and there is a lack of knowledge on Olympic Boxing.
However, in the hearts of many, these games mean as much as a world titles in the paid ranks and the rules, requirements and demands of the competition have been studied in acute detail. This after all, is the pinnacle of amateur boxing.
First introduced to the games in the St. Louis Olympics back in 1904, boxing had a turbulent honeymoon phase, being disallowed in the 1912 Stockholm Olympics. It was 1920 before the event became a permanent fixture in the games, but since that time, the event has produced volumes of itʼs own heroes, idols and legends.
Qualification for the tournament is a hotly contested privilege, to be earned rather than won. Regional tournament in Europe, Asia, the Americas, Africa and Oceania all serve as obstacle-laden routes toward their dream destination; the Olympic Games. More...
| | | | |
| | | | |
By Mike Casey March 31st, 2008 All Boxing Articles
Some time back, when the secretive lair was finally penetrated and the crown jewels sparkled in the sudden sunlight, I realised with a sense of wonder that every great thing ever said about Nicolino Locche was true.
There he was, moving casually and almost contemptuously around the ring, an imperious master of his trade, taunting his hapless opponent with gifts of body and mind that only come from the gods. The hapless opponent was Antonio Cervantes, who was only one of the greatest junior welterweights that ever lived.
What does that tell us about Locche? It tells us volumes. He pitched a 15-0 shutout on the cards of all three judges in that unforgettable exhibition of pure boxing. Yes, the fight was in his native Argentina. No, it wasn’t hometown favouritism gone mad.
What was it about Argentina and other exotic lands when I was growing up in the sixties? They seemed to be cloaked in as much secrecy as the Soviet Union and China. Nothing seemed to get smuggled out. A glimpse of Locche or Eder Jofre on moving film was a rare treat.
The truth, I suspect, was plain old-fashioned laziness on the part of the staid and parochial American boxing media of that time. Who ever profiled Nicolino Locche in any great depth? How many writers from the established titles of the day knew he was even there?
A genuine fistic genius was our midst, plying his trade with all the finesse of a master painter, but the poor fellow came from Argentina and how the hell did you pronounce that surname? The old men of the Ring magazine were far too busy lambasting Muhammad Ali and Sonny Liston and telling us that only a few fighters who came along after Jack Johnson were worth a damn. More...
| | | | |
| | | | |
By Ricky Jones March 30th, 2008 All Boxing Results
There were two good cards last night in Scotland with several of the top men in the country in action. At the Scottish Exhibition Centre in Glasgow, ex-Commonwealth Lightweight king and European Union Super Feather titlist Willie Limond returned to the ring for the first time since losing to Amir Khan last July.
Local hero Limond, 29-2 (8), took on the always tough Martin Watson, 14-5-1 (6), of Coatbridge and outfoxed the former Celtic Champ to win a wide points verdict 119-109, 119-111 and 118-110 and capture the vacant IBO Intercontinental Lightweight belt.
At the Beach Ballroom in Aberdeen, Lee McAllister, 26-1 (5), won his 19th straight and retained the WBU Lightweight strap with a decision victory over steel chinned Romanian Mihaita Mutu, 22-12-2 (9), after twelve rounds. More...
| | | | |
| | | | |
By Jane Warburton March 29th, 2008 All Ringside Boxing
**With Slideshow**
© Jane Warburton / Saddo Boxing
It was a lively crowd that packed the Metrodome in Barnsley, England last night for the Frank Maloney promoted fight night billed as ‘Northern Rock !’
A full fight-card of eleven exciting contests was to be headlined by Stokes’ Chris Edwards making his first defence of the British Super Flyweight title against the younger Andy Bell of Doncaster.
Edwards won the ‘new’ belt from Jamie McDonnell in December and last night faced the taller Bell - who already held the English Super Flyweight title.
Andy ‘Ice-Man’ Bell looked ‘ice-cool’ as he made his entrance to the ring first, as the challenger. Edwards, flanked by the Impact Boxing Team and stable-mate Scott Lawton, entered the ring to the sounds of “I Predict A Riot!” More...
| | | | |
| | | | |
By Jim Everett March 29th, 2008 All Boxing Previews
**With Slideshow**
© Jim Everett / Saddo Boxing
Yesterday at BB King’s Blues Club Restaurant in New York City, Top Rank held a press conference to announce the first title defense for WBC and WBO Middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik, 33-0 (29), who will face the #1 rated WBO Middleweight contender Gary Lockett, 30-1 (21).
Also on the card will be another title fight featuring WBO Super Bantamweight champion, Daniel Ponce De Leon, 34-1 (30), against Juan Manual Lopez, 21-0 (19). Both championships will take place on Saturday, June 7, 2008 at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, NJ .
Before introducing Lockett, Top Rank’s Bob Arum reminisced with the media about some of the great middleweights that have come out of England such as Alan Minter and Tony Sibson, “One thing about the English middleweights is when they’re good, they’re real good and they come to fight; they are brave warriors.” More...
| | | | |
Search Saddo Boxing | Boxing News Archives
|
|
