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May 4, 2006
Fans face a five-show feast at York Hall
FOLLOWING a five-week spring siesta without a single boxing show taking place at York Hall, the Bethnal Green fight arena comes to life next week with five shows booked inside 18 days at the popular fight venue.
The hectic action starts with two shows in two nights on Friday and Saturday May 12 and 13 featuring Hennessy Sports and Sport Network promoted bills on successive nights.
The Friday night show sees the Hennessy promotion headed by two title clashes - the British light welterweight fight between Lenny Daws and Nigel Wright alongside the duel between Dave Stewart and Lee Meager for the vacant British lightweight crown.
Also featured are a light middleweight eliminator Darren Barker v Darren Rhodes, plus bouts involving Matthew Thirlwall, John O'Donnell, Billy Corcoran, and Daniel Cadman.
Just 24 hours later, super featherweight Kevin Mitchell steps in the ring for his defence against Kirkor Kirkorov on Frank Warren's show.
Also featured on the Saturday bill are are Ross Minter v Alan Bosworth for the English welter title and bouts featuring lightweight Danny Hunt, Ryan Rhodes, Matthew Marsh, Lee Beavis, Dean Smith and Richard Horton.
Another bill planned at York Hall is a Sunday show on May 21 which includes Southern Area heavyweight king Mickey Steeds.
The Isle of Dogs fighter faces a selected rival on a programme which also features back in action West Ham light-heavy Paul Bowen.
The busy Maloney brothers return to York Hall with a show on Friday, May 26 headed by the clash between Carl Froch and Brian Magee for the British British Super Middleweight Title.
Also billed is a duel between Gary Woolcombe and Gilbert Eastman for the Southern Area Light Middleweight Title plus bouts involving Leo O'Reilly and Tontcho Tontchev.
Four days later, on Tuesday May 30, the Maloney brothers are back topping their bill with the bantamweight showdown between Martin Power and Isaac Ward for the British title bringing the curtain down on the hectic May schedule.
Posted at 02:13 pm by boxing
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Woods wants to throw off Cinderella image
Sheffield's Clinton Woods will feel like boxing's Cinderella man when he climbs through the ropes a week on Saturday.
Although the Ridgeway light- heavyweight is defending a top World title belt against tough Aussie opponent, Jason DeLisle, in a televised bill beamed around the world, he readily accepts he is something of a bit-part player on the cast.
For the same night, his 'Fight Academy' promoters are also staging Ricky Hatton's much-vaunted invasion of America - and his bout against Luis Collazo in Boston will be the one that gets maximum publicity and attention.
So does he feel as if his efforts will be a little overshadowed?
"No, I think they will be a lot overshadowed," smiled the 34-year-old IBF champion.
"The last time I defended my World title, there was hardly a mention in the Sunday papers. Sometimes I do get a bit cheesed off with that.
"But on the other hand I take my hat off to Ricky. There are not many fighters who make the public as excited as he does.
"Manchester is a different sporting scene to Sheffield and he has never had any trouble filling arenas. He is a phenomenon."
Woods hopes Hatton can become a household name in the US.
"There has not been many Brits who have achieved that," reflected Woods.
"Naseem Hamed, Lennox Lewis, perhaps Nigel Benn. But Chris Eubank, for instance, despite being a World champion, never got a name for himself over there."
Woods regards himself as an exciting fighter, although he accepts, he too, has no big US following. "I think I'm exciting, the last three fights, including beating Rico Hoye, prove that. My stoppage rate is around 68 per cent, which is higher than most fighters. I can box technically and defend well, and maybe American audiences aren't as keen on that."
Woods may soon get the chance to press his case overseas. If he beats DeLisle (Ponds Forge; May 13) he could face mandatory challenger Glencoffe Johnson in America.
"People are talking about that but I can't afford to think about it. I have to beat DeLisle first. I don't want to mess that up."
Posted at 01:48 pm by boxing
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Mar 8, 2006
The heavyweight division has always been and will always be the glamour division of the sport ... but it's kind of a mess at the present time. Lennox Lewis was the (more-or-less) undisputed champ ... but now he's retired. Then Vitali Klitschko seemed to be on his way to becoming the (more-or-less) undisputed champ ... but now he's retired too ... at least for now. Plus all the top pound-for-pound fighters in the sport are campaigning in lower weight categories. Nevertheless, the big money and the majority of the media attention continues to focus on the big boys. Accordingly, it seems appropriate to have an in-depth look at who's who in today's heavyweight division and rank them accordingly. Plenty of magazines and web sites will give their top ten. However, if you really love boxing, then ten is definitely not enough. So I submit my top fifty heavyweight fighters in the world today. Let the debates begin!
1. Vitali Klitschko Next: RETIRED?
2. Chris Byrd
3. James Toney
4. Lamon Brewster
5. Hasim Rahman
6. Wladimir Klitschko
7. Calvin Brock
8. Samuel Peter
9. Nicolay Valuev
10. John Ruiz
11. Shannon Briggs
12. Monte Barrett
13. Andrew Golota
14. Luan Krasniqi
15. David Tua
16. Fres Oquendo
17. Jameel McCline
18. Larry Donald
19. Kirk Johnson
20. Juan Carlos Gomez
21. Serguei Lyakhovich
22. Sultan Ibragimov
23. Oleg Maskaev
24. Ray Austin
25. Dominick Guinn
26. Audley Harrison
27. Danny Williams
28. Joe Mesi
29. Tye Fields
30. Ruslan Chagaev
31. Paolo Vidoz
32. Sinan Samil Sam
33. Oliver McCall
34. Owen Beck
35. Evander Holyfield
36. Henry Akinwande
37. DaVarryl Williamson
38. Lance Whitaker
39. Lawrence Clay-Bey
40. Michael Grant
41. Vassiliy Jirov
42. Vladimir Virchis
43. Brian Minto
44. Tony Thompson
45. Kevin McBride
46. Matt Skelton
47. Malik Scott
48. Leo Nolan
49. Mike Tyson Next: RETIRED?
50. Riddick Bowe
Posted at 08:43 pm by boxing
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Arthur John (Jack) Johnson (1878 -1946) was the first black, and first Texan, to win the heavyweight boxing championship of the world.
Born in Galveston on March 31, 1878, he was the second of six children of Henry and Tiny Johnson. Henry was a former slave and his family was poor. After leaving school in the fifth grade, Johnson worked odd jobs around South Texas. He started boxing as a sparring partner and fought in the "battles royal," matches in which young blacks entertained white spectators who threw money to the winner.
Johnson turned professional in 1897 following a period with private clubs in Galveston. His family's home was destroyed by the great hurricane of 1900. A year later he was arrested and jailed because boxing was a criminal profession in Texas. He soon left Galveston for good.
Johnson first became the heavyweight champion of Negro boxing. Jim Jeffries, the white champ at the time, refused to fight Johnson because he was black. Then, in 1908, Johnson knocked out Tommy Burns in Australia to become world champion, although he was not officially given the title until 1910 when he finally fought and beat Jeffries in Las Vegas. Jeffries had come out of retirement to become the first of many so-called "great white hopes."
Race rioting was sparked after the Johnson-Jeffries fight. The Texas Legislature banned films of his victories over whites for fear of more riots. In 1913, Johnson fled because of trumped up charges of violating the Mann Act's stipulations against transporting white women across state lines for prostitution.
During his exile from the U.S., Johnson lost his championship to a white man, Jess Willard, in Cuba in 1915. He returned to the U.S. on July 20, 1920 and was arrested. Sentenced to Leavenworth in Kansas, Johnson was appointed athletic director of the prison. Upon his release, he returned to boxing, but only participated in exhibition fights after 1928.
Although married three times to white women, Johnson never had children. He died in a car crash June 10, 1946, near Raleigh, North Carolina.
Posted at 08:36 pm by boxing
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Mar 6, 2006
Manchester - Joe Calzaghe has insisted the prospect of fighting in front of a packed crowd at the Manchester Evening News (MEN) Arena will inspire him and not overwhelm him when he faces Jeff Lacy on Saturday.
Calzaghe, the 33-year-old World Boxing Organisation (WBO) champion meets International Boxing Federation (IBF) holder in a super-middlweight unification bout.
The fight promises to be the biggest in Britain since Ricky Hatton's win light-welterweight win over Australia-based Russian champion Kostya Tszyu.
But Calzaghe has insisted he will not be overawed against the big-punching 28-year-old American in front of a partisan crowd of more than 16 000.
"When you get a massive crowd it's going to give you a lift - and I think it will," said Calzaghe.
"There's a lot of pressure on it as well but I'm sure it's going to be a positive for me, with a great atmosphere and a great night," the Welshman added.
Lacy, nicknamed "Left Hook" due to his signature punch, has a 21-win unbeaten record but Calzaghe was adamant those statistics, which include 17 stoppages, did not tell the whole story.
"He couldn't stop Omar Sheika," said Calzaghe. "If he could punch that hard he would have knocked Sheika out.
"Obviously he's powerful, he stopped Robin Reid quite impressively and the guy he fought last time (Scott Pemberton), but he hasn't fought me yet.
"Let's see how he responds when he gets hit by me."
Meanwhile Calzaghe, who has 40 wins and 31 stoppages on his perfect record, said he planned to have just four more fights before retiring from the ring with his record intact.
"That's a rare event," he said. "Ideally it would be great to win this fight on Saturday and have maybe another three fights.
"With the carrot of pay-days and money, retiring is easier said than done, and there's always the money there which tempts champions to stay maybe one fight too long.
"But that would be an amazing achievement to retire unbeaten."
Posted at 08:11 pm by boxing
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