Boxing Clever
Last week really was a strange one in the domestic boxing scene. What promised so much, in the end produced very little. The shows never caught fire, and the big fight that we all wanted to see just never happened. All in all it was very disappointing.
Lets start off at ‘Prizefighter’. The latest instalment, the light-welters was possibly the worst we have seen since the series started back in 2008. Adil Anwar won the final against Tyone Nurse via UD, and I won the battle against falling asleep, just.
Some people may think that I am being harsh here. I have full respect for anyone who steps in the ring, and these two deserved to make the final. Anwar deserved his victory. Everybody got what they deserved (except maybe Dale Miles who who ruled out with a cut in his quarter final against Nurse). The tedium of the fights however is not what people tuning in expect to see.
This is not the fault of those taking part. Anwar and Nurse are defensive, slick fighters. It appears that this has become the formula which is needed to win Prizefighter. Brawley, Al Maachi, Lloyd Taylor and Haskins. All these fighters have won with consummate ease, but have hardly set the pulses racing. While they may be broken down after six rounds in a championship fight, for three rounds they will always be slicker than their opponent and will usually win.
Now here comes the problem. Prizefighter is there to bring in the people who may not tune in to watch boxing on a regular basis. It is a hook show, give them the bug and they may be there for life.
Seven fights one night, one champion. It is TV gold. Now you have fighters, in relative terms stinking out the joint and running off with 32 grand. Great for them, not so great for people who are now losing interest in the series.
The fans want nights like Marty Rogan bursting onto the scene. Evenings like when a young Martin Murray showed he had real talent, beating murderous punching Cello Renda in an incredible encounter. No quarter was asked and none was given. The nights were adrenalin filled, this was Prizefighter. Now the brand is losing it’s gloss, there are no doubts about that.
How to fix it you may ask? Simple. You have to vet who goes in it better. I could have told you that the fighters mentioned beforehand were hardly going to make a wonderful show. You have to take out the awkward slicksters. Put in guys who come for a tear up. They don’t even need to have that great a record. Let’s have a fight. Let’s get back to what Prizefighter was about.
Because if things remain the same, then it will slowly die. And none of us want that.
Kevin Mitchell made his long awaited comeback on Friday night with a low key points victory over Felix Lora. The performance in itself was disappointing, never hitting the heights of that great night when he beat John Murray.
For me however, this was more about him coming back after months of inactivity. A chance to start on that road to world title glory (again)
Kevin has been his own worst enemy. He blew his big night against Katsidis, a night where Frank Warren had given him everything, the right opponent, home advantage, the works. Instead Kevin was incapable of preparing and got stopped accordingly. He got another chance when he fought John Murray and smashed the unbeaten Mancunian in eight rounds, in doing so giving the performance of a world champion in waiting. Instead of kicking on, he embroiled himself in legal issues. John Murray went on to fight Brandon Rios, Kevin was once again left behind.
Mitchell has now been earmarked for clash with Scotsman Ricky Burns for the latter’s world title. Against Lora he got ten rounds under his belt. He is due another ten rounder before the big Summer clash against Burns. It is a case of keeping him busy, stopping him going off the rails. He can’t be trusted to do it himself.
If this is done then I am sure he will turn up correctly against Burns and put on a show. By then, the average performance against Lora will be a distant memory.
I was sat at my desk at work last week when Twitter exploded with the news that Tyson Fury had vacated his British and Commonwealth heavyweight titles rather than face mandatory challenger David Price. It was a match that all boxing fans had been looking forward to and the disappointment was tangible.
To me it was no surprise. A few weeks ago on ‘Bunce’s Boxing Hour’ he said he had no intention of fighting anyone in his next fight, bar a world champion. He might has well have taken a big advert out on the front page of the ‘Sun’ saying ‘I have no intention of fighting David Price’.
Fury, in my opinion would be well advised to avoid David Price. Fury is regressing as a fighter. Being hurt against Firtha, floored against Pajkic, it all shows things are not going well. His surly response to Steve Bunce commenting that he needed to use more defence and not have a war every time showed he is a man unwilling to listen.
Price is the coming man. He has it all, speed, skill and power. His chin may be questionable but it will take a really good fighter to get there. Fury doesn’t have the punch to expose that. Fury is Price fodder.
The fight will happen one day, but I am guessing Fury will have been beaten by then. Instead of the great 50/50 domestic clash we could have had in the Summer, we could have a night where Fury is used a stepping stone for Price.
It’s just a case of waiting and seeing.
Finally, Rendall Munroe was made mandatory challenger for Scott Quigg’s British super-bantamweight title last week. Now the question is, will it happen?
They are both Hatton fighters which could either be a signal it will be made, or the death knell to any chance of the two meeting at this juncture.
Rendall was originally a Frank Maloney fighter. Frank managed to move him brilliantly through the levels into a world title shot, where he performed admirably against the Japanese champ Nishikora, losing on points.
Now the next move for Rendall was to move to Hatton Promotions, with the apparent lack of common decency to inform Frank Maloney of his decision. His argument was that Hatton could get him the big fights he craved instead of fights in leisure centre’s. The more cynical of us thought Munroe was being brought in to one day be used as a big name for Scott Quigg.
A year later Munroe is the forgotten man of British boxing. The world title talk was just that, talk. People are now more interested in Quigg v Frampton. But Rendall is still here, and the Quigg fight looks very close. Even Ricky Hatton has said that the fight could happen, due to the difficulty in getting Rendall a world title shot.
Rendall may well have been forgotten, but he will definitely fancy his chances against Quigg. Scott didn’t look unbeatable against Jamie Arthur, getting floored in the fourth before coming back to win in the eighth. The fight could really make sense for both. A big name on the record for Quigg, a chance of a return to prominence for Munroe.
I will go as far as saying, bar any miraculous World or European shots for either, that this will happen in the Summer. I would favour Quigg at the moment, but that isn’t a confident pick, not at all.
So that is all for this week. Hopefully by the next time I speak to you we will have a new world heavyweight champion in Dereck Chisora. I’m not holding my breath either, but he will give it a go, he will leave everything out there.
And I’m sure he won’t blame an injured toe if he comes up short.
