Top Ten British P4P List

DeGale vs Groves set for May 21st

Today it was announced that the eagerly anticipated British showdown between British Super-Middleweight champion James DeGale (10(8)-0-0) vs Georges Groves (12(10)-0-0) will take place at the 02 Arena, in London, on May 21^st 2011. It will provide chief support to the WBO light-heavyweight showdown between Welsh challenger, Nathan Cleverly (21(10)-0-0) and Jurgen Braehmer (36(29)-2-0) and the event will be shown, live, on Sky PPV.

David Coldwell initially won the purse bid for the bout, back in February, with a £400,000 bid and the bout was originally pencilled in for April 9^th but, following discussions between the two parties, it had been agreed to move it to May 21^st.  That date had originally been set aside for David Haye’s mandatory defence of his WBA heavyweight title before it was announced that he would fight a Klitschko in June/July. DeGale vs Groves promises to be one of the most explosive fights in Britain this year and, as they like to say in America, someone’s ‘0’ has to go.

Cotto vs Marg II - The road to redemption?

Mandatory retirement age for OAPs (Old Age Punchers)?

I decided to do this blog after reading the letters page in the respected UK publication, Boxing News. Like most magazines, they have a letters section where you, the reader, can write in and 'have your say'. Obviously there are some views you will agree on and some you find just, well, absurd. This week's corker came from a reader via email ( I won't name names Mr B F) and he suggested that David Haye is right to retire at 31 and that that there should be a mandatory retirement age of 35 in boxing. Whilst everyone is entitled to their opinion, I felt I had to write in to the magazine to hopefully make him think again.  He also argued that fighters lose their reflexes in their thirties and that they are clearly not the athletes that they are in their 30s. The boxing fan even went as far to claim that fighters doing well at the sport at 35, with the exception of Vitali Klitschko, is very rare. He wanted a clear out of the 'deadwood'. To quote a commonly used twitter abbreviation, SMH. (Smack my head for those not in the know). So should boxers have to retire at 35 years old? Are their reflexes that shot that shouldn't be allowed in a ring? I can think of more than a few exceptions to the rule:

As the WBA, WBO and The Ring titleholder, lightweight king Juan Manuel 'Dinamita' Marquez is still, without doubt, one of the world’s best and most exciting fighters. If you believe what you read, he is also being ducked by the greatest fighter on the planet, Manny Pacquiao. And with good reason. JMM got off the floor three times in their first fight to earn a draw with the Filipino back in 2004 and, in 2004, lost a split decision in a fight that many people though Juan Manuel Marquez had done enough to win. 'Pac' seems to be in no rush to step in the ring for a third fight - instead choosing to fight Shane Mosley on May 7 when the option to fight JMM was there.  In 2010 he soundly defeated former unified lightweight champion Juan Diaz by unanimous decision and then beat Australian, Michael Katsidis, in nine rounds. He is 37. Trying telling Michael Katsidis that JMM's reflexes are shot...

Bernard Hopkins, dominated the middleweight division for ten years and, half of this time, he was in his mid to late thirties before moving upto light heavyweight where he beat Antonio Tarver to become world champion. Aged 41. Just a few months ago, Bernard Hopkins was robbed of another world title when fought, and in 99% of people's opinions, beat light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal. A world champion who was 17 years his junior and coming off of a great win against Chad Dawson. And who was also fighting in his hometown. The judges at ringside called the bout a majority draw with WBC chairman Jose Sulaiman sanctioning an immediate rematch due to the controversy. Not bad for a 45 year old. 

Wladimir Klitschko, 35 this month, is set to have a ‘superfight’ against David Haye in the summer and has been in the shape of his life – should the fight be scrapped and Wlad be forced to retire because of his date of birth? The same could be said for his older brother Vitali. Nearly 40, he is still regarded, by some, as the best heavyweight in the world and a fighter who David Haye will have real problems beating, should he get past Wladimir on July 2nd. The brothers have been dominating the heavyweight division for years and no one has come close to putting a stop to that. Even at their age. You try convincing other fans, let alone the brothers themselves, that their time has come to hang up the gloves.

Finally, I would like to draw his attention to the Fighter of the Year 2010 who also won 2010 Knockout of the Year -  Sergio Martinez. He has climbed up the pound for pound lists over the past couple of years and is now ranked the third best fighter in the world following a draw with Kermit Cintron, a controversial loss to Paul Williams in a fight many thought he won, a win over Kelly Pavlik and a sickening second round knock out of Paul Williams in their eagerly anticipated rematch. Some pundits even have him as number two behind Pacquiao and it would be very hard to argue against this due to Floyd Mayweather's inactivity. His next obvious step would be a superfight with either Manny Pacquiao or Floyd Mayweather but, due to the difference in size, this is not something that is likely happen. He is fighting better than he has ever done before and, just this weekend, knocked highly rated Sergiy Dzinzuruk down five times before the referee stopped the fight in the sixth. Sergio is a renowned athlete who is probably in better shape than 99% of the other fighters, has movie star good looks according to HBO and, if you listen to his promoter, is a 'f*cking beast'.

Oh, and Mr B.F, I forgot to add: He is also 36. Not bad for so called ‘deadwood’.

From Twitter to Blogger

Never been a fan of blogs if I'm honest. Always saw them as places people went to speak to themselves for a few minutes. Random musings about the world that no one ever read apart from yourself, your mother and, if you're lucky, one of your mates who had too much time spare time at work. Well, that was then and this is now. I have too much to say and, as much as I love twitter (@boxingbantz) as anyone who reads this will probably have gathered, 140 characters just doesn't cut it. BoxingBantz has found a new platform and this is it. (Note to self: never refer myself in the third person again. I am not Floyd Mayweather). Even if just a few of my followers (or even the mate at work who has too much time on his hands) takes the time out to read this, it'll have been worth it.

- Lee.