The Boxing Blog - Times Online - WBLG

James DeGale glad to be returning home

Want to know the way to Wembley? Well for James DeGale, it's the No 18 bus from his home in Harlesden. DeGale will have his sixth professional bout at Wembley Arena on February 13 and is thrilled at the prospect.

"I'm dead excited about it," he said. "I go past Wembley all the time when I am out on my runs and it is exciting to think I will be boxing there."

Has Vitali Klitschko run out of people to fight?

I am sure I cannot have been the only one watching Vitali Klitschko try to land a a clean blow on the appallingly negative Kevin Johnson in Berne on Saturday wondering if the American was really the best guy they could have found? Sadly, he may well have been.

While one judge somehow gave the American a round, it was a desperate one-sided fight. Johnson had talked big beforehand, but barely tried to do anything more than survive and spoil. Klitschko got a nick under his right eye, but when that heals he will have a job trying to find anyone for his next defence to face who gets pulses racing.

The WBC champion is 38 and his career is in danger of just petering out. 

The top 50 lightweights ever

Ooff! It was more than 37 years ago but there is something about this picture that makes me gulp. Roberto Duran, right, is seen belting Ken Buchanan south of the border and after the bell, while Johnny LoBianco, the hapless referee holds on. Of course, LoBianco should have disqualified the 21-year-old Duran, who won the world lightweight title, but instead ending up stopping the bout in Duran's favour.

What would have happened if Buchanan had been awarded the fight rather than Duran? Probably the young Panamanian would have merely bashed Buchanan up again a few months later. But we shall never know for sure. Justice was not done.

However, both will be featuring in this latest list of the top 9st 9lb boxers in history. I shall be starting the run down in a few weeks, but it's not too early to get in your top fives or top tens, or point out any noble candidates who you worry my not get their due. So get involved.

Junior Witter sidelined by football injury

Junior Witter's hopes of getting himself back into contention on the world stage have taken a blow because he needs a knee operation early in the New Year. Witter, who has not boxed since an unsuccessful attempt to regain the WBC light-welterweight title in July, must undergo a cruciate knee operation in January. It is believed that he suffered the injury playing football.Witter, who turns 36 in March, was hoping to make a return to the ring as a welterweight, but is now likely to be out of action until the summer.

Southpaws get in line for Amir Khan

As Amir Khan goes off to celebrate his 23rd birthday and have a well-deserved break thoughts will turn to where and when he will next box. It could be in America - possibly even on the Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather Jr bill - it could be back in Britain, the only thing that seems certain is that the opponent will be a southpaw.

Freddie Roach wants Khan to help Pacquiao prepare for Mayweather as the Filipino's chief sparring partner, but wants the work to be useful to Khan as well. "It will be nice to share the ring with a great, great fighter," Khan said. "But I'd like it to be part of my preparations so I will be fully motivated."

Early service for Olympians

The crowded nature of Saturday night's bill in Newcastle means that James DeGale, the Olympic middleweight champion, Frankie Gavin and their Olympic team-mate, Billy Joe Saunders, will not be boxing live on television for the first time.

Saturday's Sky Box Office broadcast begins at 8pm with John Simpson's Commonwealth featherweight title defence against Stephen Bell, followed by Kevin Mitchell versus Breidis Prescott and Amir Khan v Dmitriy Salita. The Olympians will be boxing earlier and should be showered and changed by the time television viewers are picking up the action. Sky plan to show the bouts in a the gaps between the live fights.

The top 50 light-heavyweights ever (revised list)

So, here's my final light-heavyweight list, taking into consideration some of your comments. I was pretty happy with the top of the list, but I felt nearer the bottom I perhaps got things a bit wrong. Again, it's my list, so we don't have to agree. Looking ahead, it will be interesting to see where Manny Pacquiao will have to go when he continues his inevitable move up the weights from flyweight to heavyweight!

The next list will be starting up soon, plus maybe a couple of sideline lists to keep us entertained and arguing over Christmas and the new year.

Amir Khan chasing Marquez in 2010

Amir Khan is getting used to life as a world champion. On Saturday, he defends his WBA light-welterweight title against Dmitriy Salita at the Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle - a bout that is being screened on Sky Box Office. But being a world champion is not what it once was and Khan, 22, has eyes on even bigger things.

Khan says he wants to move towards bigger bouts and is targeting Juan Manuel Marquez, the three-weight world champion from Mexico, as a possible opponent at the end of 2010.

“I’ve won a world title and I want to take my time now and fight the right (belt) holders at the right time,” Khan said. “People can say about me what they want, but I’ve achieved what I wanted to achieve, beat Salita and look at some big names who are worth me fighting.

“A guy like Juan Diaz (the former world lightweight champion) is a brilliant style for me. A guy like (Erik) Morales or Marquez at the end of next year. I’m ready for those guys now."

Are foulers punished any more?

Wasn't there a time in boxing that the rules were there to be observed? Wasn't there a time when committing a foul came with a genuine chance of being disqualified? Now, breaking the rules, particularly in world title fights, seems to be a just tactical move.

Take the weekend just gone, two big world title fights affected by fouling. And in both cases the fouler won.

John Ruiz ready to serve up a shock to David Haye

By Mark Pickering

In 1994 John Ruiz witnessed Oliver McCall score a stunning upset win over WBC champion Lennox Lewis in London. Fifteen years on Ruiz, now 37, is heading back to try and emulate McCall as he bids dethrone David Haye, the newly-crowned WBA heavyweight champion. Haye will make a mandatory defence of his WBA title against the Puerto Rican in a prime time TV bout expected to take place in London next spring.

“The last time I was there I was working with Lennox Lewis when he lost to McCall,” Ruiz said. "I’m definitely ready to go back now; the fans were great back then.”