The Boxing Blog - Times Online - WBLG

Haye turning a few heads

David Haye has been turning a few heads in the past few days. I bumped into him in Las Vegas a week ago at the Calzaghe-Hopkins fight, where he did not remove his sunglasses and seemed to have a small group of women following hi around.
Then he bumped into Wladimir Klitschko back in London and he made an impression on the WBO and IBF heavyweight champion, even if it was not a particularly positive one.

Harrison back to winning ways

Audley Harrison got back to winning ways 14 months after he was knocked out by Michael Sprott at Wembley when he stopped Jason Barnett in the fifth round at the Thomas & Mack Centre in Las Vegas.

Harrison, 36, who got a mixed reception and was largely negative before a right hook just below the ribs took all the fight out of Barnett at one minute 48 seconds of round five. Barnett was up slowly at nine, but Russell Mora, the referee, waved the end.

Harrison outweighed Barnett, from Florida, by 30lb, but the former Olympic super-heavyweight champion was ponderous, although to be fair, Barnett was interested in nothing but surviving. In the third round, one fans shouted out "What are you guys, friends?" and an outbreak of booing brought a slight upping in the workrate.

Williams a winner

Danny Williams easily won his bout against Marcus McGee on the Clinton Woods-Antonio Tarver undercard in Tampa, Florida. Williams scored two knockdowns and won a unanimous decision (60-52 on all three scorecards) but was unhappy with his performance.

Williams back in America looking for a world title

Perhaps the most surprising development in Tampa this week was the sudden appearance of the bout sheet of Danny Williams, yes that Danny Williams! The heavyweight from Brixton will box a six-round contest against Marcus McGee on the undercard of the Clinton Woods-Antonio Tarver IBF light-heavyweight title bout at the St Pete Times Forum on Saturday and the British champion is confident he can still get to the top.

Williams has not boxed in the United States since 2004, when he knocked out Mike Tyson in Louisville in July and was battered by Vitali Klitschko in a WBC title challenge in Las Vegas in December. But he remains ambitious and James Toney recently turned down a big offer to face Williams in London.

Audley's back in business

Some may have thought they had seen the last of him, but Great Britain's last Olympic champion, Audley Harrison, is set to return to the ring in less than a fortnight. Harrison, the 2000 super-heavyweight gold medal-winner is to box an eight-rounder on the undercard of Joe Calzaghe's bout with Bernard Hopkins at the Thomas & Mack Centre in Las Vegas on April 19.

It is 14 months since he was last in action, when he was knocked cold by Michael Sprott at Wembley Arena. Ahead of that bout, it appeared he had finally got his career on track, stopping Danny Williams two months before. But, after starting well and having Sprott on the floor, a big left hook flattened him and seemed to put an end to his career.

Don King joins the internet age

Way back in 1974, Don King owed his place at the forefront of world boxing to being the man who saw the benefit of the latest technology. The promoter is now 76 but he still has his eye on the future.
In 1974, it was closed-circuit television that gave King his way in. He set up George Foreman and Muhammad Ali in the Rumble In The Jungle, the action beamed back to thousands watching in cinemas around the world. These days people sit at home, so King is moving to the internet to reach them.

Can Haye be a big hit with the heavyweights?

It was impossible to ask anything more of David Haye in the way he beat Enzo Maccarinelli on Sunday morning. Speed and power make a lethal combination - that is a lesson that could be applied to any era of boxing.  But does he have the size, power, strength and power to be the best heavyweight - the next two years we will have fun finding out.
Haye's heavyweight debut, when he demolished Tomasz Bonin in 105 seconds at Wembley last year, showed that the 27-year-old Londoner has the power to flatten a certain level of heavyweight, although he will have to remove bigger and better obstacles than the Pole if he is going to fulfil his dreams.

After New York, who now is the hope of the heavyweights?

The world heavyweight title roadshow moves on to the unlikely location of Cancun, Mexico, this weekend, but while the year started with hope of a new era of dominant heavyweights, so far it seems to have been an overwhelming disappointment. And don't expect much more this weekend.

Haye hoping to make a big impression in America

There are few more image-conscious boxers than David Haye, that is why, many say, he does his training in a plush West End gym rather than the normal facility-challenged boxing training establishments. The Third Space, within a few yards of Piccadilly Circus, must be nice, it costs a whopping £118 per month to be a member, but it does have a swimming pool, climbing wall, flotation tank and something called a hypoxic chamber - many boxing gyms are considered plush if they have a working toilet.

Skelton must go to Turkey

Matt Skelton (left) will have the unenviable task of having to win in Turkey if he is to become the European heavyweight champion. Arena, the upcoming German promotional company run by Ahmet Oner, won the purse bids for the vacant European title bout between Skelton and Sinan Samil Sam, the former champion, outbidding Skelton's promoter, Frank Warren. No date has been set for the bout, but it is likely to take place in May.

A new era begins at the Garden

A new era will start at Madison Square Garden tonight, as this will be the first heavyweight title bout in the arena’s new ring – the previous one was retired to the International Boxing Hall of Fame after 82 years service. In that ring, Joe Frazier beat Ali in the Fight of the Century and Marciano knocked Louis through the ropes and into retirement.

New York notes

The thick blanket of snow that covered Manhattan will not cause any problems for Sultan Ibragimov ahead of Saturday night's IBF-WBO world heavyweight title eliminator against Wladimir Klitschko at Madison Square Garden. "Where he's from in Russia is in the mountains," Boris Grinberg, his manager, said. "It's cold there too."

Povetkin - the hope of the heavyweights

You could be forgiven for thinking the last thing the boxing world needs right now is another Russian heavyweight. You would be wrong, certainly in the case of Alexander Povetkin, who faces Eddie Chambers in Berlin on Saturday night. Povetkin could just be the saviour of the biggest division - and that's not the opinion of his promoter, Wilfried Sauerland, it is the opinion of one that tried to sign him, Frank Warren.

Heavyweights ready for a very happy new year

It has been the most maligned of divisions for years, but whisper it quietly, the heavyweights are about to get exciting. Inactivity has been a constant problem to any of the big men really establishing themselves, but the first ten weeks of 2008 sees all the titles contested, the first heavyweight unification bout since Lennox Lewis and Evander Holyfield clashed in 1999 and all the biggest names in action.

Oh, and there is even a Brit challenging for a version of the world heavyweight title.

Skelton comes face to face with Chagaev

If Ruslan Chagaev wanted to get face to face with Nikolay Valuev, he would have had to stand on a box. After scraping a narrow win over the Russian giant in Stuttgart in April, Chagaev got to meet his first challenger, Matt Skelton on Thursday at Gino's Restaurant in Dusseldorf.

Cunningham now top of Maccarinelli's list

It was the big fight Britain wanted and never got and even Enzo Maccarinelli, the WBO cruiserweight champion, is resigning himself to the fact that he may never get David Haye, the WBC and WBA champion, into the ring.