Boxing Rostrum

Seemed fitting that in the same week Frankie Gavin became the first boxer representing England ever to strike gold at the world amateur championships, the two boxers who had won England’s first medals of any kind at one of those tournaments should make big statements on the world professional scene.

David Haye, a silver taker at heavy in his amateur days, hit the summit by taking out Jean-Marc Mormeck in Paris for the WBC and WBA cruiserweight titles. One day before that, Carl Froch, who had captured bronze at middle in the same world tourney at Belfast where Haye was runner-up, battered Robin Reid into retirement to cement his place near the top of the super middleweight pile.

Both Brits were explosive winners.

Haye’s triumph made him a champion, like he’s always said he’d be, and was all the more laudable for his having to come back from the brink of being knocked out himself.

When Mormeck nailed him in the fourth and sent Haye’s legs into wobbly mode he was quick to follow up and drop his challenger. David looked the loser right there but showed real mettle to rise and grit it out and by the end of the sixth it was Haye who had control of the piece for me.

The finishing salvo in round seven was class. That last chopping right to the neck ensured there was no way back for Mormeck but, despite having made his point so emphatically, Haye surely won’t hang about at cruiser.

Making 200 pounds is too much of a strain on a man who should be weighing more like 220. He got away with it against Mormeck, but only just, and the new cruiser king would be pushing his luck if deciding to boil down again to defend it.

I see sense prevailing. At least I hope so. Boxing at a comfortable poundage, David Haye has the power to put a dent in even the biggest heavyweights, and would have speed on his side too, and I’m looking forward to that campaign getting under way because whatever happens it’s going to be a fun ride.

Carl Froch did a proper job on Robin Reid. I know Reid had struggled to beat Jesse Brinkley in his last fight eight months ago and was already pretty much washed up, at least as a contender, for some time before that but this still looked an improved Carl Froch through my eyes.

The Nottingham Cobra may not as yet have a world belt to brag about but he’s headed that way, and I like his chances of getting there. Carl is strong and powerful, and skilled too, a dangerous, no mercy mechanic who seems to enjoy hurting opponents. Nothing wrong with that. It’s a hurt business and it must help if you like what you do. So far, Froch has beaten everyone he’s faced and, as is not the case with David Haye, there doesn’t seem to be anything dodgy about his chin. Carl Froch seems to have all the tools, and the durability, of a top fighter. He’s a huge threat to anybody and everybody in the super middleweight division.

Prior to the Reid fight, though, Froch had always struck me as a lazy fighter. Not the sort of guy to over exert himself, plenty of posing between the bursts of violence. He has always come out on top, of course, but that’s been in spite of the laid back, almost casual approach – not because of it. At world title level he’ll need to be a lot busier in there than he’s been accustomed to.

That’s why it was good to see more sustained action from Carl this time. Maybe the penny has dropped. He hunted Reid throughout, denying the old stager the kind of time and space he would have needed to frustrate Froch effectively, and just steadily beat him up. I was impressed.

What didn’t impress me was the refereeing of Dave Parris. It’s a boxer’s job to protect himself at all times. It’s a referee’s job to make sure the rules of the game are obeyed and enforced. At all times. That includes taking action if one boxer hits the other while he’s down.

One of the knockdowns in this fight saw Froch lean over and sink a shot in behind Reid’s elbow while Robin was in the floored position. Dave Parris has been a top ref for some years and is big enough and ugly enough to know he should have issued a severe warning at the very least, but Carl Froch didn’t even hear an admonishment, much less the riot act.

The Board of Control should have a loud word with Mr Parris and remind him of his duties. Some might say it didn’t really matter that Froch wasn’t chastised for his indiscretion because Reid was a beaten man anyway, but that’s not the point. Rules are rules. Without them, we haven’t got ourselves a sport.

Robert Guerrero’s left hand threw Martin Honorio a sleeping pill just 56 seconds into round one to retain for him the IBF featherweight title and at the same time wreck my small bet on the challenger.

I’m not crying. That’s the way it crumbles, and anyway I’d feared the possibility of Honorio being tagged quick so it didn’t come as too much of a shock.

Still not sold on Guerrero as a talent, though. Considering he’s now in his second spell as a “world” champ you might think saying that is just sour grapes on my part, but it ain’t. Guerrero has ability. Of course he has. I happen to believe, though, that if he dabbles in unification business against any of the rival incumbents, Robert will be the one leaving his belt behind.

Most likely development, I’d say, would be a match between him and fellow Californian Steve Luevano, the WBO rep, and that's exactly what I want to see. Despite last night’s sudden display of explosiveness by Guerrero, I'm very sure Luevano can beat him and if they do meet will be looking to fill my boots on the strength of that opinion. I advise you all to do the same.

South African Lovemore Ndou is now an Australian and seems to have picked up the national propensity for shooting from the lip. Trouble with giving it large in the verbal department, though, is the risk of ridicule if you can’t back it up or if you’ve just been gobbing nonsense.

Ndou is helping Mayweather with his Hatton prep and says Floyd will annihilate Hatton just like he did Gatti. It’s a point of view that plenty might share, and could yet be proved right, but Lovemore’s further comments on Ricky Hatton and Paulie Malignaggi are something else.

Ndou says Hatton’s triumph over Kostya Tszyu in Manchester owed everything to home advantage because being at home, and allowed to fight dirty, made it a guaranteed win for Ricky. Guaranteed win? Few thought that pre-fight, and I’m damn sure Lovemore Ndou wasn’t one of them. Ndou’s words are, for whatever sad reason he has in his head, just hindsight bullshit designed to take credit away from Ricky Hatton’s career high showing.

Ndou also tells us that a younger Tszyu would have slaughtered Hatton in a couple of rounds, that Ricky just got lucky by facing him at the right time. Kostya was a great fighter, and a great champion, and at his very best may well have got the better of Ricky Hatton, but I didn’t see anything in their actual battle to suggest that even a peak Tszyu would have had things easy against the Hit Man.

Lovemore also says the body shot from Ricky that beat Castillo wasn’t much of a punch and that he’s seen Jose Luis get hit “much worse” but still get up and fight on. Startling powers of observation there. I mean, Steve Austin had pretty good eyesight, looking through walls and round corners and stuff like that, but even he couldn’t see things that had never happened. When Castillo took a knee against Hatton, then stayed there through the count and beyond, it was the first time in his whole career that the Mexican had been down.

Another Ndou claim is that once Mayweather does the business on December 8th he himself will then take on what’s left of Hatton and eat him for breakfast, notwithstanding the fact he’s already older, at 36, than the Kostya Tszyu who he said had lost his crown through old age in Manchester. Bizarre thinking.

Likewise bizarre, Lovemore says Paulie Malignaggi is running scared of a rematch. Well now, Paulie took the IBF title from Ndou by a complete shutout on two cards, while the other judge made it a lot closer, having Malignaggi in front by a mere ten rounds to two. Apart from the one sided nature of the scoring, there was also a knockdown in round nine of that fight. I won’t embarrass anybody by saying who it was that hit the deck, but it wasn’t Paulie. And it wasn’t the ref.

Lovemore Ndou has been doing a lot of spouting off lately, most of it without a grain of sense or justification. He obviously is not aware of that, however, which probably means there’s more to come. Sad indeed.

So John Duddy doesn’t get the title shot at Kelly Pavlik after all, well, not yet anyway. With Kelly being held to a rematch clause, former champ Jermain Taylor steps up for that job, leaving the Irishman to look elsewhere for his next action.

The elsewhere turns out to be faded contender Howard Eastman. Howard has lost four of his last six and is no longer a world title threat himself, even though he says he is, but the veteran is hardy and stubborn and can still be dangerous in flashes, especially against someone like Duddy who comes to fight.

I have to admit being pleasantly surprised by the Irish camp’s decision to accept this match, because it’s such a departure from the protectionist policy they’ve operated on behalf of their boxer thus far. Seems they’ve been swayed by Eastman’s latest defeat, a points loss to Wayne Elcock for the British middleweight title, which might indicate Howard is now into accelerated decline but, be that as it may, this will still be the first time John Duddy goes into the pro ring with a man who has a chance of beating him.

It will be an interesting contest and, one way or another, it’s going to tell us something about Ireland’s Own. That alone makes it worth looking forward to on account of Duddy’s twenty two wins to date have told us absolutely nothing.