By Simon Hirst: Graham Earl announced his return to the ring with a rematch against tough Australia Michael Katsidis that will take place in Australia. The fight will be the home coming for the former, who has traveled around the world in his quest to land championship gold.

The first fight between these two was absolute fireworks and in some corners was voted ‘Fight of the Year 2007’. Since then, Katsidis went on to bigger and better fights and only lost to the best. Earl on the other hand was obliterated by an up and coming Amir Khan and Ko’d by Henry Castle in the first round the fight after. He won a meaningless fight before disappearing as a fighter.

Looking back at the first fight, the scores were 44-48, 45-48 and 42-49 all in favour to Katsidis. The fight was an absolute dust-up, but anyone re-watching that could see that Katsidis was clearly in control. Great shots were fired, but Katsidis was dominating. Earl showed great heart and courage to fight back against the pressure, but is this reason for a rematch?

Firstly, I am very current with boxing news and have been for many, many years. However, not once can I recall anyone mentioning that a rematch should be had. In fact, I’m of the opinion that a rematch would spoil any memory of the first fight. The fight was conclusive and the way their careers went was proof of that.

What is the expectation of this fight? Are people who are in favour of the fight expecting the same as before? It would be great and amazing if that happened, but as demonstrated with the Khan and Castle fights that happened after, Earl’s punch resistance is not what it should be for him to go in with a dangerous opponent like Katsidis.

Let’s look at another point, a point in which we can compare fighters. Who is better, Graham Earl or Kevin Mitchell? To me, it is a pointless debate with only one winner. Then think about what Katsidis did to Mitchell. Sure, Mitchell had his excuses and Earl lasted longer with Katsidis, but Earl vastly declined after that. Going into this fight, he would be severely rusty.

Another point is what is Katsidis thinking about? Who is he trying to fool? People with half a boxing brain should know this will not be half as competitive as the first fight and if it is, it will only be because Katsidis is allowing. It is a shame for Katsidis accepting this fight because his compatriot Danny Green is fighting an icon in Roy Jones Jr and now his conqueror in Antonio Tarver in a big big fight for Australia and the best Katsidis could muster up is a washed up Graham Earl. If I was Katsidis, I would be wanting a fight against another tough Aussie in Leonardo Zappavinga and give the fans in Australia a fight to get excited by.

I may sound like I’m being critical of Earl, but he should not be coming back, certainly not at this level. He has tried his hand at promoting and it would appear this has re-lit his fire, but when the skills and resistance go, that’s Father Time and Mother Nature saying it’s over and it can be dangerous to ignore them.