Ricky Burns: What next?

burns5By Stevie Ocallaghan: Depending on what article you read or probably more importantly who writes it, everybody has an opinion on Ricky Burns.

Burns scraped a draw a few weeks ago against the tough US based Mexican Ray Beltran in which everybody knew that Beltran won. The amount said in the aftermath was a wee bit over the top mind you.

In the fight Ricky easily won the first round, got his jaw broken in the second round but arguably finished the fight the stronger guy. In between the first and last round, Ray Beltran won more than Ricky, but Burns still won some. For me the big and main factor was how the rounds where won.

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Haye v Fury: Will David retire if he loses to Tyson?

haye4343By Stevie Ocallaghan: On Saturday 28th of September, David Haye takes on unbeaten contender in Tyson Fury. It’s an intriguing contest but a contest that I can only see one winner and that is David Haye.

Haye’s style, his speed, power and aggressiveness will pose too many problems for the huge, but limited heavyweight Fury.

If training camps and sparring partners are anything to go by then Haye again comes out on top. Haye has been heaping praise on his sparring partners, saying all would beat Fury. He is probably right.

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Canelo is just not that great

003 Mayweather vs Canelo IMG_9198(Photo credit: Tom Casino/Showtime) By Stevie Ocallaghan: Last night in Las Vegas we witnessed pretty much what we all knew would happen. Floyd Mayweather scoring a pretty much one sided win against the unbeaten young Mexican Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. Did anybody really expect anything else? Alvarez is a good fighter, but that’s it. He will have a good career, he already has but he was never going to beat Floyd. Hes just not good enough.

Alvarez said he just couldn’t figure Floyd out. Its not about figuring out its just Floyd was and is better. The kind of fighter for Mayweather to make it a better fight is actually someone like Amir Khan or Devon Alexander. Even a Pauli Malignaggi would give Floyd a better fight than Alvarez. The three named fighters have skills and speed.

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Who’s next for Broner?

broner74By Stevie Ocallaghan: Adrien Broner, the man who would be king after his “big brother” Floyd Mayweather Junior retires is at the moment considering his next fight. It looks as if it will be be the tough Argentinian Marcos Maidana.

After a decisive points loss to Devon Alexander early last year he has came back and been convincing in stopping his last 3 opponents. Maidana is a tough fight for Broner but by the same point an extremely hard fight for Maidana. As Alexander and Amir Khan proved, Maidana struggles against skillful fighters of which Broner clearly is but I think the difference hear is Broner is easy to hit and doesn’t have the same movement as Alexander or Khan.

Maidana punches so much harder than Mallignaggi and also Gavin Rees who both kept on tagging Broner.

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Chisora v Boytsov on September 21st in London, UK

chisora45By Stevie Ocallaghan: On 21 September at the Copper Box Arena in London, Dereck Chisora takes on unbeaten Russian Denis Boytsov for the vacant EBU European Heavyweight title.

A good match-up for two fighters who are angling for position in the rankings, which has got to be a good thing.

Chisora has quite possibly had the hardest run of fights out there over any other heavyweight on the planet and that includes the K brothers. David Haye, Vitali Klitchko, Robert Helenuis and Tyson Fury in the last 2 years. Not to mention unbeaten American Malik Scott who i rate very highly. All top 10 heavyweights with one or another of the organizations. No other Heavy on the planet has done that. Remember, this fight will only be his 22nd pro contest. Others should take note.

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Adrien Broner – “The Problem” has a problem

broner555By Stevie Ocallaghan: I read in an article by Allan Fox that Adrien Broners trainer Mike Stafford doesn’t think his fighter gets the credit he deserves. His trainer is wrong. In my opinion, Broner gets way to much credit for what he has actually achieved.

Okay, being a 3-weight world champ sounds impressive, but look at the opponents. Vicente Rodriguez, no disrespect but not a household name. Eloy Perez?, a passed his best Vicente Escobedo.

His best performance for me was against Antonio DeMarco. After that fight I finally thought, even though I think 23 at the time was going to be a great fighter, but after that fight fought an 80/1 5’4″ guy in Gavin Rees. Rees was catching him at will. If Rees had any power at all, it would have made the fight much more interesting.

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