The Changing Of The Guard

There were a couple of sporting events in Lancashire over the weekend which appeared to herald a new era. The old was ushered out and the new ushered in, or so it seemed.

Whether the results, have any long term significance only time will tell us, but it did feel watching them that something major was happening.

Unfortunately I didn’t see either live. I was at another football match when the text with the result came: Manchester United 1 Manchester City 6. In the old days, on the vidiprinter when I was a kid that would have been followed up with the letters and brackets that read (S I X) so you knew it wasn’t a mistake, but I didn’t get that, so didn’t know whether to believe what I had read or not.

And watching the highlights later that night didn’t make it any less fanciful. City seemingly murdered United, scoring at will as the Reds imploded towards the end. Sir Alex looked dumbstruck at the end, as if overnight, his “noisy neighbours” had won the lottery and moved into a much bigger house in a posher part of town that even he couldn’t afford.

The other seismic shift happened in a different sport, the day before, and my love of obscure rock ‘n’ roll meant I was in cold room watching a cult Canadian band instead of watching Scott Quigg fight Jason Booth for the British Super Bantamweight title.

I have written on these blogs before about my interest in – and admiration for – boxing and boxers and Quigg is one I have had my eye on for a while. Booth, by contrast, is a “veteran” who at nearly 33 has been a pro boxer for over 15 years. He has overcome alcoholism and last year put up a brave attempt for the World Title, losing to Canadian Steve Molitor on points.

I had studiously avoided the score for two days and watched the bout last night. It was a fight that was supposed to be difficult for Quigg, he was going the old dog that was going to teach the new pup some tricks. At least that was the theory. In practice it was anything but, Booth was dismantled over the course of seven rounds, always bravely trying even though the younger man was faster, stronger, fitter and shaper, before his corner pulled him out. It was all they could do.

As a Booth fan it was tough to watch, but Quigg is worthy champ.

As I say, it is too early to actually be sure if those results at the weekend represent the “changing of the guard.” But I will confidently predict right now that whoever finishes above Manchester City will win the league in May. And Scott Quigg will be a world champion by 2013.

Mark my words.

One Nation Under Box

There were a couple of fights on the TV on Saturday.  


Good one’s too – at least on paper – James Degale winning his European title and Nathan Cleverley just about seeing off Tony Bellew in a fight that was a lot harder than we thought.


The coverage was good. John Rawling commentated. It was flashy. There were plenty of camera angles, but it wasn’t on Sky. And mercifully Nick Halling was nowhere in sight.


The fight card at the Liverpool Echo arena – and indeed the Bernard Hopkins v “Bad” Chad Dawson fight (which at the time of writing I haven’t seen yet) were on Box Nation a channel “on the sky platform” i.e. you have to Sky to get it, but at the moment it’s free to air before moving to £10 a month.


The channel launched a couple of weeks ago, but last weekend was the first really big show.


It was a shock, I admit, when I returned home on Saturday night to watch the action to find Richard Keys presenting the programme, but let’s be honest, hairy hands can hold together a sports broadcast, and as a live event, it was more than satisfactory.

Frank Warren is a shareholder in the venture and said on its launch: “This channel's all about boxing. It's about our sport and giving the fans what they want.


"This is what all boxing fans have been waiting for — a dedicated channel, 100 per cent committed to showing the best fights from around the world.”


I am inclined to agree and £10 a month seems reasonable enough, especially when you consider Sky charging £15 for their pay-per-view events.


Actually, the move does raise a couple of questions though. Firstly, now Sky have lost Warren – or at least his best fighters – exactly what are they left with? Are they even that bothered about boxing anymore?


Because assuming you are prepared to pay £10 a month for Boxnation and another £6.99 for Premier Sports – who show Spencer Fearon’s shows and some half decent stuff from around the world, notably Shobox – you actually wouldn’t miss Sky’s boxing too much. And if Matchroom, Ricky Hatton and Frank Maloney haven’t got anything to show than Sky basically have nothing – their schedule was blank last week and on Ringside they didn’t really seem to want to talk about Cleverley/Bellew too much (perhaps understandably)


Add in of course that Tyson Fury seems to have found a home on Channel Five these really are golden times to be an armchair boxing fan. There will probably come a time when saturation point is reached in a similar way to football and cricket, but for now let’s just enjoy it.


That said, Rob Norton fights on Friday night – I am sure that will be exciting…

David Haye: What Is His Legacy

So last week David Haye did what he said he would do all along and walked away from the sport on his 31^st birthday.

Apparently the “retire at 31” deadline was originally supposed to be a “retire at 30” but his trainer Adam Booth explained that they had moved it back by a year when it was obvious there were plenty of big fights out there for him.

And once you get past the jealousy of anyone retiring at 31 – five years younger than your correspondent – we can evaluate the legacy of the man.

His pro career began with a second round victory over Hull Cruiser Tony Booth at Bethnal Green back in 2002. But that in itself tells a story. Haye fought just 27 times in those nine years and that fact alone perhaps tells you that he was never “in love” with the game. It was just a business.

Perhaps he, more than most, was master strategist, who planned his career out in the minutest detail rather doing it because he had the hunger to do it.

It goes without saying that he was, on occasion a great fighter. Recovering from a loss to Carl Thompson in just his 11^th fight and going onto win the European Cruiserweight title with a devastating knockout of Alexander Gourov just five bouts later.

He won the world crown just after, beating Jean Marc Mormek on his home turf and, when he unified the crowns in his next fight, in a quickfire, yet brutal beating of Enzo Maccarinelli he enjoyed perhaps his proudest moment.

It was here though, that his problems arguably began. He moved to the Heavyweight division beat Monte Barrett, began saying stupid things about the Klitschko’s, had an offensive and ridiculous t-shirt made up depicting their severed heads and – with a fight against Viatali just days away he pulled out with a bad back (which probably owed more to the demise of Setanta than any injury.)

To be fair to Haye, of course, he pulled off the unthinkable and beat Valuev in 2009 to claim the WBA Belt, but the less said about the next two fights the better.

 Then the full stop on his career. His defining battle, supposedly, against Wlad. Some pretty shabby antics in the build up (one particularly cringe worthy episode on Ringside, when he wouldn’t go into the studio to talk with was Klitschko embarrassing). We all know what happened next. He was outclassed. He blamed his toe. He lost a lot of public support.

Ultimately, Haye doesn’t care whether I like him or not. He did, though, covert attention and notoriety and he got both - sometimes for the right reasons. He goes down in history as a two weight British Champion, but he won’t be especially missed.

And does anyone really believe this retirement isn’t just one more publicity stunt.

Look out for him in panto this Christmas and back into the ring in a couple of years when his acting career goes south – although there is some part of Haye that’s been acting all his life.