Manny vs Mayweather

As many of you would know by now, it’s on!! The fight of a generation has finally been confirmed. May the second will see Manny Pacquiao take on Floyd Mayweather in what will undoubtedly be the highest grossing boxing event in the history of the sport, and almost certainly the highest grossing sporting event ever. Whilst the fight would certainly have been a greater sporting spectacle in their respective primes, it may still be a great event even now. With his blistering footwork and lightning hand speed, a peak Manny Pacquiao was the proverbial Filipino buzz saw, popping in and out of the pocket like a mole in the hole. He certainly seemed nigh on invincible when he took on, and out Oscar dela Hoya and Miguel Cotto. Floyd Mayweather didn’t seem quite as invincible in his respective clashes with the two, but the absolute pasting he gave Juan Marquez in their 2009 fight gave credence to the idea that Floyd would destroy Manny if they ever fought. It is a slightly amusing idea… boxing isn’t a sport where fighter A beats fighter B because fighter A beat fighter C and fighter B lost to fighter C. It also ignores the basic fact that Marquez has had a bit of a ‘mare against Manny in any case. Even if you make a case for him having won all their bouts, you still have to concede Pacquiao has broken his nose, concussed him, and knocked him down five times over 41 rounds. Hardly damning evidence. In my opinion, this fight could live up to its billing. Manny’s hands aren’t what they were many moons ago, but his foot speed is still blinding. Floyd’s feet don’t dance out the pocket like they used to, but he still possesses the best brain in the business. If they are matched up reasonably for hand speed, I think Pacquiao’ superior feet may seal the deal for him. I am going to go Manny by a very close decision, or possibly late knock out

What South Africa can learn from the British boxing model.

At this stage of the game there are kids in South Africa who have never in their lives seen a fight on the telly. Contrast this to the United Kingdom. They have minor fights on Channel five. Mega local cards on Sky, international superfights on Boxnation (that's right... The United Kingdom has a financially viable boxing network), and just recently, ITV has gotten themselves into the mix, attaining the rights to show the next Carl Frampton fight. Four competing channels mean the British fan has all his needs taken care of, and fighters can fight for the absolute best purses possible. Contrast this with a rather dire situation in South Africa, where boxing is almost exclusively shown on Supersport. Even the recently concluded Premier Boxing League, when it was on eTV, was banished to a late time slot, which would have hurt it's circulation figures. But if the current state of British boxing, where fights are held at the Wembley, and fights between two rather middling heavyweights like Tyson Fury and Dereck Chisora can sell out 10 000+ seat arenas is a story of success - and it certainly is - it is also a story of redemption from which we can learn. The first thing we have to understand though, is that even a viable South African boxing scene is never going to be as financially lucrative as a British one. The current, and future economic outlooks are too far apart to ever have realistic designs on matching up. What we can do, however is learn lessons from them and apply them to our reality. When looking at the current state of prosperity which British boxing finds itself in, it's a little easy to forget that not too long ago, there was no boxing on BBC, and that as recently as five or six years ago Sky was very strongly considering scrapping it's boxing program. What changed? Well, put simply, British boxing had an influx of personalities. Where they had basics only had Ricky Hatton and a fringe star in Amir Khan a few years ago, they now have an assortment of fighters who are, if not household names, then guys whose names have a sense of familiarity. Carl Froch has fought at the Wembley, but before that he's been selling out arenas since the Super Six. Frampton vs Quigg is a fight the average British boxing fan is itching to see get made. Groves, Johnson, Khan, Brook, Eubanks Jr., Fury. These are all big names, and equally important for a sport trying to pry itself out of the fringes, big personalities. In contrast, I honestly don't think the local scene has one transcendent persona. The guy who gets columns in the paper even when he isn't fighting. Daily Mail can tell you all about Amir Khan's love life and holidays. We don't have that equivalent. Of course, we don't even have that for the rugby and soccer stars, but those are huge sports. They can survive without one mention out of the sport pages. Boxing needs to be on the front page, the society pages... It needs to infiltrate public awareness. Without this, it becomes a difficult affair. What local boxing does absolutely need though, is privatisation. Government should be nowhere near the sport. Boxing SA should become a self run and governed body, with government only overseeing matters. Doing things like investigating qualifications of employees. But certainly not making the employments themselves. British Boxing board of Control don't negotiate TV deals on Matchroom's behalf. Good governance should be like good structural support... I shouldn't notice it's there.

Wladimir Klitschko vs Bryant Jennings

This year, Little Brother himself, Wladimir Klitschko will make his long-awaited (by some anyway) return Stateside to face Bryant Jennings in the Barclays Centre, Brooklyn, New York. Jennings, an honest professional, who is currently uneaten, certainly seems to be out of his depth against the World heavyweight Champion. He came through the fight against Irish Mike Perez with a razor-thin decision, and with all due respect to Perez, that is not inspiring form heading into the most important fight of his career. For his part, Wladimir is coming off a sensational knockout against Pulev. It was the kind of performance which older fans have been demanding from him for a very long time. It was short, sharp, and absolutely ruthless. That is the way you beat lesser opposition. Looking at the difference in quality, both of opposition, and of the quality of victory, it is certainly difficult to make a compelling case for Jennings to even challenge Wladimir really. He does, however have freakishly long arms, and if that can translate to an interesting jab contest he might at the very least force Klitschko into pulling out a Plan B other than jab, clinch, straight right… repeat ad nausea. Pity he now also seems to have developed, or to be more fair, unleashed a meaty left hook. It certainly left poor Pulev first befuddled, and then knocked out of his mind. My prediction is a typical Wladimir performance where he carries his opponent for a few rounds to ensure the crowd got good money’s worth of entertainment for the night. At some point, though, the anvil drops, and Jennings will end up on his haunches. This is meant as no disrespect to Jennings, but this is the highest quality of opposition possible, and he certainly hasn’t proven himself beyond doubt two or three notches lower. Hopefully, once this slightly tedious mandatory is over and done with, and Deontay Wilder has hopefully seen off what is increasingly looking like a Tyson Fury match up, we get what boxing really needs – a unified World heavyweight championship bout, and with it – an undisputed world heavyweight champion.