The Gooner Forum

Come on mods at least let this stay upstairs until after tomorrows fight.

I urge anyone who remotley likes boxing to tune in as Froch ALWAYS puts on a show. On sky sports 1 from 10.30. But showing fights for uk, denmark and then Froch in the USA. Froch fight is due to start around 2.30am, so not stupid late.

In my opinion Froch is the best britsih boxer since ricky hatton, he's better in fact, far better. Not only does he have great technical ability and speed, but also a granit chin and loves to fight all action.

Since his only loss to kessler (who is making his comeback tommorow too,thats the one in denmark), he has really upped his game. Johnson is an old pro with a punchers chance but froch should really use his speed to control this. And reckon he'll win unanimously on points.

Honestly for anyone who hasnt seen froch (this mainly due to being with a promoter tv didnt want to deal with, and getting no publicity), either stay up or sky + because he's class. And should be a great fight.

Will be checking this fight out.
Froch is 3/1 to stop him.
Sounds good to me.

mate johnson has never been stopped, he's a tough nut.

worth a punt though.

anyone up froch on now...

if you havent got sky try boxingguru.eu

watched the froch fight, defo a hard bastard with a very good chin - but just seem to turn it on when he came under attack and agreed with Jim Watt never took the fight to Johnson and the 42 year old bloke gave him a run for his money

i was more impressed with Kessler, i know the bloke he was fighting wasn't in the same class, but he dished out some brutal punishment

like to see Froch v Kessler rematch

Bren,

What a load of old shite that was!! Having seen his a coupe of times before, I've never thought much of Froch but after your build up (and a touch of sleeplessness), decided to watch the start of the fight. By the end of the second round I'd seen enough to know that my initial judgement was correct and therefore went to bed. Thank fuck for that is all I can say!! Boxing really has gone down-hill over the past decade or so.

Could not see the fight, but Froch well known for fighting just above the level of his opponent.

Ward will be toughest fight of his life and I expect Ward to win.

Good division though, with Kessler back in the mix and Bute around too.

northbankbren wrote:mate johnson has never been stopped, he's a tough nut.

worth a punt though.

Good shout that but it was a gamble eh.

I Hate Hleb wrote:Bren,

What a load of old shite that was!! Having seen his a coupe of times before, I've never thought much of Froch but after your build up (and a touch of sleeplessness), decided to watch the start of the fight. By the end of the second round I'd seen enough to know that my initial judgement was correct and therefore went to bed. Thank fuck for that is all I can say!! Boxing really has gone down-hill over the past decade or so.

I used to be all out for boxing but the UFC has fights non stop now. Boxers are too precious over their unbeaten record and as the saying goes "If you havent lost a fight, you werent fighting the best"

I Hate Hleb wrote:Bren,

What a load of old shite that was!! Having seen his a coupe of times before, I've never thought much of Froch but after your build up (and a touch of sleeplessness), decided to watch the start of the fight. By the end of the second round I'd seen enough to know that my initial judgement was correct and therefore went to bed. Thank fuck for that is all I can say!! Boxing really has gone down-hill over the past decade or so.

Agree it wasnt froch's best fight, but it wasnt that bad!!!

He fought on the backfoot with counters rather than be the aggressor but, showed his class. Johnson is no push over for anyone.

I actually thought it was a good close fight.

Disagree with boxing going down hill, its got better since the start of the millenium, it just doesnt get as much publicity over here anymore. The BBC and ITV have a lot to answer for on that front. And this why most over in this country have never heard of loads of great great fighters.

Carl Froch is a perfect example of a great fighter who's a world champion, yet 99% of people in his own country havent heard of him.

In the 70's/80's and early 90's (basically before sky took over) anyone who had a tv was exposed to the big boxing names. This made the sport mainstream. Now it isnt. Hence less interest and exposure of some of the best in the sport.

If the BBC and ITV started to back boxing you'd find the sport would get a lot more credit. When frank warren went back to ITV it made household names out of joe calzaghe and amir khan, so much so that it got warren his sky deal back.

Until the free to air channels start backing boxing in this country it'll never be a big as it once was. But the quality is still there that is for sure, and there are an awful lot of fighters out there know who would be houshold names had they fought in the "golden era".

Boxing's relative absence from terrestrial TV is a shame, as Bren points out.

Floyd Mayweather Jr is a brilliant boxer.
But he will never be recognised as such as most people have never seen him fight.

(Though if he fought Pacman it would help his cause.)

worthing gooner wrote: I used to be all out for boxing but the UFC has fights non stop now. Boxers are too precious over their unbeaten record and as the saying goes "If you havent lost a fight, you werent fighting the best"

I used to be a fan of UFC especially the first few which the gracie family set up. Im a massive royce gracie fan. I loved it back when there were no weight limits, a one night tournament.

They added the "superfight" element and it was quality gracie, ken shamrock, dan severen, kimo ect. But TV didnt want to know, under new ownership (dana white) first time limits, the rounds, then weight divisions. Which I personally didnt like but on a commercial front it worked. And to be fair the likes of tito ortiz, frank shamrock, liddell...my favourate of the new era was Randy Couture as he was a imo the one true proffesional, and gentleman.

Really liked the first few series of Ultimate fighter and they got me more interested again, the likest of forrest griffin (forget who he faught in final but was a cracker), and of course englands own bispin.

But again I lost interest. WHY......On the whole its BORING. AND HARDLY ANY SKILL SHOWN.

The grappling element used to be about skill and submition, brazilian jujitsu and wrestling, the striking used to be from a martial arts background, kicks, backhands, very little boxing. Now. The majority of fights are, guys boxing(badly), throwing wild shots often, and basic ground and pound wrestling. Dont get me wrong there are some very good fighters like st pierre, who ive always been a fan of, but it doesnt come close to boxing.

MMA is also pretty much a closed market as regard to roster. A bit like the wrestling industry in the usa where the wwf bought out their rival. Its company based. For a few years Pride in japan competed, and the ufc just bought them and their roster. Apart from those who didnt want to sign.

Which bring the biggest flaw in UFC and MMA on the whole. There are grudging mma groups who's rosters are only exclusive to the ONE company. Now being honest im not a massive mma fan (hence this now long thread ), its my brother who fills me in on all the current stuff(which im not that interested in), but he tells me all the time about certain fighters eg, Fedor, who wont sign for ufc who are far better than the ufc champ. But the ufc champ gets all publicity because it a bigger company. MMA needs open contracts and titles like boxing and not exclusive contracts like bloody wrestling which is make believe.

I enjoy it, but as regards to technical skill boxing pisses over mma.