Micky Cantwell
26 February 2009 - 17:04
by Micky Cantwell
I really can’t begin to tell you how excited I am about the current state of British Boxing. It’s in fantastic shape at the minute with some real talent out there bracing themselves for some big fights.
Ricky Hatton:
Of course there is Ricky Hatton, who has recently begun his training for the hotly anticipated Pacquiao fight. Already into his second week of training and he looks fantastic. As ever with Ricky, there seems to be a real hunger and desire to get himself right, both physically and mentally.
The plan now is for Ricky and his team to do a month training here prior to flying out to Vegas for 5 weeks. Floyd Mayweather Snr is scheduled to come over here next week, where he will spend sometime with Ricky before going Stateside.
On the 29th March, the Hatton team will fly out to Vegas in order to raise the intensity in time for fight night on May 2nd.
Much has been made of the lifestyle and his conduct in between fights, but this is exactly what Ricky thrives on. Yeah, he puts on a few pounds after the fights but why shouldn’t he? When it comes to the crunch he is always ready and there aren’t many better trainers out there than Ricky. I mean he’s had over 40 fights now and the only time he has ever been beat was when he fought outside his weight division.
James DeGale:
The boy looks absolutely sensational, I saw him the other week in the gym and he simply can not wait to fight. This lad is going to be a breath of fresh air for our boxing. Mr Excitement. He is going to do very well, this fight can’t come quick enough. He is born to fight, when I saw him the gym I just couldn’t believe it.
He looks sensational. What people must remember is that James DeGale is a middleweight Gold medallist, when does that come along? I think the last one was Chris Finnegan.
Amir Khan, David Haye and Frankie Gavin:
Although it might have gone a bit quiet on Amir Khan recently, in the fight game this lad is still big news. After the weekend all the attention will be right back on this young guy. Amir has a massive chance to break into the World scene which I think he will do by beating Marco Antonio Barrera.
It shows the amount of the talent in the British fight game at the minute. Its great news for us, throw in David Haye and Frankie Gavin into the mix and we have gulf of boxing class.
Gavin is making his Pro debut, and lets be honest how many Amateur World Champions have we ever had? I think he will win this weekend in front of his own crowd. I can’t stress to you enough; we are talking about a World Amateur Champion. I think he is a special talent, and out of all them he and DeGale can go all the way.
Audley Harrison:
Well with Audley, I’m not sure if you’ve heard but he is trying to galvanise a fight with David Haye. I think this really is last chance for Audley. Unfortunately I think Audley will look back on his career with a bit of sadness. I think he should have produced something, I honestly thought he would go on to be heavy weight Champion of the World but it’s kind of past him by. He has to do something sensational in the next two or three fights or I thinks its over for Audley.