Not quite living the American Dream by Craig MacKay Jun 27th 2008

British boxing was riding the crest of a wave until recently; we had Haye, Maccarinelli, Calzaghe, Hatton, Witter and Rees all holding one of the big belts. Add to this, contenders like Khan, Arthur, Lockett and Mitchell and things were looking pretty rosy for us Brits. That was until we decided to step into the land of Dick and Bush (that's Cheney and George W by the way!), then things started to go a little pear shaped. Ricky Hatton carried the hopes of the nation when he stepped up a weight to fight the pound for pound number one fighter in the world. There was a real sense of excitement and a genuine belief that Ricky could upset “money” Mayweather and take his titles. Countless fans did everything they did to stay up for the 4am start time and undercard bouts between Jeff Lacy and Peter Manfredo did little to help. What they witnessed was a boxing masterclass by Mayweather. Yes, there were questions about the referee but Mayweather looked a class act, while Hatton just looked up to the ceiling while laid flat on his back. Hatton deserves a great deal of praise for being someone who is willing to fight the best and put his 0 (his loss record) in real peril, but nonetheless it felt like Britain had been brought back to earth with a bump (although not quite as big a bump as Ricky must have felt when he hit that turnbuckle!). Joe Calzaghe, the only British world champion currently undefeated also went to Vegas to face a pound for pound contender in Bernard Hopkins. The feeling before the fight was that Hopkins was too old and Joe (36 himself) would be too fast and work at too high a tempo to be troubled by Bernard. British fans made the trip to Vegas in great numbers and were in jubilant fashion, most expected Joe to put on a boxing masterclass to impress the yanks. Pundits favoured Joe by the great majority but there was creeping feeling that the wily Hopkins may just cause Joe a fair few problems before the night was over. What followed was a bit of a shocker, Joe flat on his back in round one from a Hopkins right. Calzaghe looked like a rabbit in the headlights and everyone watching back home in Britain was stunned; this was not in the script. Calzaghe did take the win but only on a split decision, which was widely disputed (although not by this writer who had Joe up by three rounds). A contested split decision win over an ageing Hopkins was not what Joe had in mind for his American debut and did little to counter the “Stay at home Joe” and “Overprotected champion” jibes that have came out of America in recent years. At least Junior Witter was defending his WBC light welter belt on home soil, surely he wouldn't slip up? American Timothy Bradley was undefeated but little fancied against Junior, who had his eye on a British super fight with Ricky Hatton. Again the British fighter failed to live up to expectations and it was the American who took the plaudits, and Witter's WBC belt. A sub-standard Witter was out punched and out boxed by Bradley, who could now look forward to his own super fights. The American audience had witnessed yet another highly rated British world champion fail to deliver on the big stage. Recently, Gary Lockett had his very own Rocky Balboa moment when he got the chance to take on Kelly Pavlik, the WBC and WBO middleweight champion. Lockett was a huge underdog and bookies gave him no chance but the some in the media talked up the potential of the greatest shock since Lloyd Honeygan beat Don Curry in 1986. Lockett lasted three rounds, Pavlik's constant jab and thundering right didn't allow Lockett to get into the fight at all. American papers said Locket “wasn't even a good bum” and it seems unlikely he will get mainstream exposure in the US again. Even hot prospect Kevin Mitchell was unimpressive in a stoppage victory on the undercard, getting caught far too many times against a journeyman opponent. Have British boxers just been shown up as not good enough by their more talented American counterparts? Do they simply freeze when on the big stage? Maybe viewpoints favoured by American boxing fans but ones I would have to disagree with, at least partly. When you compare the population of the UK (60 million) to the USA (300 miilion) then it doesn't take a genius to work out there are likely to be more successful American boxer than Brits. With five times the population you would expect the USA to have five times the number of world champions. Currently the US have twelve and the UK three (Haye hasn't vacated the WBO yet, Calzaghe and Arthur), roughly the ratio you would expect. Maybe Britain had hit a peak, which was bound to fall back to a normal level at some point. There is also a case to be made that all of the fights mentioned were simply extremely hard fights that the Brits had no real chance of impressing in. Hatton was stepping up a weight to face the best fighter in the world, simply to get in that position was an amazing achievement. Looking at the fight as an impartial observer and there was only ever going to be one winner, so why did everyone think Ricky was a cert for the win? Two words - the media. Not so much the boxing media, but the national media that have little interest or knowledge in boxing. The media often hype up British sport stars to such an extent that everyone believes they are close to unbeatable. As a Scottish football fan, I love seeing it happen with the England football team at every major tournament! Calzaghe was in a similar position, no-one outside boxing circles really gave Hopkins a hope but anyone who had watched him fight knew he would give Joe a tough night and use every trick in the book to gain an advantage. I was as shocked as anyone else when Joe landed on the seat of his pants in round one, but it was never going to be a night of flashy boxing. Calzaghe unlike Hatton had never fought outside the UK before, he had no experience of the “Vegas buzz” or the world's spotlights being on him. Fighters often say that there is a different atmosphere in Vegas than anywhere else in the world and maybe if Calzaghe had made the trip over the pond a few times earlier in his career then he would have been far more ready than he evidently was. I think the expectations put on British fighters by their fans and by themselves are high and so they should be, no one can get to the top of their sport without being tough on themselves. It is when the media start feeding the general public with hype and hyperbolae that people get disappointed and think there is a problem with British boxing when all doesn't go to plan. The figures will show that boxing in Britain is still as strong as ever and with potential new world champs in Froch, Khan and Mitchell etc. then there will be plenty of people for your Hattons and Calzaghes to pass the torch onto. America may not be convinced just yet but then what are they impressed by?

Go back Comment on this article | Send to a friend | Print

calzaghe never boxed outside the uk? Jun 27th 2008, 07:42:36 by mickey2006 calzaghe defended his title in denmark and germany,and was present the week of hatton-mayweather(weigh-in,etc)to sample the "vegas buzz"