2008 - Who should step up...and who should step down by Oliver Fennell Jan 15th 2008

Two perennial bugbears of boxing fans come at opposite ends of the career scale. On the one hand, we are continually calling for certain up-and-comers to prove themselves against a higher level of opposition. Then at the same time, there will always be a legion of old pugs who no longer have anything to prove and who we wish would grow old gracefully instead of plodding on in a young man's game. So, with the turn of the new year, we select five fighters who we'd like to see step up in 2008 – and five who should step down. Time to step up 1- Carl Froch, British super-middleweight champion While 2007 saw Froch meet a higher level of opposition in Sergey Tatevosyan and Robin Reid, it still wasn't good enough for a man who claims to be Britain's best pound-for-pound, sport-for-sport athlete and the heir apparent to Joe Calzaghe. Reid was actually the first opponent of Froch's entire career to have either won or even challenged for a world title, and both he and Tatevosyan had seen better days by the time they met “The Cobra”. At 30, and having been sitting on the Commonwealth throne for four years, Froch has to make his move now. 2- Herbie Hide, WBC International cruiserweight champion Hide resurfaced as a cruiserweight in Germany in 2007 and spent most of the year biffing around pitiful opposition while proclaiming himself the best 14st 4lb fighter on the planet. He has fans excited, too, the logic being that if he was a big puncher at heavyweight, he'll be unstoppable at cruiser. But Hide's always been a premier league talker. Now we need to see if he's serious about the latest – and, at 36, possibly final – chapter in his career. A December win over the previously undefeated Mikhail Nasyrov was a step in the right direction. Now we need to see him against genuine world class opposition. 3- Matthew Hatton, IBF Intercontinental welterweight champion “Magic” Matthew has ridden on his older brother Ricky Hatton's coat-tails for long enough. I'm not begrudging him success by association, as I know I wouldn't turn down trips to Vegas and appearances on American TV, but there are certainly better pros out there more deserving of the exposure. Take Hatton's record, too – 33-3-1 as a statistic is the stuff of world champions and top-flight contenders, but unless you think the IBF Intercontinental trinket counts for something, Matthew has yet to bid for anything higher than Central Area status. He will never come close to achieving what Ricky has, and I'm not criticising him for that, but I'd at least like to see Matthew show some ambition beyond the ranks of journeymen his record is brimming with. He is capable of mixing it in British title class and a step in this direction is overdue. 4- Nadeem Siddique, Central Area and British Masters welterweight champion “Sid” was on my list last year after I identified he was 18-0 without ever having fought a boxer with a winning record. He did increase the standard of opposition in 2007, but only ever-so slightly. Siddique fought just twice, first winning the Central Area and British Masters titles by stopping 5-9-2 Tye Williams, and then overcoming the first opponent of his career to boast more wins than losses – Tom Glover, who brought a mighty 4-1-2 tally to the contest. If Siddique is serious about this sport, he needs to stop protecting the most puffed-up ledger in British boxing today. 5- John Murray, English lightweight champion On the one hand, you've got Amir Khan, who's won a Commonwealth championship in his 13th fight, beaten the domestic number one in his 15th, and hasn't fought a boxer with a losing record since his fourth. On the other hand, you've got John Murray, who has not beaten anybody in the British top 10 and who has not won a major title, despite being 23 contests into his career and two years older than Khan. And yet who gets criticised by fans and critics alike, and who gets lauded as “Young Boxer of the Year”? That's right. It has always been de rigueur to run down our most hyped boxers, so I'm not surprised Khan receives this treatment, but if Murray is to live up to the expectations many have of him, he needs to compete in better company this year. Time to step down 1- Graham Earl, lightweight At 29, most people are still very much on the way up in their chosen professions. Earl, though, looks finished in his. Those watching his tumultuous WBO interim title defeat to Michael Katsidis in February marvelled at his bravery, but wondered what damage would be done to Earl's career. Their worst fears were realised in December when Earl was swept aside in just 72 seconds by Amir Khan. These defeats came on top of famously gruelling victories over Angel Hugo Ramirez and Kevin Bennett, and all four of those fights took place in a two-year period. The result was Earl grew old before his time. He's been a good, hard-working pro who has never failed to entertain, but to coin a cliché, the candle that burns twice as bright lasts half as long. Watching Earl unable to get out of the way of damaging salvos from Khan – whom many tipped him to beat – felt a lot like witnessing the end of a career. Let's hope so. 2- Michael Gomez, super-featherweight Gomez is another whose ring age eclipses his official one. Critics first talked about Gomez being past his best when he was just 26, before he reinvigorated his career by stopping Alex Arthur. More wins and more defeats followed in typical rollercoaster fashion and Gomez had a final roll of the championship dice in October, when he started brightly but was eventually stopped by British champion Carl Johanneson. After a shocking upset defeat to Peter McDonagh two years ago, Gomez did well to claw his way back to another title shot, and to perform well even in defeat during it. But despite his relative youth at 30, Gomez has had 12 very hard years as a pro, won seven championships and entertained a generation. He's a fiercely proud boxer who will no doubt bitterly dispute my call for his retirement, but really, he has nothing to left to prove. 3- Howard Eastman, middleweight Fighting on at this stage would see Eastman risk becoming a journeyman. A high-class journeyman, to be sure, but certainly not anybody who's going to regain a major championship or beat a world-class name. Eastman has lost five of his previous seven contests and finds himself without a belt. His selling points have been stripped from him, one-by-one. Bernard Hopkins put paid to Eastman's world title aspirations in 2005. A year later, Edison Miranda became the first to stop him. Four months ago, Wayne Elcock relieved Eastman of his proud distinction of having never lost to a domestic opponent. If this isn't evidence of decline, I don't know what is, and at 37 I can't see Eastman reversing the downward trend. 4- Neil Sinclair, welterweight “Sinky” has retired, come back and re-retired more times than Sugar Ray Leonard. He took 16 months off following a career-high world title challenge to Daniel Santos in 2000. Same again after a 2005 shocker against Taz Jones. A further retirement followed after a failed bid to relaunch his career in the USA in 2006, and again in the wake of a stoppage loss to Francis Jones last year. Then, in one of the quickest about-faces in a sport famous for them, Sinclair was back in action less than two months later. But facetious observations about retirements and comebacks aside, these defeats show Sinclair should have stuck to his more recent “decisions” to hang up the gloves. As said, he once challenged for a world title, and has been a distinguished British champion, but the Belfastman has no chance of returning to this form considering he has lost three of his last five, all by stoppage, and two of them against sub-championship level opposition. Never the sturdiest of boxers, Sinclair cannot seem to hold a shot these days, and that spells disaster if he takes his latest comeback any further. 5- Peter Buckley, welterweight It's tantamount to blasphemy in some quarters to criticise Buckley. After all, a boxer who's had 291 professional contests is worthy of anybody's respect. However, all Buckley is doing these days is racking up the numbers. The 38-year-old is aiming for a historic 300 bouts, and good luck to him in that goal, but I hope he calls it a day afterwards. He has long forgotten how to win. He no longer even tries to win. Add to that the massive body of experience meaning he almost never gets stopped, and you remove all elements of surprise from a Buckley contest. Buckley versus anybody will, almost without exception, result in a shutout points defeat. Who wants to watch a match when the outcome is as pre-determined as it possibly can be save for actually fixing the fight? Yes, I know journeymen make the sport go round, but I'd much rather watch the Smith brothers or Daniel Thorpe or Silence Saheed; men who actually try to win and, even if they don't, might score a knockdown or take the odd round. Fighting Buckley is not sport, it's public sparring. I'm all for him getting his triple-century – I'd be a sadist if I denied it him – but please, let that be the end.

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

Please login before posting comments.

There are no comments. Click here to be the first who comment on this article.