The Boxing Insight

Barrow-in-Furness is a blue collar town in Cumbria that is famous for building warships. Barrow is said to be the most isolated town in England as it sits on the tip of the Furness peninsula at the end of a long cul de sac, apparently the longest in the UK. Wind blows in from the Irish Sea, making it consistently chilly. Life in this working class town is not easy, only deepened by the sense of isolation. There is a lurching railway that services people across the Morecambe Bay, and to travel anywhere by car takes 40 minutes to get to the nearest motorway.  There have been several sports stars coming from Barrow-in-Furness, but not too many of them are boxers. We have the greats like football legend Emlyn Hughes and the amazing rugby wizard Willie Horn, amongst others. The town is also the birthplace of Hairy Biker, David Myers. Barrow has two established and respected amateur boxing clubs, Barrow Amateur Boxing Club and Furness Catholic Amateur Boxing Club (also known as Pat...

I think the biggest fight coming up and quite possibly the fight of the year is the one taking place on January 19. No, I’m not talking about Adrian “The Problem” Broner...... boy does he come by that name honestly, taking on that savant of pugilism Manny Pacquiao. I’m talking about the Pac-Man himself taking on Father Time. Father Time is still undefeated after all these years. He may have to go the distance but Father Time always wins in the end. 10 even 5 years ago I believe that Pac-Man would dominate this fight, now it’s hard to say. My good friend Mike has The Pac-Man winning in a 115-113 decision and a lot of people think he is right. Well, I agree I think it will go to a decision but I think Broner wins with very close split decision 115-113, 113-115, and 115-113. The real question is how much does the Pac-Man have łeft in the tank I firmly believe that he’s on fumes at this point. Speaking of Tanks Gervonta Davis has been making a lot of noise. He was recently callin...

On Saturday 16th March 2019, Errol Spence is putting his IBF Welterweight title on the line against the highly talented and super confident Mikey Garcia. Writing a prediction for this fight is almost like crystal ball gazing; on paper Spence is going to be naturally so much bigger than Garcia. Mikey began his career at 126lbs. He was a tall featherweight. His first title was the WBO featherweight title. He won the 126lb title against the tough Orlando Salida in 2013. Mikey went on to make one defense before moving up to superfeather and winning the WBO title. I liked Mikey at superfeather, he was a beast. Mikey only made 1 title defense before being out of the ring for over two years due to managerial disputes. On his return, Mikey moved up to 135lbs and won the WBC lightweight title. Not content with that, Mikey looked slightly fleshy when he moved up to 140lbs and won the IBF lightwelterweight title. Thankfully Mikey next moved back down to 135lbs to beat Robert Easter for the WBC ...

It was a calm fall day in Atlantic City, New Jersey. A home to a few brave souls who can handle this tough town. A home of dreams for so many more. Dreams of success and fortunes that routinely are washed away from the sands of the beaches into the rough surf of the chilly Atlantic Ocean. Here is where so many dreams have begun so bright and wonderful only to end in despair and avolition. October 11, 1988, at Resorts Casino and Hotel, a young and raw boxing prospect by the name of Bernard Hopkins makes his way to the ring to embark on his journey to greatness. One day he would be the undisputed middleweight champion of the world and become the first boxer to ever hold all four major titles at the same time. This was a long far way from his record-setting 20 consecutive successful title defenses. It was long before Hopkins would go on to become the oldest boxer to win a championship at the young spunky age of 46 years old. For now, before him was Clinton Mitchell also making his prof...

January 19th, at the MGM Grand, Las Vegas, Nevada, 8 weight division world champion Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao takes on 4 weight world champion Adrian “The Problem” Broner. http://boxrec.com/en/boxer/6129 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrien_Broner On paper this is a win for the legendary Manny Pacquiao, however, the 40-year-old Filipino is not the force he was 10-11 years ago when he destroyed such fighters as Ricky Hatton, Oscar DelaHoya, Miguel Cotto, Julius Clotty. Or even 12-13 years ago when he shocked legendary boxers such as Marco Antonio Barrera, Juan Manuel Marquez, and Erik Morales. In fact, I suggest Pacquiao has lost significant form since dominating Antonio Margarito in 2010. Moreover, Manny has gone 3-2 in his last 5 fights against average opposition. Adrien Broner is a step up in class for Pacquiao. Broner is a talented and strong fighter that could pose some problems from the fast yet jaded Manny Pacquiao. If left to operate Broner can power and fiddle his way to ...

It looks like Amir Khan has snubbed Kel Brook yet again and is now signing to fight one of boxing's’ current Pound 4 Pound boxer in the excellent Terence Crawford. Taking on Crawford instead of Brook is a potential huge wage drop for the still ambitious Khan; it’s also a significant step up. Throughout his career Khan has never been one to duck a challenge, sometimes at the expense of his physical health, i.e. Canelo Alvarez. Boxing forums are buzzing over the fact that Khan is still ducking Kel Brook. Maybe he is, yet he’s gone for a much more difficult and ambitious task; Crawford is no joke. Some people say that Terence Crawford is the best boxer in the world Pound 4 Pound, I’m not sure of that, I have my own choices on that mythical title. I do however believe that Terrence, physically brings more to the table than Brook does. Kel Brook a couple years ago was an elite operator and ruler of the welterweight division, however in 2019 Kel isn’t the same fighter. He put up a co...

So Chris Eubank Jr. has signed to fight James Degale…….and my first question is, “why?” What does it do for both men? Chris is an excellent middleweight, but he’s not a supermiddle, so why fight James? If Chris is banking on James being a ‘shot’ fighter, what happens if he wins? Is he then going to try to make a claim for the title? James gave up his title because he wanted to look for money making fights, Callum Smith and Gilberto Ramirez are way too big for the naturally much smaller Eubank Jr. Will he chase a fight with the incredible Canelo Alverez? Maybe, but (pssst) Canelo isn’t really a world champion at supermiddle. Surely Eubank is better served at his natural weight of middleweight? He has a natural fight there and a score to settle with Billy Joe Saunders? What about tackling the highly respect Danny Jacobs or testing his chin against the powerful David Lemieux? There’s so many sexy fights to be made at middleweight for Eubank. Sadly Chris missed out on battling Martin Mur...