By Stuart Young
Hatton’s syndrome is officially cured!
Legions of weary fans should now be returning to full health after the recent epidemic that hit our shores last weekend for the Haye Vs Harrison bout. Harrison’s shameful performance stank out the MEN Arena in Manchester worse than a Frenchman
with a soap phobia.
But for me, the biggest shock of the night wasn’t Harrison’s pitiful performance, it was the fact that he was actually credited with throwing two punches, I for one, must of blinked just as he threw the second!
The British Boxing Board of Control could reportedly withhold Audley Harrison’s purse, although that seems a little harsh, as a purse and Audley Harrison seem like a ‘match made in heaven’ in my opinion.
Hopefully Audley Harrison can now do the decent thing and spare the British public any more embarrassment, retire gracefully and fade into obscurity. If he’s looking for alternative employment he could do worse than apply to become a children’s party
entertainer – I hear there’s plenty of demand for clowns at the moment.
On the plus side, us punters at least had something to cheer about, as we cashed in on the 5/6 available on the David Haye TKO / KO in rounds 1-6, and those who were a little more adventurous would have been celebrating having took advantage of the
11/4 available for Haye to win by the same method of victory in rounds 1-3.
They do say fortune favours the brave!
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic we was treated to a virtuoso performance by the ‘imperious’ Manny Pacquiao in his one sided beat down of Antonio Margarito.
I’m honest enough to admit that we may well of rode our luck at times throughout the bout but Mexican warrior Margarito is ‘teak-tough’ and showed great heart and determination to remain upright until the final bell. The applause of those in
attendance was no doubt only drowned out by cheers of the punters in their homes across the country who had wisely took the 10/3 available from Bet365 on the Pacquiao points victory – as advised by yours truly.
So following on from the success from last week:-
“http://www.fightkings.com/featured-article/boxing-betting-giving-the-bookmakers-a-black-eye/”
where we left the bookmakers more dazed, bloodied and confused than Antonio Margarito, we now shift our attention to this weeks action.
On Saturday, Sky heralds the return of their successful Prizefighter series, with the spotlight this time falling on the super-featherweights. Since its conception Prizefighter has proved to be a bit of ‘mixed bag’ with us betting folk, as both
favourites and rank outsiders have triumphed in equal measure.
It makes the competition notoriously difficult to predict, but for me, a boxing expert, the standout fighter is without doubt Choi Tsveenpurev. Although fast approaching 40 years of age, and having only fought twice in the past two years, Choi has been fortunate enough to be drawn in the “easiest” side of the competition, where he manages to avoid current favourite and British super-featherweight champion, Gary Sykes.
Originally hailing from Mongolia, but now living and fighting out of Oldham, England, Choi is viewed by many as a “low reward, high risk” fighter. Campaigning on the British scene for over a decade, many of our top domestic level fighters have been reluctant to sign to fight with the ‘granite chinned’ Mongolian due to his ‘heavy hands’ and high work-rate, making it notoriously difficult job for Choi’s promoter’s to secure quality opposition.
However, this competition has been used by many as a springboard to re-launch careers, and it’s high intensity three 3 minute rounds, the format is near perfect for Choi’s all-action style. Most of the fights end up being turned into brawls due
to the short competitive nature of the bouts rather than the dour tactical affairs you can sometimes get over the longer distances.
Choi begins his quest for the title with what should be a straight forward victory against Ben Murphy. If, as expected, he comes through that fight unscathed he faces the winner of the Derry Matthews Vs Gary McArthur bout. This shouldn’t prove too
much a problem either as Choi has already destroyed likely semi-final opponent Derry Matthews as recent as 2008, knocking him to the canvas four times on his way to a fifth round stoppage win.
Awaiting Choi in the final is likely to be ‘feather-fisted’ Gary Sykes. The British champion in all likelihood will have had to go the distance twice in his two fights, most likely against Scott Lawton and Gary Buckland respectively, which wouldn’t have
been easy and he could end up feeling a little battle weary, whereas Choi should still be relatively fresh.
With this in mind, I recommend you help yourself to the appealing 12/5 currently on offer with Sportingbet that Choi wins the Prizefighter tournament outright.
Again, we then turn our focus to the States for our second bet of the weekend, where American Paul Williams squares off against Argentine ‘Ring Magazine’ & WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez at Boardwalk Hall, Atlantic City, New Jersey.
This is a rematch from the same venue in December 2009 where both fighters put on a great fight in a closely contested all-action war which was controversially awarded to Paul Williams via a majority decision point’s victory.
The younger man by six years (Paul Williams) and with a height and reach advantage, these fighters are very evenly matched in terms of skills, Martinez’s major flaw is that he has a tendency to drop his work-rate in the middle rounds of a fight before
coming on strong late on. Against Paul Williams, a fighter with an immense work-rate, this will ultimately prove to be his downfall.
Paul Williams will fight hard for the full three minutes of every round without exception and this will prove the decisive factor in the bout when the judges announce their verdicts, expect Martinez to again be outworked in a hard fought contest before dropping another close decision against the tall, rangy American.
So my advice is to take the rather solid looking 15/8 available at Bet365 that Paul Williams wins the bout by Points or Technical decision, sit back, grab a beer, and wait for our next instalment of cash to arrive.
Good luck and happy punting.
As in September, I once again ran out of gas in the 10th & 11th championship rounds of October & November with this column, but I recovered to complete them and will unleash a few more flurries to close out the 12th and final round.
In the first week of October, Hassan N’Dam won a UD over Curtis Stevens in an eliminator for the right to challenge Jermaine Taylor who defeated aging Sam Soliman to regain the IBF Middleweight title. How Taylor even earned this title shot is another story altogether, but it is all irrelevant as he is now the champion. However he will not have too much time to savor his victory as he has assault and battery charges pending against him and an upcoming court fight that may turn out to be the toughest fight of his life, just when things started to look up for him in boxing, we wish him luck.
It’s ashame that it was his recklessness that made him so entertaining.
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[…] results, where the bookies definitely won the second round of our personal head-to-head battle, http://www.fightkings.com/boxing/featured-article/boxing-betting-giving-the-bookmakers-a-black-eye-r…) we witnessed 12/1 rank outsider Gary Buckland claim the winners cheque in the latest Prizefighter […]