March 14 MEN arena, Enzo Maccarinelli fights Victor Emilio Ramirez for the WBO cruiserweight title. Of far more interest to me Amir Khan is fighting Barrera. I know Barrera is way past his best, but this is still a hell of big step up for him.
My concern is that they are both going to get dumped on their arses. Enzo hasn’t fought for a year, and when he did he lost in two rounds. I have been re-reading some of the reports from that bout with Haye, and I don’t know if anyone here watched it but Enzo was annihilated. Ramirez is a bit of an uknown quantity to me, I have never seen him, but from his record he is strong, 12 KOs out of 14 wins, and hungry. Enzo is talking a good game, about unifying the cruiserweight belts, but I am unconvinced.
Far more importantly Khan v Barrera- I can’t wait for this one, even if Barrera is past it. This is a huge step up for Khan, I mean Barrera will be 35 (I think) but its only a few months since Khan was demolished by Prescott. If he wins then great, people will have to start taking him eriously, but if he loses then I really think thats the end of the party.
Mind you he’s got Freddie Roach in his corner and I see he is sparring and working with Pacquiao, who has stopped Barrera when he was in his prime, so hopefully I am being too pessimistic.
Any thoughts?
Ive seen young Khan in the gym recently and he is not the same man that fought prescot,he is clearly stronger and much more focused on keeping those hands up,i think he will be to strong for Barrera,but needs to focus on rematch with Prescot to end all questions,all the greats lose at some point but true champs re-match and win,im a big supporter of young Khan,but as most fighters know after you been knocked out cold a couple of times it becomes easier and easier to end up on the canvas.
HAha you might have to change your avatar after that bro.
I like Amir, but man that chin would worry me. Especially fighting a guy like Barrera, who, though he may be old, is still a high caliber fighter.
Maccarinelli I haven’t really watched.
There’s some great fighters coming out of Britain though. If Khan wins, he’ll be able to get bigger fights. That, along with Hatton and to a lesser degree Calslappy, gives you guys some pretty big names. It’s good to see.
I like Amir too but I don’t think this kid is going to go all the way. I’d love it if he proved me wrong but I can’t help but feel there’s way more hype than substance. It was a joke that they made his last fight pay-per-view whilst spinning out all of those promos comparing Amir to establishd British ring legends of days gone by…
As for Enzo, I can’t wait to see him back in the ring. I met him randomly last year (in a strip club in Vegas when I was over with half of Wales for the Calzaghe v Hopkins fight) and had a chat with him about the Haye fight.
He told me that he started feeling ill on the day of the weigh-ins and by the time he got in the ring he had all the symptoms of flu and felt completely wasted and weak. Enzo rocked Haye badly in the first round of the fight but he didn’t go after him because he just didn’t have the energy. Apparantly Frank Warren was livid when he found out.
Obviously it’s not too often that sportsmen just hold their hands up and say “I have no excuses, I was beaten by a better man” so I’m taking this with a hefty pinch of salt but I thought it was interesting anyway.
Oh, and my buddy hooked up with one of the strippers in the club that night and they’re getting married next year. That was a fucking awesome trip.
This is an interesting article written when Roach first took over Khan’s training, in which he acknowledges some of Khan’s faults, including his chin.
[quote]MightyCivil wrote:
Oh, and my buddy hooked up with one of the strippers in the club that night and they’re getting married next year. That was a fucking awesome trip.[/quote]
That’s awesome!