One for the Boxing fans!

[Jeremy]

Agree about his punch resistance. Cotto beat him up good and proper, but he hung in there impressively.

[KidKruger]

I thought Ricky Burns put on a tremendous showing against Kevin Mitchell on Saturday up in Glasgow (WBO Lightweight world title). At no point did he look troubled and I think he copped only a couple of solid shots, given the tear-up towards the end of Rd1 that's impressive.

Not sure where Kevin goes from here, unless he goes to the USA. Nothing domestically here for him IMO and Europe is all sewn-up by the germans who automatically allocate the win if on points to whoever fight out of Deutschland.

ricky should look to unify IF he can get the fights - he's relatively unknown and that will be the excuse used by the other champions avoiding him, even though he can fill the Glasgow SEC with 10,000+ crowd which is probably a lot more than the other Lightweight champs could muster (between them maybe).

Ricky IMO needs to go to the States cos the yanks don't travel by default.

I don't think Ricky needs a tune-up/water-treading fight, he's still fresh after Saturday's contest., just needs time to relax before next camp.

[Jeremy]

Mitchell was a heavy favourite though wasn't he, judging by their respective performances against Katsidis.

[Otta]

You mean Burns? Judging by that yes, but Mitchell had come back well recently, and many thought it would be a closer fight than it ended up being.

[Jeremy]

Yes! Doh!

[KidKruger]

Yeah Katsidis spanked Mitchell, yet Burns owned Katsidis.

You can't always go by that measure, but in this case if was a good indicator.

[Jeremy]

Yeah, I don't usually believe in wins-by-proxy. But the nature of Mitchell's loss and Burns' win were pretty good indicators of the level the fighters were at.

[Otta]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/boxing/19756446

Hatton hasn't gone for some nobody, and if he gets through this, it'll fast track him to a title shot probably.

[KidKruger]

Respect to Hatton for his choice of opponent, the guy who until a few short months ago held a world title.

More than Nathan Cleverly is doing, fighting full-time nurses and the like.

Audley Harrison managed to end his career with a bang - the bang of his head hitting the canvas as he fell unconscious from a David Price left-right combination. He managed to last 83 seconds - truly a class act. If I hear him mention 'My destiny' again I'll eat my tongue.

[Otta]

The really sad thing is that if anyone will fight him, he'll probably continue.

The Wlad and Vitali like an easy fight...

[KidKruger]

Shame to hear that Emanuel Steward has passed, legendary boxing trainer working for 50 years and actually looked pretty in-shape until very recently, quite surprised to hear that after being taken ill a few weeks ago he's gone.

I guess he was in his sixties but it seems early.

He trained Hearns, Lennox and (at least one of) the Klitschkos.

RIP

[Otta]

That is sad news, he was cool.

[KidKruger]

Tomorrow Junior Witter is fighting Frankie Gavin for (I think) the British WW title.

Always thought he was a bit of a magician in the ring.

He's 34 or so now so may struggle to keep up with Gavin who's ridiculously naturally talented.

I'd love to see Junior get back into world title contetntion but unfortunately I think it's asking too much.

[Otta]

And in other news, Audley reckons he'll fight on.

It's his destiny you know.

[KidKruger]

Noooo waaaaaay !!

What for ?

Normally we use the expression "who's left to fight ?" to mean your man has cleaned-out the division, not lost to everyone in it !!

[Otta]

Harrison story http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/boxing/20081535

In other news, Nathan Cleverly has no one to fight in Vegas. It might not be entirely his fault, but his career is a bit of a joke IMO.

[KidKruger]

Yeah, let's see Cleverly in with Shumenov (one of my faves) who he reckons he "offered a fight too but got no reply", although Shumenov's team have no records of any offers being made to them !

At Light-Heavy I'd like to see Andre Ward fight Cleverly, what a humbling experience that would be for Nathan. Ward had campaigned in the amateurs at LH I believe, so could make the weight no problem.

Vladimir Klitschko fights Marius Wacz (?) next Saturday - first time in 64 fights he's faced someone bigger than him. Wacz has a good right hand but at 27-0 has less than half of Vlad's experience. There's a chance Vlad could get caught here and he does go down, so may worth a crafty ?10er on Marius.

[Jeremy]

I wouldn't even bother watching Ward vs Cleverly, it would be totally one-sided. I don't think Cleverly's ever even fought anybody at world level before. The guy he was supposed to fight, Ryan Coyne, is unbeaten, but not considered a top flight operator by any means. Cleverly needs to leave Warren asap, he's becoming a laughing stock.

KK, I'll happily give you 10:1 on the Klitschko fight...

[KidKruger]

A crafty ?10er, as long as it's someone else's.

Witter lost at York Hall last night in a total bore fest apparently.

[Otta]

Cleverly to defend against Shawn Hawk on Saturday http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/boxing/20202795

His record is won 23 (KO 17), lost 2 (including last fight on points), drawn 1 = 26

Cleverly will have been preparing for a fight anyway, but it's late in the day to prepare for an individual.

[taper]

Steve Bunce is checking rumours that Kirkland Laing has died. Dave Boy Green said he was the nearest this country ever got to a Sugar Ray Leonard.

[KidKruger]

If he's died it'll be on BoxNation tonight. Buncey's weekly programme at 7.30

[KidKruger]

Once again Marco Huck was gifted a decision while defending his WBO title against Firat Arslan.

That's extremely dodgy decisions now against:

Lebedev

Arslan

Afalobi (sp.)

Big joke.

The Huck v Arslan contest was good, tough to see where Huck got > 3 rds though.

[Otta]

Sounds like Cleverly put in a good performance to stop his man (who had never been stopped) in the 8th, after putting him down twice in the 7th. A good exciting show in America may open up some new doors and respectable opponents now... Apparently Golden Boy promotions might take him on, and that would surely be a good thing for him.

Elsewhere Wlad stops another nobody, although he was rocked once by a huge right.

[KidKruger]

Watched the Clev fight last night, he looked good, probably best I've seen him, but I just don't rate the opponent. Clev's last opponent works as a full-time nurse FFS.

It'd be nice to believe the form last night can carry on, but against Shumenov, Dawson and other acknowledged quality fighters I don't believe it, even though I want to.

2012 has been a brilliant year for boxing though overall, with a good final 2 months remaining. See BBC website for contespt schedule.

The fight from last night, with two hugely talented boxers, which I want to see is Erislandy Lara v Vanes Matirosyan.