57) Joe Calzaghe ***** Lost UD12: US Fight Commentary
v Joe Calzaghe 8th November 2008 Madison Square Garden ***** [r1] … And down goes Calzaghe! … seriously hurt, and fighting … An amazing turn of events … [r2] … Calzaghe wants to be the aggressor … Joe gets to pile up points … Jones lands another right-hand shot … I thought Joe outworked him [co-commentator] … [r3] … and Calzaghe throws six … Calzaghe showboating … He has dominated round three … [r4] … Oh my God, Joe Calzaghe put on a performance … His hand speed is accelerating … [5] … A fighter who is comfortable throwing 75 punches in a round … Body shots by Calzaghe … And he takes anonther right hand shot by Jones … Now the round belongs to the Welshman … Jones left eye is starting to swell … What a round … [r6] … Calzaghe’s body attack is beginning to take its toll … Takes a big uppercut there … piling punches on … Lederman [57-56 Calzaghe] … [r7] … Joe’s starting to get through with that left hand … Drives Jones back against the ropes … He’s [Jones] hurt straight left … Calzaghe’s punches starting to do more damage … Calzaghe is wearing Jones down … and that is some cut … [r8] … The speed and relentlessness that Calzaghe has … now begins to apply the pressure again … the combinations and the hand speed … [r9] … He’s [Jones] trying to win this fight … an onslaught … It’s Joe who’s doing the punching … Jones streaming blood … [r10] … Calzaghe begins the tenth round with a couple of body shots … Roy is taking a beating … [r11] … He’s out-Roy-Jonesing Jones … What a closing act for Joe Calzaghe … He’s had a phenomenal career … [r12] … Calzaghe is walking in with his hands down … Good body shots from both men … Calzaghe drives him back … US HBO fight commentary
[8.8] ANDRE WARD 32-32(16)-0 [Light-Heavyweight & Super-Middleweight]: Road to Kovalev/Ward TV - Andre Ward -
Born on opposite sides of the world [Kovalev/Ward], each burdened with excessive adversity. Two men long ago identified the same craft to an escape. Now they’re together at the absolute pinnacle of their sport. Neither having ever lost a professional bout … The Light Heavyweight championship of the world at stake. Road to Kovalev/Ward, Sky Sports 2016
California: home to a thriving boxing community, whose most celebrated members now include light-heavyweight champion of the world Sergey Kovalev. ibid.
Universal recognition as one of the most destructive punchers in the sport. ibid.
‘It’s a big one: well, it ought to be [Ward]’. It’s an approach that has left Ward undefeated at every level of competition since he was 14: a run that has included a gold medal at the 2004 Olympics, and an ascent to the top of the pro-ranks’ super-middleweight division. But in 2013 his rise was upended by legal issues with a promoted and a host of injuries leading to a long lay-off. ibid.
Boxing’s most anticipated bout of 2016. ibid.
I’m unapologetically Andre Ward. Andre Ward
Kovalev vs Ward is the Best that Boxing has to offer. Frank Lotierzo, article June 21 2016
31) Sergey Kovalev Points 15: UK Fight Commentary TV -
The pound for pound attraction … Sixty wins between them, no defeats … A contrasting clash of styles … Kovalev getting through with power punches … Ward trying to get close [r1] … But nothing like Kovalev … Kovalev breaking through again … Beautiful counter: down goes Ward … [r2] Using [Kovalev] his natural advantage and strength … [r3] He has just forced his way through, Sergey Kovalev [r4] … The mobility of Andre Ward might be important here … The was better movement from Andre Ward … Wonderful to see up close, isn’t it? … At the highest level of all … [r5] … It’s a close fight … Trying to work each other out physically inside … Not landing as cleanly, Kovalev … [r6] … The size difference on the night … Excellent, and the crowd rally behind the American … He’s really starting to get into a rhythm as well … Kovalev comes back at the end of that one [r7] … A lot of rounds are hard to score … Good body shot by Ward … [r8] … He’s not judging the distance well, Kovalev, at all; he was earlier on … And now Ward almost chucks Kovalev around … [r9] … Bit more urgency from the champion here … Andre Ward, he walks into a shot [r10] … There’s real swings of opinion here at ringside … Cheeky work from clever angles … General feeling out there Kovalev dominant in this fight [r11] … Some of these rounds could go either way … [12] … Respect is there, and neither celebrates yet … Unanimous but so tight! … [r12] UK Sky commentary
32) Sergey Kovalev TKO8: UK Fight Commentary TV -
Stand by … more and more the best fight … the best … right hand from Kovalev … Kovalev has enormous power … disgusted with the result last time … they get close and personal very early on [r1 9 Ward - 10 Kovalev] … He’s busy Kovalev as you’d expect … Great shots from Kovalev: Ward meets fire with fire [r2 9-10] … Closing the range Kovalev; Ward on the back foot … Fascinating to watch … Stalking again Kovalev … He’s setting the pace [r3 9-10] … Good twenty seconds for Andre Ward … another right hand by Ward … He needed to find some answers … That looked a power punch … High octane battle [r4 10-9] … They might be made for each other these two … right hand from Ward in and out … good hook again from Kovalev … left hook from Andre Ward [r5 10-9] … Both determined .. Kovalev turning southpaw … Jabs from Ward … Big leverage Kovalev gets … body shots going in from Kovalev [r6 9-10] … Intense … Body shot from Ward, back comes Kovalev … They target the body area … Back comes Kovalev [r7 10-10] … They both go right into the middle … Good work from Kovalev … That’s hurt Kovalev! … Right hand from Andre Ward … Kovalev in massive trouble … It’s been stopped! … The Russians are complaining … UK Sky commentary
[8.6] JAMES TONEY 92-77(47)-10-3-2 [Heavyweight & Cruiserweight & Light-Heavyweight & Super-Middleweight & Middleweight] The Guardian online -
‘Why?’ James Toney says fiercely as, just a foot away, the once brilliant and intimidating boxer leans forward and stares at me. ‘You wanted me to stop fighting? Why? Why?’
I look at my favourite boxer, who used to be rated as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, and prepare to tell him the obvious reason. But, pausing first, I remember the compelling stir Toney created in the early 1990s. Before then, when he was still carrying a gun and selling crack on the outskirts of Detroit, Toney’s life seemed distorted by his violent past.
His father had repeatedly beaten his mother, Sherry, at gunpoint. When James was only one, his dad shot Sherry and left them for dead. But Sherry is an incredible woman and, even though James was troubled, she channelled his incoherent rage. She brought him to a boxing gym so that, if he wanted to fight everyone, at least he could learn.
I fell for the Toney story in May 1991, on a steamy night in Iowa, when he became the world middleweight champion on the banks of the Mississippi. He came from behind to knock out the undefeated and exalted Michael Nunn, the hometown favourite. Having lived up to his nickname of ‘Lights Out’, Toney screamed: ‘I told ya so!’ to the stunned crowd of 10,000. At 22 he had become the youngest world middleweight champion in 50 years.
I was fascinated by his female entourage. His mother, the indestructible Sherry, wore a big black hat and flashing red fingernails. Sarah, his beautiful girlfriend and future first wife, did not look much like the psychology student she was in that heaving ring. Jackie Kallen, his manager, was a middle-aged suburban white woman whose Jewish faith was honoured by the yellow Star of David on Toney’s black trunks. ‘Oh my God,’ Kallen cried as she held a glowering Toney, ‘you did it.’
Intrigued by these contrasts, I tracked down Toney and his team. We forged a surreal friendship and, while following him for five years, Toney allowed me a privileged insight into his world – whether it was at home or being with him in the last anxious hours before world title fights, in hushed dressing rooms and even walking together to the ring. Toney was the dark star of a book I wrote about boxing. Dark Trade included other fighters such as Mike Tyson, Oscar de la Hoya, Chris Eubank and Michael Watson – but Toney meant the most to me.
Twenty-three years ago this month we were in Las Vegas. Toney was still ranked the world’s best boxer as he faced the similarly unbeaten Roy Jones junior in a fight worth a $30m HBO contract for Toney if he won. In November 1994, lacking the discipline to stay in shape, Toney drained himself trying to make weight. He lost a unanimous points decision and was crushed.
It took him three hours to leave his dressing room but when he came to the after-party I admired him more than ever. I watched him being kissed by the old Jewish ladies, related to Kallen, and embraced by his homeboys. ‘Thank you for being here, man,’ he said simply to me.
A few days later media outlets across America reported that Toney had threatened to shoot Kallen for having allegedly made him fight when he had flu and weight problems. His mother calmed him down and, slowly, he recovered. It took him a long time but he was named fighter of the year in 2003, when he outclassed the previously unbeaten Vassiliy Jirov to become world cruiserweight champion and moved up to heavyweight, where he totally dominated and stopped the once formidable Evander Holyfield.
Fourteen years later Toney is in Bristol and asking: ‘Why, why?’ when I say I wished he had stopped fighting on the glorious night he beat Holyfield. My answer as to why I wish the 49-year-old was not even involved in an exhibition bout on Saturday night is clear. ‘I care about you,’ I tell my old friend.
‘I know,’ Toney says. ‘I had 93 pro fights but tell me: Do I look like a punch drunk motherfucker?’
Toney’s face is bloated compared with the young middleweight I knew. But apart from some scarring he is relatively unblemished. He was also the best defensive fighter of the late 20th century and slipped punches better than any of his contemporaries. That was part of Toney’s appeal. Despite his profane and swaggering threats, he was a slick traditionalist who epitomised the art of hitting while not being hit. But, as his artistry faded and he became a fat heavyweight who barely trained, Toney absorbed damaging punches.
He is still amusing today – whether hollering my name as if he is Michael Buffer or telling me he could whip anyone if he put his mind to it – but there is no escaping Toney’s increasingly slurred speech. ‘I feel fabulous,’ he insists. ‘People go on about my speech but I’ve always had a speech impediment.’
It’s true Toney always spoke with a slur but he is much harder to understand today. ‘How long you know me?’ he asks. ‘Since 1991? Damn, we’re old now. But I’m the same motherfucker you knew when I was 24. I still think quick. I’m fast. I’m funny.’
I laugh and Toney whoops. ‘I’m funny as fuck. So why should I have stopped fighting?’
Boxing can cause brain damage and even death. No fighter is immune to the misery boxing can bring down if he remains in the ring too long. ‘But I’ve been fighting since I came out of the womb,’ Toney says. ‘I’m the most natural fighter you’re ever seen. Floyd Mayweather’s a good fighter but he’s not as natural as me. Who is more natural than me? Please don’t say Anthony Joshua. I’m not a bullshit fighter and boxing ain’t like the 80s and 90s. I call it BSB. Bullshit boxing. Four fights and you get a title fight. I beat Nunn to win my title [in his 27th fight] on May 10 and my first defence was against [the accomplished] Reggie Johnson in June. Who does that now? Defend their title a month after winning it? I then went to Monaco and beat Francesco Dell’Aquila. My last fight that year was against Mike McCallum. Four world title fights in seven months.’