was last night the end of the road for 'Ordinary' Harrison?

hopefully

He's been on a dirt track leading to nowhere in particular for years.

Exactly. That what I meant about last night, 'last chance saloon'.

It's an absolute no brainer mate and I can't even believe people are mentioning Oscar as an opponent now.

Having followed Ricky for a number of years now (including 4 trips to the States) I've got to know a lot of diehard Hatton fans and people close to Ricky, and even before Pacman beat Oscar, a massive majority were calling for Ricky to fight Pacman next whether he beat Oscar or not.

Now that Manny has done what a lot of Hatton fans wanted him to do, it's an absolute formality IMO.

We all know Ricky is out of his comfort zone away from the 10 stone division, but at 10 stone HE IS THE MAN. I was impressed with Manny last night don't get me wrong, but Oscar looked slow and old in there and I don't think you could under-estimate the affect fighting at that weight had on him.

It's impossible and a bit foolish IMO, to form an opinion on how Manny would fare against Ricky based on his victory last night. I know I may be biased, but Ricky would still be boss in there IMO and I think he has the tools to cause Pacman all sorts of problems.

It will be a huge fight and occasion and Oscar can do his stuff on the promotion side of it and still make a tidy sum and be comfortable just being one of the many thousands who will be in attendance.

In fairness Joe is no spring chicken himself at 36. Bernard Hopkins was still good enough to beat 26 year old Kelly Pavlik last time out and Winky Wright and Antonio Tarver in the 2 years before fighting Joe.

Boxers seem to be carrying on a lot longer these days.

I actually think Hatton has a good chance of beating Pacman. He's struggled in the past with 'come forward' fighters (Morales, Marquez). His task was made far easier by DLH comin into the fight well underweight, he had no energy at all throughout the fight. DLH has really tarnished his legacy by fighting on far too long. He should have retired after the Hopkins fight 4 years ago.

Re the Froch fight, what a fight! I expect big things from both fighters, it was a classic. Both fighters looked knackered at the end. Froch IMO is good enough to fight anyone in the division, he has the best chin in boxing and has an excellent left jab, the Taylor fight next should be a belter.

On Calzaghe, he should fight Dawson or retire. People don't give him the credit he deserves for beating Hopkins. Yes, Hopkins maybe 42 but he's still one of the best 5 fighters in the world, and IMO one of the 10 best of all time, he just makes fighters look bad, even if you beat him, you won't look good doing it. Kessler is very very underrated is a huge super middlewight, and doesn't get the recognition he deserves because he's not American. He has beaten Eubank, Reid, Woodall, Hopkins, Kessler, Jones Jr, Bika, Lacy, Veit, Mitchell whom are all former or current world champions. IMO, he has nothing left to prove and his record speaks for itself.

Froch's problem is I'm still not convinced he's as good as he thinks he is.

All this low hands and sticking your chin out nonsense will get you found out eventually, just ask Naseem Hamed.

You'd think so but I don't think theres a fighter out there with the power to beat him, his chin is unbelievable, he can just walk through shots, he was gettin hit with some massive shots from Pascal.

Froch should fight Jermain Taylor next who I believe is the mandatory fighter to his title anyway after his unanimous win over Lacy in November.

Taylor's definitely the mandatory, but Froch's camp reckon he won't want to come over here and will go for one of the other titles instead.

That would be dissapointing as it would be a great fight. Froch needs to begin building his reputation up within the boxing world (particularly in America where his next fight has to be) and prove he is the #1 to face Calazage, to do that he has to beat Taylor, Kessler and possibly Bute which would take around 18 months and unfortunatly I doubt Joe will be around by then.

I'm not convinced the Pac-Man and Pretty Boy Floyd are as good as Froch thinks he is!

Taylor will duck Froch again IMO and fight Bute IMO. It really pishes me off that the majority of the American fighters never fight seem to fight out of America.

Well said, I was more than impressed with Froch on Saturday but there are still many vital flaws in his approach which a top fighter such as Calzaghe would rip into. It would be a big mistake jumping into the ring with Joe now as his career on the big stage could be over before it has even begun. His promoter doesnt seem to be helping him either by keeping Froch's feet firmly on the ground as he to seems to be getting carried away.



No matter who Froch fights next, it has to be in America whether it be Taylor or Kessler. If Taylor ducks Froch and goes on to have a title fight with Bute, it would leave Froch to fight Kessler. If they both won, it would leave Taylor with no option but to agree to a "super fight" vs Froch in MSG's.

Given how long it took Calzaghe to get around to fighting outside the UK, I'm not sure British fight fans have much grounds for complaint tbh.

Well. I suppose the fact that non of the big names in America wanted to fight him didn't help.

I dont agree with that, I would have said it was the other way round, IMO of course.

Why doesn't he go over there? Really prove yourself and whack the Yanks in there own backyard. Beautiful!

Well Calzaghe offered to fight RJJ about 7 or 8 years ago but Jones refused.

Froch has offered money to fight Calzaghe but it seems as though he has turned it down, maybe Calzaghe thinks he has bigger fish to catch. I would imagine RJJ felt the same way and he was right.

If both fighters had come up against each other in their prime, Jones would win 9 times out of 10.

I'm glad they didn't though, because we would never have seen Calzaghe's showman dance.

news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/boxing/7771795.stm

news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/boxing/7771795.stm

I'm not 100% sure how good Froch is. I don't actually think he's in the same league as Calzaghe and I think he'd struggle with Kessler. What I do know though is everytime I've seen him fight it's been entertaining as f**k. Saturday night was probably the best of the lot.
I know it's not a great technique but I love his unorthodox style, the way his jab comes from all sorts of silly angles and the way he looks for that huge right hand single punch alot of the time.

And also I'm not sure if he's supremely arrogant or just trying to convince himself that he is a "warrior" etc.

Spot on.