Safe Side Of The Ropes

By: Andrew Harrison

Dec 08 2010

Category: Uncategorized

1 Comment

“If Achilles was anything, he was a man who believed his own press releases.”- Roger Ebert.

This weekend’s busy fight schedule is enough to leave a chap feeling dizzy. From Liverpool to Germany via Washington and Las Vegas, Boxing Day blows into town a fortnight ahead of schedule. On Saturday evening, two a high profile fighters with a well nourished opinions of themselves himself is pitted against a wide betting underdogs who are looked upon as having nought more than a puncher’s chance between them.

Here’s the thing though: in Amir Khan and Wladimir Klitschko, we’re dealing with a star names who’ve who’s fallen prey under such conditions before, a vulnerable men fighter who could be one well placed proton torpedo away from both a dramatic and sparkly demise.

Amir Khan vs Marcos Maidana

This one doesn’t require much work in the scene setting department. Khan is a lightning quick and superior boxer who is expected to peck holes in the the crude and wild swatting Maidana. The Argentinean underdog, though, is one of the hardest pure punchers in the sport, one who will be all too keen to test the repair glue clagging together the British man’s brittle whiskers.

Khan is improving with each fight. Now under the expert tutelage of Freddie Roach and the magical cloak of conditioner Alex Ariza, he appears to have been fully rebooted after Breidis Prescott dashed water over his circuit board in September 2008. Perhaps the quickest fighter in the sport, he’s managed to regain the superstar air he had about him prior to his embarrassing collapse. At 23-1 (17), he rates second at the weight (behind Tim Bradley) with Ring Magazine.

Maidana belongs to the brick fisted variety of knockout artist. Whilst David Haye, Manny Pacquiao and JuanMa Lopez harness speed, leverage and timing in order to render their opponent unconscious, Marcos merely swings a mitt and hopes that it lands. After losing a squeaker to the resurgent Andriy Kotelnik last year, he thrust himself into the limelight in his comeback gig, bullying the highly touted prospect Victor Ortiz to defeat inside six high octane rounds. In his most recent outing, “El Chino” teased out his record out 29-1 (27) when he outpointed the game veteran DeMarcus “Chop Chop” Corley in a competitive bout on home turf. He rates fourth at light welterweight behind Bradley, Khan and Devon Alexander.

Stylistically it looks pretty cut and dried. Khan will be in the ascendancy for the majority of the contest, boxing, moving, jabbing smoothly and flitting away from harm. Under the amateur code, one could quite easily envision Maidana succumbing to an outclassing if truth be told, yet he’ll have far more time to engineer a dangerous assault over the thirty six minutes on offer. And land a hard shot he surely will, with the fight’s big mystery centering on what exactly Khan’s reaction might be should such a moment arrive.

If Maidana can land flush, then he can upset the applecart and then some. I’m unsure as to whether he’ll ever get close enough to manage it, however, and so will buy into the more popular idea that Khan survives a scare or two before boxing his way to a decision victory.

Khan starts favourite somewhere in the region of 1/3, with Maidana a 9/4 underdog. Those looking to wager on the upset would be wise to back Maidana by kayo at 3/1, which is surely the only avenue of victory available to him.

Historical predecessor: John David Jackson vs Jorge Castro.

With the news that Wladimir Klitschko had withdrawn from Saturday’s contest due to injury, the following preview piece is now rather helpfully irrelevant, yet I’ve decided to post it up all the same to save me the bother of writing a new one should it still come to pass.

Wladimir Klitschko vs Dereck Chisora

One half of the dullest sporting double act since Alan Shearer and Chris Sutton led the line for Blackburn Rovers dusts off his shoulder pads in Mannheim this weekend, returning to bore the bejesus out of non-German viewers against the unbeaten 14 fight prospect Dereck Chisora. Klitschko, whose monotonous winning streak against paltry opposition has begun to befuddle some relatively sane-minded observers into believing that he’s somehow morphed into an elite fighter, is living the dream right now. With his Herculean physical gifts granting him easy passage against a chorus line of overmatched schlubs, he’s barely taken a punch in anger since 2005 and as a result, has just about managed to gloss over the long held belief that he could sub in for both Jack Haley and Bert Lahr in a remake of The Wizard of Oz.

Chisora, who is in all likelihood a smidgen too green to pull this one off, has been like a breath of fresh air this week in the build up. Rather than playing the predictably gracious guest we’ve grown used to seeing plonked in front of the far too easily pleased German media scrum, he’s opted instead to have a good old pop at deflating the ever expanding Klitschko ego, with an acerbic barrow load of home truths and withering barbs.

As Captain Cardboard attempted to hold court at the final presser, Chisora happily butted in with:

“It’s time for you to have a proper fight. You want to be like Muhammad Ali and all the rest, but you will never buy greatness, because you are not that great. That’s why you’re stuck in Germany, that’s why the other countries don’t want to watch you. You can’t get a fight in Vegas, no one will pay to watch you in Vegas, because you stink up the joint.”

STEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRIKE!

In terms of skill, knowledge and experience Chisora looks the most ill equipped of all the ill equipped men Klitschko has been beating up on of late. He does have a few things going for him here though, namely that he’s unafraid, game as hell and slightly doolally. As a result, Klitschko will box more tentatively than usual, at least early on, a course of action which will leave his trainer Emanuel Steward looking more bashful than ever at being associated with such a timid man mountain. My guess is he wears a cap with the peak pulled down real low.

Being both a bright and ruthless man, Chisora will box exactly the way Shannon Briggs didn’t do against Wlad’s big brother in October. He’ll get stuck in from the off, probably worrying the champion some in the process with the amount of leather he launches, before going out on his shield sans the career shortening and unnecessary beating his team will be fearing (possibly by disqualification). So poor is Klitschko’s resolve though, the sheer fact that Chisora has abandoned protocol and is actually planning on turning this into a fight rather than standing there like a tin of milk, gives him every chance of pulling off an upset.

As an aside, this will be only the fourth occasion a British heavyweight has been afforded a crack at the true heavyweight championship of the world since 1976 when Richard Dunn tackled a faded Muhammad Ali in Munich.

Klitschko is an unbackable 1/10 favourite, with Chisora drifting out to 7/1.

Historical predecessor: Riddick Bowe vs Herbie Hide.

Coming next: Paul Smith vs James DeGale Preview.