Boxing Betting: Can Chisora spring a shock against Klitschko?

Boxing Betting / Ralph Ellis / 15 February 2012 / Leave a Comment

Can Chisora conquer Klitschko?

"The more I see of Chisora, finally getting a bit of limelight, the more I like about his brash style."

Ralph Ellis looks ahead to Saturday night's big fight and asks if we could see a brash Brit bring about the end of the Vitali era.

Back when I worked for the Daily Star, our boxing writer of the time Ken Gorman's biggest battles tended to be with the accountants.

The men who sat in an office and signed off the budget were jealous of the idea that he spent half his time flying back and forth to Las Vegas or New Jersey, and they weren't too keen on the flight and hotel costs either. Eventually they got their way and stopped him from going to a world title contest in Tokyo.

The sports editor backed his attempt to appeal against the decision, but lost. "What's the point?" asked the managing editor. "It's Mike Tyson, he's won all his previous 37 fights, and stopped Carl Williams last time out in the first round. We're not paying to send Ken half way round the world just to write that Tyson's put some other bum on the canvas."

So Ken, along with several other of Fleet Street's top boxing men who'd lost the same argument with their offices, was at home when Buster Douglas knocked out Tyson in the tenth round to create one of the biggest boxing stories of last century.

It's a story worth telling as you approach Dereck Chisora's meeting with Vitali Klitschko in Munich on Saturday night. It's a fight that looks totally predictable. The elder and arguably better one of the two Ukrainian brothers who rule the heavyweight division is [1.09] to add the Brit to his long list of victims and on the face of it even that's probably too big a price.

But - and here's the very big but - somebody, some day, is going to end Vitali's near eight-year reign as the WBC world champion and when it does happen it will be every bit as much a shock as when Buster Douglas put Tyson on the floor. Most of all it will be a shock to Vitali himself, and I just wonder if he isn't seeing exactly what's coming his way on Saturday night.

Chisora has been doing the rounds with all the usual hype. He says he'll win in the eighth (handy if he's right because you can back that at anywhere between [100.00] and [1000.00]). Meanwhile Klitschko's pre-fight press conferences have been all about politics. There could be a Syria style uprising in the Ukraine, he's warned (not good news for the tourist industry ahead of Euro 2012, but there you go).

It suggests a 40-year-old who has maybe got too sure of himself, picking what he sees as another easy contest to extend his stay at the top. And the more I see of Chisora, finally getting a bit of limelight, the more I like about his brash style. "The Klitschkos don't like a fight," he says. "The psychology of the Klitschkos is to be nice to you before and then destroy you in the ring. So I have to take it to Vitali - without a doubt. Vitali don't like going backwards. I've got to go at him from the start, fight inside and hurt him."

After twice being lined up to fight Wladimir and seeing the contest called off at the last minute, Chisora also has the vital quality that he genuinely thinks Klitschko might be just so slightly scared of what he could do. "There's a Rocky theme going on in my life," says Chisora. "You never know what might happen next."

Exactly. As a triumphant sports editor explained to the accountants all those years ago: "The whole point about news is you don't know when or where it will happen." I fancy it's worth at the very least a back-to-lay bet on Chisora to see if the answer is in Munich this Saturday night.

Five things you might not know about Dereck Chisora

1. Born December 1983 in Zimbabwe, he was 16 when he came to England to join his mother who had already moved here and had found him a place in a public school.

2. That didn't last, and he got into trouble hanging round his home in Hampstead with kids who involved him in petty crime. It was a probation officer who suggested he go to Finchley Boxing Club.

3. He still speaks the Bantu language of Shona and stays in touch with his African roots.

4. He's an antique collector who loves old-style English furniture but also buys quirky items. He's got an old style parking meter and a red phone box.

5. He chose his 'Del Boy' nickname and Only Fools and Horses walk-on music because he was selling cars to make extra money in his early days after turning pro.

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Haye v Klitschko: The top 10 one-punch knockouts

Boxing Betting / Dan Fitch / 22 June 2011 / Leave a Comment

Herol Graham was bombed out of his fight against Julian Jackson.

Dan Fitch takes a look at the greatest examples of the boxers who finished a fight with one savage punch.

One of the great things about boxing is that even if a fighter is being beaten up round after round, they can change the course of the match with just one perfectly timed punch.

This is especially true of the big hitters in the heavyweight division, so when David Haye meets Wladimir Klitschko on July 2nd, we wouldn't recommend taking your eyes off the action for even a second.

Here are some great examples of fights coming to an abrupt end with a single shot - the top 10 one-punch knockouts.

Crawford Grimsley had built up an impressive record of 20-0 before being outpointed by the veteran George Foreman in 1996. His comeback fight came against James Thunder and was over in just 13 seconds as Grimsley was knocked sparked out by the first punch thrown in anger.

The Iranian born and Margate based Mehrdud Takaloo was stopped in his tracks in chilling style, during the second round of a WBU title fight against the unpredictable puncher Wayne Alexander.

In 1986 Mike Tyson became the youngest heavyweight champion in history. Earlier that year he had knocked out Reggie Gross with one punch, in response to a flurry of blows from from his opponent - like King Kong swatting away an irritating fighter plane.

When the two unbeaten fighters Sechew Powell and Cornelius Bundrage met each other, the action was fast, furious and farcical. Both boxers threw simultaneous right hands to each others chin, resulting in both of them hitting the deck at the same time. They then both got off the canvas, only for Powell to knock out Bundrage with a straight left. Bundrage managed to get his career back on track by winning the reality show The Contender and is now the IBF light middleweight champion. His first defence of the title will be againt Sechew Powell in September.

If Lennox Lewis had spent more time preparing for his world title defence against Hasim Rahman, instead of filming a part in Ocean's Eleven, then he might have avoided being knocked out in the fifth round of this fight.

The Jamaican fighter Mike McCallum was the longest reigning world champion when Donald Curry challenged for his light-middleweight crown. Curry was bossing the fight until the fifth round, when McCallum proved that he wasn't ready to lose his title and threw a winning punch from nowhere.

You don't often see boxers throw a punch that lands smack in the centre of their opponent's chest, but on the evidence of Manny Pacquiao's second round knockout of Ricky Hatton, it's very difficult to breathe after you've been hit by one.

In 1952 Rocky Marciano challenged for the heavyweight title against the 38-year old Jersey Joe Walcott. The champion knocked Rocky down in the first round and was heading for a points victory until Marciano unleashed a savage right hand shot in the thirteenth, to become the new world champion.

There's nothing that takes the wind out of someone's sails than a perfectly executed body-shot, as Roy Jones Junior proved when he knocked down the previously unstopped Virgil Hill with one glorious punch to the ribs.

Herol 'Bomber' Graham was dominating his fight against Julian Jackson for the vacant WBC middleweight title, until his opponent caught him with a punch that knocked the British fighter out cold before he could even hit the canvas.

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Klitschko v Haye: Is it really going to happen this time?

Boxing Betting / Ralph Ellis / 10 May 2011 / Leave a Comment

The two big men

"As we learned when Haye won his title by out manoeuvring the lumbering figure of Nikolai Valuev, behind all the lurid bragging there is a genuine fighter."

They've had a press conference and gone eyeball-to-eyeball but doubt remains as to whether they'll really get down to business, say Ralph Ellis

The contracts are signed, the two fighters have just done their first eyeball to eyeball press conference to promote the contest. The arena is booked for July 2, less than eight weeks away.

And yet still there are more people prepared to bet on David Haye not fighting Wladimir Klitschko than there are on Manchester United not getting the single point they need to be Premier League champions. If anything it underlines the suspicion people have about boxing politics it is that you can still back Wladimir Klitschko to be David Haye's next opponent at anywhere between [1.04] and [1.2].

You can't blame them. Haye has spent nearly three years trying to goad the Ukrainian brothers into the ring, and I for one won't be certain he's got Wladimir to turn up until the first bell goes. There have been so many twists and turns to the saga, so many training injuries that put off other fights or hastened them, so many insults and lurid stunts. It seems every time it's been on, it's immediately been off.

But at last it seems our brash British hero has got his way. He will put his own WBA version of the title at stake in Hamburg on July 2 in search of Wladimir's three belts - the IBF, IBO and WBO versions. It's a reward for all those insults. And guess what? They aren't stopping now.

Haye tried to come up with a line that would make him more appealing to a British public who instinctively don't like his brash boasting. He talked about honouring the memory of the great Sir Henry Cooper, the man who did most to make heavyweight boxing in Britain a mainstream sport.

But it couldn't last. There was a six-minute stare down, ended only when Haye's trainer Adam Booth put a sheaf of paper between them. Then came the accusation that the younger of the Klitschko brothers is no more than a fraud. The 13 fighters put away by Wladimir since his last defeat - to Lamon Brewster in April 2004 - have been, according to Haye, "fat little American puddings who come over here to get a cheque and get beat." For somebody whose last "fight" was the ridiculous strictly come dancing match with Audley Harrison it leaves him open to three words: pot, kettle, black.

But don't be confused. As we learned when Haye won his title by out manoeuvring the lumbering figure of Nikolai Valuev, behind all the lurid bragging there is a genuine fighter. And when the talking stops he has proper talent, meaning Betfair's early markets making him the outsider for the Klitschko contest at [2.6] presents a great opportunity. And Wladimir won't go down easily, so the [12.5] for Haye to win by a decision is even more tempting.

Whichever way you side, there's no doubt the fight will be one of the great betting events - and come to that great sporting events - of the year. Providing, of course, it actually happens!

Five things you might not know about Lamon Brewster
1. Born in an Indianapolis ghetto in June 1973, he was the oldest of four boys. His dad was a boxing fan who owned a pair of gloves he once fought with - but forbade the young Lamon ever to touch them
2. Aged seven he started going to the local gym with an 86-year-old white trainer called Bill Brown who had once sparred with Jack Dempsey
3. His trainer Bill Slayton died through cancer three months before his win over Klitschko. He said he won the fight because he ignored the advice the new guy was giving him
4. He retired in January after an eye injury caused him to lose to Robert Helenius. He claimed the Finnish fighter tampered with his gloves
5. He's now supporting a campaign to prevent cruelty to animals

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Haye v Klitschko: Early odds favour the Ukrainian

Boxing Betting / Joe Dyer / 07 March 2011 / Leave a Comment

David Haye's talking already

"Haye can be backed at [2.6] to win the bout."

Finally, the heavyweight division is giving us a fight we can't want to see - David Haye v Wladimir Klitschko

Forget the hype - this really is the fight the boxing world wants to see.

After months of wrangling, David Haye and Wladimir Klitschko have finally agreed to get it on in a winner takes all heavyweight showdown.

And the layers make the Ukrainian, who is bigger and has a longer reach, favourite to be the last man standing at around [1.56].

The English challenger has commenced the smack talk already, boasting of 'violently' knocking his opponent out.

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