Terry Flanagan About To Become A Two Weight World Champion - Does The World Know or Care??

Terry Flanagan About To Become A Two Weight World Champion - Does The World Know or Care??

There IS A World Title at stake this weekend in Manchester...

There is a world title title fight happening this weekend which is perhaps the main event or the undercard, depending on your point of view.

That point of view would depend on which story you are listening to from Frank Warren though and what your thoughts on the return of Tyson Fury are.

Warren has stated time and again that the comeback of Fury isn't the main event, even though it did have it's own press conference this week, whilst "the undercard", including Terry Flanagan had it's press conference the day after.

Are they both world level fighters? Again this depends on your point of view..

Flanagan will come up against Maurice Hooker on Saturday night for the vacant WBO super lightweight title. For many Flanagan is in for an easy night, I don't think it will be as easy as some predict, although I don;t see how Hooker can win it. "Turbo" Terry has been a lightweight world champion for almost 3 years having had five defences, none of which have really got the blood flowing. Some would say he is a boring fighter, I would say he is just too good and doesn't get anywhere near the respect he should.

Flanagan is an unassuming fighter who goes about his business with no bluster or bullsh*t. A southpaw who really is a class act in the ring, but is sometimes lacking in persona out of the ring. Therein lies the problem why he isn't held in the same regard as Fury, Groves, Joshua, DeGale, etc in the minds of the British boxing public.
Boxing politics has always seemed to be the enemy of Flanagan and Warren -

Flanagan - "When I won the world title we made Jorge Linares an offer before he fought Anthony Crolla. He took less money to fight Crolla. We were close to making the fight with Linares and then the rematch with Crolla happened. I was always on Frank’s case trying to get big fights, but it didn’t happen for multiple reasons.”

Many would have loved to have seen Flanagan Vs Crolla, a symptom of the Warren/Hearn nonsense.

His opponent Hooker is a good fighter (23 wins, 16 by KO, with 3 draws), although his best performance was against Darleys Perez, 18 months ago which ended in a split draw, a decision many thought he was lucky to get away with. Apart from that he hasn't fought at the level that Flanagan has and may well find himself in deep water early on. Although in boxing as many of you know, one punch can change everything. Hooker after all has won 16 of his 23 fights via KO and is the natural super lightweight, whilst Flanagan is moving up in weight.

Hooker expects a close, explosive fight on Saturday between the two of them -

“I’m back now and better than ever. I’m ready to show the whole world who I am. Before that fight with Darleys Perez, everybody was scared to fight me. I’m still that monster, I’m still that dog. Come Saturday night, I’m going to punch him in the mouth and I might knock him out in the first round. Come Saturday night, I pray for him, because I mean business when I get in that ring. It’s my best against his best. We’ve got a fight Saturday night, so don’t blink.”

Personally I think this will go the distance with Flanagan winning via a UD. He doesn't carry the power to KO Hooker and Hooker doesn't have the skill to cut the ring off and stop the southpaw Flanagan, unless there is a mistake by either fighter, this will go the distance.

 

Irrespective of who thinks what, this is the main event I feel and is the one fight on the whole card that I am looking forward to the most, the circus can wait for another day.

I wish them both well...

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The night Joshua became one of the three wise kings..

The night Joshua became one of the three wise kings..

 

 

 

 

My thoughts on the fighters in action at the O2 last weekend - 

 

 

Ohara Davies carries a lot of power, he's certainly one for the future, been called out by a lot of "big" names in the lighweight division and wants to fight them all. Some think he should slowly build, however I think he should take up the offer thrown out to him by Scott Cardle. Certainly one to watch. 

 

By the look of my twitter timeline last saturday night Jamie Mcdonnell is a real class fighter. Sorry to p*ss on some chips here, however he's very, very average in my opinion. Laboured to the 9th round finish, should have had a man of Vargas' ability out of there much, much earlier. 

 

Matthew Macklin Vs Brian Rose was a good fight, as Froch said a real industry fight. Difficult to see where Rose goes from his defeat last night, whilst I can see Macklin going on to get a shot (even though he missed the weight) at somebody in the IBF top 10, if he steps into the ring with GGG, he'll be stopped in the first. 

 

Lee Selby had to dig deep, especially after being knocked down. I don't think many thought Hunter would put up the fight that he did, irrespective of his ranking. Not sure about the loss of points for low blows for Hunter didn't look low to me. Selby is moving into his prime nicely and I could see him unifying all the belts. 

 

Conor Benn seems a very likeable young man. Too early to say whether he's a prospect or not, however all the talk by people who know him feel that he really is the real deal. Did what he needed to do and kept throwing till the ref said stop, that shows the right instincts. Welled up a bit seeing how proud his Dad was afterwards. I look forward to following his journey with great interest. 

 

George Groves beat Brophy as expected too. He still looks sloppy and misses with his right more than he hits in the first two rounds. That has always been his problem. Let see if Shane McGuigan can finally sort that out. Groves believes he is still getting better, I believe he has been "Cobra'ed". He talked last night about fighting Callum Smith next, if does then it is all over badly and quickly for St George. 

 

Anthony Joshua. What did we learn? He has power, has precision and he took his chance to finish it when it came along (although I think Martin f**ked up with the count). So we really didn't learn anything that we didn't already know. Having said that Joshua has a belt now and has to be taken seriously. Looks like he's going to fight Malik Scott next (nice easy first defence which he has earned I feel). Charles Martin will go back to being a top 25 HW which is where he was before he got his shot Vs Glazkov. Still don't really know how good he is/was (3 fights ago he fought Tom Dallas). I liked Joshua in the post fight ring interview and thought he came across very well and respectful. 

 

Joshua spoke about the hype, something I may have mentioned before, his response made me think slightly....

 

I wish them all well...