Some fights that COULD or SHOULD happen this year (That DO NOT include Mayweather vs Pacquaio).

First topic message reminder :

Hi guys,

I was thinking of realistic fights that could be made (without including the obvious matches) and thinking about the reasons behind them. These aren’t supposed to be “dream” match-ups or “the best fighting the best” scenarios, but purely realistic fights that would benefit those who fight.

Here’s my list of fights I’ve been thinking about.

Paul Williams vs Julio Chavez Jr:
Some people have defended Chavez Jr, stating he is an exciting fighter, who better to put him in with than the Punisher. Paul Williams has been called “shot”, “washed up” and cries of him “needing to retire” which have all been placed on him based on an off night against Lara and 1 KO loss to one of the best fighters around right now. The fact is, Paul Williams still matters and he is deserved of a shot more than anyone else. What he brings to the table (unlike the majority of JCC Jr’s previous opponents) is experience and an exciting style. A win for either fighter would be big… Chavez Jr would finally have a stern test and a win would silence naysayers of him (like me) and Williams would get a title in the Middleweight division with the thought of a possible rematch with Martinez.

George Groves vs Brian Magee:
George Groves has had a very good year, closely winning a fight against DeGale and his KO of experienced domestic veteran Smith was superb. A step up in class is needed, what better guy is there than Magee. The Irish “road warrior” has been in the fringe contender category for a while and is coming off a recent KO. This is a fight that Groves could win, but with hard work needed. A win over Magee will take him away from the domestic title defences and into the place of contender overnight and it’s a fight that could be made this year easily.

Nathan Cleverly vs Beibut Shumenov:
This weekend Cleverly is defending his title against a nurse, maybe he deserves an easy fight after a tough nights work against Bellew, but I’m sure a lot of people don’t want to see him stagnate the way we accuse Calzaghe of doing. He is Britains only World Champion, so why not match him with someone “in and around” the same level and someone who has a title? Talk of fighting Hopkins, Pascal or Dawson? Suicide! He’s too green. Stick him in with another champion, one with just a little more experience than himself but has something to offer. It would be a good learning fight for Clev and he would gain another belt in the process.

Kell Brook vs Vyacheslav Senchenko or Mike Jones:
Kell Brook has made some waves in the US and has also been knocking on the doors of just about every governing body earning himself “the number 1 contender” spot for all of them… however he’s fighting Matthew Hatton. After this fight the only 2 realistic guys I can see him needing to fight are these two. Both fights would give Brook something… a win over Jones being a strong contender himself would put Brook on the radar in the US and a win over Senchenko would give Brook a belt that (in my opinion) he should already have earned by now. Either one of these fights is a tantalising and realistic goal after Senchenko, Jones and Brook all come away from their booked fights with a win.

Don’t know if you agree with them or if you would add anyone in the mix… or if you can think of any realistic fights that COULD and maybe SHOULD happen this year?

Imperial Ghosty wrote:He'll be top 6 depending on whether the big players in the division move up, he wont have got there by rights.

Didn't Khan fight an eliminator for Marquez' WBO title against some roadsweeper from Denmark and then move upto Light welterweight? Guerrero and Marquez would both starch Khan as well, so let's not take a swipe at Mitchell not getting there by 'rights' because the 2 best lightweights may move up.

Khan got to be number two ranked at light welterweight by rights having beaten the world ranked Kotelnik, Malignaggi, Maidana, Judah and McCloskey, thus far Mitchell has beaten Mitchell, do you see the difference?

Guerrero and Marquez may well beat Khan but there's no shame in that but at the moment they haven't beaten him.

Khan fought an eliminator for Casamayors world title but as a relative novice of 16 fights he took the sensible option of carrying on progressing, within 28 fights he's unified a division with 5 defences, what had Mitchell done at that point?

Imperial Ghosty wrote:Khan got to be number two ranked at light welterweight by rights having beaten the world ranked Kotelnik, Malignaggi, Maidana, Judah and McCloskey, thus far Mitchell has beaten Mitchell, do you see the difference?

Guerrero and Marquez may well beat Khan but there's no shame in that but at the moment they haven't beaten him.

Khan fought an eliminator for Casamayors world title but as a relative novice of 16 fights he took the sensible option of carrying on progressing, within 28 fights he's unified a division with 5 defences, what had Mitchell done at that point?

A relative novice who was then starched by Prescott AFTER the eliminator, which prompted him to run out of the lightweight division and take on the weakest available champion, who he had himself called 'the worst world champion' in Kotelnik. Mitchell has destroyed Murray, then won a tune up before a world title tilt, Burns is a far better fighter than Kotelnik is and has beaten better opponents, so when Kev beats him it will be laughable, and baffling to hear your excuses.

Sorry but Burns hasn't proved himself to be better at lightweight than Kotelnik was at light welterweight, a singular win over Katsidis doesn't quite compare to being a seasoned world level contender for me.

As a novice Khan was starched by Prescott but what you seem unable to grasp is what has happened since then where he cemented himself as a top two guy in his division before losing a close fight to Peterson, if he loses the rematch then serious questions have to be asked. Mitchell on the other hand has beaten Murray since the Katsidis loss, lets not make out he destroyed him because he didn't, opinion was split on who was ahead at the time of the stoppage.

You keep using definites but there is no guarantee that Mitchell beats Burns , a bigger stronger fighter will always cause him trouble as he's just too small for the division and lets be honest he's doing exactly the same as Khan by going for the weakest champion. Given a choice between Marquez, Guererro, Rios, Vasquez or Burns, who would I rather face? No disrespect to Burns but he's the less able of the five. Rios can't be that useless if Gamboa has decided to prove himself against him.

Funny how one posters man-crush can really drag a thread out....