Saturday night

Joshua weighed in at 17st 2lb, a stone lighter than his opponent. Both Eubank Jr and Martin Murray weighed in slightly over their respective limits. Dyllian Whyte was a stone heavier than last time.

Murray/Groves could well be fight of the night for me...think Groves wins by late stoppage with a couple of shaky moments. Eubank blasts his man out in reasonably quick time and Joshua levels his man within 3 rounds

Joshua within 3
Eubank within 6
Groves within 10 (although pts probably more likely)

Joshua within 4.
Never seen eubank's opponent so will reserve judgement
Groves on points. Murray is a tough cookie.

Interesting to see Eddie say terms for golovkin Eubank are virtually done for the Autumn.

Joshua by end of 3. Breazeale is as far from special as you can get.
Eubank is unlikely to have a difficult opponent so TKO by end of 7
Groves will TKO Murray too. Not sure Martin's got too much left. 10 rounds max.

Good to see ogogo back in action good display. Looking forward to Murray vs Groves really is a good good fight. Joshua is a fore gone conclusion, 1-2 rounds absolute max. I'm more excited about getting home around 2300 ish and cracking open some beers for the Thurman vs Porter fight!!!

Eubank Jr seems like a right nob...

Jermaine2015 wrote:Eubank Jr seems like a right nob...

It's just Bank jr. now

C'mon Murray

For a guy who could plausibly claim he lost on the rub of the green to Sturm (okay he drew that), Martinez and Abraham... Murray really doesn't understand that he's the B-Side here

Am the only one worried about Murray?

He all of a sudden changed. The only time I've seen that the result wasn't good.

This is a lad that held it together against GGG

Too small and too many hard fights...

Credit to Groves though, paced it well, used his reach to dictate pace, allowed Murray to take the front foot and countered for rounds 4,5,6 and then began to plant his feet and use his strength and power in the last few rounds.

I spoke to soon.

Murray will always regret his performance against Abraham.

The retirement question is over played. It all depends on the performance. Both men are highly ranked. A close loss always leaves the loser the options.

But I think Murray is losing fairly comfortably, so maybe he should can it a day

George Groves put on a brilliant display to nullify a game but very limited fighter in Martin Murray. Groves sends Sturm into retirement...unless Sturm ducks

I'm not sure Murray has anywhere to go that will motivate him to be honest; plenty out their would carry on hoping for a shot at a flimsy world title, however Murray seems a decent guy who knows that a trinket title means little at this stage.

Martinez, Abraham, Sturm, GGG & Groves....arguably should have won 2 of those. He will no doubt be remembered for losing the big ones...but it's not a bad list of fighters to lose too lets be honest.

George will be eyeing up a rematch with DeGale now I think; one thing is for sure he's far from finished just yet. Had a game plan and stuck to it; showed three different facets to his game and regardless of how much Murray may or may not have had left, Groves lasted the 12, paced himself well, stuck to his game plan and as I said has plenty left.

Didn't go as I thought it would.

Well done Groves for sorting out his conditioning issues. He looked strong at the end.

Classy from Murray....  Kudos good sir!

Great interview with Murray.

George, on form, is a great fighter. A bit surprised how easy he found it but that's because his much improved conditioning.

But Murray's problem has always been game plan and picking the moments.

Sorry Jermaine, but claiming he is limited is a bit myopic. Mike Tyson was limited but he did it well. Murray has always been a very good all round fighter. Never exceptional in any one dimension. But there's been plenty of very good world champs who've been very good, all round fighter's.

Not sure Murray could come back from this but I hope so. IMO he beat Sturm and Martinez so he deserves a belt.

Laughed when haye said his son is called Cassius after Ali...

Happytravelling wrote:Laughed when haye said his son is called Cassius after Ali...

A/ Haye said that years ago
B/ How many other people, famous or otherwise, do you know called Cassius.
C/ It's ok for you to dislike Haye but try not to look stupid doing it

To be honest Haye naming his son cassius is the height of stupidity and disrespectful to his so called idol.

If Haye wanted to honour his hero he should have named him Muhammad Haye as cassius was half of the slave name Ali disposed of and disliked. Terrell taunted Ali and angered him by not referring to him by Muhammad Ali and he took a beating for it.

Haye just revealed his lack of self knowledge.

As expected, Breazeale is awful

LiamB wrote:As expected, Breazeale is awful

The sad thing is he's a lot better than most people thought he would be.

AJ has a bad tendency of stopping the use of the jab when in control; few times he keeps winging in without throwing it first and it's then that I worry he could get caught..

ONETWOFOREVER wrote:To be honest Haye naming his son cassius is the height of stupidity and disrespectful to his so called idol.

If Haye wanted to honour his hero he should have named him Muhammad Haye as cassius was half of the slave name Ali disposed of and disliked. Terrell taunted Ali and angered him by not referring to him by Muhammad Ali and he took a beating for it.

Haye just revealed his lack of self knowledge.

or maybe he didn't think Muhammed Haye sounded quite right. He named his son years before Ali died.. you idiot

I know that Dave but you would have thought an intelligent man like Haye would have understood what the changing of his name meant to Ali who never wanted to be referred to bu that name again.

Can you imagine the conversation had they met..

Haye: oh my God Muhammad you have always been my idol

Ali: thank you son and who's this

Haye: oh this is my son I named him after you Ali out of respect.

Ali: well that's great what do I call him

Haye: his name is cassius....

Ali: sign your own autograph

Clinical....got some rounds under his belt. Used his jab very well (except for the lapses)...soon as Breazele tried to open up, Joshua finished him.

Real difficulty like all the upcoming heavyweights have....anyone he faces will be chastised. He could beat Fury and people would say Fury was never any good...if Wlad beat Fury and then AJ beat Wlad, Klitschko would be old and shot...if he beats Deontay then he's beaten a prospect whose never been tested...beats Haye and he's beaten a cruiserweight with a dodgy shoulder. Who can he face and beat that ups his stock?

Povitkin

quality security there

Joshua definitely has that ruthless streak to him: as soon as the opening came, and he had Breazele in trouble he went straight in for the kill and finished it off quick smart.

Don't think he'd get any credit for Povetkin...besides should a drugs cheat be rewarded with a fight of that magnitude, not for me.

'It's ok for you to dislike Haye but try not to look stupid doing it'

Sorry Dave, it's got nothing to do with disliking haye. It's got everything to do with the fact that, if you want to honour your hero naming your kid after the name he purposely distanced himself from is probably not the most obvious way.

'as cassius was half of the slave name'

Only cassius (and Marvelous) were the names his parents gave him. Only clay was his slave name.

Ironically, Mohammed was a slave owner. I need to find the Hadith where Mohammed swaps two of his black slaves for a Muslim slave... it's in one of the two most respected and validated Hadith. Of course, it doesn't say if Mohammed believed black people were worth half of Muslims or the other owner did....

But then, I think Mohammed Ali didn't name himself after the prophet but named himself after the later Mohammed Ali... Who was also a slave owner.

But, I digress plenty.

Which ever, Ali publicly distanced himself from the name cassius, so it's odd haye should honour him by naming him after the name he discarded.

Breazeale was a much better opponent than I thought. Much better chin and not as impotent as he could have been.

Didn't really push Joshua to the limit but still gave him one of his stiffest challenges to date.

Joshua will have learnt from it.

Really enjoyed that card, Murray vs Groves was really good, Joshua went a few rounds and could work on different things. Brazeale did well, has a solid chin, but that's about it.

Anyone up for the Porter vs Thurman fight?? Genuinely looking forward to this one. Just cracked open a couple of chilled craft ales to enjoy.

Yep im up for the Porter fight; Thurman hasn't looked as destructive or as capable lately...however I expect him to still have too much for Porter who while game and decent, doesn't have enough in his arsenal at the very top in my opinion. This will be Thurman's biggest test to date though and will either leave lots to be desired or will be his coming out party if he can do a job on his fellow American.

Couldn't agree more mate. I think Brook takes out Thurman to be honest. Along with Garcia. Porter is very crude, punches in bunches and is effective on your chest. He out works you. Brook had great success in the fight and caught him coming in. If Thurman catches him, it could be game over.

Don't think porter has the power to deter One Time, he could make it ugly, but ultimately I have Thurman stopping him late on around 10.

Have porter 2 up after 3

Cracking punches from Thurman there porter looks so poor at times its cringe worthy

Unless he can flat track bully his opponent his skills are very limited. Anyone with good jab who can keep him at range will ease through him.

Agreed. Still have him up by 2 at the moment but see sky have Thurman up by 1.....

I've got him by 1...just edged that for Porter...as limited as he is he seems to give everyone trouble. So tough and intensity is constant. Feel the fight has become more his style over last couple of rounds.

If porter could actually pick his shots he may have Thurman out of here; his boxing is so so crude!! Still he's won the last two on mine and probably even heading into last 3.

This fight is everything I expected it to be. Just brilliant. Have porter 2 up going into the 10th

This fight is great

116-115 porter for me but man that was a close fought fight

Wouldn't complain with a draw tbh; id probably have Thurman winning by one though, his quality was much much better. Porters punching was better in the 2nd half of the fight...the first 5 rounds he essentially just bundled his way forward, wasn't much effective work from him so couldn't really score him many over the first 6.

One thing is for sure...Thurman is undoing all his hard work at the start of his career lately. Has boxed the wrong fights, has underperformed and just hasn't seemed to endear himself to people.

Rope a dope? Great defense? Erm you got busted up a fair bit Mr Thurman...your defense was rather lax!

Porter needs to learn how to stop and pick his shots at time, he's so 100mph and ragged at times it can't help. He had him rocked twice and just had to step back and pick a few perfect shots but he just stood and winged it.

Thurman has terrible footwork, doing the splits at times, ending up square on and moves back in straight lines. As far as heart and guts go 10/10 for both men. What a fight and it wasn't ppv, brilliant.

Happytravelling wrote:'It's ok for you to dislike Haye but try not to look stupid doing it'

Sorry Dave, it's got nothing to do with disliking haye. It's got everything to do with the fact that, if you want to honour your hero  naming your kid after the name he purposely distanced himself from is probably not the most obvious way.

So do you think Haye should have named his non Muslim son Muhammed instead?