Stoke-On-Trent, Ken.

My father loved boxing and I got my passion for it from him, when I was a very little kid.
I think I was either 4 or 5 years old when he was listening to a fight on the radio when I was in bed in the same room, when we were on holiday somewhere.

I was hooked that night - and have loved it ever since.

No Ken.
Although I've given a couple of pillocks who were annoying me - one time and another in a nightclub I used to frequent, a fair old right!

The trouble was, the bouncers thought it was the people I was with who'd k.od them - and tried to throw them out!

Happy days, but not really my style.

As usual, KOTV was very good.

As well as the usual round up of what's been happening in the fight world in the last week - and what's coming up - they had some terrific clips of 'The St Valentines Day Massacre' fight at Chicago Stadium on the 14th of February 1951.

This was when Sugar Ray Robinson fought Jake la Motta and beat him, to take his Middleweight crown.

Jake really had an 'iron jaw'. He took some unbelievable punches, but never went down.
It was probably just as well that the ref stopped the fight in the 13th, as Jake might have been seriously damaged if he'd carried on.

This was the fight depicted in 'The Raging Bull', where Jake comes over to Ray at the end of the fight and says: "You couldn't put me down Ray".

This is still one of Jake's proudest memories of his boxing career, as it really was amazing that he never hit the canvas in such a brutal contest.

It's a tough game, as you know, AITL.

It's remarkable at times, the way a fight can swing when someone is clearly in front in the early rounds.
Tactics can play such an important part - as well as someone's misfortune to be prone to being cut.

The latter, being Henry Cooper' downfall too.

Mike Baldwin v Ken Barlow

Just watched The Undertaker v Kurt Angle, all fixed, but more entertaining than Big Brother or Deal Or No Deal imo.

No boxing on terrestrial tv again. But remember, there is the Williams v Skelton fight on live, on ITV1 on Saturday (plus the Khan fight).

The programme starts at 9:50pm. There's bound to be a fair bit of chat before the fights, so you might make it.
I don't think the boxing will be memorable, but it's better than a slap around the chops with a wet fish.

I know, I've seen them on the boxing threads on Other Sports.
They really have no idea, I'm afraid.
They make themselves look very stupid.

A quote from Khan on Ceefax this morning:

"I'll have 15 or 16 fights before I'm world champion and they'll be getting harder and harder. I'm going to learn the trade then slowly get experience."

Sensible lad.
It's a shame the people who scorn his fights don't seem to realise this is the way boxing works.

Tonight's Boxing:

Ch5 - 02:00 - Fight Of The Week.

Disqualified for dirty fighting!

I half watched it too, Kq
I was in bed at the time and kept dozing off, but the winning heavyweight in the second fight ( Butler) didn't look bad at all.
Very agile, for a big bloke.

I thought Rickie Hatton in the studio, came across very well too.

He certainly looked fat, Kq!
I've heard him say before on interviews on the radio, that he does like to eat junk food.
I've said before, probably on this thread, that it won't do him any good if he thinks he can eat rubbish between fights, and only eat good food a few weeks before one.

Hello Tommy.

I watched the Williams v Skelton fight. Neither would win any marks for their style, but it was a fair scrap, and there's bound to be a rematch.

I said to my Mrs that Williams was asking for trouble leaving his left hand so low, and after the first half of round 2 he got his guard up properly. It didn't last and soon dropped again, but Skelton was either to busy doing dodgy moves or too slow to take advantage of it.

I heard a rumour that Skelton was 1/3 to win this, but just couldn't be bothered to log on and have a bet on Williams as I thought Skelton looked more likely to tire as he had never gone 12 rounds before but Williams had done it 6 times.

Everything I've touched this week has gone pear shaped so I left it alone...:(

Williams has a good left jab, but will need to keep his guard up if he's to face anybody of any mettle from the U.S.

A puncher will punish Williams right side which is open from that dropped hand as sure as today is Sunday.

Skelton tried dodgy stuff, as a lot of boxers do, but the ref was wrong not to deduct a point early on imo, it may have made it more of a boxing match rather than a brawl.

Hello AITL.
I very much agree with your analysis.

The trouble with Williams is, he doesn't seem to have the heart for the job. I saw his fight with Samil Sam (or some such name) in Germany when it was on tv about 2 or 3 years ago, when he looked in much better shape and seemed a decent prospect.
He looked like a frightened rabbit in the headlights and put up a very poor show and lost very badly.

I couldn't believe that the ref didn't deduct at least 2 points from Skelton. A very poor decision indeed.
What a dirty fighter he was. Although, to give him some due, he did manage to last to the end of the fight when I thought he was almost exhausted by about half way through.

These boxers are the 'athletes' that MB keeps referring to on his thread!

I looked at the betting about 5 mins before the start.
Williams was available on Betfair @3.45 and the draw was 60.

I didn't bet, as I also had a rubbish day yesterday when I could have a had a good one.
Sometimes you just 'feel it in your water' before you start, don't you think?

Just as the 'suspended' came up at the end, Williams was still available at about 3.4.
The draw could have been layed off at about 22 half way through the 12th.

Never mind. We live to fight another day.

At least there is more live boxing on next Saturday on terrestrial tv, with the Calzaghe fight being shown.

Boxing on terrestrial tv later:

Ch4: 03:05 - KOTV - Boxing Magazine.

Yet another ridiculous time slot for this excellent programme.

I remember seeing that fight some time ago.
Benn did look tired.

They may do a clip about Ali on KOTV later, as I heard on Radio 5 yesterday, that it was the anniversary of him beating Liston.
I don't think I'll be able to stay awake till 3am though.

I don't blame you, AITL.
The last thing I'd ever want to do is run on a running machine.

I ended up watching most of KOTV after all, although I was in bed and nodded off towards the end.

They showed some great clips of fights that had taken place recently and in the 'vintage slot' they showed a world bantom weight championship fight from the 60s that was fought in Japan.
It looked a cracking contest.

I had more sleep than usual last night. Can't say it did me any good though.

There is no boxing on terrestrial tv later.