Here Comes the Payne 07.27.09: British Boxing Update

Posted by Michael Payne on 07.27.2009

The Payne is back this week to discuss Enzo Maccarinelli's future, Amir Khan's recent win over Andreas Kotelnik, David Haye's recent actions and more in this week's edition of Here Comes the Payne!

It has been a couple of weeks since I last gave you all my opinions on what has been happening with Britain's top fighters so I have a bit to catch up with in this weeks Here Comes the Payne. This weeks column includes, Khan winning the world title, Froch and the Super Six plus much more….

Enzo Maccarinelli

Enzo has had a tough time of it lately, after loosing to David Haye he bounced back with a win over Mathew Ellis, stopping him in 2 rounds. Then he suffered a shock defeat at the hands of Ola Afolabi and now he has lost in 3 rounds by TKO to Denis Lebedev on July 18th in Manchester.

I have said previously that this fight was a probably Enzo's last shot at glory and after defeat it seems it probably was. Enzo didn't look impressive and after the fight it seemed he would be quitting the ring after saying "I don't think I have got it anymore", however reports are now saying he has not retired with him telling BBC Wales "No I have not retired". My personal view is that he should retire. If he still had the heart for boxing then maybe he could carry on a while longer and if successful maybe even work himself back into contention but after his comments after the fight and his performance in the last two fights I don't feel he wants it like he once did and in the fight game that is when you really should quit.

David Haye

As a British Boxing fan I am so pleased Haye will be fighting Nikolai Valuev for the WBA Heavyweight title on November 7th rather than either of the Klitschko brothers at this time. Haye has made it very clear he wants to be world champion at heavyweight as soon as possible and I admire him for that. My concern with him fighting either Klitschko right now is that he hasn't got enough experience against much bigger men. They don't come any bigger than the big Russian. Nikolai struggled and in my opinion lost to Evander Holyfield in his last outing. Evander is a small heavyweight by today's standards like Haye. But he is well well past his prime. With David's speed he will out work the slow Russian and should win comfortably on points (I don't see him knocking him out). This will give him valuable experience against bigger men, then he should have maybe another fight against a smaller less dangerous opponent than the Klitschko's, then I believe he will be in a much better position to continue his war of words with the brother and entice one of them in the ring.

Amir Khan

Khan won the WBA light welterweight title by out pointing Andreas Kotelnik in Manchester. Khan controlled the fight throughout landing 170 punches to Kotelnik's 80 and was awarded the fight by margins of 120 – 108 and 118 – 111 (twice). I was impressed with Khan and the way he won the title but not overly excited. Yes he dominated but I think if he stays at that weight class we need to see much more against the elites of the division. Even if he was to step back down to lightweight he is fighting at world class level now and I am not sure he has what it takes right now to beat the likes of Juan Diaz and Joel Casamayor. I do rate Khan for his boxing ability and his speed and I see these as being world class but he has still got a dodgy chin. He has made massive improvements in the way he fights since working with Freddie Roach but I don't think he is the finished product yet. His next move needs to be planned very carefully. If he losses people will say he got lucky or he beat a poor champion to win the title and he will almost be back to square one. But the fact is that now he has the title we will soon see if all the hype surrounding his is just that or if his claims are right and he can mix it with the very best in the business.

Carl Froch

I am extremely excited about the super middleweight Super Six Series along with Froch it is made up of some great champions and great talent. Along with the Cobra there is his first opponent Andre Dirrell, WBA Champ Mikkel Kessler, unbeaten Middleweight champ Arthur Abraham, undefeated Olympic gold medalist Andre Ward and Carl's previous opponent four time middleweight champ Jermain Taylor.

I have been a big fan of Carl Froch's for a long time so it would be easy for me to sit here and tell you all he will blow the opposition away in the tournament and come out the clear winner but I will try to be unbiased about it. His first fight I do see as being a win to the Cobra. I don't see Dirrell as having the power to beat Froch. He may have the better natural boxing ability but I see Carl dragging him into a dog fight and I don't see that Dirrell will have the experience to match Carl in the sort of fight that suites him down to the ground.

Overall winner? Personally I don't see it being Dirrell or Taylor. Dirrell lacks experience and I think Taylor will struggle against the natural super middles. Andre Ward could be a good outside bet. He may not have the world class experience of some of the others but I have been very impressed with what I have seen of him and think he can cause an up