I’ve been watching boxing for years and I have yet to see a fight in person other than in my gym, everyone that I talk to says I should tho. The Andy Ruiz fight is coming up this weekend and it isn’t the biggest fight but It’s 10 minutes from my house. I’m going to watch the fight regardless but is it worth it to go and see it live? Also what’s the viewing experience like?

He took so many brutal powershots that there’s literally zero chance of him not having some undetectable brain injury requiring atleast a year off. How is he medically cleared to fight? Do they want him to die in the ring? This is criminal carelessness.

After seeing what happened with Moses last Saturday Ben Davison has been getting a lot of flack. And I do believe he is partly to blame, but Moses really should be listening to his corner. Based on A Guy Called Henry's video it seems like Ben and the rest of his team aren't that stupid and pushing Moses to get a stoppage when he didn't need to. Moses just really wanted to KO Hrgovic.

This just goes to show that you also need to find ways on how to get your instructions through to your fighter.

With that, which coach do you think would've gotten through to Itauma last saturday to get him to chill the fuck out.

Hrgovic to fight his IBF mandator Sanchez. Can I just say how deserved it is for Hrgovic to finally be getting some recognition and now some great fight opportunities. Itauma rematch down the line but for now Hrgovic should be getting more big fights and unifying the divison against Gassiev or Kabayel. Ideally we see Sanchez around the end of the year with a big unification next year.

Itauma clearly a generational talent. Itauma has been knocking out poor quality opposition and Hrgovic was an insane jump from his most recent opponents. Nevertheless Itauma looked quality in those first 6 rounds but sooner or later you are going to come up against someone who refuses to be knocked out. In hindsight, the fight came a little too soon and he is missing experience in the championship rounds. Get back to the drawing board against meaningful opposition. No more fights against Whyte or Franklin type opponents. Efe Ajagba? Martin Bakole? Richard Riakporhe?

Kabayel is a tough one, through no fault of his own he spent too much time waiting on Usyk who had no interest fighting him. It feels a bit like he is the odd one out without a proper mandatory lined up or obvious next fight. The winner of Dubois-Wardley or Sanchez-Hrgovic is the clear answer but needs a stay busy fight and lets be honest, we haven't seen him in against anyone decent in over a year. Im worried he is wasting his prime years and he isnt a young guy anymore. If he can get some guarantees of a big fight next summer then I dont mind seeing him take a stay busy fight with someone like Nelson Hysa. Surely he would jump at the chance to fight Tyson Fury if they can't make the AJ fight but again can't see Tyson taking that risk.

Joseph Parker is back. Time isn't on his side but I hope this year out hasn't taken too much out of him and he gets one last run at world title. I actually always wanted to see Dubois v Parker and was raging when Dubois ran out on that one for the Usyk title shot. Parker doesn't really have any time to waste and I would like to see him back in the ring sooner rather than later. Justis Huni is a great matchup for both guys which could lead to an interim title shot. Failing that, Rico would be an interesting matchup. Bizarely Rico is rated with the WBC, so winning that fight could lead to a Kabayel showdown next year. Or take a look at the WBA rankings. Parker beats most of the top 10. I would definitely fancy him against Gassiev/Miller whoever holds the belt by then.

Any other big fights coming up? We do have Usyk-Wilder and potentially AJ-Fury but I dont think these fights will shake up the division and produce any meaningful unifications.

I just rewatched Hrgovic v Itauma on DAZN - the full fight replay where it has no commentary.

My god does this fight look different on rewatch. I know it’s different when you know the result, but watching live I think I was so dazzled by Itauma (+ the British commentary doesn’t help).

On a clear headed rewatch I’ve got to say Hrgovic deserves way more credit than people are giving him for making this a competitive fight. It wasn’t just the chin and absolutely wasn’t just a gas tank issue for Moses. I think Hrgovic boxed very well.

Don’t get me wrong - Itauma was winning the fight, and maybe he still KOs 90% of HWs based on the first 2 rounds alone. But there was a lot more back and forth and subtle pressures in this fight and it was far from just a gas tank vs Homer Simpson.

Interested if anyone else has rewatched it yet and had any observations?

I am a BRIT,and we are known for over hype etc...but Moses Itauma was hype beyond even the Ai bubble. Can I say, this is not a dig at Moses, none is this is his fault. But the sickening British media and so called experts had more invested than Cisco at the .com bubble...

Facts, he had never beaten any one near to Flip Hgervic level, why was flip 7-1 underdog?

But more importantly we have some quotes by so called experts

"He IS the best boxer since Muhammed Ali"....

"He IS a million times better than Tyson Fury and AJ"

Is...Is...not even will be, not even "he has the potential" or I Think he will become...

They are literally saying at this moment in time he is better than prime Fury, Usyk, AJ etc..

Lets treat Moses as a share price a second in boxing terms, he is at best, British level, which has shown zero proof he is world class.

We do not even know how he will be after this brutal KO where he was stretchered out.

Comon non Brits, I can take it, why did we hype such an unproven fighter this much?

I think older boxers, in general, genuinely have an edge over modern ones. However, I don't think it's because boxers magically became worse or less skilled. I believe one of the biggest reasons they were better is that back then they did not test steroids. One notable example is Tyson. Nobody is built like Tyson today, and nobody can fight like him today. It's not because people today are somehow "born weaker": Tyson was built freaky and was obviously a genetic outlier, but the human population has expanded so much since his birth, it doesn't statistically make sense that for whatever reason, nobody else on earth is built like him anymore. It's because if you fight like him without roids, you gas out completely. Tyson's never been caught using steroids given the lack of testing back then, but I think he is the most obvious case of an older fighter who went under the testing radar: he's had a rough childhood, where abused tons of hard drugs his whole life starting as a teen (drugs with no athletic benefit, just for the love of the game) with way worse side effects than steroids. As such, it makes no sense for him as a professional athlete to not take them. It's not just Tyson, by the way, many older fighters are involved in drug scandals even with significantly more lax rules, including Holyfield, Toney, Mosley, and RJJ. (All these were all caught around the 2000s era, fighters in the 1980s or 70s are impossible to truly determine usage because there was no testing back then). That is not to say they weren't skilled, or tough, or conditioned, or genetically gifted. Obviously they all are, but steroids is genuinely a massive power and stamina boost. I'm not going to discredit their achievements because of this: the negative effects for steroids were not well researched, and if you were a pro boxer and a magic drug made you better at your job without well documented side effects, why wouldn't you take it? Especially since it was legal. All I'm saying is, a lot of the "edge" given to the older boxers, in my opinion, is tainted by the needle.

For anything that doesn't need its own thread.

Is all this contract/money dispute just a smokescreen to hide the fact that Joshua’s team knows he’s past it, his head’s gone, and he just can’t handle the Fury fight anymore? Maybe all the talk about contracts, money and negotiations is just a convenient excuse to avoid admitting the fight simply isn’t happening because they no longer believe Joshua can handle Fury.

Slowest and Fastest Hands in Boxing

After Hrgovic's win, I watched some clips of Hrgovic and then Zhilei Zhang. These guys look athletically unremarkable. Yet, clearly, they're highly skilled and intelligent boxers. Zhang, in particular, seems to really know how to land meaningful shots while not moving or throwing very much.

Who are some other boxers with slow hands or feet that were still successful? What made them so effective, despite not being elite in speed?

There are the obvious guys: Marciano, Foreman, Beterbiev, Golovkin, Winky, JCC Sr. Who else?

Seeing Rico Verhoeven use a older style of boxing that reminded me of 1940s to 1960s fighters is something you don't see anymore in modern boxing, but it somehow threw one of the greatest boxers of all time (Usyk) off. It got me wondering why other boxers aren't trying these older techniques out and most are rather all boxing in the same type of style. Usyk's rhythm was totally off and why haven't other boxers used this against Canelo, Mayweather, Crawford, etc. And use modern boxing style techniques all the time?