Maloney Promotions have won the purse bids to stage the European lightweight title fight between Graham Earl and unbeaten champion Juan Carlos Diaz Melero from Spain. The contest will take place in July, most probably in London.Former WBO and IBO cruiserweight champion Carl Thompson has officially retired, finally choosing to bring the curtain down on his illustrious 18-year career. The 41-year-old, one of British Boxing’s most exciting prizefighters ever, has become increasingly disillusioned by the lack of lucrative paydays on offer in the cruiserweight division.Scott Gammer and Mark Krence are set to contest the vacant British heavyweight title following Matt Skelton’s decision to withdraw from boxing Gammer in order to take on Danny Williams in a rematch for the Commonwealth crown at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium on July 8. For much more on these stories, click here...
Who wins out of Gammer and Krence and whats Gammer like? By his record it looks like he doesn't punch too hard, but neither does Krence.
I think he will be back, some offer will come for him.... I was expecting the offers to be flooding in after his showing in Octoer.
Mixed emotions about the British title fight, might be a chance for me to meet some of you guys... Carmathen Show ground is a strange old venue to host the boxing. I hope this will make Welsh TV.
I say mixed emotions cause it will be great to see Gammer win (which he will) but its not a good time to that a British Heavyweight champion is quite so untested as Gammer. Why oh why isn't Sprott involved?
I have seen a fair amount of Melero - its a fight I think Earl (with home backing) can win and clearly.... Just hope the judges won't do a Damean Kelly.
I wouldn't be surprised to see Thompson fight again in the next year, if the right offer comes along.
If he does stay retired then he deserves to go down as one of our most exciting fighters of this era, his fights against the likes of Piper, Tafer, Eubank, Nelson, Sellers, Rothmann and Haye will be remembered for a long time.
Thompson won the British title, the europeon title in Italy, defended it away from home in France. Won the World title in his opponents country of Germany . Not many British fighters can say that.
He was underdog in alot of his big fights, but never let that bother him.
Win or lose Thompson would always give it his all. I wish him all the best.
I was watching his fight against rothmann the other day.It ain't too suprising afte watching that fight to see why the likes of enzo aint been too keen to make him a big offer to fight.Too dangerous.
Would of thought Haye might have wanted to try and gain revenge,yet he seems to have bigger things on his agena,well according to him!!(johhanssen!?!?)
Good luck to Carl, I was priviledged to have been ringside to watch him pull another of his incredible come from behind wins against Johannsen, Carl may not have been the most skilfull of fighters, but for sheer entertainment value, he is hard to beat. One of my favourite fighters from the British Isles ever.
Here, here...Thompson has been a great value for money fighter over the years, would love a career set of his, what a rollercoaster that would be! I have a feeling he may not stay retired were a lucrative offer to come along but after all his wars maybe it's better he stays retired.
As for Gammer-Krence for the British, no disrespect to either man but it's a bit of a poor fight for such a title. Krence has little recent form to suggest he deserves a crack and Gammer is largely untested. It seems a case of better fighters deciding to pursue other avenues and these two are left to contest the belt.
glad he has retired as his last showing wasn't great. It would have been good to see a haye rematch but the kid has bigger things on his mind and I think Carl should think about his health first.
what makes what Carl acheived all the more amazing is that he did it without any conventional amateur boxing experience.
As I understand it he turned pro directly from a Thai boxing career - his longevity and plethora of great fights are a remarkable achievement and mark him out as one of Britain's best in the last 20 yrs.
