Let's not forget the show that has held together

[bennie]

LOCAL MAN Brian Magee tops a big bill at the King's Hall in Belfast - the first time he has appeared at the famous old venue in his home city - when he makes the sixth defence of his IBO super-middleweight title against Frenchman Hacine Cherifi this Saturday (November 22).
(Also on the show, British and Commonwealth light-middleweight champion Jamie Moore defends his titles against English champion Andrew Facey, Roy Rutherford defends his British featherweight title against mandatory challenger Dazzo Williams, and Tony Dodson and Allan Foster clash for the vacant British super-middleweight title).
Magee's last IBO defence came a month ago at the smaller Ulster Hall in the city where he needed only one minute and 50 seconds to dismiss Argentinian champion Omar Gonzalez with a chopping right hook to the head in front of a packed house. "The atmosphere last time in the Ulster Hall was amazing," said promoter Barry Hearn. "It created an intimidating atmosphere and that's what we want for fighters coming here.
"When you're in a tough fight, a fight when you get hurt, it's worth three or even four rounds to you and Brian will sooner or later be in a fight like that."
Hearn is understood to be lining Magee up for a crack at the WBC super-middleweight Markus Beyer next year.
"I have spoken to WBC president Jose Sulaiman," he said at the press conference to announce tomorrow's fight, "and he has made it clear that Brian will make a big move up the ratings over the next few months (he has moved up to number 11 recently).
"Cherifi will show us what we have with Brian and what the next step will be."
The 35-year-old Frenchman has boxed mainly as a middleweight and challenged Howard Eastman for the European middleweight title in his last fight at Norwich, retiring on his stool after eight rounds. But Hearn believes he is threat.
"It will be a tough fight for Brian," he said. "This guy Cherifi has been in with five 'world' champions.
"And we found out he had broken his nose a week before the Eastman fight and yet he still took the punishment and fought back.
"He's one of the toughest guys around and has fought some of the best in the world so Brian can expect a good test.
"But Brian is a world class fighter with the ability and potential to go to the very top of the tree. He could be the next major sporting hero of Northern Ireland."
"This is a big step-up in class for me," said Magee himself. "And to be top of the bill is fantastic. I really believe this can be the start of something special in Belfast."
The unbeaten 28-year-old is finally living up to the promise he showed as a brilliant amateur - and a pro who captured the IBO title in just his 14th fight in 2001 with a stunning first round dismissal of Argentina's Ramon Britez. But he laboured in his first three defences and, more notoriously, pulled out of a scheduled defence against American Brian Barbosa at late notice, subsequently easily outpointed by Tony Dodson on the same show. But Magee proved his ability when he wore down the rugged Andre Thysse in 10 impressive rounds on the Michael Brodie-Juan Cabrera bill in June, a man who had just pounded David Starie - and improved his record to 20-0 (14) with that easy first round win last month over Gonzalez, who held a win over Roberto Duran and floored fellow southpaw Mads Larsen.
He's boxing better than ever.
The same can't be said of Cherifi, 34-8-1 (20), who has fallen into the category of 'big name opponent' as a former WBC middleweight champion. Since losing his crown in 2000 to the man he won it from, Keith Holmes, Cherifi has lost to William Joppy, Felix Trinidad, Harry Simon and, last time out, Howard Eastman.
Their European title fight was competitive in the early rounds, but the challenger picked up a cut on his left eyebrow in the fifth and a bloody nose in the sixth. Frustrated by his inability to get past Eastman's jab, and beginning to soak up several meaty right hands, the visitor retired at the end of the eighth.
"Cherifi was no mug," said Eastman afterwards.
There's no doubt the balding warrior from Lyon in southern France showed enough in the Eastman fight in July to warrant this second successive title crack, but he hasn't been brought over to upstage the hometown hero and will be sporting plenty of ambition, plenty of years at 35 and plenty of natural weight, too, as the reigning French middleweight champion. The latter didn't affect the rugged Frenchman when he gave Robin Reid a bruising 12-rounder for the WBC super-middleweight title in 1997, but he was at his peak back then.
Still, if Magee were to stop the Frenchman it would serve as a favourable and timely comparison between him and Reid. The Runcorn man is challenging Sven Ottke for his IBF and WBA titles next month in Germany and the two Brits have been linked recently.
But the Ulsterman is not taking anything for granted with Cherifi. "Looking at the tapes it's like a 'Who's Who' of top fighters he has faced," he said. But Magee must be fancied over him at this stage of their respective careers. He will do well to stop him though.

Liverpool's Tony Dodson contests the vacant British super-middleweight title with Allan Foster of Northampton on the big King's Hall bill. Dodson was originally due to challenge former holder Matthew Barney in Liverpool, but Barney vacated after winning the WBU light-heavyweight crown with an upset points win over Tony Oakey in Portsmouth last month and the vacant British title clash was rearranged for this show.
The 23-year-old Dodson, 15-3-1 (9), has been beaten in two of his last three outings, but was stopped unluckily on a cut in one of them by the Frenchman Pierre Moreno in nine rounds. However, he was stopped genuinely by the rugged - and unbeaten - Albert Rybacki of Poland before that, also in nine rounds. His best victory to date came against America's Brian Barbosa at the Everton Park Sports Centre last year, when he stepped in to face a man Brian Magee had pulled out against and dazzled everyone en route to an eight round decision, flooring Barbosa in the seventh. He also holds a points win over rugged Belgian Mike Algoet, who recently took unbeaten Steven Bendall to a life and deather, and looked superb in banging out Jon Penn in two rounds for the Central Area super-middleweight title 19 months ago. Last time out, the Garston man scored a powerful retirement stoppage of Birmingham-based Armenian Varuzhan Davtyan, who had previously beaten him on points but stood no chance in the rematch. He failed to come out for the fourth.
"I've not been out of the gym since I beat Davtyan," he said. "I've been ticking over nicely and doing my jogs every morning as well as putting in some decent sparring sessions with Courtney Fry."
His opponent, Foster, enters the fight unbeaten at 10-0-1 (2), the draw coming last year in a six-rounder with the useful Welshman Alan Jones, who recently shocked Jim Rock in Belfast.
"I'm feeling really good at the moment," said Foster. "I've been training solidly since my last fight and I'm doing five or six miles on the road five days a week now.
"I've never done 12 rounds before so a lot of the work in the gym has been stamina-based, but I'm not saying I'll be lost if it goes past six rounds (he has never been beyond six rounds to date).
"Dodson's a good fighter but he's been beaten before and I'll go there confident I can do the job.
"He's what you might call a box fighter, he can be quite flashy at times but he likes to get inside and have a good tear-up as well. I'll be sitting down with my trainer over the next couple of weeks and watching the videos of him so we can work out my strategy from there." The Kilmarnock-born Foster, 29, will enter his first big fight fired-up and, like any Chris Sanigar fighter, in great shape. His best chance is to outwork and outhustle Dodson because he isn't a banger, with just two stoppages in his nine wins, but the Scouser's greater experience and power should tell by the later rounds and he gets home on points.

Also on an excellent card, exciting British and Commonwealth light-middleweight champion Jamie Moore defends his titles against Sheffield's Andrew Facey, who earned his chance by outpointing the previously unbeaten Matt Macklin for the English light-middleweight title just two weeks ago at Dagenham.
Facey's manager John Ingle said: "He's beaten allegedly's boy, now he wants to beat Barry Hearn's boy."
He continued: "Andrew woke up the day after beating Macklin and said he was still very fresh. The 10 rounds took nothing out of him at all. He is more than ready willing and able to face Moore."
Facey looked a bit of a nightmare to fight against Macklin, a former ABA champion who had won nine in a row and was being given the build-up treatment by Sports Network and Sky-TV. Macklin banged well to the body and tried to keep the pressure on, but Facey, slick and awkward, took away Matthew's jab, forcing the 'house fighter' to wing his shots, which enabled the lanky, long-armed Facey to pick up points with jabs and cuffing counters, though it was a close, competitive fight all the way.
So this is an equally competitive-looking fight for Moore, even though the 25-year-old Salford southpaw looked superb in his last two outings: a comprehensive points win over the previously unbeaten Michael Jones to win the British and Commonwealth titles, and an impressive first defence in his own hometown last month against Gary Logan, who was broken up with body shots and taken out in the fifth.
Logan announced his retirement after the fight.
Currently 18-1 (11), Jamie took Logan apart far more impressively (and in half the time) than WBU light-middleweight champ Takaloo did last year (and Michael Jones held a win over Takaloo). He was too busy for the veteran, maintaining a fast pace from the start. But there's more to him than just workrate. "His accuracy was brilliant," added Logan's trainer, Adam Booth. And he showed he has power, too.
"If I'm brought along correctly in the next 12 months, I could be the best light-middleweight in the country," the champion stated afterwards.
But battle-hardened Facey, 31, won't be a pushover. His win over Gilbert Eastman earlier this year in three rounds is looking better and better since Eastman impressed in stopping Spencer Fearon for the Southern Area light-middleweight title, and he has also campaigned at full middleweight, where he won the Central Area middleweight title and boxed a WBF middleweight title eliminator with hard-hitting Damon Hague. Currently, 13-2-1 (5) Andrew, who orginates from Wolverhampton, will have height and reach over the stocky Moore (he's four inches taller) and has absolutely nothing to lose coming in at such short notice and with his English title to fall back on. And he will take heart heart from Moore's only defeat two years ago at the hands of another lanky, neat-boxing fellow, Scott Dixon, who climbed off the floor to outlast Moore and win with body shots in the fifth round.
But the improving Moore has to be favoured.

Another title fight on the bill, sees Coventry's Roy Rutherford make a first defence of his British featherweight title against mandatory contender Darren "Dazzo" Williams of Hereford.
The 29-year-old Williams earned his chance with a hard-earned 10-round decision over Steve Chinnock earlier this year in Liverpool, and, regardless of his age, has enjoyed a meteoric rise to the top of the contenders tree. A pro only since 2001, he scored a fine win over the 12-0 Mark Payne in just his second pro fight and reeled off five straight wins in fact before suffering back-to-back losses to John Payne and Carl Allen (the latter of whom recently snapped the winning streak of Rutherford's Coventry compatriot Baz Carey). But he has bounced back with three straight wins, including the 10-rounder over Chinnock and a thrilling victory over Marc P Callaghan in an eight-round war at York Hall in March.
Currently 8-2 (3), Dazzo is tall for the division, and knows how to make good use of his height and reach advantages. He'll certainly have such advantages over the stocky champion.
Rutherford pulled off something of a surprise when he won the British title from Jamie McKeever in the champion's own backyard at the Everton Park Sports Centre last May. He took the fight at 16 days notice (both men accepted the fight late after the original bill-topper between David Burke and Stefano Zoff for the vacant European lightweight title was cancelled) and had boxed only once in the previous 18 months, but made the most of his opportunity to end up a clear winner on referee Dave Parris' card by 117-112. He floored McKeever in the third with a body shot.
Nice guy Roy now hopes to become the first Coventry boxer to win a Lonsdale Belt outright. "That's my plan, for sure," he said. "Nobody from Coventry has done it before and getting my name in the history books is a big motivation for me.
"I'm the fifth boxer from Coventry to win a British title, so that's a start, I'm also the first black guy from Coventry to win a British title, which I'm very proud of. And I want to be the first to win the Lonsdale Belt outright because its an achievement people who don't know much about boxing still recognise and theres not really very many fighters have done it over the years.
"It's going to be very hard, there's no doubt about it, but it's a fantastic challenge."
Rutherford has already made history when he won the 1995 ABA lightweight title in the least number of fights - ten in all, including the ABA final. He went on to box internationally for England and turned pro in 1998, though his progress was frustratingly slow and a narrow 10-round points defeat to former schoolmate Richard Evatt - his only defeat in 18 fights - kept him on the sidelines. Now, at the age of 30, he finds himself in the big time. And he'll want to stay there. He can outspeed the useful Williams en route to a hard-earned decision win.

[jamesmcdonnell]

Don't you ever do any work?

[bennie]

Don't you ever do any work?

No, I work for the NHS.

[Priff]

Don't you ever do any work?

No, I work for the NHS.

Do you actually write all that at work? (if so, good on yer ).
I presumed you wrote at home then pasted into the post at work.

[bennie]

Don't you ever do any work?

No, I work for the NHS.

Do you actually write all that at work? (if so, good on yer ).
I presumed you wrote at home then pasted into the post at work.

No, I do it at work, Priff. But not all at once. I work for NHS Direct, the 24-hour healthline and when I'm on lates or nights, have plenty of time to browse the net and write.