BoxRec

wonder what it will be- will an unheralded fighter step forward ala ricky burns and become a world champion or will one of our established stars come a cropper?

i think tyson fury will lose sooner rather than later,haye will lose to a klitscko kevin mitchell will bounce back and be in contention,carl froch will continue to dominate his division but amir khan will also lose if he fights a live opponent, nathan cleverley will dominate the light heavyweight division but matthew macklin wont win a world title but darren barker will- so everyone elses turn to be nostradamus - off you go

mahatma wrote:wonder what it will be- will an unheralded fighter step forward ala ricky burns and become a world champion or will one of our established stars come a cropper?

i think tyson fury will lose sooner rather than later,haye will lose to a klitscko kevin mitchell will bounce back and be in contention,carl froch will continue to dominate his division but amir khan will also lose if he fights a live opponent, nathan cleverley will dominate the light heavyweight division but matthew macklin wont win a world title but darren barker will- so everyone elses turn to be nostradamus - off you go

All bits in bold i disagree with, at the moment there is no dominating force in super middle, and probably wont be come the end of this coming year and to say continue is incorrect when he suffered a loss 2 fights ago!!

Maidana was a very live opponent, and a very dangerous one, he isn't just a lucky slugger and has a decent am background behind him. Khan may well lose next year, but there will be no shame in it and he could still bounce back quick enough.

Nathan Cleverly will not dominate the LHW division, at the moment i would rate him a clear level below the likes of Pascal, Hopkins, Cloud, Dawson and even Erdei. He may well become a fully fledged alphabet titlist, but he will not step in with a single one of the above within the next 12 months.

Can't see who's going to give Barker a shot next year, though if he gets it he could be good enough to pick up a belt, i would guess he's going to end up in a couple of high level domestic fights against the likes of Macklin and Murray....if he can stay injury free.

funtime thanx for reply i think froch has beaten dirrell, taylor,pascal and abrahams lost by a whisker to kessler so think it is fair to say over his last few fights he has been the world dominant force in super-middles -
as for khan i do think maidana was a good opponent and he came close in that 10th round to stopping him , this i feel will give encourage any prospective opponent, khan has improved has got a great trainer, great sparring etc but he aint no pacman, especially as khan is talking of going up to welterweight.
yes its hard to see how barker gets his shot but i do think cleverley will do it, he wont probably step in with one of the ones you mentioned but i think if he did he'd do the business

I love how the Froch fans keep mentioning how he lost by a whisker to Kessler.... Doesn't matter about the whiskers he won by against Taylor and especially Dirrell - swings and roundabouts.

sg1985 your right few are like pacman but khan will lose if he steps up to 147 and i hope he does clear up at 140 but i dont think he will, but we'll have to wait and see
stujones i am a froch fan- all fighters have close fights especially when fighting the worlds best, alot of times theres not much in it but froch has earned his onions,fighting 5 world class opponents in his last 5 fights, 3 of whom were unbeaten

funtime wrote:

mahatma wrote:wonder what it will be- will an unheralded fighter step forward ala ricky burns and become a world champion or will one of our established stars come a cropper?

i think tyson fury will lose sooner rather than later,haye will lose to a klitscko kevin mitchell will bounce back and be in contention,carl froch will continue to dominate his division but amir khan will also lose if he fights a live opponent, nathan cleverley will dominate the light heavyweight division but matthew macklin wont win a world title but darren barker will- so everyone elses turn to be nostradamus - off you go

All bits in bold i disagree with, at the moment there is no dominating force in super middle, and probably wont be come the end of this coming year and to say continue is incorrect when he suffered a loss 2 fights ago!!

Maidana was a very live opponent, and a very dangerous one, he isn't just a lucky slugger and has a decent am background behind him. Khan may well lose next year, but there will be no shame in it and he could still bounce back quick enough.

Nathan Cleverly will not dominate the LHW division, at the moment i would rate him a clear level below the likes of Pascal, Hopkins, Cloud, Dawson and even Erdei. He may well become a fully fledged alphabet titlist, but he will not step in with a single one of the above within the next 12 months.

Can't see who's going to give Barker a shot next year, though if he gets it he could be good enough to pick up a belt, i would guess he's going to end up in a couple of high level domestic fights against the likes of Macklin and Murray....if he can stay injury free.

For me martin beats macklin,stoppage by 6. :)

mahatma wrote:sg1985 your right few are like pacman but khan will lose if he steps up to 147 and i hope he does clear up at 140 but i dont think he will, but we'll have to wait and see
stujones i am a froch fan- all fighters have close fights especially when fighting the worlds best, alot of times theres not much in it but froch has earned his onions,fighting 5 world class opponents in his last 5 fights, 3 of whom were unbeaten

I agree, he has earned his onions.... but for me I still would think a younger, less experienced (give him some time) fighter who you can count the amount of rounds he has lost on one hand against 3 top ten (okay, two of these are not up there with the five you mentioned) Super Middles can have a pretty good case to being called the dominant Super Middleweight. Particularly as one of these was against the guy Froch lost to.

Personally I don't think there is a dominant Super Middleweight, thats why we have got this tournament and here is hoping the winner fights Bute. I think Ward needs Froch, but Froch needs Ward to get labelled as the dominant Super Middleweight.

Only 2 were unbeaten actually - Pascal and Dirrell. Kessler, Abraham and Taylor had all lost and suffered recent defeats.

mahatma wrote:funtime thanx for reply i think froch has beaten dirrell, taylor,pascal and abrahams lost by a whisker to kessler so think it is fair to say over his last few fights he has been the world dominant force in super-middles -
as for khan i do think maidana was a good opponent and he came close in that 10th round to stopping him , this i feel will give encourage any prospective opponent, khan has improved has got a great trainer, great sparring etc but he aint no pacman, especially as khan is talking of going up to welterweight.
yes its hard to see how barker gets his shot but i do think cleverley will do it, he wont probably step in with one of the ones you mentioned but i think if he did he'd do the business

The key there is the loss though, im a huge fan of Carl but the fact is you cant be called the dominant force when you have lost a recent match up against another top level opponent. Agree with the chap above who says there is no dominant force at SMW yet, and arguably wont be until the winner of S6 faces of against bute.

As for the biggest shock of the year, it's a hard one to call really, fair play to you for giving your opinions. I actually think the big shock might be somebody like Nathan Cleverly picking up his first defeat. I'm still not entirely convinced he has enough to crack the top level, and he's so happy to get involved in a scrap. His win against Murat was impressive but a better fighter could punish him badly if he takes them shots.