BoxRec

The Messiah confirmed at today's press conference that his June 5 Manchester bill featuring Ricky Hatton and Joe Calzaghe will not be screened by Showtime. "It just didn't stack up financially," said the Messiah. "Showtime would have wanted it live at 4am and then Sky would only pay 4am money so it's just Sky at the moment for this one.
"There is no fall-out with Showtime but it just didn't work out at the moment."
This means Hatton will be fighting...how can I put it...as good an opponent as his last one.

so does this mean calzaghe-johnson is off to

talk about being let down :x i was hoping for a real bumper show on the 5th and now this.

hitman_hatton1 wrote:so does this mean calzaghe-johnson is off to

talk about being let down :x i was hoping for a real bumper show on the 5th and now this.

No, the Johnson-Calzaghe fight remains, but there will be no American-TV. Just Sky.

bennie wrote:

hitman_hatton1 wrote:so does this mean calzaghe-johnson is off to

talk about being let down :x i was hoping for a real bumper show on the 5th and now this.

No, the Johnson-Calzaghe fight remains, but there will be no American-TV. Just Sky.

Dont think the americans are too fused on calzaghe and johnson anyhow

hatton is starting to get popular in america, guess he will have to fight mitchell in america

so much for calzaghe tempting jones or tarver with a good performance he's not even being shown now. :x

i think i speak for every1 when i say were all getting sick and tired of it now, i wouldn't mind if they didn't have it but they do and thats the annoying part.

Who do you think the opponent might be?

It is supposedly going to be a top tenner, but a top tenner of what is the question.

Spadafora seems a safe option, dunno if it is easily makeable though.

Twinkle Toes wrote:Who do you think the opponent might be?

It is supposedly going to be a top tenner, but a top tenner of what is the question.

Spadafora seems a safe option, dunno if it is easily makeable though.

I don't think Spadafora will make the trip without American-TV backing. He's big over there. Just scouring the latest WBC rankings, I would lean towards N'dou, Leija or even Cosme Rivera. The latter's win over James Hare would be a selling point.

Kostya Tszyu
Arturo Gatti
1. Leonard Dorin
2. Gianluca Branco
3. Miguel Angel Cotto
4. Paul Spadafora
5. Richard Hatton
6. James Leija
7. Francisco Bojado
8. Terrance Cauthen
9. Cosme Rivera
10. Lovemore Ndou

Yeah I thought possibly N'Dou but he is down to fight some prospect this weekend (according to boxrec) so I dismissed him.

N'Dou has been very busy though, so maybe it will happen regardless of the result in this fight he has coming up.

Leija or Rivera would be a bit disappointing, so it will probably be one of those. :|

Twinkle Toes wrote:Yeah I thought possibly N'Dou but he is down to fight some prospect this weekend (according to boxrec) so I dismissed him.

N'Dou has been very busy though, so maybe it will happen regardless of the result in this fight he has coming up.

Leija or Rivera would be a bit disappointing, so it will probably be one of those. :|

I agree, Leija or Rivera would be bitterly disappointing. Maybe if we fear the worst this time, we might be pleasantly surprised.

how about branco

REAL_DEAL wrote:how about branco

far too dangerous bring julio cesar chavez over he'll be up for it

REAL_DEAL wrote:how about branco

I think he's fighting in the States in May. I might be wrong.

Surprising to hear Showtime aren't interested in Johnson/Calazaghe, as it's a decent fight.
Don't blame them for passing on Hatton though, especialy when he's meeting his archrival:TBA.

The world's top 20 lightweights must be shaking in their boots.

REAL_DEAL wrote:how about branco

What would that prove? or are you joking?

He's good but nothing more.

Maybe after the bad way the Hatton fight turned out a few weeks ago it got them scared. Calzaghe/Johnson is a good match-up.

Showtime's May 5th card sucks. A couple of good fights probably, but with fighters no one has ever heard of. Just because they are fighting for some cheap belts. Showtime needs a great June card, and Calzaghe/Johnson was that. Hope they get their act together.

I'm not sure Calzaghe-Johnson is that great of a fight, but it's certainly a lot better than most of the Calzaghe fights Showtime has televised. I think they're sending a message to Warren, that they are basically tired of televising non-competitive fights Likely, they wanted Calzaghe-Johnson, but didn't care for whoever Hatton is to fight (meaning, I doubt they are looking at N'Dou). It could also be the case that since they've just shown a Hatton card in April, they don't want to put him on again so quickly, if they have the chance to get a Jeff Lacy fight on (which, ironically, may be one of the aforementioned non-competitive fights).

I feel it's a missed opportunity for Showtime, Johnson is almost incapable of giving a bad performance, and say what you like about Joe, when he's in a real fight he turns in good performances.

I think this one is going to the wire myself, and it will be a bloody good fight.

See John Rawling's take on it...

http://sport.guardian.co.uk/boxing/stor ... 93,00.html

Tszyu fucked his shoulder not his achilles.

jamesmcdonnell wrote:I feel it's a missed opportunity for Showtime, Johnson is almost incapable of giving a bad performance, and say what you like about Joe, when he's in a real fight he turns in good performances.

I think this one is going to the wire myself, and it will be a bloody good fight.

I think it's a missed opportunity if they put on a bad card featuring Jeff Lacy in a walkover bout, but I think they can potentially find two competitive matchups that will equal up.

the yanks will miss a good fight between calzaghe and johnson

REAL_DEAL wrote:the yanks will miss a good fight between calzaghe and johnson

We almost always miss the good international fights. Not to worry though, we'll probably get the next Matthew Barney fight televised over here ;)

Southpaw Stylist wrote:Tszyu fucked his shoulder not his achilles.

I think if you will check, he did both. The achilles injury was first and the shoulder was more recent. Both caused him to with draw from a fight.

I see.