A GOOD YEAR AHEAD
AS the first fights of 2021 are in the process of being announced, it looks like it could be a good year for boxing.
Miguel Berchelt vs Oscar Valdez and Roman Gonzalez vs Juan Francisco Estrada II are both in the diary. Anthony Joshua vs Tyson Fury is perhaps on the road to being made. Josh Taylor vs Jose Ramirez should be relatively easy to make. Errol Spence Jnr vs Terence Crawford unfortunately seems impossible to make. But Manny Pacquiao vs Mikey Garcia is more realistic. It is a fight that has been talked about before. They are both gentlemen of the sport and two of my favourites from the past 10 years. It would be a competitive fight and they have both been great servants to boxing, so why not?
As for Canelo Alvarez, he already has a date pencilled in for February, so it looks like he intends to fight three times in 2021, which can only be a good thing. No doubt the naysayers will criticise his rumoured opponent for February, Avni Yildirim, but given Canelo’s recent run of top opponents and his intentions to unify with Caleb Plant and/or Billy Joe Saunders in the future, why can’t the Mexican pound-for-pound king have a homecoming fight against Yildirim first? James Ingleby
WATCH OUT FOR TSZYU
A FIGHT that went under the radar somewhat last month was Tim Tszyu’s latest victory. The son of the legendary Kostya Tszyu won by stoppage in under two minutes. Admittedly his opponent, Bowyn Morgan, was not a top-ranked fighter, but in his previous fight, Tszyu stopped Jeff Horn – a man who, of course, has beaten Manny Pacquiao.
Tszyu looks like he could become a big star and is now seemingly heading for a world title fight in the super-welterweight division.
Tszyu now deserves recognition in his own right, and not only for being the son of a famous fighter. Chris Strange
ONLINE BOXING BOOK CLUB
I AM interested in establishing an online boxing book club. The idea would be that fellow fans of quality boxing literature would choose books to read and meet every six weeks via Zoom to discuss the books and generally indulge in boxing chat.
I would love it to become a friendly community and a regular social meet-up; which some of us are missing in these difficult times.
Please share my email address and anyone who is interested can get in touch and we can get the ball rolling. Steve Hunt (hunt526@hotmail.com)