SHADES OF MCILVANNEY
AS an avid reader of your publication for many years, I am writing to congratulate Steve Bunce on his emotive and heart-rending recounting of those very tragic fights he attended and their aftermath (in the March 17 edition of Boxing News). The Michael Watson fight we are of course all too familiar with. The Jimmy Murray fight, I would guess, less so. The article was sobering in the extreme and a testament to a boxing wordsmith at his best. Hugh Mcilvanney was one of my all-time favourite boxing writers and Steve isn't far behind. Bill Hodgson
GIVE SUNNY SOME CREDIT
IT is high time that Sunny Edwards got the recognition he deserves. He is by far the best exponent of the art of boxing in the UK and possibly one of the best on the planet. Clearly he needs to be in only top-class fights from now on. Looking at the way he handles other fighters it is unlikely that the other top flyweights will want to go anywhere near Edwards. Edwards just fought a legitimate top10 opponent in Muhammad Waseem and did it in two halves. For the first half Edwards fought the exact fight that Waseem would have wanted. In the second half he fought his own fight at range. Edwards won both contests comfortably, exhibiting toughness as well as skill. Promoters now need to give the fans the unification bouts we deserve in the flyweight division. Chris Strange
STILL SCRATCHING MY HEAD
I ONCE refereed an 11-year-old’s 5-a-side game. I would like to say I was useless, but frankly I wasn’t good enough to be useless. Judging is not as easy as it looks. A couple of weeks ago I had a letter published criticising the 10-9 scoring system, but even its weaknesses can’t explain two of the judges’ scorecards for the Josh Taylor-jack Catterall fight. The “loser” landed twice as many punches as the “winner” and the “loser” also won a 10/8 round. Even I could have done better. Dave Evans
A BELT-HOLDER, NOTHING MORE
EXCELLENT podcast as usual but it was remiss to describe Roy Jones as being the first middleweight since Bob Fitzsimmons to win the heavyweight title. He won the WBA belt during its farcical lineage having been detached from the heavyweight champion, Lennox Lewis, who was still active at the time. Daniel Baguley
MANY THANKS
A NOTE of thanks to publish if you have room. BN and the podcast have been terrific recently. Both a real tonic. Ellis Henderson
Dave Coldwell Trains Hopey Price It’s potentially not as straightforward as what a lot of people might think. Buatsi gets hit with right hands. Richards is very awkward, very effective and he’s got a decent right hand on him. When it comes down to business, Buatsi’s very, very vicious. He’s a fast starter and Craig Richards can be a slow starter. I think Buatsi.
Chris Billam-smith European champion I predict a great fight. Richards now has the experience at world level, Buatsi has also gained experience in his last fight. I’m sitting on the fence! Both gentlemen, both great fighters.
Paul Ready Boxing manager I favour Buatsi by decision. I know a few who’ve seen them spar and said Richards disrupted his rhythm. I expect it to be a technical and physical fight.
Andy Clarke Boxing commentator Buatsi by late stoppage. It’s a good fight for both men. I rate Richards highly, he’s a good allround fighter and mentally strong. But Buatsi is special. This is the perfect stage for him to demonstrate that and I believe he will.