Here Comes the Payne 06.16.09: British Boxing Rundown

411mania.com Michael Payne16th June, 2009

Michael Payne jumps in this week with his first weekly column as our newest recruit talks British boxing. Living in England gives Michael quite the insight onto the UK scene and this week he talks about David Haye, Carl Froch and a heads up on which British fighter you should be keeping your eyes on.

Welcome to the first installment of my weekly column. I will be giving you a run down of my views and opinions on all things British in the world of boxing. This week I am looking at Carl Froch's possible next opponents, what the future holds for David Haye now he has had to pull out of his heavyweight world title bid with Wladimir Klitschko. Also I will give you my view on one to watch in the future.

I have long been an admirer of the Nottingham based fighter and now he has the WBC super middleweight title after impressive wins over Jean Pascal and a late stoppage of Jermain Taylor there are plenty of opportunities open to him. Likely candidates currently seem to be Bernard Hopkins, Kelly Pavlik and Lucien Bute.

Personally I wouldn't like to see a fight with Hopkins. Hopkins is a very awkward guy to fight and there would be a risk of Froch having the same problem as Pavlik did with Hopkins frustrating Froch for twelve rounds with his boxing skills and getting a unanimous decision. I also don't think this would make for the most exciting of fights given the other options available to Carl. As they say styles make fights and I am not sure these two styles will make the most exciting of match ups.

Kelly Pavlik should he want to come up a weight to take on Carl Froch would surely make for a war. Both men have now beat Taylor and both have knockout ability with impressive KO ratios. My opinion would be that Froch would be too strong for 'the ghost' and would probably end it in the middle rounds.

The most likely option currently seems to be Lucien Bute the IBF title holder in Carl's home town of Nottingham. This would be a tough fight for both men. Both are unbeaten champions and after a win would me staking there claim to being the best super middleweight in the world. Bute has good boxing ability but I don't think he has been in the ring with someone with the ferocious punching power of Froch. I see this fight being similer to the Taylor one with Bute winning on point then Carl beating him by KO in the latter rounds.

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