The demise of the Middleweights

With the recent elevation of Sergio Martinez to WBC emeritus Champion, that allowed unknown Sebastian Zbik to become the third German holder of the middleweight division.

With no great rivalries out there, I aim to analyse the four champions and which fighters could potentially dethrone them and show how at world level, the Middleweight division is declining for the time being.

WBC: Sebastian Zbik 30-0 10 KO's

Zbik was promoted to the full title after being interim champion, something he won in 2009.

His unblemished record on paper is impressive, but if we look at the opponents he has fought, it looks a little inconspicuous. His best three wins were against Domenico Spada (twice) via UD and a 4^th Round TKO over Ruben Varon. His first fight with Spada was close before being a little bit more decisive the second time round.

Universum are his promoters and they are notorious for giving their champions easy defences and protecting their record. Zbik must now face Julio Cesar Chavez Jr in his first fight as full champion. Zbik and Universum are between a rock and a hard place because they can’t go back on the WBC’s generosity and fight an over matched fighter instead of facing Chavez Jr.

Prediction for future: I suspect his 0 will go very soon as I see Chavez Jr having all the tools to beat him. He may take a voluntary defence as Chavez Jr is fighting soon but then a big money fight in the States may come calling for the Chavez defence.

WBA: Felix Sturm 34-2 14 KO’s

Without going into too much fuss about the politics of the WBA, Sturm will be my main focus as I see him as the true WBA champion.

He is in his second reign as Champion for the WBA, previously being a WBO champion (lost to De La Hoya) and WBA title holder before losing in his first defence to Javier Castillejo. His record is also padded, with his best wins against Ruben Varon, Sebastian Slyvester and Giovanni Lorenzo. He does have that loss to De La Hoya as well.

He recently split from Universum after a lengthy court case and decided to go his own way, with help from Arena Box. His first fight was against Lorenzo, easily winning and his second defence is against Ronald Hearns, son of the great Tommy Hearns.

Prediction for future: I think he is perhaps the most talented of the German World Champions and if he gets past Hearns he may fancy a shot at the undisputed title with the WBC and IBF straps being held in Germany.

IBF: Sebastian Slyvester 34-3-1 16 KO’s

Slyvester won the IBF title after edging out Giovanni Lorenzo in 2009.

Slyvester is, for me the weakest of the German champions. His defences have been scatty to say the least. In his first defence he fought Billy Lyell and TKO’d him before facing Roman Karmazin and drawing a fight I personally thought he lost. His next defence against Mahir Oral was comfortable. His record is padded. His best wins coming over Lorenzo, Amin Asikainen and Castillejo. However his two most notable losses are from Asikainen and Sturm.

Sauerland promote him and whilst they are more likely to take risks, I personally think they are also very soft. Slyvester was supposed to face Medhi Bouala (who?) in his fourth defence but withdrew ill. Daniel Geale is his mandatory.

Prediction for future: Slyvester’s days as champion are numbered. There are fighters out there that can beat him easily. Sturm and Zbik may fancy a shot at him and with Geale as a mandatory; I can’t see his reign as champion lasting much longer.

WBO: Dimitry Pirog 17-0 14 KO’s

Pirog won the the title with an amazing 5^th round TKO over highly rated Daniel Jacobs.

He hasn’t fought since that win but he looked very impressive in doing so. I was instantly a fan. A hurtful puncher with good reach and good skills. The Americans took to him immediately and I believe once Martinez moves on, he is the future of the division. His record has no other notable names.

His promoters obviously knew when to pull the trigger with Pirog and I have to compliment them on doing so. I don’t know much about Artie Pellulo but he seems to know what he is doing with his fighters.

Prediction for future: There are a lot of tough fights out there, but I can see Pirog seeing off most challengers. If the Germans will allow him, I can see him getting a unification fight, or even a shot at Martinez. However, I can also see him being avoided like the plague.

Challengers: Whilst we don’t have the best crop holding the four belts at the moment, I believe things could be looking up in this division despite its current lack of quality. Martinez is without doubt the number one guy out there and challengers to his lineal title are going to be far and few between.

Matthew Macklin and Darren Barker lead the current British interest. Despite calls for them to fight, Barker looks like to have been avoided by Macklin again. Though Macklin’s alternative of a comebacking Ronald ‘Winky’ Wright is not a bad alternative. Also, Irelands Andy Lee has been touted as a potential world champion for some time now and may well get his shot in the future.

Australians Daniel Geale and Garth Wood have burst onto the scene as well and could both challenge and win titles in the near future.

Gennady Glovkin (regular) and Hassam N’Dam N’Jikam (interim) are holders of minor WBA belts and seem to be on a collision course of their own so that could be a very tasty match up to look out for.

The North American interest seems to be waning sadly after great champions such as Sugar Ray Robinson, Marvin Hagler, Sugar Ray Leonard, Tommy Hearns, Roy Jones Jr, Bernard Hopkins and Oscar De La Hoya. Peter Manfredo and Daniel Jacobs are perhaps the best of the USA and the exciting David Lemieux is one of the leading lights in an ever improving Canadian fight scene.

For the time being however, we may have to deal with duff Middleweight fights at World Level but once these contenders start fighting each other and perhaps end the German dominance, we may see some gloss return to this historic division.   

The Legacy of the Five- Part 1 Jenson Button

Lets be honest, the 2010 Formula 1 World Championship has been absolutley brilliant from the word go... well since Australia at least. And with four races to go, we have five drivers all vying for the title whilst Red Bull and McLaren are battling for the Constructors. Red Bull however seem to me to be the favourites to win this.

But what will the legacy of the five drivers be if they were to win the 2010 World Drivers Championship? Where better to start than with the World Champion himself, Jenson Button.

After his shock world title win in 2009, Jenson Button was one of the hottest properties in Formula 1 again. However, his move to McLaren to be team mates with his predecessor, Lewis Hamilton raised more than a few eyebrows. Button cited he wanted a new challenge after spending seven years at Brackley which saw him claim his first pole, podium, win and eventually World Championship. However, it became clear that with Mercedes taking over the Brawn team, and the imminent return of Michael Schumacher to F1, Button may well have been pushed out rather than him leaving on his own accord.

Many within the paddock questioned his deicision to leave a team centred around him. Eddie Irvine was the harshest critic of all saying Hamilton was going "to blow Button away" in 2010. The great Sir Jackie Stewart also questioned the World Champions choice saying it was a mistake to join a team centred around Hamilton.


As we reach the season end, Button has already recorded two wins for McLaren in Australia and China and has scored podiums in Turkey, Canada, Europe and Italy. He is currently 5th in the standings, 25 points behind leader Mark Webber of Red Bull and he is looking like the driver most likely to be the first of the top 5 to drop out of contention.

However, if he was to pull an amazing comeback and win his second straight title, where would this leave the Frome Flyer?

Button is already 8th on the All time list of highest points scorers, ahead of greats such as Mansell, Stewart, Clark and Hill (all be it this is thanks to this season) and he is quickly closing in on David Coulthard to become the highest scoring British Formula 1 driver of all time.

No British driver has ever won the Formula 1 World drivers title two years running and if he was to acheive this, then he will almost certainly be remembered as one of the best British drivers of all time if he isn't already. His combination of speed and the elegant smoothness with which he drives is a pleasure to watch, something he did masterfully at the beginning of 2009. He also has a very clever racing brain which saw him pull off two unexpected victories this year and he has kept Hamilton very honest. In my view, he has another championship in him, if not two, but its not going to be easy.

His legacy if he did clinch the title would be that of the rebel who pulled his career out of the gutter and made himself a hero. He seems to have put his playboy years behind him and he his knuckling down to racing and that can only be a good thing for the rest of his career as he pursues multiple World Championships.

Escape leaves fans unhappy

The World Motor Sport Council's decision to not punish Ferrari further has left a bitter taste in the mouths of many F1 fans. There are those that are screaming to the hills that Ferrari International Assistance has returned with Jean Todt now in charge of the FIA.

Article 39.1 is seen to be unenforceable by pundits, journalists and some fans because teams can just use coded messages, like Ferrari did in Hockenheim, to implement their wishes. David Coulthard has said on many occasions "any team that says they dont use team orders is lying".

But fans must be arguing that if Article 39.1 unenenforceable, then Ferrari broke the rule which states that no team shall bring the sport into disrepute. By doing this, Ferrari hurt the integrity of the sport and people are once again becoming disillusioned about whether the racing on track is genuine or not.

There has been no official line from any of the top teams but I can imagine that particularly Red Bull and McLaren will be seething. It now means that Ferrari still have an outside chance of winning the World Constructors Championship and Alonso's slim hopes of a third drivers title are alive by a thread.

There are some that will now point the finger at the stewards becuase the $100,000 fine that was imposed immediatley after the race left the WMSC with their hands tied because they couldn't repunish Ferrari. If they had just referred the matter to the WMSC then any decision would have been acceptable.

The question I pose is what if this had happened last year with Max Mosley still in charge of the FIA? Would they have escaped punishment? Or would Mosley have given them a stringent punishment due to his well known feud with the Italian team. With this years regime, I believe Jean Todt made the right decision not to sit on the panel questioning Ferrari due to his conflict of interests, but would he have given an opinion on the matter?

So where does this leave us in terms of Monza? Ferrari will be under the spotlight for all the wrong and right reasons due to the fact it is their home race but they will also have to bat off questions about the team orders again. McLaren and Red Bull will no doubt have a lot to say on the matter and Ferrari will be under more pressure than usual in their home race.

In terms of the integrity of the sport, I believe it has taken a massive blow. Ferraris Houdini like escape has left the championship in a manipulated state. For the moment, it looks like Alonso is falling out of the championship fight which would mean none of this matters in terms of this year. But in terms of the long term realtionship between Massa and Alonso? Who knows? Will Massa forgive Alonso and Ferrari? Will we see more incidents like this again just in a more subtle fashion? Will we see another Schumacher Barrichello type relationship? They are all interesting questions and ones we will wait to see answered in the future.

In terms of the team orders rule, the only logical action would be to scrap it and allow the teams to sign a contract promising not to use them. The rule was a reactionary one after Austria 2002 and one that wasn't thought through properly. Theres always been a lot of grey areas around Article 39.1 but there hasn't been an incident like this until now to raise the issue. It's good to see the FIA are looking at it.

Roll on Monza and lets see what the F1 soap opera has in store for us next.

Aberdeen Countdown- Everything beginning to take shape

As I said in my welcoming piece, I am going to be starting Aberdeen University very soon.

Its a nervous time for me as I have been waiting a year to go having decided to take a Gap Yah. Some of you may think that I've done "the square root of f*** all" this year I have been able to cram in some useful life experience ahead of Uni.

That's for another post.

The title of the post does exactly what it says on the tin. Everything is beginning to take shape as I buy some useful gadgets ahead of my north of the border adventure.

I've also got my Arctic style clothes ready as its going to get pretty chilly.

Of course my main thinking has been about how I cant wait to start working when I'm there.... oops did I just say that? No of course the work is very important and that is going to be the main core of my experience but one of my main goals is also to go out and gain as much life experience as possible.

The drinking, the partying and the clubbing may be part of that but its also to learn a new city, a new lifestyle and to meet lots of new people. I intend to be myself and just get on with it.

News from Aberdeen may be a little bare during Freshers but if I can somehow drag myself to my computer I'll try and keep you posted on how its going.

But for now all is well

JB

Burns gets up from the canvas to claim title

Ricky Burns has won the WBO Super Featherweight title after outpointing previously unbeaten champion Roman Martinez in a thriller at the Kelvin Hall, Glasgow.

The win makes Burns Britain's third world champion, joining WBA titleholders David Haye and Amir Khan.

Martinez was the heavy favourite coming into his third defence of the title he won stopping Nicky Cook last year. "Rocky" was losing the first round before flooring Burns and showing his superior punching power.  Burns looked unnerved and continued on to the bell.

Burns took control hereafter and used his jab to good effect. Burns seemed to hit Martinez at will, especially off the backfoot,  making the champion look ordinary. Martinez continued to land clean shots but the better work was coming from the challenger who was being spurred on by a partisan crowd. The fifth was perhaps the round of the fight. Both men staggered each other but once again it was Burns who was producing the better work and cleaner punches to wobble his foe.

A huge left by Martinez in the seventh rocked Burns and the Coatsbridge man was in trouble but he gamely held on and continued to pressurize from the eighth onwards. Desperation began to creep into Martinez's work as wild punches started being thrown and despite landing, it wasn't troubling Burns.

Martinez came out swinging in the twelth but it was not enough as Burns continued to use his jab and landed the better shots against the champion. Martinez was then wobbled but survived to the bell when Burns saluted the crowd for spurring him on, whilst Martinez walked to his corner with the look of a beaten man.

Scores were 115-112, 115-112 and 115-113. Burns moves to 29-2 7KO's whilst Martinez falls to 24-1-1 15KO's.

Welcome

Hi all,

Welcome to my blog. I'm not going to bore you all with my life details becuase if you've stumbled across this than you know me well enough already.

But what is the purpose of this blog all about? Well it's really about helping connect you with my adventures in Aberdeen, my views on some Sporting stories, updates on my singing and just general rants about things, hence why it is titled: The Mad World of JB.

I'll try and keep it updated regularly and hopefully you enjoy what you read.

All the best

Josh