“42 years of hurt” (and counting)

Which of the following footballing nations is the odd-one out - Uruguay, Italy, France, Brazil, Argentina, Holland, England, Germany or Spain? Well, following Spain’s deserved triumph at Euro 2008, England are now the only one of these ‘footballing giants’ never to have won a major tournament on foreign soil. In fact, when you examine England’s record, it’s pretty appalling. Aside from '66, they’ve never reached a World Cup final – and they’ve only made it to the semi’s once (1990). Their record in the European Championship (winners of which include Denmark and Greece) is even worse – never a finalist, and they’ve only reached the semis twice (including 1996 when they hosted the tournament). Which perhaps puts into perspective the recent claims made by Premier League Chairman, Sir David Richards, that the number of ‘foreigners’ in the English game has ‘hurt’ the national side. The reality is that, aside from when they’ve had the (considerable) advantage of hosting a tournament, England have rarely performed well – often not even qualifying for the finals. Perhaps, rather than worrying about foreign players (or foreign managers), these high ranking officials might be better served concentrating their efforts on trying to win the right to host one of these tournaments. History suggests that this might be England’s only chance of doing well.

Joe Public

So Joe Calzaghe has suddenly ended his long relationship with promoter Frank Warren. Unfortunately, this suggests that he wants to make a fight with Roy Jones Jr. rather than face middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik (which Warren was apparently pushing). Rather than reiterate my views, here is some reaction from posters on the ESPN boxing comment board:

"Calzaghe is a coward. He knows he has no shot vs a fighter as skilled as Pavlik. If he got dropped by a 40 year old Hopkins, then he has no shot vs Pavlik"

"Pavlik is the prime fighter that could really give Calzaghe fits"

"Calzaghe is all hype until he beats a respected young formidable beast"

See, it's not just me...

No Khan Do?

So the big question following his fight at the weekend – is Amir Khan chinny? The evidence so far would seem to suggest that he may well be. Perhaps even more worrying, he also appears to have the British fighter’s disease – a poor defence. One thing is certain – he’s nowhere near ready to face any of the big names in the lightweight division, e.g. Manny Pacquiao, Juan Manuel Marquez, Joel Casamayor. And, from the evidence so far, he might never be.

Giving up the ghost

A quick reflection on the two big boxing stories this week. First, Floyd Mayweather’s retirement. I was actually glad to hear this news. As I’ve written previously, Floyd appeared to be ducking all genuine contenders (most significantly Miguel Cotto), and was seemingly content to fight people he’d already beaten convincingly in the past (i.e. De La Hoya and Hatton). Although he is, without question, one of the best fighters in the world at the moment, if he’s no longer prepared to take part in truly competitive contests, I’d rather he didn’t fight at all. Of course, his ‘retirement’ may not last forever – but hopefully, if he does return, it will be to face someone like Cotto, rather than simply another easy money making exercise. And fittingly, a day after one of the sport’s biggest stars walked away from the game, Kelly "The Ghost" Pavlik confirmed, by destroying the vastly overmatched Gary Lockett, that he has the class to take over Mayweather’s ‘pound-for-pound champion’ mantle. A match up between Pavlik and Calzaghe would be tremendous – unfortunately, I have a feeling Calzaghe won’t take this fight (despite the fight he’d have a significant weight advantage, and would probably start as favourite). Let’s hope he proves me wrong.