Simply Super

The current NFL season (that’s American football to the uninitiated) culminates this weekend, with Superbowl XLIII. And what a season it has been - full of great games and plenty of upsets. There can’t be anyone on the planet who would have believed when it started back in September that the Arizona Cardinals would make it all the way to the showpiece event – indeed, despite winning their division, few pundits thought they’d even make it through the first week of the playoffs. This unpredictability is what makes the NFL so great – and provides such a refreshing change from the monotony of Premiership football, where the same teams continue to dominate year after year. Let’s hope Sunday’s game provides a fitting finale to a wonderful season – and my fear that the Cardinals could get blown away by the Pittsburgh Steelers proves unfounded.

He’s got the Power

Last weekend Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor became world darts champion for the 14th – yes 14th - time. Forget about the argument that darts isn’t really a sport – which I expect is only made by people who haven’t actually played it (or those who do play, but can’t manage to score more than 26). Frankly, I don’t care if you’re talking about tiddlywinks or knitting – to be the best in the world at anything on 14 occasions is simply extraordinary. Taylor’s record at the world championships is phenomenal – he’s lost only four matches at the PDC event since its inception in 1994, failing to reach the final just once. In fact, forget about calling him the greatest sports person in the country – I hereby declare Taylor to be the greatest living Briton.

This one's for you Fran

Just a very quick post (after an absence of nearly 6 months – sincere apologies) to announce my fighter of the year. I know you’d be disappointed if I picked Manny Pacquiao (far too predictable) and astounded if I went for Joe Calzaghe - but no need to worry. I’m going for Bernard Hopkins. Besides giving Pavlik a complete boxing masterclass, he also knocked Calzaghe on his backside, and in my opinion won that fight. In fact, as far as I'm concerned, he hasn't actually lost a fight since Roy Jones (then at his very prime) beat him - and that was over 15 years ago. Even 'officially' he's only lost three extremely close (and very contentious) decisions in that period. Undoubtedly one of the most incredible boxers of this or any other era. And he's still producing fantastic performances at 43. ‘Nuff said.

“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.