Now that Nate Campbell has been stripped of his lighweight world titles for not making the weight at the weekend, theres talk of the Barrera - Khan fight being for the WBO belt.

Has there ever been 2 more undeserving challengers?

Hasim Rahman and Chris Byrd - off the top of my head for starters...

At least they were ranked by the majority of the main organisations.

Khan isn't ranked in the top 20 of most of them.

Anyone seen Tyson Fury fight?He is fighting on 28th of Feb on ITV4, i think its his 3rd pro fight and is worth a watch looks like he has potential. He is only about 20 years old and we definitely need some British talent in the heavyweight division. If he comes through it ok i wouldn't mind seeing him fight Larry Olubamiwo.

Quote: John D H "At least they were ranked by the majority of the main organisations. Khan isn't ranked in the top 20 of most of them.'" khan's ranked #9 & MaB #1 challenger by the WBO www.wbo-int.com/revised/RANKINGS-WBO.asp f warren has had the WBO held down for years and they will sanction the fight as a title fight..probably for the interim title....and then warren will cherry pick khans title defenses like he did with eubank,calzaghe

Quote: John D H "At least they were ranked by the majority of the main organisations. Khan isn't ranked in the top 20 of most of them.'" khan's ranked #9 & MaB #1 challenger by the WBO www.wbo-int.com/revised/RANKINGS-WBO.asp f warren has had the WBO held down for years and they will sanction the fight as a title fight..probably for the interim title....and then warren will cherry pick khans title defenses like he did with eubank,calzaghe

Anyone know what channel the Cotto fight is going to be on, on Saturday?

Quote: John D H "Anyone know what channel the Cotto fight is going to be on, on Saturday?'" I don't think it was due to be shown, only the Pavlik v Rubio was on, Setanta have now announced they will show, but have not updated the listings on the website for which channel/what time it is on. www.setanta.com/uk/Articles/othe ... nid-41121/

Quote: John D H "Anyone know what channel the Cotto fight is going to be on, on Saturday?'" I don't think it was due to be shown, only the Pavlik v Rubio was on, Setanta have now announced they will show, but have not updated the listings on the website for which channel/what time it is on. www.setanta.com/uk/Articles/othe ... nid-41121/

It says on your link the Jennings/Cotto fight is on Setanta sports 2 at 2AM.Looking forward to this as Jennings is from my home town but I don't give him much chance of winning.Cotto to win in about 8 rounds

Word is Thomas Hearns is going to make a comeback!

He's 50

The Cotto fight was a farce. Jennings had no business being in there. I mean, he's barely out of eight-rounders!

As for Hatton-Pac. The smart money has to be on the latter, but Hatton does have a some chance. The problem for Hatton is throughout his career he's been wide open to the straight right - and Manny has one of the best in the business. If Hatton tries his usual trick of lunging in like an amateur he'll get tagged. Not with the same effect as Floyd's legendary "check hook" - but often and hurtfully.

For Hatton to win - four things must happen:

1. Build behind the jab (the single most important tactic and it's good to see Floyd Mayweather Sr. got him using it against the useful but toothless Malignaggi)
2. Hunt the body, hunt the body, hunt the body ... Manny's midriff is open to question, IMO - and Ricky has always been a nasty rib-tickler. But he can't just go in recklessly head down all night without building a platform first with his jab because on the way in he'll take a ton of leather and the risk of a cut will be hight.
3. Footwork. Hatton is one of the best in the business at closing down angles (even Mayweather found he had less room to operate than usual). Keep Pac away from the centre of the ring.
4. Use his obvious physical advantage and tire Manny out in the clinches.

It'll be a closer fight than people think. Pacquaio is no Floyd Mayweather Jr. He's not as smart, he's not as quick and his defences are nowhere near as good. Hatton did OK for 6 rounds against Floyd Jr, but lost it after the points deduction.

I believe Hatton is slightly more refined now under Floyd sr's wing, using the jab alot more effectively. He looked more of a boxer in his last fight, which was ironic considering the stick Malignaggi and the press gave him about 'slugging and hugging' when in reality, it was Malignaggi who made the fight scrappy, not Hatton.

Hopefully another training camp will help refine his boxing skills more (an under-rated feature of Hatton's).

Pacquaio is more technical and is faster, but he's a natural come forward pressure fighter. I'm not sure that style will help Pacman against Hatton. Hatton is bigger and as one of the best pressure fighters in the world. He's relentless and will come at Pac man and close the ring down all night. Pac man won't be fighting an unarmed opponent like De La Hoya. He'll be fighting the very best at 140lbs.

Great fight to look forward to.

I think it will be a very tough fight. Real blood and guts stuff. I think Manny will win (in perhaps the hardest fight of his life because of the weight differential) by TKO (probably through a cut) because he's faster, more accurate and Ricky has a tendency to take more punishment than he needs to.

Ricky will certainly put up more of a fight than Del a Hoya who had no business being in the ring with Pac that night (the Del a Hoya who beat Chavez twice would have knocked Pac into a coma).

Pac will then go on to fight Mayweather and lose.

I'm not so sure that Hatton would get stopped because of cuts. He tends to cut easily, but do you remember his fight against Thaxton? He had a shocking cut that night, but was allowed to carry on. I think we'll see a late KO one way or the other.

I think Ricky will throw more punches, but Pacquaio will be more accurate. That could be the difference if it does go to the scorecards.

It'll be up there with the Cotto-Margarito fight from last year, a real warriors fight.

Hatton has to be very careful about not throwing more punches than he needs to. He can't afford to tire down the stretch like he has in a number of recent fights because Pac will be on him like a Bengal tiger.

As mentioned earlier, he *must* get out of the way of Manny's straight right. If he continues to take that shot he'll be stopped. I've no doubts about this. Keep circling out of its effective range and leverage.

Double up the jab. Hunt the body - relentlessly.

I watched the Margarito-Cotto fight. Against someone with lesser punch resistance and stamina Cotto would have won. He boxed quite beautifully at times. The problem was the obvious size differential. At fight time Cotto looked a full weight division under Margo.

Which makes Shane Mosely's [idestruction[/i of Margarito (with his cheating plaster cast wrapped around his hands) all the more noteworthy. Sugar Shane gave him a boxing lesson.

Hatton didn't seem to tire against Malignaggi. He threw plenty of punches but he seemed a little bit more tactical and subtle in his approach. I think he'll be fine in terms of stamina. Floyd snr will push him very hard in training.

As for Mosley, great fighter. Technically he's up there with the likes of Hopkins and Mayweather jr. Alot of people have said Floyd ducked Mosley in the past, and if true, I'm not surprised. That would be a technical masterclass of boxing.