Alex Arthur has pulled out of his WBO super-featherweight Intercontinental title bout where he was set to face Alexander Hrulev on March 10th.
This is because of an arm injury as Arthur hurt his elbow in training and this means that he will miss the Hrulev bout and six weeks of full training.
Arthur said:
“The searing pain was like nothing I had ever experienced before and I immediately knew something was seriously wrong.
“I’m absolutely gutted because this was the start of a busy year for me.”
Arthur is the former European, Commonwealth and British champion, who relinquished his European belt in November to concentrate on becoming a world champion. He has an impressive record, having already beaten Russians Nikolai Eremeev, Alexey Slyauchin, Dmitry Gorodetsky and Boris Sinitsin in his career.
Many were hoping that Arthur could extend his 24-1 record in Liverpool and that his promoter, Frank Warren, could perhaps secure him a world title fight later this year.
Arthur added:
“I did try to keep my hopes alive of fighting on the show by going running with a sling but the pain was still too much and I could only use one arm so I was really just kidding myself.
“The treatment is going well and I have every faith in my physio getting me back to full fitness and back on track for my world title campaign.”
What do you think of Arthur’s injury?
Can he still get his hands on a world title this year?
How about this idea?
Boxing’s “Clash Of The Nations”
Once each year, every country is to go
head-to-head with a closely matched other
country, in one venue, in one night, in eleven
weight classes, country against country,
whichever country wins six or more of the
fights
is the overall winner.
It will be a huge hit with the viewing
public,
because there will be a home-country boy to
cheer
for in each fight.
Isn’t it worth having, just for ONE weekend
of every year?
How do we ensure that all matches are even?
That’s simple - before year one, we do a simple
exercise of giving each country ten points for
every match they have won in the most recent
Olympics and 10 points for every match won in
the
most recent world championships; 9 for each
match
in the 2nd-to-most recent of each; 8 for …
3rd;
……..
This exercise produces a ranking list -
it is this ranking list that is used to
determine
which country fights which:
Number one against number two;
three against four; 5 vs 6; … 9 vs 10;
then after the top ten, the next-best two
nations of Europe meet in one match; as do the
next best two after that; … and the same goes
for Africa; the Americas and Asia+Oc too.
Then in Year Two:
Match 1 = winner 3/4 versus loser 1/2;
Match 2 = winner 5/6 versus loser 3/4;
Match 3 = winner 7/8 versus loser 5/6;
Match 4 = winner 9/10 versus loser 7/8;
Match 5 = winner of 1/2’s most
boxing-productive
member state or province versus the rest of the
country;
Match 6, 7 & 8 = the winners of the top of
Europe, America, Africa & Asia systems meet in
a
semi-finals and a finals for a place in the top
ten.
(In the continent where the loser of 9/10 comes
from: Match A = loser of 9/10 versus winner of
match 3/4; loser of match 1/2 versus winner of
5/6; …
In the three other continents: L 1/2 versus W
3/4; L 3/4 vs W 5/6; …)
Then In Year Three:
as in year one (1vs2 = W vs W; 3vs4 = L2/3 vs
W4/5; 5vs6 = L4/5 vs W6/7; 7vs8; 9vs10 (= L 8/9
vs W of the 4 continents’ winners);
the 4 continents’ top winners versus 2 years
ago’s winners (or, where the winners of 2 years
ago are now in the world’s top 10: the
continents’ top winners versus the winners of
continent’s second clashes; ….)
So over time, each country has the
opportunity
to move slowly upward through the system and
become one of the greats, and each country that
is on a losing streak is guaranteed to
eventually
get opponent countries they can beat.
So? What do you think?
Comment by msrx9ktm — March 2, 2007 @ 4:06 pm
This idea is quite good, similar to the world cup in football.
However I do have a query with it:
Would the fights be amateur or professional?
If they were amateur then surely this is too similar to the Olympics as an international boxing comepetition.
If they were professional then you get a big problem as money comes into the equation.
All the boxers would want paying for the fights and if you want to have the best boxers in the world then it would cost a fair bit of money. Also, where would the profits go from the TV revenue? To the boxers, their promoters and entourages? Or say donated to boxing youth programs?
I would like to see a promoter enter his boxers in fights where he is not going to make any money!
These are the problems that I can see with this idea. Its a good idea so if you have any ithoughts on how to solve these problems, please feel free to comment below.
Comment by Boxing Daily — March 5, 2007 @ 5:56 pm