Oscar: three-fight fanfare

Enjoy him while he's here - it will be a long time before we have another fighting attraction quite as magnetic as The Golden Boy.

Adam Smith
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2008 will be great!

Boxing returned from the festive break with a bang over the weekend and while Roy Jones and Andrew Golota kept improbable world title ambitions alive and Matt Skelton lost a brave effort for the world heavyweight title, Friday Fight Night had us all gripped back home...

I mentioned only last week how much the Lonsdale belt means to British fighters and Esham Pickering and Sean Hughes reminded us once more, on a bitterly cold Burton night, as they dished up a domestic thriller on the banks of the Trent.

There was a fabulous atmosphere with Midlands' greats Pat Cowdell, Neville Brown and Robert McCracken ringside to see the re-match between our two leading super-bantamweights.

Having unexpectedly lost an eight-rounder to Hughes in November, Pickering was fighting for his whole career as he defended his British title against the worthy challenger. Early on it seemed like Pickering had little left; once again Hughes was catching him easily with his southpaw jab and left hands.

But never write off this Newark fighter. He's proved time and again that he can come back, and in a remarkable fourth round, Pickering turned the fight on its head, flooring Hughes heavily twice. The Yorkshire warehouse worker - who had brought hundreds of fans for the night he called his 'Cup Final' - did so well to pick himself up and even have further moments in what was a cracking contest.

However, Pickering was assuming control and eventually referee Howard Foster halted Hughes's brave effort in the ninth round. Pickering retained his crown proving how deep fighters will dig, even if they are not as quick, fresh or skilled as they once were.

One man who is becoming even better with age headlines on Friday Fight Night this week. Colin Lynes had a superb 2007. The Hornchurch craftsman rebounded from poor ring nights and the tragic demise of his father to re-dedicate and re-motivate himself to the sport.

Lynes has always had the talent. Tall, sharp, clever and possessing one of the most penetrating jabs in British boxing, he was seen as an under-achiever, but maybe he just needed full direction, commitment, an injection of confidence and a bit of luck too.

Collection

The Essex stylist brilliantly outboxed Barry Morrison in front of a hostile crowd up in Motherwell to win the British light-welterweight title, before stunning Young Mutley and silencing his fans in Wolverhampton to add the European belt to his growing collection.

Having started 2007 heading nowhere, Lynes begins 2008 as a double champion, and finally enjoys home advantage as he makes the first defence of his European crown against Finland's Juho Tolppola in Dagenham. Tolppola was a bronze medallist in the European Championships, who we've seen over here before, extending quality southpaw David Barnes. Tolppola's won 20 of 24 and must be considered a danger.

Lynes needs a polished performance to keep this momentum going. He's a well-schooled operator, who while not quite in the league of Ricky Hatton or Junior Witter, is carving his own way through the light-welterweight division, and maybe at 30, the best is still to come...

Former European Champion Ted Bami heads a packed undercard and after a quiet period for the Brixton hairdresser, he'll be aiming to return to the mix and hopefully get a shot at Lynes. One or two of those backflips will surely somersault Bami back into contention.

The rumour mill's really rumbling on this week as well. The old Mexican warriors can't leave it alone. Three-weight world champion Erik Morales wants to fight on, while arch rival Marco Antonio Barrera is set to come straight out of retirement too. Barrera's great pal, Ricky Hatton is eying up an unlikely but tempting tussle with Filipino superstar Manny Pacquiao somewhere down the line.

Alex Arthur will finally get his world title chance, probably against the dazzling Joan Guzman. Roy Jones wanted to intercept Joe Calzaghe's fight with Bernard Hopkins by flying over in a private jet and begging the brilliant Welshman to meet him in Cardiff, but the Hopkins-Calzaghe dual is on for April 19th in Las Vegas. One of our rather forgotten world champions, Clinton Woods, could be facing Antonio Tarver in the States in April too.

And finally, this week's exciting news that Oscar De La Hoya's amazing boxing journey will end with a fanfare. Three fights are planned in 2008. First up a showcase is set for May 3rd, possibly in Mexico's huge Azteca stadium, where Julio Cesar Chavez and Greg Haugen attracted a record crowd of 132,247!

It looks like De La Hoya will tackle former world champion and Contender star Steve Forbes. A re-match with Floyd Mayweather is planned for September, before a career finale just before Christmas.

Enjoy him while he's here - it will be a long time before we have another fighting attraction quite as magnetic as The Golden Boy.