Terry Flanagan has made an emphatic statement, says Jamie Moore
Thursday 15 October 2015 11:34, UK
A big statement from Terry Flanagan, glory for Liam Smith, a risk for Nathan Cleverly and more. Here's Jamie...
How important was that world title defence for Terry Flanagan?
Jamie says: He did that handsomely. It was a really big statement the other night. People were expecting him to win but expecting a difficult fight so for him to demolish him was great. We've all known about Flanagan for a few years but it wasn't until the other night that he really arrived on the world scene.
We've all known about Flanagan for a few years but it wasn't until the other night that he really arrived on the world scene.
He probably sold himself to the American market with that performance but there are some massive fights domestically that we'd all like to see. From Terry's point of view, he might want to broaden his horizons and I'm sure they'd like his style in America. He's high-paced with fast hands and a stiff hitter. I think he can earn good money over there and they'd welcome him.
It was a massive night for Liam Smith too. Where can he go now?
I was really impressed by Liam - not just the way he finished the job but the way he went about it in the first place. He was cool. He didn't rush in to it. I was sat ringside and he just took the sting out of Thompson and walked him down. Liam had a confidence about him because he knew he was going to get him eventually - it was only a matter of time. Thompson felt it as well and was very twitchy about it.
What impressed me the most was the patience but once he got Thompson on the hook, he didn't let him off. Smith went from second gear to sixth gear in no time at all and it was really impressive stuff.
I saw there had been talk of Shane Mosley. That would be a great name to have on your record but I'm not sure how much mileage there is in it. Mosley retired and came back and he's old now - not in the Bernard Hopkins way in getting better with age. Mosley isn't the fighter he was.
We are going to see Kal Yafai in action on Saturday night. How highly do you rate him?
I really rate Kal Yafai highly. Of all those Team GB lads that have crossed over in the last few years, I think he's got the style that suits the professional ranks the most. He's a great body-puncher on the inside with those nice short, powerful hooks.
The difficulty he's got is his weight division, super-flyweight. It's certainly not stacked with talent - certainly not in Britain. It's difficult to cement your name and get people talking about you when you're in the smaller weight divisions because there aren't names that are on the tips of people's tongues. That's the problem he's going to have but Yafai is certainly a massive talent and Eddie Hearn will sell him well.
How will Nathan Cleverly get on in America against Andrzej Fonfara?
Cleverly is up against it against Fonfara. It's that stage in Nathan's career where it could reignite or pretty much finish it and he's got a tall task, because Fonfara is a very good fighter. It's not out of the realms of possibility Cleverly can win but going back down in weight at that stage of your career - even though cruiserweight clearly didn't suit him - is never easy.
All the signs are telling me it's not going to be a good night for Nathan. It's a shame because he's a great kid and has had a great career but all good things come to an end.
Tyson Fury accused Wladimir Klitschko of 'mind games' over the injury. What are your experiences of that in boxing?
The one that sticks out immediately is Steve Collins against Chris Eubank when those two met. Collins told people he had been hypnotised and was totally convinced he was going to beat him. He had a sports psychologist but it was a publicity stunt and all part of a ploy to unsettle Eubank. It certainly worked and I'll never forget Collins sat in the corner with his hood up pretending he was under hypnosis.
One of my little psychological games was to be overly-friendly at the weigh-in and then massively hostile as soon as we got in the ring. It would be a big contrast for my opponents, dealing with somebody completely different to the day before. It was just designed to unsettle them and most of the time I think it worked.
