Coyle's trainer and Sky expert discusses boxing's upcoming fights
Friday 31 October 2014 12:38, UK
Luke Campbell and Tommy Coyle registered eye-catching wins in their hometown of Hull as their collision-course careers took another step towards next summer's inevitable contest.
And who better than Jamie Moore to talk us through some of the most anticipated bouts from the world of boxing...
Jamie says: We didn’t plan to put Katsidis away early. Sometimes that happens in boxing. The game-plan was to go back and let him walk onto shots, bust him up and stop him late. Tommy was doing some lovely boxing and timing him as we expected, but I don’t think anybody expected what happened. It was perfect timing. Even though Katsidis isn’t what he was, that punch would have done a lot of damage to him even in his prime.
Tommy punches harder than his record suggests – the reason he hasn’t had more stoppages is because he looks too hard for the knock-out. Now he’s relaxing more so his body weight is coming through the shots. He hasn’t got the raw, one-punch power of Julian Jackson or Wayne Alexander. But he hits hard enough if he catches you the way he caught Katsidis. He caught Katsidis’ shot on the gloves and timed him coming in, which is what he worked on throughout the camp. We worked on that to bust him up rather than stop him with one shot so that’s always a bonus.
I’ve been saying for a long time that once Tommy starts to listen and follow game-plans and gets rid of bad habits he will be one hell of a fighter. He proved he’s on the way to doing that - he made what should have been a tough fight into an easy night’s work.
Jamie says: Putting my analyst’s hat on, Campbell looked unbelievable. Tommy made hard work of Brizuela who is a tricky customer but Luke dealt with him. Campbell hasn’t boxed anyone of note as a pro. He will box in February before boxing Tommy in the summer so I can’t see him boxing anyone dangerous and jeopardising the big fight. So Campbell is going into a fight with Tommy without boxing anyone since the Olympics – and those head-guards and short rounds are a different kettle of fish. Campbell has got the potential to be a world champion but is he ready to box someone of Tommy’s experience? That’s why it’s so intriguing.
Putting my trainer’s hat back on, Luke poses problems. Out-boxing him is difficult because he has such height and reach advantages, so you’re not beating him from the outside. To beat Campbell in a fight you have to take him somewhere he’s never been. I know Tommy is capable of going through anything to win - look at the Brizuela fight – but we don’t yet know if Campbell can do that.
The plan will be to take Campbell into deep water and see if he can swim. We’ll soon see if he sinks.
Jamie says: Golovkin has been through the gatekeepers and looked incredible doing so. I always felt he’d walk through Marco Antonio Rubio. Martin Murray gave a great account of himself against Sergio Martinez and Felix Sturm and he’s improved since then so you’ve got to say he’s the stiffest test that Golovkin can come up against. Has he got a chance? It's difficult to say because Golovkin is such a difficult fighter. Martin has a very tight defence, he’s a huge middleweight and looked bigger than Golovkin when stood next to him. Murray can potentially pose problems and then you look at how Golovkin reacts if he’s put on the back foot or presented with something he’s not seen.
Jamie says: If the fight is made, of course I’d want to see it. It’s two of the biggest names in boxing over the past 10 years but they should have fought four or five years ago. They missed their window of that being the biggest fight of all time.
It could still be the biggest gate of all time but they’re both past their best. Pacquiao has been knocked out in the meantime by Juan Manuel Marquez and Mayweather showed vulnerability against Marcos Maidana. It’s still a huge fight but I would have liked to see it when they were both at their peak – unfortunately we’ll never get to know who was truly the best.
Jamie says: I hear they’ve got to bring in Anthony Joshua just to get between them! You’d need someone that big to separate them. The tension and the verbal bashing on Ringside will be unbelievable. Sometimes you see fights with hype, but this is genuine - real needle.
I know for a fact it’s genuine from Bellew’s side and I can see it is from Cleverly’s. They don’t like each other so it will be an interesting watch and I’ll be tuning in!