Actually I would say its the other way around to be honest - especially you ya bigot! As for "Other than D-Mac I've not seen an Irish fan either picking against an Irish fighter or saying he isn't a fan of so and so." - thats a lie for starters so you go straight into the bullshitter category! And as for "Plus there's the old ''he's not British, he's Irish'' argument when talking about fighters from NI. Who really cares?" - quite a lot of people care actually. I support fighters from Ireland that consider themselves Irish and I support fighters from Ireland that consider themselves British - but it just takes a small degree of effort to respect their nationality!
Battle of the overplayed stars that have got far more airtime than their talent deserves. Should make for an excellent fight though. Duddy should win because he's less bad and has more heart for the sport.
You're not remembering quite right, or at least remembering half the story. There were actually two proposed fights. The Showtime one you mention was proposed for Montreal to be a non-title fight. Kessler however was in a mandatory position for Mundine's WBA title and withdrew from the proposed fight to pursue that option. Mundine vacated rather than get beaten by Kessler again at which point Palle went back to Miranda with a new offer for a title match for the now vacant title (Palle actually had to pull some strings with the WBA to get them to bump Miranda up their rankings so he would qualify to fight for the title). This proposal was backed by HBO and was to be in Florida. Miranda had entered into negotiations with Arthur Abraham for a rematch by that time and preferred to stay with that catchweight non-title fight rather than the WBA title fight offered by Kessler.
I think you're getting the timeline of events mixed up, this was after the Miranda/Abraham rematch. I specifically remember Miranda's team giving Kessler every concession in the book...larger ring, softer gloves, 10 rounds vs. 12, and the list goes on and on...and Mandanda's fine detective work validates my point. As i said earlier Showtime even secured it with a non-ppv listing and a non refundable retainer of $1M U.S. dollars...thus a classic duck! I remember thinking and writing at the time that Kessler had cooked his fate and would be done with Showtime and HBO as well as you don't mess with deep pockets like that in the US unless you're a huge draw.
Great stuff, glad to see Duddy get the pay day he needs, you can see his hearts not in the boxing anymore. I think if he gets enough money for this he'll be gone.
No I have the timeline exactly right. Showtime wanted the bout in Montreal on May 28th 2008 (story from March 2008). http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/boxing/news/story?id=3293638 Kessler got the WBA to enforce the mandatory against Mundine in April 2008: http://www.smh.com.au/news/sport/kessler-tries-to-stop-mundine-again/2008/04/04/1207249454521.html HBO then tried to set up the fight in Florida for June 2008: http://www.badlefthook.com/2009/1/14/720563/re-examining-the-kessler-m Miranda instead fought Abraham rematch on 21st June 2008 and Kessler fought for the vacant belt against Sartison on the same day.