At feather now that Cook would be too drained for that weight I would favour Matthews. Not sure If Derry's ready for him but Cook has only succeeded at Euro class.
Apparently so. His campaigning at super feather. His been struggling to make weight for a LONG time. In my opinion he`d be even better at lightweight.
I think Cook would put Matthews away pretty easily to be honest. Struggling to make 126, therefore should move up.
i agree cook would smash him...........if cooks only a euro level fighter........who has mathews fought at WORLD level??? that is worthy of being world level.....
Is Matthews not the holder of the fabled, holy grail of boxing...................... the WBU title. All the 'greats' have won either that or the WBF title. Names like: Matt Skelton Audley Harrison Johnny Nelson Select company indeed. If your not going to win one of the three/four main belts (WBA/WBC/IBF/WBO maybe), at least make sure its the IBO - at least decent fighters win those, and they rank boxers properly - not for the WBU, who rank boxers on the number of times Frank Warren has bummed the chairman for their cause.
Niether does Skelton. The thing i dont like about Matthews is he makes no attempt to chase a world belt, at least hatton did that when he was WBU champ.
Probably a bit harsh on Johnny Nelson, but you must see where I was going. Hatton made about 15 defences of the WBU belt, but in reality, the title was secondary to his career ambitions. For instance, he tried to get fights with guys like Pinto, Harris, Corley etc, but for whatever reason, they didn't happen. The belt was there to make it interesting to the TV companies, and casual fans who thought they were watching a genuine title contest. I think everyone was aware of Hatton's potential as a P4P contender, but I doubt anyone could say the same for Matthews i'm afraid.
Some of Hattons challengers were very capable... Anyone who thinks his WBU reign was 100% poor grade opponents is foolish.
Some of them were pretty capable. It's just a shame that the most capable ones were past their best! The name Vince Phillips springs to mind. The WBU belt was secondary really, it was more for the marketing side than actual prestige. (Carrying belts is great for ticket sales and gets non boxing fans tuned in)
The lesser belts have lost some more credit since Sky stopped showing the fights, before that any guy with a fabricated belt could say they were a genuine world challenger. Now when a guy like Derry holds the belt it is different from when the last generation held those belts. I am not a Derry hater and I do suspect he has got the tools to move up in class but I do not believe he will ever make a proper world title holder. A good Euro level champ though. If he gets the fights.
