Me and Mrs Diehard wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.  Exciting 2016 coming up for Joseph and Izu, so please post often.

Many thanks to all who have posted, viewed, and created threads.

http://www.boxingscene.com/erkan-teper-reportedly-fails-drug-test-price-ko--99637

Just noticed this today, might be one contender we don't have to worry about!

The Bronze Bomber Deontay Wilder faces his third defense of his WBC title against the polish contender Artur Szpilka.
Can Wilder keep his unbeaten streak going, or is his chin going to be tested?

Vyacheslav Glazkov and Charles Martin will fight for a vacant IBF heavyweight world title...who will be crowned?

David Haye returns to the ring after a 3 year break taking on Mark De Mori, has Haye lost any of his flair? 


Don't forget to cast your predictions!

Heavyweight knockout artist Luis Ortiz and top contender Bryant Jennings will meet in a toss-up fight Dec. 19 in the main event of a "Boxing After Dark" card at the Turning Stone Casino Resort in Verona, New York.

Is Bryant Jennings going to stop "the real king-kong"? or is Ortiz going to keep his unbeaten streak going all the way to a title fight?

Your predictions will go onto the newly created prediction page!

Starting with Whyte vs Joshua, I thought it might be a good idea to put our predictions all on one thread. At least we have a easy way to view who got things right and who was very very wrong.

Nakifan- Whyte KO Round 6
gothenaki- For reasons I've previously mentioned I'm picking AJ in 4
Yanni- my pick would be another AJ win via KO within the first few rounds
Nigs- AJ round round 4
Boxingfan25- I am predicting Dillian Whyte to KNOCK OUT Anthony Joshua
Kiwi- I am with you, bro.I rate it a 50/50 fight (Whyte to win?, I guess that is what Kiwi is saying...)
Shamrock- Me too Nigs, all the way. (AJ to win)
Tm7- AJ to clean him up with TKO round 2
WestyWarrior- I'm picking AJ stops Whyte in the third
diehard- AJ KO's him in the second. Whyte is defense-less.

Please put down your predictions on the fight thread: http://www.nzboxchat.co.nz/showthread.php?tid=78, and I'll transfer your choices into here.


Cheers,

NakiFan

OK Sky Subscribers:  AJ vs Whyte from 6AM to Noon on this Sunday on Sky Sport 65.  My guess is that the fight will start mid-morning.  No charge.

OK, enough of all this craziness about guys like Parker and AJ being ranked in the top 5 without having faced anyone in the top 10.  And Martin and Glazkov ranked in the top 5, and even maybe fighting for a title in a face-off without ever facing decent opposition.  And Tyson Fury fighting for a title against Klit when he's only had 4 fights in 3 years. 

So here's my criteria for a top 15 in any of the alphabets:

1) To be in the top 15, you have to have beaten someone in the top 15.  To be in the top 10, you have to have beaten someone in the top 10.  To be in the top 5, you have to have beaten someone in the top 5.  That goes for each alphabet in which a fighter is rated.

2)  If you are ranked in the top 15, you have to fight someone in the top 15 every six months.  If you win, you keep your ranking.  If you lose, you switch places with whoever beats you.  If you don't fight someone in the top 15 every six months, you are no longer ranked in that particular alphabet.

3) If someone forfeits their right to a ranking by not fighting someone in the top 15 in six months, the alphabet committee selects the next best fighter.  He then has to fight someone in the top 15 in his next fight.

This will eliminate, as much as possible, the politics of the alphabets, and result in much better match-ups for the pundits.

OK, who's going, who's watching, who's betting, who's linking???

Agreed today that Lucas Browne will finally get his shot at WBA 'championship' belt against holder Ruslan Chagaev in late Feb/early March 2016.

Fight supposedly to take place in Grozny, Russia.

Interesting to see if Lucas will have another warmup fight after that Julius Long shambles?

So Mark de Mori is stepping up in big fashion, fighting David Haye at the O2 Arena in London on Jan 16th.

They've obviosuly chosen De Mori as a comeback fight because he's ranked but also seems very limited.

The two of them have had some good banter on Twitter over the last week and at the press conference today De Mori 'heatbutted' pushed Haye. No matter how good the fight is it will certainly get massive exposure.

I can't see muscle-man upsetting Haye but it's hard to say as he's been out of the ring for 3 years.

Interesting to see what happens to De Mori afterwards if he loses, he will drop out of the rankings then move to prospects?