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View Full Version : Joe Calzaghe v Peter Manfredo Jr


Simon
8th April 2007, 05:45 PM
Here's my account of the day for those intersted :thumbsup:

What an incredible day, seriously probably the best atmosphere I have ever been in, considering I've been to Meadow Park that is saying something. ;)

We got to the Millenium for 2pm and went straight in. The layout of the arena was cut in half, but it made it alot more intimate and overall created a better atmosphere in the long run.

I'm not sure whether it was televised or not but Takaloo v Michael Jennings was a good fight I thought.

The atmosphere was totally dead until Enzo Maccarenelli entered which was about 8pm, who received a thunderous ovation from the (roughly 29,000) people who were currently in the Stadium (everyone else came in for Khan and Calzaghe). He owned Bobby Gunn totally, broke his nose in the opening punches and basically eased to victory. Only a one rounder but well worth it.

However, the Khan fight was ruined for me personally because, even though I was actually sat in the correct seat, some blonde woman behind me was convinced her friend was supposed to be sitting in my seat and even went to the Millenium Stadium staff who then said I was correct! She totally ruined the Khan fight for me, but from what I saw, his oppenent wasn't very good at all, he needs to step up the caliber of his oppenents if he is going to be taken seriously.

However, Calzaghe v Manfredo the crowd was hot beyond belief. Manfredo got royally booed out of the building last night and you could see he was absolutely petrified during the fight. Calzaghe received an ovation like nothing I've ever heard, it was Thunderous!

What can you say about the national anthems. The American Anthem was booed so loudly you couldn't hear the singer at all. I don't know how it came out on TV but the booing was deafening (seeing as this fight was being shown live on HBO, it's probably not the best advert for British Crowds or fighters for that matter). The Welsh Anthem was deafening as per usual at Welsh sporting events, it was incredible.

The fight was a dissapointment, the ref was way too eager to stop the fight and in hindsight it was probably a terrible decision. You could see that Manfredo wasn't moving his arms at all, but he wasn't hurt. Calzaghe totally dominated im the 1st, 2nd and 3rd rounds, so Manfredo would have been TKO'ed sooner rather than later. Anyway the crowd didn't care, we went ape!

Truly an awesome experience.

Woody
8th April 2007, 06:47 PM
Manfredo looked like a Rabbit caught in headlights, totally out of his league. The Ref did stop it a bit too soon but he probably did him a favour in all honesty. The booing of the US anthem didn't sound too bad on TV but i can imagine it was a lot worse actually being there. Calzaghe is a great fighter but he really needs a big fight now. I'd like to see him take on Carl Froch but he's probably not a big enough name for the HBO paymasters. Khan is being protected by Frank Warren and seriously needs a better class of opponent if we are to discover if he is the real deal or not!

Simon
8th April 2007, 07:14 PM
I reckon he needs a 'Super Fight' now. Many names have been mentioned but apparently Frank Warren has offered Jermain Taylor £3m to fight Joe in July in Britain.
Apparently HBO want him to face Bernard Hopkins however I doubt this would happen.