Sad news that the Greatest is on life support this eve, seems the final bell might be close this time

Yes this pitch thing is nonsense as well as I'm told it used to get completely re-laid every few seasons. I think it might have been the rules in the Prem however since these lot arrived it's just been reseeded. They did it last season and of course it wasn't great due to the horrific wet weather. Obviously a reseeded pitch takes more time to settle than a completely re turfed one so it struggled but actually started to come too this spring after the season ended and a more normal summer would probably have seen it fine for next season. So much so that the groundsman was tweeting pics of it not long ago saying it's coming on nicely now. Yet it's been ripped up again now and I'd say if we end up with another really wet year which is entirely possible then it'll be a mess again ! Bizarre, also heard Shaw was the man with this idea and it wouldn't surprise.

On the round by round betting on sky bet he was 80-1 over the first few rounds to win by KO, it fell to about 66-1 nearer the fight. Price certainly looked physically better and was good to see Burns turn it on again, I thought he'd lost that kind of form a few years ago. Bellew v Haye would be good, for me Haye spanks him pretty quick no matter what weight. Bellew can't resist going to war.

Why now though when we are skint and every other thing under the sun takes on more urgency. No point, no need for it at all when the JW has the state of the art facilities already in place.

I thought he was a goner then I checked the other guys record and he's neither fought nor beaten anyone anywhere near Bellews standard. No doubt the lad can punch but it's about taking them as well. Proves bookies know naff all as Bellew was 80-1 to win in the first few rounds this morning. I've missed out cleaning up there

Brutal stuff from Bellew, did really well recovering from that knock down. Bit of a gobshite but I've always quite liked him for some reason. Poor refereeing again though, nearly got hurt very badly that lad.

Which is obviously nothing more than people jumping in first to pick the best seats. If they don't get that they really are daft.

Suns never shone on Ewood anyway since they arrived

They'll start doing it during the season then say sorry we'll have to relocate you to the JW whilst some work is going on. All part of the plan.

We could probably do worse than consider Jason Wilcox if we are going down the Joyce type route. I doubt he'd want it as he's on a good number at City but he fits a good bit of the so called criteria.

I know he's on the comeback trail but Hayes doing himself no favours now. He should be doing that on someones undercard not making a song and dance out of it like it's a world title fight in Vegas. The whole nonsense around it was worse than the fight. He should have been fighting Briggs tonight and stepping up again the one after if he won. The Briggs fight is interesting for 3 rounds because he'll bang back for sure until he runs out of steam or gets KO'ed. Problem for Haye is he doesn't really want to take any risks and blow a huge payday with AJ so he's caught between meaningful fights and just keeping busy. I reckon he seriously needs that AJ for the money.

Good point about Groves, I cannot stand that deluded clown he's a bigger tit than Khan will ever be. On Khan I've seen him live earlier In his career many times when we used to follow Mick Jennings around. Don't know about the lad himself but his entourage left an awful lot to be desired and that was like 10/11 years ago when he was way down undercards even at Bolton arena. You'd have thought it was Mike Tyson in the building with about ten people around him at all times and I don't think that endeared them to a lot of people. He also never seemed to have a very big following from the local Asian community either for some reason. I've nowt against him and just judge him in boxing terms, he's good but just outside the elite guys. He's had a great career but he's blatantly been ducking Kell Brook, no glory to be had by ending up on his arse there.

GGG ships a lot of punches and he takes one to give one or two so it'll be interesting if Canello lands one of those although of course he's a natural at that weight. Thing with Khan has always been he can't resist letting his hands go in a fight and trading at some point so he leaves himself open for that.

Bit of a crazy fight for Khan to take but obvious respect to him he wanted a huge name from over there and a big fight. So desperate to prove himself to the Yank masses yet he's got it to do over here at his normal weight v Brook who probably KO's him as well. 2 big fights for his retirement pot though I suppose. He'll go down as a very good fighter but never elite level, bit like Hatton although I think Ricky might have had a chance over here v Mayweather and he made a complete balls of Pacman fight. Khan beats neither anywhere. That's a good dust up but surely he has to be going over the pond now. He's a cut above Flanagan now imo.

Whose next for him ? Any idea, I missed the post fight interview .

Great effort from Crolla, top drawer fighter. Shades of Hatton v Tzyu.

Great bloke Bunce and I've had a bit of verbal sparring with him on twitter. They do get hold of certain fighters on there and are all over them and they can do no wrong, I suppose sky do it as well but I sometimes feel Bunce lets his personal fondness of some get in the way at times. Fury's, Groves, Buglioni and a lot of others could run over there own grannies and they'd laugh it off on Boxnation

Think maybe Degale needs to look at changing trainer or something just for some fresh ideas now he's at top level. He's always been a bit of a good performance/indifferent performance type fighter for me. No disrespect to Macdonell who's helped him get there but sometimes they need to change and many of them do. I think I'd take Smith over any of them at the min although he really needs more experience of maybe being in a long fight with an awkward customer first.

There's been questions before about Degales attitude and he's always thought that he's better than he is. A bit like Groves, a right pair of plums at times despite both being talented. Don't know what he was playing at last night but he was playing a dangerous game from about halfway. Got some fair old stick from the crowd as well. He won't beat Jack going about it like that although Bute ran him close last night, looking very tight at that weight. Says a lot though when you consider Bute gave Jack a stern test as did Groves yet Froch destroyed Bute and Groves once. He'd surely have done similar to Degale and Jack, shame he isn't still about.

Agree Wlad can't really fight any other way. He was quite open early in his career and got battered a couple of times as a result. Only really got it together when he started to fight like his brother. All he can offer is to step it up and I hope he does as at least it'll make it a fight. Both rattled each other in the 11th & 12th last time but before than there was barely a hurtful punch. Still believe Fury is there for the taking should someone get at him but it's easier said than done.

Impossible to gauge with Fury though as he's now giving it the old I couldn't care less and I'm only fighting for money. He's not rising to Wlads new found aggression although he will as the fight draws closer no doubt, he won't be able to help himself. For me Klitchko has to get after him this time and take risk to engage in some early action otherwise the same pattern will develop as it often does in rematches. I think Fury will be fit and ready by fight time but might come in a little heavier with the intention to trade a bit more and try and stop Wlad. Such is Fury though that it wouldn't surprise me if he risks getting knocked out as it perfectly sets up another fight as decider. I do think he's in it for the money and I'm really not sure he can be bothered fighting for other belts or mandatories. Biggest payday will be Wlad again back in krautland or Wembley in a 3rd fight. Even Vegas might pitch for it. Rather odd they've chosen to fight in a small arena.........

I've a feeling Khan may pinch that if he stays disciplined. I know Alvarez is decent but I don't think he's all he's cracked up to be. Mayweather made a mug of him but I doubt Khan will be as quick with the weight on and that may be the undoing, really interesting fight.

Fury now spouting Joshua is on roids, just the same as he did with Klitschko and one or two others. The same bitterness that his other pretend pikey mate BJS was aiming at Eubank Jnr. Chips on their shoulders the size of a tower block these lot have.

Aye and i'll counter that with a right hook and say your ignoring clear mitigating circumstances Anyway moving on...........

He HAS to do that though because his actual boxing has never been as spectacular as your AJ's, Hayes, Wilders etc. These guys spark people and that's why fans get excited and want to watch them. It's interesting to note that when he was fighting Chisora in the first date in Manchester I logged on to buy tickets online only a few days before it was called off. Half the arena was closed off similar to when the darts is there and the available half was around 50% full at best. There was a fair set of other fights on as well involving some local names. This was only days before it was scheduled and they ended up switching it to London as part of a bigger bill. Also look at his twitter followers, in the days of social media it's a marker for popularity whether we like it or not. As the lineal 2 belt (was 3) Heavyweight champion of the world you'd expect him to have a fair few following him but AJ already has probably double. He doesn't have mass appeal for his boxing nor his personality so he's carving himself out a niche. There is nothing genuine about it at all as he even struggles with that because he's on a constant contradiction and as soon as he has a difficult question or runs out of something to say he reverts to bible quotes. The minute a proper heavyweight gets to his chin he's gone. Although history now says he's THE man who beat THE man it does say that about a good few heavyweights who did naff all else besides. He's the hype job imo. If he proves me wrong i'll relent.