Rhodes wants Margarito after Messi

[Wheelchair]

WHILE on paper it looks a routine task, Sheffield’s European light-middleweight king Ryan Rhodes admits he doesn’t want to take any chances when he faces Italian veteran Luca Messi at the Ponds Forge Sports Centre in his home city on Friday night.

 

Rhodes, 33, put himself in line for a shot at the WBC 11 stone crown when he stopped Salford warrior Jamie Moore in seven rounds last October and knows a slip-up against Messi will cost him much more than his EBU strap.

 

“I’ve got more to lose than I have to gain so it’s dangerous,” Rhodes admitted. “I read a report on the internet where he [Messi] said I’m underestimating him but I’m not because I know it’s probably his last chance to get a European title so I think he’s going to give absolutely everything.

 

“Looking at his record he doesn’t seem to be a big puncher but watching him on YouTube he fights like a puncher. He looks like a typical Italian, he comes forward and swings loads of hooks and uppercuts. It seems like he’s going to be up for a good, tough fight.”

 

A young Rhodes twice lost out in WBO title fights at middleweight in the late 1990s but when he halted Moore late last year it seemed certain that the Yorkshire man would soon be fighting for world honours again.

 

However Sergio Martinez’s stint at middleweight, coupled with managerial issues, have led to the Sheffield native playing the waiting game. Now, though, he has parted company with former co-manager Frank Warren and joined forces with promoter Ricky Hatton. He hopes this new alliance will finally lead to him he gets his paws on a global belt.

 

“Myself, Frank Warren and Dave Coldwell have got a few issues to sort but Ricky said he would get me a fight and he’s fulfilled that," noted Rhodes. "Until we have a hearing with the board I’m not sure what I can and what I can’t say [about the Warren situation]. I’ve just applied for my own manager's licence and that’s been granted by the Area Council so that’s a good sign.

 

“Ricky has said he wants to provide me with a world title, which as everyone knows is music to my ears. I want a world title at light-middleweight. I’ve never been given the opportunity at this weight, it came at middleweight and I was young and if I’m honest it was probably too big a weight for me.

 

“Now I’m more experienced, I’m wiser and I know far more about my body, what works and what doesn’t. Overall I’m a better fighter and I feel light-middleweight is my natural weight and it’s a weight I'm unbeaten at, people forget that. My four losses all came at middleweight.”

 

Despite Rhodes earning a mandatory position with the WBC, the Mexico City-based organisation’s recent ratings have made confusing reading for the Steel City man as he now finds himself ranked behind Antonio Margarito, even though the former welterweight kingpin is new at the weight.

 

“I saw Margarito in at number three and I find that a little bit strange,” said Rhodes, 43-4 (29). “He gets suspended for 18 months for using illegal wraps, he gets smashed at welterweight against Shane Mosley and on his return fight he’s getting put in at number three, it’s bizarre.

 

“Obviously it pushed me back to number four, but it all depends on what Martinez does, if he stays at middleweight and vacates or comes back down to light-middleweight. I’ve no problem with having a final eliminator with Margarito, I think that would be a fantastic fight.”

 

Even if Rhodes never gets to the pinnacle of the 154-pound weight class, the fact that he has regained the British title he first won in 1996 and added the European crown to his display cabinet, means he’s achieved more than many expected of him at one point in his career.

 

After his three-round defeat to Lee Blundell in 2002, Ryan’s career was in tatters and he spent the next few years plying his trade against journeymen way down Sports Network undercards, but he never stopped believing.

 

“I wasn’t getting the fights I wanted,” he recalled. “I just felt I was training and fights were falling through, opponents were pulling out and for a couple of years all I was doing was keeping myself active.

 

“I knew my time would come. Other people in my situation would have retired but I knew deep down what I was doing in the gym and that once I got my shot I’d take it with both hands.”

 

http://www.boxingnewsonline.net/BN08/detail.asp?id=1753

[brooklynbrawler]

I like Rhodes, and although I think he falls just short of world champion level, there may well be something in the weight thing he brings up.

Although it's difficult to predict that he'll fare well in a light middleweight world championship fight, after being outboxed by Lockett, who was in turn destroyed by Pavlik, it is his only loss in over 8 years now...

You can forgive him the loss to Otis Grant, and then his other two losses were by KO, so there is an argument to be made that he was too small for the weight.

Dzinziruk, Foreman, Martinez and Spinks are the current champs, and of those I'd say that Martinez is the only guy I think he definitely wouldn't beat, and given he's a dual middleweight champion now, I doubt he's going to move back down, so fair play. I think he'd beat Spinks, and Foreman and Dzinziruk are largely untested, so it's difficult to really tell how he'd fare.

[Wheelchair]

Maybe if Martinez gives up the WBC belt Rhodes might get a chance to fight for the vacant belt?

[gavpowell]

Rhodes v Margarito would be another Jennings -Cotto

[Wheelchair]

You could well be right Gav.

[brooklynbrawler]

It really depends how Margarito comes back, for me.

His biggest asset has always been his durability, and the fact he could walk through dozens of shots to keep delivering some of his own.

He also had an excellent workrate and few could match him for punch volume.

I'm not convinced he'll come back the same fighter after being soundly beaten and then knocked out well in the Mosley fight, and the handwrap scandal will always linger above him now.

I suspect that even a half-peak Margarito would do enough to easily take a points victory against Rhodes, but he might just be taking him at the right time, if it does go ahead.

It could be a Cotto vs Jennings, or it could be a Williams vs Tyson.

Don't forget, it would also be a welterweight moving up versus a middleweight moving down...

[Wheelchair]

It could be a Cotto vs Jennings, or it could be a Williams vs Tyson.

 

Don't forget, it would also be a welterweight moving up versus a middleweight moving down...

 

I wonder if we will indeed see them in the ring together?

[leerhodes]

you have to be joking

 

Rhodes v Margarito would be another Jennings -Cotto

 

you have to be joking on the above comment,jennings was 10/1 against cotto,

I bet you wouldnt give me them odds on Rhodes.

Rhodes is really strong at this weight,he packs a punch has great boxing skills and can take big punches and come back ( ask jamie moore ).Rhodes will win the world title whoever he fights in this division.

[gavpowell]

Re: you have to be joking

 

Rhodes v Margarito would be another Jennings -Cotto

 

you have to be joking on the above comment,jennings was 10/1 against cotto,

I bet you wouldnt give me them odds on Rhodes.

Rhodes is really strong at this weight,he packs a punch has great boxing skills and can take big punches and come back ( ask jamie moore ).Rhodes will win the world title whoever he fights in this division.

 

I'll give you 10/1 on Rhodes quite happily - there is no way Ryan Rhodes is good enough to beat anyone world class, even as one-dimensional as Margarito.

 

As to asking Jamir Moore, Moore was, at best, European class, as is Rhodes. Moore was never going to be a world champion.

[leerhodes]

ile be knocking

 

ile be knocking on your door for the 10/1 if the fight comes off mlol/ they dont call me the bookie for nout mlol/