the giant Russian. The pre-fight hype was well mustered, mainly by the
trash-talking Hayemaker:
“He’s an ugly type of fighter, he tries to lean on you, tries to brawl and comes
out with a really hairy chest that gets matted and is disgusting.
“The size I am, I sort of come up to his chest and apparently the word around
the campfire is that he doesn’t smell too sweet.
“Hopefully he runs a cold tap over himself or someone hoses him down outside
before he comes in.” – David Haye
While a lot of people might find him disrespectful (well, let’s face it – he
is), I think boxing needs people like him to reignite the dwindling embers of a
once glorious heavyweight division. Anyway, I did think Haye could get a result
and went out on a limb and put five whole pounds on a points victory.
He fought a near perfect fight, staying out of trouble and doing enough to win
most of the rounds. He even managed to rock the giant in the final round and
leave punters wondering what could have been had he been more adventurous (or
hadn’t allegedly damaged his hand) earlier on. In fact the result could have
gone either way, but I think justice was served as the more skilled fighter won
and I got my £10 bumper prize.
Another mouth-watering, pants moistening fight involved
Manny Pacquiao
against the very respectable Miguel Cotto. The Pacman is generally regarded as
pound for pound the best fighter in the world and although Money Mayweather
might have something to say about that, he simply blew away Cotto in a savage
one-sided encounter. Cotto was the bigger man (as was De La Hoya and Hatton
before him), but he was gobbled up by Pacquiao and bullied by the smaller
Filipino from about the second round onwards, culminating in a 12th round TKO.
You have to feel sorry for Cotto, who started brightly and was brave throughout,
but he just couldn’t keep up with the ferocious pace of his opponent, who must
clearly have been eating some kind of power pills! :p
And C4 have won their last five matches in a row. We started with comfortable
wins against the second team and Hughes Hall, before following it up with two
league wins against St John’s 2nds and Trinity Hall 2nds. In between that, we
beat Robinson 1sts 4-2 in the first round of the cuppers competition:
Robinson 2 – 4 CCCC (8.11.09)
Although we’ve come close in the past, this was our first win over a first team
and it came in the Cuppers competition.
I can’t remember much of what happened as it was over two weeks ago…
I reffed the first half as had played two matches the day before and against the
run of play, we went 1-0 down. We responded well though and we took control
ofthe game again. Minh won a penalty and Shu dispatched it with consumate ease.
Chung scored our second in off the cross bar – it bounced across the line and
out again, but their linesman was honest enough to award it.
We scored again (can’t remember how!) before they got their second goal to make
it 3-2 and set up a tense finale. However, a scuffed shot from Luong went
straight into Shu’s midriff/groin area, but the player of the season controlled
it well and rifled in from close range to seal the game.
Trinity Hall 2nds 2 – 4 CCCC (15.11.09)
Lewis, Wingo, Dang, Frankie, Shaf, Chung, Be, Shu, Jake, Luong, Minh
Subs: Squeeky, Oleg
Only our second league match and we faced a surprisingly resilient Tit Hall
side.
The first half was dominated by C4 and we kept them quiet while creating good
chances at the business end. Despite being far the more dangerous team, our
first goal was laced with a plentiful dose of fortune. Minh whipped in looping
corner which was probably goal bound anyway, but the keeper could only get a
hand to it and help it on its way to make it 1 – 0 to the visiting team. Be and
particularly Shu had bossed the midfield, and indeed a measured through ball
from the Japanese maestro put Luong through on goal. For once, the flag stayed
down and he raced through to steer it in at the far corner to double our lead.
With a healthy two goal margin, perhaps we relaxed a little as a Trinity Hall
midfielder picked up a loose ball from midfield and was allowed to advance
before firing a swerving shot from about 30 yards. Lewis had it covered for most
of the way, but misjudged it and it was allowed to squirm out of his grasp and
into our net. The shot was from some distance and destined for Lewis’s gloves,
but it was a mistake to give the player space to shoot in the first place.
We felt a little hard done by, but picked oursleves up again. Not long after,
Frankie controlled a lofted clearance right into the danger area and Luong beat
the offside trap to round the keeper to restore the two goal cushion. However,
we let them back into the game again with a loose back pass that allowed their
striker to lift a finish over our keeper to make it 2 – 3 and that was how we
went into half time.
We made some changes with Oleg coming on and alas the second half was a
scrappier affair. With the combination of an outrageous long throw and oyur gung
ho approach, we made it difficult for ourselves.
Although we had the much better of the chances, with Oleg, Minh and Shu all
coming close, we had to wait until the 85th minute to make it safe. And again it
was the effervescent Shu who finished off a strong run with a finish from a
tight angle.
It was a tough match and we definitely deserved the win. However, the overly
musclebound Chung went off at about half time with a fractured metatarsal and
will be out of action for up to six weeks.
with the score at 1 – 3 at halftime.
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