Timo Hoffmann vs Steffen Kretschmann

09/26/2012

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In the United Kingdom we don't often see fights fought outdoors, sure it does happen occasionally but it's a rarity because of the "good old British weather". Oddly however our German cousins often have fights held outdoors and they almost always go off with out a hitch, however there is always the odd one that goes wrong.

Back just a few weeks ago, on September 14th veteran Timo Hoffmann (40-7-2-1, 23) was facing German youngster Steffen Kretschmann (16-2-0-1, 15) in an outdoor venue when the unthinkable happened...it started to rain. Now what exactly can you do when it rains at an outdoor venue?

If it's a little bit of rain you can probably, just about, get away with fighting a round or two, however when the ring gets slippery and the fights start to fall the bout then becomes a danger. This is sadly what happened in the Hoffmann v Kretschmann as the rain, although not terrible, was starting to make the ring worryingly slippery and twice forcing Kretschmann to fall to the canvas.

The early round were fought fine, as well the rest of the undercard, however in round 5 you could faintly hear the rain falling in and around the ring (in the video you can hear a "pit-pat" sound from midway in the fifth round). By the end of round 5 you see rain drops over the corner (look carefully at Hoffman's corner between rounds) and by the time they came out for round 6 the rain had become heavier and louder.

Within 20 seconds of the restart Kretschmann had slipped in the middle of the ring as the canvas had become almost like and ice rink, he'd slip again just 32 seconds later before the referee, Andre Leloup (who was now beginning to look soaked himself) decided that enough was enough and called an early ending to proceedings.

As a result of the rain the bout was ended in round 6 with the unusual outcome of "6 round no contest due to rain", perhaps a lesson, if ever one was needed, that boxing is often fought indoors for a reason.

The video below comes thanks to WBCA WM
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When you have two hard hitting Heavyweights in the ring you tend to get one of two things happening in the ring. On one hand you can get a very cautious bout where neither man engages for fear of having their clock cleaned if they make a mistake on the other hand you get a bout that is all aggression as neither man wants to give the other a chance to get into their rhythm.

When Jimmy Thunder (31-7, 31) met Crawford Grimsley (20-1, 18) in early 1997 we had one such bout where we didn't know if they were going to respect each others power or trust themselves to get the job done...it didn't take long to find out in fact it took little more than a punch each for us to know the answer.

Amazingly prior to this bout Grimsley had gone 12 rounds with George Foreman in Japan. Following this bout however Grimsley's career was all but over as he went 2-2-1 in his next 5 bouts before retiring in 2002 with a professional record of 22-4-1 (20). Whilst Thunder himself carried on it was the final highlight of his career as his record started to slide losing 7 of his next 10 before retiring in 2002 with a record of 35-14 (28).

Video for this fight comes thanks to steven76ism