Mayweather remains undefeated in Vegas

So there was quite a big fight that took place in Las Vegas last night. Undefeated 'Prettyboy' Floyd Mayweather took on fans champ 'Sugar' Shane Mosley.

Mosley has built a legacy by taking on the champs at their best and losing a few, but winning a lot of them and making a LOT of fans in the process. He had 4 defeats going into the fight compared to Mayweather's unblemished record.

It was by far the biggest fight of the year so far and the MGM Grand was packed.

Floyd started well, keeping his distance and nicked the 1st round with a few jabs. However in the 2nd round the fight came alive!

Mosley caught Floyd and had him hanging onto the midriff of his older opponent. The ref split them and Mosely caught Floyd again with a right hook to the side of the head. Floyds legs buckled and he looked to have taken a knee, but amazingly he caught himself just before touching the canvas and managed to stay on his feet.

The crowd were deafening sensing that their hero was on the verge of a career defining victory and forcing what could be a career ending defeat for Mayweather.

However somehow, implausibly (but not impossibly) Floyd stayed up and covered, ran and clung on till the end of the round.

It seemed that Sugar Shane had missed his chance as Floyd had managed to see out what was probably the toughest moment of his professional career. In the 3rd round, normal service was resumed and Floyds superior speed and amazing counter attacking style prevailed.

His pride had clearly been hurt when he was forced to cling on in the 2nd round and he came out swinging in the 3rd round. Never had Floyd been so aggressive early on in a fight. But he had weathered the storm and was now back on top; it seemed Mosley was back to square one trying to find any chink in the armour of possibly the most able fighter of his generation.

As the fight progressed Mayweather kept control, comfortably winning every round from then on. Mosley was a beaten man well before the fighters embraced at the final bell. Probably a lesser fighter would have been pulled out of the fight around round 8 or 9 when it was clear he could offer nothing in response to Mayweathers superiority. However he soldiered on and even managed a final challenge in the dying seconds of the fight as Floyd was forced onto the ropes and had to cover up and swing a few punches of his own to fend off the wounded animal.

But fend them off he did and he was declared the victor by a unanimous decision. Two judges giving Mosley only a single round and the other judge, perhaps sympathetically, giving him two.

And so Floyd's legacy continues. Undefeated now and at age 33 his speed and skills still look on top of the world. However there is just one questionmark that remains for Floyd and that is in the shape of a little bearded Filipino.

Manny Pacquio is the only other fighter who can lay claim to being the top fighter in the world. He has ended the careers of two fan favourites; Oscar de la Hoya and Ricky Hatton as well as pummeling an aging Miguel Cotto for 12 rounds last year.

Following last night's fight, Floyd was obviously asked about the Pacquio fight. However stuck to his party line that Manny must agree to blood testing right up until the fight. This really is a big big shame as I think it is clear that Floyd does not want to fight Manny and fears his legacy would be blemished in a contest with a younger and potentially quicker opponent.

Manny has agreed to Olympic style drug testing which would include a blood test 30 days before and straight after the fight. Surely if it is good enough for the Olympics it is good enough for Boxing, which doesn't have the tarnished reputation of other sports such as Cycling and Athletics where there are still high profile doping scandals breaking every year.

I think whatever happens it is clear that it is Floyd who is running scared and creating unreasonable barriers to making the fight that everyone wants to see and would surely be the highest earning and potentially most watched fight ever.

Lets just hope the fight can take place this year, before there is a suggestion that either boxer is a spent force or not on top of his game.

Season 2009 / 10; that's enough of that then!

So Morton won 2-1, we're staying up, we're great, slaps on the back all round.

Well not quite. For one of the few times this season we got a result, but were a bit jammy. A good save from Stewart in the 1st half when Mendes got through was crucial, but a second half save from point blank range following a corner was really a wonderous contribution.

We had about 3 shots on target, and scored 2 of them. But make no mistake Morton are rank and without some major surgery we will be in this position again next season.

1st things 1st. The manager. Should Grady stay? I'm not really too fussed. He's come in, kept us up but really any progress is difficult to see. What I would say is that apart from Don Simmonds (who was woeful today, and ironically cheered off the park when he was subbed) we have generally signed good players.

David Van Zanten, Michael Tidser, David Witeveen, Kevin McKinlay etc. We also took on Alan Reid, who made a contribution without being brilliant.

If we managed to maintain this level of incoming player, then surely we'd be a better team next season. Also, another case for keeping Grady is anyone new is an unknown quantity, a further cost to us and YET another change. My feeling is that Grady will get a one year contract.

So players.

I'm happy to keep Colin Stewart as keeper. We also have Cuthbert who is also a decent keeper, but probably we would be best moving him on in order to free up a wage.

Defence. I reckon we should keep Greacan and also try and keep Shimmin. These two are both decent centre halves at this level and could potentially form part of a promotion winning team.

Would def like to keep Ryan McGuffie as right back and I think there is no major problem with McKinlay at left back. Would also keep Dave McGregor and Alex Walker as defensive cover. Alan Reid to depart (assuming Walker can prove his fitness).

Midfield. It seems certain that Jim McAlister will depart to the SPL. Erik Paartalu is leaving (thank feck) which leaves us with Tidser (must keep), Jenkins, McFarlane, Finlayson, Masterton and Monti.

We should def keep Tidser and I'm sure McFarlane has a contract for one more season. I would also keep Monti who seems to be an able replacement for Jim McAlister.

Finlayson MUST go. He set up Monti for the second goal today, but I think this is only his 2nd or 3rd assist of the season. He has no ability and no final ball. All the effort in the world can't make up for this lack of ability.

So Allan Jenkins. I'm a big fan of his. But it seems managers have had real problems with him. Clearly Grady has frozen him out to an extent, and there seems to be question marks over his fitness.

If Jenkins can stay fit there is no doubt he is a top division 1 player. However, his contributions this season have been minimal. If Grady stays I fear he will be moved on, and given he will be a high earner this seems another negative for the Jenkins defence.

I reckon Masterton will be moved on. He's an able player, but perhaps a luxury we can ill afford and there is greater surgery needed elsewhere that his wage would assist with.

So we will def need a replacement for Finlayson, potentially a repalcement for Jenkins/Masterton in the centre and perhaps a versatile wide player to give us options (Cocoran from Thistle perhaps, who doesn't get much of a game?).

Up front! Well Weatherson is with us, and a fit Weatherson is a division 1 striker, no doubt. We surely will not keep Simmonds (he is rank), and we have really seen enough of Brian Graham to know that he is not going to score many goals at this level, despite his undoubted efforts in the chasing of lost causes.

We also have Witeveen on loan. I think we could do a lot worse than try and get him. I can't see him making much of an impact at Hearts and if he is honest with himself he surely knows he is not going to be an SPL striker.

But failing that we need to bring in a couple of division 1 strikers. I reckon we could do worse than sign Dennis Wyness. Not sure what his situation is with St Mirren, but he isn't getting much of a game and he has division 1 pedigree in abundance.

So I am certain our tactic in the summer will be to retain our better players and sign one or two key players. We will undoubtedly have a tight squad, but if enough of the squad can stay fit then we can hopefully win a lot more games.

In reality if we wanted to challenge for the title we would need to spend a lot of money and probably bring in 8 players to have a good all round squad, as well as improve markedly on what we have. I cannot see us doing that given Rae's patience is probably running out and he is now trying to cut his losses with regard to the 'millions' he's thrown at the club since he took over.

But at least we will be in division 1, as I'm sure none of us really had the stomach for another spell in division 2.

Morton v Ayr... it's all come down to this

So after a fairly dreadful season for Morton it has all come down to this; Morton v Ayr Utd. Winner stays up.

Well in Ayr's case, that is not strictly true, but for Morton it is simple... win and we don't have to worry about anything else.

Assuming Airdire don't win, it would be possible for Morton to lose and certainly draw and still stay up. But really, if we don't beat Ayr United at home we don't really deserve a place in the 1st division.

However... I hate Ayr! For about the 1st 10 years of traveling to games, home and away, I did not see Morton beat Ayr. We must have played them 12 or 14 times and the closest we came to a success was a scrappy injury time goal by Harry Curran to win a point at Somerset Park.

Eventually we managed to get a few results, when we won the 2nd division, but that decade of pain lingers with me and really I will never be fond of Ayr.

So that's the club, but lets take the ground. A total dump of a place with barely a good view from anywhere in the stadium. The toilets consist of a wee dark brick outhouse with open sewers and just a manky wall to piss against. I am just glad we don't have to go there today!

Then there is Ayr itself. A diry Tory town on the west coast with illusions of grandeur and loads of posh folk called 'Campbell' or 'Finlay'.

So basically I hate Ayr!

A few years ago we were in a similar position in the last few games where Morton managed two 3-0 wins, courtesy of one Brian Wake ensuring cult status with 4 goals in two games. We stayed up by a single goal.

Sadly Brian Wake has moved on, and with Peter injured and Don Simmonds barely knowing what foot to kick the ball with, we are down to David Witeveen to try and get us a couple of goals.

Ayr have been on a pretty dire run since we beat them 1-0 at Cappielow in March. And while we have performed ok in certain games we have really lacked a cutting edge and our main source of goals has been penalties following some 'craft' from David Witeveen in the box.

I can see us getting beat today and things going down to goals scored etc. I think if we lost by two goals and Airdrie lost we'd be ok. But let's not hope it comes down to that!

Greenock Wanderers

Well I am going to try and get some more action going on my blog after a great weekend at Murrayfield to cheer on Greenock Wanderers in the 'Shield Final'.

This was a great day out and despite becoming a keen rugby fan over the past few years, was my 1st time seeing Rugby at Murrayfield (have been only for a concert previously).

The Wanderers have had a great season winning the league comfortably and only losing one game. Unfortunately, this one loss came to their Sheild Final opponents, Lasswade.

Both clubs had made their way to the final, despite the teams one tier above them also competing for the Shield, and both had overcome opposition from the higher tier in the Semi-Finals to set up this final.

I have to confess that I had only previously attended one Wanderers game (a cup game v Melrose? about 10 years ago) so I was definately in the gloryhunting bracket while making my way through to Edinburgh.

The final takes place on 'Scottish Hydro Club Cup Finals Day' with 3 matches being played. The Bowl, Shield and Cup final taking place at 12, 2 and 4pm respectively over the afternoon. The result of this is a a real gala atmosphere with supporters of 6 clubs all being in and around the ground and taking their seats in unreserved seating in the West Stand at Murrayfield.

I was glad to see that the tickets were for unreserved seating and as I thought, the fans managed to organise themselves in pockets of support throughout the stand aiding the atmosphere.

Amazingly the Wanderers had sold around 1000 tickets and organised 16 coaches to get fans to Murrayfield for the game. In itself, a great achievement!

However onto the Rugby. The consensus in the ground before the game was that Lasswade had the larger pack, however Greenock would hope to use the larger pitch and fleetness of foot to press home their advantage in the wider areas as the game wore on. Things were certainly evenly poised and both clubs had one win apiece from their two league meetings.

Lasswade started well and got a penalty with their 1st posession, convertaing from in front of the posts to lead 3-0. Greenock were forced to defend doggedly throughout much of the 1st half, however managed some posession of their own and after building some pressure, they got a score of their own.

Fly Half, Devlin, getting in under the posts following some neat play. The try was converted to give us a 7-3 lead. It was great to get the score and there was much hugging in the stands as Greenock had weathered the storm and were, hopefully, now getting into the game and seeing a bit more of the ball.

However Lasswade built more pressure that Greenock amazingly managed to repel on their own try line. Lasswade eventually drew a penalty and got the score back to 7-6 at Half Time.

Onto the 2nd half, and we all hoped that Greenock's fitness would allow them to get the scoreboard ticking over. However, it was not to be Greenock's day and a try and penalty for Lasswade gave them a 7 point advantage with about 20 minutes to go.

Greenock would need a converted try to at least force extra time, but were unable to get into Lasswade territory much. There were probably a few too many errors and attacks tended to break down with a missed pass or knock on.

Lasswade eventally got another penalty with about 3 minutes to go and converted this to give themselves a 17-7 lead. This would prove decisive, and despite Greenock throwing everything they had left in the final minutes, the Lasswade defence held firm and they took the Shield.

Greenock heads were held high and I'm sure many a drop of ale would pass over the counter at Fort Matilda that night. It was a great day out, and I will def try and get to one or two games at Fort Matilda next season!