Johnny McRotten

Anybody want to buy a crystal ball? I especially like the bit where I said " He's tough and strong but isn't the kind of one-punch power fighter that Khan is vulnerable to. " Khan did what he could, probably winning the first three rounds, but in the slow motion of the knockout he's in a familiar position, hands down and chin literally stuck out. I thought he didn't look in top condition at the weight, but I was most surprised at Canelo - he looks a better boxer than he was a few years ago. Canelo/GGG is an exciting prospect, but I really think Khan might retire - he's been knocked out three times and they've all been really damaging ones. I'm not a doctor, but I think he'd be wise to avoid getting punched in the head for the rest of his life.

Spence might be more than a decent welterweight. In fact, with him and Thurman and Terence Crawford possibly moving up, welter might be the best division in boxing (Crawford looked just smoothly competent when he beat Burns in Glasgow, but he looks almost unhittable in his last couple of fights, like a miniature Roy Jones Jr). You're right, though; Khan wasn't good against Algieri. My opinion that he might have a decent chance next week is based on the fact that I think Alvarez isn't great and that Khan can sometimes be very good indeed; it's just hard to predict when. To read some forecasts, you'd think Canelo was some kind of super-fighter rather than what he is: a hard-as-nails overachiever with some favourable judging apparent in his record.

You're right - judges do seem to love giving rounds to Alvarez, but I'm still influenced by that Khan performance against Alexander; he was unplayable that night against a one-paced opponent. In a way, Canelo is made for him... If he doesn't win this it won't hurt his reputation, so he can still count on a big payday against Brook, but if he does win it he's suddenly a pound-for-pound superstar. Admittedly, there's an excellent chance these dreams won't survive the first big punch he takes next week.

I know Khan isn't popular on here and a lot of people think he's being suicidal in taking this fight, but I think he has a reasonable outsider's chance of winning it. Alvarez has a slightly inflated record - he got a debatable decision against Trout and a highly-controversial one against Erislandy Lara. He's tough and strong but isn't the kind of one-punch power fighter that Khan is vulnerable to. And if he doesn't knock Khan out he might have trouble outpointing him. Khan is much much faster and if he can concentrate and produce the same kind of performance he did against Devon Alexander (a similar style of boxer to Alvarez, though smaller and not as good) then he's decent value at 4/1 or so.

This year looks more open than any I can remember, but I've bet on Nibali to do it again because at 6/1 on Betfair he looks better value than any of the others in the big 4. Interestingly, it's possible to bet on all of the big 4 and guarantee a profit of about 8% whichever of them wins, demonstrating that the market isn't completely convinced it's a four-horse race.

Mayweather is 8/13 for this on Betfair, the biggest price he's been for years, and if you think he's still anything like the boxer he was then it's a real bargain. But I watched the first Maidana fight and Floyd was terrible; Maidana could have won if he'd just edged a couple more rounds, and this is someone who boxes like a cheap righthanded copy of Pacquiao and has losses to Khan, Devon Alexander and Andrei Kotelnik on his record. I hope Pacquiao wins because he's an entertaining boxer and seems like a decent person (steroid allegations notwithstanding), but I'm not confident enough to bet on either man, and I don't even think they're the two best at the weight any more.

Shame it's only happened now they're both definitely past their best. Before the Maidana fights, I was sure Mayweather would handle Pac easily if it ever did happen, but there's room for doubt now - Maidana fights in a style that makes him look like a copy of Pacquaio, but not quite as good, and that style gave Floyd a lot of trouble. I still think Mayweather is favourite but when fighters are in decline anything can happen. Top boxing on terrestrial TV tonight for a change. it will be a miracle if Golovkin doesn't win, but he's always exciting to watch.

Have you been training him? He was getting his punches off and moving before Alexander could counter. He looked absolutely sensational against a decent opponent. In this kind of form his bad reaction to getting chinned might not matter, since he's just too fast for most people to catch, Mayweather included. I've not watched the Thurman fight but by all accounts he was pretty unimpressive despite winning every single round on every single scorecard.

Not watched either fight yet but I see they both won easily. I've never seen anybody look good against Thurman - everybody reverts to survival mode after a round or two. Thurman's biggest problem is that nobody wants to fight him - he doesn't have a big ppv fan base like Khan or some of the Latino fighters have, so there's not much incentive in taking the enormous risk involved in fighting him. I think that poor risk/reward ratio won't aapeal to May weather, so Floyd will take Khan on next year, and I think Khan has a good chance of beating him - Floyd's definitely on the slide, vulnerable to speed, and he doesn't carry the kind of punch that Khan can't cope with.

He's fighting Devon Alexander tonight, and it's not a completely easy one to predict. Alexander's had some good wins - he beat Marcos Maidana more easily than Khan did, and in fact more easily than Mayweather did. But Shawn Porter beat him, mostly by shoving him about from what I could see. Everybody knows Khan's limitations. He's as fast and skilful in attack as anybody, but anybody with a punch - even a crude brawler like Breidis Prescott - has a chance of beating him. Alexander doesn't seem to have big one-punch power, so Khan should be able to score against him without too much fear of getting laid out. On the undercard, there's another welterweight, Keith Thurman, who looks like Khan's worst nightmare. I've seen it said that Mayweather might require Thurman and Khan to fight each other for the right to fight him (assuming they both win). If that happens, Khan will never get that big payday.

The best three I saw were right t the start of the year: Inside Llewyn Davis (This was, by a mile, my favourite of the year.) Twelve Years A Slave The Grand Budapest Hotel More recently, What We Do in the Shadows was very funny and there were two pleasant surprises: The Lego Movie and Guardians Of The Galaxy.

If you get this angry over somebody not being interested in comets, I really, really hope I never spill your drink.

Yes, it's not the exchange part of Betfair, which is huge - it's just the standard bookmaking or sportsbook part, which is quite small. They're still taking bets on it on the sportsbook, so it seems that they're probably only paying off the bets struck at very short odds. The liability on these can be laid off at better prices now so that the cost of the early payout may be just a few thousand. Money well spent for the attention they're getting.