Memo to self: for the umpteenth time, take boxers’ pre-fight comments with a grain of salt. David Haye talked so much about going for the knockout he had me believing it. Instead, Haye did what logic dictated he should do, which was to move this way and that, hit and get out, and not give Nikolai Valuev a chance to unload on him in Saturday’s heavyweight title fight in Germany.

Heavyweights often disappoint but the little fighters consistently provide big action, as we saw again when Colombia’s Yonnhy Perez outfought Ghana’s Joseph Agbeko to win the IBF bantamweight title in Showtime’s Halloween Night main event from Las Vegas.

MONDAY EVENING UPDATE The best and the worst of boxing was on view this past weekend. The best was the incredible fight for the European light-middleweight title on Friday in Bolton that saw Ryan Rhodes come back from a terribly shaky start to stop Jamie Moore in seven dramatic rounds.

There have been far worse decisions than the one that saw Carl Froch hang on to his WBC super middleweight title with a split decision win over Andre Dirrell in the second of the “Super Six” tournament’s first-stage bouts on Saturday night. Earlier in the evening, Arthur Abraham left no room for doubt with a dominant performance ending in a spectacular last-seconds knockout win over Jermain Taylor in Berlin.

One must feel sympathy for Jermain Taylor. For the second fight in succession he found himself crunched with the finishing post in sight. First, it was against Carl Froch in April, when Taylor had only to stay on his feet to win. On Saturday night in Berlin, Taylor was behind in the scoring but looked sure to hear the final bell when Arthur Abraham’s perfectly timed right hand dramatically flattened him. Who said lightning doesn’t strike twice?