The days of watching Chris Eubank, Steve Collins and my favourite Nigel Benn standing toe-to-toe will live long in the memory.

They were stars. Primarily because boxing was, at that time, on free-to-air TV with Frank Warren’s Sports Network and Barry Hearn’s Matchroom Sport having deals with ITV to screen big fights.  But they were also universally popular because they were warriors. When the chips were down, they bit down hard on their mouth guard and kept on fighting.

Luckily, Britain has two fighters of a similar ilk right now. Firstly Carl Froch, a man who has a granite chin and balls of steel, and David Haye.

Yes, David Haye. A man who is as well known by boxing fans as he is by those who watch TOWIE. He’s a publicist’s dream. Tall, dark, handsome with chiselled abs and a barbed tongue. He does – and says – whatever it takes to cause a commotion that will mean people tune in to watch him fight.

In the week when he announced his return to the ring, many were dismissive. He’s been called anything from a busted flush to chicken, but they couldn’t be further from the truth.

The reality is that David, thanks to being commercially attractive and savvy, as well as a bloody good fighter; has earned enough to never have to think about boxing again. Because of that, following defeat to Wladimir Klitschko back in 2011, there was nowhere for him to go.

What would be the point in a man who is used to dining at the top table tucking in on a park bench?

What many casual fans, or non-boxing fans, will fail to understand is how protective the Klitschko brothers are of their titles. Take a look at their record and its a succession of old, or out of shape, or out of their league fighters who turn up to get knocked over for a decent pay day.

Sure, when the Hayemaker got his chance against Wladimir he didn’t produce the goods to the extent that he would have liked to, and I’m certain nobody would be more annoyed at that than him.

Following that fight, David was derided in the media for revealing that a couple of weeks prior to the biggest night of his career, he had broken the little toe on his right foot.

Whether you place any credibility on the injury or not, Haye was undeniably injured. Whether he should have mentioned it afterwards or not is a matter for debate, but he was in a no-win situation. If the injury was genuinely bothering him then the only option available, other than carry on regardless, was pulling out of the fight. He would have been absolutely slaughtered by the press for that.

As it happened, he fought Wladimir, and although was clearly beaten over twelve rounds, there were a couple of occasions when he genuinely threatened Klitschko. His efforts in the twelfth and final round were commendable.

In the post-fight press conference, if he’s asked about any injuries, what is he meant to say? It’s hardly an excuse – the entire viewing audience saw him beaten fair and square by Wladimir, and even David wouldn’t disagree with that.

Haye is fast as lightning and as strong as an Ox. He has the tools required to dominate an admittedly sub-par heavyweight division. He also has a history of taking on risky fights to further advance his career. This is a man who, while fighting at cruiserweight travelled to the home ground of champion Jean Marc Mormeck and got up off the canvas to knock him out.

He also ventured to Germany to wrestle the WBA heavyweight championship from Russian giant Nikolay Valuev – a man who both Klitschko brothers avoided for years, as he was the only person anywhere near their level with the height, reach and awkwardness to cause a problem.

He made his first comeback last year when, following a brawl in Munich after the Vitali Klitschko v Dereck Chisora fight, David turned up to call out Vitali at the post fight press conference. Berndt Boente, the Klitschkos’ manager, suggested Chisora and Haye resolve their differences in the ring, and the winner could face the older brother.

Haye went onto impressively dispatch Chisora in five rounds, somewhat overshadowing Vitali’s hard fought unanimous points decision. Guess what? No offer of a fight followed.

Most people coming back to the ring after having two fights in two years would take a tune up fight, and admittedly I’m writing this probably a week or so before Haye’s next opponent is announced; but at last week’s press conference to announce the comeback, trainer Adam Booth confirmed there are five names in the frame. All ranked in the top 15 in the world with various sanctioning bodies, four undefeated and none British.

By the end of the year David Haye WILL be nicely in position to force the hand of messrs Klitschko, mark my words. I can see an eventual rematch between Wladimir and David at the back end of next year, and I will be backing the Hayemaker to bring home the belts. Allied with his class in the ring he also has a valuable asset in trainer/manager Adam Booth, one of the finest tacticians in world boxing.

I have no doubt that the memory of his last shot at Wladimir combined with an Adam Booth gameplan will see David Haye become heavyweight champion of the world once more. I’m convinced of it.

There ain’t toe stopping him this time.

By Mark McBurney

Here at Column10 we can’t stop listening to Jackie D Williams! We were lucky enough to see his sell out solo gig at Camden Barfly earlier this year and expect to see a lot more of him in 2013.  Currently on tour supporting Bluey Robinson, he has solo dates in Liverpool, London and Oxford at the end of May.  Visit his site for more details and a free mixtape download.

We love his track Dirty Diana in Paris combining the words of legend Michael Jackson with the track from Kanye and Jay-Z.

His latest single Unite with Me is available on iTunes.

Follow Jackie on Twitter @JackieDMusic

Like his Facebook Page

Here are a few of our favourite ones from this year. Were you taken in by any? Let us know in the comments below.

YouTube was just a contest!

YouTube was actually started as a contest to find the best video in the world and they are almost at the end.

Marmite have launched lickable nail varnish

Football Manager to release 1888 Special Edition

In the Mirror Exclusive they talk about the things Managers will have to get used to in this new (old) version of the game.

Managers will have to master the different rules of the game, including; no substitutions being permitted during matches, the off-side rule not yet being introduced to the game and players flying into tackles without fear of being sent off or conceding penalties. Players must also overcome other, more unusual, tests to their management credentials when faced with their star players being forced into immediate retirement following a bad injury or their entire back four being drafted up to the army.

Virgin Atlantic launches World’s first Glass-Bottomed Plane

The aisle seat will no longer mean no view with the new invention from Virgin.

Follow Rohan on Twitter @rohanricketts

This weekend sees one of the most eagerly anticipated fixtures on the Premier League calendar, as Sunderland host Newcastle United in this season’s Wear-Tyne derby.

Given March’s ill-tempered 1-1 draw at St James’ Park, expect Sunday’s meeting to be as hostile, with the Black Cats seeking only their second win over the Magpies at the Stadium of Light.

Sunderland’s record in this fixture following their move from Roker Park doesn’t make pleasant reading, with four draws and four defeats to go with that solitary victory in October 2008.

The corresponding fixture last season proved significant for both clubs. The 1-0 August win for the Magpies was their first of the season and the catalyst for an odds defying campaign. With victory comes defeat though, and it was a result which arguably signalled the beginning of the end for manager Steve Bruce’s tenure on Wearside.

Fourteen months on and much has changed on both sides of the water, as Tyneside and Wearside meet again in one of the biggest rivalries in world football.

 One year on

Having found Sunderland in a precarious position upon his arrival as manager, Martin O’Neill has stabilised the Black Cats, providing a platform for them to be in a position to secure a top ten finish this season.

At the beginning of last season Alan Pardew’s Newcastle side were tipped by some as relegation candidates. An opening day 0-0 draw with Arsenal coupled with the 1-0 win on Wearside a week later was only the beginning, as the Magpies proved their doubters wrong by going 11 games unbeaten at the start of the season.

Newcastle’s consistency throughout the campaign earned them fifth spot in the Premier League, a type of season Sunderland will dream of emulating in the future.

This weekend’s meeting brings two teams together who’ve yet to hit top form. Sunderland have only won one of their opening six games, but with four draws find themselves 13^th on seven points with a game in hand.

Injuries and a busy fixture schedule may have contributed to Newcastle’s indifferent start, however neither can be used as an excuse as the Magpies knew what they faced after qualifying for Europe last season.

Defeats against Chelsea and Manchester United partner victories over Tottenham and Norwich, with draws against Aston Villa, Everton and Reading making up Newcastle’s nine point tally.

Boss Alan Pardew will be hoping the Stadium of Light can provide Newcastle with their first away win of the season, as it did last term with Ryan Taylor’s free-kick in that 1-0 victory.

Key Personnel 

The hosts’ main concern will be the absence of suspended captain Lee Cattermole. After receiving the fifth red card of his Sunderland career at MK Dons last month, the 24 year old is serving the final game of a three match suspension.

A victim of his own severe lack of self discipline, Cattermole will have to watch on from the stands on Sunday, with the likes of Jack Colback, Craig Gardner or Sebastian Larsson ready to fill the vacancy he’s left in the middle of midfield.

Stephane Sessegnon will hope to rediscover the form which saw him terrorise Newcastle in the first half of this fixture last season, but it will again be the job of Chieck Tiote to mute the Benin international’s threat.

The Magpies will be praying for the fitness of captain Fabricio Coloccini, but if he remains absent expect fellow Argentine Jonas Gutierrez to continue as skipper.

As a collective, Newcastle and Sunderland have played 13 Premier League games this season, scoring 13 times. However, it’s the men responsible for those goals that will be key in this weekend’s meeting. Only Steven Fletcher (5) has scored in the league for the Black Cats this season, whilst only Hatem Ben Arfa (2) and Premier League top scorer Demba Ba (6) have netted for the Magpies.

But, if history is to repeat itself there could be a third league scorer for Newcastle come the final whistle on Sunday, as Shola Ameobi will likely feature from the bench at some stage.

Newcastle’s long-serving striker has seven goals against Sunderland, just four behind the club’s leading derby scorer Jackie Milburn.

Ameobi’s most recent derby goal came in the 1-1 draw at St James’ Park in March, equalising in injury time to save Ba’s blushes after he’d previously missed a penalty.

The 147^th meeting

Sunday provides us with the 147^th meeting between these sides, and a real opportunity for both to get their seasons truly underway.

Given Sunderland’s recent derby record a draw won’t be seen as good enough, with the Black Cats fans desperately believing they are due a victory over their nearest rivals.

A point could be viewed as a success for the visitors, if their main objective of taking all three again can’t be accomplished.

It could be whoever starts this derby match the better that prevails, but like last season at St James’ Park, you’d be foolish to bet against Newcastle even if they did fall behind.

Expect a tense and fiery atmosphere on Wearside, as two of the country’s most passionately supported clubs clash, with defeat simply not an option for either.

What do you predict the score will be? Enter a comment below.

Follow Martin on Twitter @martinlindsay_

When small-time magician Oscar Diggs (James Franco) pulls one flimflam too many, he finds himself hurled into the fantastical Land of Oz where he must somehow transform himself into the great and powerful Wizard—and just maybe into a better man as well.

Starring James Franco, Mila Kunis, Rachel Weisz, Michelle Williams, and Zach Braff and directed by Sam Raimi (Spider-Man). “Oz The Great and Powerful” arrives in UK cinemas March 2013.

Outrage greeted the news last week that David Beckham had been omitted from Stuart Pearce’s Team GB football squad for the London Olympics. Well, I say outrage; it was along the lines of visiting your favourite restaurant and discovering that special dessert you love isn’t on the menu tonight.

It was always going to be a divisive topic. It can’t be denied that ‘Golden Balls’ – though one imagines they are several shades of grey rather than gold these days – was a fine player, and above all a terrific professional. A figurehead for the game across the globe with the ability to sell replica shirts in their millions. Is that enough though? However good Beckham’s performances have been for LA Galaxy over the past couple of seasons, and regardless of finally lifting the MLS Cup, the fact remains that the standard of Major League Soccer is a long way off the major leagues of Europe.

“But he’s an ambassador” I hear you cry. Fair point; perhaps we could ask him to man-mark Kofi Annan?

The bottom line is that however good Beckham is (or was, your call) and however much work he put into helping the London 2012 team actually win the games, he isn’t the player he used to be, and for me at least Stuart Pearce has made the correct call on this occasion.

It should never have come to this though. Given how much of an icon Beckham is, and how much the young players would gain from working with him, Becks should have been tasked with coaching the side instead of ‘Psycho’. Not only is Beckham heavily involved – and heavily financing – his own youth academy, but he surely couldn’t do a worse job than the man who had to be reminded by Mrs Pearce to select a goalkeeper when selecting his first starting lineup in charge of Nottingham Forest, could he?

With Beckham’s omission, the stellar name in the squad is now his old Man Utd team mate, Ryan Giggs. Poetic justice perhaps that Giggs will finally get to experience an international tournament having narrowly missed out with Mark Hughes’ Wales side in 2002. Again, I take issue with this. From the beginning, the Olympic games were a showpiece for the finest amateur athletes across the globe. Many sports careers indeed still grow, following a successful Olympic campaign, as Amir Khan would testify. Does it not devalue the event by giving high profile players like Ryan Giggs and Craig Bellamy effectively a career swan song in an international competition?

Although football was one of the original events in the Olympic structure, the growth that the sport has enjoyed since means that Olympic success will never rival that of success at a World Cup, or European Championship, or Copa America. With that in mind I would have loved this one-off Team GB squad – led by David Beckham – to have featured the best and most promising ‘unsung heroes’.

Aside from the frankly baffling decision to omit one of the most promising young strikers I can remember in my lifetime, Jordan Rhodes, from the squad that is. Two examples for me would be Swansea City midfielder Nathan Dyer, and newly promoted Southampton playmaker Adam Lallana. Two players who have a good chance of international recognition in the future yet have enjoyed successful seasons with their respective clubs of late.

Dyer’s club-mate Leon Britton would be another worth considering given the way he has seamlessly adapted to life in the Premier League, and maybe even Lallana’s team-mate Rickie Lambert, who’s successes have surely come too late to make an impact on the national side, but was last season his league’s top goalscorer – for the third season in succession.

I believe this would have been more in keeping with the original ethos of the games, that it could be a springboard for an athlete’s career rather than a testimonial in their twilight years. Perhaps we also could have avoided the usual international tournament trait of not taking it seriously enough, given that it would have been far and away the biggest stage of the entire squad’s careers.

But what do I know? Let’s hope Psycho knows best.

By Mark McBurney
Follow Mark on Twitter @MarkMcBurney

Photo by MattsMacintosh

In the current austere, credit crunch environment, the smartphone is a perfect, all-in-one entertainment hub.

Who needs a digital camera when your iPhone has an eight-megapixel lens and studio-like editing tools to boot?

Similar arguments can be made for MP3 players and TVs – while the Kindle can be traded in for a free smartphone app.

Even non-tech, day-to-day items such as the alarm clock and diaries are being marginalised by Apple’s magic box and its contemporaries.

And games consoles aren’t exempt from that threat. With smartphones offering apps for – at worst – less than a fiver, and graphics not a million miles off an Xbox or PS3, many gamers will stick to their mobiles when the next gen consoles arrive with inflated price-tags.

While titans such as Call of Duty and FIFA will always have a fan base, year-on-year changes between releases remain, generally, minimal.

And, besides, I spend far more time on my mobile than I do in front of a television – so most of my gaming is done on the run, on the tube, or on the toilet.

It helps that you can now get virtually every genre of game going on the app store, and many are excellently made and brilliantly addictive. Most for absolutely nothing.

It’s little wonder that Sony and Microsoft are busy sealing deals to offer more and more non-gaming content – they need video options to survive.

Many gamers, including me, WILL rush in to snap up the next PlayStation, of course. But, while times are hard, many will see consoles as an expendable outgoing.

From a consumer’s perspective, I hope that the strength of the app market and its incredible value for money force console titles down in price. CoD and FIFA can survive at high-end pricing – but other, newer titles won’t, longer term.

Read The Sun’s gaming coverage
Follow Lee on Twitter @Lee_TheSun

The Jamaicans
Before the Jamaican Olympic trials, the 100m picture was pretty clear ahead of London 2012. All eyes were on the current Olympic champion and world record holder Usain Bolt, but the world must now broaden its gaze.

The 100m final in Kingston, Jamaica surprised us all. It was not Bolt or Asafa Powell who finished the race as Jamaican champion, but Bolt’s training partner Yohan Blake. The 22 year-old finished the race in 9.75 seconds, 0.11s ahead of Bolt and the fourth fastest time in history.

Young Blake hasn’t come out of nowhere to stun the world’s fastest man, however. Blake became the youngest ever world champion in 2011 in Daegu after Bolt was disqualified for a false start. He also made his mark in the 200m last September in Brussels, recording a time of 19.26, second only to Usain Bolt’s world record of 19.19.

It seems Bolt will have his hands full with Powell and now Johan Blake gunning for Olympic Gold this summer, but this is only including his fellow countrymen.

Contenders from America
Now, a discussion about a 100m final would not be complete without mentioning a couple of Americans and the USA has produced a surprise of their own. However, it was not a young runner, but the controversial figure of Justin Gatlin who stunned fellow contender Tyson Gay.

In 2007, Gatlin was banned from track and field for four years after testing positive for a banned substance but he has returned as quick as ever. The 30 year-old’s return has not exactly been celebrated in the athletics world, but no one could deny his win at the USA Olympic trials. In the 100m final he faced second fastest man on record Tyson Gay and produced a run of 9.80 seconds, with Gay finishing second in 9.86.

Gatlin has also recorded a win over Jamaican Asafa Powell in Doha as part of the Diamond League circuit and his victory over Gay proved that was not a one off.

This has now become a bigger picture than usual, but it looks to be Jamaica vs USA for the 100m in London. What is clear is that a medallist from Europe is unlikely.

Mind the gap, Europe
The European Championship produced no reason for anyone to think otherwise. 22 year-old Christophe Lemaitre is the fastest man over 100m in Europe, but his championship winning time was not good enough to worry the trio from Jamaica or the pair from the USA.

He is young, but so is Yohan Blake. 10.09 seconds was quick enough to beat fellow Frenchman Jimmy Vicaut to retain his European title, but it is not close to what is needed to keep up with the likes of Gatlin, Powell, Blake et al.

If Lemaitre can produce a personal best, he will push to the end of the race. A better time than 9.92 seconds and a bit of luck could see the Frenchman break the top five, but  a top six finish would be no embarrassment.

What to expect
The 100m Olympic gold medal is up for grabs. Bolt, Powell and Blake from Jamaica and Gay and Gatlin from the USA are all fast enough to win. The three Jamaicans are fast enough to produce a Jamaican 1,2,3, while the Americans could produce a surprise 1,2 finish.

This could be the greatest 100m race in recent years, if no one makes a mistake in the heats. In the realms of possibility, the top five, may be six, could all finish under 10 seconds. This promises to be the fastest final we’ve ever seen.

The picture is suddenly blurred. Two weeks ago the question was ‘Can Bolt produce another world record?’ The question now is, ‘Can Bolt hold on to his Olympic title?’

By Chris Heathman

Follow Chris on Twitter @CHeathman