Kell Brook faces Alvaro Robles on 3/15

03/05/2014 Bill Phanco

#1 IBF Kell Brook (31-0, 21 KO’s) will be stepping inside the ring this month to face Mexican welterweight champion Alvaro Robles (17-2, 15 KO’s) on March 15th in a stay busy fight for Brook at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, England. Brook needs a fight to stay sharp while he’s waiting for a Summer clash against IBF welterweight champion Shawn Porter, and Robles is the perfect opponent for Brook to fight.

Brook can’t take the risk of fighting anyone good enough to potentially beat him because he’d miss out on his title shot against Porter, As it is Brook already lost out on a title shot last year against former IBF welterweight champion Devon Alexander after Brook suffered two separate injuries that messed things up for him.

Angulo to test his debilitating power on Canelo this Saturday

03/03/2014 Bill Phanco

Boxing fans will get a chance to see how good Saul “Canelo” Alvarez’s punch resistance is this Saturday night in his Showtime pay-per-view clash against the hard-hitting Alfredo Angulo (22-3, 18 KO’s) at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. This is going to be a first for Canelo in terms of him facing an opponent that has power equal to his own, and it should give fans a good chance to see if Canelo can stand up to the kind of big power shots that Angulo will be hitting him with.

Angulo’s trainer Virgil Hunter has been very impressed with Angulo’s power ever since he started training him, and he thinks he’s got the kind of punch that could lay the 23-year-old Canelo out, especially if he’s able to get him into a fatigued state.

DeGale defeats Khatchikian in a surprisingly competitive fight

03/03/201403/02/2014 Bill Phanco

WBC Siler super middleweight champion James DeGale (18-1, 12 KO’s) stayed in line for a world title shot against WBC 168 lb champion Sakio Bika by defeated Gevorg Khatchikian (20-1, 8 KO’s) by an 11th round TKO last Saturday night at the City Academy Sports Centre, Bristol, Avon, United Kingdom.

DeGale knocked Khatchikian down a couple of times in the 11th round with body shots. Referee Mark Green then decided that Khatchikian had taken enough punishment so he stopped the bout at 2:58 of the round.

DeGale boxed beautifully through most of the fight. However, his habit of keeping his hands down by his sides led to DeGale getting nailed with a lot of hard right hands from Khatchikian. In the 5th round, DeGale got caught with a tremendous right hand from Khatchikian. DeGale backed up like he was hurt, and he took punishment for the remainder of the round.

Burns with little chance against Crawford tonight

03/01/201403/01/2014 Bill Phanco

Fans of WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns (36-2-1, 11 KO’s) might want to tune in tonight to see him defend his title against No.1 WBO Terence Crawford (22-0, 16 KO’s) because it will probably be the last time that Burns holds the WBO title, as he’s expected to lose and lose big in this fight at the Scottish Exhibition Centre, in Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom.

Burns has the hometown advantage, but it’s not likely that the judges will give him the benefit of the doubt by saving him from another loss.

Shumenov realizes he needs to raise his game to beat Hopkins

07/31/201402/23/2014 Bill Phanco

(Photo credit: Esther Lin/Showtime) WBA light heavyweight champion Beibut Shumenov (14-1, 9 KO’s) realizes that he’s got to be a lot better than he’s ever been before if he’s go escape with his WBA title in his unification match against the wily old fox IBF light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins (54-6-2, 32 KO’s) in their fight on April 19th at the DC Armory, Washington, District of Columbia, USA. The fight will the be televised by Showtime, and it’s going to give the 30-year-old Shumenov a lot of publicity to either shine or look bad against the 49-year-old Hopkins.

Shumenov is getting Hopkins at the right time in his career, as Hopkins didn’t look so great in his last fight against his mandatory challenger Karo Murat last October. Hopkins won that fight by a fairly lopsided 12 round unanimous decision, but Hopkins was hit more in that fight than he had in many years. Murat was able to get in close and nail Hopkins with a lot of shots to the head.

Ward likes Khan’s speed and power

08/01/201402/18/2014 Bill Phanco

WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward has gotten the chance to see Amir Khan (28-3, 19 KO’s) up close now that he’s training in the same gym as him in Oakland, California with trainer Virgil Hunter, and Ward likes what he seems. He feels that Khan is throwing with more power than he did previously now that he’s with Hunter, and he thinks he could give anyone in boxing a tough time. Ward didn’t touch on the subject of Khan fighting Mayweather, but obviously he includes him when he says Khan would give anyone trouble.

“He’s [Khan] awkward and hits harder than guys realize,” Ward said to Hustleboss. “He has an awkward style and it works for him. It’s effective. Just the awkwardness, the speed and the pop that he has. I think that would give anyone trouble on any given night.”

Khan: People want to see Mayweather with a different style than Maidana’s

08/01/201402/17/2014 Bill Phanco

Amir Khan is still trying to sell himself as the right opponent for Floyd Mayweather Jr. by pointing out the flaws in the game of WBA welterweight champion Marcos Maidana. Khan believes that fans ultimately will prefer himself as Mayweather’s next opponent rather than Maidana because fans have already seen Mayweather fight a lot of slow fighters. So they now will want to see him face a guy with quick hands and quick feet. Khan thinks Mayweather had problems beating Zab Judah many years ago due to Judah’s fast hands. Khan thinks that this is the weakness in Mayweather’s game him fighting guys with hand speed.

“People want to see Floyd in with a different style,” Khan said to Hustleboss. “If you think about the last three opponents Floyd has faced, they got slow feet, slow hands…I think that suits Floyd Mayweather. What Floyd Mayweather has problems with is speed, explosiveness, and movement, which not many fighters bring to him.”

Mayweather still not ready to announce his next opponent

09/15/201602/17/2014 Bill Phanco

Amir Khan and Marcos Maidana are still very much in the running for the May 3rd fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. For whatever reason, it’s taking Mayweather longer this time to announce his next opponent compared to in the past. That’s probably a good thing for the fans because it hopefully means he won’t be selecting an opponent that fans project to have absolutely no chance of winning.

Unfortunately, you can make a pretty good case that both Khan and Maidana are guys that Mayweather will easily deal with on May 3rd, so in that sense they’re interchangeable. The only difference between them is that one of them will bring in more pay-per-view buys than the other, and obviously Mayweather and his team are trying to figure that out so that they don’t end up with an opponent that boxing fans feel will have no chance.

Fury and Chisora with a lot to lose tonight if they get beat

02/15/2014 Bill Phanco

Tonight two of the best heavyweights in England will be in action in separate bouts with a lot on the line for both of them. England’s Dereck Chisora (19-4, 13 KO’s) has a 12 round fight against Kevin Johnson (29-4-1, 14 KO’s) in the main event at the Copper Box Arena. In the co-feature, heavyweight Tyson Fury (21-0, 15 KO’s) fights Joey Abell (29-7, 28 KO’s). The promoters for Fury and Chisora want to match them up in a fight in the Summer in a WBO heavyweight title eliminator bout, but both guys need to make sure they win their fights tonight against their less than dangerous opposition.

Both Fury and Chisora should win tonight as long as they’re smart, and can hold up under the power of their opposition. They’re decent heavyweights, Chisora and Fury, but they’re not good enough to where you can positively say they’ll win each time they’re in the ring. Fury brings drama with him because of his weak chin. It doesn’t matter that he’s never fought a good heavyweight in his career; he’s still vulnerable to getting hurt even by opposition without a lot of talent.

Froch-Groves agree on rematch on May 31st

07/31/201402/13/2014 Bill Phanco

IBF/WBA super middleweight champion Carl Froch (32-2 23 KO’s) and George Groves (19-1, 15 KO’s) have reached agreement for a rematch that is tentatively scheduled for May 31st at one of the huge outdoor football stadiums in the UK. Froch’s promoter Eddie Hearn wants to place it in a stadium that holds 80,000 and he feels that it’ll be the biggest fight ever in British boxing. Whether that’ll be or not is unknown, but what is known is that the two fighters will be splitting a huge 10 million purse for the fight. Groves’ cut of the purse is anywhere from 15-25 percent.

“The British public are behind this and this was almost the only fight out there for me to reasonably take,” Froch said to Sky Sports. “I’ve given the British public what they wanted for years and years and I won’t stop doing it now.”