WBA/WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr (46-0, 26 KOs) has some tricks that he plans on unveiling on Marcos Maidana (35-4, 31 KOs) in their rematch next month, says Mayweather’s training assistant Nate Jones. He’s not saying what those tricks are, but he believes that Maidana won’t be expecting them.
Unless is good at adapting, which he probably isn’t, he’s going to have some problems when he gets in the ring against Mayweather on September 13th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
WBA/WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr (46-0, 26 KOs) says a fight between him and former IBF/WBA 140 pound champion Amir Khan (29-3, 19 KOs) can take place next year. In fact, Mayweather is hoping that a fight between them can take place in 2015, because he would like that. However, at the same time he wants his opponents to prove that they rate a fight against him by taking on quality opposition.
This no doubt is a case where Mayweather is taking a shot at Khan for the three soft fights he’s taken since his back to back losses to Danny Garcia and Lamont Peterson a couple of years ago.
Boxing fans will get a chance of seeing the Jermain Taylor (32-4-1, 20 KOs) vs. Sam Soliman (44-11, 18 KOs) fight on ESPN2 on October 8th in a fight that will take place on a Wednesday. Soliman, 40, will be defending his IBF middleweight title against the 35-year-old Taylor at a still to be determined venue.
Soliman could have gotten a much bigger fight against WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin, but he instead opted to face #13 IBF Taylor in what some boxing fans see as a title milking fight by Soliman. But at 40 and without much power, you can’t really blame Soliman for taking on Taylor rather than Golovkin or a top fie contender because the chances are that he could lose the fight.
On Thursday, the Nevada State Athletic Commission has selected Kenny Bayless as the referee for the Floyd Mayweather Jr vs. Marcos Maidana rematch on September 13th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. The previous referee that worked the Mayweather-Maidana I fight was Tony Weeks, who Mayweather was unhappy with because he failed to control the fouling that Maidana did throughout their 12 round bout. Mayweather felt that Weeks had an off night.
The Commission also appointed the following judges for the fight: Dave Moretti, Guido Cavalleri and John McKaie. Hopefully, the judges will score the fight well and not come up with some wild scores like we’ve seen recently with other judges.
After 10 years as a pro, Britain’s Paul Smith (35-3, 20 KOs) will finally be getting a world title shot against WBO super middleweight champion Arthur Abraham (40-4, 28 KOs) on September 27th in Germany.
Whether Smith actually deserves the title shot is debatable, as he’s won four fights against soft opposition since his 2nd round knockout loss to George Groves in 2011. On paper, the 31-year-old Smith doesn’t have much of a chance of winning, because he’s lost each time he’s tried to take a step up during his career in defeats against Groves and James DeGale.
(Photo credit: Goosen Promotions) Former WBA 154 pound champion Austin Trout (26-2, 14 KOs) successfully weighed in on Thursday for his fight on Friday night against #15 WBA Daniel Dawson (40-3-1, 26 KOs) at the Pechanga Resort & Casino, in Temecula, California, USA. The 36-year-old Dawson also weighed in at 154 pounds and looked in good shape.
Trout is counting on looking good on Friday night in beating Dawson in an impressive manner. Trout wants to show boxing fans that he’s the same fighter he was before his consecutive losses to Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Erislandy Lara in 2013. Trout blames those losses on him not fighting his game.
Eddie Hearn, the promoter for IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook (33-0, 22 KOs), has his eyes set on two big fights for Brook in 2015 in matching him up against Amir Khan (29-3, 19 KOs) and WBA/WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr (46-0, 26 KOs).
Hearn sees both fights as being capable of selling out the 80,000 seat Wembley Stadium in London, UK. If Brook can beat Khan in early 2015, then there’s no question that a fight between Brook and Mayweather would be able to fill Wembley as well.
Unbeaten #1 WBC Deontay Wilder (32-0, 32 KOs) likes his chances against WBC heavyweight champion Bernane Stiverne (24-1-1, 21 KOs) for when they meet up later on this year in a heavyweight championship fight on Showtime.
Deontay doesn’t see anything in Stiverne’s fighting style and with his power that will give him any trouble. He doesn’t feel that he needs to study Stiverne any longer after watching his last two fights against Chris Arreola, as says Stiverne does the same things over and over. Deontay doesn’t say what those things are, but it’s likely he’s referring to Stiverne throwing a lot of left hooks, right hands and jabs.
WBA/WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia (29-0, 17 KOs) and Viktor Postol have been ordered to start negotiations by the World Boxing Council. There’s a purse bid that will take place next month on 9/12 if the two fighters haven’t negotiated a fight by then.
This move by the WBC will very likely cause Garcia bypass the Postol fight and instead take a unification match against IBF light welterweight champion Lamont Peterson. The WBC will likely allow Garcia to steer around Postol if he takes a unification match.
WBA/WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr (46-0, 26 KOs) was disappointed in the performance of referee Tony Weeks for the job that he put in while working Mayweather’s previous fight against the aggressive Argentinian Marcos Maidana (35-4, 31 KOs) last May at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Maidana was able to foul Mayweather early and often in the fight in hitting low, throwing elbows and rabbit punches. While you can say the stuff was accidental on Maidana’s part, Weeks failed to take points away from Maidana to help him improve his aim. Maidana was given a warning for a low blow, but no points were taken off.