Earlier this week, the International Boxing Federation said that IBF/IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (34-0, 31 KOs) will need to face #3 IBF Dominic Wade (18-0, 12 KOs) next. The IBF replaced the injured #1 IBF Tureano Johnson (19-1, 13 KOs) with the 25-year-old Wade. It was thought that Golovkin would be stuck facing Wade in his next fight on April 23 on HBO instead of a more interesting opponent that the fight fans would be eager to see.
Carlos Ortiz
Arum: Pacquiao could rethink retirement and return
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum thinks we could see Manny Pacquiao rethinking the idea of retirement after he gets done with his next fight against Tim Bradley on 4/9. As of now, Pacquiao is talking about going into permanent retirement after the fight, which will be televised on HBO PPV.
Arum thinks we could see Pacquiao change his mind about retirement after the fight for some reason. Pacquiao says he wants to retire because he needs to focus his energy on his political career in the Philippines. Pacquiao is running for office in May for a senate seat, and he’s said to be in a great position to get the spot. Being a senator is hard work and a demanding job.
Thurman: When is Danny Garcia ever impressive?
WBA World welterweight champion Keith “One Time” Thurman says he wasn’t impressed with what he saw from Danny “Swift” Garcia (32-0, 18 KOs) in his 12 round unanimous decision win over Robert Guerrero (33-4-1, 18 KOs) last Saturday night from the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. Garcia won by the scores of 116-112, 116-112 and 116-112.
Thurman asks the question ‘when is Garcia ever impressive in his fights?’ Thurman believes that Garcia did just enough to get the win over Guerrero by relaxing and taking over the fight in the second half of the bout. In Thurman’s mind, he saw Garcia as the winner of the contest.
Ruben Guerrero: All Danny Garcia did was run and hold all night
Danny Garcia (32-0, 18 KOs) did what many boxing fans expected him to do by opting to use a lot of clinching and moving to defeat Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero (33-4-1, 18 KOs) in their fight last night for the vacant WBC welterweight title. Guerrero’s trainer Ruben Guerrero feels that Garcia did little more than run and hold all night long rather than fighting. Further, Ruben didn’t like how the referee was constantly breaking the action when Guerrero was trying to fight on the inside against Garcia.
Garcia previously did a lot of clinching and moving in his fight against Lucas Matthysse in 2013 to grind out a 12 round decision win. That’s why it wasn’t surprising to see Garcia go back to the same plan to use it for Guerrero, because there was no way that Garcia was going to be able to win the fight by brawling.
Mayweather scored Danny Garcia – Robert Guerrero a draw
Superstar Floyd Mayweather Jr. didn’t think enough of Danny Garcia’s performance against Robert Guerrero (33-4-1, 18 KOs) to give him any more than a 12 round draw last Saturday night in his world title at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. Fortunately, for Garcia, Mayweather was not one of the judges for the fight. The judges gave Garcia the win by the scores of 116-112, 116-112 and 116-112. That comes out to an eight rounds to four score.
Mayweather thinks Garcia was loading up too much and not using his boxing skills the way that he needed to. The fans didn’t like the holding and movement that Garcia was using throughout the fight. While Garcia had talked about wanting to make it an entertaining fight for the fans, he gave the opposite type of performance in the fight by choosing to hold and run most of the fight.
Haye-De Mori weights
A heavily muscled former two division world champion David “Hayemaker” Haye (26-2, 24 KOs) weighed in today for his contest on Saturday night against Mark De Mori (30-1-2, 26 KOs). Haye weighed in at 227.2lbs, whereas De Mori came in considerably higher at 243.5 pounds. This means De Mori will have close to a 20-pound weight advantage over the 35-year-old Haye.
Roach thinks Arum wanted to protect Crawford from Pacquiao
Trainer Freddie Roach believes a possible reason why the unbeaten Terence Crawford (27-0, 18 KOs) wasn’t put in with Manny Pacquiao (57-6-2, 38 KOs) for his next fight because Top Rank promoter Bob Arum might have wanted to protect the 28-year-old Crawford from being pushed into such a tough fight at an early point in his career.
Instead of Pacquiao fighting Crawford, which was a fight that a fair amount of fans wanted to see, Arum selected Tim Bradley (33-1-1, 13 KOs) for a third fight against the Filipino star. Pacquiao and Bradley will now be facing each other on April 9 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Liam Smith receives offer for Saul Canelo Alvarez fight
WBO junior middleweight champion Liam Smith is considering an offer from Saul “Canelo” Alvarez for his next fight. This would be the 25-year-old Canelo’s next fight on May 7 on HBO pay-per-view. Canelo needs a name that will attract fans. Smith doesn’t have a big name, but he does have the undefeated record that would make for a more appealing fight.
The other names that are in the running for Canelo’s next fight are nothing special.
Roach: Crawford rejected Pacquiao fight
In a really surprising bit of news, Manny Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach is saying that unbeaten WBO 140lb champion Terence Crawford (27-0, 19 KOs) turned down a fight against Manny Pacquiao (57-6-2, 38 KOs) for April 9th. Roach says Crawford said no to a fight against Pacquiao, and that Top Rank promoter Bob Arum said they wouldn’t try and get Crawford to take the fight with Pacquiao yet.
Pacquiao said last week that he plans on fighting for the last time against WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley (33-1-1, 13 KOs) in their fight on April 9th on HBO pay-per-view from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Danny Garcia – Robert Guerrero to fight for vacant WBC welterweight title
Danny Garcia (31-0, 18 KOs) and Robert Guerrero Guerrero (33-3-1, 18 KOs) will now have more motivation going into their January 23 fight this month now that the World Boxing Council has announced that their fight will have the vacant WBC welterweight title at stake at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California.
Having the WBC title on the line will make the fight a lot more interesting because we’re going to see a new champion crowned in this fight, which will be televised on Premier Boxing Champions on Fox Sports 1.