By Jeff Sorby: WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire’s trainer Robert Garcia doesn’t see WBA super bantamweight champion Rigondeaux as doing any better than Fernando Montiel did against Donaire. Donaire destroyed Montiel in two rounds a couple a years ago in a fight that many boxing fans thought it would be a competitive match-up going into the fight.
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Canelo vs. Trout: 26,000 tickets already sold
By Rob Smith: The demand for the cheap tickets for the April 20th fight between WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (41-0-1, 30 KO’s) and WBA champion Austin Trout (26-0, 14 KO’s) has been overwhelming for their fight that will take place at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.
According to Oscar De La Hoya, the president of Golden Boy Promotions, over 26,000 tickets have already been sold for the fight. The 72,000 seat Alamodome stadium was restructured to fit 30,000 fans. That’s going to need to be bumped up at least by 10,000 to 40,000 in order to accommodate the potential fans that will purchase tickets from now until the fight on April 20th.
The tickets went on sale on March 11th, and they’ve been selling at an alarming rate ever since. Canelo helped the process along by requesting that the lowest cost tickets sell for $10 so that the fans from around the area can have their entire families come to see him fight.
Manfredo Defeats Wright
By James Stillerman at Ringside – Former IBO super middleweight title holder, Peter “The Pride of Providence” Manfredo Jr. kept his latest comeback alive, as he outwork and out landed the Seattle, WA native, Walter “2 Guns” Wright in front of a sold out hometown crowd at the Twin River Event Center in Lincoln, Rhode Island en route to an ten round unanimous decision victory by scores of 98-93, 100-90 and 97-93. “Unfinished Business” was sponsored by Jimmy Burchfield`s Classic Entertainment and Sports, Inc.
“I`d give myself a B- tonight. I`m glad I won, however, I wanted to fight better tonight and get a knockout in front of all my fans, but it just didn`t happen” said Manfredo Jr. the runner up on season of the Contender. “It was difficult fight for me because I trained for Joey Spina who is a strong powerful puncher and then three weeks before the fight, Spina got hurt and I had to train for a totally different fighter with a very different fighting style in Wright who is a slick counter puncher. I`m professional and I made the best of the situation.”
Adrien Broner Arrested for Battery
By John G. Thompson: Another black eye for boxing comes not in the ring but in the antics of one of the sport’s most promising young champions. Adrien “The Problem” Broner (26-0, 22 KO’s) spent a little time in jail on Monday after being arrested in Miami Beach, Florida on battery charges. Broner posted his mug shot on Instagram briefly, before removing it. The mug shot showed his booking time (10:13 am) and his bond amount was set at $1,500. So far details of the “battery” have not surfaced. As of now, it appears that Broner posted the bond and was released.
Broner tweeted at about 7:30 EST that evening, “They tried to keep a nigga locked down in MIA.”
At just twenty-three years of age, Broner is the current WBC lightweight champion having moved up from the super featherweight division, where he briefly ruled as the WBO champ. Broner won the WBC belt from Antonio DeMarco in December of 2012 in a dominant performance some view as his “coming out party,” and defended it in his most recent bout this past February, again dominating his opponent en route to a victory by stoppage.
Helenius-Sprott & Abraham-Stieglitz this Saturday in Germany
By Bill Phanco: Undefeated heavyweight contender Robert Helenius (18-0, 11 KO’s) will be fighting this Saturday night in a scheduled 10 round bout against Britain’s Michael Sprott (37-19, 17 KO’s) in Helenius’ second fight of his comeback from a serious injury when they meet on the undercard of the Arthur Abraham vs. Robert Stieglitz 2 fight at the GETEC Arena in Magdeburg, Germany.
Haye to fight on July 6th in UK; Povetkin, Helenius and Banks possibilities
By Jeff Sorby: Former WBA heavyweight champion David Haye (26-2, 24 KO’s) has decided to go the mandatory route to get a title shot against one of the Klitschko brothers after meeting with his trainer/manager Adam Booth to decide which way to go in his career. Haye plans on fighting next on July 6th at a still to be determined venue in the UK against possibly Alexander Povetkin, Robert Helenius or Johnathon Banks.
Haye, 32, had tried to circumvent going the mandatory challenger route by calling out the Klitschkos to try and entice them into a fight by letting them know how much money they would get for fighting him. However, Wladimir Klitschko already beat Haye two years ago by a lopsided 12 round unanimous decision, and he’s not interested in the least to fight him again.
WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko seems to be debating whether to continue his boxing career, and he too isn’t interested in facing Haye. The guy for Haye to target obviously is Wladimir because he does plan on continuing to fight, but Haye will have to lock himself down as his mandatory challenger before Wladimir will be forced to either fight him or give up his title by vacating it or having it stripped from him.
Amir Khan at the end of the line in 140 lb. tourney
By Michael Collims: Former IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (27-3, 19 KO’s) only has to win one fight against Julio Diaz (40-7-1, 29 KO’s) next month on April 27th to find himself waiting for the winner of the four-fighter 140 pound tournament put together by Golden Boy Promotions.
Khan, 26, will face the winner of a set of matches in November involving WBA/WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia (25-0, 16 KO’s) facing Zab Judah (42-7, 29 KO’s) on April 27th at the Barclays Center, in Brooklyn, New York, USA, and Lucas Matthysse (33-2, 31 KO’s) vs. IBF light welterweight champion Lamont Peterson (31-1-1, 16 KO’s) on May 18th at the Boardwalk Hall, in Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA.
The winner of the Judah-Garcia & Peterson-Matthysse will face each other in a fight that could take place in the summer. The winner of that fight will then face Khan in November. In other words, Khan only has to fight one each opponent in non-top 15 ranked welterweight Julio Diaz, whereas the fighter that meets him in the finals will have to have gone through two tough fights to get to Khan.
Is Timothy Bradley as good as we thought he was?
by Robert Jackson – The title of this article has got to be the question that everyone is asking around the water cooler today. Bradley went ‘tooth and nail’ against a fighter who everyone expected him to easily outbox, at times almost getting KO’d. The Russian,…Provodnikov with limited boxing skills, had never in his 6 year career faced an opponent of Bradley’s stature and was chosen as a walkover/tuneup for Bradley who’s looking for more lucrative fights. Having fought most of his career as a Jr welterweight Provodnikov stepped up to the 147lb class to face WBO champion Bradley.
If you were to look at Provodnikov’s boxing resume there are no elite fighters to speak of prior to facing Bradley, expecting most – prior to the fight to disbelieve him able to put the beating on Bradley that he did Saturday nite.
HBO parts with Golden Boy Promotions
By Rob Smith: HBO Boxing will reportedly no longer be purchasing fights from Golden Boy Promotions, according to Yahoo Sports News. In the immediate future, this will mainly have an effect on Golden Boy fighters WBC lightweight champion Adrien Broner and IBF light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins, as they were two of the remaining Golden Boy fighters that will still having their fights televised on HBO.
Emmanuel Tagoe returns against Pontillas in Accra April 20
By Prince Dornu-Leiku – World title chasing Emmanuel Tagoe AKA Game Boy makes a return to the ring on April 20 when he fights Filipino, Ronald Pontillas in Accra for the vacant WBO Africa Junior Lightweight (a title Tagoe once held) and vacant WBA International Junior Lightweight belts live on Supersport.
The flamboyant Ghanaian showman will be fighting for the first time under the wing of BabyJet Promotions since signing a 3-year management and promotional deal with the syndicate owned by Ghana national soccer team captain, Asamoah Gyan.
BabyJet Promotions have already outlined comprehensive plans to get Tagoe (20-1, 8 KOs) to world championship glory next year and the fight against 23 year old Pontillas from Philippines is the first of many intended to keep the Ghanaian in shape and improving.