MANAGER Philippe Fondu believes European light-middleweight champion Sergey Rabchenko could soon earn the right to box for a world title.
The European Boxing Union (EBU) has this week nominated Italy’s Emanuele Della Rosa to face the Ricky Hatton-trained Belarussian within the next six months.
By Michael Collins: Amir Khan is reportedly in negotiations with former WBA World welterweight champion Vyacheslav Senchenko for a fight that is possible for April 20th at the Manchester Arena. To make the fight happen, Khan might have to move up to 147, but it’s also possible that Senchenko will come down to 140 for the right price.
It’ll be a big payday for Senchenko because he’s asking for a considerable amount to take the fight.
In picking Senchenko, Khan would be looking to capitalize on the interest that Manchester fans might have in seeing Senchenko beaten after he destroyed their hero Ricky Hatton by a 9th round TKO last November in Hatton’s disastrous comeback attempt. Of course, it wouldn’t be Hatton that is avenging the loss, but for some boxing fans in Manchester it might make them happy to see a fellow Brit to beat Senchenko.
If Khan does move up in weight it’ll only be for just this one because he still feels he’s got unfinished business at 140 against the likes Danny Garcia and Lamont Peterson. Besides that, there are a lot of big punchers at welterweight and I really don’t know if Khan’s chin could handle getting hit hard over and over again by the likes of Victor Ortiz, Marcos Maidana, Kell Brook, and Floyd Mayweather Jr.
By Prince Dornu-Leiku: It is official, BabyJet Promotions and Management have reached a 3-year partnership deal with WBA International Junior Lightweight champion, Emmanuel Tagoe that will see the promotional syndicate owned by Ghana national soccer team captain, Asamoah Gyan manage and promote the promising boxer.
24 year old Tagoe, famously nicknamed Game Boy won the hearts of Asamoah Gyan and the BabyJet Promotions team by defeating his great local rival, George Ashie by a unanimous points decision back on November 10 last year at the Accra Sports Stadium in what was BabyJet Promotions’ maiden event, a win that won him the 3-year contract with an option for BabyJet Promotions to renew.
Financial details of the deal were not revealed at Wednesday’s press conference in Accra to officially announce the agreement, but according to BabyJet Promotions CEO, Sammy Anim-Addo, they have paid up Tagoe’s past managers, promoters and everyone who had previously helped the boxer in his career. BabyJet Promotions have also reiterated their belief in the potential of the 24 year old boxer to become a world champion and have outlined a comprehensive roadmap of fights leading to world championship glory by the first quarter of next year.
by Seamus Hanratty: “The Celtic warrior” Steve Collins has announced a comeback fight at the age of 48, against former Boxing great Roy Jones Junior. In a comeback that amounts to a cross between a Walt Disney fairytale and a drug induced nightmare, the legendary Irish scrapper who in his hay day managed to win world titles against both Chris Eubank and Nigel Benn, and later defended his belts some eight times, announced to the world that he intends to fight American Jones in the near future.
Collins, who also enjoyed some titanic struggles with middleweight champions Mike McCallum and Sumbu Kalambay in the early part of his career, stated that “It’s a fight Roy Jones needs. He claims to be one of the greatest pound-for-pound fighters around but he refused to fight me.” Quite what planet Collins was on when he made the quote above remains to be seen, but it does seem far removed from the one we currently inhabit. It’s clear that both fighters need this fight as much as the average man needs to impregnate his boss’s daughter with triplets.
By Bill Phanco: It’s not official. 41-year-old Shane Mosley (46-8-1, 39 KO’s) will be challenging WBA World welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi (32-4, 7 KO’s) on April 27th in a Showtime headliner fight at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. There a couple of questions that you have to ask about this fight.
First off, how is that that the International Boxing Federation are going to allow Mosley, who isn’t ranked in the top 15 by any of the sanctioning bodies, to fight for a world title? For that matter, Mosley hasn’t won a fight in FOUR YEARS, and he’s being given a world title shot.
The second question is why is Showtime agreeing to televise this fight as a main event to American boxing fans? I don’t think it’s a good product for fans, especially if you signed up for Showtime in the past just to see boxing. Having Malignaggi-Mosley televised is pretty much a waste of time because Mosley isn’t the same fighter he once was and he’s lost three out of his last four fights going into the Malignaggi fight.
By Chip Mitchell: Boxing history is packed full of bizarre characters, and the heavyweights are no exception. History shows us that fans have a love affair with off-the-wall fighters who reside in the Big Man’s division. The stranger the fighter, the more we seem to gravitate towards him. Whether it was Mike Tyson, Riddick Bowe, Sonny Liston, or Jack ‘I can’t… I can’t… but I can…’ Dempsey, our lust for more drama has helped generate an abundance of cable subscriptions and sell numerous PPVs.
Well, how about those heavyweights with little or no drama in their lives? How come nobody gravitates toward the good guys? On February 16, two of boxing’s good guys step into the ring for a rematch as Johnathon “Mr.” Banks and Seth “Mayhem” Mitchell dance once again.
Some readers of this piece may or may not know who Seth Mitchell and Johnathon Banks are and if you consider yourselves boxing fans, shame on you. I’ll try to educate you about two of boxing’s good guys. In these days and times, we need stories of a few good men in the world of sports.
By Michael Collins: Well, it looks like Eddie Hearn from Matchroom Sport has worked his magic and got a badly desired rematch for his fighter IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch (30-2, 22 KO’s) against WBA 168 pound champion Mikkel Kessler (46-2, 35 KO’s) at the O2 Arena (Millenium Dome), Greenwich, London, United Kingdom.
The only thing that awaits now is the approval from the IBF for Froch to bypass his mandatory defense against Adonis Stevenson, but it looks like the IBF will grant Hearn and Froch permission to maneuver around that dangerous fight.
Froch believes that he should have won their previous fight back in April 2010 in Denmark.
Froch ended up losing by a 12 round unanimous decision largely because Kessler seemed to get the better of him during virtually every exchange they had. Kessler’s superior hand speed and better combinations enabled him to land the cleaner shots against the long-armed Froch. I don’t think much will change other than the fight now taking place in the UK, and perhaps Froch getting the benefit of the doubt if the rounds are close. We might see a controversial decision in this fight, and frankly I’d be surprised if we didn’t.
By Bill Phanco: Former four division world champion Juan Manuel Marquez (55-6-1, 40 KO’s) has decided to continue fighting after meeting with his wife and children to help him make the decision, according to fightnews.com. Marquez, 39, wasn’t sure whether he should continue his 20-year pro career after knocking his old nemesis Manny Pacquiao out in the 6th round last month in their fourth fight.
But the lure of big money in a fifth fight with Pacquiao proved to be too much for Marquez, and he went with what many boxing fans would agree is the smart choice by continuing to fight at least for the remainder of 2013. Marquez made $3 million guaranteed for the fourth fight with Pacquiao, and he should make considerably more next time around.
Bob Arum of Top Rank is targeting September as the month that he’d like to put Pacquiao and Marquez back together again. However, if they choose September 14th it might hurt the pay per view numbers because Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez are scheduled to be fighting on that date, possibly against each other. It would be a disaster for all if Arum decides to put the Pacquiao-Marquez 5th fight on the same date.
By Michael Collins: Former IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan says he’ll be making an announcement about his next opponent for April this week. He’s meeting with Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer in the UK to pick from one of the following fighters: Victor Ortiz, Josesito Lopez and Vyachaeslav Senchenko.
Khan said to Sky Sports “There are several opponents we’re looking at. A lot of people are talking about Josesito Lopez, Victor Ortiz, Senchenko, the guy that beat Ricky Hatton. There are few names that we have been put there. I’m one of those fighters that will fight anyone. I never said no to an opponent and I never will. Whoever they find for me, we’ll find out in the next couple of days. I have to meet with Richard Schaefer and we’re going to talk about an opponent. So the next couple of days we’re going to announce who I’ll be fighting.”
I don’t care to see Khan fight Josesito Lopez. I’m not that interested in seeing Khan fight a guy that was just destroyed by WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. I don’t care that Lopez beat Victor Ortiz, I still don’t like the idea of Khan fighting someone that was beaten as badly as Lopez was. I’d prefer to see Lopez rebuild his career before fighting someone because it’s just off putting to see Khan get fed a guy coming off of a knockout loss.
By Michael Collins: IBF lightweight champion Miguel Vazquez (33-3, 13 KO’s) will be taking a long trip from his home country of Mexico to fight WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns (35-2, 10 KO’s) on March 16th at the Wembley Arena in London, England.