Should the guaranteed heavyweight explosion that is Deontay Wilder, WBC king Vs. Anthony Joshua, WBA/IBF champ, take place in the U.S, the U.K, or some place else? Without doubt THE biggest possible fight that can be made in the glamour division of the sport today, Wilder-Joshua HAS to happen and, all being well for we fight fans, it will happen.
But where?
When they were fighting, the Klitschko brothers always had each other’s back. If one brother lost a fight, rest assured his sibling would do all he could to avenge the defeat so as to “restore the Klitschko family name.”
Wladimir lost to Corrie Sanders, and Vitali avenged the KO loss with a KO win of his own; while Vitali lost to Chris Byrd, only for Wladimir to punish Byrd on his way to family revenge. And now, in what would be a sensation if it actually happened, Vitali is talking (with a smile) about the possibility of coming back to the ring to avenge his brother’s April KO loss to Anthony Joshua.
Last night in Edinburgh, Scotland 33 year old Sam Sexton won the vacant British heavyweight title with a grueling 12 round points win over Scottish hero Gary Cornish. After 12 at times exciting, at times messy rounds, Sexton of Norwich prevailed by scores of 116-113, 116-114 and 115-114.
It is the fight Bermane Stiverne, and the WBC, wanted all along: a rematch between Stiverne and Deontay Wilder. Now, due to the crazy goings on with Luis Ortiz and his failed drugs test (one Ortiz claims innocence over, saying he merely took medication for high blood pressure) former champ and current WBC mandatory challenger Stiverne will get what he wants.
The ballot sheets are out for the 2018 Hall of Fame, with voters having to make the agonising decision of picking just five fighters from the list of 32 – with just three of these fighters going through.
This, as ESPN writer Dan Rafael explains, means two of the above new additions on the ballot – Hatton, Klitshko, Calderon, Morales, Wright – will be left out. Each of the above five fighters is absolutely deserving of being enshrined at Canastota, and as Rafael says in a tweet, it will be “brutal” making his decision this year.
Amir Khan has not fought since May of 2016, and he has not won a fight since a year before that, in May of 2015. And Khan, once one of the top fighters in the world, even breaking into some of the pound-for-pound rankings, has suffered all manner of personal problems since his crushing KO loss to Canelo Alvarez.
Khan does not want the image of him laid flat out on his back courtesy of one savage Alvarez right hand to be the one fans ultimately see in their collective minds whenever his name comes up. Khan, who has retained the urge to fight and to train and keep himself in shape throughout all the turmoil (a very public separation from not only his wife but from other family members also) recently put out a message via social media.
This one would make Floyd Mayweather vs Conor McGregor look positively tame in comparison!
Heavyweight legend George Foreman has taken to social media to issue a challenge to movie star- mixed martial arts fighter Steven Segal. Foreman wrote how the fight would be open-rules with he using boxing and Segal using “whatever.” Foreman’s challenge calls for a ten-round bout in Las Vegas. So far no dates have been mentioned and there has been no reply from Segal, at 65, three years the younger man.
Though the recently announced rematch between Tony Bellew and David Haye – set for London’s O2 on Sunday, December 17 – carries a fair amount of intrigue, it’s fair to say most fans would have been far more interested to see what would have happened had cruiserweight champ Bellew clashed with Andre Ward.
As soon as the news broke regarding how heavyweight contender Luis Ortiz had tested positive for an illegal substance, fight fans everywhere went into a slump, realising Ortiz’ big fight with WBC ruler Deontay Wilder had surely fallen apart.
And though some reports confirmed the worst, that the clash of unbeaten punchers was indeed cancelled, Lou DiBella, promoter of Wilder, informed RingTV.com that this is not the case – it seems the show will go on at the Barclays Centre in New York next month.
Tonight in Riga, Latvia, defending WBC cruiserweight champ Mairis Breidis retained his belt and also advanced in the WBSS tournament by way of a unanimous decision victory over Mike Perez. Local hero Breidis, now 23-0(18) won by scores of 116-110, 115-111 and 114-112. Perez, who was mightily disappointed by his defeat, is now 22-3(14).
Tonight’s fight was far from a classic, with an almost shocking amount of holding witnessed, with defending champ Breidis being guilty of initiating most of it. There was a clash of heads in the third-round, with Breidis suffering a nasty cut to his left eye. Perez was docked a point by the referee.