Middleweight king Gennady Golovkin is definitely a star, but is he a big star; even a mega-star? Oscar De La Hoya has major doubts regarding Golovkin’s ability to pull in the big pay-per-view numbers, and as a result, the earlier verbal offer to GGG for a September fight with Canelo Alvarez is “off the table.”
Speaking with The Los Angeles Times, De La Hoya said that a new offer will be put forward to GGG, one that will take into consideration the middleweight champ’s pay-per-view sales.
54-year-old Bobby Hitz, a proud native of Chicago, is a former heavyweight who turned promoter and today, aside from wanting to see one of the fighters he currently promotes become world heavyweight champion, his main goal is to “help keep boxing flourishing.”
Hitz, who went 21-4 as a pro (Bobby says BoxRec’s 15-5 numbers are wrong) had his biggest fight in 1988, when he met a comebacking George Foreman in Michigan. One round later, Hitz began thinking of a life after boxing. Still, Hitz has boxing in his blood and he wanted to remain active in the sport. A couple of fights later, after a meeting with Jackie Kallen in Detroit, Bobby found his calling: that of boxing promoter.
One of the oldest, most often repeated sayings in the sport of boxing is, it’s tough becoming a world champion, but it’s even harder remaining as one. Everyone from Mike Tyson to Muhammad Ali has said these words and right now, one man who knows first hand how incredibly hard it can be to stay at the top of the mountain once you’ve got there , is training for a comeback.
It’s one of the most eagerly awaited, even demanded, rematches in recent memory; it’s Andre Ward-Sergey Kovalev II, and almost as soon as the decision, in favour of Ward, was announced last November, fans called for it. According to a piece on RingTV.com, the date for the return meeting is June 17, at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, but Ward, as of yet, has not signed on the dotted line.
As fight fans may have read by now, British heavyweight warrior Dereck Chisora will travel to Finland for a rematch with Robert Helenius on May 27 (the month of May really looking like a great month for boxing, what with the heavyweight battle added to big fights including Canelo-Chavez and Brook-Spence).
A good, solid fight, one that will be a sequel to the controversial points win Helenius picked up in 2011 (British promoter Frank Warren calling the decision one of the worst he had ever seen at the time), Helenius-Chisora II could well prove entertaining. But, as an official WBC eliminator, the question has to be asked: is either Chisora, 26-7(18) or Helenius, 24-1(15) capable of defeating Deontay Wilder, or even of giving the reigning WBC king a tough fight?
We’ve seen some shocking, unlikely match-ups get made just recently in boxing; where two men from different weight classes, sometimes with more than one weight class between them, got it on in a catch-weight bout. Recently, no-one saw Canelo Alvarez-Amir Khan coming, or Gennady Golovkin-Kell Brook; while going back a few years, the Manny Pacquiao-Oscar De La Hoya fight was widely ridiculed when it was first announced.
Might a Tony Bellew-Chris Eubank Junior clash be the next catch-weight contest that will get shot down initially but then just might catch on with the fans? Due to a highly entertaining and amusing twitter battle between the two British stars, Eubank – the former British middleweight champ who recently moved up to 168 pounds and won the lightly regarded IBO belt at the weight -called Bellew out.
Like many other people right now, boxing great Sugar Ray Leonard has an opinion on what would – or will – happen, when boxing superstar Floyd Mayweather meets UFC legend Conor McGregor. But don’t think for one minute that the Hall of Famer who met and defeated such fellow greats as Tommy Hearns, Roberto Duran and Marvelous Marvin Hagler is getting carried away by the hype.
Manny Pacquiao has a new plan of action regarding the upcoming continuation of his Hall of Fame career. At least his promoter Bob Arum does. As fight fans may recall, Pac-Man was originally supposed to fight Australian puncher Jeff Horn in Australia in April. That fell through, as Pacquiao opted instead to face Britain’s Amir Khan in a huge money spinner in the UAE in May. That also fell through (at least the big money that was supposedly on the table fell through; leaving Khan, who said the funds “were in place” angry and without a fight).
Proving once again that boxing is the must addictive, hard to leave sport there is, former WBC heavyweight champ Oleg Maskaev has announced how he “doesn’t plan to retire yet,” and is looking for the right fight with which to return to the ring. Maskaev, in his day a powerful puncher who was somewhat vulnerable to a big punch, gave fans some exciting and memorable fights.
Superb little fighting machine Roman Gonzalez, a warrior who sat atop of Ring Magazine’s respected pound-for-pound list since September of 2015, has been demoted. The result of his thrilling but losing battle with Thai southpaw Srisaket Sor Rungvisai (a tough name to pronounce, but one we should all get used to as the new WBC super-flyweight king promises to stick around the big fight orbit for some time), the Nicaraguan has slipped to No.4 in the mythical rankings.