Former British middleweight champ Chris Eubank Junior did as was widely, even universally expected last night, and defeated little-known Australian Renold Quinlan in London. In stopping the tougher than expected visitor, Eubank picked up the IBO super-middleweight strap. Now a “world” champion, the outspoken Brighton man wasted no time in calling out the big guns of the 160 and 168 divisions (he left out light-heavyweight ruler Andre Ward on this occasion of name calling).
James Slater
Amir Khan: I thought the Danny Garcia fight would be a walk in the park
Of the four pro defeats Amir Khan has suffered – to Breidis Prescott, Lamont Peterson, Danny Garcia and Canelo Alvarez – it is the third defeat he picked up, at the hands of Garcia, that bothers him the most – simply because Khan fully believes, as do others, that he was beating Garcia before “making one mistake and getting caught.”
Khan craves a shot at revenge, and he wants one far more than he wants a fight with fellow Brit Kell Brook. Khan, who says he cannot wait to return to ring action with his “new” right hand, having had surgery on the hand before Christmas, aims for a tune-up first before hopefully getting the rematch with Garcia towards the end of the year.
Christian Hammer stops David Price, Price’s career could be over
Tonight in London in the chief support to the Eubank-Quinlan IBO super-middleweight title fight, Germany’s Christian Hammer stopped an exhausted David Price in the 7th-round of an exciting heavyweight battle. Price, in a must-win fight, had huge success early on, dropping Hammer and hurting him a number of times, but he simply ran out of gas and wilted when a determined Hammer showed he was tough enough to stick around.
The end came at the 1:20-second mark of the 7th, when Price, stuck on the ropes, open-mouthed and taking shots, forced the referee to dive in and halt the fight. Price, in losing for the fourth time, all by stoppage, is now 21-4(18). Hammer, in scoring one of the biggest wins of his career, is now 21-4(12).
Can legendary trainer Nacho Beristain guide Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. to shock win over Canelo Alvarez?
The venue for the massive May 6 “Battle of Mexico” between Canelo Alvarez and Julio Cesar Chavez Junior has been announced – the catch-weight showdown will take place in Las Vegas, at The T-Mobile Arena – and Chavez Jnr announced who will be training him for the biggest fight of his career: legendary boxing trainer Nacho Beristain.
Chavez, though the bigger, heavier man (the fight taking place at an agreed, strictly enforced 164.5 pounds) faces a daunting task against the peaking Alvarez. Most fans and experts, though they either predict or hope for a good, maybe even great fight, feel there is only one winner, and it’s Canelo. Certainly it would be a pretty big upset if Chavez – a fighter who has boxed infrequently over recent months and has seen his reputation suffer due to a couple of bad performances – managed to derail The Canelo Express in May.
Mikey Garcia open to big fights in the UK; talks Flanagan, Crolla-Linares winner, Campbell
Thanks to his stunning return KO win over Dejan Zlaticanin, three-weight ruler Mikey Garcia is one of the hottest fighters on the scene today, and everyone wants to see what the unbeaten 29-year-old does next. Currently 36-0(30) and the WBC lightweight champ, Garcia has a ton of options.
One of these options is to fight in the UK, against one of the rival 135 pound champions from these shores. And Garcia, as he explained to Sky Sports, very much likes the idea of fighting a big fight in England.
Duco Events wins purse bid; Joseph Parker-Hughie Fury set for April 1st in New Zealand
It has just been announced on social media by WBO president Paco Valcarcel how Duco Events, who are the promotional outfit behind reigning WBO heavyweight champ Joseph Parker, won the purse bid for the Parker-Hughie Fury fight.
The clash of young unbeaten heavyweights will now go ahead on April 1st in Auckland in New Zealand.
Andre Ward says he smiles at Chris Eubank Junior’s claim he would “wreck” him
Chris Eubank Junior, along with his ever-present father, has been very vocal in the lead-up to tomorrow’s fight that will see him attempt to take the IBO super-middleweight bauble from huge 25-1 outsider Renold Quinlan. But Eubank has been verbally attacking just about any fighter you could care to mention apart from Australia’s Quinlan.
Vasyl Lomachenko-Jason Sosa 130 pound unification fight likely for April
Vasyl Lomachenko, one of the hottest, most exciting fighters and for many people also today’s pound-for-pound best, wanted to get a chance to avenge his sole pro loss in his next fight, but a rematch with Orlando Salido couldn’t be made (for whatever reason or reasons) so a new foe had to be found.
Teddy Atlas’ recent Top-10 Pound-for-Pound list didn’t include GGG; Atlas explains why
Love him or loathe him, there is no denying Teddy Atlas is about as passionate about the sport of boxing as any expert/pundit you could come up with. Atlas has a long history in the sport – training a young Mike Tyson way back in the early 1980s being one famous and well-documented highlight – and he has trained many other world champions.
Still, despite his passion, and a great deal of knowledge, picked up over the decades in which he has been involved in boxing, Atlas is not without his critics – far from it in fact. And just recently having filed his Top-10 Pound-for-Pound list for ESPN.com, Teddy drew the sting of many a fight fan. Why? Because his top-10 lacked one prominent fighter: feared middleweight king Gennady Golovkin; a fighter who is on EVERY SINGLE p-4-p list you can find today barring Teddy’s.
Amir Mansour-Travis Kauffman to collide in likely slugfest, March 17
An interesting and potentially fun heavyweight match-up has been announced for March 17 in Reading, Pennsylvania, as Amir Mansour and Travis Kauffman will clash in what should be a fan-friendly fight.
Mansour, 22-2-1(16) was last seen in a thriller, albeit a losing one, with Dominic Breazeale a year ago. In that slugfest, southpaw Mansour scored early damage, decking the future IBF title challenger, before being forced to quit after tasting his own blood, quite literally. Fans didn’t know it at the time of his decision (Mansour really had no choice) to remain on his stool at the conclusion of the 5th-round, but he had picked up one helluva nasty injury – his ripped tongue later needing no less than 36 stitches.