Gifted Cuban southpaw Guillermo Rigondeaux has been given back his status as the WBA “super” champion at 122-pounds. As fans may recall, “Rigo” was stripped of the belt back in November of last year due to inactivity. Scott Quigg of Britain was elevated to “super” champion ahead of his fight with IBF boss Carl Frampton. Frampton won, adding the WBA strap to his collection, but then he himself was stripped as he chose to move up in weight – for a huge fight with featherweight king Leo Santa Cruz – and now Rigondeaux has the belt back. Phew!
James Slater
Deontay Wilder-Alexander Povetkin fight in jeopardy as Povetkin reportedly fails pre-fight drugs test
In breaking news from Dan Rafael of ESPN.com it seems the WBC heavyweight title fight between champ Deontay Wilder and challenger Alexander Povetkin could be called off as Povetkin has reportedly tested positive for Meldonium.
“Status of the #WilderPovetkin fight is unclear at the moment after Povetkin’s test,” Rafael Tweeted earlier today.
Rafael later wrote:
Enzo Maccarinelli to face Dmytro Kucher for vacant Euro cruiserweight title, McKenzie withdraws with illness
BBC sport in Wales is reporting how former WBO cruiserweight champ Enzo Maccarinelli will face Dmytro Kucher in June, for the vacant European 200-pound title. Ovill McKenzie, a former two-time opponent of the Welshman, has been forced to withdraw from the Kucher fight due to illness. Maccarinelli, 41-7(33) and a former European champ at cruiser now gets a chance to become a two-time Euro ruler at York Hall in London on June 10th.
Danny Garcia “looking forward” to fighting Floyd Mayweather, convinced he would beat him
We’re constantly hearing rumours and suggestions regarding how superstar Floyd Mayweather Junior will fight again; how “Money” will come back to earn another big pile of money and also attempt to reach the milestone record of 50-0. And Danny Garcia, the man who now holds Mayweather’s old WBC welterweight crown, has heard all about how his name has oft been mentioned as a “likely” return foe for Mayweather.
Lucas Browne stripped of WBA title, suspended for six-months; the belt goes back to Chagaev
Australian heavyweight Lucas “Big Daddy” Browne, who won a version of the WBA title with an heroic upset stoppage win over Ruslan Chagaev back in March, has been stripped of the title and banned for six months. Fans may have read about how Browne tested positive for the weight loss aid Clenbuterol shortly after his big win and now, added to his A sample coming up positive, Browne’s B sample, released yesterday, also tested positive. The WBA have now stripped Browne and returned the belt to Chagaev, who has 120 days in which to negotiate a defence against Fres Oquendo; a man he has already out-pointed.
Dillian Whyte – Hughie Fury ordered by BBB of C, to decide vacant British heavyweight title
With IBF heavyweight ruler Anthony Joshua having vacated the British title he won just this past December in a thrilling battle with Dillian Whyte, the British Boxing Board have called for Whyte to face unbeaten Hughie Fury to decide the vacant title. In a brief interview with Sky Sports, Board chairman Robert Smith said the fight will go to purse bids if no deal can be reached between the two fighters and their teams in the meantime:
“The purse bids are due on June 8, however, they have between now and June 8 to negotiate the private deal if they wish,” Smith said today.
Canelo Alvarez-Amir Khan fight gets close to 600,000 pay-per-view buys
According to a news story in The Los Angeles Times, the May 7th middleweight title fight between Mexican star Saul Canelo Alvarez and British star Amir Khan generated a not too shabby 600,000 pay-per-view buys. An industry source told the paper the fight did “just shy” of 600,000 buys. Once again – even in a fight many people moaned and groaned about, some even calling the fight Alvarez won by crushing KO a gross mismatch – 25-year-old Canelo showed his star power.
WBA “will not interfere with Golovkin-Canelo negotiations” but if super-fight cannot get made, GGG must fight Daniel Jacobs
Gennady Golovkin-Saul Canelo Alvarez: it’s super-fight absolutely everyone is desperate to see, so much so that the WBA will not get in the way as the negotiations for the mega-fight take place. In the past, fight fans have grown weary of how one organisation or another has ordered a fighter to defend his title against a lesser foe simply because they place him in their rankings. This, on occasion, has prevented a much better fight, one the fans really wanted to see, from taking place.
Artur Beterbiev to return after year-long layoff
Russian light-heavyweight Artur Beterbiev, one of the most promising and powerful prospects in boxing today, will return to action on June 4th in his adopted Canada. Sidelined since June of last year due to a serious shoulder injury, Beterbiev, 9-0(9) will face Ezquiel Osvaldo Maderna in Montreal in a fight that will go out live on ESPN’s first fight card of the year.
Beterbiev, a superb amateur, has yet to be extended beyond the 7th-round and impressive stoppage wins over former champion Tarvoris Cloud and Gabriel Campillo really put the 31-year-old on the world stage; this after just a handful of fights.
Pacquiao wins Senate seat, Arum now convinced Pac-Man has boxed his last fight
Retired superstar Manny Pacquiao, who, reports from Manila say is now a Senator, will almost certainly have his hands full with his political duties; so much so that he will not fight again. So says his long time promoter Bob Arum in speaking with RingTV.com. It is now not out of the realms of possibility that Pacquiao will get as far as becoming President of his country; this being an honour that would surpass anything the 37-year-old superstar accomplished in the ring.
It really does look like we can now forget about any talk of the possibility of “one more fight” from the eight-weight king. Pacquiao told us upon entering his rubber-match with Tim Bradley in April that this would be his final ring appearance, but millions of fight fans chose not to believe him. Then, with less than a month gone into his retirement, there was talk of how Pacquiao and the also retired Floyd Mayweather Junior would hook up again, in a second mega-money fight. This now looks extremely unlikely (if it didn’t before) as Manny will have no choice but to channel all of his efforts, all of his time and all of his passion into politics; his real love.