Unbeaten super-middleweight prospect Ronald Ellis makes his Showtime debut on February 19th and the 12-0(10) talent says he will “make a statement” in the scheduled 8-rounder with Jerry Odum.
A confident fighter who talks well, Ellis also says he wants an active 2016 so as to make up for a couple of injury-enforced layoffs earlier in his now five-year pro career.
Here the 2010 National Golden Gloves champion speaks exclusively with Eastside Boxing:
Ultra-experienced long time heavyweight contender Tony Thompson isn’t quite ready to call it a day and retire yet. Immediately after his October points loss to the much quicker Malik Scott (who had to survive a late-rounds knockdown) “The Tiger” said he would retire. Now, though, in hearing about interim WBA heavyweight champion Luis Ortiz and his struggle finding a challenger for his scheduled March 5th date on HBO’s Boxing After Dark, the 44-year-old says he will step in to face the Cuban who is eight years his junior.
Luis Ortiz must be starting to understand how his countryman, Guillermo Rigondeaux feels. Both talents cannot seem to get a big fight; or, in the case of interim WBA heavyweight ruler Ortiz, any fight. Golden Boy were searching and searching for a suitable, HBO-approved challenger for the southpaw puncher’s March 5th date on Boxing After Dark, then it looked as though a decent opponent had been found in German-based Alexander Dimitrenko.
Everyone, it seems, has an opinion on what will happen on May 7th, when superstar Saul “Canelo” Alvarez will face British star Amir Khan. Some “experts” have criticised the fight, saying Khan – who will be giving up perhaps as much as 20-pounds or a little more when the two climb into the ring on fight night – has next to no chance. Others have applauded Khan’s decision to take on the middleweight champion in a 155-pound catch-weight affair, and some, including fellow Brits Carl Froch and Tyson Fury, give Khan and his amazing speed a genuine shot at winning.
Brand new IBF heavyweight champion “Prince” Charles Martin is eagerly looking forward to his very first title defence. After winning the vacant belt (stripped as it was from Tyson Fury mere days after he’d relieved Wladimir Klitschko of the belt, and also the WBO, WBA and IBO straps) in disappointing fashion against Vyacheslav Glazkov, who injured a knee and could not continue, the unbeaten big man wants a satisfying fight.
Unbeaten KO star and reigning WBC heavyweight king Deontay Wilder wants a lot of things: he wants to unify the heavyweight titles, he wants to go out of boxing having left a great legacy and he wants to give his many fans great, exciting fights. But right now, it seems the thing topping Wilder’s wish list is a fight with fellow unbeaten, Tyson Fury.
Living legend and former four-time heavyweight king Evander Holyfield is currently in the UK, and tonight on “The Bunce Boxing Hour,” the finest cruiserweight in the division’s history was asked, amongst other questions, just who hit his famously granite chin the hardest during his amazing, over twenty-five year pro career.
“The Real Deal” didn’t hesitate as he brought up one man’s name with something that looked like a shiver, “George Foreman,” he answered. “Big George.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvGK7ul3Pys
Like most everyone else, reigning and undefeated IBF welterweight king Kell Brook was shocked and surprised by this week’s out of the blue announcement that WBC middleweight champion Saul Alavarez will face former 140-pound ruler Amir Khan on May 7th. Brook, who has been asking, demanding and even pleading for a fight with Khan for the longest time, had an immediate and equally shocking answer for his promoter Eddie Hearn when he heard the Khan news: “Get me Golovkin at 155-pounds,” the Sheffield fighter said, as quoted by Metro from an interview with IFL TV.
Tyson Fury is featured in the news quite a lot today; with stories on everything from his contracted return fight with ex-heavyweight champ Wladimir Klitschko possibly taking place on a Sheik billionaire’s yacht, to Fury thinking about walking away and retiring, to Fury being presented with the prestigious Ring Magazine belt for the upset win he scored over Wladimir just over two months ago.
Ace trainer Virgil Hunter is talking a very confident game ahead of his fighter Amir Khan and his up against it challenge of middleweight king Saul Alvarez. Hunter, who has now been with Khan for five fights, since beginning working with him towards the end of 2012, says he will be looking at a tape of the Floyd Mayweather Junior-Alvarez fight from September of 2013, which Mayweather won via comfortable points decision (barring the simply baffling card of one judge!).