For reasons only he knows, former multi-weight champion and onetime star James Toney refuses to give up fighting. “Lights Out,” now aged 47 and sporting a 76-10-3(46) record compiled over a quite astonishing 27 years as a pro boxer, will box Canada’s Eric Martel Bahoeli next month.
Toney has put the fight up on his Twitter page and the bout, scheduled for just eight-rounds, is up on BoxRec as happening in Ontario on November 13th. Perhaps fittingly, that day is Friday the 13th.
Though most people, when they read, or saw, how Canada’s Donovan Ruddock was stopped, his comeback derailed, in three-rounds by Dillon Carman on Friday night, claimed that Razor was foolish in the first place for trying to attain new glory at the advanced age of 51, the fact is the gutsy warrior showed plenty of guts and courage in trying to push the boundaries all athletes are restrained by.
Fight fans have grown accustomed to pre-fight brawls, scuffles at weigh-ins and even testy behaviour between two rival fighters after the fight, yet yesterday, light-welterweights Zab Judah and Hevinson Herrera took things one step further. Attempting to weigh-in ahead of today’s scheduled ten-rounder in New York – a fight that would have marked former welterweight king Judah’s first fight since December of 2013 – the New Yorker and the Colombian got into a heated exchange before having a chance to step onto the scales.
According to a piece by Dan Rafael of ESPN.com, the two fighters were stood next to each other filling out their medical forms, when the trouble started.
Top-ranked, unbeaten heavyweight contender Lucas Browne overcame a far tougher and determined Julius Long than anybody expected earlier today in Australia. Eventually, after a rough and tough night’s work, Browne got the KO win with a second remaining in the ninth-round. Now 23-0(20), Browne said post-fight how he injured his thumb in the early going. Long, loser of eleven of his last 12 bouts, falls to 16-19(14). Still, the 38-year-old put on one of his best showings in some time.
“Big Daddy,” as Browne is known, is closing in on a shot at a world title and the 36-year-old has called out all manner of big names recently. It’s likely that none of these fighters – Tyson Fury included – will have seen anything to worry them in Browne’s latest win.
Much has been made of the recent top-five unbeaten superstar Floyd Mayweather Junior came out with in terms of his picks for the five best fighters in boxing history. For those fans that missed it, Mayweather – currently, of course, 48-0 and closing in on his 49th and “final” fight, against huge underdog Andre Berto in September – listed the following top-5:
1: Floyd Mayweather Junior (wow, what a surprise!)
2: Roberto Duran
3: Pernell Whitaker
4: Julio Cesar Chavez
5: Muhammad Ali
Forget Amir Khan-Kell Brook; the best all-British showdown that can be made right now is Carl Frampton-Scott Quigg. And, in light of the respective showings of the two champions last night, this potentially massive showdown has seen a shift in fan opinion.
Go back to when the fight was first spoken about as a sure-fire sizzler, and Frampton had a slight edge to win in the opinion of maybe 60-percent of the fans/experts. Now, with Quigg blowing away Kiko Martinez – the same Martinez who twice went to war with Frampton – it is no longer the Irishman who is the perceived favourite. Frampton’s stock went down a little with his up-from-the-floor battle with a determined and very tough Alejandro Gonzalez Junior, and now Quigg Vs. Frampton looks like a gamble for the Barry McGuigan-managed star.
As fight fans ave surely read by now, it has been announced by a number of sources how heavyweight king Wladimir Klitschko will defend his belts against unbeaten Tyson Fury, the WBO heavyweight mandatory challenger, on October 24th in Germany. The two sides today came together and, at the last minute avoiding the need for purse bids, the fight was made.
Dusseldorf will host the big fight and both giants are confident of victory. Britain’s Fury, who has been calling for a shot at Klitschko for some time, took to his oft-used Twitter account just minutes ago:
“Viva Deutschland, I’m coming to rock your country in October be there or miss the best fight in heavyweight history, #letsgetthispartystarted,” Fury wrote.
(Photo credit: Suzanne Teresa/Premier Boxing Champions) With Saturday’s dominant win over Adrien Broner under his belt, former IBF welterweight ruler Shawn Porter is understandably calling out Floyd Mayweather Junior. Porter – who was too strong for Broner (despite having to weigh-in three-pounds below the welterweight limit as per Broner’s demands) appeared to have things largely his own way until the 12th and final round when Broner put him down with a lead left hook to the head – scored a unanimous decision and now wants to face Mayweather in September.
“Money,” who will be having his 49th and very possibly final fight at The MGM Grand in Las Vegas on September 12th, has yet to officially announce his challenger. Amir Khan remains hopeful he will get his dream fight, while other big names such as Gennady Golovkin and Keith Thurman have been calling out Mayweather for some time. And now, in the opinion of some, Shawn Porter deserves to be considered for September 12th. But Mayweather, in speaking with his website of choice, FightHype, had a surprise in store when he was asked on camera who he will likely fight in September.
Ten years ago today, a U.S heavyweight who is best remembered these days for being the last man to defeat the mighty Wladimir Klitschko, scored one of his most ruthless and impressive wins. In Chicago, “Relentless” Lamon Brewster, defending his WBO heavyweight strap, annihilated troubled Pole Andrew Golota inside a single minute of action.
Some interesting facts about the fight:
31-year-old Brewster was sporting a 31-2 record and he was making the second defence of the WBO title he had won by stopping Klitschko in shocking fashion the previous April. Golota was 37-years-old and his record read 38-5-1. The shot at Brewster was generally seen as Golota’s last chance at winning a title and of him living up to his earlier potential.
“Robert Mitchum was a father figure to me.” “[Marlon] Brando was great.” “Christopher Reeve was a jerk and I was just about to kick the s**t out of him!” “Cleveland Williams hit me harder than any other human being.” “Muhammad Ali asked me to get his brother out of boxing.”
Most famous for his role as mute villain, ‘Non’ in the blockbuster ‘Superman’ films, 73-year-old Jack O’Halloran was also an accomplished pro boxer who met a number of big names in the 1960s and ’70s. In compiling a 34-21-2(17) ledger, the strapping 6’6” Philadelphia-born giant – who fought out of Boston – rumbled with, amongst others, George Foreman, Cleveland Williams, Joe Bugner and Ron Lyle.