Yesterday, BBC Sport reported how the WBA have ordered Carl Frampton to fight Guillermo Rigondeaux by July 27th or face being stripped. As fans know, unbeaten Irishman Frampton added the WBA title to his IBF 122-pound belt with a points win over Scott Quigg this past Saturday. Back in late 2015, Rigondeaux, also unbeaten, was stripped of the WBA (and the WBO) title for inactivity and Quigg, the interim WBA champ, was elevated to full champion.
James Slater
Canelo Alvarez: I’m not a middleweight
Mexican superstar Saul “Canelo” Alvarez wants to make a deal. Speaking today at the second stop in the three-city promotional tour to hype the upcoming May 7 Canelo-Amir Khan fight, Alvarez – as quoted by RingTV.com – made one thing clear: he is not a middleweight.
As fans everywhere know, the demand for Canelo, the lineal middleweight champion of the world, to fight Gennady Golovkin, the interim WBC and reigning IBF and WBA 160-pound king, is at a fever pitch right now. Everyone wants to see this fight get made, but Canelo said that both he and GGG will have to “feel comfortable” and that “the conditions have to be right.” before this super-fight can get done.
Ortiz-Thompson clash this Saturday will not be a title fight, WBA declined to sanction “stay-busy” fight
It probably won’t matter to the fans who plan to tune in to see the bout on Saturday night, but the fight between interim WBA heavyweight champ Luis Ortiz and short-notice challenger Tony Thompson will not be a sanctioned title fight. The WBA, as reported by ESPN.com, decided against sanctioning the contest, largely due to the fact that Thompson, though a good and experienced heavyweight, is not currently ranked in the WBA’s top-15 at the weight.
Chris Eubank-Nigel Benn III? Yes, it could actually happen
For those fans who always felt bitter middleweight/super-middleweight rivals Nigel Benn and Chris Eubank had unfinished business to attend to back in the 1990s, by way of a third fight, there could be good news. Benn, who retired with a 42-5-1(35) record in 1996 after back-to-back losses to Irishman Steve Collins, recently made noise that suggested the 52-year-old was genuinely interested in returning to the ring to face the monocle-wearing fighter that so managed to get under his skin back in the day.
Hughie Fury to face tested heavyweight Nagy Aguilera on March 26th Eubank-Blackwell bill
Unbeaten heavyweight contender Hughie Fury, cousin of course of reigning heavyweight champ Tyson Fury, will face a tested and experienced fighter in Nagy Aguilera in his next bout. Set to face the 20-9 operator from The Dominican Republic on the March 26th card at Wembley that will be headlined by middleweights Nick Blackwell and Chris Eubank Junior who will meet in something of a grudge-match, 21-year-old Fury could have a good fight on his hands.
Aguilera, aged 29 and long time based in New York, has been in with a number of notable names, including: Oleg Maskaev, Sam Peter, Antonio Tarver, Chris Arreola, Tomasz Adamek and, more recently, unbeaten U.S heavyweight hopes Dominic Breazeale and Gerald Washington. Okay, most of these fighters have beaten Aguilera but, with the exception of Peter and Arreola, they have not stopped him. And Aguilera is coming off a win – he travelled to Poland last September, where he stopped a 16-1 Marcin Rekowski.
Julio Cesar Chavez not happy with his son, suggests he retires if he cannot maintain discipline
Mexican living legend Julio Cesar Chavez maintained an incredible work ethic throughout his great career and it was this discipline and hard work that was a big factor in his success. Julio Chavez Junior has inherited some of his father’s skills and toughness yet, as fans are well aware, Junior has had his share of problems when it comes to retaining both focus and discipline; what with the 30-year-old’s notorious problems making weight.
Rematch clause for Canelo-Khan, but De La Hoya says “believe me” Canelo-Golovkin “will happen very soon.”
If Britain’s Amir Khan, who has never boxed above the welterweight limit before, manages to upset middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez in May, the former 140-pound champ will have to do it all over again. The Mexican’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya, perhaps edging too far on the side of caution, insisted on a rematch clause just in case Khan pulls off the upset of the year on May 7th.
Tyson Fury says he hopes Anthony Joshua beats Charles Martin so he can “bladder” him
Though he has no next fight signed up as of yet, as he told Sky Sports on Saturday night in Manchester, heavyweight champion Tyson Fury is not at a loss when it comes to who he wants to fight next. Fury, again speaking with Sky Sports, says he wants to fight and defeat Wladimir Klitschko for a second time and then face and defeat Anthony Joshua. Putting it in his own colourful way, Fury says he will “bladder” both Klitschko and then Joshua.
“I am going to bladder Wlad in the next fight and then I am going to bladder Joshua in the next one,” Fury said. “It will be huge in this country for sure. If he (Joshua) wins – or whoever wins – I will fight them next. I hope Joshua wins because of the money and Martin because he is such a nice guy. One thing I do know is when the fight happens between Joshua or Martin, I’ll introduce them to big-time boxing. Once I’ve flattened them.”
Frampton calls out Santa Cruz on Twitter; Rigondeaux Tweets how he’ll fight Frampton, Quigg and Santa Cruz!
(Photo credit: Matchroom Boxing) Go back a few years, and nobody in the boxing world, or any other part of the world, had any idea what Twitter, or a Tweet, was. Yet today, Twitter seems to be one of the most commonly used methods when a fighter either has big news to tell or wishes to call out an opponent. Within hours of the big but ultimately less than thrilling Carl Frampton-Scott Quigg super-bantamweight unification fight, Guillermo Rigondeaux, the universally accepted best 122-pounder on the planet, took to Twitter to both ridicule and call out Frampton.
Rigondeaux is rightfully demanding a fight with new IBF/WBA champion, yet he has gone one, well, actually two better, and has called out Frampton, Quigg and Leo Santa Cruz. Rigo Tweeted how he will, after he’s fought Jazza Dickens on March 12th, fight Frampton in April, Quigg in May and then featherweight champ Leo Santa Cruz in June! And as hungry (read starving) as the masterful Cuban is for the big fights he so clearly deserves, he probably would see out this hectic schedule if he was permitted to do so!
Andy Lee wants Miguel Cotto fight in June
Middleweights Miguel Cotto and Andy Lee are both coming off a defeat and both the former world ruler and the former WBO champ are set to return to action in New York in June. Lee, who lost his belt to Billy Joe Saunders in December, wants to fight Cotto, who lost his lineal crown to Saul “Canelo” Alvarez the month before.
Lee, who says he doesn’t think Saunders will give him a rematch, took to Twitter last night, to call out the Puerto Rican great:
“NYC in June. @RealMiguelCotto Let’s make this fight! @HBOboxing,” Lee wrote.