Brandon Rios to fight in May, possibly against Provodnikov

01/20/2014 Jeff Sorby

Former WBA lightweight champion Brandon Rios (31-2-1, 23 KO’s) is expected back in the ring next May against possibly WBO light welterweight champion Ruslan Provodnikov. Rios is waiting to find out which fighter Manny Pacquiao will take on for his April 12th fight in Las Vegas, Nevada. If Pacquiao selected Tim Bradley, then Rios will be looking to fight Provodikov for his World Boxing Organization 140 lb. title. If Pacquaio selects Provodnikov to fight, then Rios could be fighting Tim Brady for his WBO welterweight title.

The criticism that would come from Rios fighting for a world title against Provodnikov or Bradley stems from the fact that Rios has lost his last two fights and isn’t ranked in the top 15 at either 140 or 147. For Rios to get a title shot off of consecutive defeats and with him being a 2nd tier fighter, it would definitely run a lot of people the wrong way. However, you can bet that the WBO will come to the rescue or Rios once talk begins for him to fight Bradley or Provodnikov.

Robert Garcia: Maidana deserves a shot at Mayweather after win over Broner

01/20/201401/20/2014 Jeff Sorby

Trainer Robert Garcia feels that his fighter WBA welterweight champion Marcos Maidana should have been in the running for a fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. following his win over Adrien Broner last December. But instead of getting a potential chance against Mayweather in what would have been a career high payday for the Argentinian fighter, Maidana is now pretty much locked into a rematch with Broner after Broner invoked his rematch clause in his contract with Maidana.

“We thought by beating Broner and doing it the way we did, we definitely earned the shot at Mayweather,” Garcia said to the Boxing Channel. “For whatever reason it looks like they’re going to go with Amir Khan, and we’re going to have to wait and wait, because what if he changes his mind and fights someone else?

Pascal vs. Stevenson not likely to happen soon

01/19/2014 Jeff Sorby

For boxing fans hoping to see WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson and Jean Pascal face each other in the near future, it’s not likely to happen, says Dan Rafael of ESPN. He sees both guys as having too many options for fights right now to where they don’t need to face each other. The Pascal-Stevenson fight will happen sooner or later, but probably not anytime soon.

Pascal showed last night after his 12 round unanimous decision victory over Lucian Bute that he wasn’t all that excited about fighting Stevenson when he said to Max Kellerman “I’m very proud of him [Stevenson]. He’s black like me; he’s from the Haitian community. Big shout out to ‘Superman’ Stevenson.”

Mayweather says he’ll hang up the gloves next year

09/15/201601/18/2014 Jeff Sorby

For fans of Floyd Mayweather Jr. (45-0, 26 KO’s) you had better soak in as many fights of the 36-year-old Mayweather Jr. while you still can because he’ll be ending his career next year in September, he says. Mayweather Jr. will finish out his contract with Showtime/CBS and then walk away from the sport a very, very rich man. As long as he doesn’t gamble his money away foolishly or lose it on bad business deals, Mayweather should be able to remain wealthy for the remainder of his life.

Mayweather said to AP from South Africa “September 2015 will be my last.”

Mayweather looks like he’ll be facing Khan next

08/02/201401/16/2014 Jeff Sorby

Floyd Mayweather Jr. will likely be disappointing boxing fans by announcing that his next fight on May 3rd will be Amir Khan within the week. ESPN’s Brian Campbell is saying that it appears that Khan will be the guy that Mayweather Jr. will be facing next instead of Marcos Maidana or Danny Garcia.

Campbell is well aware that this will be a controversial pick due to Khan’s defeats to Danny Garcia and Lamont Peterson, but that won’t matter. Mayweather will be choosing him any way.

“Unless Money May has a secret plan he has yet to be leaked in any fashion or any way, Khan, all signs point to him as the next opponent for him,” Campbell said to ESPN. “He’s somewhat of a controversial pick if it ends up being him because, although very talented, Khan is coming off of a pair of losses in recent memory and he’s bounced back with two comeback fights. But really he’s not shown that he’s in his top form…So it’s really Khan or nothing at this point.”

Bernard Hopkins turns 49 today

01/15/2014 Jeff Sorby

IBF light heavyweight champion Bernard “The Executioner” Hopkins (54-6-2, 32 KO’s) turns 49-years-old today and he faces what could be the toughest part of his career if he backs up his tough talk with action in 2014 and 2015. Hopkins will be facing WBA 175 lb. champion Beibut Shumenov in April or May in a unification match. From there, Hopkins says he wants to fight unification matches against WBO champion Sergey Kovalev and WBC champ Adonis Stevenson.

Whether Hopkins does so is the real question. He’s been talking a lot, and recently he mentioned that he saw Kovalev as an easy fight for him. If Hopkins chooses to use the network squabbles as a reason why he can’t fight Kovalev and Stevenson, it’ll look like he’s ducking those guys in the minds of many boxing fans.

Adrien Broner shouldn’t have fought Maidana, says Jones Jr.

08/01/201401/15/2014 Jeff Sorby

Roy Jones Jr. thinks it was a big mistake for former WBA welterweight champion Adrien Broner (27-1, 22 KO’s) to have been matched against a puncher like Marcos Maidana (35-3, 31 KO’s) last month in their fight on December 14th. Jones Jr. thinks that Broner’s tougher than expected fight against Paulie Malignaggi was a sign that he needed to fight a slightly stronger fighter for his next fight instead of being put in with arguably the hardest puncher in the 147 lb. division in Maidana.

Golden Boy Promotions set up the Broner-Maidana fight, and Jones Jr. thinks that was a mistake. He felt that Broner needed more time for him to slowly grow into becoming a welterweight instead of jumping up to that weight class and quickly being put in the ring with Maidana in a risky right.

Hopkins sees Kovalev as easy fight for him

07/31/201401/13/2014 Jeff Sorby

IBF light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins (54-6-2, 32 KO’s) may never get a chance to fight WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev (23-0-1, 21 KO’s) due to them fighting on different cable networks, but that’s not stopping Hopkins from giving his opinion about how he’d do against the Russian fighter if he ever did fight him. Hopkins, who turned 49 this Wednesday, thinks Kovalev would be an even easier fight for him than his fight with Kelly Pavlik.

Hopkins believes that Kovalev is a fighter with only one dimension, and be figures he’d soundly beat him if the two ever fought. The fact that they probably never will fight gives Hopkins the chance to talk as much as he’d like without having to actually prove himself against Kovalev in the ring.