Jeff Sorby, Author At Boxing News

Mayweather dominates Guerrero; Mares stops De Leon

May 5, 2013May 4, 2013 by Jeff Sorby

WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. (44-0, 26 KO’s) totally dominated Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero (31-2-1, 18 KO’s) by a 12 round unanimous decision at the MGM Grand, Grand Garden Arena, in Las Vegas, Nevada. The judges all had the fight scored 117-111, 117-111, 117-111.

Mayweather was too slick, too quick and too good for Guerrero. His fast hands were too much for Guerrero and had him fighting in a cautious manner instead of his usual aggressive manner. When he did try and come forward, Guerrero kept walking into hard right hands. Mayweather was in complete control of the fight.

Mayweather looked like he was in the process of breaking Guerrero in the 8th round when he was hammering him with right hands. Mayweather didn’t continue to tag Guerrero with big right hands after this found. Mayweather later revealed that he had injured his right hand and he couldn’t use to try and finish Guerrero off.

Wladimir Klitschko stops Pianeta in 6th round

May 5, 2013May 4, 2013 by Jeff Sorby

IBO/IBF/WBO/IBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (60-3, 51 KOs) toyed with his former sparring partner Francesco Pianeta (28-1-1, 15 KOs) in knocking him down three times in stopping him in the 6th round on Saturday night at the SAP Arena in Mannheim, Germany. The end of the fight came from a left-right-left combination from Wladimir that sent the 6’5″ Pianeta down on the canvas on all fours. Although Pianeta got back to his feet, the referee chose to halt the fight anyway due to Pianeta staggering after getting back up.

Wladimir knocked Pianeta down in the 5th with a left hook to the head. In the 4th, Wladimir knocked Pianeta down with a jab followed by a straight right to the head.

The fight resembled a sparring session rather than an actual fight due to Wladimir fighting in a relaxed way, hitting the slow moving Pianeta at will with jabs and right hands to the head. Pianeta had the size, but not the reach to land his shots. When he would attempt to come forward to land his punches, Wladimir would immediately back away leaving Pianeta throwing shots in the air.

Guerrero has had a great camp for Mayweather bout

April 30, 2013April 30, 2013 by Jeff Sorby

(Photo credit: Esther Lin/Showtime) Robert “The Ghost’ Guerrero has reportedly had his best ever camp in getting ready for his fight this Saturday night against Floyd Mayweather Jr. in Las Vegas, Nevada, say his manager/trainer Bob Santos. He’s never seen the 29-year-old look so good and feels he’s peaking at the perfect time in his career in this important bout.

For Guerrero’s sake, you’ve got to hope he’s peaking because if he loses the fight and looks bad, he’s going to have to get in the back of a long, long line. He’ll obviously never get another chance against Mayweather if he loses the fight and the other big fight that Golden Boy Promotions can offer him is a fight against their huge-weighing junior middleweight Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, who reportedly rehydrated to 172 pounds for his recent win over WBA junior middleweight champion Austin Trout at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.

Sergio Martinez decisions Martin Murray

April 28, 2013April 28, 2013 by Jeff Sorby

Fighting with an injured left hand from the 8th round, WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez (51-2-2, 28 KO’s) had to battle a lot harder than many boxing fans expected him to in beating Martin Murray (25-1-1, 11 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision tonight in front of a huge crowd of 50,000 at the Club Atlético Vélez Sarsfield in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Murray might have won the fight if he had come out of his defensive shell more often in the fight, as he seemed to adopt the same approach that Saul “Canelo” Alvarez used in his recent fight with Austin Trout in not throwing many punches but counting on his cleaner landing shots to make up the difference for him getting hit a lot more.

Murray could have won but he wasn’t throwing enough and he kept getting nailed by jabs and straight left hands over and over again. Murray was able to block a lot of the shots because he was keeping his gloves high protecting his head, but when one fighter is seen hitting the other all night long on the gloves, it doesn’t matter that a lot of the shots were blocked. Martinez was the busier guy and he deserved the victory. The judges scored it 115-112, 115-112 and 115-112.

Khan defeats Diaz; Wilder KOs Harrison in 1!

September 15, 2016April 27, 2013 by Jeff Sorby

Amir Khan (28-3, 19 KO’s) had to get up off the deck to defeat former IBF lightweight champion Julio Diaz (40-8-1, 29 KO’s) by a 12 round unanimous decision on Saturday night at the Motorpoint Arena in Sheffield, UK. Khan was hurt five times in the fight, and knocked down in the 4th by a left hook. In rounds 8 though 11, Khan was badly staggered by heard shots from Diaz. It was only through the use of Khan’s holding and pulling down on the back of Diaz’s head that he was able to survive those rounds. The final judges’ scores were 114-113, 115-113, 115-112. I had Diaz winning rounds 3, 4, 8, 9, 10 and 11. In other words, I had Diaz winning the fight.>

Khan controlled the action in rounds one and two. Diaz fought well in rounds three and four in landing heavy shots. After Khan was knocked down in the 4th, he came back to fight well in the 5th through 7th rounds, albeit using a lot of questionable tactics like pulling down on Diaz’s head and holding his left arm out far in front of him so that Diaz couldn’t get close. From the 8th round to 11th, Diaz had Khan hurt in each of these rounds, but Khan did a good job of holding on and running.

Result: Nathan Cleverly Outpoints Robin Krasniqi; Chisora defeats Avila

April 21, 2013April 21, 2013 by Jeff Sorby

In a fight that was supposed to be a competitive one, WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly (26-0, 12 KO’s) totally dominated challenger Robin Krasniqi (39-3, 15 KO’s) in beating him by a 12 round unanimous decision in front of a packed Wembley Arena in Wembley, London, UK. Cleverly took some monstrous shots from Krasniqi in rounds 6, 7 and the 8th rounds, but got the better of him with a high work rate.

The judges scored the fight 120-108, 119-109, and 120-108. Krasniqi showed excellent power throughout but he wasn’t able to keep up with the constant output from Cleverly. There was also a size difference between the two of them. Cleverly looked like a cruiserweight after rehydrating for the fight, while Krasniqi just looked like he was at the same weight he did for the weigh-in. Being much bigger than Krasniqi definitely gave Cleverly a huge advantage in the fight because he was able to absorb the big shots from Krasnqi without getting shock up.

Cecilia Braekhus defeats St. John

April 14, 2013April 13, 2013 by Jeff Sorby

Photo: Wende — 45-year-old Mia St John (47-13-2, 18 KO’s) looked like a spectator from the crowd that had mistakenly walked into the ring tonight against WBA/WBO/WBC female welterweight Cecilia Braekhus (22-0, 6 KO’s) at the Arena Nord, Frederikshavn, Denmark. Braekhus nailed St. John at will in every until the fight was halted in the 3rd after St. John was staggered by the ropes from a storm of heavy shots from Braekhus.

This fight resembled someone getting attacked by a swarm of angry bees because St. John was just covering up and cowering for much of the fight. When she did throw punches back, she was pushing her shots and looking both weak and slow. I’d seen her fight years ago when she was younger and a little faster, but tonight the 45-year-old St. John looked and fought her age.

The difference in talent between the two was startling. St. John was no match from the start and I was surprised she made it out of the 1st round because she was getting hit cleanly with nonstop punches, especially near the end of the round when Braekhus trapped her against the ropes and unloaded on her.

Krzysztof Wlodarczyk vs. Rakhim Chakhkiev on June 22nd in Moscow, Russia

September 14, 2016April 12, 2013 by Jeff Sorby

WBC cruiserweight champion Krzysztof Wlodarczyk (47-2-1, 33 KO’s) will be defending his title for the fifth against former 2008 Olympic heavyweight gold medalist from Russia Rakhim Chakhkiev (16-0, 12 KO’s) on June 22nd in Moscow, Russia. This is going to be a tough fight for the 31-year-old Wlodarczyk because the 30-year-old Chakhkiev is a tough inside fighter with excellent power. He’s a much different type of fighter than the guys that Wlodarczyk has been fighting recently.

Chakhkiev, #2 WBC,#5 IBF, #9 WBA, #WBO, is taking a step up in class with this fight. Up until now, Chakhkiev’s best opponents have been Zack Page, Alexander Kotlobay, Michael Simms, Epifanio Mendoza and Andres Taylor. None of them have been even remotely competitive with Chakhkiev. He was too powerful and skilled for those guys and the fights pretty much turned out to be all mismatches.

Wlodarczyk’s best wins have come against Danny Green, Francisco Palacios, Giacobbe Fragomeni and Steven Cunningham. Wlodarczyk’s wins over Palacios have been controversial with a lot of boxing fans feeling that Polacios should have won both of them. Both of the fights have taken place in Wlodarczyk’s home country of Poland, and he’s pretty hard to beat when he’s fighting at home.

Maidana picks Broner to beat Malignaggi; wants winner

April 7, 2013April 7, 2013 by Jeff Sorby

#2 WBA Marcos Maidana is picking 23-year-old Adrien Broner (26-0, 22 KO’s) to defeat WBA World welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi (32-4, 7 KO’s) in their fight on June 22nd at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

Maidana told esnewsreporting.com that Broner will win because he’s “too strong” for Malignaggi. Maidana then said he wants to fight Broner after he beats Malignaggi and he sees himself beating him, saying “I’m stronger. Put a lot of pressure on him.”

There’s little question that Broner will very likely beat Malignaggi in their fight on June 22nd because Broner has everything going for him in terms of speed, power, defense and youth. Malignaggi has more experience but in this case it might be enough for him to win the fight.

Calzaghe predicting Froch victory over Kessler

April 8, 2013April 7, 2013 by Jeff Sorby

Joe Calzaghe knows a thing or two about WBA super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler (46-2, 35 KO’s) after having beaten him by a 12 round unanimous decision in a grueling fight in 2007. After watching some of his recent fights, Calzaghe believes that Kessler’s physical skills have deteriorated enough since their 2007 to where he’s now vulnerable to losing to IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch (30-2, 22 KO’s) in their rematch on May 25th in London at the O2 Arena.

Kessler, 34, is a year younger than the 35-year-old Froch, but Calzaghe thinks Froch is the physically younger fighter now and is still at the peak of his career going into his rematch with Kessler.