Ward is one of America’s best in my opinion, and despite a 19 month lay-off will walk into this non-title bout a heavy betting favourite against the Liverpool fighter, who has been cruelly referred to by fans as “not even the best super middleweight in the Smith family” in reference to younger brother, undefeated 168lb contender Callum Smith (15-0, 11ko).
Maloney left the fight game following then charge David Price’s crushing losses to American Tony Thompson, ostensibly because she “had fallen out of love with boxing”.
The reality was that the promoter had finally decided to face a life-long gender identity crisis away from the unforgiving glare of the boxing public.
It appears that the rich and powerful can finally sleep a little easier tonight, as Mayweather-Pacquiao tickets appear to finally be going on sale later today.
Well around a thousand rich people can sleep easy anyway, as of the 16,500 seats inside the venue come fight night, that’s the amount that will be available to the public.
Tuesday in Mexico City, the WBC unveiled the million dollar belt that will be presented to the winner of Mayweather-Pacquiao on May 2nd.
Current WBC 175lb champion Adonis Stevenson and legendary former heavyweight champion Larry Holmes were on hand to help with the unveiling, alongside WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman.
It’s always good to see the Easton Assassin, who won his own WBC strap in a gruelling fight with Ken Norton in 1978, out and about and looking so well.
American 168lb king Andre Ward (27-0, 14ko) has shown a self-deprecating sense of humour in a chat with fighthype.com, jokingly referring to his much talked about comeback as “the comeback 2.0”.
This obviously in reference to the agonising time out of the ring he has had since his last fight way back in November of 2013, and the mooted returns that have previously failed to materialise.
With a smile on his face, S.O.G said of his pencilled in June 20th date, “It’s the comeback 2.0. Let’s just clarify! You gotta laugh at yourself sometimes, man. It (the inactivity) is what it is..”
The panic among those rich enough to secure one, must be rising steadily as tickets for the “Fight Of The Century” are STILL not on sale to the public as at time of writing (Weds am)
A little over 24 hours ago Golden Boy Promotions boss, Oscar De La Hoya issued a day-long offer to anybody with a genuine ticket, that could they take a photo and tweet it to him, he would send them to the May 9th Canelo-Kirkland fight in Texas for nothing.
Earlier this week on twitter and numerous other sites a picture of Sergey Kovalev gathered real steam when it showed him pointing to the t-shirt of a small child in his arms (presumably his son) that featured an image of a chimpanzee wearing boxing gloves.
Beneath the image, Kovalev (27-0,24ko) included a caption, referring to rival and Haitian national (WBC 175lb king) Adonis Stevenson (26-1,21ko) that simply read;
“Adonis is looking great”
The picture quickly provoked a storm on social media with twitter users referring to the dominant Russian champion as “ignorant”, “racist” and “naïve”.
British middleweight star and WBA 160lb interim champion Chris Eubank Jr (19-1, 14ko) has spoken to “nuffinlong.com” in the UK to promote his “routine” title defence on Frank Warren’s May 9th card in London against unheralded Australian Les Sherrington (35-7, 19ko)
At the same time he used the opportunity to take a pot shot at bitter rival and WBO mandatory Billy Joe Saunders (21-0, 11ko) and to convey his disappointment at being unable to join the Mayweather family out in Vegas for the big fight.
The May 9th fight that will come potentially a week late for Mexico’s biggest PPV star (as Floyd and Manny have already bagged the sought-after Mexican bank holiday weekend date, even though Cinco De Mayo is on the 5th) is being billed as “his toughest test yet” in many corners of the media, which is leaving many fight fans, especially neutrals, totally bemused.
British 140lb legend Ricky Hatton has spoken to Sky Sports ahead of May 2nd’s May-Pac super fight to potentially question the wisdom of Floyd Mayweather once again hooking up with his father in the corner, and of his own experiences of working with Floyd Snr.
Following his loss to Mayweather Jr in 2007 and split from long-time trainer Billy Graham, Hatton employed the services of Floyd Snr in the corner. The first time in 2008 when he battered Paulie Malignaggi until trainer Buddy McGirt threw in the towel in in the 11th.