Bernard Hopkins aims to prove he’s not old at 48

09/15/201610/23/2013 Rob Smith

IBF light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins (53-6-2, 32 KO’s) will be turning 49-years-old on January 15th, and he’s a proven that he’s a unique fighter with his incredible longevity in the sport. Hopkins is still fighting at a high level at 48 in a sport where most fighters are pretty much over-the-hill by the time they’re 35.

Hopkins will be defending his IBF title for the first time this Saturday night against the much younger 30-year-old Karo Murat (25-1-1, 15 KO’s) at the Boardwalk Hall, in Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA. This is Hopkins’ mandatory challenger and there wasn’t any way for him to get around not taking the fight, so you can’t blame Hop for facing a less than spectacular opponent.

Blame it on the International Boxing Federation for ranking Murat at #2 off a wins against opposition like this: Sandro Siproshvili, Otis Griffin and Christian Cruz. Beating those fighters got Murat installed as Hopkins’ mandatory.

Bradley decisions Marquez; Salido defeats Cruz

10/14/201310/12/2013 Rob Smith

WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley (31-0, 12 KO’s) won an incredibly dull 12 round split decision on Saturday night over 40-year-old Juan Manuel Marquez (55-7-1, 40 KO’s) by the scores of 115-113 Marquez, 116-112, 115-113 Bradley at the Thomas & Mack Center, in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.

Bradley did a great job of staying on the outside to keep Marquez from landing his power shots, but unfortunately it kept Bradley from landing punches as well. Bradley ended up moving too much and that really took away the excitement in the fight. The only round where Bradley actually exchanged was the 12th, and he clearly lost that round.

Arum wants Miguel Cotto vs. Sergio Martinez next year in June at Giants Stadium

10/08/201310/07/2013 Rob Smith

Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is interested in matching Miguel Cotto vs. WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez next year in June during the Puerto Rican weekend at the Giants Stadium, according to Dan Rafael. Martinez, 39, has already tweeted that he’s up for the fight and there’s talk that it could take place at a catch-weight of 158.

Cotto hasn’t decided yet, and he’s going to think it over and look at all the options has available to him. Whether Martinez is the best fight he can get is unclear.

If Cotto can get a fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. or former WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez then that would be by far the better fight than to face the arguably much less popular Martinez.

A rematch with Mayweather is something that Cotto has already said he wants, and he should be looking to stay in the running for that fight instead of moving up to middleweight to fight a bigger fighter like Sergio.

Sanchez thinks Golovkin can face Mayweather or Cotto

07/31/201410/07/2013 Rob Smith

Abel Sanchez, the trainer for WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin, thinks that Golovkin should be in the running for a fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. and/or Miguel Cotto. Golovkin has a fight next month on November 2nd against contender Curtis Stevens, but Sanchez figures that’ll be an easy fight for Golovkin.

Once Stevens is out of the way, Sanchez wants Golovkin to face Mayweather or Cotto. He believes that Golovkin can down to 154 to face either of them as long as he has a full 8 week training camp to trim down.

Sanchez said to RingTV “Gennedy came into camp weighing 167 before training, so it would be just a matter of getting enough time to get down to 154…we would start losing some of the weight that we have to earlier…it’s just a matter of having the time to do it.”

Cotto destroys Rodriguez

10/07/201310/05/2013 Rob Smith

Miguel Cotto (38-4, 31 KO’s) unveiled his old left hook and used it to destroy Delvin Rodriguez (28-7-3, 16 KO’s) by an impressive 3rd round knockout on Saturday night in a fight televised by HBO at the Amway Center, in Orlando, Florida.

Cotto badly hurt Rodriguez with a huge left hooks to the head in the last seconds of the 2nd round that had him out on his feet against the ropes. Immediately at the start of the 3rd round, Cotto pounced on Rodriguez and chopped him down with a hard right to the body followed by a tremendous left hook to the head that sent him down.

Klitschko dominates Povetkin in dull fight

10/07/201310/05/2013 Rob Smith

IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (61-3, 51 KO’s) should consider himself lucky that he wasn’t disqualified tonight for the clinching and pushing he did en route to beating WBA heavyweight champion Alexander Povetkin (26-1, 18 KO’s) by a boring 12 round unanimous decision at the Olimpiyskiy, in Moscow, Russia. Wladimir held more than he usually does for his fights, which is hard to believe and he was shoving Povetkin to the canvas and getting away with it until the 11th round when referee Luis Pabon took 1 point away from Wladimir.

Wladimir put Povetkin down 4 times during the fight and seemingly had him ready to be stopped in the 7th after he knocked him down 3 times in the round, but unfortunately spent the remainder of the jabbing and clinching rather than looking to finish off a tired Povetkin. Wladimir’s first knockdown of Povetkin came in the 2nd when he hit him with a left hook to the head that sent him stumbling backwards to the canvas.

Roach: Cotto’s career might be over with another loss

10/05/201310/04/2013 Rob Smith

roach5 Trainer Freddie Roach believes that his fighter Miguel Cotto (37-4, 30 KO’s) could be finished if he loses to junior middleweight contender Delvin Rodriguez (28-6-3, 16 KO’s) this Saturday night at the Amway Center, in Orlando, Florida, USA.

Roach realizes that Cotto is in a bad way given that he’s coming off of back to back losses, and that’s why he wants to see him go back to the fighter that he was in his prime when he was an aggressive guy that liked to destroy his opponents with his powerful body and head shots.

Roach said to HBO “Let’s face it; we’re coming off of a couple of losses. Another loss would be devastating for his career. Probably it might be over. I want the old Miguel Cotto. I want the guy that’s breaking them down and knocking them out. And he said ‘I will give you that.’”

Zab Judah vs. Paulie Malignaggi possible for December 7th

10/05/201310/04/2013 Rob Smith

malig77 It seems that the December 7th fight between Amir Khan and Devon Alexander won’t be happening after all.

Instead of the fight there’s talk that a bout between 35-year-old Zab Judah (42-8, 29 KO’s) and former two division world champion Paulie Malignaggi (32-5, 7 KO’s) could happen instead on that date, according to Steve Kim.

It’s a decent fight if it can get made. With Malignaggi, you never know. The possible co-feature could be Keith Thurman vs. Jesus Soto Karass.

Cunningham doubts Alexander vs. Khan will happen

08/02/201410/03/2013 Rob Smith

Yesterday Team Khan came out with a statement saying that the rumors about Amir Khan (28-3, 19 KO’s) facing Floyd Mayweather Jr. in May were false and that Khan would be fighting IBF welterweight champion Devon Alexander (25-1, 14 KO’s) on December 7th. Alexander’s trainer Kevin Cunningham doesn’t believe the statement from Team Khan, because the Khan-Alexander fight still hasn’t even been negotiated and there’s only 2 months to go before the fight.

Cunningham is saying that if the Khan-Alexander fight isn’t negotiated by October 7th, Alexander won’t take the fight because they want at least 8 weeks to train to get ready. They don’t want to be told at the last minute the fight is happening and end up not ready.

Chavez Sr. wants to see improvement in Julio Jr.

10/03/2013 Rob Smith

Boxing great Julio Cesar Chavez Sr. wasn’t altogether pleased with what he saw from his son former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (47-1-1, 32 KO’s) in his controversial 10 round unanimous decision victory over Bryan Vera (23-7. 14 KO’s) last Saturday night at the StubHub Center in Carson, California.

Chavez Jr. was throwing mainly one punch at a time, backing up much of the time, and getting nailed by the much smaller Vera each time would be cornered. It was a very strange sight to see a bigger fighter with more power running from a smaller fighter.

The judges gave Chavez Jr. the win by the scores 97-93, 98-92 and 96-94, but only a small handful of people agree with those scores.