Canelo: All Lara does is cover up when cornered

08/02/201405/12/2014 Rob Smith

(Photo credit: Hogan Photos) Former WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (43-1-1, 31 KO’s) will be able to take advantage of WBA junior middleweight champion Erislandy Lara (19-1-2, 12 KO’s) each time he corners him in their catch weight fight on July 12th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Canelo, 23, watched Lara’s recent fight against Alfredo Angulo and noticed that Lara mostly would just cover up each time that Angulo cornered him against the ropes.

Canelo thinks he can take full advantage of that if Lara makes that same mistake against him in their Showtime televised pay-per-view fight on 7/12.

Thurman says he knows how to beat Mayweather

04/29/201404/27/2014 Rob Smith

WBA interim welterweight champion Keith Thurman (23-0, 21 KO’s) may be inexperienced but he feels that he knows already how to beat WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr., who he hopes to fight in 2015 if he gets his way. Thurman feels that it’s pretty simple in how to beat Mayweather. He feels his power, counter punching, and boxing ability will be the key to him getting a victory over Mayweather next year.

Like in all of his fights, Thurman says he’ll use in an out movement to get the better of Floyd. Thurman didn’t say anything about what he’d do about his slow hand speed or the fact that he can’t fight going backwards.

Bradley: I won’t show any compassion to Pacquiao

07/31/201404/07/2014 Rob Smith

Manny Pacquiao (55-5-2, 38 KO’s) had been bring his ‘A’ game on Saturday night because WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley (31-0, 12 KO’s) means business when the two of them meet up on April 12th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Bradley says he’s not going to show any mercy on the aging 35-year-old Filipino fighter, as he sees it as a situation where he’s looking to provide for his family. Bradley won’t let up on Pacquiao this Saturday, and he expects the same from him.

“He [Pacquiao] will get absolutely no compassion from me,” Bradley said via RingTV. “In that ring, it is all about my family eating or his family eating. Manny Pacquiao will have to knock me out to stop my family from eating.”

Maidana will be getting $20 million paydays if he beats Mayweather, says Robert Garcia

08/02/201404/07/2014 Rob Smith

Robert Garcia, the trainer for WBA welterweight champion Marcos Maidana (35-3, 31 KO’s), believes Maidana’s going to be soon getting the big $20 million paydays for each fight once he beats Floyd Mayweather Jr. (45-0, 26 KO’s) in their mega fight next month on May 3rd in Las Vegas, Nevada. Garcia sees a win for Maidana not only bringing him to the $20 million stage of his career, but also making him a bigger star than Manny Pacquiao.

“If he [Maidana] beats Mayweather, he’ll be huge, bigger than Manny Pacquiao. That’s where the $20 million paydays for Chino [Maidana] come,” Garcia said to esnewsreporting.

Pacquiao-Bradley undercard takes a hit, Roman Martinez drops out

04/07/201404/06/2014 Rob Smith

Former two-time WBO super featherweight champion Roman “Rocky” Martinez has dropped out of his co-feature bout against lightweight contender Raymundo Beltran for this Saturday’s HBO pay-per-view card headlined by Manny Pacquiao vs. Tim Bradley 2 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Martinez is ill, and there’s no way he can take the fight under those conditions.

So instead of Martinez fighting Beltran, another super featherweight, Arash Usmanee (20-1-1, 10 KO’s), has been substituted in Martinez’s place for the co-feature. It’s unclear why Top Rank is matching Beltran against super featherweights instead of fighters from the lightweight division, but I guess the boxing fans paying to see the card on PPV won’t know and won’t care. Roman Martinez is a super featherweight as well, and he was coming off of a knockout loss to Mikey Garcia.

Cunningham decisions Mansour; Stevens stops Johnson

04/05/201404/05/2014 Rob Smith

Photo: Rich Graessle/Main Events — The more experienced Steve Cunningham (27-6, 12 KO’s) survived two fifth round knockdowns to go on and beat USBA heavyweight champion Amir Mansour (20-1, 15 KO’s) by a 10 round unanimous decision tonight to win by the scores 97-90, 95-92, 95-92 at the Liacouras Center, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.

Cunningham put Mansour down on the canvas in the 10th and final round with a right hand after getting him off balance from a series of rights to the head. Mansour’s left eye was almost closed at the time from the heavy shots he’d absorbed from Cunningham.

Broner will have a lot of eyes on him for Molina fight, says Bernstein

08/02/201404/03/2014 Rob Smith

Boxing analyst Al Bernstein thinks Adrien Broner (27-1, 22 KO’s) will be under the microscope in his next fight against Carlos Molina (17-1-1, 7 KO’s) on May 3rd on the undercard of the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Marcos Maidana next month. Bernstein feels that it doesn’t matter that Broner is facing a less than dangerous opponent in Carlos Molina, fans will still be watching Broner closely to see if he can rebound mentally from his devastating beat down he suffered last December at the hands of Maidana. Fans and the boxing media will want to see if Broner is the same fighter he was before the loss.

“How he comes back from the Maidana fight can define him more as a fighter than anything leading up to and including the Maidana fight, because everyone will be looking to see how mentally tough Broner is,” Bernstein said to the Boxing Channel.

Bradley thinks he can get a decision against Pacquiao

08/01/201403/31/2014 Rob Smith

WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley (31-0, 12 KO’s) thinks he can get a decision against Manny Pacquiao (55-5-2, 38 KO’s) when they meet up next month on April 12th. The conventional wisdom is that Bradley will need to score a KO over Pacquiao to get a decision this time, due to the controversy that surrounds their previous bout in 2012. Fans think that there’s no way that the judges will want to give Bradley a second decision and have to face the heat from the boxing community.

Bradley feels that he’ll be able to do better in the rematch against Pacquiao because he’ll have two healthy feet for the bout, and this will enable him to move quickly to get out of the way of Pacquiao’s swinging shots.