Roach: Rios won’t last past the 4th against Pacquiao on Saturday

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Based on trainer Freddie Roach’s recent mitt workout with his fighter Manny Pacquiao, he’s moved his original prediction of Pacquiao stopping Brandon Rios (31-1-1, 23 KO’s) by the 6th round to Pacquiao stopping him by the 4th round. Roach brags that Pacquiao was hitting the mitts so well that he had to stop the mitt work after just four rounds.

It sounds good but Roach was also bragging about how Pacquiao had his best camps in his last two training camps, and we saw what happened with Pacquiao with him losing to Tim Bradley and Juan Manuel Marquez. It just gives you the impression that Roach is like a promoter with the way he builds up Pacquiao, and he ends up with egg on his face when Pacquiao fails to look like the fighter that he once was 4 years ago.

Ward schools Rodriguez

ward5As was expected, WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward (27-0, 14 KO’s) took the bigger, slower Edwin Rodriguez (24-1, 16 KO’s) to school tonight in pounding out a dominating 12 round unanimous decision at the Citizens Business Bank Arena, in Ontario, California, USA. The judges scored it 118-106, 117-107 and 116-108.

The fight was ugly at times due to the back and forth roughhouse tactics that both fighters used. Ward turned the fight to the inside in the first two rounds with him smothering the bigger Rodriguez’s shots. But after the 2nd round, Ward began to use more separation to take advantage of his superior hand speed to dominate the action.

In the 4th round, Rodriguez wrapped Ward into a headlock and pushed him to the ropes. Ward then nailed Rodriguez with a big left hand thrown while still being held in the headlock. Referee Jack Reiss then called for a break, but both fighters ignored him and continued to throw punches.

Garcia stops Martinez; Donaire TKOs Darchinyan in 9th; Andrade beats Martirosyan

donaire1As expected, Mikey Garcia (33-0, 28 KO’s) stopped WBO super featherweight champion Roman “Rocky” Martinez (27-2-2, 16 KO’s) in the 8th round on Saturday night at the American Bank Center, in Corpus Christi, Texas, USA. Garcia knocked Martinez down with a big left hook to the body in the 8th round. Martinez wanted to get up but he was too hurt to rise to his feet. The fight was then halted by referee Lawrence Cole 0:56 of the round.

Nonito Donaire (32-2, 21 KO’s) looked like a shell of himself in having to go life and death to stop a way past his best Vic Darchinyan (39-6-1, 28 KO’s). Donaire caught Darchinyan with a left hand in the 9th to put him down. Donaire then loaded up with a series of single shots agaisnt a badly hurt Darchinhyan until referee Lawrence Cole stepped in and stopped the bout with Darchinyan still on his feet. The official time of the stoppage was 2:06.

Darchinyan: I’m going to stop Donaire

darchinyan4334Vic Darchinyan (39-5-1, 28 KO’s) realizes that he’s been brought in as the sacrificial lamb for Nonito Donaire (31-2, 20 KO’s)to slaughter this Saturday night on HBO to make Donaire look better than he is and to make boxing fans forget about the sight of a bleeding Donaire being clowned by WBA super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux last April. Darchinyan doesn’t care that he’s being brought in as a kind of a tune-up fight for Donaire instead of a credible opponent, because he plans on embarrassing Donaire by knocking him out in front of the entire nation on HBO at the American Bank Center, in Corpus Christi, Texas, USA.

Darchinyan said this on Tuesday’s conference call “I think so, yes. I think so. That’s why he [Donaire] chose me after the loss to Rigo. I think also that Nonito was exposed. I’ve been training hard for Nonito. I will stop him.

Arum says Pacquiao may be finished if he loses to Rios

pac6766 (2)The significance of Manny Pacquiao’s fight with Brandon Rios (31-1-1, 23 KO’s) this month may be a lot more than what many people think it is, because Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum believes that it might be all over for the Filipino if he gets beaten by the 27-year-old Rios on November 23rd in their fight at the Cotai Arena, Venetian Resort, Macao, Macao S.A.R., China.

Arum said via Philstar “This is a very important fight for him [Pacquiao] to win. It will certainly hurt him if he loses this fight. It may signify the end. it will be very devastating for him.”

Donaire battles Darchinyan this Saturday on HBO

donaire422Nonito Donaire (31-2, 20 KO’s) and Vic Darchinyan (39-5-1, 28 KO’s) will be mixing it up this Saturday night on HBO from the American Bank Center in Corpus Christi, Texas. It’s been exactly six years since Donaire and Darchinyan last fought in 2007, and it didn’t turn out too well for Darchinyan with him getting stopped in the 5th round.

Chances are that Darchinyan won’t do any better on Saturday night than he did back in 2007. A lot of boxing fans wanted to see a Donaire-Darchinyan rematch over the years, but it seems like a lot of the interest in that fight died down a long time ago after Darchinyan started losing regularly. He’s now been beaten in two out of his last four fights, and he’s even struggling to beat lesser fighter.

Golovkin stops Stevens; Afolabi decisions Janik; Perez defeats Abdusalamov

golovkin562In a surprisingly one-sided fight, WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (28-0, 25 KO’s) defeated Curtis Stevens (25-4, 18 KO’s) an 8th round TKO tonight at Madison Square Garden, in New York, New York. Stevens took a ton of punishment to the head in the 8th round from Golovkin.

After the round was over, Stevens’ corner chose to have the fight stopped rather than letting him come out for the 9th and get finished off. There was no way that Stevens was going to be able to come back and have a chance to win the fight because he was little more than a short punching bag for Golovkin. Stevens was taking a lot of big shots in the 8th.

Canelo to fight on March 8th on PPV

canelo994Former WBA light middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (42-1-1 30 KO’s) said earlier today that he plans on fighting three times in 2014 with all three fights being on pay-per-view. Canelo will be fighting on on the following dates: March 8th, July 26th and November 22nd. His promoter Richard Schaefer says he plans on seeing if he can arrange a fight between Canelo and Miguel Cotto or Sergio Martinez. But if neither of those fights can be made, Schaefer will be looking at matching Canelo against IBF light middleweight champion Carlos Molina.

Canelo said on his twitter, “After my meeting with GBP these are the dates that will fight in 2014: March 8, 26 in July and 22 November. My three dates will be on PPV and the first opponent of March 8 will be announced in the coming weeks!”