Using a big weight advantage of 10 pounds, former WBA featherweight champion Nicholas Walters (26-0, 21 KOs) cruised to a 12 round unanimous decision over Miguel Marriaga (20-1, 18 KOs) at Madison Square Garden in New York. Walters dropped Marriaga in the 9th round with a right hand, and punished him with hard head and body shots throughout. The judges scored the fight 118-109, 117-110 and 119-108.
WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto (40-4, 33 KOs) paved the way towards a possible fight against Mexican star Saul “Canelo” Alvarez by stopping an over-matched, underpowered Daniel Geale (31-4, 16 KOs) in the 4th round on Saturday night to successfully defend his World Boxing Council middleweight title in front of 12,157 fans at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Geale, 34, quit after getting knocked down twice by Cotto in the 4th. Geale looked like he could have continued after getting up from a knockdown, but he opted instead to fight another day by telling the referee Harvey Dock that he didn’t want to continue fighting. The bout was subsequently stopped at 1:27 of the round.
(Photo Credit: Will Hart/HBO) WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto (39-4, 32 KOs) came in really low at 153.6lbs at his weigh-in today for his title defense on Saturday night against Australia’s Daniel Geale (31-3, 16 KOs) at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Cotto looked like he overestimated how much weight he needed to strip off in order to make his own 157lb catch-weight.
By coming in lower than he needed to, Cotto kind of shot himself in the foot because he didn’t need to strip off nearly that much weight.
IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook (35-0, 24 KOs) did what he had to do in destroying his opponent Frankie Gavin (22-2, 13 KOs) in six rounds on Saturday night in retaining his IBF 147lb title at the O2 Arena in London, UK. Brook landed a nice right hand that hurt Gavin. Brook then unloaded his artillery on Gavin until he slumped into the ropes.
Referee Steve Gray stopped the bout at that point without a count. The fight, if you want to call it that, was stopped at 2:51 of the 6th. Gavin was too hurt to continue. The referee would have done him a huge favor if he’d stopped the bout a couple of rounds earlier because this was never a fight to begin with.
Smith came back later and had a good round in the 6th after hurting Abraham with a beautiful left to the body. But instead of continuing to go to the body in the remainder of the fight, Smith wasted his efforts in throwing shots into the high guard of Abraham. Those shots were blocked, and this enabled Abraham to dominate from the 7th round. The final judges’ scores were 116-112, 117-111, and 117-111.
Brandon Rios (33-2-1, 24 KOs) came into last night’s fight against Mike Alvarado (34-4, 23 KOs) with his career essentially on the brink of collapse after losses to Manny Pacquiao, Alvarado and question wins over Richard Abril and Diego Chaves. But with his 3rd round stoppage win over a near-frozen Alvarado, Rios’ career has been rejuvenated, at least temporarily.
Rios’ promoter Bob Arum is so excited about his win last night that he’s talking about the 28-year-old Rios getting nothing but big fights from here on out.
In what was supposed to be an exciting trilogy fight on HBO on Saturday night turned out to be a real stinker with #4 WBO welterweight contender Brandon Rios (33-2-1, 24 KOs) annihilating what appeared to be a poorly prepared Mike Alvarado (34-3, 23 KOs) in three rounds in front of his own fans at the 1st Bank Center, Broomfield, Colorado.
Alvarado decided he’d had enough after three rounds so he quit on his stool after the third, saying he couldn’t see out of his right eye. The crowd booed loudly at the stoppage, and continued to boo the 34-year-old Alvarado when he was being interviewed after the fight.
(Photo credit: Esther Lin/Showtime) Deontay Wilder (33-0, 32 KOs) kept his unbeaten record but he was extended for the first time in his career in having to go the distance to defeat WBC heavyweight champion Bermane Stiverne (24-2-1, 21 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision in front of 8,300 boxing fans at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Wilder, 6’7”, hurt Stiverne in the 2nd and 7th rounds with big right hand shots. However, he was unable to finish him off. Wilder was arguably robbed of a knockdown in the 2nd when he staggered Stiverne with a right hand, causing him to stumble and fall.
The highly anticipated bout between WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez won’t be taking place, according to Golden Boy Promotions vice president Oscar De La Hoya. Instead, De La Hoya will be looking to match his fighter Canelo up against possibly middleweight David Lemieux or James Kirkland.
WBA 160 pound champion Gennady Golovkin’s name isn’t being talked about for Canelo.
“Oscar just told me no Cotto-Canelo. ‘The deal is off the table.’ Said Cotto went past 5th deadline last night. #boxing,” Dan Rafael of ESPN.com reported earlier today.
Trainer Freddie Roach is highly interested in a future fight between his fighter WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto and Floyd Mayweather Jr. Cotto lost to Mayweather by a 12 round unanimous decision three years ago in 2012, but that was before Roach took over as Cotto’s trainer. Roach now thinks that with his help, he’d lead Cotto to victory over Mayweather.
The Mayweather-Cotto rematch is definitely an option for 2015 or 2016, and it’s a potential plan-B for Mayweather if the negotiations between him and Manny Pacquiao go down the toilet.