Mayweather wants Pacquiao fight for May 2nd on Cinco de Mayo

12/15/201412/13/2014 Rob Smith

Earlier tonight on Showtime, WBA/WBA welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr said he’d be interested in facing Manny Pacquiao on May 2nd if the fight can be made. Mayweather invited talks with Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank to work on putting the fight together. However, Mayweather pointed out that he feels that the 36-year-old Pacquiao is begging for a fight with him by the way he’s been looking to fight him recently.

Mayweather said that the negotiation point won’t be the same as it was in the past when he attempted to fight Pacquiao in 2010 and was willing to give him a 50-50 deal. Mayweather says Pacquiao has twice lost since that fight. Just what kind of purse split Mayweather would be looking to get is anyone’s guess. It’s not likely that he’ll agree to anything in the neighborhood of 55-45. I’d be surprised if Mayweather even agrees to a 60-40 split given the way Pacquiao’s pay-per-view numbers have been reportedly tanking.

Lara schools Ishe Smith in one-sided fight

12/13/201412/13/2014 Rob Smith

In an impressive performance, WBA 154 pound champion Erislandy Lara (20-2-2, 12 KOs) put on a boxing clinic in defeating grizzled veteran Ishe Smith (26-7, 12 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision tonight to retain his WBA title at the Illusions Theater at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.

Smith, 36, tried his best, but Lara picked him apart with left hand pot shots in the center of the ring from rounds 2 through 12. Smith had his moments in rounds 1, 7 and 11, but that was the extent of it. He simply was no match for the faster, cleaner landing Lara while the two were in the center of the ring. Smith did well when he was able to trap Lara against the ropes and land body shots.

Trout defeats Grajeda; Tarver stops Banks

12/12/201412/12/2014 Rob Smith

#6 WBA Austin Trout (28-2, 15 KOs) proved tonight he could beat a 2nd tier fighter in stopping Luis Grajeda (17-4-2, 13 KOs) in the 7th round at the Pechanga Resort & Casino, in Temecula, California, USA. Grajeda didn’t come out for the 8th round and the fight was halted with him on his stool. It was a boring fight from start to finish with Trout taking the fight to a reluctant looking Grajeda. Both guys were counter punchers, but Trout was clearly the better fighter of the two by far.

You have to wonder why Trout was fighting someone of this class. Trout looked horrible in his last fight against Daniel Dawson, which is perhaps why his management chose to step him down in competition rather than move him up a level. We basically learned nothing from this fight other than the fact that Trout can beat an over-matched opponent without much punching power. Trout is likely going to still have the same problems in the future once he’s stepped up a couple of levels to face someone with punching power.

Bradley open to brawling with Diego Chaves on Saturday

12/10/2014 Rob Smith

Tim Bradley (31-1, 12 KOs) will be facing a big puncher this Saturday night in Diego Chaves (23-2, 19 KOs) on HBO in a 12 round bout at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. Bradley was badly hurt last year when he faced the hard-hitting Russian slugger Ruslan Provodnikov and chose to slug with him instead of boxing him. However, Bradley has since gained confidence after going 12 hard rounds with Manny Pacquiao last April.

Bradley lost the fight by a 12 round decision, but he was able to take Pacquiao’s best shots without getting concussed like he was against Provodnikov. Bradley says he’s looking forward to facing Chaves this Saturday night, and that he won’t shy away from punching with him when the two of them start trading with big power shots.

Kovalev looking for exception with IBF to face Pascal

12/09/2014 Rob Smith

IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev (26-0-1, 23 KOs) is looking to get an exception by the International Boxing Federation in order for him to bypass #1 IBF mandatory challenger Nadjib Mohammedi so that Kovalev can defend his titles against 32-year-old former WBC 175 pound champ Jean Pascal (29-2-1, 17 KOs) on March 14th next year at a still to be determined venue.

With WBC champion Adonis Stevenson taking his time in defending his title against Pascal, Kovalev is looking to move on in and take out Pascal before Stevenson has a chance. It will then give Kovalev an opportunity to beat Pascal before facing Stevenson at some point in the future if he can get him to agree to the fight.

Crawford defeats Beltran

11/30/201411/30/2014 Rob Smith

Unbeaten World Boxing Organization 135 pound champion Terence Crawford (25-0, 17 KOs) put in a safety first performance in beating challenger Raymundo Beltran (29-7-1, 17 KOs) by a less than thrilling 12 round unanimous decision on Saturday night to retain his WBO lightweight strap in front of his own fans at the CenturyLink Center in Omaha, Nebraska.

Depending on what kind of fan you are, Crawford’s performance was either boring or thrilling. With all the holding and movement that Crawford used to keep from getting hit, I’m in the camp that saw the fight as less than crowd pleasing. Of course, Crawford didn’t have to deal with boos given that the fight took place in his own hometown in Omaha rather than in a venue whether boxing fans would have put pressure on him to open up more with his offense.

Pacquiao looking past Algieri fight towards Mayweather

11/14/201411/13/2014 Rob Smith

WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao (56-5-2, 38 KOs) has a formidable task ahead of him in facing the taller, younger and slicker Chris Algieri (20-0, 8 KOs) this month in their HBO pay-per-view fight from Macau, China. There’s a decent chance that Pacquiao could lose this fight if Algieri doesn’t fight stupid like Tim Bradley did in his rematch against Pacquiao. But despite Pacquiao having his hands full with Algieri, Pacquiao is still looking past him towards a big money match-up against WBA/WBC 147 pound champion Floyd Mayweather Jr.

That’s the fight that Pacquiao badly wants if he can get it. Pacquiao had an opportunity to get the Mayweather fight on several occasions, but the fights failed to take place due to questionable decisions on Pacquiao’s part.

Pacquiao: After Algieri fight, we can talk about Mayweather

11/02/2014 Rob Smith

WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao (56-5-2, 38 KOs) doesn’t want to talk about a potential mega-fight against WBA/WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr right now, because he doesn’t want to give the impression that he’s name dropping in order to increase pay-per-view sales for his fight this month against Chris Algieri (20-0, 8 KOs) at the Cotai Arena, Venetian Resort, Macao, Macao S.A.R., China.

Some boxing fans believe that the only reason why Pacquiao and his promoter Bob Arum have been talking about Mayweather in the run up to the Algieri fight is because the interest in the fight has been less than huge. The fight might ultimately bring in respectable PPV results, but few hardcore boxing fans are excited about it.

Algieri plans on dominating Pacquiao

11/01/201411/01/2014 Rob Smith

Challenger Chris Algieri (20-0, 8 KOs) plans on making sure that he doesn’t wind up on the receiving end up a controversial decision next month in his fight against WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao (56-5-2, 38 KOs) at the Cotai Arena, Venetian Resort, Macao, Macao S.A.R., China.

Algieri wants to make sure he wins every round by being proactive in the fight, and no reactive by responding to what Pacquiao does. Algieri obviously knows how hard it is for fighters to win decisions against Pacquiao, and he got to know that he’s going to be up against it by fighting Pacquiao in Macau in front of his fans.

Roach: It won’t be difficult for Pacquiao to take Algieri’s jab away

10/26/2014 Rob Smith

Trainer Freddie Roach isn’t worried about Chris Algieri’s right hand for his fight against WBO 147 pound champion Manny Pacquiao (56-5-2, 38 KOs) on November 22nd. Roach’s main concern is to take away the jab from Algieri to keep him from using it to control the shorter Pacquiao, because Algieri has made it clear that he’s going to be jabbing Pacquiao all night long to keep him from getting his powerful shots off.

Roach thinks he’s got the perfect plan to take that jab away, and get Pacquiao in position for him to score a rare knockout.