Pacquiao/Algieri getting only one episode on HBO 24/7

10/10/2014 Rob Smith

The November 22nd fight between WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao and Chris Algieri, which will be televised by HBO pay-per-view, is getting only one thirty minute 24/7 series on HBO on November 8th at 1:00 a.m. (ET/PT) following the World Championship Boxing match-up between 49-year-old grizzled veteran Bernard Hopkins and the younger 31-year-old Sergey Kovalev.

This is a huge departure for Pacquiao for what his fights have previously received by HBO, and it begs the question whether this will be a new trend or a one-time thing with HBO. Granted, the Pacquiao-Algieri fight isn’t exciting many boxing fans, and it’s pretty clear already that Top Rank promoter Bob Arum made a mistake in selecting Algieri instead of someone a little more marketable and more charismatic.

Canelo will rest his injured ankle for 6 weeks, then look to fight on Cinco de Mayo, says De La Hoya

10/07/2014 Rob Smith

Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (44-1-1, 31 KOs) will be resting his injured ankle for the next 6 weeks, says his promoter Oscar De La Hoya. Canelo has a muscle strain that has lingered for the past 3 months since before his last fight against Erislandy Lara, says De La Hoya. Last Monday, Golden Boy Promotions announced that Canelo’s December 6th fight against former IBF welterweight champion Joshua Clottey was cancelled due to Canelo’s ankle injury.

Instead of rescheduling it, De La Hoya says Canelo will probably stay out of the ring until next May and then look to fight Miguel Cotto in an HBO pay-per-view bout. This is the fight that De La Hoya and Canelo both want. It’s the biggest fight in boxing right now other than Floyd Mayweather Jr vs. Manny Pacquiao.

Pacquiao has a lot of miles on his odometer, says Atlas

10/06/201410/06/2014 Rob Smith

Teddy Atlas of ESPN isn’t counting out unbeaten Chris Algieri (20-0, 8 KOs) in his fight against the 35-year-old Filipino fighter Manny Pacquiao (56-5-2, 38 KOs) in their 11/22 bout at the Cotai Arena, Venetian Resort, Macao, Macao S.A.R., China.

While Atlas likes Pacquiao’s skills and his power, he still sees him as having a lot of mileage on him from all the hard fights he’s had during his 19-year pro career. With Pacquiao having fought that long, Atlas sees Algieri as having a real chance of whipping Pacquiao and taking his WBO welterweight title in front of the entire boxing world on HBO pay-per-view.

Buboy: Pacquiao will be attacking Algieri with a non-stop assault

10/06/201410/06/2014 Rob Smith

Buboy Fernandez, the assistant coach for WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao (56-5-2, 38 KOs), says Pacquiao is training to attack challenger Chris Algieri (20-0, 8 KOs) with nonstop punches in their fight on November 22nd at the Cotai Arena, Venetian Resort, Macao, Macao S.A.R., China.

Pacquiao will be looking to wash over Algieri like a Tsunami next month in their HBO pay-per-view televised fight on Championship Boxing.

Buboy figures that the all-out attacking style of fighting for the 35-year-old Pacquiao could produce a knockout early if the slender Algieri chooses to slug with him. Why Algieri would do that is unknown, because if he watched his last fight against Ruslan Provodnikov, you can see that Algieri was moving constantly and not mixing it up.

Mayweather Sr: Pacquiao can’t beat the big fighters that Floyd Jr’s facing

10/06/2014 Rob Smith

Trainer Floyd Mayweather Sr still thinks 35-year-old WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao would be a really easy fight for his son WBA/WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr if the two of them meet up down the road in 2015 or perhaps 2016.

Floyd Sr believes that Pacquiao would lose to the big guys that Mayweather has been fighting.

Floyd Sr doesn’t mention the names of the bigger guys that he thinks would beat Pacquiao, but obviously he’s talking about Marcos Maidana, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Miguel Cotto.

Cotto-Canelo will come close to 2 million PPV buys, says De La Hoya

10/04/2014 Rob Smith

Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions has high hopes for the proposed pay-per-view fight next year between Golden Boy’s flagship fighter former WBA/WBC junior middleweight Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (44-1-1, 31 KOs) and WBC 160lb champ Miguel Cotto (39-4, 32 KOs) on HBO. De La Hoya is projecting that this fight will bring in close to 2 million pay-per-view buys.

This is a huge number when you look at the fact that the recent pay-per-view fights for both guys have been around 300,000. De La Hoya is assuming that when you get Cotto and Canelo together, it’ll bring a much bigger number than when they’re facing other opposition.

Canelo to fight 37-year-old Joshua Clottey next on December 6th

09/30/2014 Rob Smith

Chris Mannix of Sports illustrated is reporting that Golden Boy Promotions president Oscar De La Hoya has confirmed that Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (44-1-1, 31 KOs) will be fighting 37-year-old former IBF 147lb champion Joshua Clottey (38-4, 22 KOs) next on December 6th at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. This is obviously disappointing news for hardcore boxing fans with some knowledge of the sport because Clottey hasn’t been a factor since 2010 when he was beaten soundly by Manny Pacquiao.

Recently, De La Hoya dangled James Kirkland’s name as a potential opponent for Canelo’s December 6th fight. You now have to wonder whether De La Hoya did this in order to get Clottey to come in at a cheaper price for the Canelo fight. Why else mention Kirkland’s name if the guy that Canelo and De La Hoya really wanted is the 37-year-old Clottey?

De La Hoya: Canelo wants to be second to nobody, that’s why he moved to HBO

09/30/2014 Rob Smith

Golden Boy Promotions president Oscar De La Hoya says that one of the reasons why the 24-year-old former WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez moved to HBO was because he didn’t want to be second to anybody in fighting on Showtime. With Canelo’s situation in fighting on Showtime, he was badly overshadowed by the more popular and much more accomplished Floyd Mayweather Jr.

That situation wasn’t going to go away until Mayweather finished out his contract with Showtime, because he was simply a more talented fighter than the red-haired Canelo. That fact was borne out when the two fighters faced each other last year in September and Mayweather made Canelo look bad in beating him by a 12 round unanimous decision.

Is Mayweather more at risk against Khan and Thurman rather than Pacquiao?

09/29/2014 Rob Smith

While many boxing fans believe that Manny Pacquiao presents the biggest risk to the unbeaten record of Floyd Mayweather Jr, Paulie Malignaggi is under the belief that Pacquiao would be an easy fight for Mayweather at this stage in Pacquiao’s career. Malignaggi doesn’t say why he believes that but it could have something to do with how poor Pacquiao looked in his last fight against a quality fighter in Juan Manuel Marquez in 2012.

Pacquiao looked terrible in that fight before getting knocked out in the 6th round. Since then, Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum has eased him back in terms of competition by putting him in with Brandon Rios and Tim Bradley, and Pacquiao was able to resume winning again.

Pacquiao responds to Mayweather Tweet, calls him uneducated

09/28/2014 Rob Smith

WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao has responded to WBA/WBA welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr’s latest tweet by calling him an “uneducated person” after Mayweather had said that Pacquiao is desperate and that his PPV numbers are a joke.

“I’m not angry at him,” Pacquiao said to gmanetwork.com. “I still feel sorry for him, because he acts like an uneducated person. It’s pitiful to me and I pray for him.”

Pacquiao actually got the ball rolling in taking a shot at Mayweather first last week in Tweeting the following remark: “Floyd Mayweather’s testimony on All Access authenticity tells me everything I need to know about his desire to fight me.”