Tickets on sale! Usyk and Huck ready for Muhammad Ali Trophy opener in Max-Schmeling-Halle, Berlin
WBO World Champion Oleksandr Usyk (12-0, 10 KOs) and Marco Huck (40-4-1, 27 KOs) both confident before the first ever contest of the World Boxing Super Series, the cruiserweight quarter-final at the Max-Schmeling-Halle, Berlin on September 9th.
In a one-sided mismatch, Vasyl Lomachenko (8-1, 6 KOs) battered and beat down Jason Sosa (20-2-4, 15 KOs) in scoring a 9th round TKO to retain his WBO super featherweight title tonight at the MGM National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland. The fight was stopped at the urging of Sosa’s corner at the end of the 9th.
Lomachenko had beaten Sosa badly to the point where the contest needed to be stopped. Thankfully, Sosa’s corner had the wisdom to stop the fight because it really needed to be stopped a round earlier in the 8th when he was badly hurt. Sosa’s face was swollen from the punishment that he’d absorbed in this hopeless mismatch.
HBO Sports visits Maryland for the first time since 1979 when WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING: VASYL LOMACHENKO VS. JASON SOSA AND OLEKSANDR GVOZDYK VS. YUNIESKY GONZALEZ AND ALEKSANDR USYK VS. MIKE HUNTER is seen SATURDAY, APRIL 8 at 10:00 p.m. (live ET/tape-delayed PT) from The Theater at MGM National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Md., exclusively on HBO. The HBO Sports team will call the action, which will be available in HDTV, closed-captioned for the hearing-impaired and presented in Spanish on HBO Latino.
As exciting, talent-rich and respected as the cruiserweight division – once an all but frowned upon weight class – is today, the champions of the 200-pound division still aim to make the lucrative move up to heavyweight in the future. In fact both Oleksandr Usyk, the reigning WBO champ, and Murat Gassiev, the reigning IBF boss, recently spoke of their desire to become heavyweights, and heavyweight champion, at a later stage in their careers.
WBO cruiserweight champion Oleksandr Usyk (11-0, 10 KOs) used a combination of boxing and punching to stop contender Thabiso Mchunu, (17-3, 11 KOs) in round nine after knocking him down three times in their fight at the Forum in Inglewood, California. While the boxing fans at ringside wanted to see the 29-year-old Usyk slug, he focused instead on winning rounds and landing fast combinations to bewilder the 28-year-old Mchunu.
This Saturday night undefeated WBO Cruiserweight World Champion Oleksandr Usyk (10-0, 9 KOs) will make his first defense against Thabiso “The Rock” Mchunu (17-2, 11 KOs) at the Forum in Inglewood, California. This exciting match-up will open HBO World Championship Boxing telecast beginning at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT headlined by Bernard Hopkins vs. Joe Smith Jr. Below is the scouting report for this bout:
Fight fans who tuned in saw a great card in Moscow this past Saturday, and it was a card that was predominantly highlighted by cruiserweights. We saw hard-hitting Murat Gassiev decision the unimaginably tough Denis Lebedev in a great fight, and we saw the lethal banger that is Dmitriy Kudryashov – arguably the single hardest one-punch terminator in the sport today – ice Santander Silgado in typically chilling fashion.
Newly crowned World Boxing Organization Cruiserweight Champion, Oleksandr Usyk, (10-0, 9 KOs) of Kiev, Ukraine will make his highly anticipated United States debut in his first title defense against world ranked contender Thabiso “The Rock” Mchunu, (17-2, 11 KOs) of South Africa on Saturday, December 17 at the “Fabulous” Forum in Inglewood, CA and televised live on HBO World Championship Boxing beginning at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT.
The Usyk-Mchunu 12-round clash is presented by K2 Promotions in association with Main Events and will open the HBO telecast headlined by the light heavyweight clash between Two-Division World Champion and Future Hall-of-Famer Bernard Hopkins, (55-7-2, 32 KOs) and hard-hitting contender Joe Smith Jr., (21-1 18 KOs) and a 10-round co-main event between Joseph Diaz Jr. and Horacio Garcia who will clash for the NABF Featherweight Title.
In showing off his incredible boxing skills, 2012 Olympic gold medalist Oleksandr Usyk (10-0, 9 KOs) out-boxed previously unbeaten WBO cruiserweight world champion Krzysztof Glowacki (26-1, 16 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision on Saturday night to win the WBO belt at the Ergo Arena in Gdansk, Poland.
Another championship bout more than worth of note will take place in Poland, when Oleksandr Usyk challenges Krzysztof Glowacki this Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately Showtime International or PBC hasn’t picked up this superb matchup. Maybe this proves that Al’s investment money has dried because their just doesn’t seem to be a good reason why he hasn’t found a home for this fight. Go figure, the best fight on paper will get the least exposure. Luckily for us hardcores klowdtv.com will stream it live along with the Anthony Crolla vs. Jorge Linares next Saturday as part of a free offer in the month of September.