Canelo boxing news and latest headlines
(Photo credit: Golden Boy Promotions) Former two-time world champion Amir “King” Khan (31-3, 19 KOs) today hosted a media workout at his gym in Hayward, Calif. ahead of his battle against WBC, Ring Magazine and Lineal Middleweight World Champion Canelo Alvarez (46-1-1, 32 KOs)on Saturday, May 7 at the new T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Canelo vs. Khan will be produced and distributed live by HBO Pay-Per-View® beginning at 9:00 p.m. ET/6:00 p.m. PT.
Dan Rafael of ESPN.com has reported how Puerto Rican great Miguel Cotto will not now be having a June 18th bout, as was originally planned. Cotto, who has not boxed since putting in a valiant but losing effort against middleweight champ Saul Alvarez, will now look at coming back towards the end of the year, ESPN.com reports, against a big name.
Cotto’s list of possible opponents for the now scrapped June date included James Kirkland and Diego Chaves, but neither guy was deemed suitable by HBO; either for a regular show or a pay-per-view headliner. Britain’s Kell Brook, the reigning IBF welterweight champion, was also a possibility but, depending on which source you choose to believe, either Cotto didn’t fancy the fight or Brook was unavailable on that particular date. In light of Brook’s recent and growing desperation to land himself a big and meaningful fight (his promoter Eddie Hearn was quoted as saying Brook would “walk to New York to fight Cotto”) it’s perhaps hard to believe the Sheffield man would have turned down the fight.
Although Amir Khan has his critics, who suggest the former 140-pound king is not the great talent he himself believes he is, no-one can deny how Khan has always sought the big fights (he was absolutely desperate to get a Floyd Mayweather Junior and/or a Manny Pacquiao into the ring). Nor can anyone say Khan is not involved in exciting fight after exciting fight. And, for a fighter some more vocal critics have called “chinny,” “overrated” and a fighter who has been “exposed at top level,” Khan has a pretty good record.
OSCAR DE LA HOYA, Chairman and CEO of Golden Boy Promotions: Thank you for joining us today on this international media conference call for 2004 Olympic silver medal winner and former two-time world champion Amir “King” Khan. As you know, Amir Khan will battle Canelo Alvarez for the WBC and Ring Magazine Lineal Middleweight Championship which will be on Cinco de Mayo weekend on May 7th, live from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, and if you can’t make it to Las Vegas, you can watch it on HBO Pay-Per-View.
Manny Pacquiao Vs. Saul Canelo Alvarez: if it happened it would be enormous, and Top Rank boss Bob Arum – perhaps as a result of a little too much celebrating over his 50 years in the game – says the fight could happen, at a catch-weight of 155-pounds. Speaking with Fighthub.com, Arum said that if Pacquiao can defeat Tim Bradley in their rubber-match on Saturday, and if Alvarez can defeat Amir Khan in May, the dream-fight could go ahead.
March 31, 2016 – Fight fans eager for a revealing inside look at the eagerly anticipated May 7th HBO Pay-Per-View® middleweight championship superfight between Canelo Alvarez and Amir Khan, should mark their calendars to catch an all-new edition of “Face Off,” starring the two prizefighters. “Face Off With Max Kellerman: Canelo/Khan” debuts Saturday, April 16 at 11:15 p.m. (ET/PT).
Fight fans everywhere agree it will be a momentous result, upset, occasion if Britain’s Amir Khan can defeat Mexican superstar Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and take his middleweight title in May. When the fight was first announced, there were not too many people seemingly willing to give Khan, a former 140-pound champion who has boxed just a handful of times as a welterweight, much of a chance.
But since then, and in seeing Khan bulk up but seemingly maintain his amazing hand speed (at least in the video footage that has been released of Khan shadowboxing) more and more fans and experts are giving Khan at least an outside chance of making his audacious challenge a success on may 7. One man who says he knows how Khan can win, but that he has to “box smart and not let his heart overrule his head” to do so, is British legend and (surely) future Hall of Famer Carl Froch.
Back when unknown Colombian puncher Breidis Prescott flattened Amir Khan inside a minute of the very first round with a quite ruthless and impressive display of power, Khan’s career seemed all but over at top level. Instead, Khan, showing great character, regrouped and managed to reach the very top of the sport; showing his potential in beating the likes of Andriy Kotelnik (to become WBA 140-pound champ), Marcos Maidana and Zab Judah.
Prescott, by comparison, failed to live up to the September 2008 performance that suggested to some the long-armed banger was a future star. Prescott went on to fight plenty of recognizable names – such as Miguel Vazquez, Kevin Mitchell (in another UK appearance), Mike Alvarado and Terence Crawford. Prescott gave them all fair to tough fights, but he lost to each of these fighters. Prescott was, and more than likely still is, anxious for a second fight with Khan, but it never happened.
Tom Loeffler, the promoter of middleweight sensation Gennady Golovkin, has strongly suggested the unbeaten terror known as GGG could have not one but two fights in the UK, against British opposition, this coming summer. As has previously been reported, Billy Joe Saunders is a very real possibility for Golovkin at a big stadium in the UK this summer (provided Saunders gets past Max Bursak in April and Golovkin gets past Dominic Wade also next month), but Loeffler, in speaking with Sky Sports, also has his eye on a possible Amir Khan fight.
Khan, if he manages to beat Canelo Alvarez in May, would be in the exact position Canelo is in right now: mandated to fight Golovkin. And Loeffler says he feels a Khan challenge of GGG would be a big fight in both the UK and the U.S.
(Photo credit: Golden Boy Promotions) SAN DIEGO (March 17, 2016) –WBC, Ring Magazine and Lineal Middleweight World Champion Canelo Alvarez (46-1-1, 32 KOs) and British top fighter and former two-time former world champion Amir “King” Khan (31-3, 19 KOs) opened training camp to the media in San Diego and Oakland respectively this week in preparation for their May 7 clash at the new T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and produced and distributed live by HBO Pay-Per-View® beginning at 9:00 p.m. ET/6:00 p.m. PT.