The Latest Boxing News
It is official, Ghana based Nigerian hitter, Isaac ‘Grenade’ Ekpo gets another opportunity to become a world champion on March 25 when he faces WBA super middleweight titlist, Tyron Zeuge in Germany.
Scheduled for the MBS Arena in Potsdam, Brandenburg, it will be the first defence of the belt the undefeated Zeuge (19-0-1, 11 KOs) won via a unanimous decision in a rematch against Giovanni De Carolis of Italy at the same venue back on November 5 last year.
This Thursday night the PBC on FS1 presents a fight card with depth beyond the main event between once beaten Sammy Vasquez and gate keeper Luis Collazo. It’s not as though the top of the bill isn’t important to each man’s career but you could make an argument the undercard has just as much on the line. Yordenis Ugas takes on Levan ‘The Wolfman’ Ghvamichava, a very fitting nickname when you see this guy’s body hair, in a scrap that is crucial at this stage for both. Also, in what I believe to be the opener, Ryan Karl meets Eddie Ramirez in a battle unbeaten junior welterweights.
The welterweight division is clearly one of the deepest, most talent-rich in the sport today, and on March 4, two of it’s biggest names will square off in a WBC/WBA title fight unification showdown that promises to light up the sport. Danny Garcia (a big name welter despite not having yet spent too much time as a 147-pounder) will meet Keith Thurman and fans seem to be divided over who comes out on top.
He will enter the ring in Alabama as a hefty underdog and he has been given less than a month’s notice for the fight, by far and away the biggest of his four-and-a-half year pro career – but unbeaten heavyweight Gerald Washington is convinced he will “shock the world” in beating WBC king Deontay Wilder on February 25.
Thanks to original Wilder return foe Andrej Wawrzyk failing a pre-fight drugs test, Washington, 18-0-1(12) got the late replacement call, and the big, 6’6” former football player is saying all the right things going into the fight. Washington, who holds some decent wins – over the likes of Eddie Chambers and Ray Austin (both faded it must be said) – tells Sky Sports he will “hurt” Wilder and knock him out.
Just after his hugely impressive, even scary KO win over a previously unbeaten Dejan Zlaticanin, Mike Garcia spoke about the possibility of moving up to 140 pounds, in search of a fourth world title in as many weights.
Garcia, who has everyone in boxing excited like never before during his career at age 29, has won belts at 126, 130 and, with the annihilation of Zlaticanin, 135. One man is ready and willing to face him – in a rematch – if Garcia does climb up to super-lightweight. Who? Terence Crawford.
The highly anticipated ring battle between Ghana’s WBA number 3 rated super featherweight, Rafael Mensah and Fatiou Fassinou of Benin in the UK has been rescheduled to Friday March 24, a week later than the earlier announced March 18.
Undefeated heavyweight world champion Deontay “The Bronze Bomber” Wilder (37-0, 36 KOs) will now defend his title against unbeaten contender Gerald “El Gallo Negro” Washington (18-0-1, 12 KOs) in the main event of Premier Boxing Champions on FOX and FOX Deportes Saturday, February 25, from Legacy Arena at the BJCC in Birmingham, Alabama.
The opponent change comes after Wilder’s original foe, Andrzej Wawrzyk, tested positive for a banned substance.
Although it wasn’t the after-fight party he and his passionate fans were hoping for, Irish superstar Carl Frampton kept his word and met many of his fans for a post-fight drink on Sunday, after his close loss to Leo Santa Cruz.
Picking up the tab – in the only bar Frampton was ever going to choose in Las Vegas, “Nine Fine Irishmen” right on the Strip, not far from The MGM Grand, where Frampton and Leo Santa Cruz battled in their rematch – Frampton admitted he was “down in the dumps,” but was not going to let his fans down. Now Frampton is hoping Santa Cruz will not let him down, and will instead keep his promise of fighting him in a third fight in Belfast.
The two Eubanks, Chris Junior and Senior, sure talk, and talk and talk – the latter especially. We’ve all heard and read both men claim how Junior, the former British middleweight champ, would “wreck” middleweight king Gennady Golovkin, and we’ve heard the Eubanks claim how a win over IBF super-middleweight ruler James DeGale would be nothing more than a formality.
On Sunday (January 29) in Macao, China on a card topped by an IBF super-flyweight title defence by Jerwin Anacjas who scored an 8th-round corner retirement (shoulder injury) victory over Jose Rodriguez, heavyweight contender Carlos Takam scored a sensational KO win.
Takam, a top class heavyweight who has been in with some big names including Mike Perez, Tony Thompson, Alexander Povetkin and, in his last fight before yesterday’s brutal win, Joseph Parker, improved to 34-3-1(26) with his 4th-round KO win over Poland’s Marcin Rekowski.