The Latest Boxing News
Manny Pacquiao’s veteran promoter, Bob Arum, has confirmed that the Filipino superstar will fight one last time in April before calling time on his long and illustrious career.
Pacquiao was last seen in May’s disappointing mega-fight with Floyd Mayweather, a fight that will always be overshadowed by his decision to enter the bout carrying a shoulder injury – an injury that later required surgery and ruled him out of fighting for the rest of this year.
Undefeated WBO 140lb champ Terence Crawford (27-0, 19 KOs) did what everyone thought he would do tonight in smacking around little lightweight Dierry Jean (29-2, 20 KOs) for nine rounds until the non-competitive sparring match was halted in the 10th round by referee Tony Weeks at the Century Link Center in Omaha, Nebraska.
In his first fight on Sky Sports, #1 WBA Chris Eubank Jr. (20-1, 15 KOs) wiped out his carefully selected opponent Tony Jeter (20-5-1, 14 KOs) by a 2nd round knockout on Saturday night in a fight that was over shortly after it was started at the Sheffield Arena in Sheffield, UK. Jeter hit the deck in the 1st round, and then was stopped on his feet not long after the start of the 2nd round.
WBA (interim) middleweight champion, Chris Eubank Jr makes his Sky Sports TV and Matchroom Sport promotional debut tonight in Sheffield, England, against 39 year old American, Tony Jeter, assuming top-billing in Kell Brook’s absence and promising an ‘explosive performance.’
The British legends’ son has promised he isn’t overlooking the fringe contender and WBA #13, even though his next fight – a December outing against Irishman, Gary ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan is already announced.
Rob “Bravo” Brant, 18-0-0 (11KO) from St. Paul, MN had a tough test at the Celebrity Theater, Phoenix, AZ with upset minded Louis “Unknown” Rose 13-3-1 (5KO) out of Lynwood, Calif. Physically, they matched up pretty close with Rose enjoying a slight edge in reach. Neither man is a big puncher, but Brant proved to be the crisper more snappy puncher. Rose consistently missed the target with his, which was something the judges noted. Many of the rounds in this ten round fight were very close, and arguably could have been scored either way. Brant came into the fight as the favorite, with the better pro record and amateur experience, but Rose fought the better competition. He pulled off wins over four undefeated fighters and planned to make it a fifth on Showbox.
Brandon Rios claims he is ready for anything ahead of his clash with WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley next month, insisting he is confident he can draw Bradley in and make him fight ‘his fight.’
Rios goes into the clash having not boxed since way back in January when he destroyed an out-of-sorts Mike Alvarado in their rubber match, and knows that Bradley – under the guidance of new trainer Teddy Atlas – is looking to box a smart fight and not get caught in a war as he has been prone to unnecessarily in the past.
It’s not exactly of ‘did aliens land at Roswell?’ or ‘who shot JFK?’ proportions, yet a persistent conspiracy theory has surrounded IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook’s rib ‘injury,’ an injury that postponed tonight’s scheduled clash with Argentina’s Diego Chaves.
Many quarters on social media have questioned the legitimacy of the ailment, with reasons given for it including Eddie Hearn wishing to move the fight to his December PPV show, as well as Brook struggling to make 147 in time; rumours that Hearn recently called ‘absolute rubbish.’
Should he win his upcoming WBC middleweight title fight with Miguel Cotto, then Mexican starlet ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, has dampened the enthusiasm of those seeking a unification fight with Gennady Golovkin by insisting if it’s done, it’s at 155 lbs.
‘Canelo’ and Cotto contest the latter’s WBC trinket at a catch-weight of 155, with the winner mandated to face the big-hitting WBA/IBF champion, who stopped David Lemieux last weekend in some style in New York. However, the latest comments from Canelo regarding triple-G are pushing the potential fight further away given Golovkin [rightly] refuses to contest 160 lb titles at a lesser catch-weight.
Unfortunately, Terrence Crawford’s 2015 is not going the way Top Rank wanted it to and by year’s end it will be considered somewhat of a loss. Sure, Crawford’s bank account gets bigger and there’s nothing wrong with that but his 2014 fighter of the year momentum has all but faded. In the spring, Bob Arum spoke of names such as Lucas Matthysse and Manny Pacquiao as possible opponents in Crawford’s near future.
An exciting night of boxing hit the Coachella Valley tonight as fans were treated with a stellar card at Fantasy Springs Resort Casino. Joining in the festivities, International Hall of Fame Boxer Michael “Jinx” Spinks hosted a special meet and greet at the Special Events Arena ahead of the televised fights and fans cheered on as International Hall of Fame Trainer Freddie Roach appeared ringside in support of his fighter Franke “Pitbull” Gomez. Also, Golden Boy Promotions fighters IBF Bantamweight World Champion, Randy “El Matador” Caballero, Hector “El Finito” Tanajara, Joshua Franco, Angel Bojado and Jesus Soto Karass attended to cheer on their favorite fighters during the night.