The Latest Boxing News
British fans will remember Dirrell from his 2009 fight with Carl Froch. A fight most are loathe to admit he was extremely unlucky to lose.
The pre fight abuse of Dirrell by the British fans was something to behold with the American and his team rising to the bait beforehand, insulting Froch’s mother in fight week and acting every bit the loud, obnoxious and arrogant fighter he now concedes was just a part he WANTED to play.
In the post fight interview with HBO’s Max Kellerman, Golovkin expressed his desire to face a big name fighter, specifically mentioning Miguel Cotto and Canelo Alvarez by name. When Kellerman directly asked Golovkin if he would be interested in facing 168 pound champion Andre Ward, however, Triple G expressed some reluctance, again stating his preference to first try and make fights against Cotto and Canelo.
The saga continues in the wake of May 2nd and THAT rotator cuff, with a seemingly insatiable desire of the masses to examine and dissect every single aspect of “The Fight That Never Caught Light” and the reasons for Manny Pacquiao’s loss to Floyd Mayweather.
While it’s fair to say that boxing purists and hardcore fans have moved on and left happy, if a little underwhelmed – two camps appear now to exist.
Those that flatly don’t believe in the validity and/or extent of the injury – and it’s impact on the loss – and those that do.
Former two-division world champion and highly-rated pound for pound fighter TIMOTHY “Desert Storm” BRADLEY JR. and undefeated World Boxing Association (WBA) super lightweight world champion JESSIE VARGAS will make their long-awaited 2015 debuts when they square off in a 12-round welterweight rumble, Saturday, June 27, under the stars at StubHub Center in Carson, Calif. The Southern California natives’ fight will be televised live on HBO World Championship Boxing, beginning at 9:45 p.m. ET/PT.
These two gladiators boast a combined record of 57-1-1 (21 KOs) — a winning percentage of 97%.
May 23rd DeGale, and Dirrell will climb into the ring, and one will return home with an impressive red belt, and a second chance at stardom. Both of these men are at a critical point in their careers, and each has traveled a rocky path to arrive. Despite bringing home a gold medal in 2008 Olympics, DeGale was far from a fan favorite. The crowd erupted in boos as Chunky made his pro debut.
He later played the villain during the lead up to a George Groves clash, and further estranged his fan base.
After losing for the first time however, DeGale was humbled. He made changes, and not only sharpened his boxing acumen, but also polished his people skills. He went on to have a 10 fight winning streak, and win a European title. Now he is boxing for a world title.
This coming Saturday, Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions format attempts to deliver once again with the clash between Britain’s gold medal winning Olympian James DeGale and Michigan native Andre Dirrell for the IBF 168lb title that was recently vacated by Nottingham’s Carl Froch.
DeGale, who is hoping to become the first gold medal winning British Olympian in history to go on and win a world title in the pro game, has spoken to Sky Sports ahead of the eagerly anticipated battle of two tricky southpaws to insist he firmly believes that Saturday is his destiny and everything he has worked so hard for will culminate in championship gold around his waist.
One of the names that keeps getting linked to Gennady Golovkin – despite the unlikeliness of the fight ever happening – is Floyd Mayweather – who after intense criticism over “The Fight Of The Century”, needs a decent name for his September date and final Showtime fight.
Whether Amir Khan, Keith Thurman, Miguel Cotto or Donald Duck gets the call, the talk surrounding Golovkin simply will not go away. Furthermore after we saw how Monroe and his pure boxer style was arguably able to nick a couple of rounds against Golovkin, there is a belief that Floyd might actually fancy the task if Golovkin boiled down to 154lb after all.
In the wake of his sublime 6th round destruction of Willie Monroe Jr, Gennady Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez has spoken out to address the issue of future fights for the Kazakh wrecking machine – saying that it’s the other big names out there in and around 160lb (like Cotto and Canelo) who need to step up to fight his man – insisting that Golovkin himself is not afraid to lose his ‘0’ against marquee names in the big fights.
After the fight with Monroe Jr – (in which if there was any criticism of Golovkin – it was over the fact he is extremely hittable at times) Sanchez praised it as a learning curve against an awkward southpaw who gave his fighter much needed ‘practice’
He has had his fair share of heat over Adonis Stevenson as of late, yet Main Events chief Kathy Duva has come to the defence of her fighter – WBO, WBA & IBF 175lb champion Sergey Kovalev – and spoken to fighthype.com to further clarify their position regarding any potential fight, saying “Adonis needs to make up his mind” whether or not he really wants to get in the ring with the Russian puncher.
With the main sticking point being the respective television deals of the fighters, it would appear that Duva will not back down over the fight needing to be on her broadcaster HBO – something that could crucially prevent it from happening.
The 20th consecutive KO (TKO) win for Golovkin was less eventful than “the big drama show’ catch phrase suggested. The fight took place on May 16 and the venue was the Forum in Inglewood, Cal. The challenger Willie Monroe Jr. (19-2, 6 KOs), a US southpaw with Cuban roots, was known for his speed but not his power and he was not expected to rock and test the Kazakh with concussive leather. Monroe comes from a boxing family – his uncle Willie “The Worm” Monroe once outpointed Marvin Hagler of all middleweights handing him his 2nd pro loss – and when you add the Cuban connection the bar goes up a notch as well. Willie was a Boxino tournament champ and his only loss had been a UD to Darnell Boone, an under-appreciated but notoriously awkward customer who KOed Adonis Stevenson and has scored knock downs over Sergey Kovalev and Andre Ward. The undefeated Golovkin looked forward to fighting a slick southpaw and they were of equal size with a reach advantage in favor of the American. Here is a round by round recap of the bout: