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Jorge “El Niño de Oro” Linares (42-3, 27 KOs) skillfully defeated former champion Anthony “Million Dollar” Crolla (31-6, 15 KOs) to retain his WBA, WBC Diamond and Ring Magazine World Lightweight Championship titles in a 12-round rematch battle that went the distance live from Manchester Arena. Showtime International Boxing will replay Linares vs. Crolla II tonight at 10 p.m. ET/PT on SHO Extreme.
Photo Credit: Lawrence Lustig
Since Floyd Mayweather and Connor McGregor first started jawing with each other this writer had a feeling that this fight will be made. Criticism of the fight not-withstanding the financial windfall of said fight could possibly exceed the record breaking receipts of the 2014 Mayweather/Pacquiao fight!
When talking with fellow combat sports writers, I predict 6M-8M PPV buys, considering boxing and MMA fans combined. I also predict a very tough match for the 40 year old Mayweather facing an in his prime 28 year old McGregor.
Middleweight king Gennady Golovkin is definitely a star, but is he a big star; even a mega-star? Oscar De La Hoya has major doubts regarding Golovkin’s ability to pull in the big pay-per-view numbers, and as a result, the earlier verbal offer to GGG for a September fight with Canelo Alvarez is “off the table.”
Speaking with The Los Angeles Times, De La Hoya said that a new offer will be put forward to GGG, one that will take into consideration the middleweight champ’s pay-per-view sales.
54-year-old Bobby Hitz, a proud native of Chicago, is a former heavyweight who turned promoter and today, aside from wanting to see one of the fighters he currently promotes become world heavyweight champion, his main goal is to “help keep boxing flourishing.”
Hitz, who went 21-4 as a pro (Bobby says BoxRec’s 15-5 numbers are wrong) had his biggest fight in 1988, when he met a comebacking George Foreman in Michigan. One round later, Hitz began thinking of a life after boxing. Still, Hitz has boxing in his blood and he wanted to remain active in the sport. A couple of fights later, after a meeting with Jackie Kallen in Detroit, Bobby found his calling: that of boxing promoter.
One of the oldest, most often repeated sayings in the sport of boxing is, it’s tough becoming a world champion, but it’s even harder remaining as one. Everyone from Mike Tyson to Muhammad Ali has said these words and right now, one man who knows first hand how incredibly hard it can be to stay at the top of the mountain once you’ve got there , is training for a comeback.
Manchester Arena in England will be jam-packed again for a rematch from an entertaining dust-up between Jorge Linares and Anthony Crolla this Saturday. In the states Showtime, currently leaving HBO in the dust, will be the broadcaster of this lightweight showdown in the afternoon. The big question heading into this rematch is what if anything can Crolla do differently?
It’s one of the most eagerly awaited, even demanded, rematches in recent memory; it’s Andre Ward-Sergey Kovalev II, and almost as soon as the decision, in favour of Ward, was announced last November, fans called for it. According to a piece on RingTV.com, the date for the return meeting is June 17, at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, but Ward, as of yet, has not signed on the dotted line.
Unbeaten WBC Super Welterweight World Champion Jermell Charlo will defend his world title against No. 1-rated challenger Charles Hatley Saturday, April 22 live on SHOWTIME® from Barclays Center, the home of BROOKLYN BOXING™.
Televised coverage of SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING, presented by Premier Boxing Champions, begins at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT and is headlined by former world champions Andre Berto and Shawn Porter meeting in a 12-round welterweight world title eliminator.