Beibut Shumenov, the reigning Light Heavyweight World Boxing Association and the International Boxing Association`s Light Heavyweight Champion and fastest pugilist to obtain a world title in this division in ten bouts; made a triumph return to boxing after being out of the sport for the last 18 months, as he knockdown, previously undefeated, Tamas “Tomi Kid” Kovacs (23-1, 14KOs), three times before referee, Rafael Ramos stopped the bout with 2:55 left in the third round on December 14, 2013 at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.
He dropped Kovacs with a powerful left hook in the first round, knocked him down with a perfectly timed uppercut in the second round and landed numerous hard hitting punches at Kovacs, who was defenseless in the third round, which caused Kovacs to fall to the canvas again as Ramos, quickly halted the action. This ended a one sided fight that Shumenov dominated and demonstrated that he had little ring rust, despite not fighting in almost a year and a half.
For Manny Pacquiao, despite his phenomenal popularity and status in the sport of boxing, the road back to the top, will be much harder and longer than for any other currently in the sport.
Before Tyson Fury wasted a lot of time trying to get a fight against David Haye, he was ranked high by the WBC and within position to compete for the WBC heavyweight title. But with two fights against Haye falling through, Fury now finds himself having been dropped to No.8 by the World Boxing Council, and he’s nowhere near getting a crack at that belt. Needless to say, Fury’s not happy about it and he complained at length about it on
The negotiations between Manny Pacquiao (55-5-2, 38 KO’s) and WBO welterweight champion Timothy Bradley (31-0, 12 KO’s) are dragging out a lot longer than what many boxing experts expected it to for their proposed April 12th rematch at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. According to Steve Kim, Bradley is asking for an $8 million guarantee for the rematch with Pacquiao, which is above the $5 million that he received in their previous fight in June of 2012.
“The Black Panther” reunited with championship coach Fritz Sdunek
Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (42-1-1, 30 KO’s) will be playing it safe for his next fight by taking a confidence builder fight against Alfredo Angulo (22-3, 18 KO’s) on March 8th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Mexican news site Esto has broken the story about this match-up. The Canelo-Angulo fight is expected to be a pay-per-view bout on Showtime. It’s going to be interesting to see how much this fight will be going for on PPV, because both fighters are coming off of losses.
Manny Pacquiao’s lawyer Franklin Gacal Jr. thinks Bob Arum of Top Rank should be a good one and free Manny Pacquiao up from the remainder of his contract with Top Rank so that Pacquiao can fight Floyd Mayweather Jr. in a history-making bout in 2014. Pacquiao is still under contract with Arum for the whole of 2014, and as long as he’s with him, Mayweather will not agree to fight Pacquiao.
HBO’s hit late-night boxing franchise begins 2014 with an all-action doubleheader featuring an intriguing junior lightweight title showdown when HBO BOXING AFTER DARK: MIKEY GARCIA VS. JUAN CARLOS BURGOS AND BRYANT JENNINGS VS. ARTUR SZPILKA is seen SATURDAY, JAN. 25 at 9:45 p.m. (live ET/tape-delayed PT), exclusively on HBO. The HBO Sports team will be ringside for the event, which will be available in HDTV, closed-captioned for the hearing-impaired and presented in Spanish on HBO Latino.
American fight fans will see the biggest bout in Canadian boxing history when the action-packed tripleheader WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING: JEAN PASCAL VS. LUCIAN BUTE, ELEIDER ALVAREZ VS. THOMAS OOSTHUIZEN AND MIKE PEREZ VS. CARLOS TAKAM is presented SATURDAY, JAN. 18 at 10:15 p.m. (live ET/tape-delayed PT) from the Bell Centre in Montreal, exclusively on HBO. The HBO Sports team will call all the action, presented in HDTV and in Spanish on HBO Latino.
Former three division world champion Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero (31-2-1, 18 KO’s) has gone quiet after getting a big payday fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. last year in May. Guerrero worked hard to get the fight with Floyd by constantly calling him out in the media for well over a year, and beating Selcuk Aydin and Andre Berto by 12 round decisions. But since the fight with Mayweather, Guerrero has stayed out of the ring and hasn’t scheduled any fights.