Golovkin vs. Macklin: Matthew with a tough task ahead of him on 6/29

golovkin4534#11 WBA, Matthew Macklin (29-4, 20 KO’s) will be getting a title shot next month against WBC middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (26-0, 23 KO’s) on June 29th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Macklin is mostly known to U.S casual boxing fans for his spirited effort in dragging Sergio Martinez into the 11th round last year in March before getting stopped by him.

Although Macklin lost the fight, he got a lot of credit for having given Martinez a tough time along the way. Now, however, Macklin is going to have to prove himself again, but this time against a younger fighter with more power and arguably more skills than Martinez in Gennady Golovkin.

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WBC drops Khan from top 15 welterweight rankings

khan1For some reason the World Boxing Council (WBC) has dropped Amir Khan from their top 15 welterweight rankings after his struggle to defeat 33-year-old Julio Diaz last month on April 27th. Before that fight the WBC had elevated Khan to #2 in their welterweight rankings despite the fact that Khan had never fought at welterweight before and had lost two out of his last three fights.

It was hard to understand what the WBC saw in Khan to put him at #2 at 147 because normally fighters that has lost 2 out of their last 3 fights aren’t given a bump in the rankings.

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Cotto could give Canelo a lot of problems

canelo4534After seeing how exhausted WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez looked in his fights against Austin Trout and Shane Mosley, I think Miguek Cotto (37-4, 30 KO’s) has a good chance of beating Canelo in September if he ends up being the one that faces him, and right now it’s looking like Cotto could be the guy that gets picked.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. wants Canelo to come down to 147 before he’ll agree to fight him, and I don’t think it’s possible for Canelo do that without being weakened from water loss. You can never say never, but I doubt Canelo will agree to lose that kind of weight.

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Khan wants Mayweather; not interested in Kell Brook fight

khan43Former IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan makes it perfectly clear that he doesn’t have even the slightest amount of interest in facing fellow Brit Kell Brook at any time in the future.

Khan sees no upside in such a fight and fears that the boxing public wouldn’t care about the fight and Brook would likely pull out of the fight with an injury excuse anyway. Khan’s main interest is in getting a big fight against WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. next year.

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Arum: Donaire will fight in October or November

donaire#55Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is saying that former IBF/WBO super bantamweight Nonito Donaire (31-2, 20 KO’s) will be back in the ring in either October or November this year against a still to be determined opponent. It won’t be newly crowned WBC super bantamweight champion Victor Terrazas because he’ll likely be facing newly signed Top Rank fighter Vic Darchinyan.

If Darchinyan wins that fight then Arum would like to match him against Donaire in a rematch in 2014. Donaire stopped Darchinyan in the 5th round in 2007.

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Haye injures hand, Charr fight off

Former WBA heavyweight champion David Haye’s scheduled fight with #8 WBC Manuel Charr (23-1, 13 KO’s) is now off after Haye sustained an injury to his hand that will make it necessary for him to rest up so that it can heal. As for Haye’s scheduled fight against Charr on June 29th in Manchester, it’s now off. No word whether Haye wants to still fight Charr once the injury heals.

Haye said to the BBC “I apologize to Manuel Charr and everybody involved in the promotion, but most of all I want to say sorry to the thousands of fans who bought tickets to the fight.”

Haye, 32, has been out of the ring since July last year when he defeated domestic fighter Dereck Chisora by an easy 5th round TKO. The fight too easy and Haye got little out of it.

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Broner’s trainer: Adrien will be a lot stronger at 147 for Malignaggi fight

broner4534Mike Stafford, the trainer for Adrien Broner (26-0, 22 KO’s), sees Broner as being a lot stronger in moving up to 147 to face WBA welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi (32-4, 7 KO’s) next month on June 22nd in their fight at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

Stafford sees this as a good move for Broner, saying to Sports Illustrated “Adrien will be much stronger. Paulie is not a full-fledged 147-pounder, anyway. It would be different if we were fighting a 147-pounder who has been at that weight for years.”

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Peterson totally unafraid of Matthysse

matthysse45If you ask IBF light welterweight champion Lamont Peterson (31-1-1, 15 KO’s) if he’s worried about what he’s going to be facing this Saturday night when he steps inside the ring to mix it up against the power punching Lucas Matthysse (33-2, 31 KO’s), he’d probably laugh because he has absolutely no fear of Mattysse at all.

Indeed, Peterson is so confident in his ability to take Matthysse’s shots and beat him that it’s hard to believe in him. Peterson looks, talks and acts like a winner.

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Is Mayweather ducking Canelo by asking him to come down to 147?

floyd#88Floyd Mayweather Jr’s team reportedly gave WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez the option to fight him at 147 lbs. on September 14th if he wants to get the biggest payday of his career. Canelo is only 22-year-old and has no pay per view history behind him to show that he’s a proven money maker.

Canelo’s not shown yet that he’s someone that can make money, and therefore he’s not position to dictate what weight the fight will take place on. Some of Canelo’s fans think Mayweather is ducking the fight with him by asking him to come down to 147 instead of accommodating the 22-year-old by moving up to 154, so that Canelo can make weight and rehydrate to 170+ the night of the fight and enjoy a 20-25 pound weight advantage over Mayweather. When it gets down to it, Canelo’s only chance of beating Mayweather is to use his light heavyweight-sized weight to crush him.

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Hearn interested in matching Burns against Gavin Rees in September

rees7Promoter Eddie Hearn is interested in matching his very lucky fighter WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns (36-2, 11 KO’s) against former lightweight contender Gavin Rees (37-2-1, 18 KO’s) this coming September. Rees is coming off of a 5th round knockout loss to WBC lightweight champion Adrien Broner last February in a fight where Rees looked terrible in before getting knocked out.

Burns got lucky last Saturday night in beating Jose Gonzalez (22-1, 17 KO’s) in a 9th round stoppage when Gonzalez quit on his stool after the 9th round. Gonzalez said after the fight he didn’t know that he had such a wide lead and that if he knew that he wouldn’t have quit.

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