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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Charr: If I knockout Haye, I’ll get a rematch with Vitali

haye343434#8 WBC Manuel Charr (23-1, 13 KO’s) has a near hopeless dream of getting a rematch against WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko, who made short work of Charr in stopping him in the 4th round last year in September. Charr has it in his head that all he has to do to get another nice paying bout against Vitali is for him to beat David Haye (26-2, 24 KO’s) next month in their fight on June 29th in the Manchester Arena in Manchester, UK.

Charr said to Sky Sports “He’s [Vitali] never fought David Haye and Haye has called him out for three years now. Vitali said he wanted to knock him out, shut him up and all this other rubbish, but he never did anything about it. The fight has never happened. I won’t let Vitali do the same to me. I want my rematch and to get it I have to knockout David Haye on June 29th.”

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Hearn: Froch doesn’t need a catchweight fight against Hopkins

Froch#9Eddie Hearn has ruled out what would be a lucrative fight between his fighter IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch and 48-year-old IBF light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins this year in September. Hearn doesn’t want Froch to be fighting guys that are slightly bigger than him like Hopkins because he sees it as putting Froch in a difficult position.

Hearn said this to Sky Sports News “It’s flattering [that Hopkins wants to fight Froch]. Hopkins understands the value of a fight with Froch, but I don’t think Carl needs a fight at a catchweight…he’d be at a big disadvantage.”

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Pacquiao vs. Rios: Brandon could give Manny more than he bargained for

pac89Manny Pacquiao (54-5-2, 38 KO’s) hasn’t had an easy fight since his one-sided 12 round unanimous decision win over a completely shot Shane Mosley two years ago in May, 2011. Since that fight, Pacquiao has gone downhill himself and looked bad in his two fights against Juan Manuel Marquez and his fight with Tim Bradley.

Pacquiao lost two of those fights, but you can make strong argument that he deserved to lose three of them because his win over Marquez in November 2011 was a controversial one. Pacquiao now will be fighting Brandon Rios (31-1-1, 23 KO’s) on November 24th in Macau, China.

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Bradley vs. Marquez on September 14th unless Mayweather fights on that date, says Arum

marquez44Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is holding September 14th for an HBO pay per view fight between WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley (30-0, 12 KO’s) and Juan Manuel Marquez (55-6-1, 40 KO’s) unless Floyd Mayweather Jr. decides to fight on that date, in which case Arum will move the Bradley-Marquez fight to another day, according to Steve Kim.

The Bradley-Marquez fight will take place at the Thomas & Mack Center, in Las Vegas, Nevada, and the fight isn’t nearly big enough to compete against a Mayweather fight. Arum has no other choice but to move off the September 14th date if Mayweather fights unless he wants to have low numbers for the Bradley-Marquez fight in terms of buys.

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Canelo needs Mayweather more than the other way around

floyd#121WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez hasn’t fought at 147 in the 11 fights dating back to his win over a tiny Jose Miguel Cotto back in May of 2010, but if Canelo wants a fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. then he’s going to have to find a way back down to that weight because that’s what he’s going to have to do in order to get the big payday fight he’s been harping about for ages.

Let’s be honest about this; Canelo needs Mayweather much more than Mayweather needs Canelo. Mayweather is going to get his $30 million each fight no matter who faces him in his next five fights. Mayweather’s got that guaranteed cash, and besides that he’s already a huge, huge draw. He’s the #1 money fighter in all of sports.

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Left-Hook Lounge: Wilder vs Wladi-K, Mayweather/Canelo, & Pacqiuao/Rios

floyd#19Curtis M. (Orlando, FL): Deontay Wilder seems to be catching steam, and lately there’s been talk of him facing Wladimir Klitschko. Do you give him a shot at winning if the fight were to happen within the next year or so?

Vivek W. (ESB): Wilder is one of the hottest rising prospects in the heavyweight landscape today. He has power, decent speed, and a little personality to sell himself. That being said, I have very mixed emotions on his chances if he were to face Wladimir Klitschko. I’m always very skeptical about fighters who enter the ring with so much knockout success in the past. Particularly young fighters on the rise. There’s always an untold story. In this case, I have the same questions. What happens when he faces someone who he can’t hurt, that also possess the power to hurt, and potentially even stop him?

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Kessler vowing to retire if he loses to Froch on May 25th

kessler#11We’ve seen IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch (30-2, 22 KO’s) talk about retirement if he were to lose, and now WBA super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler (46-2, 35 KO’s) is saying he’ll retire if he loses to Froch in their fight this month on May 25th at the O2 Arena in London, UK.

I don’t know that I believe that Kessler will retire no matter how bad he looks in getting beat by Froch, but I do think it’s a smart way to market the fight. When you make the retirement threat, boxing fans seem to pick up interest in the fight thinking that it could be the last time they see a particular fighter making the threat.

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Matthysse-Peterson this Saturday, May 18th in Atlantic City, New Jersey

peterson4Light welterweight Lucas Matthysse (33-2, 31 KO’s) squares off against Lamont Peterson (31-1-1, 16 KO’s) this Saturday night in a Showtime televised fight at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Neither fighter will have their titles on the line, as the fight will take place at a catchweight of 141 lbs. It seems that neither guy wanted to put up their strap for the fight. Matthysse only had his WBC interim light welterweight title, and that wasn’t worth anything to Peterson. He wants the full title, not an interim strap.

However, the winner of this fight will be getting a lot more than if there was a title on the line. The winner gets to move onto face WBA/WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia in an important bout that leads to Amir Khan waiting at the end of the line later on this year. That’s how Golden Boy Promotions set it up.

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Hearn: Burns won’t be fighting Gonzalez again

gonzalez54Eddie Hearn, the promoter for WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns, won’t bother giving injured challenger Jose Gonzalez a chance for a rematch after he injured his left wrist and was halted in the 9th round last Saturday night.

Hearn wants to match Burns against IBF lightweight champion Miguel Vazquez this September if he can put the fight together. That’s a big question mark because Burns and Vazquez were scheduled to fight each other not too long ago and the fight failed to come off.

It’s hard to imagine what Burns could gain from going back to this fight because it’s not as if Vazquez has a huge worldwide fan base. However, if Burns can capture another belt it might give him more respect from boxing fans.

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